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Mister was nowhere to be seen when I got home, but I left the food in his dish anyway He would eventually forgive s I would need from my kitchen - fresh-baked bread with no preservatives, honey, milk, a fresh apple, a sharp silver penknife, and a tiny dinner set of a plate, bowl, and cup that I had carved myself from a block of teakwood

I went back out to my car The Beetle isn&039;t really blue anyreen clone, one with a white one, and the hood of the storage trunk in front had to be replaced with a red duplicate, but the name stuck anyway Mike is a super ed a hole in the front hatch or the claw marks that ruined both the doors You can&039;t pay for service like that

I revved up the Beetle and drove down I-94, around the shore of Lake Michigan, crossing through Indiana, briefly, and then crossing over the state line into Michigan itself Lake Providence is an expensive, high-class co estates It isn&039;t cheap to own land there Victor Sellswell in his former position at SilverCo to afford a place out that way

The lakeshore drive wound in and out a hills down to the shore The properties ell spread out, several hundred yards between theht side of the road, away from the lake as I drove north The Sells house was the only one I saw on the lake side of the drive

A sravel lane, lined by trees, led back from the lakeshore drive to the Sells house A peninsula jutted out into the lake, leaving enough room for the house and a small dock, at which no boats were e one, by the standards of the rest of the Lake Providence co - a lot of glass and wood that wasmore synthetic than wood by the way it had been smoothed and cut and polished The drive curved around to the back of the house, where a driveway big enough to host a five-on-five game of basketball around a backboard erected to one side was overlooked by a wooden deck leading off the second level of the house

I drove the Blue Beetle around to the back of the house and parked there My ingredients were in a black-nylon backpack, and I picked that up and brought it with s The breeze coh to make me shiver a little, and I drew my mantled duster closed across my belly

First impressions are important, and I wanted to listen to whatmoment and just stared up at it

My instinctsout for another bottle of Mac&039;s ale They had little to say, other than that the place looked like a pricey little dwelling that had hosted a fah many a vacation weekend Well, where instinct fails, intellect rass around the house had not grown long enough, this winter, to require a cutting The basketball net was stretched out and loose enough to show that it had been used fairly often The curtains were all drawn

On the grass beneath the deck soleamed, and I went beneath the deck to retrieve it It was a plastic filrey cap, the kind you keep a roll of film in when you send it in to the processors Filredients I used, sometimes I tucked it in my duster&039;s pocket and continued my inspection

The place didn&039;t look , really It looked like a rich etaway nestled back in the trees of the peninsula and safe fro eyes Or an ideal location for a novice sorcerer to co abilities, safe froood place for Victor Sells to set up shop and practice

I made a quick circuit of the house, tried the front and rear doors, and even the door up on the deck that led, presumably, to a kitchen All were locked Locks really weren&039;t an obstacle, but Monica Sells hadn&039;t invited me actually to take a look inside the house, just around it It&039;s bad juju to go tro into people&039;s houses uninvited One of the reasons vah trouble just holding theether, outside of the Nevernever It isn&039;t harmful to a hu you try to do with ic Also, it just isn&039;t polite Like I said, I&039;uy

Of course, the TekTronic Securities control panel that I could see through the fronthad some say in my decision - not that I couldn&039;t hex it down to a useless bundle of plastic and wires, but a lot of security systems will cause an alar without notice It would be a useless exercise, in any case - the real infor nagged at me, a sense of not-quite-emptiness to the house On a hunch, I knocked on the front door, several ti the bell No one caed and walked back to the rear of the house, passing a number of empty trash cans as I did

Now that was a bit odd Iin the trash, even if soe truck come all the way down the drive to pick up the trash cans? That didn&039;t seem likely If the Sellses came out to the house for the weekend and wanted the trash emptied, it would stand to reason that they&039;d have to leave it out by the drive near the road as they left Which would seee men would leave the eht them back to the house

Of course, it needn&039;t have been Victor Sells It could have been a neighbor, or soemen to carry the cans back away froo on, a little hint that maybe the house hadn&039;t been empty all week

I left the house behind ht was breezy but clear, and a bit cool The tall old trees creaked and groaned beneath the wind It was still early for thetoward full overhead, with the occasional cloud slipping past her like a gauzy veil

It was a perfect night for catching faeries

I swept an area of dirt not far from the lakeshore clear of leaves and sticks, and took the silver knife fro the handle, I drew a circle in the earth, then covered it up with leaves and sticks again,the location of the circle&039;s perimeter in my head I was careful to focus in concentration on the circle, without actually letting any power slip into it and spoil the trap Then, working carefully, I prepared the bait by setting out the little cup and bowl I poured a thimbleful of milk into the cup and daubed the bowl full of honey from the little plastic bear in my backpack

Then I tore a piece of bread froht with ht of the ainst the skin, and I touched it daintily to the underside of the coarse bread, letting it absorb the blood Then I set the bread, bloody side down, on the tiny plate

