“Also,” Lyoza’s mother chimed in, “as I told you before, we’ve been out of touch with your people for so long that we weren’t sure how to explain.”
Her son nodded. “Their questions seemed to be about something that happened so long ago it was more a myth or a folktale. We couldn’t understand why they would be asking us such questions now. And they sounded so desperate, like they were sending a plea to the gods. We were quite bewildered.”
Esalu nodded. “I see. If you hadn’t had any contact for centuries, their message must have seemed to come out of the blue.”
The woman’s face softened. “Exactly. We realized that the best way to answer would be to send someone over the mountains to meet whoever wrote that message. To be frank, not everyone agreed it was necessary. But I felt strongly that if someone had sent that ochiwa believing in the promise of our ancestors to help them in need, we should go to them.”
Jesse gripped his knees with his hands. The words of this kind woman touched his heart, and he felt his chest grow hot. “Thank you,” he said, bowing his head.
The woman looked at him as though startled. She smiled gently, but her expression quickly turned to one of regret. “I’m sorry,” she said huskily. “If we had come sooner, we could’ve met your mother before she left and stopped her. Until we met Nason, we had no idea what was going on in this country.”
Jesse opened his mouth to speak, but Esalu cut him off. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she said, “So if the Royal Beasts attack the Toda army, a catastrophe will occur. Is that correct?”
With a pained expression, the woman nodded. “Yes.”
Esalu leaned forward. “We tried to imagine every possibility and trained the Royal Beasts to respond to Elin’s commands no matter what the situation. Won’t that mean she can prevent it?”
The woman shook her head. “Unfortunately, no. I don’t think that’s possible. Because when the Royal Beasts come in contact with an army of Toda, they go mad.”
* * *
Esalu threw on her mantle, but her fingers fumbled on the strings at her throat so that she couldn’t tie them. She clicked her tongue in disgust. Her hands were shaking too badly. Sohyon’s tale kept running through her head, and she couldn’t keep herself from trembling.
She clicked her tongue once again. She’d forgotten how far along she was in her packing. She paused and took a deep breath. “Honestly. Pull yourself together,” she told herself.
Sohyon and the others had planned to take the mountain roads to keep out of sight, but Esalu had stopped them and told the guard to bring her a fast horse. If she rode through the night, she would reach the palace a little after noon the next day.
Having finally managed to tie the strings of her hood, she slung a cloth bag over her shoulder. She turned to make sure she had put out the fire in the hearth, when she heard a knock on the door.
“Miss Esalu, everything’s ready.” It was one of the custodians.
“Coming.” She opened the door and was confronted with the man’s worried face.
“I gave Jesse the saddle as you asked, but do you really intend to fly?”
Esalu frowned. “What did you say?”
“You told Jesse to put the riding harness on for you, didn’t you?”
“Absolutely not! I’d never do such a thing!”
The man’s face blanched. “But Jesse said you did. He’s taken the riding harness to Alu’s stable—”
Without waiting to hear the rest, Esalu broke into a run. Her knees hurt, but she gritted her teeth and rushed toward the Royal Beast stable. The sun had set, and the evening star was beginning to twinkle in the sky. Beneath the blue vault of night, she could see the stable door standing wide open.
Backlit by the lantern inside the stable, a huge black shadow ducked under the lintel and into the open.
“Jesse!” Esalu screamed, just as the shadow spread its wings. It sank onto its haunches and then shot up into the sky. For a second, Esalu glimpsed the tiny form of the boy clinging to the Beast’s back. Then Alu turned and vanished into the night.
6
THE MORNING OF THE BATTLE
The wind moaned in Jesse’s ears. When he raised his head, it slammed him in the chest and threatened to blow him off. It was hard to breathe. He pressed himself against Alu’s back and clung on tight. He had to use not just his arms but his whole body to keep from being ripped away. Worse still, it was freezing. Even with his thick gloves, his hands gripping the harness were so stiff with cold he could no longer feel what he was holding.
