by Jean Johnson
The feel of Solyn casting a spell, or maybe it was one of her mother's, triggered a hearty sneeze in him. Doubling over with the explosion, Kenyen felt Zellan's second vicious, clawed swipe catch in his braid, instead of his throat. Sidestepping, he ducked his head low, pulling the older shifter down by his own hair, and heaved up under the man's abdomen with double-strength legs. More stitches popped and gave way, since the trousers were more fitted than the gathered style favored on the Plains, but there wasn't time for him to shift out of the garments. Fingers warped into talons, skin hardened into thick, protective scales, he gouged and stabbed at his opponent.
Across the room, Ysander had grabbed the fire tongs and was smacking his own former captor while the hawk had shifted, revealing Ashallan clad in feathers and striking with claws. Reina was flushed and wide-eyed, grappling with an overgrown serpent, her hands glowing with power.
Ashallan, the lioness, had changed forms yet again, this time into an amalgamation of woman and bearlike beast, dodging Tunric's own brutish claw swipes. Zaps of light burst from Solyn's jabbing finger, like miniature, concentrated sun rays without the clouds. The serpent holding her mother flinched and hissed with each smoldering strike.
Zellan slithered around Kenyen, readjusting mass and shape to try to gain leverage of his own. Out of the corner of his eye, Kenyen saw the Mongrel open his jaws beast-wide, huge fangs sprouting. He protected his shoulder with shell-like scales and tensed, building up enough muscles to throw the man at the nearest wall.
"What in Cora's sweet...?" a new, male voice exclaimed from the front entry. "Omina dormud!"
Deep blue light washed through the house. Several bodies slumped insensate to the floor, without even the time to sneeze. Flesh reshaped, knocked out cold by the spell; some of that flesh still bled. Some of it stood on two legs and blinked. Both Solyn and her mother stared at the fallen bodies and hesitantly relaxed, their personal shields dissipating the energies of the mass-sleep spell swirling around them. Whirling to face the entrance, Solyn eyed the man staring at the mess in her family's sitting parlor.
"Oh, thank the Goddess..." she breathed, panting from the adrenaline of the fight. The man was clad in an ornately embroidered tunic. She recognized a few of the rune-symbols among those stitchings from her mage books, though she didn't know what they meant. "Please, tell me you're the Magister that Traver Ys Ten flew off to find?"
"I am," the mage stated. Behind him, several armored men bearing the blue and brown tabards of the King's Guard cautiously picked their way into the house. "With the ability to shield against my spell, that would make you... Solyn Ys Rei, budding young mage, correct? And the woman behind you would be the Healer Reina?" At Solyn's nod, he introduced himself with a little bow. "I am Magister Caros Nii Veth, and I am here to take all of these shapeshifters prisoner for interrogation."
"Oh, no! Not all of them," Solyn hastily interrupted, fluttering her hands in negation. She explained quickly as he lifted one brow. "Only four of them, if you please. The ones with the Banished scars on their heads. They're all the criminal shifters, the face-stealers, the ones who call themselves members of Family Mongrel. The rest are real Shifterai, from the Plains. They all came to Correda to track down the Mongrel shifters when they realized their outcast criminals were banding together to cause trouble for us. Oh, and the extra man by the hearth is my father. He's not any sort of a shifter."
"You mean five of them are Mongrels," Reina corrected her daughter. She eyed the bodies on the floor, three of which were naked, and flopped her hands. "I can only say for sure that the two women aren't our attackers, but rather our attempted saviors. I wouldn't think Tunric or his bastards would stoop to treating women that way if they actually were members of their group."
"No, Mother, I do mean four of them," Solyn corrected. Kenyen's form was the one she was sure of. Picking her way over the two bodies between them, she crouched by his half-clothed form. His side was a little bloodied, but a quick check showed the wounds were no longer seeping. "This one is Kenyen Sin Siin, Clan Cat, Family Tiger. He was asked by Traver in a rather hastily made arrangement to pretend to be Banished from the Plains... and to pretend to be Traver.
