Shapeshifters

by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

  My mother looked at me for long moments, then said to my father, “We have to send him to Araceli, ask her to—”

  “No.” My father’s response was swift. “Sending him to my mother would be madness. The only reason I got out when I was young was that Syfka convinced Araceli to let me spend some time off the island, and taught me to force-change so I would be able to hide from her—”

  “Isn’t it madness to keep him here?” my mother demanded. “I’ve known that this might happen from the time he was three and I saw the first silver in his hair. I assure you, I have considered every option.”

  All that time, and she had never told me, warned me? My father spoke before I could.

  “Have you considered that we are both outlaws, Kel? There is no assurance that Araceli will even agree to see Nicias, or that she won’t execute him on the spot as the son of traitors. If she does see him, and agrees to teach him … it will be because she sees herself in his face, a pure-blood falcon with his beauty still intact, unmarred by a crow’s features. I am my mother’s only child, but I am dead to her. In our son, she may see a villain or she may see her heir. If she agrees to teach him, it will mean she has no intention of letting him go.”

  “She won’t force him to stay,” my mother said. “Nicias will be powerful. If she does not bind his magic, she will need to teach him, and once she teaches him, he will have the strength to resist her.”

  “I’m not worried she’ll force him,” he said, though his voice had the tone of one who had given up.

  Finally, finally, he turned to me, as if realizing that I deserved to have some part in this conversation about my life.

  “Nicias, Ahnmik’s magic is powerful enough to destroy its user, if he cannot control it. Most falcons begin to study almost as soon as they can walk, just to keep it from killing them.” His voice was level, as controlled as any avian’s, but I could see the effort that control took. “Most royal-blood falcons use their magic innately, and so it may be with you …. But your mother is right. As a child, even I was given exercises to help me focus my mind and keep me from losing myself in the magic.”

  “Rei—”

  He cut my mother off with a look. She sighed, but allowed him to continue.

  “It may be that this fall today was a fluke, caused by your magic waking when you weren’t expecting it. It may be that this will be all, that your magic has been crippled by the bonds put on your mother and me, and it will never grow stronger; that would probably be for the best. Or, your power may simply have been hidden all these years, and now it will show as true as any falcon’s. If it does grow, you may be able to control it effortlessly—or you may not.” He drew a deep breath and then continued. “If you can’t, it will destroy you. It will numb your body and mind, until it drives you into what is called shm’Ecl. There are rooms on Ahnmik filled with those who have succumbed to it, those who could not learn to control their power. They are neither alive nor dead, neither awake nor asleep ….”

  His voice wavered, his gaze turning distant. He shook himself, as if to clear away something foul that clung to his skin.

  “There are two people I know who are powerful enough to bind a falcon’s magic,” my mother finished for him. “The Empress herself, and her heir, the Lady Araceli of Ahnmik.”

  “My grandmother.”

  She nodded.

  My father spoke again. “My mother is a devious woman, Nicias, not a kind one. If you go to her, I don’t know what will happen. I worry … I worry you won’t return.” I could not tell whether he feared that his mother would kill me, or something worse. Did he really think anyone could convince me to abandon my home?

  He added, “But you may be in just as much danger staying here. I don’t know. But as you’ve said, Nicias, you’re not a child; your mother and I can’t make this choice for you.”

  At once I regretted those words, because now I wanted to be a child again, so that I would not need to face this decision. Stay here, where I might be fine or I might decline into madness, or go to Ahnmik, where I might be executed or I might finally see and study in the city that had haunted my dreams?

  “I need some time to think,” I said. “If it’s true that today might have been a fluke, can we wait, and make this decision after we see whether it happens again?”

  “Maybe,” my mother answered. “But if that is your choice, I would recommend you ask for leave from Oliza’s guard for a while, until we know whether your magic will interfere with your duty. And, Nicias, please try to avoid activities that could be dangerous if you were … distracted.”

  Distracted. I remembered falling in the woods, and the time I had lost after watching Oliza dance, when anything could have happened to her without my noticing. Yes, my mother’s suggestions made sense.

  “Tonight we should all get some sleep,” my father said. “Fatigue doesn’t help anyone keep alert—or make decisions.”

  I tried to obey, but as I tossed and turned in bed, images from the day and visions spawned by my parents’ words kept shifting through my mind.

  When I finally did drift into sleep, those visions invaded my nightmares, twisting around everything. I found myself locked inside black ice, frozen and still, unable to escape—

  Garnet cobra’s eyes, staring at me with fury. A cobra’s fangs, bared and glistening with poison—

  Ice, rippling with white lines like a million silver scars; it cracked and shrieked and bled—

  My prince, whispered a voice—the same one that had shouted at me in the woods, angrily telling me to go away. You are too brilliant for this dark land ….

  Then Oliza stood before me. She touched my hand and then there was fire—

  I scrambled away, choking on the smell of burned flesh, and slid on the ice. A black cobra coiled around me, the scales cold against my skin.

  Why am I drawn to your dreams? she asked. What vows bind you to me?

  “You’re a cobra,” I managed to whisper. “I am sworn to the royal house.”