He had thought it would be easy to ride as long as the harness was on. What a mistake. Yet his mother seemed to ride the Beasts so effortlessly. For years, he had watched her fasten Leelan’s harness and fly into the sky on her back. When he realized that they had to warn his mother as soon as possible, he had immediately thought of riding Alu to get there.
Alu had been restless when he was fastening her harness, as though she sensed that something was unusual. Once he was on her back and told her to fly to Lazalu, however, she seemed to recognize this familiar order and flew without protest. His heart had thumped wildly in his chest when she leaped into the sky. The ground fell away abruptly, and when he could see the whole of Kazalumu from the air, he had felt like letting out a loud cheer. But now, he was frozen and sore all over. It was so painful, he wanted to cry. If it weren’t for the urgent need to warn his mother, he would’ve asked Alu to turn around and take him home.
Pressing his face into Alu’s soft, warm back, he closed his eyes and turned his thoughts to his mother.
Mom. You mustn’t fly!
The story told by the woman with one green eye and one gold was far more terrifying than the one his mother had written. The woman had spoken as though telling a folktale to her grandchildren, but Jesse had been so petrified his head had gone numb.
If the Royal Beasts went mad, then all their training, no matter how thorough, would be useless. Icy cold gripped him at the thought of his mother being torn apart when the Royal Beasts clashed, of his father crushed beneath the Toda.
As for Toda bred by men, when faced with Royal Beasts would they really undergo the transformation that woman had described?
He must stop his mother. But even if she knew that the Royal Beasts would go mad and the Toda would undergo a horrible change, she would probably still fly. She’d still fly to show everyone what would happen.
If so, then I’m the one who must stop it. Like the young man Lyoza in the woman’s story. But he must not think about what would happen if he did what Lyoza had done. Otherwise, he’d be too afraid to go through with it. He must not think …
Just then, he felt a change in the way Alu flew and heard her gasp for breath. A chill spread through him. She was pregnant. Such a long flight would take its toll on her. “I’m sorry, Alu,” he said, stroking her back. Her wings slowed and made loud flapping noises, but she flew on. “I’m so sorry, Alu. Just a little longer. You can do it.”
How much farther was it to Lazalu, he wondered. Below him, the earth was dark except for the occasional village where a few lights were shining. He tried to remember the time his father had taken him to the capital many years ago, but the scenery viewed from the air was quite different from that viewed from land, and he had no clue as to where he was. He could only pray that they would reach Lazalu soon. Finally, in the distance, he saw a broad cluster of lights. Alu’s wings began to beat more strongly. Drawing on her last reserves of strength, she flew toward the Lazalu Sanctuary, which she knew so well.
When they landed, Alu dropped down on her haunches, as though exhausted. Men came rushing out, alarmed by the noise. They stood staring from a distance as Jesse slid from Alu’s back. He landed on his feet, but his knees buckled, and he ended up on his bottom.
A stocky, elderly man approached cautiously and asked, “Who are you? Is this one of the Royal Beasts from Kazalumu?”
Gasping for breath, Jesse answered, “I’m … Jesse … Elin’s son
… from Kazalumu.”
The man’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”
“Is my … mother here? I have to … see her … immediately!”
The man’s face clouded. “Your mother’s no longer here. She left for Amasulu with the Royal Beasts.”
For a moment, everything went dark. Jesse pressed his forehead against his knees and tried desperately to breathe. A cold sweat broke out on his face. Raising his head, he said, “Amasulu … It’s east … right?”
The man knelt and patted Jesse on the back. “Yes, but you can’t fly right now. If you need to tell your mother something, we can send a courier pigeon.”
“Courier pigeon?” Jesse whispered.
“Yes. It’ll reach Amasulu by dawn.”
Trembling, Jesse said, “That won’t work. I have to go myself.”
“You can’t.”
“Yes, I can. If I rest a little first.”
The man shook his head. “You may be all right, but that Royal Beast is in no condition to fly. That’s Alu, isn’t it? Her belly seems a little swollen.”
