The Changeling

by Jennifer Lyndon

  The ambassador’s eyes were lively, golden with flecks of green in the irises, and her hair was bright red with copper undertones that appeared gilt in the sunlight. She was a little too slight, almost verging on skinny. She appeared more than faintly amused by the fuss made around her as she rode her grey gelding through the gates of Vilkerdam Palace. She watched as one of the Fae guards, a very dark man with light brown hair, dismounted and reached to help her down from her horse. She waved him away with an indulgent smile, dropped to the ground and approached me where I stood on the steps to my palace.

  “Pet’Wyn, Grand Duchess of Tannuk, Fae Ambassador to Vilkerland,” she announced formally as she offered a very deep, stiff, bow in the style of Vilkerland. I laughed to myself at the forced formality of her address, which contrasted with the nearly unruly look of the girl gazing at me. I almost expected her to wink or smirk at me, and acknowledge she was teasing.

  “Loredana of the House Castelyne, Queen of Vilkerland and the Western Noge Territory,” was my reply. I grinned and endeavored to offer a Fae bow. It was a terrible attempt, and probably had Aunt Kessa screaming inside her head, but I didn’t really care. My heart felt light as I looked at this vivacious girl, the first person to appear happy in my presence since the war had begun.

  “Queen M’Tek wishes me to express her deepest regard, Queen Loredana. It is her greatest hope that our noble peoples can forge a new era of peace and friendship,” the Fae ambassador said with an incongruous grin, as if amused by her own attempt at formality. I shook my head.

  “Yes, of course. That’s what I want as well,” I replied too quickly. “But I won’t allow this formality between us. You must call me Lore.”

  “If you will call me Pet,” she said, in precise, clipped Vilken, her words seeming to stick to her tongue like nut butter.

  I reached a hand out to her, beckoning her forward. After only a moment of hesitation, during which she scanned the serious expressions of my council, and my household, assembled with Uncle Toblin and Aunt Kessa respectively, she gave a little wave with her left hand, to signal one of the Fae guards. The ambassador then trotted up the steps and quickly accepted my offered hand. The guard pursued, carrying a small, white, furry creature that seemed in perpetual motion.

  “My cousin, the Fae Queen, has sent a gift for you,” Pet’Wyn explained, taking the wiggling fuzzy thing from the guard with one arm and holding it out to me. “Her name is Faira,” Pet explained. “She’s a wolfhound.” I nodded, taking in the wispy white hair, pale grey eyes, and massive paws on the little creature. I found her fur wiry when I touched it. I accepted the puppy from Pet’Wyn, and cradled her to my chest happily.

  “Extraordinary,” I exclaimed as I inhaled the creature’s sweet mossy scent. My new ambassador appeared pleased with my response to the Fae Queen’s gift, a radiant smile spreading across her beautiful face. “Come inside, Pet, and we’ll show you to your rooms. I think you’ll like them. I have you installed across the hall from my own apartment.”

  A few days after Pet’s arrival, I was walking through the palace with Faira, exploring rooms I’d hardly realized existed, in an attempt to keep the energetic little ball of fur entertained. Soon after we returned to Vilkerdam, Aunt Kessa had a large set of double doors erected across the main stairway to the top floor. She kept these doors bolted, to block off the fourth floor of the palace. I’d spent the morning trying keys until I found the one that opened the stairway doors, granting access to that forbidden level.

  Since the upper floor was unused, I decided it was a great place for Faira to play. Periodically I’d throw a piece of tied off rope for her to chase, then run after her to get it back again as she took off with it. Retrieving seemed beneath her dignity at that point, and in fact she never really took to the idea.

  I threw the rope into a large room at the end of a hall and then chased Faira into it. Once inside, I halted in my tracks. That exact room already existed in my nightmares, though I couldn’t remember actually seeing it before. I pictured a large musical instrument, a harp, in the middle of the room, and a tapestry, offering an excellent hiding place, on the far wall. When I realized that the room had been my mother’s music conservatory, I started feeling lightheaded, and braced my hand against the wall for support. Faira dropped her rope and trotted over to me in concern, tilting her head and whining softly until I leaned down to pick her up.

