Mala looked up into the Inquisitor’s face, her shoulders shaking as she spoke. “But. . Master. . you’ve come for me! You. . you’ve come to take me home!”
“No, Mala,” Soen replied, “I cannot do that.”
“Why?”
“Because, I am not the Inquisitor whom you serve,” the elf replied. “I am not Soen.”
The robes began to shift as the Matei staff fell heavily to the deck. The black elven eyes contorted, and the flesh around them shifted. The robes collapsus into smoother forms. Two arms became four as the expressionless and all too familiar face looked up.
“I am sorry, Drakis,” Ethis said from the forecastle, where Mala lay quivering at his feet. “There was no other way.”
“Ethis!” Jugar sputtered. “You! I have seen a number of feats of legerdemain in my time, but how is it that you have thus magically appeared on this ship?”
“In a moment, friend Jugar,” Ethis said looking toward the afterdeck. “Captain Urulani, may I suggest that a few of your crew take charge of this human woman. I believe she is now beyond doing us any further harm, but her actions, I believe, warrant some prudent caution.”
Urulani broke from her astonishment and nodded. “I agree. Zinbar and Gantau. . go forward and take charge of her. Bind the woman hand and foot, but I don’t think a gag is necessary. Make her comfortable, but I want her secure.”
“Aye, Captain!” they responded and moved forward, Zinbar picking up a coil of rope stowed next to the main mast.
Urulani raised an eyebrow as she spoke to the chimerian, “Anything else?”
Ethis bowed slightly, “It’s your ship, Captain.”
“And I’d like to see that it remains my ship,” the captain replied. “Is there anything else you would like to tell me?”
“Only that my name is Ethis, that I am-as you plainly see-a chimerian shapeshifter, and that I serve you aboard this ship.”
“That’s all?”
“Oh, and that you’ll find that there is no longer a seasick manticore in your hold.”
“Which is because?” Urulani urged.
“Because. . because I was that seasick manticore.”
“Ah-ha!” the dwarf crowed. “That’s how you got aboard!”
“And how I’ve been aboard since we made our hasty retreat from Nothree,” Ethis replied taking a step down the deck then turning back to the dwarf. “Oh, here is something I need to return to you.”
The chimerian reached into folds in his flesh that had been smoothed over moments before and pulled out a shining, black-faceted stone.
The dwarf’s eyes went wide as his hands instinctively patted down his waistcoat and discovered it empty. “The Heart of Aer! How did you. .?”