The Shadow

"Meggie bent over the book on her lap. The letters seemed to dance on the pages. Her tongue felt like a little animal that had found refuge in her mouth and was now butting its head against her teeth.
'Capricorn had many men,' she began. 'And every one of them was feared in the surrounding towns and villages. But there was one who was feared even more than Capricorn's villains.' Meggie felt as if her voice was growing stronger with every word she read. It seemed to grow until it filled the arena. 'Folk called him the Shadow. He came only when Capricorn called him. Sometimes he was red as fire, sometimes gray as the ash to which fire turns all that it devours. He darted out of the earth as fast as flames lick their way up wood. His fingers and even his breath brought death. He rose before his master's feet, soundless, faceless, scenting his way like a hound on the trail and waiting for his master to point to the victim. He was immortal, invulnerable, and pitiless, like his master.'
Meggie's voice died away as if the wind had blown it from her lips.
Something was rising from the gravel that covered the football field. It grew taller, it stretched its ashen limbs. The night air suddenly stank of sulfur. That stench burned Meggie's eyes so that the letters blurred, but she must go on reading while the eerie creature grew taller and taller.
Meggie read on as the Shadow stood, watching her. The figure had no face, that was true, but it had eyes, terrible eyes, red as the embers of a hidden fire." -Cornelia Funke "The Shadow" Inkheart

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