The Unwilling Apprentice (Book 2) by Heidi Willard Page A

doubling the guards inside and outside the castle."
    Pat threw up her arms. "Then do you have a better plan?"
    Ned jumped up onto his feet and pointed his staff toward the gargoyle. "Actually, yes. Just hold still, Ruth, this won't hurt a bit."
    Before any of them could argue, particularly Ruth, a beam of light shot from his staff and struck her on the head. It exploded into a million dazzling glitters of light that rained down over her entire body. Each small piece of glitter touched her skin and changed the color from dark to pale. Her pointed ears lowered and morphed into human ears, and her tail and wings completely dissolved. The feet flattened and split into ten toes, and her clawed hands developed long, slender fingers. The only gargoyle aspect of her that remained the same were her red eyes, though the color dulled. Ruth looked down at herself and screamed. Fred, Pat, and Ned jumped forward and clapped their hands over her mouth. Pat glared at Ned. "What the hell have you done to her?" she hissed at him.
    He sheepishly grinned. "Not quite the thanks I was expecting, but you will be able to take her through the castle without any problems."
    "And how is she supposed to turn back?" Pat asked him.
    Ned scrunched up his face, dug into his cloak with his free hand, and pulled out a small, golden necklace with a round piece of glass in the center. Inside the glass lay the colorful sparkles like those that had changed Ruth. "This should do the trick. A rub on the glass and she transforms right back. At least, I think it will."
    "You think it will?" Pat repeated.
    Ned shrugged. "It's been a number of years since it's been tried, and the results were, well, not satisfactory." Ruth's eyes widened in horror, and Pat growled.
    "What the hell does that mean?" Pat questioned him.
    "Well, let us just say that the gentleman in question later gave birth to five healthy children."
    Ruth squealed, and Fred noticed her face turn a terrible shade of blue. "Guys, I think we're suffocating her."
    Ned and Pat turned their heads and noticed the gargoyle was too terrified to do anything but listen to their conversation. They pulled their hands from her mouth and, by habit, she took a deep, gasping breath. She turned her pleading eyes on Ned. "I'm not trapped in this human form forever, am I?"
    Ned pursed his lips together and slid the trinket over her neck. "There is only one way to be sure."
    Ruth took the necklace in her shaking hands and pressed her fingers against the glass. She lightly rubbed the surface, and a bright light shot out of the center. It engulfed her in a rainbow of colors for a few seconds, and sucked back into the glass just as quickly to reveal Ruth back in her true form. She looked down at herself and her face lit up with a bright smile. "It worked!" she exclaimed.
    Pat looked over to Ned and narrowed her eyes. "It better have or Ned would have had some explaining to do to Sampson," she grumbled.
    Ned coughed and straightened. "Yes, well, a happy ending is a happy ending. Rub the glass to revert to your human form, and no one will be the wiser." Ruth rubbed the glass again, and the transformation worked as before only quicker and with less flare. She laughed and switched between her two forms in a swirling mix of colors and an amalgamation of gargoyle and human. Ned jumped forward and put his hand over the trinket. He stopped on her human form. "Best not switch too quickly. You may become permanently stuck between both forms."
    Ruth paled and dropped the trinket onto her chest as though she'd been burned. Pat slipped behind Ruth and pushed her toward the door. "Let's leave before he has other bright ideas."

CHAPTER 9
     
    The girls escaped Ned, but Fred wasn't so lucky. After all the excitement he wanted food, but he only had a chance to turn toward the door when a heavy hand fell on his shoulder. "A moment, Fred," Ned requested of him.
    Fred cringed and looked over his shoulder. The old man's firm, unamused tone told him