It was with great relief that they completed the most dangerous open portion of the crossing without incident. Soon they were scrambling up the other side, relieved at having traversed the region of greatest potential jeopardy without difficulty. Success lent strength to their efforts. They were a quarter of the way up the eastern wall and beginning to feel almost safe when brilliant sunlight struck their ascent with unexpected force.
Shielding her eyes, Cocoa whirled to seek the source of the bright light. With his less sensitive eyes, Oskar was the first to spot the squadron of shadows. High up near the opposite rim, they clustered together beneath a protective ledge. The scavenged metal shields they were holding had been polished to a high gloss. The resultant mirrorlike finish flawlessly reflected the rays of the afternoon sun all the way across the gap—to illumine the startled knot of travelers.
Unshackled by the reflected light that struck her body at an unexpected angle, Cocoa's shadow promptly leaped onto her shoulders from behind, avoiding the kwavin that she held high to ward off the sun. Owner and shadow crashed to the hard ground. When Oskar turned to help, he found his right arm pinned behind him while murky grasping fingers sought his eyes. Twisting desperately away from those clawing appendages, he was forced to forget all about Cocoa in the struggle to save himself.
Unused as he was to dealing with a shadow in his original form, Samm was having as tough a time as any of them. The monstrous black cloud he threw to the ground was up again in an instant, grappling for its hulking master's throat. All of them were now fully engaged, forced by the shafts of light thrown across the canyon by the shield mirrors to do battle with the most evanescent constituents of their personal selves.
Oskar was flat on his back, with his shadow on top and threatening to smother him, when it was torn bodily away from his torso. Coughing for air, he sat up and saw Mamakitty raking her much reduced but still effective claws across its featureless face. Something in that silent oval emptiness must have been sensitive, for the shadow reached up and clutched at itself. Utilizing the respite to regain his feet, Oskar saw that a rapidly weakening Taj was having a particularly difficult time with his own homicidal shade. Preparing to throw himself into the fray, the dog-man hesitated. Clearly, something more than brute strength was going to be needed to deliver them from this ghostly encounter.
Reaching back behind him, he removed his kwavin from its bindings. Though damaged in the surprise attack, it still retained its oval shape. Positioning it to protect himself, he stepped between the battling Taj and the light reflected from across the canyon. Immediately the songster's shadow vanished, swallowed up by the shade provided by the kwavin. A grateful Taj rolled to his knees and started to rise.
Whereupon another shaft of light struck him, resurrecting his shadow. It promptly wrapped dark, featureless arms around his legs.
Whirling, Oskar peered anxiously around the edge of his kwavin. Another group of shadows on the opposite side of the canyon had brought forth a second set of polished shields. Clustering on a lower ledge slightly to the south of the first troupe, these dusky new arrivals to the battle were reflecting damning sunlight from a location significantly removed from the first.
Feeling pressure on his lower legs, Oskar looked down to see his own restored shadow fighting to pull him off his feet. When he shifted his kwavin to block the reflected light that was giving it renewed life, it promptly vanished—only to reappear again in the bright ray of light cast by the first group.
No wonder the Great Rift proved such a fearful barrier. Equipped with a protective kwavin, a knowledgeable traveler might well think himself safe, only to be ensnared by lifethreatening sunlight originating from not one but multiple locations. Making their situation even more desperate was the fact that the longer they remained trapped in combat on the canyon wall, the easier it was for the liberated shadows on the far side of the abyss to aim their shields. What might happen after dark in a place where unfettered shadows ruled was something Oskar did not wish to experience.
He considered wrenching Taj's own kwavin from the smaller man's back. Equipped with two of them, he could block both streams of reflected sunlight. Huddled together beneath the twin shields, both men would be safe.
That was when sunshine from still a third cluster of shadow-manipulated shields struck the spot where the embattled travelers were fighting for their lives. Now imported light was creating shadows from not one, but three different directions. Not only did the tri-pronged assault render the use of kwavins for protection almost impossible, it created an entirely new and unexpected source of danger.
