Page 19 of The Iron Sword

“The north end of town,” Madam Dreamer replied, still with her eyes closed. “On a road called Stonerun. The warehouse stands at the end of a concrete lot, surrounded by chain-link and barbed wire. If you are looking for it, it is rather difficult to miss.”

“Let’s go.” I looked at the others, feeling anger and violence churn the pit of my stomach. My son was in trouble, and if I had to cut my way through an army of enemies to get to him, there would be sea of blood and death before the night was over. I saw concern on Puck’s face, as if he could sense my thoughts, and ignored it.

Meghan nodded, but she hesitated at the foot of Dreamer’s chair, gazing at the cursed human in sympathy. “Madam Dreamer, your life has been hard, but I hope you can find some measure of peace after this. I know you don’t hear these words very often, but thank you.”

“You are welcome, Iron Queen.” Madam Dreamer opened her eyes, shiny black orbs both grateful and sad as they met the queen’s gaze. “Good luck to you and yours. I hope you can find your son.”

7

THE SWARM

The warehouse in question was difficult to miss, as Stonerun Road dead-ended at an abandoned industrial park. Since her favor with the goblins had expired, and the warehouse in question was still a few miles away, Kenzie had to call for an Uber. Normally, this would be a problem for regular fey, as sitting in a box of metal and steel was highly unpleasant. But Meghan and I were immune to iron sickness, and Puck and Nyx both had amulets that countered the effects of iron to the fey system. It still wouldn’t be pleasant for them, but there wouldn’t be any lasting harm. Nyx did keep her hood up the entire time we were in the van, as she silently withdrew into her cloak, but I noticed her fingers interlaced with Puck’s, gripping them tightly as the iron sickness pressed down upon her.

The van came to a stop at the end of a gravel road, where skeletal, gutted structures loomed in the distance. As we stepped from the vehicle, I gazed at the scene before us, feeling anger, worry, and impatience gnawing my insides. Crumbling buildings sat beyond a barbed-wire fence, the stench of rust and stagnant water heavy in the air. Somewhere in that maze of iron and cement was Keirran.

“Looks pretty empty,” Ethan muttered, as Kenzie finished paying the driver, and the vehicle sped off in a spray of gravel and dirt. I suspected he thought something illegal or dangerous was happening here, and didn’t want to be a part of it. “I hope it’s as abandoned as it appears.”

“If it was,” I said darkly, “Keirran wouldn’t still be here. He would already have found us.”

“Which means we have to be ready for a fight,” Meghan added. She glanced at Kenzie, who was walking up to join us with Puck and Nyx close behind. Razor grinned at us from her shoulder, the light from his neon blue teeth dancing over the sides of the truck. “Be on your guard,” Meghan continued. “Watch out for each other. We don’t know what to expect here.”

“It’s always so cheerful before a fight,” Puck sighed. “Come on, then. Before Nyx or ice-boy gets impatient enough to stab me. Let’s go get the princeling.”

The barbed-wire fence surrounded the area, and rusty No Trespassing signs were posted every dozen or so feet. Nyx shuddered and held herself away from the barrier of decaying iron, but I drew my sword and slashed through the chains around the gates with one decisive swipe. No more delays. No more waiting around. Keirran was close, and I would stop at nothing until I found him.

Bits of concrete and broken glass crunched under our feet as we made our way through the industrial park, scanning the darkness for movement and glowing eyes. I led the way with Meghan at my side, both of our swords drawn and ready. I could feel the power circling the Iron Queen; the static energy that crackled the air around her. Puck and Nyx trailed at our backs, with Ethan and Kenzie bringing up the rear. Grimalkin was nowhere to be seen, but I wasn’t thinking of the cat. I wasn’t thinking of what we would find once we reached the warehouse. I wasn’t thinking of anything but getting to my son and eliminating the threat that stood between us.

As we turned the corner between two old buildings, the warehouse suddenly came into view at the end of the lot, a crumbling square building of brick and glass, with a steel roof and bars over the many broken windows. It squatted in the weeds and broken cement, its walls covered in what looked like a mass of living shadows. Tiny, twisted things clung to the bricks and swarmed around the base, their eyes white pinpricks in the darkness.

