The Changelings by Elle Casey

Author:Elle Casey [Casey, Elle]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Ya, Romance
Goodreads: 13484401
Publisher: Elle Casey
Published: 2012-02-05T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The waypoint of the Gar rose up out of the ground in front of us. It was an obelisk landmark of granite or some other heavy-looking gray stone, topped with a metal spike that looked like it was made of brass. It couldn’t be brass though, I decided, because it was so shiny. Real brass would have been dark and weathered, being exposed to the elements like this one was. At my dad’s house, the one he lived in with my stepmother, he had a brass bell outside the front door. My anal, OCD stepmother would polish it every Sunday to keep it looking perfect, because if she missed a week it would start to turn a funky, mottled brown.

The waypoint was in the center of a small clearing. Where the forest had been full of the sounds of birdcalls, and bird flight, leaves rustling and wind blowing – the space surrounding the waypoint was totally silent. It didn’t feel right talking out loud when we arrived, so I started whispering.

“We made it, Tones!”

“Yes, we did.” He grabbed me in a side hug around my shoulders.

“Hand me one of your flags,” I said, reaching into my bag to grab one of mine.

Tony gave me one of his green ones.

We walked up to the obelisk together, looking for a place to tie our flags – one green and one purple. The entire surface was smooth and shiny. There was nothing to tie the flags to that I could see.

“Where are we supposed to put these friggin’ things?” I asked, looking around.

Tony didn’t say anything … he just pointed.

Above my head and on the side of the obelisk facing away from me was a thick iron ring sticking out. It was rusted, and some of the mottled orange color had moved to the stone where the ring was embedded. It looked really, really old. Attached to the ring were the tattered remains of two flags – one yellow and one pink. Pink wasn’t assigned to anyone in our group, but yellow was. Yellow was Jared’s color. But these flags looked like they’d been there for a while – faded from the sun and shaggy, their woven threads beginning to unravel.

“Tony,” I asked in hushed tones, “do you see what I see?”

“Two flags. Old ones from the looks of it.”

“Yeah, but did you notice the colors?”

“Pink and yellow. So?”

“So yellow is Jared’s color. And these have been here a while.”

“Just because it’s yellow doesn’t mean Jared put it there.”

“But what if Jared has been here before? And this is from another test he did …earlier?”

“Jayne, you’re being paranoid. We went over to that table with Niles and picked up bags randomly. I could have just as easily grabbed the yellow flags as the green ones.”

“Yeah, but isn’t it strange that you, Tony Green, got green flags, and I got my favorite color, purple? Don’t you find that pretty coincidental? Plus with all of Jared’s weirdness going on and … “

“Enough, Jayne. You’re starting to scare me with your conspiracy theories.

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