"I have come to speak with you about a very serious matter."
The villagers quieted down.
"You were all brought together here because you are loyal to the Margrave. And that is why I need your help. There are rumors of a phantom creature roaming the village. Have you seen it?"
Cries of "yes!" and "just yesterday!" filled the room.
I knew that their eyes were all on me. There was one pair of eyes I was particularly concerned about.
"This beast is a terrible threat to us, sent by a wizard to assassinate the Margrave..."
I momentarily lost my train of thought as the loping shadow passed by the entrance of the barn. The pogeyan had been stalking me, waiting patiently for when I finally left the magical defenses of Ura's castle. Just as I had expected
"What are we to do?" asked Boris. "We thought this was about a rebellion?"
"People, people, I must apologize. I was sent..."
"The Margrave sent a talking rat?" shouted someone else, one of the peasants who had never visited the castle.
"What kind of magic is this?"
"Why would the Margrave send a rodent?" asked another.
"Does he think so little of us?"
I sighed. This wasn't what I had in mind. Chapori culture treated rats very different from Calximus citizens.
"SILENCE!" I bellowed in Ura's voice. "The Margrave didn't send a rat...because I'M THE MARGRAVE!"
The people cringed in shock, but quickly recovered. They had new respect for the booming voice of an ogre in their heads. They bowed deeply.
Then the unseen rat nibbling on some grain in the corner billowed and morphed into an ogre. It was Ura. Right on time.
"That's enough!" he bellowed. "Since these idiots are bowing, I can only assume you've duped them into thinking you're me."
I steeled myself for the outrageous lies I was about to tell. "Impostor!" I broadcast at Ura and the peasants. "How dare you pretend to be me!"
The darkness behind Ura glowed with two red slits. Ura's nostrils flared. He put his hands on his hips.
"That's all very amusing, but this charade is now over." He reached for me.
"And yet you were just in the form of a rat!" I sneered ineffectively, lacking the facial features to do so.
Ura blinked, huge hand outstretched.
"Are you so incapable of defending your people that you are threatened by a measly rat?" I asked.
Ura turned to look at the crowd. These were his people. His ego was at stake. "Then I shall take you back to the castle..." he rumbled.
"This creature is the phantom beast!" I shouted. "It has taken the form of your Margrave to prevent me from telling you the truth! Do not be deceived."
Ura looked back at the crowd. They were armed. These were the loyal villagers, eager to show their allegiance to the militia and their master. But I knew the paranoid ogre viewed any armed peasant as a traitor.
"You don't seriously believe him?" They couldn't understand his Chapori tongue.
"The ogre was just a rat," muttered one peasant.
"I can take any form!" shouted Ura. "This stupid rat just talks!"
"The rat did help my pigs," declared Boris.
The villagers' heads bobbed up and down.
Ura struggled to understand what was being said, a look of disbelief on his ogrish features.
I took off at maximum speed. There was a roar as Ura got fed up with negotiations. I knew that if the ogre had been spying on his people in the form of a rat, he had to be using rat tunnels. Sure enough, my senses picked up on the trail of several rats leading in and out of the barn, along with the paths into the tunnels.
I wriggled into the tunnel, running as fast as I could. There was a hiss and then a snake's head blasted through the dirt behind me.
Ura had taken the first form that came to mind, and that was of a viper. But the viper couldn't move like I could.
I kept running through the tunnel. Ura was hot on my heels.
The peasants milled about in confusion in the barn, unsure as to what they had just witnessed. I veered left and then right, following the dizzying tunnels. Unlike Ura, I had no idea where the tunnels went. But I had spent more time in my rat form than he.
The tunnel opened up near a metal drainage pipe. Ura had begun experimenting with a system of channeling water from Chapor after wrinkling his nose one too many times at the stench of pigs and people. I had chosen this modernized barn precisely because it was a symbol of his influence. My choice was paying off in unexpected ways.
