Page 9 of The Iron Vow

Evenfall felt dead. No, that wasn’t exactly right. Evenfall felt like a shadow. Like a memory. Something that you could see, that you knew was there, but that had no substance. If I closed my eyes and really concentrated, pushing as deep into the land as I possibly could, I could feel a wisp of emotion. Something dark and painful, almost sad. But it was so faint, barely a breath of a thought, that it might have been my own fears and emotions coming to the surface. Evenfall was like a photograph, an image of a world that wasn’t real. The hint of emotion I felt, whatever it was, might not have been there all.

I lost track of time. The sun never rose in Evenfall; the world remained perpetually dark, the sky without moon or stars to light the way. Nobody spoke much, not even Puck. Much like being in a nightmare, loud noises and drawing attention to yourself seemed dangerous. We followed Nyx as the Evenfaery wove an unerring path through the trees, a shadow that seemed perfectly at home in the looming woods of Evenfall. She was also vital to finding food in this strange, barren world, though what she returned with wasn’t exactly what I would call appetizing. Mushrooms the color of flesh, covered in thin blue veins. Bulbous red fruit with cores made of teeth. Berries that looked like eyeballs, and so forth. Most of what she gave us, I would not even consider eating had she not insisted it was edible and safe. Still, I ate only when I had to, swallowed without tasting, and tried not to think about what I was putting in my mouth.

We were making our way through yet another forest, surrounded by shaggy black pines that eerily resembled some sort of furred monster themselves. It didn’t help that the pine cones hanging from the branches were bone white, which only reinforced the image of bushy giants with crooked teeth looming above us.

The feeling of being watched crept over me. I caught a shadow from the corner of my eye, a ripple of movement in the trees, and turned my head. Of course, there was nothing there. Seconds later, it happened again.

“We’re being stalked,” Ash murmured beside me.

“Yes,” Nyx said without turning around. “Keep moving. They’re not going to attack quite yet. They might abandon the hunt if they decide we’re too much trouble.”

“What are they?” Keirran wondered. “Can we speak to them?”

“Wolflings,” was the answer. “The Big Bad Wolf might be the most famous of humankind’s fear of wolves, but he’s not the only one. Here in Evenfall, we have our own versions.” Nyx stared into the trees, golden eyes tracking the flitting shadows through the tangled undergrowth. “Normally, they’re not dangerous. And they don’t attack other fey without reason. But these are not normal times in Evenfall. I think we need to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”

“I don’t like hurting wolves.” Keirran sighed as a ghostly howl echoed from somewhere in the trees. “Real wolves in the human world don’t attack people.”

“Yeah, sadly, that’s not true in the Nevernever,” Puck said, pulling one of his daggers from nowhere. “The wolves we see in Faery are mankind’s perceptions of them, however wrong they are. Take Big Bad, for example. Sure, he’s all noble and friendly now, but a couple centuries ago, he ate a whole hamlet of farmersandtheir sheep. Nothing is black-and-white in Faery, princeling. Especially among those of us who can live forever.” He shrugged. “What’s that famous saying? In all stories, you either die the hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

“That saying came from a Batman movie,” Keirran said flatly.

“Doesn’t make it false,” Puck insisted, “and it happens to all of us, eventually. Even Yours Truly.”

I frowned. Was that true? I had been living in Faery a long time now. Not as long as Ash or Puck, certainly, but long enough to build my kingdom and know the ins and outs of the Nevernever. I thought of Mab and Oberon, faeries whose rule over their courts spanned millennia. Both had been cast as villains in many stories. Someday, would someone write a story about the wicked Iron Queen Meghan, who ruled her land with a tyrannical fist and struck fear into the hearts of mortals and fey alike?

Another ghostly howl cut through the night, interrupting my musings. I could see them now, shadows gliding through the trees on all sides. With a resigned sigh, I drew my sword. I didn’t want to fight, but I would not stand here and get torn apart by a pack of nightmare wolves, either.

“They’re not attacking,” Keirran mused, watching the tatters of shadow swirl around us. “Maybe they’re trying to figure out how strong we are.”

“Or maybe they’re just picking out the weakest link,” Puck added. “I guess that would be you, Furball...and he’s already gone.”

Ash stepped forward abruptly, his sword drawn but hanging loose at his side. “We are not prey,” he said in a clear, firm voice. “There is no need for conflict between us. We don’t wish to fight, but we will defend ourselves if we must. If you choose to attack us, your pack will not survive this encounter.”

For a moment, there was no answer. The trees were eerily silent and still. I stood calmly next to Ash, watching the shadows, ready to bring up my sword if a pack of wolves rushed out at us.

There was a ripple of movement in the trees, and a creature emerged, seeming to melt out of the gloom. At first, it looked like a normal wolf: shaggy black pelt, lean body, furry ears and tail. It wasn’t nearly as big as our Big Bad. In fact, it seemed a little small for a normal wolf. But as it drew closer, it gazed up at me, and the completely human eyes staring into mine made my stomach clench. For a split second, the darkness shifted, a bar of shadow sliding over its face, and I saw not a wolf but a hard-faced child on all fours, staring up at me. Only for a moment, a single heartbeat of shock, and then the creature was a normal wolf again.

I took a careful step forward, making sure to draw its attention but keeping my stance neutral. Nonaggressive. “I am Meghan Chase,” I told it. “Ruler of the Iron Kingdom in the Nevernever. We don’t want any trouble. We’re just trying to pass through these woods.”

The wolf regarded me with eyes that were still disturbingly human. Its muzzle wrinkled, lips curling back to reveal sharp white fangs. For another heartbeat, I saw the sneering face of the child overlaid with the canine. “Not one of us,” it said in a breathy voice, and my jaw clenched at how young it sounded. “Not Nightmare. Not Evenfey. What are you?”

“Strangers to these lands,” I replied. “We’re trying to find our way to a city called Hollownest. Do you know of it?”

The wolf’s ears flattened to its skull. It cringed, and the child cowered back like I was about to kick him. “Evil place,” it growled. “Things crawl up from Hollownest. Searching, seeking. They can feel your heartbeat, hear your breath. If they catch you, they will drag you back with them. Into the earth, and the tunnels close behind them. Beneath the ground, they will bury you there. No one who goes beneath the earth comes out again.”

“Well, this just gets better and better,” Puck remarked, causing the wolf to bare its fangs at him. “I’m really looking forward to visiting Hollownest now.”

“Where are these tunnels?” I asked the wolf. It shook its shaggy head.

“You cannot find them,” it told me. “When the snatching things return underground, the earth closes behind them. Even if you dig until your paws are bloody, you will find only soil.”

“So, the only way into Hollownest is to get grabbed by one of these insect body snatcher things?” Puck asked. “That’s a great bignopefor me. There has to be another way.”

“There used to be entrances to the city throughout Evenfall,” Nyx said, frowning thoughtfully as she stared at the wolf. “Hollownest used to be a place of knowledge, and fey traveled far to seek it out. Are there no clear paths into the city any longer?”

The wolf didn’t answer right away. It gazed at Nyx with solemn human eyes, as if trying to figure her out. “You are different,” it said at last. “I smell no strangeness inside you. You are like us, who must hunt the king’s offerings to survive.”

“This used to be my world,” Nyx said quietly. “I was part of Evenfall, like you and your kin. But it was...different, when I lived here. I haven’t been back in a long time.”

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