Weald Fae 02 - The Changeling

  “Yes, the very life force of nature—sorry Sara, I mean no offense to your considerable talent.”

  “None taken. You are correct, of course.”

  “Maggie, actual fire is virtually useless against an Air aligned Fae—they need only remove the oxygen and you have nothing left but heat and perhaps a little smoke.” Billy winked at Sara, who nodded in agreement. “Remember the energy plasma you created at the Fire trial?”

  “St. Elmo’s Fire?”

  “Yes. Can you create it here?”

  “I’ll try.” I focused, and managed to create a glowing blue orb the size of a cantelope.

  Like a proud teacher encouraging a student, in a forced whisper he said, “Study that, Maggie—feel it. Understand the essence of it. Can you meld it?”

  With little effort, and in much the same way I manipulated Air, I flattened it out into a disc the size of a trashcan lid and began stretching it until it was almost ten feet in diameter and translucent. Sara probed it with her mind—I sensed the contact. She pushed through the center, and again I began wheezing like a human tea kettle. I could feel the exact place where she had penetrated. So I condensed the barrier and made it stronger. My involuntary exhale stopped. She moved her attack quickly to the side and air rushed out of my nose again until I countered, moving the barrier to block her. The quicker I reacted, the faster she changed the attack point. With each new incursion I countered and cut her off, but I could not prevent the attacks from reaching me. Even if the window was only a split second, I realized that she could still take me out if she wanted. That meant Cassandra could too.

  I’ve got to make it stronger, I thought. The more I concentrated, the larger the disc grew. But as I did so, I began to feel lightheaded. Then, without warning, everything went black.

  NINE

  BILLY

  The sun beamed down on my face—it was bright wherever I was, but my body was cold and stiff. With no sense of time or place, I forced my eyes open. Only then did the pounding sensation in my head register. The sunlight hurt my tender eyes.

  Instinctively, I reached for my temples, trying to carress the pain away—my voice was weak.

  “I’ve got a migraine. What happened?”

  “No, not a migraine,” Billy said. “You fainted.” Sara and Billy were both smiling when my vision came back. Exhausted and edgy, I felt completely dejected when I sat up.

  “Why the long face?” Billy asked as he dropped silently to the ground beside Sara, some twenty-five feet from above.

  “Why? Really? Maybe it’s because I can’t stop Cassandra from reaching me. She’ll either dissect me, or burst me like a balloon the moment I faint. This sucks.”

  “No, she won’t,” Billy said.

  “Oh, was I more effective when I passed out?” My tone was more defiant than I’d intended.

  “You’ll learn to become more effective, Maggie. Lesson one, you are drawing the power for the barrier from yourself—you drained your own energy. All we need to do is teach you to draw energy from other sources—that will give you the power to reinforce your shield. Your goal, of course, is to not lose consciousness.” He laughed, and that stung my pride.

  “Oh, sure, why didn’t I think of that,” I said dismissively.

  Billy crossed his muscular arms and smirked. “That lesson was necessary, I’m afraid. Better to learn your limits in the presence of friends, don’t you think? I doubt you’ll make the same mistake twice.”

  Sara rolled her eyes at him. “You can learn to draw energy easy enough, I think, and it will be most effective.” The excitement was stong in Sara’s bell-like voice. “Cassandra might not be able to penetrate that barrier.”

  I shook my head.

  “Trust me, Maggie. If you can learn how to create a barrier, which no human has ever done, you can certainly learn to draw energy. Creating a barrier with the Fire element is unique—to my knowledge, no human has ever conjured one.”

  Billy nodded in agreement. His gray eyes flashed as he spoke. “Granted, you have a lot of work ahead of you to get to that point, and even then I doubt an energy barrier will be any more effective against a powerful Fire aligned Fae than your Air barrier is against Sara, but you should be able to block Water and Earth aligned Fae effectively enough.”

  He crossed his arms as he took in a deep breath. “I believe you can use your Water inclination to block Fire aligned Fae. In time, I can teach you to redirect, dissipate, and absorb energy attacks. But for now, let’s work on teaching you to draw more energy.”

