The Boy with the Hidden Name (9 page)

they seem to know we’re coming. They’re staying quite still

right now.”

The firelight flickers over his face, and I study his profile.

It’s a handsome profile, but it’s creased with worry.

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Skylar DorSet

“How will you get us into the Unseelie Court?” I ask him.

He doesn’t look at me when he answers a moment later.

“A long time ago, the goblins were dying out. We were

held prisoner by the Seelie Court, trapped in mines where

humans had invaded, losing our battles for our homes. Will

had started Parsymeon— now called Boston— and I wanted

to come here, with as many goblins as I could. A new world,

an undiscovered world, a world where we could build our

defenses and become entrenched and
thrive
. But none of

us could come to Parsymeon without the permission of the

Seelie Court. We were enchanted into place, always mining

to bring them jewels, to craft their coronets and forge their

bells. No one can do it as well as a goblin, you know. Everyone

else lacks the
delicacy
.”

He pauses for a long time. I hold my breath, waiting for the

rest of the story.

“In those days,” he continues, “I was young, and I was

daring. I would save my people, I thought. It is how youth is.

You are foolish and headstrong and think you can do every-

thing.” He sighs heavily.

“You’re a king,” I point out to him, feeling he is in need of

comforting. “You were just doing what you had to do to save

your people.”

“Oh,” he replies. “I wasn’t a king then. I was just a boy.

I was a boy with a plan, to use my one great talent to save

my people.”

“And what was your talent?” I ask, transfixed now.

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The Boy wiTh The hidden name

He looks at me for the first time, and he sends me a smile

that is simply breathtaking in its suggestiveness. “
Seduction
,”

he answers silkily.

I swallow thickly. “Oh,” I croak.

He looks back into the fire, breaking the spell. “All goblins

are natural seducers, of course, but I was the best seducer

in generations. Or I had that reputation in those days. The

Seelie Court doesn’t pay attention to the reputations of gob-

lins. Why would they? So I got myself chosen to be the goblin

that delivered the latest shipment of treasure, and then it was

easy. They are surprisingly susceptible to seduction, Seelies.”

He falls silent.

“And then?” I prompt.

“And then I stole the talisman. Broke the enchantment.”

“What’s a talisman?”

“The physical embodiment of an enchantment. All truly

strong enchantments have one.”

I look down at my sweatshirt.

“Once you have stolen the talisman of an enchantment

from the person or people to whom it is entrusted, the

enchantment ceases to work properly. It begins to crumble.

And that’s what happened. I stole the talisman, and we gob-

lins emerged from the mines where we’d been imprisoned,

and we came here, to Parsymeon, which has been a dream

of a place. We’ve been very happy here.” He looks almost

wistful now.

“And is that how you became king?” I ask him.

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Skylar DorSet

“Yes. The goblins hadn’t had an Erlking for generations.

While the Seelies had ruled us, we’d fallen into disarray. Upon

being made free and independent again, we reinstituted the

Erlking, and I was voted into the position.”

“That was after you came to Parsymeon?”

“Yes.”

“So that’s why Will calls you by your name?”

The Erlking shrugs. “It isn’t quite my name, although it

is close enough.” He leans back on his elbows, looking into

the fire. “He knew me before I had a title. There aren’t many

beings around anymore who remember me from that time.”

“Do you like it? Being king?”

He looks at me. “I thought you wanted to know how I was

going to get you into the Unseelie Court,” he remarks wryly.

“Oh!” I remember. “I do.”

“The Seelie I seduced, she was flung from the Seelie Court.

Do you know what happens to faeries who are exiled from

the Seelie Court?”

“They don’t get named?”

“Not right away. Seelies like to play with their prey first.

Haven’t you noticed?”

I had noticed that actually. I shudder and look into the fire.

“So if you’re an exiled Seelie trying to avoid the inevitable

naming to come, you go to the Unseelie Court.”

I stare at him. “You’re going to get us into the Unseelie

Court by using an ex- girlfriend?”

He looks grimly at the fire. “Not pleasant, I know. Will’s

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lucky I like him. And that, well, I don’t really have a choice

if I’m going to save my home. The clock is ticking.” He

takes out his pocket watch, glances at it, and then shows it

to me. 11:13.

“But doesn’t she hate you?”

“Hate me?” he echoes blankly, looking at me in bewilder-

ment. “Why would she hate me?”

“Because you stole the talisman from her and got her exiled

from the Seelie Court,” I remind him.

He shrugs. “Oh,
that
. You fail to comprehend: I am very,
very
good at seduction.”

We fall silent for a moment. I lean my chin against my

knees and stare into the fire. And then I venture, “I…met

one of your people. Once.”

“Oh,” the Erlking says. “Yes. Brody. Sorry about that. He

was just supposed to provide us with a progress report. I was

worried that we were running out of time, that we weren’t

ready
for this. But I suppose we would never have been ready, no matter how long it took.”

“I…” I take a deep breath and plunge forward. “Did I

kill him?”

The Erlking looks at me, startled. “Kill him? What? No.”

My relief is tempered by the Erlking starting to laugh. He

tries to keep himself quiet, laughing into his cape, but he is

clearly highly amused.

“What’s so funny?”

“You. Thinking you could have killed a goblin just like
that
.

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Skylar DorSet

No. We can be named like any other supernatural creature,

but we are much harder to kill by conventional methods.”

