City of IF

[Shady Stoat]

The majority vote was for Keli to learn to control her dreams. Chapter 13 follows...

Chapter Thirteen

Keli’s eyes narrowed. She bit back an urge to say she could learn all three magics within the time allowed. Shakal’s coldness was triggering an impulsive anger in her. Yet for all of the wolf’s seeming unfriendliness, she was the only companion that the girl had. Rash words could not easily be taken back, and they were going to have to find a way to work together, if Keli was to stand any chance of surviving this city.

“Dream control,” she said aloud, not quite knowing why. Perhaps it was a more subtle form of revenge against her companion. It was the option that had seemed to annoy the Were most, in her descriptions. More than that, it was something that, to some extent, she could already do. The thought of failing, as Shakal expected her to, was a prospect that Keli could not bear.

Shakal looked at her, coolly. “You are sure?”

“I want to learn more about my dreams,” replied Keli, not looking away.

“Very well.”

The werewolf reached under her cloak and drew out a knife. Keli’s eyes widened. The blood rushed through her veins like icy water over rapids. She scrabbled backwards, scattering dirt as she sought the cellar wall with her back.

Shakal gave her a scornful look. With a sharp movement, she drew the blade over the fleshy part of her thumb. Blood welled in a thin line from the shallow cut. She deliberately put the blade down, then advanced a step towards Keli, holding her hand out before her.

“Taste and swallow,” she commanded, slowly approaching the girl, treating her as if she were a stupid but frightened animal.

Keli couldn’t seem to find her breath.

“Why?” she managed, afraid that Shakal might hear the tremble in her voice if she said more.

“I am to be your guide. The blood is a gift.” Shakal took another step. “You must accept a portion of my essence if I am to share in your magical wanderings. If you prefer, I can cut you and our blood will mingle in the ancient ways. Either way, accept my gift or not. Accept my help or not. You must choose quickly.”

The blood was already beginning to look sticky. Keli faltered, feeling queasy. Drinking the blood of one of these creatures was so… barbaric. So primitive. So different from her own people.

The ways of the beast?

Words from the temple service snuck into her mind, imitating the track of her own thoughts and mocking her. Long for her own kind as she might, the facts remained that humans would just as soon see her dead. The only ones who had shown her any kindness were the primitives, the half-beasts, the magic-wielders. She was in no position to judge them or their ways.

Keli took a deep breath and took out her own knife. Wincing, she made a nick in her own thumb and pressed it against Shakal’s waiting hand. The wolf’s long fingers intertwined with her own, feeling curiously warm. Seconds passed, and Keli was just about to ask what happened next, when she felt the heat spreading slowly from her fingers, up her arm and shoulder and flushing through the rest of her body like a crashing wave. The wolf’s fingers tightened on her own as she rocked back with the force of the sensation.

Then it was gone. She blinked and stared around the cellar, certain that something should have changed. Nothing had. Shakal uncurled her hand from Keli’s, turning her attention back to the cleaning and re-sheathing of her dagger.

“Now I must teach you to enter the waking dream state,” she said, flatly.

“Wait a minute.” Keli rubbed a hand through her reddened hair, bemused. “What just happened?”

“Our blood is one blood. You have granted me the ability to see much of what you see, hear much of what you hear, communicate without the need for spoken words. I am your guide now.” Shakal spoke distantly, as if she were remembering teachings, rather than talking from experience.

“But what does any of that mean?”

“I have no time to waste, explaining the inexplicable. You must trust me and learn what I can teach you.”

“Trust you?” Keli’s anger bubbled through, abruptly. “What have you ever done to earn my trust? You abandoned me, alone in the City!”

Shakal tilted her head. “Abandoned you? Now it is I who do not understand. We had a trade, human. Goods and food and passage through my peoples’ territory, in return for your aid in getting me into Shift City. As it worked out, I was the one who had to help you in the end. Even though the bargain was inequitable, I still left you the provisions supplied by my people. Provisions which you carry, even as you complain that I did you wrong. I would say that you came out rather better from the deal that I did, all told.”

“I… you…” Keli floundered, then rallied, “You had to sneak off then, did you? You couldn’t have just told me the agreement was ended, face-to-face?”

“Perhaps your memory is clouded, human,” replied Shakal, coldly. “You told me little or nothing of yourself, or your reasons for going to the city. Yet you questioned my purpose there and you were more than a little interested in the Beast Cult. Then there was a strangeness, an aura about you, that hinted of power. How could I know you were not a spy, sent to gather information to deal to our enemies? How could I afford to tell you anything of my motives and purpose? What reason did you give me to trust you?”

“That’s ridiculous,” exploded the girl. “A spy? Me? People were going to put me on trial, back home. They were trying to kill me, just because I have bad dreams! I was running for my life! That isn’t the sort of thing you spill out to a stranger – especially a… a…”

She faltered.

“A werewolf?” challenged Shakal, growing angry in turn. “A beast? Is that what you were going to say? Perhaps if I had been an ape, like your kind, you could have told me about your dreams?”

“What good would that have done?” Keli shot.

“Do you know how rare your magic is? Another potential Oracle, even a human one – is not something to be ignored!” Shakal stared at the girl as if she were crazy. “I would have taken you to Erath in his golden halls. He would have known how best to serve all our interests.”

“So you were wrong to abandon me by the river-bank,” Keli accused the wolf, triumphantly.

“It would seem so,” replied Shakal in bitter tones. “I made the journey to the Oracle, to serve my people. They instructed me to ask how we could best fight to destroy Itharien. I was supposed to return to them with the answer. Instead, I find that the first question from the Seer is about some human child. Why had I not brought her here? What did I know about her? Where was she now? What was the extent of her power?”

All of a sudden, Keli was lost for words. She stared, uncomprehending as Shakal began to pace the floor in agitation.

“I should be going back to my people, telling them how to survive the storm to come. Instead, I am told that you are the most important thing to me and my kin. I have no answers, no guarantee that you will succeed in your task and yet the oracle requires me to abandon my family on the wild chance that some human can defeat Itharien and his hordes. And then you will not even learn what I have to teach you!”

“Hey!” A hoarse voice sounded from the top of the stairs. “You want to fight? Do it quietly – or do it somewhere else. You hear? This is s’posed to be a safe house, damn you!”

They looked up to see Maurice standing there. For all his lack of stature, he looked furious. The wavering candlelight deepened the wrinkles in his face as he glared down at them.

An awkward silence descended. Keli felt her stomach twist with tension. If he threw them out, did they have anywhere else to go? Would Shakal even bother with her at that point? Or would she disappear into the night, just as she had the last time?

Thankfully, the little man harrumphed, breaking the tension.

“I’m going to bed. Whatever you’re doing, you keep it low, right? No amount of gold’s worth my head… though there’s some as’d say different, I guess. G’night.”

