The Shapeshifter's Fate

by Chris Africa

  "Where are you going? Don't you want to hear what William has learned since you were separated?" Cherise said.

  Andrev's face clouded. "You are a stranger to us, and we won't tell you any more about ourselves until we know you," he told Cherise. "Fine, I'll stay, but only because I want to find out what you're up to."

  Nita smiled under her hood and settled on the ground beside Chassy, keeping her face turned to the side. "Now, what is your relationship with William?"

  "I found him chained to a wall in a cave, and I set him free." She tossed her floppy cap the way another woman would toss her hair. Instead of sitting on the ground beside them, she walked over to the tree and hopped to reach the lowest branch, which was well above her head. Then she swung her legs up one at a time and hung upside down. The hat stayed on her head. Nita's mouth dropped open. Nita was a good tree climber, but not that good.

  "You happened to be in a cave where William was being held captive?" Andrev sounded skeptical.

  Nita also found the story a little… coincidental.

  "I was seeking a place to dry out from the weather." Cherise's face colored, but Nita couldn't tell whether it was from what she'd said or because she was upside down.

  Nita glanced at Chassy. Was it possible this girl had no home or family? The only homeless people she'd ever seen were the beggars around the market and the temple. But this girl was clean and well-clothed. And that hat was fancy. She felt a blush rise in her own cheeks as she thought about it and was even more glad for the hood.

  "Who was holding him?" she asked.

  "I don't know." Cherise waved her hand. "We've been looking for you. Some boy told us he thought we might find you in Death's End, so we came here."

  Which boy would have known they would be in Death's End? Nita wondered. She thought back over all the boys they'd met on their trip—Adl in Orchard Vale, Jared in Sunoa, and Samuel, the traitor who had sold them out to the Dalatois.

  "Well, I don't know about this. How can we trust you?" Chassy started. "As far as we can tell, you might lead us into a trap. William could even be dead already."

  "He's not dead! He said to remind you of the promise you made after the Blackwood. The one where you said you would continue to travel with him as guards once you'd finished your own errand. So is your other work done or not?"

  There was no way she could know this information unless William, or a member of his guard, had told her. And anyway, what motivation could the girl have for telling such a story?

  "He disappeared on us. He can't come around now demanding we work for him," Andrev complained.

  Cherise smiled, showing white teeth. "He thought you might say that. You must be Andrev, the one who doesn't know how to talk to people and prefers to keep his nose stuck in a book. He also said if you don't want to work for him, he releases you from the promise."

  "He did?" Andrev seemed taken aback.

  "All of you," she added. "He's hoping you will all agree to join him. But he understands so much has happened since you last saw him, he won't blame you if you want to move on with your lives. But I think you should go."

  Chassy frowned. "I wonder how someone we've never met could have an opinion about what we should do."

  Cherise's eyes sparkled as she flipped around onto the ground. "I'm telling you what I would do if I had the opportunity. His guards got mixed up in some trouble with that no-good wizard Gnarkvetch. Word is that they are being transported to Lyesfare."

  Nita sat up straighter. "What kind of trouble?"

  "The prison kind of trouble. And the news from Lyesfare is that the prisoners are being put to death because Gnarkvetch doesn't like them."

  And now Nita knew what she was doing this summer. She would travel to Lyesfare to help rescue William's crew.

  "Nope, I'm out." Andrev shifted from foot to foot. "I do not need another summer with those people."

  "I'll help. They saved our skins more than once last summer. We owe them." She frowned at Andrev and swore to give him a piece of her mind when they got back to Xander's. She raised her eyebrows at Chassy, who shrugged in halfhearted agreement.

  Nita looked at Cherise straight on and let her hood slip back a little. She didn't want to expose herself to the whole city. The girl must be able to see her silver skin, but she didn't react. Well, it was the first time that had ever happened.

  "Okay, I'll go with you," Nita smiled slyly. She touched Cherise's hand, delivering a tiny zap, and Cherise yanked her hand back, eyes wide. "You'd better not be lying."

