The Changeling

by H. P. Mallory

  “ Both things can’t be true.”

  But the old woman had just smiled. “You’ll never fully understand Fae magic if you can’t grasp two conflicting ideas both being true.”

  At the center of the copse was a clearing through which passed a fast-running stream, which ran down to the sea (like the trees, it had appeared overnight and yet had always been here).

  Mathilda’s house, a tumbledown cottage with a thatch roof, sat in the clearing. A water wheel at the back of the cottage dipped into the stream, driving a grinding wheel within and the bellows that fed her fire, both used in her magic, she said.

  It was from the water wheel that smoke was rising.

  I pushed through the throng of people to get closer—one thing about being pregnant; people got out of your way as quickly as they could.

  “What’s going on?” I demanded.

  Odran stood at the front. “Someone jammed the bludy wheel. It broke, which broke the bellows in the hoose, which started the fire.”

  I stared in disbelief. “It must have been an accident.”

  Odran stared grimly. “If ye say so, lass. Boot Mathilda doesnae seem the careless type to me.”

  Jolie and Rand joined us.

  “They’re putting the fire out,” said Rand.

  “Mathilda’s fine,” Jolie added. “Just a bit shaken.”

  “How did this happen?” I asked again.

  “One thing at a time,” said Jolie. “Let’s get the fire out and make sure everything is safe. We can deal with questions in the morning. You should get back to bed. You can’t be running around like you used to—you need your rest.”

  I nodded and turned. Dureau was not far behind me. I’d noticed him around a good deal since Sinjin had left, and I wondered if my love had swallowed his pride enough to ask the man who’d been

  my second choice to watch me while Sinjin was away. But right now, Dureau’s gaze wasn’t on me. It was tough to read his expression, but he was looking out to the fringe of the crowd that had gathered around Mathilda’s cottage. The Daywalkers huddled together as they watched the fire. They looked, to me, as shocked by the event as anyone else, but I felt sure that Dureau was reading something else into their presence.

  Damn. I had enough to worry about, and I didn’t need more discord while I was worried about my baby and about Sinjin and about what eventual news he might bring back. That is, if he ever returned.

  You can’t think like that! I scolded myself and immediately put the thoughts to bed.

  I returned to my room and crawled back into bed as Jolie had suggested, but I lay awake, tossing and turning as much as a baby bump allows.

  The fire had to be an accident, didn’t it? It was an unlikely one, given the care Mathilda took of her surroundings—most of those surroundings were her own creation, so she had a certain amount of control over them, but she did also love and respect the chaos of nature. But if the fire wasn’t an accident, then…

  what? Who would do such a thing? And why? And could it be… Could it be related to what had happened to me, to my baby? The two things seemed worlds apart. What had happened to me was a devastating attack on what mattered most to me, while this was just a petty act of vandalism or an act of nature.

  They couldn’t be related. And yet, I was sure I wasn’t the only one wondering.

  #

  After Sinjin left, Jolie had suggested I not attend council meetings.

  “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I know you’ve got other stuff on your mind.”

  But that ‘other stuff’ was exactly why I needed to continue attending our meetings. If it wasn’t for the everyday business of Kinloch Kirk, then all I had to do with my time was think about the silence of my unborn child and the absence of Sinjin. I couldn’t do anything about it either, and so thinking of them was a quick path to frustration and depression.

  As long as I was powerless in those areas, it felt good to join the meetings and talk about stuff that I might actually be able to do something about. Just because more important stuff was happening in my life didn’t mean I stopped caring about everything else going on; we were still living under the threat

  of Luce and we had to be ready for his attack. It was simply a subject of when that attack would come.

  “The fire can’t be the work of Luce,” Rand shook his head dismissively. “No one has a lower opinion of him than I do, but why would he do something this… small ? A broken water wheel—

  which I understand has now been fixed already—where would be the point? I know we’ve hurt him by welcoming his people, but I don’t think we’ve weakened him enough that this is the best he can do.”

