CHANGELING: Book Two in the Weaver Series Read online

  Mez broadcast in a tight cord of emotion. “What do you need from me, Silver?”

  “What?” Now I was even more confused.

  His thoughts got so hard they felt like a knife when they touched my mind.

  “Silver, am I your partner or am I someone you are forced to work around? Do I fit into your plans, whatever they might be?”

  Mez sounded more angry than hurt now. He hadn’t called me Leoght Cor one time. “You’re my partner, I thought.”

  “Then why did you not think to tell me you were in danger? After Kal took out the Baelc assassin you could have let me know what happened but you did not. Why? I had to find out from my eam that you had been attacked and were injured. Why did you not think to tell me? Is it because I was of no use? Are you that cold?” His emotions were now firmly entrenched in the hurt category with those last three questions.

  I paused. I had no words to explain, only memories and emotions. It caught me off guard when the recollection of my first Web excursion welled up—Cass and I had been under a year old but I couldn’t remember our exact age in months. We’d been walking already, although that didn’t mean much, since we did everything early, to the concerned consternation of our parents. Joy and terror had warred in my developing mind at the concept of infinity and I’d felt the weight of the unknown like a two ton monster about to swallow me whole. I’d curled into the comforting safety of my twin and wallowed in the knowledge that I’d never be alone, even when I felt that way. The words still wouldn’t come, though. On instinct I gathered a copy of that remembrance and thrust it outward to loop around Mez and crash into his still churning yellow storm in a mobile lightning bolt.

  “I’m not cold. I do feel. You make me more, just like Cass.” Now I was sad and hurt. Gaseous arms of gold stretched toward me, anchoring me up against Mez. I went willingly into the embrace, but not before I swatted at him half-heartedly.

  “Now I am sorry, Leoght Cor. We will get better at this. You are not my modor and I should not put her calculating nature into any thoughts about your motives.” Warmth and relief accompanied Mez’s words.

  I didn’t necessarily want to ruin our ‘kumbaya’ moment but my sister and I needed to get to the lab and patched up. I pushed Kal’s orders at Mez and he disengaged immediately.

  All business, he said, “I will meet you at the entrance to the baths.”

  When I reoriented myself in our body it was to find that we were already waiting by the mouth of the bathing coliseum with Lil, who had her headdress more securely wrapped than we’d ever seen it. Her eyebrows looked artificially arched as if the pressure from the snug cloth was giving her an unneeded face lift.

  Cass asked, “All’s right in the world of Silver and Mez? Should I buy monogrammed napkins for the wedding?”

  Impatient and guarded, I fired back. “Don’t be a jerk. Remind me to be this sweet when we get back to Earth and James pulls some shit on you.”

  “Touchy, touchy, Silver.”

  Out loud I told Lil, “Mez is coming and then we can head out.”

  Lil’s nictitating lenses went over her eyes in slow pass then she lowered her eyelids. We assumed she was in communication with Vel or Jaz. Mez came from the direction of the men’s changing area and he made sure to put three fingers to his forehead as he passed the fuming female attendant staring daggers at him. Her disapproval was entrenched and not even a smile on top of the obeisance Mez threw her way put a dent in it. He would be persona non grata at the bathing coliseum for a while.

  His smile faded when he took in the damage to our hands again. “Perhaps you should hold your arms straight up when we maneuver the bazaar? I would not want them hit.”

  Lil opened her eyes and started talking like someone had pulled her string. “Who says we are walking the normal way? Follow me and stay close.”

  Steps crisp, back straight, Lil walked to an empty section of cavern wall. With a pass of her light brown palm the granite began a hypnotic swirl then elongated into a ten foot high indented oval. The granules in the once solid mass made a whispering sound as if ghosts were trying to break through from another plane. That thought took on an eerie significance with Pez’s death so fresh on our mind. Lil rested her fingernails on the edge of her curled thumb and then opened her hand wide. A tunnel zoomed outward into the dark innards of the volcano. Her gray clad back rose higher than normal as she stepped onto the seemingly firm floor of her newborn passage.

  Lil motioned us forward with two crooked fingers. “What are you waiting for?”