Able to block only one source of light, and therefore of shadow, Oskar found himself under attack from not one but two shades of himself.
His kwavin dragged aside, he felt himself go down beneath three entirely independent shadows. The darkness that covered his face had nothing to do with the setting sun that still rode hazardously high in the sky. He struggled to keep their hands off his mouth and nose and away from his eyes. Though he fought valiantly, there were too many of them.
Then one dusky specter suddenly staggered away, its swarthy hands feeling frantically for the colorless head that had been ripped from its clouded shoulders. A second shadow was ephemerally eviscerated, vaporous guts spilling in a nebulous stream from a ragged cleft that had been ripped in its side. Oskar felt warm hands helping him up. He started to thank his savior—only to have the words catch in his throat.
Staring back at him was a black wraith with bright yellow eyes. Yellow-white teeth flashed in an otherwise ebony countenance. Then the wraith-shape whirled to throw itself onto the shadows that were pinning the rapidly weakening Taj to the ground.
A dazed Oskar thought to recover his kwavin and place it between himself and the malevolent light. Counting, he saw that not one but three of the yellow-eyed black phantoms were now scampering among the rocks, tearing into shadows with gusto, shredding them like the smoke they so nearly resembled. Soon every one of them was down; dismembered, disemboweled, or decapitated. They bled coal-black smudge, and died.
Slightly numb, the dog-man stumbled through the evanescent corpses. It stood to reason, he decided. If a shadow could kill a someone, then could not an appropriately equipped someone also kill a shadow? One by one, the streams of mirror-shield-reflected light winked out as the liberated shadows who had been manipulating them saw the terrible carnage that the raven-hued counterattackers had wrought. They were not used to seeing their kind slain, and the shock of it aborted any further attempts to constrain the travelers. In impalpable twos and threes, the shadows on the far side of the canyon slunk back into the depths of abyssal darkness from whence they had come.
One of the avenging wraiths half strode, half flowed up to Oskar and blocked his path. He sensed instinctively that the sword still sheathed at his side would be as useless against this phantom as it had been against the enfolding shadows.
"What do you?" Clenching his fists, he stared at the silent apparition. Slitted yellow eyes and sharp bright teeth were all that were visible in the otherwise featureless face.
Slitted yellow eyes and sharp bright teeth … His expression softened to one of bemused but rising astonishment. He knew those eyes.
"Mamakitty?" he heard himself inquiring uncertainly.
The blackness seemed to undulate and flow before his gaze. At last it coalesced into a shape that was both solid and human—and something more. A weary but triumphant smile split the sweet dark face of the feline woman he knew so well.
"This is how cats do battle with shadows, Oskar. It is something no one but another cat can descry or comprehend. Humans are ignorant of the manner of it, and though they are more perceptive, so are dogs. It's very much a thing particular-peculiar to cats. Do you wonder why our kind are so often likened to shadows, or said to move like them? Special cat magic it is, but it took the threat of these shadows to allow us to find and make use of it once more." Looking down at her left hand, she rotated it slowly, as if
seeing its human shape totally anew.
"This is the work of Master Evyndd." Cocoa had come over to stand alongside her sister feline. "Once more, the essence of our real selves has saved us." Behind her, a jubilant Cezer was going from dead shadow to shadow corpse, whacking each on the head with an open hand, making sure none were faking their unexpected demise. Seeing him at work, Oskar was reminded of a triumphant cat giving the coup de grace to a row of dead rats.
"First Cezer's elongating sword," Mamakitty observed, "and now, when Death threatens utter and complete disaster, this new and unexpected evolvement. I'm starting to feel a little better about our chances of carrying out the Master's wishes." She eyed her much relieved friend intently. "I wonder what special ability he has allowed to lie dormant within you, Oskar, and when it will manifest itself?"
Not knowing the answer, or even if there was an answer, he could only shrug. "If we ever need any old bones, I'm sure I'll be the one to get hold of them. Other than that, I couldn't say."
