Fey 02 - Changeling (47 page)

Porciluna stood in the center.
 
His robe was plush velvet, the small swords hanging off his sash made of polished silver.
 
Even after the Invasion, Porciluna managed to have the best of everything in his rooms --the best food, the most comfortable bed, the finest jewelry.
 
Like Matthias, Porciluna had been a second son forced in the religion.
 
Unlike Matthias, Porciluna had decided to make himself as comfortable, if not more comfortable, than the family that had forced him to this place.
 
Porciluna had never hidden his ambitions, or his lack of faith.

Unlike the man standing next to him. Ilim was squat and older than many of the Elders.
 
He wore a plain robe and kept his hair uncut, preferring to tie it into a ponytail down his back.
 
He supervised the spiritual guidance of the servants and rarely involved himself in Tabernacle business.

The six remaining Elders were scattered around the audience hall, conferring in groups.
 
Only Timothy didn't seem to be paying attention.
 
Timothy, whose hair had touches of gray in it, but who moved with the quickness of youth, had a naïveté about him that the others mistook as a lack of intelligence. Timothy was staring at the wall panels which depicted the reign of the first Rocaan as he converted the countryside, and subdued his brother, the King.

"It has been one hundred and sixty-five years since the Elders last summoned the Rocaan," Matthias said.
 
"I trust this matter is important."

"If you consider murder important," Porciluna said.

"Murder!" Linus whirled from his place near the wall.
 
He walked beside Porciluna.
 
Linus hated trouble.
 
He always went out of his way to avoid it .
 
"You condemn a man before giving him a chance to speak."

"Close the door, Vaughn," Matthias said to the Elder nearest him.
 
Vaughn closed the doors as Matthias walked into the room.
 
He looked at his former companions.
 
"Elder Reece said you all thought I was crazy."

"One needs to be crazy to kill the Queen at the King's coronation," Porciluna said.

"Porciluna!" Linus took his arm.
 
"This was not how the meeting was planned."

Planned.
 
Matthias looked at Linus.
 
Linus and Ilim resembled each other enough to be brothers, but Ilim appeared embarrassed by this meeting and Linus did not.

Porciluna shook Linus off.
 
"Let me explain this to you, Holy Sir.
 
We all know that you never believed in the Roca or in God.
 
The Rocaan told us that the day he appointed you.
 
He said your faith was tainted."

"He also said a man cannot become an Elder without faith."
 
Timothy spoke from his place near the wall.
 
"Do you believe that, Porciluna?"

Matthias suppressed a smile.
 
Perhaps the group was not as unified as Porciluna thought it was.

"Just because the 50th Rocaan said it doesn't make it true," Porciluna said.

"Obviously," Matthias said with a pointed glance to Porciluna.

"Don't change this," Porciluna said.
 
"The fact is you committed murder."

"That's a heady charge," Matthias said.
 
"On what do you base it?"

"On the ceremony yesterday.
 
She died, Matthias."

"She did," Matthias said.
 
"And it is regrettable.
 
But it happened."

"You make it sound as if it were out of your control."
 
Eirman had been standing in the shadows.
 
He came forward, under the light of one of the torches.
 
"You knew that holy water would kill her."

"I didn't use holy water on her," Matthias said.
 
"I kept my agreement with the King.
 
I had told him I would place a cloth on her head before touching her or allowing anything to touch her, and that is exactly what I did."

"Officiate Danesfen says you instructed him to keep the cloth in his pouch with the holy water."

"I instructed him to keep it in his pouch.
 
I do not know what else he kept there," Matthias said.

"At the stables, you asked for the cloth.
 
I was there when he pulled out the holy water then the cloth," Linus said.
 

"The vial for the water should have been sealed.
 
The cloth seemed dry.
 
It looked fine to me."
 
Matthias shrugged.
 
"The cloth was dry when I spread it on the Sacrificial table.
 
I kept it away from the vials.
 
How do we know that the cloth killed her?
 
How do we know it wasn't her husband's touch?
 
He had been near the holy water.
 
You are quick to assume I did it."

"She didn't change until you put the crown on her head," Porciluna said.

"Yes, but the transformation was a slow one.
 
Most Fey melt quickly."
 
Matthias looked at them all.
 
"Or am I the only one who remembers that?"

"You didn't want to let her out of the Hall," Porciluna said.

"We don't know what caused her change.
 
I believe that God and the Roca were signaling their displeasure.
 
I thought she should remain so that we could understand what was happening."

"The Fey thought they could save her."

"They were obviously
 
mistaken," Matthias said.
 
