The Changelings Series, Book 1 (19 page)

Behind them, the doors of the parlor clicked open. Selden tottered out into the hallway, followed by the other Changelings, Tom, and Marian. Dublin trotted past them and sat down at Izzy's feet.

Selden's eyes went to Hen, then Izzy. “Everything all right?”

“Everything's fine.” Izzy took a deep breath. “I think I've decided to go back home with Hen.”

Hen sucked the snot back up into her nostrils. “Wait, what?”

All the Changelings murmured and whispered among themselves.

“But you can't leave us, not now,” said Lug. “I know! Hen could stay here with you. I'll make her a pallet right beside yours.”

Hen shook her head. “I want to see my mom and dad.”

Selden hobbled closer. “Izzy, are you really sure? You're one of us. You belong in Faerie just as much as on Earth.”

Dree poked him in the back with her finger. “She's got a family to go back to, beetle brain.”

“I know that,” said Selden. He glanced over his shoulder at the Changelings standing behind him. “But there's more than one kind of family, isn't there?”

A voice behind them said, “Selden's right—you need to be sure.” They turned to see Good Peter standing in the hall, dressed in a smart new suit and twirling his flute in one hand. “It isn't like the old times when you could come and go whenever you liked. Once you leave, it might be a long time before you return.”

Everyone was watching Izzy, waiting for her answer. She imagined how wonderful it would be to live with the Changelings in the castle, hearing new, wonderful stories and learning how to Change. She would never have this many friends again in her life.

She shut her eyes and shook her head. “I want to stay, I really do. It's hard to explain, but my heart is telling me to go home. I wish more than anything that I didn't have to say good-bye.” She slipped her hand into Hen's. “But either way, I'd be saying it to someone.”

Lug's face was soaked with tears. “We don't want to say good-bye either!” he blubbered. He put one hand on Izzy's shoulder and the other on Selden's. “But we understand. Everyone has to follow their heart. Don't they, Selden?”

Selden looked down at the floor, then nodded reluctantly.

Peter's polished boots clicked against the floor as he sauntered toward them. “If we're all done with this tearful episode, then it's time we go out to the balcony. It's very rude to keep so many people waiting.”

“Who's waiting on us?” asked Hen.

“Oh, no one very important,” said Peter. “Only the entire citizenry of Avhalon and all the surrounding villages. They've all come to witness the return of the Changelings and the little girls who defeated the all-powerful Morvanna. There are several thousands of them crammed into the streets below.”

The Changelings whispered excitedly to each other.

Izzy tilted her face to catch Selden's downturned eyes. “Let's go see them. You wouldn't want to be rude, right?”

Selden looked up and grinned. “Never.”

Peter led them down the hallway to a pair of large double doors. The moment he threw them open, a deafening cheer rose up from the streets below. Izzy felt like her whole body lifted off the ground with the crescendo of the crowd. She ran with the others across the balcony to the railing and looked down. Peter had underestimated the count by half. Fairies of every type thronged the streets, leaning out of buildings and shouting up at the balcony. Lug picked Hen up and set her on his shoulders. They both raised their arms in the air and let out joyous whoops. The crowd exploded in raucous response.

Izzy joined all the others in smiling and waving down at the fairies below while the applause went on and on.

After a little while, Selden tapped her elbow. He smiled at her and mouthed the words,
Can you believe all this?

No, she couldn't. But she let the happiness wash over her just the same.

On a bright morning, after two solid days of feasting, parties, and dances celebrating Morvanna's downfall, Izzy and Hen were finally heading home. The smell of ripe apples drifted over from the orchards, where hundreds of elves were packing the fruits into sawdust-filled barrels and pressing the rest into cider. As the girls walked across the Liadan Bridge with Dublin and Peter, Izzy ran her fingers over her ears. Their tips were finally round again, thanks to a long tutorial from Dree. The rest of her felt almost back to normal too, now that she'd had a few days to let everything sink in.

Peter had agreed to take them back home on the condition that Izzy promise not to use her Changeling powers on Earth. That meant she would go back to being plain old Izzy Doyle of Everton, USA. Izzy knew she'd made the right decision to go back with Hen, but it didn't make parting with her friends any easier.

They had just finished saying good-bye to Tom and Lug and the other Changelings. Izzy's eyes still felt puffy, and her ribs ached from Lug's hugs. She probably had enough of his hair stuck to her jacket to make a mini replica of him. Izzy looked out at the sunlight dancing over the Liadan River and tried not to think about how much she was going to miss him.

Marian had decided to stay behind. She now had seventeen adopted grandchildren to chide and fuss over. She had given Izzy a warm hug, her house key, and some instructions: “Just because I'm not going back to Everton doesn't mean I want possums destroying my house. The garden'll grow wild, and people will talk, but then again, they always did.”

Izzy squeezed the key in her pocket. The cashier at the Jiggly Goat was probably still trying to convince anyone who'd listen that Marian Malloy was a witch. Izzy smiled to herself, imagining what he'd say if she ever told him the real story.

Beside her, Hen and Peter walked hand in hand. “When you take us home, be sure to leave a big sign in the woods so we can find our way back again, OK?” said Hen.

Peter tipped his nose up. “We are talking about a
fairy path
, not a truck stop. Signs won't do you any good. The paths are so hidden that finding them takes a well-trained eye—or a bit of magic.” He tapped his flute against his sleeve.

