As I held my breath, I could feel that we were sinking much faster than we should. For a moment, I was confused until I realized that it was probably Keegan forcing the water to push us down. And sure enough, we soon began to move forward in the water, pushed by a current that I was sure Keegan was creating. Slime slid across my skin, and I could feel unknown objects bumping into me.

  My lungs had just started to ache when I felt air pushing against my face. Cautiously I opened my eyes. There was about an inch of air between my face and the water. I exhaled and took a deep breath. I looked up and saw that three funnels of air were twisting down from the surface of the water, covering our faces.

  I squeezed Keegan’s hand in appreciation. I could feel that he was concentrating as hard as he could. He was also elated. I smiled and felt the Changelings’ feelings inside of me recede even further. But still they lurked, evil, intent on destruction. It worried me that they were not dissipating.

  We wove in and out of the stilts that held the village above us. Soon we reached open water, and the current pushing us grew faster and stronger, propelling us towards the middle of the lake. The further into the lake we got, the cleaner and clearer the water was. Once we were far out into the lake, the current turned so that the village was to the left of us. Keegan was taking us north, into Severak.

  The lake was relatively warm. I learned later that it was fed both by rivers of melting snow and underground hot springs, so that it never got too cold. My fingers, then hands started to wrinkle as we rushed by water plants and fish. There were spectacular rock formations growing on the bottom of the lake, and at one point, I was sure that I saw a person sitting on one, watching us.

  ‘It is a dream,’ I reminded myself.

  All three of us still kept a hold of one another. It felt like we spent hours under the water, rushing northward far faster than we could have walked, or even ridden. After a while, I felt Keegan growing exhausted. I carefully channeled energy to him, both from myself and Donavan, who had recovered from his short bit of Traveling.

  Eventually Keegan turned us back towards the shore. The water got more and more shallow. Soon we were bumping into rocks along the bottom as we were pushed along.

  I tugged on Keegan’s hand, and the water quit pushing us forward. We drifted to a stop and rose to the surface. Keegan kept a tight hold on my hand, and I knew that he was ready to Shift us out if there were Changelings waiting.

  The sun was setting, but there was still enough light to see that the shore was deserted. We rose slowly to our feet, Donavan and I supporting Keegan who could barely stand. He was exhausted, but still managed to dry all of our clothes.

  “Keegan, can you take us to the sleeping world again?” I asked gently.

  He groaned, but nodded. The world spun around slowly. I could tell that Keegan was having difficulty, but eventually, first the orbs, then the room full of doors appeared. We found one that was empty, and the three of us collapsed into beds, not even bothering to change into the provided pajamas.

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  I woke up before the other two. I looked at Keegan, sleeping quietly on his back. There were angry red stripes on his face where I had scratched him, and I felt a pang of guilt. Even more worrisome to me was that I still felt the urge to hurt, even kill, all three of us. It was not the overwhelming feeling that I had experienced right after swapping with the Changelings, but nevertheless, it was there, lurking just under the surface.

  I stumbled into the bathroom and splashed my face with water. I glanced up from the sink and stared into the mirror. The tattoos on my eyes and arm had faded until they were barely visible. I watched as my reflection once again began to change from one image of myself to the next.

  I gasped as a new image flickered to life. My skin grew pale, and I grew taller as my fingers extended and my eyes turned cloudy. I stared at myself through the nearly blind eyes, feeling horror welling up inside of me.

  “NO!” I shouted at the mirror. The image flickered, and I was once again just me. I stood there trembling, trying to calm down, reminding myself that there had been other images there before that had not made sense.

  When I finally calmed down enough to leave the bathroom, both Keegan and Donavan were beginning to stir. I walked straight to Keegan and sat on the edge of the bed. Gently I traced the lines that I had made on his face.

  “Keegan, I am so sorry,” I said.

  “No problem,” he replied, yawning. “Ouch! I just won’t be able to move my face very much for a while.”

  He could tell that I was still upset. He grabbed my hand and touched each of my fingers.

  “It wasn’t really you,” he said. “Right?” He raised his eyebrows in mock curiosity.

  I gave him a sad smile and shook my head slowly.

  “Then it’s not your fault,” he said, shrugging.

  “It was my fault. I should have been more careful. I didn’t even think about what emotions I would be getting back from them. I should have known better.”

  “Hey, we all make mistakes. Trust me, I know,” he said, his voice low.

  Donavan cleared his throat, making Keegan and me jump.

  “We should be getting back,” he pointed out.

  “Yeah,” I agreed, standing up. As I did, I heard Keegan’s stomach growl. I laughed. “We should find some food first, though.”

  “Here,” said Keegan, getting out of bed and walking to a panel on the wall that I had not seen before. It opened into a sort of keyboard.

  “What do you want?” he asked me.

  “Spaghetti,” I replied, certain that he would tell me that it wasn’t possible. Instead, he typed for a moment. A tiny door slid open next to the keyboard. I looked inside and was amazed to see a steaming plate of spaghetti.

  “Bon appetite,” he said, grinning at my surprise. “Donavan?”

  “Will it make anything?” Donavan asked.

  Keegan nodded.

  “Well, then, I want potjiekos,” said Donavan.

  “I’ll just let you type that in,” said Keegan.

  Donavan typed in his request, and a moment later, the door opened and a bowl of steaming liquid was there.

  “What is it?” Keegan asked, as he typed in his own request. The door opened moments later revealing two large cheeseburgers.

  “It is a traditional meal my mother has made for me many times,” explained Donavan.

  We sat in silence, eating our meals. When we were done, we rose to go.

  “Everyone be ready to Shift out again if we need to,” said Keegan once we had left the room and the doors began to twirl around us once more. The orbs had barely appeared when Keegan touched one and sent us spinning into Wendellia.

  The shore was still deserted, the sun had just set. We had been gone only minutes, and it seemed that we were safe for the moment.