2 Deja Blue (12 page)

At exactly the same time, Jeremy and I said, “Huh?”

Brennan smiled that mischievous grin again. “When a
Mermaid
or M
erman wants to marry outside of their own kind, they must go through the
Grá
mo
Chroí
Dúshlán
.” Jeremy and
I
sat there
, staring blankly at him.
Brennan sounded it out slowly for us. As he said the words again, it sounded like
Graw-muh-Khree
Doosh-lahn
. He continued, “Loosely translated, it means the Love of My Heart Challenge.  It’s pretty simple actually. The next of kin to each betrothed must compete or choose a competitor from their own Court to compete in a swimming competition. If the competitor from the Water Court
wins
, then Celestine
cannot
marry
Bexin
. If the competi
tor from the Earthen C
ourt prevails, then Celestine is free to marry
Bexin
.”

“That’s it? They have a swim
ming
competition?
Big
whoop
dee
-
doodley
-doo
!”
Jeremy answered
,
surprised.

“But
,
wait a minute,” I interrupted, “If it’s a swimming competition, doesn’t pretty much anyone in the Water Court always win? Anya said members of the Water Court are the fastest swimmers. And, couldn’t the person from the Water Court just throw the competition so that Celestine and
Bexin
can get married?
I mean…Celestine could just, like, pay
off
the
Water Court competitor
,
y
a
know…to lose. Then she’d be free to marry
Bexin
.
If the Water Court loses, and the Earthen Court wins, Celestine can marry who
m
ever she wants…right?
”

Brennan
was sternly shaking his head as he
answered my question. “
Well, yes. In a
way
you’re right. But
,
I doubt that would happen. First of all, as I said, the next of kin compete for the betrothed. But
,
just because someone from her family
is competing
doesn’t mean that they’re au
tomatically going to throw the C
hallenge on purpose. Many
M
erpeople
feel the same…that marrying outside of their own kind is wrong and should be forbidden.
T
o have a
ny
Water Court
member marry
outside
of their own
Court is
considered
a
black mark, not only in the eyes of the
Royals of the Water Court
, but
on
the family’s honor.”  I snorted and r
olled my eyes. What were these
M
erpeople
thinking? It’s the 21
st
century for Pete’s sake!
These Water Court people were some hig
h and mighty racists if you ask
me.

Brennan ignored my obvious irritation and continued on, “
Celestine’s family is most
likely against her choice to marry the
Troll
. But, i
f the King and Queen
of the Water Court
feel that Celestine’s competitor wil
l be sympathetic to the couple and
throw the competition on purpose,
they will simply choose another to compete.
It is, after all, their Court.  T
hey have final say on the
Water Court
competitors.
The binding
ties of our magic is
very strong within our own Courts.  The Royal families have a special link directly
to
each member of their Court and they will sense whether or not a chosen competitor will attempt to throw the competition.
I
t is true that most members of the Water Court
usually prevail in the C
hallenge. But, some members of other Courts have won in the past. It’s not very common, but it has happened.” Brennan looked like he knew something we didn’t. A touch of arrogance was reflected on his face.

             
“Well, what if whoever
Bexin
chooses doesn’t win?”

             
“
Remember, i
t’s not
Bexin
who chooses his competitor.
I
t’s the next-of-kin
or someone else of their choosing
who competes for the love birds.”

I rolled my eyes, “Details, details.
Whatever.
So what if whoever competes for
Bexin
loses? What happens to Celestine and
Bexin
?”

Brennan uncomfortably cleared his throat and hesitated. That’s when Anya spoke up.

“Well, there are two choices. They end the relationship and go their separate ways, or they get married anyway and become exiled.”

Confusion spread across my face, “Exiled? You mean, from like the
Mer
-world or whatever? Like, her parents kick her out of her house?”

“Ha,” Jeremy chortled, “No different from here. Tons of kids get kicked out of their house
s
.”

“Not exactly.”
Anya said slowly, “They are exiled not only from their home, but also from Fey itself. The portals are sealed to them forever
,
and they are forbidden to ever speak to anyone –
Fairy
,
Troll
,
M
erperson
, or any other creature, from our world – forever.” 

Brennan spoke up, “It’s a pretty big sacrifice…to never be able to return home again.
Devastating to some.
Anya and
I are stronger because we are R
oyalty…but most
F
airies and other creatures of Fey need to return home to…to…re-energize so-to-speak. We are connected to our world in a very unique way, and if we are cut off from it, survival could be pretty grim. It weakens our spirits. I’m sure Celestine and
Bexin
could live…to be with the one you love, that is…well…I suppose it’s phenomenal. But, our world is not like your world. For someone from Fey to have their connection permanently severed…” He shuddered at the thought
,
then
he continued, “I don’t know if they could really thrive after a time.”

