The Shifter

by Janice Hardy

  “So how do we get in?” Danello whispered into my ear.

  Shiverflesh pimpled my arms. “We sneak.”

  “Is there a back way in?” Aylin asked, poking her head over his shoulder.

  “Several, but all the public entrances so far have looked well guarded. Kione, think you can get us past one of them? Any friends working?”

  “I know a few guys who work the south gate.”

  That gate opened onto the rear docks along the lakeside of the grounds. It probably wouldn’t have crowds trying to shove their way in—not unless they came by pole boat. “Okay, so we pretend to be apprentices and Kione and Danello can pretend to be protecting us. They can say we were out on heal calls or something. We get inside, then make our way to the spire room.”

  “But we’re not wearing uniforms,” Tali pointed out. Those were too torn and stained to be of any use even if we had been wearing them.

  “Kione is. Maybe he’ll give us enough credibility. We both still have braids.”

  Her expression said she didn’t believe that, but we didn’t have much choice. If they didn’t fall for it, we wouldn’t get inside. Any fighting would draw not only more guards, but the Governor-General’s soldiers as well.

  We crept through the gardens toward the south side. Two guards stood by the gate, neither of whom I recognized. But I did recognize the man next to them. Jeatar! What was he doing here? He was speaking to the guards, gesturing instructions I could guess by now. Keep an eye out, watch these areas.

  Kione’s colorful swear was exactly what my dry throat wouldn’t let out. “Those aren’t my friends,” he whispered.

  Nor mine, though who Jeatar really was I wasn’t sure.

  “Should we attack?” Danello edged closer. I put a hand on his arm and stopped him.

  “I don’t want to hurt them,” Tali said. “The short one tells me a joke every time I see him.”

  Aylin waved a hand at me. “Nya, what if we go in the same way you got out?”

  We all looked up.

  “The roof?”

  Kione shook his head. “You’re as crazy as she is.”

  “What’s wrong?” Tali actually smiled at him. “Lanelle not worth it?”

  I never wanted to hug her more in my life.

  “She is,” he grumbled.

  “Okay, new plan,” I said. “We go around the garden wall and up on the roof. Hopefully, there won’t be any guards there.” And hopefully Jeatar wouldn’t see us.

  “And if there are?”

  Had Mama and Papa been this scared the first time they faced the Duke’s soldiers? “Then we fight them. Quietly.”

  We slipped away from the hedge’s protection and crept around the vine-draped wall, staying in the trees and bushes as much as possible. For the first time, I was thankful the League charged so much for heals; otherwise, they’d never have had enough money to waste on so many gardens.

  The area where Soek and I had tackled the guards was clear, but there was at least one patrol circling the grounds. Probably more by now, with the riots and the mob out front.

  “Danello first,” I said. Kione stepped forward and locked his fingers together. Danello stepped into his hands, and Kione boosted him up to the roof. He hung a few seconds, legs swaying, before he dragged himself up and over. His head popped back a heartbeat later, and he held out a hand.

  “Tali next.”

  Danello hoisted her up easy, then hauled Aylin over the edge. Kione gestured for me to take my turn.

  “I’ll go last,” he said, checking both ways for patrols. Or maybe just seeing if he could run once my back was turned. Despite his plea to save Lanelle, I wasn’t sure he was willing to risk anything for her.

  He boosted me up, and I grabbed Danello’s hand with both of mine. My knee caught on my skirt, and I dangled like garlic in a window. Danello grunted but didn’t let go. Kione gave me a boost, and Danello hauled me up and over the edge.

  I grinned. “Step one com—”

  “Shh!” He smooshed a hand over my mouth and pushed me flat against the roof. “Patrol.”

  “Kione,” I mumbled under his hand.

  “He’s hiding.”

  Voices came from below. “…heard something. Like scratches.”

  “Wind’s been gusting today. Probably just branches.”

  “Didn’t sound like branches.”

