by Juman Malouf
The Changeling ghosts hovered around them.
“Don’t look them in the eye,” warned Wolf Boy, “or they’ll be released from the graveyard. Just keep walking.”
Moritz sighed. “I once had that nasty old bear, Blanco Bingo, trailing after me for a month. It was terrible.”
“Watch it,” Wolf Boy said, holding back a laugh. “He’s right behind you.”
A transparent grizzly bear walked upright beside Moritz, spluttering and spitting. Moritz moaned, “Go haunt somebody else!”
The twins kept their eyes on the ground as the Changeling ghosts taunted them to look. Alongside each animal, a nebulous human form flickered alight, then disappeared again. It was the only Changeling incarnation where both forms, animal and human, could be seen at the same time.
Once the children reached the other end of the graveyard, the fading spirits watched unhappily as they disappeared down a set of worn steps.
They crossed into a stone ruin. It was roofless, and trees grew out of the crumbling walls. All the rest of the young Changelings sat cross-legged on the cracked mosaic floor. They varied in ages from twelve to fifteen. Lanterns hung from branches overhead.
“What is this?” Sonja burst out. “Where’s Alexandria?”
“She’s with Staghart,” Wolf Boy said matter-of-factly. “They’re meeting the animals.”
Sonja’s face turned bright red. “Why’d you bring us here?” she yelled, trembling.
“Calm down, Sonja,” whispered Charlotte.
“To see if you’re traitors or not,” Cornelia replied with a smile.
“There’s a good chance of it,” hissed the boy with the peacock cape. “Most humans are traitors.”
“Well, I’m leaving,” Sonja announced, and started to go.
Wolf Boy blocked her. “No, you’re not.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“What’s the problem?” Charlotte said in a friendly voice. “We didn’t do anything.”
“The human race did,” sneered Cornelia.
Moritz looked at the twins guiltily. He shuffled his feet. “Sorry. It’s a tradition. We all had to go through it. Please, sit down.”
“Let’s just do it,” muttered Charlotte.
Sonja frowned. These Changelings were worse than human children. She slumped to the ground next to Charlotte. Charlotte was always trying to please everyone. Well, not Sonja. If the others did not like her—tough luck.
Wolf Boy rubbed his hands together, then placed them flat onto the mosaic floor. The rest of the Changelings followed his example. There were little finger-sized grooves crisscrossed all over the tiles from centuries of hands rubbing its surface.
A hundred jewel-colored beetles squeezed up out of the cracks in the floor. Their iridescent backs glistened in the moonlight. They scurried between the Changelings’ fingers, twirling their antennae and whispering angrily, “Release us! Release us! Release us!”
Sonja’s eyes widened. “Talking beetles!”
“They’re the souls of animals killed by humans long before the Proclamation.” Cornelia looked darkly at the twins. “For now, they’re trapped inside the bodies of beetles, but one day, they’ll be set free—and their skeletons will come out of the ground and wipe out the human race.” She smiled. Her black eyes flickered menacingly.
“Put your hands on the floor,” Wolf Boy ordered the twins.
Sonja shook her head.
“You have to.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
Charlotte shrugged. She thrust her palms down onto the tiles. Sonja sighed and placed hers next to her sister’s. The mosaic was warm and wet. If this was what it was like to have friends, Sonja thought, then she preferred not to have any. She hoped this would persuade Charlotte to feel the same way.
The beetles swarmed from the Changelings’ hands onto the twins’. “The ones! The ones! The ones!” they whispered, agitated. “The ones who will release us!”
Moritz smiled. “I told you they weren’t traitors.”
Wolf Boy looked curiously at the twins.
“They will be strong! They will have the power against the living!” A beetle nipped underneath Sonja’s nails.
“Ow!” she shrieked. A bright red droplet appeared at the tip of her finger. “I’m not doing this anymore,” she huffed.
She started to pull her hands away, but Wolf Boy held them flat on the mosaic with his. The beetles covered them like two shimmery, green gloves. “Your hands will touch for many years to come!” they chanted excitedly.
