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.Toothless and tongueless, the mouth wasthe mirror image of Corley's.'You see now,' Maegrim taunted through the link.'You exist this moment expressly toserve Shadowfane.'Corley's features twisted.'Never!' But even as he protested the thing at his feet puckeredand flowed and changed.Tissue slimy as raw egg white filmed over, firmed, and developeda peppering of hair follicles.Within moments, it grew a beard textured chestnut and grey, strand for strand acounterpart of the captain's.The lips, fully fleshed, now worked; they mimed the originalwith chilling perfection.'Enjoy yourself,' said the Dark-dreamer.'Few men ever witness a shape-changer'smetamorphosis.'Clued that his struggles might key the creature's alteration, Corley forced himself to relax.If he stayed passive, the loathsome creature's development might be arrested.Hope wasprobably in vain.Still, the captain closed his eyes.He did not think, but concentrated onsensations, from the lift of Ballad's deck beneath his feet to the clean scents of sea and wetaaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr rwood, overlaid by a sour tang of tarred rope.Aft, a pot clanged in the galley; as if the daywere ordinary, the cook lit his fire and sliced sausage for sailhands about to come offwatch.The unbroken adherence to routine raised a chill on Corley's flesh, aggravated bythe step of the quartermaster, arrived to relieve the night helmsman.Sunrise brightenedthe east, tipping wave crests with sequin highlights; but the Kielmark's first captain feltcold to the heart.He stood still, listening to the wind, while Gierj coiled sinuously aroundhis feet.Their limbs interwove until they resembled a ring of braided yarn, dotted witheyes glowing greenish as sparks from a drugged candle.Corley concentrated on the immediate.Ballad sailed to a following breeze.An unoiledblock squeaked with each roll, and one of her headsails luffed lightly.On Moonless, suchlapses would earn the mate on watch a sharp reprimand.'Such is the difference between the Kielmark's senior captains, and their underlings,'Maelgrim interjected, as if trying to prompt conversation through the Gierj-link.Corley ignored the intrusion, following only the splash of spray off the bow.He ached;keeping still required an alarming amount of muscle tension.With his attentionimmersed in the rolling wash of the wake, the captain subdued the macabre need to seewhether the shape-changer had evolved any further.Still no effort of will could preventhim from noticing sounds not normal to a ship working on a broad reach.Somethingflopped on the deck by the pinrail, like a fish, but not.Corley felt his skin raise into gooseflesh.He stood sweating until the Dark-dreamer jabbedthrough the Gierj-link and compelled him to look.The captain opened his eyes to unmitigated horror.A half-completed replica of himself laybeyond the ring of Gierj.Hands, feet, face, and forearms, it matched his every detail, evento scars of former battles and the callouses of everyday living.But beyond wrist and neckand ankle, where clothing covered his body, the thing was formless jelly.One handtwitched and touched a deck fitting.Two fingers bent grotesquely, jointless as worm flesh,for as yet neither bone nor muscle supported the structure underneath.Corley's stomach heaved; and even his revulsion triggered growth.The abominationquivered and firmed, its abdomen acquiring the semblance of a rib cage.Sweat tracedCorley's spine.The feeling of moisture trickling over his anatomy detailed the beginningsof an indentation on the shape-changer's back, made visible as it flopped across the deck.Sickened by the mirroring twitch of his nemesis, Corley averted his face.Maelgrim's laughter echoed across the link.'Ah, captain, you begin to understand thenature of Shadowfane's miracles.' Bored with passive observation, the Dark-dreamerreached through the Gierj.He forced his victim to watch while the unfinished shape-changer scrabbled clumsily upright, then advanced on wobbling feet.It crossed inside thering of demons and stopped at the captain's side.Driven to tears of frustration, Corley beheld eyes, acomplete face, identical to his own.'Why?' he gasped, revolted as the thing echoed with aslurred attempt at speech.The Dark-dreamer revelled in the captain's discomfort
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