  “What if Mathilda was the target?” suggested Mercedes. “What if it was an attempt on her life that went wrong?”

  “Moost’ve gone verra badly wrong,” muttered Odran. “It’s nae difficult to start a fire. All this business with the water wheel’s nae necessary.”

  “When Luce attacks,” I had my say, “we will know it. We’ll know it’s him because he will want us to know it’s him. He’ll want to scare us as much as hurt us. I still think this was an accident.”

  “It doesn’t seem to have been an accident,” Mathilda herself spoke up, none the worse for the events of the previous night.

  “The spokes of the wheel had been partly cut through.”

  “Sabotage!” Odran thumped the table.

  “But to what end?” asked Rand.

  “Does the loss of the water wheel hamper your magic at all?”

  Jolie asked Mathilda.

  The Fae tossed her bright, white hair. “I suppose it might

  ‘hamper’ my magic. It certainly doesn’t stop anything. Maybe even

  ‘hamper’ is too strong a word. It meant I had to blow on the fire myself and grind some herbs by hand, but apart from a bit of ache in my shoulder, it hasn’t hurt me at all. And the wheel is up and running again already, as Rand previously mentioned.”

  “It’s not sabotage. It’s vandalism.” Dureau’s voice was low, but it cut through the meeting, silencing everyone.

  “What’s the difference?” asked Klaasje.

  Dureau looked up and down the table. “We seem to have decided this couldn’t be Luce, and I certainly agreed—in as much as Luce is not personally responsible. But does that mean it couldn’t have been his people?”

  I sighed deeply. I already knew where he was going with this.

  “This is the sort of thing you do to demoralize an enemy from within,” Dureau went on.

  “From within?” Jolie interrupted. “What are you saying, Dureau?”

  Dureau threw up his hands. “If we’ve established it wasn’t an accident and that it wasn’t Luce, then what else can I be saying?

  Someone did it and if it wasn’t Luce, then who was it? It certainly wasn’t any of us!”

  “Maybe it was a practical joke that went wrong,” suggested Mathilda, always the conciliator.

  “No,” Dureau shook his head. “It was a deliberate act. And unless we’re about to start accusing each other or our own people, then there’s only one place to look.”

  “They are our own people,” I growled the words, leveling a venomous stare at Dureau.

  But he stared straight back at me. “If Sinjin were here, he would agree with me.”

  “You’re right, but that doesn’t make your premise right,” I argued. “All it means is that Sinjin would be just as big a fool as you are!”

  “Bryn!” snapped Jolie, unwilling to let her council descend into name-calling.

  “Sorry,” I backed down. It was hard enough for my sister to keep control without me losing my temper.

  Jolie turned back to Dureau. “You’re talking about the Daywalkers and not the women who were once members of Luce’s tribe?”

  Dureau scoffed. “I’m talking about the Daywalkers. And don’t pretend that I’m the only one thinking it just because I’m the only one brave enough to say it. Nothing like this happened
before they arrived, and now we have two suspicious incidents in as many weeks.”

  “The two are not comparable!” I didn’t want to undermine Jolie’s authority, but I wouldn’t let his comment pass. “Are you suggesting my baby’s condition is the same as a broken water wheel?!”

  Dureau knew when to back down. “Of course not. I’m sorry, Bryn. I didn’t mean to suggest anything of the sort. I know what’s happened to you must be devastating. But this is how infiltration works; big things and little things so that no one makes the connection.”

  “Is there any evidence of the Daywalkers’ involvement in this?”

  asked Jolie.

  Dureau deflated. “None that I am aware of, unless…” He scanned the table up and down to see if anyone might come to his rescue.

  “If we wait until there is evidence, then…”

  “Then we would be doing what any decent, civilized community would do,” Jolie completed the sentence. “I will not let this paranoia turn us into something we’re not. That would be a victory for Luce. I don’t just expect us to be better than him, I demand it.”

  There was a mumbled chorus of assent, but Dureau wasn’t finished.