He stomped out, closing the door behind him. Before Shakal could speak, Keli cut in.

“We should start,” she said, softly.

Grave eyes regarded her. “We should.”

It was an uneasy truce. Nothing seemed resolved, but their time was too short and their situation too precarious to waste it in mutual recriminations. There was a job to do.

“Lie down,” said the wolf, following her own instructions as she spoke. Keli shifted away from the wall, flattening her back against the floor and feeling the straw prickle through her cloak.

“Watch the lights and relax. Do not attempt to direct your thoughts, let them wander where they will.”

As the wolf spoke, she held a taloned hand pointed towards the ceiling. Colours, faint and washy, began to appear on its surface, moving, mingling and dancing. The candle-flames added a surreal flickering to the sight, as Keli watched in fascination.

“How do you do that?” she breathed.

“Focus only on the lights,” replied Shakal, soft but stern.

The girl sighed, staring unmoving at the swirling patterns above her. She wondered what other powers the Were had at her fingertips… then realised that she shouldn’t be thinking about such abstractions. She tried to clear her mind of all thought, only to find herself wondering what was in the copper vats upstairs, and what was happening to the people left behind in the golden halls and… with a shake of her head, she willed herself to concentrate on the lights again.

There was a soft sigh beside her. “You are trying too hard,” said the wolf. “Let go of your control. Leave yourself open to your thoughts. Let your mind carry you, without force, to its destination.”

Keli felt an immediate pang of resentment, which she quelled, only to realise that she was attempting to control her thoughts again. She took a deep breath and willed herself to let go.

Gradually, she untensed. Patterns and images seemed to flow from the colours and shapes. Now she was watching the shimmering scales of a giant fish, an instant later fireflies glowed and danced in the morning mist. Her breathing deepened, there was an almost indiscernible tug from within, and suddenly she was floating…

…she is floating…

…is floating above a great cavern, lit in the centre, shadowy at the edges. A cage hangs from a hook in the ceiling and a lank-haired woman rocks the bars so hard that it sways back and forth like a child’s swing. She is shrieking insults and threats to those that hide, unseen in the dark corners of this place. The smell of incense is the same, the feeling of coldness, the creaking of the cage-rope, it is all exactly as she has experienced it before. Knowing what is to come, Keli understands that the woman’s struggles will make no difference. They will sacrifice her and she will burn.

She hears the familiar double-thud of the drumbeat as the chanting of many voices starts again. She feels chilled and helpless, locked into futility.

“Focus…”

In her dream-state, Keli jerks. A whisper, in Shakal’s voice.

“This is your dream… you are the master of it… find the lights…

The knife cuts down the cage. The woman within shrieks in rage, then in pain as it lands. The priests emerge from the shadows at the edge of the room, dragging the woman towards an altar.

Keli tears her gaze away from the struggles and the screams. She looks around, seeing the flicker of the candles. They illuminate the area of the cage and that of the altar. Not the right lights at all – and now she is floating, following the Itharienites as they secure their next victim and bring out their knives.

“You must try… find the lights…

It is hard to think as the blood begins to flow and the screams take on a new urgency. The lights. Where are the lights? How can she find them – and what is the point if she does? Shakal should be teaching her to find out more about her visions, not to search for things that do not exist!

Thud-thud! Thud-thud! The drums are loud and urgent, sickening her as her eyes rove and search at Shakal’s command. If only they would stop or slow, she might be able to concentrate. She tries to will them away, tries to believe that she is the master of her own dreams… but they won’t stop and the blood is flowing and the woman’s struggles are beginning to weaken… she cannot change anything that is going to happen… she cannot take away the vision…

“You see what you see, human… but you may also see what you do not see…”

Keli’s mind screams in silent frustration. Riddles – at a time like this! She needs answers, not vague philosophies. What does it mean, anyway? ‘You see what you see.’ Of course she did. That was her curse. Nothing ever changed, no matter how hard she fought against it.

Unbidden, the wolf’s earlier words came to the front of her mind.

“You are trying too hard. Let go of your control.”

Time seems to slow. Is this the same, then? Is she attempting to fight against her dreams, rather than working with what they show her? Could it be that simple?

It makes an odd kind of sense. The visions are truth – she has always known that. Fighting against the inevitable is like standing before the tide and expecting it to turn for you. Maybe, though, the truth could be embellished; used as a canvas from which to add what she willed.

Create, not control. Would it work? There was no way to find out, other than to try it.

The smell of incense and sweat and blood makes her reel and she blocks it from her mind, savagely. That is not important. She has to find the lights.

The head priest hold the soul-stone aloft, its dark veins catching against the candlelight. Keli wills herself to focus on the sparkle and shadow, dredging up a mental image of the way Shakal’s lights were dancing. Slowly, she begins to see dark colours, radiating out from the centre of the stone. They are dark and muddy, not like the pleasant fireflies she has seen before. Nonetheless, they are here.

She strains her mind, willing the swirls into life, feeling a strange power surging through her, like frost and fire combined. As the stone begins to descend towards the woman’s belly, Keli feels it calling and pulling at her. In a moment, it will have disappeared, burning from within its victim. The lights will be gone.

She cannot allow it. Reckless with newfound power, her ethereal form swoops towards its focus. The patterns of light grow larger, they surround her and she feels a warm glow caressing her. Lost in the sensation, she floats and weaves among the colours, losing form, losing memory… floating…

…floating…

“Not there, you fool! Too soon!”

The colour fades and is replaced by a smell of damp so thick she can taste it. There is no light here, yet she instinctively feels she is surrounded by… by something both ancient and aware. The ground tingles with a constant vibration, almost too weak to feel, and yet strong enough to set her teeth on edge. The whisper and buzz of voices presses against her temples like a steel band.

The voice is urgent now

“The lights. You have to find the lights again. You must leave this place now.”

‘Where am I?’ she thinks, straining to find shapes in the darkness. This would be so much easier with physical form. Can she give herself a body within her dream, she wonders. Should she try? If she can add to her dream, then why not a solid shape? Where will it end – and does it have to end at all? She could be like a god within her own visions. With time and practice, of course.

Her head hurts. She doesn’t want to think about any of that right now. She wants to get away from the cloying stench and the voices that try to penetrate her mind. Something is near, and she can no longer hear Shakal.

‘The lights,’ she thinks, a little groggily. ‘Fireflies, brightening up the darkness. They’re right in front of me.’

There is only blackness. For a moment, she sees nothing and there is only the thud of her heart and the clamour of a thousand whispered voices. Then, a single spark of red, hovering just beyond her reach. Even as she wonders if she is imagining it, a spot of yellow appears, mingling into a tiny sunset, multiplying with streaks of pale taupe and indigo. Her eyes follow the glows, the tiny beginnings of a smile on her face. Then the sparks light up a shadow beyond and her smile freezes.