I ran into the opening and caught a glimpse of glowing red eyes staring down at me. As I dove through, a ghostly paw slammed through the pipe's walls and kept on going.
It really was a phantom cat! And it was very clearly after me.
I clambered up the inside of the gutter pipe. Hopefully the cat couldn't fly. Or see through walls.
I looked down. Sure enough, Ura was close behind in the best form to follow a rat's trail: another rat.
We were on top of the barn. The roof was rotted and soft. I skittered across the tile.
A tile slipped off and plunged into the void off the barn roof, shattering as it fell twenty feet to the ground.
Ura's rat head jutted from the gutter, swelling into the elongated scaled head and neck of a snake. The viper head struck out at me, bridging the distance between us. The roof started to give way beneath his scaly form.
I hopped backwards. I weighed a fraction of what a large viper weighed.
Ura shifted back to rat form. Or more specifically, Switch's rat form. I hated him even more for that.
I clambered across the roof and reached the other gutter. Ura bit at my tail but he was too slow. I dove into the gutter. With a frustrated squeak, Ura dove after me.
I lost my grip as I climbed down the inside of the gutter and fell, sliding along the sides, struggling for a foothold. Fortunately, the bottom of the gutter was curved so I shot me out of the pipe parallel to the ground.
I rolled over and over and collided with a moldy bale of hay. A second later, Ura flipped out of the gutter.
He transformed in midair, landing on his feet as his alter-ego Eureka. The cat pinned me with one paw.
I caught a glimpse of red eyes in the shadow of the barn. Then Ura bit my tail. I shrieked, which came out as a squeak.
I wasn't accustomed to hearing my own voice, since I always communicated telepathically. Ura's wildcat form swallowed. Then he sat back on his haunches. Before my eyes, his form shrunk and contorted. The fur changed color, the paws shrank back, the nose elongated, and in no time I was staring at a mirror image of myself.
"Interesting. I wasn't sure what would happen. It seems I don't have your mental tranmissions." He sniffed the air. "There was so much uncontrolled magic within you that I wasn't sure if I could successfully mimic you. I see now that my fears were unfounded."
My own rat form crept menacingly towards me. "Wait!" I stalled. "Who will do all your work? Being me is a lot harder than it seems."
"I'll have to work harder," said Ura. "And I admit I will miss your particular abilities. But your insubordination outweighs your value as a translator. I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go..."
He reared back on his hind legs, preparing to transform again into something monstrous. But before he could, the pogeyan leapt from the shadows and caught Ura's rat form in its jaws.
It vigorously shook its head back and forth, knocking Ura unconscious. And then it bounded off.
I watched the cat carefully as it made away with Ura in its jaws. As it walked into the sunlight, Ura's unconscious rat form appeared to hang limply in the air, as if he were floating. When the cat passed into some shadow again, I could again make out the panther-like form with tufted ears that sharpened to points, almost like horns. It truly was a phantom cat.
"Told you it was a lot harder than it seemed!" I shouted at my unconscious doppelganger.
* * *
I crept back into the barn and t
o the podium.
It took a while for the villagers to figure out what had happened. The whole conflict had taken only a few minutes. They caught sight of the pogeyan jumping through the walls as it stalked Ura and me. I had some explaining to do.
"People!" I said to them. "Please, we have resolved the conflict."
Boris had apparently become the village speaker. "What happened?"
"Let me explain." I was making it up as I went along. "I have eliminated the impostor. He was a shape shifter, like me. But he took the form of a terrible pogeyan."
The crowd oooed. That made about as much sense as a shape shifting ogre.
"We fought. I defeated him. But during the magical battle, I was trapped in this form. So for now, until I find a way to release myself, I am your Margrave."
"And the impostor's dead then?" asked Boris.
"He has been defeated, returned to whatever hole he crept out of. We shouldn't have to worry about him for a long time." I hoped that was true. I watched their collective reactions.
The villagers muttered, but most of them shrugged. Their interactions with Ura had been few; it did not matter to them who lived in the castle.
