Roth: Protector(Shapeling Trilogy #1) (2nd edition)

Chapter 2: Forest Lesson

Relieved to be alone, Roth stepped onto his balcony. His first day with Rainey had ended and tonight the clouds lay thick and dark, mysterious. He looked forward to meeting Fawn beyond the grounds of the estate. They had not spoken alone the rest of the day, and he was anxious to learn more about her assignment. He bowed his head and spoke the prayer that would shift him into an eagle.

Moments later he soared high, his feathers making him impervious to the frigid night. Circling the heavens above the Childress mansion, his keen vision honed in on Rainey's second story bedroom window. As if on cue, she thrust aside the drapes and stood peering into the night, the lamplight in her bedroom silhouetting her voluptuous body. Roth caught a downdraft and circled lower. She looked upward, as if she knew he was there, but he was unsure whether she could see him. Her unbound hair fell in waves to her shoulders.

Ignoring the urge to swoop past her window for a closer look, he shifted direction and rode the current toward the forest. Within minutes, he soared over the tops of tall pines and magnificent oaks and spotted a perch. He dove and landed gently on the outstretched arm of an ancient oak. Folding his wings, he waited.

A wolf howled in the distance. Diving to the ground, he said the Prayer of Secrecy. When he landed, it was not with talons, but with the paws of a wolf. Without pause he streaked toward the howling of a female wolf. Raising his head toward the moon, he answered that howl. Running and dodging all manner of forest obstacles, he pushed himself harder and faster. The wind rushed through his sleek coat, exciting him. He smelled Fawn's scent.

Abruptly, he slowed to a trot. Then he stopped and waited. Within seconds, another wolf appeared beyond a fallen log in front of him. They appraised each other. Fawn, as a wolf, was beautiful, as he had known she would be. When he lowered his head to pray, she lowered hers in like manner.

"Why did you shift back into a human, Roth?"

"I need more information about your mission."

Fawn gave Roth a coy look. "We could have spoken about our missions after we–"

Roth interrupted. "I cannot mate with you. My sole focus must be on accomplishing this assignment. It's my final one before entry into the rank of Shapeling Master, and you...are very distracting."

Fawn lifted her head and laughed. The moon, briefly free of its cage of clouds, glinted off ebony tendrils of her hair. "All the more reason for me to entice you. You do remember that time in Ember Canyon beside the rapids."

"Fawn, you're making this very difficult."

"I am happy that is so."

"However, I will not change my mind."

She sighed. "Very well, I also remember your stubbornness, but it has brought you to the threshold of Mastery. What is it you want to know?"

"Why have the co-Princes sent you here?"

"My mission is to protect the Childress Enterprises Laboratory that Rainey is in charge of."

"Why is that?"

"She's on the verge of a momentous discovery. As I said this afternoon, I've been working at the lab for about three months. When I first arrived, Rainey and Steve Brenner were excited about a breakthrough in frequency testing. They've been working with frequencies for years."

"Go on."

"As you know, human history can be quite convoluted, but I'll try to explain. Have you heard of a Chladni plate?"

"No."

"I had to do some quick studies for this assignment to convince Rainey and Steve that I'm what my credentials purport—a lab assistant who's worked in multiple disciplines. Anyway, here's a short history lesson. Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni wrote a book called Discoveries in the Theory of Sound in 1787. He invented a technique to show the visual effect of frequencies on matter. By placing sand on a metal plate and drawing a violin bow over a piece of the metallic surface, he discovered the sand would shift into patterns corresponding to particular vibrations. Since then, the technique has been vastly improved and the violin bow replaced by tone generators. The sand has also been replaced by a lightweight powder called lycopodium, which is actually the spores of a genus of plants called clubmosses."

"So Rainey and Mr. Brenner are experimenting with frequencies?"

"Yes."

"Have they achieved anything significant?"

"Yes and no. Before I arrived on assignment they had been testing the frequency generator with simultaneous random frequencies, as they do periodically to make sure it's working properly, and all the frequencies are recorded in the generator's memory. The next morning, Steve's assistant, Jim, arrived at the lab and accidentally bumped the control switch, which continued generating random frequencies. What he saw astounded him, and he shouted for Rainey and Steve to come look. By the time they arrived, they only caught a glimpse of what Jim had seen."

"You've got me hooked. What did they see?"

"I hope you're ready for this. For an instant on the Chladni plate they saw the formation of a three-dimensional human person sculpted by the lycopodium. They saw Rainey."

"What!"

"Let me explain by going back to our history lesson. Dr. Hans Jenny, who was born in the early 1900s, carried on the work of Chladni. In 1967, he published the first volume of Cymatics: The Study of Wave Phenomena. His second volume was published the year he died, 1972. What Dr. Jenny discovered was that low tones produced simplistic patterns, while higher tones produced more complex ones. Dr. Jenny and a British scientist named Sir Peter Guy Manners experimented and created an instrument called the Cymatic Instrument for the purpose of projecting sounds into the body for healing. It seems that when certain frequencies are combined, they produce three-dimensional formations. However, they discovered that there had to be at least five or more frequencies to create anything three-dimensional. And the number of frequencies needed to create the likeness of body organs is astronomical."

"I think I understand where you're going. If a human body is ailing and the specific organ of ailment is identified, then there is the possibility that certain combined frequencies could restore that organ?"

"Exactly. The combined frequencies create the form. If, for example, a liver is failing, and the frequency of a healthy liver could be determined and applied to the sufferer, then the ailing liver would eventually resonate to the frequency of a healthy liver, thus changing the diseased organ into a healthy one."

"That would certainly benefit the human race. But that's a far cry from a likeness of Rainey being generated."

"I know. The sad thing is that when Jim bumped the testing switch, the memory function malfunctioned, so whatever tones were generated did not get recorded. Of course, the pressing question is: Why was a three-dimensional version of Rainey formed?"

"Yes, why?"

"After Rainey, Steve, and Jim went over and over the details of everything up until the moment the switch was turned on, they came to the conclusion that Rainey's DNA must have been on the Chladni plate. The previous day she had been working extensively with the equipment to repair a malfunction, and while doing so, she scraped her hand and it bled onto the plate. She wiped the blood up and didn't think anything about it. When the frequencies sounded, they must have been the perfect combination to replicate the likeness of a human body according to the DNA on the plate. Since that time, although they have successfully created three-dimensional shapes of several organs, they have been unsuccessful in recreating anything close to a version of a human body. They're very frustrated."

Roth chuckled. "I knew Rainey was frustrated the first time I laid eyes on her. I wanted to curse the co-Princes for sending me here. I had hoped my transitional assignment would have been as a cheetah. I have never had an assignment as a cheetah."

"I had hoped for an assignment as a dolphin."

Roth sighed. "Fawn, we could stay here all night hoping, but it won't change anything. Soon the sun will crest. We need to sleep for a few hours. When it's time to meet again, I'll signal you at the lab with the shapeling ensign." He placed three fingers over his heart.

"Okay. Are you sure you're not in the mood for some wolf play?"

"Another time, Fawn." Roth bowed his head and shifted, catching the wind in his feathers and streaking upward.