The Boy with the Hidden Name (11 page)

as if we are strangers meeting for the first time. I wonder if

he’s decided that I’m a lost cause. I would be perfectly okay

with that, I tell myself; in fact it would be the best thing, and I ignore the part where I feel as bereft now, suddenly, as I did 87

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when Ben first disappeared on Boston Common. Like even

though he is right in front of him, he is still somewhere I can’t find him, and he always will be.

“Where are they?” he asks me.

“Well, they were right beside the dragon pit. They were

going to cross the bridge next.”

“The dragon pit,” he repeats. “Wait, were you coming to

the Unseelie Court?”

“How do you not know where I was? You were just there.”

“You were in distress. So I went to
you
. I didn’t know where we were. What were you doing at the Unseelie Court?”

“Coming after your mother. I’ve just told you that.”

“How did you know my mother was at the Unseelie Court?”

“We didn’t really know. We just guessed.” I look around the

bright meadow. “And clearly we’re not at the Unseelie Court

now. Wait…” I am being seized with recognition as I take

everything in. I look back at Ben. “Is this your home? Where

I met your father?”

“No.” He looks around himself. “We are at the Unseelie

Court. This part’s just been enchanted to look this way.”

“By you?” I guess.

He doesn’t have a chance to answer, because someone calls

his name, behind him, off in the distance. “Benedict!” the

voice shouts, a woman’s voice. Ben looks over his shoulder,

and even as he does so, abruptly, the woman is right there

in front of us. She is tall and willowy and lithe and pale, her

spun- gold hair floating gently in the warm breeze wafting

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over the meadow. She is dressed in a flowing dress the hues

of a sunset, made of some material that seems to keep subtly

shifting colors. She smiles at me, the smile of a Seelie, a smile that makes me feel cold.

I stiffen and debate shifting away from her on the grass of

the meadow.

“How did
you
get here?” she asks me, smile still on her

face, and then looks at Ben. “Aren’t you going to introduce

me? She must be a friend of yours, for you to have granted

her passage.”

“She’s the fay of the autumnal equinox,” he answers her,

his eyes steady on mine. “And this…” His chin tips ever so

slightly in the direction of the woman standing next to him.

“Is my mother.”

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i thought Ben’s mother would look like Ben. Instead, she

looks, well, like
my
mother. I gape at her a little stupidly for a moment but I don’t really know what else to do. I’d

kept saying we needed to find Ben’s mother so she could

tell us where she hid the other fays, but Ben’s mother is

acting as if she has nothing to do with any of this craziness

surrounding us.

“The fay of the autumnal equinox!” she exclaims in a voice

like a purr. “Oh, why, Benedict, she’s lovely. What a beautiful

job you did with her, my dear. He’s been so coy about you,”

she addresses me. “I thought for sure you must take after the

ogre side of your family, but look at you— you’re
lovely
.”

I don’t know what to make of this speech. I smile tightly

and glance at Ben, who is giving nothing away, his eyes, gray-

green now, shuttered as he regards me.

Ben’s mother turns to him. “Where did she come from?”

“Linking enchantment,” Ben answers lightly. “She was in

distress, so she was brought to wherever I was.”

“Clever enchantment,” praises his mother, and I suppose

it would be, except that it doesn’t seem to me to be at all

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what happened. I’ve been in almost constant distress, for one

thing. For another thing, Ben came to
me
.

Ben shrugs.

“Well,” Ben’s mother says to me, “you are a very lucky little

fay that Benedict is so clever. And now you are here, we must

have a feast.”

I don’t want to have a feast. “That’s not necessary,” I say

with a smile. “I don’t want you to go to any trouble. I just

need to know— ”

“No trouble at all,” she assures me with that icy smile still

lingering on her face. Then she vanishes.

So much for asking her about the fays and getting out of

here quickly. I turn to Ben. “Look— ” I begin.

“Don’t— ” he starts, but I talk over him.

“We need to go get everyone else and— ”

His mother appears at his shoulder again, her eyes nar-

rowed at me. “Everyone else?” she echoes. “Who’s everyone

else?” She looks to Ben for an answer.

“Friends,” Ben replies with an easy smile. “Friends Selkie

was traveling with.”

“Oh?” She looks back to me. “Where are they?”

I don’t know what I thought meeting Ben’s mother would

be like, but she’s too much like my mother for my comfort. I

wanted to just
ask
her about the fays, but now I don’t know if I should.
Never
trust
a
Le
Fay
, says the Erlking in my mind.

“Not sure,” I lie. Or maybe I’m not lying at all. Who knows

if they are still by the dragon pit, since they probably think

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I’m dead? But I do not want Ben’s mother to know where

they are.

She studies me closely and then says slowly, “Well, then. I

will have the guards keep an eye out for your friends, won’t

I?” She vanishes again, less abruptly this time somehow, more

like drifting away.

I look at Ben, but he moves forward before I can say any-

thing, his lips directly on my ear as he breathes, “Are they by

the dragon pit?”

I nod. And before I know it, we are there, Ben’s hand curled

into mine. We are on the side near the castle, and the Erlking

is beside us, blinking at us in astonishment.

“Selkie!” exclaims Kelsey from across the pit, bouncing up

and down in her excitement.

I wave at her.

Surprise evident in his voice, Will says, “Benedict.”