  Billy had me focus on the various sources of energy around me. At the moment, the easiest source to draw from was the sun. He was patient, as always, and instructed me how to draw on it—the radiant heat and light would be like a wall socket I could plug into. The moment I made the connection, the lingering headache was replaced by a sensation of power and of being alive and alert. Every nerve and every fiber of muscle in my body tingled as my connection to everything around me awakened. It was wholly unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The energy in literally everything was at my fingertips, just waiting for me, ready to add to my state of euphoria.

  “Oh, my god, this is amazing! And I thought Redbull was great.”

  “What does this have to do with bovine?” Sara quizzed.

  I laughed aloud. “I’ll explain later.”

  Completely astounding. I realized I knew how to tap into other sources of energy. Drawing on sunlight, I created the barrier in front of me. Sara made one attack, just a few feet to my left and six inches above the ground, and it pierced the veil immediately. Once again I puffed air against my will. I focused on blocking the breach and the attack stopped, but in doing so the rest of the barrier was weakened. Instinctively, I circled it around me like I did with my Air shield. Billy and Sara gasped. I expected Sara to try another assault, but she stood motionless, transfixed, next to Billy on the other side of the glowing blue veil. Then I began to hear them speak.

  “Extraordinary. Is it just me?” Sara said, though her lips didn’t move.

  “Remarkable indeed. It’s not just you. Perhaps you should…”

  “Yes, Billy, of course…”

  I let my barrier melt away and their voices disappeared along with it.

  “What? Did I do something wrong?” I asked.

  They continued to stare at one another while having one of their silent Fae conversations. At that moment I realized when the barrier was up, I heard them. I caught myself just before I blurted out that fact. It was another secret I knew I should keep to myself, and it almost made up for the failure. I was no closer to blocking Sara than before.

  “Hey, no fair. Full disclosure, remember?”

  Sara smiled and blinked out, shooting past me.

  “Okay, Billy, what did I do? Where is she going?”

  “She doesn’t wish to play witness to anything else today, that’s all.”

  “To hide it from Ozara?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you’ll see.”

  “Some risk is unavoidable. But don’t fret, Ozara and I don’t run in the same circles these days. There’s no danger.”

  No danger? Right.

  Nonetheless, a surge of adrenalin raced through my body, heightening my senses even more, when I realized that I’d been tracking Sara’s movement from a mile a way. I recognized her uniqueness even when she passed among other Fae. I felt all of them and could detect their individuality, all of them, including the one at the Seoladán. Channeling the additional energy extended my range, but as soon as I cut myself off from it, my senses dulled and my range shrank back. It was but one more secret I had to keep.

  “Billy, what happened when I formed the barrier?”

  “I’m not sure, honestly—it’s never happened before. In simple terms, your barrier rendered you imperceptible to our senses.”

  “I was invisible?”

  “No, our senses. You were quite visible in physical terms—a blue girl standing inside a glowing blue orb,
but we couldn’t sense your Naeshura.”

  The significance was lost on me. “How is being a ball of glowing blue energy any better than being me? Wouldn’t it draw even more attention?”

  “Yes and no. That’s why I sent Sara away when I did. As a glowing blue orb you threaten no one and as of yet you’re not powerful enough to block Sara—Ozara will pay no mind. What I didn’t tell Sara, and what I hope she ignored, is that I think you are capable of much, much more. Sara, and therefore, Ozara, will only know that you’ve learned how to channel an energy barrier of moderate strength, just like you can with Air.”

  He was very excited, almost agitated, and acted like a child with a new toy though I still didn’t know why.

  “Maggie, except visually, you just disappeared in front of us. When you channeled your own energy, you were easy to read. In fact, there was more of you to sense. I think that’s because you were projecting your own Naeshura. When you used sunlight however, you appeared to our senses as nothing more than a beam of sunlight, albeit a very intense one, like light through a magnifying glass. It completely masked your presence. Can you do that again, but make the barrier weaker this time, no stronger than it needs to be to merely close it?”

