The Shifter Part 17

"That girl who was here before, who was she?"

"Ta-Tali, sir."

"What was she doing here?"

Lanelle glanced at me, then her eyes lowered to the sack hidden under the cot. "I don't know. She said she was here to relieve me."

"Did you verify that with Elder Mancov?"

She shook her head, glanced at me again. "No, sir, I-"

"Stupid girl." The Luminary shoved her back and she fell. Pain and terror crossed her face in equal measure.

"It's not my fault. I didn't think anyone could get up here without authorization. And there was a guard at the door! She got by Kione as well."

The Luminary hesitated, probably wondering how stupid he'd he'd been in sending Kione and Tali out together. If Kione was faced with helping Tali or sending her back, I hoped he'd be strong and choose right. "Did you see either of them together before?" been in sending Kione and Tali out together. If Kione was faced with helping Tali or sending her back, I hoped he'd be strong and choose right. "Did you see either of them together before?"

"No, sir."

"Did you see her talking to anyone who isn't part of the League?"

"No, sir."

Relief smoothed his brow, but then it wrinkled again, as if she hadn't soothed him after all. He huffed. "You've been here for days, what could you possibly know," he muttered, turning away. "Useless 'Veg."

Lanelle threw me a look of sheer panic and darted after him.

"Sir, I think she traded places with that girl there!" she rushed. "I was about to notify you. I was, um...trying to verify it first before I bothered you. I know how busy you are."

He snapped around faster than a croc eats a duck. "Which girl?"

She pointed at me, finger trembling.

The Luminary darted over and shook me. I screamed, but he didn't stop. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"She said she was Tali's sister," Lanelle continued, sounding as desperate as the Luminary. "They look an awful lot alike, which is why they were able to fool me at first, but I figured it out soon enough. I think she healed Tali so she could esca-leave the League. You can probably catch her at the gate!"

His eyes went gla.s.sy with fear. "An apprentice left left?" He stared at Lanelle.

"Wait-" I lunged, grabbed for his arm. Guards or not, I needed to give him bigger things to worry about than where Tali was. The Duke and his heartless men were not not going to kill the last of my family, not if I could stop him. going to kill the last of my family, not if I could stop him.

The Luminary backhanded me across the face before I could touch him. Pain flared around my head and I fell back, nauseated. From pain, from failure, from dread-I couldn't tell anymore.

He stomped away, but his fear was clearly still there. It was more than worry about the panic that would happen if Geveg knew there was no more pynvium. I'd bet next year's pay no one outside the League knew what he was doing. I'd bet even more the Governor-General didn't know. He paused at the door, but "find that apprentice now now, before she" was all I heard before it slammed shut again.

No! Images of Tali forced to heal flooded me with strength. I had to get out, find Tali, and warn her.

Lanelle stepped closer, her hands clenched at her sides; she looked as scared as a caught bird. "If this gets me picked for priority healing, I'll-"

My fingers darted to her arm, and I pushed pushed into her all the hurt and pain I'd taken from Tali. Guilt fluttered at the edges of pain, but I ignored it. I would into her all the hurt and pain I'd taken from Tali. Guilt fluttered at the edges of pain, but I ignored it. I would not not feel guilty about hurting a traitor. feel guilty about hurting a traitor.

"Aahhhh!" Pain twisted Lanelle's features and she toppled over. I clawed closer, pushed pushed harder. harder.

And then it slowed, as if she were pus.h.i.+ng back.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed her arm away and dragged me out of the cot. We both collapsed on the floor, gasping.

She resisted? How? Could Takers refuse pain, or was Lanelle different, like me? Different Different. A chill cooled my burning muscles. What symptoms were on Lanelle's list? Symptoms of those who were different?

"What did you do to me?" Pale and teary-eyed, Lanelle scooted away on her b.u.t.t. "Stay away!"

