Page 48 of The Iron Sword

“We have no choice,” the Lady insisted. “Under the Nightmare King’s influence, the mortal world grows ever darker with hate and fear. Already, the humans fight each other. Already, wars have begun, and blood is being spilled every day. The very ground screams with violence, fear, anger, and bloodlust. If this continues, the mortal world will tear itself apart.”

“So you say,” growled the voice in the trees. “But you don’t know that for certain.” It snorted. “You two-legs are so impatient. It is your own hubris that convinces you that things must be fixed, and you end up making things worse. You interfere with matters you don’t understand, when if you just gave it time, the problem would correct itself. Even the Nightmare King’s influence must eventually find balance if he and the Evenfey are to survive. They need the mortals just as much as we do.”

“And what would you have us do until then?” the Lady asked coldly. “Shall we delay taking action until it is too late? Until the day we wake to find the Nevernever in eternal darkness because Evenfall has swallowed us whole?”

“It will not work,” the treant insisted. “Even if you could accomplish such a thing, the Evenfey themselves will not let it stand. We cannot be certain that every single Evenfey will become trapped on the other side. If even one remains in the Nevernever or the mortal realm, they will not rest until they can break the seal to their realm and release the Nightmare King.”

“Unless,” the Lady said, “they do not remember. Unless their memories of Evenfall are gone completely.”

“A dangerous proposition,” said a new voice overhead.

All the nobles turned their gazes upward, to the gnarled branches of a tree where a pair of glowing eyes peered down on them all. The speaker was hidden in leaves and shadows; only the golden orbs of its eyes could be clearly seen, hovering in the gloom. But, the creature attached to the eyes looked bigger than I remembered; much shaggier and wild. A gray paw emerged from the darkness, enormous talons curling around the branch with audible cracking sounds.

“You are talking about erasing the Evenfey from existence,” the voice said. “Sealing Evenfall and cutting off their access to the human realm and the Nevernever is essentially making the Evenfey extinct, at least in this world. But sealing their memories will not work. The Evenfey would not remember the Nightmare King, but the rest of Faery would. It would be only a matter of time before they release the seal, and then the Nightmare King will return to take his vengeance upon all of Faery.”

“Yes,” the Lady agreed, smiling. “If even one remembers the Nightmare King and Evenfall, the seal would eventually be broken. Therefore...”

I felt a chill go through the clearing, as everyone realized what was being presented. “Therefore,” murmured a noble, her voice slow and thoughtful, “we must seal away not only Evenfall and the Nightmare King, butallof our memories of them as well. Everyone’s memories.”

“The entire Nevernever,” said another.

A growl came from the darkness between the trees, along with a flash of very large teeth. “Foolish,” said the guttural voice of the creature within. “Madness. Sealing away Evenfall is bad enough. Erasing their memory from the entire Nevernever will only come back to haunt us.”

“I agree,” said the voice overhead. “I would advise against this course of action, though I can tell those words will not be heeded.” It gave a familiar-sounding sniff of contempt. “Do what you wish, but be aware that this will have dire consequences later on.”

“We have little choice,” the Lady insisted again. “If we must cut Evenfall away from the rest of the world, we must ensure that it can never be reopened. If no one remembers the Nightmare King, no one will go looking for him. He will fade into obscurity, forgotten, and will no longer be a threat to us or the mortal world.”

I felt myself nodding, as the noble whose memories I was experiencing seemed to agree with the Lady. At the same time, it was strangely and bleakly ironic, hearing the Lady speak of Fading away and being forgotten. When, centuries from now, she would wake up, become the Forgotten queen, and start a war with the Nevernever to reclaim what she felt she had lost.

“I do not like this plan,” the noble said. “But I fear we must carry it out. Break Evenfall’s connection to the mortal realm, and seal away the Nightmare King. But this is a monumental task that will require tremendous amounts of our own glamour to accomplish, and even then, it will be dangerous. This entire circle must agree to work together if we are to have a chance of success. Do we dare risk our very existence to end the threat Evenfall represents?”

“Yes,” said the Lady immediately. “I will.”

There was a pause, and then the silver-haired noble raised his head. “I will as well.”

“I, too, will lend my power,” said a third, as around the table, all the nobles were nodding in agreement. “I do not relish losing my memories, but it is for the best. The Nightmare King will not be a threat to the Nevernever much longer.”

“Hush,” growled the voice in the trees, and enormous fangs gleamed in the darkness as he bared them in a snarl. “Something spies upon us.”

The faeries at the table jerked up, looking around. At that moment, I saw a blur of movement overhead, almost too quick to see, as something sprang through the branches of the trees.

My stomach clenched. I recognized the faery, with her black leather armor, silver hair, and twilight skin. I gave a start, but the sidhe around the table reacted quickly. Glamour and magic flared, and the trees surrounding us came to life. Branches reached out, coiling and writhing, and the shadow disappeared into a tangle of wood and leaves. The Lady raised her hand, and a branch lowered with a creak, gnarled branches forming a spiky cage around the hunched form of the Evenfey.

A murmur of anger and alarm went around the table. “An Evenfey spy,” one of the nobles hissed. “How dare you come into this sacred place, creature of shadow? Do you know whom you spy upon? We are the high lords and ladies of Faery. You overstep your bounds.”

A deep growl came from the trees, where the monstrous shaggy creature peered out with glowing green eyes. “You should kill it now,” it said. “If it lives, the Nightmare King will know what you are planning. If you don’t wish a war with Evenfall, it needs to die here and now.”

The captured faery stared out of the web of branches at us, her golden eyes narrowed and hard. “Treachery,” she stated in a cold voice, glaring at us all. “It appears the Order was right. The fey of the Nevernever cannot be trusted. You would kill us all, erase us from existence, for your own comfort and peace of mind.”

“We have no choice, Evenfey,” the Lady said, her voice surprisingly gentle. “Don’t you see how the mortal world is being affected? The Nightmare King’s influence is too strong. The humans will destroy each other if we cannot stop him.”

The Evenfaery shook her head. “The Nightmare King draws his power from the human realm, not the other way around,” she replied. “If humans are growing angrier and more violent, it is of their own volition, not ours.”

“Do not twist words, shadow creature.” A tall sidhe noble stepped forward, pointing with a long, thin finger. “Your presence, the very existence of all Evenfey, causes terror and fury. Your king is by far the strongest influence the mortal world has seen.”

“You cannot seal us away.” The trapped faery’s voice held the faintest hint of desperation, though she hid it well. “The faeries of the Nevernever and Evenfall are the same, just different reflections of each other. We are born from mankind’s darkest fears and nightmares, in the same way you are born from their dreams and imagination. The Evenfey cannot help their nature, but we still deserve to live.”

“We are not suggesting otherwise,” the Lady soothed. “But wewillseal away the Nightmare King, and all of Evenfall, from the mortal realm and the Nevernever. It is not a matter of choice. It is a matter of survival. And sadly, so you cannot return home to warn the Nightmare King, I fear you are going to have to die as well.”

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