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.
What's that? she asked.
Surveillance equipment of some kind. Did you kids change on the way here at all?
Yes, but only a couple of times, and not for very long.
They know about you, Da said seriously. Someone told them the circumstances of your birth, and they've been watching ever since, off and on. That's why we've always had the cats go with you. Come on, let's get out of here.
What did they do to the otters? Ronan asked.
I don't know. Maybe nothing. Maybe they just scared them off when they came tramping around looking for you two. But we need to go now. If they're still watching this spot, they'll be here with dope darts in a moment. Dive below the ice and swim as long as you can. We'll make new breathing holes on the way upriver too. Don't want them tracking us with the old ones.
But before they made their first breathing hole, they heard a familiar mind-voice.
Hah! Ronan, Murel! Hah! It's me, the otter who is friend to brave wolf-scaring river seals who are sometimes human. Wait! Wait! I have a thing to tell you. Hah!
Murel somersaulted in the water and swam back to meet the otter.
We brought our da to meet you, Otter, but your lovely tunnels are all messed up. What happened to them? Where are the hundred otters with the big sharp teeth?
Gone, all gone, Murel who attacks wolves. When the sled woman took you away, we hurried to our dens in case the wolves decided to return. But then came men with big feet and big nets and guns that shot sharp things bringing sleep. Hah! I cried out to warn the others and dove deep but other otters did not. My mother was taken and my siblings and cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles on both sides of the family. At first they bit and scratched, but the men shot them with sharp things and they no longer moved. The men took them, all of my family. Ruined our house and took my family.
All one hundred otters? Murel asked.
All the otters except me. Otters need families, and mine is all gone now. I tried to follow, but the men had those noise-sleds that are fast as an avalanche. Otters are very fast, but I could not catch them.
Da? Ronan turned to his father. You and Mum are the governors. Make those men bring the otters back, huh?
I can try, son, but not while you two are with me. Who do you think they really wanted to catch anyway? Probably as soon as they find out that the otters remain otters all the time, they'll let them go. They do, don't they?
What?
Remain otters all the time?
Otter said, "Oh yes, Father River Seal, my family remain otters at all times. They are always otters. There have been stories about my cousins on the coast, but river otters are different.
We are always otters.
I'll do what I can, Otter. But those men are not acting under my authority. They had no legal right to take your family. I will have to come back later with more men and if possible make them let your family go.
I will go with you then and come back to show you where the men went, Otter told them.
There's no need, Da said. We'll find you again tomorrow.
Maybe you will and maybe not, Otter said. But meanwhile I am alone and have no one to flay with. Otters are not supposed to be alone. Otters need to be with others, even if the others are river seals.
You might not like our part of the river, Da said. He seemed to want to get rid of the otter.
Oh, let him come, Da. He's our friend. We'll take care of him, Murel said.
He can sleep with me, Ronan said. I'll make a den for him. under my covers.
He's not a pet, Da said. Your mother-
Mother will love him, and we know he's not a pet. He's our friend. We have to help him.
I'll help him but he isn't going all the way home with us. He can stay in the river, as he said, and return with my party to find the poachers. Then he'll be with his own family again.
Ronan started to protest. Da was being uncommonly firm and unyielding, and there was something very grim and sad in his thoughts, but it skittered away before Ronan could read it.
That will be good, Murel and Ronan. You can come and play again and I can be your swimming guide, as you asked. And all of my family will guide you too if you bring them back.
We will go see my cousins on the coast and they will show you the sea.
Oh, Da, can we? the twins asked, but Da swam hard upstream and did not answer.
Otter raced the twins back up the river, and even though they were swimming against the current, they got home only a little after suppertime. Since they'd all snacked on fish throughout the day, none of them were hungry. Outside of town, Da climbed out of the water, shook himself dry, and put on the human clothes he'd hidden in a tree by the riverbank, while Ronan and Murel put on their shiny suits from Marmie. Otter dove down to inspect the riverbank.
Thin ice and many holes in the bank, he reported when he popped his head up again. Good holes for otter dens. Not as good as the home ones, but good enough for now.
Good night, Otter, Murel and Ronan said. They turned and waved, and Otter looked at them with large eyes that once more seemed a bit sad. Then he leapt in the air, did a somersault, and dove underwater again.
CHAPTER 8
ONE last surprise before the latchkay was that Marmie herself had arrived while they were gone. The tall, elegant woman with the curling dark hair and the impish smile greeted them with hugs.
"The suits fit you beautifully! I was just sure they'd be far too big," she said.
"They work a treat too," Ronan told her. "We didn't get a bit cold after we put them on."
"That was the general idea," she said, laughing.
"I think maybe even wolves can't bite through them," Murel told her, knowing that someone as important as Marmie would like to have useful information about her gift.
"Now, how did you get a chance to learn that, I shudder to wonder?" Marmie asked.
"We were saving otters," Murel said. "But then after we left they were otter-napped by some men. Da's going to make the men bring the otters back, though, probably tomorrow."
"Otter-napping? My goodness, I have missed Petaybee. I forgot how exciting it can be here.
Well, we don't have any otter-nappings where I live but I bet you'd find it exciting too."
"Do you really live on a space station, Marmie?" Murel asked.
"Yes, a very nice space station. You'd like it. I just had a lovely pool installed at my home. It runs all through and around my house, and there's a big deep part for diving. I had it all landscaped so it looks like a natural stream flowing through the woods."
"That sounds nice," Murel said politely. But she thought it was sort of odd to live on a space station and try to make it look like the woods. Why not just live in the real woods?
Ronan was thinking the same thing. "We can take you to the woods while you're here, Marmie, anytime you want."