Chapter 34
His body plummeted downwards for a few breathless moments, then slammed into solid ground. He stirred but couldn’t move. He arms and legs felt like they weighed a ton, and were cold as ice. He wiggled his fingers and toes, and ever slowly, the blood flowed through them again and pin pricks of pain told him that the sensation was slowly returning to them. Soon he was able to push himself up onto his feet. Stars swirled before his eyes. He blinked a couple of times, and realised that they were not stars at all, but bright city lights shining in the distance.
An engine roared right next to him. He spun around to see a hovercar bearing down on him, headlights blazing. He shut his eyes, and braced himself of the impact. Nothing happened. The hovercar went right through him and continued on its way. He patted himself down to make sure that there was no damage, that he was whole and entire. He felt his hands thumping into himself, but there was something different. His skin was numb. It was as though he was wearing several layers of clothing over his bare and exposed arms. He pinchd himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. The pain was dull and distant. Another hovercar’s light-beams flashed at him. He jumped back off the road and onto the pavement. He watched it speed past, then glanced across the street and immediately knew where he was. The iconic archways of the UAC loomed up opposite him. Grey, misty and uninviting - just like everything else around him.
Luyanda crossed the street and made his way to the entrance of the university. There were no holographic displays, no news updates, no flashing announcements. All was dark, dreary and deserted. A cold wind bit into his skin. He noticed it shook neither tree nor leaf overhead, nor did it ruffle his clothing. He pressed on. Now, he began to notice forms walking about in the shadows. Dark forms, distinguishable only because they were darker than the night. Luyanda pinched himself again and shuddered at the muted, far-away sensation. This was no dream. This was real.
Instinctively, he turned his steps towards the museum building. As he made his way past the familiar student centre and library lawns, now shrouded in a dark mist, he went past several shades that did not acknowledge his presence in the slightest. He stopped before a hazy-edged, dark blotch of a person, and waved his hands. The shadow stared straight through him, then took a step forward. The breath caught in Luyanda’s chest as the shadow went right through him and proceeded on it’s way. He spun around and watched it receding noiselessly down the walkway. Was he dead? He was certain that he wasn’t. A few metres away, he made out the open doors of the History Department Building. He took a deep breath and walked right in.
Dark shadows milled about the place. He could make out their voices, distant and echoey, chatting away. Two voices that he recognized came to him out of the gloom.
“Gina! Imtiaz! Guys!”
He made a beeline for the pair of shadows that stood next to each other, talking. They took no notice of him at all. He waved his hands at them, then through them. Nothing happened. They carried on as if he wasn’t there. A cold lump grew in his throat. He sat down on the floor in utter despair.
“I’d ask you to sit elsewhere, but you’re not in anyone’s way, really, are you?”
Luyanda shot to his feet and spun around. It was Keita. He stood before him, whole and entire, unlike everyone and everything else. Flesh, blood and bone. Without a second thought, Luyanda leapt into his arms and hugged him tight.
“It’s good to see you too,” Keita said, disentangling himself from Luyanda’s embrace. “It was getting boring, not being able to talk to anyone.”
“We found Uru. He was after the stone stool. We cornered him inside a pyramid. Then it fell apart. Then he attacked us. He tried to kill Jabu and Nomsa and everyone. We fought, then he became a shadow like me, then he stabbed me…”
“Slow down, Luyanda, slow down. So you said that Uru became a shadow?”
“Yes. It’s that blasted fly-whisk of his. That conferral thing you were speaking about. He could do anything that any of us could do if we were close enough.”
“And he stabbed you while you were a shadow?”
Luyanda nodded.
“That explains why you are here then.”
“What is this place?”
“Don’t you recognise it?”
Luyanda shook his head.
“It’s the Shadow Realm.”
“But I’ve been to the Shadow Realm before. It didn’t look anything like this.”
“That’s because last time you and I were alive. Now, we’re —,” he stopped short, unable to finish the sentence.
Luyanda gulped. His parents’ faces flitted before his eyes. He would never see them again. Never get the chance to tell them how much he loved them, or to tell them goodbye. Tears stung his eyes.
“Now hold on one minute,” Keita said, “I didn’t say we’re dead.I just said we’re not alive.”
“What the hell does that even mean? Either we’re dead or we’re alive. There’s no middle ground.”
“Oh but there is. Have you never heard of near-death experiences? I think this is one prolonged near-death experience.”
Luyanda opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again. He didn’t quite know what to say. Keita patted his shoulder.
“It took me a while to understand it myself.”
“But, how do we get back then? Are we stuck here forever?”
“Definitely not. Come with me. There’s something I need to show you.”
He spun around and marched towards the escalators. Luyanda followed close behind. They got to the top and entered the museum. Everything was exactly the same, only hazy and misty. It was as if a dense fog hung in the air, but was coming from within the artefacts and display cases themselves. Keita knew his way around. He went past the galleries and exhibitions, the offices and the store rooms, and led Luyanda into the warehouse.
Luyanda gasped. There, right against the far wall, sat the stool. It’s chiselled edges shone dully, without the slightest hint of haze or mist about them.
“Remember that?” Keita asked.
“Of course.” Luyanda raced towards it and stretched out his hand to touch it, then froze as he remembered what had happened the last time.
“You can touch it,” Keita said. “Nothing’s going to happen.”
Luyanda gulped down his fear, and picked it up, half-expecting to be jerked off his feet. But nothing happened. He set it down again, and turned to Keita.
“How did it end up here?”
“I brought it. On that last visit. I realised that the best place to hide an artefact would be within a museum. It’s always been here, but on ‘the other side’, so to speak. Even if Uru could access the Shadow Realm, he’d never thought of looking for it right underneath his nose.”
