Witch, Cat, and Cobb Page 5

  There was a loud rustling as Mel came running and stopped short at the sight in front of us. "What?" she gasped. "What's going on?"

  "Shh," said Fen, looking up at as crossly. "Keep your voice down, they have sensitive ears."

  One of the Forestlings said something in a voice too high pitched for me to hear, and Fen lowered his head and continued speaking with them. I waited, taking the chance to catch my breath and glanced at Mel, who looked amused.

  Eventually one of each of the little groups stood and walked towards each other. They bowed low to each other, and then turned and bowed to Fen as well, who bowed back, before standing and walking carefully out of the covered clearing towards us.

  "There," he said, looking immensely pleased with himself. "They've declared your garden a neutral ground, and they won't do battle over it any longer. I guess seven years of Saishen diplomacy training paid off after all."

  "Thank you, Fen," said Mel. "I was going to do the spell anyway, you know."

  "I know," said Fen. "But fair's fair. I've made my mistake up to you."

  When we got back to the cottage, Mel locked the door behind us, and Fen immediately jumped up onto the hearth and went to sleep. I pulled off my coat and hung it up, yawning, while Mel returned her wand to its spot on the shelf and pulled her boots off. She went to her bedroom but stayed in the doorway, waiting until I had started down the hall as well and stopped in front of her.

  "Sleep in my room tonight?" she asked.

  FOUR

  We started on the body trade spell first thing after breakfast the next morning. Mel set me to work clearing a large enough space on the floor of the cottage while she searched through the spare room for the book that contained the spell and the ingredients she needed. Then she set three different cauldrons brewing, two in the fireplace, and one on a magical fire that she lit on top of the kitchen table. Fen watched interestedly from the back of the worn armchair. He looked perfectly calm, but his unusual silence and the occasional flick of his tail gave away his impatience.

  While the potions brewed, Mel went outside and collected branches and leaves. When she had enough thin branches, she doused them in one of the potions (a sparkling midnight blue one), which was thick and goopy enough that it caused the branches to stick together. Then she bent them around each other, until they formed a globe, which she put aside until she had wrangled several thicker, straight branches into a stand for the globe, and placed it in the middle of the room. Then she doused the leaves in the second potion and laid them out to dry while she drew chalk lines along the floor in a spiral pattern emanating from the wooden stand.

  Once the leaves had dried, she arranged them underneath the wooden stand, and then ran to douse the fire on the table, stirring the silvery potion within and pouring some of it into a bottle for herself and a bit into a little bowl for Fen, which she brought over for him to drink from.

  "Right," said Mel when they had both finished. "Brean, it'll be easiest if you light the leaves on fire."

  "Fire?" I said with a gulp. "In the house?"

  "Better with level ground," said Mel.

  "Right, I remember last time that thing—" Fen pointed his nose at the wooden globe, "—fell off the stand and went rolling off into the woods."

  "What is it?" I asked curiously.

  "It's the soul vessel," said Mel. "The magic draws our souls into it, and then they return to the bodies, and that's when the switch occurs. And yes, it's faster if it hasn't rolled off into the woods. Also, I've set up protections on the house, so we absolutely won't be interrupted by anything during the spell."

  Fen stood and stretched, convincingly nonchalant. "I thought you'd be more excited," I teased him.

  "I don't want to be disappointed if it doesn't work," he said. "Anyway, being a cat hasn't been all that bad. We had some good times, didn't we?"

  I reached out to scratch his head, and he purred for me before jumping down to go stand in one of the circles of leaves that Mel was arranging on the floor. Mel finished, and then went to stand in the other circle.

  "Right." She pursed her lips, looking nervous. "Brean. Light the fire."

  I rushed to grab a twig from the fireplace and lit the dried leaves underneath the globe. They lit easily, and the fire spread slowly along the spirals of leaves and encircled Fen and Mel, burning a deep purple colour. I backed away, standing against the wall, away from the dark heat of the fire, and stared as the globe began to glow. Fen hissed, and his fur stood on end. Mel looked sick, and I wanted to rush to her, but I knew I mustn't interfere.

