Darren Shan - Lord Of The Shadows

When we were all seated, Mr Tall closed the door, then sat on the floor in the middle of us, legs crossed neatly, huge bony hands resting on his knees. "I hope you do not think me rude for not visiting," he said to me. "I knew you would recover, and I had much to put in order here."

"That's OK," I smiled, taking off my sunglasses and putting them to one side.

"It is good to see you again, Vancha," Mr Tall said, and then welcomed Debbie and Alice.

"Now that the pleasantries are out of the way," Vancha grunted, "let's get down to business. You knew what was going to happen at the football arena, aye?"

"I had my suspicions," Mr Tall said cagily, his lips barely moving.

"But you let Darren go regardless? You let his friend die?"

"I did not 'let' anything happen," Mr Tall disagreed. "Events unfolded the way they had to. It is not my place to interfere in the unravelling of destiny. You know that, Vancha. We have had this conversation before. Several times."

"And I still don't buy it," Vancha grumbled. "IfI had the power to see into the future, I'd use it to help those I cared about. You could have told us who the Lord of the Vampaneze was. Larten would be alive now if you'd warned us in advance."

"No," Mr Tall said. "Larten would have died. The circumstances might have differed, but his death was inevitable. I could not have altered that."

"You should still have tried," Vancha persisted.

Mr Tall smiled thinly, then looked at me. "You have come to seek guidance. You wish to know where your onetime friend, Steve Leonard, is."

"Can you tell us?" I asked softly.

"No," Mr Tall said. "But rest assured, he will make himself known soon. You will not have to dredge the depths for him."

"Does that mean he's going to attack?" Vancha pressed. "Is he nearby? When does he plan to strike? Where?"

"I grow weary of your questions," Mr Tall growled, his eyes flashing menacingly. "If I could step in and play an active part in the affairs of the vampire clan, I would. It is much harder to stand back and watch, passively. Harder than you could ever imagine. You wept for Larten when he died butI grieved for him for thirty years in advance, since glimpsing his probable death."

"You mean 'you didn't know for… sure that he'd die?" Harkat asked.

"I knew he would come to the point where it was his life or the Lord of the Vampaneze's, but I could not see beyond that though I feared the worst."

"And what of our next encounter?" I asked quietly. "When Vancha and I face Steve for the last time who'll die then?"

"I do not know," Mr Tall said. "Looking into the future is more often than not a painful experience. It is better not to know the fate of your friends and loved ones. I lift the lid off the present as seldom as possible. There are times when I cannot avoid it, when my own destiny forces me to look. But only rarely."

"So you don't know if we'll win or lose?" I asked.

"Nobody knows that," Mr Tall said. "Not even Desmond Tiny."

"Butif we lose," I said, and there was an edge to my voice now. "If the vampaneze are triumphant, and Steve kills one of us which will it be?"

"I don't know," Mr Tall said.

"But you could find out," I pressed. "You could look into the future where we've lost and see which of us survived."

"Why should I?" Mr Tall sighed. "What profit would there be in it?"

"I want to know," I insisted.

"Maybe it would be better" Vancha began to say.

"No!" I hissed. "Imust know. For two years I've dreamt of the destruction of the clan, and listened to the screams of those who'll perish if we fail. If I'm to die, so be it. But tell me, please, so I can prepare myself for it."

"I cannot," Mr Tall said unhappily. "Nobody can predict which of you will kill the Vampaneze Lord or die at his hand."

"Then look further ahead," I pleaded. "Go twenty years ahead, or thirty. Do you see Vancha or me in that future?"

"Leave me out of this.'" Vancha snapped. "I don't want to mess about with stuff like that."

"Then just look for me," I said, staring hard at Mr Tall.

Mr Tall held my gaze, then said quietly, "You are sure?"

I stiffened. "Yes!"

"Very well." Mr Tall lowered his gaze and closed his eyes. "I cannot be as specific as you state, but I will cast my eyes a number of decades forward and…"

Mr Tall trailed off into silence. Vancha, Harkat, Debbie, Alice and I watched, awed, as his face twitched and glowed a light red colour. The owner of the Cirque Du Freak seemed to stop breathing and the temperature of the air dropped several degrees. For five minutes he held that pose, face glowing and twitching, lips sealed. Then he breathed out, the glow faded, his eyes opened and the temperature returned to normal.

"I have looked," he said, his expression unreadable.

"And?" I croaked.

"I did not find you there."

I smiled bitterly. "I knew it. If the clan falls, it will fall because ofme. I'm the doomed one in the future where we lose."

"Not necessarily," Mr Tall said. "I looked fifty or sixty years ahead, long after the fall of the vampires. You might have died after all of the others had been killed."

"Then bring it forward," I demanded. "Look twenty or thirty years ahead."

"No," Mr Tall said stiffly. "I have already seen more than I wished. I don't want to suffer any further tonight."

"What are you talking about?" I huffed. "What have you suffered?"

"Grief," Mr Tall said. He paused, then glanced at Vancha. "I know you told me not to look for you, old friend, but I couldn't help myself."

Vancha cursed, then braced himself. "Go on. Since this fool's opened the can of worms, we might as well watch them wriggle. Hit me with the bad news."

"I looked into both futures," Mr Tall said hollowly. "I did not mean to, but I cannot control these things. I looked into the future where the vampaneze won the War of the Scars, and also into the future where the vampires won and although I found Darren in the latter future, I found you in neither." He locked gazes with Vancha and muttered gloomily, "You were killed by the Lord of the Shadows in both."

Vancha blinked slowly. "You're saying I'll die whether we win or lose?" His voice was surprisingly steady.

"The Lord of the Shadows is destined to destroy you," Mr Tall replied. "I cannot say when or how it happens, but it will."

"Who's this Lord of the Shadows?" Harkat asked. I was the only person who'd been told about him. Evanna had warned me not to speak of it to anybody else.

"He's the cruel leader who will ruin the world after the War of the Scars," Mr Tall said.

"I don't get it," Harkat grumbled. "If we kill Steve, then there won't be a… Lord of the bloody Shadows."

"Oh, but there will," Mr Tall said. "The world is set to produce a monster of unimaginable power and fury. His coming is unavoidable. Only his identity is yet to be determined and that will be decided shortly."

"The wasteworld," Harkat said sickly. "You mean, even if we kill Steve, that's what… the future will be? The desolate land where Darren and I found… out the truth about me that's what lies… in store?"

Mr Tall hesitated, then nodded. "I could not tell you before. I have never spoken of matters such as this in the past. But we are at the time where no harm can come of revealing it, since nothing can be done to avert it. The Lord of the Shadows is upon us within twenty-four hours he will be born, and all the world will tremble at his coming."

There was a long, stunned silence. Vancha, Harkat, Debbie and Alice were filled with confusion, especially the latter pair, who knew nothing of the wasteworld of the future.I was filled with fear. This was confirmation of all my worst nightmares. The Lord of the Shadows would rise regardless of what happened in the War of the Scars. And not only could I not prevent his coming in one of the futures, I wouldbe him. Which meant, if we won the war, at some stage in the next fifty or sixty years, along with all the other lives I'd ruin, I would kill Vancha too. It seemed impossible. It sounded like a sick joke. But Evanna and Mr Tall both had the gift of reading the future and both had told me the same thing.