The Changespell Saga

by Doranna Durgin

  “But you need the control,” Jaime said simply. “I understand. And Ander... has his own reasons for thinking what he does. I’m not sure they’re right, but...”

  “I understand those,” Jess said, surprised at the sad tone of her own voice. She thought of how reluctantly Ander had released her to the fire team who’d found them, and how he’d taken opportunities to lean against her, to touch her in ways that could have been meaningless, but weren’t.

  “You do?” Jaime sounded surprised, herself. “Well... that’s good. Carey knows too, you know. That’s why he’s such a pain in the ass around Ander.”

  “Yes,” Jess said, and sighed. “The changespell,” she started again. “I was thinking... when we train horses to do a flying lead change, we don’t just give suddenly ask them for it. We start with simple changes.”

  “You can’t break down a changespell to its simple elements,” Jaime said doubtfully.

  Jess fished in her tunic pocket for her friend-or-foe spellstone and dangled it between them—a small, chunky stone that held several uses. “There are spells that are already simple.”

  “Jess, that’s a great idea,” Jaime said, enthusiasm touching features that had been all too serious of late.

  “I want to try it,” Jess said. “Without Carey or Ander. They have too many opinions. Yes I can, no I can’t—but you’ll just try to help, and that’s all.”

  Jaime sat a little straighter. “It’s about time I had a chance to help with something around here!”

  Jess didn’t answer, simply started to remove her tunic. Then she stopped and sent Jaime an apologetic glance. “No stall to hide in.”

  “Never mind,” Jaime said. “Between friends, we can decide that’s okay. If anyone from the hold sees you—well, they’ll just have to wonder.”

  Jess gave her a sudden grin and pulled the tunic off, and then the snug, supportive half-top beneath it, and the trousers over her bare feet next. She dropped the spellstone in Jaime’s hand and said, “Give this to me... after.”

  Jaime just nodded. Then Jess closed her eyes and cleared her mind, standing tall and still, unmindful of her nakedness as a feeble hot breeze blew over her body. She concentrated on the feel of triggering the simple friend-or-foe spellstone, and tucked it away in her thoughts for Lady.

  Then, lifting her head to catch that scant hot breeze, Jess touched one of the complex, polished spellstones tumbling along her braid, triggering it.

  And then Lady stood with her nose to the wind, taking in all the smells that the Jess-self had missed. Tasty little maiden-tear flowers bloomed at the crest of the pasture, tempting her. Her ears swiveled at the sounds of the hold behind her—the clatter of wood, the grunts of human effort—and then somebody dropped something into a wheelbarrow, something solid and big enough to make a loud hollow clank, and it was all the excuse Lady needed.

  She bolted away from the tree, snorting wild dramatic alarm, and tore off through the pasture with her legs a blur and her tail flagged high. She galloped great sweeping circles, charging in toward Jaime and then veering off in time to brush by, while Jaime laughed at her. Lady came around to run directly at her, lowering her head for a fake threat shake—and abruptly shifted down into a springy trot, her nostrils flared.

  Only then did she feel the ache of her ribs, and snorted annoyance. Snort snort snort, in quick succession.

  Jaime held up a dangling object for her.

  Lady sniffed at it. She sniffed it with first one nostril and then the other, making a great show of investigating it.

  “You’re pretty full of yourself,” Jaime said with amusement. “I’m going to tie it to your mane.” Lady stood as Jaime fussed with her long black mane; she could feel the stone against her withers when Jaime stepped back. She twitched her skin at it.

  “That won’t do it,” Jaime said. “Give it a try, Lady. See if you can trigger it.”

  Lady snorted loudly in resignation and hunted for the remnants of Jess—the memories that would guide her. She swung her head around to look at the spellstone—reaching for that feeling, that twist that would free the stone’s friend-or-foe spell. She started wildly when Jaime suddenly glowed bright blue, recovering herself to make a few high rolling snorts before checking the scent of that color with quick whuffing breaths.

  Jaime laughed with delight as the color faded. “That’s it, Lady! Good job!”

  She’d triggered a spellstone. Not Jess. Lady. She could do it.

