Changing Fate [Fate series] (6 page)

Satisfied that she had done everything she needed to do in human form, she placed the spell on the window ledge next to the cauldron, got into the cauldron—with some difficulty; it was rather a tight fit—bathed every inch of her body in the potion—which was very cold by now—and chanted the spell with concentration but very softly, in case there was a spider outside the window. As she intoned the last syllable, she could feel herself compressing, shrinking, becoming incredibly dense and colder than she had ever imagined was possible. But to her horror, she was also becoming blind, deaf, and mind-blind. Her last coherent thought was
Is this what they call ‘cold iron'?

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She was covered in warm sticky liquid and she was looking at Stefan's body as her feet—no, her point—no, her feet—slid out of his chest.
Sweet Lady, it worked! But I'm not supposed to be changing back yet!
She tried to halt the change, but she was too cold and weak. In a moment she was sprawled, naked and bloody, on the field—right where Briam had dropped her.

She twisted around to make certain that Briam was all right. He appeared unharmed, but he was staring at her as if he had never seen her before. “But you said you wouldn't change back yet!"

"You have strange taste in weapons, Lord Briam.” Lord Ranulf rose from checking Stefan's body for signs of life and walked over to them. He stripped off his surcoat and wrapped it around Akila, as casually as if he were accustomed to scenes like this. Akila struggled to sit up. She was not going to lie there looking helpless in front of this man! And the rest of his men were watching them from side and most of the people from the castle stood on the other. Judging from the babble of voices, they were all still trying to figure out what had happened. She didn't hear any comments on her state of undress, but she didn't doubt that she'd just provided everyone with plenty of gossip fodder for the winter and most of next spring. Ignore them, she told herself firmly. First concentrate on getting out of here.

"Is he dead?” she demanded.

"Quite dead.” Lord Ranulf raised his eyebrows, turning the blue circle almost to a triangle. “What chance did he have against so determined a pair of opponents?"

"About the same chance our father had against a troop of treacherous mercenaries,” Akila retorted. Unfortunately her teeth started to chatter just then, which did rather diminish the effect she was trying for.

Lord Ranulf dug into his belt pouch and pulled out a bar of what appeared to be nuts and seeds stuck together with honey. “Eat this, there's no sense in your going into shock. As for your father's death, it was not by any order of mine! I would have met him in honorable combat."

Akila chewed diligently and swallowed. “As what?” she asked sweetly, taking another bite.

"As a human,” he replied calmly. “I've no hand as skilled as your brother's to wield me were I to become a sword. How did you do it?"

Akila's mouth was full, and Briam answered. “She used a spell. She's really good with strange potions,” he added proudly.

"You did well,” Lord Ranulf said courteously, as Akila choked on a seed.

"But I must have done something wrong,” Briam said, puzzled. “She wasn't supposed to change back until I put her in the ocean."

This time Akila had no need of eagle's eyes to see the astonishment on Lord Ranulf's face. “But that spell was lost long ago! Most people think it only a legend."

"Why did she change back?” Sometimes, Akila reflected bitterly, Briam had an extremely limited mind.

"Salt water and blood have the same elements,” Lord Ranulf said absently, looking at Akila. “It seems I chose better than I knew when I decided to marry you."

Akila swallowed the last bit of honey and decided she'd live. “May I point out, Lord Ranulf, that I am not going to marry you. Stefan is dead, and my brother and I have won our freedom."

"I said I'd marry you!"

"
If
I agreed. I don't agree."

"Whether you agree or not, you were not included in the list of things your brother is allowed to take! Married to me or not, you'll stay here!"

"Do you think you can hold me against my will?” Akila asked. If anyone could, she knew, he would be the one; he could probably figure out some way. But judging from the thoughtful expression on his face, he was realizing how difficult it would be to imprison a shapechanger.

"And I
was
included in the list,” she added. He looked sharply at her, and Akila knew that she had won.

"Your words were ‘horse, weapons, armor'—and you yourself just called me his weapon.” She rose to her feet and wrapped his surcoat more securely around her. She wanted to throw it in his face, but that was hardly practical.

