GIFTS FOR THE FAIRIES by M. Elizabeth Ticknor

Annelie knew what treatments the town midwife recommended for suspected changelings: dosing them with foxglove tea, placing them on a hot stove, throwing them in the lake. Always the supposed changeling ended up mutilated or dead. Never was there a stolen child to be returned. So Annelie sat on a mossy stump at the edge of the apple grove and crimped mud pie crusts with clay-reddened fingers in hopes of pleasing the fairies. She sat up, loosed a satisfied sigh–

And her younger brother, Cord, ripped the pies open, stuffing his cheeks with the cherries, raspberries, and apple slices she’d nestled inside. Annelie’s cheeks prickled with heat. “Cord! Spit that out.” Cord’s eyes widened, brimming with tears. He let out a howl of shock and terror. Three years old, and still he hadn’t found his words. Annelie sucked in a sharp breath and pulled Cord into a hug. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” She scooped the half-chewed food from his mouth and poured it back into the pie crusts.

She stared at the mashed fruit, sighed, and started patching the crusts together. Hopefully the fairies wouldn’t notice.  There wasn’t time to gather fresh ingredients; Mama was consulting the midwife tomorrow. If Annelie pleased the fairies, they’d take Cord and leave a real changeling in his place, one who walked and talked and smiled like the other boys. The fairies would care for Cord, just as they did the real Annelie. She’d never found her voice either.

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M. Elizabeth Ticknor won the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award in 2021, and has also been published in Fireside Magazine and Uncanny Magazine. Find her on Bluesky: @disgruntledpeony.bsky.social