  Faira began licking my ear frantically, and I had to shift her around to get her to stop. She opened her mouth around my hand, but didn’t bite down. I scratched behind her ears and walked farther into the room to retrieve her rope. That’s when my gaze skimmed to the corner of the room. For some reason I felt compelled to walk over and kick the floorboard. A hidden doorway appeared in the wall, popping open. The musty scent from the darkness beyond the door brought prickles along my spine, as I remembered hiding in that passage. I was small, in Aunt Kessa’s arms, my ear pressed hard against her chest as someone screamed.

  My arms tightened around Faira as I stepped into the passage. Leaving the door open for light, I made my way down the hidden stairway, to the next floor. There was a door handle, so I turned it, and stepped into some sort of small storage room with a window high in the wall, allowing a small square of sunlight to spill inside. The room was grubby, and there were pieces of furniture and paintings spread throughout the space, all concealed under dusty sheets. Immediately I began uncovering the paintings hidden there.

  The first few were hardly of interest to me, simple portraits of former kings and queens with pale blond hair and light blue eyes. I bore a definite resemblance to these forgotten rulers, but the subjects hardly captured my curiosity, until I lifted back a sheet to find my own face, on a girl of about my age, gazing back at me. The painting was atypical of the other portraits. The blond girl, was not sitting, but appeared to have only that moment paused while moving toward the viewer. Her expression held a look of anticipation, as if she were eager to share some amusing secret with me.

  Still, far more compelling to me was the young dark-haired girl approaching from behind the subject. The gaze of this second girl was on the back of the first, and held an expression of utter desolation. Her hair was shiny and black, with red metallic undertones. She had M’Tek’s fair skin, and her striking, pale, grey eyes.

  As I studied the picture, I realized it wasn’t only the dark-haired girl’s eyes that evoked that sense of the familiar. The girl’s nose was just slightly long, and her lips almost too sensuous for such a youthful face. As I remembered kissing those same lips, a faint heat washed through me. The dark-haired girl in the painting bore an uncanny resemblance to the Fae Queen. Around her neck she wore the sapphire encrusted locket I’d noticed M’Tek wearing, the night before she delivered Vilkerland to me in battle. In her hand she held a bright red apple with one bite missing.

  Finally, I tore my eyes from the darker girl and considered the one with my face again. This blond girl wore a nearly identical locket, encrusted with rubies rather than sapphires, and her hand was clasped loosely around a bunch of large red poppies, which was peculiar, because the symbol of the House of Castelyne is the tulip. She had an intense gaze, and wore a slight smirk with one honey-colored eyebrow ever so slightly raised. She seemed on the cusp of explaining something to me, but what she might say was a mystery.

  I’m not certain how long I contemplated the picture before I noticed Faira wiggling discontentedly in my arms. I placed the puppy down on the floor, and moved on to the next painting. In the end I found several more, in various styles, featuring the girl with my face. None evoked such a powerful reaction in me as the first, however. Though it was quite heavy, I lifted that first painting, called Faira to me, and headed down the corridor to find a way out onto one of the lower floors.

  When I managed to find another door, it led out into a closet in a room on the same level as my council chambers. With Faira following closely at my heels, I lugged the painting into my council room. I then dragged a h
eavy chair from the council table over to the wall. I stood on it to remove that awful portrait of my grandfather, which was hanging at the head of the table, as if glowering at me with his dark eyes, and even darker, bushy, eyebrows.

  I struggled to lift the large painting, but after my third attempt, and nearly falling off the chair twice, I managed to hang the painting on the wall in place of my grandfather. Afterward, I collapsed into my chair at the head of the table and gazed up at the dark-haired girl with those lovely, sad, eyes. Faira scrambled up into my lap and licked my nose, making me laugh.

  The next morning we gathered for the first council meeting since the arrival of my new ambassador. I asked Pet’Wyn to attend the meeting in order to formally introduce her to my advisers. I had another chair brought into the room and placed close to mine at the head of the table. Looking up at the new painting I smiled, realizing this was the first council meeting to which I had actually looked forward. Pet’Wyn arrived early, and sat beside me once invited.

