Page 22 of The Tree of Spirits (Paragons #2)

THE CHAMELEON

“ F un?” I repeated, barely choking out the word. “How is fighting one of the most dangerous monsters in all the Many Realms fun ?”

“Well, when you put it like that, you certainly take all the fun out of it, Savannah Winters,” Nixi replied with pouting lips. “Think of it as an adventure, a challenge, a…”

“Suicide mission,” Capricorn inserted.

“Sadly, no,” said the ghost, and she actually sounded disappointed. “For I am already dead.”

“Enough!” the Chameleon hissed. It was no longer a scaled, long-fanged wolf. It was an old woman with skin dripping off her face like melted wax. “Let’s just get on with it. I am quite eager to kill you.”

The creature’s voice was inhuman, unearthly, terrible. When it spoke, its words were rough and ragged. They scraped like sandpaper against my eardrums.

“We’ll just see about that,” Capricorn declared, stomping her foot.

There was a hard, hollow drumming noise from deep inside the earth.

Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-dum. The pounding grew louder.

Harder. Angrier. The ground began to quake.

It was so fast, so unrelenting. The vibrations shot up my legs.

My teeth began to clatter. My head was spinning. I felt dizzy, disoriented, off canter.

“If you pass out, I won’t be able to catch you,” Nixi warned me.

Capricorn stomped her foot again. The earth opened up beneath the Chameleon’s feet. The creature dropped out of view.

“Help!” a young girl cried out, her voice rising above the quaking and snarling. “Please help me! Someone! Anyone!”

I scoured the scene, searching for the girl. I found her trapped inside one of the craters Capricorn’s spell had scooped out of the road.

“Don’t worry,” I told the girl. “I’ll save you.”

“Stop.” Capricorn caught my arm. “That isn’t a little girl. It’s the Chameleon, trying to trick you.”

The earth shook again.

“Help me!” screeched the girl. She reached out to me, tears pouring down her face. “Please! Don’t leave me here! Don’t let me die!”

“Don’t do it, Savannah.” Capricorn didn’t let go of my arm. “Don’t be fooled by appearances. This monster is a shapeshifter. And it’s very crafty.”

“Help me!” the girl cried out again.

Except there were two of them now, trapped in neighboring craters.

“Please!”

Now there were four little girls, identical in every way, right down to the pink, star-shaped birthmark on each girl’s forehead.

“Don’t leave me here!”

There were eight girls. Their voices called out in perfect unison.

“Don’t let me die!”

My mind knew it was the Chameleon, but even so, gazing into their innocent, terrified eyes, it made my heart ache with sympathy.

“Why don’t you help me?” the girls asked, the chorus of voices echoing in my ears. “I thought Knights were supposed to be heroes.”

“You are not a Knight.”

I turned toward the sound of Kato’s voice. He was standing there beside me.

“You are only an Apprentice,” Conner told me. He stood on my other side. “And only because you cheated.”

Nevada was there too. “You will never be a Knight.”

“You’re such a scaredy-cat,” Dante taunted me. “Always have been, always will be.”

“I should never have let you go, Savannah,” my mom sighed. “You’re too young. Too small. Too fragile.”

“Too pathetic,” Zoe added in her biting, nasally voice. She sneered at me. “Are you going to cry, little girl? Are you going to fall apart?”

Rhett folded his arms over his chest and hit me with a triumphant smile. “It certainly looks like it.”

“She’s splitting at the seams!” Dutch laughed.

“You’ve looked better,” Kylie told me. Her smile was half-comforting, half-amused.

“Well, at least after the monster eats you, you won’t be dragging down the rest of us,” Bronte said. “Honestly, Savannah, I’ve never met anyone so terribly inept at following directions. I told you exactly what you need to do to rise up the Scoreboard, but you refused to listen!”

“Come on, Winters.” Asher extended his hand to me. “Let’s find a nice spot for you to take a nap. That’s just what you need.”

I blinked. “They’re all so real.”

“Nah.” Nixi shrugged. “They don’t smell like people.”

I sniffed the air. “I don’t smell anything.”

Nixi nodded. “Exactly.”

“Wait.” I frowned. “Can you even smell things? You’re not exactly alive.”

“I’m not exactly dead now either, am I?” she countered.

“That ghost is a tricky one,” Conner told me.

“Very tricky,” Kato agreed. “She is clearly working with the beast. You’d best come with us, Seven.”

