Curiously, the creature chuckled. “As though she were meant to be among us,” it muttered, turning to the pillars at the center of the room. “I’ve never seen the like.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
The creature cleared its throat, a sound like a rusty garden chair unfolding. “It does not matter. For the City’s rules are firm. All who come to this room must have free choice of their Lower House and their beastly form. No matter what their bargain may have been. So you must choose your way.”
The needle nails waved Emma toward the pedestals. Five objects hovered above them.
Emma looked along the row. “And what are these? The choices?”
“A test. The little once-a-mortal must enter the Lower House most suited to her. The shape that calls to her inner nature.”
There was a black feather, carved from iridescent obsidian. On the next pillar, a perfect crystalline droplet. Trapped within, Emma saw a fin like a delicate fan. The central pedestal held a ball of pure light, pulsing like a small and furious sun. After that was a strange, twisted golden square of four points. Emma leaned closer. Teeth. Four of them, two short, two long, molded from dull gold.Rodent,a voice in her brain insisted, although she could not ferret out the memory to back it up. She stopped at the last in the row. A curved amber claw, its ridges picked out in copper. It glowed with a warmth that did not belong to the cold chamber, as if a fire blazed at its heart.
Emma’s fingers crept toward it. “This is a fox claw. I remember this. How it felt.” Slashing the air. Sharp under moonlight. Emma looked down at the creature. “I was a fox. Does that mean I have to choose this?”
“You have indeed lived as a fox, by your own bargain. But that need not be your choice forever. If another of the Lower Houses might suit you better, then you have now the chance to choose: to change your path. This is your test.”
“And if I don’t choose at all? Am I free to do that?”
“Oh, yes. You remain here.” The creature jerked a needle-nailed finger at the skeleton in the corner. “As this one did. A monk.” The creature shook its head in disgust. “Always praying and moaning. I think it enjoyed dying, although it took a long time about it. No others refused, or not for long.”
Emma refused to give in to the stab of fear in her chest. A choice had to be made, then. Her future depended on it. But one of these Lower Houses might offer a better chance of escape than the rest. She just had to find out which one.
“Someone as clever as you must know all about these Lower Houses.”
The creature tilted its head to one side, flattered. “All who enter the Room of Choosing may hear the riddle. Should you care to?”
Emma nodded, and the creature puffed out its chest once more:
“Which beastly skin shall wrap your own?
Which Lower House, which service owed?
First, with coat of amber burning
Might ye skim of mortal fires;
Or nightwinged, eyes on shadows turning,
Unveil secrets from on high;
Perhaps by magic’s pathways minding
Could ye snake the river’s bends;
Or long of tooth, with steady grinding
May ye serve the City’s ends.
One hundred years shall lap time’s shore
Till unbound shall ye be once more.”
“And this is telling me about my choices? The things on these pillars, and what they mean?”
“I can perform it again,” the creature said hopefully. “If you didn’t get it all the first time.”
“Please.” Emma smiled winningly. “You declaimed it so well. The greatest mortal actor could not have half so much skill.”
