Mind Harness, Enchant Creature
Illus. John Malloy

The Great and Terrible Darkness is not so clever; it has made at least one mistake, when it told the shadow to do a foolish thing, fight the woman of light and fire. Stupid, stupid Darkness. It must suffer. Monsters of the edges and small spaces should be left alone. It must learn not to command those who carefully lurk and strike from the hidden crannies of the world. The shadow will find the Great Darkness and hurt it, and then the shadow will go home.

The Great Darkness, with his scarred and blackened heart, is easy to separate from the green and thriving plants and the innocent animals that live in the tall grasslands. Following the stench, the shadow wafts through the low brush, climbs a tree, then pushes free to drift on the evening's breeze. Closer and closer still. The human is so close that the shadow can smell his flesh now, as diseased as his soul. The shadow looks down; the human is just below it.

Like a bolt of black lightning, the shadow attacks.

At first, just as with the woman, everything goes well. The Darkness made a mistake when it dropped the leash that controlled the shadow. The shadow feels the Darkness scrabble at its mind, trying to snatch up the leash again, but there is no time: the shadow knows it will kill the Darkness before it can succeed. Instead the shaman shouts out words, and summons a servant to defend him.

The shadow has seen men like this--Breathstealers--in its city, but this doesn't help. Its first attack goes awry, and by the time it can try again, the Darkness has taken up the leash once more. The honeyed voice creeps into the shadow. It is trapped.

Mist-eyes empty, smoke-paws coiled, the feral shadow sits at the shaman's feet and watches the two humans speak. It has failed, but the Great Darkness makes mistakes. The Great Darkness will let the shadow free again. And this time it will be ready.