“What? Polish his keyhole with your ears?” she sneered. “You’re coming with me.”
Harold and Dmitri groaned as she dragged them away. Chester was careful to stay in the shadows of an alcove as they passed. Satisfied that the eavesdroppers were taken care of, he sidled away, whistling.
Inside the classroom, Mr. Greenleaf’s head turned as he heard the commotion. “We had some eavesdroppers, but thanks to my glamour and the trusty Ms. Abernathy, they’ve been dealt with.” He turned to Brendan. “We have explained what’s coming as best we can. I don’t want to frighten you, but you need to be prepared for the tests ahead. Ki-Mata… ” He addressed the sullen Faerie who sat with arms crossed at one of the desks. “I know you are upset. But I’ve done this for Brendan’s benefit. I hope you can forgive me and learn to get along with Charlie. You are more alike than you know.” Both girls snorted at that but didn’t speak. “All right. We’ve talked enough. The bell will ring soon and I have my lesson to prepare. I’ll see you tonight at the Swan.”
Kim, Brendan, and Charlie stood up and headed for the door.
“Oh, and Charlie?”
Charlie turned.
“Try not to do anything too outrageous, please?”
“Me?” She grinned. “Never.”
^ 41 I once leapt over a police car. It belonged to my nephew, who is three.
THE CIRCLE
The winter solstice, the time when the sun was farthest away from Toronto’s latitude, would fall on December twenty first, a Friday. That Friday would therefore be the shortest day of the year. It might also be the last day Brendan ever saw. Everything else seemed insignificant beside the Challenges. Brendan had four days until the Proving ceremony, and he was completely terrified.
According to Greenleaf and Kim, strong Wards, Compulsions, and glamours were being woven to keep the Human residents of Toronto away from the Island of the Ward. Weather glamours would freeze the lake to discourage travel, and the ferries would cease to run. Island residents would be convinced that they should spend the weekend away or ensconced in their homes.
Brendan couldn’t imagine the power required to work such a massive glamour. But he could easily imagine the worst coming to pass in the days ahead. In the four days he had left, he had to prepare for any possible test the judges might throw at him. And do his social studies project, although the wrath of Mrs. Scott, his teacher, paled in comparison to a fate worse than death. Brendan couldn’t believe how much his perspective had changed over the last few weeks. Before then he’d had a healthy fear of his high school teachers. Now he was standing across the sparring circle from Saskia, part-time bartender and full-time Warp Warrior, who was getting ready to hand him yet another beating as part of his training.
“This is completely hopeless!”
“Naw, it ain’t, lad! Ye were better tha’ time,” Og urged him. “Ye almost touched her once.”
“I missed by a mile,” Brendan grumbled.
“Och, aye. But still, it was closer than last time!” Og sat at the bar of the Swan of Liir, swigging from a mug of brown ale the size of Brendan’s entire head. Despite the glass’s size, his gnarled fist hefted it with ease. “Ye can’t give up.” He burped.
“Nope!” BLT cried, waving a tiny fist. She sat on the lip of a glass of diet cola, her feet dangling down and her free hand clinging to a drinking straw. “You show her who’s boss!”
Brendan was still gasping for breath after the last round. They’d been at it for an hour now, and he didn’t feel that he’d improved at all. His T-shirt was soaked with sweat and his hair plastered down. Saskia looked as if she’d just rolled out of bed, fresh as a daisy.
“You think too much, Brendan,” the Faerie said. “Your thoughts slow you down. Clear your mind and react, only react.”
Easy for you to say. Brendan tried to free his mind of all stray thoughts. The fact that he had an audience didn’t help. Kim and Greenleaf stood at the railing on the balcony above, witnessing his humiliation.
Kim had been very cold to him when he’d arrived at the Swan. She was still angry about yielding her authority to Charlie.
“Where’s What’s-Her-Face?” she’d sneered when he had come in the door for his training session with Saskia.
“You mean Charlie?”
“Who else would I mean? Or do you have another girl I don’t know about?” At that, Kim had spun away and left him speechless.
As for Charlie, she had declined when he’d asked her to come along to the Swan.
“I have a few errands to run before the Gathering. Besides, I don’t think Kim is all that thrilled with me at the moment. I’ll see you later tonight, non?”
Her absence annoyed him, which was strange because he’d found her incredibly annoying when she’d first shown up. Now he was mildly shocked to find that her presence was reassuring. She always had good advice. She was right about one thing, though: Kim was not fond of her at all.
Finbar was hard at work polishing the wooden tables. He pretended not to watch, but Brendan could see the old man stealing glimpses of him as he rubbed oil into the worn, gleaming surfaces.
Finbar had become a fixture at the Swan ever since he’d led Brendan to the amulet he’d stolen from Brendan as an infant. Though the old Exile had caused him a lot of trouble, Brendan had spoken up for him, taking his part in a bid to be reinstated in the Faerie Fellowship. Brendan knew what being an outsider felt like, so he sympathized with the white-haired, haggard man with the haunted blue eyes.
Still, the way those eyes followed him whenever he came to the Swan disturbed him. He saw a hunger there, a plea for help. Brendan had done all he could to plead Finbar’s case to Ariel. He imagined what it would be like to be an Exile himself, always knowing that another world existed and never being able to see it. He felt a sharp sadness for the old man wiping the table so doggedly.
“Hey, Finbar,” Brendan said with a little wave. Finbar raised his sad blue eyes from the table he was polishing. “You okay today?”
“Right as rain, young Prince. Right as rain.” The answer didn’t match the emptiness in Finbar’s eyes. “You just keep yer mind on yerself. I’m just fine.”
Brendan smiled and looked around the room. The rest of the audience was made up of a few early-evening patrons. Monday was a slow day at the Swan. That was why Saskia had the time to spar with Brendan. Leonard, usually the doorman and bouncer, was keeping an eye on the bar for his love, Saskia. They made a formidable couple: she a Warp Warrior and he a shape-shifter. Brendan had never seen the big man transform into a lion, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. Leonard grinned at Brendan, his golden teeth glittering against his dark skin. “Don’t let her scare you, Brendan. She ain’t such a hard one, deep down.” Saskia bared her teeth at her man in a feral grin and growled deep in her throat. Leonard’s booming laugh rolled out across the bar like thunder.
“Ready, Brendan?” Saskia asked.
“I guess… ” He barely got the words out before she blurred across the circle on the attack. Brendan dove out of the way, brushing against the invisible barrier of the fighting circle. The barrier flared with a purplish light, and his shoulder stung where he’d brushed against it.
The fighting circle itself was amazing, though Brendan was too busy getting his butt handed to him to really marvel at it. Prior to their sparring match, as she had done before every session, Saskia had cleared the floor of furniture and drawn a circle on the seamless wooden floor with what appeared to be a piece of purple chalk. Satisfied with her work, she tucked the chalk in her trouser pocket. They were confined within the circle.
Saskia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, held it, and let it out. Brendan had seen many Faeries perform similar rituals to focus their minds before employing their powers. He envied her concentration. No matter how hard he tried, he could never seem to block out the world around him and see what he wanted with his mind’s eye. Saskia then clapped loudly once at each of the four points of the compass, north, south, east, and west. Suddenly, a shimmering cylinder of energy sprang up from the chalk line, reaching from the floor to the ceiling high above. The energy shimmered and then faded.
