Just before I lost consciousness, I heard a loud meow, right by my pointed ear. I jerked awake to see the piercing blue eyes of Eleanor's cat staring disapprovingly at me.

"Meow!" she said. What are you doing lying here? This is no place for a nap! I heard. Her mouth closed gently around my fur and next thing I knew, she was carrying my exhausted body by the scruff of the neck, through the streets back to Eleanor's house. The white cat deposited me unceremoniously on the doorstep, scratching the door and meowing a Look what I found! meow.

The door opened. Eleanor's eyebrows shot up in shock.

"Daisy!" she gasped. Quick as a flash she scooped me up, hurried inside and laid me on her bed. The softness of the sheets and the smell of herbal tea boiling on the stove reminded me of home and I felt the wave ripple through me as my body grew and reshaped itself into my human form. Eleanor sighed with relief and covered me with the patchwork quilt. Every part of me ached and I was so dog tired I could barely lift my head. The seamstress held a cup of the herbal tea to my lips and I sipped it down.

"Sleep now," she smiled and stroked my head. "You need to rest."

I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

*****

I slept for I don't know long. When I finally surfaced to consciousness, I half-opened my eyes and looked groggily around the room. Where am I? I thought.

By the side of my bed a woman with bright blue skin was smiling and offering me a sandwich. I started, fully awake now, and stared at her, mouth agape in confusion, clasping the quilt to my chest.

"It's me — Eleanor," she smiled and I recognised the twinkle in her eyes. "I've coloured my skin with the cloth dye, I use for dyeing fabrics. Eat this, Daisy, you'll need your strength."

I let out the breath I'd been holding in, grabbed the sandwich and devoured it hungrily.

"Daisy we have to leave soon, it's not safe here anymore." she poured me a glass of pear juice. "I heard worrying news from the palace, last night. My friend's a maid there. She says when the council sits later this morning, Morwain plans to pass a law ordering that anyone who was known to be a witch's friend or associate must be arrested immediately and brought to trial for treason. She also told me that the guards are looking for an escaped slave. I think we'd better dye your skin too. I've packed a bag with some provisions. We can ride out of the city down to the orchards at the bottom of the hill. As soon as it's dark you can change into a bird and fly back to Frailing. I've made a little velvet drawstring bag for the Plaguesbane which I can tie around your leg. I can stay with friends of mine who live in the orchards.

"If we get stopped at the city gates, we'll say we're jewel traders from Erith on our way home. I've made some white robes that look like the kind the Eritheans wear and I've got material we can make turbans from.

"Come on, let's get you dyed. We don't have much time. As soon as the council's sat they'll come looking for us."

A few minutes later I stood looking in the full-length mirror. A blue-skinned girl I barely recognised looked back, her lips curled and eyes crinkled in amusement. I was wearing voluminous white robes, clasped at my shoulder with an amethyst brooch, my head was wrapped in a white turban and my fingernails were lacquered indigo. I slung the haversack of provisions over my shoulders and we went out, locking the orange door behind us. Eleanor spoke to her cat as you would to a person.

"I'll be staying at Melissa's in the orchard. You'll have to make your own way down the hill. Come when you're ready. I'll be waiting for you." The cat meowed in agreement and purred affectionately as Eleanor rubbed her head. Eleanor's sorrel mare was waiting outside for us. She saddled it up and mounted, then pulled me up to sit behind her and we rode off towards the city gates. I tried to look relaxed, hoping our disguise was good enough not to arouse suspicion. Passers-by eyed us with interest but no surprise. Traders from Erith were common enough in Jamain, Eleanor had told me. They brought the silks and gem stones from their country over the sea, which the Quaini people loved to buy.

As we neared the city gates, butterflies started to flutter in my stomach. There were half a dozen red and gold uniformed guards on duty, stopping people from going out or coming in and interrogating them.

"Don't say anything, Daisy. Let me do the talking," Eleanor whispered over her shoulder. I agreed willingly, feeling the sweat trickling down my back.

"Who are you and where are you going?" the guard asked brusquely.

"Emerald traders from Erith," Eleanor said in an accent I'd never heard before, but which I took to be Erithean. "We've sold all our wares and we're on our way to the harbour to catch a boat home."

The guard seemed to accept this. He sniffed and thrust two pieces of paper at Eleanor.

"Have you seen either of these two people?" She held them at arm's length between indigo-nailed fingers and thumbs so I could see them. I stifled a cry. They were simple pencil drawings, hastily done but one was clearly Eleanor and the other was me. Morwain must have circulated them before the council meeting to make sure we didn't escape. My heart was thudding so loudly I was astonished the guard couldn't hear it.

"No," Eleanor shook her head. "Who are they?"

At that moment my heart stopped. A bead of blue sweat was trickling down the back of Eleanor's neck, leaving a trail of pink skin in its wake. I watched, teeth clenched in horror as it soaked into the neckline of her robes, the blue stain spreading over the white material.

"The older one's wanted for treason by association with witches and the other's an escaped slave." The guard waved us through.

As Eleanor handed back the drawings I noticed that her clammy dyed fingers had left a blue mark on the paper. My stomach lurched. I fixed my eyes in front and tried to slow my breathing. Eleanor nudged the horse with her feet and we rode through the gates. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the guard studying the mark, his eyebrows creased in confusion. He raised his head to watch us go and turned to the guard next to him.

As soon as we were out of their sight Eleanor shook the reins and broke into a gallop. I clasped Eleanor's waist tightly and with pressed my cheek against her back we galloped down the hill.

