The Changeling

by H. P. Mallory

  I raced through the woods. To either side of me, I could see flashes of light and hear people shouting as the two sides made for each other. This had catastrophe written all over it; in the night, in the wood, they weren’t even going to be able to tell who was who.

  Suddenly, I skidded to a halt. I thought I’d heard something, but surely…

  There is was again!

  Just at the edge of my hearing, faint and yet somehow clear, the sound of laughter. A shiver ran down my spine as I recognized it as the same laughter I’d heard that night in the woods when I’d seen the shadow in my room.

  Something was behind this. Something had somehow orchestrated all of it and was now standing back and laughing at us as we tore ourselves apart.

  “Show yourself!” I screamed into the trees. But I only got laughter back.

  “Show your…” I didn’t finish the sentence as someone hit me, taking me to the ground.

  “You do anything like that again,” snarled Dureau as he pinned me to the dirt, “and I will let you die with your Daywalker friends.

  Sinjin will just have to accept that you made your choice.”

  “Dureau, don’t do this. This isn’t you.”

  But maybe the kick I’d given him had voided the last part of him holding out against this malign influence, because now in his wide, flashing eyes, I saw nothing but anger and hate.

  “You’re going back to your house and you’re going to stay there!

  Don’t you care about your baby?”

  I jammed my knee upwards, hoping for a second hit to his family jewels, but this time he was ready for me.

  “I never realized what a bullet I dodged when you chose Sinjin.

  Almost makes me feel sorry for the blood-drinker. Now, behave!”

  Like that was going to happen! I threw my weight up from beneath him, wriggling and trying to get free.

  “I warned you.” Dureau raised his hand and I braced myself for the blow.

  But in the next instant, he was gone from me as someone sprang out of the surrounding trees, knocking Dureau to the ground. I sat up, wishing and hoping it might be Sinjin who had saved me.

  But that was too much to hope for; Adam rolled up to his feet, grabbing a broken branch off the ground. He stood over Dureau and raised the branch to strike.

  “Adam!” I rushed forward, grabbing his arm and dragging the Daywalker back. “What are you doing?”

  “This is his doing, Bryn,” Adam snapped back at me. “He was coming for us, so we’re coming for him first. You Underworlders have only got yourselves to blame.”

  Because of my fears for my baby, I’d spent little time at the Daywalker camp lately, and so I hadn’t had the chance to observe how their behavior might have changed. But as Adam now spoke, it was clear the strange behavior in the settlement wasn’t confined to the Underworlders; the Daywalkers were affected too.

  You couldn’t have found a more amiable, friendly, peace-loving man than Adam, yet here he was, about to beat Dureau to death with a tree branch.

  I put myself between the two of them. “Stop this, both of you!

  You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “Typical,” sneered Adam. “Side with the Fae. Your old boyfriend, isn’t he? I should have known. You only brought us here so you could kill us!”

  “Save your lies.” Dureau got to his feet. “I know she’s with you.

  We all do! You’ve probably been working with her for months, finding a way to infiltrate Kinloch Kirk.”

  “Harlot!” Adam yelled at me.

  “Traitor!” added Dureau.

  “Okay, does the fact that you’re both blaming me, that you both think I’m on the other side, tell you anything? Like maybe you’re both wrong!”

  But they were way past logic.

  “Save it!” said Dureau.

  “Luce was better than you,” snarled Adam.

  “So you admit you’re working for Luce?” Dureau exclaimed, triumphantly.

  “We’re not working for anyone. All we want is our freedom.”

  “A likely story.”

  “Freedom you took from us!”

  They were facing off now. I still stood between them, but their eyes seemed to look straight through me to meet those of their enemy. There was going to be a fight, and I wasn’t sure what role I wanted to play in it. Normally, I’d happily have kept them apart, but I wasn’t putting my baby between two men desperate to kill each other who had both left sanity far behind them.

  Instead, I reached out to my sister. Jolie! I need you to call for Dureau!

