The Lost Prince (23 page)

“This way,” I heard him call, and he dropped from sight, vanishing into the leaves. Hoping Kenzie and I wouldn’t fly headfirst into the branches, I followed, passing through the canopy into an open clearing. Darkness closed on us instantly as the light of the moon and stars disappeared and the gloom of the wyldwood rose up to replace it.

I could just make out the bright gleam of Keirran’s hair through the shadows, and spiraled down, dodging branches, until my feet lightly touched the forest floor. As soon as I landed, the glider uncurled its legs and pulled itself up to an overhanging limb, clinging there like a huge dragonfly.

“Well,” Keirran said, as Kenzie landed and her glider did the same, hanging next to mine. “Here we are.”

An ancient ruin rose up before us, so covered in vines, moss and fungi it was nearly impossible to see the stones beneath. Huge gnarled trees grew from the walls and collapsed ceiling, thick roots snaking around the stones.

“The trod to the mortal realm is inside,” Keirran explained, as Kenzie pressed close to me, staring at the ruins in amazement. I was tempted to reach down and take her hand, but I was glad I hadn’t when Keirran abruptly drew his sword with a soft rasping sound. I glared at him and drew my weapons as well, putting myself between her and the faery. He glanced over his shoulder with a faintly apologetic look.

“Forgot to tell you,” he said, gesturing to the ruin, “this place is normally unoccupied, but it is right in the middle of goblin territory. So, we might run into a few locals who won’t be happy to see us. Nothing you can’t handle, right?”

“You couldn’t have told us earlier?” I growled as we started toward the ruins. Keirran shrugged, his curved steel blade cutting a bright path through the darkness. Razor chattered on his shoulder, only his eyes and neon grin visible in the gloom.

“It’s just a few goblins. Nothing to—whoops.”

He ducked, and a spear flew overhead, striking a nearby tree. Kenzie yelped, and Razor blipped out of sight like an image on a television screen as a chorus of raucous voices erupted from the ruins ahead. Glowing eyes appeared in the stones and among the roots. Pointed teeth, claws and spear tips flashed in the shadows, as about a dozen short, evil fey poured from the ruins and shook their weapons at us.

“A
few
goblins, huh?” I glared at Keirran and backed away. He grinned weakly and shrugged.

The goblins started forward, cackling and jabbing the air with their spears. I quickly turned to Kenzie and pressed one of my sticks into her hands.

“Take this,” I told her. “I’ll try to keep them off us, but if any gets too close, smack it as hard as you can. Aim for the eyes, the nose, whatever you can reach. Just don’t let them hurt you, okay?”

She nodded, her face pale but determined. “Tennis lessons, don’t fail me now.” I started to turn, but she caught my wrist, holding it tightly as she gazed up at me. “You be careful, too, Ethan. We’re going home together, okay? Just remember that.”

I squeezed her hand and turned back to the approaching horde. Keirran was waiting for them calmly, sword in hand.

I joined him, and he gave me a curious look from the corner of his eye. “Interesting,” he mused, smiling even as the horde prepared to attack. “I’ve never seen anyone fight goblins with half a broom handle.”

I resisted the impulse to crack him in the head. “Just worry about yourself,” I told him, twirling my weapon in a slow arc. “And I’ll do the same.”

A bigger, uglier goblin suddenly leaped onto a rock and leered at us. “Humans,” he rasped with a flash of yellow teeth. “I thought I smelled something strange. You sure picked the wrong spot to stumble into. Trying to get home, are we?” He snickered, running a tongue along his jagged fangs. “We’ll save you the trouble.”

“We don’t have to do this,” Keirran said mildly, seemingly unconcerned about the approaching horde. “Surely there are other travelers you can accost.”

The goblins edged closer, and I eased into a ready stance, feeling an almost savage glee as they surrounded us. No rules now; no teachers, principals or instructors to stop me. I felt the old anger rise up, the hatred for all of Faery bubbling to the surface, and grinned viciously. There was nothing to hold me back now; I didn’t have to worry about hurting anyone. I could take my anger out on the goblins’ ugly, warty skulls, and there would be no consequences.

“And miss out on three tasty humans, wandering through my territory?” The goblin chief snorted, shaking his head. “I don’t think so. We eat well tonight, boys! Dibs on the liver!”

Cheering, the goblins surged forward.

