Some smiled, a few wore expressions of concern, and many waved. But only with one hand, for the others were occupied in holding tight to the ingeniously decorated shades that now were everywhere in evidence, shielding them from the rising morning sun.
Admiring the deft pattern that had been woven into it, Oskar toted his own screen effortlessly, balancing it on his left shoulder as he led the way out of the village. Against their own judgment, Princess Ourie's advisers had drawn the foolhardy travelers a map showing the easiest route to the Kingdom of Green. This help notwithstanding, they would still have to find a way safely across the Great Rift.
He could hear Mamakitty and Cocoa chatting behind him. Cezer and Samm discussed what they were likely to find in the next kingdom while Taj happily inspected each new plant or creature they encountered. The songster had developed an inexplicable interest in biology.
As soon as they were out of sight of the village, Cezer promptly tossed his shade into the nearest bush. Mamakitty eyed him disapprovingly. 'Useful or not, that was a gift.'
'Fssst, a useless one.' Spreading his arms wide, the swordsman danced a small circle, soaking up the rays of the early morning sun. 'Look at me—I'm dying of sunstroke!' He lowered his arms. 'You lug the ridiculous-looking things around if you want to. I've got better things to do with my hands.' Cocoa immediately moved to the other side of Mamakitty.
As the morning wore on, Cezer suffered no apparent ill effects from traveling without one of the Slevish's skillfully woven kwavins. Nor did any harm befall him all the rest of that day or night and on into the following morning. Oskar was beginning to wonder if the undefined danger of which Ourie had spoken so sincerely was a threat only to the Slevish and the other permanent denizens of this land. At that very thought, a sharp yelp from the cat-man caused him to halt and whirl.
Cezer was lying off to the side of the trail they had been following, writhing and convulsing in the pale yellow grass. A dark rope was wrapped around his neck. His teeth were clenched and his expression distorted. So tight was the black stripe around his throat that he could not even utter a curse.
Being the closest to him, Oskar and Taj arrived simultaneously at his side, only to see that the sooty material clamped around his neck was not a rope but a shadowy arm. This was attached, a stunned Oskar saw, to a shadowy shoulder, which in turn emerged from a shadowy torso topped by a shadowy face utterly devoid of expression, as well as anything with which to give birth to an expression. Cezer was caught in the murderous, unyielding grasp not of a shadowy form, but of a shadow itself.
His shadow.
'Look out!' The two men barely had time to jump aside as Samm arrived. The head of his immense axe preceded him by a second or two, descending in a violent arc that caused the entrapped Cezer's eyes to bulge wider than ever. As the axe head slammed into the earth with a muffled boom, a slight shudder passed through the shadow-shape, as if it were a ripple of pond water racing away from a cast stone. Quickly regaining its discrete outline and former strength, it resumed its lethal pressure on the struggling Cezer's imprisoned windpipe.
Oskar drew his sword, only to find himself pushed aside by Mamakitty. Uttering a primordial growl, she leaped at her friend's traitorous shadow. She never reached it. At the same time she left her feet, she also cast her kwavin aside. Thus liberated, her own shadow (and it was unmistakably hers, Oskar was able to note even in the frenzy of the moment) reached out with both arms and tackled her around the ankles. Hitting the ground short of her objective, she rolled onto her back, clawing at the opaque shape. Not only was she unable to reach Cezer, she now found herself locked in a battle with the spasmodic, twitching attempts of her own shadow to slip its supple, dark fingers around her unprotected neck.
Frantic thoughts rushing to and fro within him, Oskar beckoned for Cocoa and Taj to stay back. 'Samm, over there! Never mind your weapon—just stand over there!' He pointed to a spot on the ground.
'What?' For a snake, Samm was exceptionally bright. It was not his fault that all serpents are notoriously slow on the uptake.
Oskar rushed to the indicated place himself. 'Here! Stand right here, next to me!' While changing his position, Oskar was careful to keep his own artfully woven kwavin positioned between the sun and himself. As a result, the only shadow he cast was the one produced by the smooth, oval, inoffensive shape of the kwavin. His own specter, rebellious or otherwise, remained contained within him.
Taking up a mystified stance alongside the much smaller man, Samm and his own far larger, custom-made kwavin blocked not only their owner but also everything that fell within their oversize shadow from the sun's rays. As artfully adjusted by Oskar, this shadow fell over and neatly eclipsed the struggling Cezer and Mamakitty. Swallowed by a shadow shape greater in extent than their own, the two insurgent individual shades found themselves instantly washed out of existence.
With the dark arm that had been wrapped so savagely around his neck expunged, a gasping Cezer was finally able to sit up. Head turning, eyes darting, he searched in vain for his assailant. Next to him, Mamakitty had risen to her feet and was brushing dirt and grass from her pants. Careful to keep her own kwavin properly positioned, Cocoa handed Mamakitty the one she had just tossed aside.
Hissing an ancient and venerable cat curse, Cezer accepted Taj's offer of a hand up. Vertical once more, slowly rubbing his neck with one hand, he gazed in confusion at the ground where he had been lying.
'What was that thing—some kind of local spirit?'
'Not a spirit, and not local.' Stepping past him, Oskar reached out to grab the other man by the arm. 'Don't move!'
The swordsman frowned at his friend, but without malice. He was too shaken by the recent attack to protest vigorously. 'Why—what's wrong?' He looked around wildly. 'It's not coming back, is it?'
'Not unless you step out of Samm's shadow,' Oskar informed him seriously.
'Out of—?' Cezer hesitated, glanced at the hulking form of the giant standing nearby, his oversize kwavin resting against his broad shoulder, and then turned back to Oskar. 'Why? What's Samm's shadow got to do with it?'
'It's a bigger shadow than your own. Big enough to swamp yours.'
'Mine—?' For the second time in a very short while, the cat-man's eyes widened. 'Are you saying that it was my own shadow that attacked me?'
'No,' Oskar replied grimly, 'I'm saying that it was your own shadow that tried to
'But this is such a charming realm,' Cezer protested. 'It doesn't make any sense.'
'Who are we to say what makes sense in kingdoms each lit by a single color?' Sounding uncommonly authoritative, Taj freely but carefully twirled his kwavin on its supporting pole. 'Myself, I like this place as much as anyone.'
'You would,' Cezer muttered. 'Your original color fits right in, and high-flying birds cast no shadows. You could live here.'
'Not in this form. Just because a country seems benign doesn't mean it is.' The songster slowly eased his kwavin off his shoulder. 'There, see!' He pointed sharply.
Sure enough, a hand could be seen emerging from the otherwise smooth, curving edge of the kwavin's shadow where it no longer shaded Taj's free hand. The clutching fingers vanished as soon as he readjusted the kwavin's position against his back.
'This is a land of bright yellow sunshine. Except on the occasional cloudy day, such light makes for shadows that are long and strong. Strong enough to want to exist on their own, it seems, free of their original masters. Haven't you ever looked at your shadow and wondered if it had thoughts of its own, or a desire to jump about independent of your movements?'
Cezer kicked irritably at the warm ground, wishing for something to scratch on. 'I'm a cat. Of course I've had those thoughts about my shadow. They were just for play, though, as all shadows are.'
'Not the shadows here.' Chancing a quick peek around the edge of his own kwavin, Oskar saw that while the sun's position in the sky was dropping, it still had a ways to go before it would be safely set. No sun meant no homicidal, independent-minded shadows, he felt. Or would a fuller moon than the one that had illuminated the night
