Depleted, the opposition fell back under our attack and we raced forward again, all three of us reaching the Fiend at about the same time. Grimalkin drew first blood, her blade thrown with accuracy to bury itself deep within the hairy chest. Thorne aimed her own blade at his left eye, but a deft twist of his huge head deflected the blade with his horns. I swung my sword two-handed, my intention being to strike his monstrous head clean from his body. But before my blow landed he changed form.

He changed so rapidly that I was truly astonished.

Using tulpas, I was capable of instantaneously shifting my own shape but I had not been aware that the Fiend also had the skill to do that so quickly. He was reputed to take other forms but I had always thought it a slow and gradual process.

One moment he was human in shape but bestial, hairy and horned with the addition of a long, barbed tail; the next he was a fearsome dragon, with scales as black as ebony, red burning eyes, long murderous fang-filled jaws and sharp talons.

In the first second of his change, he was no larger than he had been previously. But then he flicked his spine-tipped wings and soared aloft, growing rapidly as he rose towards the ceiling. That stone roof did not hinder his ascent. He broke through it and continued into the sky above his redoubt, stones and rubble crashing down into the hall to slay many of his supporters.

Untouched, we stared upwards and I realized what this meant.

He had not fled to escape our attack. He had flown to lure me after him. He wanted to destroy me. This would be his revenge for Churchtown.

The Last Spook Chapter 28