  Mel said a few words that I didn't recognise, and the light from the fireplace and the cracks between the curtains dimmed to nothing while the glow from the globe expanded. Trails of sparkling mist emerged from it, following the burning leaves to Mel and Fen. I watched as the light reached Mel and sunk into her chest. She flinched and struggled, but it penetrated her chest and lifted her from the ground.

  "Mel!" I screamed as she rose up in the air, and I glanced at Fen to see him in the same state, his eyes wide and his ears pushed back. The light became brighter until I had to shut my eyes from the pain, and then I felt the air inside the room shake with a tremendous boom. I flinched and covered my face, but I heard their bodies drop to the ground.

  The room slowly lit up again as the glow and fires subsided, and I stood and rushed to Mel, knocking the ashes of leaves out of the way as I ran. She was crumpled on the ground, her hands clutching her stomach, and I reached for her, hoping desperately that she was all right. I helped her up, and she blinked at me, her purple eyes looking confused for a moment.

  "Brean?" she said. "You look strange."

  "What?" I said, and Mel turned to look at Fen, who was lying on the ground across the room. He twitched, and then I watched, fascinated, as his body began to change, morphing from the small sandy figure into a man with long blond hair and ragged clothing. He stirred and shoved himself up slowly, looking down at his hands. "Bloody hell," he said roughly.

  "There, see?" said Mel. "That's it, that's the body I was promised."

  "And you can have it," said Fen. "As soon as I get my breath back."

  "Wait," I said. "What?"

  "It's not done yet," said Mel. "Brean." She tilted her head. "Don't you recognise me?"

  I stared at her, and realised that I wasn't looking at Mel at all. The expression was too haughty, the mouth held too tight. "Fen," I said, and he rolled his eyes.

  "Unfortunately. Princess of Saisha at your service."

  "Not for long, I hope," said Mel, her words sounding strange in Fen's voice. Realising I had run to the wrong person, I got up and began to walk towards her. She held up a hand, looking pained.

  "I don't really want you to see me like this," she said softly.

  "Whatever you do, don't change back into a cat," said Fen. "How long until we can switch back? I feel ill in this body."

  "We need to replenish the leaves." Mel got up, and walked stiffly over to the table. She was tall, and the ragged clothing revealed a long, leanly muscled body. I felt a lump in my throat. That wasn't Mel. If I was having difficulty reconciling how I felt she should look with how she did right now, I couldn't imagine how bad it was for her.

  "Ridiculous," muttered Fen from the floor. "Why would you willingly wear a skirt? I can't bloody move. And I've forgotten how to walk on two feet."

  "Oh, do stop complaining," said Mel, leaning over the table to sort through the leaves. "Would you rather be a cat again?"

  "At least I was a tomcat." Fen struggled to stand, tripping over Mel's skirts. "Damn every single thing to hell."

  "You were an elvish princess?" I asked, attempting not to laugh as I helped him stand.

  "Not a very good one." He stood at last, and brushed his hair out of his face. He sighed, and stared at his hands. "I ought to be happy I'm at least human again."

  "If you would help me instead of complaining," said Mel, "we'd be finished all the sooner."

  Fen grinned at
me, and pointed at Mel. "You see that? That's going to be me." He gave me a knowing wink, and I laughed and shoved him towards the table.

  "I told you I don't want to know what you get up to in this body," said Mel with a small smile.

  "But I have such plans," said Fen, scooping up a pile of leaves. "I'm going to f—"

  There was a loud banging on the door, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. In unison, we all turned to stare at it, and jumped again when the banging continued.

  "Open up, witch! By order of the Prince of Saisha!"

  It was Prince Periyat. I felt the blood drain from my face. "How did he find me?"

  "He might not know you're here," said Mel. "Fen, tell him to go away."

  "What?" hissed Fen. "Why me?"

  Mel raised her eyebrows at Fen, who stalked over to the door. "Go away!" he shouted loudly, in what I assumed was his best impression of Mel. "You're... trespassing on my property! I'm in the middle of a spell!"

