Brendan didn’t find the declaration reassuring. “So what do I do now?”
“Now you must find the amulet,” Ariel said simply, leaning back in his chair.
“It sounds like an impossible task,” Brendan said. “How can I possibly succeed?”
Ariel’s face became deathly still. “You must. If you don’t, you will have no protection. Orcadia and her ilk will find you and either destroy you or turn you to their dark purposes. Your Human family will be endangered. You will have nowhere to hide. Without being fully initiated and integrated to your Faerie powers, you will be a danger to all those around you. You will have no control.” He shook his head sadly. “It pains me to cast you out once again when we have only just found you, but this is our Law. We must follow the Law or we are doomed.”
Brendan looked at his face and saw that there would be no change of heart. He looked to Kim, and she shook her head. “Can’t you help me? At least tell me where to start?”
“Ain’t done,” Og said, staring at the glass held between his scarred hands, unable to meet Brendan’s gaze. “No one in this room can help ye, son. Ye have to do it all on yer own. It’s the rules!”
“But we have to help him,” Deirdre said suddenly. “He has no idea what to do. He’s a special case. Not just because of who he is but because of his circumstances. He is ignorant through no fault of his own.”
“Deirdre, no,” Ariel said firmly.
“You can’t send him out there alone,” Deirdre insisted.
“No!” Ariel thundered. The entire room fell silent, and even Deirdre seemed cowed. For an instant all the lights dimmed, and Brendan saw a shadow in Ariel’s eyes, a hint of the power that lurked beneath his gentle exterior. “He must follow his Quest and retrieve his token. Alone! That is the Law!”
No one spoke. Brendan saw how Ariel commanded them all with the force of his personality. He could easily imagine Ariel in ancient Greece striking fear and awe into the hearts of his worshippers.
Brendan looked around at the Faeries gathered there, the people he had never imagined existing before today, and felt despair. He suddenly didn’t want to lose them. “This isn’t fair! You pulled me out of my Human life, and now you’re kicking me back out into the street?” He looked at Kim beseechingly. “You can’t do this!”
“I’m sorry, Breandan,” she said softly. “I can’t help you any more. I’m bound by the Law as much as you are.”
Brendan looked at her, this girl he’d never truly known. He saw how much this was hurting her, too. “Okay. I understand.”
“I’m sorry…” she said miserably.
“S’okay.” Brendan hung his head. He didn’t want to whine. His dad had always told him that life wasn’t fair. You had to do your best with what life gave you. He would succeed or fail, but he would do his best. “That name they call you…”
“Ki-Mata.”
Brendan stood up from the table. “I think I’ll call you Kim, if you don’t mind. It suits you.”
“You and you alone may call me that,” she said. “Be careful, Brendan.”
He shrugged. “I’ll do my best. Thanks for watching out for me at school. You were a good friend. I just wanted you to know that in case I never get back here.”
She smiled but said no more. Og’s hand fell on his shoulder. Brendan looked up into the beefy, red face. “Here, son. Take this.” He held a ham and cheese sandwich in his hand. Mustard dripped over his knuckles.
Brendan looked critically at the offering. “Is it a magical sandwich?”
“Sadly, no,” Og admitted, laughing. “Delicious but not magical.”
“No gifts,” Ariel said.
“It ain’t a gift! It’s provisions. He’s hardly had nothing to eat, Ariel. You won’t begrudge him a morsel for the road?”
Ariel pursed his lips. “Hmmm. All right. I will allow it. Now, Brendan, you must be gone. Return with the amulet and the doors of the Swan will be open to you. Good luck.”
Brendan took the sandwich. “Thanks, Og.”
“Uncle Og! And enjoy the sandwich!” He winked a great blue eye and clapped Brendan on the back. “Just be careful where you bite,” he said cryptically.
So Brendan walked slowly across the room toward the door. Faeries called out to him as he wove his way through the crowd, patting his back, wishing him luck. He came to the door and found Leonard standing there, massive arms crossed over his huge chest. There was a slight gust of wind and then Saskia appeared by Leonard’s side.
“You be careful, mon,” Leonard rumbled. “It be a dangerous world out there!” Saskia smiled at him but said nothing.
Brendan smiled weakly. Leonard pushed the door open to reveal the rainy green. “You come back soon. We’ll be waitin’ for ya.”
Brendan nodded. He took one last look back at Kim, Ariel, Og, and Deirdre. They were all watching him, save Deirdre, who was slightly turned away and looking down at something she held in her hand. Brendan recognized that stance: she was trying to send a text on her phone without anyone seeing. Presently, she stuffed her hand back into her pocket and looked up at him. She smiled at him reassuringly. Og raised his whisky glass while sucking mustard off his knuckles. Ariel nodded. Kim merely looked steadily back and mouthed the words “Be careful.” Brendan waved and stepped out into the night.
And so he found himself, immediately soaked to the skin and shivering in the downpour, holding the soggy sandwich. He was miserable, depressed, and alone.
He turned around to look at the Swan but it was gone. The doorway was gone. A blank wall stared back at him. There was no hint that it had ever been there at all. He could not go back.
“Where do I start looking for something that I didn’t even know existed?” He felt utterly miserable. He held up the sandwich, which was dissolving in the rain before his eyes. “Even my sandwich is ruined.” In disgust, he threw the sandwich onto the grass.
“Ow!” the sandwich squeaked.
Brendan almost leapt out of his skin. “Who said that?”
“Uuuughh,” the sandwich moaned.
“Will the weirdness ever end?” Brendan said to the rain. “I’m talking to a sandwich.”
As he watched, wide-eyed, the top slice of bread flopped over to reveal a tiny person, her clothes smeared with mustard and mayonnaise, lying on a bed of ham. The person in question had small fly wings and pale mauve eyes. “Oh crap.” She picked at her tight brocaded coat, trying to wipe mustard off. “That’s not coming out.”
Brendan reached down and scooped the person into his hand. Sitting on his palm was a perfectly formed little woman dressed in a tight-fitting red velvet suit. Her hair was fireengine red and her cheeks were flushed. Brendan peered closely at her. “You’re a… Diminutive?”
“Bah,” she spat. “I don’t stand by that modern malarkey. I’m a Lesser Faerie and proud of it!” She thumped her chest and tried to stand but fell back onto her bottom.
Brendan sniffed. “You’re drunk!”
“Never! Not a bit of it! I never touch the demon liquor. Not me! Ha! Drunk, he says! The idea!” Finishing with a huff of disgust, she glared at him, her tiny arms crossed defensively over her chest. A sly look came into her eye. “Something sweet, now! I wouldn’t say no to that! Ya have anything sweet in your pockets, your grace?”
Brendan frowned. Digging into his pockets, he found the packet of gum that he’d used to strike a bargain with Skreet in the Undertown. He held it up.
The little fairy spat. “Sugarless? Poison! Poison, I say!”
“Forgive me,” Brendan said sarcastically. Digging in the pocket of his trousers, he was pleasantly surprised when his fingers closed on a small hard object. He pulled his hand out and revealed a small after-dinner mint furred liberally with lint. “How about this?”
The Lesser Faerie’s eyes lit up. “Yes!” She zipped forward and snatched the mint from Brendan’s fingers. Without a moment’s hesitation, she stuffed the entire sweet, lint and all, into her tiny mouth. Brendan marvelled that she could even encompass the entire morsel. It was like watching a normal-sized person stick a softball in her mouth. With great effort, somehow, she managed to stuff the whole mint in. “SnarffffffmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMM MMMMM!”