Page 41 of The Iron Sword

15

PUCK’S NIGHTMARE

For a few moments of walking through roiling mist, I couldn’t see anything. The fog surrounded me, completely opaque, blanketing everything in white. I didn’t stop, and I didn’t change direction, keeping my thoughts trained on finding Puck. After several minutes of walking, the fog started to thin, and suddenly, I walked out of the fog bank into a bright beam of sunshine.

Squinting and shading my eyes, I looked up to find the world had changed once more. The dead, frozen wood was gone, and the forest that had replaced it was almosttoobright and alive. Enormous trees surrounded me, fully in bloom, leaves and flowers rustling in the sunlight. Birds trilled from the branches, all sounding like they were trying to outsing each other, and insects swooped past my head, the buzz of their wings vibrating in my ears.

Frowning, I lowered my arm, taking in my surroundings. I didn’t appear to be alone in this grove. Faeries surrounded me; a trio of piskies zipped by on shimmering dragonfly wings. Near a pond, a female centaur lay in the grass with her hooves folded beneath her. A few feet away, a wrinkled gnome dangled a fishing pole in the water, beady eyes trained on the creatures darting beneath the surface.

Confusion flickered. I was in the Seelie Court, surrounded by Summer fey. Despite knowing I was still in the Between, everything looked normal. Is this reallyPuck’snightmare? I was expecting at least a little chaos. Or a lot of spiders.Curious, I caught the eye of a pair of dryads, lounging easily under a willow tree as they combed each other’s long, pale green hair. Normally, the sudden arrival of a Winter faery in the Summer Court would cause a stir, if not an actual uproar. Though if this was Puck’s nightmare, anything could be possible. The two dryads noticed me and blinked, startled for a moment, then quickly averted their eyes. So, they did see me, and from their expressions, it appeared they recognized me as well.

I walked toward them, and the pair immediately rose to their feet, bowing their heads as I approached. “Your Highness,” one said as I paused in front of them. “What can we do for you this Elysium?”

Elysium. The annual gathering of the courts to discuss politics and new treaties between them. So, that at least explained why my presence wasn’t causing a panic. All the rulers of Faery, and their kin, were expected to be present for Elysium. Prince Ash of the Winter Court had been to many, many Elysiums, and nowadays, Meghan and I attended Elysium as a ruling couple every year. And because fey from all three courts were present at the same time, and still did not trust each other at all, things were always fairly tense. Had this been a real Elysium, it would have been the most peaceful one I had ever attended. If this was Puck’s nightmare, the utter lack of chaos just didn’t seem right for him.

Unless, utter peace and normalcywashis greatest fear. Somehow that wouldn’t surprise me.

The dryads, I realized, were still waiting for my answer as I was pondering the Great Prankster and past Elysiums. “I’m looking for Puck,” I told them. “Have you seen him lately?”

The first dryad furrowed her brow. “Puck?”

“Yes,” I confirmed, wondering if Puck had already caused some sort of mischief and was hiding from Oberon’s wrath as we spoke. “Robin Goodfellow. Where is he?”

The dryads exchanged a glance. “I am sorry, Your Highness,” the first one said. “But I do not know anyone with that name. But, my sister and I are fairly new to the Summer Court. This is only our second Elysium, so we are still learning who all the important fey are.”

That didn’t make any sense. Everyone in Faery knew who Puck was. Even if they’d never met him, Puck was one of those fey that the entire Nevernever recognized. I was starting to understand what kind of nightmare this was. “You know who I am, correct?” I asked, and their eyes widened.

“Of course, Your Highness!” the other dryad said quickly. “Please forgive us, we meant no offense to you or your family.”