  Footsteps tapped. I didn’t dare breathe. The guards sounded right underneath us, and—Saints and sinners! A fold of my skirt hung over the edge of the roof, dangling down like a banner that said “Here we are!”

  I tipped my head toward it. Danello stared at me, confused, then looked in the right direction. His eyes widened.

  “I think someone was over here.” The voice was softer now, as if farther away from the building. Had they seen Kione?

  Danello stretched a hand toward my skirt, drawing it back inch by inch with his fingers.

  “The grass is trampled, and look—broken branches.”

  “Should we notify the Captain?”

  The hem of my skirt flipped over the edge and out of sight.

  “Yeah, we—did you see that?”

  Danello gripped my leg, down near my knee. Both were inches from the roof’s edge.

  “See what?”

  “Something flapped on the roof. Give me a hand.”

  Creaking wood, then grunting. Were they carrying the bench over? Danello rolled slowly away, farther up the roof. Tali backed up. A tile clicked. Gravel slid out from under her foot. I shifted my arm and stopped it before it rolled too far.

  What had to be the bench thudded below, then more creaking. My gaze flew along the edge of the roof. Eyes suddenly met mine, less than a foot from my face.

  “Hey—”

  Danello leaned across me and slammed the hilt of his rapier against the guard’s head. The guard grunted and fell back and, by the surprised yelp, landed right on top of his partner.

  “Up! Up! Up!” I pushed at Danello’s chest even as he was rolling off me. He grabbed my hand and yanked me to my feet beside him.

  An unfamiliar cry from below, then Kione’s head popped above the roof’s edge.

  “Grab him!”

  “Not yet—I have to hide these guys or someone will find them.” He jumped back down. After an agonizing few minutes, Kione appeared again.

  “I tied them up and stashed them under some bushes on the far side. Let me move the bench back—then get ready to help me up there.”

  I nodded, my heartbeat racing. Hiding a knocked-out and tied-up fourth cord hadn’t worked for me, but maybe Kione was better at it. He must have gotten some training as a guard.

  Kione jumped, and Danello and I each grabbed a hand and pulled him up.

  Aylin stood. “Which way?” she asked, taking tentative steps along the roof.

  “Over here.” I snatched Tali’s hand and scaled the tiles as fast as I could without slipping. The roof leveled out, and we reached a sunken corner with a wall on one side and a window on the other. Inside looked like a sitting room, possibly near one of the upper classroom wings by the look of it.

  “Think your rapier can—”

  Danello smacked the hilt against the window. Glass shattered and tinkled across the tiles like bells.

  He grinned sheepishly. “That was a lot louder than I expected.”

  “Be ready in case more guards show up.” I slid my hand through the jagged hole in the glass and unhooked the latch. The window ground open, scraping across the shards.

  Danello tugged on my shoulder as I tried to go inside. “Me first.” He jumped in, rapier drawn and ready. Kione followed. After several tense heartbeats, he leaned back out and said, “Clear.”

  I took his outstretched hand and slipped inside. “Tali, where are we?”

  “Upper classrooms near the main ward.”

  “Can we reach the spires from here?”

  “There should be stairs at the end of the hall.”

  Danello took the lead. “Stay
behind me.”

  I followed him and Kione took the rear. The doors were all open along the hall, and the empty rooms and bare beds gave me shiverfeet. There should have been people in them, and Healers and apprentices hurrying about on rounds.

  Tali pointed. “It’s that way.”

  The hall ended at the interior atrium above the main entrance. An open-air walkway encircled the entire floor above the main antechamber, with stairs at the far end. The delicate railing was all that stood between us and the chamber below. When we were younger, Tali and I used to wait for Grannyma and watch the folks coming in and out of the League, sitting with our legs dangling around the bars and our faces pressed between them.

  We followed Tali, keeping as close to the wall as possible. She skirted the room and headed for the opposite stairwell. I was pretty sure the private treatment rooms where I’d tied up the fourth cord were beyond it, so the stairs had to lead to the spire. We were almost there.

