Destiny: A Story of the Fey Read Online Free PDF Page A

rational Fey.
    Both crimes bore the penalty of death.
    It seemed to her that she would never commit crimes like that, that the prophecies had come because she was a Shifter, not because of her character. She wasn’t as flighty or as difficult as anyone said she was.
    And besides, she had to take care of Esmerelda.
    She wished she could be there the morning that Esmerelda’s parents discovered the Changeling. It would look like Esmerelda, even act like her — if stone could act like a living breathing creature. But it would only last a few days, and then it would cease to exist. They would think Esmerelda dead, when, in actuality, she was only gone.
    Then, perhaps, that wretch of a mother would regret how she treated her daughter.
    Esmerelda would live a life she couldn’t even imagine now. She wouldn’t have to wear six layers of clothes on the hottest day of the year, and she would learn how to live life to its fullest instead of remaining indoors and studying all the time.
    Esmerelda would be the closest thing to Fey that a Nyeian could be — and for the first time in her young life, she would be happy. Solanda would see to that.
    They would both be very happy.
     
    ***
     
    Solanda returned to the house after dinner. Ultimately, she found she couldn’t resist the dead fish that were piled near one of the docks. She had eaten herself sick, and then had to clean every inch of her fur before she even attempted the walk home.
    Not that the house was home. In some ways, Esmerelda was.
    Solanda used the cat door. Esmerelda’s parents were talking softly in the parlor.
    “Perhaps boarding school,” the mother was saying. “If she is this incorrigible now, imagine what she’ll be like when she gets older.”
    “Give it time, darling,” the husband said. “She’s still a child. She will learn, as we all did.”
    “It’s just I despair of ever teaching her manners. You didn’t see her with that Fey….”
    Solanda had heard enough. She hurried up the stairs. She would talk to Esmerelda tonight. Tomorrow the Wisps would come, carrying a bit of stone in their tiny fingers. They’d fly in the open window, leave the stone on the bed and it would mold itself into a replica of Esmerelda while Solanda was leading the real Esmerelda out of the house.
    Quick, neat, and completely perfect. The parents wouldn’t have to worry about manners or boarding school. Esmerelda would get her heart’s desire. And Solanda would have her reason for staying in Nye.
    The door to Esmerelda’s room was open. Esmerelda sat beneath a lamp, a long skirt over her lap. The air was stuffier than usual, and Solanda saw that the window was closed.
    It had probably been closed all day. Sunlight had poured in, and the poor child had had to sit in the heat, working on some task her mother assigned her.
    When Solanda got close, she saw what it was. The child was attempting to mend her own ripped dress.
    The stitches were uneven, and Esmerelda had stitched the bottom layer of fabric onto the top. That would make her mother even angrier. Esmerelda’s eyelashes were stuck together, her nose was red, and there were tearstains along her cheeks.
    “Goldie!” she said, and let the dress topple to the floor. She was wearing another dress, equally inappropriate to the hot weather. She reached for Solanda, but Solanda jumped onto the windowsill.
    She was not going to be hugged by a hot sweaty child — not, at least, until the window was open and the fresh air came inside.
    Esmerelda glanced toward the door. She put a finger to her lips, as if she thought Solanda were going to give her away, and then called, “Mommy! Can I go to sleep now?”
    Solanda froze in her spot. She didn’t want to be seen in here, not tonight. She wanted to have her conversation with Esmerelda in private.
    “Are you done with your dress, darling?”
    “Yes.”
    Solanda looked at it. The dress was ruined. The poor girl would have an even more difficult day than usual