Fey 02 - Changeling (106 page)

Touched nodded once.
 
"Nothing?"

Tazy poked a finger through one of the holes in his cap.
 
Even though he was twice Touched's age, he looked younger like he had never left childhood.
 
Hard to believe those fingers had the power and precision to flay skin a layer at a time.

"They didn't take the path —"

"I know that," Touched said.

"— and they didn't go to Daisy Stream that we can see."

"I already sent teams to those places.
 
Have you anyone in Jahn?"

Tazy licked his lips.
 
His finger had burrowed a large hole in the cap.
 
"No one would go."

"No one would go?" Touched kept his voice calm.
 
"Even though ordered by a Warder?"

"Your orders weren't that specific —"

"My orders were precise," Touched said.
 
"I told you to keep your people out there until they found that boy."

Tazy turned his hat inside out, then stuffed it in the pocket of his jerkin.
 
"My people are still out there.
 
But they're not going to find anything.
 
That boy vanished."

"No one vanishes," Touched said.
 
"Everyone from Doppelgängers to Shape-Shifters leaves a trail.
 
You just have to know how to find it."

"That's why I think you should send a Rider.
 
They might see him from above."

"Or perhaps I should tell Rugar to get someone else to lead the Foot Soldiers.
 
Obviously you're not suited to the task any more."

"I do fine," Tazy said.
 
"This boy is unusual.
 
We haven't lost anyone like this before."

"Did you see anything?" Touched asked.

"Broken branches leading to the river.
 
Then nothing."

"So what, do you think he drowned?"

"It's possible," Tazy said.

"Possible?
 
Possible?
 
How possible is it that someone who has lived in Shadowlands his entire life would approach a running body of water?
 
How possible is it that a boy who has never been in the woods could outwit two dozen Fey?"

"It happened," Tazy said.

"Because you let it happen."
 
Touched was shaking.
 
The fools.
 
"Do you realize what you did?"

Tazy shook his head.
 
He wasn't a dumb man.
 
He knew better than to cross a Warder.
 

"You let our best hope for the future disappear.
 
He Enchants, that boy."

"He's Islander."

"He's magic," Touched said.
 
"And I have an Enchanter spell that will neutralize their poison.
 
But we need an Enchanter.
 
He's the only one we've got."

"If you had told me that before —"

"Before?
 
Before what?
 
Would you have worked harder?
 
Is that what you're saying?
 
Are you glad that the Islander child is gone?
 
You disobeyed my orders because of your dislike of Islanders?"

"I didn't know he had magic."

"Neither did I until a few days ago.
 
I still need him."

Tazy took his hat out of his pocket and twirled it.
 
"We could keep looking," he said.

"That you could," Touched said.

"But I think the trail's cold.
 
We didn't find the broken branches until yesterday.
 
They only went to the river."

"Did anyone check the other side?
 
Did anyone go farther downstream to see if the boy waded a few feet to throw you off the trail?
 
Did any of you think at all?" Touched was having trouble keeping his voice down.
 
He had sent the Soldiers because he believed they would do better than he and Rotin would.
 
They had done worse.

Much worse.

Tazy shook his head.
 
"The river's deep in that spot and the current is dangerous."

"I don't want excuses," Touched said.

"It's not," Tazy said.
 
"If you knew tracking you would know that the boy couldn't have crossed there.
 
Not alone."

"He was with another Islander," Touched said.
 
"Or have you forgotten?"

Tazy shook his head.
 
"We need a Gull Rider."

"Rugar approved one," Touched said.
 
"He should have joined you this morning."

"We haven't seen one," Tazy said.
 
"If we had, maybe we would have something by now."

"Probably the Gull Rider decided to stay away from you people.
 
He probably thought he had a better chance on his own."

"But you haven't heard anything from him either, have you?"

Touched sighed.
 
He hadn't heard a thing.
 
The Enchanter and his protector had disappeared.
 

"I thought you haven't," Tazy said.
 
"We're not incompetent, you know.
 
You should have let us know how important this was."

"You should have figured this out," Touched said.
 
"It would seem obvious that if we were going to use so many people to find someone that it was important."

