Shifting Stars by Gary Stringer (best fiction books of all time txt) 📗

would have received his message about his waiting packages by now and if he were true to form, he would want, however grudgingly, to leave his tower and get them as soon as possible. Cat just prayed she wasn’t too late. She couldn’t pull this stunt a second time, and she had no other ideas of how she was going to get her hands on Shifting Stars. Without that, her research into her Angel, her staff and everything related to it were at a dead end. Frankly, this research was such a part of her now that she couldn’t imagine what she would do with her life without it.

This was so important to her, it felt as though she was burning inside. She felt like she was on the verge of a new phase in her life, and it was imperative she did not miss her chance. Renjaf’s tower had been in her way for too long already. Catriona thought about the things Renjaf had said to her last time. He wasn’t merely stubborn, and it wasn’t that he didn’t understand or care about what this meant to her as he had first suggested. No. He knew, he understood perfectly, and he was actually enjoying her suffering. She had no idea what had happened to make him that way, but she was done feeling sorry for him. Now she felt only the burn.

She let these feelings fuel her, energise her for what she was about to do. This was it: this time she was getting that book, even if she had to destroy Renjaf’s tower to get it. Because she’d figured it out, now – that demon hunter had given her the answer. No matter what wizard magic Renjaf had in place, defending against intruders, there was one thing he couldn’t possibly have prepared for because nobody believed it existed. Mandalee had practically seen it, and she still didn’t believe it: shapeshifting. But not just changing her own shape. Her magic had grown significantly through working on Renjaf’s land, and she’d already done what she needed to do. She’d just been doing it backwards.

Chapter 8

The rain that had met the day in Compton was very much present in the outlying areas, too, which helped Cat in her reconnaissance of Renjaf’s tower. Muddy footprints leading away from the tower told her that the wizard had already left the building. That was good news in one way because she wanted the tower empty for what she was about to do – she had no wish to harm him. In another way, however, getting there late meant she did not have as much time to do what she was about to do, as she would have liked. Still, it was now or never.

This was a turning point in my mother’s history. You see, gentle reader, what Catriona had finally realised, was that when she had been trying to think of a way to affect entry, she had been thinking too much like a wizard. It was how she had been taught to think in college, but she now knew those lessons were valuable in only one respect: they were an excellent example of what not to do. She didn’t need to penetrate the shields and wards that were attached to the stonework of the building. That’s what a wizard would try to do. For all their fancy tricks, much of wizard magic came down to power and pure mathematics. To penetrate the shield, the power of the attack would have to be greater. Different types of magical attack might work better than others, as shields tended to be unequal in their resistances, but ultimately, it was all about the numbers.

Druid magic was different. It wasn’t about power. If Catriona could use her druid magic to reshape and repair his stone walls, then she could use that same magic to tear them down.

Catriona inhaled a few deep breaths and took a firm grip on her staff. She wasn’t going to pull power from it, but it did serve as an aid to concentration and focus. She sent forth her magic, not quickly and violently, but slowly and gently. In moments, the stonework began to reshape itself, growing softer and eroding away as if the building had not seen any maintenance for centuries. At last, with an almighty crash, the tower collapsed under its own weight.

‘What about the shields?’ you may ask, gentle reader.

Well, you see, the shields were attached to the surface of the building, but when the building was reduced to rubble, that surface area grew exponentially. Through it all, the magical shield tried its best, but ultimately, there simply wasn’t enough of it to go around, and so there were gaps. Catriona sent her locator spell through the remains of the building until it found Shifting Stars. It was buried beneath the rubble, but that was OK, she just asked the debris very nicely if it would mind moving a bit more in one place, allowing her to retrieve it. The rubble didn’t much care what shape it took, so it was a simple task to move it aside. When Cat finally got her hands on the book, she found it somewhat worse for wear, but again, that was no problem, she just used her magic again. It was all just shapeshifting when she got right down to it; she just needed the book to return to the shape and condition it was in a moment ago when it was sitting on a bookshelf, and soon enough it was. It was all a question of imagination and explaining to Blessed Alycia what it was she wished to do. The Mother of Nature freed up a tiny portion of the energy she was holding in, which was channelled through Catriona, used to accomplish what she needed and then recycled back into the cosmos.

It felt exhilarating – both the magical achievement itself and the fact that she finally had the book she had been