Changeling

  villagers of Barra Head had powers beyond what I as mortal can

  comprehend.)

  Naturally once I realized who it was from, I turned it over to Father Edmund

  and have since been praying in the chapel. But I could not stop myself from

  reading it, Brother Colin.

  She wrote that she has been living in Ireland, in a hamlet called Ballynigel,

  and that she was delivered of a girl at summer's end last year. The child, she

  says, is sturdy and bright.

  I shall pray to God to forgive her sins, as I pray for forgiveness of mine.

  She intends to return to Barra Head. I do not know why she continues to

  torment me. I do not know what to think and fear a return of the brain fever

  that so weakened me two years ago.

  Pray for me, Brother Colin, as I do for you.

  ---Brother Sinestus Tor, to Colin, October 1770.

  "All right, class," said Mr. Alban. "Before we start on 'The Nun's Tale,' I'd like you all to hand in your compositions. Make sure your name is on them." I stared at my English teacher in horror as my classmates began to bustle purposefully, pulling out their compositions. Oh, no! Not again! I knew about this damn composition! I'd picked out my topic and done some preliminary research! But it wasn't due until... I quickly checked my homework log. Until today, Monday.

  I almost broke a pencil in frustration as everyone else around me handed up their papers and I had nothing to hand in. I was seriously screwing up. I had zero excuse except that my life seemed to be about more important things lately---like life or death. Not Chaucer, not compositions, not trig homework. But actual life, the life I would be leading from now on. I had five days until Imbolic.

  The rest of the day passed in a drone. When the final bell rang, I went outside and collapsed in the Killian-less stone bench, feeling very depressed. I was confused; it was hard to focus; I felt like a horse was standing on my chest. I couldn't even summon the mental or physical energy to go home and meditate, which usually pulled all my pieces together. "You look beat," Bree said, sitting next to me. I groaned and dropped my head into my hands. "Well, Robbie and I are going to Practical Magick," she said. "Want to come?" "I can't," I said. "I should go home and study." Actually, I would have loved to have gone, but it seemed likely that Ciaran was keeping tabs on my. I didn't want him to have chance to suspect I was working with Alyce on anything. There was only a handful of days before Imbolic. I felt the clock ticking even as I sat there,

  As the Kithic members drifted off, I felt sad and alone. My miserable failure last night weighed heavily on my conscience. If I had the guts to go with Ciaran, who knows---I might be done with the mission by now. I had spend the entire day kicking myself, yet the memory of my terror was so real. I understood why I had refused to go; I just wished that somehow I could conquer my fear.

  Across the parking lot my sister waved at me as she and Alisa got into Jaycee's minivan. I'd talked to her this morning---she'd had a great time skiing. I missed Hunter with a physical pain. If only he could be right by my side during this mission. I knew I had to see Ciaran and Killian again. I had to find out the exact time of the dark wave and possibly some of the spell words. I had to try to put a watch sigil on Ciaran. They drew me to them because we were related by blood. Oh, Goddess. What to do? The honk of a car's horn made me jump. Hunter's Honda glided to a halt next to me, and the passenger door opened.

  "Come." He said.

  I got in.

  We didn't speak. Hunter drove us to his house, and I followed him up the steps and inside. Neither Sky nor Eoife was there, and I was grateful. In the kitchen Hunter still didn't speak but started frying bacon and scrambling eggs. It occurred to me how hungry I was. "Thanks," I said as he put a plate in front of me. "I didn't even know I was hungry." "You don't eat enough," he said, and I wondered if I should take offence. I decided I would rather eat then argue, so I let it go.

  "So," he said. "Tell me what's going on." Once I opened my mouth, everything came pouring out. "Everything is so difficult. I mean, I like Killian. I don't think he's a bad guy. But I'm spying on him and using him. I think that Ciaran mistrusts me, but he also seems to---to care about me. And I'm completely terrified of him and of what he can do to me, what he did to my mother, what he's done to others. But I wonder how this is going to end. I mean, I'm going to betray both of them. What will they do to me?" Hunter nodded. "If you weren't feeling these things, I'd be bloody worried. I don't have any answers for you---except that the ward-evil spells you know are more powerful than any you've

  worked before. And the council---and I--- are going to protect you with our lives. You aren't

  alone in this, even if you feel that way. We're always with you." "Are you following me around?"

