Totentanz

Book 1 Chapter XIV: Die Schatten

Warning: contains kidnapping and references to torture and castration.

DIE SCHATTEN
German, "the shadows"

Wie wird man seinen Schatten los? (How can you get rid of your shadow?)
Wie sagt man seinem Schicksal ,,Nein"? (How can you say "No" to your fate?)
Wie kriecht man aus der eig'nen Haut? (How can you crawl out of your own skin?)
Wie kann man je ein and'rer sein? (How can you ever be someone else?)
-- Mozart! das Musical, Wie wird man seinen Schatten los?

At first Karandren thought Diarnlan was just pretending not to recognise him. He fully expected her to draw her sword and attack him. An hour passed. He went out of his way to annoy her. Nothing happened -- although she ground her teeth so fiercely it was a miracle they didn't shatter under the strain.

There was something very strange going on around here. First Diarnlan didn't recognise him. Then she described a monster nothing like any of the ones he'd heard of before. Now she reluctantly allowed him to tag along and still hadn't tried to kill him. This was officially their strangest lifetime so far. No doubt it would end in their deaths just like all the others. But in the meantime he could take advantage of Diarnlan's newfound tolerance -- or amnesia -- to annoy her.

"Why are you hunting a monster alone?"

She didn't answer. Karandren didn't expect her to. He spoke mainly for the amusement of seeing just how far he could push Diarnaln before she snapped.

"You can't search in all the places it could be. It could have doubled back on its trail. Maybe it's watching us somewhere and laughing at us."

Amazingly that prompted a response. "Monsters. Don't. Laugh."

That was debatable. Karandren had been called a monster quite frequently in his earlier lives and he had certainly laughed about it. "How do you know?"

Diarnlan said nothing and walked faster. Unfortunately for her she wasn't used to this sort of terrain. Every few minutes she stumbled over an uneven patch of ground. Her feet must hurt, but she refused to react outwardly to the pain. She didn't even let her stride falter. Karandren would have been impressed if he wasn't so busy making a nuisance of himself.

"How do you plan to kill the monster anyway? It'll fight back." And then we'll get killed, and the whole thing will start all over again. "You'll have to sneak up on it. Do you think we could set a trap? Maybe we could catch it in a net!"

Diarnlan threw a silencing spell at him. For the next half hour Karandren struggled to remove it while also keeping pace with her. Once again he discovered the drawbacks of being fourteen. Not only did he have less magic than he should, he had much shorter legs than he was used to.

In the meantime the scenery changed around them. No longer were they in the bare, stony terrain that surrounded the mountain. Instead they were crossing a stretch of moorland covered with heather. It would have been a nice place for a picnic. It was not such a nice place for people hunting a monster. On the bright side there was nowhere for a large animal to hide -- but then again, there was also nowhere for them to hide if it appeared.

Karandren paused several times to examine plants that were out of place -- mostly tropical flowers and berries that only grew in the western part of Avallot. He never had a chance to look at them for long. Diarnlan did not share his curiosity about odd flora, and she wouldn't wait for him to study them. He could have stopped anyway -- it wasn't as if she could get out of sight on such flat terrain -- but he didn't intend to give her any chance to slip away from him.

At long last he managed to break the silencing spell. "I think there are flower spirits around here."

Diarnlan startled briefly, but recovered and continued walking as if he hadn't spoken. Karandren would honestly have been more surprised if she had answered.