  So she did it again, and this time gave a little prance at the results. Jaime, grinning, gave her shoulder a couple of quick, hearty slaps, and then hung her arm over Lady’s neck.

  Movement caught Lady’s eye; she raised her head to focus on the gate, and discovered Carey and Ander entering the pasture.

  Jaime turned to her, sighing. “Boys,” she muttered. “Some days, you just feel like they’re full of cooties. Ah, well, I don’t suppose we could have kept this from them long.” She put a hand on the straight bone of Lady’s face, adding emphasis. “You are not to try the changespell, do you hear? It’s too soon; you’ll get discouraged. Don’t feel pushed, just because they’re here.”

  No spell to Jess. Lady got that part clearly enough. But it wasn’t enough to keep her from showing off; she cantered up to the men, and when Carey put out a hand to greet her, to run along her shoulder and neck as she stopped, Lady gave a burst of speed and circled behind them, making the little twist in her mind—

  There! They glowed brightly, the two of them, and stopped short in surprise. Lady came back to face them, giving the high-stepping little dance of piaffe that served as exhilarated laughter.

  “Lady!” Carey said, and then laughed himself. “If you aren’t something! Good job!”

  “She did that?” Ander said, looking a little dazed.

  “Sure she did.” Carey lifted his hand in greeting to Jaime as she approached. “You’ve got to start somewhere, ey, Lady?”

  “You think... what, you think she’s going to work her way up to the changespell?” Ander reached over to pat Lady’s shoulder, but he was frowning.

  “I expect that’s what Jess thinks,” Carey said. Lady nuzzled Ander’s arm, then moved in close to Carey, putting her broad forehead and straight nose against his chest.

  Ander made a disgruntled noise. “I can’t believe she’ll ever do it.”

  “Don’t put limits on her,” Carey responded, but the touch of anger in his voice didn’t come through to his hands, gently stroking the mane up high on Lady’s crest. “I did that, once... and it was a mistake.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Jess stepped out of the Siccawei travel booth to find Jaime had already caught Dayna up in a fierce hug.

  “I’m okay,” Dayna said, voice muffled. “Really, Jay. I’m okay.”

  Jaime finally stepped back. “I know you’re all right. I just felt so helpless, sitting there in Anfeald—especially when you were going through... this!”

  Dayna shook her head. “I should have realized something was up when I was happy enough to have the wine every evening. And then there were the—well, come on, let’s go sit down out in the garden. We’ll pick up something to drink on the way. Not wine.”

  She led them through the unpredictable, narrow halls of Sherra’s log-built hold.

  “I remember when we first got here,” Jaime said. “Before I’d ever been to Kymmet City, or realized how remote it is here at Siccawei. Going through these halls... I just assumed this place was technologically backward. I was wa-ay off on that one!”

  “And you figured this out before or after Sherra did major brain surgery on you out by the gate?” Dayna asked, amused.

  Jaime shrugged, following Dayna down a short flight of wooden stairs that echoed their steps through the stairwell. “No engines, no electricity... it’s not obvious at first that they’ve got magic for most of those functions.”

  “Hey,” Jess said, suddenly realizing, bringing up both the rear of the gr
oup and of the conversation, “I was the one who ran you into those gates. They were closed.” She still felt the surprise of that discovery, could feel Jaime’s weight leaving her bare back as Lady frantically tried—and failed—to avoid the crash at the normally open gates.

  Jaime snorted. “Yeah, they sure were.”

  They left the building for the bright light-and-shadow patterns of Sherra’s garden, where Jess moved ahead, nearly stepping on Dayna’s heels.

  “Geeze, you’re bouncy today,” Dayna said, glancing back at her. “You get into some high-test grain or something?”

  “No,” Jess said, just as pleased to have Dayna ask so she could share the news. “I triggered a spellstone!”

  This stopped Dayna short, to give Jess a deliberately and dramatically baffled look. “And?”

  Jaime grinned. “She means Lady triggered a spellstone, Dayna.”

  Dayna’s eyes widened in a very satisfying way. “No kidding?”

