The Boy with the Hidden Name (10 page)

“We’re fine,” Kelsey responds, sounding a bit shaken.

Will, by way of answer, sends a light orb shooting out in

front of us, illuminating the landscape.

We’re in the middle of a cavern, stalactites dripping from

a ceiling high above our heads, through which Will’s orb is

bobbing and weaving. Directly in front of us, the ground

disappears into a yawning ravine, several hundred feet across.

There is a bridge suspended across it, floating magically, and

there, on the other side, is a squat, heavy, black castle.

“That’s the Unseelie Court,” says Will.

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“I don’t suppose we can just cross over the bridge,” I

note grimly.

“Not with a dragon underneath it,” remarks Kelsey.

On cue, the dragon, from out of sight in its pit, belches fire

that rolls over the bridge in hot billows.

“Get off,” the Erlking says to me, and I manage to clamber

off the horse. He swings off gracefully and strides purposefully over to the bridge, stopping just at its edge, looking down.

“Well?” Will asks him.

He shakes his head a bit. “You can’t even see the bottom,

it’s so deep.” He steps back, frowning at the bridge.

“Well, we have to get across somehow,” I say. This was my

only idea, the thing I said we had to do to fulfill the prophecy.

We can’t have spent all that time getting here just for it to turn out to be a waste. “Can we enchant the dragon somehow?”

“I can cast a protective spell that will block the fire from

reaching the bridge,” Will says. “The dragon isn’t really

the issue.”

The dragon roars, flames momentarily engulfing the bridge

in white heat.

“I can’t wait to hear what’s really the issue,” comments

Kelsey, staring at the embers left behind by the flames, “if it’s not that.”

“The bridge is enchanted,” explains the Erlking impa-

tiently. He is pacing up and down the cliff, looking irritated.

The Erlking, I realize, doesn’t like being
still
. When Kelsey and I just look at him, he continues, “It isn’t really
there
.”

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We look back at the bridge.

“It’s not?” I say.

“It’s there as long as the Unseelie Court wants it to be there.”

“Oh,” I realize. “So we could get halfway across and…”

“Yes,” he concludes grimly. He turns decisively from the

bridge and looks at me. “We have to go to the Unseelie

Court, you claim. We have to find Benedict’s mother to

find the other fays to keep the prophecy on track and defeat

the Seelies.”

“Yes,” I respond.

“This isn’t because you hope Benedict is there and you’ve

gotten yourself all starry- eyed over the best enchanter in

the Otherworld, is it? Because I’m not doing all of this just

because you’re under some sort of spell.”

I draw myself up, offended. “He left me,” I say. “It was his

choice. I wouldn’t be here if I was just
chasing
him. The precious book of power said that his mother hid the other fays,

and we need the other fays for the prophecy, and you said

this is where his mother is.”

“We also need Benedict for the prophecy,” Will says. “I

think. If I’m reading it right.”

“But that’s
secondary
,” I insist.

The Erlking continues to look at me for a long moment.

Then he nods. “Then I’ll go first,” he says and turns to face

the bridge.

“Wait,” Will protests. “What?”

“I am the least valuable,” the Erlking proclaims steadily,

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regarding the bridge. “The most expendable. There is no

prophecy about me the way there is about the rest of you.

And I am the most likely to be trapped by the bridge, since

I’m the one who upset a member of the Unseelie Court. The

rest of you are innocent. Well, as innocent as you can be in

the Otherworld. Which in your case, frankly, isn’t very. But

anyway. I’ll go first. Alone.”

There is a long moment of silence. I feel like one of us

should protest— he’s only involved in this because we asked

him to be— but I’m worried that instead he’d suggest sending

across Kelsey or Safford, who are also more expendable than

me, and I don’t want that to happen.

I look at Will, who sighs and rubs at his temples.

The Erlking turns away from the bridge and walks over to

Will. “You can cast the enchantment to block the dragon,

right? I don’t need to be worrying about that too.” He is

unstrapping the sword from around his waist.

“Yes,” Will tells him. “Of course. What is that?”

Because the Erlking is now holding the sword, sheathed

in its scabbard, out to Will. “Here’s something nobody else

knows, Will. This sword is the Seelie talisman. I can’t have it

vanish with me, if I do vanish. Take it, and keep it safe, and

bring it back to Goblinopolis for me. Do you promise?”

Will nods and accepts the sword. “My word of honor,” he

promises, and he tries to say it very brusquely but I can tell

he is touched by the trust in the gesture.

“Excellent.” The Erlking turns back to the bridge and walks

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confidently over to it, standing on the very edge. “Ready?” he

asks Will.

“The spell is already cast,” Will answers him.

The Erlking steps onto the bridge without a moment of

hesitation. I think we are all holding our breath there on the

edge of the cliff— I know I am— but the Erlking strides con-

fidently along the bridge. His cloak drifts in his wake, and

the dim light from Will’s orb picks up the blue sheen to his

dark hair. The dragon breathes fire but it passes up and over

the bridge in a fiery arc that would be beautiful if it wasn’t so obviously very deadly. The Erlking’s rhythm does not hitch.

He gleams and billows his way across the bridge and then

steps onto solid land on the other side, where he turns and

executes a bow in our direction, gathering his cloak dramati-

cally around him.

“Is it safe then?” I ask, even though I know the answer.

“Safe enough for him,” Will responds.

“Should we all go over at once?”