  9: Andrev

  Cherise followed them from a distance and waited down the street a little until they signaled. Xander was not fond of them bringing home perfect strangers as they had learned last fall. Nita dragged home a beggar kid, hoping Jam would feed him, and Xander had frozen him in place, calling the boy a thief.

  Andrev could appreciate that. Who wanted strange people nosing around in your house (or any people at all)? If he wanted to see people, he would go to them, thank you very much.

  This peculiar girl Cherise bugged him even more than most people. For one thing. She couldn't sit still to have a simple conversation, she was always stretching and twisting her body into weird positions. And then there were a scary few minutes when she walked through an alley beside them on her hands. Strange and disgusting. She was an example of the sort of person he wanted nothing to do with, always drawing too much attention to herself and anyone nearby. The fact that she wore boys' clothes didn't bother him. Nita had always done that whenever she could get away with it, and he thought it was sensible. But what was with her hair? Was it stuffed up inside her funny hat, or what? She wasn't normal.

  So he was glad to go his own way. He hoped Quon wouldn't be waiting for them. He didn't want to have to fend her off. This should be a quick, hassle-free grabbing of his things, a quick goodbye to Nita, and back out the door.

  As they approached the house, he reminded himself Nita would say he should thank Xander and a bunch of servants. Well, he would be sure to tell Xander thank you. After all, he wanted to use the library again someday. But he couldn't even remember anyone else talking to him, so it would be too odd to search the household to tell everyone he was leaving.

  Oh, fuss and bother! Quon and her personal guards appeared out of nowhere and walked them in the front entrance. She'd been waiting for them.

  "Have you considered my offer?" She directed them into the great room where Xander was sitting in a cushioned chair. Jam bustled in with a tray of sausage rolls. Oh, right. Jam had talked to him too.

  "We met a friend while we're out." Chassy snagged a roll as Jam walked by. "Nita and I might go somewhere else."

  Quon's eyes brightened, and she turned to Andrev. "Will you be returning to Xillith with me, then? To become my apprentice?"

  "No." Andrev didn't want to get in the middle of a fight between Granny and Quon. "At least not right away," he added, to forestall questions. "I have other business to attend to on my own."

  Let her think he had a mysterious errand.

  "Is the girl waiting down the street the friend you speak of?" Xander looked up. "Why not invite her to join us?"

  "Well..." Nita hesitated.

  "You're remembering the beggar, right? The one who was planning to steal my strength ring and amulet of persuasion?"

  "You don't know that," Nita protested.

  Xander smiled, but his eyes said he did know that. "I promise to be nice. Jam, please run outside and extend an invitation."

  "Yes, a girl from the streets. And something more, I think." Quon chewed her bottom lip as she turned to Andrev. It left him wondering what could be so special about Cherise. "Your future has always been murky. But my offer still stands whenever you finish with your own… ventures."

  Andrev thought he would consider the offer. Why not learn what he could from both Granny and Quon? "What do you mean about my future being murky?" he asked.

  "Although I am skilled at catoptromancy—one of the best," she sa
id with pride, "I cannot make any sense of what I see in the mirror for you. Always there is a cloud, a shadow, a fog that smears the reading. A critical choice blocks your path, a choice that will affect everything that follows, and one that won't be easy to make."

  Was it the choice between Granny and Quon? Andrev wondered. That would be too obvious. Besides, he had decided to study with Granny, and that had been an easy decision.

  "What is catoptromancy?" Nita asked.

  "It is a form of scrying that uses a mirror in particular," Quon answered. "It is my favorite, and one of my great strengths. Don't worry, you will learn how to use your mirror. If you study at Xillith someday, you may even learn it from me."

  Cherise entered the room then, escorted by Jam, and Andrev scowled at her. How were her hands even clean? She must have washed up while she was waiting. The girl studied each person in the room—not scared, just wary.

  "You called for me?" she said.

  Xander waved her into the room. "Welcome to my home. Please enter and be at ease. I am Xander, and this is Jam, my friend and chef."

