But that wasn’t the only reason Ialu had decided to become a Toda Rider. Each time she read his detailed letters about the situation the kingdom faced, she sensed another reason, one that he would never say aloud.
He’s trying to stand beside me wherever I must put myself. If so …
Elin covered her face with her hands. In her heart, she wept for Jesse.
2
YUGULA FIRE ANTS
Snow dusted the banks of the rushing mountain river, the white contrasting starkly with the black of the wet rocks. The water was so cold it cut the fingers, but the Royal Beasts appeared unperturbed, dunking their muzzles in the stream to drink. The day was fair, and the bright sun shone on their fur.
When they’d landed on the rocks during their morning training session, Leelan had slipped on a snow-covered rock. She must have hurt her claw because she was licking it diligently. Elin walked over to her. “Let me see,” she said.
Leelan stopped licking her paw and raised her head. There was a small cut where the claw joined the foot pad, but it wasn’t serious and was no longer bleeding.
“It’s just a tiny cut,” Elin said with a smile. Leelan snorted, her breath rising like white steam. Unlike the other Royal Beasts, Leelan had borne several cubs, and two dark red nipples peeped out from the fur on her chest. The fur around Leelan’s nipples was always ruffled because whenever she returned to the sanctuary pasture, her youngest cub would snuggle up and tug on them, even though she had weaned long ago and was already eating meat.
Elin moved away, and Leelan immediately resumed licking her paw, as though she had been waiting to do so. Suddenly, however, she raised her head and pricked her ears, her eyes focused on a point in the forest behind Elin. Alu and Eku also lifted their heads and gazed at the trees.
Elin’s brows drew together; although she peered in the same direction, she couldn’t see any change. “What is it?” she started to ask, but paused before she finished, sensing a sound. Now she could hear it. A child’s scream.
“Jesse?” Elin gestured to the Royal Beasts to stay put and set off at a run. It was Jesse’s voice. She was certain. Over and over, he screamed.
“Jesse! Jesse!” Elin cried. She raced toward her son’s voice, weaving through the trees and leaping over snow-buried shrubs. Branches whipped her face, drawing blood, but she plowed on, pushing through the brush as she dashed through the winter forest.
Jesse’s high-pitched screams drew closer, and she stumbled into a small clearing in the trees. At the foot of a tall tree, she saw him. He was writhing on the ground, hands and feet flailing as though he was on fire, and his body was covered in countless reddish-brown specks. Elin screamed at the sight. “Jesse!”
Yugula fire ants! Their bite was excruciating. Too many, and the victim could die.
The soldiers who guarded the forest came crashing through the underbrush, probably hearing Jesse’s screams. They froze when they saw him. Fire ants, which nested in tree trunks they gnawed hollow, were pouring forth from holes in the trunk and spreading over the ground like water.
Elin leaped into the swarm. Pain shot through her feet and spread to her thighs, her stomach, then all the way up to her hands and neck, each spot burning as though pressed against hot metal. Gritting her teeth, she scooped Jesse into her arms and dashed toward the river where she had left Leelan and the others, brushing the ants off his body as she ran. She slipped on the snow and staggered into the water.
“Take a deep breath and hold it!” she yelled into Jesse’s ear. Still holding him in her arms, she waded into the middle of the river and squatted in the icy water. She planted her feet firmly on the bottom to keep her balance and kneaded his body all over to remove the ants. Straightening her knees, she brought his head above the surface so he could catch his breath, but he was limp and his eyes remained shut. Angry red lumps were already rising on his face, which had turned bluish from the frigid river.
Elin called his name frantically. Holding him close, she rubbed his body, then brushed a damp lock of hair from his forehead and caressed his cheek. His eyelids were beginning to swell. He opened them a crack, and his lips parted, but the only sound was the whistling of his breath. The agony was so excruciating he couldn’t speak.
