Merry felt frozen. It didn't make sense. It wasn't right.
There were rules to the world, rules that Merry had been raised on, and none more fundamental than this: if you were Nice, then good things came to you. And Henry and Iestyn were two of the Nicest people that Merry knew, and Iestyn had escaped, he was supposed to be free—
"Did you tell Dad?" It was the first thought to penetrate Merry's shock. If there was any power higher than Lucifer, it was Santa Claus. He wouldn't let anything happen.