Fey 02 - Changeling (115 page)

His father scooped Gift in his arms and tried to lift him.
 
But Gift wasn't a baby any more.
 
He was too heavy.
 

"We have to get out, Gift," his father said. "Shadowlands is coming apart."

Gift shook his head.
 
"Mom —"

"She told me to get you out of here."

The creaks and groans, cracks and screams, thuds and cries were overwhelming.
 
Bits of the sky were flying around him, hitting people and cutting their faces.

"No one will help her," Gift said.
 
"She'll die."

"I can't lift her," his father said.
 
"She's too heavy."

"Make her grow small."

"She can't.
 
She's hurt too bad.
 
Let's go, Gift, before we all die."

Gift pulled free.
 
He tried to go in the door, but more Domestics were coming out — Weavers and Menders and Builders.
 
There was no way he could go in.
 

The buildings were collapsing.
 
The Domicile was one of the few that remained upright, but it wouldn't last long.
 
His father had grown small and was hovering around Gift's head, shouting in a tiny voice.
 
Gift ignored him.
 
They wouldn't get out that way.
 
Already Fey were dying near the Circle Door.
 
Fey were dying under falling pieces of sky.
 
Fey were dying as they fell through the ground.

Shadowlands had to stay together.

Gift reached out with his mind and grabbed the corners of his world. He held them up with all the strength he could find.
 
His father was still shouting, people were still screaming, but the smacking thuds had stopped.

He closed his eyes and imagined Shadowlands as it was.
 
He rebuilt the holes in the walls, replaced pieces in the sky, and patched the chasms in the ground.
 
In his mind, he walked around and tested each part of the Shadowlands, making it stronger than it have ever been.
 

The screaming stopped.

He opened his eyes.

There was carnage all around him.
 
People lying under slabs of gray matter, or large boards.
 
Bodies flattened.
 
Wounded moaning.
 
But the ground had stopped trembling.
 
The blue holes were gone from the sky, and a mist was rising.

The buildings were ruined.

Except for the Domicile.
 

The Fey in the doorway had stopped running.
 
Gift pushed his way past them.
 
His mother was on her bed, propped up on one arm.
 
She cried out when she saw him.
 
He ran to her and put both of his arms around her.
 
She held him so tight he thought he would never breathe.

"I thought we were going to die," she said.

"We would have." A voice came from above.
 
Gift looked up.
 
The Shaman was nodding at him.
 
"He repaired his grandfather's work."

"Gift?" his mother's voice trembled.
 
"Gift rebuilt the Shadowlands?"

"I had to," Gift said.
 
They were acting as if he had done something wrong.
 
"No one wanted to save you.
 
It would have fallen on you."

His mother pulled out of the embrace.
 
"Oh, honey," she said.
 
She cupped his face with her good hand.
 
She looked sad. "Oh, baby, you don't know what you did."

"I saved you," he said.

"No," the Shaman said.
 
"You saved us all."

THE CHANGELING

(
One Week Later)

SEVENTY-ONE

The farm looked tended.
 
Adrian stood to the side of the road and stared at it.
 
The fields had been turned and the dirt, rich and brown, had long furrows in it.
 
The fence was in good repair and his favorite grove of trees remained, although they were taller than they had been since he left.

"Are we here?" Coulter asked.

Adrian nodded.
 
He couldn't bring himself to go any farther.
 
The air smelled of manure and seedlings.
 
If he followed the road, and rounded to the back of the farm, he would get the scents of last season's hay, chickens, and the pigs that his brother always insisted they keep.

Home.

It hadn't changed at all.

He swallowed the lump in his throat.
 
It was mid-day.
 
Everyone would be inside for a short rest before working the remainder of the afternoon.
 

"Well, then," Scavenger said.
 
"I guess this is it."

He hiked his pack over his shoulder and turned around.

"No!" Adrian said.
 
"Wait!"

Scavenger stopped.
 
They hadn't discussed what would happen now.
 
Adrian just assumed Scavenger would stay with them.
 
Adrian couldn't imagine wanting to return to the woods.
 
