Page 40 of The Innocent Sleep

“Yes, because it’s well past time I inform our allies of what we’ve learned since last I saw them,” I said, impatience getting the best of me. “Are you ready to go yet?”

“I’ve never been to the Undersea before. I’m allowed to be a little anxious. Does this count as visiting royalty?”

The thought of Captain Pete as “royalty” was comic enough to draw a snort of laughter out of me, despite the seriousness of the situation. Ginevra shot me a wounded look.

“Gin,” I said, as gently as I could manage, “we’re visiting Patrick and Dianda. You’ve met them, if only in passing. They’re nobles, yes, but they’re also worried parents and partners who just want news of their missing family. You don’t have to come with me if you’d prefer not to. Rajiv is close to their older son, as Dean is romantically involved with his best friend, and might be better suited to soothe them.”

“Raj needs to stay here in case something goes catastrophically wrong,” she countered. “This is a King’s Court, not a Queen’s. Without him, the Court is essentially undefended.”

“And that’s why I would prefer you be the one to accompany me. If this is done quickly, however, I could take either one of you.”

That gave her a moment’s pause. Only a brief moment, however: in what felt like no time at all, she was rising from the dresser where she’d been seated, shaking back her hair, and saying, “Then we’d best be quick about it.”

“Yes,” I agreed, as if I hadn’t been trying to make the same point for the past twenty minutes, and offered her my hand.

She took it, her posture as perfect as any princess of the Divided Courts, and together, we stepped into shadow.

The journey to Goldengreen was swift and easy, although Ginevra looked at me oddly when we stepped off the Shadow Roads and into the field behind the museum which housed the knowe’s mortal entrance.

“Tybalt,” she said, voice low and tight, “this is Goldengreen.”

“Yes. I’ve noticed.”

“You-know-who is in charge here. If she sees us . . .”

“As long as we don’t attempt to enter the knowe or violate her wards, we’ll be gone again before she has a chance to notice us, and this is one of the easier points from which to enter the pathway down to Saltmist.”

“Are we really going to take the Shadow Roads under the water?”

“Yes. I know the way now, having walked it once. We daren’t descend too deep, or we’ll enter the point where the Roads pass from our possession into the realm of the Almere, but as long as we exit when appropriate, we’ll be fine.” I was trying to sound more confident than I entirely felt. It seemed to be working reasonably well, which was a pleasant change. “Getting back may be slightly more difficult. There are surprisingly few shadows at the bottom of the sea. But I have faith in Dianda’s ability to make them if I tell her it’s necessary.”

“So why didn’t you do that the first time?”

“We needed to be sure the shadows would open for me, and that they were safe to travel that deep down. Now that we know they will, and they are, we can descend. Trust me, Ginevra. Even if I had decided you were my enemy, I wouldn’t want to leave Rajiv alone.”

“And killing me off would mean abandoning him every time you went to stalker-stare at Toby,” said Ginevra. “Okay. Let’s go.”

I took a deep breath. She did the same. And together, we stepped into shadow.

The Roads were colder this close to the sea, the air thinner and more difficult to breathe. There was no physical change to mark the moment when our route took us beneath the water, but there was a change in the atmosphere, a thickening that slowed our steps, as if we were running through watered-down molasses instead of open space. Still, we kept on going, forcing our way forward through the dark.

The whispers and slithering sounds I had heard before resumed, distant but audible, and entirely out of place here in a world that had never been inclined to anything but silence. Ginevra stumbled, and for a moment, I thought her hand was going to be wrenched out of mine. I fumbled for a better grip, and pulled her with me as I ran on, until the air changed again, still thick and cold, but now with that subtle, undefinable quality that told me we were approaching our destination. I adjusted my grasp on Ginevra’s wrist and leapt, throwing myself at the opening I could feel off to the side.

Not every departure from the Shadow Roads can be as graceful and elegant as we might like. My heels hit a wet patch on the floor as I landed in the knowe, and I went sprawling, sliding a few feet before I hit the wall. Ginevra, who had been given a moment’s warning when she felt me start to fall, had shifted to cat form in that instant, which would have been a good idea if she’d been aware of the open pool of water at the center of the room. There was a splash, followed by an indignant yowl.

I pushed myself to my feet, moving to retrieve the wet, furious Ginevra from the water. I had just scooped her into my arms when I heard footsteps running down the hall toward us.

“You might want to shift back,” I murmured, setting her on the floor. “We’re about to have company.”

“You already do,” said a low, dangerous female voice, from directly behind me. “Best explain yourselves, and quickly, unless you’re a type of fae who doesn’t need their kidneys to function.”

Slowly, I turned. One of the octopus people, the Cephali, was clinging to the wall, her tentacles still a creamy shell-white along half their length. She had a wicked-looking knife in one hand.

“It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve seen my wife; I was starting to miss the experience of having people point knives at me,” I said.

“So you break into our knowe?”

“I believe, unless things went much, much worse than anticipated after I left here, that I remain an invited guest,” I said.