Wood beams prop up a wall of packed earth and rubble. A huge set of jaws are embedded in its core, standing four feet proud of the wall itself. She can see the great cavernous hole of its mouth, and the tusk-like sharpness of its teeth as it roars its silent challenge. Wetness and mould cover it, giving it an almost living lustre. Though Keli’s head is telling her that it is made of stone, her heart is telling her that this thing is alive and about to come out of the wall, seeking her flesh as its next meal. It takes all of her willpower not to let the lights go out again, simply so she no longer has to look at the engulfing maw before her.

“You need to wake up. You need to leave this place right now!

Shakal’s voice is fainter, barely distinguishable as the whispers intensify in Keli’s head. She pushes them away, trying to look only at the lights and see nothing beyond. At the same time, the ground shivers with a new urgency. Earth starts to sprinkle from the walls and fall to the floor and the feeling of being watched intensifies.

A new voice distracts her attention.

“I hear one.”

It sounds tired and defeated as it calls out from a place behind her. She turns, abandoning the lights in her surprise. A moment later, she sees the more conventional illumination of a lantern, swinging as it approaches the room.

Now she can see more. She is in a widened tunnel, crusted with earth, mud and slime. Beams have been propped against the most unstable portions of the walls, but there are still piles of stones and loam that have fallen to partially block the way. Statue-shapes, half-buried, line the dug-alcoves, the floor and the walls. Still the dust falls all around her.

“Trust the lights. Get out of there. Keli!”

“This way.” Now there are other voices, murmuring behind the lantern-holder. Keli watches as a pale and mud-streaked boy leads three others into the makeshift cavern. Two of them are burly but deformed, looking like they must have come from the East side of the city. They hold picks in their well-muscled arms. The other is a dark-cloaked man whose face is in shadow. He is tall and stooped, though he straightens up as the roof becomes higher.

The lantern carrier is familiar, somehow. Keli stares at him, trying to work out where she has seen that face before. There is a voice in her head, telling her to get out of here, but it is faint, mingled with the buzzing, and she feels that it is important to remember…

…remember…

…a mad-eyed boy, rescuing her from her family’s cellar. Hair the colour of bleached sand and a way of looking past you, just as this boy was doing, even as he approached the spot from which she observed her dream.

Blood is crusted from a gash on his neck. His nails are broken and dirtied. He seems thin and carries himself as if in constant fear of a beating. Yet he is still alive – in the dream, at least. He is still alive, and Keli feels relief, even though she has never met the boy.

He comes to a standstill, less than a foot away from where she is.

“I hear it,” he says, looking almost, but not quite, directly at her. “Another one. Near this place.”

The hooded man speak. “Track it, boy. Earn the mercy you have received.”

His voice is warm and caressing, yet the boy shivers. She looks into his frightened eyes, and for an instant, he looks back, then his gaze moves on. He takes a step forward, feeling as a blind man does. Keli, invisible and bodiless, felt like shrinking back from his touch. Her guide is silent, the boy is too near, his companions look on, waiting for their little trained dog to perform.

Keli thinks quickly. Shakal has told her to run from this place – but she knows so little about how to do that. Where would the lights take her next, and would these people notice if she created them within her dream? Can she afford to wait while the boy sniffs out her presence for his mysterious masters?

Time is growing short and she hovers, indecisive, as a thousand options run through her head…

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The majority vote was to heed Shakal's advice and follow the lights. Chapter 14 follows from that...

Chapter Fourteen

This one is different,” says the boy, softly.

That is what decides her. Suddenly, it seems very important that she gets out of this place. She has always been different, even Shakal has said that she is all-but unique. For some reason, the boy senses her, and she is ill-prepared for any meeting on his terms.

She tries to ignore the circling of the grubby lad as he attempts to pin her down. Instead, she focuses her fuzzy mind on the lights. The lantern’s brightness is a far cry from the soft patterns that she needs, but she makes herself see auras and colours there. It is her dream, she can control it.

If only the buzzing would leave her alone.

It grows louder. She concentrates until she thinks her head will explode with the effort. Is she seeing the lights or is she simply straining her eyes until they will see virtually anything? The answer comes as she begins to fade away from this place. The last thing she hears from the boy is a whispered:

“Who are you?”

The lights dance and blur in the darkness. Now that the whispering is not pressing in on her head, she feels like she could drift forever. There is peace and calm and the silence of the void. Something nags at her, vaguely, but she can ignore it. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but the lights and their random movement. Nothing matters…

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There was a sharp, stinging pain. Keli’s consciousness slammed back into her body with a force that made her gasp. She raised a tentative hand to her stinging cheek as tears brimmed. Shakal was sitting opposite, her teeth bared and her hand still raised. She looked as frightening as anything Keli had ever seen.

“What were you thinking!” growled the Were, eyes blazing with obvious fury.

“I… I… what?” Keli retreated into confusion.

“When I give you instructions, I expect them to be obeyed. What is the point in me being your guide if you will not allow yourself to be guided by me? Oh, you stupid humans, you cannot co-operate with anyone! I should have ignored the Oracle, I should have gone home to face whatever the future brings, with my family! Why am I even here?”

Keli opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish. She had never seen the wolf so wild. Her eyes darted to the door at the top of the cellar stairs, wondering whether she could reach them before…

No. Of course she couldn’t. Shakal was stronger and faster.

She sat, frozen, as the wolf continued to rant.

“Why did you go to that place, anyway? You could have been killed! You could have ruined us all!”

“I… didn’t know where I was going,” quavered Keli.

“I told you it was dangerous. I told you to follow the lights and come back to me, but you chose to ignore my warnings!”

A combination of fear and outrage pushed the words out of her.

“I didn’t choose to ignore you. I didn’t choose to go into another dream. Don’t you understand – I don’t know what I’m doing!” She heard her voice rising and fought to keep it to a pitch that wouldn’t bring Maurice charging down the cellar steps again. “You said you’d teach me, didn’t you? Well, I’m going to make mistakes, what else do you expect?”

“Mistakes are one thing,” Shakal shot back, “but endangering your own life is another entirely. You could have been hurt – or lost to us. Just because you dream, it does not make you immune to harm.”

She paused and some of the fire seemed to fade out of her. “If you fail, I fail also. We must be more careful. Promise me you will stay away from that place, until you are ready.”

Keli held back a retort to the effect that she had not meant to go there in the first place. It seemed Shakal had been so angry only because of her anxiety – and that very breakdown of inhibitions made the girl more inclined to trust her.

“I promise,” she said, hoping that she could live up to the pledge.