  "You're not alone," he repeated wryly. "You're one of us, and we protect our own." He cleaned his plate, then said, "I know Ciaran is incredibly charismatic. He's not just a regular witch. From the time he was a child, he showed exceptional powers. He was lucky enough to be trained well, early on. But it's not only his powers. He's one of those witches who seems to have an innate ability to connect with others, to know them intimately, to evoke special feelings in them. In humans this kind of person, if they're good, ends up a Mother Theresa of Ghandi. If they're bad, you get a Stalin or an Ivan the Terrible. In Wicca you get a Feargus the Bright or a Meriwether the Good. Or, on the other side, a Ciaran MacEwan." Great. My biological father was one of the Wiccan equivalent of Hitler. "The thing is," Hunter went on, "all of those people were very charismatic. They have to be to influence others, to make others want to follow them, to listen to them. You're confused and maybe scared about your feelings for Ciaran. It's perfectly natural to have those feelings. You're related by blood; you want to know your father. But because of who he is and what he's done, you're going to have to betray him. It's an impossible situation and one that I didn't want you to take on, for these reasons."

  Hearing him imply he didn't think I could handle it made me want to insist I could. Which might have been why he said it.

  "It's not just that," I said. "It's other stuff. I mean, I like the way he talks about Woodbanes. Everyone else hates Woodbanes. I'm sick of it. I can't help who I am. It's a relief to be around someone who doesn't feel that way."

  "I know. Even being half Woodbane, I catch that sometimes." Hunter cleared our places and ran the water in the sink. "A lot of that is old-fashioned prejudice from people who just don't know better. But covens like Amyranth do tend to set us back hundreds of years. Here's a group of pure Woodbanes who feel justified to murder and pillage other covens simply because they are not Woodbane. One coven like them can ruin things for the rest of us for a long, long time."

  He was talking about the awful things Ciaran had done, and thought of all the people he had killed made me shiver. My father was a murderer. I was right to be scared to be alone with him. In the end, Hunter hadn't made me feel better---but I didn't know if that had been his intention in the first place. He drove me back to school to my waiting car, as silent as he had been on the ride to his house.

  "Morgan," he said as I started to get out. I looked at him, at the glitter of his green eyes in the dim glow of the dashboard lights. "It's not too late to change your mind. No one would think worse of you."

  His concern made my heart constrict painfully. "It is to late," I said bleakly, grabbing my backpack. "I would think worse of me. And if you're honest, you'll admit that you would, too." He said nothing as I swung out of the car and headed for Das Boot. 14. Father

  Brother Colin, you would hardly recognize me. I have lost almost three stone

  since last autumn. I can neither eat nor sleep. I had given up on myself; I am

  lost. God has chosen that I should pay for my sins on earth as well as in the

  burning fire to come.

  ---Brother Sinestus Tor, to Colin, February 1771.

  On Tuesday morning when I got in Das Boot
to go to school, I found a book on the front seat. I was sure I had locked the night before. I'm the only person with a key. With a sense of foreboding, I climbed into the driver's seat and picked up the book. It was large and bound in tattered, weather beaten black leather. On its cover, stamped in gold that was now almost completely flaked off, was the title: An Historical View of Wodebayne Life.

  I turned the book this way and that and flipped through crumbling pages the color of sand.

  There was no note, nothing to say where this had come from or why. I closed my eyes for a moment and spread my right hand out flat on the cover. A thousand impressions came to me: people who had held the book, sold it, stolen it, hidden it, treasured it, left it on their shelf. The most distinct impression, no more that a fluttery butterfly-soft trembling, came from Ciaran. I opened my eyes. He had left this book for me. Why? Would having this book spell me somehow? Was it a no-strings gift or a devious trap? I had no clue. At school I joined Kithic on the basement steps. Alisa was there, which was unusual, so I made a point to say hi. I didn't mention the book, which I had just barely squeezed into my backpack, but sat down as Raven informed us all that she and Sky had broken up. "It just wasn't working, you know?" she said, popping her gum in an ungothlike manner. "She couldn't accept me for who I am. She wanted me to be as dull and serious as she is." "I'm sorry, Raven," I said, and I was. Raven had seemed a little softer, a little bit more happy, when she and Sky had first gotten together. Now she seemed so much more like her old self: cold, calculating, uncaring. I wondered if my bringing Killian to town had been the thing to finish off their relationship or whether it would have crumbled on its own, I couldn't decide. "Yeah, well, don't be," she said shrugging. "I'm glad to be out of it." She almost sounded sincere. But when I cast out my witch senses, I felt a surprising level of pain, sadness, confusion.

