Changeling's Island - eARC Read Free Page A

in the top drawer of the cabinet. He fished out his passport. This was dumb, and he knew it. He’d never be able to afford the ticket, ever. But he still took the passport and put it into the zipper pouch of the case. And then picked up the T-shirt again anyway. He could always leave out something else. His deodorant was nearly empty. It had to weigh less like that, right?
    Things went in. Came out. Went in again. It was…something to do.
    “Tim! Are you finished? We’ve got to go. You’ll be late,” shouted his mother.
    Like I should care, he thought, glumly. But he closed the case, slid out the handle—he had to sort of wrestle with it and it wouldn’t go all the way back in either, and squeaky-rattled his way to the door, trundling the case behind him. He walked out, not looking back.
    * * *
    Áed waited. His kind had a poor sense of time, or time as it was in these earthly realms, anyway. He was not so much patient, as unaware of not doing anything. When his master left the building he did too, perched on the bag as it trundled on its erratic wheels, and he slipped into the boot of the metal chariot with it. Creatures of air and darkness do not have much in the way of weight, and so—as usual—his presence was not noticed. Only those humans with a trace of Aos Sí blood who were gifted with the sight could see Áed or his brothers. And, mostly, they refused to believe what they saw. That was good too…which Áed could not say of the oil-smelly iron chariot he and his master were trapped inside, but that too could be endured, because it had to be.
    * * *
    Essenden Airport was almost exactly the opposite of what Tim thought defined “airport.” It wasn’t big. There were no queues, or moving walkways or announcements you could hear only half of. And the place wasn’t full of strangers. Well, they were all strangers to Tim, but they all seemed to know each other. It made sitting there in silence worse. At least nothing weird happened, except to the scale when they tried to weigh his bag. The airline official just shrugged, and picked it up and said with an easy smile, “Bit heavy. But the plane’s not full and he doesn’t weigh much.” That wasn’t quite how he remembered boarding at Tullamarine International when they’d flown to Ireland. But he’d been younger then and excited and eager.
    At last someone came along and said, “Well, we’re all here. You can board now for Flinders.” Tim stood up. His mother kissed him, half missing, on the jaw and not the cheek. “Try to pull yourself right, Tim.”
    There was an awkward pause as people filed past them through the open glass doors and onto the runway. Tim swallowed the lump in his throat. He wanted to hold onto her and beg her not to send him away, but all he did was nod. Anyway, he couldn’t find his voice to say anything right then.
    His mother patted him on the shoulder, awkwardly, and turned him toward the door.
    So he walked, not looking back, out into the sunlight and to the waiting Metroliner. A very little plane, Tim realized. It had propellers! And the man who had said they could go…was the pilot.
    * * *
    Áed loved flying in human flying-machines. They moved so much faster than creatures of air and darkness could fly on their own! He liked to sit on a wing and feel the rush of the wind blowing through him.
    Besides, the air was cleaner up and away from the human habitations.

CHAPTER 2
    He must have been running on autopilot, getting onto that plane, Tim realized later. He hadn’t walked out the door when he had a chance at home. He hadn’t gone to the gents’ at the airport and not come back. He’d walked across the runway, and hadn’t run off among the other planes. Just walked like a sheep, following all the other sheep.
    The plane was tiny inside. Just two rows of seats, A and C. He had to duck his head to walk down the corridor between them.
    There was someone in the seat he’d been allocated.
    The girl gave him a nervous