The Changlings (The New Earth Chronicles Book 2)

by J. J. Thompson

“It's about damned time someone took the plunge,” she said loudly with a withering look at the pile of cloth at her feet. “We stopped being kids the day that Ottawa fell. I'm just sorry that it took ten years for someone to work up the nerve to uncover their face.”

  She smiled affectionately at Sarah.

  “Somehow it seems appropriate that you and Caroline were the first ones to do it, my friend,” Miesha told her. “And Bobby too. Excellent.”

  “I can't take the credit for it,” Sarah replied modestly. “Caroline was the very first one. And if this silly boy hadn't gotten hurt,” she prodded Bobby with an elbow, “I might never have done it.”

  “Hey! It's not my fault. It was those damned goblins,” he protested.

  Miesha frowned at him.

  “What about the goblins?” she asked sharply.

  “That's why we're here,” Sarah said, her smile fading. “Magnus told us that Bobby had been struck down by some sort of magical trap set by the goblins. And he believes that they are going to set up a permanent base near the city and try to clear us out, starting with more of those magical traps. So I'm trying to warn all of our people about them before someone else stumbles across one.”

  Miesha was nodding as she listened closely.

  “Makes sense. Frigging goblins. As if life in the city isn't hard enough, now we have to worry about them and their dark magic. Wonderful.”

  “Can you let your people know?” Sarah asked her. “We need to keep moving if we want to reach as many other camps as we can before nightfall.”

  “Yes, of course. You'd better see Sandra next though. You know how aggressive she and her followers can be.”

  Sarah smiled ruefully.

  “That is my next stop. I just hope that telling them about the traps doesn't make them even more determined to drive the goblins off. Trying to do that will only get them killed, and enrage the enemy as well.”

  “Screw the goblins,” Miesha said harshly. “If I had my way, they'd all be dead.”

  Sarah and Bobby stared at her, surprised by her uncharacteristic anger.

  Miesha returned their looks and shrugged.

  “What can I say? We've lost too many of our friends to those monsters over the years. How many has it been now? Six?”

  “Yeah, that sounds about right,” Sarah told her heavily. “I feel the same way, Miesha, but we don't have the numbers, the power or the skills to fight those creatures. The best that we can do is avoid them. We might even have to leave the city eventually, if things get really bad.”

  The other woman nodded reluctantly.

  “Yes, that's occurred to me as well, although I certainly haven't mentioned it to the others. They'd freak out. Okay, consider us warned, my friends. You'd better keep moving while the sun is high.”

  She extended her hands and Sarah touched them briefly.

  “Be safe and good luck,” Miesha told them.

  “You too. Talk to you soon.”

  When they had returned to the spot where Jeremy was standing guard, both Sarah and Bobby were taken by surprise. The young man had actually removed his head coverings and was standing there in the darkness running his fingers through his long, curly brown hair.

  Sarah's stone lit up the area and she grinned at his shy smile.

  “Well, look at you,” she said cheerfully. “You look amazing, Jeremy.”

  “I do? Really?” he asked in surprise.

  Jeremy's mutation had been a strange one, even for a Changling. He'd grown an extra finger on each hand and an extra toe on each foot, but that wasn't very unusual among them. But his canine teeth had lengthened and sharpened and, when he smiled, people who had never met him before were taken aback. His hearing and eyesight were also incredibly sensitive, which made him the perfect lookout and scout for his group.

  Other than that, Jeremy looked very young, but cute, with a stubby nose, large brown eyes and an irregular mole on his left temple

  “Really. I'd forgotten about those amazing teeth of yours. They are awesome.”

  The young man's smile faded.

  “People used to say I looked like a vampire, or an animal,” he muttered.

  “Well, they were wrong,” Bobby stated firmly. “You look great. I only see your face when we meet down by the river occasionally, and you're usually soaking wet, but Sarah's right. So don't think about what those people used to say back in the old days. Just imagine what they said about me and my fish skin. At least if you kept your mouth closed, people couldn't see your teeth. I couldn't hide my freakishness.”

