The Steward (42 page)

“I can see what you’re thinking, Maggie,” he said, startling me.

“Sorry.”

He came to a stop and stared at me.

“You really must learn to keep your thoughts concealed all the time.”

“I know, I know.”

“How is the technique coming?”

“It’s hard to find a place on the Weald to practice since
your
kind are always around, but I’ve practiced a little while out on the boat.”

“Good. I know it’s inconvenient, but I think it’s best if they’re oblivious to what you’re up to.”

Billy had told me that my
projection
was too simplistic. While he couldn’t read the images in my mind, he knew I was trying to hide them. If he knew, all the Fae knew. He could tell when I dropped the ruse and allowed what I pictured in my mind to become readable.

He suggested that I learn to think without picturing the images I concentrated on. It was incredibly hard to do. I didn’t feel like I had made any progress. He also wanted me to feed the Fae emotion at all times. I’d learned to hide my true emotions, at least when I wasn’t extremely worked up. But that left a blank slate—unrealistic for people, he told me, especially teenage girls. That proved just as difficult.

Harder still, he wanted me to eventually learn to control the Earth element without touching it, and without picturing it in my mind. Right now, he simply worked with me again on altering rocks at a distance.

I wanted to do it, and Sara told me I could learn, but I’d made no progress in days. The nice thing about a Fae tutor was that he was in no rush.

“Concentrate on the small bluff face—just a few inches of it.” He pointed to my right. “Memorize it.”

I picked out a spot free of lichen and stared at it, trying to commit every detail to memory. It was mostly gray with a bit of black grime on it. A small fracture ran from the top to the bottom at a slight angle. Halfway down the crack, a small line curved to the left. I could see it in my mind.

“Now change it. Make the surface perfectly flat, perfectly smooth and ... purple.”

“Purple?”

“I like that color,” he said, smiling. “Now concentrate.”

“I reached out with my mind, feeling the surface, and I tried to morph it. My invisible fingers had improved, but they still fumbled a little and I ended up focusing more on them than the rock. I refocused on the stone, but it didn’t matter how hard I tried, nothing happened. After a few seconds I gave up, exhaled, and looked at him.

“Sorry.”

“Maggie, you know how to do this, but your mind is simply getting in the way. And, you’re not using
all
of your skills. You have to learn to see what is below the surface. Sense the pattern.”

Instantly, I knew what he meant. So I tried to concentrate again, feeling the surface and concentrating so hard the shimmer of energy registered in my mind. The stone had a little heat in it, allowing me to focus on the surface and what was underneath it. A small square flattened out and I gasped.

“That’s not purple,” he said.

I frowned at him and repeated the process. I concentrated on the color and the surface began to change. It went stark white first, and then darkened ever so slightly to pale blue. After a few more seconds, it turned purple.

“How is that?” I said proudly, my heart racing a little faster.

“That’s not purple.” He winced, wrinkling his nose.

My mouth fell open, and then I protested, “It’s heliotrope—that’s purple! I love that color.”

“I prefer a darker shade—an aubergine would be beautiful,” he said with a serious face, shaking his head. Then he started laughing. “Maggie, that is amazing. Now change it back.”

“Really, I kind of like it,” I teased.

He smiled. It was quite a breakthrough for us. Billy didn’t like me when we met, but as we spent time together he grew comfortable enough to joke with me. Aside from Gavin and Sara, and maybe Danny Johns, he was the only Fae I really trusted.

“Billy’s first rule of changing things in the physical world: you always change them back—at least those things that don’t belong to you. People notice purple squares, Maggie. They notice all kinds of things. The physical world is for us to enjoy—it’s a beautiful place in its own right. It deserves our respect, not our meddling.”

I concentrated again, trying to change it back, but it didn’t look the same. Billy placed his hand on the bluff face and the white square disappeared and the crack returned. It was exactly as it had been before.

“You need to work on that,” he said. “Memorizing what the surface looks like is not enough. You have the ability to sense the pattern. When you know the pattern, changing things back will be much simpler.”

“I will.”

“You’ve made progress, and I’m proud of you.” His voice wasn’t exactly warm, but he was sincere.

“I can’t believe it.”

“Believe it. I think you’ll have the hang of it very soon.”

I smiled, even though I doubted what he said.

“Maggie?” he said with a grin.

“Yes.”

“I have two pieces of good news for you.”

“Finally, some
good
news,” I joked.

“I heard from Sara.”

My heart raced the instant I heard the words. “How is she?”

“You can’t possibly be worried about her?” he laughed.

“Well ... yes, I am.”

He shook his head and smiled, looking up at me with his gray eyes. “She is
fine.
She says to tell you that she will be back in October.”

“For the Water trial? Oh, my gosh! Thank you!”

“Yes,” he said. He handed me the blue stone. I didn’t take it at first. Instead I hugged him and he lightly hugged me back.

“What else did she say?”

“She asked me to be your
Treoraí.”

