Where the Wind Takes Us
Part 3 - The Wind's Direction
Chapter 3 - Yurima
When Rumina got home, her brother was waiting for her in the entryway.
“Sister!” Kumu was still dressed in his travel clothes. “The Sadan Taram were attacked on the road! Their leader was poisoned by an arrow!”
“Their leader? You mean Sari?”
Kumu shook his head. “It’s not Sari this year. She’s ill, so she stayed on the Sadan Taram’s island this year. It’s her daughter, Eona.”
Rumina approached her brother and set a shaking hand on his shoulder. “Where is Eona now?”
“She’s resting,” Kumu said. “I had the servants fetch Marul the herbalist, but he doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the estate.”
Agachi, one of their retainers, spoke up. “He told me he was going out this morning to gather mashiri. He hasn’t returned yet. Mashiri brings down fevers. Several of the children in the village and household are sick with something. He took all his apprentices with him, too.”
“What terrible luck,” Rumina said. “Kumu, we should call Yurima.”
Agachi started when he heard the name. Rumina ignored him.
Yurima was one of Lady Oria’s servants. She had accompanied Oria from her home at the Magua clan estate after her marriage. She had a thorough knowledge of herb lore and medicine. When Lady Oria was alive, Yurima had often treated Rumina and Kumu’s colds and fevers.
Yurima was retired now and lived quietly on a small piece of farmland just outside the estate with her husband. She hadn’t returned to the Magua clan after Lady Oria’s death.
“Kumu!” Rumina cried out. “Send a message to Yurima, right now! There’s no time to waste!”
Agachi looked askance at Kumu, who nodded shallowly at him. Agachi went to fetch Yurima to the estate.
***
Kumu stalked down the hallway, adjusting his sleeves while peering at each face he passed like he was expecting to see a ghost. He had no desire to see Yurima again. As far as he was concerned, Yurima was complicit in his mother’s crimes. For all he knew, Yurima was responsible for the curse on the Aru clan and not his mother.
Rumina didn’t want Kumu to think that way, but all the rumors flying around were very difficult to ignore. Kumu knew that Agachi didn’t like Yurima--he considered her a spy for the Magua clan, and said that she hadn’t gone back home after the death of Lady Oria because she was feeding their enemies information.
Even if that was the case, Kumu couldn’t deny that they needed someone like Yurima here now. When he was a small child, Yurima had often given him bitter medicines when he was sick. He hadn’t liked the taste, but he also hadn’t died, either. She’d always been kind to him while she’d lived at the estate. Kumu had felt the loss of Yurima when she was gone. He was a child, and considered her leaving a form of betrayal that fed in to Agachi’s ideas about her.
Kumu couldn’t greet Yurima as a friend or as a caretaker: not since she’d quit the estate to live elsewhere. He didn’t want to see her ever again if he could help it.
But he needed her to come, and Agachi might easily find some excuse not to bring her back. He called out to a girl carrying water down the hall. She set down her load and bowed a little. “Yes, lord?”
“Find Yurima the herbalist and bring her here.”
***
Yurima received an urgent message from the Aru clan’s estate, made her excuses and rushed there. She was led to the room where her patient waited: a young woman stretched out on a hard bed with a jagged wound on her arm. She was deathly pale, but conscious and capable of movement. Yurima had been told that her name was Eona.
“Please describe all the symptoms you’ve suffered,” Yurima said, kneeling down next to Eona. “It will help me know how to treat the poison.”
Eona spoke quietly. Rumina was sitting nearby, looking on. “Do you know how to treat this, Yurima?”
Yurima shrugged. “The poison is either a very low dose or slow-acting. That’s good. But I don’t know what it is, or if I can touch the wound to clean it. I won’t know all the dangers associated with this poison until I identify it.”
“Just treat the arrow wound.” Agachi was also in the room, and now he addressed Yurima in an irritated tone. “You’ve done that for others before… Nikul, was it? Don’t touch the cut with your bare hands and there shouldn’t be an issue.”
“He’s right,” Rumina said. “It’s not like you to hesitate in treating a wound, Yurima. What’s wrong?”
Yurima smiled feebly. “I suppose I’m out of practice.”
