The Changespell Saga

by Doranna Durgin

  Carey laughed, a pained sound, and said, “I imagine that can be arranged.”

  ~~~~~

  Mark looked out the window—one of the few windows in Arlen’s hold—and said, “So what if they don’t believe us at home? They can’t prove otherwise.”

  Jaime sat in a rocking chair, the cat on her lap, and lightly traced the lines of the bandage beneath her trousers. The mage-medics could have easily cared for the scratch, but had requested that she see their unmagicked counterparts unless the small wound became a problem. She had willingly agreed; it was obvious that they had their hands full of injured parties from both sides of the fighting. They had, at least, healed the break in her nose, although the kind young man who’d done it had apologetically explained to her that the natural healing had started slightly crooked, and that he would have to break it again if she wanted it straight. She had declined without regret.

  She regarded Mark without responding to him. He, too, had been left to finish healing on his own, and still moved carefully—as though he were afraid his bones would give out on him without warning.

  She couldn’t blame him. Carey, too, continued to struggle, and was visited daily by medics both magical and not, who monitored the progress of healing from a perverted spell they had not previously encountered. Dayna sat cross-legged on the bed and it was she who broke the silence. “Don’t get your story set in stone,” she said. “I’m not sure I’m going back with you.”

  “You’re not?” Mark blurted, and the cat leaped out of Jaime’s lap at her start of surprise.

  “No...I don’t think so.” She picked at the hem of her trousers, which were slightly too long, as usual. “I don’t expect you guys to understand—I’m not sure I do. I mean, at first I hated the whole idea of doing magic. But...I guess I’ve seen it do some good. I guess I’ve done some good with it. And I think it’s something I could be good at. Really good.”

  “That’s the truth,” Mark said, putting his back to the window and crossing his arms. “It’s not something you’ll get the chance to try out back home.”

  “Right. And...if it turns out I hate it, I can always come on home. If you guys are willing to take care of some details with the house, that is.”

  “Better make a list,” Jaime said, somewhat wearily. “And we have to remember to leave you out of our little story—which is thin enough as it is. Kidnapped, taken to Zaleski State Forest in southern Ohio, held for a month or so, during which time Eric is killed, and we escape after killing the bad guys. They’ll never find any evidence to back that up, because there isn’t any. That’s not real life, that’s a TV movie of the week.”

  “There isn’t any evidence that we’re lying, either,” Mark insisted. “Ernie’s got a history, I think, and they’ll know he’s been out of sight. The hardest part will be getting to Zaleski without leaving a trail, and then staggering convincingly out of the woods.”

  No. The hardest part would be going back to life as usual, and pretending she had not been changed by the things that had happened to her here.

  “Besides,” Dayna offered, sounding as tired as Jaime of this process, “No one’s thought of anything better.”

  That was the crux of it. No one had.

  “When do we leave, then?” Jaime asked. “We could go anytime we wanted, I think. In fact, now that they have the checkspell, I’ll bet a lot of wizards are anxious for us to leave before it’s actually in place. Afterwards it’ll probably take an act of Congress.”

  “Right,” Mark snorted. “It’s nice to see bureaucracy is universal.”

  Jaime stood. “I’m going to take a walk,” she said, suddenly overwhelmed with the reality of the good-byes she faced. “If I see Arlen, I’ll tell him we’re ready to go.”

  “Yeah,” Mark agreed, sounding as wistful as she felt. “We’re ready to go.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  As natural as it Jaime found it to head for horses, she was not surprised to discover Carey, a kindred spirit of sorts, trying to organize his thoughts in their company. As she wandered toward the pasture on the other side of the gardens, she heard sounds of work from the round training pen set in the flat ground between the huge garden plots, and she detoured to find Carey riding a dun horse there. This dun was dark, almost brown, and his black points were nearly lost in the depth of his coat—but there was something about the set of his neck and head that reminded her of something...or someone.

  Carey caught her staring, and halted next to her. “Jess’s brother,” he said. “A good steady fellow, but not up to the treatment he got from Calandre’s people. I have a lot of retraining to do.” He stared grimly off onto nowhere and said, “He’s better off than his—and Jess’s—half-sister. They rode her to death.”

  It was his first reference to the destruction Calandre’s people had wrought. As far as Jaime knew, he had not yet dealt with the massive loss of his friends and comrades, the couriers he had managed for Arlen. She opened her mouth to say something about them, but hesitated, and instead said, “I’m sorry. Are you up to this yet?”

  He gave her a sharp look, but it faded into a rueful shrug that admitted the question was a valid one. “Not just yet.” He moved the horse into a walk, and rode figure-eights as he talked with her—gentle, concentrated movements at a good working pace. “Trying to get his confidence back,” he told her.

  Jaime forbore from mentioning it didn’t look like he could handle anything more than a walk, anyway. His movements still had the look of effort about them, and from afar she would have guessed he was an old man with arthritic joints and aching muscles.

