Bran turned to the wizard. “You knew all of this when you spoke to me that first time out front, didn’t you? Knew me and what you wanted of me?”
“I did, to a point,” the bookseller admitted.
“And if I do nothing, fairy creatures will kill me?”
“They will.”
“Why me?”
“That I do not fully know,” Merle said. “It could be retribution for a past recrimination against your father. It could have to do with your working with me. I do know this: It will take a combined effort by you and Richard to discover what is going on and to put an end to it.”
“And I am to leave all that I know?” Bran thought out loud.
“No. It will be here for you afterward,” Merle said.
“It feels like I don’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice,” the wizard said. “Choice governs the entire universe, and choice will see it to its end.”
“Bran, think it through,” Richard argued, trying to hide his anger. “Do not trust this man. Not ever. Myrddin Emrys never tells anyone the whole truth. He knows more than he lets on and it can have dire consequences. He has ruined numerous lives in his pursuit to control the events of this world. I am one of them. You should not do this.”
Long moments passed.
“And what is it I am to do?” Bran asked. “Confront this lord?”
“I have known this day would come for a long time, Bran,” Merle said. “The Lord of Annwn craves more than is his right. He must be stopped. He has some design on this world and I do not know what it is. I do know this—you leaving this bookstore with us is the only way to protect the races of two worlds. It’s the only way to—”
“It is the only way for me to be safe,” Bran finished.
Merle nodded.
“Do we go to kill him then? Is that your intent?”
Merle looked to Richard. The knight was impassive like stone.
“I see,” Bran answered for them. “You ask me to be a murderer.”
“If you do not go, Richard will fail,” Merle countered. “And you will die here. Of that, I have seen all too clearly.”
“Dying—that is the lack of choice I am talking about.”
“I am not going,” Richard said flatly. “That ends it.”
“You have already chosen to, Richard,” Merle said.
“The hell I have!” “Elizabeth would want you to go,” the old man said. “And trust me. You want to go as well. I have seen her death tied to these events; I have seen her death marking the beginning of a course in the world that will lead to answers for you. It is the reason I ask that you go and not one of the others.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It is what it is, Richard,” Merle said, certainty in his eyes. “And all I know is, I am afraid. She is a puzzle piece in this. I wish I was wrong and could say differently. I know the pain you carry better than you realize. I think by going you will understand it better—what transpired between you and Elizabeth, and possibly even find a bit of solace.” He paused. “And you must leave this night, to make the difference two worlds need.”
Bran looked to Richard. The knight stared back hard. He felt trapped once more. Years earlier the old wizard had convinced him to join the Yn Saith as a graduate student. It had led to a life of darkness, sorrow, and regret. The anger from Merle bringing up the death of Elizabeth had evolved to unsettled curiosity, though—as Merle undoubtedly knew it would—and the knight could not quell the swell of it. Answers he had been at a loss for years could be his. But that knowledge would come at a price, as it always did with trusting Merle.
Duty to do what was right collided with his self-loathing and hatred of the bookseller. There was only one choice the knight could make though, and he was not happy about it.
Richard turned to Bran.
“When can you be ready to leave, boy?”
The cold night enveloped Bran when he stepped from Old World Tales.
He could still turn back. It would not be a hard thing; he owed no one anything. Merle had a sense of urgency Bran did not question, but there had to be another avenue he could go by that did not involve entering Annwn. Life on the streets was exceedingly real, and Bran had confronted his fear numerous times there,