"Cats and shadows have done battle since both existed," Mamakitty commented. "It was an enormous relief to once again be able to challenge them on their own terms."
Her explanation was salving, but not entirely satisfying. "Then if Master Evyndd left within you three the ability to transform in this fashion, why didn't it reveal itself when Cezer's shadow first attacked him, soon after we entered into this kingdom?"
Her expression turned serious. "All I can think of is that the situation was not grave enough to spark our latent abilities. It leads one to think that one or more of us is expendable, but not all. To provoke the needed reaction, it seems that an appropriately serious stimulus is required."
It was not a reassuring thought. To break the ensuing uncomfortable silence, she turned and pointed to the eastern rim of the canyon that still lay high above the ledge where they stood.
"Let's get out of this place. We don't know if the shadows here are capable of producing other surprises. I don't want to be caught in this deep, dark tear in the ground if they have any more."
The shadows did not. Or if they did, they were too dispirited by the cat-folk's unexpectedly ferocious counterattack to mount them. Still, everyone kept their kwavins close at hand and properly positioned between themselves and the sun.
In fact, when late that afternoon the tenor of the terrain began to exhibit the first subtle but unmistakable shift from unadulterated yellow to yellowish green, Oskar tried an experiment that left them all with much to ponder.
Pausing by the edge of a stream that flowed down a gentle, grassy hill, he deliberately set his kwavin aside and stood, unshielded and unprotected, in the vivid rays of the setting sun. Taj was aghast, and even Mamakitty wondered if their mustachioed companion had suddenly taken leave of his senses.
For his part, Oskar was not too terribly worried. Not with three lethal felines present to intervene on his behalf in case anything went wrong. But as it developed, the conjecture that had inspired his action was proved correct, and there was no need for Mamakitty or anyone else to leap to his rescue.
All around him, trees and bushes and grass and lemon-tinged birds cast shadows on the warm ground. Only he, alone and kwavin-less, stood unaccompanied by an elongated, distorted silhouette. Deliberately, he paced off a small circle. It did not matter where he stood or what direction he faced. Nor was there any visible change when he spread his arms wide. His shadow, a permanent fixture of his life, an unshakable companion of both his human and canine forms, was gone.
"Dead." With the lowering sun directly behind him, he stared at the unshadowed ground.
"So it would seem." Having set her kwavin aside in imitation of her bold companion, Cocoa stood next to him, slowly waving her own arms up and down. "Not only yours, but mine as well, and doubtless all of ours."
"Of course they're dead!" A triumphant Cezer saw no point in belaboring the obvious. "We tore 'em to pieces. Why the long faces? A shadow is of no use. It's a parasite, a carbuncle on the spirit. Me, I'm glad to be rid of mine." He examined the human nails that had once again taken the place of sharp claws. "Next time I'm stalking a bird or a mouse, I won't have to worry about the damn thing giving me away."
Oskar looked at Mamakitty. "Is this permanent, do you think?"
She regarded the small yellow-green stream that ran through the little valley at the base of the hill. "Difficult to say, Oskar. It would seem so, but shadows are resilient things. All I know is that in our own country, after they have been gone for a while, they have a way of coming back to haunt you when their presence is least expected."
He weighed this observation, then nodded slowly. "I'll keep that in mind. Just as I'll remember not to take mine for granted should it ever put in an appearance again." Together, they started down the gentle slope. "I don't suppose a restored or resurrected shadow that had been violently slain would have the sense or inclination to seek revenge, would it?"
Mamakitty's shoulders rose and fell ever so slightly. "Who knows what a shadow thinks? Who knows if a shadow thinks? Best not to dwell on that which we cannot control." She lengthened her stride a little, ignoring the occasional rock that pimpled the hillside. Tripping was something that did not concern her, Oskar knew. Cats did not trip.
