Guardian of the God - Return from the Hard Journey - Part 2 Chapter 4 - Falling into a Trap

  Guardian of the God

-

Return from the Hard Journey

(Book 6 of the Guardian of the Spirit Series)

Author: Uehashi Nahoko

Translator: Ainikki the Archivist

 

  Part 2 - The Trap

Chapter 4 - Falling into a Trap

     Early morning light was just peeking over the horizon as Balsa and Asra joined a large group of people gathered outside the main gate of the Trader’s Market. The wind was bitterly cold. Horses stomped their numb feet as the baggage inspectors passed among them, their breath steaming in the frigid air.

    Balsa and Asra waited with the Tal people at the very end of a long line of caravans preparing for departure. They each wore a full set of black Tal clothes and shuma that covered the entirety of their faces except their eyes. Balsa rubbed the neck of a horse standing next to her to warm up her numb hands. She carried her spear in the same style that the other Tal people carried their weapons: it was fastened securely to the horse’s saddle.

    Asra didn’t say a word as she watched the sun come up. A seemingly endless line of caravans stretched out over the snowy flatlands ahead of them. A bell rang from above the gate to signal that it would soon open. Asra was so startled by the bell that she crouched down and tried to hide. The Tal people around them finished packing and mounted their horses. They were ready to leave.

    The leader of the very first caravan in line took a deep breath and sounded a long note on his hunting horn. He passed through the open gate, leading all of his people behind him.

    Asra saw the inn Mina was staying at as she and Balsa got closer to the gate. She hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to Mina in person, but she said it now in her heart.

    Most of the road was hard and slippery with ice, but there were muddy, slushy patches as well. It was slow going for all of the caravans leaving the Trader’s Market. People traveled together in small groups at first, but as time passed everyone stretched out in a single long line to make more room for the wagons and carts on the road.

    Around noon, Balsa caught sight of a line of low hills in the distance. The road cut deep into a forest thick with pine trees. When Balsa could see Shahal mine shaft ahead of her in the distance, Ianu brought her horse up alongside hers and whispered, “We’ll be leaving the road soon. Please slow down so that we can pull away from the others without being noticed.”

    Balsa nodded and pulled up a little on her reins. 

    The Tal people slowly fell behind the line of other caravans and turned onto a narrow forest path that quickly vanished into the trees. The other caravans didn’t seem to notice when they broke off and turned aside.

    “Asra, ride behind me,” Ianu said. “Balsa, please protect the rear of our caravan. I want to be sure that no one’s following us,” she said.

    Balsa nodded and freed her spear from her saddle with her right hand. She kept the reins in her left hand as she turned her horse toward the back of the line of Tal people. A thin line of stinging pain moved up her injured side and hand as she maneuvered the horse.

    There was only a little snow on the forest path. The trees served as a buffer against the wind, so this was the warmest part of their journey so far. A fresh pine scent wafted through green trees untouched by winter snow. The forest was completely silent: Balsa heard no songbirds or animals moving, nor did she hear any of the Tal people say a single word to one another. They moved through the woods as silently as shadows.

     Snow started falling, but only a little of it broke through the canopy of the trees above to reach the ground. The path got steeper and rougher as it wound through low hills. The trees thinned and gave way to a rocky area; boulders lined the path to either side. The horses cleverly found footing on the steep path.

    Balsa heard water flowing from somewhere ahead. It was probably a mountain river whose source was nearby. Suddenly, the hair on the back of her neck prickled. She couldn’t hear or sense anything out of the ordinary, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something very dangerous nearby. When she searched for the cause of her unease, Ianu called out to her and interrupted her concentration. 

     “We’re almost to the Sai river!” she shouted. “After we cross the bridge, we’ll be in the Shan forest. No Rotan ever sets foot there, so we’ll be safe. We’ll stop for rest as soon as we cross the river!"

    Balsa waved her spear to indicate her understanding, but she frowned. Ianu didn’t need to shout for Balsa to hear her.

    The forest receded as they got closer to the Sai river gorge. There was a suspension bridge over the river as Ianu had said, but it wasn’t wide and it didn’t look strong enough to support anything much heavier than a mountain goat.

