Trone was silent. Wataru could hear his ragged breathing.
“Tell me, where is she? I want to help her. If she does not surrender herself now, she will be marked as a traitor. She’ll be hounded wherever she goes in Vision. Do you really want to put her in that position?”
Kutz and Captain Ronmel. Lovers forever, but always a step apart. Wataru felt a stab of pain in his chest, though his breathing had finally become more regular.
Trone sighed softly. “I’m pretty sure Kutz doesn’t want your help, not anymore.”
Wataru heard the clatter of Captain Ronmel’s armor.
“I don’t know how it was in the past, but you and Kutz see different things from different places now. Your hopes, your ideals—everything you hold important, you hold alone. Kutz knows this. It looks like you don’t.”
Trone muttered something about men being like that, before continuing, “Looks like the cowards down at the Senate are clucking and fretting about these powered boat designs reaching the North. They want to form some sort of peace treaty before the North can attack, is that it? You know the Senate is filled with sympathizers, even I can see what it is they’d do. So, what exactly are they planning to offer the North in exchange for peace? You can’t say you don’t know what the emperor is doing up there. It’s bloodshed—worse, genocide. Beastkin are made to work like slaves, ripped away from their homes in the light of day. And you’re happy with all this?”
“We are trying…” Captain Ronmel began, but Trone cut him off. “Then again, I suppose you wouldn’t care so much. No matter what the beastkin in the south have to face, it won’t affect the Knights of Stengel, will it? You’re not here to protect the south. You’re here to protect yourselves, the ankha.”
“You are wrong!”
“Am I? Look at Lyris! Your buddy Captain Zaidek is rolling out his own brand of empire in that town under the auspices of keeping the peace—all in your precious government’s name.”
There was a brief pause, and Captain Ronmel said, surprisingly calm, “I am not Zaidek.”
“Oh? A lapdog is a lapdog from where I sit.”
“No. I’m no sympathizer with the causes of the Northern Empire. Nor would I care to raise my sword in defense of their ideals. If our Senate truly intends to allow the ideologies of the North to creep into our lands in exchange for peace, I would not accept it. I would resist it with every fiber of my being. Sometimes, even dogs turn against their masters. We do have a will of our own, you see.”
Trone was silent. It appeared that Captain Ronmel was waiting for his answer. The tension in the air was palpable, even under the desk where Wataru was hiding.
When Trone spoke next his voice was hoarse. “Even if we got our peace from the North and had to give nothing in exchange, I wouldn’t fancy being their allies. They have enslaved my people and tossed their corpses away like garbage. If peace means friendship with their sort, I choose war. I choose to fight, and fight until there is no one left. That’s something more important to me than my own life. Something more important to all us Highlanders. I wonder if you Knights have it?”
“So you mean to say that, for this thing which you hold dearer than life, you planned to assassinate the emperor? Was that your true objective? To me, it looks like you are engaged in nothing more than base revenge.”
Trone growled but did not reply.
“Arrest this man,” Captain Ronmel ordered his men. “Throw him in the cell here. We’ll let him cool off a little bit.”
“What about Kutz?” one of the men asked.
“We’ll split into three and search the town. If any of the residents get in our way, arrest them for hampering a public official. Our reinforcements should be arriving soon. We’ll use this branch office as our temporary headquarters. We must find Kutz by nightfall and take her to the capital.”
His man shouted a reply and dragged Trone out of the office. Now Wataru knew everything there was to know, except for where Kutz was hiding. Still, even though he was no longer keeping up the barrier around him, everything he had heard left him depleted. Northern sympathizers in the government…the strife between the dominant ankha and the minority beastkin. The Knights of Stengel, defenders of the United Southern Nations, and most of them ankha, at odds with the homegrown Highlanders organization.
Wataru began to have doubts, until his mind was racing, and he shivered. I can’t let them arrest Kutz. We have to go north together. Wataru didn’t know who was right anymore, Kutz or Captain Ronmel. It seemed like deciding between the two of them had such great consequences it was too much to bear. That was why he needed to see the truth for himself. He had to go north.