  Jess nodded, moving to the shaded garden bench but not quite ready to sit down. “But I need more practice, with different stones. I don’t want to ask Arlen... I don’t want Carey—or Ander—to find out how much I’m working on it. Can you make them?”

  “She only needs simple ones,” Jaime added hastily.

  “Good thing,” Dayna snorted. “Simple ones are the only ones I can make. And I hope you have a few days.”

  “We have time,” Jess assured her. “We have lots of other things to talk about, too.”

  “I’ll say,” Dayna muttered, her expression darkening. “It’ll be nice to talk to someone who’ll believe me.”

  Jaime’s eyebrows went up. “Gonna tell us about that?”

  “Unless you run off,” Dayna said. “We forgot the tea, didn’t we... I’ll get it in a minute. Look, I’m really glad you’re here, because the Council is up to it again.”

  “Up to what?” Jess asked.

  Dayna gave her a look that Jess hoped was for the Council and not about Jess’s question. “They’re so damned conservative! No offense to Arlen... Sherra’s part of the Council, too.”

  “Facts, Dayna,” Jaime said. “Give us some facts.”

  Dayna hesitated, then turned and plopped herself down on the bench. Jaime sat next to her. “When I was at the farm, Willand sent me a little love note. I decided to trace it. I never expected to be able to actually do it—but the mage lure, you know...”

  “You did it? You know where they are?” Jess said, wide-eyed, bouncing slightly on her toes as if her body was ready to run right off and do something about it.

  “I know the general area,” Dayna corrected her. “But the Council searched it—magic, of course—and found nothing. They even sent out a few peacekeepers, who also found nothing. And they all came back, which the Council doesn’t think would have happened if they’d gotten close to anything.”

  “Even Willand in a temper tantrum would know that to mess with those pairs would paint a neon arrow in her direction,” Jaime said, frowning.

  “Exactly. But since the Council couldn’t find anything, they decided I was mistaken. Pretty patronizing, considering that if they could locate the shielding without a spell to trace, they’d have done it already—the fact that they can’t see anything now doesn’t mean a thing as far as I’m concerned.”

  “So what are they doing?” Jaime asked, looking skeptical.

  Dayna made a face. “They’re installing a full blockade, magical and physical, of all the passes between the Lorakan Mountains and the coast. No more mage lure, no more problem. The outlaws will surrender so they can be treated for withdrawal, the crisis will be over, blah blah blah.”

  Jaime snorted skepticism. “These people obviously aren’t used to policing drug dealers—or desperate drug addicts.”

  Dayna nodded, tugging at the sandy hair that almost reached her shoulder. “Just like last year—stick to defensive tactics until the problem’s too big to ignore. The only thing they’ve really done is have Sherra work up a mage lure nullifier—it’s in solution, and it’s triggered by body heat. But even that’s no good if a wizard’s got personal shields up—there’s no way to introduce it.”

  Jaime ruffled the bangs off her forehead and sat back, exhaling loudly.

  “What do you want to do?” Jess asked, still standing beside the bench. Bouncy.

  Dayna wanted to do something, it was clear enough. And Jess, flushed from her small victory with the spellstone, wanted to do it too. Whatever it was.

  Dayna gave her a humorless little grin. “I’m not usually the doing sort,” she said. “I’m the stay in the theater seat and see how the story turns out sort. But... this time, I have some ideas.”

  Jaime didn’t look enthused. “I’ve been feeling like I wanted to do something, all right. But this is no small thing we’re talking about. Going against the Council that now has jurisdiction over you is the least of it.”

  Dayna made a face. “No kidding,” she said. “But just listen. You know I mess around with raw magic—and how everyone hates it. They’ve been trying to stomp it out of me. Well, when I was under the influence of the mage lure, the slightest hint of raw magic felt like a big slap of internal static, volume on high.” She looked at Jess, who was trying to decide was static was, and then at Jaime, who merely looked blank. “Don’t you get it? It’s a weapon against anyone on mage lure! Ask the others on the team—they got feedback every time I slipped up.”

  “If it’s such a great weapon, why isn’t the Council considering using it?” Jaime asked.