Wolf Boy looked at Sonja, puzzled. Cornelia murmured, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Sonja’s face burned. She tore her hands away and shook off the clinging beetles. They scattered and disappeared back into the cracks. She leapt to her feet and ran out with Charlotte chasing after her. “Wait! Sonja!”
Sonja ran into the graveyard. The moon was full and brimming with light. A mist floated among the headstones.
“Slow down!” begged Charlotte.
Sonja had to get away from that Changeling. He smelled and lied. She hated him. She wished she could go back to the Outskirts, back to the circus, back to Tatty.
Suddenly, Sonja lost her balance, tripped on a broken statue, and tumbled onto a grave. Her face planted straight into the damp earth. At the end of her nose, she saw a tiger’s glowing eyes.
“Oh, no,” she whispered. Charlotte jerked her back to her feet. The tiger, a Changeling ghost, leapt out of the ground, shook himself, and trotted after them. His human form flickered in and out of view, running beside him.
The twins zigzagged among the graves, dashed through the ferns, and scrambled under the fallen tree.
“I don’t remember the way from here!” cried Charlotte.
“Just keep running!” Sonja shouted. She looked back over her shoulder. The translucent tiger was close behind them. His human form waved and cried, “Wait for me!”
The twins ducked under branches and hopped over roots.
They stopped short. They had reached the edge of the island.
Torches stuck out of the ground. Staghart, in his animal form, stood in the river up to his knees. A thousand glistening eyes watched him from the opposite bank. Fish stuck their silvery snouts above the water’s surface. Staghart spoke in a tongue the girls did not understand. It was the language of animals.
The tiger sidled up to Sonja and purred. Sonja screamed. Staghart turned. The gathered animals across the river barked and bayed and yelped and hissed, their snarling teeth glinting in the moonlight.
“What are you doing here?” a voice asked coldly.
The twins froze, breathless.
Lightning bugs lit up Alexandria’s angry face. “This is a meeting of animals. Humans aren’t allowed. Let’s go.” She grabbed their arms and shoved them away. The Changeling ghost sauntered behind them, flicking his see-through tail.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
On the Way
“IT WASN’T OUR FAULT! THEY TOLD US WE WERE meeting you!”
Charlotte sat hunched over on a tree stump watching Sonja and Alexandria argue. The translucent tiger was wrapped in a ball by her feet. Her legs felt like they were knee-deep in ice-cold water.
Alexandria pointed at him. He growled at her. “How do you explain that?”
“I tripped! It was an accident!”
Alexandria threw her hands into the air. “I don’t know how Tatty puts up with you two.”
“Tatty doesn’t put up with us!” yelled Sonja. “She loves us!” Charlotte jumped up and put her arm around her sister. The Changeling ghost squeezed between them. “You’d make a rotten mother, Alexandria, I assure you.”
Alexandria’s face darkened. Her eyes narrowed.
“I hope we’re not disturbing anything.” Staghart strode up from the riv
erbank. A spotted horse without a mane walked alongside him.
Sonja wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. “We’re sorry we intruded on your meeting. We were lost.”
“Animals have a hard time accepting that some humans aren’t half bad.” Staghart gestured to the horse. “Atticus here had to persuade them to leave you be.”
The horse stuck out his dappled neck and sniffed the twins.
“He’s not a Changeling?” said Charlotte.
Staghart shook his head. Leaves fluttered off the tips of his antlers. “It’s like understanding the difference between identical twins.” He lowered his chin and studied the girls’ faces. “Right off the bat, I can see: one has a mole, the other doesn’t. But in time, a thousand particularities will reveal themselves. It’s the same with a Changeling and an animal. At first, only the eyes give it away. Changelings have human eyes.”
Charlotte blinked. It was true. Staghart’s eyes, even when he was in animal form, were strangely human.
“Once people get to really know you,” Staghart continued, “they’ll find it hard to imagine they ever confused you with each other. That’s how you’ll feel, eventually, when you compare an animal with a Changeling, or even a Changeling to a human.”
Charlotte shot Alexandria a look. “Some people will never see the difference.”