  “Sure.”

  I did exactly as he said and like before, the blue veil closed, but I allowed it to weaken until it became almost completely invisible. He nodded and motioned with his hands for me to drop it.

  “I could read the barrier when you formed it, but not after you weakened it. More importantly, I still couldn’t sense you. When you’re alone, you should practice forming it that way—very weak.”

  “Billy, what if the sun is not out? Or it’s night time?”

  “Yes, that. It should work the same for any energy source. Focus on the small tree to your left, draw energy from it.”

  Again, I followed his intructions and pulled the energy from the tree as I had with the sunlight. There wasn’t nearly as much, and it was more difficult to control, but with a little practice I managed to form a weak barrier with it. I struggled to make it stronger, and for a moment it worked. Then it was gone. I searched the tree with my mind, but there was nothing left. Billy nodded.

  “What? What does that mean?”

  “Touch it,” he said.

  It was much colder than the air around it. I couldn’t sense any life in it.

  “Is it dead?”

  “Yes. You drained it—remarkable. Just as I thought—if you concentrate too much on a living object, you’ll deplete it, but until that happens, your essence is masked. The Naeshura of any physical object is finite and so is the life force. There is still Naeshura in the tree, like there is with everything, but the energy that kept it alive is gone. The life energy in a living object is easier for you to sense and use, but you can pull heat and kinetic energy as well. Focus too much on any object and you’ll use up the energy, and your barrier will fail. That’s why you passed out, coincidentally. Fortunately, it happened soon enough that you couldn’t do any real damage to yourself.”

  I didn’t like the idea of being able to pull the lifeforce out of anything. Even though it was a tree, a small white oak, I felt a tinge of guilt.

  “So I can do this without killing things?”

  “Yes. Like I said, there’s Naeshura in everything. The heat from the ground, the energy released by the waves in water, and even a light breeze, are all full of energy. I want you to practice with different sources, but only when you’re well away from my kind—all of us.”

  “Including you?”

  “Yes, including me, and I don’t want you to tell me what you’ve learned. I think it’s very important for you to keep each new ability a secret. Neither Sara nor I would purposely endanger you, but it is best that neither of us knows what you’re capable of…for the time being.”

  He was angry again, and I didn’t need to read his mind to know why. Billy was thinking about Ozara. “I suspect you will make some remarkable discoveries. Reflect on those things, Maggie.”

  He emphasized the word reflect, but I knew from his face that I had to figure out why.

  “Billy, it may be none of my business, and you can tell me to shut up if you want, but I was wondering why you left the Seelie Clan—the real reason.”

  “Haven’t I told you enough?” His expression was gentle, a slight smile hiding his perfect teeth, but there was a definite note of sadness in his voice.

  “You’ve said plenty, and I’ll accept it if you say human nature was the only reason, but I think there’s something else. You always look so sad when you talk about this place.”

  A subtle change marked his face—he seemed to drift away in thought for a moment.

  “Follow me.”

  ***

  With sunlight streaming through the leafless branches of the Weald’s ancient trees, Billy lead me back toward the cottage along game trails that cut through underbrush and hugged the narrow areas adjacent to the numerous worn and weathered bluffs. Unlike most of our walks together, I didnt have trouble keeping up, as Billy was in no particular hurry. He didn’t talk—I guessed he was busy arranging his thoughts.

  Still walking at an uncharacteristically casual pace, he cleared his throat.

  “Toward the end of Willard O’Shea’s life, when he was too frail to keep up with the duties of being Steward, and before Lola’s training was complete, your family hired a local man to tend the gardens and make the improvements Lola desired. I met him that first day, all those mornings ago, down at the grotto where the elemental temple once stood.”

  Billy wasn’t facing me, but I knew from his voice he was in pain. Each breath he took was more labored than normal, louder.