One charged me with its spear raised, and I swung my rattan
,
felt my weapon connect beneath the goblin’s jaw. It flew back with a shriek, and I instantly slashed down again, cracking another’s lumpy green skull. A third goblin scuttled in from the other side, stabbing its spear up toward my face. I dodged, snaked my free arm around the spear, and yanked it out of the faery’s grasp. It had a split second to gape in surprise before I bashed the side of its head with its own weapon and hurled it away.

Beside me, Keirran was moving, too, spinning and twirling like a dancer, his sword flashing in deadly circles. Though I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing, he was inhumanly fast. Goblin body parts flew through the air, horrific and disgusting, before turning into mud, snails or other unpleasant things.

Three more goblins came at me, one of them the big goblin who’d spoken before, the chief. I shuffled away, blocking their attacks, whipping my rattan from one spear to the next. The frantic clacking of wood echoed in my ears as I waited for an opening, a chance to strike. The goblin’s size was actually a handicap for me; they were so short, it was hard to hit them. A spear tip got through my defenses and tore through my sleeve, making me grit my teeth as I twisted away. Too close.

Suddenly, Kenzie was behind them, bringing her stick smashing down on a goblin’s head. It met with a satisfying crack, and the goblin dropped like a stone. Kenzie gave a triumphant yell, but then the chief whirled with a snarl of rage, swinging his spear at her legs. It struck her knee, and she crumpled to the dirt with a gasp.

The chief lunged forward, raising his spear, but before either of us could do anything, a tiny black form landed on his head from nowhere. Razor buzzed like a furious wasp, hissing and snarling as the goblin flailed.

“Bad goblin!” the gremlin howled, clinging like a leech. “Not hurt pretty girl! Bad!” He sank his teeth into the goblin’s ear, and the chief roared. Reaching up, the goblin managed to grab the tiny Iron fey, tear him off, and hurl him into the brush.

With a snarl, I kicked a goblin into a stone wall, snatched Kenzie’s rattan from the ground, and attacked the chief. I didn’t see the other fey. I didn’t see Keirran. I forgot everything Guro taught me about fighting multiple opponents. All I knew was that this thing had hurt Kenzie, had tried to kill her, and it was going to pay.

The goblin scuttled backward under my assault, frantically waving his spear, but I knocked it from his claws and landed a solid blow between his ears. As he staggered back, dazed, I pressed my advantage, feeling the crack of flesh and bone under my sticks. My rattan hissed through the air, striking arms, teeth, face, neck. The goblin fell, cringing, in the dirt, and I raised my weapons to finish it off.

“Ethan!”

Keirran’s voice brought me up short. Panting, I stopped beating on the goblin and looked up to see that the rest of the tribe had run off with the fall of their chief. Keirran had already sheathed his weapon and was watching me with a half amused, half concerned expression. Kenzie still sat where she had fallen, clutching her leg.

“It’s over,” Keirran said, nodding to the empty forest around us. “They’re gone.”

I glanced at my sticks, and saw that my weapons, as well as my hands, were spattered with black goblin blood. With a shiver, I looked back at the chief, saw him curled around himself in the dirt, moaning through bloody lips, his teeth shattered and broken. My gut heaved, and I staggered away.

What am I doing?

The chief groaned and crawled away, and I let him go, watching the faery haul itself into the bushes. Through the horror and disgust of what I’d just done, I still felt a nasty glow of vindication. Maybe next time, they would think twice about assaulting three “tasty” humans.

Keirran watched it go as well, then walked over to Kenzie, holding out a hand. “Are you all right?” he asked, drawing her to her feet, holding her steady. I clenched my fists, wanting to stalk over there and shove him away from her. Kenzie grimaced, her face tightening with pain, but she nodded.

“Yeah.” Her cheeks were pale as she gingerly put weight on her injured leg, wincing. “I don’t think anything’s broken. Though my knee might swell up like a watermelon.”

“You’re very lucky,” Keirran went on, and all traces of amusement had fled his voice. “Goblins poison the tips of their weapons. If you’d gotten cut at all…well, let’s just say a watermelon knee is better than the alternative.”

