Guardian of the God - Return from the Hard Journey - Part 3 Chapter 4 - The Night Before the Ceremony

  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 3 - Sada Talhamaya

Chapter 4 - The Night Before the Ceremony

 

“It’s so loud,” Tanda complained as he and Balsa crossed the drawbridge over Jitan’s moat. He fiddled with the fastenings of his new coat as he walked. It didn’t fit properly, so the cold air kept getting in.

    Tomorrow was the twenty-second day of Shasam. Rota’s founding ceremony would be held in the afternoon. If the ceremony wasn’t so soon, the drawbridge over Jitan’s moat would have been up and the city’s gates would have been closed.

    “Tanda, let’s walk over there.” Balsa leaned on Tanda’s shoulder and pointed to Jitan’s castle. Lots of curious people were milling about near the castle walls, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was happening inside.

    “I don’t know. Don’t those holes in the ramparts look a little dangerous?”

    There were holes high up on the castle walls where archers could shoot arrows from cover or pour hot liquid or tar onto the heads of any enemies below. If there were any archers up there, Balsa, Tanda and all the people on the drawbridge would be easy targets.

    “They’re just murder holes,” Balsa said. “Take a look at how they’re angled. A lot of castles in Rota have them. They’re set up so archers can hit people while they’re on the bridge.”

    “...Murder holes?”

    Balsa shrugged dismissively.

    The courtyard in front of Jitan’s castle was full of tents. The spears of warriors gleamed in the light of the sun. Flags of many colors were scattered around camp; each color represented a different clan.

    Balsa sensed something moving above her and looked up. It was a hawk.

    “Looks like Sufar found us,” Balsa muttered.

    Tanda looked up and narrowed his eyes to slits so that he could track where the hawk was going. “Should we go see him?”

    “I don’t see why not. We can always run away if he tries anything.”

    Sufar suddenly appeared in the crowd in front of them. He walked toward them and nodded in greeting. “Tanda. Balsa.” His expression was difficult to interpret. “I’m surprised you can move so well,” he said to Balsa. “You must be incredibly strong.”

    Balsa’s skin was still pale and slack from her recent injuries and illness, but her eyes burned with a strong will to live.

    “Thank your apprentice for me,” Balsa said. “He saved my life.”

    Sufar shook his head and passed his hand in front of his face. He was about to say something when he heard the high-pitched cries of many animals behind him. Tanda and Balsa tracked the sound to numerous cattle pens in the courtyard where sheep and pigs were being kept.

    “Why are the animals upset?” Tanda asked.

    Sufar shrugged. “They’re going to be sacrificed during the ceremony tomorrow. Every clan head brought ten of their own animals for that purpose.” Sufar looked out at the herds of sheep and the pig pens. “Their sacrifice represents king Kiran killing Sada Talhamaya to found our nation. They are offered up to the king of Rota; their meat is used to supplement the feast that follows the ceremony. They’ll be sacrificed in the exact spot where king Kiran killed Sada Talhamaya, on the Field of Freedom.” 

    Sufar pointed toward Rota’s Ritual Hall. “Do you see the low wall surrounding the Ritual Hall?” he asked.

    “Yes,” Tanda said.

    “The Field of Freedom is inside that wall,” Sufar said. “There is a large, round red stone that marks the spot. Prince Ihan will slaughter the pigs and sheep with his sword there. Ordinarily, king Yosam would do the honors, but he’s still in Sangal.”

    Sufar shifted his gaze slightly upward. “Beyond the Ritual Hall is a line of low hills and a deep forest. You can see the border of the forest if you squint. That’s where Sada Talhamaya’s grave lies. No one is allowed to go into the woods.”

    When Tanda looked at the forest above the Ritual Hall, he was surprised to see that there was no sign of snow at all. The trees were all lush and green even in the middle of winter.

    Tanda’s eyes widened. “I can... I can see the reflection of those trees in a river,” he said. “There’s a river in Nayugu.” He could only see it very faintly from this distance. He chanted a spell Torogai had taught him to temporarily strengthen his ability to perceive the river.

    As the river became crystal clear to him, Tanda took a few steps back and looked up with his mouth open in an O of shock. “There’s a tree. I see it. Why is it so huge?”