Ben, having registered the Erlking next to us, takes three

enormous steps away from him, dropping my hand to do

so. He doesn’t acknowledge Will’s greeting from across the

dragon pit. He looks at me accusingly. “You never said any-

thing about an Erlking.”

“Not
an
Erlking,
the
Erlking,” the Erlking corrects impatiently.

“Stop it,” I interrupt their squabbling. I look at Ben. “Go

across to the other side and bring the rest back over here.”

Ben hesitates, looking across to the other side. I can feel it

in him, the uncertainty in the way he is standing.

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It startles me. This should be the part where he excels,

where he wants to show off. “Ben?” I ask.

Then he vanishes. I look across to the other side, where he

reappears. Then he is back on my side with Kelsey, and then

gone again.

“
Selkie!
” Kelsey flings herself on top of me, hugging me tightly. “We thought you were
dead
.” Her voice breaks, and I know that she really did think I was gone forever.

“I’m okay,” I assure her.

“What happened?” She straightens away from me, wiping

some lingering tears away from my eyes.

“I don’t really know,” I confess. “Ben caught me, and then— ”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Will interjects, and I realize

Ben is done bringing everyone over to our side. “Is your

mother here?”

“Yes,” answers Ben slowly.

“Have you asked her about the other three fays?”

“Not exactly,” replies Ben, still speaking slowly.

“What? Why not?” demands Will impatiently. “I’m glad

that you’ve been having your sweet little family reunion here,

but the clock is ticking.”

“11:22,” the Erlking confirms.

Ben opens his mouth then seems to think better of it. He

waves in the air, conjuring up a piece of paper and a pencil,

and he starts writing something on it, even as he says, “But

they’re preparing a feast. You don’t want to miss the feast.”

“Benedict,” Will begins impatiently, accepting the piece of

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paper Ben hands him. “You have to— ” Will cuts himself off,

reading whatever Ben has written on the paper. “You have

two friends who are most excited for the feast,” he finishes.

“Five friends, actually.”

“Four friends and an Erlking,” corrects Ben.

Will has handed me the piece of paper. I read Ben’s hast-

ily scrawled letters. I feel the Erlking read over my shoulder.

Can’t speak freely— walls have ears.
I pass the piece of paper on to Kelsey.

“Not
an
Erlking,” says the Erlking again. “
The
Erlking.”

Ben shrugs as Kelsey passes the piece of paper to Safford.

An awkward silence falls. None of us wants to say any-

thing. Safford gives the paper back to Ben, who vanishes it

into thin air. We stand around awkwardly.

The Erlking clears his throat eventually and holds out his

hand to Will. “May I have my sword back?” he asks politely.

“Oh. Yes.” Will hastily hands it over. “Well, what about

this feast?” he asks Ben. “Shouldn’t we go join it?”

“We have to wait for them to come to us,” Ben replies.

“What do you mean?” Will asks. “Isn’t that the castle right

over there?”

“Yes. And you could walk until the day you are named, walk

and walk and walk, and you would never reach that castle.”

Will regards the castle, which looks as if it could be reached

in ten minutes. “Well, that’s inconvenient.” He looks at Ben,

and it hangs in the air, the question he’s not asking.
Can’t you
break it?

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Ben shakes his head a bit then says, “They’ll come for

us soon.”

We wait. It feels a bit idiotic. I want to point out that Ben

seemed to have no trouble getting me to the meadow part of

the Unseelie Court, but who knows what the issue is preventing

him from getting us to the castle. Enchantments follow their

own complicated set of rules. And I feel like there is a great

deal about this whole experience that Ben has not yet shared.

Eventually, a few things hop out of the castle doors toward

us, bounding over the drawbridge. They look like…

“Are those enormous dogs?” Kelsey asks incredulously.

The dogs are barking enthusiastically now as they approach.

“Corgis,” Ben confirms.

“
Corgis?
” I repeat. I don’t know why, of all the things I’ve seen in the Otherworld, I should be so completely thrown by

giant corgis.

“Royal faeries always ride corgis,” Ben tells me in his
obviously
tone of voice.

“
Giant
corgis?” I ask.

He looks a little irritated at that question. “Well, how

would they fit on regular- sized corgis?”

“Fair point,” Kelsey allows.

“I’ve never seen Seelies riding corgis,” I point out.

“Seelies try not to
go
anywhere,” Ben replies.

The three corgis have reached us by now. They loom over

us, tails wagging and tongues lolling out, their corgi grins

firmly in place. And faeries leap easily to the ground beside

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the corgis. Ben’s mother I recognize. I don’t know the other

two faeries. One is female and one is male, and they have

the unmistakable Seelie look to them. The female one walks

immediately up to the Erlking.

“Hello,” she says.

“Hello,” he says in reply.

Then she kisses him. Very hard.

“You
hit
me at our reunion,” Ben points out from behind

me, as if that had not been the proper way to behave and it

would have been better for me to just kiss him like
that
.

Which is annoying, because Benedict Le Fay, who left me

standing on Boston Common after I’d asked him not to leave

me because I loved him— not to leave because
he
loved
me
—

doesn’t deserve to be greeted with a kiss. And certainly not

one involving tongue.

“Yes,” I agree with his statement without looking back at

him. “The Erlking must be better at seduction than you are.”

Will, Kelsey, and Safford all swing their heads away from

the show the Erlking is currently engaged in to look at me

and then Ben. I would like to see Ben’s reaction— I hope he is

appropriately chastened by the comment— but I decide the

comment’s impact will be greater if I do not allow myself the