  He sounded so bitter that Sarah was taken aback. Bobby had never spoken about his life before they met in the Diefenbunker, and she had respected that. It occurred to her that he might have been mistreated much more than most of them, with his obvious 'otherness'. But before she could comfort him, Jeremy spoke up.

  “Then those people were just stupid,” he said stoutly. “You look great, Bobby. At least, I think so. Your skin reflects colors even in this dim light. It makes you look like you have an aura around you. Very cool.”

  “You think so?”

  “Totally. I think you could have been a model for one of those fashion magazines back in the old days.”

  “Wow.”

  Sarah grinned at the two of them.

  “Okay guys, I hate to break up this mutual admiration society, but we have to get moving.”

  Both young men blushed at her comment and Sarah laughed at them. Then she shook a finger at Jeremy.

  “Don't you dare cover your head again,” she warned him with a smile. “You are free of that nonsense now, and the past is behind us, so let it go and move forward. All right?”

  “Yeah, I know. It's just going to take me a little while to get used to feeling the air on my face. But I like it, I really do.”

  “Good for you. Come on, Bobby. We've got places to reach before the sun sets.”

  She winked at Jeremy and moved past him. Bobby hesitated and then reached out carefully and ruffled Jeremy's curls.

  “I've always wanted to do that,” he said, grinning.

  Jeremy smiled in return.

  “Feel free to do it any time you want to,” he replied. “I don't really mind.”

  “Cool.”

  Sarah and Bobby waved as they turned a corner and resumed their journey, both of them in a much lighter mood.

  Chapter 6

  Reaching Sandra's place only took about thirty minutes, once Sarah and Bobby had returned to the surface. For reasons of her own, Sandra had located her camp directly underneath what had once been the Rideau Canal. The canal had wound its way through the city from north to south and then down across country all the way to Lake Ontario, hundreds of miles away. But on the Night of Burning, that had come to an end. The canal had been destroyed by the dragons.

  Sections of it were choked with debris, much of the water in it was vaporized by the fire and acid raining from the sky, and all of the bridges that had been built across it were torn down. In short, the canal was gone.

  But Sandra had found a series of subterranean pipes large enough to walk through, dozens of feet below the now ruined canal, and had decided to set up her camp inside of them. The decision had seemed very risky to Sarah, who worried that the water that the pipes had once carried would return. But Sandra ignored her warnings, and those of the others, and had moved in anyway, along with a handful of her friends. And so far, at least, her choice had proven to be a good one.

  “How far do these pipes go, anyway?” Bobby asked, once they had descended into Sandra's territory and started following the winding tunnel that had once carried millions of gallons of water.

  “No idea,” Sarah replied. “Several miles, at least. Sandra claims that they actually lead all the way out of the city to the south, although some have been clogged or broken over the years. And she would know, I suppose.”

  The large pipes might no longer be full of liquid, but they were still wet in places. Sarah and Bobby had to watch their
step to avoid puddles and areas covered in muddy pools. The air smelled moldy and damp and Sarah wrinkled her nose at the stench. She didn't like it.

  “Why build your home in this place?” Bobby grumbled as he slipped on a patch of mold and almost fell. “It can't be healthy for you.”

  “I agree. But as much as we don't like it, can you imagine the goblins tramping through this place?” Sarah told him. “With all of the water and mud? I can't. This may end up being the safest camp in the city, after Magnus' place, of course.”

  “Huh. I hadn't thought of that. I still don't like it though.”

  “Me neither.”

  Instead of metal doors securing their camp, Sandra and her people had built up barricades to the north and south to seal off their perimeter against enemies. And in front of these choke points were sudden drop-offs where the main pipe had been split in two. One of the cracks dropped straight down dozens of feet. All of these breaks were filled with black, stagnant water. It was a very effective defense.