"It is clear that her death was God's will."

"Just as the use of holy water as a weapon is God's will?"
 
Timothy asked from the corner.

"If God did not want it used that way, he would not have revealed its properties to us," Matthias said.
 
He walked farther into the room, until he was standing in front of Porciluna.
 
"How many of us can say that we did not deliberately use holy water to kill a Fey?
 
Hmmm?
 
Timothy, perhaps.
 
Andre before he disappeared.
 
Any of the rest of you?"

He looked at Eirman.
 
Eirman dropped his gaze.
 
So did the rest of the Elders as Matthias turned to them.
 
Only Porciluna continued staring at him.
 
"You were the one who discovered how to kill.
 
You were the one who convinced the Rocaan to use holy water in that way.
 
And you are the one who used it to kill the woman that our King had taken to wife.
 
You cannot pass blame so easily."

"I am not passing blame," Matthias said.
 
"I am merely pointing out that the standard cannot change from case to case.
 
Murder implies a deliberate act.
 
If you want to put this in human terms, what happened to her was an accident.
 
If you prefer it in religious terms, it was an Act of God."

"God does not commit murder," Porciluna said.

"Of course not," Matthias said.
 
"He acts in the best interest of his people.
 
He gave us holy water.
 
He allowed us to be the only people in the world with the power to defeat the Fey.
 
You cannot believe that he would allow our blood to mingle with Fey blood and call it good.
 
Look at the child Nicholas created with that woman.
 
Look at what happened to the Roca's blood.
 
Jewel carried another child.
 
God ended her life before another abomination could appear."

"If that were true," Ilim said, "then the child wouldn't have been born."

Matthias felt as if someone had poured cold water down his back.
 
"What?"

"The palace kitchen staff were present when the child was born.
 
They say it is a demon."

The Elders gasped.
 
Matthias felt the blood drain from his face.
 
Another child to contend with.
 
"I thought Jewel died."

"She did," Ilim said.
 
"But the kitchen staff said that Nicholas and the Fey saved the child.
 
Then when they saw what it was, they made the staff leave."

Still it continued.
 
Matthias clenched his fists, then rubbed his fingers together, allowing none of the emotion he felt to show.
 
Nicholas would have to throw these children over.
 
But Matthias had time on this.
 
He could eventually convince Nicholas to do so.
 
And Nicholas would.
 

He would have to.

No monstrous child could rule Blue Isle.
 
It would not be allowed.

"The child is a demon because the Fey are demons," Matthias said.
 
"They have powers which should be reserved for God.
 
My instinct was right.
 
We should have forced the Fey to remain in the Hall until we were convinced Jewel had died."

"Why?" Timothy asked, his brow furrowed.
 
"Doesn't the survival of the child argue against your position?"

"No," Matthias said.
 
"The Fey have abilities only God can subvert.
 
We allowed them the freedom to perform those abominations.
 
We should have prevented it."

"You seem so certain," Linus said.
 
"I don't understand how you can be so certain."

"There is nothing in the Words Written and Unwritten that mentions abomination," said Ilim.

Matthias was trending on very thin ground here.
 
They would not listen to him if he didn't convince them properly.
 
"The Words Written and Unwritten talk about the Soldiers of the Enemy and the threats they brought to Blue Isle.
 
The Roca sacrificed himself to them to prevent them from taking over the Isle.
 
In doing so, he was Absorbed to the Hand of God."

"We know this," Vaughn said.

"But you do not think about it," Matthias said.
 
"The 50th Rocaan believed the Fey were the Soldiers of the Enemy.
 
He went to meet with them hoping that God would be present at the ceremony, believing that he would become the Roca in the World, believing he would be Absorbed, believing that he would lead the Fey off the Isle."

"He died because of that belief," Reece said softly.

"He did," Matthias said.
 
"But did he die because he was mistaken in his belief or because he was too arrogant?
 
Or because he misunderstood an element of the Words."

"He would never misunderstand the Words," Vaughn said.

"Really?" Matthias asked.
 
"Were you listening to the Coronation Ceremony?
 
The Roca's representative in the World is the King.
 
We are not part of the Roca's direct lineage.
 
The King is.
 
What if he made a mistake mating with the Soldiers of the Enemy?
 
Wouldn't God show that by giving him deformed children?
 
What if he were to face the Soldiers of the Enemy head on, be Absorbed, and the Fey would leave because of it?"

"Is that why you used a religious ceremony to commit murder?" Porciluna asked.
 
"Because you heard those words and made a mistaken belief according to your inept scholarship?"