  I waited for someone to mention Killian or to ask Raven pointed questions about him, but to my relief, no one did. I was pretty sure Killian had a lot to do with this breakup, whether or not he realized it or cared.

  When the bell rang, I lugged my backpack to homeroom, feeling the book calling to me to read it. In English class I had a chance to and opened it up under my desk. It was written in old-fashioned language and had no copyright date or publishing info. The type was hard to read, which made it slow going. But after the first page I was hooked. It was fascinating. As far as I could tell, it was a nonfiction account of a monk's life, back in the 1770s. He had been sent to a far-off village to bring God to the pagans. I could barely take my eyes away from the pages and wondered why Ciaran had wanted me to read it. I managed to escape detection through the whole class, and then the bell rang, I sneaked it back into my backpack and went up to Mr. Alban. "Morgan," he said. "I'm seem to be missing your composition. Did you forget to turn it in?" "No," I admitted, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Mr. Alban---I spaced it. But wanted to ask if I could do a makeup paper---maybe six pages long instead of four? I could turn it in next Monday." He looked at me thoughtfully. "Ordinarily I would say no," he said. "You had plenty of time to turn in this paper, and every other student managed to turn it in on time. But this is unusual for you---you've always been a good student. I tell you what---turn in six pages, double spaced, on Monday, and we'll see."

  "Oh, thanks, Mr. Alban," I said, relieved, "I absolutely will turn it in I promise." "Okay, see that you do."

  I trotted off to calculus, already planning my outline. Morgan. The power sink.

  I looked up, though I knew I wouldn't see Ciaran. "Morgan," asked Bree, "What is it? You where in the middle of telling me about Mr. Alban." "Oh, nothing." I shook my head. "Yeah, so he's letting me do a makeup paper. It's going to be cool, and this time I won't forget."

  I sent a message back. Tea shop?

  Fine, Ciaran responded.

  "I said, do you want to go to the mall tonight?" Bree repeated patiently. "We could grab something to eat, shop, get home early." "That sounds good," I said. "But I can't. Homework." "Okay. Some other time." Bree walked toward her car, her fine dark hair being whipped by the wind.

  On the way to the Clover Teapot, I tried to concentrate on my mission. Four days remained. It

  was still possible. I needed to get some information out of Ciaran. I needed to plant the watch

  sigil on him. I'll do it, I promised myself. Today is the day. I will accomplish my mission. When I got there, Ciaran was already sitting at one of the smaller tables. I ordered and sat down, once again looking at him closely, seeing myself in him, seeing the possibilities of who or what I could have been, or might still be. If I had grown up with him as my teacher, my father, would I now be evil? Would I care? Would I have almost unlimited powers? Would it matter? I felt him look at me as I took a sip of Red Zinger tea, holding the paper cup to warm my fingers. I needed a good opening. "Is it true that kids in Killian's village don't have to go to school? "Not to a government school," he said. "The village parents get home-schooling certificates. As long as the children can pass the standard tests..." He shrugged. "They can read and write and do sums. It's just that all the indoctrination, the government oppression, the skewed view of history---they don't get that."

  "How much did you teach Killian, and Kyle, and Iona?" Killian had told me the names of his siblings. My other half brother, my half sister. A troubled look clouded Ciaran's face, and he looked out the window into the thin, pale winter sunlight. "Is there somewhere else we could talk? More private? I had mentioned the power sink..."

