CHANGELING: Book Two in the Weaver Series Read online

  With that she was gone and Cass opened our eyes. The whole conversation hadn’t taken more than a minute but Mez was glaring at us in consternation. We imagined a cartoon speech bubble over his head with made up Axsian swear word symbols and nearly laughed.

  He threw up his hands. “Are you going to answer my question?”

  I bit our bottom lip like we were thinking then Cass took over to speak.

  “Nope.”

  Mez started toward us and I set our body sideways in a stance of readiness, knees bent, weight on the balls of our feet. Cass cheered at my quick response as she slid into control and I bit out, “You try and throw us in the air again and you’re gonna find out just how hard we can hit, Buster. Lil’s meeting us at the baths. You need to wash all the drugs you sweated out of your pores off your skin. They’ll clean our robes too if we ask. Truce?”

  His broad shoulders rolled in reaction as he thought our offer through. Eyes big and filled with frustrated curiosity he nodded agreement, “Truce…for now.”

  We started toward the mouth of a broad tunnel that was big enough to drive an industrial sized tractor through. A few of the children called farewells and Mez made sure to turn and wave goodbye. It was amazing to us what mannerisms remained much the same between Earth and Axsa. I guessed arms and hands could only be used in so many ways. More than that, even the physical similarities down to the level of our DNA were striking. Either Axsian’s had been tampering with our development as sentient beings on Earth and lying about it or there was some other explanation.

  Our professor, Walrus Napoleon, was humanoid. He walked upright, he possessed opposable thumbs and a face that was similar in function and form to a human beings. Very few of the students we’d seen from other star systems varied from the bipedal norm. It was an interesting line of thought to explore. Maybe it was the path of least resistance in nature creating a pattern that repeated all over the universe on planets light years apart—Constructal Law on a massive scale.

  Our pupils contracted at the brighter light around the entrance to the baths. Lil was waiting, dancing impatiently from foot to foot. Mez towered over her and she frowned. He bowed in greeting and placed three fingers lightly to his forehead as he straightened. Lil wrinkled her nose at him then bowed back. Her eyes never strayed from Mez’s. It was a standoff.

  Cass motioned at an aisle worn smooth by the passage of many feet. “Go that way, Butthead. The males are on the other side. We assume you know the drill? We’ll meet you back here. Don’t be in a hurry.”

  He looked a little abandoned as he drifted away.

  Cass growled in our head, “No sympathy for that weasel right now!”

  Lil grabbed our elbow and we struggled to keep up. Cass protested, “Did you not hear me tell Mez not to hurry? Where’s the freaking fire, Lil?”

  The sloping steps weren’t steep or widely spaced but our friend’s speed was making them seem uneven and if she didn’t slow down our knees were going to buckle. An attendant came at us with a basket and markers to claim our clothes later dangling from a wrist. We shucked our gloves then our clothes as Lil unwrapped her headdress and the woman waved her sinuous swan neck at us when we asked for our robe to be cleaned. It was a tad bit depressing to know the itchy black cloth was the only piece in our wardrobe right this moment.

  Our favorite oval pool was available and we lowered ourselves into the water at opposite edges of the once mirrored surface and watched the rippled reflections of the cavern around us elongate. Lil grabbed a bottle off the side then held it in the air as she submerged the rest of herself, reminding me of the legend of the Lady of the Lake minus the sword.

  There was a weird itching between our shoulder blades. Cass spun in a half circle, churning warm liquid around our ribcage. It felt like someone was watching us. If it was Mez, he was a dead man. Spying wasn’t cool. There were no telltales around us—no sounds of movement that didn’t match our environment and no blurred edges along the melted candle wax walls. We stayed frozen and watchful as our heart tattooed against our sternum as if it longed for escape. Nothing happened but the sensation wouldn’t leave.

  Cass said, “Go find Kal and tell him we have a visitor in the baths.”

  It felt wrong to leave Cass or Lil. “I can’t leave you alone, Sister.”

