The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes

under the trees and stars. What if they don't know why we leave the bear for the forest spirits? What if they only see a broken bear and thought we wanted to break them, too?"
    The elder with the Staff of Words growled. "You are young, and know not your words," she said. "While you ask questions, the small ones sharpen their spears to..."
    She broke off as the Staff of Words quivered in her hands.
    A moment later, she stumbled back with a cry as it jerked itself from her grasp. It landed in the soft earth, and as the Besnisti gasped, roots shot from the base of the staff and dug into the ground. The stone spikes on the staffs striking head sprang off with little popping sounds as branches stretched out, already dotted with new green leaves.
    Ululenia landed in the clearing and took her true form. Her horn blazed in every color of nature's glory as she stood in front of the new sapling and looked out upon the Besnisti.
    As one, they dropped to their knees before her.
    Whickering softly, Ululenia pawed the soft earth, and into their minds said, I ask that you heed the wisdom that comes from youth. Then she turned to the young male who had asked the right question. This is what you must do...

    "A unicorn."
    "That's the common word for her, yes."
    Loch and Kail stood with the villagers at the perimeter of Woodsedge, watching the forest.
    "She was a bird."
    "Shapeshifter."
    Merigan, the young man who had asked for a chance to deal with the ogres himself, stood at the front of the group. He had told everyone that morning that he'd had a dream, and the ogres would come today. Loch saw that the young man was unarmored—a village woodcutter would never have been able to afford any protection worth wearing—but carried an old infantry blade that must have belonged to his father.
    "And, what, she usually just wants to look like a horse with a big point on its head?"
    "Evidently, Kail."
    "I'm not sure I'd want a team member who thought that walking around as a horse was the best plan."
    "She's a magical creature. That might be her natural..." Loch started, then paused at cries from the crowd. She followed the pointing fingers and saw the ogres at the edge of the forest, a hundred yards distant. "Here we go."
    Kail cracked his knuckles. "Sure about this, Captain? You know they're scared of fire. We could—"
    "She's got this."
    "She being the magical creature that wants to look like a pointy-headed horse."
    "The same, yes." Loch pointed at Merigan with her chin. "He had a dream last night. This is going to be okay."
    She ignored Kail's muttered response as one of the ogres stepped out from the trees and came toward the village. He was nine feet tall, garbed in heavy furs, and he held a great staff set with bone teeth at either end. His skin was dark and leathery, and a pair of horns curled out from his head.
    "Only one set of horns, and they don't even form a complete circle." Kail cocked his head. "He's practically a kid."
    Loch nodded. "Just like Merigan." The young man was walking forward as well, his sword held before him.
    The ogre gestured at Merigan with his great staff and roared a challenge in his own tongue.
    Merigan raised his sword. "For Woodsedge, I challenge you!"
    The two figures met midway between the trees and the village. The ogre lifted its great war staff with a roar, and Merigan lunged in and swung his sword. The blow struck the ogre on the chest, glancing off his thick furs.
    And with a barely perceptible pause, the ogre fell down, dropped his staff, and raised his hands in surrender.
    "You are kidding me," Kail said under the villagers' cheers. "There wasn't even any blood."
    "Spirit of the thing, Kail." Loch smiled as Merigan raised his sword, then looked sharply off into the forest.
    "I'm just saying, as someone who occasionally rigs fights, I'm offended by the lack of professionalism."
    Instead of bringing his blade down for the killing blow, Merigan stepped back, still looking into the forest. Then he turned