The Changeling

by Jennifer Lyndon

  We arrived at Vilkerdam less exhausted than was usual after such a journey, but I was also less pleased to be there. I set myself to work immediately, trusting only M’Tek and Aunt Kessa to watch over the girls. The atmosphere in the palace felt strange to me. I sensed the tension in the staff, and it made me anxious.

  It was an adjustment for me, speaking Vilken again. My words seemed to catch in the back of my throat. It had been more than five years since I’d spoken the Vilken tongue regularly. After the first couple of days my words seemed to form more easily in my mouth, but I had developed a slight accent, and as a result, clipped my words too sharply if I failed to concentrate.

  Aunt Kessa was thrilled to be home, but she was alone in her joy. M’Tek simply tried to be supportive, but I could see, and feel, that the Fae Queen was uneasy. In the moments I wasn’t working, I was watching over her with my mind constantly. She could feel me, and for the first time since the Sim’Sci had opened that strange connection between us, M’Tek allowed me to use it freely. She offered frequent reassurances, and promised to keep our daughters safe, whenever she felt me reaching for that connection.

  I began a habit of talking to her in my mind constantly. I’d ask her advice whenever I came across a political hurdle. Occasionally I touched upon her mind without communicating in words, offering only my craving for her, or my love. At those times she would appear in my office within moments, after depositing the girls with Aunt Kessa.

  Over the following months, I waded through correspondence from my nobles, and decided disputes between houses over territory and land. I commissioned construction on roads, and new schools for the peasants, and countless other projects. Still, I was barely making headway into my workload.

  It was after a morning filled with the most mind numbing drudgery imaginable, that I noticed a sound that was both familiar and terrifying at once. The crunch of a thousand horse hooves on the entryway to Vilkerdam Palace echoed through my office, striking a place of terror deep within my soul. I was out of my chair in an instant, rushing to my window to watch those strangely dressed soldiers, Vilken and Borderling in appearance, pouring through the gates of Vilkerdam Palace. For reasons beyond my immediate grasp, my gate guards had opened the gates for soldiers that clearly were not mine.

  I sought M’Tek with my mind, but I was panicking, my thoughts unclear. Her steady voice came into my head.

  “I’ve seen the soldiers,” she said clearly. “I have the girls. We’re coming to you.”

  “No! Don’t worry about me,” I thought. “Just get out. Run to the West Gate.”

  “We’re coming to you,” she repeated firmly.

  “Are you armed?” I asked.

  Just then she came into my office, carrying Ania, and leading Lia by the hand. She looked angry, or fierce maybe, but not afraid. I started breathing more slowly, waiting for her to tell me what to do. Then I realized where we needed to go.

  “The top floor,” I said in a strangely calm voice. “The servants’ stairs.”

  M’Tek turned from me and strode back out of my office. I followed quickly, noting the sound of glass breaking downstairs, and the clash of metal against metal, as my loyal Fae and Noge guards fought to protect the palace from an overwhelming attack. Members of my staff screamed as they were caught in the fighting. I wondered how I could have believed my family safe. We were grossly under protected. We needed an army, not our private guard. I climbed the stairs quickly, following M’Tek’s long stride as she took two steps at a time until we reached the top floor.

  “The old music room,” I said when M’Tek turned to ask for more instruction.

  “To the left?” she asked, pushing into my mind for the answer as she headed in that direction.

  I picked up Lia and ran after M’Tek, as we fled toward the hidden tunnel. I ran straight for the place I remembered in the floorboard and kicked it firmly. The hidden door popped open. I placed Lia on her feet and pulled the door open before turning to watch as M’Tek placed Ania down beside her sister. M’Tek moved to me quickly, wrapping her arms tightly around me. I tried to get inside her head again, but she was blocking me. Still, I sensed what she was about to do.

  “No,” I snapped, pulling away from her before she could kiss me. “Absolutely not. You’re coming with us.”

  “Go!” she said sharply. “Take the girls. I’ll get horses. They’ll be looking for their Queen and the Princesses, not me. I’m no one in Vilkerland,” she said.

