It’s Tuesday and there’s a shapeshifter lurking about. You seen her? She’s been known to take the form of a horse, a jellyfish, and a mouse. What form is she taking today?
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The Shape of Family
Part Sixteen – Confrontation
by Rick Cook Jr
They rode before dawn, headed to their deaths.
Could Sadie hurt the creature once more? He had called her a mutt. Was there a connection between the skinchangers and whatever he was? It appeared so.
But she couldn’t Change. Not right now. Walking was hard enough.
She was glad of Jeffrey’s warmth behind her on the saddle. Sergeant Hughes had outfitted her with a change of clothing and a dagger. Little good it would do her.
The fingers of dawn stretched and cracked their knuckles through the bloody wood. The creatures of the night retreated around them, but the woods were still dangerous. If the beast didn’t find them, something else might.
Sadie had been so worried about the bandersnatch that she had forgotten to be wary of the other beasts of the forest.
She suppressed a shudder and Jeffrey tightened his hold on her.
“Everything okay?”
She nodded, tensing at the warm breath on her neck. “Just thinking on what I might do against the beast.”
The others huddled in their cloaks around her, but not against the chill. Their task weighed heavy and they took what comfort they could find.
Captain Claymonte rode at the fore, white horse almost glowing in the pre-dawn light.
“Captain said you were able to hurt it.”
She sighed and let herself lean into him. It would perhaps have been indelicate, but the man had already ridden her as a horse and seen her transformation. Not much was more intimate than that. He whispered, “You’ll give me the wrong idea, Sarah.” Emphasis on her name.
She held in the gasp but her shoulders tensed. “I gave you my true name, Jeffrey.”
“And the rest a fake?”
She considered. “I told your Captain before, but I will not betray my people to the capital, to the Empire.”
“And yet you told me who you really were.”
“I was desperate.”
“Is that the only reason?” he prodded.
She sighed and laid a hand on his leg, squeezed to assure him. “I think you know it is not.” And she let him go suddenly, such that he reached for her hand and she pulled it away.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked.
Her head shook back and forth. What to say to him. “It is not you. I have no talent for flattery or bluster. You seem to me to be all of both.”
He chuckled. His companions did not notice, or pay him any mind if they did. The reality of his betrayal did not soften their attitudes against him, it seemed. He said, “You think us a poor match.”
“I know that we are.”
That quieted him and she wished he would stay that way. But the man was not one to let go a thread once he’d begun to pull.
“Is it something to do with your Changing?”
She nodded, not wanting to explain.
“I’m not getting an answer from you, am I?”
“I would rather not. It is only cause for disappointment.”
“Then I will enjoy your company while it lasts. And if we live through this, we can argue about it later.”
His candor was aggravating, but she wanted him to keep talking. Just to hear his voice and the attention he paid her, the compliments. She thought of Calph, then. If things had been different, perhaps her skinchanging partner would have been more than that.
No use dwelling on what could not be.
Claire held a hand up and everyone halted. The trees cleared and beyond it, the church.
“Combs, bring her.”
Jeffrey canted the horse to Claire’s side and the woman turned attentions to Sadie.
“If you have a dragon inside you, now is the time to unleash it.”
“The dragon has been lost for a hundred years, but I know another. He will serve.”
“Do you have the strength?” Jeffrey asked.
“I will make do. Let me down, Jeffrey.” He helped her from the saddle and she stood on weak legs, the tender wounds crying out. She felt the fall coming, but Claire hooked an arm under her shoulder and held her up. “I can stand, Captain.”
“Frankly I don’t care if you crawl in as a slug so long as you can hurt the beast.”
Sadie grimaced at the woman. She thought herself cold, passionless, but Claire was something else altogether. Dogged, determined, narrow focus.
It would have been admirable if it wasn’t so annoying.
