Page 27 of The Iron Vow

I glanced over and saw a creature with pincers and a dark carapace slide quickly into the shadows of an alley, disappearing too fast for me to get a good look at it.

“Yep, definitely not enjoying this.” Puck shuddered, rubbing his arms. “So, where is this Great Library, anyway?” he wondered. “’Cause right now, I’m hoping it’s close.”

Other Nyx glanced back, then gestured straight ahead of us. “It’s right there.” She pointed it out. “You can see the library from anywhere in Hollownest.”

We looked up. In the center of the city, a massive spire rose above the skyline, towering over the smaller buildings beneath. Glowing, pod-like windows marched up the sides until they vanished into the shadows above, and the roof was lost in the darkness.

“Is the library at the top?” Keirran wondered, shielding his eyes as he stared up at the spire.

Varyn shook his head. “No, the entire toweristhe library,” he said. “From the ground floor to the very top of the spire, the walls are lined with books, tomes, scrolls, and anything else you can keep knowledge in. It is said that even the historians of old never uncovered all the secrets contained in the Great Library, that there are places and books that have sat untouched for centuries.”

“Wow,” I mused, staring at the rising walls and trying to imagine them completely filled with books. “I know several faeries who would spend their entire lives in such a place.”

Other Nyx chuckled. “I know several faeries who already do,” she told us. “Come. Gilleas will be waiting.”

No one bothered us as we walked down the curving streets toward the Great Library at the center. Occasionally, there was movement in the shadows and the sounds of legs scuttling away, but the creatures never came into full view.

“I take it Hollownest has not always been this way?” Ash asked Other Nyx, who shook her head.

“No. At one point it was a city of millions, all living beneath the over world, as they called it. They were content to remain in Hollownest and never venture aboveground.” Her smooth brow creased as she continued. “All that changed when Evenfall was sealed away. We weren’t yet here in Hollownest, but I heard that, for a while, it was chaos. Everything you would expect to happen to a large city during a catastrophe. Mass exodus. Faeries turning on each other. Fire and blood and death. It’s amazing anything survived.”

“I heard that the old historians turned to some very dangerous rituals to preserve the library and all its contents,” Varyn added. “No one knows what they did, but the library survived, even though the historians are gone. There are stories now that if anyone steals or damages a book belonging to the library, that fey vanishes, and no one ever sees them again.”

“Is that true?” Keirran wanted to know.

The assassin shrugged. “I am not about to test those rumors.”

“I remember this,” our Nyx whispered.

We all turned to look at her. Through the entire journey, she had stayed near the back of the group, as far from Other Nyx and Varyn as she could. She had not said a word to either of them, particularly Varyn, as if hoping she would be forgotten. Now she gazed around the city with a pained expression on her face, her golden eyes haunted.

“I remember Hollownest,” she said again. “But it wasn’t like this. It’s so empty now. When I visited the city, there was no part of Hollownest that wasn’t moving, no place that was barren of activity. The buzzing of wings was so loud and so constant, you could feel the vibrations in your teeth.”

Puck grimaced. “Funnily enough, that’s not really a great selling point.”

“Those are my memories as well,” Other Nyx said, staring hard at her twin. “From very, very long ago. I remember when the city was at its peak. But this city is new to you. Where have you been since Evenfall was sealed away?”

“I...” Nyx paused. I could see her gather herself, compose her expression, before turning to face her mirror image. “My Order and I became trapped on the Nevernever side when the Lady closed Evenfall,” she said. “Because our memories of Evenfall and what happened were sealed as well, we served her as the First Queen of Faery for a very long time.”

“You served the Lady.” Varyn could not hide his disgust. “The one who sealed us away. The one who destroyed Evenfall.”

“Weserved the Lady,” Nyx corrected him. “You, me, our entire Order. We were her spies and assassins. Those she deemed ‘problematic’ or ‘unforgivable’—we made them disappear. I killed...so many for her.” For a moment, Nyx faltered, an anguished look crossing her face, before it hardened again. “We killed for her,” Nyx went on, “and we didn’t question. Not once did I think she was the cause of my unending emptiness. The constant sensation that...something was missing. That something wasn’t right.”

My stomach clenched. Varyn still looked angry and disbelieving, but Other Nyx gazed at her counterpart with sympathy in her eyes and stepped forward.

“You said we were all there, serving the Lady.” Other Nyx’s voice was soft. She glanced at Varyn and the other assassins before turning to her twin again. “That our Order became trapped in the Nevernever when Evenfall was sealed. That means that there was another Varyn, correct? A second version of all of us? Where are they now?”

Nyx hesitated, then closed her eyes. “Gone,” she stated simply. “Of the Order, everyone who was trapped in the Nevernever either died or Faded away. I’m the only one left.”

She was hiding something. I could hear it in her voice. I saw it in Puck’s expression as he stiffened beside her. A heaviness filled me as several things very quickly made sense. Puck’s hostility toward Varyn. Nyx’s shock at seeing him again. Something had happened between Nyx and her old Order, the real Order. Something that she did not want to reveal to the Evenfey before us.

“Gone,” Varyn repeated, and crossed his arms. “Interesting that you’re the only one left,” he said. “Are you sure something didn’t happen to us all while we were serving the Lady? How do you know you’re even real?”

“Hey.” Puck stepped forward, eyes narrowed dangerously. “That’s not a very nice question,” he said. “I would ask the same, because from where I’m standing, you’re the shadow, not her. You died in our world, remember? So, who is the real imposter here?”

“Puck,” I said, as Other Nyx firmly put out an arm, stopping Varyn from moving forward. “Varyn, enough,” she snapped at the same time. “Stand down.”

“But—”

---