There were only two other times I had ever seen Brennan this serious in the twelve years I’d known him. The first was when we were trying to figure out what to do about
Sirrush
. The second was when he came to rescue me from nearly drowning. His mischievous twinkle had faded as he obviously mulled this fact over.

Anya spoke quietly, “It would be like sending you to the moon and telling you that you could never go home to Earth.”

“Well. That just sucks
rocks
.” I stated grumpily. “Why in the world would your people do that? Just block off the portals
because somebody is in love with someone from another...ah
…Court
?”

Brennan stuck out his chin and answered defensively, “It is not
our people
who do this.
It is the way of the
M
erpeople
,
n
ot
the F
airies.”

“So, back up a sec,” Jeremy said, “You said the next of kin competes for Celestine and
Bexin
. So…who exactly would that be?”

“Celestine has a sister, Freya, so she will be competing for her.
Bexin
, as you know, has a brother.
Grobel
will be competing for him.”

“
Ughhh
!
”
I said. “
That
craptastic
creepy stalker
Troll
is
gonna
compete for
Bexin
?  He’s so rotten he’ll probably
lose
the competition on
purpose just so they can’t get married!
”

Brennan’s
twinkle
came back in his eye again. “
Wellllll
...maybe not…” he
slyly smiled
.

Uh-oh.
I didn’t like the sound of that. I also didn’t like the way Brennan was looking at me. “Wait. You still haven’t told me
your ‘brilliant’ plan of how I could pay
my debt to the
Mermaid
…please tell me I don’t have to go anywhere
near
Grobel
! I hate that
boof
-nut
loser
!
He
tried to kill me!”

Brennan smiled, but there was a hint of concern in his eyes, “No, no, no. Don’t you worry about
that.
  I promised we would
keep you safe from him, and we will. But,
again,
bribery
is
involved.
Grobel
is a greedy little mongrel.”

“Bribery?”
Jeremy
lifted
his chin and squinted at Brennan.

“Yep.
But first I’ve
gotta
…uh…secure some items. And that’s where you come in, Ruby. Once I get what I need, I’m going to need a safe place
to store
them. Since we have cast protective spells around you and your house and
we’ll have several trustworthy F
airies
on guard
, your home is the safest place for me to
store
the...items…until we need them.”

“Just how long are we
talkin
’ here? 
A day?
A week?
A month?
  I don’t
wanna
be considered an accessory to a crime or anything! I’m already in enough trouble for killing old
Sirrush
. I’d hate to think that I’d piss someone else off in Fey ‘
cause
I’m hiding something in my house. The last thing I need is someone else
coming
after me.”

Anya spoke up, “Oh no, no, no. Don’t even worry. Nobody will even know you have anything there. It really is the perfect hiding spot.”

Just then, Jeremy’s cell phone rang
,
blaring
Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” for his ringtone. He quic
kly picked it up,
“ ‘lo
?
Yeah, M
a….Okay.
Yeah….Okay, I’m on my way home now.” Jeremy looked apologetically at us,
“Sorry guys, I
gotta
bail. My M
a’s got shit for me to do
,
and she needs her car back to run some errands. Do you want me to drop
ya
off on the way?”

I shook my head, “Nah. It’s okay. We can walk back.
And,
Jer
?”

“Yeah?”

“You should really consider ditching the “I’m bringing Sexy Back” ringtone. It’s
kinda
gross when your mom calls.” I giggled.

Jeremy gave my shoulder a big shove, “
She’s
not bringing sexy bac
k…I am!
F
ashizzle
!
”
He
snapped his fingers and
smiled
flirtatiously
at me and continued, “
Alrighty
then!” Jeremy clapped his hands together and jumped up from the picnic table and pointed at me, “You. You fill me in later, okay? And I’ll want details,” he gave a warning look to Anya and Brennan, trying to be serious and waving his fingers in front of their faces.
“Details.
You hear?” Then he trotted off to his car, honked
,
and peeled out of the parking lot doing about 70 miles an hour.

I shook my head and smiled as I watched him go. I let out a big sigh and then turned my attention back to
the
situation at hand. I looked back and forth between Brennan and Anya, “So. If I do this, if I…keep this
,
whateverthehell
it is you’re going to
steal, in my closet, it will re
pay my debt to Celestine?” I looked between Brennan and Anya questioningly.