The Lost Prince (41 page)

“No,” she whispered. “Just me.” She turned and nodded to the empty cages, swinging from their chains. “When I was first brought here, there were a few other captives. Exiled fey like me. A satyr and a couple wood nymphs. One goblin. But…but then they were taken away by the guards. And they never came back. I was sure it was just a matter of time…before I was brought to her, as well.”

“The lady,” I muttered darkly. Annwyl shivered again.

“She…she
eats
them,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “She drains their glamour, sucks it into herself, just like her followers, until there’s nothing left. That’s why so many exiles are gone. She needs a constant supply of magic to get strong again, at least that’s what her followers told me. So they go out every night, capture exiles and half-breeds, and drag them back here for her.”

“Where’s Keirran?” I asked, holding her at arm’s length. “Have you seen him?”

She shook her head frantically. “He’s…with
her,
” she said, on the verge of tears. “I’m so worried…what if she’s done something to him?” She covered her face with one hand. “What will I do if he’s gone?”

“Master!” Perched on Kenzie’s shoulder again, Razor echoed her misery, pulling on his ears. “Master gone!”

I sighed, trying to think over the gremlin’s wailing. “All right,” I muttered, and turned to Kenzie. “We have to get Todd and the others out of here. Do you remember the way they brought us in?”

She winced, trying to shush the tiny Iron fey. “Barely. But the cave is crawling with Forgotten. We’d have to fight our way out.”

Annwyl straightened then, taking a deep breath. “Wait,” she said, seeming to compose herself, her voice growing stronger. “There is another way. I can sense where the trods are in this place, and one empties under a bridge in the mortal world. It isn’t far from here.”

“Can you lead everyone there? Open it?”

“Yes.” Annwyl nodded, and her eyes glittered. “But I’m not leaving without Keirran.”

“I know. Come on.” I led her out of the room, back to the chamber that held the giant pit. Dragging the ladder from the wall, I dropped it down into the hole.

“All right,” I mumbled, peering into the darkness. Mutters and shuffling footsteps drifted out of the pit, and I winced. “Wait here,” I told Kenzie and Annwyl. “I’ll be right back, hopefully with a bunch of crazy people.”

“Wait,” Kenzie said, stopping me. “I should go,” she said, and held up a hand as I protested. “Ethan, if something comes into this room, I won’t be able to stop it. You’re the one with the mad sword skills. Besides, you’re not the most comforting presence to lead a bunch of scared, crazy people to safety. If they start crying, you can’t just crack your knuckles and threaten them to get them to move.”

I frowned. “I wouldn’t use my fists. A sword is much more threatening.”

She rolled her eyes and handed me the gremlin, who scurried to my shoulder. “Just stand guard. I’ll start sending them up.”

A few minutes later, a crowd of ragged, dazed-looking humans clustered together in the tunnel, muttering and whispering to themselves. Todd was among them. He gazed around the cavern with a blank expression that made my skin crawl. I hoped that when we got him out of here he would go back to normal. No one looked at Annwyl or Razor, or seemed to notice them. They stood like sheep, passive and dull-witted, waiting for something to happen. Annwyl gazed at them all and shivered.

“How awful,” she whispered, rubbing her arms. “They feel so…empty.”

“Empty,” Razor buzzed. “Empty, empty, empty.”

“Is this everyone?” I asked Kenzie as she crawled back up the ladder. She nodded as Razor bounced back to her. “All right, everyone stay together. This is going to be interesting.”

Drawing my weapons, I walked to the edge of the tunnel, where it split in two directions, and peered out. No Forgotten, not yet.

“Ethan.” Kenzie and Annwyl joined me at the edge, the group following silently. Annwyl gripped my arm. “I’m not leaving. Not without him.”

“I know. Don’t worry.” I shook off her fingers, then turned and handed a sword to Kenzie. “Get them out of here,” I told her. “Take Annwyl, get to the exit, and don’t look back. If anything tries to stop you, do whatever you can not to get caught again.”

“What about you?”

I sighed, glancing down the tunnel. “I’m going back for Keirran.”

She blinked. “Alone? You don’t even know where he is.”

“Yes, I do.” Raking a hand through my hair, I faced the darkness, determined not to be afraid. “He’ll be with the lady. Wherever
she
is, I’ll find him, too.”

“Master?” Razor perked up, eyes flaring with hope. “Razor come? Find Master?”

“No, you stay, Razor. Protect Kenzie.”

