Reader And Raelynx

CHAPTER 25

IT was full dark when Senneth woke, feeling physically refreshed but emotionally drained. Sitting up cautiously, to make sure no pain woke up with her, she touched a few of the candles on the bedside table, and light wavered through the room. A glance at the fire sent the coals leaping with fire. Sweet gods, she was filthy. And starving.

She had changed into a more comfortable-and much cleaner-shirt and trousers, and was washing her face in the basin, when a quiet knock sounded on the door. “I’m up,” she called, and Tayse, Kirra, and Donnal filed in. Kirra was carrying a tray of food. “Oh, you most thoughtful girl,” Senneth said, immediately pulling up a chair beside a small table. “I was thinking about chewing some firewood, I was so hungry.”

Kirra sat beside her at the table. Donnal settled in his customary place on the floor before the hearth, even though he was shaped like a man tonight. Tayse dropped to the window seat so he could monitor any activity occurring outside.

“Everyone in Danan Hall sends you gratitude and adoration,” Kirra informed her, sneaking a slice of potato off Senneth’s plate. “And your brothers have been struck almost speechless by your display of power. You have done what you always hoped to do-earned their respect.”

“And it only cost the lives of several hundred men,” Senneth said between bites. “Hardly a steep price at all.”

“Still, it was most impressive, even for you,” Kirra said. “Though you look dreadful, I must say. How’s your head?”

“Better. But I’m sick at heart. Tell me the extent of the damage and what your father plans to do next.”

“The Hall itself is mostly unharmed. Except the lawns are completely destroyed, but who cares about that? We lost a little over eighty men, and my father and Casserah are devastated by that. They are also both furious-that a man of Danalustrous would betray the land. I think they care less that they were attacked. They would give their own lives for the House.”

“Are they prepared to defend themselves if a bigger army convenes?”

“They are. The reserve troops will be here tomorrow. But my father doesn’t seem to believe there will be another assault. He is busy collecting renewed oaths of fealty from the vassals who did not participate in the uprising. It seems that only three lesser lords were responsible for the mutiny.”

“Your sister mentioned Chalfrey Mallon? I think I met a Mallon or two many years ago when I lived here.”

Kirra looked deeply depressed. “It is my fault he hates the Hall. He despises mystics, and Casserah made it clear to him that she would choose me over him. He has been nursing a grudge for months, I suppose.”

Donnal stirred on the hearth. “Or found that incident a convenient excuse to turn against your father now.”

Tayse spoke from the bench at the window. “Does this change your father’s attitude about joining the battle on behalf of the king?”

Kirra’s laugh was bitter. “No! Indeed, it makes him more adamant that he will not send soldiers away from Danalustrous when it is clear Danalustrous needs defense. I cannot entirely blame him-except I do blame him. If Gillengaria is torn apart, Danalustrous will be trampled in turn. I don’t understand how he can fail to see that. It is so shortsighted, so blind, to care only about your own small patch of land. If we do not stand together, we will all fall. Gillengaria must supersede Danalustrous.”

Senneth smiled at her. “And this, I believe, is the reason your sister will be marlady, and not you.”

“It is indeed.”

Senneth finished the last of the bread and wished there were more. “We leave for Ghosenhall in the morning,” she said. “Will you stay here or come with us?”

“My father wants me to stay, but I can’t,” Kirra said. “There is obviously a great deal to do here-but-I have to put myself in the king’s service. I have to.”

Senneth glanced at Donnal, and he nodded. “Even if Kirra wanted to stay, I would go,” he said quietly. “All of us are needed. All of us who have some ability to defend the throne.”

Senneth tapped an impatient hand against the table. “Still, it will take so long to get to the city! And this is news that should go fast. Perhaps you two should fly on ahead and tell Baryn what happened.”

Kirra locked eyes with Donnal and he grinned. “As to that,” Kirra said. “There might be a way. To get you to Ghosenhall faster.”

Senneth sat up straighter in the chair. “Why am I filled suddenly with apprehension?”

Kirra smiled, but only briefly. “I could change you, you know. Both of you. To something small and furry, perhaps mice. Donnal and I could take hawk shape and carry the two of you across Gillengaria. Not comfortable, and not fun, but we could do it.”

Senneth just stared at her. Tayse had slewed around at her first words, losing all interest in whatever might be unfolding on the grounds. “I’m not sure I have the heart for that,” Senneth said faintly.

“No. I thought you might not. And I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t exactly relish being set on fire by you, even if it was ultimately something that would aid me.”

Donnal’s voice was casual. “Justin would do it. He’s not afraid.”

