‘It is an illusion,Rob,’ yelled Alpha. ‘You’ve been tricked by an illusion. That’s whyI was excluded from the room.’
He spun around hardlybelieving what he was hearing. The illusion shattered. His aunt andhis grandmother were unconscious. His uncle Peter was juststaggering to his feet.
He lowered Melanie tothe floor, horrified at what had happened.
Granddad expelled thewall of force and shouted at him. ‘Take control Rob. Use the Mantraof Calming NOW! You must use forbearance.’
Alpha spoke into hismind. ‘Rage has taken control of you. You must calm down. Use themantra, Rob. Use the mantra. Use forbearance.’
He couldn’t rememberit. His mother began chanting it aloud to help him focus. His mindslowly recognised it and he closed his eyes and joined in. Herecited it repeatedly until he had firm control of his mind onceagain, and his heart rate had dropped back almost to normal.
Roland, visibly shakenby the event, finally gathered enough courage to ask what he shoulddo. Granddad said not to worry. Some magic had gone wrong but itwas now under control. Rob’s mother attended to his aunt andgrandmother while the others watched silently until he finallyreturned to his normal form and his eyes returned to their browncolour.
‘By the PowersGranddad, what did you do to me?’
‘Nothing! my boy. Wedid nothing at all. You managed to do that all by yourself. We justhelped it along a bit. Grandma and Flora were not fully convincedas to our course of action. I think that there will be no doubt inanyone’s mind now. Grab a seat and we’ll explain.’
Melanie took a seatbeside Rob. She was seething with anger. She was more annoyed withthe family than ever before in her life. She was also terrified ofwhat had happened to Rob. On several occasions she had seen himlose his temper, usually when he was scared or worried, but nothinglike this. He had totally lost control and had become a monster,and they had caused it. She was lost for words. Why had they donethis? What was wrong with him?
‘Now I know you’ll havelots of questions, but could you let us tell a story first, thenwe’ll try to answer any further questions you have,’ saidGranddad.
‘Firstly, what happenedto you is not fatal or even dangerous, as long as it’s under yourfirm control, which, as you have witnessed, it’s not at the moment.You have a special ability, which has taken until now to fullyexpress itself. In fact we’ve all been expecting it to happen forsome time. That’s one of the reasons why I have been having youlearn and practice so many methods of mental control and why you’vebeen so closely watched and protected over the last few years.’
‘You’ve inherited aremarkable ability from your father to shape change into beasts.The problem is, that in Panmagica, the Unity of Wisdom has got someidiotic idea that all shape changers are evil. Consequently, theyare sentenced to death if they are caught, and we didn’t want thatto happen to you.’
‘But shape changing isa disease isn’t it?’ asked Melanie, her anger turning tointerest.
Rob said nothing; hewas too shocked.
‘Yes it can be, but Robdoesn't have a disease. In his case it’s more like a naturaltalent,’ said Granddad. ‘Could you please let me finish thestory?’
Melanie was silent buther mind was sprinting ahead. If it wasn’t a disease then theremust have been something strange about Rob’s father?
‘No dad! Let me tellthe story,’ said Rob’s mother suddenly. Granddad nodded and shecontinued on in his place.
‘About two years beforeyou were born, a war broke out between one of Panmagica’s alliesand the Yith Empire, over some insignificant frontier world. Bothgroups claimed it. The Yith Empire sent a delegation of druids totry and settle the problem peacefully. They were priests of naturewho were very worried about how a war might affect the fauna andflora on the disputed world.
‘The delegation stayedin the inn just down the road from our magic shop. One day one ofthem came in to examine our stock, and I was on duty that day. Ididn’t know he was a part of the delegation because he looked likeany other newman customer, with no lizard-like Yith features.’
'He was handsome,beautifully dressed, obviously wealthy and very charming. I wasattracted to him. He came back several times that week, and eachtime we talked I became more attracted to him. He told me he was inthe city on business, but never mentioned what it was about. At theend of the week he said that he would have to leave the city butwould try to return later in the year.
‘The Yith delegationleft when the talks broke down, shortly after they were poisoned atone of the state receptions. Fortunately none of them died as,being druids, they were quite resistant to most poisons. However,they took it as a serious breach of protocol and left. The Unity ofWisdom didn’t seem to care too much, and later it was widelybelieved that they were behind the poisoning. That was the start ofthe friction between our empire and the Yith empire, which is stillrunning today.
‘A few weeks later, heshowed up again and revealed that he was a mind wizard, and askedto talk to Granddad about contracting to supply us with some magicitems at very good prices. Granddad was a little reluctant atfirst, but eventually agreed to try him out. Over the next year hesupplied copious items and rare magic ingredients at very goodprices, allowing us to make excellent profits. Each time he visitedI came to know him better, until I fell in love with him.
‘One day he asked me toleave and live with him. Neither
