“It’s a good thing we’re laying over, though,” Joe commented, looking at some of those bruises. “You wouldn’t be much good in a fight or on a horse at this point.”
“I can do anything you demand of me, Master,” she responded. “You know, if you do not mind, I may remain like this even after we return. Not having to wash or fool with that hair makes things much easier.”
He shrugged. “If you like it, great.” He wasn’t going to press her on it. “Uh—tonight is the first full moon, you know.”
She stopped. “I had not thought of that, Master. What shall we do about it? We should not become each other. It would not be right, nor fair, at this time.”
“Yeah. Disregarding the slave part, I don’t want those bruises. But, I have an idea if you don’t mind skipping some sleep tonight. I’ve done it before and it wasn’t so awful, and it might give us a way to find out what the hell is going on around here. This is too close to the border. I wouldn’t like to be stuck up north and discover that everything’s happening down here.”
“What do you have in mind, Master?” He reached down and pulled a crumpled blanket away. Marge was asleep under it.
“I’m going to give instructions that our room is not to be entered or touched today,” he told her. “That’ll keep Marge from having nasty interruptions.”
“I can do the clean and make up, Master. I used to be a maid, you remember.”
“Good.” He looked down at the sleeping Marge. “How would you like to fly?”
It felt kind of silly and looked sillier, all three of them there sitting on the floor, Mia to the left of Marge and holding her left hand, and Joe to the right of the Kauri, holding her right hand.
The curse of the were was a curse of the blood; by blood was it transmitted and by blood was it carried and held. Almost all of such curses were specific to some animal or demonic form, but there was a very rare form in which the last part of the curse’s spell had somehow been miswritten or garbled when first applied. Upon the nights of the full moon, such a one was transformed until either morning or moonset. But, since only half the curse was truly operable, at this mystic moment, both Joe and Tiana would turn into the nearest living animal, and remain that way until either moonset or dawn, whichever came first.
Although the faerie were neither human nor animal in the scientific sense, they qualified under the curse, as Joe had discovered more than once.
“It’s getting pretty boring,” Joe said grumpily, “and it’s pretty dark out there. Are you sure about this night, Marge?”
“I’m sure. Moonrise is a little late tonight. Any time now.”
“I truly hope so, my lady,” Mia sighed. “I am sitting on a particularly painful bruise.”
“Don’t worry about that. Weres are particularly fast healers,” Marge noted. “I remember hearing about one who had his head chopped through with an ax. The ax went through and. came out bloody, but aside from a scar that faded in a few days and a bad sore throat, he was no worse for wear. Scared the bejezus out of everybody and made a legend.”
“Did he get away?” Joe asked, not having heard that one.
“No. Somebody found an ornamental pole with a silver tip. Drove it right through him, poor guy.”
Joe was about to say something as soon as he could think what it was, when, suddenly, as the moon cleared the horizon opposite the window, it happened.
Joe felt a sudden dizziness and blurring of vision and thought, then a series of strange sensations as parts of him seemed to grow or contract or do other such things.
And, on the floor of the room, now sat three absolutely identical Kauris, holding hands. So identical were they, in fact, that not even another Kauri could tell them apart, save that Mia’s collar hung loosely around her neck. She let go of Marge and shook her wrists, and the two bracelets fell to the floor, then did the same with the anklets. Her collar, however, would have to remain uncomfortably on. Her head just wasn’t sufficiently smaller than her normal one to permit that.
And although her pierced earrings fell through the flesh to the floor, the ring still remained in her nose.
They hadn’t thought of that, but it seemed logical. Ruddygore said that, once in, nothing save death could remove ft.
Marge looked at it critically. “Huh! The only Kauri slave in all history! I hope that doesn’t set a precedent.”
“It won’t,” Joe responded, in a voice absolutely identical to Marge’s. “I think at least we’ll find that the ring has no effect.”
“You are right!” Mia said, delighted. “You are not my master or mistress or whatever it means for now.”
“Only temporarily,” Joe reminded her. “Jeez. The last time I was turned female I was embarrassed as hell. This just feels like a different suit of clothes. Maybe I’m finally getting able to handle almost anything.”
“I—I have never been of faerie before,” Mia commented. “It does not feel all that different. I wish I could keep these breasts, though.” She reached up and touched the back of her head. “And hair again!”
“You want different?” Joe responded. “Try a whole new set of muscles along your back you never had before.”
“Well, we can all sit in here and gab, or we can have a little fun,” Marge said. “Let me put out the light.” She went over and blew out the oil lamp.
“But it’s so dark—” Mia began, then stopped, her words ending with a gasp. It wasn’t dark. Everything was so clear, so sharp, so detailed! And the other two, they were softly glowing, a beautiful pastel reddish pink.
No, there was a difference, but very slight, in Joe’s glow, almost as if there was some green which the reddish glow did not quite mask.
“Been so long, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to see human,” Marge commented. “The main thing to remember, though, is to think only about those things that need thinking about, like where you’re goin’ and what you wanna do. Let the body do what it does naturally and don’t fight it. Guide, but let the body do the work.” She went over to the window. “Everybody ready?”
“But I have never flown before—on my own wings!”
“Just get up on the windowsill, look where you’re goin’ —that’s the important part—and kick off!” Marge said, disappearing out the window.
“Go ahead,” Joe urged her. “It’s just your mental conditioning getting in the way. I was the same way once myself.” He got her up on the windowsill, but she looked out and got really nervous.
Suddenly, Joe pushed her behind, and out she went. For a moment, she felt as if she were falling, but, suddenly, she felt the flap of the wings on her back and soared upward.
Marge was suddenly beside her. “Relax, let the wings do the work,” she cautioned. “Don’t even think about them. Justly.”
Now Joe was beside her, too, and they were up, up in the night sky, far over the town.
Once she learned to let go and relax, it became almost second nature to fly. It was wonderful, one of the greatest feelings she’d ever known!
The landscape spread out all around her, but it looked quite different, not only because of the aerial perspective but also because of additional sights and information she was now receiving. Somehow, she instantly knew where she was in relation to anything else she could see, and just exactly how far it was to any point from there. While it was clearly dark, everything was easily visible in great detail, and much that was not seen by human eyes was visible, too. The very air had slight, subtle coloration and texture, and tiny sparklies of varying colors moved along, saying exactly where the air was moving, and how fast.