The Wanderer
The next day proved highly instructive for Balsa—not because it was a typical day for the caravan guards, but because it was extremely unlucky. One of the wagons broke an axle before departure, and all the barrels loaded on it rolled off. The drivers panicked, rushing to secure the cargo and replace the axle before more damage could be done.
The caravan got a late start. They didn't reach the Takau River Valley until past noon, and everyone knew they were far behind schedule for the day. The river valley was narrow enough for the trees on either side of the path to wind their branches together in an arching pattern. There was an old legend that Rota's gods had carved out this valley. Balsa felt like she was being watched by someone as she passed through, though she suspected that it was only birds' eyes that were following her.
The road had started wide and easy from town, but now, the caravan had to stop frequently to ford streams or make sharp turns on the narrow path. It was dangerous to carry their cargo here; one false step could send a wagon tumbling into the gorge below.
At around sunset, the caravan reached a sandy place where footing was particularly poor. The caravan crawled along the northwestern slope of the cliff, following a path that frequently twisted and turned. This would be a terrible place to be attacked by bandits.
Gozu knew this. When it became clear that the caravan would have to leave very late that morning, he informed Lord Tokian of the risks and requested to wait an additional day before setting out. But Lord Tokian refused. He was eager to get to the Traders' Market and unwilling to waste any more time.
Gozu rode up to Lord Tokian with the setting sun shining into his eyes and explained to him that they should stop before going much further if they wanted to minimize at least some of the risks of being in a place like this, but Lord Tokian seemed angry at the insinuation that they'd be attacked here—or that the caravan might not be able to handle such an attack.
"You bribed the local bandits back in town, correct?" Lord Tokian asked. "If so, we have nothing to fear."
The caravan stopped for the night a short time later. There was no attack during the night. When it was time for the caravan to leave again, Jiguro came close to Balsa on his horse. Balsa was also mounted, peering into the pre-dawn darkness, alert for threats.
It was unusual for Jiguro to approach her so early in the day—or at all, really. "I think we'll see blood spilled today—lives given and taken. Be careful," he said quietly. "The man who leads this caravan has lost sight of what truly needs protecting. If we're attacked here, people will die."
Jiguro looked down at Balsa with a hard light in his eyes. Balsa didn't know what to say. Jiguro had never warned her like this before.
"Warriors should always be watchful for the spear that will come to take their lives," Jiguro said. "Defend yourself, always, but especially in times like this, when you know for certain that the danger is coming. If we're attacked, I'll rush to the front of the caravan and cut my way through to Lord Tokian to protect him. That's my role. Your only job here is to defend yourself." He made a fist and settled it over Balsa's heart. "Use everything you know to keep yourself safe."
Balsa pressed her lips tightly together so that they wouldn't tremble. She nodded.
Jiguro's eyes felt like arrows that were trained on her. "If the time comes, don't hesitate. Kill the man in front of you before he can kill you. You might not have time to escape from them all."
Balsa nodded again.
Jiguro placed a hand on her head. She couldn't see his expression. He rode off, spear in hand, toward the front of the caravan.
The caravan traveled through the Takau River Valley all day until the evening. There were gaps in the trees and the brush lining the path: perfect hiding places for archers. The sun was in the caravan's eyes again. Balsa blinked out after-images of spots, trying to determine if the moving shadows she saw belonged to the caravan, startled animals, or enemies lying in wait.
Rocks littered the path. Balsa heard the horses' hooves echoing off the stones as they picked their way over the uneven ground. A river was below them, flowing fast, but she was used to the sound and able to block it out. She heard something else…
There: a slithering, yet violent sound like a length of silk ripping in two, followed by a blood-curdling scream. The caravan guards around Balsa held their breaths for a moment that seemed to stretch, then sprang into action, trying to reach Lord Tokian at the head of the caravan.
Arrows rained down on them from the high cliff to the left of the path.
