The Shapeshifter's Fate

by Chris Africa

  After only a few steps, Granny turned off the path and into the trees. That was even worse. The soft ground seemed to squirm under his feet, and the odors made him sick. Nita had her hand on the old woman's shoulder now, and Chassy felt Andrev's hand on his arm. He reached out to touch Nita. It felt a little better to touch the person in front of him although his mind ran wild whenever a shadow fell across Nita's cloaked form. He imagined all sorts of monstrosities turning to gobble him up.

  Then they were walking up solid steps and through a framed door. Nita extinguished her globe, and Chassy squinted in the new light. When his eyes adjusted, he saw they were in a one-room hut lit by several oversized oil lamps. Even here, the gloom of the Blackwood lurked in the shadows, the lamps seeming less effective than normal lamps. There was a bench along one wall and a woven chair in front of the fireplace. A square table and four stools dominated the center of the room. Bottles, jars, and bundles of herbs lined the walls and bookshelves.

  "Are you a healer?" he asked. He thought he recognized the contents of some bottles from Pookana's hut back home.

  "Sit! Let's talk about you," she said. She took a small cake off a shelf and carved it into four slices.

  Chassy took a seat at the table but eyed the cake suspiciously. What if she was trying to incapacitate them so she could steal all of their pouches? He shoved aside the plate Granny had prepared for him. They'd gotten themselves into trouble again, and he would not make things worse by playing naïve.

  "Let's talk about where we are, how you know who we are, and why you had your boy steal our property," Chassy said.

  Granny put a finger to her lips as though she was thinking of the answers. "Well, you know where you are."

  "This place has the Blackwood's smell and atmosphere, but that's not possible."

  "Isn't it?" She looked confused. "Then where are we?"

  "That's what we are asking. And if we are in the Blackwood, how did we get here?"

  Granny smiled. "That's easy—you came through a door. I know a doorway to the Underworld too. I'll show you someday." She winked at him.

  A magical doorway sounded reasonable enough, given the strange things he'd seen since leaving home last year. But if the crazy old woman knew of a doorway to the Underworld—and Chassy hoped she did not—he was not interested in seeing it. "No, thanks."

  "Okay, then how do you know who we are?" Nita asked. She pushed her hood back.

  "Many months ago, a vision came to me of a powerful sorceress with a silver tree tattooed on one side of her body." Her white eye grew larger as she spoke. "Then I heard what happened to that wicked elf, and I knew it was you."

  She grabbed Nita's hand and examined her palm, pushing the cloak back to expose her arm. Chassy expected the silver tree to knock Granny back or zap her, but it did not seem to recognize her as an enemy.

  "And why did the boy steal my pouch?" Andrev asked.

  "I had to warn you about the witch you've made friends with at Xander's house. Do not trust her."

  Witch? Chassy looked at Nita. How would they ever know who to trust? "Do you mean Quon, the sorceress from Xillith?"

  "Yes, that's her," said Granny. "She's not at all what she seems. She is dangerous and dishonest."

  "I agree, she seems a little suspicious," Chassy said. "But I thought she was here on an errand from Xillith."

  "Quon works for herself, though a-times she pretends to work for the farseer Nydwon from the city of Tempur in the northlands. So far, the High Council's will has been in line with her own goals, but her goals have taken a new turn. She is not a member of the resistance."

  "What does she want from me? Why would she offer to take me back to Xillith?" Andrev asked.

  "That's obvious, I should think. She wants to train you up in her own image and use you as a tool for whatever schemes she has in mind," Granny said.

  Andrev was making a curious face at Granny.

  "Have you ever seen a book like the one in my pouch, with invisible words? Can you teach me how to see the words?"

  Granny pulled the book from Andrev's pouch and squinted at the cover.

  "I haven't read this book before. Why do you carry a book with no words?"

  Andrev scowled. "It was a gift from a dying wizard. If you meet up with him someday in the Land of the Dead, you can ask him. Do you see anything?"

