Guardian of Heaven and Earth
-
New Yogo
Part 1 - War
Chapter 6 - Shirogai in Flames
That evening, the light of countless torches lit up the city from the outside. Balsa, Obal and some other guards surveyed the scene from some distance away, in the fields beyond Shirogai’s walls. The fields were in terrible shape from the trampling of soldiers and riders across the countryside.
Balsa and Obal were downwind from the torches, so they could smell smoke--and horses. The torch-bearers were still a long way off, but they moved in perfect time with disciplined movements. Balsa also saw supply wagons and carts trailing behind the main line. Their banners revealed the riders to be Yogoese.
“They’ll be here by tomorrow night if they don’t rush,” Obal said.
“Three guesses why they’re coming, and the first two don’t count,” Balsa muttered.
Gashu cursed behind Balsa. He’d been chosen to lead the people of Shirogai out of the city, so he’d spent the day organizing supplies and making sure everyone was ready to move. But now, there might not be enough time to get everyone out before the Yogoese soldiers arrived.
A few guards had already been sent ahead to the pass to investigate how many men were there. Balsa had helped organize the packing and organizing efforts. She wanted everyone in the city to know that they would have to pack up all of their belongings and flee. Aoun reinforced her words, since he assumed that the Yogoese soldiers were coming to destroy the city.
Later that night, Balsa noticed several scouts that didn’t appear to be Yogoese trying to sneak closer to the city under cover of darkness. She didn’t recognize their clothing, so she assumed they were Talsh.
“I never thought they’d come this close,” Obal whispered to Balsa.
“We have to get out of here,” Gashu said. “I’ll tell people to bring whatever they can carry. We have no time to linger.”
Balsa nodded. She went through the plan with all the guards one more time, then stood up. The evening was wearing on; Balsa selected a horse for rent and made her own preparations to leave Shirogai. Balsa would have preferred to travel in darkness, but there was a chance the horse might slip and fall if she did, so she lit a torch as well. Speed was paramount, not secrecy, and having light would help to speed her on her way.
Balsa rode out in front of the other guards, scarcely repressing the urge to gallop at top speed, until she reached a rubbish heap as large as a small hill. “Looks like a waste dump,” she said. “The city’s, what, half an hour from here?”
No one would discard anything hazardous or smelly too close to town. There were usually waste hills or pits some distance away from the larger cities in New Yogo. The children of Shirogai avoided this one because of the stink, though they sometimes dared their friends to get close to it as a test of courage.
“I never thought I’d be glad to smell that again,” Obal said. “We’re getting close.”
Balsa felt something strange in the air and said, “Stop.”
Gashu and Obal checked their horses. Balsa pulled up on her reins.
“What is it?” Obal whispered.
“Sh.” Balsa stayed very still and listened. She could hear hoof beats downwind, close and getting closer.
“We can’t go further into the forest,” Balsa whispered. “Someone’s coming.”
Balsa put out her torch, then flung it away from her. She didn’t want anyone to be drawn to the smell of smoke.
“Maybe it’s someone from Shirogai, coming to us with a message,” Obal whispered.
“If that were the case, we’d see them,” Balsa whispered back. “Control your horses well. We must move quietly--near-silently. If they’re Talsh spies, I doubt they’ll attack, but there’s a risk that whoever it is might shoot first and ask questions later. I don’t like this. We might be walking into an ambush.”
Gashu frowned. “But why would Talsh spies be riding toward us from Shirogai?”
“They might think we’re from the Yogoese army. They’re being quiet--maybe they want to slip past us in the dark.” Balsa held her breath and guided her horse toward a bamboo grove. Obal and Gashu followed her.
Five shadowy riders came into view in the middle distance. They carried no torches and were moving fast. The riders passed by the bamboo grove where Balsa and the others were hiding; they were nearly past when Obal’s horse snorted.
It was a soft sound. It was possible that the riders wouldn’t hear it, or would think that one of their own horses had snorted.
But the riders were wary. All five stopped in place. One drew back an arrow and fired in the direction of the sound.
The arrow passed by Obal’s sleeve, making the horse start. As he brought his horse under control, Balsa heard a man call out, “I told you not to fire without permission!”