  “What are you saying? You’re the Fae Queen,” I argued, my voice sounding desperate. “They’d kill you first if given the chance.”

  “Shhh. Don’t give voice to such thoughts. The girls are already frightened, my love,” she said gently, pleading with her eyes. “Now, please, go. I’ll be fine. I’ve been in tighter spots than this before. If I’m careful, and keep my head down, I might even pass for Vilken,” she said quickly. “See to it you all stay in one piece, and I’ll bring horses,” she assured me.

  “M’Tek, we’re not separating,” I said sharply.

  “Kiss me,” she replied, drawing me to her. I felt her lips pressing against my cheek and my forehead, and then my mouth as I gave in to her. “I love you,” she whispered. “Wait for me at the gamekeeper’s cottage. I’ll bring the horses and whatever weapons I can manage. There’s a low place in the western wall. It will be a difficult jump for the horses, but that part of the wall won’t be heavily guarded yet.”

  “M’Tek, I can’t leave you,” I said, growing frantic. “I’d rather stay and die.”

  “I’m trusting you to protect what matters most to me, my love. Please, trust me to get the horses,” she replied. Her attention shifted to our frightened daughters as she forced a reassuring smile. “Lia, Ania, you have to be strong for your mother. Be quiet and do as she asks,” M’Tek said to the girls before her attention returned to me.

  “No. I can’t do this, M’Tek,” I said. “Don’t ask me to agree to this.”

  “I’m not asking, Lore,” she said gently. “This is our only way out. Now, this tunnel should put you out in the woods to the…”

  “I remember where the tunnel ends,” I said, my voice sounding shrill. “I’ve done this before. M’Tek, I’m not leaving you the way we left my mother. You don’t understand,” I said, refusing again. “Please, just come with us. We need to stay together. We’ll find another way out.”

  “Remember how you escaped before,” she said. “Master Toblin had horses waiting for you. Without horses we’re lost. We can’t walk out of here,” she said, reaching down to her boot for her knife. She pressed the sheathed weapon into my hand. “We’re wasting time, Lore. I’ll come for you. I promise.”

  “No!” I snapped. “Keep your knife at least. I have one,” I lied. An expression of relief flashed across her face, making me even more anxious. She took her knife back.

  “Good. Now go,” she said again. “They’ll be searching the second floor by now. It won’t be long before they come up here.” She stepped forward and kissed me again, more gently this time, as if trying to reassure me, and then she turned. I watched her run across the room in four strides, her shiny dark hair loose and bouncing behind her.

  “No! M’Tek, wait!” I called, as she opened the door, and then she was gone.

  I couldn’t abandon our daughters to run after her. I had no choice but to take the girls into the wall. I held their little hands tightly, and coaxed them forward. Lia balked at the threshold, unwilling to step into the dank tunnel. I was forced to pick her up again. Ania on the other hand was too compliant. Clearly, the child was in shock.

  We made our way quietly. Lia seemed to understand the danger, and kept completely still initially. After I carried her down the first flight of stairs, Lia squirmed, and I placed her down. She gripped my hand tightly, urging us forward, as Ania followed. We made silent progress, unable to block the muffled screams of agony and occasional barbs of laughter coming from the other side of the wall.

  Finally, we
were beneath the palace. Ania’s pace slowed to the point I had to pick her up, but Lia kept walking doggedly at my side. None of us spoke, as we made slow progress through the dank, beetle and spider infested, passage. At one point I turned a corner to find the tunnel had collapsed in on itself. My heart sank. I thought we were trapped. I put Ania down and started digging frantically in the loose, damp earth. After about an hour, I’d made a large enough space for us to just barely fit through.

  We reached the end of the tunnel in the afternoon, but waited until it was dark to head toward the ruined gamekeeper’s cottage. In all of this time I’d been checking M’Tek’s progress with my mind. She periodically replied to me, telling me she was still trying to get to the horses, or she had managed to acquire a sword and uniform. When I asked her how I saw a flash of blood as she slit the throat of a young soldier she’d come across. I was thankful I’d not taken her knife.