"Get down!" the caravan guards shouted to one another. Everyone ducked their heads and took cover behind the wagons. More arrows whizzed into the wagons, sticking in the wagon frames…and the cargo barrels.
The river was to the left, which was the same direction the arrows were coming from. There was no way for the caravan to seek shelter from the archers. Gozu pressed the caravan to move faster, down the path and away from the cliffs. He ordered the caravan guards and the workers to keep using the wagons as a shield.
The packhorse drivers ducked down, but not all of them were fast enough to hide. The next volley of arrows reached the caravan. There were more screams as men collapsed with arrows poking out of their thighs and chests.
Gozu ordered the more seasoned caravan guards to inch around the wagons and fire on the archers before returning quickly to cover. Some of the merchants were also good with bows, and managed to shoot down a few of their attackers. Men cried out all around. Balsa heard them, along with the sounds of falling stones—and falling men.
"They're attacking from the front!" Jiguro yelled.
"And behind!" Sumal shouted. "We're surrounded!"
Jiguro's and Sumal's voices echoed off the cliffs, along with the shouts of their attackers. Gozu was near the front of the caravan, trying to estimate the number of bandits that were attacking. "Open a path," Gozu commanded Jiguro. "I'll lead the wagons through it!"
Jiguro received Gozu's orders and was off like a shot, moving swiftly on horseback. The path was steep, the footing was unstable, and it was growing dark, but neither Jiguro nor the horse he rode showed any sign of difficulty. Jiguro brandished his spear over his head in a wide arc, cutting down any bandits that came close enough to threaten the horse. Two bandits tried to chase down Jiguro on their own horses, but they went too close to the edge of the gorge and fell down into it, along with their mounts.
All Balsa could do was watch. There were no bandits near her. She didn't know what to do.
Gozu was close. She saw him waving his sword, shouting commands to the drivers and caravan workers to get behind the wagons and stay with the caravan. "Run! Run!"
The wagons were moving. Gozu ran out front with the other caravan guards behind, circling the wagons to protect them. Gozu decided to use the final cargo wagon as bait for the bandits and commanded the other caravan guards to abandon it. The packhorse drivers and workers who packed the wagons mounted up on spare horses. The entire caravan was making good time now as they sprinted away from danger.
Up until that time, everyone followed Gozu's orders and the retreat was going smoothly. But then, something went very wrong. Balsa didn't see what had happened, but the front of the line scattered outward, causing wagons and guards to be separated and making them easy targets for the bandits.
Balsa turned around. Sumal gestured for her to keep riding forward. "Keep going! I'll find the cause of this!" He turned his horse and rode off the path into a thicket. Balsa lost sight of him as his horse leaped into the cover of the trees.
The attack took everyone by surprise, so at first, no one realized that there were relatively few bandits assailing them. Jiguro's charge terrified the bandits, and they soon turned tail and fled. Their numbers were so small that Jiguro wondered why they'd bothered wasting arrows to attack the caravan from behind. The bandits didn't have enough front-line fighters to be effective against such a large contingent of guards, and they didn't have enough ranged fighters to pick them all off.
The caravan kept running. Balsa fell behind until she was at the very back of the line. The bandit archers were still firing on them, getting closer. Balsa prepared to leave the road and hide in the trees to make herself a less obvious target.
It was freezing cold in the shade at night. A strong wind blew through the branches and stuck her clothes to her skin. The mountain slopes in front of her were red with the reflected light of sunset, but there was no light around her or under her, only black-and-purple shadows. Her horse spun, searching for somewhere to go. Balsa was a little motion-sick from the sudden shift, though she remained on her horse.
She didn't need to worry about the bandits now. She had no cargo and carried nothing of great value. All she had to do was keep up with the caravan. She pointed her horse parallel to the path and encouraged it into a gallop. The main problem was that Balsa didn't know where the caravan's next stop was. If she knew that, she could take whatever route she wanted. Because she wasn't sure, she would either have to catch up quickly, or guess. She really didn't want to guess.
