The Shape-Changer's Wife

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

Selected by
Locus
as Best First Fantasy Novel of the Year

Nominee for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

 

“The spellbinding Ms. Shinn writes with elegant imagination and a steely grace, bringing a remarkable freshness that will command a wide audience.”

—
Romantic Times

 

“A delightful world to escape into.”

—
Locus

 

“Jane Eyre fans will enjoy tracking the character and plot parallels. Shinn fans will enjoy the way the author perfectly captures the tone and color of Brontë while maintaining Jenna's unique voice. Best of all, Jenna's narrative makes us feel joy in her love, sorrow in her despair, numb in her shock.”

—
Publishers Weekly

 

“Romantic and graceful . . . Shinn's SF take on a great romantic tale succeeds wildly well.”

—
Booklist

 

 

 

“A charmer for the romantically inclined.”

—
Booklist

 

“Intensely emotional . . . An exquisitely rendered coming-of-age tale.”

—
Romantic Times

 

 

“A telling story of a racially divided society, and a pretty good love story, too . . . another top-notch outing.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

 

“Smoothly written. Shinn has a talent for creating vivid, sympathetic characters. Nuanced and intelligent. A thoroughly entertaining reading experience.”

—
SF Site

 

“The love story of this book is balanced by deft examination of prejudice, intolerance, and inequality. This book is difficult to put down and will appeal to fantasy readers as well as fans of an intriguing love story.”

 

 

 

 

 

“Taut, realistic police work, an involving love story, and a fetching backdrop ... well up to Shinn's previous high standards.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

 

“Shinn deftly combines mystery, high-tech SF, and romance with a layering of fantasy in a fresh and innovative tale full of surprising turns of plot.”

—
Library Journal

 

“Offers a convincing view of human impulses toward both worldly and unworldly passions with a touch of the otherworldly to bring it into the realm of science fiction.”

—
Locus

 

“It doesn't get much better than
Wrapt in Crystal
—interesting characters, an intriguing mystery, a believable love story and a satisfying ending.”

—
Starlog

THE SAMARIA TRILOGY
. . .

 

“Shinn is a good storyteller . . .
Archangel
takes advantage of the familiar—goodness, the Bible,
Paradise Lost
—through building its own lively quest narrative with these sure-fire building blocks so that one feels at home in the narrative very quickly; it also has a clean, often wryly funny prose.”

—
The New York Review of Science Fiction

 

“Taut, inventive, often mesmerizing, with a splendid pair of predestined lovers.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

 

“Excellent world-building, charming characterizations. A garden of earthly delights.”

—
Locus

 

“Shinn displays a real flair for [music and romance], giving music a compelling power and complexity, while the developing attraction between Archangel Alleluia and a gifted but eccentric mortal should charm the most dedicated anti-sentimentalist and curmudgeon ... [A] book of true grace, wit, and insight into humanity, past and future.”

—
Locus

 

“Some may raise eyebrows at Sharon Shinn's less-than-saintly angels, but they make for far more interesting characters than the winged paragons of legend. Many will no doubt find her end results quite heavenly.”

—
Starlog

 

 

“A warm and triumphant close to Shinn's Samaria trilogy.”

—
Publishers Weekly

 

“A tale that makes for exciting, suspenseful, romantic, frightening, and even amusing reading.”

—
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ARCHANGEL

 

JOVAH'S ANGEL

THE ALLELUIA FILES

 

ANGELICA

 

WRAPT IN CRYSTAL
THE SHAPE-CHANGER'S WIFE

HEART OF GOLD
SUMMERS AT CASTLE AUBURN

JENNA STARBORN

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

THE SHAPE-CHANGER'S WIFE

 

An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author

 

Ace mass-market edition / October 1995

Ace trade paperback edition / August 2003

Copyright © 1995 by Sharon Shinn.

 

All rights reserved.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

 

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shinn, Sharon,

The shape-changer's wife / Sharon Shinn.

p. cm.

ISBN : 978-1-101-54969-8

1. Triangles (Interpersonal relations)—Fiction. 2. Teacher-student relationships—

Fiction. 3. Teachers' spouses—Fiction. 4. Wizards—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3569.H499S55 2003

813'.34—dc21 2003045361

 

ACE
^®

Ace Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

New York, New York 10014.

ACE and the “A” design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

 

UNTIL AUBREY ARRIVED in the village to study with Glyrenden, he had no idea that the great wizard had taken a wife. At the time, drinking an ale in the warm, lightless tavern which was situated at the very center of town (in fact, the heart of the small community), he did not think it mattered one way or the other. Nonetheless, he was surprised. From what old Cyril had told him, Glyrenden did not seem like the kind of man disposed toward the softer passions. But then, it was obvious Cyril did not like the court magician, and perhaps his unflattering words could be traced to professional jealousy.

It had not been Aubrey's idea to apprentice with the shape-changer. He had been certain Cyril could teach him what he wanted to know, for Cyril was renowned in this land and three lands farther west as the greatest wizard in seven generations. But Cyril, who had willingly and with patient generosity shared with him the spells and knowledge it had taken him eighty years to accumulate, flatly refused to instruct him in the matters of transmogrification.

“But why not?” Aubrey had asked him, a dozen times, a hundred times. “You know the spells. You have cast them.”

“They are barbaric spells,” Cyril had said, and would say no more. But Cyril's conscience had troubled him. Alchemy of every sort was essential to the education of any well-rounded wizard, and Aubrey was, even this young, showing signs of being among the most gifted wizards of this century. So he wrote to Glyrenden and proposed Aubrey as a student; and Glyrenden wrote back to accept the charge. Cyril had sent Aubrey on his way with the briefest words of advice.

“Learn everything he teaches you so well you can cast his own spells back at him,” the old wizard had said. “Glyrenden respects only those stronger than he is, and those he hates. If you cannot beat him, he will destroy you. Already you are a better magician than he in many of the branches, but if he sees he can best you in this one branch, he will use his skill against you. So you must learn everything, and forget nothing, and beware of Glyrenden at all times.”

“You alarm me,” Aubrey said mildly, smiling. He was a fair-haired, open-faced, sunny-tempered young man who had a fearsome passion for knowledge and an absolute faith in his own abilities. He had never yet come across something he could not do; but this easy ability did not make him arrogant or malicious. Rather, it turned him benevolent and charming, happy with himself and his world. “Why do you send me to him, if he is so menacing?”

“It would not do you much harm to face a challenge at this point in your career,” Cyril muttered.

Aubrey laughed. “And why has he agreed to tutor me if he is such an ogre? He does not sound like the type to gladly accept troublesome pupils.”

Cyril gave him a quick sideways look from his narrow blue eyes, the glancing look like sunlight glittering across water, a look that gave away more than the spoken answer if Aubrey could only read it. “Because he cannot conceive that you will prove to be better than he, and he wants a chance to prove it.”

Aubrey gave it up. “I had best be on my guard during my whole stay at his house, then,” he said.

“Yes,” said Cyril. “I think you had better.”

So Aubrey had packed up his thin saddlebags and tossed his threadbare green cloak over his shoulders, and walked the three hundred miles to the wizard's house when he could not beg the odd ride from the peddlers and merchants that traveled the North King's Road. He had arrived late one evening and elected to sleep overnight at the town's single hostel before presenting himself at Glyrenden's door. And in the morning, there was the fair to see, and the pretty girls to flirt with, and flowers to buy for some of them in the market; so it was afternoon before he was ready to start on the final mile of his journey.