The Iron Knight (16 page)

I closed my eyes. “Ari—”

She stood quickly before I could say more, though she didn’t turn around. “I know. I’m sorry, Ash. I …” Her voice caught, and she pushed back her hair, speaking more to herself than to me. “I didn’t think it would be this hard.”

I watched her, in the flickering shadows. I watched the firelight rippling off her silver hair, the way her body moved, graceful and sure. And, I was suddenly reminded why I’d fallen in love with her, all those years ago. She was as beautiful as those days when I was that young, arrogant prince, and time had not dulled her perfection. I thought about what Meghan had told me: that fate had given us another chance; Ariella was back in my life, and I could be happy now.

Could I be happy with Ariella?

I shook my head, veering from those thoughts before they
got too tempting, feeling another thread of my essence unravel. It didn’t matter, I realized through gritted teeth. I could not abandon my quest, regardless of my feelings. I swore that I would find a way to return to Meghan, and I was bound to that promise. I couldn’t go back on my word, even if what I searched for was impossible. Even if Meghan was no longer waiting for me, that she had said her goodbyes, that she had let me go. I could not give up, even now.

Even if I died, and took everyone with me.

“Finally awake, are you?” The Wolf melted from the shadows, a piece of the night becoming real. “I was tempted to rip out your throat while you slept and put you out of your misery, little prince. Watching you sleep was becoming tiring.” He licked his jaws, where a dull coating of red spattered his fur, and bared his teeth. “We’ve wasted enough time here, and I am getting bored. Do you wish to reach the Testing Grounds or not?”

“Yes,” I said as Puck joined us, carrying several mushroom kebabs. “It’s time to head out. Where do we go from here?”

Ariella closed her eyes. “We follow the River of Dreams,” she murmured, “past the Briars, until we reach the final barrier, and then the End of the World. Beyond that, the Testing Grounds await.”

“You make it sound so easy.” Puck sighed, stuffing another truffle in his mouth. “Past the Briars you say? And then beyond the End of the World? How long is
that
going to take us?”

“As long as it takes,” I said firmly. “As long as I have the breath to keep going, I will. But that doesn’t mean the rest of you should do the same.” I gazed around the group, meeting the stares of my companions. “From here on out,” I began, “it’s going to be even more dangerous. I won’t ask you to stay with me. None of us know what lies beyond the Briars, at the
End of the World. If you want to go back, do so now. I won’t hold it against you.” My gaze caught Ariella’s as I said this. “I can go on alone, if I must, if being around me is too dangerous or hard or painful to go on.”

I would save you my fate, if I could. I will not watch you die again.

“Hmm. Hey, ice-boy, hold these for a second, will ya?” Puck asked, holding out the mushroom kebabs. Frowning, I took them, and he struck me upside the head, not hard, but solid enough to rock me forward a step. “Stop being so damned fatalistic,” he said as I turned on him with a snarl. “If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be. And you know you can’t do it all by your lonesome, ice-boy. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to start trusting us.”

I laughed at him then, bitter and self-mocking. “Trust,” I said flatly. “Trust requires the faith of both parties, Goodfellow.”

“Enough,” the Wolf growled, baring his fangs at us all. “We’re wasting time. Those who wish to leave, leave. But I believe the consensus is that everyone is staying, is that right?” No one disagreed with him, and he snorted. “Then let us go. I have no idea why two-legs wish to stand around and talk so much.”

“For once, I agree with the dog.” Grimalkin’s voice came from an overhead branch. Golden eyes peered down at us, and the Wolf growled, raising his hackles. The cat ignored him. “If we are to reach the Briars by the River of Dreams, we must find the river first,” he said, sharpening his claws on the branch. “As the dog knows this territory best, perhaps it should do something useful and lead us there. Otherwise I see no reason to have it along at all.”

The Wolf snarled, tensing his muscles, as if he wished he could climb the tree after the feline. “One day I will catch
you on the ground, cat,” he said through bared teeth. “And you won’t even know I’m there until I tear your head off.”

“You have been saying that since before humans had fire, dog,” Grimalkin replied, completely undisturbed. “You will have to forgive me if I do not hold my breath.” And he disappeared into the leaves.

