The Changlings (The New Earth Chronicles Book 2)

by J. J. Thompson

  Snow, Sarah thought with a certain satisfaction. They hated the winter because of the snow that came with it. And fortunately for her and the other Changlings in Ottawa, winters had become harsher since the old Earth had fallen to the dragons. Maybe it was because of the magic that had returned to the world, maybe it was something else, but winters were even tougher and longer than they used to be.

  But it was almost summer now and, by the sounds of the goblins snuffling and searching nearby, the hordes had returned from their southern bases.

  This could be very bad for us, she thought as she listened to the creatures moving about. If a lot of them have traveled north to raid, we will be in great danger. I'll have to think of some way to keep us safe.

  She dug into her rags, searching her pockets for a moment.

  Ah, here it is.

  Sarah pulled out a smooth round stone the size of her fist and held it flat on her palm. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the feeling of it in her hand, on its weight. She knew the stone well. It was covered with strange glyphs and symbols that she had cut into its surface with an old screwdriver, almost a decade ago. What they meant was still a mystery to her, but they had appeared to her in a dream one night not long after the dragons had destroyed the city and she had faithfully carved them into the smooth rock.

  She felt the rock become warm against her skin and heard Bobby gasp softly.

  Sarah smiled but kept her eyes closed, holding on to her concentration with steely determination. Bobby's reaction told her that the stone had started to glow.

  She pictured herself being absorbed into the stone's hard surface, feeling her body pulled inside as if by a huge vacuum cleaner. And then she imagined her body thinning, fading, becoming as light as air, and her consciousness rose up through the thick rubble above her head and out into the night.

  Sarah spun in a slow circle, her enhanced vision now able to easily pierce the darkness.

  “I can see them,” she whispered to Bobby. “There are two of them nearby, and another dozen or so spread out all around us.”

  “What are they doing?” he asked anxiously. “Are they looking for us?”

  “I don't think so. These look more like workers than warriors. Leather armor and just daggers on their belts. They're scrabbling through the debris; scavenging, I suppose.”

  She laughed softly.

  “They don't look too happy about it. We've already picked this part of the city clean and they aren't finding anything.”

  “Do goblins ever look happy?” Bobby wondered.

  “Probably not. There's a bigger one off to the side, a warrior, and he's giving the orders.” She snorted. “I'm guessing that the workers are telling him that there isn't any loot to be found here and he's not listening. Dummy.”

  Bobby actually chuckled and Sarah was relieved that he wasn't so scared anymore.

  She allowed her concentration to fade and opened her eyes again. The stone flickered for a moment and went dark again.

  “We'll just have to wait until they leave,” she said with a resigned shrug. “Or until dawn. They'll leave then, anyway.”

  “Stupid goblins,” Bobby muttered. “This probably means that they'll be around all summer. That's not good.”

  “No, it's not,” Sarah agreed with a sigh. “We might have to retreat to the forests to the west, if it's a big force. But we can decide that later, when we get a better idea of their actual numbers.”

  Bobby groaned in protest.

  “The forests? I hate the wilds, Sarah! There's all kinds of bad animals and monsters in there.”

  She frowned at him.

  “You'd hate being gutted by a goblin more, Bobby. So stop complaining. We don't even know if we'll have to leave. But considering the alternative, it may be our only option. Now, try and get some sleep. We're safe enough for now.”

  “Okay.”

  Bobby curled up again and was soon breathing deeply. Sarah watched him, still frowning, and she wondered if the others would feel the same way about retreating to the wilderness. If they did, she would have a hard time convincing them otherwise. Her friends were very dear to her, but she knew how stubborn they could be sometimes.

  That worry, and the sounds of the goblins bickering, kept her awake for the rest of the night.

  Chapter 2

  The next morning, Sarah and Bobby left their deep hole in the rubble of a destroyed apartment building just as the sun crept over the horizon.

  Sarah was too worried about the presence of the goblins in their territory to feel tired, but Bobby was slow and clumsy as he followed her through the ruins. Even after ten years of scratching out an existence in Ottawa, they didn't know every nook and cranny of the city and he stumbled over loose rocks and almost fell into several holes.

