Black City
Page 41“Later,” I promised. “Take us to J.B.”
“I cannot do that,” Puck said.
“Why not?” I said. “What are we here for, then?”
“If you want him, you must find him,” Puck said.
He was the mercurial Puck again, the court jester. I felt unsure of my ground with this Puck. His changeability made me feel that his loyalty was for sale. Perhaps it was, when he was here.
“I’m not here to play games,” I said.
“Faeries love games,” Puck said. “And so, a quest.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What kind of quest?”
“Your prince is somewhere in the kingdom. To gain treasure, you must have the courage to seek it,” Puck said.
“Is he in the castle?” Beezle asked. “Because I am going to be pissed if we go running all over the place and he was inside the whole time.”
“He is not in the castle, although you are wise to ask,” Puck said. “It is the sort of thing a faerie might do. No, he is outdoors. If you can overcome the obstacles in your path, you may return home with him.”
“Is he alive?” I asked. If Titania had killed him, I would take down this castle brick by brick and destroy everyone in it.
I didn’t want to consider what kind of condition J.B. might be in. I didn’t want to think about how badly Titania might have hurt him in order to hurt me.
“What did you do—beat him up and then throw him out there somewhere, broken?” I said angrily.
“I did not do anything,” Puck said with a wounded air.
“You’re no angel, either,” I said.
As far as I was concerned the courts were just as complicit as their leaders. The courtiers who did nothing were more interested in keeping their own butts protected than in justice, even if some of them did object to Titania’s choices. I’m sure Nathaniel—and even Jude—would have said I was naïve to expect otherwise. But I had been a part of Azazel’s court, however briefly, and much to Azazel’s consternation I had never bent to anyone’s will except my own.
“No, I am certainly not an angel,” Puck said, and he disappeared.
“Well, this is a fine thing,” Chloe said. “He drops us here, tells us we have to find J.B. and gives us nothing to go on.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And Titania is probably watching us in her crystal ball, laughing her ass off.”
“So what do we do?” Chloe asked.
“First, we find a way out of this garden,” I said.
There was nothing to see except the high stone walls that surrounded the greenery, no hint of what might lay beyond.
“And then?” Beezle asked.
“Start looking for J.B.,” I said. I looked at my palm, which still tingled from the magic Puck had given me. Would this “boost” make it easier for me to find J.B., or would it make it easier for Puck to track me, or use me, or otherwise do something I did not want? It had happened so quickly I didn’t have a chance to object.
“That’s your plan?” Beezle asked.
“Pretty much,” I said. “I’m not sure what else to do right now.”
“All I know is that you’ve been extremely lucky to have survived this long,” Beezle said. “How long do you think your luck will last?”
“It better last long enough to get us home in one piece,” I said, running my hand along the stone wall behind the foliage to check for an exit.
“Here,” Jude called. He was in the far right corner of the garden, beckoning.
I trotted toward him as the others converged on his position. Jude silently lifted some protruding tree branches out of the way to reveal an arch cut in the stone, and a forest beyond.
“There are probably trolls in that forest,” Beezle said as we hurried out of the shadow of the castle and toward the shelter of the trees.
“Yup,” I replied.
“Giant spiders, witches, other things we’d rather not encounter,” Beezle said.
Jude nodded and took the lead. We all kept tight in line as the forest closed in around us.
“We’re probably going to be running for hours in fear for our lives,” Beezle said.
“No, I’ll be running. You’ll be carried. Is there a point to all of this?” I asked.
“No, I’m just looking for something to complain about because I’m hungry,” Beezle said.
“Well, knock it off,” I whispered, because these woods seemed like a place where you talked quietly. There was menace in the air, a feeling of unfriendliness.
“I’m going to change,” Jude said.
A moment later, his clothing fell to the ground and a wolf stood in his place. He trotted ahead of us, his nose pressed in the dirt.
We followed a rough trail through the trees. All around us was lush green foliage and moss. It looked a lot like the woods in every episode of The X-Files, that Pacific-Northwest-rains-all-the-time kind of woods.
It was very humid. The heavy moisture filled the air with the scents of bark and loam and green growing things. I could tell Jude was having a hard time getting a fix on any one scent because he was running all over the path.