  Sarah and Bobby reached the northern barricade and stared across the murky gap at the wall beyond. It was built of rock and sheets of iron with just a narrow doorway to one side big enough for one person to pass through at a time. Sarah held out her stone and the pair looked down into the hole. About ten feet below them they saw the light reflected off of the scummy black surface of oily water.

  “Ugh. Don't fall in,” Bobby warned. “Even if you didn't drown, you'd probably catch about a hundred diseases just touching that stuff.”

  “No kidding.”

  Sarah held up her stone and looked across the gap. There was no sign of any sentry and she wondered if anyone was guarding the tunnel.

  “Hello?” she called out. “Anyone home?”

  Her voice echoed back down the tunnel behind her, becoming distorted and alien, and she shivered at the sound.

  “Who is that?” someone responded from the other side of the barricade.

  “It's me, Sarah. And I have Bobby with me. Marshall? Is that you?”

  In the glow from her stone, Sarah saw someone wrapped in dark cloth peer out of the narrow entrance next to the barrier.

  “Sarah? Hi! What are you doing here? Hi Bobby.”

  “Hey Marshall,” Bobby replied with a wave.

  “We need to talk to Sandra,” Sarah told him. “Is she home?”

  “Yep. Hang on and I'll extend the plank for you guys. Try not to fall off when you cross over.”

  “Good advice,” Bobby muttered.

  They watched as a narrow length of wood was pushed across the gap until it rested securely on the ground on their side. Marshall held up a stone that was almost a twin to the one that Sarah carried and they could see well enough to watch their footing as they crossed.

  She and Bobby exchanged looks and he waved at the bridge.

  “Ladies first,” he said with a grin.

  “Thanks a lot,” she replied sarcastically. “Here, take the stone. I wouldn't want you to fall in because you missed a step.”

  She easily walked across the plank, which barely flexed under her light weight, and slipped past Marshall. The gap wasn't wide enough for them to stand side by side.

  “Hey, I can see your face,” he exclaimed. “Cool.”

  “Thanks, I like it,” she responded jokingly.

  Bobby was a lot slower and more deliberate when he walked across the temporary bridge. The plank creaked alarmingly and Sarah felt a moment of cold fear as it sagged in the middle.

  But Bobby made it across and let out a sigh of relief when he was standing on firm ground again.

  Marshall waved him past and then retracted the plank. Then he led the pair through the barricade into the open tunnel beyond.

  There was a metal desk and chair there with several candles burning in holders on top of it, and a large open book in front of them.

  “Doing some reading?” Sarah asked with interest as she peered at the book.

  “Yeah, I am,” Marshall said heavily. He slipped his magic stone inside of his wrappings. “According to Sandra, my grammar needs work, so I have to re-take my grade eleven English course. Again.”

  He cursed gently under his breath and then shrugged within his robes.

  “Oh well, it gives me something to do. Plus, Sandra is going to be grading me when I write the exam, so I'd better not mess it up.”

  “Yuck. English grammar,” Bobby said as he made a face. “I hated that.”

  “Well, if Sandra and Miesha and Rachel hadn't made all of us continue with our studies, even after the adults were all gone, we'd still be reading and speaking like little kids,” Sarah told both of the young men. “I personally think that it was a very clever way to distract everyone, when things were at their worst.”

  “She's very practical, have you noticed that?” Marshall said to Bobby, who rolled his eyes.

  “You're telling me. I'm older, but Sarah was the one who made me do my lessons when we were kids. Bit of a pain sometimes, you know?”

  “I hear you. Sandra's the same way.”

  “Um, guys? I'm right here,” Sarah told them pointedly.

  “Why, so you are!” Marshall exclaimed in mock surprise. “You're so short that I thought you'd already left.”

  She burst out laughing. Marshall, who was around her own age, had turned out to be the comedian among the Changlings. Even in their early years, when everyone was still getting over the trauma of losing both the adults and the city itself, he could coax a smile out of her and most of the others. It had helped to boost their spirits and had made the young man very popular among his peers.