"If anyone has difficulty with my current form, please let them speak now." I waited expectantly.
Boris cleared his throat after a moment of silence. "If I may, m'lord?'
"Of course, Boris."
"You can be an ant for all we care; as long as we’re dealt with fairly and allowed to run our farms as we see fit, I think we'll be fine." The other villagers grunted and nodded in agreement. "Although we are a bit concerned if word gets out that there's a rat in charge of the place," added Boris. “Even a magical one.”
It was a good point. While technically my diminutive form may not be an issue, an enemy could see the fief as an easy target for a takeover, and they wouldn’t be far off the mark.
"I shall appoint a proxy upon my return to the castle."
The villagers nodded. They liked that idea.
"Who was this shape shifter, m'lord?" asked another villager. "Will he try again?"
"He might," I said. "Which is why it's so important that I regain my original form. I believe the perpetrator is from Calximus."
The crowd muttered some more. "A declaration of war then, against the fief?"
I shook my head. "I don't think so. I don't believe this man works for the Emperor. I think instead that it is a dispute among sorcerers."
"And what are we to do about it then?" asked Boris. "We have no magic, and with you as a rat..."
I waved him off with one paw. "Fair questions, all. I defeated one assassination attempt, so let that serve as proof of my capabilities. I will work to shore up our defenses."
The crowd seemed satisfied.
"I asked the most loyal of you to attend this important event. Spread the word that the phantom beast will bother these lands no longer."
And with that, the people dispersed.
Boris offered to return me to the castle, which I gratefully accepted.
Now I just had to figure out how to explain everything to Lycus.
Chapter 5: Scrap and the Wiley Well-Troll
"Where's the Margrave?" were the first words out of Lycus' mouth. Followed quickly by, "And how did you get out of the castle?"
Boris placed me back in my cage. "Let me explain."
Lycus waited until Boris was out of the room. Then he closed the doors behind him. "He's dead, isn't he?"
I paused. "Ura? No, not dead. Not yet, anyway."
"Then what happened to him? Did Boris let you out of your cage?"
"Ura tried to kill me." I decided that telling Lycus the truth was my only option. "But when he bit me and copied my rat form, the pogeyan grabbed him and ran off. It seems the pogeyan was coming after me."
Lycus blinked. Then he burst out in hysterical laughter, chortling so hard that he fell down. He pounded the floor, slapping the floor and his knee a few times. Tears were in his eyes. "So you tricked him?" He laughed again. "He decided to become you...let me guess, to replace you, right?'
"Right." Lycus was taking this much better than I expected. "He decided I was of no use to him and he wanted to absorb my skills. He got more than he bargained for."
Lycus wiped his nose. "Oh, that's choice. He always was an arrogant git!"
Now it was my turn to blink. "Wait. What? I thought you loved the Margrave?"
"Ha-ha!" Lycus flopped onto Ura's throne, sprawling out as if it were a couch. "Oh please, no. I was just sucking up to the man in charge."
"So right now you're sucking up to me?"
"If you're in charge," he grinned. "Don't worry, I'm not interested in challenging you. I don't have a head for numbers like you do. But Ura really was something of a prig."
"I plan to keep most things the same," I warned. "But I need to go on a trip..."
"Of course," said Lycus. "To Stromgate? Even the odds with the old master?"
"To get the kids back," I said. "They shouldn't be working for Black or for Piper."
"That's all fine and good," said Lycus. "But you were the one who sent them back to Stromgate."
I was done explaining myself to Lycus. "You'll be in charge here, running the day-to-day operations, with a council of village representatives deciding major issues."
Lycus arched an eyebrow. "And what happens if they're unable to make decisions?"
"Then I trust you can nudge them along by sharing your opinion," I said. "And of course, your vote comes with the full blessing of the Margrave."
Lycus smirked. He quite liked the idea of having power without the full mantle of leadership. "I'm in. Will you be leaving right now?"