  We sneaked the rest of the way up the stairs, slipped out of the alcove, and tiptoed the last few turns to the spire room. I peeked around a thick column bulging out from the wall. Two guards stood on either side of the doorway. One more than usual, but not as many as I’d feared.

  “Think there are more inside?” Danello whispered.

  “Has to be someone inside.” I tried not to picture Vinnot, but he was probably there, checking off symptoms like items on a grocery list.

  Kione moved closer. “Should we draw them over here?”

  I cocked my head and listened for guards. Except for the shouting outside, all was quiet.

  “Charge them?” Danello suggested. “Knock them out, drag them back, and start yelling? If there are others inside, it might get them to leave and we can deal with them out here.”

  Kione nodded. “I’ll get the left one.”

  “Right.”

  I started to say I’ll just flash them, but Danello took off like an angry crocodile. Kione raced behind him, pumping his arms and lowering his shoulder. The guards froze for a blessed moment, then reached for their swords. Danello slammed into the right one. Kione hit the left. Bones cracked, heads smacked, and both guards smashed into the wall behind them. Swords went flying, crashing to the floor loud enough to reverberate down the hall.

  The spire room door opened, and two men dashed out. High cords, from the loops on their shoulders. They paused to stare at the fighting, then ran toward us, hands outstretched as if to tackle us. Aylin stepped forward and kicked one in the crotch. He gasped and doubled over, curling into a ball with both hands cupped between his legs. That left the other for us.

  “Get him!” I cried to Tali, charging forward. She dove with me, and together we crashed into his chest. He wheezed and staggered, dropping to his knees and grabbing my arm as we fell. I tumbled down underneath him. I squirmed and kicked, my legs tangled up in my stupid skirt.

  “Help!” I cried.

  Tali beat her fists against his back, but he didn’t seem to notice. Suddenly Danello appeared, grabbing the cord’s shoulders and flinging him into the wall. A third guard ran out of the spire room.

  “Behind you!” I yelled.

  Danello turned and gasped. He staggered away, hands tight against his middle, while red stains spread outward from behind his fingers. The third guard stepped closer, his sword out and still smeared with blood.

  Danello’s blood.

  NINETEEN

  “Danello!” I dove forward as he collapsed, catching him before he smacked his head on the hard floor. I pushed up his shirt, searching for his wound. The guard drew back his sword, too far away for me to get a hand on him, but close enough to stab us both. Kione launched himself sideways, tackling the guard and knocking him to the floor right next to me.

  With one hand tight against Danello’s middle, I reached the other toward the guard’s flesh. I drew, and Danello’s pain filled me, burning around my middle like I’d run ten times around Geveg. I pushed it into the guard who’d stabbed him. I savored his scream, even as it sickened me. For once, I was glad there were no Healers left to heal. The guard fell to the floor and was still.

  “Danello?” I cradled his head in my lap.

  “Ny…uh…”

  “Easy, don’t try to speak yet.” I stroked his hair. “I’m so sorry. I almost got you killed.”

  He patted my arm as if to say “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “It is my fault.”

  “Nya.”

  “It is!”

  “We have to get these guys inside before anyone sees us,” Kione said, tugging at my shoulder.

  Danello sat up, pale but no longer dying.

  “Can you walk?” I asked, helping him up.

  “I’m fine.” He swayed to his feet and held on to me. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” I didn’t look at him. We’d barely won this fight, and I didn’t want to think about taking on more guards.

  “You there! What are you doing in here?” shouted Elder Vinnot. He and several more guards stood at the top of the stairs.

  I saw three before Danello shoved me forward toward the spire room. The others were already racing through the door. Slipping inside, I spun on my heel and grabbed the door as Danello barreled through, the guards right behind him.

  “Shut it!”