Tazy shrugged.
 
"I just thought it was Rugar going off the deep end again.
 
He hates losing prisoners."

"It's happened before?"

"In Nye once.
 
He went crazy."

"He's not very pleased now.
 
But I'm less pleased," Touched said.
 
"Organize your teams.
 
I want you to look under every leaf, through every drop of water, in every tree for that boy.
 
Understand?"

Tazy nodded.
 
"If he can be found, we'll do it."
 
He clicked his heels together, opened the door, and let himself out.
 

Touched sighed and closed his eyes for a moment.
 
He still wasn't used to giving orders.
 
Perhaps he had done it wrong, or perhaps Tazy's attitude was bad, like everyone's seemed to be around here.

They would look hard now, but their opportunity was probably gone.
 
Each day that went by hurt them and Touched's spell.
  
The boy was probably suffering from Overs.
 
They had to catch him while the symptoms were really bad and he wanted to return. Because the next stage after Overs was an exhilaration as the senses met the world.
 
Once the boy reached that stage, he would never want to come back.

Touched opened his eyes.
 
His fists were still clenched.
 
No one understood his frustration, or how much anger was beneath it.
 
He had finally found a solution to the poison, and the solution had fled.
 
Enchanters came along once a generation.
 
The next Fey Enchanter might be born on Blue Isle, but it would probably be born on Nye.

Useless to them here.

Even an infant would be useless.

Coulter was the right age.

But Coulter was Islander.

The Fey had to find him before he realized that.

SIXTY

Nicholas crouched in front of his son.
 
Sebastian had a small lump on the side of his head.
 
The bruise had expanded oddly so that it almost looked as if his skin had cracked.
 
Nicholas touched the injury gingerly.
 
Sebastian flinched but did not turn away.
 
His eyes were wide, trusting, the same as they had always been.

But Solanda and the nurse claimed that for a few moments, he had been someone else.

The room was stifling.
 
Solanda kept the tapestries open during the day, but the nurse always built a roaring fire.
 
The baby routinely kicked off her blankets.
 
She loved to lie naked in the heat.
 
Solanda said that was a sign that her second form might be a comfort-lover like a cat.
 
Nicholas hoped so.
 
Some of the other forms that Solanda had described sounded very unappealing in a daughter.

"He seems fine," Nicholas said.
 
He gently ran his hand through Sebastian's hair.
 
The boy's hair was black like his sister's.
 
Hers, however, was fine and soft.
 
His was coarse and rough, almost straw-like.
 
He smiled a little as his father caressed him.
 
Nicholas didn't touch his son very often.

"He didn't a little while ago," Solanda said.

"Twas frightening," the nurse said.
 
"He dinna look like our boy."

He wasn't "our" boy, but Nicholas said nothing.
 
He hadn't really acknowledged the child until shortly before Jewel died.
 
He cupped the back of the boy's skull, cradling it.
 
It felt solid and strong, as if it could hold a real brain instead of the damaged one it had.

Then he leaned over and kissed the boy's forehead.
 
Sebastian looked up at him — and slowly smiled.

Those smiles were so rare, so precious.
 
Nicholas smiled in return.
 
Our boy.
 
Our boy was a sweet child, even if he wasn't a very bright one.

Nicholas rose and gripped the edge of the mantel for balance.
 
Solanda hovered near the cradle.
 
She wore a long loose robe and her feet were bare.
 
The nurse said that Solanda sometimes Shifted in front of Sebastian.
 
Nicholas would have to talk with her about that.
 
He found it inappropriate that his son saw his sister's caretaker nude, even if his son was slow and young.

"What do you think happened?
 
Do you think he did something when he hit his head?" Nicholas asked.

Solanda glanced at the baby.
 
"I think someone else was using his body," she said.

"Beg pardon?" the nurse asked.
 
She stood also, leaving Sebastian to play in the middle of the floor.
 
"How can it be that someone twould steal into me boy?"

"He's not your boy," Solanda said, her words echoing Nicholas's thoughts.
 
"He's not really anyone's boy."

"Except mine," Nicholas said.