Where the Wind Takes Us
Part 3 - The Wind's Direction
Chapter 6 - Threats
“What do you mean, ‘theory?’” Kumu asked the female bodyguard standing in the corner. “What else could my mother and the Magua clan be hiding if it wasn’t proof of Larago’s assassination?”
Balsa shrugged. “I have no doubt he was assassinated. But there are plenty of reasons that the Valley of the Forest King is mysterious and remote. All I’m saying is that it holds more secrets than collection of speckled bones--and even that secret is subject to interpretation.”
“Interpretation? What interpretation? Isn’t it obvious what happened?”
Balsa shook her head. “Larago died hundreds of years ago. The speckled patterns on his bones can reveal how he died, perhaps, but not who poisoned him. You’re assuming that the Magua clan did it because it suits your bias. Just like Agachi assumed your mother was going to the Valley of the Forest King to curse your family.”
“But the proof is there, in that valley!” Kumu insisted. His lips trembled. “Our mother stole his bones and hid them so that our retainers wouldn’t see the evidence of her family’s evil deed. How could Agachi see that as anything but a betrayal against the Aru clan--against us?”
“You’re wrong!” Yurima cried. She tottered to her feet. “Your mother never betrayed you! Everything she did was for your sake, and the sake of your sister!”
“Liar!”
“It’s not a lie!” Yurima’s hands clenched and unclenched. “This happened before you were both born--you couldn’t possibly remember--but this province was once in dire straits. Even worse than it is now. The leader of the Magua clan--Lady Oria’s father--was making all kinds of trade deals to log our maharan forests. They were cut too fast and not replenished, and we are still suffering from the impacts of that today. He permitted his daughter to marry Lord Shisal because it would allow him to gain a tighter hold over the maharan wood market. He couldn’t allow the secret of Larago’s death to be exposed. If that happened, the Aru clan and the Magua clan would sever ties, and he would lose control of much of his trading empire.
“But that wasn’t why Lady Oria agreed to hide Larago’s body from prying eyes. She did it for you, Kumu, and for Rumina, and her husband, whom she loved deeply. She didn’t want to make Lord Shisal choose between her and his ancestral duty, and she didn’t want to put a black mark on her children’s names for being part of the Magua clan. You believe everything Agachi said about her, but couldn’t you at least try to believe that your mother loved you, if only a little?”
“Why should I?” Kumu said. “Everything you’ve said paints her as a terrible person.”
Yurima sighed. “There was no curse on the Aru clan after that. When you were born, the province was prosperous, and all of our lives were improving. Do you know why?”
Kumu frowned and shook his head.
“Because your mother threatened your grandfather. She said that if he didn’t transfer all of his trade deals and holdings in maharan wood over to her, then she would expose the secret of Larago’s death.”
“Expose it? He already knew the secret,” Kumu said.
“She threatened to tell King Yosam.”
Rumina nodded in understanding. “If she’d told him, our grandfather would have been forced to pay reparations for the crime, since he was the head of the Magua clan. He would lose his trade deals along with his reputation. He might have even lost his position as clan lord, if our mother had told. And even if he hadn’t, the largest trader of maharan wood aside from this province is in the south. Exposing the secret to King Yosam would have completely cut the Magua clan off from a lot of domestic trade.”
Rumina nodded to herself. “I knew mother was active in the maharan wood trade, but I never knew why.” She frowned. “Still, I suppose she was helping herself, as well. She was still her father’s daughter. Revealing the secret would have ruined her father and her entire family, except for us.”
“I think this is an opportunity,” Kumu said.
“What?” Rumina asked.
“We can blackmail our uncle with the same secret. That way, you won’t have to marry--or if you do, we don’t lose our clan to dissolution. I say we go to the Valley of the Forest King to confirm what happened to Larago with our own eyes. Then we’ll be able to do what our mother did, and restore prosperity to our people.”
Rumina reddened. She looked to Yurima. “Are Larago’s bones still in the Valley of the Forest King? Or did my mother conceal them elsewhere?”
“I don’t know,” Yurima said. “You have no reason to believe me, but I swear that it’s the truth. I have no idea where your mother hid the bones.” She turned to face Eona. “You and your people have suffered so much through all of this... I’m terribly sorry. I thought that if I told, the Magua clan would visit its wrath upon us here. It was cowardly of me.”
“Yes,” Kumu said, “but you also weren’t in the valley that day. She,” he said, pointing at Balsa, “was there. So tell me: do you know where my mother hid Larago’s bones?”
Balsa shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t know, either. I accompanied the Sadan Taram to the entrance of the Valley of the Forest King, but my father ordered me not to drink the sacred wine or to enter the valley under any circumstances. He had me crouch down behind some trees so that I wouldn’t be seen, then entered the valley along with Sari and Lady Oria. So I didn’t see what happened after that.”
“Why did your father tell you not to enter the valley?” Kumu asked.
“Did your father know that the sacred wine would put everyone to sleep?” Rumina asked.
Balsa shrugged. “It was a guess. We knew that everyone who was going into the Valley of the Forest King had to drink the wine, and that there were bad people after Sari. My dad had me stay behind as a precaution.” She faced Kii. “Remember when we visited this place twenty years ago? Jiguro and I didn’t eat or drink anything.”
Kii nodded. “Yes, I remember.”
“Jiguro didn’t drink the sacred wine, either. He pretended to drink it, that’s all. He told Sari to do the same.”
Sansa and Kii exchanged troubled glances.
“So they didn’t fall asleep,” Rumina said.
Balsa nodded. “Four people were awake in the valley that day.”
“Four?” Rumina asked. “There was our mother, Sari, your father... and who?”
“Your father, Lord Shisal. He woke up.”
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