She held up two fingers.
“Did they hear you?”
“I don’t know. But they’re close and coming this way. We have to get out of here!”
Selden surveyed the dense bushes surrounding them. “We’ll make too much noise if we try to run now. We can’t let them know we’re here. We need to hide!”
Dree took off her Scarlet Stairstep and tossed it at Lug. “Here, take mine!” In a flash of silver, she transformed into a bird and shot up into the forest canopy.
“Oh, why can’t I do that?” whimpered Lug, draping the extra necklace over his head.
“Sit right there and be quiet,” said Selden, pointing to the base of a nearby tree. “They can’t find you if they can’t smell you.”
Lug huddled next to the tree and hugged his knees. He drew his head down between his shoulders. His skin grew mottled and patchy until he looked just like the moss-covered stone Izzy had seen on the path. He shut his eyes, and all trace of his face vanished.
More shrieks pierced the stillness, closer this time.
Selden grabbed Izzy’s hand and pulled her toward the trunk of a large magnolia tree. “Climb up! Hurry!”
He laced his fingers together and bent down. Izzy placed her boot into his hands, and he shoved her up into the lower branches of the tree. She managed to climb a little farther on her own, but the higher branches were just out of reach. Selden Changed into the stoat and scampered up into a nearby pine. He coiled himself around a branch, his little black ears twitching back and forth.
Izzy hugged the tree trunk and strained to listen over the gurgling noises of the creek behind her. She peered down through gaps between the dark magnolia leaves. Slow, tense minutes went by. Then something rustled in the leaf litter below, shuffling closer. Izzy held her breath.
She saw their hands first. Long fingers, gray and gnarled like dead twigs, felt their way forward, groping constantly over the forest floor as if they had eyes at their tips. Their arms were stringy, nothing but gray skin and coarse hair stretched over bones. They lumbered slowly into full view, their backs hunched over like old men. But these beasts could never be mistaken for men. They swung heavy, tusked heads side to side, sniffing the air with hoglike snouts.
The two Unglers worked their way toward Lug until they stood directly in front of him. One rose up on its back legs and lifted its head to sniff the face of the boulder. Folds of warty skin covered the sockets where its eyes should have been.
Izzy bit down on her lower lip. If Lug lost his concentration, he might let go of the Likeness of the boulder. She had to help him. She reached for a magnolia cone and twisted it until it snapped free from its branch. She tossed the dried cone away from Lug, where it thudded onto the ground.
The Unglers wheeled around in the direction of the sound. But instead of following after the cone, one of the Unglers dropped to the ground at Lug’s feet and rooted in the dirt. He jerked his head up and gave two wet snorts. The other one joined him. They snorted back and forth at each other, then began creeping toward the magnolia.
Izzy held her breath, waiting for them to keep moving on. But the Unglers didn’t leave. They circled the magnolia slowly. Izzy reached her fingers up to her neck. She felt for the Scarlet Stairstep that Lug had given her, but her neck was bare. Her stomach dropped. She’d left it hanging from the branch beside the creek.
Directly below her, the Unglers pressed their snouts against the magnolia, leaving dark, slimy trails along the trunk. The wheezing snorts grew faster and heavier. Izzy cringed at the disgusting sound and rose up on her toes. She had thought she was high enough off the ground, but now she realized the Unglers might be able to reach her with their long arms.
She grabbed a branch overhead, holding onto it for balance as she carefully inched out farther along the tree limb. If she could only get farther away from the trunk, she could reach a smaller branch and pull herself higher up into the tree. She glanced at Selden. He shook his head at her and mouthed the words, Be still.
Suddenly, an Ungler shot its arm straight up at Izzy, grazing the heel of her boot with its fingers. She kicked her foot away and scooted faster out onto the limb.
“No, Izzy! Stop!” Selden hissed from his perch in the pine.
