his father again. Still, the sword scared him a little.
“Come,” Merddyn said softly. “It is yours. No one else here may touch it.”
What made him decide to take the sword was the annoyance on Pukh’s face. If taking it would upset the King of the Everlasting Lands, he had to do it. Brendan took the sword, sensing its power and energy through the wrapping. He nodded to Merddyn. Without a word, he joined his companions and walked out of the Swan of Liir. He wondered if it would be for the last time. Then he decided he didn’t care. He was with those who mattered most to him. If others didn’t understand, so be it.
They made it outside the door without incident and Brendan breathed a sigh of relief.
Later that night, safe at home, Brendan lay in his bed, content. He and his friends had split up and gone to their separate homes with the plan to meet up after Christmas to talk about what had happened. The boys promised Brendan that they wouldn’t share their experience with anyone without discussing it with him first.
As he lay in the darkness thinking about what had happened at the Swan, he felt suddenly bereft. In the darkness, alone, doubts began to crowd in. He wondered, had he been too hasty? Had he burned his bridges? He had to believe he’d done the right thing. He knew he was right. All he’d seen since he’d become aware of the Faerie world convinced him that the Fair Folk and Humans could not continue living the way they were. The Earth was suffering because the two were not in tune.
The enormity of the problem suddenly pressed down on his chest. He felt completely alone. Sure, he had his friends Harold and Dmitri and now Chester. He had his sister, although he still wasn’t sure where she stood. She’d been unnaturally quiet and subdued all the way back and had gone straight to her room. He hoped she would come around.
He heard his parents come home, giggling and a little tipsy. His father started singing and his mother shushed him. They came up the stairs to their room, trying to be quiet but laughing like children. Brendan smiled and a weight lifted. He loved them so much.
The road ahead was uncertain but he wasn’t afraid. Well, not much. He had friends and he had family, and that would have to be enough.
He must have fallen asleep because the tapping on the window startled him awake.
He sat up and banged his head on the ceiling. Cursing, rubbing his head, he went to the window and raised the sash.
Charlie clung to the drainpipe outside the window. Her dark hair was once more in a mohawk and she was wearing a torn T-shirt, even though the temperature was well below freezing. Tweezers curled around her shoulders, his bright red eyes blinking at Brendan.
“Hi,” Charlie said.
“Hi,” Brendan answered. “Do you want to come in?”
“No thanks. I just came to say goodbye.”
“Why? Where are you going?”
“Just away for a while. I need a little time to think.”
Faced with the prospect of not seeing her, Brendan suddenly felt sad. He should have been glad to be rid of her after all her harassment. Now here she was going and he wished she wasn’t. “Where will you go?”
Charlie shrugged. “No idea yet. Just away. Merddyn hasn’t made any progress finding my parents.”
“I’m sorry,” Brendan said and meant it. “I wanted to thank you for your help. Without you, I don’t think I could have made it through the Proving.”
“You did very well.”
“Where were you?”
“What?”
“Where were you, during the Proving?”
Charlie turned her face away.
Brendan pressed. “I really needed your support.”
“I thought I’d done enough for you.”
“Yeah.” Brendan nodded. “I guess you did. I missed you, that’s all.”
Hair shadowed her features but Brendan could tell her mouth was set in a hard line. “I had to check on some things.”
“What kind of things?”
“Personal things,” Charlie snapped.
They were quiet for a moment. The drainpipe creaked gently under Charlie’s weight. The wind gusted, a few flakes of snow clicking on the windowpane.
“I should be going,” Charlie said.
“Wait,” Brendan said. “I saw you talking to Pukh. What did he want?”
“Oh.” Charlie’s eyes slid away. “Nothing in particular. He was just asking about you. I… didn’t tell him anything. Nothing important.”
“Be careful,” Brendan said. “You can’t trust him.”
Anger flashed in Charlie’s sapphire eyes. “Why don’t you just mind your own business, Brendan? Go inside to your family. I’ll take care of myself.”
She turned to go but Brendan held her arm. She reluctantly looked into his face.
He thought of the moment in the basement. The sadness of her voice as she sang. “I’ll miss you.”
Tears stood in her eyes.
He felt his heart skip a beat at the sight of that beautiful face, glowing in the moonlight. He remembered running through the park under the stars.
“Be careful,” he said.
She smiled. Gracefully, she slid down the pipe and landed lightly on the snowy ground. With a final wave, she set out across the backyard. Her body shifted and she became a stag that vaulted the back fence with ease and grace. In a flash, she was gone.
Brendan stared at the place where she’d disappeared for a long while. Just as he was about to close the window, a streak of light flashed out of the night sky and into the bedroom.
“Oh, boy!” BLT crowed. “You really stirred them up, I tell you!”
“Shhh!” Brendan hissed. “People are sleeping.”
BLT looped the loop and lighted on the bed. “Ariel is totally furious with you, but Deirdre and Greenleaf are talking him down.”
“What did Merddyn do?” Somehow, the enigmatic old Faerie’s opinion mattered most to Brendan.
“He said he accepted your decision, which seemed to settle most people down. Then he up and left. He’s gone!”
“What about Pukh?”
“Old Puke was strange. He didn’t seem all that angry. He actually seemed pretty mellow about the whole thing. Lugh is still stuck in the floor, though. Not a happy camper.” BLT started to laugh and it was infectious. Brendan found himself laughing along.
“Brendan?” His mother’s voice from the hallway below interrupted the mirth. “Is someone up there with you?”
“No, Mum!” Brendan answered. He was going to tell them everything. Just not tonight.
“Why are you laughing all by yourself?” she asked. “That’s a sign of insanity, you know. Should I be worried?”
“No!” Brendan called, smiling. “I’m just watching a video on my iPod. Sorry!”
“Time to sleep!” He heard her footfalls as she headed back to her room and closed the door.
“If you’re going to sleep, I’m gonna go out,” BLT announced. “I’ll just have to celebrate for the both of us!”
BLT zipped across the room and waited at the window as Brendan opened it enough to let her escape. He then went and sat on the bed.
He thought about what his mother had asked him. “Should I be worried?”
He suddenly felt confident and optimistic. I really did give the correct answer. No.
He reached under his bed and slid out the cloth bundle that held his father’s sword, now his sword. He peeled back the cloth and revealed the hilt. He clasped his fingers around the smooth crystal and it settled easily in his
