Changeling

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Gift first saw the lights as a baby. The faerie lights promised him a different life from the one he would know in the castle.

But he couldn't resist the pull of the mortal world. And that curiosity might change the course of not one, but two, kingdoms forever.

An unforgettable story about magic, choices and love, which inspired part of World Fantasy Award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch's international bestselling Fey series.

"A very good, very large fantasy…nicely done and with a particularly satisfying and unexpected resolution."

—Science Fiction Chronicle on The Sacrifice

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Mar 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393721758

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

Book preview

Changeling

Changeling

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

WMG Publishing, Inc.

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Changeling

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Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Changeling

The colored lights danced over his baptismal crib. He didn’t have words yet—he was only four days old—and the world still blurred before his half-opened eyes. He had been left alone for just a moment. His pagan mother, Queen in more than name, arguing with his Christian father over the necessity for the ceremony. The nurses huddled against the strong oak doors, listening through the cracks as the Queen vented her fears about the holy water about to be dripped on her son’s head.

The baby, whose father wanted to call him Sebastian and whose mother wanted to call him Elric, reached toward the lights, pudgy fingers grasping with the odd strength that only babies had. By accident, he touched a blue light and pulled his hand away with a startled cry. With the smell of sulfur and a bit of smoke, the blue light had become a tiny naked woman, with thin wings shimmering on her back.

Got him, she said.

The other lights stopped flickering and floated to her, each popping and becoming little naked people as well. The baby watched them, his fingers stinging with heat, and turning blue at the tips. He whimpered as the little people wove a gossamer net around him, but his nurses, intent on the argument that had just missed—by the width