The Boy with the Hidden Name (15 page)

as I could. I believe my obligations are completed.”

“Oh,” I say hotly, “your
obligations
?”

“You know what I mean— ”

“And you know that prophecies don’t work like that,” Will

interrupts him. “The prophecy is a mess right now, because

you’ve
made a mess of it, but when it was readable, you figured into it. Four fays, and you. We don’t have the four fays;

let’s at least have you. Give us a bit of a fighting chance here?”

Ben looks uncertain. It is not a look I see often on Ben,

and honestly, it’s not one I like to see. Especially not now. He licks his lips and his eyes flicker to his mother, still hanging on the Erlking’s every word.

“Will,” he says slowly, “is your blocking enchantment firm?”

“Yes, the Unseelies are distracted.” Will looks toward

the Erlking, and I look in that direction instinctively. The

Erlking briefly meets Will’s eyes and then abruptly leans over

and kisses Ben’s mother passionately. “Your mother most of

all,” says Will. “Talk quickly.”

Ben takes a shaky breath. He looks terrified abruptly, and

answering terror squeezes coldly around me. “I don’t think

I can get out of here,” he says, staring at the empty plate in

front of him.

“What do you mean?” asks Will.

“I haven’t tried. Actually, I don’t want to try. I don’t want

her to get suspicious or think I’m trying to leave, but I feel

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like I can’t travel away from here. I feel like I’m
damp
, all the time.”

I stare at him. “That’s why you were unsure about getting

everyone on the other side of the dragon pit,” I realize.

He meets my eyes and admits, “I wasn’t sure I could get over

there. I’m honestly amazed I could even save you. I can move

around the Unseelie Court fairly freely, but I don’t think I can leave here, not even the conventional way, not even if I walk.”

“But we have to get you out of here with us,” I say. “This

was
a trap. Your mother did this to lure you away from us.

She wants to thwart both prophecies. As long as you’re here,

we can’t bring down the Courts. We’re stuck.”

Ben doesn’t look at me. He looks up at the ceiling high

above us and fiddles with his fork. “I didn’t think it was a

trap,” he says. “I wouldn’t have come if I’d thought…”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Will inserts impatiently. “Benedict,

she has you pinned.”

Ben looks at him. He looks exhausted. “I don’t know what

you mean.”

“She’s pinned you into place. And it’s Le Fay magic, so it’s

your own energy turning against you. That’s why you’re feel-

ing damp; she’s using your energy to hold you in place.”

“Clever,” allows Ben, sounding bitter. He fiddles some

more with his fork.

“No.” Will leans toward him urgently. “You’re missing the

point.
You’re
keeping yourself here— this is your energy being stolen.
Break
it.”

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“It isn’t my energy, Will. It
was
my energy. She’s comman-deered it.”

“Listen to me,” Will says to him, speaking very firmly and

clearly. “Listen to me, and
believe
this, because you never have, and you’ve always needed to: you are stronger than

her. You’ve always been stronger than her. Stop letting her

enchant you and
break
it.”

“I’m not
letting
her do this, Will,” Ben snaps. He looks furious now, his eyes sliding into silver as he glares at Will, the

resemblance to his mother just that tiny bit stronger, and I

might shudder without meaning to.

“Yes, you are,” Will insists. “You don’t even realize it. Benedict, they have been planning this from the moment of your birth.

Do you know the only way your mother can beat you? It’s

the only way any faerie in the Otherworld can beat you: by

making you
believe
that they can. And she’s done it your whole life, her and your father and every Seelie in the land, spinning the tale and winding into the heart of you, the legend of your

mother, the greatest enchantress in the Otherworld, the great

traveler, who you have been chasing your entire life. She never

existed, Benedict. She’s a grand myth to trap you in.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Will. She hid one of my names

from them; she’s protected me my whole life. They could

have killed me long ago to stop this prophecy before it began.

Why would she protect me only to do this to me instead?”

“I don’t know. I can’t answer that. But I know I’m right

about one thing: if you fight her, you will win.”

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Ben is silent. He still looks terrified. He glances toward his

mother, but I keep my eyes on him. Will’s story is astonish-

ing, and I’m not sure if he believes what he’s saying or if he’s just trying to give Ben a pep talk.

Ben looks back at Will. “She knows my name, Will. All of

it. She’s the only being in creation who can name me. Do you

know how easy it has always been for me, knowing that no

matter what I did, no one could ever really get to me? They

could hurt me, yes. They could weaken and torture me and

bring me pain, but they couldn’t dissolve me. I’ve never had

to be brave, Will. And the truth is that I don’t know if I am.

She could name me, and I don’t want to cross her. I don’t

know if I can take that risk.” He takes a deep, shuddering

breath. “I’m terrified.”

I feel for him. I don’t want to feel badly for him now that

he’s getting a taste of how the rest of us live. But he looks so lost and scared and very young in the grips of it. I have always thought of Ben as older than me, by some indiscriminate

amount of time, but he seems now much younger. This is

experience I have, living with the looming, suffocating feel-

ing of fear.

And I realize now that Will is right. The Ben I know—

confident and secure in his own abilities— would have walked

out of the Unseelie Court long ago. He would have found a

way. We may not get out of here alive, but it isn’t even worth

the effort unless Ben
believes
.