  Cherise didn't sit, but walked a circuit of the room, looking at the walls and tables. "You're a cleric?" she asked.

  Andrev looked around, wondering how the new girl had identified Xander as a cleric. He saw Cherise's eyes paused on the table of vials with a stylish book easel holding an enormous leather-bound book. Ah, yes, the alchemy table had given him away.

  Xander smiled and shrugged as he stepped from behind his desk. "I dabble here and there. I understand you've met my soon-to-be erstwhile houseguests Chassy, Nita, and Andrev. And this is the High Wizard Quon. She has traveled here from the Wizards' colony at Xillith to retrieve a prisoner I held over the winter."

  Cherise's eyes shifted to Quon. "Well met," she said. Then she vaulted across a table to stand near the high wizard.

  Andrev nodded. She was a foolish girl and not someone he wanted influencing his sister.

  Quon sat upright with a smile fixed to her face. Her head tracked Cherise's movements like a falcon following its prey. The street girl sat down in front of Quon and crossed her arms.

  "Where is your home, child?" Quon started.

  "The world is my home. The woods, the caves. I live where I wish, and I move when I will," Cherise countered. She sounded as though she had said all this before.

  Andrev felt like he was watching two cats circle each other.

  "You could have a real home, a house much like this one. If you return with me to Xillith as an apprentice, you will earn enough gold to build any home you want."

  Quon smiled at Andrev as if to taunt him. Andrev swallowed a gasp. Was this sorceress going to recruit everyone she met? What in the world was going on?

  Cherise frowned, "I don't need a place like this. I'd have to spend all my time cleaning it and minding the gardens."

  "Still, anyone can use a fortune in gold," Quon suggested.

  Cherise didn't even hesitate. "Not me. Besides, Chassy, Nita, and I seem to have plans already. What about him?" She motioned to Andrev.

  "I have somewhere else to be," Andrev said.

  Cherise smiled at Quon, who looked irritated. "I guess you'll have to find an apprentice elsewhere."

  Andrev didn't want to let on that he cared one bit about this stupid street girl who could replace him as an apprentice to a high wizard, but this foolish conversation tired him. He slipped out of the room, unnoticed, collected his things, and headed off to find Granny. It wasn't even hard. The way people ignored him, Andrev had always felt invisible.

  Perhaps this is my special power, he thought.

  When he was halfway across the city, he realized he had told no one thank you or goodbye. Oh, well, Nita could find him if she wanted to come looking.

  10: Chassy

  Chassy stared at the jumble of things he had turned out of his pack and onto his bed, wondering what he should take. His meager possessions had filled this small room with warmth and hominess. Still, he realized after their failed attempt to escape that it would be too heavy to carry everything on another long journey.

  In the absence of the people he loved and missed, he needed to gather his things around him. There were the obvious keepers—his daggers, fire kit, cloak, blanket, knife, cup, and spoon. He would take the pouch given to him by the dying wizard, Master Vornole, before the start of their great adventure last summer. Xander had helped him identify a few of the tiny items, and they were valuable if he could learn to use them. Plus, they stayed small as long as he kept them dry.

  His eyes came to rest on the wefan created by his parents as they awaited his birth. The branches of a Waet Tree spread out across the pale blue silk in a pattern of letters forming his name. It was not a practical object, and he knew everything he kept made his pack heavier, but this was a piece of his heritage, a village tradition. Each weaving started its life as a door covering and would later serve as a blanket for babies of the next generation. Every thread and stitch echoed the love of his family. Chassy stuffed it into his bag.

  Then there was the boll cracker, the tool he used for so many years to harvest Waet silk back home. It reminded him of his promise to his father to treasure his heritage. He sank to the bed and cradled it in his hands. Holding it evoked the sweet scent of the silver leaves, the sunny days he'd spent hiding among them with Nita, and fall harvests since he was eight summers old.

  This time last year, he imagined he would leave with the trader's caravan to see the world and have adventures. Today, having had a few, he felt older than 16.