“Good.” The wolf took a deep breath. “Now – we should try again. This time, try to keep an image of where you want to be. Do not think about it, just let it drift through your mind as you observe the lights.”

Keli lay on the cold floor, trying to think and not think simultaneously. Whenever she relaxed her thoughts, the image of the beaten boy wandered into her head. For whatever reason, it was imperative that she didn’t go back there. Anywhere else would do.

In the end, she drifted back into the meditation/sleep world. Shakal was relentless, teaching her to control her surroundings, come back to the waking world at her own will and how to ‘smell’ whether one of her dreams was taking place in the past, present or future. This was something that Keli balked at.

Between training sessions, she complained:

“I don’t know what you mean. How am I supposed to smell the difference between past and present? What sort of smells? Which one is which?”

Shakal shrugged, almost helplessly. “I have no better way of explaining. The past is like… like the smell of fire gone cold. The future is… the scent you get on a hilltop, among the low clouds. The present is like dew on grass. It is just a matter of coming to recognize them.”

“I don’t think with my nose, like you do,” Keli objected, then faltered as she realized how tactless she might have been. “I mean… isn’t there a colour, or a feel to the different types of dreams?”

The wolf tilted her head. “If there is, you will have to find it by yourself. I can only teach you as I have been taught. Your nose may well be too pitiful for the job. We shall see.”

They saw indeed. Keli despaired of ever being able to scent what seemed to obvious to her guide. After exploring the dream-world for a while, though, she began to detect an echo in the sounds around her. Voices – and screams – doubled slightly in her ears. If she listened carefully, she could detect whether the doubling preceded the main sound or whether it followed.

‘Could that be it?’ she asked the guide within her head.

‘I was taught only the scent,” answered the wolf. Then, almost sounding excited: ‘But I can hear it too – if I try. Yes, use the echoes. Learn from them. Continue.”

And so it went. Together they explored the nuances of her dreams like weary pilgrims. They learned to travel a short distance from where the main events of the dream were ensuing and, with an almost physical presence, to move towards the heart of what she wanted to examine. With the wolf’s instructions, Keli learned to slow and hasten time within her visions. Shakal didn’t say much, but Keli got the vague impression that she was pleased with the progress made. However, it began to get harder with each new attempt to meditate.

Eventually, Keli looked away from the lights with heavy eyes.

“No more,” she said, simply. “I need sleep.”

For a moment, she thought the wolf would not agree. It certainly seemed as though she was about to argue. Then, she gave an abrupt nod of her head.

“Rest then,” she said. She watched as Keli rose with a groan, trudged to a pile of blankets and set about making them comfortable. She was still watching as the girl lay down and closed her eyes. Keli was too tired to care. Within a few minutes, she was asleep.

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She smells fresh grass and the buttery aroma of gorse flowers. There are wide-trunked trees, lining a network of paths through this place. It is open and yet fenced, wild and yet tamed. A park with great open spaces, in the middle of a city where freedom is impossible.

She looks around, hearing bird-song, feeling the sunlight on her face. Much as she would like to stay in this pretty place, she knows that there is something she must do. A single voice chants its siren song at her, willing her closer.

She follows it – not because she must, but because she chooses to. Even as she marvels at the control she can exert over her dream-visions, a high stone wall comes into view. At least, it is stone at the base. The greenery of ivy clings and covers the rest from easy view.

Now she can put a name to this place. She is in the Imperial Gardens, and this is the enclosure that she must face, if she is to win the Stone of Oracles. She leans forward to touch the stone wall. Some force seems to push her away. She sets her will against it and tries harder.

She is winning. She can feel it – and then, she feels a sense of confusion. Why struggle so hard? There is no real victory in touching a wall. She should be concentrating on other things. Yes… other things…

Her mind drifts, trying to catch the fledgling thoughts as they scatter themselves like corn seeds on the wind. There was something about… something…

Shaking her head, she turns away – and she sees him. The ragged boy. He is standing against one of the nearby trees, watching her with steady eyes.

“Who are you?” he asks. “Please. I know you’re there. I know you’re not like the others. Who are you?”

Keli takes an uncertain step towards the boy. Her mind is beginning to clear now.

“I… you shouldn’t be here,” she says. Then stops. Is it the boy she should be avoiding, or the dark hole in which she found him at their last meeting.

“Who are you?”

She hesitates. Then:

“No.”

There is a rumbling from the stone wall behind her. She begins to turn…

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A violent tremor awoke her. Dirt was running in tiny rivers from cracks in the ceiling. Keli coughed out dust as it rose in a cloud around her. The invasion of peculiar sound was back, battering itself against her thoughts. She pressed the heels of her hands against her temples. It didn’t help to drown out the noise or the needle-pains behind her skull. She screwed her eyes shut and waited for it to stop.

Nearly a minute later, both the rumbling and the pain went away as abruptly as they had started. The earth ceased to judder and the beams around them gradually stopped creaking and shifting. Keli opened her eyes, cautiously. She felt grey and gritty with dust. Standing up, she shook herself, trying not to breathe too hard. Shakal was doing the same, rather more vigorously, near the stairs.

“What is that?” asked Keli, when she could finally speak again. She uncorked one of the ceramic bottles and took a deep swig of water.

“The soul-stones,” said Shakal, shortly. “They lie beneath us, where some of the ruins of the Ancient city are still hidden away. At least, some of them lie beneath us. Others have already been taken by Itharien. You should not think too deeply of such things, otherwise your dreams will take you there again.”

“Again?” Keli repeated, startled. “You mean that’s where I went last night? That’s where the boy was? The one from my portr…”

“Enough. You have rested, your training should continue.” Shakal laid out a blanket and sat down again. “We have only half a day and a night left. There is no point in wasting what time we have on questions which will be answered all too soon.”

Reluctantly, Keli returned to her practice. The meditation came more easily now. Despite what Shakal had said, she found that she could direct herself to one vision over another, almost all the time. With the familiarity of repetition, even the horror of her nightmares seemed manageable now. She was no longer frozen, unable to do anything but watch. However limited her powers were at this point, they were a measure of control over what she was forced to witness.

“I cannot safely teach you any more dream control,” said Shakal, at last. “There are other things you can learn, but the risks of experimenting with them would be too great until you are more confident of your powers.”

Keli regarded her warily. “How much time do we have left here?”

“An evening. A night. You must get some more rest in that time, though. We will be hard-pressed soon enough.”

“I slept not long ago.” Keli took another roll of the biscuits and started chewing through the first one. “I’m not tired yet.”

“Then what would you have us do?”

“Teach me something else,” said the girl, eagerly. “You said I needed to know it all. We have time. Let’s use it.”

“I will not be able to do much more than give you a rough start in a new magical skill,” warned Shakal. “There is not enough time for full instruction.”

“We have to begin somewhere. Don’t we?”