  "Eh?" It was more of a grunt than an answer. She closed the book and laid it down just out of his reach. "Only I'm sure if you follow Quon she will use you for her purposes, good or evil."

  "What is the book about? Can I read it?" Andrev seemed to have forgotten all about Quon.

  "The book? Oh, it's a book of the lost prophecies, written in the language of the gods. But if you can't read it, I won't teach you."

  The lost prophecies, given by the gods to the elder humans to prepare them for their future. Even Chassy had heard of those. And Granny could read them, of all people. He wondered if Vornole had any idea what he was carrying around.

  "How can you claim to read a book that's been lost for thousands of years, but refuse to help someone else to learn?" Andrev fumed. "Why can't you teach me?"

  Granny shook her head. "The Nydwon provided these prophecies for those with the knowledge and power to use them. If you can't even read the book, how can you expect to comprehend or interpret the prophecies within?"

  Andrev's face flushed. "Are you suggesting I'm not intelligent enough?"

  "No, dear." Granny reached over the table and patted his cheek. "You're not wise enough. But don't worry, wisdom will come with age."

  "You're the only person I've ever met who can read the language of the gods. I thought it wasn't even possible. How am I supposed to learn to read it if you won't help me?"

  Chassy wondered the same thing. Over the summer, Andrev had read about such books in another volume in Xander's library. The words were invisible to most and even those who saw could not translate them. The language of the gods was a lost language; all the wizards in Xillith could not read such books or translate them.

  "How do you think I learned?" Granny grinned. "Do you think I had someone holding my hand, teaching me the characters?"

  "How did you learn?" Chassy asked.

  "I apprenticed with someone who knew how," she said.

  Chassy looked at Andrev. Maybe she didn't know how to read the book after all. It could be an elaborate story concocted to get them here... but for what purpose?

  "That makes little sense. That's a contradiction."

  "When?"

  "First you said you learned it on your own, and then you said you were an apprentice."

  "I did? Oh..." Granny frowned at the book. "I have a solution. You can become my apprentice!"

  That was a scary thought, being apprenticed to a crazy old witch in the middle of the Blackwood. About as scary as a trip to Xillith with Quon.

  Andrev didn't look scared though. His face brightened a little. "For how long? And what would you teach me?"

  "I should think you could start to learn the language in perhaps... six or seven decans. But it's cryptic. To understand the prophecies themselves would take centuries of life you don't have yet."

  Chassy could tell from Andrev's face Granny had hooked him. He wanted to learn about the book more than anything, and he'd already shown he would leave both of them behind to get what he wanted. But how could they trust this crazy old woman any more than Quon?

  "Come on, she probably can't even read the book. Maybe this is Quon in disguise. How would you know it's not? And even if it's an old woman in the woods, she probably wants to use you for her own scheming, same as Quon."

  Chassy took Andrev's arm, and Nita grabbed the other. Together, they pulled Andrev away from the table.

  "I think we'll be taking our leave now," Chassy said.

  "Andrev, are you going to let your friends make this decision for you?" Granny shot Andrev a sly look.

  Andrev yanked his arms free and snatched the book out of Granny's hands. "N
o, I am not. I will go with them because they're right. I don't have decans to spare for this right now." He held the book longingly in front of him. "May I return?"

  Granny grinned and patted his hand. "Of course, you may. Now let's get you back to Death's End before that interfering Xander goes looking for you. He'd probably find you, and I don't want him nosing around in my little hideaway."

  8: Nita

  To Nita's relief, Granny brought them back out into the same alley where they had entered her hideaway, having returned Andrev's pouch to his care. Nita provided light until they were close enough to the street and then extinguished it. They came out to a road she didn't recognize, and she realized they had chased Granny's boy with no attention to where they were going. Andrev had told her once the original architects of Death's End were aware of the importance of trees to the ecology and sought to conserve the green. Most houses had trees in and around them, even the poor ones, and many of the streets were inaccessible to carriages because of laws about the preservation of the trees. It was as close to home as anywhere she had been for a year.

