Spark (Legends of the Shifters) (25 page)

I was
convinced that the whole place would be engulfed by the time we
reached the exit, and I knew what I had to do. In first form, I
didn't have a blade of my own, but I did when I was in half-form.
It
didn’t take too long to think about light and heat. There was
so much of it surrounding me already, but I had to remember to cut it
off at the last second.

As
soon as I changed, I unsheathed the sword and slashed at the fabric
of the tent. People noticed what I was doing, and they clambered for
a place at the wall, hurling me to the ground once I’d gotten
my section ripped open. In their panic, many people escaped from the
hole I’d created and barely noticed that they were trampling
me.

I
tried to get up, but there were too many. Someone smashed their foot
into the back of my head, causing my nose to ram into the ground and
start bleeding.

Finally
Roland found my arm and pulled me out of the way. His eyes showed
apology and pity. I glared at him, trying to focus on anger rather
than pain. This was exactly what I feared would happen. We were
pushed farther away from the scene by the mob of people still trying
to escape. By the time the entire tent was aflame, everyone had
escaped from the blaze. People had given up trying to put out the
fire, and were now standing back, waiting for the tent to go out by
itself.

Roland
was still staring up at the flames when I walked away from the scene.
I was angry and embarrassed, and I didn't want to see or speak to him
right then. I wiped at my nose and hoped that he hadn't noticed me
slip away. He did, of course.

I had
no idea where I was going, and I soon ended up in a dark alley.

“
Ivy,
wait!” shouted Roland.

I
ignored him.

“
I'm
sorry,” he said, catching my arm, and turning me around to face
him. “I didn't know that would happen.”

I
could see the compassion in his eyes, but it only made me feel more
embarrassed. I looked down.

Roland
pulled out a handkerchief, and wiped at my nose, making it sting. I
took the cloth from him and turned away, continuing to walk in the
direction I'd been headed.

I
noticed my skin glowing for the first time and changed back into
first form before emerging from the alley. It had led us to the clay
huts of the slums.

I
squinted in the sudden brightness. Nearby, a mother was scrubbing
laundry while her daughter sat next to her, fiddling with a ragged
doll. They were both as skinny as a rail. Two scrawny boys raced
through the clutter of huts. A man rolled a rusty wheelbarrow towards
the base of a hut in the progress of being built.

Roland
appeared beside me. “This is the part of the city called
Westside. It’s where the poor live.”

I
didn’t reply, but turned back the way that I came. I felt like
I was intruding on their lives.

“
Roland!”
someone shouted.

I
groaned inwardly. Did everyone in the city know Roland?

“
Matilda!”
Roland greeted. Matilda had long, graying brown hair and a weathered
face, but her eyes sparkled as if she were still a youth. “To
think that I’ve run into you and your husband both in the same
day,” said Roland.

“
Oh,
you have, have you?” she asked, her hands on her hips. “And
why hasn’t the useless lump come home?”

Roland
shrugged. “I couldn’t say.”

She
sighed and smiled. “Well, why don’t you come in? Sit down
and have a talk with me. It's been a long time.”

Roland
looked back at me. Matilda followed his gaze and looked at me
curiously. “Oh, dear. She can come too, if she wants. It looks
as if she could use some patching up.”

“
Thank
you, Matilda, but I don’t want to intrude—”

“
Nonsense.
We have more money than ever since Burton was given charge of his own
ship. Burton has even been thinking about buying a house near the
docks so that he won’t have to walk so far to get home.”

Roland
looked back at me again in question. I nodded. It would be nice to
wash the blood and dirt off my face.

“
Good,”
said Matilda. She turned and started walking. “This way.”

Outside,
their hut looked like everyone else’s—a dusty orange
color—but inside there were patterned rugs, a decent wooden
table with chairs that matched, and curtains draping around a single
window.

“
I
like what you’ve done with the place,” Roland said.

“
Do
you?” Matilda asked. “I like it too. I think this is the
most comfortable I’ve ever lived.”

“
Even
more than your city home?”

Matilda
nodded. “Much more.”

I
wondered how Roland knew so much about her.

Matilda
grabbed a pot and pumped some water into it, setting it on the stove
to boil. “I’ll clean your wound up in a little bit,”
she said to me. “I want the water to be warm first.”

“
Okay,”
I answered her.

She
squinted her eyes at me. “You look familiar. Have we met
before?”

I
shook my head. “I don’t think so. I’m from
Forlander.” I realized that many people might not know about my
hometown. “It's located on the northernmost island,” I
clarified.

“
Hmm…
Maybe you just have one of those faces.” She paused. “What’s
your name?”

“
Ivy,”
I answered.

I
noticed a look of shock on Matilda’s face, but it was quickly
overtaken by a blank expression. “Doesn’t ring a bell,”
she said as she turned around.

I
watched her suspiciously before looking at Roland. He apparently
hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. He was looking
around the hut still.