  “We’re gearing up to leave,” she said suddenly, plunging into the subject without getting her toes wet first. “We think we have the kidnap story worked out pretty well.”

  “I still don’t quite understand that angle,” Carey said, his voice slightly distant as he took the horse through the change of rein from one circle to the other. “People are kidnapped here, too, but it’s usually for money, or at least lust.”

  Jaime shrugged. “A lot of people think if you’ve got valuable horses, you’ve got money. The truth is, you’ve spent your money on the valuable horses. Anyway, it’s the best we could come up with. Nothing less is going to explain my disappearance, not with a barn full of those horses left on their own.” She leaned against the rails of the round pen. “If you’ve got any better ideas, I’m open to them.”

  “Don’t go back,” Carey said simply.

  “No,” Jaime responded without hesitation. She’d already been through this discussion with herself. “My life is there, Carey. I’ve enjoyed a number of things about your world, but it’s not who and what I want to be. You’ve got Dayna, though, I think. I just hope...I hope we can visit. I hope this doesn’t have to be good-bye for ever.”

  “No such luck,” Carey said, and brought the dark gelding to a halt again, asking him to bring his nose around to touch each booted foot in a final exercise of flexion and obedience and then dismounting—slowly, creakily. “I’m sure Arlen will be doing research on your world in person—and there’ll be judgments that need your testimony. It’s not all that hard to suspend the checkspell—it’s getting the whole Council to make up their minds to do it that takes so long.”

  Jaime found her expression going cold at the thought of Willand, at the realization that her struggles with the aftermath of Willand’s torture were really just beginning—that she wasn’t going to be able to run away from them. She forced her attention back to Carey and discovered he was staring at her, aware of her reaction and wanting to know—to help, even. But what she had told Jess was still true—she wasn’t prepared to share her experience until she had come to terms with it.

  “Jess has been pestering Arlen,” Carey said with a grin, quite obviously changing the subject. “She really does want to visit you and ride dressage under you and me. Arlen told her that because the magic originates on this world, she can pull an occasional switch betwee
n Jess and Lady, but on Earth she has to choose between one or the other. I don’t think she’s quite come to terms with that.” He sobered a little. “She’s had three offers of work, good positions—two as couriers and one as a trainer for one of the outfits in Camolen City that run public courier stables. Don’t ask me how they heard about her way up there.”

  “She’s unique,” Jaime said. “Word’s bound to get around. What’s she going to do?”

  Carey loosened the gelding’s girth and ran the stirrups up on his saddle, the same slightly odd saddle design as the one still sitting in Jaime’s tack room. “I don’t know,” he said, and she heard a little wistfulness in his voice. “I told her she had to be her own person, and live her own life, that just staying with me wasn’t enough for her. Now I’m a little worried that she listened to me.”

  “Wherever she goes, her heart will always be with you,” Jaime said, and then grinned. “Wasn’t that the hokiest thing you’ve ever heard?”

  Carey snorted an agreement, but she thought she saw gratitude in his expression. “She’ll be here for Arlen until he—I—can get his fleet up and running again. We’ve only found one of my couriers, and she’s so full of guilt over surviving that she’s not really functioning yet. We’ve got one of Sherra’s people on loan, but Jess is taking the brunt of it.”

  And thriving, Jaime knew, for she’d seen Jess the evening before, tired but happy and on her way to see Carey. Her arm was completely healed, done by Sherra herself—who fully understood that the limb had to mend well enough to function as a weight-bearing leg for Lady. “Does she still have that awful spellstone Arlen made for her?” she asked with a frown.

  Carey’s reaction was completely unexpected: he laughed. Jaime’s frown turned into a suspicious look. “You must know something I don’t.”

  “Like the fact that a stone can’t be re-used for a different spell?” Carey asked.

  “But—what...? He told Jess—”

  “I know what he told Jess. But Arlen would never give her the spell she asked for—he just didn’t waste time arguing with her. He set a very simple alert spell into the wire around the stone, something that would tell him if she tried to trigger it. If you recall, he did tell her the thing wouldn’t work unless she really wanted it to. If she did try to use it, she’d just think its failure was her own fault.”

  “He might have let me know,” Jaime grumbled, not really as annoyed as she let herself sound. What a relief to know Arlen had not actually acceded to Jess’s desperate request; she had had to fight a terrible disappointment when she’d believed it of him.

  She turned to look at the hold, the top of which was just visible over the very high corn that grew between her and it. There were still too many things she wanted the answers to, like how come the corn here tasted so like the corn at home, and why were there horses and cats and even—she slapped her arm—mosquitoes here. She wanted to get to know Arlen better, when there wasn’t a force shield between them and lives at stake.

  She realized that they’d been standing together in silence for many moments, and she glanced at Carey to find him in thought as deep as her own. Probably full of his own questions.

  “Come on,” he said, catching her glance. “If you don’t mind my slow going, I’ll walk you back to the hold and we’ll go find Arlen. He’ll take you home.”

