In the open area beside the pools, just in front of the steel vault, I lay on the floor with a heavy statue half on me. I didn’t want it to hit the hard floor, so I made a gossamer brace to hold the statue.

The cats hissed then disappeared into shadow. I looked around. I had just introduced two shadow stepping cats into a Fairyland that might or might not despise cats. I was pinned under a statue, and I might never be able to chase them down.

With gossamer braces holding the statue in place, I managed to get out from under the statue and then I got the statue stable and on the ground without gossamer. With layers of gossamer padding in place, I brought Uncle Anthony into the chamber and onto the gossamer pads. Then slowly I got rid of one pad at a time, and Uncle Anthony was finally safely on the floor.

I sat beside them and took out the small device that had warned me that Mr. Hebert and Uncle Anthony were in danger.

The display was blank. I considered my options. I was starving, but I needed to find the cats.

I shadow stepped until it was clear that there was no point in searching farther.

I summoned Monroe and he answered.

I asked, “Monroe, do you have any food ready?”

Monroe pulled me to Real and gave me a bowl of beans and some bread. I had missed his beans. I never did manage to get them right.

Monroe asked, “What happened? You don’t look well.”

I shook my head and chewed until I could swallow and wash it down with the lemonade he gave me. “Two of my friends were turned to stone. I think they will be okay. I was shot with an arrow, and I am injured pretty badly in two of my forms. After I get some food in me, I plan to go shopping. I’m going to fill a few backpacks with snacks and go to the Goblin Music Festival to see if I can find out how to save my friends.”

Monroe said, “Now I am certain I don’t ever want to visit Fairy.”

I stopped eating long enough to say, “Nope. No place is safe. This happened in Real.”

Monroe asked, “Is there really a Goblin Music Festival? Why am I asking? it’s probably dangerous.”

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I shook my head. “I was assured by a source that has been pretty reliable so far that the festival would be safe.”

Monroe asked, “Where is it?”

I said, “Gary, Indiana.”

He frowned. “That’s up by Chicago. That’s a pretty long trail to shadow step.”

I asked, “I could teach you some more tricks to make travel faster. Will the rest of the boys be okay if you left for a couple of days?”

He frowned. “They might get upset if I went on my own. Can we leave in an hour? I need to put some food away and go to one of the caches where I put the money you gave us. Then we can round up the family and see who else wants to go.”

I said, “I have more backpacks with cash. I can pay. Pack up the food you think might go bad, and I will store it for later and thank you for it now.”

***

We were sitting outside a grocery store in Indianapolis where I had stocked up on peanut butter, jelly, summer sausage, cheese, bread, and candy. All my brothers were holding sausages, hunks of bread, and cheese they were happily eating.

I gestured with my sausage. “I had a situation where I tested it. If you learn to ride on the fringe of the shadow, you should be able to handle a flash of light.”

Dennis looked around. “Yeah, right. All of you are in on this together, and now my favorite brother Phil is trying to get me killed. I ain’t going near a flash.”

I started to say something, but Jordan looked like he was about to laugh so I just stayed quiet. I wondered what I had done—right or wrong—that had made me his favorite. Probably just suggesting this outing to the music festival.

***

In front of an abandoned factory with a few vehicles in the huge parking lot that was slowly being overtaken by weeds, we were stopped by wards. Music was playing in the distance, and a lot of Goblins had huge double bass cases or guitar cases with them.

A Goblin in the line ahead of us said to the group he was with, “Don’t worry, the wards can keep you out, but you can leave right through them. They got a lot of security. This is nothing like any of the other Goblin festivals I’ve been at.”

When we got to the front of the line, and it was our turn to be checked for weapons, my family was taken aside. All the Goblins were staring at us wondering what we had done. A girl came out of the security booth and smiled at me. “Don’t worry about it, Phil, we just put the picture up so we would recognize you. They’re waiting for you in the office area on the second floor.”

She looked at the rest of my family and said, “Just Phil. Don’t worry, Phil, we can take care of Roland and Anthony.”

She pointed at me. “Everyone, this is Phil, he’s the one that saved the festival. Anyone with him is okay, just let them in.”

It was turning from partly cloudy to overcast as we walked across the shadowless parking lot to the old factory that for a moment in time would no longer be abandoned, Jordan asked, “What did you do, Phil?”

I shrugged. “Nothing I can explain, and in this case, not much at all.”

A cute Goblin girl ran out of the building and straight for us. I recognized her and took her purse out of my backpack. I held it out and said, “You dropped this.”

She took the purse, slung it on her shoulder, took my arm, and led me to the building.

I whispered, “You are making me look like a hero for things I never did.”

She said, “You are a hero, but for things you could never explain. It all works out.”

The End of Book 1 Fade to Fairy