Balsa shivered, only partially because of the cold. She'd never been to this part of the mountains before. The horse was content to follow her lead, and she soon became lost in the woods at the foot of a nearby mountain. She stopped and opened her ears. She could just make out the sounds of the fleeing caravan and re-oriented herself.
"Ah, that way!"
Sumal had run behind the caravan during the attack. She should be able to catch up to him. The sounds of the caravan got clearer as she drew closer. She was also near the river gorge, which amplified the sounds of horses galloping and the rolling cargo wagons.
Balsa still saw no sign of Sumal or the others. She paused in place, looking up at the sky through the tree branches overhead, straining her ears to hear. She chased the sound of a rolling cart and was a bit surprised when she heard it suddenly stop. Why would it stop here? She didn't see a reason why it would.
She heard voices. Balsa halted her horse and dismounted, creeping closer on foot. She saw a person's shadow lengthening in the twilight and pressed her back to a tree so that she wouldn't be discovered. She couldn't hear or see very well, so she tied her horse's reins to a tree and went through a cleft in a large stone. It was good cover, but she had to watch where she stepped: the cleft, like the ravine to her left, would make any sound she made louder.
A scream shattered the surrounding stillness. Balsa stopped still, listening hard. The scream was long and drawn-out, like someone was dying in agony. At first, Balsa thought that Sumal or someone must be fighting the bandits, but that scream was the only one she heard. There were no other sounds of fighting that she could discern.
Balsa swallowed heavily, gripped her spear, and moved in the direction of the scream. The river gorge was close, creating a gap in the trees. Balsa looked up at a patch of clear sky. There was a wagon here, and a few dead packhorse drivers and workers. It was silent and still all around. The light of sunset cast most of what she could see in shadow.
Balsa turned in a circle and identified Sumal standing a little distance away from her. Another man stood in front of Sumal as if he were trying to protect him. Balsa remembered the man talking to Sumal a lot during their journey.
Sumal removed the lid on one of the barrels of toshul and stuck his hand inside. Balsa was too far away to see the expression on his face, but the man next to him let out a cheer and clapped his hands. Sumal passed a heavy-looking bag into the man's hands.
Then, Sumal grabbed his spear and faced the man. On instinct, Balsa closed her eyes. She didn't see the man die, but she heard him scream and fall to the ground.
When Balsa opened her eyes and looked at Sumal, she felt like she was looking at an entirely different person from the one she knew. His face and hair were spattered with blood. He didn't seem human, but like some kind of monster.
A chill went through Balsa's entire body. If Sumal found her here, he would kill her.
"There's a horse here," a man called out from a short distance away. Balsa didn't recognize his voice.
Suddenly, Balsa heard a lot more hoofbeats coming up from the river gorge. Is it the bandits? She pressed her dry lips together to keep them from trembling. Her pulse was racing and her clothes were soaked through with cold sweat. Even the palm that grasped her spear was sweaty. Sumal and the man who had died were in front of her, and the people on horseback were behind her. She had nowhere to run.
Balsa wiped her hands on her clothes so that she could hold her weapon better, then emerged from cover to face Sumal.
Sumal appeared genuinely shocked to see her. He didn't move or call out to her. He recovered from his astonishment and frowned as he started coughing.
The coughing fit gradually turned into a laugh. Balsa felt like he was mocking her.
"What's all this, then?" he asked between peals of laughter. He stepped away from the cargo barrel and approached Balsa.
Balsa started shaking all over. Her body felt like it wasn't her own. Jiguro was at the head of the caravan, far out of reach. She sensed the bandits surrounding her on all sides, pouring out of the river valley, climbing up from the gorge. She knew that she would die here.
"I'll kill this one," Sumal called out as the bandits closed in. "Don't touch her!"
"Didn't you promise us a third of the cut?!" one of the bandits shouted. "This ain't a third! Give this kid to us to even things out. That one'll sell well in Sangal, I bet."
Sumal cast the stone scabbard of his spear on the ground. "You idiots! If you let this one live, we'll have the others on our tail forever!" he spat.