“Oh, wow,” Kenzie muttered, staring up at the writhing mass of fey. Piskie creatures zipped through the air, wings buzzing, and I was suddenly reminded of a hornet’s nest, of clouds of insects swirling around the hive. “There’s...a lot of them.”

Whispers hissed in my ear, carried by the wind. They were fragmented, too rapid and disjointed to make out, snatches of words and phrases I couldn’t understand. It felt as if I was hearing the entire mass of creatures whispering in my ears all at once, and I felt anger stir in response.

“Ugh, my ears are crawling,” Puck muttered at my back. I glanced over my shoulder to see him stick a finger in the side of his head and wiggle it vigorously. “Wish I had some cotton balls to jam into my eardrums, but then you guys would probably get annoyed with me yelling ‘what?’ all the time.”

“Do you think they can be killed?” Nyx wondered. We were now only a few hundred feet from the warehouse, and the mass of crawling, buzzing creatures swarming over it. They didn’t seem to notice us, their attention entirely focused on what was inside. “If they’re related to the Monster, they could be immune to glamour.”

I took a breath and felt the cold, killing rage in me expand. “Kenzie,” I said without turning to look at her, “take Razor and get back. There’s a lot of small, fast creatures, and we don’t know what they’re capable of. A dozen enemies we could kill quickly, but there might be thousands of these things, and if they’re immune to glamour...”

“Say no more.” Kenzie sighed, and I felt her take a step back, surprising me. I had half expected her to protest. “Razor and I will be leaving the battle zone now, don’t worry about us. I know when to hold my ground and when to get the hell out of the way so the big powers can handle things. Ethan...” I felt her and Meghan’s brother share a look. “Be careful.”

“I will,” Ethan promised, and Kenzie walked away, her footsteps crunching over gravel, until she and Razor disappeared into the shadows.

As soon as the footsteps had faded, Meghan moved beside me, power and glamour rising around her and making the air crackle. “All right,” she murmured, as my own magic swirled up in response. Overhead, the sky darkened, the moon and stars disappearing as black clouds formed, billowing and ominous. “Let’s get to Keirran. Ash?”

That’s what I had been waiting for. I gave a vicious smile and threw out an arm, sending a wave of winter glamour at my enemies.

A storm of glittering ice daggers streaked through the air, slamming into the hordes clinging to the warehouse walls. Several of them instantly exploded into coils of black smoke that dissolved in the wind, leaving a shrieking echo ringing in my head.

“Oh, well,” Puck said, as the entire swarm immediately exploded into motion, wings droning as they rose into the air. I had kicked the hornet’s nest, and now they were coming for us. “Here we go. I always forget to bring that can of OFF!for these adventures.”

The mass of nightmare piskies descended toward us, thousands of wings a droning hum in my ears. As they drew close, the cloud seemed to shift and change, as hundreds of tiny bodies merged into one huge, looming creature. A giant appeared, glowing eyes peering down on us, as it opened a gaping, shifting mouth and roared.

Lightning streaked from Meghan’s hand, slamming into the giant’s center, and the creature instantly exploded into thousands of swarming fey. Hissing, they rose up and came at us like wasps, and the air was suddenly filled with tiny black creatures zipping around us.

Whispers surrounded me, buzzing in my ears and making my teeth vibrate. This close, the creatures were a condensed cloud of anger and fury, a mire of frantically swirling emotion. And suddenly, I could feel a different type of glamour in the air around us, one of rage and hate, violence and fear. The ugliest of human emotions, with nothing to filter them. My Unseelie nature stirred, and I was tempted to reach out, to use the fury spinning around us. There was power there; I could feel it, an anger that called to the Unseelie within, urging it to let go, to draw that glamour to me and release it in a violent explosion of ice and death.

The piskies descended on us, blurs of motion and darting wings. I felt several land on me, driving needle teeth into my skin with tiny, red-hot jabs of pain. Vaguely, I was aware of Puck fighting at my side, of Nyx being a whirlwind of deadly grace, darting in and out of the swarm. I could sense Meghan and Ethan behind me, felt the flare of Meghan’s power snapping at our enemies, but even they were blips of motion in my consciousness.

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