  “He was preparing to disassemble the stonework, marking each piece so he’d know how to put them back together.” Billy laughed quietly. “He was whistling—that caught my attention. Nobody else on the Weald whistled except perhaps to call a dog back from the woods.

  “Despite not missing a note in the tune, Patrick’s mind was busy working out how to move the structure without causing damage. His thoughts were sharp and clear—he was brilliant.”

  Billy stopped walking when we came to a bluff face a quarter mile from the cottage. He leaned against a large slab of stone that had broken free from the rest of the bluff. It was a beautiful place nestled between two hills—I’d never been there before. Shaded from the midday sun, dormant moss clung to the surface of stone and tree alike.

  “After a casual conversation or two, I was intrigued by him. He wasn’t an educated man, but he was wise beyond his twenty-five years. We became friends, and then…and then we became more.”

  Words escaped me as I stared at him with my mouth open. Billy laughed.

  “The cat has your tongue, I take it.”

  “I…” was the only word I muttered.

  “I know, it was the last thing you expected me to say. But now at least you know why I’ve been sympathetic about you and Gavin.”

  “Did you love him? You know, the edict?”

  Billy smiled, but his gray eyes held no secrets. They were wet, and full of emotion. He didn’t need to answer my question. I wanted to ease his pain—I needed to make him laugh.

  “I never knew there were gay Fae.”

  He shook his head grinning from ear to ear. “Surely Gavin told you that we have no gender in our natural form?”

  “Yes, he told me that.”

  “I’ll tell you something else that too many of your kind conveniently ignore: in it’s truest form, love doesn’t either.”

  “Do the Fae share human biases?”

  “We have our own biases. The Fae could care less about gender. They do, however, care a great deal about species—as you know.”

  “Did Ozara know about you and Patrick?”

  “She tried to know—it was an excrutiating experience. Aether is a powerful truth serum, but it isn’t perfect.”

  Sara hadn’t told me that it was possible to resist Ozara, so my interest w
as piqued. “You can resist?”

  “It’s unwise to resist and more foolish to deceive, but yes, it is possible to hide the truth. That’s precisely what I did—what I tried to do to protect us both.”

  “What happened to Patrick?”

  Pain returned to Billy’s sculpted face and his cheeks flushed.

  “He died. Here. Crushed.” There was a bitterness in his voice that I hadn’t heard before. It chilled me to the core.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  He nodded, acknowledging my apology.

  Somewhere, buried deep in my memory, it clicked. The conversation I had with Aunt May back in the gazebo flashed in my mind—she’d told me this story the day I learned about the trials.

  “The Unseelie?”

  “No, not the Unseelie,” he seethed.

  “Who? Humans?” I whispered.

  Billy was enraged. The area around us grew warmer. If I closed my eyes, I would have guessed it was the middle of August, not the beginning of March. It reminded me of Gavin in the meadow after the Fire trial: Billy was so angry he was putting off heat.

  “It was only a matter of time before Ozara and the others discovered that Patrick and I were involved. Though I denied everything, they could read the emotion and see the images in Patrick’s mind. If only he had your talent.” Billy looked up at me. “Ozara sensed the danger. After she finished questioning me, and was satisfied that I’d not yet crossed the threshold, the situation cooled down for another month. She had Willard fire Patrick and order him off the Weald—a protective measure, she said.”

  The pain in his voice was grew as he recounted the story. “Then I made the ultimate mistake. Patrick snuck onto the Weald and found me. I tried to tell him that it was too dangerous for him to be here, that I wanted to call it off, but he assumed that I was just afraid of being discovered. He was blindly putting himself in jeopardy.”

  “Oh my god, you told him didn’t you?”

  Billy winced. He clearly still regretted the decision. “I told him, showed him even, hoping that learning about us would be enough to persuade him to leave. I was only trying to protect him, but I was a fool. I could read the emotion each time he looked at me and knew he’d never simply leave, but the truth is, I didn’t want him to. I tried to figure out a way, any way, for the two of us to be together safely. While I searched for a solution, I made him promise me that he’d leave the Weald and not come back, and in return I promised to find him.”