Shroud

Daniel moved his hand, letting dust fall as a curtain. He swept up the curtain in one hand, then gave it shape in another movement. A cloak. A shroud.

Which soon draped a figure with a hidden face.

"A touch crude," Maricica said.

"I do try," Daniel said. "Very sorry."

Lucy backed away as the shrouded figure moved a bit closer. "Can you come with us instead of this?"

"You'd separate me from what little I have and I have so little. We're expecting to stay two days but we'll probably stay three or four. If those three or four days are paid for in suffering and loss, then… I hate to say it, but it does make this feel more like home."

The shroud advanced toward Lucy. John drew his knife and slashed, and it cut the creature's flesh. Even Daniel seemed surprised.

It reached for Lucy, regardless, and John stabbed it approximately where the heart was meant to be.

The hand continued to reach. It pushed forward, uncaring about its own wound.

She pulled out the hook that Nat had given her, and aimed to pierce the thing's hand.

A hand seized her wrist, and at first she thought it was Maricica. Maricica was standing to her right.

But it was Daniel.

He moved so fast.

Because… he was using the gaps in time?

"Let go of me."

The shroud drew closer, and John stabbed it. It buckled. Lucy twisted, then threw John her knife. "Booker's flame!"

The knife ignited. The shroud was cut down.

*

Lucy leaped in as well, reaching- grabbing.

Only Daniel was no longer there. She reached through mist.

And came face to face with a shrouded figure.

John hadn't had Daniel. John was still four paces away. Maricica was still fallen. Daniel was there, in the background, taking advantage of the fact that everyone's attention was on Lucy.

She had to fight, to avoid letting the thing get its hands on her. Ducking, dodging.

She started to stab with the rapier pen.

"No," Maricica said.

Lucy pulled back, letting the pen fall from her fingers, because she was already so close to stabbing it.

"Back away."

They did back away.

"Touch it, and it conducts emotions to you. Even hurling a stone at you. I cannot easily deal with them. We should only be glad he creates them one at a time, unlike some of that court who make dozens."

Daniel took three long steps backward, and then one to the side.

And then, not even a blur so much as a glimpse, he was gone. Running.

It was John who leaped forward. John tossed something bundled up at Lucy and then he bear-hugged the shrouded figure that was dangerous to touch with even a rapier blade, then kicked the next.

- Back Away 5.1