  "I have reason to believe you are holding my fiancée captive!" came Periyat's voice. "If you've nothing to hide, then what's the meaning of this protection spell?"

  "I told you!" said Fen. "I'm in the middle of something! What makes you think I've got your princess?"

  Periyat sounded annoyed. I was perfectly aware of how stubborn he could be, and it didn't bode well at all. "The princess and her cat went missing several days ago. I recognised the cat yesterday in town and followed you back here. Now please, if you've got any idea where my fiancée is, let me in and help me find her."

  "Did it occur to you that perhaps she doesn't want to be found and forced into marriage?" shouted Fen.

  There was silence for a moment, and then there was a great cracking noise that shook the entire cottage. "They're breaking through my protection spell," said Mel. "Fen, if we're going to do this, we have to do it now."

  "We can't," said Fen. "Mel, they'll recognise me, they'll drag you back to Saisha, probably try you for body theft.

  Mel shrugged, a hopeless look on her face. "Better than staying like this forever."

  There was another crack, and the cottage shook. I could hear the elves shouting outside as they worked to break the protection spell.

  "There must be something we can do," I said, wringing my hands. "Fen, isn't there anything that will make him have to leave me alone?"

  "You're promised to him in marriage," said Fen. "Of course he's obligated to rescue you and bring you back to the palace. There's nothing we can do except... wait a minute." He rushed forward and took my hands in his, shocking me. "Brean," he said excitedly. "Do you want to get married?"

  "Excuse me?" said Mel.

  "What?" I said. "But... you're my cat, and a man and well, if you hadn't noticed, I'm sort of in love with Mel."

  I glanced at Mel, whose eyes widened as the cottage shook around us again.

  "Yes, yes, I know," said Fen. "Listen, elf marriage is very simple. We just have to perform a magical pact, say a few words, and then we're bonded for life. Well, your life, anyway. I'll probably outlive you quite a bit."

  "Where are you going with this, Fen?" said Mel angrily. "If you marry Brean, then she can't marry the prince?"

  "Exactly," said Fen. "I can say I felt bad about running away, and decided to fulfil my duty at last by marrying my fiancée's heir."

  "But I don't want to marry you, Fen."

  "It won't be me," said Fen. "Not permanently, at least."

  He looked pointedly at Mel, who seemed to understand. She looked at me, and then back at Fen. "You'd have to stick around," she said slowly. "Teach me how to pretend to be you."

  "I never was a very good princess," said Fen. He turned back to me. "What do you say, Brean? Fulfil your royal duty and marry the Saishen princess?"

  I bit my lip then nodded. "Yes, alright."

  The marriage pact was nothing more than a piece of cloth wrapped around our wrists and several words in Saishen which Fen spouted off quickly, and I hurried to repeat to the best of my ability. When we were finished, the strip of cloth began to glow golden and slowly wound its way up our arms. Just as it finished, there was a final crack, and the door burst open, kicked in by prince Periyat.

  "Brean!" he shouted, rushing in, and I broke away from Fen, raising my arms as I did so to show the vanishing traces of gold ribbon.

  "Too late," I said with a smile. "Sorry."

  Periyat gaped, the expression less than attractive on his slender, normally handsome face. He was dressed in Elvish hunting gear and looking quite a bit more grown up than I remembered him being at our last meeting, and also rather strained. He looked between us slowly and did a double take when he saw Fen.

  "A-aunt Khalida?" he sputtered. "Is that you?"

  The entire convoy of elves that had followed Periyat into the cottage gasped, and Fen rolled his eyes, looking pained. "Er, yes," he said, swallowing. "Hello Periyat. You've grown."

  "We thought you were dead!" said Periyat, and the elves around him murmured in agreement.

  "So dramatic," said Fen. "Obviously I just ran away. Wasn't ready to be married yet, see, but erm—" he grasped my hand awkwardly and lifted it, "—changed my mind, and since the it's too late to marry the king, I've married his daughter instead. How's that?"

  "B-but she's my fiancée!" Periyat sputtered.

