The Dead Have No Shadows (15 page)

Instead of walking diagonally across the square, past the dolphin fountain, they kept close to the houses.  Pester continually scouted ahead to make sure that Mickey and Elena were not walking into any waiting trouble.  They waited at each junction as Pester checked ahead for them.  This way they out-flanked the gang that Pester had seen earlier.

They saw no-one else until they reached the edge of the village.  The three of them were close to stepping out of
Koprno
and into the wasteland beyond, a step which Mickey and Elena wouldn’t be able to retrace, when
Janic
emerged from a doorway and blocked the path.  He stood, feet spaced apart, slapping an iron bar into the palm of his hand.

“You brought dishonour on my name, stranger,” the old man said.  “You did not show me respect.  For this I will take my daughter back and marry her to someone who will respect my name.”

Mickey’s leg was still stinging from the poultice and he was in no mood for fucking about with this old fool.  As he stepped forward he felt a hand on his arm.

“Do not hurt him,” Elena ordered.  “He has his ways but he is still my father and I love him.”

This gave Mickey pause for thought.  Despite the way that
Janic
had treated his daughter she still cared about him.  This was something that Mickey hadn’t been able to claim from the relationship with his own father.  He gave Elena a barely perceptible nod and continued forward. 
Janic
lifted the bar in threat but Mickey caught it on the upswing.  He easily yanked the bar from the old man’s hand and threw it aside.  Without his weapon all courage drained out of Elena’s father.

“I’m leaving now,” said Mickey.  “And Elena is coming with me.”  He paused and looked towards Elena who was watching him with a little trepidation.  Mickey realised that he sounded like both
Janic
and his own father.  He softened his tone.

“She’s coming because she can, not because she has to.  She’s coming because she has the courage to do what she should be doing - what’s right.”

These words seemed to diminish
Janic
Kovacs.  The old villager tried to argue but couldn’t find the words.  He chose to act instead and tried to rush Mickey reaching for his throat.  The younger man easily slapped the offending hand down and sidestepped the charge. 
Janic
tripped and sprawled in the dust.

Mickey’s anger flared and he dropped to one knee.  “I could end your miserable existence here and now, you sad little man” he hissed.  Then he stood and turned to Elena.  “We’re going.”

Mickey shuddered inwardly at the venom in his voice.  He didn’t mean to speak to Elena like that.

Elena hesitated then walked forward slowly.  She knelt and hugged her father.  She placed a light kiss on his cheek and tasted tears.

“
Goodbye Papa.  I love you.
”  Her own tears began to flow.

Janic
tried to answer but only managed a croak.  Elena stood up and stepped over the threshold of the village where she had lived and died into the wilderness.  This act of finality evoked a strangled sob from
Janic
and he scrambled to his feet and made as if to follow his daughter.  Mickey stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Go home to your wife,” he said softly.  “Go home and take care of her for the rest of your days.”

Mickey turned and stepped out of the village, joining Pester and Elena for the next stage of their journey.

Elena looked back.  Somehow the village seemed faded.  She imagined that if she stood there long enough she would see it get thinner and thinner, becoming transparent until it finally disappeared.  It reminded her of a story that her mother used to tell her about a magical kingdom that only appeared when the king was needed to right some wrong.  Thinking of her mother made Elena try to take an involuntary step back towards the village.  She found that her feet wouldn’t move.

“Tell her that there really is no going back,” said Pester.

Mickey passed the message on.  Elena sighed, turned around and wiped her tears from her cheeks.

“This way then,” she said and set off towards her destiny.

Mickey and Pester watched for a few moments then set off after the girl.

They had left
Koprno
by walking into a stand of dead fruit trees.  Wizened oranges littered the ground or clung weakly to the brittle branches.  Mickey realised that this was the closest thing he had seen to life since he had arrived.  It accentuated the starkness of everything else around them.  The small orchard opened out onto the rest of the valley.  The area looked post glacial.  The mountains were lower than before and their sides were smooth and curved out from the valley floor.  The path ahead was strewn with boulders that looked as if they had been dropped in handfuls by some ancient giant at play.

Along the way, were more cairns of the bones of those who had fallen by the wayside.  For Mickey it served to remind him that there was no guarantee that he and Elena would reach their journey’s end.   For Elena, who hadn’t seen these before, it brought home the enormity of her decision to leave
Koprno
.  She was shocked by the starkness of the small shrines and thought of the bandstand.  That image hardened her resolve and she forged ahead.

Mickey caught up with her and tried to make conversation.  The exchanges were brief with more effort coming from Mickey than Elena.  She didn’t strike Mickey as being rude, just detached.  The day had been quite eventful; Elena had a lot to take in.  Perhaps she would open up with time.

The day soon began to grow old.  Shadows lengthened, creating shade against the largest of the rocks.  It suddenly occurred to Mickey what he had found odd when he and Pester had visited his old school.  Though the valley was becoming more shaded the shadows of the three travellers were absent.