  "I don't even recognize where we are now." She looked around. Andrev kept walking as though he knew exactly where they were, even though he hadn't left Xander's property more than twice.

  "The sun is on our backs, which means we need to go in that direction to get back to Xander's house, but over this way to get to the market."

  Nita shrugged. "I've not noticed it before, but if you say so, I trust you."

  With Andrev in the lead, they trudged across the dirtier—though still tree-lined—streets of the city.

  "What is all this sudden interest in recruiting us? Especially Andrev?" Nita blurted. "You'd imagine if we were that great or we had that much potential, someone would have approached us before now."

  "Especially me? What do you mean?"

  "Nothing bad," she reassured. "But so far you have been quiet and unconcerned with doing magic. It makes little sense why they are zeroing in on you, instead of someone like me who has used magic or Chassy who has been trying so hard to learn."

  "Besides, my power is an abomination, right?" Andrev's voice sounded tight.

  Nita rolled her eyes. The prophecies of the Nydwon kept coming up in the strangest situations. She wasn't even sure they were real though the Nydwon who recited them had been serious enough.

  This is not for you, she had told Nita, as she plucked a gem from her own skin. It is for a dying enemy. Use it wisely, for you shall have many, and it is only for one. Other than the bit about having enemies, the Nydwon's prediction had seemed harmless. What she said to Chassy verged on nonsense: Your hope is in the trees and carried as ash on the wind. Your destiny takes you to the sun and stars. Protect that which is important, not that which you desire.

  But her words to Andrev had left everyone speechless: You shall be the fall of the Waet. You shall draw the vengeance of Ana and Asa. Your power is an abomination, and your blood shall mend the divide.

  Nita remembered with a shudder the Nydwon's strange purple skin and bare head covered in tattoos. She was a convincing messenger.

  "Don't get offended," she said. "So far, you haven't even shown you have any power, which is the whole point of what I'm trying to say. Why do these crazy witch women want you, in particular?"

  "I'm not sure," Andrev said. "But I'm half inclined to hide out in Xander's library for another summer until they are both long gone."

  "Maybe they want to use Andrev's 'power' the Nydwon spoke of," Chassy blurted. "Just because we haven't seen it yet, doesn't mean she was wrong. Andrev might be the strongest of the three of us."

  He could be right, Nita realized. But what kind of person would take advantage of Andrev like that? And what would they use it for?

  She slowed down and linked her arm through his. "What will you do?"

  "I'm going to take Granny up on her offer. If I have some ability, I need to learn about it. But I will not be a pawn in someone's political game."

  Nita smiled at his confidence and felt a little less worried. "When Papa was teaching me to wrestle, he always told me to study my opponent. Observe their intent and learn about their weaknesses. Then you will have the advantage. That lesson applies here too."

  "Papa taught you to wrestle?" Andrev looked surprised.

  "That's not the important part of what I said." Nita laughed, but her eyes clouded with tears and her heart ached with the memory of home.

  Chassy gave her a sympathetic look and looped his arm through hers.

  "What should we do, Chassy? Do you want to join the resistance with me?" She was only partly joking. Something deep inside compelled her to correct the injustices in the world. Poverty and slavery were only two of these. Fighting an evil wizard might be what she needed.

  "I don't even understand what it means to join a resistance," Chassy said.

  "What else are you going to do?"

  Chassy frowned at her. "You mean I have nothing better to do with my life, so why not run off chasing villains?"

  "No, I mean, you want to have adventures. Why not join me? So what if we chase villains and right some wrongs in the process? Doesn't that make it even more exciting?"

  Chassy shrugged. "We had better finish our trip to the market. Jam is probably wondering where her supplies are by now."

  Nita recognized the area and saw a flood of people going to the market. Most days it was all vegetables, fruits, and chickens. The local bakers would put out stacks of fresh bread, and Stuie was always there with an open fire selling fresh sausages and pies he made on a little cast iron pan. And once a month during fair weather, there would be fabrics, jewelry, and weapons from traders coming through. Her stomach growled as she smelled the street food.