  “My Queen—and I ask this with all due respect—what will we do if there’s another ‘incident’?”

  “I’m not done with this one yet,” said Jolie, sternly. “There will be an investigation. Klaasje, I’d like you to look into this.”

  Klaasje bowed her head. Sometimes I forgot just how smart my sister was and how good a Queen. Klaasje was the right choice for this; she didn’t have Dureau’s dedicated prejudice, but because the two of them were now a couple, he would respect her conclusion. Everyone liked Klaasje, but because she was a vampire, they were also a little afraid of her, which was a good mix for getting the truth out of people. Beyond that, she was smart, quick, and suspicious.

  I caught hold of Dureau as the meeting began to break up. “Did you have to go after the Daywalkers like that? Just because Sinjin’s not here doesn’t mean you have to be twice as harsh.”

  “I’d have thought you’d be glad that Sinjin and I agreed on something for once.”

  I couldn’t help smiling. “Sure. But did it have to be that?”

  Dureau smiled back. He was a handsome man, and at times I was reminded of why I’d once been attracted to him, but the X factor had never been there for us the way it was between Sinjin and me—

  we were all X Factor.

  “Look, you’re right; Sinjin asked me to keep an eye on you and the Daywalkers. But I’m not channeling your vampire boyfriend. I have opinions of my own, and it’s just a coincidence that mine happen to be the same as Sinjin’s.” He paused to take a deep breath. “I don’t trust the Daywalkers.”

  “You helped me bring them here!” I was exasperated with him.

  Dureau pulled a face. “And I’m sick of everyone using that line of reasoning as a stick to beat me with! Yeah, I helped bring them here, because I genuinely thought they deserved help—and I still do believe that. I’m not a jerk, Bryn. I’m happy to acknowledge that most of the Daywalkers are honest victims of Luce. But I also believe that one of them—maybe more—is trying to destroy us from within. I don’t know which, so I reserve the right to be suspicious of all of them until I know more.”

  “You don’t have any proof,” I countered. “You don’t trust them simply because of what they are.”

  “If that were true, then I wouldn’t have helped you, would I?” He had a point. “I don’t trust them because stuff started happening when they arrived.” His eyes flicked down to my belly. “Enough of that. How… are you doing?”

  The worst thing about this situation was that I’d gotten used to it. If I didn’t specifically think about my baby or someone didn’t mention it, then I forgot that anything was wrong.

  Honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to cope if I didn’t occasionally get those breaks from worry, but it also made me feel guilty, like I was a bad mother.

  “Still nothing,” I replied. “The baby’s alive but I can’t feel her anymore. Nothing’s changed.”

  Dureau put a comforting hand on my shoulder. “ Courage, mon brave

  ,” he whispered in his native tongue. “Sinjin will find an answer and then Mathilda will put things right. I may not have the highest opinion of your vampire, but I know he loves you, and he won’t give up until he’s found a way to make things right.”

  I forced a smile. “Thanks, Dureau.”

  “Dureau!”

  We both turned to see Klaasje approaching and not looking happy to see us together. I suddenly realized how close Dureau and I had been standing and with his hand on my shoulder and him whispering his comforting words to me, it might have looked more intimate than it was.

  “ Mon amour ,” Dureau greeted her.

  “Odran said you two were out here.” Klaasje shot a sharp glance at me, not saying anything but clearly suspicious, all the same.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I was just trying to get Dureau to dial back on the Daywalkers,”

  I said, trying to make it all seem as casual as it had been.

  “And I was explaining that I won’t do anything of the kind,”

  added Dureau. “Although the course of action is in your hands now, cheri .”

  Klaasje nodded. “And don’t try to influence me.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  Klaasje turned to me. “Adam was looking for you.”

  “Do you know where he is?”

  “I think he was heading back to the camp.”

  I smiled. “Did he make a pass at you again?” Adam had a crush on Klaasje ever since he arrived, and he didn’t let the age gap or the presence of Dureau dampen his youthful enthusiasm.