“You are Prince Ash,” added the first, “son of her highness Queen Mab, the ruler of the Winter Court. Prince Sage and Prince Rowan were your brothers, and—”

“All right, enough.” I raised a hand, and they immediately stopped. I didn’t need my entire family line repeated back to me. “I’m just looking for a friend,” I went on. “If you see a red-haired faery of the Summer Court, let him know that Prince Ash is—”

A frog suddenly fell from the sky, landing in the lap of one of the dryads with a wet plop. A small, bright green amphibian with huge orange eyes, it gave a chirp and hopped to her shoulder, clinging there like a huge insect. The dryad continued to gaze at me, wide-eyed and attentive, not having any reaction to the unexpected visitor from above. She didn’t even appear to have seen it.

A second frog dropped out of nowhere, landing on her head, and she didn’t flinch. I muffled a sigh as the rain began, hundreds of frogs and toads falling from the sky and plopping to the ground. Not one faery appeared to notice them. They hopped over the grass and crawled along the ground, between the legs of the crowds of fey, sometimes even getting stepped on, and no one saw them at all.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness,” the dryad said, as the rain of frogs continued. One landed on her forehead and slid down her face, and she paid it no attention. “Forgive me, but I didn’t quite hear that last request. Would you like us to go looking for this Robin Goodfellow?”

I shook my head. If they didn’t see the frogs, they wouldn’t see the one who caused them. “No, it’s fine,” I told them, as a fat brown toad peered at me from the top of her head, blinking lazily. “As you were. I’ll find him myself.”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

I turned and walked away, being careful not to step on the numerous, small green bodies scattered everywhere through the court. Summer fey bowed their heads to me or averted their eyes as I passed, not wanting a confrontation with an Unseelie prince. Their reactions were expected, their behavior typical, except for the continued ignorance of the hundreds of chirping, croaking, peeping frogs climbing over everything. A scene that, had this been the real Summer Court, would have caused mass chaos and confusion, but everyone would have instantly known who was behind it.

So, this is your nightmare, is it, Puck?I stepped aside as a toad fell from a tree branch, landing in the grass with a thump. A world where no one remembered the Great Prankster, or had ever heard the name Robin Goodfellow. A world where no one reacted to, or even noticed, the chaos he caused. I could understand that fear. For humans, being forgotten and ignored was unsettling, frightening even. But they weren’t in danger of ceasing to exist. For the fey, it was deadly serious.

And for Puck, perhaps the most famous faery in the Nevernever and the human world...well, it was his greatest nightmare.

Where would he be now?I gazed around the Seelie Court again, thinking. The Between had led me here, so Puck had to be around somewhere. The throne room, perhaps? Thinking back to the rain of frogs, I decided against it. Oberon and Titania wouldn’t be there during Elysium, and if there was one faery Puck wanted to see react to his pranks, it would be Titania.

The rulers of Faery, Mab included, would be in the courtyard now, sitting at the long marble table that hosted the kings and queens of the Nevernever. All the Gentry would be there, the important nobles of both the Summer and Winter Court. And, depending on where we were in this timeline—if time and past events even mattered—the queen of the Iron fey would be present as well. I both did and did not want to see Meghan in this world. One, it wasn’t the real her; it would be this world’s version of her. And two, if this was Puck’s nightmare, perhaps he had envisioned a Meghan who had loved him and had died. Or had never existed at all.

I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to find out. But I did have to track down Puck in this nightmare of his own making, and the courtyard was where I would most likely find the Great Prankster, whom no one remembered.

Setting my jaw, I headed into the thick tangle of briars at the edge of the grove. The wall of thorns and twisting branches surrounded the entirety of the Summer Court, a maze that could either hinder or take you anywhere, depending on how well you knew them. I had been to Arcadia so many times, I knew the hidden paths and twisted passages by heart. The brambles peeled back for me, and I started down the tunnel that would take me into the heart of the Summer Court.

I heard the music not long after, haunting harp and string chords drifting through the branches, and stepped out of the tunnels into a courtyard full of fey. Elysium was in full swing, with Summer and Winter Gentry in their finest parading about or mingling among their own.

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