Izzy couldn’t breathe. Could they climb trees with those hands? No longer worried about being quiet, she scooted out along the branch. The Ungler beneath her groped for her legs while the other stood at the base of the tree, squealing shrilly. Above her, she saw another, thicker branch. Izzy reached for it. Six more inches and she could make it. She stood on her toes…
Crack! The branch beneath her snapped. Izzy crashed onto the ground. The two Unglers spun around. Their wet nostrils flared in and out as they stepped slowly toward her. Izzy struggled to her feet.
“Be still!” Selden called. He Changed back into a boy and clapped his hands. “Hey, hey, look up here!” he shouted.
The Unglers didn’t turn at the sound of his voice. They felt the air around Izzy’s head, their leathery fingertips wriggling like thick worms. Izzy stood still, her heart pumping so hard she could hear it.
“Hold on, Izzy,” said Selden, climbing down. “Don’t run—”
Their fingers hovered inches from her face.
Izzy turned and fled. Her hat fell behind her, catching on the cord around her neck. The Unglers were close behind, loping through the woods with their hands on the ground like apes.
Izzy screamed and ran faster. She heard the sound of rushing water as the steep bank of the creek appeared suddenly in front of her. Before she could climb down, she felt hands on her back. She threw herself onto the ground and covered her face. The Unglers scrabbled over her, clawing at her neck and arms, trying to turn her over. Saliva dripped onto her, rolling down her collar.
Izzy grasped at the ground until her fingers found a stick. She rolled over, face-to-face with one of the beasts. She jabbed the stick as hard as she could into the place where its eye should have been. The creature squealed and recoiled. It held the side of its face and backed away.
She heard a growl, then snarling and gnashing teeth, and suddenly, the other Ungler was off her as well. Izzy jumped to her feet. The Ungler Izzy had stabbed writhed on the ground a few yards away. A black wolf had its jaws clamped around the other’s shoulder, pulling it down to its knees. The monster reached up and clawed at the wolf’s face. Selden yelped and let go. He backed up, hackles raised, until he stood in front of Izzy.
The Ungler stood before them, its hunched back heaving up and down. Its companion got to its feet, still clutching its bleeding eye socket. Both swayed their heads as they advanced toward Selden and Izzy. The Unglers looked straight at them like they could see. The closest one charged forward.
Wham! Something massive and brown slammed into it. The monster shrieked as it fell over the edge of the steep bank, splashing into the water below. It flailed its long arms, grasping for something to hold, but the swift current dragged it into deep water and away downstream.
The Ungler Izzy had stabbed stood swaying on its back legs, turning its wounded head back and forth. It snarled, bared its teeth, then turned and ran. It galloped away on all fours, its squeals fading behind it.
Izzy exhaled, relieved. Beside her, a shaggy bear lay on the ground, covering his head with both arms. Lug’s whole body shook as he Changed back to himself. Selden, also back in his boy form, pressed his fingers to the scratch on his cheek.
Izzy wanted to thank him for saving her life, but she could barely get the words out. “Selden—I—”
“What are you doing without your Scarlet Stairstep?” he shouted. “I’m sure you’re covered in Lug’s smell. You nearly got us all killed!”
Izzy pointed upstream. “I went back to get it, but then someone thought it would be funny to play a trick on me!”
“Oh, so now it’s my fault? I should’ve let them ri
p you to shreds!”
A bird swooped down and landed at their feet, transforming back into Dree. “Shut up, both of you! Who cares whose fault it is? The real question is, how did they find us?”
They all went quiet.
“I thought you said they stay near the Road,” said Izzy.
“They do. Or at least they did,” said Selden. “We’ve never seen them this far from it before. Dree, did you see where that one went?”
She nodded. “Back in the direction we came from. He’s probably gone to get reinforcements.”
Lug groaned. Izzy helped him stand up and held on to his trembling hands.
Selden rubbed his cheek. The blood already had begun to dry. “I don’t know if we could handle more than two of them.”
“Absolutely not,” whimpered Lug.
“Let’s cross the creek here,” said Selden. “It’ll help mask our scent. We’ll bushwhack straight for the Boneyard.”