  "Oh come on, Periyat," I said irritably. "Neither of us wanted to get married. Now we don't have to."

  "I suppose." Periyat looked sad. "I suppose you're right. I guess we... ought to go back to the castle, and... announce the good news." He sniffed, suddenly looking much more like the boy I'd grown up with.

  "Peri," I said softly, "you didn't really want to marry me, did you?"

  Periyat shrugged. "Suppose I thought you might end up loving me, eventually," he said. "Selfish of me."

  "Quite," said Fen, and Periyat glared at him.

  "Grandfather was very worried about you," he said crossly as we filed out of the cottage. "Where is the witch, anyway?"

  I realised suddenly that Mel had disappeared, and looked down to see an orange cat rubbing against my legs. I reached down to pick her up, and she balanced precariously on my shoulders and mewed sadly in my ear, looking back at the cottage with a worried expression.

  "It'll be alright," I said softly to her. "Everything will work out, you'll see."

  I shut the door firmly behind me as we left.

  FIVE

  I had thought that everyone at the palace would have been worried about me and glad to have me back. Instead they were all simply angry with me, and proceeded to treat me like a child who'd had a small tantrum.

  When Periyat told my mother what had happened, she gasped and demanded to see me in private. There she spent several minutes lecturing me on my "appalling behaviour" and "lack of judgement" while Mel bristled on my shoulders.

  "I shall talk to the Saishen diplomats tomorrow," she said finally, "and see if we can sort out this mess."

  "I don't see why it's such a problem," I said obstinately. "I've married into Saishen royalty, right? You have your precious alliance. "

  "It's more complicated than that," said my mother with a sigh. "Honestly, Brean, if you were so very unwilling to go through with this marriage, why didn't you tell me, instead of just running away?"

  I gaped at her. "I did tell you. I told you a million times, mother."

  "But you never want to do anything," she replied, staring down her nose at me. "How was I to know you were serious about it this time?"

  "I..." I bit my tongue, and remembered all the petty things I'd complained about throughout my life, like having to take lessons and go to dress fittings and dance at balls. But shouldn't she have known I was serious about the marriage? "I ran away. That should tell you."

  "Yes." My mother sighed, and ran a hand through her long hair, loosening it from its tightly braided updo. "I suppose so." She shook her head, and favoured me a little long-suffering smile, before becoming serious again. "Since what's done is done, we'll try to m
ake it work," she said. "But I expect you to help me. You're to come with me to the discussion with the Saishen diplomats tomorrow, and assist me with the negotiations. And be mature about it, do you understand?"

  I nodded slowly. "I do. And... what about the princess?"

  "What about her? Do you love her?"

  I reached a hand up to touch Mel lightly on the head. She pressed her nose into my palm. "I do," I said softly. "Will she have to go back to Saisha?"

  "I expect she'll stay here," said my mother. "For the time being." She crossed her arms and scrutinized me. "Go to bed, Brean. Tomorrow we'll do something about your hair and iron out the details then."

  I nodded, and turned to go. "Brean," said my mother, and I turned back. My mother's face had softened a little, and I recognised a bit of myself in her, for a moment. "I was worried about you. I'm sorry you felt you had to run away."

  "It's not only your fault," I admitted. "Goodnight, mother."

  *~*~*

  When I returned to my bedroom, Mel jumped off my shoulder and curled up on the bed. She didn't say anything, and I wondered if she was all right.

  "It's safe to turn back into a human," I said tentatively.

  "I don't want to."

  I went and sat next to her, taking care not to disturb the bed. "Is it easier? Being a cat?"

  She spoke softly, almost a whisper, but it was still the voice I knew as Fen's. "A little. I used to spend a lot of time in this form." She gave a very sad, very human sigh. "What are we going to do?"

  "Mel," I said softly. "You know that I... I care for you just the same, right? I don't care what you look like."

  "I know," said Mel. "I'm sorry I'm like this. It's just worse now." She flopped over on her side. "I'd forgotten how awful it was."

  "I'm sorry." I reached a hand out to pet her, and she gave a half-hearted purr. "I wonder how Fen is doing."