  Cass leaned over and palmed some dry granulated scrubbing salts as if she were about to wash us. I knew she really meant to throw them at our light-disguised attacker if they gave themselves away. Lil was happily lathering her hair in a heap on her head, humming under her breath and clueless to the danger.

  With a lick of anger Cass urged, “Go now, Silver. I can hold my own until Kal gets here.”

  I used my fear as a launching pad and zoomed into the Web to broadcast a full force mayday for Kal. Precious seconds passed as I waited for a response. Urgency was crushing my essence making me feel condensed and heavy like a mercury ball.

  Kal’s yellow green light streamed at us like a mobile star and I grabbed the memory of our situation and lobbed it like a streaking comet. His green core turned into a brittle lump of misshapen uncut emerald as he absorbed our dilemma. He didn’t waste time doubting us.

  Thoughts pellucid he said, “Go back now and I will be there.”

  I felt a stab of urgency from Cass and a faint edge of a physical struggle then I dove back into our body’s awareness. Pain hit, immediate and concentration shattering. Our fingers were trapped against our neck with our palms outward by something that was a line of fire. Lil’s tear blurred outline was immobile just feet away. The small of our back was against the pools humped edge and our spine was bowed keeping our hips thrust forward and our legs unable to get purchase as they thrashed and splashed uselessly. Spots danced in the corner of our eyes spreading like ink blots across our vision. At our ear, as the garrote cut even deeper into the meat of our fingers, a male voice whispered.

  “Some must fall for the betterment of all.”

  The voice was familiar. Our poet from the lab raid was back for revenge. A dull impact then a surprised grunt followed those words and suddenly we were free. Our hands fell into the water as if bracing for a fall and we sunk under the surface in urgent need of oxygen. Cass gasped accidently and fluid rushed into our windpipe. Our chest heaved in an attempt to expel it as my sister struggled to get upright. Hands grasped our shoulders pulling us into the blessed sustenance of air as we sputtered and spit what we’d tried to breathe in error.

  Lil shrieked, “Breathe, breathe!”

  Our eyelids blinked away water and the trapped drops in our lashes made them feel heavy. Cass raised a hand to wipe away the excess liquid distorting our sight but caught herself before she smeared blood all over our face. Our hands were in bad shape. The bones were exposed and even with our impaired vision we could see that the skin was loose around the wounds.

  The sounds of fighting drew our attention to the stairs beside the pool. Kal landed a punch on an invisible someone. A body materialized from a chameleon cloud of light as it collapsed. Neon blue illumination ringed a disk stuck to the downed rebel’s cheek. Kal dove onto our unconscious assailant, flipped him onto his stomach and secured his arms behind his back. It was over in mere moments and all we could do was stand in the pool next to Lil and bleed.

  Kal checked the disc on his captive’s face with an instrument he pulled from a pocket of his duster then exhaled sharply as if satisfied with the reading before he turned his attention our way. Lil ducked behind us to hide her breasts and I started laughing. The cavern took our laughter and carried it to the shadowed heights as Cass joined me in our expression of relief at our survival.

  I stopped laughing before my twin to say, “I’m done with being Baelc bait. If those bastards want a fight we’re gonna to give it to ‘em, Sister.”

  A pause, then heated emotions came at me like a flamethrower until they coalesced into two words.

  “Hell yes.”

  Chapter 18: Body Snatcher

  An attenda
nt rushed from the bottom of the stairs in a tizzy at Kal for being on the women’s side of the bathing coliseum until she took in our bloodied, mangled hands and the knocked out rebel restrained and marked with a metal disk.

  Kal bowed at his waist and gestured to the pool. “Please help my cilda until I return.”

  Vel’s voice bounced around the air from the top of the baths. “Kal, is everyone okay?”

  The leather soles of Kal’s black boots scraped as he turned our way. With precision he flung his duster out of the way to kneel at the pool’s edge. Lil still cowered behind us, shivering in reaction. He catalogued our injuries with his eyes and gave a head jerk at his niece. We nodded and he stood back up.

  His voice seemed overly loud as he yelled back to Vel. “They will live.”

