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blind was truly terrifying.
    Maybe I can snag one of those lanterns . If I jumped off and grabbed the light fast, I could run back the way we'd just come. Although, I wasn't a bit convinced I could outrun the leprechauns. They were small, but they'd already proven they were ridiculously strong for their size. And what if they sent the dogs after me? For all I knew, we were miles underground, and I got winded halfway around the school track.
    "Where are we going?" I asked.
    "Home, Lil! To the Meadows. Your grandmother, Maureen, was our keeper, and now you'll take her place--as soon as you pass your trial, o' course. But that's only one wee bitty test, and then we'll all live happily ever after."
    "You're taking me to live with you?"
    "Don't say it like that, Lil," Balthazar replied, offended. "It's an honor, isn't it? One we've been well put out reserving for you--even before this nightmare o' a trip to fetch you. You might show a bit o' gratitude."
    "Gratitude? For kidnapping me?"
    Maxwell had been following the conversation over his
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    shoulder. Now he turned backward on his dog too. "Maybe we should explain from the beginning."
    "You could try," I said sulkily.
    "All right, then." Balthazar pulled out his pipe and lit it again. The dogs settled into a rhythm, loping along the cave floor with the cart rolling smoothly behind them. "Here it is," Balthazar said, exhaling a perfect smoke ring. "You, my girl, have leprechaun blood, on your father's side."
    " What? " My jaw worked up and down. "What are you trying to say? That I'm some sort of leprechaun?"
    Balthazar grinned around his pipe stem. "Do you look like a leprechaun, Lil? Your eyes and chin are right enough, but have you seen the rest o' you? Ninety-nine percent human, you are, give or take."
    "You're a lepling," Maxwell offered. "One o' our sisters on the human side."
    "Gee, thanks. That makes everything clear."
    "Aye, but you're far luckier than most," Balthazar said. "Most leplings go their whole lives not realizing they're a bit more than meets the eye. A fine rare privilege it is, being called to join the clan."
    I didn't feel privileged. I felt scared and confused and more than a little angry.
    "Your grandmother," he went on, "had the honor o' being our keeper. That gold you're wearing is the Greens' keeper key. Maureen always intended to hand it on to you, but a
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    keeper has to be o' age--thirteen at the youngest--and our poor Maureen passed on before you were old enough. It's been a hard road this past year, carrying on without a keeper, but we waited for you, Lil, because to try for the key and the cottage is your birthright."
    "Cottage? Wait, are you telling me Gigi lived with you?" Now I knew they were lying. Hadn't I been to her house about a million times?
    "Aye, that she did, when she wanted to," Balthazar said. "She came and went, as keepers do."
    I was about to call Balthazar a liar to his face when I remembered something. I'd spent a lot of time with Gigi, but Mom had often complained about how hard Gigi was to reach when we were trying to set up a visit. "I call the woman, I e-mail, but she's off who-knows-where again, pulling another of her disappearing acts. Really, Lily, sometimes it makes me wonder if it's safe leaving you with her. You might both disappear someday."
    Even so, I found it hard to believe that Gigi was off in some meadow, keeping leprechauns.
    "So now you've come at last," Balthazar said, "although I do think Maureen might have warned us how stubborn you are. It was dangerous enough showing up to collect you without all that fuss you raised. You may not appreciate, Lilybet, how easily we could have been captured."
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    "Captured!" I exclaimed, hooting so loudly I spooked the dogs. "Who would want to capture you?"
    "Don't be ignorant, girl. Everyone wants to catch a leprechaun."
    "Right," I said. "For your Lucky Charms."
    Balthazar's eyes narrowed, not a hint of humor about them. "For our gold."
    "How do people even see you? I