Guardian of Heaven and Earth - Rota - Part 2 Chapter 6 - Ahal Tosaha

 Guardian of Heaven and Earth

-

Rota

(Book 8 of the Guardian of the Spirit Series)

Author: Uehashi Nahoko

Translator: Ainikki the Archivist

 

 Part 2 - Enemies Among Friends

Chapter 6 - Ahal Tosaha

 

    The Kashal did take Balsa to their leader, but it was a long time before Balsa was permitted to talk to them. The Kashal spent hours in consultation and discussion with one another, doubtless debating what to do with her. Balsa spent those hours confined to a small inn just outside of Tsuram. She couldn’t help thinking about what had happened to Chagum. She had water hauled in for a cold bath and cleaned herself up, then considered the events of the past few days.

    Balsa wondered if Hugo had managed to escape safely. She assumed he had; he didn’t seem the the sort of man to die easily. He had told her about the two factions that existed within the Talsh spy network and about the southern clan lords’ betrayal of Rota. Balsa had fallen in with the Kashal again, but she still had no idea what to expect. The mysteries surrounding Chagum and his whereabouts were like a whirlpool without a bottom. She tried to organize everything she knew in her mind, but the pieces were too complicated for her to form a complete picture of the situation.

    All in all, the Kashal deliberated for more than two days. A young man came to fetch Balsa on the morning of the third day after she’d been shut up inside the inn. “Prepare yourself and come with me,” the man said. “Our leader has agreed to meet with you.” After a short pause, he added, “Your weapons are with our leader. If you mean no harm, you’ll be permitted to collect them.”

    Balsa followed the young man outside. There were horses tethered just outside the inn. Balsa mounted a horse and followed the man along the Sal highway, which faced north. The man was mounted as well, so when the path leveled off and widened, he urged his horse into a gallop. Balsa did the same.

    The Sal highway ran along the line of the Hura river for a long way before connecting with the King’s highway at a large crossroads. The man kept galloping and turned onto the King’s highway. After about two hours, he turned his horse eastward onto a narrower path. Balsa followed him closely.

    The narrower path crossed an enormous field teeming with ripe wheat stalks. The air smelled damp and earthy; the weather was warm. It had been an exceptionally good growing year for wheat in Rota; most farmers had been able to harvest their wheat twice. The deep blue sky contrasted with the pale yellow sheen of the wheat.

    The young man directed his horse onto a narrow path that had been made between sections of the wheat field. The wind blew through the wheat, making the heads glitter and gleam like silver and gold. Balsa followed the man to the very edge of the field to the border of a forest.

    After they were hidden in the trees, the young man turned to Balsa and said, “Please dismount. The location of our leader is hidden, so we must travel the rest of the way secretly. Your eyes must be covered to protect the location of our village.”

    Balsa slipped off the horse without saying a word. The young man placed a blindfold over her eyes, then helped her mount up again. He stayed alongside her to help guide her as they passed through the woods.

    “The horse knows the way,” he said after a little while. “Just leave it to him and we’ll all make it safely.”

    Balsa nodded in acknowledgement. She couldn’t see a thing through the thick black cloth of the blindfold. Balsa tried to use the sounds and smells around her to create a mental map of her location. The horse started moving in a zig-zag pattern and opted for a slow pace, so she guessed that the horse was climbing.

    The journey from the field’s edge was a long one. The young man turned toward Balsa during their long ascent and said, “Say...can I ask you something?”

    “Go ahead,” Balsa said.

    “Is it true that you defeated Shihana in single combat?”

    Balsa chuckled, but didn’t answer the question.

    “I’ve seen Shihana fight before.” The young man’s voice was awed. “She was amazing. The best fighter in our entire river clan. There’s no way anyone could be a match for her.”

    The young man’s voice was suddenly louder; he must have come closer. “I can tell you’re a warrior, though. And very likely a good one. If you really defeated Shihana, I wish you’d tell me. My brother would be shocked and amazed if I told him I met you!”

    “Your brother?” Balsa asked with a little laugh. “Where is he?”