  “Are you certain you want me here?” she asked in a near whisper. “I’ve no idea what…” she stopped mid-sentence when her gaze fell upon the painting. Her back straightened, and then she stood from her chair and approached the painting, intent on a closer view. “This is…” she started and then stopped. “That expression. And the other girl…” I went to stand beside her in front of the painting, enjoying her reaction immensely.

  “The light-haired girl is Queen Sarane,” I said in an attempt at an explanation. “I’m told I resemble her.”

  “One need only observe the mark of a flower on your shoulder to know you are, in fact, Queen Sarane, reborn,” Pet’Wyn replied softly.

  I noticed for the first time the dark pink mark on Queen Sarane’s left shoulder, peeking out from the edge of her dress. I was obviously aware of the matching birthmark on my own shoulder. Unfortunately, my dress failed to cover it completely. I placed a hand over that suddenly embarrassing blotch, in an effort to hide it.

  “Do you recognize her companion? Look at her eyes,” I added, trying to draw Pet’s focus away from that odd blemish I shared with my ancestor.

  “How could I not? The likeness is uncanny,” Pet’Wyn said. “But why was she so upset, I wonder?”

  “She resembles M’Tek, don’t you think?” I asked, smiling. “And look at her locket. M’Tek wears that same one today. Do you know if the girl was a member of the Fae royal family?”

  Pet appeared almost startled by my question, but I missed my chance to pursue her bizarre reaction, because at that moment my Uncle Toblin came into the council room, followed by Lord Tarak, Master Vonera, and Lord Bilen. We were waiting on Masters Deris and Nokten, whom I could hear approaching down the hallway. Uncle Toblin raised his eyebrows at Pet’Wyn and frowned at me. It was the reaction I was expecting, but still it bothered me. I waited, brooding over their reactions as they took their usual positions along my council table.

  “Councilmen, I’d like to formally introduce our Fae Ambassador. I present Pet’Wyn, Grand Duchess of Tannuk.” I took a deep breath before starting the next introduction.

  “I’m not sure we require formal introductions, dear,” Uncle Toblin replied, interrupting my progress. “A council meeting is no place for this Fae girl.” Shocked at being derailed so quickly, I shook my head.

  “Actually, this is exactly where my Fae Ambassador needs to be, because I want to…”

  “My Queen,” Lord Tarak interrupted. “We have sensitive information to discuss.”

  I turned my gaze from Uncle Toblin to Lord Tarak; surprised he would interrupt me so abruptly.

  “Yes, of course we do,” I agreed. “Such as the Vilkerland-Faeland Treaty. I owe a debt of gratitude to our neighbor, the Fae Queen. I intend to clear the books by way of this treaty. We will commence work upon it today.” Lord Tarak cleared his throat, and then began speaking in a tone most people reserve for simple-minded children.

  “Don’t worry yourself about debt, my Queen. I believe Master Nokten is your finance advisor. He addresses all issues of that nature. He will see to any repayment necessary for the Fae Queen’s services,” Lord Tarak said soothingly. He then cleared his throat again and I looked around the table from face to face. They were about to close ranks against me. I had to act quickly or lose control of my council.

  “The Grand Duchess of Tannuk, stays,” I said firmly, pointing out the obvious fact that Pet outranked everyone in that room, aside from me. “As I was saying, today we will begin work on the first draft of a peace treaty between Faeland and Vilkerland. If you have a problem following my command, please tell me now.” I started with Uncle Toblin. He refused to meet my eye, but held his tongue. I then gazed at each of my councilmen in turn, finally reaching Lord Tarak.

  “Unlike my fellow advisers, I will not be muzzled by an inexperienced girl,” he said sharply. “I may be the only one here willing to speak the truth, but so be it. This creature, this Fae brought into our council room, may be scrubbed clean, and tamed enough to refrain from killing us, but she’s still nothing more than a savage. You need only look upon those cold, empty eyes, and that strange, bright, hair to see she is inhuman.