Knights were busily entering and leaving the office. Wataru drew the barrier of invisibility around himself once again, crept out from beneath the desk, and walking sideways along the wall, headed for the main entrance.
Captain Ronmel stood directly to the side of the desk. He had spread out a map of the town and was giving directions to a man. His eyes were on the map alone. Wataru could see deep lines etched in the side of his face.
Only a few more steps to the door. No one can see me. Wataru nearly stepped into a Knight who came running in through the door. He missed me. I’m okay.
“Captain! Word from the reinforcements!”
The Knight handed a communication to the captain. Captain Ronmel took it and looked up.
His blue eyes fixed on Wataru. Their eyes met. How? How can he see me?
The next instant, the captain had moved across the room in a few steps and held the tip of his sword pointed against Wataru’s throat. The way he moved was like magic. Only a soft breeze blew against Wataru’s face—he didn’t even hear the captain’s armor clink.
“I thought I sensed something strange before. Now I see what it was.” He wasn’t smiling.
Wataru looked down at his own body. In his surprise, the barrier had come undone.
“C-Captain…”
“When did you learn enveiling magic? Is this another of the Traveler’s powers?”
“This is called enveiling magic? I had no idea.” Wataru tried a timid smile. “Could you see me? Or could you somehow sense me, even though you couldn’t see me? That’s amazing.”
The captain did not smile. The tip of the sword was still held at Wataru’s throat. “You work for Kutz. Where is she?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t even know all this was going on.”
“Then you’re an idiot.”
“I know.”
Captain Ronmel called over his shoulder to one of his men. “This boy is a Highlander. He needs to be interrogated. Throw him in with the other one.”
“Yes, sir,” one of the Knights said, his steel boots clanging on the floor as he approached. Now I’m under arrest. So much for my plans.
Then, Wataru thought he heard a voice calling from somewhere—it’s coming from inside my head.
—Wataru.
—You have three gemstones. You have a new power.
—Say the words. Azlo, lom, lom. Spirit of the wind, blow through time, carry me faster than light itself.
“Than light itself…” Wataru echoed.
“What?” The Knight stopped.
“Carry me faster than light itself!”
Captain Ronmel, a short distance away, turned to look.
—Get ready!
“Fly!” At the moment he said the word, Wataru felt his body disappear. Suddenly, the world around him filled with light.
He was flying. Dancing up into the air. He left the surprised shouts of the Knights far below and rose up through the light. He gripped the sword hilt tightly in his hands. Climbing, climbing, up to the sky.
Then, the next instant, he shot across the blue sky as though fired from a cannon.
“Waaaah!”
His body floated, then suddenly stopped. He could see his surroundings once more. He was flying, in the air above Gasara. No, he was floating. Wait, I’m falling…
“Aaaaah!”
He hadn’t been that high, after all. He hit something hard, landing on his behind. Sparks shot through his skull. “Where am I?”
He was on top of the roof of a store on the eastern edge of town that he’d visited many times. He was lying on the red tiled roof. One of the tiles was cracked in two where he had landed.
The people walking on the street below gaped and looked at Wataru. Some were even pointing. The owner of the store came barreling out into the street. “What was that?”
So the third power of the sword was something like teleportation. It felt a bit like he imagined what going warp speed felt like. But he hadn’t gone that far, and it seemed pretty dangerous to boot.
—Sorry, Wataru.
It was the voice from the gemstone.
—You’re not strong enough to control it yet, it seems.
“No, this is fine, this is great, I got out of there!”
Wataru stood on the roof. Several Knights of Stengel had noticed Wataru and were approaching him. What do I do now?
“Oy, Wataru! Oy! Oy!” It was Kee Keema. He was running toward Wataru from behind the Knights. “What are you doing up there? Have you heard what’s happened?”
