Guardian of Heaven and Earth
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Kanbal
Part 3 - Secret Plot
Chapter 1 - A Betrayer's Motives
When Balsa opened her eyes, she had no idea where she was. It was dim all around her. She heard the crackling of a fire somewhere nearby. Her face was pressed against a soft flaxen pillow; she lay on a futon stuffed with straw. Both her arms and legs were bound with thick rope.
Balsa tried to sit up, but quickly collapsed as pain shot up her back into her skull. She groaned as she forced herself in to a half-sitting position, then sat still again, reluctant to move.
“Balsa?” Chagum asked. He sat next to her on another straw futon. Like her, he was bound hand and foot, though he’d been lashed to the support beam behind him and couldn’t lie down.
Balsa squinted and looked around. She and Chagum appeared to be in some kind of storage area. The room was full of wooden barrels and dried meat hung from the ceiling. Balsa felt a strange sensation in her bound hands and stood still; there was a mouse gnawing at her ropes. More mice and rats scurried between the barrels.
There was a torch burning to her right. It hung in a metal bracket; the smoke smelled fresh and clean like pine. In the torchlight, she saw that the storage room had a small, open window. Cold air blew in through the window, making her shiver.
“Balsa, are you all right?” Chagum asked.
“I'm not sure,” she muttered. “My head hurts like hell, but it doesn’t seem swollen and nothing is broken.” When she remembered how she and Chagum had gotten here, she sighed. “I’m sorry. We should never have fallen into a trap like that. This is my fault.”
“No it’s not,” Chagum said. “You had no way of knowing that the traitor was Jiguro’s nephew.”
Balsa gasped, then bit her lip. She heard footsteps approaching. The door to the storage room creaked open, revealing Kahm, carrying a small lamp in his hand. He placed the lamp on top of a wooden barrel, then faced Balsa and Chagum. He appeared to be in pain.
“I never wanted this to happen,” Kahm said. I don’t plan to kill you, but Crown Prince Chagum has to stay here until all the plans are complete.”
Chagum’s eyes burned with rage, but he didn’t interrupt.
“You’re a traitor,” Balsa spat. “You sold your country out to the Talsh. I hope they paid you well, at least.”
A muscle in Kahm’s face twitched. He took a deep breath, then said heavily, “I haven’t sold out Kanbal. I’m trying to protect it, and this seemed like the best way. I won’t betray King Radalle or harm him in any way. The king knows my plans and supports them.” His gaze was perfectly steady as he looked Balsa in the eyes.
Balsa remembered what she’d seen when she and Chagum had passed by the palace that day. A large number of riders had passed out of the palace gates. Perhaps they were headed to the battlefield in Rota--or New Yogo.
I don’t think Kahm is lying.
Kahm was as straightforward a man as Jiguro; it wasn’t in him to lie. She had to assume that he was telling the truth, and that King Radalle himself had decided to side with the Talsh.
Though his face twisted with something like grief, Kahm settled his shoulders and explained his reasons. “Kanbal receives fairly little news of the outside world, but I’ve had opportunity to travel as a messenger to Rota in the last several years. I’ve heard about the Talsh making inroads in Rota and Sangal.
“The Talsh are a foreign culture, but they are trustworthy and honest when it comes to doing business. They were interested in buying our luisha, despite the limitation in supply. They told us before they conquered Sangal, to explain the sudden shift in market prices, and they told us when they intended to attack Rota and New Yogo as well. If New Yogo falls to the Talsh, our nation will be invaded next--unless we surrender.
“Kanbalese warriors are strong. If it came to war, they would sell their lives dearly, as would I. The Talsh greatly outnumber us, but in the mountains, we could drag out the war for months or even years, hunting and hiding and springing ambushes--but why?”
Kahm looked at Balsa with slightly hooded eyes. “I’m sure you understand,” he said. “I don’t want Kanbal to suffer through a protracted war. If New Yogo and Rota are strapped for supplies and can’t send aid to us, we’ll starve--but not if we have Talsh help. How else am I supposed to protect Kanbal and its people? The most important duty of a King’s Spear is to protect the king and the kingdom, no matter the cost.”
Kahm paused, then said, “We want to protect what’s sacred to us--even from the Talsh. The King’s Spears, myself included, keep thinking of the best ways to do that.”
