The Shape-Changer's Wife by Sharon Shinn

Author:Sharon Shinn
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2011-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

THREE DAYS LATER, they left Faren Rochester’s house and returned to their own. As before, they were two days on the road, and the horses fought them the entire way; as before, Lilith scarcely spoke for the whole, long weary ride. Everything was the same; only Aubrey had changed. He stared out his window at the rusty frieze of trees and wondered what he would do.

Eight

THE WIZARD’S HOUSE in the middle of the forest seemed smaller, dustier and more solitary than ever, once they returned. Aubrey and Glyrenden spent the next few days in the teaching room, but the sessions were not productive. Aubrey could not concentrate on his lessons, and Glyrenden laughed at him.

“You miss your new aristocratic friends,” he said. “We are too humble and dull for you.”

“That’s not true,” Aubrey said swiftly. “I would far rather be here than at Faren Rochester’s.”

“So you say now, boy, so you say now.” The wizard was making up a small pack of potions, for he was preparing to leave again in the morning, and Aubrey watched him select and mix herbal recipes. As always, Glyrenden was secretive about his task and his destination; Aubrey had learned not to ask. “The day will come when you will find lords and ladies to be the only company you enjoy.”

Aubrey smiled faintly. “I don’t think so. I don’t come from a highborn house.”

“But power is drawn to power, and magic feeds on the nobility,” Glyrenden replied. The older wizard appeared amused. “You will dally with the king’s daughters yet.”

“Do you really think I will ever be that good?” Aubrey asked.

Glyrenden smiled down at him, a peculiarly nasty smile. “You will be brilliant and powerful, or you will be nothing,” the wizard said. “I see no middle ground for you.”

Glyrenden was gone the next day, but Aubrey’s spirits did not improve. He was so rarely depressed that he was alarmed by his symptoms; he did not know how to recover his lightheartedness. Even alone in Lilith’s company, he was not happy, though her presence was all that made the house tolerable. Then again, her presence was precisely what was making him so miserable.

“I think you are very bored these days,” Lilith observed to him after he had moped around the house two solid days. “Perhaps you should go hunting with Orion.”

“That does not sound especially enjoyable,” Aubrey replied. “I’m sure he hunts like a savage.”

“Or go into town for a visit. We are low on supplies anyway”

The idea had instant appeal. “We are? It is market day, I believe.”

“I’ll ask Arachne what she needs.”

Within a few minutes, he was on the road, pushing a small three-wheeled cart before him. His heart lifted as he drew closer to town. Perhaps that was all that was wrong with him—a lack of company. He had grown accustomed to agreeable society during his stay at Faren Rochester’s, and he missed it now. He was unused to being alone—or nearly alone, with only two strange servants to chaperone him while he kept company with the shape-changer’s wife.

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