Shakal bowed her head. “Very well, what would you learn next?”

Before Keli could answer, the cellar door opened. Again, it was Maurice.

“I thought you ought to know. There’s another guards’ run on the East side tonight. Some of the Watch are over the bridge already. I’ll be alright – though I can’t say the same for my whisky. I c’n just disappear ‘til they’ve had a poke around, then come back in a day or two. Don’t know whether you two’ll make it though. Mebbe you should get out of here while you still can?”

“A guards’ run?” blurted Keli.

“They raid this side of the city every so often,” remarked Maurice, seeming curiously unbothered. “Sometimes they’re after someone, sometimes, they’re just out on a general raid, picking up anyone interesting they see along the way. Sometimes, o’course, they just do it to take away what little we’ve got over on the East side. All I know is they’re coming and they’ll keep coming until they get bored or they get stung back by some o’the less pleasant types around here. You’re in hiding, so I’m guessing that you don’t want them to come across you – ‘specially the Were. She’d stand out a mile if they was looking for her type. That’s why I warned you. Still, run or stay, it’s all the same to me.”

Shakal looked quietly at Keli. “You are in more danger than I. Should we stay and learn more, or leave?”

Keli swallowed. If they stayed, they ran the risk of being discovered. She was with a Were and she had magic. It was unlikely that her boy’s disguise would help her much against a direct search. They would catch her and hand her over to the church and, in time, she would be burned at the altar. She didn’t want to die!

What if they were looking for someone else, though? What if they gave up before they got this far into the East side? She couldn’t learn everything she needed to know on the run – and she didn’t know if there was anywhere to run to.

The other two were waiting for her answer – and she had no idea what to do for the best…

[Shady Stoat]

The majority vote was to stay and continue her training, risking the raid from the guards. Chapter fifteen follows from that...

Chapter Fifteen

Keli looked around the cellar, nervously. If anyone came for them, they were trapped in a burrow, with no hiding places. Shakal may be able to fight her way out, but Keli already knew what her chances of surviving an attack were, and they didn’t amount to much.

On the other hand, what were her chances out there, with the City Watch scouring the area? Hiding hadn’t done her much good before – and she was always going to be helpless if she didn’t learn some skills with which to defend herself.

Besides, if she could begin to learn the skills of spirit-travelling, she might be able to keep an eye on where the guards were conducting their raids. If they got too close, she could tell Shakal to take her to somewhere safer.

She only hoped there would be somewhere safer, if the need arose.

She turned to Maurice and tried to look more confident than she felt.

“We’re staying,” she said, proud of the fact that her voice wasn’t shaking. “Can you do anything to cover the cellar door? Make it a bit less obvious to anyone who comes in here?”

The small man looked doubtful. “I could put a sheet over it, I suppose. It’d probably make the door more obvious, though.”

An uneasy silence descended for a couple of seconds. Then, Shakal spoke.

“You could drag your still over to the area in front of the door.”

Maurice looked at the Were as if she were crazy. “You know how heavy that thing is, wolf? Besides, that’d draw the guards straight towards where you’re hiding.”

“The two of you could hold it for balance,” said Shakal, patiently. “I have the strength to move the still. If you move it to the point where the door will only open narrowly, the guards will either have to spend time dragging it away from the door, or they will at least have to enter the cellar one at a time. It gives the girl and me the best chance to defend ourselves against an organised attack.”

“So long as you’re quick,” grumbled Maurice. “I want t’be out of here before the filth hits.”

He turned and led the way up to the filthy living room. The other two followed him wordlessly. They navigated their way around the mattress and the unclean dishes and to the giant copper kettle in the corner. Between them (and due, mostly, to Shakal’s uncanny strength), they managed to shuffle the foul-smelling still close to the cellar’s wooden door. Even the wolf was breathing hard by the end of their exertions.

“Well,” said Maurice, “I’ll see you if you’re still here when I get back.”

With that, he began to gather a few of his possessions. It didn’t take long and there weren’t many. Within a minute, he had disappeared out into the street, jamming the slanted door shut behind him.

Keli stared after him, feeling a little sick. She heard Shakal’s voice, calling her back from the edges of panic.

“What would you like to study now?”

She drew a deep breath. “Spirit travelling. If the guards are coming for us, I want to know about it.”

“I doubt you will be able to master the skill to that extent.” Shakal stated, as she squeezed herself through the tight gap and into the cellar.

“I learned dream control faster than you thought I would.” Keli followed behind the wolf, unable to hold back her retort.

“The skill is more difficult, the time is shorter and you are more tired now.” The wolf’s voice was flat and dry of emotion. Keli felt herself getting angry again, and bit the emotion back. There was no time for them to quarrel. Not if she wanted to survive. Let her actions prove Shakal wrong, not her words.

“Teach me,” she said, simply.

“Be seated,” answered the wolf, sitting down on the blanket again.

Keli sat beside her, imitating the cross-legged stance of her instructor.

“Pick a point in the room,” said Shakal, softly. “Anywhere within the cellar.”

Keli’s eyes roved, before fixing on another pile of blankets next to the shelves of food and drink.

“Now,” said Shakal, following her gaze, “try to imagine yourself sitting in that spot. See yourself there, feel the material of the blankets beneath you, smell the dampness of the straw in that corner. Look at the two of us talking, hear the conversation, not from where you are sitting, but from where you imagine yourself to be sitting. Focus… and try.”

Attempting to obey, Keli closed her eyes briefly, then opened them, staring at the spot in the corner. She tried to imagine seeing herself there. She tried to imagine watching herself from a remote location. She tried to smell the dampness and feel the coarse blankets. She tried… and failed. After a few minutes of intense concentration, she expelled her breath in a great sigh and looked back at Shakal.

The wolf looked unsurprised, merely saying, “Take a few moments. Then try again.”

Keli tried. She tried until she thought her head would explode. There was not even the whisper of the type of success she had managed with the control of her dreams. It was as if she was trying to lift herself up by her own boot-laces. Simply impossible.

After a while, the wolf’s apparent patience became its own rebuke. Keli stared into the corner of the room, feeling ever more stupid, wondering what the wolf was thinking of her boasts now. Was Shakal regretting – again – the necessity of babysitting some helpless human cub, while her own people thought her lost? Was she angry, or frustrated, or simply bored, under the calm exterior of the teacher? If Keli chose to sleep, would she wake up to find that the Were had simply given up on her, leaving her in the cellar, alone, for the guards to take?

She tried to drag her mind back to the job in hand, but it insisted on tying itself in knots of anxiety. Her eyes would not see what Shakal wanted her to, her mind insisted on seeing all the things she herself dreaded.

“Again.”

“It’s no good – I can’t do it.”

“You were the one who wanted to stay and learn.”

“I know,” Keli almost wailed her frustration.

