The Changeling (19 page)

Pete O’Shea

In the Year of Our Lord, 1865.

A shot of adrenalin coursed through my veins when I realized I’d found the book. I scanned the journal entries
,
and on the tenth page or so, I saw an entry that said:

‘
Thrice I attempted the mystical perengrination and met with utter failure, but the fourth journey was a successful endeavour made all the more rewarding by the surreal revelation that, against staggering, and perhaps infinite
,
odds, the chicanery proved successful. Whatever legerdemain this was, it rendered them completely unaware of my ubiety, and even O was
oblivious
to my presen
c
e. So I listened to them converse for a considerable time.
’

“Who writes like this?”

Could he mean astral travel? Could that be possible? Did Pete mean the Fae, and could O be referring to Ozara? I carefully placed the fragile journal in my backpack and zipped it up.

Another surge of adrenalin shocked my senses when I realized that it was 9:48. I’d wasted too much time reading.

At the door, light angled off the floor and I saw them in the dust on the hardwoods
:
f
ootprints
.
A
nd they were made recently. Mine were sligtly more pronounced, but there were several sets that led across the living room and up the stairs
,
then back out again. Remembering what Drevek told me, I followed them quickly up the stairs, one creaking step after another.

The cobwebs were thicker on the second floor, and I found a tiny bathroom and three bedchambers off the landing. Both Drevek and Aunt May said to check the back bedroom, so I went there first. The tracks led in and out of that room,
bypassing
the others. A shaft of light beamed in between two dusty white curtains
framing the
the east dormer window. Thick dust crusted the sill, the tops of the baseboards, and every other flat surface in the room, save one. The bed linens looked relatively fresh. Moving closer I noticed why
:
the old bedspread had been pulled off and tossed
on
the floor
between
the back side of the bed
and the wall
. The white enamel footboard had been handled recently, wiped clear of dust along the top and front edge, like someone had brushed against it.

It was all intriguing, but I couldn’t figure out why Aunt May wanted me to check this room. I didn’t see any other journals, and except for the bed, nothing had been disturbed in years. “Does Cassand
r
a come up here?” I asked myself. “Surely she doesn’t sleep here…the Fae don’t sleep. So why…”
A
nd then I saw it.

Lying on the floor, partially hidden by the bedspread, was a clean razorback baseball cap. My heart stopped in my chest for a beat
,
and tears welled in my eyes when I realized who it belonged to. Mitch had been wearing that hat on New Years Eve—they’d brought him here after he was kidnapped. He laid on that bed. How long had he been here?

When I searched my memories, I realized that Billy never said he’d checked this place—he only checked the caves. “Why didn’t he check here?”

“Cassandra!” the answer occurred to me. With Chalen out of the way, the Unseelie placed her here to take his place
.
Because
Billy didn’t sense her on the island, he wouldn’t have thought to check here. Why would he? He believed she had nothing to do with Mitch’s abduction.

I felt Aunt May’s presen
c
e enter the room
—she
was panicked. I looked down at my watch: 9:51. I was cutting it close, but I still had time. Then I realized that I’d not maintained my connection, and even if I had, I’d not been paying attention.

“
Returns early! Run, back door, she nears!”
Aunt May’s words floated into my mind.

After
snatching
up Mitch’s hat, I took the stairs three at a time
.
I was across the tiny kitchen, stuffing his hat in my backpack and forcing the door open
,
when I sensed it was too late. There was a Fae standing less than a foot from me when I burst across the threshold, and before I could react she had me in her grip.

THIRTEEN

AIR

It was one of the Fae who’d been stalking me, the Curious One, in the terrifying form of a Sasquatch that towered over me by at least four feet. As a swimmer I took pride in my physical strength, but I was powerless in its grip. Even my considerable talent with Air was useless. I pressed hard against its chest trying to force the beast’s vice-like arms off me. I knew immediately it was Air aligned and more powerful than me, as it easily blocked my assault and slipped around to my back, pinning my arms to my sides. I muttered a cry for help, but there was no one close.

“Stop struggling, we haven’t the time. Cassandra draws closer—she’ll destroy the both of us.” The voice was beautiful and feminine with a distinct accent I didn’t recognize.

“Who are…”

“Quickly, hide yourself!”

“What?” I protested while trying one last time to fight my way free.

“Like you did with Billy, but it’s important you use my essence to generate the barrier. Quickly! She will be able to sense us anytime!” Her words were urgent but non-threatening, despite her death grip on my arms.

It did no good to fight her, so I began pulling energy, all that she’d allow, and formed an energy barrier around myself. My heart raced, I was out of breath from my struggle, and she was hurting my arms. The pain grew worse when she yanked me off the ground and sprinted to the northeast in massive strides. She hauled me like a sack, and headed in the opposite direction from Cassandra and the safety of the Seelie guards down in the cottage garden.

The landscape whirred past me as my captor leapt over boulders and dodged trees at an incredible speed, clutching me like a child would a doll. The pain in my arms subsided as she loosened her grip, but I didn’t feel better—I grew dizzy and weak. So did she, stumbling once as we neared the edge of a bluff. She jumped off, missing a stride, and landed thirty feet below, tumbling in the mud and leaves on the forest floor with me in her arms. Filthy but unharmed, I gasped for oxygen. She never let go, though, and jumped to her feet to continue on.

My senses were going crazy, but I could clearly make out Cassandra as she sped toward the Seoladán in her natural form. She stopped at the abandoned cottage for a moment or two, and then shot in our direction.

