A low chatter spread through the other spriggans, and Flinty addressed Tinn again, unleashing a long string of Goblish syllables.
“What did he say?” breathed Evie.
“I—I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I heard the word now at the end.”
Flinty rolled his beady eyes. “Changeling,” he rasped. “Change.”
“You can speak English?” said Tinn.
“I can speak . . . enemy.”
“We’re not your enemies. I promise!”
“It smells goblin,” said the spriggan. “It looks human.”
“That’s right! That’s because I’m a”—Tinn glanced back at Evie—“because we arechangelings. We’re both goblins underneath, we just look like humans. Long story. But you can smell that I’m actually goblin, so we’re good here. Right?”
“Change.”
Tinn cleared his throat. “The thing is, I sometimes have a hard time when somebody is watching or there’s a lot of pressure and I—”
Flinty clicked his tongue once and the circle of figures surrounding Tinn tightened. The spriggans raised their blades, ready to attack.
“Change,” Flinty repeated evenly.
Tinn took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll change, and then we’ll go. Right? That’s the deal?” He focused on Flinty’s cracked, lopsided face. He could do this. He could look like a spriggan. A little marbling to his own skin and they would be on their way. He closed his eyes and imagined himself in a sea of magic, the waves lifting him up and down. Don’t try to control the waves, he reminded himself. Just help them take you to where you need to go.
“Tinn?” Evie’s voice behind him was shaking.
Look like stone. Look like stone, Tinn thought. But what then? Even if he could transform, would the furious little forest guardians really let them go without inspecting Evie, too? She had to be terrified right now. He should never have brought her. Even if, by some miracle, Tinn could get his magic to work on cue and successfully prove he was a goblin—would that only mean that he would survive to watch them kill Evie right in front of him? He couldn’t let that happen. His face felt tingly.
The spriggans began to chitter, and Tinn opened his eyes. Flinty was nodding at him, impressed. The weapons all around him lowered a fraction, and sinewy muscles relaxed. It had worked. Tinn put a hand to his cheek. It still felt soft and fleshy.
“You spoke truth,” said Flinty, nodding. “Changeling.”
“I told you,” said Tinn. “We’ll be out of your territory as soon as we can. We were just crossing through. So . . . goodbye?” Tinn held his breath.
Flinty eyed him for a moment, and then barked a command to the rest of the crew. They fell back to the base of the tree.
“Thanks,” said Tinn. “We’ll just be going, then. Come along, fellow changeling.”
Evie did not waste a moment hurrying to his side.
“Goodbye, now,” she said. “You’re all doing a great job. Keep it up.”
The hem of her skirt brushed close to a bright green spriggan whose torso looked like a vest of vibrant moss. The spriggan stiffened and squeaked.
“Keep walking,” Tinn whispered.
Green chirped loudly to the mob, and the whole swarm sprang back to attention.
“Stop!” Flinty demanded.
Tinn bit his lip. They drew to a stop.
Flinty marched up close to Evie. He sniffed.
“Oh, don’t mind her.” Tinn tried to act nonchalant. His heart was beating so hard, he worried that the spriggans could hear it. “She’s not as good at changing as I am. Takes her ages to do it.”
“Looks human. Smells,” Flinty growled, “human.”
Tinn’s mouth continued to move silently as his brain tried frantically to figure out what words he could possibly put in it.
“You noticed,” said Evie. “Thank you. Yes.”
“That’s just because—” Tinn began.
“—because I’m actually more advanced than he is,” finished Evie.
Flinty cocked his head.
Tinn’s mouth slowly closed.
“He still smells like a goblin,” Evie explained. “But when you’re an advanced changeling like me, you can make your scent change, too. Isn’t that impressive? I’m getting rather good at human. It really helps when we’re . . . erm . . . infiltrating the enemy.”
The spriggans bubbled with chatter for several seconds as they discussed this new development. Tinn’s whole body was tense. It wasn’t going to work. They weren’t going to buy it.
“Change,” said Flinty.
Tinn readied his legs to run. If they were very, very lucky, they might make it out of the forest before the spriggans could do too much damage. He reached for Evie’s hand, but hers had slid into the pocket of her dress.
“It might take me a second,” Evie said.
What was she doing? Tinn’s heart was racing.
Evie scrunched up her face in concentration. The spriggans eyed her dubiously. Tinn’s throat felt dry. After an impossibly long moment, the vivid green spriggan at her feet squeaked again.
A series of jabbering chirps echoed around the swarm. Tinn glanced between Evie and the spriggans in confusion for a moment before the stench reached him. He nearly gagged, but managed to keep his composure.
“I’m doing troll now,” Evie said. “Can you smell it?”
Several spriggans backed a few paces away, but the group as a whole appeared to have relaxed again.
“Needs practice,” Flinty said. “Smells like ogre.”
“You’re absolutely right. This is much more like ogre than troll. I’ll have to work on that.” Evie nodded.
“Can do . . . elf?”
“Of course I can do elf,” Evie said. “Elf is easy. Oh, but rotten luck. I should have started with that one. Ogre takes forever to wear off. And it’s so overpowering. You understand, I’m sure.”
Flinty gave a shrug that suggested he did, indeed, understand that the smell of ogre tended to linger.
“We really should be going now,” Tinn said.
“It was very nice meeting you all,” Evie added.
Flinty gave the smallest bob of his head, and the swarm of spriggans began to melt back into the underbrush.
Tinn held Evie’s hand as they hurried on through the bracken. Neither of them spoke for several minutes.
“That was brilliant,” Tinn breathed at last as the woods leveled out beneath them. “Wow. You smell so bad.”
“Oh my gosh.” Evie let go of his hand and emptied the clump of mashed wind blossoms out of her pocket. “Whoo. That was lucky is what it was. I can’t believe
