Guardian of Heaven and Earth
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New Yogo
Part 1 - War
Chapter 1 - The Mountain Valley in Spring
Deep in a valley of the Misty Blue Mountains, signs of spring were stirring in a small village. Young koza trees budded and flowered with peach-colored blossoms as snow melted and the first of the season’s flowers bloomed. The flowers’ sweet scent carried on the soft breeze. Birds twittered and cheeped in the trees.
Balsa listened to the birdsong as she descended the mountain path on horseback. She saw the roof of a hut ahead, poking out from a gap in the trees. The hut was small; the wooden roof was weighted down with stones on the edges so the wind wouldn’t blow it away. Tall grass and wildflowers grew in the yard.
Balsa approached the house on her horse, then dismounted. It didn’t seem like there was anyone inside the house, but the grass was in the yard was uniform and even like it had been recently cut.
Balsa frowned. Tanda never cut the grass; he liked it to grow long and wild. She called out a greeting and received no reply.
Balsa entered the hut through the front door. The inside of the hut was clean: the earthen floor was packed down and swept and everything was put away. But there was dust on the table. Balsa guessed that no one had been here for quite some time.
A shiver went down Balsa’s spine. She left the hut and went out into the garden, which was warm and inviting in the spring sunlight. She heard the sound of some small animal gnawing on the tall grass.
Balsa returned to her horse and untethered it from the tree where she’d tied it. She mounted up again and decided to go to the nearest village to ask where Tanda had gone. Tanda’s family lived in the village; they would tell her where he had gone if they knew.
As she descended the mountain path, the Blue Bow River split off in a tributary in a valley. Balsa stopped her horse suddenly when she saw signs of a recent landslide. Mounds of earth and stone had been used to divert the muddy tributary from its course to irrigate the rice fields near the village, though the cleanup from the landslide was imperfect.
Tanda and Torogai must have figured out what was happening with the weather. Balsa’s mood improved dramatically. She was glad that the damage here had been repaired. It probably wouldn’t be if Tanda and Torogai hadn’t warned or helped the people of the village.
Balsa had come to tell Tanda and Torogai about a disaster that was coming from the north, in distant Kanbal. It was spring in Nayugu, which meant the water level of Nayugu’s oceans and rivers were rising. There would be a great flood in New Yogo before long. It was critical that the people who lived in low-lying villages of the Misty Blue Mountains and the Yusa Mountains evacuated to higher ground as soon as possible. The people who lived in New Yogo’s capital, Kosenkyo, would need to evacuate as well. Balsa had thought of nothing else while crossing the mountains except for relaying this message.
Now that she was finally in New Yogo, some of her own impatience and fear eased. She guessed that Tanda had left his hut to create more contraptions like she’d seen at the river. Maybe he was telling people to get to higher ground.
When Balsa came close to an elderly couple walking toward her from the north, she got off her horse and called out to them. Their eyes widened in recognition when they saw her.
“Balsa?”
Balsa knew them, too; she’d known them since she was a child. “Sako, Hio. It’s been a long time.” Their faces were caked with sweat and mud, but she’d recognize them anywhere.
Sako and Hio exchanged uncomfortable glances. “Nice weather we’re having,” Sako said awkwardly.
Balsa was stunned at being greeted as a stranger. She and Tanda had helped work Sako and Hio’s rice fields as children. Sako had fet them sweet potato dumplings called tokko. The village children had considered them as kindly grandparents.
“What happened?” Balsa asked.
Sako and Hio didn’t answer. They wiped their faces and stood still.
“Um,” Balsa began. “I was just at Tanda’s hut, but it doesn’t look like anyone’s lived there for a while. I’m going to the village to ask some questions about where he went. Do you know where he is?” she asked.
Sako and Hio shook their heads sadly.
Balsa felt her heartbeat quicken. She waited for them to say more, but they were stunned silent as the stooped-down figure of Torogai appeared on the slope above Balsa. She’d heard someone coming down the path and had come to investigate.
“Torogai!” Balsa exclaimed as Torogai emerged from a bamboo thicket.
“You finally came back.” Torogai’s sun-brown face was covered with countless tiny wrinkles. She was shiny with sweat. “I put a spell on the hut that would let me know who went in and out. Were you riding a horse?” She sighed. “I’m glad I’m not too late.”
“Too late?” Balsa asked.
“You’d put the village in quite a predicament if you showed your face there,” Torogai said. She seized Balsa’s hand in the middle of her sentence. Balsa recognized the desperation in her eyes. Torogai was drenched in sweat because she’d rushed all the way here to prevent Balsa from entering the village. Having caught up with Balsa, Torogai started dragging her by the hand back to Tanda’s hut.
When they reached a place where Sako and Hoi couldn’t see or hear them, Torogai stopped and said, “Where have you been?”