  "How do you do that?" She pulled her hood closer around her face.

  "What?"

  "How do you find your way around without a map? They completely lost me."

  "I follow the sun—or the moons and stars, depending on the time of day. But you have to note your starting point or it's no good. Do you see? I don't do things or help people; I learn facts by reading anything and everything I can find. You should try it."

  They split up and made quick work of collecting Jam's small list of supplies. They stuffed everything into the burlap sack Jam had given them, taking care to put the fragile fruits at the top so the heavier items wouldn't squish them. Chassy tossed the bag over his shoulder, and Nita marveled at how broad his shoulders had become over the summer. He looked like a younger, thinner version of his father now.

  Collecting knowledge to have it in your head seemed like a useless thing to do with your life, Nita mused as they headed back toward Xander's house. Andrev had so much potential to help so many people. She opened her mouth to say so but closed it when she noticed a girl leaning against the wall of a small hut. It intrigued Nita that she wore close-fitting leggings, tall boots, and a cropped, blue tunic with sleeves ending at the elbows. Most of the women around here would rather be caught naked than dress in "men's" clothes. On her head, she sported a brilliant blue and gold hat with a wide brim and a knitted top that flopped to one side. She was almost as tall as Andrev.

  The girl tilted her head and studied them. Then she walked straight toward them. Nita was so captivated by her appearance she stopped. Andrev kept going, oblivious, but Chassy turned back and waited.

  "Excuse me," the girl called, as she closed on them. "I'm looking for three who match your descriptions and were traveling to Death's End."

  Nita's guard rose. After spending the entire fall and winter hiding her silver skin from everyone, she could think of no good reason a mysterious stranger would want to find her. She turned and hissed at Chassy, "Run!"

  Chassy ran close on her heels. Nita didn't glance back but hoped Andrev was following. Not wanting to lead the girl to Xander's home, she ran back toward Granny's hideout. Perhaps the old witch would help them.

  Nita had gone only a few steps when she noticed the girl keeping pace
with her. She pushed herself harder and put on a little speed burst, but the girl matched her effortlessly.

  "You don't have to run." The strange girl sounded not the least bit out of breath. "I'm a friend. William sent me to check on you."

  William? Nita came to a stop breathing raggedly. Chassy and Andrev barreled past her a few steps before halting.

  "What did you say?" Nita kept her head turned to the side so the stranger wouldn't be able to see her silver skin. William, their traveling companion and friend, who had led them through the Blackwood the previous summer, had then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

  "William of Fort True. He has been looking for the three of you—most especially Nita." She nodded to Nita. "If you are the Nita, Chassy, and Andrev he was talking about. It's a good thing he sent me to the market today. We were getting ready to head out to Lyesfare, and we would have missed you."

  Nita exchanged looks with Chassy. How would she know their names if she wasn't telling the truth? "Where is this William you speak of?" She kept her head low.

  "He went to see the pigeon man, so he can send messages to his father. But for two days we've been staying at Bridges on the other side of the city. I'm meeting him there. And if you want to go to Lyesfare, you can come with me. I'm Cherise, by the way. Do you want to go somewhere to sit down? I can tell you don't trust me, so I will tell you what I can to help you."

  Nita dared a peek at the girl's face and noticed she had no eyebrows. She had tucked her hair into the hat, not a strand showing. She looked like some kind of unusual animal. Nita's hand went to her own face, and she glanced away, keeping her hood over the side of her face.

  "What about under the tree over there?" Chassy suggested. Nita followed him to the tree, but Andrev hung back. The tree was a willow, with lower branches arching out into long delicate leaves.

  "I think I'll take off and meet you back at the house." Andrev shot Cherise a suspicious look.

  "Andrev, you can't leave us!" Nita insisted. If he had decided between Granny versus Quon, he was probably planning to collect his things and be off as fast as possible. "I'm sure this won't take long. Besides, don't you even want to say goodbye to us?"