  The scent of ozone was overpowering in the steamy atmosphere as Kal and the Baelc rebel disappeared to reappear in the distance next to Vel. Lil leaned against us, sagging as if she were a wilted flower. Her exposed flesh felt pebbly like chicken skin.

  Cass smiled. “Hey, Lil?”

  Her voice was muffled as she spoke into our wet hair. “Yes?”

  “Could you get off us? We’re still bleeding and this nice lady wants to help us out.”

  She jerked away as if pulled by a bad puppeteer, making nonsense noises of contrition.

  The attendant clicked at us impatiently. She had a huge brown towel wrapped over both hands and she was leaning forward precariously. One good push from a passing jokester and she’d end up taking a dip. I was grateful when she grabbed our wrists to lever our body over the lip and not our hands. Clucking in concern she cocooned us in the plush cloth by draping it over our shoulders and tucking the sides under our arms and across our front. We held everything in place by clamping our biceps down as we held our damaged hands palm up. Water-diluted blood made streams down our forearms and soaked into the absorbent material. Another attendant rushed to help Lil from the water and rub her vigorously when it became obvious her shivering wasn’t going away without help.

  They escorted us carefully up the stairs to the area where they stored supplies and our clothes waited to be reclaimed. A folded towel held just under our extended hands kept us from trailing blood along the way. Niches with markers held bather’s belongings but we didn’t need to check our neck tag—we were the only set of black robes. The way they were neatly folded suggested they’d already been cleaned. Our guide motioned to a smoothly rounded rock ledge protruding from the left side of the cavern wall and Lil shuffled with us to sit and wait.

  The bleeding had slowed some but without the extra towel we would have left droplets on the floor. I asked Cass, “Should we just ask for food? I’d rather not wait for this to heal naturally. We’d be at a disadvantage for the foreseeable future.”

  “Wait for the food, but yeah, this hurts. I can’t even flex our fingers without pain and I think there may be some tendon damage on a couple digits. If they’re severed we may need to ask Sil for help. The ends have to be stretched together before they can be rejoined right?”

  Her tone was detached and we were still thinking and reacting rationally. I was proud of us. “Alright, you take care of the here and now and Lil while I do a damage assessment in the Web. I’ll be back in a jiff.”

  Unfortunately I knew my twin was right about the tendon damage as soon as I immersed myself in our wounds. I expended a modicum of energy to repair some of the muscle. The line of the garrote wire had gone mostly over the area of our proximal phalanges. We would require assistance. I hated waiting.

  What if there was another attack while we were incapacitated? Why had they chosen such a primitive method to do away with us? They had tech that could accomplish our death much more quickly. Maybe there was a point. Perhaps they’d desired gruesome over efficient. I couldn’t do anything else for us and I’d disobeyed Cass’s request to wait for food but our reserves seemed pretty solid.

  When I got back Lil was finishing a sentence.

  “—touched. My mother told me about your exchange of ‘gifts’. What will happen to me?” Lil picked at the towel fibers on her lap nervously like a monkey looking for lice.

  Cass formed a response but it was an empty reassurance so she changed tack at the last second. “We don’t know, Lil. Sometimes nothing comes from our touch. It’s not something we manipulate. Sil, Mez, and Kal have touched us and they don’t show any change. You may not acquire any ‘gifts’ at all.”

  Lil pulled a tiny tuft of brown fluff and tossed it to float in the air lazily toward the floor.

  A commotion at the entrance to the dressing chamber made us all look up. Mez was standing, arguing with an angry attendant who was unsuccessfully attempting to bar his forward progress. His skin was still wet and his midnight hair was dripping puddles on the shoulders of his hastily donned school robe. Out of patience, Mez grabbed the poor Imini woman’s upper arms and set her aside as if she were an inconveniently placed piece of furniture. It took him less than three steps to kneel in front of us and delicately cup the back of our hands in his.

  Voice raw, Mez asked, “Why did you not call to me? I would have fought for you.”

  Cass backed away from piloting and settled like a mound of exasperation in our brain. I sighed, suddenly very tired. “Mez, don’t take it to heart. We had to think fast. Kal’s also an Agent with training you don’t have. It doesn’t make sense that we would put you in danger when there was no need. You’re being emotional, not rational.”

