Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 120974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
“Agreed, Your Majesty,” the Head Healer says nodding. “Your Majesty always knows best about these things—about everything, really.”
“Yes, I do.” Kellis lifts his chin arrogantly. “And anyone who disagrees—anyone who’s disloyal to me—will suffer swift and certain retribution.” He looks at the Head Healer. “You know which potion to give her.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The Head Healer nods and ustoppers one of the vials. He steps towards me, reaching for my face with one hand as he brings the poisonous green liquid to my lips.
“No!” I gasp and try to twist away, but he has me by the jaw and his grip is strong. It hurts as he grips my face and pours the green potion into my mouth.
I spit and twist but at least some of it goes down my throat.
He’s killed me—I’m dead! whispers a horrified voice in my head.
A sense of anger fills me—rage, really. This horrible old man is poisoning me so he and my brother can ruin everything good and kind and beautiful about our kingdom. So they can indulge their greed for money and power and corruption—it makes me so angry I could explode!
Suddenly, I feel a bolt of power surge through me—it’s like I’ve finally tapped into the magic inside. I feel something go shooting out of me like a bolt of lightning—and it goes directly into the Head Healer.
He’s knocked back three feet, trips, and lands on his rump.
“Oof!” he gasps.
“What the hell?” Kellis frowns as he looks between me and the Healer. “What happened?”
“I…I don’t know.” The Healer scrambles to his feet and puts a hand to his head. “I feel…strange.”
“You look strange too,” my brother says to him. “What’s happening to you?”
Both of us stare at the Head Healer because, in the flickering torchlight, it’s clear that something extraordinary is happening to him.
Right before our eyes, his beard—which used to be long and bushy and gray—begins to shrink. It grows shorter and thinner, like it’s being reabsorbed into his chin. Truly, it’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.
But stranger things are in store. The Head Healer gets shorter too. He used to be one of the tallest men in our Court, but now he shrinks down and down until he’s several inches shorter than Kellis…and then he’s even shorter than me.
“Oh, what’s happening to me? What foul magic is this?” he howls…and his voice is higher too. Almost…womanly, as strange as it sounds to say.
Then he clutches at his chest, an agonized look on his face.
“It hurts!” he moans. “It burns!”
“What is it? What did you do to him?” Kellis shouts at me.
“I don’t know!” I shout back. “But look—he’s got breasts!”
And so he does. The Head Healer is now sporting a pair of the largest breasts I’ve ever seen—I mean, they’re even larger than mine and that’s saying something. They push out the front of his robe, making him look unmistakably feminine. His face has changed too—his features are still recognizable, but they’re softer now—rounder.
Suddenly I understand what my magic did to him. But it is Kellis who speaks it out loud.
“He’s a woman!” he exclaims, his face filled with horror. “By the One Goddess—you’ve turned him into a woman, Irena!”
The Head Healer’s face fills with disbelief.
“No, it’s a lie! It cannot be!” he moans in his new, higher voice. He feels his face. “My beard!” he moans.
“Forget your beard, man—you’ve got tits now!” Kellis exclaims.
“I can’t. I…” The Healer explores his own chest with shaking hands. His face registers disbelief…disgust…and finally terror. “No…no!” he shrieks. “What have you done to me?” he demands, turning to me. “What have you done?”
I know what the magic has done—I understand it now. It’s turned him into what he loathes and fears the most—it’s made him into the kind of person he’s spent his life denigrating and ignoring.
It’s turned him into a woman.
Good for my magic, I think and wish I could bring it out again—to get me free of the manacles. Unfortunately, my thoughts are beginning to feel a bit scrambled. The potion, I think. The potion he gave me—how much got down my throat?
Enough to have an effect…though I don’t yet know if it will be lethal. I can feel my thoughts slowing down and a bitter taste is growing in the back of my throat.
But a moment later, I’m awake again because Kellis is advancing on me.
“You little bitch!” he snarls, hatred twisting his face. “You think you can use your magic against me? You think you can stop me? Well, think again!”
And he draws his dagger.
I have only a fraction of a moment to see the shine of silver in the torchlight before there’s a flurry of motion in the shadows. A huge hand wraps around my brother’s raised wrist, stopping the blow, and another wraps around his throat.