    “Back in that inn we just left. He was still unconscious this morning, but he was moving around. He’ll be fine in a few days.”

    The young man seemed reluctant to say more. He and Balsa traveled silently for a few more minutes; then the young man reached out and grabbed her hand. “All right. We’re here. I can remove your blindfold now.”

    The young man untied the blindfold and pulled it down. Balsa blinked at the sudden onslaught of harsh, clear sunlight after so much time spent in darkness and wiped reflexive tears out of her eyes. There was another wide wheat field in front of her. If she squinted, she could see thin trails of smoke rising from the ground beneath the planted wheat. The red light of the setting sun shone along the surface of a river that was likely the Hura; the wheat field stopped at the riverbank and gave way to more forest.

    Balsa saw some people fishing with nets along the riverbank. A little further downstream, women were washing clothes. Everyone wore a strip of yellow cloth around their necks.

    So this is a Kashal village...

    Balsa remembered that the Kashal were also known as Rota’s river people. The young man next to her removed a long length of yellow cloth from a saddlebag and tied it around his own neck. He pointed to the cloth and said, “This is an osshal. We believe that it warms the soul.”

    “Warms...the soul?”

    The young man nodded. “The souls of good-hearted people who pass on are always yellow. Some of us can see them. They feel warm. They’re the same color as our watch-fires at night.”

    The young man’s eyes clouded over. “My cousin was killed in that attack on the warehouse. Please look over there.”

    The young man pointed toward the river. Balsa saw a long yellow strip of something like string floating in the current. She squinted and noticed that the string itself wasn’t yellow, but white. The yellow color came from tiny flowers that had been threaded through the string.

    “The last flower added to that string is my brother’s soul,” the young man said. “The flowers slide off the string into the river one by one, returning the souls of our dead to the river god. We wear these yellow bands so that they will recognize us as good spirits and stay in the village until their souls pass on.”

    Balsa remembered the man she’d seen face-down and unmoving in the warehouse. Had the Kashal carried him all the way here?

    The young man sighed and smoothed his expression. “We’re headed there,” he said, pointing. “We’ll leave the horses here and walk the rest of the way. Tie the reins to these trees so my friends will find the horses.”

    Balsa did as she was asked and followed the young man toward the forest on the other side of the river. The women washing clothes and the people fishing all looked up as they passed. The grass was knee-high in most places and the path was only wide enough for one person to pass at a time. Balsa followed the young man closely. Once in a while, she caught a glimpse of someone’s face watching them, but when she turned to look the face was always gone. Clearly, she was being watched.

    A tousle-haired little boy appeared on her right-hand side. He was chewing on grass. Balsa stopped to look at him, since he wasn’t shying away from her. He looked to be about five or six years old. As Balsa watched, he spat out the grass in his mouth and squealed in delight as it startled a hidden flock of waterfowl behind him.

    A little girl appeared to Balsa’s left, looking at her with huge round eyes. She was chewing on grass as well. The young man guiding Balsa laughed a little and pretended that he didn’t see the children.

    As they progressed forward through the grass, Balsa heard a strange sound like whistling or music; people played stalks of grass like tiny flutes. She wondered if all of the players were children and burst out laughing.

    The young man couldn’t help himself; he laughed as well. 

    The riverbed appeared in front of them. The river was shallow here, so they crossed and started climbing a steep incline. The grasslands receded with every step, giving rise to a muddy, rocky area. The stones protected the riverbanks from eroding quickly, which also helped protect the Kashal’s underground homes.

    The young man stopped suddenly over a thick clump of grass that looked pretty much like all the other clumps of grass that Balsa had seen and pressed down deliberately with his foot two times. The grass parted, revealing two people concealed in a hole below.

    “This is our leader’s house,” the young man said.

    Balsa crouched down and looked into the hole. There were crude steps leading down to an even lower level, blocked by a middle-aged man. When Balsa met his gaze, he nodded.

    “Welcome. Please come in. Our leader is awaiting you.”

