Guardian of Heaven and Earth
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Rota
Part 1 - Searching for Chagum
Chapter 1 - Over the Mountains
The light of the late evening filtered through the leaves overhead. It would soon be too dark for Balsa to see her own feet moving through the dense underbrush.
Balsa wiped the sweat from her forehead and checked the orientation of the narrow forest path in front of her. She was used to walking in the mountains and she’d been here before, but the vegetation was so thick that it nearly choked out the path. The way forward was getting harder and harder to make out.
Autumn came late this year. Most of the time the trees would have already lost most of their leaves by now, but everything was still lush and green.
Balsa heard branches snapping behind her. Someone called out to her in a quiet voice. It was a merchant, Sain; he’d gotten his legs stuck in the tall grass. Sain’s wife Toki tried to pull him loose, but he stayed stuck, even after their daughter tried to help.
Balsa backtracked and grabbed Sain’s arm. She yanked forward and pulled him loose.
“Thank you,” Sain said. “Sorry I got stuck.”
Sain was a slightly overweight man who sweated a lot in the unseasonable heat. He settled his pack more comfortably over his shoulders and took a few deep breaths. “We can’t even see the path,” he said. “We should probably find somewhere to stop for the night.”
Balsa hushed Sain and whispered, “Do you hear that?”
Sain suddenly appeared frightened. “Hear what?”
“The river,” Balsa whispered.
Sain, Toki and their daughter Rai all stood still and strained their ears to listen.
“Ah,” Sain said, nodding. “This slope must go down to the river. It’s high enough to give a good view of the surrounding area, so there may be soldiers and patrols around. I hoped we’d slip past them in the dark.” He squinted his eyes. “Maybe we should wait until nightfall. They won’t see us then.”
Balsa shook her head. “If we wait for it to be completely dark, we don’t be able to see anything, either.”
Sain’s face fell. He turned toward his six-year-old daughter. She also seemed disappointed and a little scared, so Balsa smiled to reassure her.
“Just hang in there a little longer, Rai,” she said. “You’ll be home the day after tomorrow.”
Rai nodded.
Balsa faced Sain and Toki and said calmly, “Focus. No one can get stuck in the underbrush while we’re traveling tonight. It will slow us down, plus we risk getting separated. It doesn’t matter how slowly we go, but we need to keep moving and do our best not to make a sound. This area is crawling with soldiers.”
Sain and Toki nodded in understanding. Balsa turned on her heel and kept walking down the forest path. Sain, Toki and Rai followed her, lifting their feet high so that they wouldn’t get caught or fall in the tall grass.
Sain muttered complaints as he walked. “What are we doing, sneaking back home in the dark like a bunch of thieves? I can’t believe we have to do this just to avoid the soldiers.”
He’d said almost the same thing at the start of their journey, when Balsa had first escorted him and his family through the mountains in Rota. He hadn’t complained at all since that time, but now the frustration seemed to be getting to him again.
Balsa faced Sain and put her finger to her lips to remind him to be silent. He frowned at her, nodded sulkily and stopped muttering. Balsa kept searching for the edges of the path in the growing darkness. She understood exactly how Sain felt.
The Mikado’s proclamations to recruit men for the army had started almost a year before. More proclamations were declared every week, though every village was already suffering. The reason given for the proclamations was that the Mikado needed to protect the nation from a corrupt and impure enemy. All the people of New Yogo were expected to do their part in service to the Mikado.
The entire country had been preparing for war since the first Talsh ambassadors had arrived and given their terms to the Mikado. New Yogo closed all its borders, not just with Sangal, but with Rota and Kanbal as well. People who tried to leave or come in over the border were treated as spies and executed.
Among the people who suffered the most from this policy were poor merchants and workers from Kanbal who often came to New Yogo to sell their wares and work. Kanbalese and Rotan merchants and laborers who were already in New Yogo were not permitted to go home; Yogoese citizens who were abroad at the time of the border closure weren’t permitted to return to their home nation, either.
Balsa had been in New Yogo when the borders were closed. She’d spent months guiding Rotan and Yogoese merchants over the mountains back to their homes, avoiding all the border patrols. She knew many ways through the mountains that were otherwise known only to beasts and a few hunters, but not every way she knew could be used. There were paths so steep and narrow that Sain and his family would never be able to navigate them. Crossing the mountains was always difficult and at least a little dangerous.
Despite this, many people were willing to cross them so that they could go home. Sain and Toki had left their younger daughter, who was four, in the care of her grandparents in New Yogo while they’d traveled to Rota with Rai. They were willing to give up almost anything to return to their family now.
Balsa wasn’t the only person helping people cross the mountains. The knowledge that there were ways to avoid the border guards was common enough that the Mikado had stationed guards on the largest and most-well known of the mountain roads. Balsa’s work as a guard and guide restricted her to a vanishingly small number of safe paths.
It’s no use thinking about how hard this is getting. I need a distraction, Balsa thought as she moved silently down the path. She was glad that she could still work. Work was good; it helped her keep her mind off Chagum. She had heard in Rota that he was dead.
Balsa shook her head to banish her negative thoughts. She needed to focus on guarding Sain and his family through the mountains. The whispering sound of the river gradually became a roar as Balsa descended closer to the riverbed. She gestured for Sain and his family to wait, then crouched down. She leaned her spear against the trunk of a tree and sprinted down the path out of sight. She moved with the silence and speed of a fox: no one could hear her moving, and after a few steps, Sain and his family couldn’t see her, either.
Sain and Toki exchanged surprised glances. “How can she move like that?” Sain muttered. When he’d first heard that someone was guiding people over the border, he’d expected that person to be a middle-aged warrior, big and strong, not this relatively young and slightly built woman. She was in her mid-thirties and wore her black hair tied at the nape of her neck in a simple style. Her skin was deeply tanned and she was very tall--not just for a woman. The shaft of her short spear was as black as ebony from long years of use.
