When a day had passed, I happily turned back into myself, put the bone in my backpack and sat beside Duchess Bye-bye in another form of myself without the backpack with metal rings.

Bye-bye said, “I never died so iron doesn’t bother me.”

I asked. “How didst thou become a Fairy?”

She gave me a look. “Vikings raided us and lit our house on fire. Fairies took us, but my family had to pay, so I was given to them. I got mad and beat them all up. After forcing them to gift me, I went a lot of places. I met Anteater and stayed here.”

I hugged her. My Goblin instincts wanted to adopt her. I held her tight. “Doest thou want pointed ears like mine?”

She laughed. “Thou does not have pointed ears.”

I couldn’t stop myself. I took her into shadow and held her close. When I took her back out of shadow, I hugged her. “I’m thy brother and uncle now. Thou art my sister. Soon enough, thy ears will have points.”

She said, “That was nice. I like the shadow.”

I said, “I have a lot to teach thee. Until then, don’t stay in shadow long, don’t take any animals with thee, and no people. Be careful and don’t tell anyone that thou canst travel through shadows.”

She slipped into shadow, sailed around, and came back out beside me. She put her head in my lap. “My brother.”

I said, “Tomorrow, I learn to be a rook.”

She smiled and went to sleep. Turning into a Goblin is often like that. I stroked my sister’s hair. Now I was committed to this Fairyland entirely. I had a family here.

The rook was easier. Duchess Bye-bye gifted me with raven speech skills and flying. It was close enough for me to start learning the tricks that Duchess Bye-bye insisted I learn.

We spent the day flying and playing follow the leader. I slept as a rook did a bit more practice and gave my little sister a hug before summoning Mr. Hebert.

***

Mr. Hebert said, “I thought you were gone to the Goblin Festival.”

I shook my head. “There was a bit of stuff I had to do first. I will be heading out as soon as I get something to eat.”

Mr. Hebert started walking toward the kitchen. “Phil, you shouldn’t wait long, Archer is going to visit soon.”

As he said it, I saw Archer’s Hummer coming up the driveway. I started making a sandwich and just throwing it together.

I had just poured a glass of water when Archer came into the kitchen. “Hey, Roland. Hey, Phil. I thought you were going to a music festival.”

I nodded, “Hey, Uncle Archer, I’m just leaving.” I took my drink and the plate of food with me as I slid into shadow.

***

While taking a break to finish my meal, I changed into me with the backpack and made sure the cat purse was there and intact. I contemplated putting the bones back in the purse to return them, but I couldn’t make up my mind if it was horrible to put bones in her purse or just polite. As I put the purse back up and checked on the bones, I took out the rat bone and decided not to waste a form on it. I put it back and noticed that the seal on the small book was evaporating and that a glowing LED sort of blue light was flashing.

I opened the book just as it started to vibrate. Inside of the book was hollowed out and a small electronic device like a cell phone, but a quarter the size and thinner, lit up.

The display read, “Do not summon Roland or Andrew. Get to them as fast as thou canst. They are in great danger. Beware flashes of light.”

I transformed into me without the backpack and slid into shadow. I didn’t care about ripples or waves. I hurled myself through shadow. I had gone this path just now and twice before. I knew it and I knew its tricks. I was moving faster than I could see ahead. Bathed in blue light that limited my speed, I sailed through shadow to areas I knew even better than the starting section of the path north to Indiana.

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I stopped when I got near the neighborhood and stepped out of shadow. I realized I was still hungry and had left my plate and glass behind. I flew high up as a rook. Archer was on top of the roof with his oversized crossbow held ready. He had two statues near him and an open bottle of whiskey. The statues were of Mr. Hebert and Uncle Anthony. The statues were in front of him, and he was sitting where he could kick them off the roof. As I focused on the statues, I saw they were dressed in clothing. Mr. Hebert’s outfit matched what I had just seen him wearing. I dared not fly closer, but I dared not wait. I flew down until I could slide into shadow and slid from shadow to shadow and came in from the back of the garden and behind Archer. I saw the dark shadow gleam of a camera and noticed several such gleams around the house and up higher where the eaves overhung.

I came out of shadow and turned back to a crow. The cameras were all in black silvery globes attached by clamps and boards. There were light fixtures on the top of the globes. I turned to an owl. My eyesight wasn’t as good in the bright of day, but I could hear Uncle Archer talking to himself.