“Yes, they will, my dear,” said the stag, “even if they won’t admit it.”
A voice interrupted, breathless: “It was our fault! We took them to see the beetles! The beetles said they have the power against the living!”
Wolf Boy, Moritz, and the other young Changelings appeared out of the dark, now animals.
Alexandria pointed at the twins. “Power against the living? These two?”
Staghart chuckled. “They did manage to summon the dead.” He turned to the Changeling ghost. “Humphrey, it’s time to go home.”
The tiger pressed against the twins, whimpering.
“You youngsters, escort Humphrey back. Wolf Boy and Moritz, stay with us.”
Charlotte felt a little sad to see the Changeling ghost go. He was the first creature they had met in the Forlorn Forest who actually liked them.
“The shortest route to the Land Where the Plants Reign is through Rain City,” said Staghart. “It will take us a day to get there. That’s well before the meeting of the Protectors. You all know your orders?”
They affirmed in growls and neighs.
They were going to Rain City, thought Charlotte. She trembled excitedly. Jack Cross’ school was there. She felt for the crumpled-up letter in her pocket with his address on it. Maybe she could still find him? Maybe she could still save him? Maybe his Talent had not been stolen yet?
Sonja interrupted: “I know what you’re thinking. Don’t!”
“What are you two standing around for?” barked Alexandria, mounting the spotted horse. “Let’s go!”
Charlotte grumbled as she clumsily hoisted herself up onto Moritz. She was pretty sure she hated Alexandria.
Staghart shook his antlers and roared. He shot into the trees with Alexandria close behind him. Moritz raced alongside Wolf Boy with the twins clinging to his neck.
They crashed through the water, scrambled up the shore, and ran on. Sleeping beasts in lumps and piles raised their heads as they thundered by, and fur and feathers rustled in nests in the branches above. Up ahead, shrouded by mist, was an enormous tree as thick as a house. A large hollow was carved out of its trunk. As they drew nearer, a bright light shimmered to life inside the tree. They narrowed into single file.
“What’s happening?” cried Charlotte.
“We’re going in,” growled Wolf Boy.
“Going in what?” faltered Sonja.
Staghart leapt into the hollow and disappeared. Alexandria and Wolf Boy followed him one after the other. Moritz was next. Charlotte buried her face in his mane as he flew into the dank and musty hollow. He landed with a thud and galloped on.
Everywhere around them was startlingly white. Whispers drifted in and out of Charlotte’s ears. She thought she heard Pershing singing the Miniature Woman a lullaby, then the Snake Charmer crying for Alfonso, then Bea sobbing and cursing Kats von Stralen. The whispers turned into pitter-pattering droplets. She could smell burning rubber. Moritz jumped again. Charlotte found herself in midair, flying out of another tree.
They landed, skidding, in a deserted cemetery. The rain showered down in misty sheets. They were back in the Outskirts of Rain City, in the exact place where their Talents had been stolen.
Charlotte pulled her hood over her head. She pictured the colored lights strung throughout the campsite and the glowing circus tent billowing in the wind. She looked back and imagined their caravan standing among the other caravans. She thought of Tatty and Monkey waiting inside for them.
A gang of Scrummagers was shoveling dirt over their shoulders, looking for dead people’s belongings. Charlotte recognized them. They were the Scrummagers Jack Cross had scared away. She laughed as Sonja waved eagerly to them like they were old friends.
The Changelings galloped along the walls of the Train Graveyard, tracing the path the twins had taken to meet Jack Cross. Charlotte wondered if Jack Cross’ mother was worried about him. She wanted to shout out, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Cross! I’m going to Rain City to find him!”
They charged into a street lined with forbidden junkyards. Engines idled up ahead, and a row of headlights flashed on.
“We’ve got company!” warned Staghart.
Three Enforcers on rusty motorcycles blocked their path. They wore binocular-goggles and lightning-bolt armbands. One of them spoke into a receiver: “Forbidden animals detected!”
“You got them?” yelled Alexandria.
Staghart snorted fiercely and charged straight ahead.