    The stairs were very narrow. Balsa had to bend over so that she wouldn’t hit her head as she descended. When she reached the very bottom of the steps, her eyes widened in surprise. The room she saw was very large and tall enough to stand comfortably in. It was also brightly lit: as light as day. The walls of the room were formed of the same stone she’d seen when she and her guide had climbed up the riverbank. The light came from the sun; there were tiny gaps in the wall that permitted sunlight to shine in. The quality of the light was thick and golden, as if the room had been covered in a thick blanket of illumination.

    Everything appeared to be white: the walls, the floor, the ceiling. Only the hearth was black with uncleaned soot. Shelves lined the walls. Balsa saw boxes of supplies and jugs of water and other liquid along with dolls and children’s toys. The air was sweet-smelling, like candy.

    There was a low dining table in the middle of the room. A plump woman somewhat older than Balsa sat at the table with a baby in her lap. An old man with white hair sat next to her. The baby was silent, sleeping like a log. Balsa looked down and saw another child hiding underneath the table near the woman’s feet: it was a girl, maybe two or three years old.

    When the woman sitting at the table caught sight of Balsa, she stood up from her chair and passed the baby she held to the old man. The old man accepted the child easily; the baby didn’t wake.

    The old man called out to the little girl, “Hey! Want to come here and play with grandpa?” He bent down and lifted her up. With the baby held in one arm and the little girl in the other, he crossed the room and sat on a cotton rug.

    The plump woman beckoned to Balsa with a bright smile that made her appear much younger than she was.

    “It’s nice to meet you,” she said. “I am Ahal Tohasa, of the Tohasa river clan. You must be Balsa the spear wielder.”

    “Yes,” she said. She was a little confused. She knew nothing of Kashal families in Rota. She’d expected the leader of the Kashal in this region to be a man or at least a warrior, but Ahal Tohasa seemed to be an entirely ordinary woman.

    Ahal laughed when she saw Balsa’s expression. “I see. You don’t think I look much like a leader, do you? I know I don’t look like much, but there’s a lot that I can do--and I do it. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been chosen. But let’s put first impressions aside. Please take a seat.”

    Balsa set herself across from Ahal and sat down so that she faced her directly. The man Balsa had seen at the top of the stairs came down, then sat next to Ahal.

    “This is my husband,” Ahal said. She smiled at him, then turned her focused attention on Balsa.

    “Now isn’t all this odd? I never thought I’d meet you under these circumstances. You’re famous among the Kashal, you know. I’ve heard a song about you that I absolutely loved. Have you heard it? It goes like this…” She began to hum.

    Balsa grimaced and shook her head. “Nope. Never heard it before.”

    Ahal’s eyebrows went up. “Really? What a shame. But, well, you didn’t come here so that we could talk about that.”

    Her expression became serious. “You assisted us in a time of grave peril, when it seemed that Talhamaya would return to our world. I wish to express my gratitude to you on behalf of all of the Kashal.” She slapped her knees. “And now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about that warehouse attack.”

    She stood up and retrieved a tea tray that included cups, a steaming teapot, and baked candies that Balsa didn’t recognize.

    “We did attack that warehouse, but we didn’t expect things to get so violent,” she said. “We’ve been keeping watch on merchants that we assumed to be Talsh spies for quite a long time. We hoped to trail some of them home to their bases quietly, so that we could infiltrate their ranks and discover their secrets without being detected.

    “But Talsh spies are cautious. It was difficult to get close enough to watch them. But the morning of the attack, we saw one of them emerge from lord Suan’s palace. We weren’t absolutely certain that he was a spy, but when he led us straight to that warehouse, we were certain.”

    Balsa suddenly remembered what Hugo had said about enemy spies being scattered among the Nanyoku faction. Some of those must have helped Chagum escape. The Kashal must have followed one of them to Hugo’s hiding place.

    “When we discovered the warehouse, we got a little over-excited. We knew we’d have to move quickly before we were discovered and they moved to a new location, so we decided to attack immediately. The rest you know; you were there.

