Rabedy Collins wasn’t any happier than Gathen that the two of them had been picked for this task, but he knew better than to argue with Big Dan, and he certainly wasn’t about to bring it up with Gathen as they left the camp and went back to the hotel in Sweetwater. He knew Gathen thought he looked the right idiot with these dog ears and tail, and who could blame him? Rabedy knew he looked like an idiot, too. All he had to do was look at his reflection in a store window. He’d been the brunt of a lot of taunting by the rest of the gang, but at least he’d made some progress in this learning to shapechange business, which was more than could be said for the rest of them.

“Don’t bark now,” Gathen said as they approached the front of the hotel.

“Ha ha.”

“Or go marking territory.”

“Can we get on with it?” Rabedy said.

Gathen gave him an innocent look that did nothing to hide the mockery laughing in his eyes.

“It’s just we need to be careful,” he said, “and who knows if bits of your bogan nature have been changed along with your ears and ass.”

Rabedy almost growled at him.

That was the worst thing about all of this. They made fun of his ears and tail, but he could feel other changes, inside him, as though another, simpler nature was warring with his own. He’d also noticed that while dogs still barked at him when he went creeping through backyards, it was as though they barked at something familiar now, rather than an otherworldly creature. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.

At least he didn’t think he did.

But there was a part of him . . .

He shook his head.

Stop, he told himself. Just stop. That isn’t bogan thinking.

“Nothing else has changed,” he said.

“Then let’s get a move on.”

The front door of the hotel was unlocked and opened easily under Gathen’s touch. Moments later they were stepping softly up the stairs and into the hall at the top. They could see closed doors along either side, but it wasn’t until they were passing one on the way to the fiddler’s room that they saw the glow of light coming from under it.

They both stopped, struck by the light.

“Have you ever seen the like?” Gathen murmured.

Rabedy shook his head. But he knew what Gathen was feeling. The light drew at him, too. It flickered in his eyes and went creeping down to the dark places in his heart, promising, promising . . .

Rabedy wasn’t sure what. Something he’d never had, he supposed, but he already knew that he missed it terribly.

“What are you doing?” he whispered when Gathen put his hand on the door knob.