“Do you want to stop and sleep a while?”

“I’m not tired! I’m just… isn’t there any other way to learn this?”

Shakal was silent a moment. “No other way that I know. The skill is not mine to teach – I can only instruct you as I was told. You must keep trying.”

Keli’s eyes swam with tears. She should not have expected to be able to learn everything she wanted to. Not in a single day and night. Still, her failure stung all the more because of her easy victory over the first skill.

She focused on the corner of the room, feeling the wolf’s eyes upon her. Eyes of amber, flecked with brown and gold, she could see them even though she was not looking at Shakal at all. Those calm, accusing eyes surrounded her, making her head swim with light-headed giddiness.

There was a moment of disconnection…

She stared at Keli, the girl with a single tear running down her cheek. The girl’s face was slack. She stared into the corner of the room with dull eyes. There was something… familiar… something… wrong…

Get out!

She cautiously explored the wrongness. Her fingers curled and she felt strong claws digging against her palms. There was an alien sharpness to her teeth and there were far too many of them to fit into her mouth. She ran her tongue experimentally over them, while her nostrils assailed her with a host of smells like…

Get out!

…like nothing she had ever experienced before. The human smell was sour with sweat and fear. The straw was old and starting to rot in the dampness of the cellar, and above everything else was the stench of yeast, sinking down from the floor above. Fermentation and decay and bitter acid that burnt the throat and poisoned the mind. This she knew, although she did not know how she knew. It was like…

Out! Get out!

She heard it then. A voice from within. It sounded angry – and frightened. She reached for it, and it seemed to fade. Once again, she found herself staring at the human girl – the one who seemed half-asleep. The one who was…

You! It’s you! Think!

Reality imploded on her. She was watching herself. Her mind had travelled – but not to the point in the corner of the room. Somehow, she had ended up in possession of Shakal’s body. Looking out through alien eyes and breathing through alien lungs while her protector railed helplessly at the sudden switch.

Keli was torn between triumph at finally achieving something, and fear of what the wolf was going to do to her when this was over. Then another thought imposed itself on her, driving the other considerations out.

What if she couldn’t get back to her own body?

She looked at her slowly slumping form and willed herself back. There was nothing. No sensation of movement. She ran, panicked, through the imprisoning hallways of the alien body. Random muscles twitched and jerked as she tried to find a way out. Everything seemed slammed closed against her escape. Shakal’s voice was speaking – shouting – at her, but she was heedless and, by now, terrified.

Another avenue and, suddenly, she was trawling through memories.

A brother’s playful nip sends her wailing off to her mother…

Standing in her father’s workship, watching him enchanting a pretty piece of glass with light magic, until it looked like the most delicate of diamonds…

A tattoo-ed man, hurling a stone at her as she walked along the park, towards her family’s home…

The call in the middle of the night. “The guards are on their way. We have to get out.”

The sudden surge of pride as Malkai bade a task of her, then the disappointment as…

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

Keli slammed back into her own body. She sucked in a choking breath as her head reeled. Everything felt smaller, enclosed… she felt as if she couldn’t breathe, even as the oxygen pumped her lungs with frightening rapidity. Her heart was pounding as if she had been running for miles and sweat began to prickle her skin.

She didn’t dare look at the wolf, although she could hear similarly ragged breathing from the space opposite her.

What had she done? Why hadn’t Shakal told her that could happen? What was the wolf going to do to her? The gnawing fear of being left alone came back, redoubled.

“How are you feeling?” The voice of the wolf cut into her thoughts, numbing her with surprise.

“I didn’t mean to,” she blurted out.

“I know. Are you all right?”

Keli finally glanced nervously at Shakal. The wolf was still catching her breath, but there was little sign of the expected fury.

“What happened?” ventured the girl, feeling herself relax a little.

Surprisingly, she got a tight smile in response. “You short-cut a few of my lessons. I will not say you mastered a new skill, for I saw little of mastery in it. Even such a clumsy attempt at possession is remarkable, though, especially from a…”

The wolf faltered to a halt. After an awkward pause, she resumed. “You took possession of my body for a few moments. It is an advanced skill, and not one that seers generally access easily. I had not contemplated teaching you, thinking an attempt would be well beyond your capabilities. To some extent it was. What you managed, you managed by chance, with no skill behind it. I was able to… return you to your own body in a matter of moments.”

“But…” faltered Keli, “I read your thoughts. By accident,” she amended, hastily. “Was that part of the… the possession?”

Shakal sighed. “The simplest form of soul travel is spirit walking. This you were attempting to master. In its more advanced form, the soul can walk straight into another form, taking over its muscles, sensations, perceptions and, yes, searching through its mind. Even more advanced is the ability to ride someone else’s consciousness and rifle through their thoughts and memories without being sensed.”

“Could you teach me how to do that?”

“In the time we have? No.” Shakal looked at her, flatly. “I think we should continue to try and teach you the basic skills, for now. The Oracle said that spirit-walking was a skill that you might have need for – not bodily possession.”

“But you said they were both aspects of the same skill,” protested the girl. “Maybe he meant…”

“Whatever he meant,” interrupted the wolf, “I think it must wait until we have slept. I am weary. I imagine you must be, too.”

Keli was. Her body felt heavy and her head felt light. Nevertheless, she objected.

“If we sleep now, we won’t wake ‘til morning. Then Maurice will come back and throw us out. I’ll never get the chance to learn what I need to know!”

“You will learn nothing when you are tired, human,” replied Shakal, already settling down on the bedding. “The body and the mind need to rest. I will find a way to teach you what you need to know before we must face Itharien. Now, sleep.”

Grudgingly, Keli gave in. There was no point in staying awake if her tutor refused to teach her. She tried to stoke her resentment, but found only exhaustion to call on. Within minutes of laying her head on the pillow, she was fast asleep.

------------

The thudding of footsteps over head jolted them awake. The candles had been snuffed before they slept, and the only light down here was creeping in from the gaps between door and frame at the top of the steps.

Keli peered, making out the outline of Shakal, her eyes reflecting against the glow of the thin light. She crawled closer, trying to move silently.

Boots trod the ground above, causing a rain of dust from the ceiling. There was the sound of mocking laughter and thickly accented voices, arguing amongst themselves. It sounded like at least four people were up there, although the door and their accents muffled what they were actually saying to each other.

As she edged closer, Shakal gripped her arm, almost making her shout out in surprise.

“Stay here,” whispered the wolf. “I’ll go and deal with this.”

“No!” Keli hissed her whisper. “I mean… we’re safe down here, aren’t we?”

“I don’t know,” answered Shakal. “There may be too many of them. You have no experience with fighting and if they outnumber us by many, then I cannot hold them all off. Besides - listen. Do they sound like the City Watch to you?”