    “Maybe you disagree with our methods. But we’ve encountered these spies before. If they knew of us, they would not rest until every single one of us was dead. We had to eliminate that threat before they eliminated us. I apologize for putting you in danger, unwitting or not. The responsibility for ordering the attack was mine and mine alone.”

    Ahal looked at Balsa with a hooded gaze, as if she were ashamed.

    “I am curious, Balsa the spear wielder--what were you doing in that warehouse? I highly doubt that you are a Talsh spy.”

    “I’m looking for someone,” Balsa said quietly. “I heard that he’d gone to lord Suan’s palace. I tried to learn more from the guards who work there, but then I was attacked.” Balsa told Ahal everything that had happened to her over the past week or so, omitting Chagum’s name and that Hugo had escaped.

    Ahal listened to her intently. When Balsa stopped speaking, she ran a hand through her hair and said, “I see. I heard about the attack on the tavern. You have no reason to lie to us, so I have no reason to doubt your story. Please forgive me for pressing you when I’m sure you have questions yourself.” She paused, then added, “I feared that you were responsible for the death of one of our own, Oguhal--but it seems that is not the case. We found another man’s body next to his, so it seems likely that this other man was the killer, as we first suspected.”

    Ahal paused, then said, “But some things still don’t make sense to me. Why did you flee during the attack? Why did you steal a boat?” She stared at Balsa with piercing eyes. “I’ll tell you something else, for friendship’s sake. Our spies saw the boat leaving the warehouse. There were two people on it, not just one.”

    Balsa held Ahal’s gaze. Balsa no longer thought she appeared to be an ordinary woman. She believed that Ahal had the authority and force of will to order the attack on that warehouse.

    Ahal’s eyes were sharp, but her tone remained calm as she said, “You escaped on that boat with the man who killed Oguhal, didn’t you? So that you wouldn’t be discovered and caught by the others. Balsa, why are you shielding a Talsh spy?”

    Balsa responded with equal calm. “He saved my life,” she said. “During that attack on the tavern, I was poisoned. He carried me to safety and made sure I had medicine. If I’d left him behind during my escape, he would have burned to death in that warehouse.”

    Ahal frowned slightly. “But didn’t you see Oguhal lying dead there? You must have. You must have known that the Talsh spy killed him--yet you continue to protect him. I’ll ask again: why?”

    Balsa looked straight at Ahal and said, “Yes, he killed someone. I knew that. But I couldn’t leave him to die. I owed him a debt. Besides, I could have died in the fire that you and your allies set.” She thought a moment. “And if I’d tried to escape in the boat, wouldn’t Oguhal have tried to shoot me, if he could?”

    Ahal opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. “Yes,” she said reluctantly. “You’re right. He would have shot you.” She sighed and shook her head.

    “But I still have questions. Why would a Talsh spy save you from those men at the tavern? Why would he assist in your escape from the fire?” She looked at Balsa with eyes that seemed to search for the bottom of her soul.

    Balsa had no desire to be Ahal’s enemy, but she also didn’t want to tell her everything she knew. If she described the internal conflicts that existed within the Talsh spy network, Ahal would only want to know more. Balsa would probably be compelled to tell her everything she knew--including everything she knew about Hugo.

    “I don’t know,” she said. “Honestly. The drug I was given knocked me out, and then I couldn’t move for more than a day. I didn’t see him for most of that time. We barely spoke before the attack.”

    Ahal regarded her with a distrustful expression. “But you escaped together? So you must have spoken? Must have planned something together?”

    Balsa shook her head. “Nothing so sophisticated. The man I escaped with had an arrow in his thigh, a wound in his side and a high fever. He wasn’t thinking well enough to plan anything.”

    Ahal’s eyebrows drew together. She glanced over at her husband, then over at the old man and the two children sitting in the corner.

    The old man cradled the baby on his knees and said, “That woman is telling the truth. She’s hiding something, but she’s not lying. That’s what I think.”

    Ahal’s husband nodded in agreement with this assessment.

