Chapter 12Phoebe’s advice to us to remain calm and objective was also instantly forgotten, as one of Staurakios’ men immediately fired his pistol, regardless of the metal-grated door that stood between us and the horrible, chimeric thing. It was fortunate that the guns were loaded with single musket balls rather than packed with shot, or we would probably have been faced with several dozen ricochets and lead pellets whizzing around the cubicle like red-hot mosquitoes. As it was, the ball passed through the grating, then through a sheet of glass that immediately began to leak an acrid-smelling greenish fluid, and finally into the creature’s flesh. There was no blood, and no reaction, and as the liquid continued to pour away, the level fell around the thing, exposing the bleached pallor of i
