The next night Olan and I were back in Stanley Park looking for another fairy to follow. The park was quiet tonight. Not a human in sight.
“I am off to scout the area,” Olan said. Since he’d worked out how to fly, he was taking full advantage of the new freedom.
“Great, you get to fly around and I’m stuck here getting arthritis from the damp and West Nile from the mosquitoes.”
“Okay, you do the flying around and I’ll wait here.”
“I wish I could. Go ahead. I don’t think anything will start up here soon. Maybe you’ll find something going on. Try the Lily territory behind the tennis courts.”
While he was gone I checked the spell lines I’d cast earlier. I had a web of spells attached to everyone I knew. If Iain came into contact with them, I’d hear about it. It was weird that I hadn’t heard anything in the last two hours. Iain wasn’t exactly a hermit. Whatever Olan came back with, we were going Iain hunting later.
The shadows seemed to get darker; someone had joined me. It felt like my skin was crawling off my back. “What do you want?”
“Good to see you too, Quinn,” Iain said. “I hear you are looking for me. Or should I say I felt it.”
“Yes. I want to ask you a few questions.” I turned to face him. He was dressed in a black silk shirt and black leather pants. On him it looked normal.
“What questions?” He flicked some imaginary speck from his shoulder.
“About fairies and babies.”
“Well, the daddy fairy and the mummy fairy love each other very much.” Iain started laughing.
“Yeah, so I heard. The problem is it no longer results in babies.” I tried to read his expression but he gave nothing away. “You know what’s going on.”
“You think so?”
I wondered where Olan was. Iain wasn’t into violence; or rather he wasn’t into doing it personally. I could handle Iain but it would be nice to have back up. “Yes, I saw you at the pub last night with the nightshade fairy.”
“Ah, yes, that little thing.” He checked his nails and then buffed them on his sleeve. “I can’t really tell you anything, Quinn.”
“What’s Fionuir up to?”
“I don’t know. You know I’m not part of the court. I’m not privy to her plans.”
“Why does she use you to make contact with the fairies?”
“I am, shall we say neutral? I perform a service for her and she lets me stay that way.”
“I need to stop her. It isn’t going to be good in the long run. You know someone will have to pay for all these deaths”
“Perhaps.” He rose. “Quinn, this isn’t going to work out for you if you keep going. Just a friendly warning.”
“If I don’t, it won’t work out for anyone.” I felt like I was the only one who could see how badly this would end for us Real folk. We call ourselves that but the humans are more real than we are and they were increasing in number while we were diminishing.
Iain sighed. “Leave it Quinn. You won’t be able to stop her. If she wants to pull power she will. If you try to interfere it will indeed end with someone dying. I like you, Quinn. Don’t be a fool.”
“I can’t help it. I remember the last time we ignored the humans. You should too. You loved Belinda.”
“Don’t bring her into this.” Iain spat the words. Even after all this time, the death of his vampire lover stung. “I can’t help you.”
He spun and faded into the shadows.
Olan practiced flying all the way home. It took a half hour to make it back and when we got there, I saw someone standing in the shadows beside the door; about three feet tall and skinny, probably a fairy.
“Olan, get up on the roof.” I shrugged him off my shoulder. “Leave the fairy to me.”
He landed on the roof of the porch and settled down as I made it to the first step.
The fairy rushed toward me and I put my hands out to stop him. A nettle fairy can attack with a tiny prick of poison that will fell you in a few seconds. It doesn’t kill, but it can leave you paralyzed for months.
“Stay there and tell me what you want.” I figured I knew but didn’t want to jump to conclusions.
“I want you to stop bothering the Sidhe. We need babies, and that is the only way.” The fairy trembled, his green skin flashing dark then pale with emotion. “Please. Stop.”
I was getting tired of pointing out the long term problem with that plan. Knowing fairies didn’t think in the long term didn’t stop me from hoping they would get it. I told him what would happen.
“Quinn Larson. You are wise but you don’t have any solution to our problem.”
I heard Olan grumbling from the roof.
“What is your name?” It couldn’t hurt to try to make a connection.
“Stern Greenway, I am prince of the nettles. I have to protect my people. If we don’t breed we will die out. There are precious few of us now. Where will we be in a year?”
“Fionuir has caused your problem. Did you know that?”
“It doesn’t matter who or what caused it, the Sidhe have the cure. We will do as they ask.”
“It’s not a cure. I’m pretty sure that you’ll need to go to them again for the next baby.”
“So, we have enough poison to kill as many humans as it will take.”
“And will you teach your children to kill?”
“We have started already.”
Olan squawked. I cut my eyes to the roof. I could see his beak and eyes popping over the gutter.
“That’s a lot of humans, they’ll notice,” I said to Stern.
Stern threw his arms out. “So we deal with that when it happens.”
“Why did you come to me?” I knew by the way he hopped from foot to foot that he had something else to say. “Why now? I haven’t been able to do anything to stop you.”
“We didn’t take the Sidhe up on the offer right away. We didn’t think it was necessary. We have times when we have few babies and times when we have many.” He took a deep breath and I could see he was making up his mind. “But, we were worried. So, I went to see the old lady.”
The old lady was something of an oracle. No one had actually seen her in centuries. She usually talked through an intermediary. “What did she say?”
“She said that you would stop the Sidhe but the cost would be heavy. She meant the fairies would die out.” Tears started to fall. “If the fairies go, what will happen to the world?”
“It might mean something else.” I didn’t trust anything the old lady said. Like most oracles, she gave such open answers everyone interpreted it their own way. “She could mean the cost would be for me, or for the humans, or for Fionuir.”
“No, it must be us, we asked the question. Why would she tell us about the cost if it had nothing to do with us?”
Olan landed in front of Stern. “You stupid fairy.” I heard a power I didn’t know he had roar from his beak. “Killing humans will be your ruin. If they don’t retaliate, I will.” Stern bent backward as though caught in gale.
“But…” Stern didn’t manage another syllable.
“If you bring the attention of other beings that protect the humans, you will be crushed. Did you not think?”
I didn’t move; getting between Olan and Stern was a bad idea and I have strong survival skills. But, I could talk. “Olan, settle down. They are just trying to survive.”
Stern looked at me then stepped back, trembling. Olan turned to me; I saw thunder and lightning in his eye. As soon as Olan turned, Stern leapt over the railing and disappearing into the dark.
“Damn you wizard,” he spat. “Now he’s gone.”
“Yes, and that’s the best way for this to end. He is just one fairy. We need to stop this at the source.”