“Maybe.” Smoothie’s mouth was turned down, and her dark brown eyes were hooded with sadness. “But I’d have to show myself to them … in this twisted, awful shape … ”
“It’s only temporary,” said Anya. “I’ll change you back.”
“Who you are is inside,” said Ardent. He’d been licking his paws clean of river mud, but he stopped to look directly at Smoothie. “No sorcerer c-c-an change that, no matter what they transform the outside into. You are still a Yarrow River otter, and always will be.”
Smoothie’s mouth unfroze and she opened her eyes more.
“I’ll go now,” she said, turning towards the river.
“No, wait a moment!” said Anya. “We have to work out where to meet. I’m still not sure about this inn. The witches had heard about the Duke’s reward for me. Two hundred gold nobles is a lot—”
“Oh,” said Shrub. “I forgot about that. You’d better not go to the inn.”
“Because someone will turn me in to the Duke?”
“They all would,” said Shrub. “Seeing as you’re only a friend of a thief, not a thief yourself. Two hundred gold nobles! I’d do it myself—”
Don’t you be thinking about getting a reward for the princess,” growled Ardent fiercely. He stood stiff-legged, pushing his snout into Shrub’s face.
“Hey, leave off,” said Shrub. “I’m a good thief, remember. And I promised Ma. And Anya is going to turn me back. Very hard to pick a lock when you’re a newt, let me tell you. I can’t wait to have fingers again. I was only going to say I’d do it myself if things were different.”
“All right, all right,” said Anya. “Let me think. Tell me about the meetinghouse, Shrub. Did you see anything that could be a storeroom for alchemical ingredients?”
“I didn’t see much of anything inside,” said Shrub with his curious shrug. “But it’s what used to be the old king’s castle. Half of it’s fallen down, and the League has only fixed up bits of it, in the middle.”
“That could be good,” said Anya. “We might even be able to hide in the meetinghouse itself, and scout around.”
“I suppose. It was just bad luck that when I fell down the chimney it was in one of the fixed-up parts, and they heard me. Course I got away from the first lot, but then when I got to the Garden, the Grey Mist was there—”
“The Garden?” interrupted Anya. “That’s their prison?”
“Nah, that’s just what people think,” said Shrub. “Weren’t no prisoners there. It’s just the Grey Mist’s private garden, I reckon. ’Spose she likes plants a bit. It’s higher up from where they store stuff, though.”
“So we can stay well away from it,” said Anya. “I want to get in, get the ingredients, and get out as quickly as possible. Remember that, Shrub. No going off looking for the Only Stone.”
“I won’t go off,” said Shrub. “I promised!”
“Riiiight,” said Anya. She looked at the newt dubiously before she continued. “The river goes into the sewers, so we can too. But we’ll need a boat, as well as an otter guide.”
“I could probably get a boat at the inn,” said Shrub. “I mean, by myself. Take a gold noble in my mouth, rent one. They know me there.”
“Do they know you in the shape of a newt?” asked Smoothie.
“Course!” snorted Shrub. “That’s where I went when I first got turned into a newt. It’s not just me, you know. The way those sorcerers are in New Yarrow, you look at them wrong and you get transformed. There was a cutpurse got turned into a toad—he lives in the herb garden at the Moon now. And a baker who asked to be paid, he got turned into a rat and a big black cat et him! Mind you, it ain’t all bad, I suppose. A bloke I knew a bit, he got transformed a few weeks before me, caught trying to steal some sorcerer’s horse. Horses were his speciality, you know. Kenry got turned into a kind of little monkey. He was an apprentice like me … only a real one. I mean, he was already indentured to a master thief, that Sally Purseghoster, one of the best. Though I ’spose Bert has promised me now, so I’m kind of—”
“This apprentice,” interrupted Anya. “The one who got turned into a monkey. He’s at the inn?”
“Might be, I dunno,” said Shrub. “Lots of thieves rest up there between jobs. Why?”
“He might be able to help us. I mean, in return for getting changed back.”
“Kenry?” asked Shrub. “Like I said, it ain’t always bad to get transformed. He won’t want to get changed back. Being a little monkey is a dream come true for a thief. You can climb, get through really small windows, swing from yer tail, climb a leg and cut a purse and jump away. Fifty … no, a hundred times better than being a newt. Why, I—”
“It is a terrible thing to be changed from your own shape,” interrupted Smoothie. She sounded so sad even Shrub shut up.
“True. So this Kenry might want to change back by now,” said Anya. She thought for a moment, and shook her head. “No, I suppose if he really likes being a monkey, it’s too much of a risk, because of the reward.”
“He can’t talk anyhow,” said Shrub. “He understands, though.”
“Never mind,” said Anya. “It was just a thought.”
“What do I do with a boat if I can get one?” asked Shrub. He lifted his paws. “Can’t sail with these.”
“Come back and report,” said Anya. “Then I guess we’ll have to sneak along tonight and row it away. I can row—I learned going around the moat. Oh, see if you can get some food and water put aboard as well.”
“Roast beef,” Ardent requested. “Or sausages.”
“Shall I go now too?” asked Smoothie. “If I can find someone to guide us, I’ll come back here.”
“Yes,” said Anya decisively. “But come back by nightfall anyway.”
“Have you seen Theodric Theodricsson, the thistle-sifter’s son?” asked Shrub.
“What?”
“That’s the pass phrase,” said Shrub. “Then if everything’s all right, the inn-keeper replies, ‘Nay, there’s no thistle-sifting here, no, never there was.’ ”
“What if he doesn’t say that?” asked Ardent. “Or if you get the first part wrong?”