“So, I’m curious,” Puck announced, falling into step beside me. We were following the Wolf through a forest that was larger than any I’d ever seen: massive trees so tall you couldn’t see the tops of the branches, with trunks so wide a dozen people couldn’t encircle the base. Luminescent flowers and fungi populated this part of the forest, pulsing softly in all the colors of the spectrum. The earth was covered with a thick, spongy moss that glowed bright blue-and-green whenever you stepped on it, leaving footprints that attracted ghostly dragonflies to hover over the indentions. The Wolf loped tirelessly through this glowing wood, pausing occasionally to glance back, often with an annoyed look that we were taking so long. Puck and I trailed doggedly after him, with Ariella bringing up the rear, moving as quietly as a shadow.

Despite assurances that she was fine, my worry for her gnawed at my insides. After the whole dream encounter and our stammering, awkward conversation, she seemed distant and withdrawn, more so than usual. With every step, she grew more shadowlike, more insubstantial, until I feared she would fade away like the mist in the hollow. I tried talking to her,
but though she smiled and answered my questions and told me she was fine, her eyes seemed to stare right through me.

I couldn’t get Meghan out of my head, either. I wished I had told her what I was doing. I wished I had said more, argued more. Maybe then I wouldn’t have this hollow ache in my chest whenever I thought of our parting words. Had she already moved on, forgotten me? In her position, what she said made sense, but the thought of her with someone else made me wish I had something to fight, to kill, just so I could forget. Between Meghan and Ariella, I felt like I was being torn in two.

So I really wasn’t in the mood to talk when Puck ambushed me, coming out of nowhere with that faint smirk on his face, looking for trouble. I knew I wasn’t going to like his next question, but he still surprised me when he asked, “So, what did Meghan say when she saw Ariella?”

I glanced at him sharply, and he grinned. “Come on, iceboy. I’m not stupid. I can put the pieces together well enough to figure out what happened. What did she say?” When I didn’t answer, he suddenly reached out and grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around. “Hey, I’m serious, prince!”

I drew my sword in an instant, cutting for his head as I turned. Puck was already bringing up his dagger to block, and the two blades met in a screech of sparks.

Puck glared at me over the crossed blades, eyes gone hard and cold, reflecting my own expression. Dragonflies buzzed around us, and the forest threw odd patches of light over his forehead, almost like war paint. “You’re wavering, Ash,” Puck said quietly, his eyes glowing like the woods around him. “I’ve seen how you look at Ariella of late. You don’t know what you want, and that indecision is going to destroy you, and the rest of us along with it.”

“I gave you the choice to leave,” I said, deliberately ignoring
the accusation. “No one is keeping you here. You could’ve gone back to Arcadia, Puck. You could have left if you wanted—”

“No.” Puck’s eyes narrowed to green slits, and he spoke through clenched teeth. “I’m not going back to explain to Meghan that I left you here alone, to tell her I don’t know what happened to you. If I go back, it will be to tell her that you’re gone for good, or I won’t go back at all.”

“I see.” I smiled without humor. “You want me to fail. If I die, then you’ll be there for Meghan. You’re hoping I never come back.”

“Ash! Puck!” Ariella’s voice broke our standoff as she rushed up, white-faced and frightened. “Stop it! What are you doing?”

“It’s fine, Ari,” Puck said, not taking his eyes from me. “Ice-boy and I are just having a conversation, isn’t that right, prince?”

I held the stance a moment longer, then stepped back, sheathing my blade. Puck grinned, but the look in his eyes told me this wasn’t over yet.

“If you two are quite finished,” the Wolf growled, circling back, his voice tight with irritation, “we’re almost there.”

T
HIS FAR INTO THE
D
EEP
W
YLD
, the River of Dreams had widened into a wide, sleepy canal of pitch-black water reflecting the darkened sky.

“I wouldn’t stand so close to the edge if I were you,” the Wolf warned Puck, who was about to skip a pebble along the glassy surface. “We’re still very close to the nightmare stretch of the river, and we wouldn’t want you pulled in by something nasty. I’d hate to go in after you again.”

Puck grinned and flung the rock over the mirrorlike surface. I counted five jumps before something huge and scaly
erupted from the water, snapping up the pebble in a fine spray before sinking into the depths once more.

We moved back from the edge.