  He set aside the boll cracker and picked it back up again.

  "That's an extra weight you don't need." Nita stood in his doorway.

  Chassy tucked it into his pack. "I have to keep it with me."

  Nita walked over and looked up into his face. "Why? You've been carrying it for a year, and you've never found an opportunity to use it."

  "I'm the Masterweaver's son," he said. "It's an important weight to carry."

  It was hard to explain, but Nita nodded. She always understood. She didn't even blink at the wefan as she applied a critical eye to his other belongings.

  "Necessary doesn't always mean useful. That's what Mother says." Nita smiled and then laughed. "Of course, she means the ratty old dress she keeps from when she first arrived in Waet Tree Village."

  "And useful doesn't always mean necessary." Chassy set aside a stack of books from Xander. He hoped he could retrieve them someday.

  "What are these?" Nita pointed to a pile of rocks.

  Chassy sensed his cheeks reddening as he shrugged with one shoulder. "I've been calling them face stones. If you turn them the right way, they look like people. Sometimes…" He paused, not sure about sharing the rest.

  "Chassy Waet, don't even think about keeping secrets from me again," Nita mock-scolded him.

  "Well, they talk to me," he admitted.

  Nita looked doubtful but snatched one. "What do you mean? They appear to be regular river stones."

  "I knew you wouldn't believe me. That's why I didn't want to tell you."

  "I didn't say I doubt you." Nita squinted at one like she was trying to see something unusual. "Is this about Dulisa's necklace again?"

  "No, it's something else." Chassy handed her the pendant given to him by the tree goddess Dulisa last summer as a journey gift. This simple bauble had given him several scary but enlightening visions and even saved his life once. "The little ball hasn't glowed since we rescued you at the Dalatois camp. Maybe it's not enchanted anymore."

  "Are they talking now?" Nita put her ear near the pile of stones.

  Chassy shook his head. "They don't have much to say. I think they sleep most of the time."

  He recounted his first encounter with a face stone, which also was the first day he wandered into Xander's garden. He had perceived a sound coming from a gray rock shaped like a bird's egg.

  A voice said, Radigesh is cold.

  "Who are you?" Chassy asked. "How are you talki
ng?"

  Radigesh is cold.

  Chassy cupped the pebble in his hands, and after a minute it whispered, Thank you.

  He couldn't get more than two words out of the stone after that, but he brought it inside the house. It seemed cruel to leave a creature that could talk out in the chill to suffer, even if it was a lump of rock. After a few weeks, he had met Zoslip, Loros, and Varicanthus and gathered them on the hearth with Radigesh. There were four others who hadn't talked since their first meeting, but he kept them around just in case.

  At first, Chassy wondered if this was another vision, but last summer that only happened when he was wearing Dulisa's pendant, and he hadn't worn it for months. Most of the time, the rocks seemed inactive, but occasionally one of them would call out a cheery, "Hullo!" to him.

  She's looking at me, Radigesh said. Chassy smiled.

  Nita, standing right beside him, continued her examination of the stones.

  "You didn't hear that?" Chassy asked. "Radigesh—this one—noticed you are looking at him."

  Nita shook her head.

  Take us with you, squeaked Loros. Chassy glanced over at Nita, but she was squinching her eyes at Zoslip.

  Neither useful nor necessary, Radigesh sighed.

  "I suppose if you squint, they resemble faces." Nita tossed them aside.

  Hurts, whispered Zoslip, who always spoke a single word.

  I'm useful! called Varicanthus's strained voice. Take me!

  Chassy tucked Vari into his bag of tiny things. He had always pictured Vari as a shriveled old monkey—a wise monkey. She had been right that Jam was saving the apple pies for a guest. She had also been right that throwing his voice was dangerous and teleporting was best left to professionals. He flexed his stiff fingers, trying not to recall the weeks of pain he'd earned from that stunt.

  "Well, if they're talking to you, there's something special about them," Nita said. "Maybe you should take them with you. They weigh only a handful of coppers."