Page 46 of The Iron Vow

“Varyn,” Other Nyx said, her voice hard, but surprisingly, Gilleas spoke first.

“And you think you’re going to take on a named Elder Nightmare by yourself?” he asked Varyn. With a snort, he shook his antlered head. “You know how powerful Elders are—named Nightmares are a hundred times worse. You will only put yourself and your mate in danger if you try to fight the Wailing One alone.”

“We know how to fight Nightmares,” Varyn told Gilleas. “We’ve done it for longer than I can remember now.” He shot a glance at us, and his lip curled. “These fey don’t know what they’re up against. They’ve never had to fight battles like we have.”

“You’re wrong,” I told him, before Puck could blurt out whatever he was about to say. I could feel his anger, and knew I had to step in before things spiraled out of control. “All of us have fought in faery wars,” I told the Evenfaery. “We’ve battled countless monsters and have faced powerful creatures. You don’t have to worry about us—we are not strangers to the battlefield.”

“But you have no magic here,” Varyn reminded me. “And you’ve never had to survive long without it.” He gestured up the trail, toward the peaks soaring overhead. “This isn’t a normal monster we’re going to fight,” he went on. “The named Elder Nightmares are the most dangerous creatures in Evenfall. The Order can stand against the Nightmares because we all trust each other and fight as a team.” His eyes narrowed as he gazed around at the rest of us, his stare lingering on Nyx and Puck. “But I don’t trust any of you to have my back. And that’s dangerous in the lair of an Elder Nightmare.”

“Varyn.” Other Nyx’s voice was calm, though her eyes glittered dangerously. “Stop this, right now. What do you hope to accomplish? I will not put either of us in that kind of danger, not if there are others who are willing to fight.”

“Trust us or not,” Ash added calmly. “We’re still going to have to work together. None of us can take on the Nightmare by ourselves.”

“You don’t understand, Neverfaery.” Varyn didn’t sound quite so hostile when facing Ash; perhaps he thought that, of us all, Ash was the most warrior-like. Or perhaps he was feeling chastened by Other Nyx. “You’ve seen what we face,” he went on. “You’ve seen what we have to go through just to survive. All because the Lady and a group of Neverfey decided that we didn’t deserve to exist any longer. We were ‘too dangerous’ for her perfect vision of Faery. And I’m sorry, but I can’t forgive that. I’ve lost too many friends to the Nightmares to forget what the Lady did. And any who served her...” His gaze flickered to Keirran and Nyx. “They are just as responsible, for not stopping her when they could.”

“That’s pretty hilarious,” Puck said loudly. “Considering the one who betrayed Nyx in the real world—on the Lady’s orders—wasyou.”

Nyx closed her eyes. Varyn stared at Puck, his expression caught between anger and wary surprise. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“It doesn’t matter, Puck,” Nyx whispered, but Puck shook his head.

“No, since we’re throwing around accusations now, I think everyone needs to hear this.” Puck’s voice was unrepentant. His hard green gaze went to Varyn, narrowing angrily. “You keep dinging Nyx and Keirran for serving the Lady,” he told the assassin, “when in the Nevernever, you tried to assassinate Nyx. Why? Because the Lady told you to. You chose to follow the orders of the queen you claim to hate, rather than stand with the woman you loved.” He crossed his arms, still glaring. “How’s that for trust issues?”

Varyn looked dumbfounded. “That’s...” he began, and stopped. His gaze slid from Puck to our Nyx, who stood at the edge of the trail drawn fully into her hood. “When you said we both served the Lady in the real world,” he began slowly, as if he didn’t want to know the answer, “what happened to us?”

Nyx raised her head, and the flash of anguish and guilt in her golden eyes made my stomach tighten. “I killed you,” she said flatly.

