Page 24 of Tempting the Fae Lord
TheGatekeeper
Physically,I leave Gale behind, though I carry thoughts of him with me like the most stubborn of stowaways. His earnest determination, misplaced but all the more desperate for it, his sass, and the ever-present undercurrent, his desire to please—all with me in my mind as I travel.
He’s not going to take no for an answer in this matter, not easily. And I’ll never concede to escort him through the gate. We face an impasse.
Worry edges the periphery of my awareness, but now isn’t the time for contemplation. First, I must see to the changeling babe. Then I’ll see to Gale.
I enter the human realm through an underground tunnel lit by a long row of wall sconces. The torches are kept oiled by the Vartijan vampires of Rovaniemi in the region earth dwellers call Lapland. It’s a northern landscape of snow and ice, much like my home, but very far from the places where I prefer to switch babes.
I haven’t enough magic to portal in this realm, so I must fly a long distance to the southern climes for this task.
As usual, I encounter no one as I make my way through the guardians’ labyrinth. The Vartija know to avoid me when possible as I have long avoided them.
We rarely interact.
I climb above ground through a hidden chamber in an old growth forest of evergreens. The canopy is so dense I must traverse several miles on foot before I find an opening large enough to take flight.
As I rustle open my wings, the babe stirs. I pat her little back and murmur a gentle encouragement to sleep a bit longer.
She settles nicely, sweet thing.
The lengthy trip requires a great deal of sorcery to complete in the limited time available. Without the natural magic of the fae realm to draw from, I have only the power that runs through my veins. I rely on it as well as the vampire’s preternatural ability for speed to reach the warmer and more fertile lands of the south.
My wings along with thoughts of Gale carry me not far from where I found him, twenty some years ago. I hadn’t meant to end up this close, yet here I stand.
Resisting the urge to creep even farther toward the modest coastal town he came from, I force myself to head in the opposite direction while I search for a safe harbor for the little one against my chest.
It doesn’t take long before several options present themselves. Not one, not two, but three households with newborns. Quickly, I move from shadow to shadow and scout each possibility.
The first is a boy, which won’t do for obvious reasons. The second is a girl child, but nearly a toddler and too old to swap with this newborn.
The third is perfect.
An infant girl—a babe of no more than two months, with the bright baby blue eyes so many humans this age possess—lies awake in her cradle, toying with little stuffed dolls that hang overhead.
I unwrap the fae babe from my chest and cast a glamour to hide her natural pink eyes behind a spell of blue. I study them both, adding little tweaks to my spellwork to make them look like twins.
As babes often do, they take an immediate liking to each other, smiling and touching and burbling their tiny hellos.
Last, I whisper an apology to the fae babe as I mask her nature. She won’t need wings or magic or cute little pointed ears in her new home. She accepts this in silence, but as I finish, her serene expression turns somber.
I kiss her good-bye, wish her a happy life, and pluck the human from her spot. She’s a healthy girl, plump and pink-cheeked. I’ll be sure she has a good life in the fae realm.
That done, I tuck the new babe into a swaddle, affix her to my chest, and take one more slow look around. When I’m certain all is as it should be, I sneak outside to begin the long flight home.
It’s an odd business, switching babies, one I questioned often in my youth but have grown ever more resigned to as the centuries come and go.
Changelings solve several problems at once. There must be fae on the earthen side of the gate, for if ever again the realms go to war, we would be ready with an army of fae-souled to be awakened to fight for our cause. And by swapping the babes of parents gone dormant or, worse, passed on, we ensure these newborns will still have families of their own to grow up in.
It’s the human babes who get the short end of the stick, for they end up with me in the northernmost fae land in Luminia, either in the fortress as my staff or in the village as my wards.They have each other, at least. And they have my protection, always. But as Gale has so fiercely reminded me, they don’t have their true mothers and fathers.
But no system is without its faults.
Without its sacrifices.
I have spent my entire adult life—centuries—in service to this duty, sacrificing all else beyond guarding the gate and switching the babes. As the last of my line (as far as anyone knows, and my lips are sealed) the responsibility falls solely to me. No room for friends, family, lovers… only obligation.
When Gale called me by my old name, long since cast aside, the painful memories rose to the surface. A time when I did have all those things. Family. Friends. A lover. And how each was systematically stolen from me one by one.