The gremlin buzzed sadly but nodded.

Dark murmurs echoed behind us. The group of former half-breeds were shifting fretfully, muttering “the lady,” over and over again, like a chant. It made my stomach turn with nerves.

“Here, then.” Kenzie handed back the sword. “Take it. I won’t need it this time.”

“But—”

“Ethan, trust me, if something finds us, we won’t be fighting—we’ll be running. If you’re going back, you’re going to need it more than me.”

“I’ll come with you,” Annwyl said.

“No.” My voice came out sharp. “Kenzie needs you to open the trod when you get there. It won’t work for humans. Besides, if something happens to you, if you get caught or threatened in any way, Keirran won’t try to escape. He’ll only come with me if he knows you’re safe.”

“I want to help. I won’t abandon him—”

“Dammit, if you love him, the best thing you can do is leave!” I snapped, whirling on her. She blinked and drew back. “Keirran is here because of you! That’s what got us into this mess in the first place.” I glared at her, and the faery dropped her gaze. Sighing, I lowered my voice. “Annwyl, you have to trust me. I won’t come back without him, I promise.”

She struggled a moment longer, then nodded. “I’ll hold you to that promise, human,” she murmured at last.

Kenzie suddenly took my arm. “I will, too,” she whispered as I looked into her eyes. She smiled faintly, trying to hide her fear, and squeezed my hand. “So you’d better come back, tough guy. You have a promise to keep, remember?”

The urge to kiss her then was almost overpowering. Gently, I cupped her cheek, trying to convey my promise, what I felt, without words. Kenzie put her hand over mine and closed her eyes. “Be careful,” she whispered. I nodded.

“You, too.”

Opening her eyes, she released me and stepped back. “We’ll be at Belvedere Castle,” she stated, her eyes suspiciously bright. “So meet us there when you find Keirran. We’ll be waiting for you both.”

Todd spoke up then, his voice echoing flatly over the rest. “If you’re looking for the lady, she’ll be on the very last floor,” he stated. “That’s where the screams used to come from.”

A chill went through me. Giving Kenzie and the others one last look, I turned, gripping my weapons and disappeared into the tunnel.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The Lady

I made my way through the darkness of the Forgotten hive, keeping to the shadows, pressed flat against rocks or behind boulders. In a real cave, with no artificial light, it would be impossible to see your hand in front of your face. Here, in the Between, the cave glowed with luminescent crystals and mushrooms, scattered on the walls and along the ceiling. Colorful moss and ferns grew around a clear green pool in the center of the main cavern, where a small waterfall trickled in from the darkness above.

Forgotten drifted through the tunnels, pale and shimmery against the gloom, though there weren’t as many as I’d first feared. Maybe most of them were out hunting exiles, since they had to feed on the glamour of the regular fey to live. Some were just transparent shadows, while others seemed much more solid, even gaining some color back. I noticed the less “real” the faery was, the more it tended to wander around in a daze, as if it couldn’t remember what it was doing. I nearly ran right into a snakelike creature with multiple arms coming out of a tunnel, and dove behind a stalactite to avoid it, making a lot of noise as I did. The faery stared at my hiding spot for a few seconds, blinking, then appeared to lose interest and slithered off down another corridor. Breathing a sigh of relief, I continued.

Hugging the walls, I slowly made my way through the caverns and tunnels, searching for Keirran and the lady. I hoped Kenzie and Annwyl had gotten the others out, and I hoped they were safe. I couldn’t worry about them now. If this lady was as powerful as I feared—the queen of the Forgotten, I suspected—then I had more than enough to worry about for myself.

Past another glittering pool, a stone archway rose out of the wall and floor, blue torches burning on either side. It looked pretty official, like the entrance to a queen’s chamber, perhaps.

Gripping my weapons, I took a deep breath and walked beneath the arch.

The tunnel past the doorway was winding but short, and soon a faint glow hovered at the end. I crept forward, staying to the shadows, and peeked into the throne room of the Lady.

The cavern through the arch wasn’t huge, though it glittered with thousands of blue, green and yellow crystals, some tiny, some as big as me, jutting out of the walls and floor. Several massive stone columns, twined with the skeletons of dragons and other monsters, lined the way to a crystal throne near the back of the room.

Sitting on that throne, flanked by motionless knights in bone armor, was a woman.

My breath caught. The Lady of the Forgotten wasn’t monstrous, or cruel-looking or some terrible, crazy queen wailing insanities.

