breakthrough last night, I think.”
“What kind of breakthrough?” Kim demanded. She was intrigued in spite of her annoyance.
“With a little prompting from me, he was able to enter and maintain a warp state on his own. He outran me.” She arched an eyebrow in Brendan’s direction. “Almost! And I watched him leap over a police car.^ 41 Has he ever shown you ability like that?”
Kim glared at Charlie but didn’t speak. Instead, she jammed her stick back into her backpack and sat down with a snort of disgust.
“Hey,” Brendan said, breaking the angry silence, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t mean to interrupt yet another discussion where you talk about me like I’m not even here, but… I thought I’d laid down some rules of my own. No one was supposed to come into contact with my family without my permission.”
“I realize we bent the rules a little bit… ” Greenleaf admitted.
“Yeah, I’d say so. And if anybody has a right to be angry,” Brendan said, aiming a pointed look at Kim, “I’d say that would be me.”
Greenleaf sighed another world-weary sigh. He took a moment to gather himself, plucking a bit of lint from his otherwise immaculate green vest. Finally, he sat in the chair behind his desk. “Brendan, we didn’t tell you everything about the ceremony.”
“Oh really? What an unbelievable surprise!”
“No need to be so dramatic, Brendan,” Greenleaf sniffed. “It’s only a little bit dangerous.”
“Oh great!” Brendan slumped down in a chair. “Here we go! More horrible things I didn’t know about. Awesome! Kill me now and get it over with.”
Greenleaf chuckled. “Death is not to be feared, Brendan. It is a natural transition from one state of being to another. However, there are… ”
“Don’t tell me! Don’t tell me!” Brendan interrupted. “There are worse things than death and they could happen to me if I don’t pass some weird tests devised by weird Faerie weirdos that I don’t know?”
“Am I that predictable?” Greenleaf laughed. “You seem to have a grasp of the situation. The Proving is only a part of the ceremony. Once you complete the Proving and survive, you must submit to be chosen by a Clan. Clan membership is very important, Brendan. As soon as you are chosen, you have the protection of that Clan and access to all of its resources. You gain powerful allies. To be without a Clan is to be truly alone in the world, which is not only sad but can be very dangerous.”
“Can’t I be a free agent? Neutral or something?” Brendan demanded.
“It’s very rare,” Kim said with a frown. “Only the most powerful can survive outside of a Clan.”
“Won’t I just join your Clan?” Brendan asked Greenleaf.
“Clan has very little to do with family,” Greenleaf explained. “Though Og and I are brothers, we are in different Clans. The Clan system is a sort of support network. In Ancient times, the Clans were constantly feuding and fighting. Fair Folk banded into Clans for safety and to pool resources. Now we don’t fight anymore… “
“Much!” Charlie interjected.
“Much,” Greenleaf agreed ruefully. “But being part of a Clan is important because it provides support and protection from the Dark Ones, the rogues who seek out the weakest and turn them to the Darkness. Being outside of the Clans means that Dark Faeries like Orcadia will prey upon you with impunity. You’ll be on your own. Even if we chose to break the Law and try to help you, we wouldn’t be able to guarantee your safety or your family’s-there aren’t enough of us.”
“Fine,” Brendan said, exasperated. “Another reason I have to pass these tests. So can anyone just tell me what they’re going to be? Shouldn’t I be studying them to make sure I pass?”
“I wish things were so easy.” Greenleaf shook his head regretfully. “The highest-ranking Faeries present choose the tests. No one knows what they will be until the ritual begins. That makes preparation incredibly difficult.”
“Great.” Brendan threw up his hands. “Do I at least get to know who the judges will be, or is that a big secret, too?”
“No, the judges are no secret.” Greenleaf smiled.
“I assume Ariel will be a judge, since he’s the head honcho around here?”
“Ariel is the head of his Clan. But he is acting as the chairman, so he’s neutral. But Kitsune Kai from Japan will be there. It’s a great honour to have her as a judge. She is a strange one and quite… eccentric. Her test will be a bit odd, no doubt. You’ll have to be on your toes. Happily, my sister will be a judge, too.”
“Aunt Deirdre is the head of a Clan?” Brendan asked, amazed. He had no idea she was old enough to be considered a Clan leader. She hardly seemed older than his Human mother, but Faeries’ looks were very deceiving. Charlie had lived for centuries and still appeared to be a teenage girl. The same went for Kim.
“Indeed. She was born only eight minutes before me.” Greenleaf grinned. “We’re twins. A very rare occurrence among our kind.”
Kim piped up, “The last judge is a big deal. Pukh himself will be there. He calls himself the King of Tir na nOg, the Everlasting Lands.”
“Never heard of it. Sounds like a Japanese cartoon.”
Charlie burst out laughing. “Oh, Brendan, you are a real treat. Japanese cartoon. Ha! That’s good.” She continued to laugh despite glares from Kim and Greenleaf. She wiped her eyes with the hem of her T-shirt. “Sorry. That’s just funny.”
“Tir na nOg is a stronghold of Faeries who wish to follow the Old Ways,” Greenleaf explained. “Pukh was one of the Dark Faeries who lost the battle of the Final Alliance between Humans and Faeries. He chose to lead his followers into a sanctuary outside the realm of Humans. The Faeries of Tir na nOg rarely venture outside their kingdom, but Pukh put his name forward as one of your judges. This is a great honour, Brendan.”
“Lucky me! He sounds like a really great guy,” Brendan said glumly. “I guess I should be flattered?”
“I don’t know.” Kim shook her head. “I’d be suspicious. Who knows what he really wants. Maybe he just wants to get a look at you. Or maybe he has something else in mind.”
“He won’t make it easy, will he?” Brendan said.
No one said anything. Finally, Charlie smiled a lopsided smile. “Don’t count on it.”
Brendan felt his heart fall into his shoes.
Outside Greenleaf’s classroom, Harold and Dmitri strained to hear the conversation on the other side of the door. For some reason, though the door wasn’t particularly thick, they couldn’t make out a single intelligible word.
“What are they saying?” Dmitri whispered.
“What, have I got better ears than you? You tell me.” Harold’s round face was red and sweaty from the effort of squatting out of sight beneath the window, although he found maintaining his awkward position easier than he might have a few weeks before. He was eating less since he’d found this new obsession with Brendan. “It’s weird. They’ve been in there for half the lunch hour. What could they be talking about?”
“Beat me,” Dmitri whispered.
“Beats me. It’s beats me, you goof.” Harold had less patience with Dmitri’s English slang vocabulary than Brendan did.
“Sorry.” Dmitri shrugged. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know. We gotta find out what Brendan’s been up to. And this super-babe cousin of his shows up outta nowhere? Did you see the way Kim reacted when she saw Charlie? She was really angry.”
“Yes,” Dmitri agreed. “There’s more to this than greets the eye!”
“Meets the eye! MEETS! OW!” Harold cried out as what felt like a vise gripped his ear and hauled him to his feet. It wasn’t a vise but a vice-principal. Harold and Dmitri had been so occupied with their eavesdropping that they’d failed to detect Ms. Abernathy’s stealthy approach. She clamped Dmitri’s ear in her other pincer and pulled him up, too.
“A little birdie told me you were lurking around up here,” Ms. Abernathy snapped. “The upper halls are off limits during lunch hour.”
“Yeah… uh… we… ”
“No excuses. We are going to the office and you’ll be assigned punishment duties. I think a couple of hours after school scrubbing the floors in the boys’ washrooms should teach you some respect for the rules.”
“We were just trying to… ” Harold stammered. “I mean, Mr. Greenleaf asked us to… ”