  I raised our eyebrows at Mez and he pushed us toward Lil by our elbows. The opening was only wide enough for us all to stand single file but more than tall enough to accommodate Mez’s greater height. No sooner than we were both inside, a whispering rushing sound and an abrupt lack of light clued us in that Lil has sealed the rock behind us. Why weren’t the walls glowing? The dark was absolute and all encompassing. Lil was still molding the tunnel because our ears were picking up the slithering dry noise of the granite moving at her bidding. We jumped when Lil grabbed our shoulder. Our eyes were straining to pick up any illumination at all and if we’d been able to see them in a mirror, they probably would’ve resembled inky dimes with a tawny rim of iris.

  “I will keep a hold of you, Min Druta. Mez must maintain his hold on you as well. Do not attempt to move your legs or walk. This will be fast. Try not to fall and hold tight.” Her disembodied voice was more grownup than we’d ever heard it.

  The tunnel floor began to undulate under the soles of our feet. Mez’s fingers spasmed around our elbows. Momentum built and our speed increased. There were no visual cues but we were all leaning our bodies at an angle like skiers on a steep slope with our knees slightly bent. Cass and I thought we might have imagined it, but Lil shifted in front of us and we could’ve sworn a pinpoint of white hovered ahead.

  We began to pick Lil’s outline out of the nothingness—first just the leather grain of her tunic, and then the curve of her arm took shape. Our velocity decreased until our knees unbent and our posture became upright. The muscles in the small of our back were screaming at the tension. Like a travelator in an airport, the manipulated floor was getting us to our destination faster than regular bipedal locomotion alone. The light of the opening was blinding to our illumination starved pupils so we closed our eyes and hoped we didn’t fall.

  A swaying disorienting wave motion made our inner ear confused and we didn’t realize we’d stopped completely until Mez lifted us by our waist then set us on our feet, we assumed in the open. The lack of the creepy slithering, whispering rock noise was a relief. Cass tried to crack our lids and it felt like the normally comforting ambient light seared our retinas. There was nothing for it though, so we kept exposing our eyes then squinting until the scene around us was visible.

  Vel stood by Sil with a hovering Zik, and Mez had our body wedged protectively along his left side. Vel’s eyes softened in our direction as he took in our injuries. Lil slid her fingers along the fringe of Vel’s tunic in a nervous gesture. He touched her sharp jaw with the ridge of his knuckles – fierce pride flashed in the set of his mouth. Zik moved forward around Sil with a soft swish of taupe robes to weave his neck delicately at us and politely ask, “Are you ready?”

  At our expression of confusion Sil said, “The Elders have seen fit to grant Zik clearance control for the lab protocols as they cannot, at this time, spare any Agents from the Guild of Discovery. Chasing Baelc to its root has taken precedence. Let us be on our way.”

  The pain of our wounds hadn’t faded but the bleeding had stopped thanks to my efforts. We couldn’t stay this way indefinitely though unless we wanted to lose the use of our hands. Sil’s urgency was much appreciated. The borders of our now cleared vision began to crumble after Zik placed a trembling, clammy hand around one of our bony wrists. Porous gray walls replaced the towering trunks and twisted roots of the trees by the entrance arches to Denu.

  Cass gave a yelp when Mez swept us into hi
s arms with no warning to place us on the flat dull surface of the regeneration module. To cover her embarrassment at squealing like a nervous piglet, my twin quipped, “So, uh, you’re not going to dissolve our robes this time right, Sil? I hate to break it to you, but this is all we’ve got to our name at the moment.”

  We also weren’t ready for Mez to see us nude either. My sister seconded that thought.

  Zik’s face was stern and emotionless as he punched the controls on the side of the table. It was unlike him to be so closed off. Sil pointed Mez to a chair with an imperious expression and he reluctantly shambled out of the way to sit on the edge of the seat, attention centered on us.

  Sil answered in a clipped distracted voice, his mind already on the next step. “That was an aberration I assure you. Please be still while I examine your injury. Do you wish a sedative for the pain? If I am forced to probe the tissue there could be considerable discomfort. My options are limited since this lab was never meant to be a hospital.”

