The Boy with the Hidden Name (16 page)

or something.

“What’s going on?” I ask. Safford and Kelsey have turned

back. I sense them come up behind us.

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Ben takes another step, frowning. “I’m going to have to

just fight it out with her,” he decides. “She’s literally pulling me back.”

“What’s her name?” I ask. “I’ll name her.”

Ben gives me a look. “Do you think I know her name? Do

you think
anyone
knows her name?”

“Then say my name,” I say quickly. “Say it.”

After a moment, Ben says, “Selkie Stewart,” and we are able

to take a few more steps before he hits another block.

“Say it again,” I tell him.

He looks annoyed. “We can’t keep— ”

“You need to find the talisman,” the Erlking interjects.

I look at him in surprise, because I hadn’t realized he’d

turned back too.

Ben regards him blankly. “The talisman? What talisman?”

“You have to break her enchantment. You need the talis-

man to do it.”

Ben looks displeased. “I’m a faerie. I don’t need the talis-

man to break an enchantment— ”

“Yes, you do. He’s right,” Will interrupts. “He’s absolutely

right, because you’re fighting your own magic. You can’t

break it completely without draining yourself. That’s really

very clever of her.”

Ben glares at him. “You could have realized this before you

told me to do run.”

Will has the good grace to look sheepish. “Sorry.”

With a roar of pure fury, Ben’s mother rounds the corner

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and draws to a stop. It is clear she did not expect us to be

standing there, but she recovers from her surprise and sends

us one of those anti- smiles powerful faeries seem to specialize in. “You’re trapped,” she announces confidently.

Ben straightens away from the wall and sweeps his hand

toward his mother, pushing the rain in her direction. It splashes over her and she shrieks. A tongue of fire races from where she’s standing, hissing as the rain hits it, licking out toward us until the moment when it fizzles out entirely, and judging from the

rage on his mother’s face, that was Ben’s doing too.

“This is ridiculous,” says the Erlking and pulls me to the

left, tumbling me into a dark room. Kelsey and Safford follow

us, and Will pulls Ben in and then closes the door.

“Lock it,” he tells Ben.

“Done,” Ben says.

“But she’s a traveler too,” I point out. “Won’t she just be

able to unlock it?”

“Not if I can hold it for a bit,” Ben responds grimly.

I want to ask what good it’s doing us to be trapped in a

room instead of out in the hallway where we can run, but

Ben’s breaths have evened out a bit and he seems to be in less

distress, so maybe he really did need a breather.

Will sends up an orb of light.

We are in a decent- sized room, but it is entirely empty

except for a single purple orchid sitting in a pot on the other

side of the room. It looks completely incongruous, there in

the middle of the floor.

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“What the hell is that?” the Erlking asks.

“It’s a flower,” Will answers.

“Why is it in here? I don’t like it.”

Will walks cautiously over to it and looks down at the pot.

“It says here its name is Larry.”

“The plant has a name?” Kelsey asks.

“Yes,” Will confirms.

“The plant’s name is
Larry
?” she asks.

“Yes,” says Will again and turns away from the orchid,

walking back toward us.

I turn my attention to Ben. He is staring at the door. There

are alarming thumps coming from the other side of it.

“Will it hold?” the Erlking asks him.

“Yes,” Ben responds confidently.

“I suppose that’s something, but it means we’re trapped in

here,” remarks the Erlking, echoing the thought I just had.

“Better than being trapped out there.” Ben turns away

from the door. “It gives us time to think. What would she

have used for the talisman?”

I am relieved that he seems to be trying to put together a

plan. He seems much more like the old Ben. I turn to watch

him pace into the room, and that is when I realize that the

orchid has tripled in size. I stare at it.

“Was the plant always that big?” Kelsey asks, also staring

at it.

Will stares at it too, standing very still. “No,” he answers

slowly.

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Even as we watch, the orchid grows another foot, leaping

into the air.

Kelsey takes a step back, and I don’t blame her. “Make it

stop,” she says.

Ben has also taken a step away from the orchid. “I can’t,” he

replies. “I need to keep my focus on the door. Will?”

“I’m trying,” says Will, even as the orchid grows another

two feet.

“It doesn’t seem to be working,” Kelsey points out.

“I can see that,” Will bites back.

The orchid hits the ceiling.

“Forget about the orchid.” Ben turns away from it. “We

need to get the talisman. If we can get the talisman, then I

can get away from here. Until then, we’re just trapped.”

“So what’s a talisman look like?” I ask.

“It could look like anything,” the Erlking replies. “It’s what-

ever the faerie casting the enchantment chose to imbue with

the power. Is there anything your mother is especially fond

of, that she keeps by her side, especially when you’re around?”

“Anything she keeps by her side.” Ben looks perplexed.

“Not that I can think of.”

But I am focusing on a different part of what the Erlking

said. “Anything your mother is especially fond of,” I repeat.

“Ben. Your coat.”

“My coat,” he echoes. “You think it’s my coat?”

“Is this the talisman of your enchantment?” I indicate

my sweatshirt.

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“Yeah,” he affirms.

“You gave it to me. You didn’t keep it for yourself.”

“Because the enchantment is yours to control.”

“Right. And that’s what she did to you. Will said this is

your
enchantment. She gave the talisman to you.”

“Oh, that
is
clever,” breathes the Erlking.

“That means
I
can’t really break the enchantment by stealing the talisman. I already have the talisman,” Ben realizes.

