Prologue

For the first time in his life, Treily was scared. He was trapped, surrounded by the merciless Kings' Changers. And worse yet, he had a link to one of the changers. With that link, they could do anything with him.

One of the changers, the one Treily was linked too, morphed back into a human and sneered at Treily. The changer's cruel brown eyes gleamed, and his yellow, crooked teeth were bared.

"Ha-ha-hee-snorf-ha-hee!" the changer laughed. "The migh'y Treily, cow'in' like a scared kitt'n! Ha-ha!"

Treily tried to appear brave and fearless, but failed miserably. His ankle hurt — he must have sprained it when he fell from the wall — and the human-animal changers were in such terrible forms that Treily couldn't imagine how the king put up with them.

The changer noticed his expression. "Ha-ha, yes, Treily's scared! Are ya scared, Treily? You'd bet'er be!"

And with that, the changer morphed into his leion form. A leion, as Treily well knew, was a lion-seal hybrid with back flippers, huge canine teeth, and golden front legs with inch-long claws. Definitely not a thing to mess with.

The young hero backed against the wall, and the changer laughed again. He struggled to remember the leion's name. Rheeg? No, that was the goat changer? Gowt? Yes, that was it. Gowt.

"I-I'm not scared!" Treily cried. "How about you back off, Gowt? Huh? Before my friends come!"

Not the best comeback, but hopefully Gowt wouldn't know that Treily's friends were dead. Unfortunately, it looked like the leion knew.

"The cow'rd hides be'ind non'sistint friendesy-friends! Ha-ha, ooh!"

Treily gritted his teeth. He couldn't stand; he couldn't change, Gowt had taken care of that right away; and he couldn't call for help. He was doomed.

Gowt seemed to sense that, and leapt forward, and his long claws sunk into Treily's chest. He shouted, and tried to push against Gowt. No such luck. The leion's jaws began to close around his throat, and Treily knew this was the end.