Anger and fear still buzzed through me, making me stupid, wanting to hit something, though there was nothing left to fight. I turned my rage on Keirran, instead.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I snarled, stalking forward, wanting him farther away from Kenzie. He flinched, and I swung my rattan around the clearing, at the disintegrating piles of goblin. “You knew there were goblins here, you knew we would have to fight our way out, and you still brought us this way. You could’ve gotten us killed! You could’ve gotten
Kenzie
killed! Or was that your plan all along? Bring the stupid humans along as bait, so the goblins will be distracted? I should’ve known never to trust a faery.”

“Ethan!” Kenzie scowled at me, but Keirran held up a hand.

“No, he’s right,” he murmured, and a flicker of surprise filtered through my anger. “I shouldn’t have brought you this way. I thought I could deal with the goblins. If you had been seriously hurt, it would’ve been on my head. You have every reason to be angry.” Turning to Kenzie, he bowed deeply, his gaze on the ground between them. “Forgive me, Mackenzie,” he said in that clear, quiet voice. “I allowed pride to cloud my judgment, and you were injured because of it. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

He sounded sincere, and I frowned as Kenzie quickly assured him it was all right. What kind of faery was he, anyway? The fey had no conscience, no real feelings of regret, no morals to get in the way of their decisions. Either Keirran was an exception or a very good actor.

Which reminded me…

“The chief said he smelled
three
humans,” I told Keirran, who gave me a resigned look. “He didn’t think you were fey. He thought you were human, too.”

“Yeah.” Keirran shrugged, offering a small grin. “I get that a lot.”

Razor appeared on his shoulder with a buzzing laugh. “Stupid goblins,” he crowed, bouncing up and down, making Keirran sigh. “Funny, stupid goblins think master is funny elf. Ha!” He buzzed once more and sat down, grinning like a psychotic piranha.

“You’re a half-breed,” I guessed, wondering how I hadn’t seen it earlier. He didn’t look like any of the other Iron fey, but he couldn’t be part of the Summer or Winter courts, either; normal fey couldn’t enter the Iron Realm without harming themselves. (I was still trying to figure out how
Grimalkin
did it, but everything about that cat was a mystery.) But if Keirran was a half-breed, he didn’t have the fey’s deathly allergy to iron; his human blood would protect him from the ill effects of Meghan’s court.

“I guess you could say that.” Keirran sighed again and looked toward the trees, where most of the goblins had scattered. “More like three-quarters human, really. Can’t blame them for thinking I was the real thing.”

I stared at him. “Who are you?” I asked, but then the bushes snapped, and Keirran winced.

“I’ll tell you later. Come on, let’s get out of here. The goblins are coming back, probably with reinforcements.”

I started to reach for Kenzie, but then I saw my hands, streaked with blood past my wrists, and let them drop. Keirran took her arm instead, helping her along, and she gave me an unreadable look as she limped past. I followed them up the stairs and ducked through the crumbling archway as furious cries echoed from the trees around us. The angry sounds faded as soon as I crossed the threshold, and everything went black.

Chapter Fifteen

Ghosts of the Fairground

I emerged, squinting in the darkness, trying to see where I was. For a second, it didn’t seem as if we’d left the Nevernever at all. Trees surrounded us, hissing in the wind, but I looked closer and saw they were regular, normal trees. A few yards away, three strands of barbed wire glinted in the moonlight, and beyond the wires, a scattering of fluffy white creatures peered at us curiously.

“Are those sheep?” Kenzie asked, sounding weary but delighted. Razor gave an excited buzz from Keirran’s shoulder, leaped to the top of the first wire, and darted into the pasture. Sheep baaed in terror and fled, looking like clouds blowing across the field, and Keirran sighed.

“I keep telling him not to do that. They lose enough to the goblins as is.”

“Where are we?” I asked, relieved to be back in the real world again, but not liking that I didn’t know where we were. The wind here was cool, and the wooded hills beyond the pasture seemed to go on forever. Keirran watched Razor, buzzing happily from the back of a terrified sheep, and shook his head.

“Somewhere in rural Maryland.”

“Maryland,” I echoed in disbelief.

He grinned. “What, you think all trods lead to Louisiana?”

I took a breath to answer, but paused.
Wait. How does he know where I live?

“Where to now?” Kenzie asked, grimacing as she leaned against a fencepost. “I don’t think I’ll be able to walk very fast with this knee. Someone might need to give me a piggyback ride later on.”

“Don’t worry.” Keirran gestured over the rolling hills. “There’s an abandoned fairground a couple miles from here. It’s a hangout for the local fey, most of them exiled. The trod there will take us to where we need to go.”