They backtracked to the spot where Izzy left her necklace. The mud all around had been kicked up and trampled. As they were leaving, something on the ground caught Izzy’s eye. She bent down and picked it up. It was a cluster of broken snail shells and acorns strung together with a piece of twine.
“That’s from our mobile!” cried Lug, reaching out for the shells. “The one I made for Dree’s birthday!”
Dree’s hands flew to her mouth. “Do you know what this means?”
No one answered, but everyone knew. The Unglers had found Yawning Top. Izzy could see the fear spread over each of the Changelings’ faces as they realized their home was no longer the safe haven it once had been. Without a word, Selden turned and motioned for the others to follow him. Lug let the cracked shells fall out of his hand and stepped on them, grinding them into the mud.
16
A Truce
Moonlight filtered down through the trees by the time they reached the Giant’s Boneyard. Here, the Edgewood thinned out to make room for large sandstone boulders, just like the ones in Izzy’s yard back home. The stones gleamed white in the moonlight, forming the shape of a colossal skeleton half-buried in the ground. If they truly were the bones of a long-dead giant, he would have stretched the length of a house. Selden led the way to the tallest boulder, the skeleton’s shoulder, and they all climbed to the top of it.
“This is good,” he said, scanning their surroundings. “We’ll be able to see anything coming before it gets to us. I’ll take the first watch.”
He Changed into a wolf and sat down on the stone, his ears pointed at the trees. Dree Changed into a white cat striped with silver. She sat beside him, and they began whispering to each other, too low for Izzy to hear. She followed Lug over the boulders until they reached the giant’s skull.
Lug curled up in a hollow depression that resembled an eye socket. He patted the rock. “Come on. Rest here with me,” he said to Izzy.
She sat down beside him and hugged her knees to her chest. “There’s no way I can sleep. What if those things find us again?”
“I’ve never been so close to an Ungler before,” said Lug with a shudder. “When they put those nasty fingers all over my face, I felt like fainting.”
“But you were so brave, the way you charged into them like that. All I could do was run.”
“When I saw them about to hurt you and Selden, something snapped in me. We got lucky there were only two. The Unglers usually prowl the woods with triple that number.”
Izzy looked over her shoulder at Dree and Selden. “You guys can’t go back to Yawning Top now, can you? What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” he said with a sigh. “But I suppose that’s what those two are talking about right now. A terrible shame. I really loved that tree. Almost felt like a proper home.”
Home. The word sent a pang of longing right through Izzy’s chest. If she were home right now, she’d be sitting at the kitchen table reading stories to Hen, while her parents did the dishes. Comfortable. Safe. Izzy shut her eyes to make the thought go away.
“Lug, do you have a mom and dad? I don’t mean the human family you lived with. I mean a real mother and father.”
“No, I’m an orphan.” Lug pointed to where Selden and Dree sat talking. “All Changelings are.”
Izzy felt guilty for asking. “Oh. I’m sorry.”
Lug yawned and patted her knee. “Don’t be sorry. Good Peter travels around Faerie, rounding us all up. We grow up together, take care of each other. Then, before you know it, it’s your turn to do the Exchange.”
“I still don’t understand the Exchange,” said Izzy. “Why do you do it?”
“Well, without the Exchange, Faerie and Earth would be completely cut off from one another. Even though our worlds split up, they still need each other. Without fairies, Earth would be a dreary place with no magic at all. And Faerie needs humans for…well, it needs them for…” Lug chuckled. “I guess I don’t remember why! But there is a reason. Selden must be rubbing off on me. He’s a little harsh on humans.”
“Just a little,” said Izzy. “But what I meant was: why do you do the Exchange? Why leave a magic place like Faerie for boring old Earth?” Izzy glanced at Selden and lowered her voice. “Don’t tell him I said that, or he’ll never quit gloating.”
