Fey 02 - Changeling (66 page)

She hurried to the crib.
 
The nurse didn't seem to notice. Arianna was thrashing and kicking, her tiny hands pulling at her throat.
 
She wasn't changing back.

"Put that lump down and get over here!" Solanda snapped at the nurse.

"Tis sad he is.
 
The boy knows his ma is gone."

"I don't care.
 
His sister will be dead if you don't help me."

"Lor.
 
Not again."

Solanda grabbed the baby's hands.
 
Her eyes were wide and frightened, her blue pupils almost black.
 
The nurse set the lump down — too slowly for Solanda's taste — and stepped tentatively to Solanda's side.

"I dinna know yer magic," the nurse said.

"I don't care," Solanda said.
 
"you have to hold her still. Completely still.
 
Do you understand?"

"Aye, mum."

The nurse put her hands into the crib, reaching for Arianna's transformed shoulders.

"And don't touch her fur."

"Sorry, mum."
 
The nurse gripped Arianna's waist with one hand, and held the baby's hands with the other.
 
Arianna's feet still kicked.
 
Her face was turning blue.

Solanda stroked Arianna's chin, feeling the ridge that went from fur to skin, and she pushed the skin downward.
 
It did no good.
 
In her panic, Arianna fought.
 

"Work with me, babe," Solanda whispered in Fey.
 
"Work with me."

But Arianna turned her head from side to side, continuing to thrash.

"I said hold her!" Solanda said in Islander.

"I dinna have enough hands, mum," the nurse said.

Incompetent help.
 
"Then hold her head and body still.
 
Keep her hands off me."

"Aye, mum."

Solanda bit her lower lip.
 
The previous times she had guided Arianna to change on her own.
 
This time that wasn't working.
 
She would have to instigate the Shift herself.
 

She only hoped she could do it.

Arianna's tiny tongue protruded from her lips.
 
Solanda grabbed Arianna's shoulders and willed herself to Shift slowly, hands first.
 
Her nails became claws, her hands paws, and fur grew on her skin.
 
Solanda's Shift stirred something inside Arianna and she stopped struggling.
 

Then Solanda Shifted her hands back to normal.

Arianna's neck and shoulders Shifted with her.

The baby took a deep shuddery breath, then another, and another.
 
The nurse and Solanda leaned against each other for a moment before they realized that they had touched.

"I dinna know, mum, but seemed twas close ta me," the nurse said, still holding Arianna.

Solanda took her hands off the baby, not wanting to trigger another Shift.
 
She wondered if her own Shifts were causing Arianna to experiment or if something about the Shift triggered the baby.
 
She wouldn't be able to stand remaining in the same form every day.
 
She would have to teach Arianna how to control the Shifts first.
 
Maybe by holding her and doing slow Shifts until Arianna gained control.

"It was close," Solanda said.
 
"If we hadn't been here, she would have killed herself."

"Beg pardon, mum," the nurse said.
 
"If ya tweren't here.
 
I dinna know magic."

"You know enough," Solanda said.
 
"You concentrate on what she looks like, remind her of her Fey form, and talk to her until I get here."

"But twould be na way ta get ya, mum.
 
I'd be with her sweetness."

Solanda bit back a response.
 
She was trapped here.
 
She had made this bed, and she would have to remain in it.
 
"I'll stay here," Solanda said.
 
"I won't leave until she has this controlled."

"Aye, mum, even us tenders need ta get away else we do na good."

"How would you suggest I leave her?" Solanda asked.
 
The question came out harsher than she expected.
 
Arianna looked up at her.
 
The baby's breath was coming normally now and her skin had returned to its natural color.

"I dunno," the nurse said.
 
"Perhaps twould be all right ta send Sebastian for ye."

"That lump?"
 
Solanda looked at it.
 
It had gotten up and come to the nurse's side.
 
It was half-hidden in her skirts and peering into the crib.

"Mum, please.
 
Dinna call him such things.
 
The boy is slow, but na deaf."

Solanda sighed.
 
These ignorant creatures had no idea what they were thinking was a child.
 
But as long as she was here, she could avoid saying 'lump' in conversation.
 
"I don't think sending him after me would be a good idea.
 
What if he forgot?
 
Or worse, stopped moving?"

"Twouldn't do that," the nurse said.

"But he knows so little of the palace.
 