“No,” says Will. “If it disappears and kills all of us at once,

then that is far worse than it disappearing and killing just one of us, at which point the rest of us can try to come up with

an alternate plan.”

“Then who should go next?” I ask. And suddenly I hear

myself saying, all in a rush, to Will, “I think you should

go last.”

Will regards me with surprise. “Really? Why?”

“Because you can get everyone back to Boston easily. And

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you’ll know what to do to protect my aunts and father, as

much as you can. If you go, I’ll have no idea what to do to

save them.”

Will looks at me for a moment. “But you’re the fay— ”

“What will it matter, if I’m left all alone? I won’t know what

to
do
.”

“Selkie,” Will says gently. “You’ll be
you
. You’ve gotten us to this point, haven’t you?”

“And I left my entire family back there and who knows

what’s happening to them. Please don’t fight me on this. You

can save them. I can’t. I’m going next.”

And then, before there can be any more discussion about it,

I run over and onto the bridge.

“Selkie!” Will and Kelsey shout from behind me, but I am

already on the bridge and there’s nothing they can do now.

I keep running, focused on the Erlking on the other side

of it, watching me expressionlessly. The bridge feels very

solid under my feet; I find it difficult to believe it’s not real, except for the fact that I can’t see how it’s moored to land in

any way.

Then, just like that, it’s not real. The bridge disappears

underneath my feet, and I am falling through space. I can’t

even scream; I can’t gather breath to do it. I tumble, head

over feet, surrounded by blackness. I can’t even see the dim

light of Will’s orb, and panic rises up and overtakes me just as someone’s arms fold around me, catching me solidly against

him. I am still falling but I am no longer alone.

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I twist my hands into his shirt, and I know who it is before

he even speaks.

“Close your eyes,” Ben’s voice says to me.

I don’t have time to react before we land with a thump on

solid ground, and it is bright all around us. We are clearly no

longer in the dragon’s cavern. We don’t seem to be anywhere

near there. We’re in a green, grassy meadow, and the sun is

bright in the sky above us. Ben is there, dressed in only one

layer, a long- sleeved, bright blue T- shirt that makes his eyes seem like they could almost be blue. Except for how they are

also green. And gray.

“Are you okay?” he asks me urgently.

“Ben,” I pant, because the panic hasn’t quite subsided and

I can’t quite catch my breath and where did he
come
from?

“Are you okay?” he snaps at me, his hands roaming over me

not at all the way I would have fantasized about back when I

was still in love with him (which I obviously no longer am),

but as if he is making sure I have not broken any bones.

I realize that I am sprawled on the grass with the sky directly

over my head.

“Are you okay?” he demands again, and his face swims

back into my vision, his unclassifiable eyes and that beautiful

mouth he has and all that artfully tousled hair.

I am
furious
with him. I lift my hand and give the side of his head a solid whack.

“
Selkie
,” he exclaims, as if he is
surprised
that this is my reaction to him.
Surprised!

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I sit up as he rubs at the side of his head and looks hurt.

“You look
fine
,” I complain to him, because he ran off and left me and he looks as if he went on
vacation
.

“What?” He looks bewildered.

“You’re
fine
. You idiotic…” I struggle for a word to call him. “You idiotic
faerie
.”

“You’re angry with me for being
fine
? I just saved your life.”

“My life was only in danger because
you
left
me
,” I retort.

And that’s not quite true, but whatever. Logic isn’t the most

important part of an argument, right?

Ben looks amazed. “Were you were coming to
rescue
me?”

“No.” I fold my arms, belligerent. “I’m coming to find your

mother, because it turns out we didn’t have any choice. We

had no other ideas how to find the other fays.”

“You need to find my mother?” Ben echoes.

“How did you know where I was?” I ask him, because it’s

suspicious to me that he turned up at the perfect moment.

He looks at me for a moment. Then he smiles at me, the

kind of smile that would have made me giddy in earlier times,

before he abandoned me in the middle of Boston Common.

“Selkie Stewart,” he says, and he says it nicely, and it
feels
nice, and that’s not fair. “I missed you.”

I
hate
him
, I think. “Funny that
you
missed
me
, since you’re also the one who
left
,” I point out scathingly. “
Benedict
Le
Fay
.”

He winces, his smile faltering. “Are you really still angry

about that?”

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I blink at him, astonished. “Did you really think there

would be any chance at all that I wouldn’t be?”

He looks uncomfortable. “It was…a while ago. Wasn’t it?

I’m unclear on the time being kept, so I— ”

“It wasn’t a while ago, Ben,” I snap at him, “and it wouldn’t

matter if it was. It wouldn’t matter if it was
whole
entire
lifetimes
ago
. I would still be angry with you for
leaving
me
when I
asked
you
to
stay
.”

Ben looks uncertain. “Selkie— ” he begins.

I cut him off, because I don’t want to hear it. “Where are

we?” I ask instead. “Where have you taken me? Where is

everyone else?”

“Everyone else?” he echoes. “Like who?”

“Will and Kelsey and Safford. Did you think I came

here alone?”

“You were alone last time you came to rescue me,”

he reasons.

“I’m not
rescuing
you,” I remind him. “And I’m not alone.

I have friends now. Friends who stick with me and help me.

We need to go back and get them. They’ll be worried, because

it isn’t like me to go away and
abandon
them.”

Ben is silent for a moment, and when he speaks, it is brusque,

not light and comfortable the way it had been before, almost