“It seems that I underestimated you at every turn, old man,” a voice growled behind them.
It was Uru.
He stood at the door of the warehouse. Flesh and blood like themselves, his eyes gleamed as he he stared hungrily at the stool.
“At last. The final piece. And it was right here all along. So much time and effort wasted. But it will end here.”
He raised a broad, gleaming sword in his hands, and with a roar, he charged.
Luyanda moved quickly. He grabbed an ancient buckler from the floor, and leapt into Uru’s path. The broad sword came down with a crash on the shield, splitting it in two and sending Luyanda to the floor. Uru sword arm flashed out twice, a loud clang accompanying each vicious stab that he made at Luyanda’s shadow on the concrete floor. But nothing happened. He stumbled backwards, confusion sweeping across his face. Luyanda rose to his feet, and blinked back his surprise. Uru’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced at Keita and the stool. He kicked Luyanda down to the floor, and rushed at Keita.
“No!,” Luyanda screamed. “You’re not going to have it.”
He hurled himself at Uru, wrapping his arms around Uru’s legs. The two crashed onto the floor.
“Keita! Take it and run!”
Uru kicked Luyanda in the rib and rose to his feet. Luyanda clenched his teeth against the pain, and grabbed onto Uru’s ankle, holding on with all his might. Uru roared. He raised his sword arm and plunged the sword deep into Luyanda’s back. White hot pain lanced through Luyanda’s body. He loosened his grip, as every muscle in his back contracted and he keeled over and toppled to his side.
“Luyanda!”
He looked up at the sound of Keita’s voice. He could barely make him out. He reached a hand out to him, but his limbs weighted a ton. He rolled over onto his belly and tried to push himself up onto his knees. The light overhead threw his shadow onto the floor. He stared at the shadow, willing himself to get up, even as the pain in his back brought tears to his eyes and a crushing weight drove him into the ground. He locked his elbows, doing all he could to remain upright, and focused on his shadow. Then, he gasped.
A pair of dark pupils were blinking at him, right there on the floor, where the shadow of his head fell. He jerked his head back, thinking he was hallucinating. The pair of eyes narrowed. Then a face and a neck, skin, and hair materialised right out of the ground.
A dark mist rose out of his shadow and enveloped him. For a second, Luyanda could neither see nor hear anything. Then the cloud lifted. Luyanda found himself seated on the floor. The pain in his back was gone. A man stood before him. He was tall, and the loin cloth around his waist exposed the muscles rippling across his entire frame. Silver amulets jangled on his arms and calves. He held a spear in either arm, and a shock of brilliant white ostrich feathers adorned his forehead. Luyanda’s eyes swept across the room, seeking Uru. He spotted him standing a few feet away, mouth agape, staring wildly at the man.
The man spun on his heel. As he did so, a dark mist shot up his feet, legs and torso, transforming his body into a dark, featureless silhouette. It winged it’s way across the room towards Uru, with a deep, guttural growl. Uru shrieked and backed away, raising his whisk and directing it towards the approaching mist. It had no effect. The shadow grabbed Uru by the throat, and lifted him off the ground. Uru swung his sword at it, slashing this way and that. The blade clanged against the solid black column holding him aloft, sending up showers of sparks. The shadow grabbed Uru’s sword, and ripped it away from his hand.
“Mercy,” Uru gurgled.
The shadow lowered Uru to the ground. At that moment, Uru drew a dagger from inside his robes and stabbed at the shadow. The shadow’s roar of fury sent a shiver down Luyanda’s spine. It grabbed Uru’s neck with both it’s hands, driving him onto his knees before it. A whirlwind of heavy black soot rose out of the shadow’s feet and curtain of silver-black grains engulfed Uru’s whole body, wheeling about and tearing it to shreds, right before their eyes. Luyanda cupped his ears to keep out Uru’s terrible screaming. After one final ear-piercing shriek, Uru’s fly-whisk clanged to the ground, and then there was silence. Uru was gone.
As the shadow wheeled around slowly and scanned the warehouse, the darkness lifted from his body and he resumed the shape and form of a man. His eyes locked on Keita huddled in a corner, staring at him with a gaping mouth. He strode over to him, picked him up like he was a rag doll, and carried him across the room. He dropped him on the floor beside Luyanda unceremoniously, whilst Keita’s teeth chattered aloud.
“Who are you?” Luyanda asked.
“We have met before,” the man answered. “My name is - or was - Lwanda Magere. But that is your name now.”
Luyanda’s eyes widened, and he stared at the man unblinkingly.
“But,” he paused, searching for the words, “then what will your name be?”
“I am just a Shadow,” the man replied. “That’s what you can call me.”
Luyanda nodded slowly.
“What — what about Uru. Is he — is he dead?”
Shadow shook his head.
“No, he isn’t. He’s gone back to the prison where he belonged. He will trouble you no longer. The two of you need to be getting back.”
He hoisted Keita onto his feet. Keita leaned on Luyanda to keep his knees from knocking.
“What about that?” Luyanda asked, pointing at the flywhisk lying on the floor.
“Leave it. It is as safe here as it could be anywhere else. Now it’s time to get you home.”
“Are you also coming?”
Shadow smiled.
“So slow of understanding, aren’t you?” he said, then added, “I have never left your side.”
A dark whirlwind rose out of the floor, whizzing and whirling about them. Luyanda shivered as the ice cold wind pricked his skin. Everything became hazy, and the ground fell away from his feet. A blast of wind roared past him as he whizzed headlong through a tunnel. He was vaguely aware of two figures beside him, shooting along also at a terrible speed. Then, as if breaking the surface of a troubled and stormy sea, the wind suddenly stopped and his back smashed into solid ground.