Then I called Tad.
"Hey, Mercy," he answered.
"Dad told me that you were nearly involved in a shoot-out at the OK Corral in East Kennewick this morning." "That's right," I told him.
"But let me tell you about the whole day and see what you think." I ran through the whole thing from beginning to end--leaving out only the part where I hid the book.
When I'd finished, there was a small pause while Tad absorbed what I'd said.
Then he asked, "Just what is in that book anyway?" "It's a book written about the fae by someone who was fae," I told him.
"I don't think there's anything magical about it--or if there is, I can't tell, and I usually can.
There's a lot of information in it and a lot of fairy tales retold from the other side." I had to laugh.
"Gave me a whole new perspective on `Rumplestiltskin' and a real aversion to ever reading `Hansel and Gretel' again." "Nothing shocking?" "Not that I read.
Not a whole lot that isn't already out in the realm of folklore--though this is more organized.
Particularly in regard to the variety of the fae and the fae artifacts.
I suppose there could be something shocking in the part I haven't gotten through yet--or there's something concealed by magic or a secret code .
.
.
Invisible ink, maybe?" My imagination failed me.
"Let me tell Dad all of this," Tad said.
"I can't think that there would be that much interest in that old book.
Sure, it's valuable--and there would be a desire, I think, to keep it out of the hands of the humans.
But it wouldn't be disastrous if there's nothing in it but fairy tales not that much different from books already available .
.
.
Wait a minute." He paused.
"Maybe that old woman in the shop was Phin's grandmother." "His grandmother? She was older, but not that old.
Phin is .
.
." It had been difficult to pin his age, I remembered.
But he had been an adult--at least in his thirties, possibly as old as a well-preserved fifty.
"Anyway, this woman was maybe early sixties, no older than that." Tad cleared his throat.
"If she's fae, Mercy, it doesn't matter how old she looks." "Phin doesn't have much fae in his background," I said.
I was certain of that.