The entourage stopped and turned to her at once, as though every hunter was one living organism with dozens of limbs. All their eyes fixed to her, and Mouse realized that they were pure gold, with no pupils or irises. Their blank expressions chilled her.
“Please, there was a creature on the trail. It attacked me,” she cried. She held out her ripped sleeve. The rider in the front drifted to her, leaning down from his horse to inspect her. His movements were jerky, more automaton than man.
“Where was it?” he asked. His voice was paper-thin.
“Further up the path,” Mouse said, pointing behind her in the opposite direction from where Thornwood and the tiger hid. “I was not sure what to do, but then I saw you. Can you help me?”
The rider ignored her question, turning back to his entourage. “This way.”
The others jostled back to life, wheels on a train moving in tandem. Thornwood and the tiger were in the perfect place to attack the group from the side, but she still wanted to give them more time. Mouse rushed out in front of the first rider, her hands outstretched.
“Please,” she said before something sharp stung her cheek from her chin to her eyebrow. She gasped, putting her hand to her face. The first rider raised his horsewhip again.
“Stand aside,” he said.
She straightened. “Bloody Dewhursts,” she whispered under her breath.
With a sneer, the rider struck at her again. Mouse caught the switch in her hand, and the sting radiated through her arm. When the rider tried to pull it back, she held on, gritting her teeth against his strength.
A bellowing roar rocked the woods behind the hunters. The horses bayed, rising on their invisible hind legs before falling back down again. The men on the ground dove aside to avoid them, only to fall directly into the path of other horses.
Mouse yanked the whip from the first rider’s hands, taking advantage of his distraction. He turned on her, but before he could lunge, Mouse brought the switch down on his horse’s rear. It charged forward, and the rider doubled over onto his back, barely holding on to his mount. She threw the whip aside and bolted into the trees just in time to see the tiger pounce from its hiding place next to the party. It took down two riders at once. The creature pinned one down by the chest and took hold of his neck in its jaws.
The tiger turned on another just in time to avoid a spear. It morphed into its wolf form, biting down on one of the hunter’s arms. The entire limb came off. Another spear flew. This time it hit its mark, embedding itself in the wolf’s back. A lifeless cheer went up from the hunters. The celebration only lasted a moment before the creature shifted again. Its bear form was even larger than it had been before. One of the footmen scrambled back. The bear caught sight of him, reached out with its paws, and cut a gash as wide as a tree trunk along his chest. He crumbled.
The front rider flew back into the fray, his weapon held at eye level. His war cry reverberated through the woods. The bear rose to its hind legs with its arms outstretched. Its gaze narrowed in on the rider. It lifted its arm as though to swing, its claws gleaming with blood. When the rider was close enough to touch, the bear diverted course and caught the horse in the shoulder. The horse screamed and bucked wildly. It threw the rider, and he landed with a crunch on the path. As the rider rose to his feet, his horse dashed off the path into the woods.
The bear circled, and the rider snatched his spear from where it had landed. Eyes locked, they charged at each other. Mouse shut her eyes just before they met. When she opened them, all the riders were gone. Instead, a fine layer of golden dust coated the bark, leaves, and stone. The creature stood in the middle of the path, flashing quickly from tiger to wolf to bear. A spear jutted out from its shoulder.
Mouse went to meet it. It cried out when it saw her, flashing through its forms even faster.
Thornwood rushed up the path. “I think that did it.”
“Help me pull this out,” Mouse said, gesturing to the spear.
He took a step back from her. “Did you see what that creature just did to those spirits?”
“Yes, of course I did. How could I miss it?”
“You are not going anywhere near it.”
“The animal has suffered long enough because of the Dewhursts. I’m not going to stand by and do nothing.”
Thornwood rolled his eyes. “You and your mortal sense of morality.”
Still, he remained at her side as she approached the creature, his lips pressed into a distrusting line.
The creature growled. Its tongue trailed along its new wound as it morphed into its different forms. Deer and boar emerged in its transformation cycle, as did the slight outline of a fox. The lines around Thornwood’s frown deepened.
Mouse crept closer. The creature eyed her warily. It shifted back to a tiger.
“Wait,” Thornwood said. He held his hand out. New shoots of grass and wildflowers emerged from between the cobbles, growing around the creature’s body. The tiger sank into the bed the plants created. “It isNepeta cataria. Catnip.”
“You have full access to your power again?”
“It’s coming back slowly.”
Mouse kneeled next to the tiger. Taking hold of the spear shaft, she pulled. It squelched, and Mouse could feel the sickening release of pressure through the wood as it left the wound. The creature sank further into the grass.