"You can't go off wearing nothing but my surcoat,” he protested. “At least go inside and pack yourself some clothing!"

Akila reached for Briam's hand, irrationally terrified that if she left him for so much as a moment, she would never see him again. “My clothing wasn't on the list,” she pointed out. “Of course, if you want your surcoat back..."

"No!” Lord Ranulf said hastily. “Keep it, if you're too stubborn to take anything else."

Akila looked down at the garment. Last time she had seen it, it had been cream colored with blue embroidery. Now over half of it was blood red. “I'm afraid this it's not quite your color any more,” she said grimly. “Red was my father's color.” Is it mine? she wondered. Or Briam's? Somehow she didn't think so. She felt very strange, but after what she had just done, that wasn't surprising.

She looked at Briam again. He seemed to be all right; the astonishment had faded from his face and there wasn't a scratch on his body, so he was probably capable of riding. Time to go.

She turned back to Lord Ranulf. “You'll just have to console yourself with the estate, the serfs, and the castle—unless, of course, you were planning to break your pledged word."

"I hold by my honor,” Lord Ranulf said grimly. “I'll console myself with your library—at least for a time. But I assure you, my Lady Akila, I won't forget you.” He smiled suddenly, and it transformed his whole face. Akila was horrified to discover in herself an impulse to smile back. She repressed it at once.

"Here,” he pulled a few more of the nut and honey bars out of his belt pouch and handed them to her. “Take these, I don't want you fainting on the road. And remember, my offer holds if you change your mind; this remains your home and you are welcome to return."

"Come, Briam,” Akila hastened toward his horse. “Let's go.” Briam swung himself into the saddle in true heroic fashion, pulled Akila up in front of him, and they headed down the path.

"I'm afraid I made one serious miscalculation,” Akila said many hours later through her chattering teeth. “I
should
have had you pack some of my clothes. Which reminds me, did you bring another sword?"

Briam shook his head. “You didn't tell me to. I did bring my dagger and my eating knife."

"Well that will have to do, at least until we can get you another sword. But I can't spend the night in this surcoat.” She looked critically at the clearing they were entering. Most of the trees around it were pine trees, and the ground was covered with a mixture of leaves and needles which could be made into a fairly comfortable bed. “This looks like a reasonably good place to spend the night."

Briam stopped the horse and slid easily off, then reached up to lift Akila down. She clung to the saddle for a moment, waiting for her cold and very tired muscles to agree to support her unaided, while Briam removed saddlebags and water skin and started gathering fallen branches for firewood.

As soon as she could support her own weight, Akila gathered up the saddlebags and started to take inventory. Briam's wool cloak was in the top of the first bag, and she wrapped it gratefully around herself while she sorted through the rest of the clothing and provisions. Briam had brought his lute, of course, which was probably a good thing, since minstrel was now his most usable skill. A small purse in one of the bags contained a bit of coin, doubtless Galin's contribution, and two sets of spare lute strings, undoubtedly packed by Briam.

There was a pitifully small amount of food for two people—even if she counted the honey bars Lord Ranulf had given her, which could really not be considered proper food. Obviously they would have to hunt soon. Water, at least, would not be a serious problem; streams were plentiful in this area..

As for clothing, Briam was wearing his arming tunic and armor, she was wearing a badly blood-stained surcoat which was much too large for either of them, and the packs contained Briam's boots, two pairs of chausses, two undertunics, one wool tunic, one linen tunic, and his best festival gown. Akila stared at the last item with mixed emotions. On the one hand, it was totally impractical for their present position—had Galin expected Briam to go to the nearest noble estate and take up residence? But the gold thread and the jewels in the embroidery were valuable and could be sold one at a time, and Akila was just as glad not to have the results of eight months of her evening labor left for Lord Ranulf. Besides, the colors were designed to highlight Briam's blond hair and fair skin; they wouldn't look good on Lord Ranulf anyway.

Briam dropped his helm beside her and said, “I'm taking Gris down to the stream—he needs a drink. Can you light the fire?"

"Fine,” Akila said absently. “Maybe it will thaw me out."

