Free Changing Fate [Fate series] by Elisabeth Waters Page B

useful."
    Yes, of course, mercenaries would have money. They probably were paid yesterday. That will help when we come to a town, but it might not be at all wise to do that yet . Akila had never been outside the castle walls without at least one man with her (well, not in human shape). A lady of her class did not go out without an escort. Presumably other women had ways of managing without armed guards, but she didn't know how. Even with her own clothes available, it might be better if she didn't wear them.
    She looked at the clothes spread around her, then down at her body. She was still small and thin, so maybe if she cut her hair she could pass for Briam's younger brother. And now they had two swords and assorted knives. “Briam,” she said suddenly, “will you teach me how to fight?"
    "Certainly, if you wish,” Briam replied, obviously totally bewildered by this strange request—if there was one area Akila had never shown any interest in, it was fighting. “But don't you want dinner first?"
    [Back to Table of Contents]

CHAPTER SIX
    After eating as much food as she could possibly hold, Akila dressed herself in Briam's extra clothes. She decided to put off cutting her hair until she absolutely had to. After all, the weather was going to get colder before it got warmer again; if they had to stay out all winter, she'd want long hair. Briam's cloak and the clothes the men had owned were spread out drying all over the place, and most of them would dry by sunset. At the moment their camp was very visible from the air, but the only person who might see it from that angle was Lord Ranulf, and he already knew where they were. She hoped that no more of Stefan's men would come after them.
    "Akila?” Briam asked. “Are we going to stay here?"
    "In this clearing? I think we'll stay here one more night, but tomorrow I'll look for a better place to camp. We're too much on the road here—and I've no desire to have anyone see me before I've learned to act like a boy."
    "Why do you want to learn to act like a boy?"
    "Ladies aren't supposed to travel unescorted. Once I can convince people I'm a boy, you can be a traveling minstrel and I can be your apprentice or something, but right now I'd look strange to anyone who saw me."
    "I admit you don't look much like a boy to me, but I thought that was just because I know you're not."
    "No, I don't look like a boy because I don't sit or move like one. It will probably take at least a month for me to get used to the clothes and the way a boy moves. Even in a short tunic I move as if I were wearing long skirts, and the way I automatically lift the tunic slightly when I climb on top of or over something would give me away to anyone with the slightest perception. You look at me and see your sister, but to anyone else I'd just look wrong, even if they weren't quite sure why."
    "Can't you just shape-change into a boy?"
    "Well, yes and no. I can change my features—I could change my face to be a perfect match for yours and my body to be the same height and bulk—"
    "Then we'd be identical twins!” Briam seemed to like the idea.
    "Yes, and we'd also be conspicuous and easy for people to remember. And with my body spread out like that I'd be too fragile. I'd have to lengthen my arms and legs, and that would make the bones thinner and weaker. We don't want that if Lord Ranulf comes after us again."
    "Again?” Briam asked, puzzled.
    "Never mind,” Akila said hastily. “Besides, it does take energy to change and hold a different shape, and changing from a girl into something that looks like a boy isn't enough of a change—look, when I change into a wolf, I move like a wolf, right?"
    "Yes, and when you change into a bird, you can fly."
    "Right. Both of those shapes are different enough from my normal one that their reflexes take over from my human ones. But if I change to look like a boy, I'm still human, so the reflexes don't change. If I step over a log, I automatically lift up my skirts a