The Beast Player

by Nahoko Uehashi

  *

  There was another Royal Beast sanctuary located nearer to the capital on the Lazalu highlands. Sick and wounded beasts, however, had to be kept separate to avoid tarnishing the purity of the Yojeh and bringing misfortune. These “damaged goods” were kept at the Kazalumu Sanctuary, a day’s carriage ride from the capital, where they were tended until they died. A boarding school had been annexed to the sanctuary to train aspiring beast doctors. Schools in the capital, like Tamuyuan, only accepted applicants from the upper class. There, outstanding students could ascend to the coveted rank of “grand master”. At Kazalumu, however, students were from the artisan class and, although they could become beast doctors, they would never rise higher than that. Still, children came from all over the country, hoping to receive credentials that would guarantee a living in their homelands.

  Funded by the Yojeh, students were provided with free tuition, as well as free room and board and uniforms, which made Kazalumu very popular with parents from the poorer classes. Over a hundred hopeful applicants arrived each year, but the Yojeh’s funds could only support a maximum of sixty students in total, and the income received for veterinarian services from the district’s livestock farmers was barely enough to cover the teachers’ salaries and living expenses. Only fifteen or so students graduated each year. This meant that only fifteen new students could enter. Consequently, the exams that determined who would enter were extremely tough.

  *

  As soon as he had decided what to do with Elin, Joeun had jumped into action. First, he had written to his old school friend, Esalu, explaining the situation and asking permission for Elin to take the entrance exam. In the two weeks it took to receive a reply, he had arranged for another beekeeper to buy his hives, while at the same time preparing Elin for the exam.

  Spring seemed to fly by. When Esalu’s letter finally arrived, Elin could not keep her knees from trembling as she watched Joeun break the seal. The answer was brief, penned in a script so bold it was hard to believe it had been written by a woman. The official entrance exam, Esalu wrote, only took place in the summer. However, three students had been expelled for misconduct that spring. For this reason, and the fact that the request was from Joeun, she would be willing to conduct a special entrance exam for Elin. But it would be very strict. To be accepted, Elin would have to achieve marks as high as the student who had ranked third in the regular exam. Elin could come on that condition.

  Elin and Joeun had spoken very little during the journey to Kazalumu. A mixture of sadness, hope and anxiety had made their hearts too full for speech. As they alighted from the carriage in front of the school, the fragrance of damp grass stroked their cheeks. Dark clouds, blown on the wind, raced above them, pierced by a shaft of sunlight that sparkled on the rain-wet meadow. In the midst of that vast plain stood Kazalumu Boarding School.

  The school was comprised of three large, two-storied buildings, their walls so weathered by wind and snow that the wood had yellowed. The dark thatched roofs were covered in moss and dotted with flowers that must have sprouted from wind-blown seeds. From deep beyond the great wooden doors came the faint murmur of voices, but, perhaps because classes were in session, it seemed far too quiet for there to be sixty students.

  Joeun laid a hand on Elin’s shoulder. “You don’t need to worry. The entrance exam is for twelve-year-olds. You’ll do fine. If you relax and stay clear-headed, you’ll pass for sure.”

  Elin nodded, but her mouth felt very dry. While she tied the reins to the post beside the gate, Joeun struck the rusted copper bell that hung nearby. It made such a dull noise that Elin wondered if anyone would ever hear it, but soon the great doors creaked open, and a tall figure appeared from within, wearing ankle-length trousers beneath a stained, knee-length white apron. At first, Elin thought it must be a middle-aged man, but when the light struck the person’s face, she realized it was a woman. She came toward them and Elin caught the faint scent of animals from her clothes. Although she did not seem to be that old, the woman’s short-cropped hair was sprinkled with white, and her tanned face was laced with wrinkles, reminding Elin of beef jerky. The woman shot back the iron bolt in the gate and opened it, beckoning them inside.