A cold wind moaned as it crested down the trail, carrying that sharp, bitter smell that made me grit my teeth. “Enough,” I said, before anyone else could speak. “Puck, that was uncalled for.” He shrugged, defiant, though his gaze flickered guiltily to our Nyx. I sighed. “We can’t start turning on each other now,” I said. “Every one of us is needed if we’re going to face the Wailing One. We have to start working with each other, or the Nightmare is going to tear us apart.”

I looked at our Nyx, sympathy and remorse curling my stomach. Her face was blank, her expression closed off. The mask was firmly in place, but I could guess at the storm of emotion roiling within. Still, she met my gaze, golden eyes giving nothing away, and nodded.

“I am still here, Iron Queen.” Her voice held no emotion, and behind her, Puck winced. “I am with you, in whatever capacity you need.”

Other Nyx gave a single nod as well. “We are with you as well, Iron Queen.” She shot a steely look at Varyn, mouth tightening, but did not voice her thoughts about him. “The Order does not forget its promises,” she said decisively. “We will be at your side when you face the Elder Nightmare. And when the battle is done, we will guide you to the palace of the Nightmare King, as we said we would.”

“Good,” Gilleas said, sounding impatient. “I am glad that I will not have to remind certain fey of the seriousness of the situation. Our world is fading, our king is waking up, and we could all very well vanish in the blink of an eye. But by all means, continue to squabble with each other about fey and past lives that have nothing to do with the present situation.”

Varyn’s fists clenched, and Puck’s mouth tightened, but they didn’t say anything more. We continued up the trail in somber silence, a frosty air radiating from both Nyxes and guilty expressions fixed on the faces of Puck and Varyn. I knew this wasn’t over, that a confrontation was still on the horizon. I just hoped that everyone would keep it together until we had defeated the Elder Nightmare.

Thankfully, there were no more outbursts on the mountain. Partially because the journey became much more difficult.

The trail curved around a jagged corner, momentarily vanishing from sight as it snaked its way up the mountain. It had been a long, slow climb through the jagged peaks, and made harder by the cold, driving wind and the crumbling pathway. Thankfully, the trail had widened a bit, allowing two people to stand abreast of each other without crowding the path. Though it was still a sheer vertical plunge down the side of the cliff.

Ahead of us, Varyn and Other Nyx paused, looks of mild concern crossing their faces as they stared up the pathway. Keirran joined them, and the same expression crossed his features as well.

“What is it?” Ash inquired. I took a few steps forward, peering around the bend, and saw the cause of their concern. A waterfall cascaded down the side of the mountain, spilling into a river across the path. The wind shifted, and the terrible, bitter smell stung my eyes and made them water.

Puck coughed, covering his nose with his sleeve. “Okay, well, that’s unpleasant.” He had returned to his normal, overly cheerful self minutes after the argument with Varyn and was acting like the fight had never happened. Though Nyx was still giving him the cold shoulder. “Anyone think to bring along a bridge?”

“I usually do,” Keirran said. He glanced mournfully at his open palm. “Or at least, I could make one, if I had any magic left.”

“Not an option, unfortunately,” Ash replied. “We’re going to have to find another way across.”

“Just out of curiosity,” Puck said, dropping his hand. “Does anyone know what happens if we do touch the water? I mean, how bad is it? Are we talking mild-case-of-lead-poisoning bad, or melt-the-flesh-off-your-bones bad?”

“Bad enough that both the Whisper and the Pale Rider warned us not to touch the water,” Gilleas said, and though his naked deer skull showed no emotion, the exasperated warning in his voice was clear. “Or did you not catch the ‘unimaginable torment’ part? This is not a pure mountain spring—these are the tears of the Wailing One, a named Elder Nightmare. I don’t even have a nose and I can smell the wrongness in the water.”

“He’s right,” I said, frowning at the Great Prankster, who didn’t look all that concerned about sticking his hand into what might be magical acid. “No heroics, Puck. I don’t want to take any chances. Just in case itismelt-the-flesh-off-your-bones bad.”

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