    Sufar looked at Tanda with shining eyes. “So you can see it, Tanda? It’s easy to see why Torogai chose you as an apprentice. Even if I amplify my own perceptions of Noyuk, I can only sense the tree. I’ve never been able to see it.”

    Balsa looked where Tanda and Sufar were looking, but all she could see was an ordinary forest and an ordinary sky. She saw no sign of a huge tree at all.

    “Jitan is the ancient capital of Rotarbal,” Sufar said. “There is a water source inside that forest that connects to the sacred river that flows through Rota during Noyuk’s spring. A large tree grows from the center of that water source. It’s said to be so tall that no one can see the top of it. Sada Talhamaya climbed that tree and united with the god. People used to sacrifice animals to the god every single day in Rotarbal.

    “I’ve heard it said that Sada Talhamaya’s voice was difficult to understand. She always seemed like she was speaking from far away, like half of her was in our world and half of her was in Noyuk. Perhaps this was so because she built her palace in the same place as the tree.

    “Most people can’t see the tree at all, even if they’re magic weavers. And I’ve never met anyone who can see the ruins of Sada Talhamaya’s palace, so I don’t know if that part of the legend is true or not.”

    Tanda and Sufar’s intense focus on the forest and the scenery surrounding it made Balsa look a bit harder at the tree line. “Hey--isn’t that smoke I see in the forest?”

    Sufar faced Balsa. “People are camped there.”

    “Is that where you and the other Kashal are staying, Sufar?” Tanda asked. “Have you talked to Shihana?”

    “I’ve talked to her and listened to her plan,” Sufar said. “I also spoke with Prince Ihan last night.” 

    Sufar sighed as he stared at the smoke rising from the Kashal camp. “Prince Ihan told me plainly that he has no interest in using Asra as a weapon. He’s not the kind of man to lie, so I believe him.” Sufar shifted his gaze to the walls of the courtyard surrounding the castle. “It seems that Prince Ihan has met with Asra and Chikisa. He’s planning to talk to king Yosam about what will happen to them in the future. I guarantee that he’s thinking primarily about their safety and future happiness.”

    Sufar looked at Balsa and frowned. “Prince Ihan is a man of deep feeling. He really does intend to do everything he can for those children. Shihana can’t do anything that would harm them; not now. If she tries, Prince Ihan will oppose her.”

    There was a brief pause as Tanda and Balsa looked at Sufar. “Then...is that the end of it?” Tanda asked.

    Sufar shrugged. “I think so. It seems like Asra doesn’t want to become Sada Talhamaya, so king Yosam and Prince Ihan will decide what happens to her in the future. The main concern is to prevent her from being used to harm others. I don’t see how Shihana could make her original plan work now.”

    “Where is Shihana?” Balsa asked.

    “She’s staying with other Kashal inside the castle.”

    “You mean she’s free? You haven’t caught her and told everyone what she did?”

    Sufar’s eyebrows went up. “She’s...under surveillance.”

    Balsa glanced at Tanda.

    “I talked to Prince Ihan at length about what Shihana’s punishment should be,” Sufar said. “She’s gone against the core values of the Kashal and shown disloyalty to the royal family. After the nation’s founding ceremony is over, the Kashal will convene a meeting of our elders and hold a trial.”

    Sufar sighed. “Prince Ihan won’t use Asra’s power or go along with what Shihana had planned for her, so there’s no need to worry for now. We have bigger problems. The men camped here have been sharpening their weapons since they arrived. I expect there’ll be a battle before the end of the ceremony.”

    Sufar looked completely exhausted.

    “Sufar,” Balsa said, “you’ve been an enemy more often than you’ve been an ally, but I think that your essential nature is understandable enough. People show their true selves when they fight.” 

    Sufar’s eyes were dull and colorless. “I think it’s hard to truly understand someone, no matter the circumstances. People don’t always act the way we expect. I was sure that Shihana wouldn’t give up--and I never expected her to sully her hands with such a murderous plot in the first place. Still, it’s not like her to abandon her plans before she sees them to completion.”

    Tanda agreed with Sufar; he knew Shihana. He doubted that she’d actually given up. He heard the sound of wings flapping above him and watched Shau land on Sufar’s shoulder.

    “That’s why Shau and I are going to keep our eyes open,” Sufar said.