  Klaasje didn’t smile back. “He did. And I left him in no doubt that I was spoken for.”

  #

  As I approached the Daywalker camp, I found a flicker of tight anxiety knotting my stomach. They did say there was no smoke without fire, and Sinjin and Dureau seemed so sure… But no, I wasn’t going to succumb to their suspicions. I’d brought these people here, and I wouldn’t start distrusting them now.

  “Bryn!”

  I saw Adam strolling out to meet me. He looked healthy and strong, a different man now to the one who’d joined us a few months ago. Daywalkers have a naturally contracted lifespan and Adam had been approaching the end of his; his black hair had been thin, and his skin stretched across his prominent bones. The only way of countering this deterioration was vampire blood, and with the influx of Daywalkers in our midst, a program had been set up (by Klaasje, of course) to ensure they all got what they needed, without taxing any individual vampire too much. It was very much part of the ethos of Kinloch Kirk that one species would help the other.

  “Klaasje said you were looking for me?”

  Adam nodded. “I’d have asked her but… there’s so much sexual tension between us; I don’t like to bother her.”

  It was one of the joys of youth that he could genuinely believe the tension between the two of them was sexual.

  “Sure. What do you need?”

  “I just… I mean, we all just want to know what’s going on?”

  I sighed. “I wish I knew.”

  “Feels like maybe we’re not welcome here anymore?”

  I started. Obviously, things had been said in the council chamber, but I hadn’t thought any of that negativity had leaked out into the rest of the settlement. But then I realized it made sense—of course they would all assume we blamed them for the destruction to Mathilda’s house.

  “What makes you ask that?”

  Adam hedged. “Nothing I can put my finger on. I mean, Dureau was giving me the death eye the other night, but that’s just because he knows about me and Klaasje—must be tough for him.” I rolled my eyes and then sighed. “But generally… It’s just an atmosphere.

  You know?”

  I did. “Some stuff’s been happ
ening…” I started.

  “Is this about Mathilda’s cottage?”

  “That, yes. And some other stuff.”

  “What other stuff? Is everything okay? Are you okay?” Adam asked as he glanced down at my belly.

  Did he know? Was that a leading question? Was he fishing to see if some Daywalker curse placed on me had done its work?

  What was I thinking? I banished the thoughts from my mind. This was Adam ; innocent Adam!

  But right now, I seemed to feel the gaze of many Daywalkers on me from around the camp. Staring at me searchingly, looking for…

  What?

  Did they know there was a problem with my baby? But… how would they know that?

  Again, I tried to banish the thoughts from my head. “You know I can’t tell you everything, Adam.”

  He dropped his head. “Because I’m a Daywalker.”

  “No,” I insisted. “Not because you’re a Daywalker, but because I’m on the council. The stuff I can’t tell you, I also can’t tell to Fae or vampires or anyone who’s not on the council.” He lifted his head and brought his gaze to mine. “You believe me?”

  “Of course.” He looked disappointed but understanding. “If there’s anything we can do… We want to be helpful, to be part of the community.”

  “I’ll tell Queen Jolie.”

  “Thanks, Bryn.” He paused. “We all know how much we owe—not just to Kinloch Kirk, but to you personally. You saved us and no one here will ever forget that.”

  “It was my pleasure, Adam.”

  As I walked away, I again felt the eyes of the Daywalkers boring into me as if they could see through my skin to the stricken child beneath. My baby stirred inside me; could she feel those eyes too? Was she responding to the presence of the Daywalkers?

  Was she afraid of them? Or something else?

  I didn’t feel safe again until I was clear of the camp. I went straight home and sat on my bed, trying to think clearly, rationally.

  What was happening to me? I was a warrior, and so I was naturally more comfortable with an enemy I could face than an intangible one who had attacked me by some unknown means. With all this negative talk about the Daywalkers, I was bound to start becoming overly suspicious. That was natural. As long as I didn’t act on those suspicions…