“How far is it to the Briars?” I asked Ariella, who was sitting on a rock several feet from the bank, looking exhausted. Grimalkin sat beside her, washing a front paw. The Wolf wrinkled his muzzle at the cat but didn’t lunge at him, so hopefully they had gone back to pretending the other didn’t exist.

“I’m not sure,” she said, staring down the river as if in a daze. “A long way, I think. But at least we won’t get lost. We just have to follow the river … to the end.”

“Wish we had a boat,” Puck muttered, tossing another rock into the current. Another splash and a flash of scales erupted from the surface, making him wince. “Then again, maybe not. Our last little trip didn’t work out so well, what with the giant eels and arrows and bloodthirsty newts. Guess we’re walking to the End of the World after all, unless anyone has a better idea.”

The Wolf sat down, his dark form outlined by moonlight, and gazed out toward the water. “There is another boat,” he said in a solemn voice. “I’ve seen it sometimes. A ferry, always unmanned, always going in the same direction. It never appears to stop, and the river nightmares seem unaware of its existence.”

“Mmm, you are speaking of the ghost ferry,” Grimalkin said, pausing in his grooming to look up. “One of the more common legends, I believe. There is a similar ship that haunts the Broken Glass Sea, a pirate vessel made of the bones of men. Or something like that.” He sniffed and shook his head. “According to certain legends, the ghost ferry always appears when there is need.”

“Well, there’s need here,” Puck said, gazing up and down
the dark river. “We need it, because I don’t want to go tromping down the river for who knows how long until we reach the Briars or the End of the World or whatever.” He cupped his hands to his mouth and bellowed, “Do you hear me, ferry? Need! Here! We need you now!”

Grimalkin flattened his ears, and the Wolf’s hackles went up as he looked at me. “How did he ever survive so long without something tearing his throat out?” he growled.

“Believe me, I’ve wondered the same.”

“The ferry will come to us,” Ariella said, causing everyone to turn and stare at her. She gazed down the river, her eyes glazed, distant and a million miles away. “I’ve seen it. In my visions. It will appear, when it is time.”

“When will that be?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But it will not be here. I’ve seen the boat, and a long, long pier. That is all I know.”

“Well …” Puck sighed, grabbing another pebble. “I guess we’re looking for some kind of dock. Anyone know where we can find one?”

There was no answer to that, and he sighed again. “Guess we’re hoofing it, then.”

T
HE FOREST ON OUR SIDE
of the river soon changed, almost as abruptly as a door slamming. The lights faded, and the trees became twisted, warped versions of themselves, branches creaking and groaning though there was no wind. The stars disappeared, and the river turned even blacker, reflecting nothing but a sickly red moon, peering through the clouds like a lone bloodshot eye. I figured we were still in the nightmare stretch of the river, and hoped nothing would come lurching up from those dark waters or out of the trees, both much too close for comfort.

“Don’t stare into the forest too long, prince,” the Wolf
growled, as something rustled in the bushes to the side. “Direct eye contact will draw attention to yourself from the things that live there. And they aren’t pretty, trust me.”

“You mean they’re even scarier than you?” Puck joked, and the Wolf gave him an eerie smile that was all teeth.

“I was born from human fear and suspicion,” the Wolf growled, sounding proud of the fact. “Their stories, their legends, gave me power. But these are creatures of human nightmares, pure, mindless, screaming terror. They come crawling out of that river and escape into the forest, and the forest twists and warps into a landscape of what humans fear the most. If you want to meet some of these creatures, feel free to draw their gaze. Just try not to go insane when you finally see one.”

Puck snorted. “Please. Who do you think you’re talking to? I
caused
some of those human nightmares. I’ve seen it all, Wolfman. There’s nothing that can freak me out any—
whoa!
”

Puck leaped backward, almost tripping over himself. Grimalkin hissed and vanished, and I drew my sword. On the banks of the river, holding a fishing pole in two white, long-fingered hands, an enormous, wild-haired creature turned to stare at us.

I stared at it. It was fey, it had to be, but I’d never seen anything like it. It didn’t have a body, just a huge, bulbous head covered in shaggy white hair that hung down to its knees. No, not knees …
knee.
The giant had one thick stump of a leg ending in a massive clubbed foot, dirty yellow toenails gripping the ground like a giant claw. Two long arms sprouted where its ears should’ve been, and a pair of huge, uneven eyes gazed down at us with detached curiosity.