Those Who Walk the Flame Road
Although it was the beginning of
summer, the early mornings were still cool. There were few people
stirring yet. Hugo enjoyed the stillness and quiet of the sleepy city
and looked around for the mysterious man. He knew that what he was
doing was dangerous, but he didn’t care. His curiosity wouldn’t leave
him alone.
As Hugo walked along the street, he
noticed a man sitting on a wooden box outside of a store. The man
stood up when he noticed Hugo. He was wearing Talsh armor. Hugo ducked
down a side street, but the man called out, “Wait.”
Hugo recognized his voice and
approached. Disguising himself as a Talsh soldier was clever. Now that
he was closer, Hugo noticed that his disguise wasn’t quite perfect.
The soldiers he’d seen had their sword belts embroidered in silver.
The mysterious man’s sword belt had the same design as theirs, but it
was embroidered in gold. There were red-and-gold gauntlets on his
wrists to match.
“I picked these up from the eastern
guardhouse last night,” the man said. “The lot you saw at the
restaurant were from the western gate. You see a lot of ‘em in the
city. Now that I’m dressed like this, it’ll be harder for ‘em to just
haul me off.” He grinned. “I want to thank you again for last night.
That was quite a sticky situation. I was supposed to meet someone, but
it seems I was betrayed. If I hadn’t been so careless, I wouldn’t have
needed your help.”
“Are you Talsh?” Hugo asked in a
hushed tone. His eyes sharpened on the man, full of unspoken
judgement.
The man shrugged. “From your
perspective, I guess I am. But I’m not ethnically Talsh, obviously. I
wasn’t born there.” He pointed to one of his gauntlets. “Do you
understand the meaning of these symbols?” he asked.
Hugo shook his head.
“They represent the conquered state
of Toram, to the southwest,” the man said.
Hugo knew of Toram, vaguely; he’d
learned a bit about it during his early education. The Talsh Empire
had been steadily subjugating territories since he was a very young
child. Toram was one of those, along with Orm and Horam.
“Do you know how many nation states
Talsh has conquered on this continent?” the man asked.
“Seven,” Hugo answered. “No… eight.
Including Yogo.”
The man smiled. “You’re from a
warrior family, like I thought. How the mighty have fallen.” His tone
was more pitying than cruel.
Hugo glared angrily at the man.
“Whatever I came from, it doesn’t matter now.”
The man’s eyes sparkled with
something like interest. “You don’t seem to have been in the lower
city for very long. While I was hiding in the restaurant, I heard what
your waiter friends said about you. You’re a local legend in the lower
city. Apparently you get caught up in brawls pretty often. But you
don’t do it for money, or for notoriety. I find myself wondering why
you bother with all that.”
Hugo snorted. “It’s none of your damn
business.”
The man’s smile turned bitter. “Is
this really what you expected what would happen to you, kid? Expanding
your turf in the lower city… why? Because you’re bored? What have
Yogo’s warriors come to? I know your country’s destroyed; so is mine.
Don’t tell me you’ve given up; I won’t believe it.”
Hugo flushed with anger.
“If you’ve given up, do the honorable
thing and slit your stomach open. If you’re not willing to fight for
your nation, what’s the point of your life? Why were you even
born?”
“Did you ask me to come here just so
you could tell me to kill myself?” Hugo snapped.
The man wasn’t smiling anymore. “You…
your father was one of the Mikado’s Shields, wasn’t he?”
The question felt like a knife to the
ribs.
“I’ve guessed right, haven’t I?” the
man asked. “I hear you use a short sword to kill. Got a description of
it, too, including the maker’s mark. No one in this city has weapons
like that except for soldiers and criminals. I wondered which one you
were. That’s why I was interested in you, at first.”
The man no longer appeared bitter or
angry. The full force of his concentrated attention was on Hugo. “You
survived,” he said. “You alone, and none of the others.
Remarkable.”
“What are you trying to say?” There
was expectation in the man’s eyes. Hugo didn’t know why. The man
didn’t have the right to expect anything of it.
“When I was just about your age, the
Talsh conquered Toram,” the man said. “Toram is smaller than Yogo, but
we have a long history of warfare. Many more men were lost in war. Our
people believed that we couldn’t lose in open conflict, but we were
proud, foolish—and wrong. My father and uncles were in the vanguard of
the first major battle. I was raised as a warrior, and was in the
vanguard with them. I was sixteen years old.
“My family was killed, but I was
captured. I didn’t know what they wanted with me. I assumed they’d
execute me or let me starve to death.”
Hugo frowned a little, but he didn’t
interrupt.