“I know!” Wataru said, cupping his hands to his mouth to shout over the crowd. “Look out, Kee Keema! They’ll catch you!”
“Huh? What are these guys doing here?” Kee Keema ran on, bowling through a cluster of Knights, knocking two of them off to the side into the wall of a nearby building.
“H-hey! That’s hindering a public official!”
“What do you mean? I’m a Highlander!”
“Then you’re even more guilty! You’re under arrest!”
“Run!” Wataru drew the wyrmflute from his pocket. Looking up into the sky he blew it as hard as he could. Jozo! Jozo, come quick!
A red speck winked into existence in the sky far above. Wataru faced it, waving his hands, jumping up and down on the roof, shouting at the top of his lungs. “Kutz! Kutz! Come out! We’re getting out of here! We’ll ride out on my dragon! Where are you?”
Kee Keema clambered up to the top of the roof. Several Knights came running from the nearby crossroads. At the head of a large group rounding the corner was Captain Ronmel. “Apprehend that boy!”
Suddenly Wataru was cast in shadow. Jozo was directly overhead. “You called, Wataru?”
“I did! Get me out of here!”
The gale from Jozo’s wings was almost enough to knock him off the roof entirely. Kee Keema held Wataru up, and both of them climbed onto the dragon’s back.
The great gust of wind shot down the streets, swirling around the Knights. The townspeople were cradling their heads and screaming. It was chaos.
“Kutz!” Wataru shouted out into the city streets. “Jozo, fly low over the city! We have to find Kutz!”
“Right. What’s with all the people, anyway? Is it some kind of festival?”
“Yeah, you might say that!”
Jozo spread his wings and began to glide over the rooftops of Gasara. They could still hear the screams from the townspeople, but now some of them sounded more like shouts of excitement.
“Look, a dragon!” A small boy leaned out of the window of one house, waving his hand. “Mom! Look, look! It’s a dragon, a real dragon, just like in the books!”
Jozo flapped his wings in greeting and sent another blast of wind, knocking over several Knights in pursuit. A stack of barrels sitting by the side of the road collapsed, taking the rest of the Knights with them.
“Kutz, where are you?!”
They flew past a darbaba, its eyes wide with surprise. The driver fell off his cart.
“Wataru!”
It was Kutz, leaning out of the second-story window of a house across the street. Wataru looked over and she nodded, and began climbing up to the roof.
“It’s Kutz! There she is!”
The Knights were getting closer. The nearest group was already inside the house—sticking their heads out of the windows, following after Kutz.
“Persistent, aren’t you!” Kutz had one hand on the roof, and hanging from the edge, she drew her whip with her other hand. There was a black glimmer and a crack. One of the Knights screamed and fell from the window down to the ground below.
“Jozo, let’s pick her up!”
With one flap of his wings, the dragon was over the house. Kutz hoisted herself onto the roof and ran toward them. Several Knights sprang to the roof behind her, fighting against the gale force winds coming from Jozo. Kutz lashed out with her whip, but the air currents were so strong, she could barely aim it.
“Jozo, breathe on them!”
“You sure?!”
“I’m sure! I give you special permission!”
Jozo took a deep breath, then spat a ball of flame across the roof. The Knights scattered like leaves. Kutz took her chance and leapt astride Jozo’s back. “You singed my hair!” She was laughing.
“Let’s go!”
Jozo lifted straight into the air and faced upward. Wataru clung to his neck as tightly as he could.
“Wataru, wait! Take me too!”
It was Meena. Wataru looked to see the lithe kitkin unbelievably springing from rooftop to rooftop, coming toward them.
“How dare you try to leave me behind!” She shouted, making a large jump from two roofs away. She flipped in midair, landing right on the edge of their roof. Suddenly, a Knight’s hand reached up from the window below, grabbing her ankle.
“Eek! Didn’t anyone ever teach you it’s rude to grab a lady’s leg?” Meena pulled something from her pocket, throwing it down at the top of the roof.