She'd taken half the pain, and already my strength was returning. Then again, so was hers. Healers knew pain, and the shock of it wouldn't disorient her for long. She grabbed the edge of the cot next to her and struggled to her knees, gasping, still unable to scream more than a rasp, but that also wouldn't last.

"Hel-" Lanelle's scream was cut off as a red-haired boy in the nearest cot rolled off and tackled her. He straddled her, pinning her down and keeping a hand over her mouth.

"Hurry, finish it!" he cried, while I stared open-mouthed. "Come on!"

"Finish what?"

"Whatever you did to her before. It's our only chance to get out of here."

Lanelle struggled under him, whimpering and hollering into his hand. Would the guard outside hear?

"Hurry-I can't hold her down much longer." Sweat beaded across his forehead, and his brown eyes shone with pain.

I couldn't stop now, or Tali had no chance at all. Lanelle would tell the Luminary I'd s.h.i.+fted. I'd be bound and gagged and headed for Baseer before sunset. The Duke was still searching for abnormal Takers, but maybe now he'd found a new way to discover them. Folks needed to know that.

I crawled toward Lanelle and the boy.

Suddenly the door opened and a guard walked in, annoyance on his uncaring face. "What's going on in here?"

I gasped and jerked backward as Lanelle renewed her kicking and m.u.f.fled screaming. My knee hit something hard and rough.

"Get off her! What are you doing?" The guard ran in, heading for Lanelle. He had black, glossy hair, dark as his Baseeri soul.

The guard yanked the boy off and tossed him aside. I grabbed the pynvium, wis.h.i.+ng I could shove my frustration into it like Tali shoved pain.

"Leave him alone!" Childishly, I threw a handful of pynvium chunks at the guard. Throwing all my anger and hatred for what the Luminary and his Duke had done to my family, my home, my life life, with it.

Whoomp. A low sound more felt than heard. Pain flashed, s.h.i.+mmering like heat waves in the air, as the pynvium hit the guard in the chest.

Whoomp. Another against his thigh.

It flashed like the beads in Aylin's bracelet had done when Sersin grabbed them. Like every trinket sitting on every shelf in every pain merchant's shop. Hurt sprinkled me like blown sand while the guard screamed and dropped to the stone floor. Lanelle had curled into a ball and lay whimpering, her arms covering her head.

I gaped at the moaning guard. How did I make pynvium flash? Only enchanters could trigger the metal to do that, like Papa had done during the war. I'd inherited his eyes-had I gotten more than that?

What exactly was was I? I?

The guard was up on his knees now, crawling away while I gaped, still shocked as a caught fish.

"How did you do that?" he wheezed, reaching for his rapier.

I couldn't let him tell the Luminary while I was helpless. I gathered what pain I had left and scrambled after him, forcing my legs to push me forward and ignoring the ripping aches shooting through them.

The red-haired apprentice was on his feet, stumbling toward Lanelle and the guard. "Stop them!"

I grabbed the guard's s.h.i.+n. He kicked at me but didn't put much force into it. I put everything everything into him. Even my guilt in doing it. He screamed. into him. Even my guilt in doing it. He screamed.

My pain fading, I sucked in breath and tried to focus. The guard was unconscious. Lanelle too, so she wasn't going anywhere. She'd taken half my pain and probably some backflash from the pynvium.

Saint's mercy, what had I done?

"Did you just flash pynvium?" the apprentice asked, dropping to the floor beside me. He looked about eighteen, with tiny freckles across his short nose.

"I don't know." I'd never heard of anyone flas.h.i.+ng pain like that before, without an enchanted trigger to release the pain and shape the direction of the flash.

"I'm Soek," he said, p.r.o.nouncing it with the distinctive lilting accent from Verlatta.

"Nya."

"You're that s.h.i.+fter everyone's talking about, aren't you?"

"Uh..."

"Come on, we have to get out of here."

"I know." Still, too many questions spun through my head. "Did you sneak in here to save someone too?"

"No, I'm an apprentice."