“I knew his name.”

“Brody isn’t his name. We wouldn’t give you the correct

name. The way Benedict didn’t give you his.”

I think of Ben, who has always been Ben, because he held

back the power of his name from me. “Yeah, well, never trust

a faerie, right?” I say, wishing I could hold back the bitterness.

“Never trust a Le Fay,” the Erlking corrects me. “You know

that he might be at the Unseelie Court. You know that he

also might
not
be at the Unseelie Court.”

“I don’t care either way,” I say with a bravado that I’m not

sure I feel.

The Erlking rolls onto his side to face me. “It is a very dan-

gerous thing, you know, to have lost your heart to Benedict

Le Fay. He is an expert in
enchantments
. You can never know that anything about him is real.”

“The way you are an expert in seduction?” I can’t resist saying.

“Touché,” the Erlking laughs, and then, “You are quite

remarkably fearless.”

I’m really not. I’m afraid all the time. I say instead, “I’m

not in love with Ben. I’m not falling for his enchantment

this time. I know way too much about him. And we’ve been

through too much. I’m kind of sick of saving his life.”

The Erlking smiles. “Oh, the delicious things I would do

with an indebted Le Fay. Call in your favors carefully, fay of

the autumnal equinox.”

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“I’m not calling them in at all. I don’t want anything to do

with him. I’m going to fulfill this prophecy, with or without

him. This isn’t
about
him
.” But even as I say it, I hear my mother’s voice in my head.
Benedict
Le
Fay
will
betray
you.

And then he will die
. This
isn’t
about him. But it’s not entirely
not
about him either.

“When Will came to me, when he asked if I would consent

to your being hidden at Parsymeon, if I would help him to

protect you…I made my choice then. Not the most popular

choice I’ve made as Erlking— prophecies are tricky things,

and you can never be sure if you are bringing about your

downfall or your victory— but it was the choice I made.

Sometimes you have to gamble with the birds. Will saved us,

offered us shelter, at a time when we needed it. How could

I deny him the ability to do the same for you? And then it

came complete with a traveler invasion. Travelers are hugely

troublesome beings. Always getting into trouble; you can’t

keep them out. They were constantly stealing jewels from our

mines, and there was no way to stop them. Until we evolved,

of course.”

The Erlking rolls onto his back. “Anyway, sometimes I

think I should have objected to Benedict’s presence. But his

enchantment was useful, necessary. None of the rest of us are

as skilled at hiding things. We needed him. We might need

him still. All the same…” The Erlking glances over at me.

“I’d be careful of him, were I you.”

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w e are woken by the Erlking’s pocket watch chiming

at us.

The Erlking looks at it and confirms. “11:15.”

“We should get going,” says Will.

The Erlking doesn’t reply but just walks over to the horses.

“Here,” says Will, handing us some pieces of dried fruit.

“If you heat it up, does it become fresh fruit?” Kelsey

asks him.

“Don’t be absurd,” Will replies, as if her question made no

sense at all.

Kelsey sighs.

“Let’s go,” says the Erlking, swinging himself gracefully

into his saddle.

“How long until we get to the Unseelie Court?” I ask,

clambering gracelessly onto the horse behind him.

He winces as I tug accidentally on his cloak, tightening

it around his throat, and reaches up to adjust it and give

himself some air. He doesn’t say anything, just urges the

horse onward.

I cannot tell if I feel like I understand him more or less

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Skylar DorSet

after the conversation last night. I find the Erlking a strange

mixture that I can’t quite read. Will appears to trust him

implicitly, but I’m not to that point yet.

The day is just like the previous day, darkness all around

and unceasing forward movement, and finally I ask again,

“How long until we get to the Unseelie Court?”

“We’re there,” he answers me curtly.

I blink at his back, which I can only locate in the darkness

because I know it is right in front of me. “What? When did

we get here?”

“A while ago.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“What was there to say?”

“‘We’re entering the Unseelie Court.’ That’s what there was

to say.”

“I didn’t think it was important.”

“It looks the same as everything else.”

“That’s why I didn’t think it was important. Shh.”

I am offended. “Don’t ‘shh’ me— ”

“
Shh
,” he says again more firmly and draws his horse to a halt. “Will,” he calls. “What is that?”

“Nothing good,” I hear Will’s voice answer from the dark-

ness behind us.

“What does that mean, ‘nothing good’?” I ask. “What can

you hear?” I am straining very hard to hear something, any-

thing, but all it sounds like is silence to me. Maybe, very far

away, the sound of water dripping.

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“I think it’s a dragon,” comes Will’s voice, hushed, as if the

dragon might hear us talking about it.

We are all very silent. But no matter how quiet we are, I

cannot hear anything.

I am about to say that when, very suddenly, a stream of fire

licks its way toward us, accompanied by a loud roar, flames

curling through the darkness. The horse rears under us, and

I grab at fistfuls of the Erlking’s cloak to keep from falling

off. The flames subside, the darkness darker now, and heat

still lingering in the air. The creature is no longer roaring, but the echo of it is ringing in my ears. The Erlking is trying to

soothe the horse, which is now prancing sideways.

“I thought you were going to be able to use your wiles with

your ex- girlfriend,” I remark sarcastically.

“I said I could use my wiles to get us in. I never said she

wouldn’t kill us once we were here,” he retorts and then twists

to call over his shoulder, “Everyone okay?”