  “It’s been a long time, Esalu,” Joeun said. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

  The woman smiled. “I’ve aged, Joeun… And it looks like you’ve gotten quite brown.” Then she ran her eyes over Elin. “So you’re Elin, are you?”

  Elin placed her palms to her forehead and bowed. “Yes, I’m Elin. It’s an honor to meet you.”

  Esalu nodded. “You’re very tall. I heard you were fourteen but you seem more like sixteen.”

  Joeun patted Elin on the shoulder. “She’s too thin. These last two years she shot up in height. She used to be such a little thing that a puff of wind would have blown her away.”

  Esalu nodded once again. “Come,” she said. “Let me show you around the school.” She turned toward the entrance, and they followed after her. After being outside on the open plain, it took their eyes a moment to adjust to the dim light inside. The corridor smelled of ancient wood mingled with the sunny scent of boys, a combination that for Joeun brought back a flood of memories.

  Removing their shoes in the dirt-floored entranceway, they slipped on the indoor shoes they had brought with them. Esalu gestured for them to follow her, and they began walking along the wooden floor of the dimly lit corridor. They could hear the voices of students responding to their teachers from the rooms on the south side of the corridor. The north side was also lined with rooms, but they appeared to be empty.

  Esalu came to a stop before a sliding door at the end of the hallway. A sign above it announced in faded letters “HEADMASTER’s ROOM”. She put her hand on the door, but Joeun hastily stopped her. “Esalu, wait a second,” he said in a low voice. “Who’s the headmaster now?”

  Esalu raised her brows and slid back the door. On the far side of the room, a sliding door with paper panes had been pulled back, allowing a soft light to pour inside. But the room was empty.

  “I’ve been the headmaster for the last two years,” Esalu said. “Didn’t you know?”

  Joeun looked at her in surprise. “Really?… I thought you had no interest in politics.”

  Esalu laughed. “This isn’t Tamuyuan. No one with any ambition would stay here long. In Kazalumu, the position of headmaster is filled by someone who has no ambition and is willing to stay for life.”

  From the moment she entered the room, Elin’s eyes were riveted to the north wall. Built-in bookshelves extended along it, holding a library that far exceeded Joeun’s collection. Thus preoccupied, she missed the shocked expression on Joeun’s face. For any school, the headmaster’s room proclaimed its wealth and status. The position of Kazalumu was obvious at a single glance and Joeun could not conceal his astonishment at the room’s austerity. He knew that Esalu had never been interested in luxury or fancy trappings, but the sparse furnishings in the barren room were plainly cheap and worn. A large wall clock stood beside the bookshelves, ticking loudly as it marked the passage of time. Thick woven carpets lay on the floor. At the far end, facing the door was a single low desk and legless chair. Four more low desks, each with two legless chairs, were arranged around a hearth embedded in the center of the room. A small stack of coals glowed red with flames in the hearth, and an earthenware teapot with a wisp of steam rising from its spout sat on a metal brazier above it.

  Esalu gestured to the chairs by the hearth. “Have a seat while I make some tea.” Seeing the look on Joeun’s face, she smiled. “There’s no maid to serve tea here. And even if I had the money to hire one, I’d spend it on taking in another student instead.” She poured the tea deftly and served them. Then she looked at Elin. “Whether you pass or fail, you must stay here tonight with Joeun. I’m sure you’re tired after the journey. You could take the test tomorrow if you’d rather.”

  Elin placed her cup on the table. Perhaps because she was excited, she didn’t f
eel tired. Nor could she bear the thought of waiting in suspense any longer. “If possible, I would rather do it now.”

  Esalu nodded. “All right, then. We’ll do that. But first drink your tea. It should help you relax a little.”

  The hot tea had a pleasant citric aroma and a slightly sweet taste, and it warmed Elin up from the inside. Her fingers stung where they held the hot cup. Although it was spring, the journey across the highlands in the rain had been very cold. She had only realized how frozen her hands were when she had picked up the cup. Just as Esalu had said, by the time she had finished the tea, she was feeling more relaxed and able to register the furnishings and her surroundings.