She was right, of course. His shadow, all their shadows, were dead, slain in combat. No longer would the dark outlines familiar from birth provide hazy company on a sunny day. By the same token, no longer would they pose a threat—unless they returned, reconstituted by processes he could never hope to understand, and full of…
Full of what? A desire for retribution? Indifference toward what had happened? A sly craving to bide their time? As he loped a little faster to keep up with Mamakitty and the others, he found it hard not to think about the thing she had advised him not to think about. Shadow present or shadow defunct, one thing he did know for certain.
He determined never again, for as long as he lived, to fall asleep in direct sunlight.
THIRTEEN
This time there was no unclimbable wall to mark the boundary between kingdoms, nor a broad and swift river to cross. There was only the small, slow-flowing brook that filled the slight crease in the earth between the kingdom of Yellow and the Kingdom of Green. Their progress through the kingdoms of light continued unabated, Mamakitty noted with satisfaction, and despite their difficulties they had lost not one of their number to hostilities, natural disasters, or magic. She felt confident of their prospects and regretted only the continuing inability to properly clean herself.
Unchallenged and with the way ahead unobstructed, they entered into the Kingdom of Green by the simple expedient of wading across the shallow stream. In the previous traversing of three kingdoms of light, there had always been something of note to observe in the crossing, and this one was no exception. The water on the near side of the stream was distinctively yellow, while halfway across it changed to an unambiguous pale green.
Pausing in the middle of the runnel, a delighted Taj stood with one leg immersed in saffron-hued water while liquid of a distinctly limeish hue eddied around the other. Reaching down, he deliberately swirled some together. They merged briefly before separating out, like paint that refused to amalgamate. As he expected, his slender build cast no shadow upon the rippling surface of the stream. Ceremoniously, he gently set his no-longer-needed kwavin aside. Perhaps some wandering Slevish would find it and be able to make use of it.
"The simplest crossing so far." Raising his great axe, Samm used it to point eastward. "Perhaps for once, we'll have an easy time of it."
"That'd be a nice change." With the water slicking the legs of her pants to her lower body, Cocoa's human, bipedal shape proved more attractive than ever, Oskar noted uncomfortably. He had to remind himself firmly that there was no way she could ever be the bitch of his fantasies.
Even without the expected greenish tint to the air, the territory that lay before them would have cast an emerald glint over everything that lay within. Never had Oskar or any of his
companions seen so intense a forest. All manner of trees, straight and twisted, broad of bole and slim of trunk, slender of leaf or smothered by branches, flourished side by side to create the lush landscape. Beneath them clustered hundreds of varieties of flower and bush, all wrapped in shades of green varying from delicate hints of olive to bold assertions of emerald. Despite the obstacle it presented, the forest exuded an air of exuberant life that had not been present in any of the kingdoms of light they had already traversed.
"There's something about green." Cocoa's eyes were darting from side to side, her senses alert, as they climbed the gentle rise that led from the perimeter creek to the first of the outlying trees. "It's soothing to the soul in a way that yellow or red can never be."
Taj was nodding in response to a private thought. "Restful. Less harsh on the eyes. Easier to conjure—thoughts."
"See?" Samm pointed with his free hand. "There's plenty of room to walk between the trees. It's a real forest, like the Wyzel; not a jungle we have to cut through. Walking in shade all the way, we'll reach the Kingdom of Blue in no time."
Only Mamakitty and Oskar were hesitant to join in the general enthusiasm, refusing to be swayed by what were admittedly heartening appearances. They advanced more slowly than their ebullient companions. From his four-legged jaunts in the company of Master Evyndd, Oskar knew that forests were usually home to more than just trees. Still, it was hard not to be hopeful. Maybe, just maybe, here at last was a kingdom they could cross in comparative peace, without having to fight their way through something or flee from it.
The first thorns struck Cocoa as soon as she entered the woods. Emitting a series of startled yelps, she was hit by more and more of them as she pulled their predecessors out of her arms and legs. When Cezer hurried to her aid, he soon found himself flinching beneath the same barbed barrage.
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