  Finally Sarah stopped and stared at him angrily, her hands on her hips.

  “Bobby, what is wrong with you?” she snapped. “You're moving like a pregnant hippo. If those goblins jumped us now, you'd never get away from them.”

  He halted and stood there silently and Sarah felt a sudden rush of alarm. The rags that covered his body were trembling as if he was standing in the middle of a blustery wind, except that the air was calm that morning.

  “I don't know,” the young man replied, his voice thick. “I...I feel funny, Sarah. I'm...”

  He slowly sat down on the uneven ground and Sarah could hear him breathing in loud gasps.

  “Maybe...maybe I'm sick. My legs are all wobbly and I can't breathe.”

  A stab of fear shot through Sarah and she hurriedly moved closer to Bobby and knelt down beside him.

  “Uncover your head,” she ordered in a firm voice.

  He gasped and pulled away from her.

  “What? Sarah, we don't show ourselves unless we're bathing in the river. Not ever!”

  “I know that, Bobby,” she told him impatiently. “But that's just a silly tradition now. Our Changes are complete. We don't need to hide them anymore. I need to look at you to see if you're sick. Now, let me see your face.”

  He didn't move for a moment, just sat there shaking like a leaf.

  “Bobby, if you don't do it, I'll do it for you.”

  “You wouldn't!”

  “I don't want to, but you're my best friend, you silly boy, and I can't help you if I can't see you. Now, come on.”

  He still hesitated and she sighed in exasperation.

  “Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'll go first.”

  Swallowing back her fear, even though Sarah knew that it didn't matter whether her face was bare to the world or not, she pushed her hands out through her many layers of clothing until she could see them in the sunlight. They were pale and slim, with long supple fingers and nails like ivory.

  Then she slowly unwrapped the black cloth from around her head and dropped it on to the ground. She shook out her long hair and squinted into the sunlight.

  “There, you see? It's okay. It won't hurt you to expose yourself to the light. We aren't vampires, for goodness sake.”

  Bobby seemed to be frozen in place and she could feel him staring at her.

  “I always forget how pretty you are,” he said softly.

  Sarah snorted derisively.

  “I'm far from pretty, Bobby. Actually, you're much prettier than I am.”

  He laughed a little breathlessly and she watched as he pushed his hands out through his clothing.

  “Boys aren't pretty, Sarah,” he corrected her as he began to pull off his head coverings. “We're handsome. And I'm not handsome.”

  “Maybe some boys are handsome, Bobby, but I still think you're pretty,” she told him.

  With a final tug, Bobby removed his wrappings and dropped them next to him. Sarah stared at him and smiled widely.

  “Yup, I was right. Still pretty.”

  He was wearing dark sunglasses, but she could see him roll his eyes at her. And then they simply stared at each other for a long moment.

  “You already had t
hose pointed ears when I first met you in the labs, remember?” she asked him.

  “Yeah, and you had those yellow eyes,” he replied with a crooked grin. “I thought that you looked like a cat.”

  Sarah's Change had been fairly benign. Besides her cat's eyes, which were enormous in her small, delicate face, she had lost almost all color in her hair and skin. The only thing that kept her from looking like an albino were those eyes. Her finger and toe nails seemed to be unbreakable and she could actually dig into metal with her fingernails.

  Her nose and mouth were tiny and elf-like and she looked more like an exotic doll than a real person. Only those who knew her, like Bobby, were aware of the strength that lay within her tiny body.

  In Bobby's case, his Change had been more dramatic. His ears were pointed and rose up almost to the top of his head. His skin was covered in fine scales, like a fish, but they were smooth and flat. And while his eyes had remained ocean blue, they were very large and gave him the ability to see easily even in very dim light. Unfortunately, they also made bright sunlight very difficult for Bobby to deal with and, even beneath his wrappings, he always wore dark sunglasses that he had scavenged from the remains of an old pharmacy years before.

