Grave Dance

“There is no king of the nightmare realm,” both Falin and Desmond said, nearly simultaneously.

The new fae’s smile widened. “Ah, but if there were one, I would be he. Kyran, at your service.” He didn’t rise but from his reclined position made small loops with his wrist like someone putting on airs while bowing.

“He’s an outcast,” Desmond said, his voice all but a growl. “A scavenger scraping up the refuse the courts have discarded.”

“I like to think of myself as an opportunist,” the selfproclaimed king said, swinging his feet off the arm of the chair so he could stand. “Why should this magnificent place go to waste simply because the high king fears mortals?”

“What’s going on? What are they talking about?” I whispered to Falin. He’d armed himself again, but for now he only watched the other two fae.

Falin glanced at me, and for a moment I thought he wouldn’t answer. Then he said, “From what I’ve heard, when the high king and the court royalty decided the fae would announce their existence to mortals, it was also decreed that courts would no longer be allowed to build power using mortal fear. It was determined that if mortals knew fear was as powerful a magic source as belief, they’d turn against us. The Shadow King was forced to sever the nightmare realm from his court, changing it from one of the most powerful courts before the Awakening to the least powerful after the Awakening. I don’t know who he is”—Falin nodded at the cocky fae—“but he’s clearly trying to establish a court in the nightmare realm.”

“Trying?” Kyran said. “Trying? This court will build itself. Faerie may have severed its connection to this realm, but mortals have always feared the dark. They have always imagined monsters in dark shadows, and here those monsters take life from that fear.”

“But they are trapped here,” Desmond said. “Only the sleeping enter this place, and when they wake, the nightmares are left behind.”

“For now.” Kyran grinned again, a grin that said he knew something that no one else did. “For now I am merely a king of dreams, but one day?” He lifted his hands in an exaggerated shrug.

“Why did you bring us here?” I asked, holding PC tight.

“Me bring you here? My dear, you’re the planeweaver. You dreamed yourself and your friends right into your own nightmare. You should shield better.” He slung his feet around so he sat fully facing us in the chair and leaned forward. “I must say, that was an original entrance. I give you nine points for style, but only three for the nightmare itself. I mean, really, what was that? You must have a better imagination than just rehashing that same dream night after night.”

I looked away. The only person I’d told my nightmare to was Death, and that was because he’d been there and I needed to talk to someone. I didn’t like it that this random wannabe king had been watching my nightly terror.

“We should go,” I said, glancing at Desmond.

The barghest nodded, the red in his eyes flashing despite the lack of real light.

“Going so soon?” the nightmare kingling asked. “But we still have time.” He reached around the back of the throne and retrieved a slender pole with a large hourglass suspended in a ring at the top. Currently all of the sand was in the bottom of the hourglass. The kingling jumped to his feet, studying the glass. “Wait for it,” he said, holding up a single finger. “And . . . now.” He flipped the glass over and the fine white sand inside began trailing down from one hemisphere of the hourglass to the other.

“See, plenty of time,” Kyran said, and then glanced at the glass again. The sand wasn’t pouring out of the top globe, but it wasn’t crawling either. “Well, maybe not plenty.”

“Time until what?” Falin asked, his own gaze fixed on the hourglass.

Kyran only smiled that Cheshire cat grin again.

I leaned in closer to Falin. “Are we sure this guy is supposed to be king and not court jester?”

“I heard that! And here I was going to help you.” He left the pole with the hourglass stationed in the sand and then tossed himself onto his throne again.

“Help us with what?” Falin’s voice sounded more than just suspicious.

“Why, with finding the door she’s looking for.” Kyran pointed at me.

Door? Was I looking for a particular door? Actually, maybe I was. I placed a hand over Holly’s amulet, feeling for the charm. Unlike almost every other time I’d tested the charm in Faerie, this time it gave me a strong pull in only one direction. My heart fluttered. Found her. Or at least found the right direction.

“This way,” I yelled, starting off at a run.

“Oh, this should be good,” Kyran’s voice said as I dashed in the direction Holly’s amulet had pointed.

I didn’t bother glancing back. At least, not until Falin’s hand closed around my arm. Then I looked back. I was still running full tilt, or at least my legs told me I was, but he was standing still and I wasn’t pulling ahead of him. What the hell?