Gradually, the ants clinging to his clothing began to peel off, swept away by the water. Rage seized Elin, and she slapped at the ones that still clung to him. It was only when she could no longer see his face clearly that she realized her own eyelids had swollen, too. But she was barely aware of the scorching pain that seared her body.
When she had finally gotten rid of most of the ants, she lurched out of the river onto the bank, clutching Jesse to her. She had to get him some medicine as soon as possible. She staggered over to Leelan. Someone spoke. One of the guards, asking her what they should do. But she had no energy to answer. She paused only to shift Jesse higher up in her arms.
Fortunately, she had left Leelan’s saddle on. There was no way she could have attached it now with her frozen fingers. She lifted Jesse onto Leelan’s back first, then dragged herself up after him and climbed into the saddle. Leelan, who had been craning her neck to look at them and making encouraging noises, launched herself into the air at Elin’s command.
Elin draped herself over Jesse’s body, trying to warm him. She didn’t even bother to check whether the other Royal Beasts were following. The wind roared in her ears. Her fingers, bitten by the fire ants and then plunged into ice-cold water, were so numb she couldn’t tell if they gripped the reins.
“Jesse, Jesse, Jesse,” she whispered over and over. Cradling his body with her own, she prayed desperately. Don’t die. Please, please, don’t die!
* * *
She was awoken by the sound of Jesse crying. A ray of morning sun fell through the partly open window, casting a faint light into the room. She could barely open her swollen lids. She tried to rise, only to fall back with a groan. Her arms, her legs, every part of her body was throbbing with pain as if she’d been stung by bees. Her skin felt taut and feverish.
Jesse lay beside her, and she placed a hand on his forehead. His fever had come down a bit overnight, but he was still quite hot to the touch. He wept listlessly, his face bright red and puffy.
“You’ll be all right, Jesse. The pain will be gone soon. Just a little longer,” Elin murmured, stroking his hair and pressing her cheek against his.
“Mom,” he croaked. “I’m … thirsty…”
Elin nodded. “I’ll get you a drink.” She found two cups with spouts by her pillow, both full. Esalu must have put them there, Elin thought. She picked one up. Slipping her other hand under Jesse’s head, she raised it a little and put the spout against his lips. He gulped noisily. The cool water seemed to relieve some of the pain, because when she laid him back on the pillow, he began breathing peacefully.
Elin soaked a cloth in a basin of water by the bed, wrung it out, and gently wiped the sweat from his face. Taking care not to wake him, she loosened the collar of his shirt and slipped out the cloths she had placed under each armpit. The cloths, which had been wet when she’d put them in, were already dry. She cooled them in the water, wrung them out, and tucked them under his armpits once again.
She would have liked to use ice, but that would have been too cold. The fever was his body’s defense against the poison. Rather than cooling him down suddenly, it would be better to keep changing the cloths.
After placing a damp cloth on his forehead and another under the nape of his neck, Elin finally relaxed. Esalu had cared for them all night, but she had probably gone back to the school to get more medicine. No one else was there, and the house was very quiet.
When they had moved here two years ago, a small guardhouse had been built onto the front entrance. No one could enter without passing through it, and there were always two guards stationed there. Every morning around this time, Elin could hear them preparing their breakfast, but today there were no sounds. Perhaps they were trying not to disturb the patients.<
br />
Elin lifted the second cup to her mouth and took a long gulp of water from the spout. The ice-cold liquid seeped into her parched, swollen throat. The faintly medicinal smell jolted her back to her childhood. Once, she’d been badly stung by bees. Joeun had given her this same medicine and nursed her through the night as she fought a fever. Though she’d been grateful, she remembered vividly how much she had missed her mother.
She stroked Jesse’s flushed cheeks with her fingers. Snuggling close enough to feel the heat of his fever, she closed her eyes.
Poor Jesse.
She’d failed him. One of the first things new students at Kazalumu learned was how to steer clear of the poisonous bugs and snakes that lived in the forest. Jesse, who was too young to go to school, had had no way of knowing about Yugula fire ants.
I should have taught him.
