Rhyss started in surprise and then yelped. Shaking his hand, he stared at the blood blossoming from the nick on his finger. The cut was clean, but deep. Farrah sighed and snapped her book shut in annoyance.
“I won’t say ‘I told you so,’” she said.
“You just did,” Rhyss pointed out.
“Do you want me to heal this, or not?”
She held out her hand, and Rhyss meekly put his hand in hers. Frowning, she studied his finger.
“When you’re done, we want to introduce you to someone,” Beyan said mildly.
Farrah looked up from Rhyss’s hand. The blood was gone. The wound was already closed, with a faint line to show where the cut had been. “All set,” she announced. “That scar should fade in time. It wouldn’t have even happened if someone hadn’t interrupted me.” She glared pointedly at Beyan.
“Someone’s getting hungry,” Rhyss said.
“Someone’s already there,” Farrah said.
“We’ll eat soon,” I promised. “Our new friend here has graciously offered us a place to stay for the night, and we’ll eat there. Farrah, Rhyss, this is Pazho.”
The three of them exchanged greetings, and then Pazho led the way to the Red Antler Inn. True to his word, the place was only a few feet away. As we entered, our eyes adjusting to the dim interior, a deep voice yelled, “Watch out!”
Something heavy and solid whizzed by my head.
Chapter Twenty-Four
THE OBJECT FLEW THROUGH the air, hit the wall, and then clanged to the ground, where it shattered into several sharp pieces.
Incredulous, I eyed the item. It had formerly been a mug, and if the colors and pattern were any indication, an expensive one.
Pazho called out, “Denaan, I’ve told you not to do that when the inn is open!”
A stocky man wearing a stained apron came into the room. “No one was in here. Well, not until you came in.”
“If this is a bad time...” Beyan started.
“Nonsense, it’s a great time,” Denaan said. “When I’m frustrated, it really helps relieve the tension.”
I could tell Beyan was trying to find a judicious way to get us out of here. I started to giggle. Farrah joined in. Rhyss tried to suppress a smirk.
Pazho shook his head. “This is Denaan’s idea of testing for quality. He figures, if the dishes can be thrown around and still hold up, then they’re worthy of being used at his inn.”
“Of course,” Denaan agreed. “I don’t want to have to buy new dinnerware just because a few rowdy drunks decided to have a tussle.”
“Elk logic,” Pazho said, implying those were two words that didn’t belong together.
“Sorry about that, though,” Denaan said. “Didn’t know you were coming. If I had, I’d have asked if you wanted to join in.”
“Maybe after dinner,” I said. Farrah and Rhyss nodded in agreement. Beyan rolled his eyes.
“Don’t encourage him,” Pazho said to us. “And please forgive my neglectful manners. This is my mate, Denaan. Denaan, meet Allayne, Beyan, Farrah, and Rhyss. They’ll be staying here tonight.”
“Splendid, splendid,” Denaan said, wiping his hands on his apron and enthusiastically shaking each of our hands in turn. “There’s room enough for all of you, so you can each have a room to yourselves if you like. Any horses?” Beyan shook his head no. “That’s easy enough, then. Just go ahead and go on upstairs, you can pick out your rooms. Dinner starts in an hour.”
“I’ll see you all in an hour,” Pazho told us, turning to go.
“Wait,” I said. “You don’t have to leave. I’d be happy to stay and talk with you while we wait for dinner.”
“I’d rather you have a chance to rest,” Pazho said. “I plan on us having a long conversation later this evening. It won’t take me long to go home and come back. Denaan and I live right next door.”
With that, he left. Denaan went back into the kitchen, where we could hear him giving orders to as yet unseen staff. The rest of us trooped upstairs to pick out our rooms for the night.
AFTER A MUCH-NEEDED nap, I went downstairs, following the savory scent of cooked vegetables and spices. My friends were already seated, with Pazho, at one of the long tables in a back corner of the room. The room was quickly filling up with customers waiting for one of Denaan’s meals.