“Nightmare realm, remember?” Kyran said from his throne, which was still right behind me. “Nightmares don’t exist in real space and yet they exist everywhere. It makes for a very interesting landscape, don’t you think?”

No, I didn’t. Right now it made for an irritating landscape, especially when I’d thought I had my first lead since reaching Faerie.

“May I?” Kyran asked, holding out his palm. When I just glanced at him, he jerked his chin toward the ruby amulet clipped to my charm bracelet.

“Why?”

“Didn’t I tell you I was going to help you find your door? Now, you’re wasting time. Look at how much sand you’ve already lost.”

We all glanced at the slowly filling bottom globe of the hourglass.

“What time is it counting down to?” I asked.

As when Falin had asked, Kyran only smiled. Then he threw his arms high over his head and stretched. “Ask me again. Maybe I’ll tell you next time.”

Right. I turned to Desmond. “You said you could get us out of here?”

He nodded.

“Wait!” Kyran leapt off his throne. “The barghest can lead you out of this realm, but he cannot lead you to what you seek. Let me find your door, and it will be the one you want.”

“And why would you do that?” Falin asked, sizing up the nightmare kingling. Now that he was actually standing up straight and not slouching or leaning over the hourglass, he proved to be as tall as Falin, but thin, as if someone had stretched him to that height.

Kyran smiled. “So suspicious, but then, look at whom you serve. You’ve reason to be.” He walked around Falin in large, exaggerated steps without bending his knees. “Perhaps my goal is to be remembered kindly by Faerie’s youngest planeweaver. Would that explanation have enough political maneuvering to ring true for you?”

It wouldn’t surprise me, though he hadn’t actually said that was his purpose.

“If you find me my door, I will owe you nothing? I’m not asking for your help,” I told him, and he gave me a small bow.

“Of course not. You will take on no debt to me.”

I stared at him, looking for the loopholes in his statement, but if he would really help us just to earn my goodwill, I didn’t see a downside to that.

“How does it work?” I asked, still cautious as I searched for the catch.

“Simple. The nightmare realm touches every dark shadow where anyone has ever feared what might be hiding in the depths or believed was cast by a monster—which means as long as your room has a shadow, I can find the door.”

“And we’ll come to no harm by going through the door?”

“My vow on it,” he said, holding up his hand in an oath. I glanced at Falin. He still looked skeptical, but he shrugged. It was my decision.

Finally I nodded. “Okay.”

“Splendid,” Kyran said at the same time Desmond stepped closer to me.

“If you follow his path I will not follow,” the barghest said.

I studied him. I didn’t know his motives for helping me either, but I was interested in his opinions. “Is his path dangerous?”

“Not more than any other,” he said, and then took a step back. “Be safe, old friend of my Shadow Girl. She needs you.” He fell forward and by the time his hands hit the sand they weren’t hands but paws and he was the same oversized black dog I’d first met. Then he turned and was gone.

“I’ll still need the charm,” Kyran said, holding out his hand again.

The amulet was the only link I had to Holly, and my only chance of finding her and the accomplice. If something happened to it . . . I chewed at my bottom lip.

“You’ll return it?”

“I think you’re even more skeptical than he is. You’re too young for that,” he said, but when I still didn’t hand it over he glanced at the sand in the hourglass and then said, “Yes, damn it, I’ll return it. In the same condition and a timely manner even. Happy?”

Taking a deep breath, I unclasped Holly’s amulet and handed it over. As Kyran’s hand closed around the ruby, the shadows around us shifted, racing past. I expected the nightmares to return and grab us, but eventually the shadows settled again. Directly in front of me stood a vaguely rectangular shadow, as if it were being cast by an unseen dresser.

“This would be the one, I believe,” he said, handing me back the amulet.

I wrapped my fingers around it. He was right. The amulet pointed toward the rectangular shadow.

“Now what?” Falin asked, and I noticed his daggers had appeared again. He must have also thought the nightmares were returning.

“Now we step through.” Kyran held out his hands to us.

We were going to walk through a shadow? Well, why not? Since arriving in Faerie I’d walked through walls, doorways that didn’t show the correct room beyond their thresholds, and a hole in reality. Why not walk through a shadow?