“All anybody ever tells me,” I remark nonchalantly, “is how

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you’re the best at everything.” Ben looks at me in surprise,

and I tick things off on my fingers. “The best traveler in the

Otherworld, the best enchanter in the Otherworld, the best

kisser in the Otherworld.” I look at him, meeting his eyes

firmly. “You’re Benedict Le Fay,” I remind him. “She’s been

here this whole time, Ben. She could have named you when-

ever she wanted. You said it yourself— she could have done

it so easily. And she hasn’t. You know why? She doesn’t think

she can beat you. She can’t even keep you here without using

your own energy to do it.”

Ben shakes his head a bit. “All she’d have to do is— ”

“
She
doesn’t think she can beat you
,” I repeat firmly, keeping my gaze locked in his.

I see Will out of the corner of my eye, watching Ben’s

expression avidly. He looks as if he barely dares to move.

Ben breaks my gaze after a long moment of tense silence.

He shifts his eyes toward his mother and then looks over

my shoulder. I glance in that direction, at the archway we’d

entered through. There is a door in that archway now, heavy

and oak, whereas it had been wide open when we’d walked in.

I look back at Ben. He is frowning. His frown deepens. He

shifts in his seat.

“Will, I need you to drop the blocking enchantment. You’re

blocking
me
,” he says suddenly without taking his eyes from the door.

It is less than a second after he says this that a chair topples over at the Erlking’s end of the table. Ben’s mother’s chair,

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I realize, and I am busy looking in that direction when, less

than a second after that, there is a loud crash as the door

to the banquet hall flings itself open and collides with the

wall,. A gust of wind sends wineglasses tumbling over up and

down the table, splintering against the stone, wine spilling

over the table, red as blood. The wind whips at the hair in

my ponytail and at the flowing material of my gown. There

are exclamations of surprise and rising panic from Unseelies

as they avoid the streams of wine and try to duck away from

the howl of the gale.

I look at Ben, pushing my hair out of my eyes. He is sit-

ting calmly in his seat, regarding his mother, his eyes pale as

a windowpane.

When I look down at his mother, she is still in a heap on

the floor, staring at him in astonishment. And something

else, which looks to me like fear.

“I think,” Ben announces clearly over the groan of the

wind as it slaps against the walls of the banquet hall, “that

we are going.” He rises and starts walking, and the rest of us

scramble out of our seats to follow him. He pauses only once,

in the doorway, to throw over his shoulder, “Come along,

Erlking. That means you as well.”

The Erlking is already striding over to us. His black velvet

cloak looks very dramatic in the strong wind. “How very gra-

cious of you, Benedict,” he says cordially as he walks through

the doorway with the rest of us.

“I am nothing if not gracious,” Ben replies lightly, and then

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watches the door to the banquet hall slam shut behind all of

us. The wind immediately dies down. We stand in a calm and

deserted hallway, staring at the closed door.

“She’s strong,” Ben says after a moment. “I’m not going to

be able to hold her in there for long. And she’s probably going

to name me as soon as she gets out. So we should get going.”

“Excellent,” the Erlking agrees. “Do you have any

suggestions?”

“Yes,” Ben answers. “We’re going to take the corgis. This

way.” He takes off down the hallway.

“We’re going to ride giant dogs to save the world,” says

Kelsey. “My grandkids are never even going to
believe

this story.”

And then we take off after Ben.

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w e are running for only a few seconds before Ben

abruptly skids to a stop and turns around, making a

motion with his arm as if he is flinging something. He turns

again just as quickly, picking up the run again.

“Hurry up!” he calls to us without even looking behind him,

and there comes the sound of a small explosion behind us.

“What was that?” Kelsey asks, panting as we run.

“Never mind,” Ben responds. He is gasping for breath too.

“Keep moving.”

Thunder rumbles, which is startling, since we’re not out-

side. I glance up, watching clouds gather over our heads,

curling along the ceiling above us. Ben looks up too.

“I’ve got you covered,” Will calls to him, and indeed, when

the rain opens up, while it soaks the rest of us, it doesn’t even touch Ben. He turns back and flings something again before

resuming his flat- out run, and there is another small explo-

sion. Then, abruptly, in front of me, he stumbles.

I’m running so close to him that I knock into him, and I’m

worrying that I’ve gotten him wet, but he regains his balance,

moving off at a dead run again. The Erlking is ahead of us, his

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cloak billowing as he wheels around a corner. I wonder how

he knows where to go, but Ben turns around the same corner,

so he must be going the right way.

Ben stumbles again, reaching out and grabbing at the wall

to keep his balance, and I realize then that he is not okay.

He is gasping for breath, but it’s not from running. It’s from

something else; there is a tearing edge to it.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, drawing next to him. I don’t dare

touch him, because I’m soaking wet.

He shakes his head. “Keep moving.”

Will has caught up to us and is looking at Ben in concern.

“What’s the matter?”

“I can’t sever the connection between us. She’s trying to

turn my enchantments back on me.”

“She’s purposely draining you,” says Will.

“
Benedict
Le
Fay
.”

His name, shouted along the hallway, reverberates. Ben

winces a bit but says, “Well, you were right about that. She’s

not especially good at naming.”

Will is looking down the hallway. “We have to keep

moving. Keep going.”

Ben nods and straightens and moves forward but then

snaps backward. Will and I turn back to him. He takes

another step, pushing as if he is swimming through pudding