  “Don't be too smart,” Sarah warned him with a grin. “One day you'll say the wrong thing and Sandra will dump you in one of those deep holes.”

  “Well, she hasn't yet, so maybe she's built up a tolerance for my stupid jokes. And unless I get back to this damned grammar,” he reached down and tapped on the open book, “I'll never be too smart.”

  Sarah and Bobby chuckled at the remark and Marshall pointed down the tunnel.

  “Go ahead in. Sandra will be thrilled to see you both. We don't get a lot of visitors.”

  “Gee, I wonder why,” Bobby said with a shudder as he looked back at the barricade, and the pit beyond.

  “Keeps out the riffraff,” Marshall said lightly as he sat down behind the desk. “You'll have to tell me why you've uncovered your faces when you come back through. I'm sure that Sandra already knows that you're here. You shouldn't keep her waiting.”

  Sarah thanked him and led Bobby down the tunnel.

  The area was clean and well swept and the smell of stagnant water was barely noticeable. Sandra insisted on tidiness and order and her people benefited from it.

  “How would Sandra know that we are here?” Bobby wondered as they walked down the sloping passageway.

  “The same way that I would,” Sarah told him. “You saw Marshall's stone. Sandra can use magic like I can. And now, with the power strong again, obviously she's taking full advantage of it. Good for her.”

  “Oh right. I'd forgotten that. You know, I always wondered why it was only you and her that could do that whole 'communicate through rock' thing. Any ideas?”

  Sarah stopped and looked back at him with a puzzled smile.

  “'Communicate through rock' thing? Really? That's what you call it?”

  “That's what everyone calls it,” Bobby said matter-of-factly. “Because that's what it is. You hand someone a stone and then you can talk to them over long distances. What else would you call it?”

  “Well, anything but that. It sounds lame. And it's a bit more complicated than that. I have to prepare the stones, etch runes into them...”

  “Lame? Sarah, it's awesome! I wish that I could that, enchant things the way you can. And now that the magic has returned, maybe you can experiment and see what else you can do, eh?”

  “Hmm, that's not a bad idea, actually. With the goblins around, maybe permanently, we're going to need all the help that we can
get. I'll think about it. Thanks, Bobby.”

  “Don't thank me,” he said with a grin. “You're the smart one. I'm just the tag-along.”

  “You are not. You're my friend and very clever in your own way. Now, let's go, before Sandra comes looking for us.”

  In the main room of the camp, the traditional fire pit had been dug into the middle of the large area and a fire was burning cheerfully, sending shadows dancing across the walls. Torches were burning in stands and lit up the room brightly. A dozen sturdy huts, built not of scraps and pieces of metal, but of real red brick, were lined up along opposite walls.

  To Sarah, it always looked like a miniature model of a real street, with houses facing each other and a central road down the middle. Sandra was a very organized person and her home reflected that mindset.

  Several Changlings were sitting in chairs in front of their huts, chatting merrily with each other, while others were sitting around the fire pit. One was writing furiously while two more were engaged in a lively debate, their arms sticking out of their wrappings as they gestured excitedly. Sarah wondered what they were arguing about.

  She and Bobby stood waiting at the entrance to the room. It would be bad manners to just barge in without an invitation, especially when they were dealing with Sandra. She was old-fashioned that way.

  They didn't have to wait for long. A tall Changling strode past the fire pit from the back of the room straight toward them, robes fluttering, and Sarah recognized the confident walk immediately.

  “Here she comes,” she said quietly.

  “I know. She's hard to miss,” Bobby replied as he watched the tall figure approach them.

  “So, here you are,” Sandra said as she came to a stop in front of the pair. Her voice was very deep for a woman. “And both of you bare-headed. I like it. Are you starting a fashion revolution or what?”

  Sarah laughed at the question.

  “Maybe so, but not on purpose. I just got tired of it, that's all. I can see better, breathe better, and it just feels good.”

  “Hmm. Seems a little indecent to me. But I'm not your boss, so my opinion doesn't really count.”