“While I was there, I learned that
our king was dead. But Talsh didn’t do it. The king’s nephew killed
him. I was shocked; all the war prisoners were. In hindsight, I can
understand some of his reasons. He wouldn’t have been able to inherit
easily; the king’s sons had more of a right to the throne. Deposing a
king in a war isn’t unheard-of in Toram’s history, and he was of the
royal family already. So he joined hands with Talsh. In exchange for
killing the king, he was permitted to become the next king and enjoy
some of the king’s previous power in Toram.”
The man’s lips twitched upward in a
faint smile. “I understood that we’d been used. Talsh used our warlike
nature against us. We were all pawns in their game—including me. They
could keep me or discard me, I knew that—but I had no intrinsic
meaning to them. All Talsh cares about is utility. If they can’t use
you for something, they’ll abandon you or toss you aside.
“I had no use to Talsh,” the man
said. “That’s what I thought, anyway. I was certain they’d let me
starve. But if, for whatever reason, they decided to let a young,
low-ranking warrior live… well. I decided that I would try to make
myself seem useful.”
The man looked Hugo in the eyes.
“Tell me: do you hate Talsh? Of course you do; it’s only natural. What
do you plan to do with your hatred, then? Or your warrior’s training?
There’s no other place for you to use that except for the Talsh
army.”
Hugo’s heart beat faster. “The Mikado
isn’t dead. Not yet. Yogo’s not conquered. Why did Talsh take him
instead of executing him if they really want Yogo to be destroyed? The
princes might still be alive; no one knows where they are. Even the
Star Readers might manage to do something.
“I can do nothing,” Hugo
hissed. “I’m a warrior that serves the imperial family and the Holy
Sage, and they’re doing nothing. I can’t, either, without
orders—without support.” His blood pounded in his ears. He felt cold
all over. The muscles lining his spine tightened.
The Mikado and the Holy Sage can’t
do anything. Ten no Kami might not be real.
But Hugo didn’t say that aloud.
It seemed that Hugo hadn’t given up
all hope yet. It was true that he’d heard nothing about the Mikado or
the princes being executed. The Holy Sage still lived.
Hugo clenched his fists and breathed
deeply, trying to calm himself. The mysterious man was allied with
Talsh. He shouldn’t be talking to him.
“Talsh has conquered many nations
during my lifetime,” the man said. “There are a lot of people like you
and me. Survivors. You look at Talsh soldiers and see them as one
homogenous group in lockstep with one another, but that’s not the
truth. Yogoese men have joined their ranks as soldiers; so have men
from Toram. They remember what happened to their cities and their
families. They’re less loyal and compliant than you might think.”
“Prove it,” Hugo muttered.
There was something sad in the man’s
expression. He started walking away.
Hugo blinked in surprise.
“I will prove it,” the man said over
his shoulder. “Follow me.”
Hugo walked at the man’s side,
frowning. As he walked, he smelled water. They were walking along the
edge of the canal and the wind was blowing off the water, but the
scent of water seemed stronger than normal. Hugo wondered if he was
sensing the other world—the one Ryuan seemed to know so much more
about.
“Do you see the mark written on the
wall of that warehouse?” the man asked.
It wasn’t much past dawn, so the
streets were lit by torches. There was a line of warehouses along the
street. Hugo looked at the one the man had pointed to and could just
make out a crudely drawn eagle spreading its wings on the white wall.
It looked like graffiti to him.
“That symbol means the warehouse
belongs to Daguman. He’s a sea trader. Do you know where he’s based
out of?”
Hugo said nothing.
Orm,” the man said. “Orm is Yogo’s
neighbor, I so assumed you’d heard of him before. His merchant
connections made him valuable. The Talsh let him live to preserve his
trade routes and wealth.”
Orm… Like Toram, Hugo had heard of
Orm before and knew a little about it. They were the most recent
nation to fall victim to the Talsh, aside from Yogo. Hugo didn’t know
much about Orm’s war with Talsh, but he knew that Orm hadn’t put up
much of a fight. The Talsh had decided to conquer them one day, and
within the next few weeks, Orm belonged to the Talsh Empire.
Hugo hadn’t considered how trade
routes on the continent would be affected by warfare. It was shrewd of
the Talsh to allow merchants to live—Hugo suspected that killing them
would make Yogo’s persistent problems with famine and inflation even
worse.
“Daguman trades with a lot of foreign
nations, including ones not on this continent,” the man said. “You
don’t see it now, not yet, but in a few years, Yogo will be bustling
and prosperous again, thanks to trade. Daguman’s not the only rich
merchant Talsh is using, either. It takes time for wealth to
circulate.”
Hugo thought about what the man was
saying. Why bother explaining all of this about merchants? Was he
trying to reassure Hugo by telling him Talsh would take care of
people’s economic welfare?
“The canal is twice as wide as it was
two years ago. Have you noticed?” the man asked.
Hugo nodded. Several canals in the
city had been expanded. The one behind Ryuan’s house was still small,
but canals that led in and out of the city were always being worked on
these days.