  I didn’t know if Dureau would obey—he and Rand seemed to have abandoned loyalty to their Queen—but such allegiances die hard.

  “Dureau!” I heard Jolie’s scream, echo through the trees.

  Whatever horror was going on in this world, I could always count on my sister.

  Dureau looked back towards the cry, torn between loyalty and hatred.

  “Go on,” sneered Adam. “Run back to your precious Queen.”

  “Jolie’s been nothing but good to you,” I reminded Adam.

  “Don’t make me laugh. It’s all an act. She hates us as much as the rest of you.”

  “Dureau!” Jolie cried again.

  This time Dureau followed the cry, glancing back over his shoulder as he went. “I’ll be back, Daywalker. One of us dies tonight.”

  “And I know which!” Adam shot back.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.

  I shook my head. “I know this is a bad situation, but the trash talk is pathetic.”

  Dureau ran back towards Jolie’s voice. I turned back to Adam.

  “You have to listen to me…”

  But he cut me off, pointing the broken branch at me. “I will let you live now, because you saved us from Luce, but if we meet again, I won’t be so generous.”

  I watched him go, my heart sinking even further. My name was now mud on both sides of this conflict. A conflict that shouldn’t have been happening at all. Was there anything I could do to stop it? Possibly not, but it wasn’t in my nature to just give up.

  Jolie, where are you?

  North of the wood. They’re arming up, Bryn, there’s nothing I can do to stop them!

  We’ve got to try.

  Do you have a plan?

  No. But I’ve got until I find you to think of one.

  NINETEEN

  Bryn

  A handful of faithful followers stood around Jolie when I found her, but nowhere near as many as the increasingly organized armies that were forming on either side of the forest.

  “Where’s Emma?” I asked.

  “Safe,” Jolie replied. She’s with Jenny. I don’t want to say where she is out loud.

  You think things are that bad?

  Don’t you?

  “Yeah,” I admitted out loud.

  “What about that plan you were coming up with?”

  “Did we ever find Mathilda?”

  Jolie shook her head. “In all the panic, I don’t think we ever really looked.”

  “That’s what I thought. Listen, it’s not like her to vanish…”

  “Actually that’s pretty much in character,” said Jolie. “She can be kind of absentminded, and she doesn’t deal well with conflict, so she just evaporates.”

  “Okay, fair enough,” I admitted. “But it’s not like her to leave her friends in trouble. There must have been a reason she wasn’t at the council and a reason she isn’t here now. She must have noticed something is going down. She might be absentminded at times, but she’s not blind.”

  “How do you know she hasn’t taken sides?”

  I shrugged. “I guess I don’t. I’m just hoping she’s too smart for that. I’m hoping she got so caught up in her work that she didn’t notice what was going on. And, hopefully, whatever work she’s so caught up in will help us.”

  Jolie nodded. “It’s not much of a plan,
but it’s the only one we’ve got. Go look for her.”

  I frowned. “You’re not coming?”

  Jolie shook her head. “Look at this place. What sort of Queen would I be if I left now?”

  “The alive sort.”

  Jolie just smiled. “They’re my people, Bryn. Both sides. I won’t walk away and let them kill each other.”

  “You think you can stop them?”

  “Maybe long enough for you to find Mathilda.”

  “That puts a lot of pressure on me.”

  Jolie smiled again. “At least you won’t be on your own.”

  She placed her hand against my belly. “If that doesn’t give you strength, then nothing will.”

  She was right. My baby was not going to be born into a world like this, all fire and hate. Mothers will do anything for their children; all I had to do was fix the world. Piece of cake.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  I ran back up the hill as fast as my legs would carry me. My heart was thumping noisily in my ears, but my breathing was regular—I’d been trained for stuff like this. Admittedly, I hadn’t been trained for stuff like this while pregnant, but you play the hand life deals you.