Balsa nocked an arrow back and fired at the horse of the man who had spoken. The arrow flew into the horse’s shoulder; the horse’s high-pitched scream echoed in the stillness. Balsa dashed out onto the road in the direction of the scouts.
“Don’t move! We have arrows trained on you!” Balsa shouted in Yogoese. The scouts could see her, but Obal and Gashu were still hidden in the grove. They had seen an arrow emerge from the grove, though, so they could assume that Balsa’s comrades were close.
“We have no desire to kill you,” Balsa said. “Who are you? What do you want?”
The scouts blinked in surprise at Balsa’s words. They hadn’t expected to encounter a woman with a bow trained on them in the middle of the night.
The man who had fired the first shot faced Balsa and said in clipped Yogoese, “You first. Who are you?”
“We’re guards who’ve been hired by the people in Shirogai,” Balsa said. “You seem to be with the regular army, so my guess is that you’ve been sent to Shirogai ahead of everyone else. We’re not your enemies, and neither are the people of Shirogai. You’re welcome in the city as long as you don’t attack anyone.”
The man who led the riders looked at the ground. “I should talk to our captain,” he said. “He’ll want to know about this.”
“Sure.” Balsa nodded.
The man turned his horse and melted into the darkness, followed by the other riders.
Obal and Gashu rode out onto the path. “Are we sure he’s going to tell his captain?”
Balsa shrugged. “If they’re Yogoese, I’m sure they’re going to burn Shirogai regardless, no matter what he says to his captain. And if they’re spies for the Talsh, attacking them would only turn them against the people of Shirogai. We want to avoid that.”
Balsa shifted her horse into the middle of the path, then said, “Let’s get back to Shirogai.”
Balsa, Gashu and Obal rode for a short while in the darkness before they smelled smoke. A billowing cloud of ash extended up to the sky.
Shirogai was already on fire.
Balsa gaped up at the sky in amazement. The soldiers must have taken the food and supplies we gathered up, and then burned the city anyway. She clenched her fist.
Gashu and Obal stopped their horses and blinked smoke out of their eyes. Red flames licked at the buildings of the city.
“Shit,” Obal said.
“Did those men we passed do this?” Gashu asked in a tone of outrage.
Most of the guards in Shirogai were poor men without much by way of social standing. Bodyguards were a proud and stubborn breed, but most of them came from merchant or farming families. Some had joined the army to receive a salary and a better position in the world. They thought not only of themselves, but of their wives and children.
The Yogoese army wasn’t a meritocracy. Even the best guards had to obey the commands of their noble officers. Many men disliked this, but there were many men for whom joining the army provided great benefits.
Obal’s brother had joined the army to escape his wandering life. He was in the imperial army. Obal found it hard to believe that his brother would have obeyed orders to burn Shirogai with him in it, but those orders had definitely been given, and obeyed.
“I don’t see many people,” Balsa said. “Most of them probably fled when they caught sight of the torches, but they didn’t have much warning. We need to hurry and try to save everyone we can.”
Obal and Gashu nodded, then urged their horses to go faster. Balsa galloped ahead of them.
As Balsa and the others got closer to the city, the smoke became thicker. They saw no other people. The wind was a roaring gale that made the fire spread wildly in all directions. Shirogai looked wavy from heat haze. It had stood in this spot for a hundred years, but now all that history and proud merchant tradition was gone in a flash.
“No one stayed here,” Balsa shouted out. “They couldn’t! Head for the valley!”
Gashu and Obal exchanged uncomfortable glances, then nodded.
Sure enough, there were a number of people clustered on the narrow mountain road leading into a wide valley just outside the city. These were the stragglers who had made it out of the city last, escaping with their lives and little else. Balsa, Obal and Gashu rode among them, helping to guide them away from the burning city.
Balsa had traveled through the Samal Pass many times, as had her companions, so they were able to find the way, even at night. It was slow going, though. Many of the unfortunate people who had fled fell too far back, so Balsa was forced to patrol around the group to make sure no one got separated from the main group.