Remorse stabbed her heart. She knew that Jesse was lonely and frequently snuck through the forest to watch her on the training grounds, yet she’d been so preoccupied with the Royal Beasts that she’d never stopped to think about the risks. Somewhere in her mind, she’d assumed he would be all right because the guards were always nearby. She’d left most of his care to Esalu, Kalisa, and the others who worked at the school.
She sighed. For the last two years, she’d been so rushed and pressured by the urgency of her work. She could be called up to fight the Lahza at any time. Before that happened, she had to find out why the Royal Beasts could cause a disaster. Even if she couldn’t do that in time, she at least wanted to train them so she could prevent the worst. These thoughts had consumed her.
But the time she spent with Jesse was also irreplaceable.
She opened her eyes a crack and watched his sleeping face. She hadn’t had much time with her own mother, but the love she’d received, each memory they’d shared together, were precious gems that gave her comfort.
Am I that kind of mother to Jesse?
Elin placed her forehead gently against his ear and closed her eyes once again.
3
THE MYSTERY OF TREES
On a fine spring day when the snow along the banks of the mountain river had melted, Elin left the training of the Royal Beasts in Esalu’s hands for half a day and took Jesse on an outing. He walked beside her with the bundle that held his lunch, sometimes balancing it on his head, at other times hugging it close to his chest. He looked up at her. “Are we going to eat outside?” he asked. The ant bites on his face had scabbed over and fallen off, leaving just faint traces on his skin.
“Yes, we are. Let’s go down to the field along the river and have lunch there. We can light a little campfire to keep warm.”
Jesse’s eyebrows rose. “Really? What’s going on, Mom?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re always so busy. We never eat lunch together. Are you trying to be nice to me ’cause you’re feeling guilty or something?”
Elin grinned. “Well, yeah. I do feel a little guilty, I guess.”
“A little?” Jesse snorted. “Well I guess that’s better than not at all.” His lips were pouting, but his smile gave him away. Clearly, he was bubbling with excitement.
He brought the bundle containing his lunch up to his nose and sniffed. “What’s in here? Doesn’t smell like fahko.”
“It’s a surprise,” Elin said. “There’s a place I want to show you before we have lunch, though. Here, let me hold that. You should keep your hands free when walking in the forest.” She reached out to take his lunch, but Jesse refused to let go.
“You’ve got to be kidding!” he said. “I’m way more used to walking in this forest than you. You should give me your lunch so you can have your hands free. You aren’t riding Leelan today, you know.”
He popped his bundle on top of his head and, holding it with one hand, set off at a dash. Jumping over a tree root as nimbly as a monkey, he ran into the forest.
“Jesse, stop!” Elin shouted. “Your lunch! You’ll spill the sauce!” She chased after him through the trees. Their branches were so thick with new leaves that they turned the sunlight shining through them green and dyed Jesse’s hair and body the same color. As he sped down the path, she called out again. “Wait! Not that way.”
Jesse stopped and turned, frowning. “Aren’t we going to the training ground along the river?”
“Yes, but there’s something I want to show you first.”
He skipped back toward her, holding his lunch in his hands. She placed her hand on his head. Pointing to the right, she indicated a game trail that was only faintly visible. Jesse’s face clouded. “Oh. You want to go that way?”
The forest path they were on was quite wide but there was a steep hill in the middle. The narrow game trail to which Elin had pointed sloped gently. When the snow lay on the ground, it was easier to walk along. This was the trail that Jesse had used all winter to sneak to the training grounds. It also passed close to the fire-ant nest where he had been bitten.
“That’s right,” Elin said smiling. “Are you scared?”
Jesse pushed out his lower lip. “Nope. Why would I be scared? I’ve gone this way lots of times.”
Elin ruffled his hair and then gave him a light tap on the back. “Off we go, then.” Whereas before he had been skipping along, Jesse’s feet began to drag. Elin’s face softened as she strolled after him. When they were almost at the place where he’d been bitten, his feet faltered and came to a standstill.