  His hair was brown with odd, greenish streaks running through it and he left it long enough to reach his shoulders.

  “Well, I'm not a cat,” Sarah told him. “You're the one who can see in the dark, not me. Now hold still; I want to see if you're sick.”

  She reached out and put a hand on his head.

  Bobby flinched but didn't duck away. All of the Changlings had an aversion to being touched, even by each other. Sarah believed that it was because they had been poked and prodded, injected and tested so much before the dragons came that it had permanently damaged them.

  But when it came to something like this, she needed physical contact. Some of the Changlings had developed abilities along with their physical mutations, and Sarah was one of them. Not only could she use her special stone to see long distances, but she could also detect injuries or infections in others. And, sometimes, she could heal them.

  “Am I sick?” Bobby asked anxiously. “What do you see?”

  “Shush. Give me a minute,” Sarah replied as she closed her eyes. “I'm not a machine, you know.”

  “Sorry. I'm a little bit scared.”

  “Yeah, I know. I'm sorry too. I shouldn't be so impatient with you, Bobby.”

  She slipped her fingers through his hair so that she could touch his scalp. Just like the way she used her special stone, Sarah concentrated on the sensation of Bobby's skin against hers and made a connection between them. Then she relaxed and just waited.

  A strange, pulsation of dark energy pushed up through her fingers and made her gasp. It felt thick and heavy, like syrup and she frowned at the unfamiliar feeling.

  “What is it? What's wrong?” Bobby asked.

  “I'm...not sure. Something feels off. Hang on, I want to try something.”

  She tried to imagine an outline of his body, like looking at one of those scans the scientists used to do on the children back in the bunker.

  Yes, I can almost see it, she thought as the image burned in her mind. But it looks fine. Bobby's as healthy as he's always been.

  “You're fine, Bobby,” she reassured him, still keeping her eyes closed. “At least physically, you are absolutely fine.”

  “I am? That's great,” he replied with relief. “But then, why am I so weak and dizzy?”

  Sarah still had the image of his body in her mind and now she noticed a strange purplish aura flickering and pulsing around Bobby's entire body.

  I've seen something like this before, Sarah thought. But where? It's so familiar.

  The memory suddenly came back to her and she abruptly pulled away from Bobby and opened her eyes.

  He was looking at her with surprise as she scrambled away from him.

  “Sarah? What happened? Are you okay?”

  “Magic,” she spat as she stood up clumsily and moved even further away from him. “Black magic. Damn it, you've been cursed, Bobby.”

  Even through his dark glasses, Sarah could see Bobby's eyes widen in fear.

  “Cursed? But how? By who?”

  She shook her head and then frowned at a sudden thought.

  “I'll bet that it was those goblins. They must have had a mage or a wizard with them last night that I didn't see.”

  She picked up the cloth that she'd had wrapped around her head, but instead of putting it back on, she shoved it roughly into one of her many pockets.

  “I'm so sorry, Bobby. I never thought to look at all of those damned creatures closely to see if any of them were magic-users. I don't know how they did it, but they must have cast some sort of spell over the ruins or whatever and you got caught by it.”

  Bobby stood up as well and grabbed his head wrappings off of the ground. He stared at them for a moment and then tossed them away. Then he stood there swaying a little and watched her fearfully.

  “But if that's true, what can I do? Am I going to die? Sarah, help me!”

  “Easy now,” she said softly. “Easy. We'll have to go and see Magnus. He'll know what to do.”

  Bobby stepped back and almost fell over.

  “Oh no we won't,” he said harshly. “That old man's crazy! All those dead birds and things he collects? That pet cat of his? And the way he looks at us? At me? Ugh, it's creepy.”

  Sarah rolled her eyes at his reaction.

  “He isn't old, Bobby. He's maybe thirty or something. Heck, you're about twenty one yourself now. Old? Ha!”

  “Well, okay, maybe he's not old but...”

  “And stop being so weird about him,” Sarah continued. “You just don't like him because he's never hidden his face.”