  “If you’d ever lived in a border area, such as on my estate, you’d know what those creatures are. There’s a reason we can’t interbreed with them. They’re filthy beasts, incapable of higher thought, nothing more than common vermin, carriers of disease and lice. I’ve seen them descend on carrion in groups, tearing the rotting flesh off in clumps with their bare hands to gorge upon it, and smelling worse than anything you can imagine. They sell their children into slavery, and steal and mutilate our livestock. Their women are loose and lewd, lying with one another when there are no men to be had, the lewdest of all being the one you refer to as their Fae Queen. This council will never agree to hold allegiance with such filth. Now, send this creature you call an ambassador back to the ditch from which she scuttled, and allow us to get back to work. We’re wasting valuable time better used governing this realm,” he said in an imperious tone.

  For a moment I was too shocked to speak. Silence filled the room as I continued to stare at Lord Tarak. My blood was already rushing in my ears when I raised my gaze to the dark-haired Fae girl in the painting at the end of my council table. My thoughts turned to M’Tek, and the kindness she had shown me.

  “When you have a council of your own, Lord Tarak, you may decide the agenda, and who sits at that council table. This, however, is my council,” I said in a voice that was far calmer than I’d have expected. “I have heard your objection, and now relieve you of your seat. I thank you for the valuable advice you’ve provided Vilkerland to this point. Your service has been appreciated and will not be forgotten. I grant you permission to leave Vilkerdam Palace. Depart today, before nightfall.”

  “What? You can’t remove me. I was appointed by Master Toblin,” Lord Tarak scoffed.

  I shifted my gaze to Uncle Toblin and said, “Before we move on, anyone in this room sharing similar sentiments to those expressed by Lord Tarak, please speak now.” Uncle Toblin held my gaze, fury evident in his expression. I let my gaze fall on each member of my council for a moment, waiting for the shake of a head, or some other sign that they were with me, rather than Lord Tarak. Again I looked to Uncle Toblin, remembering the years in which he’d protected me from harm, and educated me, at peril to his own life. My neck felt tight enough to snap from tension as I waited for his decision. After the slightest hesitation, he forced a smile and stood.

  “Come now, Tarak. I think we’ve had enough commotion for one day. I’ll walk you out,” Uncle Toblin said. I exhaled slowly, the tension loosening slightly from my shoulders.

  “What?” Lord Tarak shouted. “Every man in this room agrees with me. I’m only speaking the truth you’re too scrupulous to give voice.” Uncle Toblin only reached an arm across his friend’s shoulders and walked with him to the doorway.

  Lord Tarak continued to argue as Uncle Toblin escorted him down the hall, reassu
ring him that all was well, and finally handing him off to one of my guards. The room remained perfectly quiet until Uncle Toblin returned. When he was again seated I turned my attention to Pet’Wyn. She was poised on the edge of her chair, a cat about to leap away to safety. I touched her shoulder lightly, causing her to flinch. After a moment she turned her head to meet my eye.

  “I’m sorry you had to endure that,” I said close to her ear. She nodded slowly. “Do you still want to do this?” I asked. “I’ll understand if you’d rather start another day.” She swallowed and then turned her attention to the men in the room, calmly meeting the gaze of each in turn.

  “The sooner we do this, the better,” she replied, finally looking at me again.

  ****

  Pet’Wyn and I were walking together after dinner, while Faira clambered at our heels. We were in one of my favorite places on the grounds of Vilkerdam Palace, within the maze, deep in the rose garden. Alone with my new friend, I took the opportunity to broach the subject of what Lord Tarak had said in my council room earlier that day.

  “Are you comfortable here, Pet?”

  “Yes, perfectly comfortable,” was her automatic reply. She smiled and gave my arm an affectionate little squeeze. “My apartment is beautiful, and you’ve shown me great kindness. I couldn’t ask for more.”

  “I’m not referring to your rooms. What occurred in my council chamber was inexcusable,” I explained. Pet shook her head.

  “It was awful,” she admitted. “Honestly, I can’t say I didn’t expect something of the sort, though. Our nations have been enemies for as long as there have been people to write about it. At this point it will be hard for any Vilkerling to see a Fae as human.” I shook my head.

  “I’m a Vilkerling, and I see the Fae as brilliant, beautiful people,” I said, contradicting her statement. Pet’s mouth dropped open, and then she covered it quickly with one delicate hand.