Kabir spun the bone staff around so the wicked oil-soaked ends at the torch flames. The cloth collected the flames lovingly as one would scoop up a finch by the legs to perch on to their finger. He spun the staff around and the yellow fires burned and dripped flame onto the stone floor. From across the tomb hallway the shade grew bigger until its legs became as long as palms and the torso a blob upon the ceiling.

The staff spun in his wrists, like a wheel of fire, then he steadied it like a bar, as he crossed stepped so slightly into the open chamber. The shade bent back like a crane as the golden light pushed the darkness away. Karbir watched it carefully, spinning the staff again, daring the shade to make its move.

There was no screech or sound as it scurried towards him like the quickest spider. Legs dangled unnaturally, the feet were sharp points. The unnatural shadow ripped itself from the wall, transforming the way that sand did into glass. He heard the points of the legs hammer upon stone as hammer upon a slab. The shade was as solid as anything he'd ever physically fought in his life.

Kabir shifted to the side, then lunged forward and swung in an arch at the legs to try to topple it. The solid shade bent them at angles like some sort of mantis, and the fire swept under the bridge it created. The creature dropped its body like a boulder from a stone wall. By instinct, he rolled away over his staff, underneath its falling form, only a moment before being crushed beneath.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Rising until he took a knee, he pointed the staff like a spear, the end ablaze at the rounded column that was the body. Springing off his backfoot, he thrusted into the collapsed beast's center, as if he was aiming where the heart would be in such a thing. Fire drilled a hole within, molten and orange, a burrow in which a large rodent would shelter in. The hole expanded tunneling through the dark entity and spread itself outward. Soon the legs of the creature were shaking, and it reeled itself upwards in an attempt to put it out.

Shadow sealed itself over the wound, but it was too slow against the push of the fire. If it had an intelligence, and Kabir realized it must have had a battle instinct at least, it would realize it had made the mistake of taking a solid form.

He moved himself to the far wall, away from the entrances and tunnels that lead down the greater catacombs, and watched the creature slowly be extinguished until it became a pile of ash, then disappeared as a puddle in the hot sun.