"The Mongrels guessed that Traver—the real one—knew something about them, and hunted him down when he tried to flee to get help." She looked up at the Magister, who was studying her with a shuttered but attentive expression, absorbing her words. "Kenyen found Traver on the way here, because his people had found a body they believed to be the real Tunric Tel Vem long dead in a cave somewhere to the north, with a message giving the identity and location of its former owner."
"They didn't have more than a few minutes together before that one... um... I think it was that one," Solyn said, pointing at one of the men nearest the door, "the one pretending to be the mine laborer, Zellan Fin Don, attacked Traver. It was all Kenyen could do to pretend to be a fellow criminal, and convince the Mongrels to let him pretend in turn to be Traver, to infiltrate my family for our greatest secret."
"Solyn!" her mother snapped. "Don't you dare!"
Pushing to her feet, Solyn faced her mother. "No, Mother. I do dare. I'm tired of hiding the truth. I did a lot of thinking over the last couple of days, and Traver is right. People need to be told. The only way to make us safe is to spread this secret far and wide—Mother, the good we can do with greensteel, to heal wounds that even the best of spells cannot keep from scarring, that far outweighs a few rogue shifters carving off their Banished scars!"
"If they carve off those scars with greensteel," Reina argued back, "they could become anyone! They could even try to become the King!"
"Maybe they could try, but even after a dozen years of practicing, they couldn't hide their true nature," she retorted, pointing at the slumbering body in question. "We all saw how Tunric—what we thought of as the real one—how he turned from a good man and a good master of his mines into a heartless, callous, woman-hating cur. And you saw how Kenyen, portraying Traver, couldn't hide the fact that he is a good man at heart. Everyone's been remarking on how, when 'Traver' fell into the ravine, he may have lost his memory but he gained a lot of maturity and good sense? Well, that's because my husband has that maturity and good sense."
Reina planted her hands on her hips, staring down her daughter. "And did you know he wasn't Traver when you married him?"
Proudly, Solyn lifted her head. "Yes, I did. And it was by my choice, fully knowing who he is, and the mess we were in, that I chose to wed him. He's a good man, Mother. Which you'll see for yourself, if you bother to open your eyes and get to know him."
"And the real Traver? Where is he?" Reina demanded next.
A male voice cleared itself by the front hall. Both women looked that way, and spotted the real Traver Ys Ten in the doorway, peering around the shorter but still imposing figure of the Magister.
"Um, right here. And yes, I know she married someone else... and if Solyn's happy, and Kenyen makes her happy, then I'm happy for her, too. For both of them." He blushed, rubbed at the back of his neck, and shrugged. "The whole betrothal thing was just a ruse to get Tarquin to back down and stop bugging her. Which was a good thing, since it ended up part of the whole tangle of everything that led to Solyn and this Shifterai fellow saving my life, rather than leaving me to die at these Mongrels' hands."
Solyn smiled at him. She craned her neck, trying to see past both men. "Is Parma with you? I hope she's safe."
The Magister answered her question. "Milady Parma is safe in the protection of a fellow Magister, back at the capital. Her testimony, and specifically her memories, are being examined under spell, both truthful and temporal, in the hopes of getting clear identities of all the shapeshifter invaders she knows about. His Majesty has already awarded her a pension as a war heroine in compensation for her suffering... though we will be discussing with the Shifterai how to fund her pension," he added dryly, "given that it was their habit of Banishing their criminals in our direction that started this mess."
"How did you get here so fast?" Solyn asked, glancing between him and Traver.
"We mirror-Gated here to the Nespah Valley, of course, to begin the cleanup of those 'Mongrels' we do know about." Magister Caros nodded at the body slumbering at Solyn's feet. "If this man is indeed the same Kenyen Sin Siin mentioned in her and Traver's testimonies, then he will be set free. After he is questioned, of course. I presume he can corroborate the identities of his fellow Shifterai, if you cannot, young lady?"
"Uh... I only saw the Shifterai briefly at the front door a few minutes ago, myself, but yes. He does know his companions," Solyn agreed. "I enchanted paper birds with messages he wrote to them, which is why they finally showed up this morning—we weren't sure if Traver would reach you in time, Milord Magister."