As I joined the group, Farrah smiled up at me. “Finally!” she said. “I know you needed your sleep, but I’m starving! You don’t know how hard it was waiting for you to get down here.”
My eyes caught the wide array of dishes on the table. All were unbreakable, no doubt, and all were piled high with food. “I didn’t mean to keep you waiting. Let’s eat.”
“Can you believe it, they don’t serve a single meat dish!” Rhyss said as I sat down next to him. “I hope you guys aren’t too hungry. I’ll have to eat twice as much to get my fill.”
Farrah smirked at Rhyss from across the table. “You’d eat twice as much as any of us no matter what was being served.”
Pretty soon, our table was filled with the sounds of eating, drinking, and laughter. Pazho kept the conversation light. Denaan would come by every so often to say hello, but as the night wore on he stayed in the kitchen while a boy and a girl, both about twelve, ran around delivering plates and cups and clearing the tables. Pazho told us that they were twins, the children of Denaan’s sister. “They’re hummingbirds, that’s why they’re so fast.”
“They’re like birds, you mean?” Farrah questioned.
“Yes, exactly.”
We finished eating. Denaan’s nephew quickly scooped up our plates while his sister carefully poured more mead into our cups. Pazho leaned back, satisfied.
“My mate really is the finest cook in the kingdom. He’s a huge bleeding heart, even if he does act prickly sometimes. It’s the antlers.” He said this last directly to me, tapping at his head like he was patting horns on the top. I smiled.
“I’d like to know what all this alluding to animals is about,” Beyan said, ever the plain speaker.
“A secret for a secret,” Pazho said. “What brings all of you to Annlyn?”
The table fell silent. Farrah and Rhyss exchanged glances, but left it to Beyan, as the group’s leader, to speak up. If he so chose.
“We seek the dragon Joichan,” Beyan said.
“I thought as much,” Pazho said. “But it’s good of you to say it so I could be sure.”
“You said you could help us. I take it that others have tried to find him?”
“You are not the first to seek out Joichan, no. There have been countless others before you. Very few are successful.”
“What do we need to do? We have gold we could offer him. We — ”
“Why are you looking for him?”
If I had been alone with Pazho, I probably would have told him the truth. But with the others sitting there, I couldn’t disclose the complete reason for my search.
“I was tasked by Queen Melandria of Calia to find Joichan,” I said.
Pazho studied me. I sensed he knew I was holding something back, but he didn’t pry further. “Your intentions are honorable,” he stated.
“Allayne asked me to help her find Joichan,” Beyan said. “I am a dragon seeker. Farrah and Rhyss are part of my team when we are on the hunt.”
Pazho turned his assessing gaze on Beyan. “Hunt is an accurate word. I would advise you against it. It’s not too late to change your mind.” Beyan shifted under the weight of Pazho’s stare. “Seek wisdom, not vengeance. You will get what you want that way.”
“That’s the help you offer?” Beyan stood, angry. Farrah touched his arm, but he shook her off.
“My advice is free, but if you choose not to heed it, you could pay a heavy price for years to come,” Pazho said calmly.
“Come on, Beyan,” Rhyss said. “You know he’s right.”
Slowly, Beyan sat down.
“Now you know why we’re here,” Farrah said. “It’s your turn now.”
/> “A secret for a secret,” Pazho reiterated, nodding. “What I tell you is not widely known beyond Annlyn, and I will tell you now that in the rest of the Gifted Lands, this is viewed as just a rumor, and rarely believed. But my mate and I, and the other citizens of this kingdom, are shapeshifters. We each have an animal form that we can become at will.”
Farrah and Rhyss stared at Pazho, openmouthed. Even Beyan was intrigued, although still a little upset.
Farrah regained her voice first. “Wow,” she breathed. “Not even the Fae can do that, at least not any of the ones I know. Certainly not anyone in my immediate family. What animal are you?”
“A grey wolf,” Pazho told her. “Denaan is an elk.”