“You have to give the talisman to somebody else,” Will

says. “Someone the enchantment wasn’t intended for. It will

break it.”

“Me,” I say and look at Ben. “I’ll take the coat.”

“Anybody can take it,” Will interjects. “It doesn’t have to

be you.”

Ben looks at me and then nods briskly and turns to Will.

“No, it has to be Selkie and me. If we go, my mother will

chase after us. We’re the ones she cares about. The rest of you

will be free to get to the corgis, and Selkie and I will break the enchantment and we’ll meet you.”

“Uh, guys?” ventures Kelsey from behind us.

“Where are the corgis?” Will asks. “How do we get to them?”

“I know how to get to them,” the Erlking interjects

confidently.

“Guys, seriously,” Kelsey says, but I’m distracted by the

Erlking’s statement.

As is Ben. Ben looks at him. “How do you know so much

about the layout of this place?”

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“I’m just very clever,” the Erlking responds mildly.

Ben frowns, and I get the impression he doesn’t really

approve of the Erlking being clever on top of everything else.

Something brushes against my shoulder, and I think it’s

Kelsey, trying to get my attention, and I turn toward her

just as she shrieks. I realize immediately why she shrieked,

because it wasn’t Kelsey brushing my shoulder— it was the

orchid, which has now grown so that it reaches the ceil-

ing and stretches across the room. I have a flashback to the

tulips that nearly strangled me during my first time in the

Otherworld. Larry the orchid is growing so quickly that

I find myself staring at a branch shooting toward me. It

doesn’t poke my eye out only because Ben grabs me out of

the way.

We are crowded together against the door as the orchid

encroaches upon us. It snakes out a tendril that curls around

Kelsey’s wrist.

“Get it off!” Kelsey exclaims in a panic, but the orchid tugs,

tumbling Kelsey forward, and she lands straight in one of its

enormous blossoms, sending up a puff of pollen.

Safford lunges for her, pulling her out, and then the Erlking

unsheathes his sword and begins hacking at the orchid. I

remember the knife that I stole from dinner and pull that

out as well, but it’s hardly effective against the onslaught of

the orchid.

The orchid named Larry.

The orchid
named
Larry.

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“
Larry!
” I shout, throwing all of my intent behind it,

hoping that naming works on supernatural plants as well as

supernatural creatures.

It does. Larry shrivels up until it’s back to the size it was

when we first entered the room.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

The Erlking sheathes his sword, breathing hard, and says,

“Well done. Will it stay that size now?”

“I have no idea,” I say. I love that the Erlking thinks I know

about any of the craziness going on around us. My only idea

was to take us all here in the first place, and look how well

that
turned out.

Kelsey is in a terrifyingly still heap on the floor with the

orchid detritus all around her.

Safford and I lean over her in mirrored desperation. She’s

breathing; she just seems to be thoroughly unconscious.

“What’s wrong with her?” I demand, looking up at Ben.

“It’s an enchantment,” Ben says grimly.

“Well, break it,” I order him.

“I can’t, I— ”

Kelsey sits up abruptly, coughing.

“Kelsey!” I exclaim and give her a hug. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she manages around her coughs. “What happened?”

“We were so worried,” I tell her. “You fell into the orchid

blossom, and then you just…collapsed.”

“So I was almost killed by an orchid,” she concludes flatly.

And then, startling me, Safford pushes me aside and catches

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Kelsey in a fierce and desperate hug. Kelsey makes a little

exclamation of surprise, but she hugs him back.

I look to Ben, to thank him, but he shakes his head. “It

wasn’t me. It was Will.”

I turn to thank Will, but he’s frowning toward Larry the

orchid, and when I turn back there, I realize that it’s started

growing again, that the Erlking is once again hacking at the

branches, but they are growing more quickly than he can cut

them off.

“
Larry
,” I say again, and it works again, but only briefly before it starts growing again. I can’t just stand here and keep repeating its name constantly. We need to do something else.

Will clearly has the same idea. “You two need to go,” he says

without taking his eyes off the orchid. “Right now. We have to

get out of this room.” He looks at Ben. “We’ll see you later.”

I don’t even have time to say good- bye to them before Ben

grabs my hand and the room vanishes.

We are back in his bedroom, which seems very quiet and

empty, given that it does not have a killer orchid in it. We

are standing right by the chair on which I placed the coat

before we went to the banquet. We both look down at it for

a moment.

“Do I just…take it?” I ask uncertainly.

I hear Ben draw in breath to respond, and then his mother,

out of nowhere, knocks him over with a physical blow. I have

never seen a faerie actually
hit
another faerie like that; they seem to fight mostly through their magic. I am momentarily

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so shocked as Ben staggers backward that I can’t even react.

I think that fighting this way must be unusual, because Ben

can’t seem to gather himself. He is so caught off- guard that he is just retreating, trying to duck away but not succeeding as

his mother keeps planting slaps and shoves and kicks on him.

I launch myself into action, just as Ben finds himself backed

against the bathroom door. There is a moment when he looks

at his mother, and his eyes are narrowed. He doesn’t look the

slightest bit afraid— he looks furious and also thoughtful, as

if he is already planning some kind of retaliation.

His mother seems to pause at his expression too. “You— ”

she begins, but we never get to hear what else she was going

to say, because I lunge and close my hands into the fabric of

her gown. The thing is, her gown looks soft and gauzy, but