Jesse looked up at Alu. Her tongue was lolling out, and she was panting heavily. Her face showed just how hard the flight had been for a Beast bearing young. Impatience burned Jesse’s chest, but he couldn’t force the exhausted Alu to fly any farther.
* * *
Elin woke with a start to the sound of a shrill whistle.
Dawn had already broken. A chill wind bearing the scent of rain brushed against her cheeks. Thick clouds streamed across the leaden sky, but no rain fell as of yet. Shafts of sunlight streaked from a break in the clouds, and the cloth enclosure shone a dazzling white.
That she had slept so deeply came as a surprise. True, she had been exhausted, but that was not the only reason. The uneasiness that had gripped her for so long seemed to have vanished. All worries, fear, and anguish had sunk to the bottom of her mind, leaving the surface as still as water.
Listening to people bustling about the camp, Elin stepped outside and gazed down upon the broad plain of Amasulu. Cloud shadows raced across it. The wide Amasulu River wove through those shadows, light glinting on its surface. From its upper reaches, dark log-like shapes rode its waters.
Toda …
Foreigners straddled them, red feathers flickering in their hair like flames. Their number was overwhelming. Elin wondered if the archers sent by the nobles to intercept them had had any impact at all.
The Yojeh and the Aluhan stood side by side watching them come. One step behind, Yohalu kept his eyes fixed on the river. Seimiya turned as Elin approached. Her face pale and tense, she looked at Elin but said nothing. A stray wisp of hair danced in the wind, touching her cheek. Elin stood silently, watching troop after troop of Toda glide down the river.
Raindrops fell randomly at first, then turned into a thin sheet of water that joined earth and heaven. The gray autumn fields glowed dully, and waves chopped the river’s surface. Rain shrouded the boats pulled up along the banks. Seimiya never took her eyes from the invading Toda hosts even when a servant brought her an umbrella.
Yohalu’s son-in-law led the Aluhan’s Toda troops, and he had drawn them up on the near bank to shield the farm villages and the city of Amasulu behind from the invaders. With the main force still in Imeelu, there were perhaps only a thousand Toda Riders assembled below, yet to Seimiya, they still seemed to outnumber, at least slightly, the enemy forces speeding down the river toward them.
“It’s all right,” Shunan murmured. “It looks like we’re evenly matched in numbers. If that’s all they’ve sent, we should still come out on top.”
Seimiya nodded, her shoulders relaxing a little.
Just as the invaders approached a landing spot, Shunan raised his right hand high. Below the hill, a hand-flag rose in answer. Like a flock of butterflies taking to the air, a flurry of flags flapped in succession, heading in a straight line toward the Aluhan’s troops. When the last white hand-flag shot up, the blare of hundreds of war horns shook the earth and ascended into the air. The troops advanced to envelop the enemy Riders as they clambered from the river. Dust and water swirled into the air and spread outward as the two Toda forces collided.
Shunan suddenly leaned forward with a puzzled frown. “Wait a minute. What’s going on?” From his vantage point, it looked like the Toda formation had begun to warp. Instead of falling upon one another with tooth and claw, they seemed to be circling each other as though reluctant to come in contact. At first, he couldn’t see what was happening through the thick haze of dust and mist, but once the entire enemy force had emerged from the water and begun moving ponderously toward the hill where he stood, he could make out their movements more clearly.
“But that’s … impossible,” he whispered. The wind blew wet strands of hair into his eyes, and he shoved them aside. “Toda. Do they not attack their own kind?”
The beasts weren’t fighting. Although the Riders grasped their horns and pulled frantically, trying to steer them, the Toda reared or shied away whenever they drew close to one another.
“But why?” Yohalu said hoarsely. The rain had plastered his gray hair to his forehead. “They’ll rip one another to shreds if there’re more than ten of them in one Pond.”
“It might be because this is an open space,” Elin said. Everyone turned to stare at her. “In a Pond, they attack one another because their territory is too small to support more than ten. Here, they have lots of room, and it’s not their territory. Maybe that’s why they won’t attack one another.” Even as she said this, however, she felt there was more to it.