    Ahal’s shoulders relaxed. She looked down at the floor for a moment, clearly deep in thought. She lifted her head and said, “All right. We didn’t know you were in the warehouse when we attacked. If things had gone badly, you could have died.” She grinned a bit sheepishly. “It’s like Crown Prince Chagum said. Trying to interrogate you is like trying to get soup from a stone.”

    Balsa’s heart skipped beat. “You’ve seen Crown Prince Chagum?”

    “Yes.” She smiled brightly. “I would have told you sooner, but, well, you can never be too careful in these times.

    “I’ve been keeping watch over lord Suan’s palace of for years. Sufar, the leader of the Kashal in the north, gave me those orders long ago. I have many allies and friends inside the palace. The palace itself is riddled with tunnels and secret passages, so it’s relatively easy to get in and out.” She chuckled.

    “About two weeks ago, I heard a funny tale from one of our spies who watches the gate. Lord Suan’s son Ogon met a young man there dressed in Rassharou fashion, though he did not appear to be a Rassharou fisherman. Our spy was too far away to hear what they discussed, but he observed lord Ogon dismounting from his horse and leading Crown Prince Chagum into the palace. Shortly after, he observed a merchant who we know to be a Talsh spy enter the gate, as if he were following them.”

    Ahal then had the maids in the palace keep an eye on this strange visitor. “Crown Prince Chagum was kept confined, but given polite treatment. We wondered who he was. He had appeared mysteriously and seemed to be a hostage. The maids reported that he was indeed being treated well; it didn’t seem like lord Suan wanted to kill him. But he was never allowed outside his rooms.

    “Our spies tried to contact him directly. To do that, we would have to find some way to remove him from his guest chamber. Before we could think of a way to reach him, he managed to escape himself.” 

    Ahal laughed. “It seems that lord Suan’s granddaughter was smitten with him. Can you believe it? Well, she is a tremendous flirt, so perhaps we should not have been so surprised. She liked to meet with him, thinking herself secret. Crown Prince Chagum convinced her to go out walking in the garden with him at midnight, alone.”

    Balsa smiled as she listened, imagining Chagum sneaking out of his room for a secret tryst with a girl. He’s the right age to be doing things like that...

    “Crown Prince Chagum’s ploy succeeded. He made up some excuse so that she wouldn’t come looking for him immediately, then climbed over the garden wall. The girl screamed for the guards as soon as she realized what had happened, but our spies found him before they did and led him into the secret tunnels beneath the palace.”

    Balsa nodded, frowning a little as she listened. “And he said his name was Crown Prince Chagum? He told you that?”

    Ahal nodded. “You know that we work for the King of Rota. He’d heard of us, and told us who he was as soon as he was convinced that we would help him reach the King. We sent him on to the northern palace after his escape.”

    Ahal reached for her teacup and drank.

    “We didn’t believe him at first,” Ahal said. “Crown Prince Chagum is supposed to be dead. None of us had ever seen his face before, so it was hard to verify that he was telling the truth. He understood why we doubted him and remained calm. He claimed that he’d met King Yosam in Sangal, so all that would be needed to prove his identity would be to lead him before the King. That was all he asked for.”

    Ahal shook her head slowly. “He was so kind, yet so guarded. And clearly very brave.”

    “Which way did he go?” Balsa asked. “And when?”

    “He went north,” Ahal said.

    “To the northern palace? Is that where King Yosam is right now?”

    “No,” Ahal said, a little sadly. “Most people don’t know this yet, but King Yosam’s health is very poor. He’s in no condition to receive visitors, even if he wanted to.”

    “Is he sick? How bad is it?”

    Ahal’s concern was plain on her face. “No one knows how severe the illness is. The only consistent symptom is a high fever. His father died of a similar illness when he was quite young. Naturally, we’re all worried for our King.”

    Ahal sighed, then said, “Right now, the one who does all the actual governing is Prince Ihan. We sent Crown Prince Chagum to him. Prince Ihan is in a good position to help him. He’s been consolidating support from the northern clan lords ever since the southern clan lords openly defied him at our nation’s founding ceremony. Prince Ihan resides in the northern palace, not in the royal palace at the capital. It’s safer for him there.”