  To reach the copse, I had to go through the growing army of Rand’s new republic. I thought about stealing something to cover my face so that I stood out less, but the pregnant woman was going to stand out anyway. Instead, I darted from hiding place to hiding place, keeping low, clinging to the shadows. As I went, I heard the voices of people I knew and cared for saying words I never would have imagined them saying.

  “What about Jolie?”

  “Jolie had her chance,” said her husband, “if she can’t be the Queen we need, then she can’t be Queen at all.”

  “Prepare for battle!”

  “Leave no Daywalkers alive!”

  The ‘something in the air’ which a few of us had noted over the past weeks had turned from a vague sensation into a mass hysteria. If I stopped to think, then I too could feel it buzzing in my blood, telling me to join this side, that side, either one, as long as I picked and fought. Was it possible my own ambivalence had protected me? I’d been so torn between protecting the Daywalkers and fearing for my baby, I’d been genuinely undecided. Maybe because I had no strong tie to either side, I’d been immune to the full effects of this madness.

  Or maybe Jolie was right, and it was just the baby making me strong. I liked that theory better.

  “You!” A Fae I didn’t recognize, but who seemed to have promoted himself to Sergeant Major, pointed at me. “What are you doing there?”

  One of the problems with hiding is that if anyone does spot you, you immediately look suspicious.

  I stood up boldly. “How dare you speak to me like that!”

  Hopefully things were currently too confused for people to know who was on whose side, and I was still the Queen’s sister.

  The Fae looked a bit rattled but remained officious. “Friend or foe?”

  “Got any other dumb clichés?” I asked as I strode towards him.

  “ Friend or foe .”

  “I like to think I’m everyone’s friend, but you are really starting to get on my nerves.”

  “I’m calling…” He never got to finish the sentence as I executed what I thought was a pretty impressive roundhouse kick for someone pregnant, knocking him to the ground. I followed it up with a punch between the eyes, rendering him unconscious. He was probably a perfectly nice guy at other times, but I had no time to be understanding.

  I dragged the unconscious Fae out of sight and hurried off again.

  As soon as I’d passed into the shade of Mathilda’s copse, I felt suddenly better, lighter, as if no evil could reach me here.

  Maybe she had some sort of charm placed over her property, or maybe I just felt better because I was doing something. Life had been so vague and chaotic lately, it felt good just to have a clear plan.

  Hurrying through the trees, I heard the soft babbling of the stream, stirred by the water wheel, and I followed the sound.

  But I wasn’t the only one visiting Mathilda.

  “Come out!” A group of Rand’s guards stood outside. I recognized some of them, and would never have called them my enemies. But things were different now. Everything was so messed up.

  “If you don’t come out,” the guard continued, “then we’ll be forced to break down the door.”

  Could Mathilda defend herself? The old Fae was powerful, but I’d seldom seen her use that power in anger. All my warrior instincts, honed over years of training, told me to attack, but I had to be sensible—a pregnant woman against five armed guards wasn’t a fair fight. Instead, I skirted around the clearing in which Mathilda’s cottage sat, sticking to the trees, being careful not to be seen. Reaching the back of the cottage, I saw the waterwheel, slowly turning by the little stream. The top of the wheel rose to the height of the thatch of the roof, in which there was a skylight.

  Okay then…

  Moving quickly and quietly, I darted from the trees and skidded down a mud bank to the stream. The wood of the wheel creaked slightly as I began to climb it. The wood was wet beneath my fingers, slippery with algae and duckweed. Reaching the top, I jumped lightly from wheel to roof, landing with a ‘ scrunch’ as the reeds of the thatch cushioned my landing. I skidded and slipped a bit but clung on, digging my hands into the bundles of tightly packed thatch. Holding still for a moment, I listened.

  The guards were still issuing angry ultimatums, and I had a hunch they were bluffing, because they didn’t know what Mathilda would do if they actually attacked her. Whatever the case, they hadn’t seemed to have heard me. Thatch roofs are not made for walking on; they’re slick with moss and other damp loving plants, but I managed to work my way to the skylight and peered into the cottage below me.