Chagum looked confused, but Balsa seemed to understand Kahm’s meaning. If the Talsh invaded Kanbal, they would destroy the royal palace. The Mountain King’s Hall was directly underneath it, so it was possible that the Talsh would infiltrate that, as well. If the Talsh set foot in that place, the Mountain King would close the doors of the Hall, and the people would be denied luisha forever.
The Mountain King’s Hall was especially sacred to the King’s Spears, who would become the hyoulu, guardians of the darkness, after their deaths. The hyoulu guarded the Mountain King’s Hall and the luisha; the current King’s Spears had to fight them to receive luisha in a special ceremony. By protecting Kanbal from invasion, Kahm was fulfilling his vow to the King of Kanbal to protect the secret of where luisha came from.
“But this is a temporary solution,” Balsa said. “When Talsh conquers Rota and New Yogo, they’ll come to conquer you, too, even if they don’t invade with an army. You’ll have to give the luisha over to them eventually.”
Kahm was about to answer when Chagum cut in: “The Talsh probably promised Kanbal the right to govern themselves as long as they surrender the country without a fight.”
Kahm flinched.
Chagum looked Kahm straight in the eyes. “Am I wrong? You plan to give up on the rest of the continent in order to save yourselves. Is that it?”
Kahm balled his hands into fists. “Forgive my rudeness,” he said, “but you are a foreigner and a stranger in our land. I’ve been ordered to protect my country by the king himself, and I will follow those orders, even if they kill me.”
Chagum looked at Kahm, frowning deeply. “I don’t know your orders,” he said, “but I do know one thing. The Talsh won’t let you govern yourselves, no matter what they’ve promised. You’ve been tricked into giving up before you even tried to fight. I’ve seen what they do the nations they conquer with my own eyes, and I don’t expect Kanbal to be any different.”
Chagum’s face was bright red. His eyes glittered with tears that hadn’t yet fallen. Balsa looked calmly at him and listened.
“Do you have any idea what the Talsh are like?” Chagum asked, his voice so loud that he was almost yelling. “I do. I was captured by a Talsh spy and forcibly taken to the southern continent to meet with Second Prince Raul.”
Kahm tilted his head, clearly interested in what Crown Prince Chagum had to say.
“The Talsh Empire is huge and wealthy. I expect you know that much, and I can confirm that it’s true. It’s much larger and richer than any nation on the northern continent. But their wealth is gained through warfare--conquering their neighbors and conscripting the people into their enormous armies. They tax the subordinate nations that they conquer cruelly to pay for their wars. Have you considered what will happen to Kanbal under Talsh rule at all?”
Kahm pursed his lips. “That’s something we can figure out once it actually happens,” Kahm said. “The future is still uncertain.”
“Prince Raul made me the same offer that he made you,” Chagum said. “I read the offer. The people of Kanbal would be severely taxed if their sons and fathers don’t agree to be conscripted into the Talsh army. That will be the future if you keep going down this path.”
Chagum’s voice shook with rage. “Do you think I’m lying? Why won’t you listen? My country will fall to the Talsh first--it’s inevitable. Can you imagine how it feels for me, knowing that my people are dying and their homes and villages are being burned at this very moment? Prince Raul threatened to cut off my mother’s ears and slaughter my younger siblings in front of me. Do you think that my desire to protect my country is any less sincere than yours?”
“Then why did you refuse to ally yourself with Prince Raul?” Kahm asked.
Chagum started him down and answered, word by slow word. “Because what they offered wasn’t protection or peace. If I had agreed, my people would have joined the Talsh army. They would have been used to attack Rota and Kanbal. It’s what happened to Sangal, when their navy was used against New Yogo. Does that sound like I would have had the right to govern New Yogo to you?”
Chagum took a deep breath. “You’ve fallen into Talsh’s trap. Their continent is played out. They’ve sailed north in search of new riches. If they decide that they want Kanbal for themselves badly enough, they’ll attack it, too.
“Don’t you understand?” Chagum asked. “Sangal was promised peace, too, and they’re building fortifications at ever port from the Moon Palace to Manon. The exact same thing would have happened to New Yogo, and it’s going to happen to Kanbal, too. By surrendering without a fight, you defang yourselves. You won’t be able to defend Kanbal from the effects of Talsh conquering and ruling over it.”
Kahm stared at Chagum for a long moment, then squared his shoulders. “Is that why you chose war? Against an army of two hundred thousand men? The choice is to be utterly crushed and destroyed, or to live and hope for a better future. Which would you choose?”
