Changelings
- Автор: Маккефри Энн, Скарборо Элизабет
- Серия: The Twins of Petaybee #1
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Changelings». Краткое содержание книги:
CHANGELINGS
They are Ronan Born for Water Shongili and Murel Monster Slayer Shongili. Twin brother and sister. Children of Yana and Sean. Children of Petaybee. As such, theirs is a destiny deeply intertwined with the sentient planet that is their home. For Ronan and Murel are more than human. Like their father, each can transform into a seal and converse telepathically with the planet’s creatures–such as the friendly otter whose life they save one day from a pack of ravenous wolves.
But the twins’ bravery has unforeseen results when a visiting scientist witnesses their startling metamorphosis and becomes obsessed with their capture. To protect their children, Sean and Yana send them to stay with a powerful family friend on an orbiting space station. But no one realizes that Ronan and Murel hunger to discover the origins of their shape-shifting talent–and that their search for knowledge will place them squarely in the path of peril.
Meanwhile, Petaybee is changing–and much faster than an ordinary planet’s natural evolution. It appears that portions of the sea are heating up and a landmass is suddenly rising from the depths. To investigate the startling occurrence, Sean heads out to the open water in his seal form. But the newly unstable region holds untold mysteries–and the potential for disaster.
Mine, the wolf snarled back.
Look at that, he's already defurred! another pack member, this one about a year-old pup, said.
Can I have him, sire? Can I?
I don't know, son, the alpha male growled uncertainly. There's something fishy about those two big ones. They were seals just a minute ago. Now they look like men. Men have firesticks, and besides, you never know what they've been into. They might be bad for you.
Just let the otter go and be on your way and nobody gets hurt, Ronan told the wolves.
Besides, wolves don't normally eat otters. And we have it on good authority that these ones are poisonous.
She doesn't smell poisonous, the wolf holding the otter argued, slitting her eyes suspiciously.
Neither does he, the young wolf said, slinking closer to Ronan with hindquarters tensed to spring. He smells delicious.
By then the last of the otters had popped into Murel's hole and she had changed. While the wolves circled, she put on her silver suit and looked around for a weapon. Ronan's skin was covered with goose bumps. With her entire body protected by the suit, she was better able to defend herself than he.
The female wolf shook the furious snapping otter mother trying to break her neck. Without thinking, Murel took a long slide forward, bowling into the wolf, and smacked her hard on the muzzle with the side of her mitten, making her drop the otter.
Run! she told the smaller creature, but there was no need. The otter hit the water before Murel had formed the thought.
Now there was a new problem. A circle of hungry wolves tightened around Murel and Ronan, so close the twins could smell their breath, which was doggy and rotten at the same time. The wolf who'd had the otter leapt to her feet and with both front feet stiff brought them down sharply in front of Murel, snarling, Thief!
Ronan had used the distraction to seal himself into his own silver suit.
Now what is he, sire? The yearling who'd asked permission to hunt Ronan sounded bewildered. A fish? These creatures can't make up their minds what they are. But they still smell like prey to me.
And so they are, son, and so they are. Those flimsy shiny hides won't protect them if we all jump them at once. Ready… The female wolf waggled her hindquarters, poised to spring.
Murel lost her nerve and backed into her twin, who hugged her, and they clung together.
Set… the wolf's mate said.
Murel squeezed her eyes tight and hoped she wouldn't be more than one bite to them so it wouldn't hurt so much. There were no weapons. No fire.
Ronan buried his face in her shoulder, and she did likewise with her twin.
Attack! This order was followed by yipping, snarling, snapping, and growling, but no biting.
The twins were braced, ready to be knocked down by the wolves, but nothing touched them.
Instead, they heard familiar voices using feline profanity never before uttered in their presence.
Murel opened one eye in time to see Coaxtl pounce on yet another wolf and ride it like a horse while Nanook sat on her hindquarters, swatting wolf bodies right and left.
The wolves were already on the run when the first shot rang out.
"Go on, you mangy critters, get outta here! Those kids are too fraggin' spoiled rotten for you to eat anyway." Their aunt Sinead's voice sounded so good to them, she might have been promising presents instead of punishment by the time she braked her sled and ran past her spitting track cats to scoop up the children.
She bundled them into the sled and told them, as if talking to one of her team, "Stay."
They tried to tell her about the otters, but she didn't pay any attention to them. Her mouth was compressed in a thin line. The only sounds for several hours were the shushing of the runners and the patter of paws against the snow, the occasional dog stopping to relieve itself, and Aunt Sinead's barked commands. Not even Nanook or Coaxtl spoke. Ronan and Murel were too miserable to communicate with each other. After what seemed like a week but must have been sometime during the night, though it was hard to tell in the winter, the lead dog stopped in front of their house. Sinead stamped on the brake to set it, and ripped off her mittens to release the bindings holding the twins on the sled and under the furs. Her hands were shaking, which was funny since next to their mother, Aunt Sinead was the bravest lady they knew.
Silently, she pointed to the door.
When they left the sled, Coaxtl and Nanook stalked them all the way there.
CHAPTER 7
Only Mum was there, and to the twins' relief, she did not seem upset.
"Where's Da?" Ronan asked innocently.
"Still out hunting for you. I imagine he's on his way home now, though." Mum's voice was smooth and calm, conversational, her face unreadable. But then, her thoughts had never been easily readable to the twins. "Suppose before he gets here you explain to me without benefit of telepathy where you've been and what you were doing that required you to do it so far from home for so long and without the company of Coaxtl and Nanook."
"Well… we-There were these otters, weren't there?" Ronan began.
"No, first off, Johnny brought us these suits from Marmie, for our birthday, see-"
"Your birthdays are not until tomorrow," Mum said, lifting one of her raven wing eyebrows.
"I should remember. I was definitely there."
"Yeah, well, but we figured it was close enough and we'd be busy on the day and we wanted to try the suits out, that was all," Murel said, feeling it was best to start at the beginning. "Co' and 'Nook weren't around, but we just got excited and wanted to see what the suits were like so we decided to swim for a ways and put them on. They're brilliant, Mum. They kept us as warm and dry as a parka, snow pants, boots, mittens, and a hood with a good ruff, and they're no heavier than long Johns.''
Their mother sat with her arms crossed under her breasts, and gave a slight nod that they should continue.
"Well, we were just getting ready to come home when we heard this poor little otter crying for help from inside the river. Of course we had to help him. Petaybee would want us to, right?"
Their mother's expression did not change.
"He had his head caught so we got him loose," Ronan said. "Then he wanted to play. Well, you know, we were thinking, here's the new swimming buddy we could have to show us around, like you said we could. So we thought we should get to know him better, didn't we?
So we thought just a little longer would be okay. Only the hide-and-seek took a long time in all those tunnels the otters dug, and then he wanted us to slide down the waterfall with his family."
"But before we started down, the wolves came and grabbed his mummy. The otter's, I mean.
It was terrible, Mum, the poor little thing chittering and hahing-both our otter friend and his mummy, I mean. We slid down there and there was this big circle of wolves all around them.
Ronan was ever so brave."
"I was, rather. I stood there and tried to reason with the wolves while sis dug the otters a bolt hole with her flippers and put on her suit. Then she attacked the wolf with the otter in her mouth while I got on my suit."
"And that held them off until Co' and 'Nook could wade in and scare off the rest of them,"