Changelings Book2 The Book of Raziel

Chapter 2

Jack stood at the window of his small tower room. His breath fogged the pane as he stared out over the warren of narrow streets radiating outwards from Lord Ness's keep. Those same winding streets had been home to him for nearly fifteen years now, and he found it strange living in ordered luxury of castle life. He longed to be out, 'working'the streets, as he had the previous summer; but things had changed.

He had changed.

He was no longer 'Jack the Hawk' a very successful pick-pocket and thief, now he had become 'Jack the hero'; 'Jack the saviour of Ness'; 'Jack the bringer of Angels.' Now he was 'Jack the Changeling' and he could, when necessary, transform himself into a magnificent green Dragon.

He shuddered; remembering the first time he had changed, in the forested hills north of the city. The pain had left him unconscious, but the months of training he had received from his Grandfather Belthor had helped him; now he could almost place his mind elsewhere and enter a meditative trance, as his bones snapped and reformed.

Belthor had opened his mind further and taught him how to change back into human form, by channelling his inner energy with sheer concentration. The Might Goddess Danu, had removed the curse of ageing, so that he was now free to change without the dreadful toll. But now he felt trapped, he couldn't even go to the market square without an annoying entourage of children and well-wishers, and to his constant embarrassment, advances from girls.

He had saved the day, when returning from the demonic Netherworld with Ulfner Darkbane and his mighty Angels, at the moment a massive Demon horde was beginning to surround the small army of defenders. Jack could still feel remnants of the Angelic power deep within him; for each Angel had bestowed his power upon him as the battle had begun to seem insurmountable. Together they had destroyed the Demon army,scattering the survivors deep in every direction, but then he had fallen, and fallen hard.

The fall had destroyed his magical bone armour: the people didn't know that part; Ness had said it was better if the people had hope and thought him invincible.

Jack missed his Uncle Lupin, the wolf Changeling that had introduced him to his 'real self' and his Changeling destiny. But Lupin wasn't here, he wasn't stuck in the keep; he was off running with his pack-brothers and sisters, wild and free.

But it was not all doom and gloom for Jack, for he had made a firm friend in the strangely intense, warrior girl Samanthiel; an orphan from Ulfenspan - the river city that was destroyed by the Magic Council to supposedly stop the spread of Demons from the west of the country, over the mile wide river Ulfen.

Jack was the only person she allowed to call her Sam, though she still pretended annoyance at the shortened, pet version of her name. She was a tough girl with a savage sense of humour, but Jack liked her. They had fought side by side in the great battle that had left him bed bound for three whole months, visiting him daily taunting him in a friendly way, declaring that all the Demons were going to die of old age before they could get a chance to kill even one together.

Jack had sat entranced as she drilled on the parade ground for hours on end, hacking and swinging at straw Demons in a strange, balletic dance, till various straw limbs and torsos littered the training ground yellow. Jack longed for the freedom of the next hunt, for he and Samanthiel would leave the city, ranging far and wide, hunting the remaining Demons.