Magister Caros smiled wryly. "Well, bureaucracy has been known to move slowly at times. But not when such serious injustices and crimes are at stake. Stand aside, and I'll awaken your husband. He'll have to be questioned with one of my Truth Wands, but given the testimony so far, he should be able to confirm it and exonerate himself and his true companions quickly enough."
"Of course." Bowing, she stepped out of his way. Edging toward the front door, she reached Traver's side. Impulsively, she hugged him. "I'm glad you're safe," she whispered, while the Magister crouched to begin his counterspell. "And very glad you arrived when you did. I think I knocked one of them out with one of my own spells, but it was very hard to concentrate when everyone started fighting."
Traver nodded, hugging her back. "We were a bit distracted when Luelyn raced out of here screaming just as we arrived—don't worry, she's run off to your aunt Hylin's. She looked positively livid with curiosity, wanting to know what's been going on over here. The King's Guards are keeping her away for the moment, but you know how long that'll last."
She sighed in relief, then chuckled weakly. "I'm glad some things are still the same."
Magister Caros held the interrogations outside, under a set of shade tents hastily set up by the curious valley residents. This was done, he explained in a voice enchanted to be heard by all who gathered in the broad yard around the forge, so that they could see the King's Justice being done openly, and to let the truth of the matter be known to all so that no false speculations could proliferate.
Ysander, the cut on his neck healed by his wife, only had bluesteel barstock on hand. The Magister, in a show of magic, awakened each shapeshifter and imprisoned him or her in two spells. One that bound their hands and feet together in glowing gold lines—making Kenyen sneeze repeatedly when they were applied to him—and a second one that confined each of them to their natural shapes.
Under the glowing crystalline tip of the Truth Wand held over their hands, the two Shifterai Princesses—hastily re-dressed in their sleep by Solyn and her mother, along with the male shifter, Manolo—explained why they had come with their warband into the Correda Mountains. Ashallan added that most of the others had scattered to track down rumors of yet more residents who had, at one point or another, started acting very much unlike themselves, turning arrogant, callous, even cruel toward those around them. She stated that the Queen of the Shifterai wished to stop the wrongs caused by their former, expelled citizens, and how her band was prepared to cooperate with the Corredai government in doing so.
The Magister duly noted down that information and moved on to her companions. When he came to Kenyen, and Kenyen relayed how he had taken over the life of Traver Ys Ten, the residents of Nespah Valley shouted and glared, until Caros shouted back. His was backed by a spell, one strong enough that his demand for silence echoed off the far side of the valley. Pausing the questioning of the Shifterai male, the Magister ordered Traver to speak of his own ordeals.
The young man did so with an honest eloquence that pleased Solyn. Once Kenyen was allowed to continue, corroborating his side of things, the Magister called upon her for her own testimony. Her words on the subject of her "husband" impersonating her best friend and supposed betrothed were more politely phrased than the ones she had given her mother, but no less firm and truth-filled.
When her questioning was through, Solyn marched over to where Kenyen and Traver had both taken a seat on a bench outside the forge, and sat on Kenyen's lap. Silently proclaiming to all that she would stay with him, rather than her best friend... who merely grinned at the couple.
The Mongrels were far less cooperative. One and all, they glared silently, sullenly at the Magister instead of answering his questions. Even when warned that their silence would be viewed as an acceptance of the charges levied against them, they refused to speak. The crystal-tipped Truth Wand, and the white marble Truth Stone which Ashallan offered to the Magister to use if he needed it, would have revealed any falsehoods... and they knew it.
"... Very well, then," Magister Caros stated at the conclusion of his interrogation attempts. "By the truthful testimony of these witnesses, by the truthful depositions of Milady Parma Nol Vyth, and by the condemnation of your own silence, it is my judgment that the four of you are indeed guilty of the crimes of which you have been accused. You shall be remanded into the custody of my fellow Magisters for further, spell-wrought interrogations and confessions."
