“Return my transformation rock to me!” Lyra repeated forcefully.
“Just let me borrow it for a while, okay?” Luka gave her a sly grin. Raising the rock, he pointed it at several soldiers that were charging in their direction. Dropping their swords in surprise, they writhed as their bodies grew shorter, their hair lightened and spiked up, and the lines on their rough, craggy faces vanished, leaving them bright-eyed and fresh-faced. Armor shrank and reshaped into tight leather thongs, their bodies grew slender and willowy, and body hair retreated into pale, soft skin, leaving them smooth all over. They stared at each other in confusion for a few moments, before new instincts took over and they began necking, kissing and caressing.
“AHEM!” Luka turned to find his boyfriend glaring at him. Turning bright red with embarrassment, he hurriedly dropped the rock into Lyra’s outstretched palm. “Just… wondering what it would be like to be a wizard…” the barbarian mumbled sheepishly. Mika rolled his eyes, while making a mental note to pick up a leather thong at the next trading post.
“Excuse me?” a small, quivering voice piped up. They looked down at a trembling little stableboy, filthy and naked as a jaybird. “I was a big strong soldier until that mean Amazon used that stone on me. Can you turn me back please? I’ll do anything…” he stared at them with wide, teary eyes.
“And why should we trust you?” Lyra demanded.
There was a tremendous explosion from above that shook the entire fortress, followed by a shower of falling masonry, bricks and dust. “Tobi!” Mika thought to himself with alarm. Turning to the others, he said urgently: “Lyra, you’ve got what you wanted. Get the others out of here. Yes, you too, Luka.”
“And what about you?”
“I’m going to help Tobi.”
“Isn’t she quite capable of looking after herself?”
“But she’s just a girl!”
“And you’re just a wizard’s apprentice!”
Mika scowled. “Just go, okay? You know you’re no match for Atelia. And I can’t leave Tobi alone here.” He turned to the stableboy. “Look, kid. Show me an undefended path up to the parapets, and then I’ll change you back.”
“Deal!” he shouted, and immediately ran off, with Mika scrambling behind in his wake.
++++++++++
Up on the parapets, the duke crawled out from under a pile of rubble, groaning as he clutched his left arm. Darn that Tobi girl, how does she pack so much power into that little body, he cursed. He watched Atelia scramble back to her feet, eyes blazing with rage, a long gash down her cheek. Raising her hands, she summoned an enormous double-bladed scythe. Uh oh… the duke’s eyes widened. He swiftly grabbed hold of his former son, now daughter, Shari, and made a beeline for the nearest stairwell.
“Mum!” Amber cried. “Please stop! She’s my friend!” But Atelia’s scythe whirled into the air like a wheel of death and slammed into the stone floor, sending up a shower of sparks. Tobi managed to leap aside, but the scythe spun up again, and she wasn’t quick enough this time. Atelia laughed in triumph as her foe was sliced cleanly in two, but to her shock, each half rapidly regenerated, and she found herself facing two Tobis, one smiling serenely at her, and the other with a visage twisted with hate and evil. What manner of sorcery is this, she shuddered, as the twin Tobis sprang forward and attacked her simultaneously.