Shades of Darkness: Chapter Two by Iris Amergin
"Lachesis!"
She sat up and brushed her hair away from her eyes in one swift motion. "Something wrong, Sylvia?"
"I could ask you the same thing. You were tossing and turning...it looked like you were having a nightmare."
"I was." She shook her head. "Perhaps I'm just used to suffering through them. Are you okay?"
Sylvia sighed and gazed at the horizon. "Getting there, I guess." She sighed. "I don't think I'll be okay for a long time, but I'm coping."
Lachesis nodded. "We may as well get moving."
"This early?"
"Do you really want to stick around?"
Sylvia shook her head. "Point taken. Let's go."
Getting used to his new form was proving more difficult than Cuan had expected.
It began, of course, with the fact that he was a crow. Crows matched up to a lot of unpleasant symbolism in the mythology of Lenster--much more so than in the other cultures of Jugdral. And having been raised with his kingdom's legends from the time he was young enough to listen, Cuan was having a difficult time letting go of them and accepting what had happened.
Then there was the matter of flying. When Cuan expressed his reluctance towards learning to fly, Eltoshan had bluntly told him that there was no way he would be able to function in his form if he didn't.
I can't do it, Eltoshan.
Why not? Eltoshan demanded.
I...just...can't, Cuan said lamely.
That's not an answer. Why not?
Cuan fidgeted for a few seconds, avoiding Eltoshan's gaze. Because...I...
Because you...?
I'm...afraid of heights.
Eltoshan cackled loudly, but quickly silenced himself when Elvidner cast a suspicious glance in his direction. You're joking.
I'm not, Cuan snapped. And if you don't shut up--
Sorry, said Eltoshan. It's just that...well, you're the last person I'd expect that from. He shook his head. But you're still going to have to learn this, you know.
I love an understanding friend, Cuan muttered.
Look, it's not that hard. Just get a running start, start flapping your wings, and don't look down. Eltoshan demonstrated. See?
Easy for you to say. Cuan took a deep breath. He mimicked Eltoshan's motions, but as soon as he'd gotten a few feet into the air, he immediately stopped flapping his wings and hopped back to the ground. I can't do this!
Cuan, you were three feet in the air. When you were alive, you were over six feet tall and you never had a problem with that.
Well, I have a problem now, okay?
Eltoshan sighed. I can see that we're going to be here for a while. He stopped, glancing at Elvidner. Maybe not. Looks like we're about to leave.
Leave? Cuan asked. How...do you usually travel?
By flying, Eltoshan said in the patient tone of voice one might adopt when speaking to a small child.
No.
Cuan--
I said NO!
Eltoshan snorted derisively. Fine. Maybe if you ask nicely he'll let you ride on his shoulder.
"So this is Darna..." Sylvia murmured. "Seems like a nice enough place."
Lachesis shrugged noncommittally. Perhaps to Sylvia's eyes, Darna seemed civilized enough, but the Princess of Nodion was used to far more sophisticated surroundings. Compared to the castles of Agustria, Darna seemed so...rustic.
Still, if you had to live in a backwater town in the middle of nowhere, Darna was as good as any--except for that trifling matter of water shortages, it being in the middle of the desert and all...
No, I wouldn't want to live here, Lachesis thought. But I don't have to; Sylvia does. And if she likes it, well, no harm there.
Sylvia was looking at her expectantly. "What now?"
"I guess we find the inn and check in for the night. Are you going to be okay here if I head out for Lenster tomorrow?"
Sylvia nodded. "I'll manage." Her voice took on a sly tone. "Can't wait to get back to your boy-toy, eh?"
Lachesis blushed fiercely and stared at the reins in her hand. "That's none of your business!"
Sylvia smiled. "I'm just kiddin'. Take it easy. I know I'd go crazy if Alec took off on me for a year."
"Finn didn't 'take off,'" Lachesis said icily. "He had responsibilities to his lord and his kingdom."
"And by your tone, I'm meant to be thinkin' that responsibilities are somethin' I'd know nothin' about?" Sylvia didn't even bother to disguise the sting in her voice.
Lachesis glared at Sylvia. "Well, how am I supposed to react to a slur on my lover like that?"
"I didn't mean it that way," said Sylvia. "I guess I don't really know you well enough to have an idea of how far I can push. Sorry."
"And I'm not used to being pushed at all," said Lachesis. "Sorry." She sighed. "Until I left Nodion, I was used to having everything revolve around me. It's not an easy habit to break."
Sylvia nodded. "Consider it dropped." She glanced around and pointed down the street. "Inn's over that way."
As they made their way down the street, Lachesis noticed quite a few stares in their directioneven when obviously pregnant, Sylvia still turned plenty of heads. Sylvia apparently noticed, too; she glared indignantly at one of the men staring at her and snapped, "What, you never seen a pregnant lady before?"
The man turned beet red and disappeared into the crowd. Lachesis snickered. "You never know. Maybe he hadn't."
Sylvia shrugged. "I dunno...it doesn't really feel right to let people look at me like that anymore."