That caused a stir. Usually when a verdict of guilty was determined, a punishment was given. The law was the law across the Empire, however shattered and fragmented it now was. Those whose guilt was determined by honest Truth-spell were guilty, and that was that.
Caros held up his hand, quieting the murmurs of the Nespah Valley holders. "Normally they would merely be punished as befits their crimes. But these men have actively instigated a series of kidnappings, murders, lies, deceits, and other law-breaking activities in an organized fashion the likes which we have not seen in ages, with a kind of magic that is difficult to detect, once they have stolen someone's face and identity.
"There are many more of these evil Mongrel shifters out there. Milady Parma estimated she had met at least forty of them over the years, if not more. That means roughly forty lives have been stolen away, and roughly thirty-six criminals are still at large." He paused, then added with a wrinkle of his nose, "As distasteful as it is to force a confession, not to mention against the spirit of the law... there are times when it is necessary to stop further criminal acts.
"The Mongrel shifters who stole the lives of the men you knew of as Tunric, Zellan, Nilpah, and Gromman, will be taken by mirror-Gate back to the capitol. The Shifterai shifters, being Their Highnesses Ashallan and Anaika, Bellar, Manolo, and Kenyen, are free to go about their business—and I will remind you that it is my judgment as a Magister of the Corredai that Kenyen Sin Siin has committed no crimes in this kingdom, since he had the permission of Traver Ys Ten to assume his identity, and the woman Solyn Ys Rei knew his true identity before entering into marriage with him.
"Treat our northern visitors with every courtesy. Assist them as you would me in the investigation of these Mongrel shifters' crimes, as I have Her Highness' Truth-sworn vow that she and her people will share their findings with the Magistrate. If anyone knows of any further information for my investigation, you may bring it to me or to the Guardsmen I will be leaving here to protect this village from possible repercussions by the criminals. Another Magister will take my place before the end of the day, to ensure your people also have adequate magical protections.
"Justice has been met, and so justice shall be served. Thus say I, Caros Nii Veth, Magister of the Corredai and Speaker of the King's Laws. This trial is at an end." Gesturing for the soldiers to gather up the four prisoners, the Magister rose from the writing desk that had been brought out for his use and bowed to the people gathered in the forge yard.
Breaking off their mutterings, most everyone bowed back to him, barring only the elderly, the children who were too young to know courtesy, the Guardsmen, and their prisoners. The Magister pulled a small mirror from the pouch at his waist and began casting spells, no doubt to summon the mirror-Gate that would take him and the pri
soners away. The distance between them was enough that Kenyen's nose stung only a little. Hugging his wife, he glanced around the clearing. Many of the valley's residents were still eyeing him warily, but between Traver's and Solyn's testimony and acceptance, it looked like most of them were going to forgive his deception.
A figure stepped between him and the rest of the assembled Corredai. Ysander planted his hands on his hips and looked down at the seated couple. "Well. I suppose since your intentions were noble, we're supposed to just forget all your days of lies and deceit and just forgive you, like that?"
"No," Kenyen replied calmly. As far as father-in-law attacks went, the blacksmith's version was fairly mild. "I know that I deceived you and damaged your trust in me, and that means I've thrown away your respect for me. But the Magister did request that there be courtesy between us. If you can, in your graciousness, give me that much... then that will be enough."
"Not for me," Solyn snorted.
"Hush," Kenyen countered, looking at her. "You will respect your father. You cannot force him to like me. Either he does or does not, but either way, he has the right to his own opinion on the matter."
She made a face at him, so he kissed her, distracting her from her irritation at her father.
A chuckle broke them apart. Ysander gave them a rueful smile. "Well. If she trusts you after all this, and if you can handle her so well... and with such courtesy," he mocked lightly, "then I'll give you a chance to prove yourself. But only as yourself. No more of this face-stealing nonsense."
"Even if I wanted to join an entertainment troupe and become an actor?" Kenyen asked, daring to tease his father-in-law.
The glower he received quashed that notion. "We are upstanding members of the Nespah Holdings, and I will not have an actor for a son-in-law! You'll learn an honest trade and make an honest living, or I'll thrash you black and blue!"
"Father!" Solyn protested.