Kevin Hearne - Trapped

Well, just don’t stare at us! I didn’t sit and watch and make comments while you were with Fifi, did I, talking about givin’ the dog a bone and such?

We did stop eventually, but only because Oberon threatened to chew off his leg as the sun set for the third time since we’d begun.

Now, hold on! First, you didn’t have to watch, because I specifically suggested that you not do so, and, second, it wasn’t grody. It was the stuff Al Green sings about .

No, Oberon, that was beauty .

Nothing could ruin my mood right then, so I laughed and admitted he had a point.

How about a hunt, Oberon? Would that suit you?

My hound put his nose in the air.

Anything you want. Anywhere you want. Granuaile needs to practice shifting planes and shifting shapes .

All right. Tanzania, here we come!

While Granuaile was now a full Druid, she still needed some coaching and practice on what had been theory until this point. She’d memorized the words and the forms of the knotwork admirably, but because we’d been so … busy lately, she had yet to cast anything.

We thanked Pyrenees for his hospitality and help before we shifted to eastern Africa. Granuaile and I both placed our hands on a tethered tree, and I showed her amongst the myriad trees where to shift in Tír na nÓg.

“You go first. We’ll be right behind you.”

“What if I get lost?”

“You won’t. I’m going to follow wherever you go.”

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, and shifted.

Oberon said.

Yep. Very soon .

Aww, thanks, Oberon—

That’s … very generous of you .

Oberon’s nose lifted in the air again, but not for the display of any attitude. His nostrils flared.

I frowned at my hound. Vampires?

All directions?

So they would be French vampires. Perhaps the vampires from the Iberian Peninsula wouldn’t be far behind. After my conversation with Theophilus, I could well imagine that he’d given the command worldwide to hunt us—I certainly hadn’t ceased to train my apprentice, so I must assume that his promised pogrom had begun and the world’s vampires were sniffing us out.

It probably wouldn’t be all that difficult to find me, provided I stayed in one place; my ancient blood smelled different from that of modern humans, and if they’d been told by their mysterious Fae connection that I was binding Granuaile to the earth, they’d know to search the wild places in Europe.

I had no desire to remain and take on an unknown number of vampires, so I shifted to Tír na nÓg and found a relieved Granuaile waiting for us. She did a couple of pogo jumps in the dark. “I did it!”

“Indeed. And now let’s go to Tanzania. Lead the way again.”

We spent some time finding an appropriate place to shift. We chose some acacia woodlands in Lake Manyara National Park, and then we went ahead as before, with Granuaile going first.

Oberon asked once she’d shifted.

Soon. I need to think about it a little bit. She has enough to worry about at the moment .

When we reached Tanzania, which was humid and warm and full of animals eating one another, we both had our night vision on. Granuaile was giddy.

“Can I shape-shift now?”

“Wait a moment. Bind with Oberon first.”

“Oh! Yeah. Duh! I’m sorry, Oberon, I’m just so excited.”

“He understands,” I told her. “Okay. So look at the connection between Oberon and me in the magical spectrum. You need to bind yourself to him in the same way so that you can hear his thoughts and vice versa.”

“Will you be able to hear my thoughts too?”

“No. The only person I know capable of human telepathy is the Morrigan, and she doesn’t accomplish it through traditional bindings.”

“What if we’re both in animal form?” Granuaile asked. “Do we use Oberon as a go-between to speak to each other?”

“I suppose we could.”

“But we should probably try to keep that to a minimum,” I added.

Granuaile nodded. “Poor dog would probably go nuts.”

Hey!

Do not take advantage of her generous nature!

Granuaile gave a tiny gasp and her eyes widened. “I heard that! Or the end of it. Why would you want him to stop being a hound?”

“Hi, Oberon! It’s so nice to finally hear your voice! Is ‘Clever Girl’ your name for me?”

“He’s been calling you that ever since that business with the skinwalkers. Watch out. He’s buttering you up for something.”

“Is that so?” Her eyebrows asked a question of my hound.

“And tonight you’re hungry for really tiny antelopes.”

“Okay. I’ve never hunted before, so you’ll need to give me some tips and forgive me if I screw up, all right?”

“Good. Because my predator form is a giant black cat.”

cat person?> Oberon whipped his head around to me.

“It wasn’t my choice, Oberon!” Granuaile said. “Gaia chose my predator form. If it had been my choice, I would have been a wolfhound like you and Atticus.”

That’s true, buddy , I said privately. She didn’t have any say in her animal forms. Besides, what does it matter? She’s Granuaile no matter what shape she’s in .

Oberon admitted.

“What is?” Granuaile asked.

“Oh. That’s true. Atticus, maybe we should speak aloud to Oberon whenever we can so we don’t have to always ask him for clarification when he answers?”

“Yep. Good idea. I’m used to keeping a lid on it, so it will take me some time to break the habit.”

Granuaile and I disrobed and placed our clothes near the tethered tree. We asked the earth to part and conceal our weapons for us.

“One more thing before you shift,” I said. “I have to fix your necklace.”

“Oh.” Granuaile raised her hand to the cold iron amulet dangling at her throat. “Good call. I would have garroted myself.”

“Would you mind terribly if I did this for you? Fix it so that it changes sizes with your shape? I could teach you how, but it would take a while.”

“No, go ahead,” she said.

“You’ll have to shift to every form to do it properly, and I know you’ve been dying to anyway.” I moved around her and unfastened her necklace, noting as I did so how much slack and extra chain there was. Then I stepped away with it in my hand. “So let’s take it from the top. Horse first. Go.”

Granuaile spoke the words that would bind her spirit to the form of the horse indelibly tattooed on her arm. She shifted to a beautiful copper-colored chestnut, sometimes called sorrel, with her mane slightly lighter than her coat. Her nostrils flared and she sneezed. I told her what she looked like as I adjusted the necklace around her neck and memorized the size and position. She whinnied and stamped on the ground with her hooves, one leg at a time, no doubt marveling that she had four of them. I crafted the first part of the binding that would allow the necklace to shrink back to human size when she shifted.

“Okay, shift back to human. I know you want to run, but this isn’t the best place to do it. There are leopards in the trees here and other hungry things.”