Lug smiled, and his eyes disappeared behind his downy cheeks. “Selden likes to brag about how much better Faerie is than Earth, but he did the Exchange for the same reason as all the rest of us. To get the chance to have a family.” Lug yawned again and shut his eyes. “Course we’re our own little family now. But that’s just what friends do, don’t they?”
Izzy turned her face away from his. “I kind of wouldn’t know,” she said softly. “Can I tell you something, Lug? I think you might be my very first one.”
A deep snore rumbled beside her. Izzy looked at Lug’s sleeping face and smiled. Then she curled up beside him and shut her eyes.
• • •
It was either very late or very early when Izzy woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. Careful not to wake Lug, she stood up and tiptoed over the boulder until the sound of his snoring faded. She sat down on the giant’s skull’s smooth forehead. The sky was full of stars, like someone had tossed a handful of sugar out into the night.
The trilling of insects filled the darkness. Izzy took off her hat and set it in her lap. She shut her eyes. It was just like being back in Everton, sitting on the side porch in that wicker chair the night before Hen disappeared—the night she had wished for an adventure and to be as far away from home and family as possible. She looked out at the stars and tried to feel if that fragile thread between Hen and her still existed.
“Are you still there?” she whispered. “Please tell me you are!”
“Is who still there?”
Izzy spun around. A wolf stood behind her. For a half second, she forgot who it was and nearly screamed.
“You scared me,” she said with an exhale.
Moonlight glinted off Selden’s fangs as he grinned. “Sorry. Sometimes I forget which form I’m in.” He shook his coat and Changed back into a boy. He walked over and sat down a few feet from Izzy. “You were thinking about your sister, huh?”
She nodded.
“I guess she’s lucky.”
“What do you mean?”
Selden picked at the loose threads of his trouser cuffs. “You know, that she’s got someone who cares about her so much. Before I went to Earth, I thought that’s what all families did.”
Izzy waited for him to say something sarcastic or mean. After all, the last time they spoke, they’d screamed at each other. But he just sat there, winding the strings around his fingers. It seemed like a heavy cloud had gathered over his usually bright eyes.
“Selden, what was your human family like?” Izzy asked.
He shrugged. “Didn’t get much of a chance to find out.” He
paused, then added, “They didn’t want me.”
“Oh,” said Izzy. “I thought you ran away.”
“I did, but only after I heard them say they were going to send me to a—what’s that word? Orpher…orphor—”
“Orphanage.” Based on what Lug had just told her, Izzy realized this meant Selden had been orphaned twice. She ran her fingers around the brim of her hat. Why was it so much easier to talk in the dark? She found words coming to her lips that she couldn’t even bear to think about in the daytime. “You’re wrong, you know. My sister’s not lucky to have me at all. The last time I talked to Hen, we got in a huge fight. I said terrible, terrible things to her. If that’s the last memory she has of me, if I never get the chance to make it right…” She glanced at Selden, expecting one of his smug grins.
Instead, his face was serious. “If you don’t make it right, you’ll regret it every day for the rest of your life.”
He leaned back and tilted his face to the stars that were quickly disappearing into the lightening sky. When he spoke again, the swagger was back in his voice. “Look, it’s no secret we’d both love to be rid of each other, right?”
Izzy raised an eyebrow but didn’t answer.
“I guess we’re going to have to wait a little longer to get our wish,” said Selden. “The three of us are coming to Avhalon now.”
Izzy sat up straighter. “Are you serious? What made you change your mind?”
Selden looked behind him at his sleeping friends and lowered his voice. “When your sister disappeared, you said there was no Changeling to take her place, right?”
“Right…”
“That’s because aside from the three of us, there aren’t any more Changelings left in Faerie to do the job.”
Izzy let his words sink in for a moment. “What happened to them? Was it the Unglers?”
“Yes, sort of. The Unglers hunt Changelings, but they’re working for someone else. They’re working for Morvanna.”
“Morvanna? Who is that?”
“She’s the new queen in Avhalon.” Selden sneered. “At least that’s what she makes everyone call her.”
The Changelings Series, Book 1 Page 9
