“I’m afraid that would be an impossibility.” Said the feminine voice. “For I cannot survive where there is no shadow,” Hoxley listened closely. The voice sounded like that of a young girl about her age, but without a mouth or throat to project it, the words were always tethered to an ethereal tone that kept it from sounding human.

  “It sounds like it’s coming from the prince.” said Siouxsie as she pointed. The others looked to Prince Damron and slowly moved inward to surround him.

  “It’s not me!” said the prince with outstretched arms. “Put those weapons away!”

  “It’s not the prince.” admitted the voice. “But for the moment I am residing within his pockets.” Each of the companions looked at one another with bewildered expressions.

  “How is this possible?” asked Hoxley.

  “Begone, you!” proclaimed Siouxsie in a might voice. “Or I shall use great magic to banish thee to the nethervoid!”

  “Since when do you know ‘great magic’?” asked Robert

  “Be quiet.” She said out of the corner of her mouth. “I’m trying to scare it off of him.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Said the voice. “I mean none of you any harm.”

  “You don’t?” asked Idris “Then why do you cling to Prince Damron in such a manner?”

  “I would cling to anyone bearing a shadow as it is the only place I can survive.” It answered. “I was trapped beneath the stone until the prince disturbed it and gave me the chance to escape.”

  “Escape?” asked Morell. “Is this not where you live?”

  “Not at all. I was imprisoned here by an evil one who took my life essence and gave it to another.”

  “You are not of the living?” the boy asked.

  “I cannot say.” It answered. “I know I once was alive in another place, but since I am still talking, I know I am not amongst the dead.” Prince Damron pulled the neckline of his shirt away from his body to look down it. Upon seeing inside, he found a pair of ghostly eyes looking back at him.

  “Hello there.” It said.

  “It’s in my shirt!” he said. “Get out of there, you!”

  “I’m afraid I cannot. I can’t survive in any place that isn’t darkness.”

  “Then get back under your rock.”

  “I will not.”

  “You will remove yourself from my clothing at once or I will remove you myself!” he said angrily.

  “You are welcome to try.”

  “So be it!” Prince Damron proceeded to begin to remove articles of clothing. First, he dropped his pack, then his cloak, then his shirt, then boots one at a time.

  “Is this really necessary?” asked Morell. After the pants, came the undergarments until finally the prince was standing naked and looking all over his body for signs of the shadow entity.

  “Is it off?” he asked.

  “This whole situation is absurd.” Grumbled Robert. “We’re standing in the middle of a desert watching young royalty expose himself. It’s not on your body, your highness, now will you please put your clothes back on?”

  “Ha!” the prince said with satisfaction. “I knew I’d outsmart it!” He then went to work putting his clothes back on. Once fully dressed, he picked up his pack. “There. It’s gone. Now we can be on our way!”

  “And which way would you go from here?” asked the phantasmal voice again from within his garments. He looked down his shirt again to find the same tiny eyes looking back at him. “You! Get out now!”

  “I will not.” It said “You will carry me out of the desert as you leave.”

  “I will do no such thing! Besides! We’re lost in this mirage the same as you!”

  “Yes, but I know the way out.” The disembodied girls’ voice told him.

  “You do?” asked Hoxley. “You’ll show us how to escape?”

  “I shall. I would have left on my own, but there are no shadows between here and the edge of the desert. I’ll make you a trade; allow me to travel in your shadow and I will guide you out of this magical labyrinth.”

  “The ghost sounds reasonable.” Said Siouxsie. “I say we let it come with us.”

  “I don’t think we have a choice.” Said Hoxley. “We can’t remove it. Shadow? If you know the way out of here, please guide us. We have limited food and water to reach the edge.”

  “Very well.” Replied the shadow. “But the end of the maze can only be found with one’s eyes shut. Take hands with the prince and I will guide him.” Everyone put their weapons away and did as they were told. Prince Damron led the way this time, the others each following with a hand on the shoulder of the person ahead of them. It was only after a moment that Hoxley realized that she’d unintentionally taken a space between Morell and Siouxsie. She offered to trade him places which he quickly accepted. When they were underway, everyone began to ask the shadows questions to pass the time.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Do you have a name?” asked Idris

  “Yes, but I do not remember it.”

  “You don’t remember your own name?”

  “I do not. I do know that I once had one, but it is hidden from me. I wish I could recall.”

  “Where do you come from?” asked Siouxsie. “Are there many others like you?”

  “I don’t know of any others. I believe I was a person much like you before I was like this. I feel as if my memories of who I am supposed to be are locked away where I can’t find them. I know I should be someone else but that person is a stranger.”

  “That’s terribly sad.” said Hoxley. “You say someone made you like this?”

  “Yes, that much I do remember. There are fragments of thoughts that tell me so. A terrible man came in the night and stole me away from where I was. He brought me to this place.”

  “Do you remember what he looked like?” asked Idris. “Perhaps we could find this man and make him undo his spell.”

  “His face and the faces of those with him were hidden from me. One carried a great black book and the two others that followed carried the bones of a corpse riddled with arrows and wrapped in dark shroud on a cart. They brought me here and the evil one cast a spell that took my body, leaving me in this state.”

  “That’s very specific.” Pondered Idris. “I wonder who such magic users could be.”

  “I cannot say as I barely remember the events.” said the shadow girl. “Much of my mind is a fog.”

  “What are you made of?” asked Morell curiously.

  “I cannot say of what it’s made but its shape can shrink and grow with the shadows.” Upon saying this, the shadow moved from the prince’s pockets to snake its way up the sleeve of Idris’ dark purple robes, out the neck, into Roberts clothes, through Siouxsie’s, up the underside of the Morell’s arm and under Hoxley’s to slip into her saddlebags. “I see the world not in color or shape, but the forms of things with or without shadow. I can move across any space with no light upon it.”

  “That’s why you were brought here and placed under a stone.” thought Hoxley aloud. “Everlight Desert never has shadows for you to escape into. And this…magical mirage is here to keep anyone from finding you. Whoever made you as you are did not want you escaping.”

  “That makes sense.” Said Siouxsie. “If you can see that which is shadow and that which is not, can you see the edge of the desert where the shadows start again?”

  “I can.” said the voice as it slipped around the companions to rest beneath Siouxsie’s hat. “If the prince continues on this path for another rise and fall of the sun, there is a tall rock face waiting with a thin pass dividing it.”

  “How bizarre.” said Siouxsie. “A maze that one can’t use their eyes to find the exit from. How could we have been travelling for so long and still be a day away from the end of the desert?”

  “The mirage deceived us.” Said Hoxley. “We’ve been traveling in circles and never knew it. I thought I’d been tracking the sun the whole time as I always do when I travel. Even I was fooled.

  “No wonder the others died.” Lamented Morell. “They had no idea they were trapped and never had a chance to escape.”

  “Yes, but thanks to you, were have more mushrooms to eat until we can reach a merchant to buy more goods.” Siouxsie said.

  “We should all be grateful for Morell’s knowledge.” spoke Idris. “Our stomachs will not be empty today because of him.”

  “Yes, well done, Morell.” said Robert to everyone’s surprise.

  Boots, winklepickers and hooves followed each other across the vast wastes. When the sun reached its zenith, the group fashioned the makeshift tent to wait out the blazing heat. Witches snoozed and Morell scribbled in his tome. Hoxley watched as the shadow flitted about from person to person. It slipped in and out of clothes and pockets and sleeves like a curious snake.