“Right. After all, we did come all the way here to rescue you, Red,” Conner flashed me a smile.

The whole world was spinning in circles. I was so dizzy I could hardly see, let alone stand. Sweat trickled down my forehead. A sharp, acidic taste coated my tongue. There was also the small matter of my racing heart. It pounded inside my chest, rattling my ribcage.

“They’re not real,” Nixi said. Her voice was so quiet, so muffled, spoken from beyond the veil of confusion that was smothering me.

I turned to the people who weren’t there, speaking in voices that weren’t theirs, and declared, “You are not real.”

Somewhere, the creature expelled an angry shriek, and the fog lifted from my mind. All the phantoms were gone. Only the Chameleon stood before me. It looked like a beautiful woman—with long, flowing hair and a pearly shimmer to her skin—but its voice was that of the old woman, deep and savage.

“Release me,” the creature hissed.

I blinked, and then the Chameleon was back in the crater.

Or actually, as I began to realize, it had never left.

Capricorn stood at the lip of the hole in the road, waving her hands, weaving her spell.

Dirt bubbled up from underground, slowly filling the hole and burying the creature along with it.

The earth was already up to the Chameleon’s chest.

“Release me!” it called out.

I stayed back.

“I will find all the people you love, Savannah Winters,” it snarled. “I will kill them.” It hacked out a cough as dirt closed around its neck, then it added in a wheeze, “And it will be all your fault.”

“You won’t be hurting anyone,” Capricorn told it.

She was glowing so brightly now, I couldn’t even look at her.

I covered my eyes, and when the blinding flash of light sizzled out, the road, completely checkered with potholes just a few moments ago, was smooth once more.

There were no holes, no cracks, not even a tiny chip.

It looked better than I’d ever seen it. And the only trace of the beast was a whisper of light wafting up from the asphalt like steam after a scorching summer rainfall.

The monster’s remains dissolved before my eyes, carried away by the breeze.

“So that’s it?” I asked Capricorn. “Just like that? So easy?”

“Oh, it was anything but easy,” she laughed lightly. “And I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“What did I do?”

“You kept the monster distracted, so I could work my spell.”

“Glad to be of service,” I sighed.

Back in my first Discovery Quest, I’d been the bait. And now I was the distraction. What a fine Knight I was turning out to be.

Capricorn must have sensed my mood because she offered me a smile and kind words. “You were a big help, Savannah. Really.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen a Chameleon so distracted by someone before,” Nixi said dreamily. “It must have thought you were an easy target.”

“Thanks, Nixi,” I grunted.

“No need to be snippy,” the ghost said through a smile. “You know I hold your magic in the highest esteem, Savannah. The fact that the Chameleon did not was its own undoing. It underestimated you.” She stroked her chin thoughtfully. “A lot of people seem to make the same mistake.”

“It’s my adorable face,” I said drily. “It throws them all off guard.”

Nixi tittered. “Oh, yes. I really think you’re on to something there.”

I turned to Capricorn. “So that’s it? The Chameleon is gone?”

“Oh, it’s not over yet,” Nixi said before she could answer.

“Sure, you killed the beast once, but it will be back.” She rubbed her hands together in delight.

“Chameleons are hardy creatures, you know. You actually need to kill them four times before they finally reveal their true form, the only form you can truly kill.”

“Fantastic,” Capricorn said, and she sounded as excited as I was at the perspective of fighting the monster four more times.

“How long before it…revives?” I asked Nixi.

“It’s hard to say. It could be weeks, days, or even as short as just a few hours.”

“I will keep a look out,” Capricorn said, tightening the straps on her backpack.

Nixi watched her. “Going so soon?”

“I have a Chameleon to track. That is why I’m here. So I’d best get back to work.”

“And I’d best get back to my bath.” A rapturous smile slid across the ghost’s lips.

“Your bath ?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, my bath. In the ocean, of course. I adore the ocean. The sound of the waves. The smell of seaweed. The tang of salt on my tongue.” She sighed.

“When I was alive, I often visited the ocean. It was my place, my sanctuary whenever I needed to think or calm myself or get my bearings. Even after death, being there, it stirs up such soothing memories.” Nixi sighed again.

“Farewell, ladies. See you soon.” She winked, then faded away.

“I have to get moving too,” Capricorn told me. “Until next time, Savannah Winters.”

Then, as effortlessly as Nixi the ghost, she vanished before my eyes, fading away like smoke in the wind.