Its face flattened and its round muzzle collapsed inward upon a skull that bloated from within. Shoulders widened to grotesque misshapen mounds about its thickening neck. Black-brown fur thinned, and pale flesh showed beneath. Forelegs elongated. Ears shriveled inward around its stretching face. Eyes rolled back down and irises shrank, as its whole body began to grow in size…
Hedi almost cried out as she whipped around, lunging for the door.
"Hello!" a small voice called.
She sucked in a breath she could not let out, and flattened her back against the door.
Sitting in the middle of her bed was a naked little girl with dark eyes and skin and long wavy hair.
"It's me," Korey said with a giggle, then waved happily at Hedi.
Hedi panted in short breaths as she slumped to the floor, unable to even blink.
Korey crawled off the bed's side and dropped to the floor in her bare feet… bare everything. She started to run across the room but stopped and smothered another giggle with her hand.
"Whoops! I forgot again," she said, and with a sigh scurried back to pull at the quilt with all her strength. "My clothes don't come with me "
Hedi tried to speak. "H-how…"
Korey struggled to pull the quilt around herself. It was too big, and half of it wrapped around the bedpost. She stopped struggling long enough to look at Hedi.
"Papa taught me," she said, as if it were obvious.
"Your father… taught you that?" Hedi whispered.
"Uh-huh. Mama can do it too… I think, but I've never seen it. Papa can do great big ones, when he wants." Korey frowned and tried to look over her shoulder at her own bare buttocks. "But I can't get the tail. Just a stubby thing!"
As a child, Hedi had heard stories of shifters. Most were too wild to be anything but superstitious nonsense, folklore forgotten as the fancies of youth.
"Can… can all your people do this?" she asked.
Korey finally heaved the quilt free and wrapped it about herself, but most of it dragged across the floor as she came to plop down before Hedi.
"Papa says some, but not all. It's a family thing. Mama says Auntie Balalee-I never met her yet-sees things that aren't there but are somewhere else. I don't understand that part. Are you sick?"
"Sick?" Hedi's breathing slowed, but her heart still pounded against her ribs. "No, I… I am fine."
She touched the ribbon about her throat. Faris could turn himself into a great cat, perhaps something like a mountain lion. It was no wonder that Darmouth wanted control over this family of Mondyalitko. Her heart tightened in fear for little Korey.
"You should not be here," Hedi said. "What if Julia finds you gone from your room?"
Korey shrugged and rolled her eyes. "She won't come till dinner; then she'll just leave the tray. No one ever comes to visit but you. You like to be with me. Mama and Papa love me… but you like to be with me."
Hedi took a deep breath and let it out. "Oh, Korey."
Hedi's own mother had liked nothing better than to visit with her daughters, play at cards, and braid their hair, even late into the night. Hedi never realized the wonder of a mother's companionship until it was gone. And Korey's own parents were never allowed that close to her for too long.
Hedi did not like using a child, but unless Darmouth was assassinated, Korey would grow up trapped here, until he used her like her parents-or killed her. Korey did not appear to know of the lost sibling that Ventina had viciously hinted at. If Byrd was not warned, he would be arrested, and everything they had worked for would be lost, even the life and future of this girl. And it appeared Darmouth did not know Korey shared her parents' ability, or he would have taken extra precautions with the child.
She grasped Korey's shoulders. "Lord Darmouth has captured a young woman and locked her in a room one floor below us. He calls us guests, but that is a lie. I am a prisoner here-as are you. Do you understand that?"
Korey pulled back suspiciously. "Papa says we aren't supposed to talk about that."
Hedi felt a twinge of guilt, but there was too much at stake to stop now. "Your father is afraid of Lord Darmouth, and he should be. You are a good girl for your papa, but I must get a message to a friend in the city, or we could all… get hurt, including your parents. Can you sneak out as a cat and take it to where I tell you? Stay in the shadows on the bridge, and you will be small and dark enough that no one will notice."
"I don't know the city. I've never been," Korey said, and now she looked frightened. "I'd get lost! But you know the city, and you could do it."
Hedi released Korey's shoulders, sinking limply back against the door. "Lord Darmouth will never let me out. You have to-"
"I can show you," Korey said, and grabbed Hedi's hand. Unfortunately, this caused the quilt to slide off and she was once again naked. Hedi pulled the quilt up as Korey leaned forward, whispering. "You don't talk to me like everybody else, like I'm too young… too stupid. I know things! Papa tells me."
Hedi sat upright. "What things?"
"One time Papa played a trick on Julia and Devid when Lord Darmouth was gone away. He put stuff in their food, and they went to sleep. Julia snores like a dog! Papa said when they woke up, they wouldn't tell or they'd get in trouble for sleeping. He told me to change into a cat, and hid me in a big sack, and took me down and down under the keep, with places like cages with iron bars for doors, and showed me a piece of wall…"
Korey paused to catch her breath.
"We went through it and found a thing he called a 'portal', and he opened it. He showed me, and he said, 'Just in case'. Then we hurried real fast to get me back to my room. He told me if I went through the portal door, I'd find a secret to take me to the woods way over on the other side of the lake."
Hedi remained as calm as she could. If Korey's tale was true…
This was more than a way to send Byrd a warning. Could it be what they had spent years searching for-a way to breach the keep? How could she get into the lower levels? She had seen guards at every post that might lead below.
"Korey, what is down there? How could I get across the lake to the woods?"
Before Korey could speak, a knock sounded on the door.
"Quick," Hedi said, and lifted the quilt off Korey. "Under the bed."
Korey scurried away on all fours and wriggled out of sight, and Hedi spread the quilt roughly over the bed. She returned to the door and opened it a fraction.
A middle-aged guard stood before her in the corridor. He looked distraught.
"Forgive my disturbing you, lady," he said. "Baron Milea has arrived and is waiting in the meal hall. Our lord sent word last night that you wished to see the baron. But all this happened before-"
"Before today's commotion," Hedi finished for him.
"Yes, my lady. Our lord has granted the baron a short visit."
"Thank you. I will be down in a moment."
She closed the door and rushed to the cherry-wood desk, grabbing a scrap of parchment and a feather quill.
"Korey, come out," she said, and dipped the quill in the inkwell, scribbling a note. "You must get back to your room quickly. Wait… how did you open and close the door with paws instead of hands?"
Korey scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "I don't do it while I'm a cat! I take my clothes off in my room, wait till no one's in the hall, then go out and change. No one notices a cat around here cause they're supposed to be catching rats and mice."
Hedi shook her head. If only she had met this little one years ago. "Hurry back to your room. Julia may be there soon with your dinner. I will come for you later, and you can show me how to find this portal."
"I'll wait up for you," Korey agreed.
Hedi fought down guilt again. What she did was for the sake of her people-her lost mother and sisters, and her father, and even for Korey.