As the Enforcers fumbled for their weapons, Staghart crashed through, swinging his antlers from side to side. Two Enforcers were knocked to the ground. The remaining one gunned his engine and chased after Staghart.
Alexandria, Wolf Boy, and Moritz veered off.
Thunder crackled in the sky. A towering brick wall came into view. It stretched out sideways in both directions, from one horizon to the other. Lightning struck beyond it, illuminating the tops of skyscrapers in the distance. It was Rain City.
Charlotte shuddered. All their lives, Tatty had warned them: the cities are soul snatchers. Everybody does what everybody else does. Every day is like every other day.
Finally, the girls would see a city themselves.
Beams of light swept out from the wall over a line of weary people. Their tattered clothing was soaked through, and their suitcases were balanced on their heads. They limped toward a massive steel gate. Enforcers checked their documents with stony faces. Hyenas hunched at their feet with lowered heads and growling mouths.
Alexandria turned to Wolf Boy and shouted, “Now!”
Moritz and Wolf Boy ducked off the road and scrambled behind a metal shed. Charlotte watched anxiously as Alexandria rode alone toward the city gates and galloped into the crowd.
People screamed and shouted. They fled the lines and ran for cover. Alexandria circled among them, kicking up dust and gravel.
“Lock down! Lock down!” an Enforcer boomed into a loudspeaker. A siren sounded as the gates rolled shut. Hyenas flailed wildly at their leashes.
Alexandria skidded to a stop, then charged away in the opposite direction. The Enforcers set the hyenas loose. They ran cackling after Alexandria. The Enforcers jumped into a van and zoomed away to join the chase.
“Why aren’t we going with her?” cried Charlotte.
“She’s meeting us later,” Wolf Boy replied calmly. “At the entrance to the pathway of the Land Where the Plants Reign.”
Sonja folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t trust you.”
Wolf Boy s
hrugged. “Suit yourselves, but if you’d be so kind as to get down off Moritz’s back.”
The girls slid to the ground. The Changelings transformed into boys. Wolf Boy grabbed Moritz by the arm and pulled him away. “They’re not coming.”
“I am!” Charlotte said, following the Changelings. If Sonja wanted to make enemies, she could go right ahead. Not Charlotte—especially when they were delivering her closer to Jack Cross.
“Charlotte!” yelled Sonja. She waited a moment, then ran after her.
RAIN CITY was written in metal letters above a row of tall iron gates. Lightning bolts were painted across them, and warnings were plastered all over the walls: TRESPASSING PUNISHABLE BY DEATH, ILLEGAL DOCUMENTS = LIFE IMPRISONMENT, DO NOT FEED ANIMALS.
Wolf Boy quickly scrambled up a stack of crates and onto the wall. He signaled for Moritz and the twins to follow. They climbed up after him, clambered down the other side, and jumped to the ground. They ducked into a wide tunnel just as the people in line swarmed up after them.
The walls were lined with dirty white tiles. Hanging fluorescent tubes flickered on and off. Raindrops echoed. They emerged onto a high bridge. Rain City plummeted deep, deep down below them and sprang up far, far into the sky above them and spread out for breathtaking miles in every direction.
Charlotte gasped and gripped the railing. Uncle Tell had grown up in Rain City. He had known it before it exploded in size, before the pedal-car tracks were built, before it began to rain continuously (although it had always been a rainy city). He had never been back. He said it would break his heart to find it so changed.
Charlotte would tell him all about it if she ever saw him again.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Lost in Rain City
SONJA KNEW ABOUT THE DIFFERENT CITIES. SHE HAD studied photographs of them in books and newspapers. Rain City was one of the first to become a multi-tiered city—carved into the earth, shooting up into the sky, each layer packed with streets and shops and offices. The Richers lived at the very tippy-tops of the Million-Mile-High buildings veiled in rain clouds, and the poor lived at the very bottom depths where the buildings’ foundations were flooded with water every day. Sonja had read that it rained all the time because of the smoke emitted by the hundreds of factories that inhabited the city’s middle layer.