"It might help if you stopped dressing like a dancer, then. I don't mean any offense, but that outfit is practically an invitation for people to leer at you. And..."
"And?"
Lachesis winced. "Well, when you're wearing something like that, you're obviously pregnant, and you don't have a man with you...there's one obvious conclusion..." She stopped, letting Sylvia complete the thought on her own.
"I...hadn't thought of that."
"Well, if you're going to be here on your own for a while, you should probably take it into consideration. No point in asking for trouble, especially when you've got Lynn to worry about."
"Yeah...how long d'you think it'll be before Alec can get out here?"
Lachesis shrugged. "Depends on a lot of things, really. Whether Leptor moves out immediately or sits back and waits for Sigurd to come to him. How many forces are deployed at Velthomer and Barhara. Whether Sigurd can make it in to see the king, and whether the king believes what he says. There's really no way for us to tell. You'll just have to wait and keep an ear open for news from Grandbell."
They stopped in front of the inn and turned their horses over to the stableboy, then entered the inn and booked rooms. Lachesis turned to Sylvia. "We've got a couple hours to kill before dinner. Any ideas?"
"I think I'm gonna go take a nap, if you don't mind."
"Okay. See you in an hour or two, then."
Sylvia nodded and disappeared upstairs. Lachesis watched her go, then headed for the door with a sigh. Perhaps she should follow Sylvia's example; surely there wouldn't be anything in this grimy little dirthole of a town that could possibly hold her interest for two hours...but she was feeling far too awake to sit quietly in her room for a while.
She stepped outside and glanced up the street. There was nothing of interest in the direction she and Sylvia had entered town from, but if she was lucky, maybe she would find something up the other way.
A half hour's exploration at that end of town proved that luck was not with her today.
She was just about ready to give up and go back to the inn when she spotted a small shop tucked between two larger buildings, almost unnoticable under the shadows of its overpowering neighbors. A battered sign was hung by the door, but weather and time had conspired to wear the paint to the point of illegibility.
Well, not like I have anything better to do, she thought. She walked purposefully across the street and pushed the door open.
The shop's interior was as dusty as everything else in Darna--perhaps more so, because at least the streets got the occasional strong wind to blow some of the sand away. Everything in the shop, however, seemed to be hidden under a layer of dust a centimeter thick.
"Everything" mostly consisted of books. Shelves ran from floor to ceiling on all four walls, and every shelf was packed with books. Two tables in the middle of the shop held stacks of books, and the chairs next to the tables were covered with still more books. Choosing a book at random, Lachesis picked it up, but the title was completely covered by dust. She blew the dust from the cover and immediately was hit with a bout of sneezes.
A door opened in the back wall--a door she had managed to overlook, snugged between the bookshelves--and an old man poked his head out. "Can I help ye, miss?"
"Just looking," she said, setting the book down and rubbing her nose. "Although...it's a bit dirty for casual browsing."
"I stopped worryin' about that years ago," the man said, his eyes twinkling. "Haven't had a customer in about that long, y'see."
"Well, maybe if you cleaned it up, people would be willing to give it a look. Nobody likes to be assaulted with sneezing fits when they come into a shop."
"Sharp lass, aren't ye? Don't mince words." He tugged his beard. "There just isn't much market for this sort of thing in Darna, but I'm a bit too set in my ways to move on."
Lachesis looked at the book she had picked up before. "I would think moving would be worth it. You have a lot of classics here...and some of these are hard to find," she added, brushing dust from another cover. "My father spent years trying to find a copy of this one."
"Which?" He glanced at the book. "Ah, yes. Simonides didn' bother to make too many copies of his works, and most people didn' think enough of them to bother--"
Without warning, one of the shelves began to shake violently, spilling several books to the ground. Lachesis gasped, opened her mouth to ask what had happened--
--and as suddenly as it had begun to move, the shelf stopped.
"Wh...what was that?" asked Lachesis shakily.
"Don't know, m'afraid," the man replied. He walked over to the shelf and began to pick up the books that had fallen. "But--odd, really."
"What?"
"This isn't the first time it's happened, y'see," he said. "Happened yesterday as well, and although my memory might be failin' me--certainly wouldn't be the firs' time that's happened--but I'm pretty sure this is the same shelf from yesterday, too."
"That doesn't make any sense," murmured Lachesis.
"Indeed it doesn't," he agreed. "An' it's quite annoyin' to boot. I didn' spend all that time alphabetizin' these books so some spook can come along and knock 'em all down again!" He began to replace the books. "If this happens again tomorrow, I might jus' have t' nail the damned thing to the wall."
Lachesis shrugged. "I suppose. I'd best be on my way."
"Thank ye muchly for stoppin' in. Drop by anytime."
"I'm leaving town tomorrow, but if I'm ever in the area again, I will." She smiled--the practiced smile that she put on for formal events and courtiers she didn't know, the one she never gave her friends--and left the shop.
Damned if I'm going back there again, she thought. That place makes me nervous.
But as she glanced back over her shoulder at the shop, she cou'dn't shake the feeling that there was something important about that entire episode.