Fey 02 - Changeling (101 page)

There was still a bit of holy water left in the vial.
 
Matthias searched for the spark.
 
It zoomed past him and out the door, so fast that it looked like a streak of light.

Matthias leaned against the cage, the stench sickening him.
 
The iron was cold against his forehead.
 
He was trembling.
 
This time he had killed.
 
Purposely.
 
No accident here.
 
For revenge.

As the Fey did.

"Forgive me," he whispered, hoping the Holy One would take the words to God's ear.
 
"Please, someone, forgive me."

FIFTY-FIVE

Solanda sat on the window sill, her feet braced against one side of the stone frame, her back braced against the other.
 
The wind blew in from the river, carrying with it the smell of sunshine and mud.
 
Flowers were blooming in the garden below.
 
Someday soon, when she was certain that Arianna wouldn't spontaneously change into a thorn or something even more wicked, she would ask the nurse to accompany them into the garden.

She hoped that would be before winter.

Since the Shaman had come, though, Solanda was calmer.
 
She was seeing some of the benefits of Nicholas's care.
 
The food was good.
 
She had just finished a plate of fish cooked over a slow fire. The cook had added delicate herbs which she picked off and placed on the side, and she hadn't eaten her asparagus, but saved it for the lump, who inexplicably loved green food.

He was standing in the other window, as he had since he woke up, holding the tapestry back with one hand and staring over the garden to the river and Tabernacle beyond.
 
The nurse had taken the morning off — Solanda wanted her rested because the nurse had no real idea how difficult the next year would be.
 

Neither did Solanda.
 
She only knew she had to take it one day at a time.
 
And last night, the nurse bore the brunt of Arianna's playfulness.
 
Arianna was learning some control after a week of life.
 
She would only change enough to panic the nurse, but not enough — and not long enough — to give the nurse time to wake Solanda.
 
By the time Solanda did wake, the nurse was shaking and crying, frightening Arianna who started crying too.

The child had learned, in the last day, to change a single finger without shifting anything else.
 
Solanda supervised the non-dangerous Shifts, but did nothing.
 
Better to let Arianna Shift under observation than to order her not to Shift at all.

The door to the room opened, and the nurse came in.
 

"I think I told you to rest," Solanda said.

The nurse nodded.
 
"I canna sleep away from me babies."
 
She looked at the lump.
 
"Has it been all day he's been looking out there?"

"I'm afraid so," Solanda said.
 
She put her plate on the floor so that she could get the fish oil off it later, when she was in her cat form, and got off the ledge.
 
Arianna was still sleeping, exhausted from her play the night before.

"Come on."
 
The nurse took the lump's arm.
 
He turned and allowed her to lead him near the fire.
 
Then he hugged her, the movements slow and gentle.
 
Solanda found it amazing that the nurse tolerated such handling.
 
But she actually seemed to like it.
 
"Tis sleep ye need, boy.
 
Ye was up with me all night.
 
Tain't good for ye."

Solanda wondered if anything was good for that lump, but instead of commenting on that, she said, "I think I'll take a cat nap.
 
Wake me if you need me."

The nurse smiled at her and went to the lump's favorite corner.
 
He followed her.
 
She leaned against the wall, and he sat on her lap, resting his head on her shoulder.
 
After watching them for weeks now, Solanda marveled at the lump.
 
By rights, he should have died before he reached Arianna's age.
 
But unless someone knew that he wasn't a real, he seemed like a child continually moving underwater, never hearing properly, never speaking properly, never moving properly.
 
She wondered how Arianna would deal with him.

Not that it mattered at the moment.
 
Arianna was asleep in her favorite position, her small fist pressed against her cheek.
 
Her eyelashes twitched as if she were dreaming.
 
What did she dream about?
 
Shifting?
 
The loss of her mother?
 
Already her life was full of activity and loss.

The fish scent under Solanda's nose was driving her cat side crazy.
 
She took a deep breath and Shifted, feeling her body shrink into its familiar second form.
 
She ended up on her haunches beside the crib, her front paws on the legs.
 
She brought her paws down and immediately cleaned her face, getting oil and flavor from her whiskers.
 
The meal had been good — excellent in fact — if she could just get the cooks to forgo the green.

She walked over to the plate and pushed the asparagus aside with her nose.
 
It reeked worse in this form, and almost turned her strong stomach.
 
