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snapped. Maybe it's time you told us what kind of con you're really trying to
pull?
Some of it is tire rubber. Olkeloki did not wear the look of a man who'd
been found out. Notice the color.
Black. What should it be, pink?
Black is the color of the shetani, the color of night, the only color with
which they can mask themselves.
You have to give them credit. What a clever way to conceal themselves in the
countries of the ilmeet until the time comes for them to rise up and work
their chaos. This way they are able to hide in plain sight and even to move
about. The shetani have been very smart.
Sure they have. Drawing back his leg, he prepared to kick the nearest chunk
of rubber into the ditch.
Merry inhaled sharply.
The tire fragment sailed over the ditch and landed in the grass beyond.
Oak turned back to the car. Did you see that, Merry?
Did you see the danger we're in? See, killer African ghosts, right here on the
highway. He wound up and kicked the second piece.
If he hadn't been wearing his hiking boots he probably would have lost his
foot. The black strip twisted like lightning. Flat, razor-sharp teeth clamped
down hard on the ankle of the boot and penetrated about a quarter of an inch.
A shocked Oak stumbled backward against the hood of the station wagon, kicking
reflexively, but the basketball-sized figure clung to his foot with its
obscenely large mouth. It had a long body, a pencil-thin neck, long thin arms,
no legs, two eyes at the end of stalks which were offset to the right side of
the flattened skull, and a mouth full of four-inch-long teeth.
Unable to reach flesh and bone, the little horror released its grip on his
ankle and bit down higher up.
The leather there was thinner and Oak could feel the edge of the teeth. He
kicked again, waving his leg around in the air. The horror hung on despite his
violent contortions. A long thin tongue lined with tiny filelike teeth shot
out of the top of the mouth and whipped up his pants leg. It was a good two
feet long and normally lay curled up deep inside the bulbous body.
Get it off, moaned a voice Oak barely recognized as his own, Get it
offfff!
Olkeloki took a step to his left, raised the heavy walking stick over his
head, and brought it down sharply on the shetani's back. To Oak it seemed that
the staff just bounced off that incredibly tough body, but the horror's
eyestalks swiveled around to glare up at the laibon. The staff descended a
second time to crash against the narrow skull. The eyestalks retracted and the
shetani let go.
It stood there for an instant, glaring and growling at them. Then it turned
and sprinted toward the ditch, running on its two hands and occasionally
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balancing itself with that disgusting tongue. It leaped over a pile of broken
bottles, bashed through a sack of garbage, and vanished into a drainage
culvert.
A big Safeway truck went thundering past. The driver let off a blast from his
air horn by way of greeting.
Oak leaned against the hood of the car, listening to his heart trying to blast
its way out of his chest.
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Olkeloki put his hand on his shoulder and he jumped. The old man was not
smiling. Come. They know we are here. They will gather to try to stop us
now.
I don't know what to say. I I'm sorry I that thing
...
Apologize later. Drive now. We do not want to be caught out in the open like
this and stopped before we have begun.
No no. He turned and limped back toward the driver's side. There was pain
above his ankle where the creature's teeth had penetrated. He could still see
it clinging determinedly to his leg, the red eyes glaring soullessly up at
him, could feel that grotesque tongue rasping against his skin. His sock was
starting to get soggy with blood.
The station wagon left rubber behind as it squealed out into the highway. The
Toyota Celica Oak hadn't seen in the rear-view screeched as its driver sent it
careening wildly around the wagon. The man shook his fist and shouted unheard
obscenities. Oak ignored him.
Merry was leaning over and studying his right leg. I can see the tooth marks
where it bit through the top of your boot.
He nodded absently, pushing the wagon up to seventy-five before slowing down.
He didn't want to be stopped by the patrol. Not here. It took him a few
minutes to find his voice.
What the hell was it? he asked hoarsely. What was it, old man?
A Namangonye shetani, I believe. Normally they are interested only in
stealing food from gardens and they leave people alone. But these are not
normal times. Not with the barriers between reality and the
Out Of growing so weak. Ah, there are two more of them.
Oak kept his gaze resolutely forward, but Merry looked to her right. She
followed the objects with her eyes until they had receded out of sight. They
really do look like tire fragments.
Most are nothing more than what they appear to be. It is difficult to tell.
The shetani are superb mimics and can
Oh shit! Oak wrenched hard on the wheel. Merry screamed as the station wagon
skidded, slid, and bumped over something. Oak glanced into the rear-view
mirror. Whole slew of em, lying bunched up in the middle of the road waiting
for us.
What if it was only tire rubber? Merry said accusingly. You could have
killed us!
Didn't you feel it? he replied wolfishly. Smashed right through them. It
didn't feel like running over rubber. Already the objects they'd struck had
fallen out of sight behind the fast-moving car.
But how could they know so soon?
They are aware of our presence now, Olkeloki explained. They have their own
means of communication, which I cannot pretend to understand, but I think that
we will be safe once we are on the plane.
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Merry's response was to let out another scream and try to bury herself in her
seat. Something was crawling over the front grille, clawing its way over the
LTD symbol on the front of the hood and making its way slowly toward them.
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This one had legs. It also had a gaping mouth that ran from the right side of
its face all the way around and up the left jaw to end only where an ear
should have been. Four spikes ran across the top of the head. They were ridged
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