Fey 02 - Changeling (63 page)

The boy.

Coulter.

The Enchanter.

"This changes everything," Touched said.

"I know," Rugar replied.

THIRTY-THREE

The air glowed green around him.
 
Bright green like light filtering through an algae-covered pond.
 
Matthias opened his eyes.
 
The room was dark.
 
The green was gone.

A board creaked in the main room of his suite.

His hand went to the tiny sword around his throat.
 
Someone was in the room with him.
 
The guards outside should have kept him out.

Then Matthias remembered.

No guards.
 
The Auds refused to stand near his door, as did the Danites.
 
There were no Officiates in the Tabernacle.
 

He was alone.

The sound of the blood in his ears was so loud, he was convinced the stranger could hear it too.
 
He tried to breathe evenly so that he sounded as if he were still asleep.
 
Then he pulled his left arm slowly from under the blankets.
 

Another board creaked.

Matthias scanned the darkness.
 
He could see nothing.
 
He slept with his tapestries pulled down, the fabric so thick it kept out the moonlight.
 
The layout was as familiar to him as the back of his hand: the bed in the center of the second room, a fireplace on the wall at the foot, two tables on either side, and two chairs in the corners.

The other room had sofas, chairs, tables and another fireplace, as well as windows that opened onto the balcony.
 
He had been in these suites since he had become an Elder.
 
When he became Rocaan, he had the option of taking the old Rocaan's suites, but didn't.

Now he was glad he had chosen to stay here.

He slowly slid his arm to the bedside table.
 
The hair on the back of his neck rose.
 
He had no idea who was out there:
 
Someone Nicholas had sent? Someone from inside the Tabernacle?
 
A Fey?

A Fey.

The prospect made him cold.
 
He hadn't thought until now that they too would want revenge.
 
Even if Jewel wasn't doing what they had wanted, she was, after all, their leader's daughter.
 

She was important to them.

His hand was shaking.
 
He could no longer hear anything from the front room.
 
His eyes still hadn't adjusted to the darkness.
 
He had been too successful at shutting out the light, and the fact that he hadn't made a fire tonight meant that not even coals illuminated the room.

Could the Fey see in complete darkness?
 
He had no idea.

Slowly he eased his hand onto the bedside table.
 
The cool, polished wood felt reassuring under his fingers.
 
He walked them along the surface, careful to move slowly so that he wouldn't knock anything down.

A soft exhalation of breath, not his.
 
He paused.
 
He wasn't sure if he had actually heard the sound or not.
 
No more creaks, no banging against furniture, nothing.

The person had to be familiar with his room.

His whole body tingled with anticipation.
 
He continued to walk his fingers along the surface of the table until his index finger brushed cut glass.

The vial.

He resisted the urge to grab it.
 
Instead he eased his hand around it and lifted it just high enough to pull it back to the bed.

Another breath.
 
Soft.
 
Almost impossible to hear.
 
But this time he knew he heard it.

The person had to be in the same room.

Matthias rested the vial against his own chest.
 
With his free hand, he pulled out the stopper.
 
If the person in his room wasn't Fey, this would do no good.

Except maybe to startle him.

A slight "huh" of air beside him, a faint warmth near his left side.
 
Someone was standing beside him.

Matthias tossed the water in that direction.
 
It splashed on the bed, on the table, on Matthias's hand.
 
A voice made an odd, almost panicked cry.

And suddenly the green glow that he had been dreaming about filled the room.
 
A young man stood in the center of that glow, radiating light throughout the room.
 
He was short and stocky, his features Islander, and he was blinking as if the light had blinded him.

The holy water made him glow.
 
Did that mean he was a Doppelgänger?
 
Or another kind of Fey?

Or was he an Islander, like he appeared to be?

Then the man moved his right hand and light flashed off a blade.

He was carrying a knife.

Matthias rolled away from the man and got out of the opposite side of the bed.
 
The light made everything green as if they were underwater.
 
Matthias breathed shallowly, half afraid that water would fill his lungs.

The man turned.
 
He was wiping his face with his left hand.
 
As he did, the green glow faded.
 
It was the contact of his skin and the holy water that caused it.

