Totentanz

Book 1 Chapter X: Durcheinander

Warning for major character death (yet again), violence, and gruesome injuries.

DURCHEINANDER
German, "confused; muddled"

Is it better to have your life ended by someone who hates you or someone who loves you? -- Laura Sebastian, Ash Princess

Diarnlan had visited Byuryan exactly once in her first life. She had been sixteen and on holiday with her family. Her clearest memory of the place was how hot it was and how it was overrun with bugs. She didn't know what sort of magic was practiced there. She didn't know if magicians were respected like in Avallot or viewed as frauds like in Cighis. She didn't even know what currency they used or if anyone there spoke Avallese.

In hindsight, perhaps fleeing here in such a hurry was a very bad idea. She should have at least waited a day to do some research on the place she was going to. Then she remembered the skrýszel attack, and she grudgingly accepted she had made the best of a bad situation.

It was less than two days' journey to Byuryan when the weather was good. Diarnlan spent most of the trip on deck. She studiously avoided the other passengers when at all possible. Questions about who she was and where she was going were the last things she needed. She hid Saungrafn in the wardrobe in her cabin to avoid exciting alarm or suspicion.

The ship did not have a library. She couldn't do any research on board, and she certainly wasn't going to ask anyone. So she spent the hours staring over the ship's side and imagining what sort of creatures lurked just below the water's surface.

The only important discovery Diarnlan made on the trip had nothing to do with her destination and everything to do with her magic. For someone who had lived most of her adult life beside the ocean, she was a very poor sailor. Within minutes of the ship leaving the harbour she had to cast a spell to ward off seasickness. It wore off less than an hour later. That was how she discovered her magic was much weaker now than it had been when she died.

Yet more evidence in favour of time-travel, she thought.

On the ship no one heard any news of the skrýszel. Most of the passengers were from the capital city, which hadn't been affected by the attack, and didn't even know yet that there were such things as skrýszel. That all changed the minute the ship reached Cuengüito Harbour.

Merchant vessels travelled back and forth between Avallot and Byuryan every day. They were much faster than ships carrying passengers because they usually contained perishable goods; delivering their cargo quickly was all-important. And unlike passenger ships they usually went to the nearest Byuryan city instead of to the capital itself, saving themselves more than forty miles. They spread the news of the attack long before Diarnlan and her fellow passengers arrived. It spread like wildfire across the country. Within a matter of hours it reached Cuengüito, the capital, and within a day it was talked about in villages on the other side of the country.

Diarnlan, blissfully unaware of what awaited them all as soon as the ship docked, took Saungrafn out of the wardrobe and wrapped it up in her coat. It was amazing how a sword could give the impression of being disgruntled. Saungrafn refused to react to her presence. At the back of her mind she felt a faint hum of displeasure.

"Stop that," she said. Then she face-palmed. Talking to a sword? She might as well just check into the nearest asylum.

Luckily Byuryan was so hot that there was nothing really unusual about carrying a bundled-up coat. Most of the other passengers were doing the same. Diarnlan did her best to make herself invisible as she waited for the gangplank to be lowered. So far no one had tried to talk to her. She wanted to keep it that way.