  ~~~~~

  In the Midwest America dressage show circuit, the competitors come to know one another and their horses. Jaime Cabot and her horse Sabre are in the thick of it, although there is speculation aplenty over her recent strange disappearance from competition, a disappearance that lasted nearly half a year when all was said and done.

  But the real conjecture is over the people who now occasionally travel with Jaime—the tall mustached gentleman who escorts her, and the horse and rider who compete in the intermediate levels. The dun mare is of completely unknown lineage and lacks the power of a truly great dressage mount, but she and her rider often take their classes anyway, carrying the hearts of judges and spectators alike with the gestalt of their partnership and the expressive spirit in the eyes of Dun Lady’s Jess.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  CHANGESPELL

  Doranna Durgin

  Blue Hound Visions

  Tijeras, NM

  “Doranna Durgin is one of the freshest new voices in fantasy fiction. Her style is clean, uncluttered, and effortless. Changespell is a full-bore, straight-ahead, fast and furious read. I want more!”

  —Jennifer Roberson, author of the Karavans and Sword Dancer series

  “Durgin tells this deeply insightful and touching tale with a deft clarity. Her eye for detail will delight and astonish you...”

  — Hypatia’s Hoard

  Copyright & Dedication

  CHANGESPELL

  Copyright © 2013 by Doranna Durgin

  ISBN: 978-1-61138-317-1

  Published by Blue Hound Visions, Tijeras NM, an affiliate of Book View Café

  October 2013

  Cover: Doranna Durgin

  Original Copyright ©1997; first published by Baen Books

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously— and any resemblance to actual persons, business establishments, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  License Notes:

  This efiction is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This efiction may not be re-sold or given to others. If you would like to share, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this efiction and it was not purchased for your use, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for helping the e-reading community to grow!

  ~~~~~

  Author Note:

  I’ve had the rights back to this book for years, but I never quite had the heart to author-publish a backlist version (complete with new spit and polish!). During that time, I didn’t have the rights to the cornerstone book of the series—(Dun Lady’s Jess: 1995 Compton Crook winner)—nor was it available elsewise.

  Frankly, I couldn’t imagine telling readers, “Hey there! Here’re books 1 and 3 and 4, but you’ll have to get along without 2, Dun Lady’s Jess.” Yes, they were all written to stand alone. But STILL.

  But now Jess is mine again—and that means I’m delighted to make the entire series available again. Thanks to epublishing options, I can do it in a way that I retain control over the circumstances. So thank you. Without readers like you, I wouldn’t be able to write these books. I appreciate your letters, emails, blog comments, and FaceBook posts more than I can ever express, and I love your reviews. It’s amazing to be a part of such a large circle of friends through a mutual love of books!

  ~Doranna

  ~~~~~

  Original Dedication

  This book was first written and published during a time of great change. Like Jess, I found it very difficult; but like Jess, in the end I’m better off for it. Here’s to coming out stronger.

  With thanks to Adrianne and Becky—my backlist edition alpha reader/proofers, and always with thanks to my agent, Lucienne Diver!

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  The Changespell Saga:

  Barrenlands (prequel)

  Dun Lady’s Jess

  Changespell

  Changespell Legacy

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Chapter One

  Jess leaned over the gelding’s neck, letting him run on this last ride together.

  The tree-lined road stretched wide and smooth ahead, empty of other travelers at this early hour. She rode the powerful surges of his body as though it were her own, while the wind tore at her long dun hair and flattened her shirt.

  She flared her nostrils and drank it in, lifting her face to the freedom of it.

  After this, the bay would unleash his speed for Mia at Aashan’s wizard hold, and she would miss him. He was cheerful and easy
to work with, and he loved to run.

  Mia thought she would love to run with him, but Jess wasn’t certain she had the right of it. And as much as Jess would miss him...

  She could run without him.

  The bay slowed, moving out in a loose-jointed trot. After another mile, Jess dropped the reins over the blunt saddle pommel to gather the hem of her loosely woven shirt and wipe her sweaty face. The shirt was a nuisance, but that was another of many recent lessons: men could go without clothing on their upper body, but not women.

  She wiped her face again, re-settled her unique polarized sunglasses from another world, and let the bay pick his own path up the wooded hill to Aashan’s modest hold.

  Mia waited by the hold’s informal gate, her posture taut with anticipation. When Jess emerged from the trees, she bounced and ran out to meet them. “Jess! I thought you’d never get here!”

  “It s hot,” Jess said simply, and gave the horse a final pat before dismounting, offering Mia the braided leather reins.

  Mia took them, grinning hard. “I can’t wait to give Bay his first good ride.”

  “He’s already worked hard today,” Jess said as the young woman mounted. She hoped Aashan’s courier truly did want the speed and power she’d admired in this young horse. Mia looked small in the saddle—but then, like most couriers, she was slight and wiry, and a distinct contrast to Jess’s long-limbed athleticism.

  “I just want a few minutes with him,” she said, gathering the reins. “Say, I’ve got a courtyard lunch waiting—and there’s water by the gate! Iced!”

  Jess barely heard the last words over the bay’s hoofbeats. She headed for the water, grateful that the wizard had bothered to ice it—for the hold had no specialized cook mages, just ordinary human help like herself.