    The northern palace. Balsa knew it: it was in Jitan, where Rota’s Ritual Hall was situated.

    “So Crown Prince Chagum is in Jitan?”

    Ahal nodded, then stood up. She removed a single scroll from a shelf on the wall and turned toward Balsa. “Crown Prince Chagum talked about you a lot.”

    Balsa held her breath and looked up at Ahal.

    “When he told us who he was, I remembered that song I love. I decided to ask him about his past--to verify his identity and to figure out which parts of the song were true.” She shrugged. “Crown Prince Chagum seemed shocked that I would ask him such a thing.”

    Balsa remained silent.

    “He wouldn’t answer my questions, but he did leave this letter here in case we found you anywhere in Rota. He wanted us to tell you that he was safe, and what his plans were.”

    “When did he give you this letter?”

    “The same day we brought you here, in the afternoon.”

    Balsa looked at Ahal with a hard-edged expression. “You must have known who I was looking for when you brought me here, yet you sent him away with a three-day head start. You kept me confined here for all that time. Why would you do that? Why didn’t you let me go with him--or at least go after him?”

    “Crown Prince Chagum asked us to,” Ahal said. She extended the parchment she held to Balsa. “He wrote this for you. He wrote it in front of me and didn’t care if I read it or not. All he wanted was for me to deliver it to you.” 

    Balsa accepted the letter and began to read. It was written in Rotan, in a firm and clear hand.

 

Balsa,

I know you’re searching for me. Thank you. I’m happy beyond words that you made it all the way here to Rota safely. I wanted to meet you when you came in with the other Kashal, but I couldn’t. I need to ask you to stop looking for me. I’m certain that Tanda needs your help more than I do. New Yogo will soon be at war. If I don’t succeed in my plan, and soon, then every town and city and field will become a sheet of fire. Find Tanda and Torogai and flee to the mountains while there’s still time. Hunter’s Hole should work well to hide you.

As long as I know you’re all alive somewhere, I can keep trying. I’m fine, Balsa, really. Please don’t worry about me. I swear that I’ll make it back to New Yogo safely someday, no matter what happens.

 

    Tears streamed down Balsa’s cheeks, but she didn’t notice them. She stared down at the letter and read it over again with her shoulders clenched. When she looked up at Ahal, she was crying as well.

    “Please don’t worry,” she said. “I sent him directly to Prince Ihan with an escort. He’ll be perfectly safe.”

    Balsa nodded in thanks. She had no doubt that Ahal was telling the truth. The Kashal opposed the southern clan lords in almost all things; helping Crown Prince Chagum would deal those greedy lords a blow that it would be difficult to recover from. She was glad the Kashal had rescued Chagum before he could be handed over to the Talsh.

    While she was happy that Chagum was being protected right now, she would much rather protect him herself. The idea that he’d deliberately left her behind made her heart hurt.

    “Will you go home?” Ahal asked softly. “I have your spear here, and your pack, but you don’t seem to have much by way of money or supplies. We can give you what you need to get you on your way. Just ask.”

    Balsa smiled. “Thank you, but I’m fine. I have a fair bit of money sewn into my clothes, and I’m used to traveling alone. If possible, I would like to borrow a horse from you. I’ll leave it at Tsuram with a horse lender so that you can come to collect it.”

    “Certainly, we’ll lend you a horse. Where will you return it, specifically?”

    “Okul street, at the Taku Hol inn. My own horse is there. I paid in advance for more than a week, so it’s probably still there.”

    Ahal nodded.

    “I know the Taku Hol inn. It’s right on the sea. Leave the horse there and we’ll come and collect it.”

    Ahal’s husband picked up Balsa’s spear and passed it to her. The light streaming in from holes in the wall was dimming and turning red; the day had passed and it was almost sunset. The baby that lay in the old man’s arms was still sound asleep.

 

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