The girl listened. The voices upstairs sounded loud and argumentative, but that proved nothing either way to her.

“What difference does it make who they are?”

“I am not sure. There is no point to us waiting down here, though, like rats in a trap. I can fade out and at least go to see what the situation is.”

“I’m not sure…” whispered Keli.

“What would you do then?” demanded the wolf.

And there was the problem. What would she do?

Keli considered, aware that time was short…

---------------

The majority vote was to let Shakal scout out the problem, using her invisibility. Chapter 16 follows from that...

Chapter Sixteen

Keli gave in.

“Go on then,” she whispered to the wolf, watching the light at the top of the stairs, as the movement of feet caused the shadows to flicker.

She quietly drew her knife, just in case it was needed. As she watched, the shadowy form of the wolf faded to nothing as she got towards the top of the steps.

Keli waited, biting her lip. The door began to open outward, very slowly, almost as if it were simply swinging open of its own accord. Almost, but not quite.

One of the voices upstairs raised in thickly-accented protest and the door was pushed shut again. A moment later, it flew open, banging with a hard thud into the still. Keli gripped her knife with white knuckles and faltered forward to the first step.

Shouts of alarm became roars of rage a moment later. There was the sound of crashing furniture and the thud of a body, slamming the cellar door shut again. Then, a howl of pain that sounded like it came from Shakal.

Forgetting caution, Keli ran towards the top of the steps, wanting to help. When she pushed on the door, however, something was blocking it. Whatever had landed so hard seemed still to be in the way. She shoved at it with all her strength, but could only get the door to open an inch. Her face felt hot from the exertion and frustration combined, but she could see no more than a tiny sliver of the room beyond.

Another yelp, then a shriek, cut off suddenly. If Shakal was down, then they would be down here after her in a minute. She took a step back from the doorway, renewing her sweaty grasp on the blade.

A moment later, there was an answer, of sorts. The cries had turned to ragged breathing, only broken by the sounds of floorboards creaking under feet, in a curious quick-slow rhythm. As she watched, a side-view of Shakal came into sight, retreating slowly, teeth bared. Her thigh was leaking blood from a gash which had ripped the material of her leggings and matted the fur beneath. She was limping, although there was no telling how bad the wound was.

A moment later, another creature came into view. Keli could see at once that it wasn’t one of the City Watch. The patchy hair, the grimy rags, the misshapen curvature of the spine – they all told of one of the local residents. He was holding a curved blade in his right hand, and he seemed to handle it with ease.

Keli made a split-second decision. Without thinking about it, she tried to summon her possession magic again.

‘Look through his eyes.’

It’s not going to work…

She thrust the inner doubt away and continued to try. ‘Feel the sword in his hand. See Shakal through his vision.’

It was an accident last time. You’ll never manage it again.

‘I’m winning. I’m confident. The wolf looks scared. The sword is right here. I’m…’

Suddenly, for an instant, she was there. There was a wolf in front of her, leaking blood, yet at the same time, there was a sensation of rapid shifting, dizziness, being out of control.

The sword dropped from her hand. She saw Shakal diving towards her, jaws open and deadly. At the same instant, she felt a flash of pain… somewhere…

…everywhere…

…and she was back in her own body, lying breathless and hurting on the cellar floor. The pains were fresh and raw, there was no way to evaluate how badly she was hurt. She cursed herself for a thousand types of fool.

What had she hoped to achieve by trying out her new magic? If she had succeeded, and Shakal had been able to kill the possessed body, then what? Would she have returned to her own body, or would she have died with the new one? That had been a reckless way to set about finding out, she thought, as she groaned aloud.

She had tumbled sideways off the steps as soon as the control of her own body had been taken away. What had she been thinking?? She could have at least sat on the steps, it might have kept her more secure. The only small piece of luck was that she hadn’t fallen backwards and bounced down each stone step as she had fallen. That would have been worse.

Perhaps. It seemed pretty bad right now, actually. Her shoulder, only recently healed, was throbbing steadily. Her head felt as if it had been fetched a nasty crack on the cellar floor. She was fairly sure that two of the fingers on her left hand were broken, or at least badly bruised and swollen. She was tasting blood in the back of her mouth, and her tongue hurt from where she had bitten it as she had landed.

It was only when the cellar door opened that she realised she had no idea what had happened between Shakal and the stranger with the sword. She struggled clumsily upward, only to relax as she saw the form of the wolf at the top of the stairway.

The wolf hop-bounded down the stairs, still limping badly as she neared Keli.

“Are you damaged?” she asked, concern and a little anger in her voice.

“I’m…” faltered Keli. “…my fingers hurt a bit.”

She sucked in a deep breath as Shakal examined her left hand.

“You should not have tried to help,” said the wolf, obviously reining in her real emotions. “I was simply waiting for the best opportunity to attack.”

Her guide had guessed what she had done then.

“You – OW! – were wounded,” she said, between clenched teeth as Shakal dropped her hand again.

“Not broken,” said the wolf. “Do you have other injuries?”

She began to run her taloned fingers over Keli’s clothing, seeking a pain response. She continued to talk throughout the examination.

“It is my job to protect you, huma – Keli. You should not be thinking about coming to my aid. I will die for my people if I must, in order to see that you live to fulfil your purpose; but you, in return, must focus on the end goal and not be distracted by misplaced feelings of loyalty or friendship.”

Keli had had enough. She leaned away from Shakal’s touch.

“I’ll survive,” she snapped. “You should be more worried about that gash on your leg. It looks bad.”

“It will heal,” replied Shakal, gruffly. “Weres recover quickly.”

The girl shook her head impatiently, wincing as skull and shoulder throbbed in synchronization. “It won’t do any harm to clean and bind it. Let me see.”

To her surprise, Shakal gave no further argument. With a curt nod, she began to shrug herself free of the leggings. The careful way that she peeled the material away from the wound was evidence enough that she was in pain.

Keli waited, reminded again of the alienness of this creature. Her legs were covered with fine, blue-grey fur and her bone structure and musculature were different in a way that the cloak usually hid from casual observers. It was ironic that someone so different could be her only friend in this place.

As soon as Shakal was ready, Keli went to the shelves and fetched one of the pots of water. She made rags and bandages from her old clothing and began to wipe the blood away from the wound.

“It’s deep,” she said, as the wolf bore her attentions stoically. “It should really be stitched, but I don’t have the equipment. You’ll have to make do with this.”

“It will heal,” repeated the wolf. Her voice was tight.

After a few moments, Keli spoke again.

“Whether you like it or not,” she said, eyes on the wound, “we’re in this together. I can’t get to where I need to go without you. If I’m to face Itharian eventually, let alone beat him, then it will take the two of us.”

“I do not…”

“Am I ready to face him yet?” demanded Keli.

