Totentanz

Book 1 Chapter XI: Der Tod

Author's Note: Tumblr user the-dot drew an amazing illustration of a scene in this chapter! Click on the external link to see it.

Warning: major character death (yet again) and violence.

DER TOD
German, "the death"

When everyone knows you're a monster, you needn't waste time doing every monstrous thing. -- Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

Diarnlan forgot one very important detail. The skrýszel was not the only problem she faced. In fact it was the easy part. She knew by heart when and where it would appear. All she had to do was wait for it.

The skrýszel that appeared was not the frog-like one she had killed before. It was the snake-like one with antlers, the one that had killed her in the last lifetime. The memory of its antlers stabbing through her chest distracted Diarnlan from attacking it when it first reached the beach. It had begun to slither towards the village by the time she recovered.

This time she knew to avoid its antlers. She sneaked up on it from behind and above, like she did the frog monster, and stabbed Saungrafn deep into the back of its neck.

She didn't tell anyone she had killed it. Instead she went to Teivain-ríkhon-hrair with a story about seeing its corpse there when she opened the window.

Her teacher examined the body curiously. "This is a stab-wound. Probably caused by a sword. This creature didn't just die; someone killed it."

Diarnlan very carefully did not think about Saungrafn, lying in a corner of her attic under a pile of old clothes. All mages were telepaths, after all. Her teacher probably wasn't going to snoop in her head without permission, but why take the chance?

"Did you hear a fight?" her teacher asked. She poked the skrýszel's antlers with her scythe and watched with interest as its scales flaked off. "I wonder if we can use this in potions."

Diarnlan had a sudden vision of cutting up the skrýszel's body for potion ingredients. On the one hand it was the perfect revenge for it killing her. On the other, she distinctly remembered that skrýszel blood turned acidic within a day of death. Several luckless would-be potion experts had discovered that the hard way in her first life. She considered warning the mage. But how would she explain how she knew that?

"I didn't hear anything," she said instead. "I just looked out the window and there the horrible thing was. It knocked my fence down and crushed my cabbages!"

"None of that would be quiet," Teivain-ríkhon-hrair said. Diarnlan paled. For the first time she realised her excuse had many holes in it. She waited for the pointed questions to start. "Whoever killed it must have cast a spell to reduce the noise. I suppose they thought it was the best way to avoid a panic."

Well, that wasn't what she expected. But if that was what her teacher wanted to believe, Diarnlan wasn't going to correct her.

"The question is, who killed it and how did they do it so easily? The only tracks here are the monster's. And our footprints. If there were any other prints, no one will ever be able to tell them from ours now."

Diarnlan breathed a silent sigh of relief. If even her teacher didn't suspect she was involved, then no one else would either. She could avoid fame and get on with her life.

The mage said, "This might complicate my idea."

A sinking feeling filled Diarnlan's chest. "Idea?" she asked sharply. "What idea?"

"I'm planning to have you -- all of you -- teach students from the academy."

At first Diarnlan didn't think she'd heard right. She stared blankly at her teacher as her mind replayed those words. Again and again she went over them until she finally understood their meaning. "What?"