“And staying home isn’t that safe these days, either,” Luti said dryly as she sat on a bench under one of the garden’s ancient olive trees. Her glance surveyed the vegetation. “Goodness, that rosemary really needs trimming! It’s taking over the whole place.”
Not remotely interested in gardening, Chandra sat next to her and asked, “So where do you want me to go?”
Luti folded her hands in her lap. “Kephalai. Which is also part of the danger I’m worried about.”
“Keph…” Chandra laughed. “I get to steal the scroll again?”
“That all depends.”
“On what?”
“On you, I suppose.” She frowned again at the overgrown rosemary, then said, “Brother Sergil and the other monks working on the scroll believe they’ve solved the riddle. I don’t suppose you remember the decorative border surrounding the text in the original scroll?”
“No. Like I said…”
“Yes, the planeswalker who stole it from us played tricks on your memory.” Luti nodded. “Well, after more days of studying the text, the brothers believe that the decorative border-which they did not copy or study during the brief time that we had the original here-contains the clue to where the artifact can be found.”
“The border? In what way?”
“They’re not sure. It may be a map, it may be hidden text, it may be a spell…” Luti shrugged. “So if you can look at the scroll again, you may be able to see the information concealed within the decorative border.”
“And to look at the scroll, I need to go back to Kephalai.”
“If it’s still there. If the planeswalker who stole it from us didn’t take it somewhere else entirely.”
“Even if the scroll is back on Kephalai now, I might not be able to interpret what’s in the border,” Chandra said.
“In that case, the monks would like an opportunity to study it themselves. So you’ll need to bring it back here again, if you can.” Luti looked at her. “If the scroll is back in the Sanctum of Stars now, it will certainly be under increased security. Stealing it a second time will be very dangerous.”
“Fortunately,” Chandra said, “I enjoy a challenge.”
“Yes, I thought you’d say that. Even so, please be careful. If only for the sake of an old woman who has become rather fond of you, even though you’re an awful lot of trouble to have around.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“I think it would be-” But Luti’s comment ended on a shocked gasp as the rosemary plant lifted itself from the soil and attacked them.
Chandra saw claws and fangs hiding amidst the plant’s spiky leaves as it suddenly turned into a tall, moving creature, with arms and legs that ended in the same spikes.
Heat flowed through her in immediate response to the danger, and she amputated one of the plant’s attacking limbs with a bolt of fire that she swept downward as she was assaulted. The creature hissed in pain, swayed, then doubled over and re-formed itself into some sort of small, leafy wolf-looking thing.
“How did it do that?” Chandra blurted, staring in surprise.
Luti gasped again. “Watch out!” She hurled a fireball at the creature as it crouched to attack. The projectile hit the growling four-legged bush in the face, but the leafy wolf easily shook off the blow and leaped for Chandra.
Her fireball was considerably more powerful than Luti’s, and when it hit the creature, the thing fell back with a screech, rolled over into a ball, and reshaped itself into the form of a giant spider.
“I hate spiders,” Chandra said with feeling.
She raised her hands to call forth a hot flow of lava, and dumped it all over the disgusting creature that was scuttling toward her with murderous intent. The massive spidery thing was smothered beneath the lava and incinerated by the liquid fire.
The two women stared at the glowing pile of cooling lava that had destroyed their attacker.
“Well.” Luti was panting. “That was… different.”
“Ugh! Did you say you know what that thing was?”
“Yes. I’m pretty sure it was a woodland shapeshifter,” Luti said, still breathless. “I’ve heard of them… but this is the first one… I’ve ever…” She sat down shakily on the bench again. “I’m too old for a shock like that.”
“Even I’m too old for a shock like that.” Chandra’s heart was pounding after the brief fight.
“No wonder the rosemary looked so overgrown,” Luti murmured.
“That was pretty clever, I have to admit.”
“Not that we won’t miss you, Chandra,” Luti said, her hand resting over her heart on her heaving chest, “but how soon can you go?”
Chandra talked with Brother Sergil that evening, trying to get some idea of what to look for in the decorative border if she saw the scroll again. She didn’t learn much. As Luti had already told her, it might be a pattern, it might be artfully concealed text, it might be an ornate map. Or it might be none of those. But he did tell her enough so that she would be able to identify the scroll, considering she had no memory of it.
Wonderful.
She decided to go to Brannon’s room while he was getting ready for bed to tell him she was going away again, but that she would be back before long.
“You’re not running away from oufes, are you?” he demanded.
“No, of course not,” she assured him.
“Because we’re better sorcerers than a bunch of elves and weird woodland creatures.”
“Yes, we are.” She tucked him into bed and said, “But the brothers want to know more about the scroll I brought back-you remember the scroll?”
“Yes. The one that the stranger stole.”
“Right. So Mother Luti asked me to try to find it.”
“I should come with you.” He started to get out of bed. “I can help you!”
“I need you to stay here and protect the monastery,” she said firmly, nudging him back onto his narrow cot. “There was another attack today. That’s the fourth one. And if I hadn’t been there, something awful might have happened to Mother Luti.”
“I heard! A woodland shapeshifter!” Brannon’s eyes glowed with excitement. “I kind of wish you hadn’t killed it right away, Chandra. Mother Luti’s never seen one before, and she’s really old, so maybe I’ll never get another chance to see one.”
“I’m sorry about that,” she said. “It was pretty interesting.”
“But you weren’t scared?”
“I was a little scared,” she admitted. “Especially when it shaped itself like a spider.”
“Ooh! I wish I’d seen that! Was Mother Luti scared?”
“Yes, I think she was pretty scared. And now, even though I won’t be here after tonight, it might take Samir a little while to convince that oufe tribe to stop sending assassins to the monastery. So who knows what could happen next?”
“They might even send a spitebellows!” he said eagerly.
Chandra didn’t know what that was, but she said, “Exactly. So while I’m away looking for the scroll, I need to know that someone is here protecting Mother Luti and the monastery. Someone I trust. Someone I can count on.”
Brannon sighed, the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Oh, all right. I’ll stay.”
“Good. Thank you.”
“But just this time. Next time, I’m coming, too.” “We’ll see, kiddo.”
“Chandra.” The unfairness of her equivocation clearly incensed him.
“It’s getting late,” she said hastily. “Try to get some sleep.”
“When will you be back?”
“Soon,” she promised. “Goodnight.”
“Here, take this.” Brannon handed Chandra a small piece of flame quartz on a string. “It’s for luck.”
“Thanks, kiddo.”
Chandra left Brannon, knowing he’d lie awake for a while thinking about the exciting things that had