“The other day,” he said, “when it was still winter, I saw a rabbit. A real beauty, pure white. At first, I thought it was just a clump of snow, but then it jumped. When I saw it was a rabbit, I ran after it.” His hands mimicked the movements of the rabbit as it ran, then he turned and looked up at Elin. “I pushed my way through those bushes, but suddenly there was this big open space, and I slipped and bumped into a tree. The one with the nest.”
Elin nodded, then turned and began pushing her way through the bushes.
“Mom! No! It’s dangerous!” Jesse shrieked, his voice cracking.
Elin shoved aside the bushes to make a path and looked back at her son. “It’s all right,” she said. “Come over here.”
Jesse stared at her for a moment, scowling, then walked over. “Give me your lunch,” she said. “Climb over these bushes, but don’t rush. Once you get across, stand on the edge of the clearing.”
He handed her his lunch obediently and climbed over the bushes to stand on the grass on the other side. Elin followed and stood beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder.
“That’s the tree with the ant nest, isn’t it?”
Jesse gazed up at a tall tree that rose straight toward the sky and nodded.
“Do you notice anything different about it?” Elin asked. “It’s not the same as the others.”
Jesse frowned and stared at the tree. The clearing looked very bright, perhaps because he had just emerged from the dim forest. The sunshine fell fully on the tree, making its bark shine white. A crack ran up its trunk, a black line that seemed to run from the top to the bottom, as though it had been cut with a sharp knife.
Jesse looked up at his mother. “It’s got a crack.”
She smiled at him with a twinkle in her eyes and raised her brows. “Is that all? Some of the other trees have cracks, too.”
Jesse pursed his lips and examined it again. How was it different from the others? Maybe it’s a different species, he thought. No, that can’t be it. But then what?
He stared at the tree with the nest for some time without finding an answer. To say so, however, would be to admit defeat. Thinking hard, he compared it with the other trees nearby. “Hmm. For some reason this tree looks brighter than the others,” he muttered.
A smile lit up his mother’s face, and she gave his shoulder a little shake. “That’s it! Now why do you think it looks brighter than the other trees?”
Jesse cocked his head. “Because it gets lots of sunshine?”
“Exactly! Now why does this tree get so much more su
nlight than the others?”
“There aren’t any trees around it. It’s all alone in the middle of the clearing. All the other trees are crowded together so their branches block the sun.”
“Right!” Elin nodded and stepped away from him onto the grass. He called after her in a panic but she said, “It’s all right. Follow my footsteps.”
Jesse walked cautiously across the grass toward her. She pointed to the branches of the trees closest to the one with the nest. “Take a look at the leaves on those trees. What do you see?”
When Jesse looked up, he gasped. “Amazing! They look like lace. All of them! All the leaves around here have been eaten by bugs.”
The leaves on some branches had been gnawed off, even the buds, while those on other branches were so riddled with holes, they were like a fine mesh with sunlight glinting through them.
“Yugula fire ants eat leaves as well as bugs,” Elin said. “They’ve got big appetites, too. That’s why the leaves and buds on the trees around their nests are usually all gone. These trees can’t live without their leaves, and they can’t grow unless they sprout new ones. Eventually, they’ll rot and fall. That’s what happened to the logs you see here.”
Elin tapped her foot against a fallen tree half buried in moss and earth. Her foot thudded dully against it. Jesse grimaced. “Those Yugula fire ants are awful,” he said.
Elin shook her head. “Maybe, but I bet that tree in which they built their nest is grateful to them.”
“Why?”
“Just think about it. The fire ants ate the trees around it. Because those trees are no longer there, it now gets plenty of sunshine, its branches can reach out as far as they want, and it can grow strong and healthy.”
“Ah…” Jesse looked up at the tree, his lips slightly parted. Reddish-brown ants scurried in and out of the trunk. With its branches spread wide, the tree seemed to soak up the sun contentedly.
The Beast Warrior Page 27