  She smiled knowingly at him.

  “And because he's really good looking.”

  “Pfft! Good looking? He's not good looking. He's...well he's...”

  Bobby spluttered incoherently and finally just threw up his hands.

  “Fine, he's not ugly. But I think you like him too much. He's not one of us, Sarah, and he never has been. He's like that wizard guy, Simon, we met that one time. He Changed as an adult, not as a child like you and I did.”

  Something occurred to Sarah and she looked at Bobby through narrowed eyes.

  “Are you jealous of Magnus, Bobby? I mean, everyone likes him a lot, both the girls and the boys. Does that bother you?”

  Bobby's face darkened and he scowled at her.

  “I'm not jealous! Why would I care if other people like him?”

  She continued to stare at him.

  “Is it because I like him?' Sarah asked bluntly.

  He stiffened at the direct question but didn't answer. But without the wrappings hiding his face. Sarah could read Bobby like an open book and she realized that she'd hit upon the truth.

  “Never mind,” she told him gently. “It doesn't matter. But just in case you're worried about it, I like Magnus as a friend, okay? Nothing more. Now come on, we have to go. Watch your footing.”

  She began to move off over the ruins, sure-footed on the uneven ground after years of navigating across the destroyed city.

  After a few paces, she glanced back and then stopped. Bobby hadn't moved.

  “Aren't you coming?”

  “You only like him as a friend?” Bobby asked her.

  “Oh for...Yes, Bobby. He's just a friend, okay? I admire him for his keen mind and his power. He's a good man and he's helped all of us more than once over the past ten years.”

  “Huh.”

  Bobby began to follow her, moving cautiously.

  “This might take some time,” he told her as he walked. “I'm still light-headed.”

  “That's okay. We've got all day,” Sarah reassured him. “As long as we reach Magnus' place before dark, we'll be fine.”

  She waited for him to catch up before beginning to move again.

  “And if you're still
worried about Magnus and me, don't be,” she added teasingly. “I'm pretty sure that he likes you as much as he likes me anyway.”

  Bobby gasped and stumbled and Sarah grabbed his arm just before he fell.

  “Seriously? You think he likes me?”

  “Definitely. Now come on; we're wasting daylight.”

  Magnus made his home in a cave in the northern section of Ottawa, just below what had once been Parliament Hill. It was easy enough to find because the ruins of the Peace Tower, the four-sided clock that had once been a centerpiece of the Canadian Parliament Buildings and had resembled Big Ben in London, was the tallest remaining structure in the city. All of the other downtown buildings had been leveled in the first dragon attacks on the Night of Burning and the top third of the tower had been knocked over as well, but the rest of it had survived.

  It rose against the sky, the top section broken and jagged like an old rotting tooth. Years before, necromancers had used it as their headquarters for a time, before they had been brought down by Simon O'Toole and others. Magnus had been a part of that effort as well, but he had intentionally remained hidden from the wizard and other magic-users, for reasons of his own.

  Sarah was grateful for that. She had a feeling that if Simon had learned of Magnus' presence in the city, he would have insisted that the man join him and the others in their battles with the dragons. And then the city's Changlings would have lost Magnus and his talents, possibly forever.

  Instead, the strange man had remained with them and, occasionally, lent his aid when one of them was badly injured or needed advice. But he was a solitary person by nature and did not welcome frivolous visits or requests. Sarah was one of the few Changlings that Magnus would tolerate, even if she only dropped by to talk, and she felt privileged by his friendship. She rarely spoke about these visits with Bobby.

  The Changlings had worn paths all through the city over the years; narrow winding trails barely visible in the crumbling remains of buildings and streets. The paths made it easier and safer to travel from place to place on the surface as the city continued to deteriorate over time.

  There were also underground tunnels here and there around the city. They had expanded some of these when predators like the drakes began appearing in the city, after the dragons had been defeated. The Changlings had made good use of the existing light rail tunnels as well as basements and cellars throughout Ottawa. That's where the few people who still lived in the city actually made their homes.