“But I want to come back here!” said Hen.

“Maybe Peter will find us and bring us back soon,” said Izzy, looking up at him out of the corner of her eye. “It's not like he doesn't know exactly where we live.”

Peter smiled to himself but didn't say anything. Izzy had learned more about him over the past few days. It was true that he had been protecting the Changelings all along. He was forbidden to use his powers to harm a human, so he had pretended to be loyal to Morvanna while he tried to figure out a way to defeat her. On Mount Mooring, he had saved their lives when he felled the fir tree that blocked the witch's fireball. And he was the one who convinced her to use Lacrimo instead of harvesting the Changelings' hearts right away. By feeding Morvanna's insecurities and warning her to conserve her resources, he had managed to keep them all alive.

Even after learning all this, Peter was still a mystery. He'd been avoiding Izzy for the past few days, always making some excuse whenever she asked him any questions. And she had a lot: Why did he take her to Earth when she was just a baby? Who had asked him to hide her? Who were her real parents? But the only answer she could ever get out of him was a yawn and a smile.

Dublin began barking and raced down to the end of the bridge where Selden and Dree stood holding the ponies the girls would ride on their journey back to the Edgewood. At the sight of her friends, Izzy felt a sharp pang of regret. She did want to come back and see them and not have to wait for Peter.

Selden was now off his crutches, his sling hanging unused at his side. He shook his head, looking at her like she'd just volunteered for a stint in a mental institution. “I still can't believe you're leaving. And you'll be going back to school! If I didn't know better, I'd say you were a human through and through.” He waved her closer. “Listen, can I tell you something?”

She leaned in toward to him.

“I know you told Peter you wouldn't do any Changing back on Earth, but—” He tapped his finger on top of her head. “You might want to stretch up just an inch or two. You know, so no one mistakes you for a baby elf.”

Izzy laughed and shoved his shoulder. “Very funny. Well, what about you? What are you going to do now that everything's over?”

“Oh, there's loads to do,” he said with a very official air. “First off, we've got to make sure the goblins and Unglers went all the way back to the Norlorns. No one wants them anywhere near here. Then Tom and Marian are going to start up some sort of council to govern in Avhalon.”

“Are you going to be on the council?”

“And sit in meetings all day, waiting for my turn to say something? Ha! I'd rather go to school.”

Selden's eyes twinkled in their mischievous way, and Izzy knew that within a week, he'd be getting into all sorts of wonderful trouble. She never thought she'd say it, but she was going to miss him.

As if he read her mind, he blushed and looked away. “Well, it's been, you know, not too terrible traveling around with you. I mean, it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. So…I'll see you around, I guess.” He ruffled Hen's hair and patted Dublin on the head, then shoved his hands in his pockets and took off whistling down the bridge back to Avhalon.

Dree shook her head at him as she watched him go. “He's rotten at good-byes,” she said. She turned to Izzy. “Listen, I hope you don't hold all that spy stuff against me. You just never can be too careful, you know.”

“Totally forgot all about it,” said Izzy with a smile.

Dree smiled back, then gave both the girls long, tight hugs. She slipped something wrapped in a handkerchief into Izzy's hand, then spun on her heel and took off running after Selden. With the bright sunlight streaming through her, she looked like a shimmering mirage.

Izzy unfolded the handkerchief to find a small jar of something dark and gooey. The label on the lid read,
Pollening Honey
. A scrap of paper tucked under the jar bore a message with the E's turned the wrong way:

DO NOT FORGIT US.—
.

Behind her, Peter held his horse by the reins. “Are we done here, or would you like to say good-bye to every chunk of mortar on this bridge?”

Izzy took one last look at the disappearing silhouettes of her friends, then turned to face the City Road. Far in the distance, she could just make out the deep-green shade of the Edgewood.

“OK, I'm ready,” she said, taking Hen's hand. “Let's go home.”

This story owes its existence to so many wonderful people. Thank you to my editor, Steve Geck, for believing in these characters from the very beginning, and to John Aardema, and the rest of the Sourcebooks team, for making this a beautiful book inside and out. Thank you, Elena Giovinazzo, for finding Izzy and Hen such a good home.

Special thanks to the Austin kid lit community and the excellent writers I am lucky enough to have as readers and as friends: Margo Rabb, Brad Wilson, Nikki Loftin, Samantha Clark, and Benjamin Polansky.

At its heart this book is about family. My own family is there on nearly every page. I give thanks to the many Pates, the big ones and the wee ones, the Gillespies, a York, the Soontornvats, and the Westmorelands, for inspiring the story and for keeping me going. Thank you, Mom, for passing your writing gene down to me. Thank you, Elowyn and Aven, for always asking me to tell you a tale. Please keep asking.

Most of all I want to thank my husband, the real Tom Diffley. He isn't afraid of ghosts, but he is a brilliant inventor. And I could never have finished this book without his tremendous love and support.

Christina Soontornvat spent her childhood in small Texas towns, eagerly waiting for the fairies to come and kidnap her. They never came, but she still believes magic things can happen to ordinary people. When not writing, Christina hangs out in science museums and takes care of her own little goblins—
ahem
—children. She lives in Austin, Texas.
The Changelings
is her first novel.

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!

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