Edwin Read online

what he had known. The innkeeper saw no reason to give me a room any more, as my performances were not the stuff of legends as Jephro's were. I would still be paid for my performances, he told me, but at a more standard rate.

  Dispirited, I wandered the streets for a time, lost in my thoughts. I was so out of it that I didn't even hear the men coming up behind me. It was a basic mugging strategy. Step One: Set up in an area that is neither too well traveled nor entirely abandoned. Step Two: Lure or wait until victim wanders into said location. Step Three: Cut off any escape routes. Step Four: Demand money or death. Step Five: Profit.

  The men had followed the instructions to the letter. In my wandering I had found myself in a narrow alley, one end of which was now blocked by three men. The other end, two. Only one of the men had a sword, and he was the one who approached.

  "This here's a toll alley," he began. I nearly groaned at the clich?, but wisely kept my mouth shut. "It'll cost you the contents of your money pouch to get through."

  I wasn't a fighter. Normally, I would have just given them the money. Or, if Jephro were around, he could have talked them out of it. I didn't have that skill. Part of my mind wanted to just give them the money and be done with it, but seemingly out of nowhere, a rage came over me.

  Rage at my own helplessness, fury in my grief over Jephro, anger at my own sexual repression, they all gathered together and took over my mind, leaving me flailing in the currents of rage. My mind lashed out against the world, and suddenly I knew with perfect clarity what I had to do.

  I blacked out.

  It must have been hours later by the time I woke up. I blinked my eyes sleepily in the fog of morning. It took a few moments to realize I was in a prison cell. I stood unsteadily and grasped at the bars. Something sticky met my hand. I pulled back only to realize that it was my hand that was covered in the sticky, red substance. I looked down, and when I noticed the splatters on my shirt, I knew it was blood.

  Panicked, I shouted through the bars. "Help! Someone, please. What's going on?"

  I paused and listened, and heard steps beyond the door. A moment later, it swung open, revealing a short, squat man who I knew to be the head of law enforcement, by the name of Rels.

  "Hello, Edwin," he said. "Feeling like yourself again, are you?"

  "What- what do you mean?" I tried to wipe the blood off my hands onto my pants. "What happened?"

  "I was hoping you'd be able to tell me." He looked at me expectantly.

  I shook my head.

  "Oh well," Rels sighed. "I guess it's to be expected. I'll fill you in, then. At about ten o'clock last night, one of my men was accosted by a man who claimed he and his friends had been attacked in an alley. His arm was crushed. Not broken - crushed. After calling reinforcements, they discovered quite the grisly scene. Three men had been butchered in that alley. Torn apart, some of them, others thrown into walls. And one man crouched amongst the death, watching."

  His eyes narrowed as he continued. "We lost two men bringing him in. He was a monster, at least six feet tall, and solid muscle. His mind was full of nothing but anger."

  I shook my head. "But what does this have to do with me?"

  "We brought him in, and we put him in this cell." Rels tapped the bars in front of my face.

  It all clicked. The blood on my shirt, the blank spots in my memory. It all fit, and Rels' next words confirmed it. "You're a Shifter," he said. I heard the pity in his voice.

  I knew what it meant. In Attarnon, things might have been different. I would have been sent to the Asylum for training, the murder forgotten. Here, in Lianti, I would be put to death. There was no mercy for Madmen here. I slumped against the bars.

  "When?" I whispered.

  "Tomorrow morning. They have to get everything set up." Everything. That would mean the stake they would tie me to, and the kindling to light underneath me. It would also give time to round up the townspeople so they could come watch. Wonderful.

  "I'm sorry, Edwin," Rels said. "I wish there was something I could do."

  "Send me to the Asylum," I pleaded.

  My hopes soared when he hesitated, only to crash back down when he shook his head. "No," he said. "We have to follow our own laws. I'm sorry." Without looking back, he strode back out the door. I heard it lock behind him.

  I must have been numb with shock, because the first thing I did was lie on the small, hard bed in the corner of the cell. Shifter, I thought to myself, trying to recall everything I knew about them. It meant multiple personalities. One of them was apparently a very angry man, but I didn't think that explained the other blank spots in my memory. There were a lot of them, and if I was turning into a massive man with violent tendencies on a regular basis, I would have a lot more blood on my hands.

  No, it had to be someone else, but try as I might, I couldn't unlock those memories. Frustrated, I turned my thoughts back to Shifters. Their - our - abilities aren't limited to taking the forms of other people, I remembered. I should be able to shift my body around any way I wanted.

  I experimented, concentrating on extending a single finger. A strange sort of feeling of connection flowed through me, and my finger obeyed, slowly stretching longer and longer. A moment later, the pain registered, and I screamed and clutched my finger to my chest. I sat on the bed, panting, and examined the point of pain. It appeared fine, but I had lost the connection in that moment, and it had remained at twice it's normal length, flopping around like a grotesque eel.

  Again, I reached for the connection and attempted to reform my finger back to it's original size, this time preparing myself for the pain. I gritted my teeth and found that it was still excruciating, but bearable. Within moments, it was back to its original shape.

  I sat on the bed for a few moments more, examining my options. I didn't want to die, burned at the stake. Who would? But the door that Rels had locked was the only way out of the room.

  Or was it?

  My eyes traveled up to the small window set in the wall. It was only two feet square, and barred with iron. But it might be enough, if I could stand the pain. It was placed just above eye level; if I stretched, I could get high enough to see out. I stuck my arm out the window and felt around, but there wasn't even anything I could grab onto. Gritting my teeth, I stretched my arm slightly. The jail was only a single level, so maybe... there. I let go of the power as I held onto the roof with one hand. Desperately, I hoped no one decided to visit at this particular time.

  I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the hard part. Now that I had a grip, all I had to do was pull. Slowly, I began shrinking my arm again, pulling myself closer to the window. The pain was bearable, until it came time to force my head through the bars. I turned my head to face the window; the bars lined up with my eyes.

  I thought the pain was bad when I Shifted my arm. Shifting my head gave me new perspective on agony. A million lights exploded in my eyes as my skull compressed to fit through the narrow opening. It felt as though - well, it felt like my head was being crushed. Between two iron bars. But I was already halfway through, and I couldn't stop. The rest of my head popped through and I took the opportunity to rest, my head still distorted. Tears leaked down my cheeks from the pain, but the worst of it was over. I had to stretch myself out a little bit to get my waist through, but overall the experience was almost pleasant compared to my head.

  It took nearly half an hour to get all the way through, but finally I pulled my last foot through and hung from the roof. Free. I dropped to the ground and made sure I was back in my regular proportions. I was tempted for a brief moment to turn my fat into muscle, but any deviation from my standard form felt awkward and unnatural. Still, I could use a disguise.

  My face itched as I moved the skin and bone around. Higher cheekbones, stronger chin, blue eyes and full black hair. Subtle changes, but it should be more than enough to avoid suspicion. At least for long enough for me to get out of town.

  Satisfied, I cautiously made my way out of the alley next to the jai
l. After another ten minutes, I had gathered what few things I needed from the inn. Soon I was on the road north.

  To the Asylum.