[coronatiger]

14th of Tityra, year 412 (continued)

Packing up my belongings, I couldn’t help but notice the green and purple parasol that was strapped to my backpack. I asked Xipil if he would do me the favor of analyzing its magic properties. It purportedly granted invisibility to the person using it, but having seen how Xipil’s wish had been twisted by the Mog’s dark humor, I was rather pessimistic about how useful my parasol would be. I said there was no rush since I didn’t foresee any need to turn invisible in the near future. I had managed well enough before without that ability, and I couldn’t think of anything we’d encounter in the desert that would require it. I could tell Xipil was eager to figure out how the parasol worked, though.

Wolfram turned into a giant bear and we loaded him up. The camels I had acquired for Yana and me easily carried both us and our packs, so that was a little bit of weight that Wolfram didn’t need to carry. Xipil plotted our course, and then we were off. For being this late in the year, it was excessively hot in the desert, almost unpleasantly so.

It didn’t take long before we found the corpses of the two thieves Grogg and Xipil had killed. Wolfram stopped by the dead camel and I warned him not to eat it. He didn’t listen to me, but nudged Grogg towards the carcass. Grogg drew an axe and chopped the head off the camel, but when Xipil spelled out that the reason why I didn’t want Wolfram to eat the camel was because it was full of venom, the slow-witted bear understood and started to walk again. Xipil tasted the thief leader’s blood, which was easily accessible through the man’s shattered ribcage. The lizard man won’t eat meat, but he doesn’t mind blood. Why hadn’t I seen the inconsistency in that before?

Sunset came early, or at least it seemed so. We’d had a late start today. Xipil asked how long we would keep going, to which I replied that I didn’t think we should risk anyone breaking a leg in the darkness. The terrain was so flat that we could make camp anywhere, but with rocks of varying sizes strewn about, an unfortunate misstep might hamper our ability to travel, especially if it was Wolfram who was unlucky.

We erected our tents and watched the last bits of the sun dip below the horizon while we ate our evening meal. Xipil asked if he should study the parasol now. I fetched it from my tent and handed it over.

Wolfram warned us that we were approaching the time of year when he needed to sleep longer than usual. It wasn’t quite so bad as not waking until spring, but he might not wake in a few days when the hibernation took him. This might not happen in another month, but he wanted us to be prepared and not freak out if we couldn’t wake him. I suggested that we got into the habit of having Wolfram on the first night watch, in case we couldn’t get him up. Since we sat down, Yana had echoed my yawns, so I declared that we were going to bed. Xipil asked if he should wake me when he figured out how the parasol worked, but I said to let us sleep until it was time for our watch.

O Ashtar! We surrender our lives to Your coils. Take us while we sleep, or grant us another day in Your service, as You will.


15th of Tityra, year 412

O Ashtar, Mother of Snakes, Keeper of Death’s Door, hear my confession!

I was careful not to wake Yana when Xipil came to tell me it was my turn at the night watch. I exited the tent, rubbing sleep from my eyes. Xipil had finished the analysis of my parasol, and he said it held two spells. One allowed the wielder to turn the parasol almost invisible, another turned the wielder invisible if the parasol gave shade from a light source. I put it away. If there were as nasty side effects on this as on Xipil’s hood, I wasn’t going to jeopardize our party by experimenting alone.

Xipil sat down to meditate under the stars for a while before turning in. I walked a slow circle around the campsite, so I could look in all directions. Grogg or Wolfram might be tall enough to look over our tents, but I certainly wasn’t. After a while, I noticed a small animal watching our campsite from a distance, but when it became aware of me, it scurried away. When it was time for the next person to keep watch, I went inside my tent and woke Yana. I informed her that nothing had happened worth mentioning, and listed who had already done their duty this night, so she would know who not to wake when she was done.

Movement inside our tent made my eyes pop open, but it was only Yana, returning from her watch. Our eyes met and I lifted the blanket to welcome her back. She gave me a hug and a peck on the cheek before turning around, squirming enticingly against me while seeking that comfortable sleeping position.

We woke again when the sun rose and started broiling the landscape. Nobody was in a rush to get moving, so we took our time making breakfast and chatting over the food. Hylda thought the quiet around us was suspicious, and Xipil asked if anyone had seen or heard anything during the night, so I mentioned the little animal I had glimpsed. It had been too far away for me to identify.

Every step we took brought us closer to Pak and Groman and their aura of death. I could tell Xipil was worried about encountering malevolent spirits, for he wore the spirit-seeing ring over his eye. I was far less concerned myself, and I enjoyed the ride. Yana and I had fleshed out our sign language sufficiently to have simple conversations with our hands, and even when we had to resort to spoken words to convey a message, we talked only of light matters. Your gift would tell me when it was time to worry, but I didn’t fault Xipil for taking precautions.

When we continued after our stop for lunch, I got out the parasol and opened it. My first thought when I blocked the sun was that it felt lovely to be in the shade. Then I realized I was invisible. The camel and the parasol were still there, but the hand that held the parasol was gone, as was the rest of me.

Yana stared at me and Xipil asked what she was seeing. She oozed discomfort. My invisibility was an illusion, and the Mog’s illusions were as frightening as Xipil’s were to my dear Yana. I used the clever spring-load mechanism to close the parasol again. Yana had grown used to seeing Xipil’s illusions, and she didn’t completely freak out, but she was clearly relieved when I became visible again.

Yana wanted a talk about this, and I promised that we would have it in the near future. I wasn’t going to use the parasol again before we’d had our talk, but Yana explained that it was the surprise that had gotten to her. If I handled the parasol, preparing to use it, she knew what to expect now, so she wouldn’t deny me its power if I found it necessary. I didn’t want to put Yana through the torment of illusions, so I decided to experiment when she had gone to sleep, and then keep it stowed away until there was need for it again.

When the sun was setting and Xipil suggested that we stopped for the night, Wolfram seemed eager to continue into the darkness. Xipil told him we weren’t going to reach the lake tonight even if we did push on, and Wolfram agreed to stop. We made our camp and had our evening meal. Wolfram and Xipil remained outside when the rest of us retreated to our tents.

Yana and I got ready for bed and lay down facing each other. We had the promised talk. We could have said all we needed to in less than a minute: Yana insisted that she wasn’t terrified by my invisibility; she just wanted to see my beautiful face. I countered with a promise not to use the parasol needlessly. For some reason, the talk dragged out. After a while, I suggested that we used our sign language to carry on the whispered conversation, so we could practice, but Yana wouldn’t let me remove my hand from her breast.

We were still talking when Xipil came to wake me for my watch, and I was surprised that we had talked for three hours. Xipil gave me the spirit-seeing ring to hand over to the next guard. I passed it to Yana immediately and told her to get some sleep.

It wasn’t difficult to figure out how to activate the parasol’s own near-invisibility. I didn’t even have to open it, I just had to concentrate for a second. Concentrating so intensely was physically draining, and the invisibility only lasted around ten seconds. I might keep it up for a minute or two before I was too tired to do anything but lay down and breathe.

When I had wrought all the secrets from the parasol, I put it away, as I had promised I would. I stayed on watch duty for another hour, then I woke Yana so she could take over.

O Ashtar! We surrender our lives to Your coils. Take us while we sleep, or grant us another day in Your service, as You will.