  My prince, do you think me a fool? she snarled.

  Abruptly the cobra became a python. It wrapped around my body, binding my arms and constricting my chest until I struggled to breathe.

  You are the royal house. Your royal blood infects this land like a virus—

  I woke, gasping and coughing as I tried to draw air into my body. For long moments I could only feel the cold coils of the serpent, pulling me back.

  Finally I became aware of a gentler voice.

  “Nicias, Nicias, come back to me,” Lily was whispering. Her hands were warm on mine, which made me realize that I was shivering.

  I forced myself to open my eyes, disoriented by her presence as much as by the dream.

  “You cried out, with your magic,” she said. “I felt you fall, felt you go cold—did you speak to your parents?”

  “I—” The effort of trying to speak made me cough again. My ribs felt bruised.

  As if reading my mind, Lily placed one hand gently on my chest. “There isn’t too much damage,” she said after a moment. Warmth seemed to spread from her touch, dispelling the lingering chill from the nightmare. “I was so frightened—”

  The door opened.

  “I thought I heard—” My mother broke off, looking from me to Lily and then back to me. Her obvious conclusion, though false, made me blush and pull away from Lily slightly.

  Lily didn’t look embarrassed or bother to explain who she was or why she was there. Her fear for me became anger as she demanded, “You left him alone? The evening after his magic awakened, you let him sleep with no one near to pull him back?”

  “I didn’t realize there was anyone in the area who—”

  “You and your pair bond hid for years among the avians,” Lily snapped. “You of all people must know that there are at least half a dozen of us in the area—”

  “And who exactly are you?” my mother finally asked.

  Lily drew a deep breath, visibly struggling to control her temper. “A wom
an who cares about your son,” she said softly. “I would think that is something we share.”

  My father joined my mother in the doorway. He glanced at her questioningly, and she shook her head slightly.

  “Nicias, I can fly with you to Ahnmik if you would like, to show you the way and keep you safe from your magic over the open seas,” Lily said.

  My father cleared his throat, attracting our attention. “Have you already made your decision, then, Nicias?”

  “What other choice is there?” Lily asked. “I felt his magic clear across Wyvern’s Court. Even among your avians and serpents, you will hear people speak tomorrow of their nightmares from this evening. Maybe you don’t have the power to sense his magic pressing him, but I can tell you without doubt, if he does not begin studying the jaes’Ahnmik, he will fall within the week.”

  Still my parents hesitated, as if they were hearing different words than I was, less frightening ones.

  “You would allow him to stay here, knowing …” Lily let out an angry cry. “How selfish can you be? You know that he will not survive here. He needs—enough!” She ran her hands through her hair, drawing my attention to the tangles in the blond strands. I realized then that she must have come here from her own bed; her hair was tousled and she was wearing a very simple linen gown. “Nicias, do you wish to come with me? I will leave immediately. Every hour you are here puts you further at risk.”

  “I am not going to let my son leave with a perfect stranger,” my mother interrupted.

  Lily turned to say, “This is not your decision to make.” She took a deep breath. When she spoke again, her voice reminded me of the black ice from my dream. “I lost my mother to Ecl before I was old enough to know her, and my twin brother several years ago. I have seen too many loved ones fall. I will not lose someone whom I have the power to save.” More gently, she added, “Nicias will be safe on the island. He is of our blood, and has our magic; that means he will be allowed to study. I do not know what crimes led to your exile, but they don’t matter. The Empress’s laws do not allow any falcon to be held to the crimes of his parents.” She sighed. “Have faith in your son. Recall that you are the ones who taught him about duty.”

  Turning from my mother, she touched my hand and said, “If you want to come with me, get dressed. I will go to my home and do the same, and then meet you here.”

  I did not need to tell her or my parents that I would be leaving for Ahnmik that morning. The decision was already made, and we all knew it.

  “Wait,” I said as one complication occurred to me. “I need to speak to Oliza.”

  “Of course,” Lily said. “You are sworn to her. I will meet you outside the nest, then.”

  She kissed me on the cheek before pushing past my parents on her way out.

  My mother sighed, her head bowed in defeat. She touched my cheek, almost whispering, “She’s right, Nicias. It’s fools’ hopes that make us want to keep you here.”

  “May I speak to Nicias alone for a moment?” my father asked. My mother nodded and drifted back into the hallway without another word.

  “Are you really worried that I won’t return to Wyvern’s Court?” I asked. “This is my home. I consider myself a subject of the Tuuli Thea and the Diente and their heir, not of some empress I have never met. And though Araceli may be family by blood, the falcons have never claimed me as kin. All the family I care about is here.”

  My father drew a deep breath.

  “Ahnmik is, despite all its other traits, a beautiful land,” he finally said. “It is a realm where you would be revered instead of shunned, where your falcon features would be seen as a thing of beauty instead of proof that you are different. That alone can be a powerful lure.”

  I shook my head. “Vanity isn’t enough to make me betray Oliza.”