  I held our girls close to me in the clearing, trying to keep them warm in the cool evening air. We made our way to the decrepit gamekeeper’s cottage, and I realized it was in no way a fit place to shelter two frightened children. Still, the crumbled walls offered some protection. When I tried to communicate our arrival to M’Tek, I couldn’t find her. Usually, I could feel her, even if she was blocking me, but I felt nothing, only vast emptiness.

  That emptiness frightened and engulfed me. I tried to imagine anything that could cause it, besides the obvious. I could come up with no other possibility, and was nearly overcome with terror. I tried to push the idea of M’Tek’s death out of my mind, but it kept returning. When my breath started coming too quickly, Lia was next to me.

  “Mamma, why are you breathing like that?” Lia asked. “Why are you shaking?”

  “I’m only cold, Lia,” I said, lying to my daughter. Her grey eyes registered the deception.

  “Where is Mata?” Lia asked.

  “She’ll be with us soon, sweetie,” I said. “She’s bringing horses.”

  “Why was Mata afraid of those guards?” Lia asked getting at what was troubling her. “Are the guards bad?”

  “They were soldiers, Lia, not our guards,” I replied. “Yes, they’re bad.”

  “Will they hurt Mata?” she asked, her voice cracking as she started crying.

  “M’Tek’s very strong,” I said, trying desperately to keep the fear out of my voice. “Now you should get some sleep. We need to be rested when she brings the horses.”

  Lia fell silent, as she pressed closer to me, her fists gripping tightly to the material of my dress. I could tell Lia didn’t sleep that night, because she sniffled periodically, trying to keep from crying. Ania lay close on my other side, clinging to me in silent terror, but I thought she slept some. We stayed in that position all night as I tried desperately to connect with M’Tek. Still, I found only emptiness.

  Early the following morning, just after first light, I heard soldiers riding through the woods not far from the broken down gamekeeper’s cottage. Luckily, the path toward the lake was obscured due to lack of use, so the soldiers rode by without checking. I could hear their conversation for just a moment as they passed. The girls were sleeping, so I was careful not to move and wake them.

  “…about fifty soldiers to take the Fae Queen last night,” the first soldier said in a heavy Borderling accent. “There was blood everywhere, and battered bodies all over the stable.”

  “How many did she kill?” the second asked in clean, correct Vilken, the inflection of the southern nobility obvious in his voice.

  “Not sure yet,” the Borderling said. “We keep finding dead soldiers hidden about in the palace, their throats slit wide. It was the witch finally brought down the Fae Queen in the stable.”

  “You actually saw the witch. I’m told her eyes are…”

  Their voices were muffled as they moved out of range, but I had enough information. I knew Sim’Nu held M’Tek. That gave me a glimmer of hope. M’Tek’s life was valuable as leverage. M’Tek could still be alive.

  My position in the woods would not be safe much longer, as more guards would certainly be combing the area searching for me. I picked up Ania and woke Lia, and we began our walk toward the west gate. The gate would be guarded, certainly, and impossible to pass through, but as I lay awake all night I’d considered another option. The wall had not been refortified in at least ten years. I thought there might be a chance I could find a low section where the top portion had crumbled away, and we could climb over, or at least I could help my daughters over and then try to find another way out for myself. The only thing I knew for certain was that if these soldiers found my children, they’d kill them.

  It took me a couple of hours to locate a suitably decrepit section of wall. I lifted the more athletic Lia first, as she had to climb part of the way. I then handed her sister up to her. Feeling some relief that at least I had the girls over the wall, I began gathering every fallen limb or large rock I could find to build up a spot to help me climb. I took off my slippers and tossed them over the wall. When I was able to reach high enough to scale the wall, it took all of my strength, and gripping hairline crevices with my toes and the tips of my fingers, but I managed to climb up. I tore both my hands and clothes with the effort, and lost two toenails, and skinned my left cheek pretty badly, but finally, after falling twice, I was able to reach the top of the wall. I quickly dropped over to help my daughters down.