“Justin’s recklessness is legendary,” Senneth shot back.

“And I’m not entirely certain I can change you,” Kirra said. “Last fall, I altered all those people on Dorrin Isle who were sick, but none of them was a mystic. Maybe the magic in your veins will keep my magic out.” She shrugged. “It’s the reason I didn’t try to change Ellynor last year when she had to be rescued. The situation was too dire for me to try something that might go seriously awry.”

“You realize such a confession makes me even less eager to subject myself to your spells!” Senneth exclaimed.

“Yes, but I really think I can do it,” Kirra said. She managed another smile. “And I should have no problem changing Tayse.”

“Could you change my sword? And my knives?” Tayse asked.

Kirra’s face brightened even more. “Yes, my valiant Rider, I could change your weaponry right along with your body. And change them back the minute we touched down in Ghosenhall.”

Now Senneth was staring at him. “You can’t seriously be considering-”

He grinned at her. “Justin would do it. Justin has done it.”

“Justin has never been my guide for behavior.”

“And there’s more you might not like,” Kirra added. Her expression was impish, but Senneth could tell she was utterly serious. About the offer, anyway. “The trip will still take us about two days-we cannot fly all that way, carrying you, without stopping to sleep. It would be easiest for me to not change you back to human form overnight, then change you again in the morning. But you might find it too disconcerting to stay altered for so long.”

Senneth just opened her mouth and didn’t answer.

Kirra went off into gales of laughter. “Oh, look at you! You’re trying to decide if I’m joking! I’m not, truly I’m not. Senneth, I believe I can do this, and it would cut the trip easily in half. But it would be strange and probably unsettling. And if we had flown half a day and you were too petrified to continue, we’d be in the middle of the country with no horses and no gear, and it would take you even longer to get back to the royal city.”

Donnal shrugged. “We’d change ourselves into horses for the rest of the trip,” he said. “We’d still have gained a day or two.”

“And you want to turn me into a mouse?” Senneth demanded, finding her voice.

Kirra nodded. “A very small one. Easy to carry.”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t forget and accidentally eat me?”

Kirra bubbled with laughter again. “Of course I wouldn’t forget! Do you ever accidentally set something on fire?”

“I think we should do it,” Tayse said.

She looked at him helplessly. “How can you not be afraid? How can you not be repulsed? I don’t want to be a mouse flying above the earth in the talons of a predator!”

“I never thought to see you unnerved by magic,” he said, amused.

She shuddered. “It’s not the magic that frightens me so much as the loss of control,” she said. “I would think the same thing would weigh with you.”

“I’m practical, and this is a practical solution,” he said. “But we will not do it if you cannot endure it. We will send Donnal and Kirra ahead, and make our way with all speed by more conventional means.”

How was this possible? That Tayse, who had distrusted sorcery with all his heart when she first met him, was now willing to abandon himself utterly to witchery? While she, whose life had been shaped in every particular by the power in her hands, was hesitant and afraid to submit to enchantment? She took a deep breath.

“We must have some kind of agreement,” she said. “After the first hour of flight. You must stop, and set us down, and ask us if we can tolerate more of this unnatural existence. And if we say we cannot-”

“Well, you won’t be able to say anything,” Kirra pointed out. “You’ll still be a mouse.”

“I realize that! But you will ask, and you will give me a task to do to indicate that I am or am not willing to continue. And if I am, then you can gather me up in your claws again and carry me away for as long as your strength holds up.”

Kirra practically bounced in her chair. “Most excellent! I am proud of both of you. Sleep well tonight. We leave on quite an adventure in the morning.”

THE entire manor house was awake by dawn, for their own small party was not the only one anxious to return home. Senneth met all three of her brothers in the dining hall and said good-byes over a hasty breakfast. She waved off Will’s wild enthusiasm about her magic and Harris’s somewhat less hearty appreciation, and she gave Kiernan a sober look.

“When I see you again, it may be on another battlefield,” she said.

“Count on it,” he said. “I will ride out with the army I send to Ghosenhall.”

“Travel safely back to Brassen Court. You have to assume there is unrest across all the northern Houses. I would avoid Tilt, if I were you.”

He smiled grimly. “Yes, I believe I will. You, too-take care in your travels.”

He had no idea how completely she planned to disregard that admonition.

It was still early morning when she and Tayse, Kirra and Donnal gathered in a little garden not far from the kitchens. Tayse made a pile of the items he wanted to bring with him back to Ghosenhall-his various blades, his uniform, his sash with the royal lions-but Senneth had very little she cared to salvage from her outbound journey. The blue dress was ruined. Her pendant, Kirra had assured her, was small enough to change along with her body. She added nothing to the pile.