Frowning, she looked down at the Toda. Although it was hard to tell at first because they were moving quickly now, it seemed as though they were maintaining an equal distance from one another. Whenever they came too close, they bounced away, like two magnets when their poles repel each other. It reminded her of the way Royal Beasts behaved when they flew too close to each other.
A soundless sound …
Ialu’s words came back to her. Men felt a low buzzing in their ears when they rode the new breed of Toda, he had told her. Their teeth ached and their skin crawled. Her heart began to pound. The Aluhan’s men protecting Amasulu were mounted on the new breed. What if the Toda ridden by the Lahza shared this same characteristic?
As the Toda struggled to avoid one another, resisting their Riders’ attempts to make them attack, multiple swirling eddies began to form within the mass of beasts gathered on the plain. Figures began to spill from the edges of the eddies. One after the other, Toda bearing enemy Riders with red feathers in their hair were ejected from the vortexes. They stood looking dazed at first, but once they grasped the situation, they turned their mounts and charged straight toward the city of Amasulu.
At that moment, everything changed. Quick-witted Lahza Riders burst from the edges of the swirling of Toda. Caught off guard, the Aluhan’s troops tried to follow in pursuit, but their mounts rebelled, turning and twisting to avoid approaching the Lahza’s Toda. The eddies broke, and a thousand enemy troops stampeded toward the city with the force of an avalanche.
Cavalrymen stationed beyond the city’s outer wall began chasing the Lahza, arrows flying from their bows. But they only succeeded in killing a few Toda Riders. They couldn’t slow the thunderous charge.
“Elin!” Seimiya swung around to look at her.
With a quick nod, Elin turned, but then she stopped and looked back at Seimiya and Shunan. “Promise me one thing,” she said, her voice strained. Raindrops trickled down her cheeks. “Please. Promise you will witness what takes place today and never again conceal what happens. So that everyone can know the truth and think for themselves. Promise me that the truth will never again be hidden.”
Seimiya placed a hand over her heart. “I promise to do what you ask,” she said.
Elin held her eyes, then bowed deeply and ran to the enclosure where the Royal Beasts waited.
7
MADNESS
Perched on Leelan’s back, Elin
plucked her harp, and the Royal Beasts rose as one into the sky. She hadn’t plugged their ears. There would be times when they couldn’t see her hand gestures. If she wanted to coordinate their movements, sound was the surest way to communicate her commands. It was a gamble. If a Toda Rider blew his Silent Whistle, the Royal Beasts would fall from the sky. But she knew that the Riders would have plugged the ears of their mounts. They would have left their whistles hanging from their chests, rather than holding them in their mouths, so that they could call out to one another. And earplugs couldn’t block the song of the Royal Beasts. When the Royal Beasts attacked and the Toda rolled over, the Riders would have almost no chance to let go of the horns and blow their Whistles.
Even so, to be on the safe side, Elin with Esalu’s help had repeatedly tested just how far the effects of the Silent Whistle could travel. It was much farther than the “ten adult steps” she had been taught at school, but she now knew instinctively the distance needed to prevent the Royal Beasts from being paralyzed.
Leelan’s hackles rose. She had caught sight of the Toda troops ahead and entered fighting mode. The others also bared their fangs. Filled with a savage fury, they were tensed as taut as bowstrings, but they kept to the speed Elin had commanded with her harp, resisting the urge to accelerate. Repeated training with Toda in the wild appeared to be paying off.
The city of Amasulu spread out below, and the Royal Beasts flew swiftly over the clustered buildings. The Lahza force had reached a farm village on the plain outside the city walls. In seconds, the Toda had trampled through the recently harvested fields and plowed into the storehouses. The wooden walls cracked and burst. The farmers had already left with their tools to take refuge within the city, but their livestock remained behind. White feathers flying, hens scattered before the onslaught, only to be crushed underfoot.
The Beast Warrior Page 45
