I looked amazing, of course. My beard was long and luxuriant, my hair settling on my shoulders like the great mane of some fierce and wild creature. I made myself a foot taller and my chest a little bigger, and grinned at myself in the mirror at the sight of the new and improved Sam of Dragons.
The others weren’t very pleased with me.
I’d told them that my magic reacted to how they were on the inside.
Which was total bullshit, but still. The horrified looks on Justin’s and Lady Tina’s faces had been so worth it.
We were all as dressed down as possible, given that we’d be ditching the clothes after coming out of the sewers. The smell would most likely cling to the fabrics and would be a dead giveaway. Each of us carried a pack with our disguises and assorted weapons. Ryan, Tina, and Justin all had their swords at their sides, the brutish amateurs.
But we were virtually unrecognizable.
All thanks to me.
Which is why I felt that I was well within my rights to not want to wallow in poop.
“We could just stroll through the front gate,” I muttered. “It’d be easier, and I wouldn’t have to potentially throw up a lot.”
“I told you,” Justin said. “Entering the City of Lockes now requires identification papers that we don’t have. We don’t even know what they look like since they change biweekly, so we couldn’t have you forge any. This way, we get into the City undetected.”
“And what if we’re stopped inside?” I asked.
“I suppose we’ll see if any of the time in the woods made you capable of running faster.”
“Hey! I can run fast. Like, so fast. Do you know how many times I’ve had to run for my life?”
“This isn’t going to go well,” Lady Tina muttered.
“Then you can stay behind,” I snapped at her.
“Sam,” Ryan warned.
I groaned. “Sorry. I’m still not used to standing near her without making plans to punch her in the tit. It’s hard to shift my worldview in such a short amount of time.”
“Try harder,” Justin said, peering down into the sewer grate. “Because it’s getting closer to dawn. We need to be holed up in the slums by the time the sun rises so we can rest for entering the castle later tonight. Nut up, Haversford, and get your ass into the godsdamn sewer before I stab you in the throat.”
“Am I allowed to be turned-on by that?” I whispered to Ryan.
“No,” he whispered back.
“Crap. Okay.”
“If you two are done whispering sweet nothings to each other, could we please get this grate off now?” Justin asked.
Oh. Right. That was me. “Stand back,” I told them. “My magic is a powerful thing, and I wouldn’t want two-thirds of you caught in the backlash.”
Lady Tina rolled her eyes as she backed away.
I looked up through the trees to see the outline of the City of Lockes in the dark, torches flickering along the wall surrounding the City. In the distance, I could see the flags atop Castle Lockes waving in the cool breeze. This was as close as I’d been to my city since the night I’d headed into the forest to face the Great White. I was surprised at the lump in my throat at the sight of it, that I could miss a place almost as much as I’d missed the people.
But there wasn’t time for that now.
We had a king to save.
I pushed out the barest amounts of green and gold, and the grate crumbled into dust that sloughed to the ground.
“Gods,” Justin said quietly. “That’s… could you have done that before?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. It’s… easier to manage now. I could probably always do these things, but it could have easily grown beyond my control. People could have gotten hurt who didn’t deserve it.”