The Boy with the Hidden Name (4 page)

Etherington and then we go to the goblins.”

He seems to be much calmer now that we have a plan,

a direction. I think he was feeling rudderless without the

prophecy, and it was making him panicked. I think of how

panic- inducing it must be for someone like Will, who lives in

a world where he’s used to thinking he knows what’s going to

happen and suddenly he’s lost that. It must be, in a way, like

suddenly losing a sense, suddenly going blind or deaf.

“How are we getting to the goblins?” Kelsey asks.

“We’re going to take the subway, of course,” Will says

matter- of- factly.

“The subway is a mess,” Kelsey says.

“It’s true,” I agree. “The lines were all backed up. We were

going to take it to go find you.”

“It’ll work for us,” Will assures us confidently.

Park Street is crowded during rush hour on the best of

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days, but it’s worse today, balanced on the edge of a full-

fledged riot. You can taste panic in the air.

“Everyone’s trying to get out of the city before it falls,” Will remarks, walking through the gates on the heels of a commuter. “As if that’s going to do any good.”

“Wait,” I say, confused. “Aren’t these…humans?” I hope no

one is eavesdropping.

“Well, yes. But an odd, sudden storm just rolled in and

church bells are falling out of towers,” Will points out. “It

doesn’t matter what you are— you’re getting away from here.”

“The Red Line trains will be running, right?” Aunt True

asks. “The human ones?”

“They should be. The human trains will run longer than

our trains will,” Will responds. “The goblins will fall back, but the trains will run as well as they can for as long as they can.”

We go down to the Red Line platforms, reaching the plat-

form in the middle, which is so packed you can barely move.

Will walks without apology, pushing through the crowd, and

I try to keep him in my sight and make sure everyone else is

still with us too.

We come out, finally, on the far side, near the fire exit

stairway.

A train sounds its horn, rolling up to the station toward us

on my left. At the same time, another train comes roaring in

from the tunnel on my right, going in the opposite direction.

The bells chime then. An awful jingle- jangling sound

that makes me feel queasy. My hands clench into fists

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automatically, and I back away from the fire exit stairway,

where the sound seems to be coming from.

The trains to our left and our right have their doors open.

“Selkie,” Will says slowly. He stands still, his eyes on the

fire exit stairway, watching, waiting, tense. “The goblins live

in the subway tunnels. Get into a tunnel, ask for the Erlking,

and use my name.”

“Wait, what?” I say, looking at him, confused. “Why are

you telling me this?”

“Get on the train,” he tells me.

I glance behind me. My aunts have already gotten on the

train, although Aunt Virtue is standing with her hand on the

door to keep it open. I look back at Will.

“Selkie,” Kelsey says to me, and I look at her.

She is staring up at the fire exit stairway. Where a faerie has

appeared, glowing palely in the dim T station.

The faerie is a Seelie. For a moment, looking up, I think

it might be my mother. It isn’t, but it could be; that’s how

strongly the Seelies resemble each other. Although I didn’t

think that when I was in Tir na nOg. Did they all look alike

then? Or is it just that they all look alike now?

In my moment of confusion, all hell breaks loose. It feels

like an earthquake shakes the station, the cement trembling

under our feet, fine vibrations that increase to tremors. The

regular commuters all look around in confusion that quickly

tips over into fear then rises to a crescendo of panic.

And then the floor literally begins rolling underneath us.

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“Go!” Will shouts, and I dart toward the waiting T, except

that the pavement cracks right in front of me, rising in an

impossibly high jagged cliff.

I try to scramble up over it, and I’m almost to the top when

I hear someone say my name. It must be the Seelie, saying it

with intent, because I cry out with the pain of it, and some-

one yanks hard on the hood of my sweatshirt, pulling me

back through the crowd of people, and I scream in panic and

wheel around to claw at whoever’s holding me.

I collide with the being that grabbed me. Who turns out

to be Will. He tumbles backward and into the open T door

opposite my aunts. He manages to get hold of me and pull

me in after him, and then the doors slide closed. The lights

of the T flicker off and then back on.

And then Kelsey says, “Where the hell are we?”

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T he train looks like the living room of some kind of

fancy hunting lodge, with comfy chairs positioned in

cozy little reading nooks around an enormous central fire-

place. I am with Will and Kelsey and Safford. My aunts, who

were the first people on the other T, the T we were all sup-

posed to get on, were stuck there when the platform cracked

between us.

“My aunts,” I say and reach for the closed doors, although I

don’t know what I’m going to do. How do you open subway

car doors once they’ve closed?

And then the subway swings into motion, taking us away

from the station. Away from the Seelie and the weird earth-

quake, but away from my aunts too.

I whirl back to Will. “No. Will. Take me back. I have to go

back. I have to get them.”

Will is massaging his face where I collided with him. “We

can’t go back.”

“
We
have
to
go
back, Will!
” I scream at him. “We can’t just leave them! There was a Seelie!”

“They’re on their own subway train. They’ll be on their way

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now. And anyway,
you’re
what they want, and you’re here.

That makes your aunts safer than they would be with you.”

“Will— ” I start and then truly register the surroundings

of the train around us. “Wait a second. Where are we? What

happened? We’re not even in
Boston
anymore.”

“We are. We’re just on an Otherworld train.”

“The Otherworld trains go to the Seelie Court! They’re evil!”

