Fantom chapter 3, part 3.

   At the side of the cave, where it was lower, drops of mineral rich water dripped down a small stalagtite that was growing there until they reached it’s tip, and then fell on to the point of a small stalagmite beneath.  Ruth found her eyes drawn towards it as the singing began to gain momentum.  
  They sang on.  Drips rolled down the stalagtite ever faster.  Before their very eyes it grew, in a few minutes reaching the size others had taken hundreds of thousands of years to reach.  The water dripped off on to the stone below.  The stalagmite there was growing too, reaching up towards the one above.  Ruth could not take her eyes off it.
  She heard a crack behind her, and turned sharply.  In the middle of the pool a large flowstone stood.  But now it was moving, bulges straightening to give the impression of a head and limbs.  It creaked, reaching out a cold, stony arm.  It rose from the water, drips cascading off it as it straightened up.
   Her voice faltered, and their taskmistress leaned forward menacingly.  “Sing!” she hissed.  Ruth flinched back, but dared not resist.  The music seemed to have gained a life of it’s own, and she kept going almost automatically.  To stop seemed more effort than to continue.
  Her eyes flickered back to the stalagtite and stalagmite.  They were close together now, and as she watched they joined in the middle.  The pillar began to broaden.  Ruth saw a split developing as the base of the column separated into two legs.  Further up two arms were developing.  They began to move. Finally, with a shattering crack, the creature tore itself free from the cave roof and floor, shuffling heavily out into the centre of the cave.  The flowstone creature, also now free of the rock, joined it.  
   The singing died away as they reached the end of the act one finale.  Their taskmistress stepped forward, heels clicking on the rocky floor, to inspect her creations.  They stood in the pool, their heads featureless, their hands and feet undeveloped.  One was tall and thin, the other shorter and bulbus, both were larger than human size.  They looked like horrible mockeries of humas foetuses, Ruth thought, watching them in fear.    The adjudicator had a conductor’s baton in her hand and tapped each of the shapes on her heads, hands and feet with it.  
   The adjudicator turned back to them.  “Act two!” she said.  “And do not stop.”
   They were all weary now, but the threat of the guns compelled them to obey.  As they sang features began to develop on the stalagmite creatures, eyes, ears, mouths, toes, fingers.  All looked strangely squashed and flat, but definately there.  As they reached the finale the tall thin one spread his fingers, and Ruth barely resisted a gasp.  They were flat, and when they were spread they looked like a fan.  But as it held them up Ruth could see that the edges of the fingers were sharp, like the blade of a knife.  The creature closed them with a snap.  Ruth’s over-active imagination imagined what would happen to anything caught between the bladed fingers.  It was nearly impossible to keep singing- she was terrified.
   At last they reached the finale, it’s jolity in sad contrast to the terror the singers were in.  As the dying notes echoed around the cave Ruth heard another noise, coming this time from the two creatures.  Their mouths were open.     The creatures spoke, like the grating of gravel in a a riverbed.  “We are your servants, oh conductor.”  And with that they knelt, lumberingly, before the adjudicator.
   “Fantoms,” the adjudicator said.  “Come to me.”  She ran her hands over their arms, caressing them almost lovingly.  She obviously felt none of the fear that Ruth and the others did.  They looked at each other.  The guards were still between them and the stairs.
   “They will obey me, their conductor,” the adjudicator said.  She raised her conductor’s baton, and the Fantoms stood up.  She began to conduct and they turned and began to lumber towards Ruth and her friends.  
   They shrank back, trying to get away from them, but came up against the wall of the cave.  Ruth felt Patrick next to her, and saw the look of fear in his eyes.  He was as frightened as she was- whatever he had intended by bringing them to the cave, it wasn’t this.  
   The Fantoms were still moving towards them.  The tall one flexed its arms and spread its fingers.  Ruth swallowed as she heard the metallic sound, like a dozen scissors snapping shut.  It was only centimetres from her face.

The story continues...