Page 28 of The Iron Vow

“I...” Nyx visibly trembled. My heart went out to her, even as Puck moved up beside the assassin, still glaring at the others. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “There was a point where... I was either asleep or gone from the world. When I woke up, a long time had passed, and everything had changed. The Lady was dead. There was a new King of the Forgotten.” She glanced at Keirran, standing quietly behind us and watching this scene play out. I snuck a peek at my son and saw pain and guilt in his eyes as he gazed at Nyx. “Nothing was the same,” Nyx went on. “There were courts, and new rulers and...everything I knew was different. And for the second time, I felt like I didn’t belong in the world.”

She swallowed, raising a hand to her face, as if expecting it to be transparent. “Maybe... I am just a memory,” she mused. “Something that Faery dreamed into existence, or someone’s memories brought back to life.” Her fingers curled into a fist. “There can’t be two of us,” she said, her voice hard. “One of us here is real, and the other...is just a shadow—”

“Nyx. Stop.” Puck’s hand closed over hers. She blinked and glanced at him, and he gave her a tiny, wry smile. “This is Faery,” he said. “We werealldreamed into existence. We could all Fade away if we’re not remembered. You, me, the entire Nevernever. So, who’s to say whether or not any of us really exist?”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Other Nyx said firmly. Stepping forward, she leveled a hard gaze at Varyn, who met it only for a moment before glancing away. “We’re all on the same side,” the Evenfaery went on. “The Nightmares are the ones we need to fight, not each other. Maybe Gilleas will have an answer for us.” Glancing at Puck and Nyx, a strange expression flickered through her eyes. As if seeing a version of herself with Robin Goodfellow was odd for her. But she didn’t comment on it, and her voice was quietly understanding as she added, “If you are ready, we can keep going.”

11

THE LIBRARIAN OF HOLLOWNEST

The Great Library was even bigger once we got close, rising to an impossible height. From a distance, it had looked narrow and skinny, but the cylindrical base was far bigger than I had first imagined. Gazing up at the hundreds of pod-like windows, I tried to envision each one as a floor full of books and couldn’t. The amount of books it would take to fill that entire building was simply staggering.

There was a large stone stairway that led to the front doors, but Other Nyx continued past it. “We don’t use the front entrance,” she explained, perhaps sensing my puzzled look as we walked by. “There are guards that patrol the first floor, and they don’t like strangers in the library. They know us, but it’s easier to bypass them entirely. The route we’ll be taking leads directly to Gilleas’s lab.”

“A lab?” Keirran echoed. “I thought Gilleas was a librarian or a historian.”

“He is both of those things,” Other Nyx replied. “But he has also been trying to unlock the secrets of Evenfall for centuries. Studying rituals, running complex magical equations, creating magical formulas.” Her nose wrinkled in an exact parody of our Nyx. “I don’t understand any of it, but Gilleas is really more of a researcher and an inventor than a historian. And the bottom floor of the library has become his lab. No one is allowed down there, sometimes not even us. But hopefully he won’t have the back entrance sealed like last time.”

“What if he does?” Ash wanted to know. Other Nyx shook her head.

“Then I’ll send Varyn or one of my people through the front doors to remind him to open it again,” the assassin replied. “It won’t be the first time he’s lost himself in his work.”

Around the back of a building, we came to what looked like the entrance to a cellar, wooden doors lying on the rocky ground. Varyn bent down and yanked up the hatch, revealing a stairwell that dropped into the unknown.

“Oh, look at that,” Puck commented. “More deep dark holes. And I thought we were at the very bottom.”

Varyn didn’t even look at him. He hadn’t said anything since the confrontation in the street, and I suspected that, for now at least, he had decided to pretend Puck didn’t exist. Probably a good thing; I was going to have a talk with Puck when we were alone. Antagonizing our only allies in a world of horrific monsters and Nightmare beasts didn’t seem like a great idea.

Even if Puck knew something about Varyn that I did not.

Other Nyx shook her head. “Not even close, I’m afraid,” she answered. “There’s a whole undercity below Hollownest, and caverns and tunnels that go even deeper than that. No one really knows what lies at the bottom of the world, but sometimes creatures crawl up from the depths that are not entirely...pleasant. Or sane.”

At the bottom of the stairwell was another section of claustrophobic earthen tunnels resembling a giant insect nest. Which didn’t surprise me but made Puck very nervous. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go far. A wooden ladder led back up to the surface, and this time we emerged into a small, dimly lit room. The walls were covered in shelves, boxes, and hundreds of books. Many of them weren’t placed nicely but tossed haphazardly on the shelves or even the floor. I tried not to step on or knock over any book stacks as we all crowded into the room.

Other Nyx gazed around at the chaos and shook her head. “Gilleas isn’t the most organized of fey,” she said, walking to a thin wooden door on the opposite wall. “But the good news is, we’re almost there. If this door isn’t sealed.”

It was not sealed and gave a strident creak as Other Nyx pulled it open. As she swung it back, a hissing sound came through the frame, sounding like a cat that had been startled.

“And my shadow nemesis returns,” rasped a breathy, somehow familiar voice on the other side, making chills run up my back. Beside me, Ash straightened, his whole body going tense. “Why must they constantly appear just when I am in the middle of an equation? Every time they open that door, I fear I must start all over again.”

Varyn rolled his eyes. “It’s not our fault your door creaks, Gilleas,” he said, ducking through the frame with Other Nyx. Numbly, I followed, entering a large room that was mostly books and shelves. Parchments and scrolls were scattered everywhere, and the air was heavy with the smell of ink.

Near the back of the room sat an enormous wooden desk, though you’d be hard pressed to see the desk beneath the piles of books, scrolls, paper, and inkwells. But the creature who had risen from the stool and was gliding toward us drew all my attention.

It was unnaturally thin, with arms that nearly reached the floor and long fingers ending in points. Its body appeared to be made of shadow, like a silhouette come to life, and on its head, a bleached deer skull gleamed brightly against the pitch-black of its body.

It was the same creature we had fought on our side of the world, the Evenfaery that had lured us to InSite and tricked us into breaking the seal to Evenfall. The creature responsible for stirring the Nightmare King by flooding the mortal world with anger and hate. Why was it here? Especially since, in our final encounter deep in the bowels of InSite, our Nyx had killed it.

“Oh, what the hell,” Puck burst out. “This creepy guy again? Don’t tell me we’re going to have to fight him here, too.”

“As usual, your incredible shortsightedness is both impressive and disturbing,” said another slow, instantly familiar voice, making me gasp. Behind the spindly Evenfey, two bright golden eyes turned to watch us come through the door.

“Grimalkin,” Keirran exclaimed as the cat materialized on the desk, twitching his tail. “You’rehere? But how did you...” He stopped, shrugging his shoulders in a resigned manner. “Never mind, I’m not going to ask stupid questions.”

“A wise decision, Forgotten King. At least one of you has learned a bit of sense.”

“You can all relax, you know,” the thin, deer-headed creature said, holding out a very long, spindly arm. “I have been expecting you ever since Grimalkin arrived at my lab. He told me what you have been through, and he told me that my appearance might be alarming, since...”

---