He wouldn't be quick enough."

The nurse nodded.
 
If anyone considered the lump as a true child, the nurse did.
 
The woman had a good heart.
 
She just wasn't much smarter than her charge.

Solanda sighed.
 
"If I need to leave the room, we'll bring in someone else you trust to watch Arianna.
 
Then we can send that person for me.
 
Or maybe I'll leave when Nicholas comes.
 
We know he has a vested interest in this little girl."

"Aye, mum.
 
Tis a good idea, that."

Obviously.
 
Solanda was known for her good ideas.
 
Like this one.
 
Her heart was still pounding from the closeness of that Shift.
 
Perhaps there was a way to get the Shaman here to examine this child again.
 
Or maybe a way to have a Domestic here permanently.
 
Solanda would ask Nicholas the next time she saw him.

He wouldn't object, but finding another Fey willing to live in the palace after what had happened to Jewel would be almost impossible.
 
Solanda did it because she had to --she had to take care of Arianna --but no one else felt that need.
 
Not even the Shaman.

Solanda wondered what the Black King would think of that.
 

A small movement beside her caught her attention.
 
The lump had pushed closer to her.
 
Its skin was surprisingly warm.
 
Its forefinger was in its mouth and it was staring into the crib.
 

Slowly it brought its finger from its mouth.
 
A thread of saliva ran from the fingertip to its tongue.
 
The nurse caught its hand before it could touch the baby.

It looked at the nurse.
 
"Is that my sister?" it asked.
 
The words came out hesitantly.
 
Slowly.
 
As slowly as its movements.

The nurse shot an uncertain glance at Solanda.
 
Solanda wondered what the problem was.

"Of course," Solanda said.
 
"Her name is Arianna."

"Airy," the lump said.
 
"Airy Anna."

Tears had filled the nurse's eyes.
 
"He's never said more than two words.
 
Except when he cried for his mother."

"Airy Anna," the lump said. "Pretty."

"What's he saying?" the nurse whispered.

A chill ran down Solanda's back.
 
She hadn't realized.
 
No wonder the nurse hadn't understood.

The lump was speaking Fey.

THIRTY-FIVE

Nicholas was still in his chambers, finishing the last of the pastries the cook had sent up for his breakfast.
 
He was nursing a cup of herbed tea, and ignoring the warmed milk with the tiny skin on top.
 
The cook had included the milk ever since Jewel's death.
 
Nicholas didn't want to know why.
 
It probably had to do with taking proper care of one's self while grieving.

A fire burned in the grate.
 
He had left his bedroom and was sitting in the main suite as close to the fire as he could get.
 
He wasn't sleeping well — some nights not at all — and found that lack of sleep meant he was always chilled.
 
He didn't even open the tapestries, like he used to do in the spring.
 
He didn't want to see the empty chairs around the room, the places where Jewel used to sit with him, the places where they used to talk.

He was dressed for the day, in breeches and a peasant shirt, but he wasn't ready to start working yet.
 
First he had to see his daughter, then he had to determine how to care for Jewel's body.
 
That, of course, would lead him to Matthias, a subject he didn't want to consider at all.

When he saw Solanda, he would ask her how best to contact the Shaman.
 
The quicker he made the trade, the better they all would be.

The knock on his suite door didn't surprise him.
 
He had already been in his chambers longer than he had planned.
 
The urgency of the knock did, however.

"Sire?"
 
the voice belonged to his chamberlain.
 
"Beg pardon, Sire, but tis a lord here ta see ya.
 
Says tis urgent."

It was always urgent these days.
 
"It can wait until I open the audience chamber."

"No, Sire, we need to talk now."
 
The voice belonged to Lord Stowe.
 
Nicholas sighed.
 
Now. Everything was now.
 
Someday he might have time for then.

"Stowe, I have other business —"

"Not as important as this," Stowe said.
 
"It concerns Matthias."

So no one else was calling Matthias the Rocaan any more either.
 
How very interesting.
 
Nicholas took the last bite of his pastry, wiped his mouth with a cloth, and pushed his tray aside.
 
After a second's consideration, he grabbed the mug of herbal tea and cradled it against his chest.

"Come."

"Sire, I'm bringing your chamberlain with us.
 
I assume you trust him."

That sentence alerted Nicholas.
 
He sat up.
 
Something was odd here.
 
"I do," Nicholas said.