She backed away, worried and baffled. The others had become animals in the blink of an eye and it hadn’t seemed to hurt them, but Carter was still changing. His eerie howl modulated into a shriek so loud that it hurt her ears. Something had to be wrong.
And whatwashe, anyway? She couldn’t tell. There was a batlike wing, but only one. There were legs like a great cat or maybe a wolf—far too many legs, and not in the right places. As she watched, a leg vanished and was replaced by a great feathered wing that beat at the ground. A tentacle lashed out, hitting the ground and sending up a spray of mud.
Fen jumped back, confused and scared, desperate for help for Carter and longing for someone to tell her what the hell was going on. And the cave bear! They were still getting charged by a giant bear… or were they? When she looked around, she saw that the bear was gone. Where she’d last seen him, only Pete stood on the beach, staring at the writhing mass of ever-changing body parts that Carter had become.
Natalie, now human again, climbed onto the beach, dripping wet and with her previously rainbow hair plastered with mud. Ransom was getting up, still pale but now calm and collected. Merlin had also returned to his human form and had gone to help Roland to his feet. Unlike Carter, none of them had destroyed their clothes when they’d shifted, but were all back to wearing whatever they’d had on before.
Balin and Eunice were still standing where they’d been when it all started, smug and untouched after kicking the asses of a velociraptor, a cave bear, a phoenix, a Gabriel Hound, and a hellhound. Fen wanted to murder them, but she clearly wouldn’t stand a chance. Gritting her teeth, she ignored them and turned to Pete, who was closest.
“What’s wrong with Carter?” she asked. “Did those assholes do this to him?”
Pete, still staring down at Carter, said, “I have no idea.”
“I think this is his shift form,” said Merlin. “He definitely has one, but he wouldn’t say what it was or let us see it.”
“He told me he didn’t have one,” Fen said.
“Oops,” said Merlin, then bent down and said, “Sorry, Carter!”
“I did nothing,” Balin called. “The Dark Knight has been a monster for years.”
The mass of parts that was Carter’s supposedly nonexistent shift form finally stabilized. Even then, Fen had trouble taking it in. It was bigger than the giant bear and had six legs, a snapping beak on one end and a fanged jaw on the other, a single feathered wing, way too many eyes, and a mass of writhing, thrashing tentacles. It looked deeplywrong--and painful, too. It was still letting out a high keen of pain and misery as it staggered to its feet, then charged Balin and Eunice.
Balin made a gesture. Nothing happened. Fen was delighted to see him look slightly panicked. “Eunice!”
In the blink of an eye, Eunice changed from a woman to a weird batlike creature, humanlike but with wings and talons and a tail, black as obsidian. She spread her wings, leaped into the air, and reached down with unnervingly elongated arms to grab Balin and lift him out of the way.
The swamp erupted. A wave crashed over Balin, sending him sprawling. It was followed by the enormous form of a Dunkleosteus as it heaved itself onto the island.
“Norris!” Fen exclaimed in delight.
Norris opened his huge jaws and snapped at Eunice. She flew upward just in time. Ponderously, Norris dragged himself toward Balin. The strange beast that Carter had become was also going for the hapless wizard-scientist.
“Eunice!” Balin shrieked.
The gargoyle swooped down, grabbed Balin, and flew upward with him. She was just in time. Several of Carter’s tentacles slammed into the ground where he had been.
Norris opened and closed his mouth. His gills pulsed open and shut as he dragged himself back into the water, unable to breathe on land. Once he was back in the swamp, he lifted his head above the water and flapped a contemptuous fin.
“Get the traitor, Eunice,” hissed Balin. “Lock him in fish form.”
“Already done.” Eunice grinned toothily. “The monster’s locked in, too. And everyone else is stuck in their human forms. I’ve trapped them all.”
“Good.” The wizard-scientist glared down at them all as he dripped from above. “Let our Dark Knight’s supposed friends get a good taste of what he really is. Dark Knight Pride, soon you must decide which you prefer: being a monster from whom everyone flees screaming, or being a whole man and an honored knight.”
Balin stabbed a skinny finger at Norris. “And you, piscine traitor, will stay as you are until and unless you show up with the Dark Knight when he’s ready to choose, at the place I will arrange with him. And by ‘show up,’ I mean in person. Or should I say, ‘in fish.’”
Balin laughed at his own joke. So did Eunice.
“The rest of you will regain your ability to control your shift forms when we leave,” Eunice added. “We don’t care about you. Our only interest is in the monster knight.”
“When you wish to make your decision, all you need to do is say ‘I, Carter Howe, summon you, Balin!’ I will send you a message telling you where we shall meet.”
“Not doing it,” said Carter.
Balin pretended not to hear him, declaiming, “Soon, Dark Knight!”
Eunice flapped off with him. Within moments, both were out of sight.
