Guardian of the Spirit

by Nahoko Uehashi

  Commoners in Kanbal lived in one-room houses of thick stone, with steep roofs to keep the snow off. As Kassa’s family belonged to the warrior class, they had an attic, where he and Gina slept. It was the time of year when the nights grew longer and they ate just two meals a day, a late breakfast and an early dinner, to save their lamp oil. Gina had gone to bed right after supper — or at least she should have. But when Kassa saw a thick rope hanging down the outside wall from the smoke hole in the attic, he knew immediately what his sister had done.

  He entered the house and, without telling his parents, went up to his room, pretending that he too was going to bed. Then he climbed down the rope and went after Gina. Before he left, he grabbed a torch from the toolshed. Then he ran all the way to the caves. As he was a fast runner, he fully expected to catch up with Gina, but he was not so lucky. By the light of his torch he could see her small footprints leading inside. He had to admire her courage; the caves were terrifying enough in the daytime. Even though she had chosen to go at night just to keep from getting caught, she was still the only girl he knew who would dare to set foot inside them after dark.

  He stood anxiously at the mouth of the cave, hoping to meet her on her way out. But no matter how long he waited, she did not appear, and he grew increasingly concerned. He was sure she would have gone slowly, feeling her way along the wall so that she would not get lost. But if so, then what could be taking her so long? Various possibilities passed through his head. Perhaps she needed time to dig out a stone, or maybe hakuma could only be found a long way inside. But there was another possibility that stuck in his mind and stayed there: the hyohlu.

  Unable to stand the suspense any longer, he finally went inside. With the torch in his right hand, he ran his left hand along the wall and followed Gina’s footprints in the rough sand. He was afraid to call her name in case the hyohlu heard. The cave gradually broadened, and soon the light of the torch began reflecting off the glittering walls. Hakuma! For a second, he forgot about Gina and bent to pick up a stone lying at his feet. He stood there caressing it, marveling at its smoothness. Then he tucked it into his tunic. Really, Shisheem! he thought. What was the big deal about that? He smiled to himself.

  Just then, he heard Gina scream. She sounded very close. He broke into a run, following her voice. He turned a corner and his blood froze. In the light of the torch, he saw Gina lying on the ground and a black shape towering over her.

  Gina! He’ll eat her! But he could not reach for his dagger. Fear had rooted him to the spot. He could not even scream.

  Feeling the warmth of his sister on his back, Kassa silently thanked the woman they had met. But for her, he and Gina would be dead. He realized suddenly just how precious life was. Yet the fact that he had been unable to lift even a finger to save his sister stabbed him to the heart. I guess it’s true. I don’t have what it takes to be a Spear.

  As if she had heard his thoughts, Gina suddenly blurted out, “You know, that proves it, Kassa. Shisheem’s a liar.”

  “What?”

  “That lady, she fought the hyohlu and saved us, didn’t she? She’s a woman, right? So that proves you don’t have to be from the chieftain’s line and you don’t even have to be a man to beat the hyohlu.”

  Kassa stopped in his tracks. Gina was right. “Yes,” he said, “but it could have been because she wasn’t afraid of dying. She’s doing penance, after all.”

  Gina laughed. “So what? It still shows that who your parents are or whether you’re a girl or a boy have nothing to do with it. I can’t wait to see Shisheem’s face tomorrow!”

  “Wait a minute! You can’t tell Shisheem that you met her. We promised to keep it a secret.” He started walking again.

  “Oh, right,” she said, disappointed. But then she began wriggling on his back.

  “Cut that out! You’re heavy enough as it is without squirming around.”

  Gina shoved her fist under his nose. “But look! I can still get back at Shisheem! A piece of hakuma fell inside my tunic when the hyohlu got near me.”

  “Is that all?” Kassa started to say, planning to tell her about the piece he’d picked up himself. But a blue light was seeping out from between Gina’s fingers, and he gasped instead.

  She opened her hand to reveal the stone and gave a small squeak. It was not hakuma but luisha, the most precious gem in Kanbal.

  NAHOKO UEHASHI is the author of ten books in the Moribito series, which have sold more than a million copies and won many major literary awards in her native Japan. An associate professor at a Japanese university, she has a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and studies indigenous peoples in Australia. She lives near Tokyo, Japan.

  CATHY HIRANO’s translation of The Friends by Kazumi Yumoto won both the Batchelder Award for literature in translation and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for fiction. She lives on the island of Shikoku in Japan.

  Text copyright © 1996 by Nahoko Uehashi

  Translation copyright © 2008 by Cathy Hirano

  Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Yuko Shimizu

  All rights reserved. Published by Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920, by arrangement with Kaisei-Sha Publishing Co., Ltd. SCHOLASTIC and the LANTERN LOGO are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Uehashi, Nahoko.

  [Seirei no Moribito. English]

  Moribito : Guardian of the Spirit / by Nahoko Uehashi ; [translation by Cathy Hirano] ; [illustrations by Yuko Shimizu]. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: The wandering warrior Balsa is hired to protect Prince Chagum from both a mysterious monster and the prince’s father, the Mikado.

  ISBN 978-0-545-00542-5

  [1. Fantasy.] I. Hirano, Cathy. II. Shimizu, Yuko, 1965– ill. III. Title.

  PZ7.U277Mo 2008

  [Fic]—dc22

  2007036383

  First edition, June 2008

  Cover art © 2008 by Yuko Shimizu

  Cover design by Phil Falco

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-31180-9

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.