  "I have an idea," I said. I stood up and gathered my cup of tea and a scone in a napkin. "I could show you our park." I acted like his agreement was given. I couldn't go to the power sink, knowing that any magick he worked there would be dangerously enhanced. But if I were driving, if I chose the place---though really, there were only superficial reassurances. Ciaran was so strong that there wasn't much I could do to protect myself from him except work the ward-evil spells Eoife had taught me and hope for the best. But I was almost glad to be spending some time with him. When we were apart, I was both scared and intensely curious about him. When I was actually with him, my fears danced around the periphery of my consciousness, and mostly I just soaked in his presence. "Lead on," he said, and fifteen minutes alter I parked Das Boot next to a Ford Explorer at the entrance of our state park.

  We sat and drank our tea and ate our scones in silence. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence. But I had noticed that most witches were more peaceful to be around than most regular people. It was as if witches recognized the value of silence---they didn't see a lack of noise as a vacuum that needed to be filled.

  "So how much did you teach Killian, Kyle and Iona?" I repeated. "Not very much, I'm afraid," was his quiet reply. "I wasn't a good father, Morgan, not to them, not by a stretch of imagination."

  "Why?"

  He grimaced. "I didn't love their mother. I was tricked into marrying her because my mother, Eloise, and Grana's mother, Greer Murtagh, wanted to unite our covens. I was just eighteen, and Grania got pregnant, and they promised me leadership over the new, very powerful coven. I would inherit all their knowledge, my mothers and Grania's." I knew he was lying about being tricked into marrying Grania, but I played along. "Why would you inherit and not Grania? I thought the lines were supposed to be matriarchal." "They usually are. But by the time Grania was eighteen and had been initiated and all the rest, it was clear she lacked the ambition, the focus, to lead a coven. She wasn't really interested." His words were tight with derision, and I felt sorry for Grania. "But I was amazingly powerful. I could make the coven something new and stronger and better." "So you married her. But she was pregnant. She didn't get pregnant by herself," I pointed out primly.

  Ciaran's body tightened with surprise, and he looked at me as if trying to look through my eyes to something farther in. Then he threw back his head and laughed, an open, rolling laugh that filled my car and seemed to make the darkening twilight brighter. I waited with raised eyebrows.

  "Maeve said the exact same
thing," he said. Saying her name, he grew more solemn. "She said the same thing, and she was right. As you are. My only excuse is that I was an eighteen-tear-old-fool. Which is not much of an excuse and not one that I've ever accepted

  from Killian. So I have a double standard."

  His frankness was disarming, and I tried to picture him as a teenager. A very powerful Woodbane teenager. I had to lead him back to my question about Imbolic. "Then I met Maeve," he went on, and his voice took on a richer timbre, as if even remembering his love made his throat ache with sadness. "I knew almost instantly that she was the one I should be with. And she knew it about me. Her eyes, the wave of her hair, her laugh, the shape of her hands---everything about her was designed to delight me. We were drawn to each other like---magnets." He looked at his own hands, fair skinned, strong, and capable. The hands that had set my mother on fire.

  I desperately wanted to hear more, more about her, about them, about what had gone so terribly wrong. But I struggled to keep my focus on Starlocket. I had to put other needs before my own.

  "Imbolic is coming up," I said. "Are you going to celebrate with Amyranht? Is Amyranth the coven you inherited from Greer?"

  Inside my car it became very still. We kept our gazes on each other, each of us measuring, waiting, judging.

  Then Ciaran said, "Amyranth is part of the coven I inherited from Greer. Not entirely---not everyone from Liathach wanted to join. And Woodbanes from other covens have joined us. But for the most part, those are people I grew up with, who I'm related to, who I can trust with more than my life." His words were soft, his voice like warmed honey. "We share blood going back thousands of years," he went on. "We're intensely loyal to each other." "Like the mafia?" I said.

  Again he laughed.

  Still, I found his description oddly compelling. The idea of being among people who were completely accepting and supportive, who only wanted to help you grow and increase your powers, who, you could trust implicitly, no matter what---it would be amazing. That picture of a Woodbane clan was to painful to think about---I could almost taste my own longing for it, and it terrified me to know that I was thinking about Amyranth. The coven that had tried to kill me. The coven that right at this moment was planning to destroy Starlocket. From the inside, I realized, it might not feel evil at all.