They bound us to one of the giant tree roots where I’d found Merlin.

“After you went through the faerie ring, I didn’t know where to go,” Arthur said, tied up beside me. “If I was a coward, I’d head back to the castle and be Destrian’s prisoner again.”

Arthur spoke in a raspy voice. He sounded half-crazed from exhaustion.

“But then I’d be abandoning you.” He tried to lean close, but the rope held him back. “So I convinced myself to be a hero and follow you into the Otherworld.” Arthur clucked his tongue and nodded. “And here I am, Destrian’s prisoner…again. So it all worked out.”

Leaves crackled in the distance and I perked my ears.

“Someone there?” Arthur said, suddenly panicked.

In between the leaves of the tree I saw a bobbing light. It was faint and flickering. The leaves parted, and a pair of hands came through, holding a dim Asteria.

It was Morgana. I felt Arthur tense against the vines.

Her eyes were puffy, as if she’d been crying, and her cheeks were flush. She wore the Asteria’s silver chain around her neck, but she’d detached the stone, and she was rubbing it with her thumbs.

“Hello, Nosewise.”

Morgana shifted the Asteria into one hand. The other she reached out to me, asking whether it was all right to touch. I lowered my head, and she lightly scratched my cheeks.

“Good doggy,” she said, trying to smile. “I wanted to say to you before, but I couldn’t while Father was near…” She swallowed hard and blinked. “I hated the way he treated Merlin. When I opened the wall, he handed me to the soldiers and made me wait with them. He said he would only talk to Merlin. And then I heard the fighting….” She closed her mouth and shook her head. “They rushed out once they had him. ‘Go back for Nosewise,’ I said. But Father wouldn’t listen!”

My ears pressed to my head. She was crying again.

“Finally I convinced him to send a rider back to look for you. When they told me the house was burned and you were gone, I thought I’d go mad.”

“Had them looking for your stone, too?” Arthur said. “Bet you’re glad to have that back.”

Morgana glared at him. “Not true,” she growled. “And I’m not speaking to you, so I trust you’ll shut up.”

Morgana seemed angry, but I could tell that underneath she was scared.

“In the end, though, I think Father did the right thing,” she said, her voice quivering. “Merlin would never have agreed to come on his own. And Father needs him for the good of the realm. Once he has the Sword in the Stone, he can rule as Destrian and be a good king. That’s what the land needs, someone wise and kind—”

“Are you insane?” Arthur interrupted her. “King Destrian? He lets his people starve and chains them—”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I lived with the brute. I saw what he—”

“You know nothing of my father!”

“Your father? Ha!” Arthur shouted. “Are you a monster too? Under that—what’s it called, Nosewise? A glamour!”

Morgana’s Asteria flashed suddenly, and flames leapt up from her hand. She shrieked and dropped the burning Asteria in the glowing grass.

“No, where’d it go? Where did it go?” Morgana whispered, panicked. She patted the fallen leaves with her hands. I felt something round and hard near my foot.

The Asteria.

I dropped into my Mind’s Nose quickly and made a hasty Certainty.

The Asteria flashed once.

“There!” Morgana gasped, and she grabbed it from under my paw. “My magic,” she cooed.

Arthur shot me a surprised look, and I whined, intentionally not meeting his eye.

Morgana lifted her gaze to me. “It’s been acting strange since I’ve had it back. I can’t get it to work the way I want. And when I don’t expect it, bad things happen. Did you break it? It won’t even glow for me unless I’m touching it.”

I cried a little through my nose.

“Right,” she said, smiling nervously. “Can’t talk without it. I wish I could just…” She moved her hand like she might extend the stone to me. My ears perked, and I felt the hairs rise on my neck.

“But I shouldn’t. That’s how this all started, in a way. Father said when he saw you with the Asteria, he knew I was ready to act as my own wizard. That I didn’t need Merlin’s permission to do what was right.”

Her voice was tinged with regret.

“I did my part for the good of the realm,” she said, trying to convince herself. “Everyone will see.”

“Maybe you’d rather let us go?” Arthur said cautiously.

“What? You both are safe here. My people will protect you.”

“Your people are a bunch of—” Arthur started some insult, but I shut him up with a bark. Morgana was upset enough.

She’d been horribly deceived by Oberon, just as I’d been. She wanted to be more than an orphan. She wanted a history she could be proud of. Her life before Merlin had been bad just like mine, but for her, unlike me, life with Merlin hadn’t been enough.

I stretched my neck to lick her hands. She cupped the Asteria in her left palm and pulled it away, but let me lick her right.

“Sweet boy,” she said. “I’ve brought you a present.” She removed her silver necklace and slid it over my snout. The familiar feeling of the links between my fur was comforting, but without the magic stone, it was distressingly light.

“It’s no use to me anymore,” she said with a smile. “And it looks so good on you. Take it as a promise that when all this is done, things will go back to the way they were. I’ll teach you again. And we’ll live together here—Merlin, too.”