I looked at him, unable to keep the smile off my face.

“I have agree
d,” he said, unleashing my goofy smile, “and the Council has
reluctantly
agreed as well.”

“What, were they afraid I’d fall in love with you, too?”

“That’s inevitable
,
”
h
e
said, laughing
as I rolled my eyes.
“No, they were reluctant because I am no longer a Seelie. They wanted one of their own, but in the end, Ozara agreed.”

“Has Sara seen Gavin?”

“You really do have a one-track mind
, don’t you?
No, she didn’t say. But Maggie, Sherman was correct, you really must put Gavin out of your mind. He
cannot
return to you—I think you know that.

“I do,” I said, with a pang of sadness stabbing me in
the
chest.

“I felt that, Maggie. Don’t torture yourself. Accept it, and move on.
He
would want you to.”

I knew Billy was right. I forced a smile and nodded.

“Now come on, we’d better
start
heading back.”

I followed him down the trail thinking about a number of questions I’d been reluctant to ask. He was my Treoraí now, so I thought it only fair.

“There are several things I haven’t figured out, and I
wondered
whether you would tell me
.
” I said
,
testing the water.

“I’m too old for you
,
” he said, his voice laced with sarcasm.

“You’re worse than Rhonda. No, seriously
.
”

“Fine, ask away, that is my job.”

“Why did Gavin risk so much by challenging Chalen and the others in physical form
?
For that matter, why did they all take physical form?”

“You are a thinker, aren’t you? We can control the elements in our natural state, but it is very difficult to effect the physical world that way. Earth, Air, Fire and Water all have powerful manifestations in the physical world. Think of it like this: If you want to splash
the
water in the lake,
wouldn’t
it
be
easier to do
so
when you’re in the water
than
from inside your bedroom?”

“That makes sense, but I still don’t get why they took physical form?”

“It’s my guess that Chalen chose the physical form for their
meeting
. He maintains physical form for longer periods than any of us—too long, and he’s suffering the side-effects. Anyway, it was easier for Gavin to communicate with him that way. But there is a second reason. The area around that cottage is neutral ground. It is forbidden for the Fae to attack one another anywhere inside the rock walls—they
form
the
Seoladán
boundary. That rule is considered
more
important
than the one forbidding trespass
on the islands out of cycle. I suspect they both felt relatively safe until
the
confrontation began.”

“They were both outside the walls when I got there, just beyond them.”

“Yes, after the ugliness began, I imagine, they both retreated. Neither would risk breaking the rule—at least until Gavin thought you were in danger and he closed
in
on Chalen.”

I remembered
watching
Gavin, in a ball of flame, cross over the wall and attack Chalen as he, too, had moved just inside the wall. I’d seen it all, but didn’t know what it meant at the time.

“I remember Gavin saying that he’d been attacked on neutral ground—he wasn’t the first to violate the rule that night.”

“That may be the case, but I think the Council overlooked it given the scope of Chalen’s accusation.”

Thinking about the Council’s decision stoked my anger, but I moved on. “I saw something else—the other Fae took their natural form and dove into the earth before the lightning got to them.”

“Those bolts were strong enough to destroy, Maggie. Had they not changed into Naeshura and plunged into the earth, I’m positive Gavin would have destroyed them for attacking you. The images you showed me were telling. Gavin did nothing more than spar with Chalen and the other Fae until the moment they hurt you. Gavin is incredibly powerful—he could have destroyed all three given a few more seconds.

“You should also know that, except to go to the islands, Chalen never ventures far from
the
Seoladán, it is an escape route anytime he needs it. Even so, he was only spared by Ozara’s intervention.”

“She stopped Gavin?”

“She stopped both of them. That is what makes her so powerful. As an Aetherfae, she can neutralize the elements that other Fae are channeling. She has limits, though—she can’t neutralize more than a few dozen Fae at one time. Nevertheless, her offensive weapon, Aether, is devastating. She can destroy us, and she is one of the few who has the power to do it when we are in our natural form.

“
T
o use a human metaphor, it’s a double-edged sword. We are our most powerful in physical form because that attunes us even more with the elements.
But w
e are, at the same time,
at
our most vulnerable. The other Fae changed into their natural form when Gavin attacked because it reduced the likelihood that he could destroy them, but to attack him they had to be in physical form. If the images I read in your mind are accurate, Chalen was in the process of changing when Ozara and the Council arrived. I think he
waited
for them.”

It made perfect sense now. The day of the Earth trial, Sara had avoided telling me about how the Fae were vulnerable when I asked
,
because the knowledge would be dangerous. It was a secret the Fae had to keep.

Billy and I hiked back to the parking lot as quickly as before.
The days had grown hotter,
and sweat
dripped
from my forehead. At my car, I wiped my face with a towel and took a long drink of water. Billy of course,
did
n’t sweat at all. He
laughed
at me,
however
.

“A little
too
hot for you?”
he asked.

“No, I love the heat, it...”