I shook my head. "First, I need to get that key."
"The golden key?" Lycus frowned. "I know where it is."
"Then give it to me."
"It's not that simple," said Lycus. "Let me show you what I mean."
* * *
Lycus carried me to a part of the castle I didn't know existed. Not that I had seen that much of it anyway.
Lycus led to me a locked room, produced a mundane key from around a chain around his neck, and unlocked the door.
The interior chamber was fitted with polished marble, with four great columns spiraling up to a vaulted ceiling. The ceiling was glass, etched with a picture of two knights astride one horse.
"This room is much older than Ura," said Lycus. It was clear that this room was crafted in the style of Western art. "It was here before he arrived."
The light shining through the glass ceiling overhead shone down on a well. The water sparkled with a transparent golden sheen and was so clear that I could see down to the bottom. And there, under the water, was the golden key.
I peered over the edge from my cage. "So that's his big defense of the key? He threw it into a well?"
"Watch," said Lycus.
He took off his belt and tossed it into the water. It glittered as it sank. Like a creeping plague, a gold color slowly enveloped it until the entirety of the belt sparkled.
"It turns everything it touches to gold," said Lycus, quite serious.
"I can't imagine Ura didn't dredge the well. There must be a fortune of items down there!"
Lycus nodded. "There is. I've stared at it for a while. There's one other problem."
He grabbed a pole, of which there were many, leaning against one corner of the room. Lycus carefully poked it into the surface of the water.
A huge golden hand tipped with foot-long claws surged out of the water and snatched the pole, snapping it in half. It dragged the longer half of pole into the water without causing so much as a ripple. Now completely submerged, the pole turned into gold and sank to the bottom of the well.
"Well-troll," said Lycus. "It's invisible while in the water." He showed me the pole. There was a thin covering of gold around the edge where the pole had snapped.
"Great. So we can't fish it out because the well-troll will break any tool we use. And we can't dive in
, because anything the water touches becomes covered with gold." I had an idea as to how Ura had gold-plated my cage.
Lycus nodded. "Now you know why Ura kept this room locked. The well-troll is also the source of his magical defenses. He used it to cast the spell that protects the castle from otherworldly attackers."
"Like the pogeyan," I said. "That's the only reason it couldn't reach me here. I was wondering where he got the power that fueled that spell, since he didn't get it from me."
Lycus sat down and put his hands behind his head. "Yep."
I thought for a moment. "Let me talk to it."
Lycus looked at me like I was crazy. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
I shrugged. "Can’t hurt, right?"
"I don't know...well-trolls aren't known for their conversational skills."
"Neither were you, until the Margrave disappeared," I chastised him. I noticed he’d shed most of his accent too, but whether that was under Ura’s tutelage or another ruse was a discussion for later.
Lycus shrugged. "Suit yourself."
"Shove another pole in there. I can't talk to what I can't see."
Lycus grabbed another pole and dipped it into the water. The claw came out.
"Wait!" I shouted. "I would speak with you a moment!"
The huge hand, easily three feet wide, froze. Then it slowly shifted from a clawed fist to an open palm. It slapped one wet palm on the side of the well. Another arm came out of the well, spider-like, and slapped down on the other side.
Slowly, a huge dripping head rose out of the water, trailing stringy gold hair, with a long nose and a mouthful of sharp teeth. Lycus was right. I was sorry I asked.
One great bulbous eye focused on Lycus, while the other turned to look at me. If the thing wasn't so huge, it would have been very comical indeed.
"WHAT'S THIS? A TALKING RAT?"
His speech boomed in my skull, rattling around and blotting out any other thoughts I might have had at the time.
"Uh, yeah. Listen, there's something that was thrown into your well..."
"MANY THINGS HAVE BEEN THROWN INTO MY WELL."
"Yes, I can see that. We're looking for a key, specifically."
"MANY KEYS HAVE BEEN THROWN INTO MY WELL."
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