Matthias thought all these things as he ran through the door.
 
He banged a shin on a table and the thunk resounded through the room.
 
The glow came after him, casting that same eerie green light throughout the suite.

The balcony doors were open and a cool breeze rattled the tapestries.
 

"You stop!" the man shouted.
 
He had no accent.
 
His Islander was perfect.

Matthias didn't stop.
 
He weaved his way around the soft sofas toward the double doors.
 
His nightrobe had gathered around his thighs making movement difficult.
 
The tiny silver sword banged against his chest with every movement.

He had forgotten to grab more holy water.
 
Perhaps if he threw more at the ghostly vision, it would dissolve.
 

But he didn't have time for that.
 
The man was gaining on him.
 
A table fell over with a bang, and the green light got closer.
 
Matthias's shadow looked like a bruise on the far wall.
 
The green made the etchings glow.
 

The man was almost upon him when Matthias grabbed the door handles and pulled them down with all his strength.

The candles were lit in the corridor, but no one stood outside his door.
 
He scurried through the doors and, with a flick of the wrist, yanked them closed.

The green light glowed from underneath them.

The man was close.

Matthias screamed for help, half afraid that help wouldn't come.

But he lived with the other Elders on this floor.
 
They had to help him.
 
Had to.

He ran down the hall, pounding on doors with his fists.
 
The doors finally opened, the Elders peeking out.
 
Danites came up the stairs, and a sleepy Aud pushed off the wall where he had been dozing instead of guarding.

Matthias was taking deep pulling breaths.
 
His hair was matted and falling over his face.
 
The stench of his own sweat was overpowering.
 
He pointed toward his rooms.

"In … there," he gasped.
 
"… A …man …"

The Danites hurried in that direction.
 
Elder Reece held Matthias's shoulder in a light grip, as if afraid to touch him more.
 
Elder Linus was peering down the hallway as if he wasn't sure whom to believe.

Porciluna came out of his doorway, breathing heavily.
 
Even the slight exertion seemed to tire him.

"What kind of man?" he said, and from the bluntness of his question, Matthias could tell that the man had not come from the Elders.
 
He had come from outside the Tabernacle.

"… I … don't … know …"
 

He was shaking and ashamed of it.
 
Not once had he thought of God or his faith or the Roca.
 
Not once had he turned to his religion for help.
 
Instead he had used the holy water as a weapon.

Like the Old Rocaan feared it would be used.

"Don't know?" Porciluna sounded disbelieving.
 
He slept in a satin robe that hung off his bulk.
 
His hands looked naked without their jewelry, his eyes oddly vulnerable as they squinted from lack of sleep.
 
"Didn't you see him?"

"I saw … him," Matthias said.
 
His breath was coming back. " … Later.
 
Much … later.
 
The room was so dark ….
 
I heard … him first."

He wasn't explaining this well.
 
One of the Danites had come back down the corridor from Matthias's room.

"The balcony doors were open.
 
There's a rope still tied to the railing.
 
That's how he got in.
 
He climbed up."
 
The Danite appeared to be reporting to Porciluna, not Matthias.
 
"We're looking through the rooms, but we don't expect to find anyone."

"Get … someone down … to the courtyard," Matthias said.
 
"See if we … can catch him."

The Danite nodded and hurried down the stairs. The sleepy Aud followed him.
 
Reece stared after them.

"Someone should have been guarding your door.
 
Don't the Auds keep care of you any more, Holy Sir?"

Beside Matthias, Porciluna shook his head slightly.
 
Matthias pretended that he didn't notice.
 
"Apparently," Matthias said dryly, "only God watches … out for me."

His heart was still pounding, but his breathing was slowly coming under his control.
 
Reece frowned at Porciluna.
 
Not all the Elders were agreed, then, about ostracizing the Rocaan.

Matthias put a hand on his back and made himself take a deep breath.
 
He would say no more about the man in his room.
 
No one needed to know that holy water made the man turn green.
 
He would investigate that himself.
 
The man may not have been Fey, but something about him had a reaction to the holy water.
 
Matthias seemed to remember hearing something about that before.
 
He would see what he could recall.