 

The night before Rota’s founding ceremony, Asra and Chikisa were given beds with mattresses and pillows to sleep on in their tents. Neither one of them had been so comfortable in a long time, but they were also too anxious to sleep. Shadows moved on the walls of their huge tent in the light of the fire.

“Asra,” Chikisa said, “I feel so much better about all this.”

“About what?”

“About what Prince Ihan said about you not becoming Sada Talhamaya. You don’t have to call the god to keep us safe ever again.”

Asra didn’t say anything for a while. She could hear the voices of people outside the tent drinking and celebrating together.

“You, Balsa and Prince Ihan are scared of the god,” she said. “You think she’s cruel and evil.”

“Well, yeah,” Chikisa said. “I told you what I thought about the god yesterday, and why mom thought she was so great.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Asra said. “How do I say it? If I weren’t the Chamau, the two of us wouldn’t be here right now.” She frowned. “Have you thought about that? If Talhamaya hadn’t saved us when we were going to be sold--and if I hadn’t called her to save me from the wolves--then neither of us would be here. We’d be dead. We owe our lives to Talhamaya, don’t we?”

Chikisa remained silent. Asra turned over on her bed and faced him squarely. “You call her cruel, but I think it’s people who are cruel. Don’t you remember all the people who laughed when mom was executed? And then some slave traders caught us! They were going to sell us, Chikisa!” 

She paused. “I only called the god to save us from bad people when they attacked us. If I see someone in trouble in the future and the god could save them, what should I do? Should I ignore them and let them be killed?”

Asra appeared pained and deeply confused. Her burdens were too heavy for her to carry alone. She was thinking very seriously about the future and seeing a lot of awful possibilities. Chikisa felt sorry for her. She wasn’t wrong; choosing not to save someone when she had the power to do so was effectively the same thing as murder. And there were many cruel people in the world. There were probably people who would want Asra to save them.

“But you can’t save them, Asra,” he said. “It’s impossible. Killing people so freely and easily with the power of the god is just too much for one person. No matter how good your intentions are, you’d still be killing some people to save others. I don’t think a god like that, with a power like that, could truly save people. Talhamaya can’t make the world a better place. All she does is kill people.”

Asra could see an echo of Balsa’s pain and sadness in Chikisa’s eyes. She remembered Balsa saying, “I don ’t think you’ d be happy living as god who kills people whenever she likes. I also don’ t think that a god like that could bring peace and happiness to the world. So let’ s make sure that doesn’ t happen. Your face during the wolf attack almost scared me to death.”

    Asra covered her face with her hands. She missed Balsa so much. She closed her eyes and tried to understand Balsa and Chikisa’s perspective on the god. She had never once doubted her mother when she’d told her that Talhamaya was a just and merciful god. How was she even supposed to live without the god? She had no idea. The path before her was shrouded in darkness.

 

 

    Ianu reflected on Shihana’s orders with a little frown. Shihana had anticipated that Prince Ihan would refuse to use Sada Talhamaya’s power, so she’d prepared a backup plan. It was Ianu’s responsibility to execute that plan.

    Shihana had worked quickly as soon as she’d received Prince Ihan’s refusal. Before Shihana’s father and the other Kashal arrived, Ianu, the other Tal people, Shihana, and her Kashal allies held a meeting. Shihana gave all of her Kashal allies orders to keep watch over different sections of Jitan. Some of these Kashal were double agents; Sufar didn’t know they were working for Shihana. If they were stationed in the right places, Shihana might still be able to make her original plan succeed without Prince Ihan’s cooperation.

    Ianu was impressed with her foresight. Shihana is amazing.

    Everything was progressing just as Shihana said it would. She was sure that Shihana would achieve her goal tomorrow at the nation’s founding ceremony.

    The chill of the winter evening was mitigated by the closeness of the sacred spring. The wind was almost warm. Ianu turned away from her campfire and looked up at the sacred forest. The trees shimmered with a faint light. She’d been born with the ability to see that light. She felt privileged to be alive at such a significant time in Rota’s history. The Chamau lived.

    Ianu’s hatred for the Rotans who had killed her parents hadn’t lessened in the years since their deaths. Her revenge would be creating a world where no Tal person could be indiscriminately cut down by Rotans ever again. She was ready to do her part to create that world.

    “I have no regrets, Shihana,” Ianu whispered. “Tomorrow, I will awaken Sada Talhamaya.”

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