“I was in Rota, then Kanbal. With Chagum.”
Torogai’s expression brightened. “Is that so? Is that boy all right?”
Balsa nodded. “He’s taller than me now. He’s all grown up.”
Balsa and Torogai talked about everything--with the exception of Tanda--on their way back to Tanda’s hut. Balsa told Torogai what Chagum had seen in the heart of the Yusa Mountains in Kanbal. It was spring in Nayugu; a disaster was coming.
Torogai nodded. “I expected they would notice it in Kanbal. We noticed it last year and have been making preparations.”
“I saw that,” Balsa said. “The river’s been diverted.”
Torogai nodded. “People from all the nearby villages helped make that. And us magic weavers have been traveling along the Blue Bow River, explaining the danger that’s coming.” She sighed.
“I’m glad,” Balsa said with a little frown, “but will it be enough? Diverting the water and building up dams might not be sufficient to prevent the damage of the flood that’s coming.”
“I don’t know. We’ve decided to perform the sho yai when the flood comes, to tell people to get away from dangerous areas and onto higher ground.”
“Sho yai?” Balsa asked.
“It’s a magic weaving thing,” Torogai said dismissively. “We’ll all turn our souls into birds and fly around like bright lights, warning everyone.” She had no patience to explain sho yai further, especially to someone as ignorant of magic weaving as Balsa.
“What I’m most worried about isn’t the villages,” Torogai said. “The people in the capital are in the most danger, and they’ll be trapped on a flood plain with no way to get to high ground. No matter how many ditches and dams they build, the outcome will largely be the same. The only way for the people in the city to survive is to flee from their homes and into the mountains.”
Torogai shook her head, then frowned in irritation. “The Star Reader Shuga informed the Mikado of this, but he can’t force the Mikado to do anything. And he’s in a difficult position himself; he can’t even come to the Anything Store anymore. I’m sure that there’s nothing but tragedy ahead for the capital.”
Balsa frowned deeply, but she nodded. If Chagum were here, he might find some way to help Shuga order the evacuations. She was fairly sure that Shuga did have plans for an emergency evacuation in place, but he likely wouldn’t be allowed to implement them unless the Mikado gave the order.
“Chagum’s coming with a combined army from Rota and Kanbal. He knows the situation. I’m sure he’ll do something,” Balsa said.
Torogai frowned. She knew from talking to Shuga that the Mikado likely wouldn’t listen to anything Chagum had to say. “Leave this to me,” Torogai said. “I’ll talk to Shuga, and he’ll find some way to tell the people in the palace that Chagum’s coming back.”
Balsa nodded. She walked beside Torogai in silence for a short while. “Poor boy,” Torogai muttered as she walked.
Chagum’s father, the Mikado, had ordered him assassinated when he was eleven years old. Their relationship had only deteriorated after that. Chagum had thrown himself into the sea to fake his own death some years before, so the Mikado still assumed that he was dead. He’d even held a grand state funeral for Chagum. When the Mikado learned that Chagum was alive and leading an army to help save New Yogo from imminent invasion by the Talsh, he would likely be greatly astonished, but not at all glad.
Chagum knew that. He was marching home to save his father and the people of New Yogo in spite of their strained relationship, not because of it.
Balsa and Torogai reached the garden in front of Tanda’s hut. Both of them were uneasy and lost in thoughts of the past. Balsa tethered her horse to the same tree she’d tied it to before, then faced Torogai.
“Where is Tanda?” Balsa asked hoarsely.
Torogai blinked. “The Tarano Plains,” she said.
Balsa was taken aback. “The Tarano Plains? Why would he be there?”
Balsa knew where the Tarano Plains were; they were a long stretch of flat land north of the border between Sangal and New Yogo.
“He got conscripted and sent to the border,” Torogai said.
Balsa went white as a sheet.
“The Mikado sent out soldiers to collect ten men from each village. Tanda’s brother Kaiza was one of the men who was chosen.” Torogai sounded genuinely sad. “Tanda agreed to go in his brother’s place after his family asked him to.”
Balsa’s world stood still; there was high-pitched ringing in her ears. Had Tanda really chosen to go to war instead of his younger brother?
Balsa remembered what the Talsh spy Hugo had told her.
"New Yogo will go to war at the opening of the new year. Talsh has been using the past two years to fortify and build up their presence on Sangal's islands. They're directing all their land forces to Sangal's main peninsula. Most of these forces belong to Prince Raul. They're battle-hardened veterans who have seen many campaigns, some in Orm, others in Old Yogo.
"New Yogo's soldiers have never been to war. They'll be slaughtered. It won't be a battle; it'll be a bloodbath. That's what the current Mikado has chosen for his nation."
She also remembered that Hugo had told her the war would start on the twelfth day of spring--five days from now.
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