Claire turned to her Wings, the half dozen that were hale enough. “Free those blades. Wait until you’re inside to unsheathe, the metal is weak enough as it is. Sergeant, take Dawson and Tanner. Circle the woods and approach from behind. Find another way in if you can. Do not engage the beast, but if you can draw him away, feel free.”
“Yes, Captain,” Sergeant Hughes said, saluting and pulling her soldiers away. Splitting up? Sadie thought. Not what she would have thought.
“Listen up, the rest of you,” Claire said. “I don’t want to lose a single one of you if I can help it. We’re not here to slay the beast. She is.” Claire pointed at Sadie, and Sadie struggled to stand tall, resolute. The least she could do was appear confident and strong to the soldiers before her.
“We are here to distract the creature and rescue our scouts before he can plant the seeds for a new generation of terror. We get them out, we flee like the wind.”
Jeffrey interrupted, “What about Father Mason and the missing Kingsguard? The beast needs bodies, and alive.”
Claire scoffed. “They are criminals under the law, and the punishment for heresy is death. I’m not inclined to save lives just so the hangman has something to do.”
“And yet I’m still here,” Jeffrey said.
“Your actions were criminal, Private Combs, but your intentions were aligned with ours. I won’t hold you responsible unless we’re too late.”
Sadie held in the gasp. Claire glanced at her once and turned back to her soldiers. “Support the skinchanger however you can, distract the beast. If you find the twins, take them and flee to Stalbridge. No. Flee to the capital.”
“All the way home?” one of the other soldiers asked. “The horses won’t make it.”
“Better you kill the beast and get a few extra miles than the bandersnatch catch you on the road and this all starts over.”
She sighed. “I’m not arguing with you, Privates. Tie the horses and let’s go. I expect the creature knows we’re here.”
Sadie hadn’t thought about that.
The others dismounted and the five of them crept forward. Sadie clutched at Captain Claymonte. “I will attempt the change and join you soon.”
Claire eyed her skeptically and nodded. “Sooner than later, Sadie Skinchanger. The whole thing hinges on you.”
Sadie nodded. She was supposed to be rescuing her nephew, not going up against the progenitor of her species, and injured to boot. The more she thought about it the more she thought he must be the father of her race.
Jeffrey reached for her hand and kissed it, which sent a thrill up her arm. She pulled him close to kiss his cheek, rough with stubble. “Thank you for trusting in me,” she whispered.
“I’m a horse-whisperer, trust in others is what gives me power.” And he grinned suddenly at her blush, then went back to the horses.
“Enough fooling around,” Claire whispered, but Jeffrey ignored her, approaching each horse and locking eyes with it momentarily. Each one snorted and shook its head.
Jeffrey shrugged as he returned to Sadie’s side. “Just giving the beasts some calm. Wouldn’t want them bolting just when we need them most.”
“Remember: keep yourselves alive, save the twins. Flee if you must. Distract the beast.” Claire nodded at each of her soldiers in turn and they left the cover of the forest, leaving Sadie behind.
And the Change came over her, that sickly sweet feel tearing over her skin, ripping free and pushing out to become Ursatrundle. She had not taken his form for many years, did not like the primal feel of the savage predator, the need for blood. She was no killer.
And yet she had been many things the last few days.
She stood from the crouch on all fours, the great bear, totally unlike Shadow-Dancer. And roared.
The soldiers outside the church turned, startled, as she barreled out of the woods, tore the door off its hinges with brute force alone. Barely conscious of the pain in her hind legs. And inside, darkness. Screams of terror. Inky blackness all around her.
Swarming her.
She roared and swiped, but the beast known as the bandersnatch was forewarned. He knew better than to let her get close. He was scared and that was good.
Claire and the others filed in behind her, casting shadows from the morning light streaming in through the door, blades coming out of sheaths and spear-tips unhooded. The creature disengaged Sadie and swarmed her companions, knocking the soldiers back, toppling Claire against a rough wooden pew, which snapped in half against her back. Her scream was lost in the chaos. Jeffrey surged forward, swinging a spear that went through the beast’s vaporous form.
