Page 27 of The Innocent Sleep

“A terrible one,” I said. “The kind of world Titania would make, if she were allowed the control she so desires. A cruel one, that sunders a mother from her daughters, men from their wives, and children from their parents.”

“Did you find October?”

“I did.” I turned my face away, unable to bear the thought of looking at him as I answered. Wanting something to do with my hands, I grabbed a few more packets of chicken from the pile and lobbed them into the crowd, watching them vanish in a flurry of claws and snarling. “She is in Amandine’s tower with her sister, and by the reports I have from Shadowed Hills, with Simon as well.”

“And Amandine?”

“And Amandine, of course. Titania has torn my family apart to restore one that never truly existed, one that collapsed entirely on its own.”

“I don’t . . .”

“You say Ginevra’s mother remembers the world as it never was, a world where she has never known her daughters as we both know she did? Well, she’s not alone. The minds of everyone I met today had been remade, and not all for the better.” I honestly couldn’t say that any of them had been remade for the better, although I didn’t know Garm well enough to be confident of that. Perhaps this was the best possible version of a man I had never truly known. Someone had to thrive in this horrible perversion of Faerie.

“So why don’t we remember things that way?”

“Royal cats have always been resistant to certain forms of illusion; we see through them, regardless of the power put into their construction. Titania must have known we would shake off her new history of the world, and thus created a situation where we would be needed to keep our people alive. As long as we’re working to keep the Cait fed and stable, we can’t be getting in her way.” I looked at him, lips pressed into a hard, thin line. “Which means I want nothing more than to get in her way. We have to organize this better.”

“We— You’ll stay and help? Even with October in her mother’s tower?”

“Yes.” I said the word as if it pained me, because in truth, it did. “Simon will not harm her, nor allow harm to come to her if he might prevent it. The people I spoke to in Shadowed Hills described him as one of the better versions of himself, and given that all I have ever known him to want was a home, a family, and the respect of those above him, it seems likely their description was an accurate one. He serves as the Countess Winterrose’s dogsbody, and it’s a role he’s filled before. He does it well. He’ll protect October while I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?”

“She’s in the tower,” I said. “I can’t get past the wards. Oh, with time, I’m sure I’ll be able to manage—wards that can keep a truly determined King of Cats out have never been invented, to my knowledge, and it seems that for the moment, all I have is time—but she doesn’t know me. Should I appear in her bedroom, a wild stranger, and steal her away to a kingdom of ravenous cats, to be my prisoner? That is one human fairy tale that doesn’t particularly appeal to me. She seems well, for the moment. She looked at her sister with fondness, and she is clearly being fed and properly cared for. I will set myself to improving the lot of the Courts, for I won’t be able to be here consistently.”

Not being able to go to her felt like it was killing me, but I could accept, for now, that I was doing what was necessary. And when I could no longer accept that, well. We would cross that bridge when we came to it.

Raj blinked. “No?”

“No. One of Sylvester’s men, a Gwragen named Garm—”

“Oh, he’s one of the knights,” interrupted Raj. “Quentin says he’s naturally suspicious, and sometimes a little too quick to think the worst of people. Etienne knighted him too soon, because he thought he was going to have to stand for Quentin, and he didn’t want to have two squires at the same time.”

“It seems history repeats itself, as Quentin appears convinced Etienne will stand knight for him in this new world, and Etienne seems less than enchanted by the idea.”

“You saw Quentin? How is he?”

“At Shadowed Hills, and safe, if a bit spoilt and demanding. I think this is a version of him who was never given cause to question the superiority he had been told was his by right of birth. You probably wouldn’t like him much.”

Raj frowned. “Huh.”

“Yes.”

I passed out more chicken, waiting for him to catch on to the one part of my explanation that I had expected him to object to. When I heard him inhale sharply, I knew he’d done it.

“Yes?”

“Simon—he can’t be working for her,” said Raj. “She’s asleep somewhere out in the dark.”

“Yes, and the false Queen is back upon the throne, and Arden absent.” I turned to look calmly at Raj. “Titania has remade the world. Who’s to say how many people we think dead and gone she’s resurrected for her purposes? And I’m sure she does have a purpose to the people she’s brought back. The Countess was never dead, more’s the pity, but I’m sure Titania wanted the company of her favorite daughter and saw this as an opportunity to have her ideal version of it, a daughter who never argued or went against her will—assuming she didn’t simply walk into the dark and wake the woman for her own amusement. I don’t know all that she’s capable of. None of us does. For the moment, we assume she can do anything Oberon hasn’t specifically thought to forbid. If she wants that woman as a part of her Faerie, she’ll have it.”

Raj blanched. “You mean she could have brought back my father?”

“If it would ever have occurred to her to resurrect one of the Cait Sidhe, I’m quite sure she could have brought him back, in image if not in actuality,” I said. “We have no evidence these people are real, and not just extensions of the illusion. I’m fresher than you are right now. Let Ginevra sleep. I’ll distribute the rest of this chicken, assuming there’s none meant for any other chamber, while you go and find some people for me.”

“Who?” asked Raj, suddenly wary.

“I want Gabriel, Cal, and Emil,” I said. Two of my largest enforcers, and Raj’s frequent scout. In our version of reality, all of them had experience in the human world, and Gabriel knew how to operate a motor vehicle. They might or might not be coaxed into entering the shadows, assuming they could access them with me to aid, but I trusted them to help us distribute or hide whatever we could steal.