Sain had worried about entrusting his family’s lives to her at first, but the other bodyguards and guides that he’d met had given him a peculiar feeling, and all those bodyguards and guides had clearly respected Balsa. That had done more to prove her stellar reputation than anything she could have said.
“Sain,” Balsa whispered.
Sain jumped up in shock. He’d been lost in thought and hadn’t noticed Balsa’s return. Rai had fallen asleep in her mother’s arms, but now she jerked awake. The shape of the mountain before them loomed large, but nothing else was visible in the darkness. Even Balsa’s face was lost to the shadows.
“It’s like we thought,” Balsa said. “There are soldiers here.”
Toki and Sain reached for one another’s hands.
“It’s all right,” Balsa said softly. “There are only three. I’ve seen no others camped around here. I can fight three without much of a problem, but breaking past them without being seen is probably impossible.”
Balsa looked at Sain and Toki. “So what do you want to do? Should we turn back? Or keep going and risk being seen?”
Sain, Toki and Rai were risking their lives to return to a homeland that might be attacked and destroyed by the Talsh empire at any time. Toki took a step forward and said, “We’ll keep going.”
Sain thought about his aged parents, then nodded. “Yes. We’ve come this far. We have to make it home.” He reached out and grabbed Balsa’s arm. “If--if we can’t make it through for any reason, please save our daughter.” His hands were shaking.
Balsa placed one hand over Sain’s and said, “I promise I will.”
She explained what they all had to do in a calm, easy-to-understand way. “Follow me to the riverbed, and stay close--close enough to touch my shoulder. The place I’m leading you is a small distance away from the soldiers’ camp, but still close enough that they may discover us. There are trees lining the riverbed, so be sure to hide behind them and use them for cover.”
After Sain and Toki nodded, Balsa continued, “I’ll carry Rai on my back and cross the river. I’ll leave the rope with you to tie on your side; I’ll tie my end to a tree on the other side of the river.”
She paused, then said, “I’ll create a distraction for any soldiers. While I’m drawing their attention, use the rope to cross the river. It isn’t deep, but the current is very strong. Don’t let go of the rope no matter what. If you do, you’ll drown.”
Balsa lowered her voice. “I want you to focus on crossing that river. Nothing else. Once you’re across the river, wait for me in the forest.”
Sain and Toki nodded again.
Balsa stood up and said, “All right. Let’s go.”
Shadows danced in the light of an open fire. Freshly caught fish were impaled on wooden skewers, ready to be roasted by the soldiers who had caught them. The forest and the sky almost looked the same in the gloom. Two soldiers stood on the mountain path that descended to the riverbank, but they were difficult to make out since they were standing so far from the fire. A third soldier stood near the fire, eating.
The changing of the guard occurred every two days. There was nothing for the soldiers to do but wait until then.
The two men stationed on the path started coming closer to the fire to eat their dinner when they heard a cry that sounded like a child in distress. The soldier nearest the fire felt a slight twinge of panic--what if it was a spirit, or a monster in the woods? But he soon calmed himself and reasoned that it was probably just another person trying to cross the border.
He stood up to check on his fellow soldiers and heard a strange whistling sound behind him. The soldier fell to the ground and groaned; he’d been shoved so hard from behind that he’d fallen, but he didn’t think that anything was broken. He tried to stand and signal the others on duty that something was wrong, but the best he could do was struggle to his knees.
The shadow moving in front of him didn’t belong to any of his fellow soldiers. He stood up slowly, rubbing his shoulder and gritting his teeth. His head spun, but he lurched into motion and followed the figure toward the river.
When he saw the other two soldiers on duty challenging the mysterious figure, he let out a sigh of relief. They were excellent swordsmen of the sagi discipline; their swords flashed in the low light provided by the moons and the distant fire.
Everything’s fine. They can fight off just one person without any problems.
The soldier was still relatively far from the fighting when he stopped in place. Stepping in to assist his comrades might prove distracting. The figure they were fighting was smaller and slighter than they’d seemed at first glance; he saw the shadow of their short spear sweeping up to block a sword strike.
He heard the sound of metal striking metal. The spear and the sword crossed in midair; the spear wielder brought their weapon down low, then quickly swept it up again as the sword struck down. Sparks flew as the spear and sword connected once more.
The spear wielder suddenly had only one opponent. The soldier didn’t see the other swordsman moving at all.
The spear’s tip flicked into the remaining swordsman’s side with a fast, smooth, whip-like motion. He collapsed to the ground, leaving the spear wielder standing. The soldier heard labored breathing as he struggled to remain conscious.
As the sounds of the fighting faded, the soldier realized that he could hear something else: the sound of people crossing the river. He also heard a child cry out again.
The soldier clutched his injured shoulder and shook. The spear wielder was headed straight toward him. The moment he caught sight of the spear wielder’s face in the gloom, he felt a sharp blow to his gut that doubled him over.
He never identified the spear wielder. He sucked in a few painful breaths, collapsed to his knees and passed out.
Balsa knelt down next to the soldier she’d just knocked out and pushed his mouth open with one hand. He looked like a boy. She laid him out flat and made sure he wouldn’t bite or swallow his tongue. Then she stood up and walked upstream.
Rai was generally a well-behaved child, but crossing the river without her parents had caused her to cry out in helplessness. And when Balsa had left her alone to go back for her parents, she had cried out again. Thanks to that, her parents were able to find her quickly, though she had also drawn the notice of the soldiers.
Balsa saw Sain, Toki and Rai huddled under the roots of a large tree and waved. They had all made it.
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