Where the Wind Takes Us
Where the Wind Takes Us
Yurima blinked. “Is that true? Did Lord Shisal truly awaken from the sleeping draught?” She stumbled back into a chair. “I never knew that.” She shook her head. “No, it’s impossible. Lady Oria didn’t want her husband to know. He couldn’t possibly have known.”
Rumia looked between Yurima and Balsa. “Is it true, though? Did our father really witness what our mother did?”
Balsa nodded. “My father didn’t tell me everything, but he did say that Lord Shisal removed the bones from Larago’s grave, not your mother. He didn’t want her to risk being cursed, so he took the risk upon himself. Larago’s bones were greatly damaged from age and exposure. Lord Shisal had prepared a small box to conceal them in. My father witnessed all of this, of course, but he didn’t tell anyone. Why would he? We’re guards. His most important objective was to save Sari’s life. The Magua clan’s secrets didn’t mean anything to him. And he never learned where your parents kept the box. They swore to keep it secret and keep it safe, and that was good enough for my father and Sari.”
“Why didn’t they tell us?” Kumu wailed. “If we knew where the box was now, we’d be able to save ourselves!”
Rumina considered. “It was too dangerous to let us know. It’s possible that they would have told us when you were of age, since we would be helping to govern the province. We’ll never know what they intended for sure.” She shook her head. “But I don’t think I would have been able to look my grandfather in the eyes if I knew. Or my uncle Azar. I think our parents were waiting until we were old enough to handle the secret.”
“I wish I didn’t know,” Rumina said. “How can I marry into the Magua clan now? It’s just too awful.”
“As to that,” Balsa said, “I really don’t think that the Magua clan was solely responsible for Larago’s death. When I was younger and heard about Larago, I found his story suspicious. The Tahsa people and the Magua clan had been at war for ages, and Larago stood up and told them to stop. So, both sides had a motive. But that’s not all. The Magua clan paid his funeral expenses and the Tahsa people selected his resting place, but they buried him together and spread the same story. That smacks of complicity. If the same thing had happened today, I would say that the Tahsa people and the Magua clan had planned it together.
“My father agreed, for what it’s worth,” Balsa said. “There’s not a lot to do on the road besides talk.”
Balsa faced Kumu. “I learn a lot of secrets in this line of work, whether I like it or not. And I see a lot of perspectives. A merchant sees a competitor as an enemy. A rival guard seeks to improve his reputation and challenges his allies. Everyone thinks they’re on the right side of things, but reality is more complicated than that. I think those ancient Tahsa people and the Magua clan made the best they could out of the situation they designed. Larago’s death ended centuries of war. The conquest of the Tahsa people in Rota has been slow and unceasing, but it’s not because Tahsa people are dying in war. It’s because the Tahsa people have integrated.”
Balsa shrugged a little. “Maybe you think it’s a tragedy, but I think the ancient Tahsa people would prefer that to outright slaughter. In open war, everyone suffers. No one has a chance to live their lives. So stop seeing your ancestors as irredeemable villains and start seeing them as people trying to do the best they could. That’s probably closer to the truth.”
Balsa sighed heavily. “But it doesn’t matter. You people cling to your secrets and old bones, and it almost got Sari killed twenty years ago. If that had happened, Eona would never have been born. And because your uncle still feels the secret will leak, he’s trying to kill Eona. Where will it end?”
“Do you really think that the Magua clan is after our leader again?” Kii asked.
“It’s hard to say for sure, but I don’t have any other ideas,” Balsa said. “I suspect that Lord Azar fears that Rumina and Kumu will go to the Valley of the Forest King and find the box. Their parents probably left it for them, but I don’t know.”
“And killing Eona would block our path to the Valley of the Forest King,” Rumina said. “The valley would forever be locked to us, if there was no Sadan Taram leader to open it. That does seem to suggest that the box is there.”
Balsa nodded. “I’m not sure you should do anything about it, though. Your parents left it there and never told you about it for a reason. Whether to use the secret or not is up to you, but I think it’s a risk. Telling will change everything for you, and it might not be for the best.”
“Why not?” Kumu asked.
“You would make your mother’s family suffer.”
“But if I don’t use them, then the Aru clan disappears forever. I can’t not use them, right?”
Balsa shook her head. “I can’t decide that for you. If I were in your place, I wouldn’t use them. Deliberately bringing down suffering on others rarely ends well. Even if things work out for your province, your conscience will bother you eventually.” She paused, then said, “There’s another reason, too.”
“What is it?” Rumina asked.
“A long time ago, the leader of the Magua clan--your grandfather--started building up his trade empire with maharan wood. The same year Sari traveled here after the earthquake, he was already consolidating his wealth and power. Then your mother’s threat came, and it shocked him enough to send assassins after Sari in secret, so that no one could recover the bones. Those assassins covered their tracks well and gave no names, so it would be hard to prove that the Magua clan was behind the attacks. Then as now, the Magua clan is established and respected. The Aru clan may have respect, but it has little clout.
“Think about it. Larago’s bones are no longer in his grave. That much is certain. What do you think would happen if you told King Ihan and he came to the Valley of the Forest King to investigate? He’d find a box of bones. How could you even prove they were Larago’s bones? With Rakul Province in the state it is now, you have no standing, no power, no friends. No one would vouch for you. People would say you were trying to trick the king so that you could unseat the Magua clan.”
Rumina nodded cautiously. “That’s why our parents put the bones in a box, instead of just re-burying them. They wanted to create doubt. Just in case anyone did come looking for evidence one day.”
“But what if he did believe us?” Kumu asked.
“That might be worse,” Rumina said. “If King Ihan believed us and granted us power and authority over the Magua clan’s trade network and partners, the Magua clan would still have friends. They would call for aid. It could turn to war.” She took a deep breath. “I believe this is the outcome that my uncle most fears. If our retainers all knew the truth about Larago’s death and assumed the Magua clan was behind it, they would revolt. They are few, but they are valiant, and they have families elsewhere. What begins as a spark here could spread the fire of revolution.”
Rumina buried her face in her hands. When she looked up, her expression was resolved. “Our uncle is not an evil man. He would never order the assassination of an innocent woman unless there was no other choice.”
Kii snorted. All eyes in the room went to her.
“Sorry,” she said, not sounding sorry at all, “but your uncle ordered Eona’s death, and that sounds pretty evil to me.”
“That’s not true, Kii,” Eona said. She was still pale from being poisoned, but she was able to sit up unassisted. “Lord Azal is not evil. I doubt his predecessor was, either. We are Sadan Taram. We travel ancient battlefields and keep the stories of old wars alive. This is our duty and our privilege; we owe it to the spirits under our care to grant them rest. But to the living, all we do is open old wounds and old memories. Our presence foments old divisions between the Tahsa people and the Magua clan. I’ve been thinking about it all while everyone was talking, and I understand why Lord Azal would consider me a threat. I’m the key and the door to a war that was over a long time ago. It’s not wrong-headed to try to forget something like that.”
Eona paused, searching for words. “But I also have a duty to the living. When my mother passed the water harp into my keeping, she had tears in her eyes. She told me that the spirits we help are Tahsa and Rotan both. We don’t ease one group and neglect the other. That is what is means to be Tol Asa. I cannot hate any part of my heritage to do my work. What I try to do for the living is bring joy and comfort for lost loved ones. There is no one on earth unacquainted with grief.”
Shaking out her shoulders, Eona said, “I must do what I came here to do, and end the suffering of the Tahsa people and the Rotan clans. I will not go to the Valley of the Forest King this year. I will never return here again.”
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