  “They’re afraid of it,” Jess said suddenly, recalling that every reference to raw magic she’d ever heard had reflected the dread of its uncontrolled backlash.

  Every reference, except those from Dayna.

  “Exactly.” Dayna nodded in satisfaction. “They say the amount of raw magic necessary would just be too dangerous.”

  “And you don’t think so?” Jaime gave her friend an incredulous look. “These are powerful people talking, Dayna. They didn’t get on the Council with a lottery ticket.”

  Dayna made a rude noise. “That’s right, but not one of them has used raw magic as an adult, I’ll bet. People around here scare it out of their kids before they’re old enough to walk. That’s why I’m such a frustration to them.”

  Jaime shook her head. “We can’t do anything alone—just the three of us—even if we wanted to. We need horses, we need provisions, we need to have some faint idea of where we’re going—” Her voice rose until she was almost shouting—and then she cut herself off. After a moment, she said, “Well, you get the picture. It’s not so simple.”

  “All I know is, we’re the ones who made the difference last time,” Dayna said. “Sure, we can sit around and watch this happen—but is it going to be over before Willand does something horrible with a changespell—maybe until she traps Jess as Lady forever? Or before she gets her hands on one of us? She wants revenge!”

  “This is true,” Jess said, speaking up fiercely for the first time, a startling contrast to the moments when she’d done nothing but listen. She fingered the fresh scar on her jaw. “She will not stop coming after us.”

  “Look, Jay, it’s a lot to think about,” Dayna admitted. “I get that. But think about it, okay? Think hard.”

  Jaime nodded, the conflict evident on her features—the fear. She was the one who had been tortured. She was the one who needed time. And Dayna, for once, was trying to follow the rules—and trying to give Jaime the time she needed.

  Let them think about it. Jess already knew.

  ~~~~~~

  Dayna knelt in the soft moss, waving away the gnat that circled her face and thought encouragement at Lady. “You can do this, Lady. You just have to hold it all in your mind, just for a moment... .”

  Resting on the ground beside Dayna and Jaime, her feet tucked neatly at her chest and her tail flicking against her haunches even in repose, Lady snorted wetly. Dayna flinched back with an expressive noise of distaste, and glared at Jaime�
��s amusement.

  Ostensibly, they picnicked at the edge of the woods—but it was, of course, an excuse to get them out of Sherra’s hold so Lady could work with the new spellstones. They lingered in the shade, the creek down to a trickle nearby, and beat their collective heads against frustration.

  It would be Lady’s last chance to work so privately, with new spellstones at her disposal—they knew, in tacit understanding, that Jaime and Jess would be returning home soon. Imminently, even. For Dayna and the team had recovered and were heading back to work—this time on the reverse changespell, and on restoring the peacekeeper sheep.

  Lady had mastered a more complex friend-or foe spellstone, and the glowspell had only taken a few tries to before she could trigger it reliably. The changespell, though... .

  Dayna waved at another gnat, thought about renewing her bug repellant, and waited.

  Jaime shook her head. “She’s done so well... but I don’t think she’s going to get it. Not today, anyway. You’re sure you can change her back? I want to save all the spellstones we can.”

  Dayna laughed. “Jaime, I’m part of the changespell team. Of course I can change her back. There are a lot of spells on that level that I can’t tackle, but that one? Yeah, I can do it.”

  Jaime wrinkled her nose with embarrassment. “Sorry,” she said. “I don’t get to see much of you in action. Bsides, of all the years I’ve known you, most of them have been without magic.”

  “It’s all right,” Dayna said, grinning. “Still takes me by surprise sometimes, too.”

  “You seem to be happy enough with it,” Jaime said, more of a question than an observation.

  Dayna hesitated, thinking of life in Ohio. It’d been a good enough life.

  But this was better.

  “I am happy with it,” she said. “I just wish I had the chance to show off a little without being in the middle of a crisis.”

  Jaime’s mouth twisted wryly. “Calandre and Willand are, no doubt, two of the biggest pains in the ass that I’ve ever run across. And that includes that guy south of Columbus who thinks he’s riding Grand Prix on those great four-legged clods.”