“They’re making the canals big enough
for large ships. That will make trade much easier for everyone.
Hoshiro is close to the ocean and will benefit from these changes. Up
until now, there was no way to ship a large quantity of goods to and
from Hoshiro without sending them over land—and that’s heavy, and
takes a long time. Daguman never traded with Hoshiro before, because
the expense of shipping wasn’t worth it. Did you know that?”
“No.” How would he even go about
learning something like that? Why did it matter?
“Do you know who paid to expand the
canals?” the man asked. When Hugo didn’t answer, he said, “Second
Prince Raul of Talsh. He’s the one who conquered Yogo.”
The man looked at the canal. “He’s an
odd one, that prince. Everyone knows how sharp he is—he’s not a man to
be trifled with. He started taking over other nations to increase
Talsh’s wealth, but that’s not his only motivation. Every nation he
controls winds up better for it. He’s improving the canal system, yes,
but also the roads, and he’s spreading an irrigation method to the
farmers outside the city so that they can grow more food with less
water.”
Hugo looked at the man.
“First Prince Hazar is different. He
enjoys conquest. He lets the people he rules suffer until they
capitulate of their own accord. He likes the power that conquering
nations affords him, and doesn’t think much about governing afterward.
He captures the old leadership and gets them to do the work for him. I
suppose it’s not a bad system, in its way—it certainly keeps people in
line—but Prince Hazar’s conquered territories don’t prosper. He takes
away their human rights, and taxes them into oblivion to pay for his
next war.”
The man smiled again. “Prince Raul
isn’t the sort of man to leave his governing to other people. He makes
his subjugated provinces prosperous because he can use them better
that way—not because he’s any more compassionate than his brother.
Once the nation’s back on its feet after conquest, he starts
increasing taxes bit by bit. But he doesn’t bleed his provinces dry.
If rumors are to be believed, Prince Raul genuinely believes that the
continent would fare best under Talsh rule.”
Hugo returned his gaze to the canal.
He hadn’t known any of this before. The goings-on of princes and
emperors in foreign lands had no bearing on his day-to-day life. He
still didn’t consider Yogo to be part of Talsh. Maybe he never would…
but Talsh did have power in this city, and what they did with it
mattered. Prince Raul was responsible for the Talsh conquest of his
city and his nation. His family was dead because of Prince Raul.
“People don’t revolt in Prince Raul’s
conquered states because things improve for them—until they don’t.
Nations that have been under Talsh rule for a long time suffer, of
course, and nations that have recently been conquered always foster
some discontent. I’m here to keep watch—to discover the seeds of
discontent before they sprout.”
Hugo glared at the man.
“I joined Prince Raul’s side because
I wanted the survivors of the war to prosper. I didn’t join Talsh for
my own benefit.” He frowned. “There are better and worse Talsh. Prince
Raul’s lot aren’t all bad, but Prince Hazar’s are, mostly. Toram was
conquered by Hazar. I helped Prince Raul take it from him so that he
could govern it instead. His prime minister’s a piece of work—I
understand he was involved in Yogo’s war, too—but that can’t be
helped. War’s messy business. All we can do is try to limit the damage
afterward.”
The man smiled again. It wasn’t
unkind, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Well, now. I suppose I
have to decide what to do with you—the son of one of the Mikado’s
Shields. You have no reason to trust me; you probably think I’m a
traitor to my own nation. I can tell you how loyal I am all day long,
but why should you believe me?” He considered for a moment. “Well, you
don’t have to believe me, I guess. I don’t need to trust someone to
use them.”
Hugo flinched.
“If you swear loyalty to me right
now, I won’t kill you,” the man said. “Not to Talsh; I know that would
be impossible for you. But to me.”
Hugo didn’t say anything.
“The life you’re living now is
pointless. You’ll be stuck in the lower city forever and never
accomplish anything. For what it’s worth, I think killing you would be
a waste, but leaving you alive and unsupervised isn’t an option,
either. Using you benefits us both. Don’t you want to create a better
future for Yogo?”
Hugo looked down at the polished
stone of the street gleaming in the early morning sunlight. Then he
looked up again. “Are you telling me to join the Talsh army?” he
asked.
The man nodded. “Yes, for a start.
You’ll be serving with other Yogoese men; everyone under my command
comes from a conquered nation. They’re all in the same boat as you and
me.”
“I don’t want to work for Talsh.”
“Of course you don’t. You have no
choice.” The man folded his arms. “I’ll give you ten days. I’m staying
at the eastern gate for the next few weeks, so meet me there. I can’t
guarantee your safety during that time, but if you come to me on or
before that day, I’ll make sure you see a brighter future for your
homeland.
“My name is Oru Zan. The name means
‘desert mouse’ in Toram’s language. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Oru Zan spun on his heel and left
without saying another world.
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