  Zik appeared with a metal tray of instruments on a white square. The only tool we recognized looked like a clamp; every other shiny sterile item was foreign.

  I answered for us, “Let’s try with no drugs. Being down for the count doesn’t seem appealing at the moment.”

  Sil didn’t argue. It was an excruciating, drawn-out torture as he reattached the sliced tendons one at a time—five in total—two on our left hand and three on the right. Cass and I withdrew to the days of our imprisonment and swallowed our suffering with carefully controlled silence. We couldn’t suppress our involuntary biological reactions to pain without breaking our intense concentration, so as we felt the blood drain from our face I pictured our pale skin going alabaster, blue veins revealed like a map to a hidden city.

  Sil glanced up once to see our determination then bent his head to his work with alacrity. The part to his hair with its dark roots blocked the view of our mangled fingers. We didn’t really want to see anyway. Our gaze wandered and caught Mez’s ashen, awed expression. He shifted in his chair at our stare and tried to smile in encouragement.

  Finally, Sil raised his head and laid his bloody tools and protective gloves on the tray Zik patiently held ready. “Done. You may lie back on the regeneration module.” Sil’s expression changed, his brow smoothed, his lips curved up at the corners and his jovial nature returned. “I will double check the settings myself to assure Zik has not attempted to disintegrate your attire.” He smiled at a frozen Zik. “Move aside, please.”

  Zik still didn’t move. His face contorted inward as if a wormhole had opened in the vicinity of his nose. He looked to our prone form and then back at Sil. The instruments on the metal tray were skittering all across the bloodied white square as Zik’s body was gripped by something terrible.

  Sil placed his dark brown, almost black hands to either side of Zik’s face. “What have you done? Who has Baelc threatened to make you do it?”

  Tears welled in the corner of Zik’s eyes to quietly outline the bridge of his nose. Speech seemed beyond his capability. Zik’s features kept metamorphosing from tortured to angry, as if an internal tug of war were happening in his soul.

  Sil screamed in Zik’s face, “Get out you parasite! Get out of his head!”

  Something changed. Sil drew back his hands and stumble stepped away with a fist to his chest. Menace hung in the air. Mez launched to his feet as if to come to our aid but Sil put out a straight arm and darted a harsh glance his way, so he halted with a look of uncertainty. Mez’s gaze kept dancing from us to Sil to Zik then he stilled and closed his eyes. We hoped like hell he was calling for Kal. I could’ve done it easy but I wasn’t going to leave Cass again—not after today’s events at the baths.

  Meek, unassuming Zik was gone. In his place was a predator. The tray of instruments was steady as one slim-fingered brown hand rose to caress the handle of a sharp ended tool that brought to mind scissors. Voice smooth and bold the invader spoke, “Greetings, Sil. Did you miss me? I was your greatest achievement was I not? It is a shame we parted without our goodbyes.”

  Sil’s chin puckered but the rest of his face remained emotionless. “I would hardly call you my greatest anything. Why are you squatting in my assistant’s body? What do you want?”

  Zik’s lips turned up and his teeth shone. “I think you know.”

  Sil’s whole body flinched. “No, Kai. There will be no more like you. Not while I live. The Elders agreed to abandon any further genetic experimentation. We are not meant to meddle with the grand design.”

  Cass sputtered mentally. “Shit! How is this even happening? What the heck are they talking about?”

  The Zik that wasn’t Zik had been slowly backing toward the controls at the regeneration module’s end. When he reached for them one handed, still holding the instrument tray like a waiter, we rolled to the side and into open air.

  Chapter Nineteen: Mad Scientist, Mad Mistakes

  Our impact with the floor knocked the wind out of us and our fingers were screaming in jagged spikes of stabbing pain from their trapped position under our chest. Something was burning. When Cass craned upward it was to see the blue dome in full force. Nothing was on fire but the singed scent persisted. The cause was revealed when we noticed a ‘v’ of black missing from the bottom of our robe. It must’ve still been inside when the field engaged.

  Cass growled, “That rat bastard just tried to kill us.”

  Taken aback at our close call and trying like hell to hide it, I replied, “We can’t do much with our hands all jacked. I don’t have the time or the energy to heal us up. You got any clue as to what we should do next, Sister?”