“Elk logic,” Farrah said. Pazho grinned. She turned to me. “Were those the animals you kept seeing when we first entered Annlyn?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“But why were you able to see them, and we couldn’t?”
“There is a spell on the town masking us from outsiders,” Pazho said. “But I believe your friend saw through our illusion because she is one of us.”
Now my friends were gaping at me. “First you set people on fire, now you can turn into an animal?” Rhyss said. “That’s incredible. How can I learn how to do that?”
“You’re a shapeshifter?” Beyan said simultaneously.
Farrah overlapped with, “What do you turn into, Allayne?”
And while she was talking, Pazho asked, “You set people on fire?”
“Stop, all of you!” I said. Everyone stopped talking.
Denaan came by our table en route to the kitchen, his arms full of dirty dishes. “Dessert, anyone?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
THE TALK AT THE TABLE stopped long enough for us to eagerly devour a heaping plate of honeyed crispel, which Pazho proudly informed us was a specialty of Dennan’s. After I told my friends, repeatedly, that I didn’t know much about my supposed abilities, they shifted their questions to Pazho. We were all eager to learn more about this mysterious land of shapeshifters.
Pazho repeated much of the things he had told me on our earlier walk in the market. My mind began to wander, since none of the information was new to me. But then the conversation turned in a direction that caused my attention to snap back immediately.
“I saw the most beautiful jewelry in the market,” Farrah said. “I wanted to purchase one of the pieces, a bracelet of lapis lazuli, but the merchant refused to sell it to me. He kept saying it was not meant for me, and tried to entice me with other options instead.”
“That’s odd,” Rhyss commented. “Money is money; you’d think he’d be happy for a sale, no matter who was buying or what they wanted.”
“He wasn’t refusing to sell to you for the reasons you may be assuming,” Pazho said.
“But I thought Annlyn was famed for its jewelry,” Farrah said.
“Although after everything you’ve just told us, I don’t know if I should believe that anymore,” Beyan said.
“We are master craftsmen, it’s true,” Pazho said. “But the reason we’ve become such is that our creations are linked to our abilities.”
Pazho held up his right hand. On his index finger, a lone ruby set into a silver band caught the glow from nearby lights and winked at us.
“It’s exquisite,” Farrah breathed.
“Thank you. It’s also a part of me, as much as my wolf form is. I rarely take it off. It... hurts too much to be without it for any length of time.” Pazho absently rubbed the ruby with his thumb.
“A soulstone.” There was no question in Beyan’s voice.
“Yes. They are created here in Annlyn.”
“So, everything in the market...?”
“Not necessarily. Sometimes a gem is just a gem. But soulstones are rare finds, made even more powerful when infused with our magic. We receive them at birth, and they help us shift until we reach a certain age. Up until that point, transforming into our animal selves can be painful, both physically and mentally. Our soulstones protect us against that potential harm. Of course, the more we use them, the more our soulstones become part of us.”
Thinking of the necklace now safely hidden again under my dress, and of King Hendon’s theft of my father Joichan’s soulstone, I asked, “But what happens if you did lose your soulstone? Or if it was destroyed? Are you unable to change forms? Does it cause you to weaken, or die?”
“It depends,” Pazho said. “Only the very young would die without their soulstones, because they haven’t yet mastered their abilities. Anyone in their prime and in good health should be fine without it. But the longer one is separated from it, the weaker their powers become. If it’s never returned, or destroyed, then the person who is linked to that stone would eventually become their animal form completely, with no memory of their human self. And no way to change back.”
My blood chilled. My father had been without his stone for at least twenty years, possibly more. My mother hadn’t told me how long it had been in Hendon’s possession before her abduction, only that the king had stolen it.
“Are you all right?” Farrah asked me. “You look a little... unsettled.”
“I think I had one crispel too many,” I lied. “If all of you will excuse me... I think I’ll retire for the night.”
My friends murmured their goodnights and wishes that I’d feel better. Pazho said, “I’ll see you in the morning, then. Dennan and I couldn’t possibly send you on your way without a good breakfast.”