There was a loud series of cracks and the smell of gunpowder. Fireworks went off all around her. Since when did she have those? The Knight caught one of the blasts in the face. He immediately let go of her foot and covered his face with his hands.
“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Meena shouted, jumping up to sit by Wataru’s side. “Fly, Jozo! Fly as high as you can go!”
Jozo whirled up into the air. The town of Gasara, with its people screaming with exhilaration, and Knights standing dumbfounded, dropped away beneath them. Even as they took higher to the sky, Wataru still thought he could feel Captain Ronmel’s eyes on him.
“Didn’t I say I’d go anywhere with you, Wataru?” Meena grinned, wiping ash from the fireworks off her nose. “Still, you shouldn’t have tried to leave without me.”
“I…”
“You may say you’re worried about us, but we’re worried about you too. What would we do if you went off to some unknown place to die all by yourself? How would we feel? We can’t just stand around while you go off and brave dangers. That’s why we’re going with you, no matter what lies ahead.”
Wataru looked silently at Meena, then up into Kee Keema’s broad face. The waterkin nodded. “I don’t know what you two’ve been talking about, but I agree with what the little missus says.”
“Everything all patched up?” Kutz asked. “Then let’s go. You came at just the right time—I couldn’t stand hiding in that cellar a second longer. I was just about to come storming out of there. Did you see the look on Boris’s face? Priceless!”
Wataru smiled. Meena and Kutz—two incredible women. He hunched over, clinging to Jozo’s wings as the cool wind whipped over them and they rose higher into the skies over Gasara.
Chapter 45
The Imperial Capital of Solebria
Mitsuru looked up at the sky.
The Crystal Palace, seat of the Northern Empire’s power, was in the very center of the Imperial Capital of Solebria. Over a span of two hundred years, the city had grown out along boulevards radiating like the spokes of a wheel from the palace, swelling to become home to more than one million people.
The towering central keep of the Crystal Palace, made of a milky-white stone resembling marble, had guest rooms near the residence of the emperor himself. Mitsuru now stood on the terrace near the top floor, looking down on the city. It was, in a wa
y, like looking at the very history of the Northern Empire. The construction of the city of Solebria reflected with uncanny accuracy the class structure that ordered the daily lives of people in the north. In the center, surrounding the palace, stood the looming offices of the government. Beyond them lay the lavish arcade teeming with shoppers that formed the merchant district. Even further out were the homes of the citydwellers, all standing in their approved plots, gaily decorated with the requisite markers of wealth and individual taste.
But the farther one strayed from the center of town, the shabbier things became. There was a deep moat between the city center and the outer ring of town, forming a rift, a natural line of separation that was clear to see from Mitsuru’s vantage point.
The capital city of Solebria was, in essence, a castle town. The city walls, much expanded and strengthened over the years, were always a remarkable sight to the merchants who visited from the southern continent. But beyond these walls and the single gate that led to the bustling Merchants Corridor, visitors never saw anything else of the city. That even here, within the city, there existed not one but two Solebrias, was hidden from their eyes. One of these Solebrias belonged to the rich, the other to the poor. The oppressors and the oppressed. Those who were served and those who served.
Farther still from the Crystal Palace, to the northeast, lay the prison where outlaws and criminals were held. This was an area abhorred by the geomancers of the north, their divinations honed by years of coping with the harsh climate of the northern continent.
Behind the prison edifice stood another gate that led outside the city walls. Many people considered this the gate of no return. The road leading to the northeast from this gate was referred to as the Captives Road, and the location of the forced labor camp at its end wasn’t marked on any official maps of the Empire. No one knew exactly how large it was, or how many souls it held.
Those who survived the camp knew they were guilty of only one crime: they were beastkin. They knew this, but they could not speak it out loud. The only power they had was the power to forget. The blank spot on the map was one way. If one could forget something that had existed, it never did.
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