The Rival by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Page A

someone he hadn't met.
    The Fey seemed to take Sebastian's question seriously.  "Arianna can come only if she asks no questions.  We have to go."
    "Of course I'm going to ask questions," she snapped, not liking their closeness, not liking the way they talked of her as if she weren't there.  "I'm not running off with some strange Fey based on his word."
    "Sebastian," the Fey said.  He continued to ignore her.  "Please?"
    Sebastian's mouth worked.  His eyes moved from the Fey to Arianna and back again.  "Can't … choose."
    "Well, I can," Arianna said.  She walked up to the Fey.  She was almost as tall as he was.  He looked down at her, and she saw Sebastian in his face.
    Sebastian and their father.
    But she didn't have time to comprehend it.  She shoved the Fey's chest, expecting it to be rock-solid like Sebastian's.  It wasn't. She could feel the lines of his ribs, the softness of his skin.  That familiarity washed over her again.
    "Get out of here," she said to cover the strangeness.
    "Don't send me away.  You don't understand  — "
    "I understand enough," she said.  "I understand that you're trying to kidnap my brother.  I know what Fey can do, and you won't harm him, no matter what you want.  Now get out."
    She shoved again.  This time he had to take a step backwards to keep his balance.
    Sebastian moaned, and reached a hand up in protest.  Then the nurse's voice echoed from the hall. The Fey shot a panicked glance to Sebastian, then dove out of the window on his own, catching a tree branch and shimmying down it.
    " … Gift … ?" Sebastian said and started toward the window.
    Arianna beat him there.  The Fey was running through the garden.  She wasn't going to let him get away this time.  He would tell her what he was doing in the palace.  If he didn't, she would assume he was trying to kidnap her brother.
    And he would pay.
     "Tell nurse that I went after him," she said to Sebastian.  "Have her send guards."
    Arianna's body compacted down into its robin shape.  Her robe pooled around her, and she leapt out of its restraining folds.  Then she took one step back and flew out the window.
    Behind her, she thought she heard Sebastian wail, "Noooooo," but she didn't know why.  She could either go back and protect him or find that Fey and see what he really wanted.
    He had left a swath of destruction in the garden.  Trampled flowers, shorn bushes and broken tree limbs.  Birds were circling above, cawing at her, complaining about his bad manners.  When she finally saw him, he was running through the final copse of trees.
    She had chased him this way before.
    Somehow he had outwitted her and made his way back to the palace.
    Her anger flared even more. 
    He knew the grounds.  He had been here before.  Who knew how long he'd been coming to see Sebastian?  Did it take a long time for a Fey Doppelgänger to Shift into his prey?  She had always understood that the process was quick, but she had never seen it happen.
    She was flying as fast as she could, but her wings were growing tired.  She had never been a robin for long, always preferring to circle the garden, stare out at the city, take in the river, and return home.  For the first time, she was getting winded.  What happened to birds when they couldn't breathe?
    The Fey reached the fence and rolled into a hole beneath it.  That's where he had hid.  She had been right above him.  She cursed, unable to form the words properly through her beak.  A jay near her screeched and flew away, over the line of squat guard buildings on the other side of the fence.
    Beyond the guard buildings were shops and one bedroom homes.  People were going about their business, oblivious to the Fey man in their midst.  They probably couldn't even see him in his protected spot under the stone fence.
    Then he crawled out on the other side, clawing his way up the dirt embankment to the guard buildings, and she dove at him, heading for his face, his eyes.  She