And the creature laughed.
Sadie spun to see Sergeant Hughes and the others come from a back room, weapons drawn. Private Tanner stared at Sadie until Hughes smacked him with the flat of her blade and he came to himself. They would free the twins, and Hundred willing, the others.
She turned back to the chaos of the bandersnatch only to have claws dig into her back as he shifted from smoke to dragon and back again so quick she couldn’t get a claw or tooth into him. He flung her across the room so that she struck a wall and all the air whooshed from her lungs. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t fight!
She tried to roar and only a mewling sort of gasp came out. The smoke swirled around Sergeant Hughes and the others in their efforts to free the twins, and all went flying to bash against the other hostages, into pews. Sergeant Hughes sailed up into the rafters and managed to grab hold of a support beam, and there she dangled.
Moans and cries of pain, shrieks and calls for help. Everyone was injured. Everyone was scared.
The bandersnatch had won.
This was it.
She struggled to her paws, heaving breaths that were far too small for her massive frame. And the creature came to her, knocked her down again. Pummeled her with smoky fists until ribs cracked. She spat blood and roared, but couldn’t fight back.
She collapsed to the rough wood floor, spent, defeated.
The others weren’t fighting back.
Claire shouted at the creature to fight them, but even from her vantage on the floor Sadie could see the spike of wood jutting from her side; she was impaled on the pew.
She couldn’t see Jeffrey.
Or the twins. Or much at all.
The beast turned into a man once more and Sadie let herself become human. She would die as she lived, in defiance.
He laughed. The arrogant laugh of the triumphant, the relieved laugh of unexpected ease.
“Well, well, well. And to think I was in here worrying and plotting.”
“Fight me, you abomination!” Claire shouted.
“You are unworthy of my attention.” He stared around at the destruction he had caused and smiled. “A taste of what is coming, once my children are grown. You, mutt, I have seen that form before. The bear. What do you call him?”
Sadie coughed to clear her throat of blood. “He was Ursatrundle.”
She leaned back against the wall.
The creature’s eyes widened in realization. “The Skin-changers! I had nearly forgotten that experiment. Failed as it was. But why would you take the bear when you have others at your disposal?”
She didn’t answer. It was all so confusing. How did he know of their origins in such detail?
“No answer? Ursatrundle was strong, I won’t deny that. But Scalesoar, Jabberwock… even Stalker would have served you better.”
Sadie had no trouble hiding her gasp under a painful cough. The names. The lost names.
“No matter, I suppose. It’s almost time. And you will all witness the return. To the darkness as it sweeps your homes. As it covers the land in endless night.”
He walked away, back towards the altar with the twins. Claire still shouting. Jeffrey out of sight. She needed time. Time to shift into a form she’d never taken, none had taken for a thousand years. The memory of this creature would be his downfall.
He shifted into a young man, a handsome man, smiling as he approached the altar.
And Sergeant Hughes dropped from the roofbeam, blade piercing the creature’s chest clean through. He wailed in surprise, knocking her back with a suddenly clawed hand, raking her face and chest so that blood splattered.
The twins rushed him, wielding blades from Privates Tanner and Dawson, and the creature howled again as he knocked them to the ground.
The others rallied and the beast fought them back, shifting from form to form, healing wounds as they happened. But he was no longer smug, no longer laughing. He was furious, and if he had to kill a few he would. She felt sure of it.
Sadie grasped the opportunity and concentrated on the form and the name. And the Change came over her, pleasure and pain in such immense force that her paltry wounds from before were as nothing in comparison.
She roared and fire washed over the ceiling as the bandersnatch stared up at the Jabberwock.
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Finale – Part Seventeen – Meld
Part Seventeen and the Epilogue are next week, which will finish out this story I’ve had such a good time writing for you all!
Panning For Clouds 