“Roland, you idiot. You were always so nice and generous. I thought I had killed you back when we served Charlemagne, but no, your body wasn’t that important. So, I studied you. Anthony was easy. The right resonance and he would freeze up hard as rock and only a visit to Fairy could save him.

“Oh, but then lucky, stupid, lucky Roland, you found a Fairy. A freak Goblin Fairy. Well, tell you what. I found all your little resonant caches. I got rid of your damned Studebaker and washing machine, ‘cause I couldn’t have you figuring out how long I’ve been stalking you. I still have all the science my father discovered, and I have a nice little gizmo that helps me find the strings that play your music. It’s gonna let me know when the Goblin brat returns.”

I could hear him taking a swig of whiskey. He was still a perfect shot even dead drunk, and he was fast. I wasn’t sure how to deal with him. He was stronger and out of shadow faster than me by a long shot. He was tough as rock.

I slid into the very softest edge of shadow and slowly, without a ripple, slid up toward the roof. Lights flashed and I fell out of shadow. I would have fallen the three floors if I had not been in crow form. In silence, I perched on a ledge and listened.

“Oh, goody! My prey is here. Poor Roland, your resonant junk is all but gone. My sensors so carefully used to find your junk are now locating the last instrument that plays your tune.”

He shouted, “Phil, is that you? I’m up on the roof. I want to show you something.”

I heard him shift position and take a couple of steps. He might not be in position to kick the statues off the roof now. I thought about the roof tiles and wondered if I should have chosen the rat form after all. I considered my options.

I could go to Fairy to speed time, but then I would need someone to summon me out of Fairy. I knew a Goblin that played a double bass and a Goblin that worked in a music store. They might be near, but they might be up in Gary, Indiana. I had no way of knowing, and I couldn’t risk Mr. Hebert or Uncle Anthony. From my perch I could see Uncle Archer’s shadow. He was standing near the edge of the roof above me and holding his oversized crossbow.

Flashes of light were going to knock me out of shadow or kill me if I tried to go up in shadow. I just had to beat his speed with the crossbow.

Silently picking up speed as an owl, I flew upward. The blinding lights flashed as I got near, and they were giving away my movements under the eaves. I swooped and turned to a rook. I flew to where Uncle Anthony’s statue was and turned in to me in shorts ready to grab the statue and transform.

I slammed into the statue. My air was knocked out of me as a I grabbed the statue. One of Uncle Archer’s arrows hit me in the arm. Only my grip on the statue kept me from falling off the roof.

I transformed and fell off the roof as the statue disappeared. Falling, I went to shadow. The lights flashed and I fell out of shadow. I slid into shadow again before I hit ground. I shifted to the shade over the deepest fish tank and splashed down to stop my fall. I took to shadow again as the pain from the crossbow bolt made it clear that it was still there, even when it should have been in another form of me. I needed to get it out of me, but there was no way I was going to be able to pull it out on my own.

Dripping blood in the carriage house, I winced as I crouched under a worktable and locked the end of the arrow in a vise. With it held firm, I dropped to the floor leaving the arrow behind. I changed into myself uninjured. Apart from feeling as hungry as I could remember feeling, I was fine. I wanted that sandwich I had left behind.

I shadow stepped into the kitchen. There were several open cases. Sitting on the foam of one was a long flashlight-looking thing with a sort of bronze bell. It looked like the sort of thing Uncle Archer would build if he was trying to make a steampunk accessory, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. I heard the creak on the stair a floor and a half above me as I realized that the flashlight thing had two safeties on it, and both of them were off. It was a weapon. Of course, it was a weapon—Uncle Archer built it.

Armed with the weapon, I went to the stair and looked up. Uncle Archer and I met eyes, and he backed up into the second floor out of sight. I turned into an owl to listen.

He whispered, “Lottie, I summon thee. The damned Goblin has the crystalizer. Bring me home.”

Then he shouted, “Did you hear me? I don’t care about the Hummer! Get me out of here!”

I didn’t wait. I went to Mr. Hebert’s statue. Both the kittens were holding onto the clothing on the statue, and their fur was raised. There was a sound by the hatch that came up onto the roof, so I held onto the statue and took it to Fairy.