“She has sensed us. It is possible to hide your essence, but there are other signs.”

The Curious One ran toward a bluff face and pushed me into a crevice, ordering me to maintain the barrier. Growing even weaker, I was terrified Cassandra would find us, and I was in shock from being tossed around by a Bigfoot.

“Quickly, draw energy from the bluffs, but be careful not to let go of your connection to me until you do. But hurry, you’re weakening me.”

In less than a second I’d connected with the energy in the bluff, warmed ever so slightly by morning sun, and I made the switch. Instantly I felt better, stronger, and more clear-headed. The Curious One stumbled backwards and transformed before my eyes…into me. Every feature was exact.

Still stunned by looking at myself just a few feet away, I didn’t react when she placed her hands on the bluff and the rocks quickly grew around me. In a moment I was completely encased in stone with only a few small holes in front of my face that allowed only a partial view of the valley.

“Don’t make a sound—you’re invisible to her like this.”

The Curious One smiled and moved quickly into an opening in the forest a hundred feet from my hiding place. She spread her feet shoulder-width apart, and stared in the direction of Cassandra’s advance.

A dozen emotions flashed through my mind as I fought to remain perfectly still and maintain my energy barrier. I was instantly claustrophobic, battling nausea—the stone cocoon was a million times worse than being trapped in the cave. I wondered who the Fae was that had probably just saved my life. I also wondered how deeply Cassandra was involved in Mitch’s abduction. Competing with those thoughts, I wondered whether Mitch was in that bedroom when Billy and I returned from the island on New Year’s Eve. Guilt flooded my mind. I knew the answer, and had I realized he was there at the time, I might have saved him that night. There was no time to lament the past, however, because Cassandra had arrived.

She dropped into the opening just fifty feet from the Curious One and began her trademark glide, quickly diminishing the distance between them.

“Don’t play games with me, Tadewi, I know Maggie O’Shea was in the cottage. I could smell her.”

“No, you are mistaken. It was me,” Tadewi said flippantly. “There is no one here but us. I know you’ve already determined that.”

Cassandra drew a long breath through her nose in Tadewi’s direction, and her face grew hard.

“How elaborate. You have even duplicated her stench. Why would you take that form?” Cassandra demanded.

“I saw the Steward—she’s beautiful, don’t you agree? More beautiful than even the fabled Cassandra.” Tadewi stroked her hair, my hair, and twisted a strand between her fingers.

The insult registered and Cassandra bristled. “Pathetic ruse. It’s a foolish game you’re playing, and to play it alone, in this place? I thought the Ohanzee were smarter than that?”

Cassandra’s hand flew up and Tadewi was blown back twenty feet into a cloud of dead leaves. Cassandra’s facial expression didn’t change as she moved closer, her jet-black hair perfectly coiffed and her hard brown eyes focused on Tadewi. In a blur, Tadewi spun to her feet and changed forms, resuming the beastly shape I’d seen earlier. She bared her massive canines, howling and snarling, sending shivers down my spine. With a flick of her wrist, she knocked Cassandra back several feet.

As Tadewi charged, Cassandra changed form into a thing I could only describe as a werewolf—the terrifying bipedal kind. Gnashing its teeth and moving to the left, it flailed the long, gleaming black claws extending from the ends of its sinewy arms. Cassandra was a nightmare come to life. They attacked each other using Air, swirling leaves and branches around them in a fifty-yard wide vortex, causing the entire forest floor to writhe. I felt the air pressure increase as their mode of attack changed, and then everything seemed to vibrate. The vibration grew more intense until it buffeted everything in the area. I thought my ears were going to bleed.

After a few more seconds of the melee, it was clear Cassandra was more powerful. She closed the distance on Tadewi and easily blocked the debris flung in her path. Tadewi tried to avoid her, snapping off a six-inch limb and swinging hard at Cassandra’s head, but she never made contact. In a frightening display, the limb shattered into small flecks and Cassandra flung Tadewi’s body through a twelve-inch oak tree. Tadewi crumpled in a pile of splintered wood, screaming in pain and baring her teeth, saliva stringing and spewing out with each desperate breath.

Cassandra cut Tadewi’s left hand off with little more than a flick of her finger, and then she snarled triumphantly, flexing her powerful arms at her sides. Tadewi’s desperate cries made my stomach hurt. She was going to be destroyed while trying to save my life. I thought about what I might do to buy her some time to heal. Water, Fire, Earth, if I tried any of them I’d have to drop the barrier and Cassandra would be on me in an instant.
But if it means giving Tadewi some time, isn’t it worth it?

Yes, it is.

I was just about to act when I felt another Fae appear out of nowhere—one moment he wasn’t there, the next he was. The Wise One burst through the brush in his natural form and transformed into a gnarled wild boar, dark rust and black in color, but the size of a rhino. He didn’t stop, charging at Cassandra with glowing blood-red eyes and foot-long tusks slicing through the air. Cassandra sprang away from Tadewi, snarling and snapping her jaws, but even as a werewolf she wasn’t fast enough.

The giant boar caught her mid-body, hooked her on its tusks, and slung her back and forth like a stuffed animal. Cassandra snapped her powerful jaws at the hog’s back, and slashed at its flanks, but neither fang nor claw could get past the Wise One’s barrier. He drove her into the ground and she screamed a human scream as she clutched her abdomen. Placing her arms and legs against his head, she pushed him back a few feet, dislodging the tusk from her stomach. She sliced through a boulder behind him, and I thought he’d be cut in half, but the attack glanced off of his side with no more force than a whisper.