Trickster s Girl - By Hilari Bell Page 0,25

stopped talking.

As Kelsa packed his clothes hastily in the bike's saddlebags, she heard the rush of flapping wings and looked up in time to see him flapping off to the north. This was too weird!

She was glad to be alone on the bike as she got back onto the highway and weaved through the low hills that took her up to the border station. There was too much wind to talk while the bike was moving, so he hadn't bothered her much, but it wasn't the same as being alone.

On the other hand, it would have been nice to have a chance to ask some questions.

She'd been through this station once or twice, and through the stations between Utah and Colorado and between Utah and Arizona or Nevada more times than she could count.

She waited patiently in the vehicle line while the levcars ahead of her paid the crossing tax and drove slowly through the scanners. The only thing she carried that was at all suspicious was a single set of boy's clothes, which weren't all that different from hers and wouldn't show up on a scanner anyway.

The line for trucks, which were not only scanned but visually inspected, was a lot longer. The shortest line was for walkovers - people who crossed without a vehicle to avoid the tax.

When her turn finally came, Kelsa handed the guard her PID and waited while he scanned it, making a record of the fact that Kelsa Phillips crossed into Idaho at that date and time - i f anyone cared. At least the charge for taking a bike across was minimal. He also checked her probationary license to be certain she was old enough to drive legally. Soon after that she was on her way through the green agricultural valley between two mountain ridges, which ultimately emptied into the drier upland plains of southern Idaho.

She'd gone only a few miles when a huge black bird swooped across the road in front of her.

Kelsa turned off at the next side road, and kept going till a low hill concealed her from the highway's teeming traffic.

There were no trees nearby.

Raven flapped down and perched on the bike's handlebars. His beady black gaze was too intelligent for a bird. He was almost two feet long from tail tip to beak, and his talons looked sharp and formidable.

"This is too weird," Kelsa told him.

He let out a squawk, which could have meant anything, and hopped down to the ground.

Kelsa unpacked his clothes, peeking surreptitiously as the black form began to grow in ungainly bulges and spurts. The feathers flattened, melting into oily-looking skin that slowly faded from black to warm tan. The strong beak receded into a lipless gaping mouth before the lips ballooned and a human nose sprouted above them.

By the time the transformation was complete goose flesh had broken out all over Kelsa's body. "I've got to stop watching that. Doesn't it hurt?"

"Not much. It's not pleasant though, and it takes a lot of energy." He picked up his clothing and began to put it on.

Distracted from trying not to notice his body, Kelsa saw that the golden skin was paler than usual, and there was a hint of strain around his eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'll try to avoid making you do that in the future. But unless you can get a PID, which you can't - "

"Don't worry about it." The charming smile flashed. "You do your part. I'll take care of everything else."

"Sure you will. How does this magic of yours work, anyway?"

"It's different from yours," Raven told her. "Do you have anything to eat in that pack?"

"I don't have any magic at all. Different how?"

"I'm not sure I could explain it," Raven said. "It's like ... like a cat trying to tell you how to purr. You don't have the ability to do it, so - "

"That doesn't mean I couldn't understand what it ... Wait a minute. Have you been a cat?"

"I can be," he said. "But one thing I can tell you about magic is that it uses energy. So I really hope you packed something to eat, because I'm starving!"

***

They ate breakfast there, breaking into Kelsa's packed supply of apples, crackers, and peanut butter, then returned to the main road. They reached Pocatello too early for lunch, but stopped and ate anyway, and on Raven's advice picked up some sandwiches and energy bars for dinner.

Kelsa saw his point when they turned off the highway onto the state