Totentanz

Book 3 Chapter II: Das Warten

DAS WARTEN
German, "the waiting"

As a sleuth you are poor. You couldn't detect a bass-drum in a telephone-booth. -- P. G. Wodehouse, The Man with Two Left Feet

In all of their lifetimes the two of them had gone practically everywhere on this side of the planet. Diarnlan had seen more foreign countries than she had any use for, and Karandren seemed to be attracted to Miavain as if it was a magnet and he was a piece of scrap metal. Therefore it came as quite a shock when she realised she had seen virtually nothing of Avallot's capital city.

She had vague memories of dying there at the very start of this nightmare. But she'd died in so many places that this hardly made it special. All she could remember of it was seeing the eagle flare in the sky above the tower, the flare that had summoned her to duel Karandren at the end of that first lifetime. Or had it been the second?

Anyway, there was no chance of that being repeated. The flares were meant to summon the Great Mages, and Diarnlan hadn't been one for many lifetimes. Nor did she particularly want to be one again. All she really wanted right now was for the skrýszel to stay away and for everyone to leave her alone. And that, unfortunately, was the least likely thing to happen.

The capital city was built on the slopes of a large hill. At the very top was the military garrison with its watchtower. A little lower was the royal palace with its tower. Lower again, and on the level ground around the hill, was the rest of the city. There was one good thing about its architecture: Diarnlan could see immediately that the city was intact.

She could also see that there was no way in hell she and Karandren alone could create a ward around the entire city. No one could, not even the most powerful of the Great Mages.

Diarnlan looked over at Karandren. He was staring intently at the city gates. She suddenly knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"I bet I could turn those into another dragon statue."

She was right.

"Don't you think that would draw just a little bit of unwanted attention?" she asked dryly.

"So will the skrýszel. And anyway, do you really think we're going to live long enough to have to worry about what anyone says?"

With their luck, he'd probably jinxed it and this would be the first lifetime where they had to deal with the consequences of their actions with other people's property. And unlike when they went to Miavian, not even Karandren could take over Avallot and dodge the consequences that way.

"All right," she said, "but you have to take down the gates single-handedly and answer the guards' questions alone. I'll have no part in it."

Karandren considered this as they continued walking. At last he said, "I suppose the gates wouldn't make a good statue anyway."

Diarnlan sighed in relief.

~~~~

The obvious place to go was the tower at the very top of the hill. From there they could get a clear view of the entire city and everything around it. The only problem was, to get there they had to shove their way through the crowds blocking the streets.

"Why are there so many people?" Karandren complained. "Is it a party?"

The people around them spoke with many different dialects and accents. Diarnlan recognised most of them: they were spoken around the coast. From that it was easy to deduce who these people were. She grabbed Karandren's arm so they wouldn't get separated and pulled him into a mercifully-empty doorway.