  Inside, I could see Mathilda pacing in frustration, casting occasional glances towards the door. She looked trapped.

  Gently I tapped on the glass of the window and Mathilda looked up, startled.

  ‘ Let me in ,’ I mouthed.

  Mathilda looked nervously at me and then glanced back towards the door, weighing her options. She had no way of knowing what side I was on or how I’d been affected by this thing that seemed to have swept through the rest of the settlement.

  ‘ Please ,’ I mouthed. I didn’t know what else to say.

  Another beat of indecision, and then Mathilda moved, standing on a chair to open the skylight for me. I slipped through and dropped down to the floor beneath.

  “Mathilda…”

  “Stay where you are.” The old Fae had produced a knife from somewhere and now had it pointed at me. “I don’t want to hurt you, Bryn.”

  I’d hoped Mathilda was unaffected by the madness, but of course I had no proof of it.

  “Mathilda, we need your help. Jolie needs your help. She’s trying to stop the fight, but I don’t know how long she can keep them apart.”

  To my immense relief, the knife dropped to Mathilda’s side. “So you’re not one of them. Thank goodness for that.”

  “One of them?” I repeated as I shook my head. “Do you know what’s happened to everyone?” I continued, desperately. “What’s going on?”

  “I think I do know,” Mathilda nodded. “The spell was so subtly woven; I couldn’t detect it until now. And now that it has reached its apex, I can isolate it.”

  “But can you stop it?”

  Mathilda gave me a wan smile. “I don’t know. Maybe. But not from here.”

  “Where do you need to go?” I asked.

  “The beach. I need the ocean at my back to hold me up. This is strong magic, Bryn, I can’t tell you how…”

  I held up my hands. “I’d love to hear all about it, really I would, but right now my sister is trying to stop a war by standing in the middle of it and asking nicely. We have to move.”

  Mathilda nodded but then sagged. “There are guards at the door.”

  “Can’t you charm
them? Put them to sleep or something?”

  She shook her head. “The magic they’re under is stronger than mine. Any influence I try to put them under slips off like water off a duck’s back.”

  “Okay then,” I nodded grimly. “Plan B.”

  Moments later, I was clambering back out of Mathilda’s skylight, carrying a hammer with me and wearing a light dress belonging to the old Fae. With the help of a simple glamour, I looked just like Mathilda. Looking back into the cottage, I saw Mathilda standing at the door, ready to leave, a bag under her arm that contained everything she needed. She gave me a wave to indicate she was ready.

  “Oh!” I cried out as if I’d fallen and at the same time, brought the hammer down onto the skylight, noisily shattering the glass.

  Instantly I heard shouting from the front of the cottage.

  “She’s trying to get out the back!”

  “Don’t let her get away!”

  I skidded down the slippery thatch like it was a water slide, zipping off the edge and landing in the stream. Yuck. Scrambling out, I struggled up the muddy bank as fast as I could. Behind me I heard feet and voices.

  “There she is!”

  Perfect. While they chased me, Mathilda would let herself out the front door and head for the beach. Now all I had to do was keep these idiots busy and not get killed in the process.

  “After her!”

  I rushed through the trees. The ground was wet, uneven, and strewn with tree roots just waiting to trip me up. Unconsciously, I put a protective arm around my belly.

  I’m doing this for you, little one. Now lend me whatever strength you have to give!

  I needed that strength right now. It had been a long night already, and I was tiring.

  At the southern edge of the copse, the ground buckled upwards into the hills that surrounded and protected the settlement. No way was I taking a midnight run though the hills, as I didn’t want to add coronary to the dangers of an already dangerous night. Now I needed to be clever.

  Picking the muddiest path I could find, I ran up the hill towards a rocky outcrop, where the slope gave way to the aggressive rock that split the thin surface earth, scarring the landscape. From here, I found a patch of steep, slippery grass and slid back down on my ass, leaving no tracks. Reaching the bottom, I flattened myself out in the darkness. Just in time; I could now hear voices, and a moment later the guards rushed out of the woods.