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I felt something odd in the air around her, a faint pulling sensation, like water being sucked through a straw. “It… what?” I asked cautiously, facing the old faery again. “What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know.” She sighed heavily, seeming to shrink in on herself. “I don’t remember. I just know I lost it. You haven’t seen it, have you?”
“No,” I told her firmly. “I haven’t seen it.”
“Oh.” The old creature sighed again, shrinking down a little more. “Are you sure? I thought you might have seen it.”
“So, anyway,” Puck broke in, before the conversation could go in another circle. “We’d love to stay and chat, but we’re sort of in a hurry.
Can you point us toward the docks?” The creature’s tongue f licked out, as if tasting the air around Puck.
“You’re so bright,” she whispered. “All of you are so bright. Like little suns, you are.” Puck and I shared a glance, and started to back away.
“Oh, don’t leave,” the faery pleaded, holding out a withered claw.
“Stay. Stay and chat a bit. It’s so cold sometimes. So…cold…” She shivered and, like mist dissolving in the sunlight, faded away. An empty rocking chair, still creaking back and forth, was the only thing left behind.
Puck gave an exaggerated shiver and rubbed his arms. “Okay, that was probably the creepiest thing I’ve seen in a while,” he said with forced cheerfulness. “Who else is for finding this boat and getting the helloutta Dodge?”
“Come on,” the Wolf growled, eager to leave as well. “I can smell the river. This way.” Without waiting for a reply, he turned and padded down the street.
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I looked for Grimalkin, not surprised to find he had vanished as well. I hoped that didn’t mean there would be trouble soon. “What do you think she was searching for?” I asked Ariel a as we continued through the silent town, following the Wolf ’s huge silhouette through the fog.
“The creature on the riverbank was looking for something, too. I wonder what they lost that’s so important?” Ariel a shivered, her expression haunted. “Their names,” she said quietly. “I think…they were searching for their names.” She drifted off for a moment, her eyes distant and sad. I felt a twinge of alarm at how much she suddenly resembled the faery in the rocking chair. “I could feel the emptiness inside,” Ariel a continued in a near whisper, “the hollow places that consume them. They’re like a hole, an empty spot where you’d expect something to be. That creature in the rocking chair…she was almost gone. I think it was just your and Puck’s glamour that brought her back, if only for a little while.” Figures were starting to appear through the mist now, strange, unfamiliar creatures with the same dead eyes and empty faces. They stumbled through the town in a daze, as if sleepwalking, barely conscious of their surroundings. Sometimes they would turn to stare at us with blank eyes and detached curiosity, but none made an effort to approach.
A booming roar broke through the muff led silence, and a scuff le ahead in the mist made me draw my sword and hurry over. The Wolf stood, teeth bared and hackles raised, over a figure with tiny hands growing everywhere from its body. The creature’s arms, as well as its dozens of hands, were thrown up to protect it, and it cringed back as the Wolf bared his teeth and went for its throat.
I lunged forward, slamming my shoulder into the Wolf ’s head, knocking him aside with a furious yelp. He turned on me with a snarl, and 153/387
suddenly Puck was there, daggers drawn, standing beside me. Together, we formed a wall between the Wolf and his intended victim, who scurried away on multiple hands and vanished under a building.
The Wolf glared at us, eyes blazing, the hair on his spine standing up.
“Move,” he growled, narrowing his eyes. “I’m going to find that thing and rip its head off. Get out of my way.”
“Calm down,” I ordered, keeping my blade between myself and the angry Wolf. “Attack one of them and the whole place might come after us. It’s gone now, so you can’t do anything about it.”
“I’ll kill them all,” the Wolf growled, his voice gone dangerously soft. “I’ll rip every single one of them to bloody shreds. This place isn’t natural.
Can’t you feel it? It’s like a starving animal, clawing at us. We should kill every one of them now.”