Page 37 of The Iron Vow

“Don’t poke those,” Gilleas warned Puck, who was reaching for one of the mushroom pods a few feet from the path. “Unless you want it to burst and cover you with spores. Which will not be pleasant, I assure you.”

“Oh?” Puck grinned and gave the pod a sideways look. “Well, now I’m just curious.”

“Go ahead, then,” Varyn said, waving an arm at the lumps beneath the mushrooms. “Put it to the test. See if it goes well for you.”

“I would very much advise against that.” Gilleas glared at the assassin before glancing back at Puck. “The spores will put you into an endless slumber. You will fall asleep indefinitely, like those other ‘curious minds’ did, and the fungus and worms will feast on your blood until you’re nothing but a husk.”

Puck pulled his arm back. “Yep, this place is horrible,” he announced. “I can’t wait to get aboveground again. Also, if a certain Scowly Faery tells you to do something, do the opposite. Good to know.”

Varyn just smirked, unrepentant. Ahead of us, Other Nyx paused, gazing down a path that snaked into the forest of mushrooms and glowing lights. “We’ll have to pass through here,” she told us, making Puck wrinkle his nose. “Just don’t touch any plants, the mushrooms especially, and you’ll be fine. Single file is probably best. Just in case.”

We did as she instructed. I was careful to keep my fingers clasped firmly in front of me and remain in the middle of the path. The mushrooms made low gurgling sounds as we walked beneath them. They smelled faintly of rotten meat. I was relieved when we left the forest of fungi and entered the narrow dirt-and-stone passageways again.

After an indefinite amount of time walking through claustrophobia-inducing tunnels, Other Nyx stopped at a wooden ladder outlined in hazy light filtering down from a distant circle of open air, high overhead.

“The well is still intact,” she murmured, gazing toward the ceiling. “Good. This should take us to the surface.”

“Interesting choice,” Gilleas mused, also peering up at the distant hole. “Doesn’t this lead to the Rattling Wood?”

“Yes, but it’s the closest exit from the underground,” Other Nyx replied. “And the Rattling Wood isn’t dangerous anymore, sinceheis no longer there.”

“He?” Ash wondered.

“There was a faery who used to live there,” Gilleas explained, “who could make travel through the forest...interesting. There is a reason it is called the Rattling Wood.”

“Hey, I don’t care if we’re going to a place called Slaughter Woods or the Forest of Exploding Faces.” Puck swiftly moved to the ladder. “As long as we’re getting out of here. No offense, but I’ve hit my creepy-crawly limit for the next millennium.”

“Ah, fresh air at last,” Puck exclaimed once we had climbed out of the well. Straightening, he put his arms over his head and stretched with a yawn. “It’s so nice not to have dirt and bugs hanging over my head or falling into my hair.” He looked up, his smile fading as he gazed around. “Even if we did land in a dark, spooky...unfriendly-looking...forest. There are skull trees over there. And the well is made of bones. Where exactly are we, now?”

I tried not to shiver as I climbed over the edge of the well, which was indeed made of old yellow bones. A forest stretched out around us, quiet and foreboding. The trunks and branches were made of skulls, stacked on top of each other and held in place by a mysterious force. Glistening red vines dangled from the tree canopy, tangled with bones and more skulls. My feet hit the ground and sank a little into a pink, spongy substance that looked like packed intestines. Red blades of grass grew in clumps through the forest; I brushed against one and felt a stinging sensation as the grass sliced open my pant leg and left a paper-thin gash across my calf.

“Avoid touching the grass, if you can,” Other Nyx warned a second too late. “The trees are harmless, but the grass will take the skin off your ankles if you’re not careful.”

“Welcome to the Rattling Wood,” Varyn added with a hard smile. “One of the safer places in the Sunken Lands, if you can believe it.” A transparent skull, lit with green flame, floated out of the trees and drifted past his head. I tensed, but the Evenfey barely reacted. “At least we shouldn’t run into the Bone Collector.”

That didn’t sound pleasant, whatever it was. “I take it the Bone Collector is who you were talking about earlier,” I said. “Is this another Nightmare?”

Other Nyx shook her head. “No, but if he was, I think I would rather attempt to take on the Wailing One. The Bone Collector is an Evenfaery. Legends say he killed so many faeries and creatures, he built a forest from the bones of his victims. This entire area—” she gestured to the trees around us “—is his work.”

“Oh,” Puck remarked. “Well, that’s not disturbing at all. And what lovely landscaping—does he have a business card? I can think of several fey in the wyldwood who would love to have him as a gardener.”

“Business card,” Varyn repeated, frowning. “What is that?”

An exasperated feline sigh came from an old stump, and Grimalkin suddenly appeared. “I advise you to ignore at least eighty percent of what comes out of Goodfellow’s mouth,” he said. “That is what the rest of us have learned to do.”

Puck sniffed and glanced at our Nyx. “I just don’t get any respect.”

The faintest of smiles crossed the Evenfaery’s lips, which was good to see. I didn’t know what had happened between her and Puck in the library, but she did seem more or less back to normal. I worried for her, as I did everyone, but if anyone could bring her back to her old self, it would be Puck.

Ash looked at Varyn and Other Nyx. “So, if we do run into this Bone Collector, will it be a fight?”

“No.” Other Nyx shook her head. “The Bone Collector is gone. He is a very old Evenfaery, and it would be dangerous to run into him, but he hasn’t been seen in centuries.”

I didn’t answer, relieved and secretly thinking that the constant terror and horrifying landscapes of Evenfall were beginning to wear on me. While it was true that the Nevernever had its share of scary, traumatizing places, it could also be stunningly beautiful. I missed the sunlight of Arcadia, the frozen beauty of Tir Na Nog, and the surreal twilight of the wyldwood. And of course, I missed the Iron Realm. I missed Mag Tuiredh and the Iron palace and all the strange and wonderful fey who called the Iron Realm their home. I knew beauty was in the eye of the beholder, but I wondered if there were any places in Evenfall that were not completely and utterly terrifying.

We started through the Rattling Wood, following a narrow trail that avoided most of the grass clusters, though walking on the soft, squishy ground wasn’t pleasant. As the forest’s name suggested, every time a faint breeze came through, the trees would rattle, branches and skulls clattering in the wind. The small, glowing green skulls floating through the branches trailed us down the paths, chattering softly. Gilleas and Other Nyx told us to ignore them, though we soon attracted a swarm of incorporeal skulls, zipping through the air around us. They reminded me of will-o’-the-wisps, glowing balls of light that would lead travelers off the path to become lost in the forest or swamps. These seemed a bit more persistent, chittering in our ears as they followed us down the trail, but like will-o’-the-wisps, they eventually became bored with the lack of attention and drifted off into the trees.

“I take it nothing else lives in these woods?” Keirran asked Gilleas, deftly avoiding a clump of razor grass poking through the path we were on. The Evenfaery shook his antlered head.

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