“Well, this is strange,” Calrain said, looking down at himself. His head moved, but his mouth did not. “I still have my arms and legs, and my skin feels normal when I touch it, but it is like there is a large, animal-shaped shell aroundme.”
“Go ahead and touch him, Yarim,” Tariel said. She was not certain she could fool herself with the illusion, and it was taking quite a bit of concentration to maintain it. “Tell me what youfeel.”
Yarim ran a hand down Calrain’s side. His violet eyes widened. “It…it feels like real fur, and muscle.” He did it again, and frowned. “The fur does feel a bit odd, though. Too soft for a deer. Perhaps you can make it a bit coarser? Ah, yes.” He nodded in approval as Tariel made the adjustment. “Muchbetter.”
Tariel held the illusion for a bit longer, then let it fade with a sigh. “That was much harder than normal,” she said, wiping a light sheen of perspiration from her brow. “But I think if I do it a few times, I can get the hang ofit.”
She spent the next couple of hours practicing on Calrain and Yarim, changing them into a variety of different animals. She discovered that changing them into much larger creatures, like bears, or much smaller ones, like rabbits, was too difficult to manage for more than a few seconds, but sticking to animals that were roughly the same height wasmanageable.
“I think I am going to try changing myself into a dog,” Tariel said after they had stopped to eat their midday meal. “I am small, so a large one would be roughly the same size asme.”
“Try a hunting dog,” Yarim suggested. “If you choose a valuable breed, they will be more likely to want to keepyou.”
Tariel nodded, then closed her eyes and concentrated. Turning her magic in on herself, she pictured a large, golden dog with black around the mouth and eyes—the kind Fjordlanders used to hunt wild boar. The air rippled around her as the illusion took hold, and she focused on the details—the short, silky coat, the long tail hanging low, the large, wet snout a dog would use to pick up scents in the grass. Eventually, she opened her eyes, then looked down atherself.
Like Calrain had said, there was a sort of shell around her body—her upper half was completely hidden from view, while her lower half was outlined by the shape of the golden dog she wasimpersonating.
Yarim let out a low whistle. “Black-mouth cur,” he said. “Good choice. I’ve used them for boarhunting.”
“Try barking,” Calrainsuggested.
Tariel did so, and with a bit of finessing with her magic, was able to mimic an impressive bark. “This is going to be very odd,” she said. “I wonder if I might feel more comfortable on allfours.”
She tried getting on her hands and knees, and strangely, she felt better. “I don’t think I can run like this,” she said as she crawled around. “But I can manage a steadypace.”
“Hopefully you won’t have to do any running until after you find Riann,” Yarim pointed out. “Though if they decide to make use of you as a hunting dog, you will be introuble.”
“Tariel will deal with that if and when the time comes,” Zolotaissaid.
“But what should I do if I end up having to fight?” she asked. “Do you know of any battle magic I couldpractice?”
Zolotais shook her head. “A true war mage like the empress could defeat these bandits all by herself, but battle mages guard their techniques fiercely. They are only taught amongst the strongest mages of the highest castes, who tend to be close to the imperialcourt.”
“Which means I will need to figure out how to get myself into court when we arrive,” Tariel said. At Yarim’s chagrined look, she added, “But that is a problem for anotherday.”
“Surely there is offensive magic you could use that is not battle magic, specifically,” Calrain said. “Didn’t you use the weather once to ruin the kite Marilla stole from you? Perhaps you could call down lightning, or conjure fire, or use your magic to throwblades.”
“I think calling lightning is beyond Tariel’s current abilities, unless a storm is already brewing,” Zolotais said dryly. “But I don’t see why you couldn’t use fire orprojectiles.”
Tariel lifted her hand and tried to conjure a fireball. It was significantly harder than the balls of light she had used in the past, but she managed to create a small flame in her hand, and then another, and another, until she had one roughly the size of her palm. Lifting her hand, she tossed it against a bare patch of wall, where it immediately raced down to thegrass.
“Blast it!” Yarim whipped off his cloak and tossed it over the fire. “You could certainly cause damage with one of those,” he said as he trampled the remaining flames. “And you’ve already proven you can incapacitate people with your magicanyway.”
“Only one at a time,” Tariel said, “but hopefully I will not have to fight more than one bandit at atime.”
She experimented with throwing knives and Yarim’s scimitar—techniques he told her that battle mages used in the arena—but her aim was no good, and she could not hit her targets on the wallconsistently.
“Weapons are not your forte,” Zolotais said as Tariel huffed infrustration—
the dagger she’d thrown flew wide of the mark. “You will have to put many hours of practice in to become passablygood.”
“Agreed.” Tariel handed the weapons back to Yarim and Calrain. “But I do not have time for that. I must leavenow.”
“Are we really in such a rush?” Calrain asked, sounding put out at the idea. “Where is Riannnow?”
Tariel reached for the bond. “In thevalley.”
“Is he in anypain?”
“No, though he seems very frustrated.” Tariel frowned. “I wonder what they are doing withhim?”
“It doesn’t seem as though he is in any immediate danger,” Yarim said. “Why don’t we wait a while and see if anyone else comes out? Perhaps we might be able to force them to smuggle us in, or at the very least, learn more about what is going oninside.”
“Very well,” Tariel said reluctantly. She was itching to go through the passage and investigate, but if their positions were reversed, she would not want to send one of them in alone either. “We’ll wait until midnight. But if we don’t encounter anyone else, I am goingin.”