  Tali and I threw ourselves against the door. It slammed shut, but flew open again as the guards hit it, knocking me back onto my butt. Tali pushed against it again, but she didn’t weigh enough to reclose it. Aylin jumped over me and added her weight.

  Danello looked around wildly, patting down his hips. “Where’s my rapier?”

  One of the guards fought to wiggle through, pushing the door farther open. The hallway behind him was full of green uniforms.

  “We can’t hold it!” Aylin said, her face red.

  Danello kicked the guard’s leg. He cried out and pulled away from the door. Aylin and Tali shoved again, and the door thudded shut. Danello pushed a shoulder against it as I scrambled over and slid the latch, locking it. Banging rattled the door, then shouts and swears.

  “I can’t find Lanelle!” Kione said. He went from cot to cot, searching the apprentices as I had done earlier, looking for Tali.

  Tali whimpered. “Oh, Nya, some are missing. Do you think they’re dead?”

  The first row of cots was empty, but the rest were still full. I shoved the pynvium sack at Tali. “Start handing them out, fast.”

  We’d need as many apprentices on their feet as soon as possible if the guards got in. They might be young, but Healers knew where the soft spots were on a body and where the vulnerable joints were. And that might be the only advantage we had.

  “We have to block the door,” I said, dragging over a cot. Aylin ran to help while Danello kept his back to the door, but the latch was already pulling free of the wood.

  “I have to find Lanelle first,” Kione said.

  For a terrible moment, I hoped she had been in the row of empty cots. Shame twisted my guts, but if she was here, she’d tell them all what I’d done to her. “Later. We have to barricade the door.”

  “But she’s hurt! I have to find her.”

  “She’ll be dead if the Luminary’s guards get through. Help us!”

  Bang!

  The door shook. Kione went pale and raced for the closest empty cot.

  “That wasn’t a fist or a foot,” Aylin said, pressing against the door.

  Sword hilts? One of the small statuettes from an alcove? “They couldn’t have found a battering ram so fast.”

  Kione heaved a cot into place. “Doesn’t matter what it is, it’ll break through.”

  We kept dragging cots and piling them in front of the door. Danello showed us how to interlock them to make it stronger. It wouldn’t keep the cots from skidding along the floor when the door broke open, but they wouldn’t be easy to shove aside.

  Bang!

  A spidery crack branched out above the latch.

  Danello glanced around. �
��Is there anything heavier in here?”

  “Some cabinets, but I don’t think we can move those.”

  Tali ran up to me, her cheeks flushed pink. “I need more pynvium.” She handed me the used chunks. They seemed so small, the room so large. I counted twenty-one heads in the dim lamplight. If they all held the same amount of pain as Tali had, I’d have to empty every pynvium chunk we had at least twice for each apprentice. Could we hold the guards off that long?

  Kione wedged in a cot and looked hopefully at Tali. “Did you see Lanelle?”

  “No, but I’ll look for her and heal her next.”

  “She’s last,” I said without thinking. Fresh guilt hit me, along with everyone’s shocked stares. “Heal the worst off first. Lanelle just got her pain, but the others are close to death. They don’t have as much time. We have to heal them enough to get them mobile, then move on to the next.”

  More guards hit the door, and a sprinkling of dust showered down on us. Kione laughed nervously. “A lot of good getting them moving will do. They’ll just die on their feet.”

  “Better than being slaughtered in your bed,” Danello called as Kione raced back to look for Lanelle.

  I grabbed the handful of pynvium. “Stand back.” I didn’t know if the pain would go through the door, but the guards might be close enough to get a sting or two. I threw the pynvium, concentrating on dandelions in the wind.

  Whoomp. Whoomp, whoomp, whoomp.

  Startled cries from the other side, then thuds and frightened swearing. Hope fluttered in my chest. Maybe we could pull this off.

  “Aylin,” I called as the empty pynvium clattered against the door and bounced down through the bed frames.

  “Already going for them,” she said, rushing past me. She snatched up the chunks and ran back to the apprentices.