We galloped along the wide street past farmers bringing cartloads of fruit into the Jamain to sell, past wagons full of slaves being ferried out of the city to harvest fruit in the orchards. At the first opportunity we turned off from the main thoroughfare and took a quieter road through the forest. Eleanor slowed the horse to a walk and turned her head. "I think we got away with it. We're not being followed." Relief flooded me. I gulped down the sweet pine-scented air and let the muscles in my shoulders relax. The sun was high in the sky now. "Let's rest for a bit and have some lunch." Eleanor swung off the saddle and lifted me down beside her. We led the horse off the road into the forest. I could hear the tinkling of a stream up ahead. We knelt by its bank slurping the earthy water from our cupped hands. Eleanor took the pack from me, opened it up and pulled out a package wrapped in waxed. paper: a hastily packed lunch of boiled eggs and carrot cake. I wolfed it down, starving after the day's adventure while Eleanor told me stories of her childhood.

"Karin and I would spend hours exploring this forest, hoping for a sighting of the unicorns that were rumoured to live here. I would ride my horse and Karin would take the form of a deer."

"Did you ever see them?"

"Only once, at dawn on midsummer's eve one year. We came out into a clearing and saw a unicorn mare and her foal drinking from the stream. Pure white, they were, so pure they glowed. The whole forest was still around them, as if in awe. We were wonderstruck, we could have watched them for hours. But when they'd finished drinking, the mare tossed her head, her silver horn catching the morning sunlight and trotted off deeper into the forest with her foal behind her. It was the most magical thing I've ever seen." She sighed and stared into the distance, her eyes unfocused, a faraway smile softening her features.

"Wow!" was all I could say. I'd had a close encounter with a unicorn last year and I knew how entrancing they were. Last year a unicorn had helped save Frailing from usurpers. Disguised as a normal white horse, no silver spiral horn, no wings, but still far swifter and stronger than any other horse, he had allowed Kriston to ride him into battle and they had triumphed.

The dye had run in streaks down our faces. Eleanor took a crystal bottle of the bright blue dye from the haversack and reapplied it to our skin with a handkerchief. She rearranged our robes to hide the blue-stained necklines and the blue splodge my face had left on the back of Eleanor's robe and pinned them in place.

"Time to get back on the road." She packed up the haversack and handed it to me.

We remounted and rode till the sky began to darken. Our plan was to stop at nightfall and go off into the forest so I could shift and Eleanor could tie the Plaguesbane to my leg in its little bag.

A few hours after we'd set off, I heard something that made my spine tingle. Since I'd been able to shift, my senses had grown sharper and now I could hear sounds that would be out of earshot to any normal human being.

"Eleanor!" I exclaimed, my voice sharp with urgency. "I can hear horses on the road behind us. They're coming towards us at a gallop. I can hear barking too, they have dogs with them. Maybe we should hide in the forest till they pass."

"No, they're tracker dogs. The guards will have taken them to my house, they'll have my scent. We'd better keep going till the sun goes down and you can shift again," she nudged the horse with her feet and leant forward as we sped up to a gallop again. I held on tight.

"What about you?" I shouted above the thump of hooves. "I can fly away but what will you do?"

Eleanor didn't answer. I could hear the riders behind us, drawing closer. They'd be upon us in a matter of minutes. Anxiously I looked at the sky, the sun was nearly set but not completely yet. How would we manage this now? I had to find a bird before I could shift; Eleanor had to tie the bag to my leg. Time was running out.

"Goddess help us!" I mouthed desperately. Just as the last of the sun's rays dipped behind the western skyline, Eleanor reached into her robes, pulled out a white feather and handed it to me over her shoulder. I took it from her, not understanding. Then the realisation dawned. Gerda had told me that Karin could shift into a bird just by holding a feather. Eleanor expected I could do the same. Oh Goddess! I wasn't that advanced.

I heard a roar behind me, hooves thundered, dogs barked. I twisted my head around. The guards were in sight now, bearing down on us, their red and gold uniforms contrasting starkly with the green of the forest, their swords drawn. I had no choice. I had to try. Closing my eyes, I tried to calm my breathing and still my terrified mind. Goddess help me!

Amazingly, I felt the wave come over me almost immediately. The turban dropped from my head, the robes fell empty around me as my body shrank, white feathers sprouting all over it, my arms losing their flesh and transforming into wings. Before I knew it I was a white dove, flapping my new wings and trying to hold onto the saddle with my clawed feet.

Eleanor reached into her robes again and extracted the little velvet bag. I flew up onto her shoulder and with my wings extended I tried to balance while she let go of the reins, gripping the galloping horse with her legs alone, and fumbled with the string until her deft fingers had tied it round my skinny leg in a double knot.

"Stop!" the guards shouted as they overtook us. "We're arresting you for treason!" I didn't want to leave her but what could I do to help?

"Fly!" she screamed, pushing me off her shoulder with one hand while she grabbed the reins with the other. I took to the air. The guards had ridden in front of Eleanor's horse now, blocking her way. I hovered a few feet above, looking down in horror as they dragged her from the saddle, forced her to her knees and tied her hands behind her back. She lifted her head. The turban had fallen and her blonde hair tumbled around her shoulders.

"Fly, Daisy!" she yelled, her face contorted in pain and desperation. "Goddess protect you." I flapped my wings and flew higher, just as an arrow whistled past my head. I looked down and saw more of the guards string their bows and point them at me. I was so scared for Eleanor but I there was nothing I could do now. I had a kingdom to save. But I knew that somehow I'd have to find a way to help her. I made her a promise there and then,

In the name of the Goddess, Eleanor, I will come back and rescue you.

With that I beat my wings as hard as I could and took off in the direction of Frailing.

😊

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