  We crawled along behind the hedgerow, as we made our way north along the wall. I knew I would stand out in my torn and soiled, but still vibrantly colored, gown and that there were guards patrolling the area searching for us. When I came upon a barn not a half-mile north of the wall, I took the girls inside to hide in the hayloft. Ania was still not speaking, and Lia knew silence was important, so throughout the day, when the farmer came into the barn from time to time, we remained perfectly silent, and hidden beneath the hay. He never knew we were there.

  By evening, we had not eaten in more than thirty hours. Fortunately, there was fresh water in the animals’ water buckets. I also found eggs. Lia was hungry enough to eat them eagerly. I was more reluctant, having to force myself to swallow the slimy raw sludge, while making every effort not to gag. Ania seemed unaware of my presence when I tried to make her eat. Finally, I admitted defeat and let her be.

  I stole some clothing from a wash line behind the farmhouse, dull brown trousers made from homespun fustian, and a dark hemp tunic. Unfortunately there were no work boots lying about, so I had to be content with my rather flimsy slippers. Rather than dispose of my dress, and leave evidence of my path through the farm, I tore it into strips, and wove it back together in the shape of a sack. We filled our improvised sack with the remaining eggs and hurried from the farm barely an hour after sunset.

  It became Lia’s job to carry the sack, while I carried her sister. I brought one of the buckets of water as well, and we walked through the night, only stopping when Lia became too tired to continue. I found a hedge for us to hide under during the following day, and we managed to get some sleep.

  When we woke that afternoon, Ania, who had refused food the day before was ravenous. I left her in the care of her sister to eat eggs for a few minutes, as I ventured out toward the road. There were Vilken and Borderling soldiers in the distance, so I hurried back to my daughters, and we waited until dark to set out again. Ania seemed to be recovering from the shock that night, though she still refused to speak.

  During the night, we came upon another farm. We stole eggs again, and had our fill of water. With my stomach no longer concerning me, and my head clear for the first time since our escape, it occurred to me that I might steal one of the workhorses. There were five. If I broke the fence, in a vulnerable place, it might appear they had just escaped on their own. I made a halter out of some old rope I found in the barn, unwilling to take a bridle and make it too obvious I’d stolen a horse, in case we were tracked to the farm.

  I left the girls at the edge of the field as I approached the animals. Four
of them tossed their heads and swished their tails at me, as they trotted to the other side of the pasture. That left one, a poor, worm ridden, half-starved creature. She was no beauty, but she approached me as if eager for attention, and possibly food. She was quite a large-boned and emaciated white mare, with big gentle brown eyes. I caught her easily, speaking softly to her as I tied my makeshift halter on her. Instead of using the gate, I kicked the weakened post down, bruising my foot in the process, and led the mare through the broken fence, careful of her legs.

  I lifted Ania up onto the mare’s back, and then scrambled up myself to sit behind her, nearly knocking my child off in my haste. I then reached down to Lia to help her climb my leg to scamper up and sit behind me. Once mounted, we made better time. The mare was slow, and in poor condition. After much coaxing, I managed to encourage her into a trot, and therefore we made far better time than the three of us could have managed on foot. When morning came we were miles from the farm, and nearing the Noge border. The girls were sleeping, propped up against me in front and back, so I continued my progress through the rest of the day.

  By nightfall, the mare needed a break. I was worried that if I climbed down I might be too weak to clamber back up on the mare’s back, so I allowed her rest, but we remained mounted. It was a frigid night, and the mare’s body heat helped keep us warm, though I knew my strength was failing. After a couple of hours of rest, I pushed the mare on. We crossed the high plains that night, and I saw the Pale Mountains on the horizon. We rode all day trying to reach them. By that evening I could just make out Sweet Lake in the distance.

  With every hour my concern over my daughters grew. We had not eaten since those pilfered eggs at the farm almost two days earlier. Neither of the girls spoke anymore, and they both clung to my clothes with tight little clenched fists. My only choice was to push on. We were dehydrated and half-starved by the time we approached the Village of Saranedam early the following morning. I nearly collapsed when I dropped down from the exhausted mare’s back to drink from the fountain in the square. I led her the remaining distance, through the streets of Saranedam Village, and up to the gates of my palace.