She was beautiful.

For a few seconds, I couldn’t stop staring, couldn’t even tear my eyes away. Like the rest of the Forgotten, the Lady was pale, but a bit of color tinged her cheeks and full lips, and her eyes were a striking crystal blue, though they shifted colors in the dim light—from blue to green to amber and back again. Her long hair was colorless, writhing away to mist at the ends, as if she still wasn’t quite solid. She wore billowing robes with a high collar, and the face within was young, perfect and achingly sad.

For one crazy moment, my brain shut off, and I wondered if we had this all wrong. Maybe the Lady was a prisoner of the Forgotten, as well, maybe she had nothing to do with the disappearances and killings and horrible fate of the half-breeds.

But then I saw the wings, or rather, the shattered bones of what had been wings, rising from her shoulders to frame the chair. Like the other Forgotten. Her eyes shifted from green to pure black, and I saw her reach a slender white hand out to a figure standing at the foot of the throne.

“Keirran,” I whispered. The Iron prince looked none the worse for wear, unbound and free, as he took the offered hand and stepped closer to the Lady. She ran long fingers through his silver hair, and he didn’t move, standing there with his head bowed. I saw her lips move, and he might’ve said something back, but their voices were too soft to hear.

Anger flared, and I clenched my fists around my swords. Keirran was still armed; I could see the sword across his back, but he wouldn’t do anything that would endanger Annwyl. How strong was the Lady? If I burst in now, could we fight our way out? I counted four guards surrounding the throne, eyes glowing green beneath their bony helmets. They looked pretty tough, but we might be able to take them down together. If I could only get his attention…

A second later, however, it didn’t matter.

The Lady suddenly stopped talking to Keirran. Raising her head, she looked right at me, still hidden in the shadows. I saw her eyebrows lift in surprise, and then she smiled.

“Hello, Ethan Chase.” Her voice was clear and soft, and her smile was heartbreaking. “Welcome to my kingdom.”

Dammit. I burst from my hiding spot, as Keirran whirled around, eyes widening in shock. “Ethan,” he exclaimed as I walked forward, my blades held at my side. The guards started forward, but the Lady raised a hand, and they stopped. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think I’m doing here?” I snapped. “I’m here to get you out. You can relax—Annwyl is safe.” I met the Lady’s gaze. “So are Todd and all the other half-breeds you kidnapped. And you won’t hurt anyone else, I swear.”

I wasn’t expecting an answer. I expected Keirran to spin around, draw his sword, and all hell to break loose as we beat a hasty retreat for the exit. But Keirran didn’t move, and the next words spoken weren’t his. “What do you mean, Ethan Chase?” The Lady’s voice surprised me, genuinely confused and shocked, trying to understand. “Tell me, how have I hurt your friends?”

“You’re kidding, right?” I halted a few yards from the foot of the throne, glaring up at her. Keirran, rigid beside her, looked on warily. I wondered when he was going to step down, in case we had to fight our way out. Those bony knights at each corner of the throne looked pretty tough.

“Let me give you a rundown, then,” I told the Forgotten queen, who cocked her head at me. “You kidnapped my friend Todd from his home and dragged him here. You kidnapped Annwyl to force Keirran to come to you. You’ve killed who knows how many exiles, and, oh, yeah…you turned all those half-breeds mortal by sucking out their glamour. How’s that for harm, then?”

“The half-breeds were not to be harmed,” the Lady said in a calm, reasonable voice. “We do not kill if there is no need. Eventually, they would have been returned to their homes. As for losing their ‘fey-ness,’ now that they are mortal, the Hidden World will never bother them again. They can live happier, safer lives now that they are normal. Wouldn’t you agree that is the better option, Ethan Chase? You, who have been tormented by the fey all your life? Surely you understand.”

“I… That’s…that’s not an excuse.”

“Isn’t it?” The Lady gave me a gentle smile. “They are happier now, or they will be, once they go home. No more nightmares about the fey. No more fear of what the ‘pure-bloods’ might do to them.” She tilted her head again, sympathetic. “Don’t
you
wish you could be normal?”

“What about the exiles?” I shot back, determined not to give her the upper hand in this bizarre debate.
Dammit, I shouldn’t even have to argue about this. Keirran, what the hell are you doing
? “There’s no question of what you did to them,” I continued. “You can’t tell me that they’re happier being dead.”