“I never believed that the King’s Spears were cowards until this moment,” Chagum said venomously. “You can’t say you’ve lost the war when the battle hasn’t even started yet. If Rota and Kanbal join forces, it’s possible that you can beat back a Talsh invasion. Geographically, both nations create a wall that will be difficult for them to push through thanks to the mountains and the terrain. And this is our home. We should be willing to fight for it.”
Kahm glared at Chagum. “An alliance with Rota is something that King Radalle considered, but King Yosam of Rota is gravely ill and half of the clan lords who serve him are in open revolt. The wealthy southern clan lords have allied themselves with Talsh; the poor and weak northern lords can’t possibly hope to win, especially with Prince Ihan in charge. We would lose--and I don’t like to imagine a future for Kanbal where we lost to the Talsh.” He swallowed.
Chagum chuckled nastily.
Kahm blinked in surprise. “Is something funny?” he asked.
Chagum kept smiling, but he was no longer laughing. He shook his head. “I was just thinking that you sound exactly like Lord Suan’s son in southern Rota. Are you just parroting what he said to you? Because he said the same thing to me. It sounds to me like you’re believing the word of the southern lords without evidence, just because they say that what they think is true.
“So I’ll tell you something,” Chagum said. “The Talsh forces in Rota aren’t working under Prince Raul. They’re working under Crown Prince Hazar. There’s infighting among the Talsh over who will get the spoils after the war is over. I heard this from the Kashal, who are spies for Rota’s royal family.”
Kahm’s forehead creased in confusion. “So what? What does that have to do with anything?”
“Kahm, watch out!” Balsa cut in. A dark shadow moved in the doorway behind him. Kahm turned to face his attacker, but they were faster and jabbed him in the side of the neck with the hilt of a sword. Kahm collapsed to the floor and didn’t move.
The attacker was an unfamiliar Yogoese man. He doused the floor with oil, then dumped more oil over Kahm’s unconscious body. The Yogoese man took the sputtering torch from its wall bracket, then bent down and set the oil on the floor on fire. Kahm still didn’t move.
When the man drew his sword, Balsa and Chagum noticed that the blade was thick and curved, like those used by Talsh assassins that had pursued them before. The blade glinted in the light of the fire.
Balsa shoved herself toward Chagum with all her might. She felt the rope binding her hands snap, then pushed down the ropes holding her legs together and sprang to her feet.
Chagum was so numb with fear that he couldn’t move. The assassin approached with his sword drawn, ready to cut down Chagum at any moment. The second his sword fell, Balsa was there, sandwiched between the assassin’s blade and Chagum. The sword went through the rope she held. In the split second that the assassin prepared to make another strike, Balsa brought her knee into his gut hard enough to make him gasp.
The assassin coughed blood and gasped, looking up at Balsa in pale-faced shock. He put his sword out in front of him and swiped at Balsa. She side-stepped the strike, then settled herself into a fighting pose with her left arm placed forward. Chagum thought she had avoided the slash, but her arm was bleeding.
Is Balsa going to sacrifice her left arm to save me? Chagum thought.
This was usually the moment when he would pass Balsa her spear, but his hands were bound and her spear was nowhere that he could see. Chagum glanced desperately around the room, searching for a weapon, but he found none, so he did the only thing that he could think to do: he kicked out at the assassin with his bound feet.
By good luck, Chagum startled a rat, who leaped high and landed on the assassin’s sword-hand with a high-pitched screech before scrambling to the floor again to hide.
In that brief moment of distraction, Balsa made her move. She charged at his stomach, seizing his sword wrist in both hands and twisting hard, attempting to break his arm. The assassin twisted with her and wound up slamming head-first into the wall. He stumbled against one of the barrels in the room and tumbled over.
At that exact moment, Kahm’s clothing caught on fire.
Balsa grabbed the assassin’s sword and cut Chagum’s ropes. Then she gripped Kahm’s arms and started to pull him out of the fire. Chagum grabbed his legs and helped Balsa lift him. Balsa stomped out his smoldering sleeve, then checked him for injuries. He was still unconscious.
“Get out of here, Chagum,” Balsa said. “It’s isn’t safe. I’ll bring Kahm. You go ahead of us.”
“No,” Chagum said. “You’re still hurt, so I’ll carry Kahm.” He crouched down next to Kahm, then lifted him on his shoulder. Kahm grunted, but he didn’t open his eyes. Chagum shuffled over to the door and into a narrow, drafty hallway. He shivered as cold wind from outside cut through him. He could see the wall of Kahm’s castle; Balsa and Chagum had been locked in a storage area far removed from the main living areas.
