Mutante: Chapter 21
Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs
An awkward silence fell and, as they rode, her companions frequently glanced at her as though she were a siren-plant about to spurt pollen or start shrieking. Rosie gritted her teeth. Her frustration was perfectly reasonable—there was no need for their caution! Her entire life had been turned upside down and sideways and then shaken a few times for good measure. Everything felt unsteady—as unsteady as all those times when her tail had tripped her up, as though parts of her were at war within.
Why hadn’t anyone told her? Why hadn’t this been obvious from the start? If Grandma Essie had just told her when she was little . . . . But then again, maybe Grandma had been waiting until she was a bit older and the curse had stolen those years from them.
Rosie sighed, glancing down at her now shimmering red tail as her thoughts turned to today’s other revelation. Mutante. Change-maker. It wasn’t fair. She hadn’t signed up for this. No one had offered her a choice in the matter. And now . . . now, with Farfandal’s blessing, she would change everything around her. How would her parents react? They tried so hard to mold her into the perfectly elegant heir to both their prestigious lines. And now, she would be even more of a freak. Just existing would bring problems to the people around her.
Change is necessary, little one. Without change-makers, the world would remain stagnant. Like the ocean tides, change makes room for life.
Farfandal had seemed to believe it was a gift, not a curse . . . .
Argh! Why couldn’t she just stop thinking about this?
More to distract herself than anything else, Rosie turned to Thomas’s wisdom in the matter. “Thomas, what happens to witches who overexert themselves?”
She couldn’t see Thomas’s face, but she could hear the concern in his voice. “They die,” he said sadly. “They use their life-force on a spell and die.”
Rosie nearly lost her grip on Waterdancer’s harness. “They die?”
“Every single one of them?” Robert asked in a hushed voice.
“In my experience, yes,” Thomas said. “There are legends that occasionally a witch has been able to tap into the power of the ocean. But if such a thing is possible, no one knows how it is done. And all the legends agree that doing so is highly dangerous and nearly always results in severe consequences for the witch.”
“What kind of consequences?”
“The legend doesn’t specify. Something worse than death, I imagine,” he said brusquely.
“Of course,” Rosie muttered. “Because magic usually has some sort of dire consequences.”
“I’d say magic has proven extremely useful to us over the past few days. If it weren’t for the path, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.,” Robert said pointedly. “Is this about your magic?”
She sighed. “I’ve already caused terrible things to happen. All the frustration and pain that came out of the curse is because of my—my change-making and magic. They don’t mix well and now I have a double dose of both.”
Thomas cleared his throat. “As Robert has mentioned, you are not responsible for an accident. And perhaps Madame Essie and Lady Rina being cursed was the best of a bad situation?”
Rosie laughed bitterly. “How? If either of them had managed to stay curse-free, they could have cured the other—at least according to Farfandal.”
“You can’t know that,” Robert said firmly. “Besides,” He glared in Thomas’s direction. “You can’t change the past. All you can do is try to learn from it and move forward.”
Rosie grimaced. “What if what I’ve learned is that magic isn’t worth it?”
“I believe you are overly tired, Miss Rose. You have not been this negative before.”
Rosie shrugged. “Probably. I just—” Her throat grew tight. “What if I make everything worse? I already can’t control the change-making. Farfandal said it’s not something I consciously do—it’s something I cause just by existing. And now that it’s been increased . . . .”
Robert reached across the harness to put a hand on hers. “Change can feel terrible, but it isn’t all bad. If I hadn’t become a kelp-harvester, I never would have gotten to be your knight on this marvelous adventure, Princess.”
Change is necessary . . . it makes room for life.
Rosie sighed. “Maybe you’re right, Thomas. I probably am more tired than I realize.”
“It will be all right, Miss Rose. As I said, I am always available should you need someone to speak to or to consult.”
She smiled, despite not being able to see Thomas. The mirror really did do his best. “Thanks, Thomas.”
“Now, shall we talk about how to get the kelp into the beast?” Robert asked. “I was thinking we should just put it inside something it would eat.”
“That seems reasonable. What did you have in mind?” Rosie asked.
As Robert began a description of all the things he’d seen glass jellies eat, in hopes that the monster, which seemed to be at least part-glass jelly, would be tempted by its natural food, Rosie studied the path ahead of them. Maybe Grandma Essie could at least give her some pointers. Or the Witches’ Council. Her mother would be furious, but she needed training. She didn’t want to end up dead or worse. More than that, though, she didn’t want to be a danger to those around her . . . .
Save Grandma Essie first. Think about the rest later, she reminded herself. There was no point in getting herself worked up until she knew it was an issue. The potion spell might prove too much for her, or she could end up dying in the forest.
“—and I think if we danced with the monster while singing it a lullaby, it would definitely release your grandmother,” Robert said in a tone of finality.
Rosie’s eyes shot to his. “What did you say?”
“Oh, you’re back now,” he said. “You were ignoring me, and I figured I’d see what it took to make you pay attention. You missed the part about Thomas flashing lights at the monster while we kicked it in the stomach.”
“Um . . . .”
Robert chuckled. “Obviously, those things wouldn’t work. Before I realized you had drifted off, I was saying that it should be easy enough to hide the kelp inside a dead tuna fish.”
“And I was saying that it would be better to use something else, as it is unlikely to digest that in time to be of any use,” Thomas put in.
Rosie squinted at them for a minute, trying to decide how serious they were being. “Why don’t we just make a ball of the stuff and chuck it in its mouth while it’s chasing us?”
Robert’s eyebrows flew up. “You want to get chased again?”
“If it’s the fastest way to save my grandmother, yes.”
“What about after it, er, releases your Grandma? Are you planning to keep running away from it? I thought that’s why we were going the stealth route in the first place.”
“Oh, um, well. . . .”
“Thomas, is there a room we could lure it into that it wouldn’t be able to escape from?”
The mirror hummed in response, clearly considering the question. “What if you simply lured it outside Madam Essie’s house and then closed the doors? You would be trapped inside, but once Madam Essie awakes, she should be able to break Lady Rina’s spell. She would have been able to do it easily, but Lady Rina had already laid down a spell preventing magic from inside the house and Madam Essie didn’t have time to break the magic block and deal with the monster.”
“I still think it would be easiest to just dispatch the creature,” Robert said stoutly. “Is keeping Ranulf around worth your grandmother’s life?”
Rosie considered it. He was skilled with a sword, but it still seemed impossible to get past the tentacles in order to reach the thing’s vital organs. She shook her head. “Is there a magical solution, Thomas? Some spell that you know of? What if we just change the creature?”
“How so?” he asked.
Rosie wrapped her hair around her finger, considering precisely how they might change the creature. “What if we just shrink it? After Grandma is free, of course. It would be a lot less dangerous if we could just stick it in a jar or something.”
Robert chuckled. “Can you imagine showing a mini sea monster to people? They’d never believe it.”
“Well, what do you think, Thomas?”
“I had not considered that, but yes, it should be possible to shrink the monster if you can just get it outside the magical blackout spell.”
“How large is the spell?”
“Only in the house itself. Lady Rina tied the block into the structure.”
Rosie smiled at Robert. “Looks like you’ll have a chance to antagonize Ranulf after all.”
A/N: Change is hard, isn’t it? I don’t handle transition well, lol. I’m in the middle of a new transition right now and have to keep reminding myself that change makes way for new things that can be really good.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you guys on Tuesday!