  “More than that, on Ahnmik you would be royalty. You would be able to use magic that few people here can even begin to comprehend.” I had no desire to rule over anyone. And although I was curious about magic, I wasn’t curious enough to give up everything—and everyone—for it. “And then, of course, there is—what is her name?” he asked me softly.

  “Lily,” I answered. “She has been my friend for two years. I know I should have told you, but …”

  My father shook his head. “I speak to you now because I know Araceli will offer you everything and more to keep you by her side, and I hope you will have weighed all the possible temptations against your love for and duty toward this land.” I nodded, knowing what he was implying. “Before you go, there is something I need to show you, for you to remember when Araceli tells you of the wonders of the white city.”

  He unlaced the throat of his shirt and pulled the cloth over his head.

  I knew many men in the local guard who practiced bare-chested in the summer heat, and even more who wore the low-backed shirts that allowed them to grow the wings of a Demi form at any time, but I had never seen my father dressed either way.

  Now I realized why.

  Complex designs had been etched into his skin; scars covered his back and crept onto his shoulders and upper arms. Some were fine and neat, as if from a sharp blade, and some were broader and appeared burned in—as if he had been branded.

  I stepped forward, horrified not only by the cruelty of whoever had left these marks, but by the artistry of the marks as well. Shimmering lines of what had to be magic twined with the scars, continuing and layering the designs in iridescent silver, blue and violet.

  Someone had created a work of art on my father’s skin, with blades and power.

  “It is a crime to imply that the royal family can be cruel, so on the island punishment is referred to as the Empress’s or Heir’s mercy. It equates to torture. Many things on Ahnmik are equally honey coated—especially when it comes to the royal family. Keep that in mind. Keep in mind that if you choose to stay, you will be tying yourself to leaders who condone such things.”

  “What did you do?” I asked in shock. I had never dared to question either of my parents about why they had been exiled from the land of their birth. But I had never seen the punishment they had received, either.

  “My crime was wanting to live off the island, among those the falcons consider savages—the avians and serpiente you have been raised with. Your mother wears similar marks, though hers are worse. In addition to leaving, she argued with my mother to let me go. After Araceli decided we were no longer suited to life on Ahnmik, after she had decided to let us go, and bound our powers, it was pure spite that led her to mark us both.”

  Suddenly the idea of visiting the white city filled me with dread.

  My father grasped my shoulders in a brief and uncharacteristic embrace. “You’ve falcon blood, but your heart is avian, Nicias. You’ll come back to us.”

  The dancers in the front of the nest tried to keep me from entering at first. They relented only when I pressed upon them that it was an emergency, and even then they did so reluctantly.

  No, a falcon was not welcome in this place.

  I found Oliza still sleeping, resting innocently in a tangle with several other dancers. I couldn’t reach her past the others, so I called her name.

  “Oliza?”

  “Nicias?” She sat up so quickly that one of the serpents who had been lying against her whispered a sleepy complaint before another shifted to fill in the gap Oliza had left behind. “What’s wrong?”

  I winced, knowing that anything I said in the dancer’s nest would become common knowledge within a day. The dancers were revered in serpiente society as historians and storytellers—which made them tend to be insatiable gossips.

  When I hesitated to explain around company, Oliza stood and followed me to the edge of the nest. Out of earshot of the rest, I said simply, “Apparently I inherited my parents’ magic. It seems to come with some disadvantages.”

  Oliza’s eyes widened. “I hope it doesn’t pose a danger.”

  My gut tightened. “My parents think it does. I don’t understand it al
l, really. But I’m traveling to Ahnmik, as soon as possible.” Belatedly, I added, “With your leave?”

  “Permission granted, of course, especially if your safety is at stake,” she answered swiftly. “We will see you again, I hope?”

  “I’m one of your Wyverns,” I answered without hesitation. “And I would far rather live in a realm you rule than that of the falcon Empress.”

  “Take care of yourself, Nicias,” Oliza said, with more warmth in her voice than she ever allowed herself to show around her many suitors. She hugged me tightly and kissed my cheek. I heard one of the serpents who had been watching us say something that sounded like “Lucky falcon.”

  Lucky. At the moment, lucky was not a word I would apply to myself.

  THE FLIGHT is long,” Lily warned me, barely a single step outside the nest, “and there aren’t many places to rest. We’ll be able to stop and relax our wings, and perhaps eat something, only once during the journey—provided we make good enough time to get to the island at low tide, while it’s above water.” Her eyes widened. “Nicias …”

  She reached forward and tugged my hair loose of the tie I used to keep it back.

  “What are—”

  She laughed. “I was too preoccupied in your room to notice earlier.” She pulled forward some of the front strands, allowing me to see for the first time that what had previously been silver-white was now pale blue, just a shade lighter than my eyes.

  Normally the change would have irritated me, since it set me even further apart from the serpents and avians who already looked at me as an oddity. However, Lily’s delight was infectious.

  “A falcon’s magic marks his body,” she explained. “Your mother’s violet eyes are one example. The blue in your hair is another. It will probably darken a little more when you begin to study, though the royals don’t seem to show their power as overtly as some of the others. But I’m delaying us; we should be gone. Are you ready?”