She ignored it, and licked the remains of her meal off the plate, beginning on the lower left rim and working her way into the center.

The nurse started cooing, as she often did to soothe the lump. Islanders frowned on song, as Solanda had learned on Arianna's second night of life.
 
They had learned somewhere that music was evil, and they had outlawed it.
 
Only birds do that, the nurse had told her.

Birds, heh.
 
Fey did it too.
 

Birds. That was one irritation of the window overlooking the garden.
 
All the birds that landed on the trees below.
 
Meals, waiting for her hunting skills.
 
But she didn't dare launch herself from the window, so the delicious creatures sang in blissful ignorance, waiting for the day when Solanda became free again, the day she made a meal of everything bug, bird, and mouse in sight.

At least they had fish here.
 
Good fish too.

Above her Arianna giggled.
 
Solanda cursed under her breath. The child catnapped.
 
Solanda sat on her haunches and cleaned her whiskers a second time.
 
The nurse would warn her if Arianna began to Shift.
 
A cat had a right to finish her meal in peace.

Then a movement caught her eye.
 
The lump stood up.
 
The nurse stopped cooing.
 
The lump walked to the crib and looked down.
 
He did that periodically, and it always unnerved Solanda.
 
It was as if the lump suddenly remembered he had a sister, and wanted to protect her.

He clutched the edge of the basket.
 
Solanda couldn't see Arianna's physical response, but she giggled again.
 
She liked her lump and usually reached toward him when he looked at her.

The nurse looked at Solanda and shrugged.
 
Solanda sighed. She would have to change back.
 
She didn't want the lump to inspire Arianna to do anything stupid.

Then the lump whipped his head around. The sudden movement unbalanced him.
 
His arms pinwheeled, bumping the crib, and he toppled sideways.
 

He had never moved that fast.
 
Ever.

The nurse hurried across the room, and caught the crib before it fell over.
 
Then she crouched beside the lump, brushing his hair from his face and asking him if he was all right.

Solanda hadn't moved.

He was looking at her.
 
His eyes were alive.
 
They had an intelligence she recognized, a presence she felt she should know.
 

The fish taste went stale in her mouth.
 
She stood and crouched, inching up to the lump as she would to a dead body.
 
Then she stopped by the face.
 
The lump had never had this kind of adult intelligence glowing from its eyes.
 
Occasionally she had seen it look smart — she had wondered if Jewel was coming back as a Power or if Gift was looking through him.
 
But she had never seen this.

The lump's mouth was curved in almost a sneer.
 
He seemed to recognize her too.
 
The nurse was still exclaiming over him, trying to get him to show her that he was all right.
 
He wasn't bleeding, but he wasn't moving either.

She sniffed his face, wondering if he smelled different.
 
He had the dry polished scent of stone, and a bit of the egg he ate for breakfast.
 
His eyes followed her every movement.
 
When she got close to his lips, he blew at her to scare her away.

She huffed, a cat noise of disgust that she couldn't control, and the ruff on the back of her neck rose.
 
She backed away from him, unwilling to take her gaze from his face.

"By the Powers," the lump said in disgust, and then the presence left his eyes.

"What did he say?" the nurse whispered.

But the intelligence remained.
 
Solanda saw it, wondered at it.
 
The intelligence was boyish, now, not as malevolent.
 
The lump closed his eyes and stretched, like a child would do before sleep.

"What did he say?" the nurse repeated.

She hadn't understood him.
 
The lump had spoken in Fey.

Again.

The hair was still up on the back of Solanda's neck.
 
Her tail had poofed with fear.
 
The lump was alive because someone had visited this nursery through him.
 
Probably Gift.
 
But now he brought someone else with him.

Even though she wanted to clean this memory away, she didn't have time.
 
She had to check on her baby.
 
Solanda Shifted, rising back to her Fey form, feeling her muscles lengthen, her tail disappear, her eyes grow.
 

"What did he say?" This time, the nurse's tone held fear.
 

Solanda brushed her hair away from her face with one hand.
 
"He swore in Fey," she said.

"In Fey?" the nurse asked.
 
"Did you teach him that?"

Solanda shook her head.
 
She peered into the crib.
 
Arianna was awake, her eyes wide and frightened.
 
Solanda picked her up and held her warm body against her own naked shoulder.
  

The baby was all right.

For now.

FIFTY-SIX