“All right,” she said, taking a deep breath and sinking to the ground, “change me if you can.”

Kirra knelt beside her and put her hands on Senneth’s face. The blue eyes were intent and serious as they watched Senneth; the beautiful face was furrowed in concentration. Senneth closed her eyes and felt the sharp tingle of magic along her cheekbones, down the back of her throat, in her hips, her knees, her toes. Her head felt suddenly bound with pressure, which abruptly faded. Her fingers involuntarily splayed and flexed. Her heart was beating so fast it should have made her breathless, but the pulse seemed strangely unalarming. She sniffed and thought how rich and spicy the air had suddenly become.

“Open your eyes. And give yourself a moment to adjust.”

Oh, how the world had changed.

She was in a forest of high, brown grass; nuts as large as her head littered the ground. Huge, ungainly creatures were grouped around her, so big they were impossible to see. Below her, the ground stretched on forever, loose soil full of hidden treasures, pockets of mud safe for burrowing into. Her feet were pink and dainty, perfect for scratching through dirt. She could feel her nose twitching, sifting through the laden air, picking out scents for food and danger.

In a lifetime of magic, Senneth had never experienced such a strange spell. She lifted one of the four-toed feet and patted her cheek, trying to get a sense of her face and fur. She was herself, all her thought processes familiar and intact, and yet she wasn’t. Fine-honed instincts not her own hovered at the back of her mind. Even now, knowing that the monsters around her were beloved friends, she was poised to run should they suddenly turn capricious. She was calculating the distance to safety; she was distracted by the presence of a dried berry on a nearby shrub.

One of the gigantic humans flattened to the ground, its face inches away. Senneth recognized Kirra but it took all her willpower to keep from chittering and scurrying away. “How are you tolerating this so far?” Kirra asked, her voice very loud and quite distinct. “If you don’t think you can bear it another moment, just stay right there and I’ll change you back. If you think you can manage, take a few steps over toward Donnal.”

Well, which one was Donnal? Senneth turned in a half circle to locate him, kneeling a few feet away, his outstretched hand lying on the ground. She minced over and scrabbled into his palm, thinking how different the texture of skin was compared to grass and dirt.

She felt a moment’s panic when his fingers closed around her and he lifted her up, but she sternly suppressed her fear. She blinked her little eyes as she found herself staring into Donnal’s large ones.

“She’ll do,” he said. He was grinning through his beard.

A rustle and a thump as Tayse dropped to the ground. “Then change me, and let’s be off.”

Senneth didn’t really get a good view of that alteration, for Donnal held her and stroked her back until it was over. But a few minutes later he set her on the ground face-to-face with a sleek black mouse with bristling white whiskers and inquisitive black eyes. Tayse. He took a few tentative steps forward, lifted his feet one at a time as if to gauge how they worked, then came close enough to touch Senneth’s nose with his own.

It was so strange. It was Tayse. She could almost see his mind working, hear him assessing how he felt, what his strengths and weaknesses might be in this particular form. He didn’t seem nearly as disconcerted as she felt. Indeed, after only a moment of self-exploration he whipped around in a circle so tight that his long tail almost snapped across Senneth’s face. He was looking at Kirra, and his stance plainly communicated his message: No more wasting time. Let us leave now.

Kirra laughed and looked over at Donnal. “Successful so far,” she said. “Do you want to be responsible for the Rider or the mystic?”

“I’ll take Tayse,” he said. “Let’s be on our way.”

Senneth had to fight back a moment of abject terror when Kirra and Donnal, suddenly, became two great hawks stalking majestically through the grass. Kirra and Donnal, she reminded herself. Kirra and Donnal. But the hawks looked ferocious, sharp-beaked, and evil. Her little heart was hammering inside her tiny chest.

And, oh, didn’t that get suddenly worse when the nearest one closed its talons around her round brown body and carried her off into the fathomless air.

Senneth shuddered in Kirra’s careful grip, trying not to shake too much for fear the claws would open and send her tumbling to the ground. For the first ten minutes of the flight, Senneth couldn’t even bear to look down. She just concentrated on calming her terror and reminding herself who she was. When she did finally try to peer through the talons to the ground below, she felt another surge of fright. There was nothing-just patches of white that must be bits of cloud, and a blur of dark so far away it had no distinguishing features. They could not possibly be so high in the air; this foolish little creature must simply have eyesight that could not see very far.

Senneth did not know whether to be sorry or grateful.