She kissed me on the snout, and I wagged my tail even though I knew things could never go back.

“We’re leaving for Avalon now,” she said, standing up. “But they’ll bring you something good to eat in the morning.” She turned away, blocking the Asteria’s light from us. The leaves rustled and she disappeared.

—

“Nosewise,” Arthur whispered. “Is she gone?”

I had my ears perked, wondering that myself.

I shook the rotted ropes off my body. Arthur did the same, tugging on them until they snapped. “Did you do this?” he asked, holding a length of blackened rope.

When Morgana’s Asteria had been under my foot, I’d felt its power and thought of a Certainty.

I won’t let them hurt Merlin.

In my Mind’s Nose I’d smelled rot. Fire would have been hard to control and Morgana would have noticed. But decay happened more slowly.

“Hey, what happened to my shirt?” Arthur said, tugging on his sleeve—it crumbled off his arm. I supposed it had gotten caught up in the spell. The root of the Sacred Elm was rotting too. The Fae wouldn’t like that very much.

I whined at Arthur and bade him follow me through the curtain of leaves. I felt them falling apart on my back as I walked by. We really had to get out of there.

“Where are you going?” Arthur said, grabbing hold of my tail. “The faerie ring to Grimmshode is that way!”

That wasn’t the ring I was looking for. During our walk, Oberon had told me that the faerie rings in the Fae realm were linked to portals in our world that were hundreds of miles apart. I thought Oberon had come here as a shortcut to wherever he was going. We had to find the ring they’d just taken Merlin through.

Of course I couldn’t tell Arthur this, because I didn’t have a voice. So I grumped at him.

“You’ve got the nose,” Arthur said, raising his hands. “Lead the way.”

I followed Morgana’s trail from where we’d been tied up. It was leading toward the camp.

“Sure it’s this way?” Arthur said, crawling through the grass. “If they catch us again, we’re not getting home.”

I flattened my ears and kept on the scent. The Fae were dancing again. They weren’t thinking about intruders.

The trail led to a dark clearing with a dying fire at the edge of camp. Morgana, Merlin, and Oberon had all just been here, along with three horses.

“Nosewise, why are we stopping?” Arthur whispered. I saw that he was dragging himself through the grass like a snake. My tail wagged.

“You think it’s funny? I’m ten feet tall compared to you—they’re going to spot me first.” Arthur popped his head up and scanned the clearing.

There was a circle of dimly glowing mushrooms, all shapes and sizes. A faerie ring.

“Are you sure that’s the right one?” Arthur whispered. I crawled out in front of him. I was sure. Their scents were all over it.

We crawled into it, and again I felt the sensation of spiderwebs closing my eyes and pressing my ears. We seemed to squeeze through a soft mound of earth, and then it was daylight again.

—

Arthur tried to balance but fell on the grass. He pressed his face into it and sighed. “Real grass. It isn’t glowing. How wonderful is that?”

We were in an overgrown prairie, which was good, because the long grass helped protect the scents.

“Wait a minute,” Arthur said. “This isn’t Grimmshode.” The landscape was very different. There were hills everywhere and hardly any trees. “Where did it take us?” Arthur asked.

I hated not having the Asteria. I’d gotten used to speaking my mind.

“Did you take us to the Lake Lands?” Arthur asked. I cocked my head, not knowing what he meant. “Near Avalon!” Arthur shouted. “Is this where Oberon went?”

I wagged my tail wildly and pointed down the trail I’d found.

“North. Of course, they went north!” Arthur said, looking very upset. “You followed them! Why didn’t you take us home?”

I yelped defensively. I wasn’t going to abandon Merlin!

“And we can’t go back in there,” Arthur said, pointing to the faerie ring. “We’ll be caught. They’ll soon know we escaped—they’ll be coming out after us.”

I barked forcefully.

“You want to find Merlin. All right. You haven’t given us much choice.”

I sensed Arthur was scared. But I also knew he was brave. He came into the Otherworld after me, even though he didn’t have to.

“If Destrian gets the sword, he’ll be king,” Arthur said, talking more to himself than me. “We escaped his castle and his weird Fae world. But if he becomes king, there’ll be nowhere to run.”

I didn’t understand what he meant about the sword or about Oberon becoming king, but he looked like he was ready to go my way.

“All right,” Arthur said. “But I don’t know how far it is to Avalon. I’ve never been in this part of the country…never been anywhere, really.”

I sniffed the ground and wiggled my butt.

“Follow your nose, yes,” said Arthur. “But it could be far, and they’ve got horses. So we’re chasing someone who’s faster than us. And we’re bound to be pursued by the Fae once they find we’ve escaped,” Arthur sighed. “Then our only chance is—”

I barked excitedly and charged forward down the scent trail.

“Yes, that’s what I meant,” Arthur said, taking the rear. “Run!”