    The Tal trappers and merchants visibly relaxed when they saw the bridge. They were almost home. Ianu kept turning around and looking at Balsa. “We’re almost there,” she said. “We just need to cross."

    Balsa didn’t answer her. A chill went up her spine. She felt an unmistakable air of intimidation and threat from somewhere--somewhere close. Someone was lying in wait, preparing to attack. She was sure of it.

    Balsa urged her horse into a gallop and prodded the flank of Asra’s horse with the butt of her spear. “Asra, run! It’s a trap!” 

     Balsa felt an arrow in her back before she finished speaking. She twisted and yanked it out, then pulled frantically on her horse’s reins to turn around. A large group of armed men moved silently out of the trees behind the Tal trappers.

    Asra let out a high-pitched scream.

    “Run! We have to cross the bridge!” Ianu called out as she kicked her horse into a gallop. The Tal people formed a line and crossed the bridge as quickly as possible. Some glanced back at their attackers with expressions of alarm. Asra’s horse ran to the front of the line and crossed the bridge. Ianu was right behind her. 

    As soon as Balsa saw that Asra was safely across, she brandished her spear and pantomimed cutting the rope that attached the bridge to this side. The attackers fanned out around her in a semicircle. She wondered why they weren’t using their bows anymore.

    Balsa put her back to the bridge. She didn’t expect to be attacked from that direction, but the people on the other side were still in danger. If all of the archers she could see fired at once, Balsa wouldn’t be able to defend against them all. They could easily kill Asra and the others from this range--so why weren’t they firing?

    It was almost like they’d sprung their trap to force Asra and the others across the bridge. They gradually came closer to Balsa. When she turned slightly and saw Asra being carried farther into the trees on the same horse as Ianu, she smiled in relief.

    The men surrounding her made no move to give chase. Asra wasn’t their target; Balsa was--they’d been waiting here for her from the start. This was a deliberate ambush that Ianu had set for her. She had separated Balsa and Asra so that only Balsa would be killed here. When Balsa realized this, her entire body burned with rage at both Ianu and herself.

    When Asra was completely out of sight of the bridge, all the men attacked Balsa at once. Balsa stood no chance against the entire group, so she stood up on her horse’s back, kicked at her saddle and jumped over the heads of the men surrounding her. She landed in the woods on the other side of them on all four limbs like a cat. The instant she landed, she broke into a run.

    The men yelled out to one another to give chase, but the thick underbrush beneath the trees and the steep slope that rose from the Sai river’s gorge made running slow.

    Balsa put her back to a tree and kicked at its roots for increased momentum as she leaped at her nearest foe in a forward flip.

    He had no time to block her with his sword or get out of the way. Balsa’s first strike sent him head-first into the ground. She stepped on his head as she jumped up and side-stepped another attacker, cutting open his arm with her spear as she passed him by.

    Balsa had no time to think. The all-consuming rage boiling within her required an outlet. She moved on pure instinct as she kept fighting.

    The trees were her only allies here. They made it harder for her attackers to see where she was, which meant they couldn’t surround her as easily or use their bows. Balsa flitted from tree to tree and fell upon her enemies one by one--and one by one, they fell.

    But there were too many enemies. Balsa kept running and fighting in her heavy coat until her lungs burned and her vision went blurry from sweat and fatigue. Snow started falling in sheets; she kicked it up as she ran.

    As Balsa blocked the incoming swipe of a longsword with her spear, she felt someone cut her back open from shoulder to hip in a diagonal line. Her coat, hood, and shuma face covering all served to protect her back somewhat, so the wound was shallow. Balsa twisted and felled the man behind her with a single hit, then tripped the man in front of her. By the time she knocked out the second man, Balsa knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep going for much longer.

    Balsa ran. Her breath was a white trail that made it difficult for her to see anything in front of her. She summoned the supernatural strength often seen in wounded animals and ran through the forest at incredible speed.   

     She ran all the way back to the bridge and collapsed. The wound in her left side reopened and bled through her clothes. Balsa groaned and crawled the scant remaining distance to the bridge before cutting the rope that attached the bridge to this side. When she heard the rope snap, she caught both ends of it in her hands so that the bridge wouldn’t immediately collapse into the gorge below.