The
woman glanced back at me and smiled. “Something the matter,
dear?” she asked.

I
shook my head. “No. Of course not.”

She
sliced up some bread and cheese and put them on the table along with
two glasses of water. “That’s the only drink we have.
Trying to save up money,” she said apologetically.

Roland
sat at the table and I sat next to him, taking some of the bread and
nibbling on it. I watched as Matilda dipped her finger in the water
that was on the stove. “That should be warm enough,” she
said. She poured some out into a bowl and grabbed a rag out of a
drawer.

Then,
she sat in the chair next to me and tilted my head toward her. I put
the bread down for the time being.

She
dabbed at my nose and my forehead. I hadn't realized that I'd had a
cut there in all the commotion. She studied my eyes with that same
knowing look she had earlier. It made me think that she knew
something about my past that she didn’t want to say. I opened
my mouth to ask her something, but she covered it with her own words.

“
So,
Roland…how did you run into this lovely girl? And why is she
hurt?” Matilda said, her gaze flicking over to him.

I
couldn’t see Roland, but I could hear that his mouth was full
as he spoke. “She went to the conservatory with me.”

Matilda’s
expression hardened. “Did she? How long has she been there?”

“
About
six months.”

Matilda
raised her eyebrows. “And she’s already on a quest?”

“
Mmhmm,”
Roland said, swallowing. “It's possible that she’ll beat
my record.”

Matilda
smiled, but her eyes didn’t reflect the smile.

Once
Matilda was done washing away the blood and dirt on my face, I turned
back to the plate to find the single piece of bread that I'd nibbled,
but nothing else. I glared at Roland. “Thanks a lot,” I
said.

He
shrugged. “I’ve told you—”

“—
Yes,
I know. You have a big appetite.”

He
nodded and smiled. “One big enough for a sea monster.”

I
tilted my head. “Does that affect how much you eat? Your second
form?”

“
It
depends. I don’t actually eat as much as a sea serpent would,
but I think it definitely makes me eat more,” he said.

“
Or
that’s just your excuse,” Matilda piped from the stove.

“
You
try being a fifty ton fish. It isn’t so easy,” Roland
called to her.

She
rolled her eyes at him. “You try being as big as a mouse. It
isn’t so easy, either.”

“
True,”
Roland said as he stood. “You win.”

“
Are
you headed somewhere?” asked Matilda.

“
I
don’t want to encroach on your time, and I was hoping to show
Ivy some more of the city.”

Matilda
looked at my reluctant expression, and then back at Roland. “By
the looks of it, I don’t think it turned out very well last
time.”

“
I
know, but that was a strange occurrence. Nothing like that would
happen again.”

Matilda
looked at me, trying to make up her mind about something. “Okay,”
she said. She smiled at me apologetically. I had the feeling that she
wanted me to go before I asked any questions. “Try to have
fun.”

I
stood up and followed Roland, peering around at Matilda before I
closed the door. “I know you know something,” I said on a
whim. “I’ll leave it up to you whether or not you should
tell me.” I saw her expression fall before I shut the door.
Roland was headed for the alley again, and I started to follow.

The
door squeaked open loudly and Matilda’s voice shouted, “Wait!”

Both
Roland and I turned back around.

“
Roland,
go see whatever it is you want. I want to talk to Ivy for a few
minutes.”

Roland
seemed taken aback, but Matilda didn’t wait long before
grabbing my sleeve and pulling me back into her house, slamming the
door behind her.

Matilda
stared at me for a second with her back pressed against the door. I
stared back, my heart beating loudly, anticipating what she was going
to say.

She
came a few steps from the door and wiped her palms on her dress. “I
knew your mother,” she whispered finally. “We were best
friends for the longest time.”

I
waited for her to continue, barely able to hear anything with the
rushing in my ears.

“
Our
birthdays were two days apart, but I was younger. She was there for
my trial even though she broke the rules of the conservatory.”
So my mother had gone to the same school that I went to. “We
married at the same time and had children at the same time, both
boys. Kuris and Christopher were so cute together…
But
then Christopher got sick and died at the age of three. Kuris didn’t
really understand at that point what death really was. We told him
that Christopher was
gone,
and he assumed that Christopher didn’t want to play with him
anymore.” Matilda smiled sadly. “Sometimes I wished that
I were unaware of Christopher’s death like he was, but as a
mother and a wife, it was my duty to know and work through it with my
husband. Soon after that I had a miscarriage and then I had Jane.
Jane…so sweet and so innocent. She grew up to be a polar
bear—” Matilda chuckled. “Sweet, innocent Jane
didn’t have such a sweet, innocent second form. When she was in
the arena, however, the wizard sensed magical talent in her and sent
her to the conservatory.” Her eyes welled up. “I went
with her the first day, although that’s not permitted anymore.
I recognized Kuris, who went by Kurt. It surprised me, because I’d
thought…well, never mind what I thought. I’ll tell you
soon enough.