Puck glanced at me, the expression on his face saying he thought the spider woman was a fool to turn down the offer.
But Madam Dreamer looked to Meghan, a steely resolve settling over her thin shoulders as she raised a pointed chin. “Iron Queen,” she said in a stronger voice. “I will help you. Not because I accept. But because you offered to lift the curse, and though it has been a long time since I have been human, I remember what it is like to lose the one you love.”
Meghan drew in a slow breath. “So, you’ll help us find Keirran?”
“I will,” Madam Dreamer said. “And I do not believe it will be difficult. The arrival of someone like the Forgotten King to the mortal realm does not go unnoticed.” She turned and began walking across the room, beckoning us to follow. “I will start collecting information. All news on the street eventually finds its way here. Someone will have seen the King of the Forgotten, and then we will be able to track him down from there.”
“I appreciate this, Madam Dreamer,” Meghan said as we followed the spider woman across the room. A bloodred door stood against the far wall, black curtains draped to either side, a bright copper Keep Out sign displayed prominently in the middle of the frame. The spider woman waved a rail-thin arm.
“No, Iron Queen. It is I who should be grateful.” Madam Dreamer glanced back, touching her collar with a curved black nail. “You have shown me exactly what I have. For so long, I have mourned my human life, the existence I believe was stolen from me. I thought myself a lonely monster, cut off from humanity, doomed to wallow in darkness and isolation. I thought this, because I believed there was no way for me to return to my human life. But, now I see how wrong I have been. Should I return to the mortal world at this time, I would have to start over. My youth is gone—I am not the beautiful young maiden that I was before. And the human world has changed so much since I was a part of it. I would not know what to do should I become human again.”
We reached the door, and Madam Dreamer drew a tiny golden key out of the bodice of her dress, then inserted it into the lock below the door handle. “It is better this way,” she whispered, back to talking to herself again. “I am...too afraid to return to the human world. This is my world now. My kingdom. I am safe in the center of my web. I am queen.”
She pushed open the door, which swung back without so much as a creak. Beyond the frame was a room painted in black and red, though the color was difficult to see through the thick white webbing that covered every inch of the wall. The floor, too, was carpeted in webs, and thin strands, barely visible in the dim light, hung from the ceiling. A black-and-red divan sat in the very center of the room, surrounded by wispy white curtains and glimmering thread.
“Oh, a giant spiderweb, that’s just great,” Puck remarked, peering through the doorway. “That doesn’t make me nervous at all. If she tells us to step into her parlor, I’m outta here.”
Madam Dreamer walked daintily to the divan in the center of the web, her pointed spider legs making no sound or vibration on the threads. We followed her, but no matter how lightly we tread, the strands rustled loudly as we passed. I could imagine thousands upon thousands of hidden eyes on me; spiders attracted by the vibrations of the web, only held back by the presence of Madam Dreamer. I glanced at Puck, who looked a little paler than normal—it appeared he was thinking the same thing.
“Now...” Madam Dreamer perched on the divan, drawing her legs up beside her. She looked more spiderlike than ever, her bottom half huge and bulbous, and Puck gave a shudder as she settled onto the seat. “I can find your son, if he is to be found, but the more information I have, the easier it will be. Is he alone? Is there something or someone hunting him? I often find that, if one is having difficulty finding a certain person, that person could be in hiding because something is after them. If we find the ones hunting the Forgotten King, we will find the Forgotten King.”
“He isn’t alone,” Meghan said. “He was forced to flee with the survivors of his court from their city in the Between. Since Keirran himself is exiled from the Nevernever, they had no choice but to come to the mortal realm.”
“And why here?” Madam Dreamer wondered. “Why this city, in particular? There are millions of places on Earth he could have gone to escape pursuit.”
“We believe he was trying to contact Ethan and I,” Kenzie answered, causing Madam Dreamer’s black eyes to glance her way. “We’re the only family he has in the mortal world—it would make sense that he would try to find us.”
“I see.” Madam Dreamer reached up and curled one finger over a single strand. “So, you believe he is close. But what force is chasing him? I find it hard to believe an army could invade a kingdom so easily, especially one in the Between.”
I stepped closer to Meghan, and the spider woman eyed me warily. Out of everyone in the room, she trusted me the least, and I was fine with that. “It wasn’t an army. It was a single creature, a monster of rage and hate. It had the ability to turn his own Forgotten against him.”
The spider woman’s gaze flicked to me. “A monster of rage and hate,” she half whispered. “Like the strange shadowy creatures that cling to the humans nowadays? They also appear to foster negative emotion. But you say there is a bigger one?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Much bigger than the nightmare piskies we’ve seen. And not just one, either. We fought and killed another before this. There might be more of them out there.”
“This is disturbing news.” Madam Dreamer fiddled with the thread under her nails. “I do not know what these new creatures are, but I do know that they either cause humans to become angry and violent, or they are attracted to their negative emotions. Or both. But if there is a larger creature out there...” She shivered. “Perhaps these smaller creatures will turn into a larger version eventually. I am only theorizing, but it does seem like they are related. It is a place to start, at the very least.”
She raised her other arm, winding her nails around a second strand, and glanced at all of us. “The lines of information can be subtle,” she told us. “Often, they are drowned in the flood of voices and events happening on the surface. Picking out an individual strand and following it to the end is a talent that requires absolute concentration. I ask for complete silence as I attempt to discover what we are looking for. If this is not possible, please wait for me in my office.”
All of us looked at Puck, who blinked. “What are you all looking at me for?” he asked, a faint grin creeping across his face. “You won’t even know I’m here. I’m as quiet as a mouse when I want to be.”
“Yes, if only you wanted to be more often,” Grimalkin sniffed.
Madam Dreamer took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Raising her pointed chin, she began mumbling, and a low, droning voice began resonating through the chamber.