  “That’s brought the color back to your face,” Esalu remarked. “Shall we start, then? Joeun, come over here please.”

  Joeun stood up ponderously, cup in hand, and went to sit down beside the headmistress’s desk. Esalu then took three sheets of paper, a pot of ink and a pen from her desk and placed them in front of Elin. “Go ahead. The amount of time you have to complete it is one toh.”

  When she saw the writing that filled the thin sheets of paper, Elin’s heart began to pound almost painfully. Her tongue clung to the roof of her mouth and her mind felt numb. She took a deep breath and looked at what was written. The first page was all mathematical equations, the second was questions about the life cycles and habits of various animals, and the third was essay questions. The answer to the first question came to her, and she felt herself relax. From then on, she was oblivious to everything around her. When she had completed the last page, she checked her answers one more time and then quietly laid her pen on the desk.

  “Are you done already?” Esalu asked. “Only half a toh has passed.”

  Elin blinked. She had no idea how much time had passed. All she knew was that she was finished. Even if she tried, she would not be able to think of anything more to write. She rose and, walking over to the headmistress, handed her the test. Picking up a pair of reading glasses from her desk and placing them on her nose, Esalu began reading.

  The ticking of the clock, which Elin had not even heard before, seemed to echo loudly in the room, and the sound of the steam rattling the lid of the kettle set her nerves on edge. Esalu read swiftly through the first two pages, placing them one by one on the table as she finished. But she spent a long time reading the essays on the third page. When she finished, she looked not at Elin, but at Joeun. “So… I can see why she’s such a favorite of yours.”

  A smile spread slowly across Joeun’s face. “What do you think?”

  Without answering, she placed the test paper on the desk and tapped it with her knuckle. Then she stretched and looked up at Elin. “For your studies, you can start in the intermediate level with students your own age instead of the novice level. But for your practical lesson, you’ll start off mucking out the stalls of the Royal Beasts and other animals along with the twelve-year-olds. All right?”

  After a pause, Elin nodded. “…Yes, thank you.”

  “That’s settled then. I’ll introduce you to the other students this evening at dinner time.” Then Esalu smiled. It was only when Elin saw her smile that it really sank in. She had been accepted into the school. All the tension drained from her body and she could not keep her voice from trembling. “Tha-thank you so much.”

  Esalu reached for a rope that hung down from a small hole in the ceiling and pulled it. Shortly after, they heard a knock on the door.

  “Headmistress, it’s me, Kalisa.”

  “Come in,” Esalu said, and the door opened to reveal a woman slightly younger than the headmistress and so stout she looked like she would burst. “This is our dorm mother,” Esalu said. “She serves as a mother to all sixty of our students.”

  Kalisa smiled brightly. “Rascals is what they should be called. Really, they’re a lot of work, but somehow or other we get along… Oh, there I go, forgetting to introduce myself. I’m Kalisa. You’re the new student, are you?”

  Elin bowed formally. “My name is Elin. I’m pleased to meet you.”

  Kalisa’s smile grew broader. “My goodness. What a proper greeting. It’s so nice to have girls. Can you clean, do laundry, sew?”

  Before Elin could reply, Joeun said, “She did all the housework in our home. She won’t be any trouble to you, don’t worry.”

  “Splendid! The boys are so lazy sometimes. You know, Headmistress, we should really start recruiting more girls.”

  Esalu laughed and laid a hand on Elin’s shoulder. “Let Kalisa show you around the school. Kalisa, I’m going to put her in the intermediate class. You take her to her room and tell her everything she needs to know about living here.”

  Kalisa’s eyes grew round. “You’re going to skip to the second year, are you? You must be very bright!” Then she smiled at Joeun. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her.”

  Joeun bowed deeply. “Thank you very much.”

  “You’re welcome,” Kalisa replied. “Come along now, Elin.”

  “But her belongings are still in the carriage,” Joeun protested.