  Cass blurted out, “Oh boy.”

  Mez dropped our hands as if they burned him. “I see.” Stone faced, he stood and stormed past the hand ringing attendant without looking back or saying goodbye.

  Confused I asked Lil, “What just happened?”

  One side of her face twitched as she struggled to contain an emotion I didn’t recognize right way until she chuffed in amusement.

  Cass answered, “You just told your super special boyfriend to stop acting like a girlfriend.”

  Lil tugged our towel up over our left shoulder where it had started to fall and patted us absently. “He will be back, Min Druta. Males are very delicate and require special handling. I will have many more discussions with you about this.”

  Our friend motioned to the still flustered attendant and asked for her clothes. Getting dressed seemed like an excellent idea but we couldn’t do it by ourselves. When Lil came back, fully dressed minus her head wrap, she looked more collected. Her eyes took in our helpless state and she snatched our cleaned robe from its cubby and tugged it gently over our wet hair. Getting our arms into the sleeves without scraping our open wounds was difficult but we managed. Lil held our towel in place until our robe settled to our ankles then let it drop. Once our sash was tied and our gloves tucked into it securely, we were decent once again.

  I felt the pull of someone attempting to get our notice from the Web and Cass closed our eyes. The awareness of the moist smells around us faded and our inner eye solidified to reveal Kal. He wasted no time with niceties.

  Words sharp, he said. “Go to the entry arch with Lil. Vel is waiting to receive Sil, who will take you to the lab for medical treatment. Mez may accompany you. I will be busy with The Elders. After Sil tends to your injuries you will return to Denu with Mez and wait at my sister’s home. Do not make the mistake of disobeying me again.”

  Kal was gone before we could respond.

  “He’s worse than Gerome, Silver.”

  “No shit, Sherlock. I guess we tell Lil the plan and find Mez?”

  “Do we have a choice? I’ll give you a moment to tag your super special boyfriend and apologize.” Her tone was wry.

  “Apologize for what, Cassandra? I was being factual and explaining our reasoning. What exactly would you suggest I say I’m sorry for?”

  My sister said, “Forget it, Silver. You do what you want. It’s your love life, not mine.”

  With that she was gone and I was drifting by the unoccupied shell of Kal’s essence with no ide
a what to do. First things first, I would call Mez and tell him of our instructions.

  I tuned my mind to the feel of him through the Bindao and willed myself to his location. A raging atmosphere of storm cells swirled across the churning yellow of his surface to the point that his warm orange center was completely obscured.

  “Mez?”

  Silence was my answer. I could see, now that I was paying attention to anything other than him, multiple streaming lines of light stretching off to join with other essences. According to the strength of the connection, some shone like exploding stars and others with the barest flicker of illumination. The brightest of all had to be his mother. Tal’s essence was the reverse in color to Kal’s. Green, from the palest minty shade to the darkest forest tone, eddied and swirled around an intense almost neon-yellow core.

  “I know you can hear me, Mez. Cassandra says I owe you an apology but I don’t see why. Can you please explain it to me? Are you mad? Did I insult you somehow? Tell me something!” I was already irritated. Most likely that wasn’t the best way to start but oh well.

  Like a planet throwing the cloak of its atmosphere into space, Mez’s opaque shell became diffuse and expanded outward from his turbulent core before it settled back in place. I got a taste of bitter anger, hurt, and more hurt as the unexpected temporary expansion blew past me twice, once out the way out and again on the way in.

  “If I caused you to be upset I’m sorry. I’d probably say the same things again and react exactly the same way to what you said. Since you’re not talking I guess I will. Run it through your head, dangit! If I had called out to you for help you would have shown up naked and weaponless to defend us against someone you aren’t trained to fight. And yes, I know your plan is to be an Agent like Kal one day but you aren’t one—yet. I made the right choice and I would do it again. What the hell are you mad about, Mez?” I could see cloudy sparkling tendrils of my essence leaking outward but I couldn’t seem to stop it.