Will shakes his head. “Only the Green Line is evil. The Red

Line should take us to the Erlking.”

“It can’t,” I tell him. “It can’t take us anywhere without my

aunts and my father. We have to go back. This train has to

stop, right now.”

And then it does.

It screeches to a violent halt. The chairs skid forward, crash-

ing against the wall. We all lose our balance, tumbling to

the floor. The awful squealing of the wheels against the track

ends, and the silence that descends is deafening.

After a moment, I say hesitantly, “Did I do that with the

power of my mind?”

“No,” Will bites out as he gets back to his feet. “You didn’t.

I told you the Seelies were after you, didn’t I? We have to get

off this train.” Will is studying the doors.

“In the middle of a tunnel?” Kelsey asks.

“And go back for my aunts?” I say.

“No,” Will snaps. “We can’t go back for your aunts. Don’t

you get it? We’re being
hunted
. The Seelies stopped this train.

So we have to get out into the tunnels.”

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“And what are we going to do once we’re there?” I demand

hotly. “We have to go somewhere, we might as well go— ”

“We’ll go to the goblins.” Will cuts me off brusquely and

tries ineffectively to pry the doors open. “This is all
so
much easier to do when you’ve got a traveler with you,” he comments, and then, “Don’t tell Benedict I said that.”

“Aren’t you a wizard?” I ask. “Just magic it open.”

“Sorry, I was busy learning important spells like disguising

silver boughs to smuggle into prison for you and casting a

protective enchantment over an entire city. I didn’t bother to

memorize the spell for
opening
subway
train
doors
.”

“You don’t know the spell to
open
things
?” I say in disbelief.

And then the doors slide open.

I look at Will, who looks back at me, and then we both

turn our heads.

Safford is replacing the emergency door release handle.

“What?” he says at our looks. “Didn’t you want to open

the door?”

“Magic trains have emergency door release handles,”

says Kelsey.

“Safety first,” says Will, and then, “Thanks, Safford.” He

leaps out the open doorway into the dark tunnel behind then

turns back to the rest of us. “Come on.”

There is a moment when I stand at the edge, hesitating.

I look at Kelsey and Safford, who are depending on me to

keep them safe. I think of my aunts and my father. I don’t

know how I’m supposed to be keeping all of these people

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safe. And I haven’t even started to think about Ben, who is

somewhere dangerous, undoubtedly getting himself into yet

another situation where he will need my rescue.

I don’t know what to do, but I believe Will that we are sit-

ting ducks on this train. Better to keep moving.

I jump down after him.

Kelsey and Safford follow.

Will starts walking, and we trail behind him, for lack of

anything better to do, I guess.

“Tell me how being in the subway tunnel is going to help

us get to the goblins.”

“Well, the goblins live in the subway tunnels. We were

going to get there the civilized way on the train, but this will work just as well.”

“The goblins,” Kelsey repeats in a processing tone of voice,

as if she is taking careful notes for when she writes up her

memoir of this experience, “live in the subway tunnels.”

“Yes,” Will answers crisply, as if Kelsey should have figured

out much earlier in her life that goblins lived in the Boston

subway. “Did you never wonder why your subway system is

so excruciatingly incapable of functioning correctly?”

“I wondered that all the time,” retorts Kelsey. “I never

thought it was because of goblins.”

“They sabotage the tracks,” Will explains.

“Do they hate us?” I ask.

“No, they’re just mischievous and frequently bored,”

Will replies.

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“Can’t they get hobbies?” grumbles Kelsey, and I don’t

blame her, because the malfunctioning subway
is
annoying.

“Brody didn’t live in the subway tunnels,” I say.

“How do you know where Brody lives?” counters Will, and

he has a point.

“So the goblins will help us get to Ben,” I begin.

“And we can use them to check up on your aunts and your

father. The goblins have the run of Boston,” Will says.

“The goblins,” says Kelsey, in that same thoughtful tone of

voice, “have the
run
of
Boston
.”

Will rolls his eyes as if Kelsey has just revealed she doesn’t

know the alphabet.

The tunnel is very quiet. I expect there to be the rumble

of subway trains from other places, but there is nothing but

silence all around us. I listen harder, for the chiming of bells, for Seelies to rush up on us. I imagine, as I listen harder, that what I can hear is scuffling.

“Are there rats in the tunnels?” I ask suddenly.

“Of course there are,” Will answers. “What kind of ridicu-

lous question is that?”

I draw to a stop. “Ben told me there weren’t any rats in

the tunnels.”

“Then he lied,” Will answers, sounding unconcerned. “He’s

a faerie, Selkie, it’s what he
does
. Anyway, what do you have against rats?”

I start moving again, but going very slowly, disgruntled over

the revelation of Ben’s lie. “That’s right, you love rats,” I recall.

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“You love
rats
?” says Kelsey.

“I love all creatures,” Will announces primly.

“All of a sudden you’re Doctor Dolittle?” remarks Kelsey.

“This is the most inane conversation,” Will complains. And

then, suddenly, “Shh.” He stops walking, holding his hand

up. He stands there for a second, listening.

“Do you hear anything?” Kelsey breathes behind me.

“No,” I whisper back.

But it is clear that Will hears something. He turns in a

circle, looking all around us, through the dimly lit gloom of

the tunnel.

And then I hear it too: bells. The chiming jingle bells of the