This wasn’t an easy bodyguarding job. People were unhappy and on edge; they weren’t in any mood to cooperate or follow instructions.
“Obal,” Balsa said, “go ahead to the valley with Gashu and bring back a few helpers for this group. Please? I don’t want to lose anyone here.”
Gashu rubbed at his beard with his white shirt. “Well, there’s one bit of good news. The soldiers did their business and are riding the other way. It should be pretty easy to reach the border now.”
Balsa smiled bitterly. Like her, Gashu was a good bodyguard. He was considering the safety of his charges over everything else.
Gashu and the other guards pitched tents to turn in for the night after they and the survivors of the city had fled far enough to escape the ash and smoke in the air. Balsa entered Gashu’s tent to talk about how they intended to lead everyone to the Samal Pass. She passed many merchants who had lost everything. They reminded her of Martha and the good people from the Samada Store. These people didn’t deserve this suffering at all.
Martha and her son Toun had made it out safely. Martha was the one who had told her son to take only what he could carry and run. They had managed to get five carts and three wagons out of Shirogai, crammed with food and supplies and precious cloth and inventory that they could use to create a new store elsewhere.
Martha had also insisted on giving Balsa and the guards her signboards and extra cloth to create more tents. “Leave this to us, Balsa,” Martha had called out in a clear voice. “We’ll make sure everyone has a place to sleep.”
As Balsa approached Gashu’s tent, she noticed that many tents had been made with the signboards and cloth, not just from Martha’s store but also from several others. The letters and devices on the signs acted as landmarks; people used them to find their friends and family in the darkness.
The Samada Store’s people were staying in five tents. Four of them were dark, but Balsa saw a light shining inside one. As Balsa was passing by, Martha and Toun lifted the tent flap and beckoned to her.
“Balsa,” Toun whispered. His face was very pale. “The city burned...is it true? It doesn’t seem real...”
“It all burned,” Balsa answered quietly. “By the time I got there, it was a sea of fire.”
Martha looked at the ground, crestfallen. Balsa had never seen her look so upset before. She understood why, of course, but she wished for Martha to regain some of her former strength and resiliency, and quickly.
“I wanted to talk to you,” Balsa said. Asra and Chikisa were Tal people, so it might be difficult for them to travel with all the people of Shirogai, since Rotans were highly prejudiced against Tal people. Martha kept them hidden in their own tent for now, but Balsa also laid out some plans to keep them safe in the future.
There were other things that Balsa wanted to discuss as well, including Asra and Chikisa’s relation to Prince Ihan, the nature of the conflict between the Northern and Southern Clan Lords in Rota, and the alliance between Rota and Kanbal.
Balsa told Toun and Martha all about the proposed alliance, though she left Chagum out of the story; he didn’t want anyone in New Yogo to know that he was alive yet. She also told Martha that the best place for her to settle in Rota was Jitan, Rota’s ancient capital. Prince Ihan had his castle there. It was a bustling market town, just like Shirogai had been.
“Northern Rota isn’t as wealthy as southern Rota as a rule, but if anything bad happens, Prince Ihan will keep you and the children safe. I’m absolutely certain of that,” Balsa said.
Martha shook her head. “We’ll have time to consider all that later, when we actually get to Rota,” she said. “Chikisa and Asra don’t want to rely on Prince Ihan, so it might be better for us to avoid Jitan.”
Balsa remembered how Chikisa had refused Ihan’s help the last time he and Asra were in Jitan. She frowned. “You may be right.”
Martha looked exhausted, but she managed a slight smile. “I do have trade contacts, in Jitan and elsewhere. I’m sure that everything will work out in the end, for me and all these merchants.”
“But the children are a burden to you right now...” Balsa bit her lip.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Martha said. “You entrusted them to me, and even if you hadn’t, they’re a great help and no trouble. I know you’re concerned for them as well as me, but don’t worry about that, Balsa. We can take care of ourselves.”
Martha paused. When she spoke again, her voice was hoarse and quiet. “Besides, you have to look for Tanda, Balsa. Though you’ll probably find him on the battlefield.”
Balsa attempted a smile. “I’ll find him.” Tanda was all right. He had to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment