Sliding Into Antar

The Shadow

Chapter 12

XII

"Zorel, as my new royal Nan-Torel guide, I'm giving you a job… Lead us home."

"Yes, sir, Uncle Max! I mean… yes, sir… King… Zan… sir…"

Max smiled. "Uncle Max will be fine, Zorel… for you and all the children."

"Yes, sir, Uncle Max!"

Zorel turned and walked down the path. "We're almost out of the Nan-Torel now, Uncle Max. It's only a few more minutes."

"Good," Max said. "I'm looking forward to getting back to the palace. I have this odd feeling like I've been gone for a long time."

Liz smiled and nodded, taking Max's arm in hers and holding on to it. Everyone knew what Max was feeling… They felt it, too. It was eerie waking up as though it were only the next day, yet somehow knowing… and feeling… deep inside… that a considerable amount of time had actually passed while they "slept." Of course, the feeling had been confirmed by the children and the group from the New Granolith.

"Max… is there something strange about the shadows in the Nan-Torel," Isabel asked nervously. "I keep seeing shadows in the trees where there shouldn't be shadows… I think."

Max looked around, clearly concerned. His mind still retained memories of his killer…

Max had walked right up to the wall and touched it, thinking that there was a light stain on the wall that would need to be cleaned. He had never even suspected that anything sinister was afoot. Max had been the first one killed. The shadow shifter had simply emerged from the wall like a shadow and fired a type of pulse beam into Max's head at point blank range before Max realized what was happening. Max felt a sharp pain, as part of his brain exploded inside his head, then nothing… until he woke up… nothing, at least, that he remembered now. Only feelings.

"I saw a shadow on that tree over there just a moment ago," Alex said, pointing the tree out for Max. Max nodded and glanced at Michael. Michael nodded back. Then both of them raised their hands and fired two blasts into the tree. The tree slowly fell over and crashed to the ground… but the shadow remained standing.

Not for long.

Lending their doubles a hand… literally… Max and Michael from the New Granolith both fired blasts directly into the stunned shadow, and it caught fire and began to burn like an oily rag, which, in a strange way, it somewhat resembled.

Now, there was no longer any doubt. The shadow shifters were back… and they were among them. Max had no way of knowing… no idea at all… how many of them there might be. But he wasn't taking any chances. Not after what the shadow shifters had already proven themselves capable of… not with the lives of all the children and his entire circle of friends in his hands and in jeopardy. Michael seemed to have the same thought as Max. Both of them turned to the group…

"Go back! Go back into the Nan-Torel, everybody!"

"I don't think they'll follow us in very far," Max said, "Most beings have a deathly fear of the Nan-Torel."

Michael nodded. "I'm surprised they came in this far."

Together, Max and Michael rushed everyone back down the trail in the direction of the bog. For fifteen minutes, they saw no more shadows that looked out of place, but then Zorel spotted something high in a tree. It looked like a rob-jetta bat, swooping from one tree to another, but Zorel had never seen a rob-jetta in this sector of the Nan-Torel…

"Dad," Zorel said, tugging on Michael's arm and pointing into the tree. Michael saw it and nodded. A moment later, a blast from the palm of Michael's hand sent the "rob-jetta" tumbling and spiraling to the ground. Two Maxes, two Michaels, and two Jim Valentis were immediately on top of the black form, which writhed eerily on the ground for several moments before turning back into its natural form, something between an oily rag and an oily humanoid.

The shadow shifter must have thought he was seeing double as he opened his eyes, though it is possible that he had already figured out that there were two of each of them, since he had been following them for some time already in the tree tops.

"Kivar is dead," Michael said emphatically, in case the shadow shifter had not seen what happened. "You don't have a master anymore. What do you want with us?"

The shadow shifter writhed again, momentarily attempting… unsuccessfully… to change its shape, before answering in defeat, but still with the false pride and superior attitude typical of his species… "Kivar is not my master."

"You serve him blindly… You do his bidding," Michael said, "That makes him your master."

"Convenience," the shadow shifter mumbled, "Kivar has power. We want it."

"Not now he doesn't," Jim said. "He's splattered all over the front of an asteroid… along with his ship. I don't think you want to be like him."

"We saw what happened," the shadow shifter muttered, "But we did not need Kivar. He needed us."

"Symbiotic parasites," Kyle said, "That's what you both are… or were… symbiotic parasites. You fed off of each other… But you don't have Kivar anymore."

"How many of you are there here on Antar right now," Jim asked.

The shadow shifter did not reply.

"Oh well," Michael said, raising his palm and aiming it at the dark form on the ground. "I guess you saw what happened to your companion back there. What are you guys made of… oil and gas?"

The shadow shifter writhed on the ground, clearly appearing to be distressed. He attempted yet again to shift but apparently still could not change his form. Michael's power blast had stunned and addled him too deeply.

"There are fifty-three of us," the shadow shifter replied. It was a half-truth. There had been fifty-three, but fifty of them were on the ship when it was demolished. One more had burned up after being hit by Max and Michael's power blast. There was only this one left now… and one other one that was still at large. But Max and Michael had no way of knowing this.

"Fifty-three!" Kyle exclaimed. "What are we going to do, Max? We'll be out here forever."

"As long as it takes," Michael said with determination. "If there are fifty-three, then we stay as long as it takes… till all of them are dead. We get them one at a time if we have to." Michael raised his hand again. "We can make that fifty-two right now."

"No!" the shadow shifter yelled, cringing. "No… I can give you information… information you need."

"What information would you have that we would care about," Michael asked, pretending disinterest.

"How many of us there are… still alive… and who it is."

Michael lowered his hand, and the glow in his palm ebbed… "Alright… tell me… but make it convincing. I'm getting tired of discharging like this. I need to blast something. It's frustrating getting all up and then having to hold it."

A smile tugged at the corner of Max's mouth, but he struggled to maintain his stern look.

"There is only me left… and Bezto," the shadow shifter said, "The others were all… on the ship."

"Well, that's better odds," Kyle said. "Maybe we won't have to be out here forever after all."

"But can we trust him," Alex asked, "I know I don't."

"I don't either," Max said, "But I have a gut feeling that he's telling us the truth. I don't know why."

"It doesn't matter," the shape shifter said, "Bezto will kill all of you. You will not be able to find Bezto… or defeat him. He will be there when you least expect it. He will come from nowhere. He will be unseen… until it is too late."

"We'll see," Michael said. "We'll see."

Michael had barely spoken when the ground rose up at his feet, and his own shadow lunged at him, grabbing him around the throat. There was a knife in its left hand. Michael saw it coming but didn't have time to react. The knife came up and passed across Michael's throat with a speed that was unexpected. Fortunately, Max saw it coming, too, and from where he was standing, he WAS able to react in time. A blast of power sheared off a small portion of the attacking shadow and sent it scurrying into the trees. It had left Michael bleeding from a serious, but not fatal, gash that Max was able to quickly heal, even as Michael protested that he deserved it. Michael was furious with himself for not getting the creature, and Max was annoyed at himself for not making a direct hit, but he had been concerned that he might hit Michael by accident. He was, after all, trying to kill Michael's shadow, as weird as that seemed.

Even worse, Michael looked around and discovered that the other shadow shifter had disappeared while they had been distracted by Bezto. That fact, on top of everything else, probably would have elicited some interesting word choices from Michael's occasionally interesting vocabulary; but before that could happen, he got a glimpse of something shadowy flying through the trees. Unexpectedly, it turned and headed straight for him. This time Michael WAS ready, and he spun toward the attacker and blasted it. It was a perfect, dead center shot. A huge hole opened up in the center of the oily creature and began to burn, quickly consuming the shadowy mass, which Max and Michael could now see was the one they had had on the ground and not Bezto.

"Wow, that felt so good," Michael said, looking relieved.

Max smiled. "Would you like a cigarette?"

Michael gave Max a strange look. "Max, you're losing it."

"Just checking," Max said.

"Do you still believe him," Alex asked Max. "Do you think that Bezto is the last one left?"

"I don't know," Max said honestly. "These shadow shifters have pursued us deep into the Nan-Torel. There's almost nothing that will come in here… even them, usually. I just don't know what they're capable of anymore."

Max turned to Michael… "Let's get everybody back to the bog. If someone does get hurt, you'll be able to do something about it… if something happens to me."

"Don't talk like that," Liz retorted.

"Reality check," Max said, sighing. Then he put his arm around Liz. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound harsh, but reality can be harsh, Liz. I have to face the fact that something could happen to me… and make contingency plans for the safety of the group."

Liz put two fingers on Max's lips… "I know… but I don't have to like it."

Max smiled and kissed her. "No… you don't have to like it. But I don't intend to just roll over, Liz. They'll have to drag me down fighting if they get me again. I promise you that."

As the group walked on toward the bog, the conversation dwelt on the eerie way the shadow shifter had simply replaced Michael's shadow. It unnerved them all, and more than once, each one found himself or herself staring suspiciously at his or her own shadow. The children seemed especially concerned about their shadows, occasionally jumping on them or kicking them… Liz and Max's son, Alyyx, pelted his shadow with rocks from time to time… just to be sure.

They all knew that, somewhere out there, Bezto was watching and waiting for just the right moment to strike again. It wasn't a question of "if" but of "when."

"I don't understand what Bezto has to gain from killing us now," Alex said. "Kivar's dead, so what's his motivation, anyway?"

"I think Bezto has this pride thing," Michael said. "He can't let go until the job is done."

"That's probably true," Jim agreed, "But I think there's more to it than just that."

Max nodded… "Well, the other shadow shifter did say that they wanted the power for themselves… and that they didn't need Kivar, he needed them."

"You think the shadow shifters want to take over Antar?" Isabel asked.

"I think that's a very real possibility," Max said. "At least, I think Bezto wants to take over Antar."

Michael nodded. "I have to agree. Bezto wants something, and it has to be big. He doesn't bother with small potatoes. If he wants something on Antar, it's probably Antar."

"So he'll keep trying to kill us… and Max, especially," Maria surmised thoughtfully.

"I'd say that's a pretty safe bet," Jim agreed. "We have to get Bezto before he gets any of us. If we get Bezto, now that his army's gone, too, there won't be any more shadow shifters left here… and I don't think the ones back on their planet will bother coming here again."

"Unless another Kivar or Bezto comes along someday," Alex said.

Max nodded. "But Jim's right. If we get Bezto, we'll probably have peace on Antar, now that Kivar is gone."

"Peace… without Kivar… without shadow shifters…" Isabel mused longingly. "Can it possibly be true? I've dreamed of that."

"On our Antar in our dimension, Alex from the New Granolith said, "we have had peace ever since Kivar was killed. There have been other problems, especially from the Ghors, but basically, our planet has been at peace… And largely because of Michael, we have over three hundred new allied planets now. The strength of our peace has never been greater than it is today."

Max from the present dimension turned and looked at Alex. "I long for the day when I can say that. We have had relative peace here since Kivar was sent packing, but he's made other attempts to return. The threat has always been at our doorstep, and then, of course… this happened." Max was referring to their murders at the hands of the shadow shifters. "Maybe now that Kivar is gone, finally, we can have a real and lasting peace."

As Max spoke, Varec and Amy's daughter, Liz-Jolee, began jumping on her shadow.

"I thought I saw it move."

"Were you moving when you saw it move?" Varec asked with a smile.

Liz-Jolee nodded.

"It's all right," Amy said, picking Liz-Jolee up, "We're all a little spooked by everything right now.

Alyyx looked around for several stones that were just the right size and threw them at Liz-Jolee and Amy's shadow, but they were only shadows. He noticed another large stone and picked it up to throw it, too, but this one failed to fly out of his hand. Instead, Alyyx Evans found himself in the clutches of Bezto, who had been lying on the path waiting, in the form of a stone… the precise type and size of stone that the boy had been picking up and throwing at shadows as he walked. Bezto had been watching and plotting. And now he had his bait.

Bezto did not wait to be hit by another power blast from Max or Michael. Holding the child close to him to dissuade them from firing at him, he quickly leapt behind a large boulder with his hostage. Max and Michael both knew that they could easily blast the boulder apart, but that might kill Alyyx.

"Give us the boy," Michael yelled. "He's not the one you want. Take me."

Maria gasped and held tightly onto Michael's arm, but she didn't say anything.

"The boy is mine," Bezto said from behind the boulder. "I will kill him at my leisure."

"No! Don't!" Max yelled, swallowing hard, as Liz held his arm and cried, terrified for her son's safety.

"I could be convinced to let him go… if you were to take his place, Zan."

"I'll take his place," Liz cried. "Take me and let him go."

Max shook his head at Liz and hugged her, then he released her and walked toward the boulder himself. At the same time, he looked at Michael, and Michael nodded, understanding.

Bezto smiled to himself, seeing his plan coming together. What Bezto did not notice was Max and Michael's signals… He also did not notice two children whispering to each other.

Danyy smiled and nodded at Andya, and Andya closed her eyes and concentrated. Then Danyy concentrated, too.

Suddenly, a 14-foot-long red snake with a light mint-green belly, an electric blue zigzag pattern on its sides, andsmall, brightly glowing luminescent greenish spots all over fell out of the tree behind Bezto, landing right on his unsuspecting shoulders. The snake immediately slid down over Bezto's arms, pinning them to his sides.

Bezto struggled unsuccessfully to get free, and in his struggling, he accidentally managed to cause the tip of the snake's tail to touch its head, forming a complete circuit. As soon as this happened, the entire snake lit up like an atom bomb that had just exploded, throwing a roaring sheet of flames high into the air… a sheet of flames so intense that it went right through both Bezto and Alyyx's bodies, allowing everyone to actually see Alyyx's skeleton and Bezto's odd interior physiology in a sort of X-ray effect… and making it momentarily appear that both had been vaporized. This elicited gasps from most of the group…

Slowly, both Alyyx and Bezto returned to their normal opaque state, and the radiation-like glow all over their bodies started to subside. Completely freaked out by what had just happened, Bezto shapeshifted into a small bat, slipped out of the snake's noose, and flew off, disappearing before Max or Michael could hit him with a power blast.

"Damn!" Michael exclaimed, throwing a blast that incinerated the top of the tree that Bezto had just flown over, but missing Bezto. Max, meanwhile, ran to check Alyyx out. Liz was already at Alyyx's side, and both were sure that Alyyx was going to need Max's medical attention in a very big way after what had just happened. To their shock and amazement, Alyyx was fine… and the snake had mysteriously disappeared.

"I don't understand," Liz said, looking their son over, "He's not burned or hurt at all… not that I can see." Max shook his head, speechless.

"I think I can explain it," the other Max, from the New Granolith, said, "What you just saw was an Antarian Nan-Torel green-spotted fire snake. Jim can tell you about them. He had one on his TV program, 'Jungle Jim,' that's been running on our Antar for a while now."

Jim nodded… "The flash of fire the fire snake gives off is actually not fire but a massive burst of radiation coupled with a sensory boost produced by a small organ in the snake's brain that allows it to intensify the visual effect of its display in susceptible brains… like ours… and apparently, Bezto's. When the fire snake gives off its flash of radiation, it sends out a powerful signal from its brain at the same time that causes a predator to see the radiation flash as flames. The flash is real, but it wouldn't be visible, or certainly not as impressive, without the sensory boost from the snake's mind. If the flames were real fire, the fire snakes would burn the Nan-Torel down."

Jim was trying to explain the mechanism of the snake's awesome display but was drawing blank stares from most of those there, who had never seen his show in their dimension.

"It can be lethal to smaller animals and to some larger animals with susceptible nervous systems," Jim continued, "But it's not lethal to humans or Antarians… as long as we're in Antar's atmosphere, which counteracts much of the radiation's effects. On Earth, this amount of radiation would probably have killed them."

"Are there a lot of these snakes around here," Max asked Zorel.

Zorel smiled. "We've only seen two or three. Andya made this one with her mind… and Danyy told it what to do."

Max turned to Andya and Danyy… "You did that?"

"Was it okay, Dad," Andya asked sheepishly.

Max looked at her sternly then smiled. "Well, Michael and I did have a plan to get Bezto, but it was risky. Someone might have got hurt. You got Alyyx away from him without Alyyx or anyone else getting hurt. Thank you! You guys are pretty awesome!"

Andya and Danyy both grinned from ear to ear.

"We can make more fire snakes whenever you want them," Andya said.

Max shook his head. "I've had enough fire snake excitement for today, AnDasniya… but thanks. I'll keep it in mind in case I need one anytime."

"Max, do you think we got rid of Bezto," Tess asked, "I mean, do you think he'll come back again?"

"No and yes… in that order," Max replied solemnly. "He'll try again. We can count on it. Until we get him, we will never be safe, I'm sorry to say. Bezto is like a Gorvian chogo. When a chogo clamps its jaws down on you, the only way to get it loose is to remove the jaws from the chogo and pry them apart… after the chogo is dead. That's Bezto. He won't let go… ever."