    She heard men behind her; they were still chasing her. When someone tried to attack her from behind, she shot her leg out and tripped them; a man pitched past her and fell directly into the ice-cold river below.

    Balsa suddenly lost all strength in her legs. She felt herself start to fall forward. Thinking quickly, she threaded the shaft of her spear into the space between two bridge planks just before the bridge fell completely away from the cliff. She slammed into the other side of the gorge along with the broken bridge.

    Balsa’s entire body went limp from shock and pain. Her right hand lost its grip on her spear, leaving her hanging by a single arm. Arrows whizzed around her and bounced off the rock cliff she was pressed against. She couldn’t move.

    Hanging in midair with snow falling all around her, Balsa looked down at the blue-green depths of the half-frozen river.  She scrunched her shoulders and brought her knees up to make herself as small a target as possible, then pushed off the edge of the cliff with both feet. She freed her spear from the broken bridge and plunged into the river below.

    Balsa closed her eyes as she fell. Scant seconds later, she felt a shock like being slammed in the head with a thick wooden board and passed into a world of darkness.

    Balsa’s attackers watched Balsa fall into the river; a few moments later, she floated to the surface and drifted slowly away from them like a broken twig caught in a sluggish current. She remained face-down and did not move. 

     The men put aside their weapons and looked up at the gray sky. The snowstorm was getting worse.

    “Should we take her head?” one of the men asked.

    The others shook their heads. “Are you kidding?” another man asked. “The blizzard’s coming on, and we’re hurt. We need to return to the settlement now or we’ll all be stranded out here. Unless you like the idea of freezing to death…”

    The men looked down at Balsa’s body one more time, then gathered up their fallen allies and returned to their homes.

    Asra watched Balsa leap over the line of attackers and dash into the woods, but she couldn’t see anything else after that. Ianu seized the reins of her horse and climbed up in the saddle behind her, then ordered her horse to gallop.

    “No! We have to save Balsa!” Asra cried out. She turned in the saddle to try to catch sight of Balsa again.

    “That’s impossible,” Ianu said. “We’re not warriors, Asra. We can’t win against such a large number of bandits. You have to get away. Please don’t waste Balsa’s sacrifice!”

    Tears overflowed in Asra’s eyes. She gritted her teeth. Ianu was speaking as carefully and politely as she could to soften the blow of Balsa’s loss, but Asra didn’t notice. She was so worried for Balsa that she went a little crazy and shouted without thinking: “Ianu, I can call Talhamaya! I can defeat all those bandits and save Balsa!”

    Ianu and the other Tal traders surrounded Asra so that she couldn’t turn the horse around and return to the river. No one listened to her or helped her no matter how much she screamed. Her journey after that felt like a never-ending nightmare.

    Ianu and the others guarded Asra closely as they ran deeper and deeper into the woods. Snow fell and swirled around them, making it difficult to see very far ahead. They rode through forest groves and dismounted to lead their horses up steep paths, continuously hurrying forward.

    When Ianu and the others finally stopped moving, the poor horses were so exhausted that a line of grass-green foam surrounded all of their mouths. The sun was about to set, so the world was gloomy and half-dark. Snow was still falling, but Asra felt unusually warm. She saw light flickering in front of her and blinked.

    When she opened her eyes, she gasped.

    The light she was seeing came from Talhamaya’s sacred river. She and the Tal trappers were traveling along the line of a thin tributary of that river. The glow was much fainter here than what she’d seen at the temple of Talhamaya with her mother, but Asra had no doubt that this river flowed from and was connected to the larger one.

    Monkeys chattered together in the trees above her head. The trees and the rocks all seemed bigger here than in the regular forest; they were all covered in a thick layer of blue moss. Directly in front of Asra was a highly polished megalith of black stone. Asra suddenly knew where she was.

    This is a temple. It looked a lot like the temple of Talhamaya where she and her mother had visited Sada Talhamaya’s grave, but this one was smaller.