The other Sadan Taram glanced nervously at one another. That probably wasn’t the best thing for Yurima to say.
“But I’ll do what I can,” Yurima said. “I brought a number of antidotes to common poisons; we can start with those. Give me a moment to gather some supplies.”
Yurima left the room. Afternoon shadows lengthened over the floor. She found her old quarters and was relieved to find many of her tools and supplies where she’d left them when she’d lived on the estate. But familiar tools and surroundings didn’t make this situation any easier for her.
What should I do? She stifled a cry as she rifled through herbs. It was fortunate that Eona’s wound was shallow and that the wound was far from her heart. She had seen poisonings of this kind before; most victims were lucky to last a day after being wounded.
Yurima had been tasked to save Eona, and there was still plenty of time to do that. However, if Eona lived, she would guide Rumina to the Valley of the Forest King. Rumina would discover her mother’s long-held secret. Yurima wasn’t sure she wanted that to happen.
Lord Azal must have feared this. Who else would try to poison the Sadan Taram? Yurima thought. She understood his reasoning. Rumina, Kumu and the last remnants of the Aru clan shouldn’t have to suffer anything more. There were some secrets that should stay buried.
What should I do? Such a terrible choice: save a woman’s life and risk my mistress’ ire from beyond the grave, or let the woman die to keep the secret hidden?
Well, she’d been ordered to at least try to do something for Eona, so she rummaged through a few cupboards, looking for dried dagoi beans that she could cook and use as a base for a simple antidote.
Then Yurima heard the door of her own chambers shut behind her and went very still. “Who’s there?” she asked.
There was a woman standing in front of Yurima’s closed door. “Who are you?” She must have come in with Eona, but Yurima didn’t know her name.
“Don’t you recognize me?” The woman’s expression was calm, but her posture was rigid. There was something vaguely threatening in her demeanor.
“I’m sorry, should I?”
“We met twenty years ago,” the woman said. “I guess it’s not a surprise that you’ve forgotten me. But we don’t have time to discuss the past right now.” She crossed the room, locating the dagoi beans easily as if she’d known exactly where they would be. “Cook these, quickly,” she said.
Yurima’s eyes widened. She knows how to treat this poison.
That took the decision of saving Eona out of Yurima’s hands. She bowed her head a little and said, “Might I ask you to do it? I’d be grateful for your help.” She sat near the dying fire in the room and stoked it. The woman poured water from a pitcher into a kettle. She tossed the dagoi beans in when the water was just about to boil.
“You know a little about making medicine,” Yurima observed.
“My husband is an herbalist.” The woman stirred the beans in the pot. “I know what happened with your mistress twenty years ago. Lady Oria.”
Yurima’s eyes went wide. This woman wasn’t one of the Sadan Taram. She was accompanying them as--
“You’re a guard,” Yurima said. “The daughter of the caravan guard who came here twenty years ago. I remember you now.”
The woman nodded. “Well, that’s that. Finish preparing the beans and use them to save Eona.”
Yurima nodded rapidly. Once the beans started cooking, a film would form on top. It was important not to overcook the beans or to cook them at too high a temperature, since that affected what impurities would rise to the top. The strained scum of dagoi beans was effective against many kinds of poison. Yurima’s aunt had taught her that when she was a child.
As she waited to skim the beans, Yurima sat next to the fire and recalled her younger days working for Lady Oria when she still lived at the Magua clan’s main estate. Lady Oria had been ecstatic in love and had longed to come to this remote estate in the far north of the province. For her part, Yurima had tried to share in her mistress’ joy. Over time, she’d made a home for herself here, but there were still times when she missed her youth. She’d believed in better futures then than the ones she saw now.
The words of Yurima’s aunt returned to her as she watched the beans boil over the fire. The taste is bitter and repulsive, but it repels the poison, too. My gran always said the worse it tastes, the better it works.
There was film to skim now. Yurima picked up a small pot to collect the dagoi bean leavings in and tasted it. It was bitter like her aunt said--bitter like her memories. Her aunt, Lady Oria, and so many of the people she’d cared about were no longer of this world.
Yurima placed a lid on the pot of beans and waited to collect more antidote for Eona’s antidote. She didn’t take her eyes off the fire for a long time.
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