My trap was set I gathered up my equipment and retreated to the cover of the trees

There are two parts of ic you have to understand to catch a faery One of the in the whole world has its own name Names are unique sounds and cadences of words that are attached to one specific individual - sort of like a kind of the&039;s naical sense, almost in the same way a wizard can reach out and touch soernail clippings, or blood If you know soical link to it, just as you can call someone up and talk to the the nah: You have to know exactly how to say it Ask two John Franklin Set subtle differences in tone and pronunciation, each one unique to its owner Wizards tend to collect nae Rolodex You never knohen it will coic you need to know is ic involves a circle of one kind or another Drawing a circle sets a local li to do It helps hiic, focus and direct ita sort of screen, defined by the perioing past it, containing it within the circle so that it can be used To round, or close hands with a bunch of people, or walk about spreading incense, or any of a nu on your purpose in drawing it Then, you invest it with a little spark of energy to close the circuit, and it&039;s ready

One other thing such a circle does: It keepspast it Neat, huh? Usually, this is used to keep them out It&039;s a bit trickier to set up a circle to keep them in That&039;s where the blood comes into play With blood comes power If you take in sonificance to it, a sort of energy It&039;s y that way (the way vah to close a circle

Now you kno it&039;s done But I don&039;t recommend that you try it at ho

I retreated to the trees and called the na series of syllables, quite beautiful, really - especially since the faery went by the name of Toot-toot every ti with the nah to make him wander this way of his own accord Or at least, that was the theory

What was his naive inforh to get it

About tenin over the water of Lake Michigan At first I mistook him for a reflection of thewaves of the lake Toot was s sprouting from his back and the pale, beautiful, tiny humanoid form that echoed the splendor of the fae lords A silver niy, silken little mane, like a bird of paradise&039;s pluenta

Toot loved bread and milk and honey - a co to take on a nest of bees to get to the honey, and there&039;s been a real dearth of milk in the Nevernever since hi-tech dairy farms took over row their oheat, harvest it, thresh it, and then mill it into flour to round with caution, scanning around the trees He didn&039;t see me I saw him wipe at hisset, one hand rubbing greedily at his stomach Once he took the bread and closed the circle, I&039;d be able to bargain information for his release Toot was a lesser spirit in the area, sort of a dockworker of the Nevernever If anyone had seen anything of Victor Sells, Toot would have, or would know someone who had

Toot dithered for a while, fluttering back and forth around thecloser Faeries and honey Moths and flame Toot had fallen for this several times before, and it wasn&039;t in the nature of the fae to keep e their essential natures All the same, I held my breath

The faery finally hunkered down, picked up the bread, dipped it in the honey, then greedily gobbled it down The circle closed with a little snap that occurred just at the edge of

Its effect on Toot was immediate He screamed a shrill little scream, like a trapped rabbit, and took off toward the lake in a buzzing flurry of wings At the peri as solid as a brick wall, and a little puff of silver runted and fell onto his little faery ass on the earth

"I should have known!" he exclaih-pitched, but erated kind of faery voices I&039;d heard in cartoons "Now I rely, sneaky, ha-nosed, flat-footed mortal worm!"

"Hiya, Toot," I told him "Do you reain?"

Toot glared defiantly up at round More silver faery dust puffed out from the impact "Release me!" he demanded "Or I will tell the Queen!"

"If I don&039;t release you," I pointed out, "you can&039;t tell the Queen And you know just as well as I do what she would say about any dewdrop faery as silly enough to get hiht with a lure of bread and milk and honey"

Toot crossed his arms defiantly over his chest "I warn you, mortal Release ht of the faery ic! I will rot your teeth from your head! Take your eyes fro and your ears orms!"

"Hit me with your best shot," I told hiet out of the circle"

I had called his bluff I always did, but he probably wouldn&039;t remember the details very well If you live a few hundred years, you tend to forget the little things Toot sulked and kicked up a little spray of dirt with one tiny foot "You could at least pretend to be afraid, Harry"

"Sorry, Toot I don&039;t have the time"

"Time, time," Toot complained "Is that all youabout ti late and honking horns! You people used to have it right, you know"

I bore the lecture with good nature Toot could never keep his , in any case

"Why, I reuys came in And they never complained about ulcers or - " Toot&039;s eyes wandered to the bread and linted He sauntered that way, then snatched the re it with greedy, birdlike ood stuff, Harry None of that funny stuff in it that we get sometimes"

"Preservatives," I said

"Whatever" Toot drank down thepull, then pro at his rounded tuht," he said "Now, letfirst"

Toot scowled up atI really could do the thing with the dung, you know" He stood up and folded his arh I weren&039;t a dozen times taller than he "Very well," he said, his tone lofty "I have deigned to grant you a single request of soift of your cuisine"