  Cass brought up our light field and rolled us under the regeneration module for a view of Sil and Zik’s legs. They were talking again but I was too keyed up to pay attention.

  “For starters, Silver, we split up. I guess the aim is to hold out until Kal or somebody else ‘ports to the rescue. Zik has the bypass to the lab but The Elders and Fid Tal can get in, too.”

  The telltale ozone of a teleportation would give our rescuers away so we came up with a plan to muddy the waters. We could bend all over the room to disguise anyone’s arrival. I launched into the Web. Mez was already waiting for me.

  His reaction to our idea to mask the cavalry’s arrival was immediate. “Yes, we split the room in half, straight down the middle. Stay on the perimeter. Modor is coming.”

  Alarmed, I reacted, perhaps a bit too harshly. “You called Tal?”

  His orange center looked almost waxy, then he sent, “Stick to the plan, Leoght Cor.”

  I settled back into sync with Cass. We were still in the same spot under the table. Kai was talking with Zik’s voice but I only caught the tail end of a taunt. Sometime, while we’d been distracted with our own predicament, the body snatcher had discarded the instrument tray in favor of two of its sharpest, shiny tools—one for each hand. As we watched he took a step toward Sil and swung out awkwardly. The scientist dodged easily and laughed.

  Sil’s words were laced with a dark satisfaction. “You cannot control Zik completely can you, Kai? This is not the first time he has resisted is it? Fleshing from afar cannot be easy with an unwilling host.”

  Kai growled through Zik’s clenched teeth then gave a brilliant smile before stabbing his host in the side with a quick jab. “Oh, I can use this body well enough, Sil.”

  Blood welled out to soak the surrounding cloth around the handle of the improvised weapon, turning the vest a red tinted dark brown. The wound wasn’t mortal but it had to have been painful for Zik.

  Sil’s amusement evaporated.

  We couldn’t sit here and do nothing. The first hint of ozone had become evident—Mez was already moving forward with the plan. Sil and Kai stopped to scent the air with lifted chins and flared nostrils, staring at one another, then they exploded in a flurry of action. Zik’s squatter was determined to kill Sil, who was no fighter, but because of his assistant’s continued internal struggles against Kai, he at
least had a chance to maneuver away before each strike.

  I visualized our half of the lab and picked a random spot. We concentrated, and just that quickly we were standing against the rough gray granite of the wall. Our robe snagged with a miniscule tug between our shoulder blades as we stepped forward to pick another spot for a bend. Fid Tal better show up soon. Sil couldn’t hold out long. Why did Kai, aka Shiva, want him dead anyway? What would that accomplish?

  Cass gave me a mental slap, “Get your head in the game! Now, Silver!”

  I took one last look at the fight to see Sil go down in a heap. It looked like Zik’s fist had connected with Sil’s head in a lucky swing. We were out of damn time. The air pressure in the lab changed subtly. Someone else had joined the fray with their light field engaged. A pop like an air rifle was fired, then a metallic disc appeared on Zik’s forehead and his body collapsed on top of Sil’s as if someone had stolen all of his bones.

  Flotsam and Jetsam were revealed standing to either side of the taupe robe mound, as color flew from their once concealed forms to dissipate into nothingness. Fid Tal was further away as she lowered the arm she’d used to fire the gun-like device in her hand.

  We shredded our own light field. Across the lab Mez molded the light away from himself in delicate folds, like large scale origami. It was beautiful. He caught our stare then popped into our immediate vicinity.

  Mez’s warm palms supported the back of our hands. “Come, we need to reset the regeneration module for your healing at once.”

  Cass dug in her heels when he grabbed our wrists to tug us in the desired direction. “Uh-uh, Butthead, get us some food and Silver can fix us. We’re not getting on that thing. It tried to eat our robe.”

  Mez blew a breath out of the side of his mouth and looked down. He frowned for a moment and widened his lips to argue but Fid Tal’s voice hit him from behind like a whip. She was much closer than expected.

  Her Highness’s braid was tied in a knot just behind one ear and unlike her voice; her skin was smooth and warm. “Are you hurt?” The words were aimed at her son.