Chagum carried Kahm a little way down the hall, then felt his own knees go out from under him.
“Chagum?” Balsa asked. Her hand bit into his shoulder and turned him to face her. She gestured for them to go back to the storage room; he nodded.
The room was still burning when they entered. The assassin lay unconscious on the floor, not yet burning, but he would if the fire spread much farther. “I’ll get him out of here,” Chagum said. He lifted the assassin by the shoulders and settled him outside the door of the storage room. Balsa followed.
When Chagum put the assassin down, Balsa punched him once, hard, in the chest. He showed no reaction, so Balsa let him be and guided Chagum toward the stairs that led into the main castle. She saw no sign of anyone, but she got an uneasy feeling halfway up the stairs and stopped.
“Balsa, it’s all right,” someone said in Rotan. “There’s no one in this part of the castle but you and Chagum. You’re safe.”
Balsa climbed the stairs cautiously, then took the path outside to the courtyard. Two Kashal were crouched in the shadow of a tree. One was a young man who hero-worshiped Shihana; the other was Chikari, the woman who had tended Balsa’s wounds.
Balsa checked that there were no other people in the garden before approaching the Kashal. Chikari rubbed her chin and her hands, trying to warm them up.
“We need help,” Balsa said. “There’s a fire below. If we don’t get Kahm out, he could burn to death, or just inhale too much smoke and die.”
The young Kashal man nodded and vanished down the stairs. When he reappeared again, he was carrying Kahm. He brought up the assassin as well, with Chagum’s help. Then he removed rope from his pack and bound the assassin’s hands firmly behind his back.
That done, Balsa and Chagum took a rest beneath the garden’s trees, sitting near Chirari. She smiled at them. “Mice can really be useful creatures, don’t you think?”
Balsa’s eyes widened.
“That was you?” Chagum asked in surprise.
Chirari smiled again and nodded. Some of the Kashal were capable of binding their souls to those of animals, controlling their movements and seeing through their eyes. Balsa remembered feeling the mice in the storage room gnawing on her ropes as well.
Chirari kept rubbing her chin. “You kicked me,” she said to Chagum. “It still hurts, but I’ll be fine.”
Chagum grinned. When he’d startled that rat in the storage room, he’d been luckier than he knew.
“Are either of you hurt?” Chirari asked. “Show me your wounds.”
Balsa looked down at her left arm. It was purpled with bruising at the wrist from the rough, tight ropes; the assassin’s sword had also cut her in the fight. Otherwise, she had no obvious injuries. “I can still fight,” she said.
The wound on her arm looked deep. It was still bleeding at the edges. Chirari removed a bandage from her pack and bound it tightly to stop the bleeding.
“We should get that stitched as soon as possible,” Chirari said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Balsa had lost track of time in the storage room. She looked up at the sky and saw that it was well past midnight. The people in the castle should still be asleep. Kahm had visited her and Chagum in secret--if he hadn’t, she was sure that his servants and guards would be looking all over for them right now.
“Was the Talsh assassin alone?” Balsa whispered.
Chirari nodded. “There are more assassins and spies in the King of Kanbal’s palace, but that man was the only Talsh spy here, as far as we Kashal know.”
It was possible that the assassin had been Kahm’s main point of contact with the Talsh empire. It was obvious to Balsa that the assassin had also been sent to keep an eye on Kahm--and eliminate him if he showed any signs of wavering in his commitment to the Talsh.
Balsa sighed. She knew that Kahm was a traitor, but he wasn’t someone that she was used to hating.
“We should probably get going,” Balsa said. “Someone’s going to notice the fire sooner or later.”
Chirari and the young Kashal man nodded, then led Balsa and Chagum toward the rear of the courtyard. The Kashal climbed the low stone wall to the outside of the castle first, followed by Chagum. Balsa managed to climb the wall on her own, but it was very difficult due to her injury.
Balsa’s head spun as her terrible headache returned. Pain throbbed in her left arm. Balsa took a moment to master herself, then followed the Kashal and Chagum as they broke into a run down the narrow street.
Chirari took Balsa’s hand to help her keep pace; the young man took Chagum’s. Chagum focused on nothing but running. Snow swirled in the night sky as he and Balsa fled from Kahm’s castle.
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