    People in black robes emerged from the shadows and enclosed Asra in a tight circle. One of them was a young, slight woman with a monkey sitting on her shoulder. She came very close to Asra, then stopped. She took the bit of Asra’s horse in one hand and removed her hood with the other. When Asra saw her face, she gasped.

    “Shihana?”

    Shihana studied Asra’s face as if she were searching for something specific in it. When she discerned nothing but surprise in Asra’s expression, she smiled.

    “I’m so glad you weren’t hurt, Asra. It must have been so frightening! But everything’s going to be all right now.”

    Asra had no idea what Shihana was talking about or why she was here. She kept staring at her in shock.

    The monkey leaped from Shihana’s shoulder to Asra’s with a happy-sounding chuckling noise. Asra instinctively clutched at the monkey’s soft, warm fur. He brushed his furry face against her cheek.

    Asra felt her awareness shrinking so that it included only the monkey and Shihana.

    “Monkeys are the messengers of the god,” Shihana said. “I understand what monkeys say, so I’m her messenger, too.”

    Asra remembered Shihana telling her something like that before. She’d first met her a long time ago when Shihana came to visit her mother. Asra had never seen her mother as terrified as she’d been of Shihana, at least at first. But then the two of them had started talking. It took several visits, but Shihana and her mother eventually became friends.

    Asra’s mother had ordered her harshly to never tell anyone about Shihana, not even her father or Chikisa, but she’d never told Asra why.

    Once in a great while, Shihana would appear outside their settlement like the wind. She’d always leave as quickly and silently as she’d come. Asra considered her very mysterious.

    Although Balsa had spoken to her about Sufar, Asra didn’t know that Shihana was Sufar’s daughter. She also didn’t remember Shihana carrying her out of the inn in New Yogo or Shihana’s fight with Balsa; she’d been drugged and asleep at the time. Asra did think it strange that Shihana would be here waiting for her, though--too strange to be just a coincidence.

    “This is sacred ground,” Sihana said. “The forest around this temple is very cold, but the place where we’re standing is warm, isn’t it?”

    “That’s because the sacred river is flowing again,” Asra muttered.

    Shihana’s eyes shone. “Can you see it, Asra? Can you see the river flowing along that line of blue moss?” she asked.

    Asra nodded. If Shihana truly was the messenger of the god, she should be able to see the river, too, but it seemed like she couldn’t. Maybe the tributary of the river that connected to this temple was so thin and shallow that other people couldn’t see it easily?

    Shihana grasped Asra’s hands reverently and helped her dismount. “Blessed child, you are most welcome here. You are the Chamau. One day, you will become Sada Talhamaya.” Shihana’s voice was not much louder than a whisper.

    Asra felt frozen to the spot.

    “Don’t worry, Asra. I know everything. Your mother and I talked about everything you are, and everything you will become.”

    Asra looked at Shihana fearfully. Her expression was sly and crafty like a fox’s. Asra had known Shihana since she was very young, but she really knew nothing about her except for her name--and that she was dangerous.

    She knew exactly where Asra would be and the exact time she would be there. Did she have the power to predict the future? Even if she didn’t, she seemed to have the power of seeing through people to discover their secrets. Asra suddenly felt very afraid of Shihana.

    “If you really know everything,” Asra said, “do you know about Balsa?”

    Shihana nodded. Her expression betrayed nothing.

    “Shihana, please save Balsa! We were attacked by bandits at the bridge. There were so many of them, but I’m sure that Balsa’s still alive. She must have lived through the attack somehow. She’s probably hurt and waiting for us to help her. Please! Shihana, we have to go back there, or at least send someone...”

    Shihana pulled gently on Asra’s arm and started walking. “Of course. I heard about the attack from the monkeys in the trees. I already sent people to help her.”

    Asra looked at the monkey perched on her own shoulder with surprise. When she looked into its eyes, she saw the same intelligence and self-awareness that people had. This monkey was no ordinary animal. Maybe Shihana really could talk to monkeys. Asra had seen monkeys in the trees overhead as she and the others had fled from the bandits; the monkeys must have seen everything.