I smiled at him weakly and made my way to my room. Once safely inside with a quick locking spell on the door, I sat down on the bed and took off my necklace. The moonstone seemed to glow in my palm as I rubbed the jewel, reassuring myself that it was still there. What would I find when we finally found my father?
The delicate piece of jewelry held no answers. Sighing, I refastened it back around my neck and crawled under the covers. Soon, I was deep asleep, my hand resting lightly on the pendant in a poor attempt to hide it.
Chapter Twenty-Six
BREAKFAST THE NEXT morning was a surprisingly lively affair. As we were the only guests at Dennan’s inn, he sat and ate with us. Pazho joined us later than we expected, looking rumpled and grumpy.
“Wolves are nocturnal,” Pazho said as he slid onto the bench next to Rhyss.
“You mean, wolves are lazy,” Dennan corrected cheerfully, piling food on Pazho’s plate.
“You’re one to talk,” Pazho countered, rolling his eyes. The rest of us just kept eating, trying not to laugh. Sarcasm seemed to be the way Pazho and Dennan communicated best with each other.
After our meal, we gathered our things and said goodbye to our hosts.
“Thank you for putting us up for the night, and for the food,” Beyan said. “Are you sure you won’t take any coin at all, at least for the two meals?”
Dennan shook his head. “Just tell other travelers you meet about my inn.”
“Choose wisely, choose well.” Pazho leveled a serious look at Beyan.
Beyan gave him a tight-lipped smile. “Thanks to both of you, again.”
We turned to go. Pazho pulled me aside as the rest of my group started walking away. He pulled something from his pocket. I gasped, recognizing the amber pendant hanging from the delicate gold chain as the necklace from the marketplace yesterday.
“For you,” Pazho said, pressing it into my hand.
“I couldn’t possibly accept this,” I protested, even as my fingers curled around the piece of jewelry.
“You already have.” He closed my fingers decisively around the pendant and pushed my hand gently toward me. “Think of it as a souvenir of your time in Annlyn. And maybe something else, besides. You’re a long way from home; amber is thought to protect a traveler on their journey. It’s the stone of fortitude, as well. Call on it for courage in the days and hours to come.”
I gave Pazho a sharp look, marveling again at how he could have ascertained so much in just two short days of knowing me.
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br /> “Thank you.” I impulsively gave him a hug, slipping the necklace into my pocket. I hoisted my pack up so it sat comfortably on my back, and then hurried after my friends. They hadn’t gone far, and I found them quickly. We joined a small group of people leaving through the just-opened city gates.
“You should have tried harder to give our hosts money,” I chided Beyan as we walked. “They were so generous, and I hate the idea that they lost money on us by being so kind.”
Beyan laughed. “I figured they wouldn’t accept payment. So I gave a bag of coins to Dennan’s niece last night while he was busy and told her to hide it in the kitchen. He’ll find it sometime today, I’m sure. There was enough to cover our rooms and our meals, and a little bit extra.”
I laughed as well, imagining Dennan’s and Pazho’s faces when they discovered the money.
I had wondered how exactly we would find Joichan once we were in the south, but Beyan led our group decisively west of Annlyn. I thought perhaps that he had been to Joichan’s cave before, but when I said that aloud, Beyan shook his head.
“The hardest part of seeking is knowing which way to start the journey,” he said. “It’s not enough to tell me to find a certain dragon. My connection with such creatures depends on being in their general area, and having some sort of link to them. The stronger the link, the easier it is to seek.”
“I haven’t given you anything of Joichan’s, though,” I said, neglecting to mention that I and my necklace might very well have been the link he needed. “How are you so certain this is the right way to go?”
“Because of my father,” he said simply. Of course. Kye’s history with the dragon, and his connection to his son, would be the strongest link of all.
A few hours later, our early morning energy had faded a bit under the midday sun’s blazing heat.
“I wish horses weren’t so easily spooked,” Rhyss complained, shifting his bag on his shoulders as he walked. “It would be nice to not have to carry so much.”
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