My mouth hung open for a shocked second. "Why aren't you suffering in one of those cots then?"

"I heal fast."

"You heal other other people's pain?" people's pain?"

"I guess so." He smiled, but I saw fear in it. I'd be afraid too. He was better than walking pynvium. He was renewable renewable walking pynvium. walking pynvium.

"You're different too," I said.

"Yeah. Though your differences are a lot handier in a fight."

Which we'd have more of if we didn't get out of here. "Let's go."

I s.n.a.t.c.hed up the chunks I'd thrown and put them back into the sack. Who knew how many guards stood between us and freedom? A single pain flash would be enough to distract them, maybe even do more than distract if the pain was sharp enough.

If I could could flash it again. flash it again.

I paused at the door, even though the hall had to be clear or another guard would have already been there, pointing a rapier at my throat. Soek limped behind me, not saying a word about the pain.

"How much are you carrying?" I asked softly.

He grinned. "As long as we don't have to run, I'll be fine."

"I think running will definitely be needed."

"Do you think you could..." He tipped his head at the unconscious guard.

My skin went cold. "No!"

"But you gave him your pain-why not mine?"

Because it was wrong, even if it was was the only way out. But how could I say that while he limped and I was fine? I glanced at Lanelle and the guard. They both deserved it, but hurting them now when we didn't have to felt worse. Like stabbing them when their backs were turned. the only way out. But how could I say that while he limped and I was fine? I glanced at Lanelle and the guard. They both deserved it, but hurting them now when we didn't have to felt worse. Like stabbing them when their backs were turned.

"Give me your hand." I took it and felt my way in. He carried pain, but it was dim. I'd never seen half-healed pain before. I drew drew, taking some away. Aches seeped into my body, feeling a lot like the muscle soreness I'd woken up with at Danello's.

The tightness in his eyes eased. "Thanks," he said. "But it would have been better for us if you'd given it to them."

"Easier, maybe, but not better. Come on."

We slipped out and headed down the stairs. A few strides later, I froze. We wouldn't make it down the stairs, let alone through the hall. At least one Elder who'd recognize me was working in the treatment ward. If by Saea's luck we made it as far as the main antechamber, dozens of League guards and Elders and who knew who else were waiting to nab us like chickens.

There had to be another way out.

"What's the fastest way down from here that doesn't go through the main halls?" I whispered to Soek.

"I don't know. I only worked here a few days before they...put me up there there."

I searched my memories from when Tali and I had followed Mama around. What about the rooms higher up? Didn't one of the halls cross over to another set of stairs? Voices drifted up from below.

"...her to the Luminary for further questioning."

"Yes, sir."

Footsteps next, lots of them, echoing off the marble stairs and coming in our direction. We hurried back up, my sandals thankfully quieter than the guards' boots, though my heartbeat sure sounded louder than both. Soek's bare feet made no sound at all. We pa.s.sed the open door to the apprentices' room, and I risked a pause. The guard was still balled up on the floor, but Lanelle was moving, sluggish and groggy. She lifted her head and our eyes met.

Not good.

"Hurry." I raced up the stairs with Soek close behind as Lanelle started hollering. Raspy, but the guards would hear her soon. Stairs, there had to be more stairs up here somewhere. I was almost sure the first floor had another staircase on the far side of the main hall. It had to connect up here. Oh, please let it connect up here. Oh, please let it connect up here.

Shouts came from behind as we reached a landing. How many guards were after us? Maybe they'd called in the soldiers from outside. I ran faster, the heavy sack clinking in my arms. The hall sloped gently upward, but it was enough to make my thighs burn and slow me down. Soek wasn't faring much better. Tall windows lined the outside wall, and Geveg sprawled out before me, a tiny island on a vast lake. I tried not to think it might be the last time I saw either.

Another curve. More windows, then...

No!

My feet, heart, and breath all stopped at once. The hall ended in a circular sunroom with windows on all sides; one of the top spires. I skidded to a stop in the center of the room.