There was a pause. Then, “No.”

“If that ever changes, consider yourself as dispensable as you want to be,” she snapped, as she began to bandage the bloody wound. “Until then, we’re looking out for each other. Accept it, that’s just the way things are.”

The wolf laughed sourly. “You are… different than I expected. Perhaps I begin to see why the Oracle set so much store in you.”

“Well, at least one of us does,” muttered Keli. “Okay, it’s not much, but it’s the best I can do.”

She looked at the bindings, already beginning to stain and a thought occurred for the first time since her fall.

“What happened up there?” She nodded to the cellar door. “Who were they?”

“Looters,” answered Shakal, shortly. “They were robbing the empty houses while people have been scared off by the raid. In a way, it is good news.”

“Why?”

“It means that the guards are not yet near this corner of the city. If they were, the locals would not be taking such risks. It seems we might be passed over after all.”

Keli felt a weary kind of relief. Another day was past without this city having devoured her. How long could it continue, though? How long before her luck ran out? It only needed to happen once and Itharien had won.

“We need to get back to training,” she said, ignoring the thumping in her head that told a different tale. “Teach me more about possession magic.”

“We should be concentrating on spirit travelling,” the wolf reminded her.

“Will spirit travelling help me when I come face to face with Lord Itharien?” asked Keli.

“Perhaps not directly, no, but…”

“Is there more that I can learn in studies of possession?”

The wolf looked at her, wryly. “You do seem to have a certain raw skill. I could teach you how to refine it, but…”

“Then I want to learn possession.” She shook her head to forestall an argument. “You may be my guide, but in the end, I’ll be the one who goes up against this man. And when I do, I want a weapon that I can use.”

“Information is your best weapon. The Oracle told you that himself.” Shakal sighed. “However, you are correct. I am only your guide and our time is limited. If this is what you wish to learn, then I shall teach you.”

Keli felt a moment of doubt. She squashed it instantly. Whatever Erath had told her, he was gone now. It was up to her to decide. And she was sick of feeling helpless all the time!

“Teach me,” she said, simply.

There, in the candlelight of pre-dawn, the lessons began again. With no-one else to practice on, Shakal was her willing subject. After the first couple of tries, she could enter the body of the wolf, perform simple actions and even keep a clumsy kind of dual-awareness going with her own body at the same time. She exulted in the ease with which she was mastering her newfound skills.

Then the rules began to change. Shakal began to resist her attempts. Mildly at first, then with more force. She struggled to penetrate the defences of the wolf.

“You’re making it too difficult,” she complained, rubbing her eyes.

Shakal cocked an eyebrow. “You are not trying hard enough. Again.”

“It’s impossible!”

“You think a victim, knowing what you are about to attempt, will stand passively by and let you do this to them? You must find a way through. Now – again!”

Keli’s fingers were pulsing, swollen to the point where she could no longer bend them. Her shoulder and head were down to a dull throb now. Nevertheless, she felt like she had been doing this for hours. She stared at the wolf, wondering whether it was worth continuing with this.

The inevitable answer came back. It was this, or die at the hands of the Cult. She gritted her teeth and tried again.

“Better.” Shakal spoke with absent concentration. “Keep trying.”

An hour later, she had only succeeded once, and briefly. However, she was beginning to feel her way past Shakal’s barriers, bit by bit. The wolf was putting up increasing resistance, to less effect than before.

However, before their studies could continue to yet another attempt, the front door opened upstairs. They tensed, then relaxed as a vehement exclamation identified the voice as that of Maurice.

A moment later, the cellar door flew open.

“What the hell have you bin up to?” he demanded, voice rising in anger. He pointed to the room behind him. “Bloodstains on the floor, three corpses – can’t I leave you folks here for a single night without you commitin’ murder?”

The wolf eyed him levelly. “Would you prefer that they had been allowed to rob you unhindered? Or that they had found the girl and I here in the cellar? If even one had escaped to inform others that you were keeping magic users in your home, you would never have been left in peace.”

Maurice gave an inarticulate grumble, then nodded his head curtly.

“I s’pose you’re right. It’s all the same now anyway. I’m gettin’ out of Shift while I still can. I’m not going to throw you out of the place – not after you saved my whisky – but I wouldn’t recommend you stayin’ here too much longer. This ain’t no ordinary raid.”

Keli and Shakal looked at each other.

“It isn’t?” asked Keli.

Maurice shook his head. “Looks like they’re tryin’ to finish the job they started with the Oracle and the Snake-Healers. They came across the river with oil an’ flame. They’re burning as they go.”

He spat. “They calls it purifying, o’course. Gettin’ rid of the beast. That’s their word for doin’ whatever they like to us poor sods in the Shiftier side of the city.”

Shakal’s eyes were unreadable in the faint candlelight.

“We should have expected this,” she said, her voice as expressionless as if she were commenting about the weather. “Everyone with magic has fled to Old Shift. They will raze it to the ground before they allow any pretender to challenge Itharien.”

Maurice barked a laugh. “I don’t think they’re gonna find it that easy, wolf! There’s gonna be one hell of a fight – as soon as those idiot neighbours of mine can agree on what it is they’re fightin’ for.”

“What do you mean?” asked Keli.

“Some of us are runnin’ for the gates while we still can,” answered Maurice, his stare challenging her to criticize him. When she didn’t, he continued. “Others think that they’ll leave us alone if we give up all the Weres to them. There’s some as think we should gang up against the Churchies an’ leave the guards alone. Most of them that’re left are all for fightin’ the Watch with everything we got though.”

Keli couldn’t resist trying to reason with him.

“If you leave now, you’ll lose everything. They might not even let you through the gates, just throw you in prison instead. Why not stay and fight?”

“Because, lass, they’ll lose in the end. Oh, they got magic. Prob’ly more than them ‘holes at the church think they have. They got no reason to fight, though. They’re not fanatics, an’ sooner or later they’ll realise they can just turn tail an’ get out alive. You think this dump is worth dying for? What’ve we got that’s so valuable that we can win out against them as are willing to die for the cause?”

He filled up the silence that followed. “I’m off, with as much of that whisky as I can carry. You’re on your own from now on.”

As Maurice closed the door behind him, Shakal turned to Keli.

“What do you want to do?” she asked, calmly.


============

So, there you have it. What will Keli do now?

Find a way to get back to the west side of the city somehow? Then what? Will she and Shakal head towards the Stone of Oracles? Visit an Itharien temple? Try to find a place to hide, or go somewhere else entirely?

Should she split up from Shakal, for safety's sake, planning to meet up later? Should the two of them stay together?

Or should she try to find out more about what and where the resistance is? Make a stand against the guards, with their flames and oil? Try to take control and organize a more directed attack somewhere else?

Discuss please :D