    Someone was standing on the narrow path ahead, carrying a torch. When they saw Shihana and Asra approach, they held their torch higher and started leading them deeper into the forest. Asra focused completely on following the light of the torch. The surrounding darkness seemed indistinct and unreal; she felt like she was walking in a dream.

    “Shihana, do you really know everything?”

    Shihana smiled a little. “Well, maybe not everything. But I know a lot. What do you want to ask about?”

    “Do you know where my brother is?” Asra whispered. “Is he safe?”

    Shihana’s smile deepened. “Yes, I do, and he’s perfectly safe. You’ll be able to see him soon.”

    Asra hadn’t expected that answer at all. “Did you save him?”

    “Yes. I’ll tell you everything that happened, I promise. But first, we should get inside and have something to eat.”

    Dozens of tiny points of light rose out of the darkness ahead of Asra. The wind carried the strong smell of smoke. Were people trying to ward off the wolves here? As Asra got closer to the lights, she saw that they’d been lit inside iron baskets and set close together in a circle of fire. Warriors stood near the fires; Asra could see the shadows of their weapons in the dim light of the flames.

    The warriors bowed their heads to Shihana and Asra as they passed. They all seemed a bit nervous and afraid, which put Asra even more on edge.

    In the very center of the ring of fire, there were a few small houses with sloped roofs that were completely covered in snow. These were the homes of the Ramau, Tal people that served as apprentices to the Tal Kumada. Shihana invited Asra inside one of these houses.

    The house was larger on the the inside than it had seemed from the outside, but there were no signs of habitation within. The room was entirely bare of decoration or personal belongings. The floor was made of polished stone. Sweet-smelling rushes had recently been scattered across it. The room’s only fireplace had just been lit.

    On a large table near the fire, Asra saw a huge loaf of bam bread with butter and honey, along with a tureen of soup that was steaming hot. There were also pickled fruits that looked like strawberries and a large pot of milk tea.

    Asra didn’t forget for a moment how worried she was about Balsa, but the sight of the food a made her remember that she hadn’t eaten anything that morning. Her stomach growled audibly.

    Shihana removed her heavy Tal-style cloak and hood, then pulled out a chair for Asra at the table.

    “We should eat,” she said kindly. “It’s easier to think calmly after you’re warm and full.” She poured Asra a cup of milk tea and passed her butter and honey to layer on slices of bam bread. Asra felt warmth spreading through her chilled limbs as she ate. Her worry for Balsa was like a block of ice inside her. Eating didn’t thaw that block of ice, but it did melt it a little around the edges.

    Shihana’s monkey stuffed his face happily with pickled strawberries. Shihana appeared completely content as she watched Asra and the monkey eat. Just as Asra finished her meal, there was a knock on the door. Shihana rose from the table and cracked open the door the tiniest bit so that she could speak to someone outside. She exchanged only a few words with them before shutting the door again.

    When Shihana sat down at the table again, her expression was grim.

    “What’s wrong?” Asra asked.

    “I have sad news. Balsa...it seems that Balsa is dead.”

    Time stopped for Asra. Her mind went completely blank as she struggled to comprehend what Shihana had just said. The news hit her in waves, passing through her at a surface level before cutting her straight to the heart. When she finally understood that Balsa wouldn’t be coming back, she started crying.

    Tears fell silently down Asra’s cheeks. She didn’t sob or cry out; she sat up straight and wept in complete silence.

    Shihana wrapped her arm around Asra’s shoulders.

    “It was my fault,” Asra choked out. “If she hadn’t met me, she’d...she’d...” She tried to take a deep breath, but stuttering gasps were all she could manage. She ground her teeth and shut her eyes tight to suppress the grief that threatened to tear her heart out.

    Shihana rubbed her back to soothe her. “It wasn’t your fault. You made sure someone went to try to save her. Balsa put herself in harm’s way to save you because that was her choice.” There was a strange undertone in Shihana’s voice that Asra couldn’t quite identify. Her voice kept getting softer, like it was coming from far away. She tried to lean closer so that she could listen better, but her entire body felt sluggish. She couldn’t move.

    Asra didn’t know it, but her food had been drugged. She fell into a deep sleep with tears still falling down her face.

Illustration: Falling into the Trap

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