Not now, not after the explosion of Shadowlands.

When they had realized what was happening to Shadowlands, the three of them took off at a run.
 
The Fey were pouring out of their hiding place, and would soon overtake them.
 
For two nights, the three traveled off the road, because of all the injured and frightened Fey. Then, as quickly as it all happened, it ended.

Scavenger spoke to one of the Fey who was turning back.
 
She said she had heard that Shadowlands was repaired.
 
Scavenger couldn't believe she would return after it shattered from under her, but she had smiled at him, and told him that she felt safer in Shadowlands than she did around the Islander poison.

Scavenger was still looking at Adrian expectantly.
 

"I thought you were going to come with us," Adrian said.

Scavenger smiled, but it was a sad smile.
 
"Around Islanders?
 
You think they'd want me?"
 
His tone said he didn't.

"I think they will if I tell them what you did," Adrian said.
 
"You can't go back.
 
There's nothing in the woods for you."

"Except my house."

"I want you to stay," Coulter said.

Scavenger looked at the boy.
 
Adrian watched them.
 
The two were more alike than they thought. Scavenger didn't fit in the Fey because he lacked magic, and Coulter didn't fit with the Islanders because he had it.

"All right," Scavenger said.
 
"I'll stay.
 
Until it becomes clear that I can't any more."

Adrian nodded.
 
He understood that.
 
He also knew that he could make his family accept Scavenger if he had to.

He took a deep breath and then started across the road.
 
Scavenger and Coulter kept a few paces behind.
 
A tapestry moved on the south window, and then it moved again.
  
A door slammed, and suddenly Luke was running across the road.

He was yelling his father's name.

Adrian couldn't wait any longer.
 
His son was alive and coming for him.
 
He ran to Luke and they embraced, his son squeezing him, lifting him off the ground, and whirling him around.

When Luke finally set him down, Adrian stood back and looked for the years he had missed.
 
Luke was taller and broader, resembling Adrian at the same age.
 
A sadness had built around his eyes and a fear around the corner of his lips.
 
Adrian brushed those with his thumb, wishing he could wipe them away.

"They said you tried to murder the Rocaan, that the Fey put some kind of spell on you.
 
I was afraid maybe the King would kill you."

Luke shook his head.
 
"The King was good to me.
 
He understood."

"The Fey Charmed you,"
 
Adrian said.
 
"When I found that out, I felt I could leave.
 
They weren't keeping their agreement."

"They never did," Luke said softly.
 
"If you put holy water on me, you could see the green of the spell.
 
But it's gone now."

"Gone?"
 
Adrian frowned.
 
"After you attacked the Rocaan?"

"No," Luke said. "Last week.
 
It just disappeared."

"The Shadowlands," Scavenger said.
 
"Whoever Spelled him must have died."

Luke gasped and took a step backwards.
 
Adrian caught his son's wrist.
 
"It's all right," he said.

"I thought you left them," Luke said.

"I did," Adrian said.
 
"Scavenger helped us."

"Us?"

Adrian swept his free hand back.
 
Coulter was waiting on the far side of the road, looking lost.
 
"Coulter and I, we left together.
 
Scavenger found us.
 
He kept us away from the search teams.
 
He escaped Shadowlands a long time ago."

Luke still pulled against Adrian's arm.
 
"We really don't want any Fey here."

"You'll have him here," Adrian said.
 
"As long as you have me."

Luke stared at his father, then looked at Scavenger, then back at his father as if actually considering it.
 
Finally, he shook his forefinger at Scavenger.
 
"If you touch any of us, or spell any of us, I'll see to you personally."

Scavenger laughed.
 
Adrian would have smiled himself if he hadn't realized that Luke was so serious.
 

"He can't spell anyone," Adrian said.
 
"He's a Red Cap.
 
They have no magic."

Luke didn't appear convinced, but he nodded.
 
"You get to fight this with Granddad," he said.

"I will," Adrian said.
 
He slipped his arm around his son's waist.
 
They started forward when Adrian realized that Coulter wasn't coming.
 
"Hold on a moment," he said to Luke.