Nobody seemed happy to hear Max say this, but it was what all of them either knew or suspected already.

The group walked on toward the bog for another thirty minutes, with everyone on hyper alert for any sign at all of Bezto's presence, but no one saw any trace of him.

"There's the bog," Zorel said, pointing ahead about a hundred feet. Max nodded and walked to the edge of the bog. Then he stood there, looking at the black waters, and thinking.

"What are we going to do if we don't find Bezto," Alex asked.

Max shook his head silently.

"We won't find him," Michael said, "He'll find us. We just have to be ready."

"Jiba, can you make us all invisible now," Max asked, "So that Bezto can't see us?"

Jiba nodded enthusiastically and concentrated momentarily, then she opened her eyes. "It's done."

"I still see everybody," Max said.

Jiba nodded. "We can see each other, but anybody else won't be able to see us."

Max walked over to the spot where they had crossed the water and bent down to feel the stepping stone just beneath the surface.

"Do you think he could be masquerading as one of the stepping stones," Kyle asked.

Max nodded. "Bezto could be anything. We won't know what he is or where he is until he pops out." Max poked at the stepping stone with a stick. It appeared to be only a stone, though he couldn't see it. In any case, there was no reaction when Max poked it, so he proceeded to step onto the second stone and poke it, too. Again, he got no reaction. Max stepped onto the third, then the fourth, then the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth stones, poking each one as he went, with no reaction. He looked back at the others, from the center of the bog, and shrugged.

"Max, look!" Michael yelled, pointing across the bog toward the other side. Max turned around and looked where Michael had pointed. It was the pawgor that had gone into the bog earlier that day, the one with the injured leg, coming out of the bog, and its leg looked totally healthy now. So, unfortunately, did its appetite. Standing in the middle of the bog, Max froze, as the pawgor sniffed the air. He was unsure whether the pawgor could see through Jiba's mind warp or not, but he suspected that a major movement might be perceived by the cat, even if only by dispersing his smell into the wind for the cat to pick up.

"Oh oh," Michael whispered, "It's hungry. It's looking for food. Stay very, very still, Max."

Max couldn't hear what Michael said; Michael didn't expect him to. It was merely a thought… expressed out loud… if only in a whisper.

Sniffing the air, then the ground, the pawgor found an inoffensive wiffer, a large armored turtle-like creature that hides underground, just beneath the surface, in the Nan-Torel. The saber-toothed cat dug the wiffer out of its hiding place then nudged it, turning it upside down in an effort to get at the animal inside the armored shell. Crushing the shell would not be a problem for the pawgor. With its two huge front teeth and vice-like jaws, it could make short work of the wiffer's shell, and it would if it was unable to get at the animal any easier way.

The pawgor was patient, but it was also hungry. It managed to get a hold of the wiffer's front leg and pull it out of the shell, but the wiffer quickly reclaimed its leg and pulled it back into the shell. The pawgor had waited long enough for its meal. It stretched out on the ground, held the wiffer between its front paws, and used its huge front teeth to literally pry the top part of the shell from the bottom part. The shell burst open, exposing the pawgor's meal… but it was not the meal that the pawgor had expected. The succulent white meat of this wiffer was neither succulent nor white, but dark and oily… and the creature mutated rapidly, suddenly rising up and becoming a man-sized object. The pawgor grabbed it with sharp claws, ripping the dark, oily creature almost in half, as the creature tried unsuccessfully to escape…

Already injured, and unable to shift his entire body to another form again, Bezto tried to run. That in itself was a major mistake, as Jim could have told him had he asked. Jim had once said that anything running was pawgor food.

Bezto tried to fight back, quickly producing a large knife by shapeshifting It was actually a part of his armbut it was no match for the pawgor. A shrill scream pierced the air of the Nan-Torel, as the pawgor grabbed Bezto and shook him violently, shredding him into small pieces that floated on the wind and came to rest on the ground all around the huge cat.

The pawgor sniffed at the shreds of what had once been the prince of the shadow shifters. It didn't seem too impressed by the smell, but it was hungry, so it ate some of the pieces anyway. They didn't stay down long. Hacking like a cat with a hairball, the pawgor ejected the shredded pieces, along with its other meager stomach contents.

Across the bog, Alex watched and smiled sympathetically… "Yeah, I know! Hospital food sucks, doesn't it!"

tbc