  “No need to worry about that,” Esalu said. “I’ll get the custodians to help bring her things in. You’ll stay here tonight, too, won’t you? Elin can stay with you in the guestrooms tonight instead of the dorms.”

  “Really? That would be wonderful.”

  Once Elin had followed Kalisa out of the room, Joeun turned to Esalu and bowed. “I can’t thank you enough. I know I was asking you a big favor to make this exception and I really appreciate you giving her a chance.”

  Esalu picked up Elin’s test papers in her hand and passed them to Joeun. As he began reading through them, she said quietly, “In thirty years of teaching, I’ve seen a lot of good students, so it’s no surprise for me when one of them gets every question right except for a small calculation error. But to be honest, her answer to that essay question astonished me.”

  Joeun put the first two sheets on the desk and began to read Elin’s essay on “Why do you want to be a beast doctor?”. The gist of her answer was this: “I am fascinated by the mystery of why things are the way they are, whether living or inanimate. I want to understand. Why is the smallest honeybee so incredibly efficient? Why is there so much diversity even among bees of the same hive? When I start thinking about things like this, my mind is filled with questions. I want to know why living things are the way they are, including me.

  “Unlike people, beasts do not use language. In order to care for them, we must study them continuously and look at every aspect. I am sure that whatever I learn about beasts will help me to learn about the things I want to know.”

  Joeun rested the paper on the desk and looked at Esalu. “You’re a teacher to the core, aren’t you?” she said. “You may have left the school, but when you discovered such an able pupil, you couldn’t resist teaching her, right?”

  Joeun shook his head. “No, it wasn’t like that. I didn’t ‘discover’ her. She walked into my life out of the blue.” He told her everything, from the day he had rescued Elin to what she had told him about her mother. When he finished, it was late afternoon, and the sunlight slanting through the window had turned to gold.

  Esalu frowned slightly and said in a low voice, “I see. So that’s her background. She has a stillness that is unusual in a girl of fourteen and I guess that explains why.” She looked down at the floor and murmured, “So her mother broke the oath of the Ao-Loh.”

  Joeun raised his brows. “Ao-Loh?”

  Esalu’s head jerked up as if she had been startled. “What? Oh, I was mumbling. I said that her mother broke the vow of the Ahlyo, the People of the Mist. If you look at her eyes, you can tell at a glance that she has Ahlyo blood. I have very firmly told everyone here, including the students, that if Elin joins this school, they are all to ignore the fact that she is part Ahlyo, so you needn’t worry on that account.”

  Joeun’s face relaxed. “Thank you. I’m relieved to hear that.”

  Esalu smiled faintly.
“Whether Ahlyo or Wajak, and regardless of whether she’s a girl or of low rank, as long as she has the desire to help the Beasts and the brains to do so, she has what it takes to belong to this school.” For an instant, Joeun glimpsed in her expression the stubborn fierceness of the girl he had once studied with so long ago.

  3 YUYAN

  Eight paper lanterns hung from the ceiling of the spacious dining hall, casting a soft light over the students sitting at the long tables. The simple fare laid out before them was at least plentiful. As Elin was led to her seat, she felt the eyes of every boy in the room follow her, and the pressure of their gaze weighed on her chest. She had never seen so many boys gathered in one place in all her life, nor had she ever been stared at in such a way. She was never able to recall how Esalu introduced her to the students or what she had said herself.

  When she sat down, she was surprised to find a girl in the seat beside her. Large-boned and tall, the girl was smiling broadly. “Now isn’t this grand!” she exclaimed in an unfamiliar lilting accent. “Another girl!” Grabbing Elin’s hands in her own, she continued, “Until you came, I was all on my own, a wee little girl among all these boys. But now look at this! I’ve been sent a friend!”

  Stunned to receive such a profuse welcome from a complete stranger, Elin looked around in confusion, but the boys were all grinning.

  “What do you mean, ‘wee little girl’?” one of them teased.

  “Yeah, you eat more than the rest of us put together, you lazy old thing.”