"Sorry, kid," Sumal said. "Looks like this is it, for you."
Balsa gritted her teeth. She held her spear in front of her, ready for Sumal's attack.
Sumal drew closer to her. He had much more experience than her, and he was taller. She was at a significant disadvantage here. She froze and didn't move.
Balsa wasn't scared, exactly, but when she looked at Sumal's face, she couldn't bring herself to move. She understood that if she didn't move, Sumal would kill her, and yet…
Sumal laughed. Balsa thought he was crying, too, but it was hard to tell. Without preamble or pause, Sumal drove his spearpoint into Balsa's chest.
Balsa felt herself move out of the way of the strike before it could reach her. She hadn't planned to move. Her body had simply reacted.
Sumal closed the space between them rapidly, not giving her any time to think. Balsa crouched down and lifted her spear up, blocking Sumal's spear with a strident clang. Sumal took a step back and aimed his next strike at Balsa's left side.
Pain bloomed along her abdomen. Her hands felt heavy where she gripped her weapon. She was frozen again, unable to move. She knew that human flesh and animal flesh were both soft and that only the bones were solid, but she'd never been cut open before, and was feeling an awareness of her own softness and fragility.
She was soft on the inside, and so was Sumal. She lunged forward before the pain set in, grunting, and Sumal was so surprised that he didn't block her strike. Her spear point passed through his chest, near his heart. Sumal grimaced, showing all his teeth. He gripped Balsa's spear and pulled it out of his own chest.
Balsa felt blood splatter on her face and shoulders. Sumal wrapped his hands around her neck and used his last strength to strangle the life out of her. His blood fell on her ears and eyes. She couldn't breathe. Her eyes felt like they were about to burst.
Balsa pawed frantically at her waist for her Rotan short sword. Her hands were shaking, making the weapon hard to grip, but the instant she drew it, she plunged her weapon into Sumal's chest again.
The hands choking her went slack. She collapsed to the ground face-first and gasping. She curled into a ball like a wounded animal.
She felt more than saw Sumal stand up again. He was coughing, and the cough was so familiar: how often had she heard it while traveling with the caravan? Blood from his spear dripped on the ground near her face.
Balsa had to get up. She couldn't stay down, but when she tried to rise, her body wouldn't obey her.
Something cut through the air. The next moment, Sumal collapsed on top of her, gurgling blood. More poured from his nose. Balsa heard more fighting around her and huddled under Sumal, using him as a shield.
After a while, the fighting stopped. Balsa pushed Sumal's dead body off of her and tried to get up. She could now, but her side hurt so badly that she wasn't sure how far she could walk. She passed out in the space between two thoughts.
Jiguro knelt down next to Balsa and started treating Balsa's wounds. Balsa would never know how much his hands were trembling as he treated her. He looked down at her. She was drenched in blood. Her face was covered in it, and Jiguro hadn't even heard her utter a cry.
When Balsa came to much later, she was still seeing red. Red was all that she could see. She remembered the sensation of her spear cutting through Sumal's chest and threw up. Finally, she screamed, and she didn't stop screaming for a long time.
Jiguro pulled Balsa to him and held her, letting her scream and cry and be horrified. She had a high fever from her wound, but her experience today would take longer to heal. No one forgot their first kill. No one.
The men Sumal had killed were set to be married in the spring. Someone would need to inform their families and brides-to-be. They had betrayed the caravan along with Sumal, but the other caravan guards begged for Lord Tokian to be lenient. He sent their bodies back to their families.
Sumal had slain his companions to acquire enough gold dust to procure a medicine to cure his illness. Lord Tokian didn't send his body back to his family, but he allowed the caravan to bury him in the woods where he died. He'd given his life in service to that caravan and Lord Tokian's family, but he'd never really belonged among them. He was a wanderer, traveling here and there like a river winding through the countryside. He was buried high on a hill where there was no water, and his body remains there to this day, fixed in place only in death.
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