Now the sky seemed to grow darker, from a pale brownish color to a dark of moonless night. They could only see by the sickly glare of floating globes of light that looked like too-large fireflies. They cast jagged shadows, making the formerly pleasant osiers loom over them like old men with knives in place of fingers. Silence fell, punctuated by hissing noises like hundreds of snakes that moved around too fast for snakes. Sometimes the hissing was right behind Khaidu’s ear, making her jump. The change into a land of nightmare was so quick that Khaidu had hardly noticed the transition.
No wonder she needed that skill with knives, she realized.
Tarin seemed to have a completely opposite reaction to the fall of nightmare. If before he had hummed to himself, singing occasional snatches in be