They flew for what seemed like forever. Once her fear faded, and she realized she couldn’t even entertain herself by watching the landscape, Senneth started to get bored. Two days of this? No conversation, no distraction, nothing but wind and existence? How in the world would she endure? The only real option was sleep, and that was easy enough to achieve, despite the truly extraordinary circumstances. She closed her eyes and let herself be lulled by motion.

Twice during that day, Kirra and Donnal landed and let them attend to their needs. Food was sparse, but they were in agricultural country, so there were seeds to nibble on and water was easy to find. At each stop, Tayse scurried over to nuzzle at Senneth’s ear, checking that she was still whole. At each stop, Kirra conserved her energy by staying a hawk, but Donnal shifted into human shape and asked if either of them wished to be changed back.

Neither of them found that necessary.

They flew on until nightfall, then made a neat landing and a rough camp. Both Kirra and Donnal took human form to lay out bedrolls and hunt for water.

“Feels like it’s going to be a cold night. I think I’ll have Donnal start a fire when he gets back,” Kirra told the mice when Donnal had gone off foraging. “Should be safe enough-I haven’t seen a homestead or another traveler for miles.”

Senneth wrinkled her nose and picked her way off the smooth boulder where Kirra and Donnal had deposited her and Tayse. She used her tiny hands to gather a handful of twigs and pile them together. Could she do this with such an unfamiliar body? Wasn’t the magic an intrinsic part of her? Surely it could not have been changed, actually erased?

“I don’t believe this,” Kirra said and settled on the ground nearby. Tayse had jumped off the boulder and come over to watch, his dark eyes curious. “Even you-”

Senneth patted the kindling with her small, nervous fingers. Her body heat was so high already when she wore this shape; how hard could it be to summon fever, summon sparks? She tapped the twigs again.

A yellow flame licked through the scraps of wood. Senneth backed up on quick legs to get far enough away and then teased the flame higher, hotter. It was hard to gauge from this unfamiliar size. Was that a normal campfire, or too big? Too small?

Kirra was laughing. “How is that possible? Gods, no wonder people hate mystics. The little mouse who could set fire to a house! Who wouldn’t be afraid of such a creature? Senneth, you’re amazing.”

Donnal was back a few moments later, water in one hand and a dead rabbit in the other. He looked at the fire a moment before glancing at Senneth and then over at Kirra. “Did you build it or did she?” he asked.

Kirra was still laughing. “She did! And I assume it will burn all night, no other fuel required!”

Donnal grinned. “Well, then. Let’s cook dinner.”

THE second day was much easier than the first. The fear was completely gone, and all that was left was impatience. On the other hand, Senneth was actually enjoying the chance to simply sleep the day away. She couldn’t remember the last time she had ever been so idle.

“If we continue after dark, we can make Ghosenhall tonight,” Donnal informed them as they took a break in the afternoon. “Do you want to be human before you return or shall we take you straight to your own cottage and change you there?”

Kirra-the-hawk uttered a sharp cry and danced on her thin legs, but no one could understand her. It was important enough to her that she spent the energy to transform herself to human. “We’ll take them to Justin’s cottage,” she said, her face alight with mischief. “Don’t you think Justin would love to see Senneth and Tayse as mice?”

“Cammon’s the one who would make this interesting,” Donnal said.

Kirra actually clapped her hands together. “Yes! We won’t change them till Cammon has seen them! Will he recognize them, do you think?”

“He always recognizes us.”

“Surely this is different. Oh, I hope it won’t take us too long to find Cammon once we get back.”

Donnal was grinning and shaking his head. “You know he knows we’re on the way. He’ll probably be at Justin’s place, waiting for us to touch down.”

“Then let’s go! No more time to waste!”

Kirra and Donnal each took owl shape so they could see well enough for the nighttime flight. It was full dark and then some when they finally made it to Ghosenhall. Senneth was awake now, and once again trying to see through the prison of Kirra’s talons. They were close enough to the ground that she could make out buildings and spires-unbelievably huge structures-everything half-lit with exterior torches or interior candles. They glided across the guarded walls, and no Rider thought to halt them. They dipped even lower, wingtips almost brushing the rooftop of a long building that had to be the barracks. Lower-silently banking-and toward a boxlike structure that had to be a cottage. Kirra settled to the ground and released her burden, and Senneth came tumbling out into a familiar and utterly alien world. One very large man was just now bursting through the door; two other shapes hurtled after him. Cammon, followed by Justin and Ellynor.

“Look!” Cammon cried. “Kirra and Donnal are back, and they’ve brought Tayse and Senneth!”