"It should.” Briam chuckled and disappeared, but within seconds a soft splash followed by loud slurping sounds made his location readily apparent.

Akila carefully scraped a large space in the middle of the clearing down to bare earth and surrounded it with fist-sized rocks. In the center of the cleared area, she piled a small amount of wood into a V, filled it with tinder, and moved to stand at the open end. Even though she had left the altar of the Lady of the Lightning, the salamander was Her symbol, and this transformation had come easily to Akila ever since she had first learned it by copying the shape off the front panel of the altar. Also, it should help remove the cold that seemed to have taken up residence in her bones. She shrugged off Briam's cloak and the surcoat, placed them carefully outside the circle, out of harm's way, moved into the tinder, and condensed herself into salamander form. The tinder flared around her, and she sat in it and basked while she waited for the branches to catch. Briam came back, unsaddled Gris and hobbled him, and sat down beside the fire to wait for her emergence.

The larger branches were starting to burn now, and she had no real excuse to stay in the fire any longer. It felt so good, better than the warmest bed on the coldest morning every had. But she had a duty to take care of her brother, so she reluctantly moved out of the fire and resumed her human shape.

Briam wrapped the cloak around her and said, “Are you going to wear my clothes?"

"No, you're going to need your cloak yourself tonight, and the rest of them aren't warm enough. We didn't pack for both of us to be sleeping outdoors."

"Armies do it all the time,” Briam protested.

"Armies are generally better provisioned—I should know; I've made up enough supply lists. Besides, we're going to have to set a watch—and I think the easiest solution to both problems is for me to take wolf shape. I could sleep out in a midwinter blizzard as a wolf, but I'll sleep light enough that I'll know if anything dangerous comes this way."

"All right,” Briam said. “I like your wolf shape."

"I know you do,” Akila retorted. “I still have vivid memories of the time you tried to ride me when we were four years old—though I suppose it's just as well that you learned that ears aren't meant to be steered with before you tried it on some poor dumb animal."

"You didn't really have to bite me,” Briam protested.

"That
is
the major problem with changing,” Akila pointed out. “I tend to take on the character of the animal whose shape I use—and the more time I spend in a shape, the more animal-like I become.” And that's something I'm going to have to be very careful with on this trip, she thought grimly. “Besides, I didn't bite you very hard. It was just the nip you would have gotten if you'd been a fellow cub in the pack—it wasn't
my
fault you didn't have fur!"

They made a simple supper out of their provisions and carefully doused the fire. Then Akila repacked Briam's extra clothes, made sure he was securely wrapped in his cloak and curled up in the best shelter she could find for him (a sort of nest of piled up pine needles), and shifted herself into wolf form.

The world changed abruptly. Since it was already quite dark, the loss of color vision wasn't very noticeable, but the ground was much closer, the trees were bigger, and everything smelled. Without trying at all she could locate Gris (sweaty horse), Briam (musky and metallic, with faint overtones of onion), the saddle and saddlebags (leather), the remains of the fire (scorched wood), the different trees around them (varying flavors), and the floor of the forest (pine needles, dead leaves, and leaf mold, in the process of becoming dirt). Sounds were different, too, louder and sharper—particularly the high-pitched chirping of the insects. It was very noisy, but as she adjusted to it, she realized that this was a quiet, peaceful night in the forest, with nothing to alarm or endanger her. With the fur of her wolf-form she was warm enough to sprawl out comfortably—no need to curl up in a ball with her legs tucked up and her tail wrapped protectively around legs and face as wolves did when sleeping in snow. She lay down between Briam and the path by which they had entered the clearing and began the series of brief, restless naps a wolf considers a good night's sleep.

She woke sometime after midnight. The moon, still high in the western sky, shone into the clearing, slightly veiled by a thin layer of mist. Drifts of mists floated around the trees, and the air was pleasantly moist and cool in her throat. Repressing an irrational desire to howl a greeting to the moon, she listened and smelled carefully. She could see perfectly well now, but by the time she actually saw danger, it would probably be too late. Much better to depend on her ears and nose for sufficient warning of danger.