Mickey had started to lag behind a little because of his sore leg.  He increased his pace and hobbled up to Elena.

“What’s missing?” he asked her.

Elena looked around her.  “Animals? Birds?”

“Yes.  But there’s something else.  Look closer,” Mickey replied.

Elena looked exactly where her shadow should have been and saw nothing.  Neither did she see that it wasn’t there.

“I do not know,” she said eventually.  “What is it?”

“No shadows,” said Mickey.  “We don’t have any shadows.”

“The dead have no shadows,” Pester said, nonchalantly.

Elena stood transfixed.  In two years of being dead she’d never noticed this.  It was something that just hadn’t occurred to her, or anyone else in
Koporno
for that matter.

Realisation suddenly dawned on Mickey, though it should have been obvious.

“You’re dead as well then,” he said to Pester.

“Aye, I am,” Pester replied.  “Have been for a long time.”

“How long?” asked Mickey.

“Too long,” Pester said with a grim smile.  He turned back to face Mickey and noticed that Elena had stopped walking.  He pointed over Mickey’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong with her?” he said.

Mickey turned back to find out what the problem was.

“Pester, I heard you speak,” Elena said.

Mickey and Pester exchanged looks.

Pester shook his head.  “She couldn’t have heard me.”

Elena screwed up her face in concentration.

“She could not have heard me,” she repeated
Pester’s
statement.  “Your voice is fuzzy and crackly, as if it is coming from a long way off.”  She walked closer to where Mickey and the invisible Pester were standing.  “I can hear you though.”

“Aye, it seems as if you can,” the non-
plussed
guide answered.

Elena’s face broke into a surprised yet satisfied smile and she walked on.  Mickey fell into step with her.

“Can you see him?” said Mickey.

“No.  I can only see you,” Elena replied.

Pester put a finger to his lips to silence Mickey then he walked up to Elena and swiped an arm down in front of her face.  He got so close that Mickey thought that Pester was actually going to hit the girl.

“Oh,” Elena checked her stride and waved a hand over her face.

“What’s wrong?” said Mickey, trying to keep the amusement from his voice.

“Nothing,” Elena replied.  “I just felt a wind on my face that is all.  There has been no wind, or any kind of weather at all in the time we have been here.”

“Interesting,” mused Pester.  “And unusual.  Elena shouldn’t be able to tell that I’m here.  She forfeit the right to have a guide when she chose to stay in
Koprno
.”

“But I did not choose to stay,” argued Elena, concentrating on
Pester’s
voice.  “That decision was made for me.  I always wanted to move on.”

“So, because you didn’t make a choice, some part of the link between you and Pester remains,” suggested Mickey.  He turned to Pester.  “Does that mean that you can still help her?”

Pester shrugged.  “Possibly, I don’t know.  And I’m not sure of what the consequences would be.”

That word again, Mickey scowled.  Why was he so concerned about consequences?

“Consequences?  Who from?” asked Elena.  It felt odd conversing with a disembodied voice.

“People you wouldn’t want to meet,” said Pester flatly.  His tone of voice suggested that Elena shouldn’t pursue that topic any further.

Mickey laughed at the look on Elena’s face.  “Don’t worry about him,” he said, nodding towards Pester.  “He’s been that helpful with me since I got here.”  Mickey made it sound as if he had been with Pester for an eternity.  This was, in fact, only his third day in ... where was he exactly?  Purgatory?  The Twilight Zone?  It was one of the questions that had rumbled around in his head and one that Pester had never fully answered.  Mickey wasn’t sure he really wanted to know a detailed answer.

The three travellers walked on for another hour or so.  Elena showed a great deal of energy and stamina, keeping up a good pace and never complaining.  Mickey hid his general lack of fitness beneath his injured thigh.  The poultice seemed to have contained the blood loss but his upper leg was still feeling sore and was becoming weak.

Whilst there was still enough light to see by they made camp.  A large group of boulders was clustered together, forming a natural platform and shelter.

“Being raised off the ground should give us a bit of cover,” Pester said, as he led Mickey and Elena into the midst of the boulders.

“Cover from what?” said Elena, looking alarmed.

Pester gave his now customary shrug and said, “Nothing much.  Just things that might be out here.”  He turned away and busied himself with casting around to find enough wood to make a fire.  Mickey and Elena exchanged looks; both of them of the opinion that Pester was holding something back.

Though Elena’s neighbours had provided her with food she hadn’t thought to bring any utensils.  Being light on domestic skills himself, Mickey hadn’t considered this either.  Fortunately Pester carried a knife in one of his motorcycle jacket pockets that meant they could open the tinned food stocked in Elena’s backpack.  Any food that needed heating was opened and stood in the embers of the fire to heat through.  This had to be eaten with fingers until Pester fashioned some rudimentary spoons from a piece of branch.

“That was helpful,” said Mickey sincerely.  “Thank you.”

“More helpful than I should have been,” grumbled Pester through a mouthful of tinned beef.  The meat was chewy and tasted old – too old.  But at least it provided some sustenance.