Shadowbane, Instant
Illus. Douglas Shuler

I must try to interfere. If I can come between the panther and the herd, I can get in one blow from my father's knife and Four of Four leaps out of the cat's way with the speed of lightning but his kin remain in danger and I will not make it and I--

And I watch as the panther vaults over my goats and keeps running up the hillock. At once it is on the blighted shaman, for what reason I do not know. My view is blocked by the reed wall, so I cannot see all. In one moment, I see the assassin tackle the panther, and then in another they are gone in smoke, and the ghostly shadow disappears in an eerie black light, and then I see what has occurred and I wish for all to be as it was.

I see the incarnation of every dusky rumor told to me when I was a quaking child. The being before me is four men's height of smoke and tendrils and teeth as long as my arm. I thank the skies for their darkness, for the creature's wall of black skin is so deep I think I could drown in the void. Where there should be eyes there is fire; where there should be legs there is space.

The Bwire person points down the hill.

"Kill that infernal goat, and bring me its insides."

The monster cuts down the hill with the speed of a panther. Like a ghost, it never once touches the ground or makes a sound. But I can smell its mix of fire, fury, and pride as it beelines toward my troubled goat. I dodge to the flank of the beast, hoping to find a hole in the spirit's defense, but my knife passes through its skin like a stick through water. It does not harm me in return; I must lie beneath its notice.

And then it clutches my most vexing charge by the throat. Its talons pulse with black fire as it reaches up to rend Four of Four. And then with a rush of air, it pounds down and hits--

--Fola. It hits Fola. The woman takes the blow for my goat, and a wave of dark energy flows into her. For a moment she shudders, but then the wave flows back into the spirit, and she is limned in a blazing white glow. She seems unaccustomed to this effect, and so is the evil thing.

It recovers first, it seems. With my goat still in hand, it sweeps a huge tendril across Fola, quenching the white fire and sending her flying across the plain. I hear her land on a bush, but I do not stop to see if she is alive. I have other concerns.