Guardian of the Darkness

by Nahoko Uehashi

  “Yes … Jiguro saved me. He raised me and helped me survive.”

  Her aunt looked shocked and confused. “You know, I still feel as though I’m caught in the middle of a bad dream. Your tale is like a twisted maze.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Jiguro Musa was a fool, a complete idiot who caused terrible suffering to all of us from just plain stubbornness. I’d known him since we were children, and I felt so betrayed when I realized what a fool he was. It’s true he had a stubborn streak even when he was young, but I never thought he’d do something like that.”

  Balsa sucked in her breath. “And what do you think he did?”

  Her aunt’s face turned hard. “If I’m going to tell you, I guess I had better start with what happened before that. You see, Jiguro and Prince Rogsam never got along. Everyone who lived in the castle knew that. Even though he was the youngest of the Spears, Jiguro displayed outstanding skill, and he was the best of the king’s martial arts instructors as well. He never let the princes off easy, but worked them just as hard as everyone else. Prince Rogsam was older, and cunning too, but Jiguro frequently beat him soundly in practice. You could feel the hatred between them.” She sighed.

  “Prince Rogsam was a deceitful, despicable man. But still …” She looked at Balsa. “I don’t know if you remember anything about succession in Kanbal, but the heir doesn’t automatically succeed to the throne when the king dies. He must first be recognized by all nine of the King’s Spears. Only when they pledge allegiance to him is he accepted as the rightful heir. At the coronation, all the Spears gather around and touch his head with their gold spear rings.”

  “Interesting. I didn’t know that.”

  “Jiguro was considered a great hero. He was invited to attend the Giving Ceremony when he was sixteen, and all the Spears recognized him as the best warrior among them. Though he was a man of few words and never boasted, he did have a strong sense of pride. Once he made a decision, he never wavered.” Balsa nodded. “That may be an admirable quality in a warrior,” her aunt continued with a stern light in her eyes, “but the man who would bring misfortune on the heads of others for the sake of his own pride and stubbornness is nothing but a fool.

  “When he learned that King Naguru was mortally ill, Jiguro stole the nine gold spear rings from deep inside the castle and fled the country. Those rings were priceless. They marked their bearers as the King’s Spears and symbolized the bond that unites the nine clans with the royal family. The knowledge that Prince Rogsam would succeed to the throne would have been hard for him to accept. But to steal the rings and run away was unforgiveable.

  “Only the king and the warrior clans knew of Jiguro’s treason. We were all forbidden to speak of it because it threatened our ties to the royal family. After all, the common people could not be allowed to suspect any rift between the warrior clans and the king.

  “To prove their loyalty to the royal family, every clan sent its best warrior after Jiguro. Before they left, these men took a vow of silence, pledging to Yoram, the god of thunder, that they would kill the traitor without talking to him.

  “But Jiguro brutally murdered almost every one of them. Taguru, the eldest son of the Yonsa chieftain and our Spear, went after him too, but only his spearhead came back. He was such a cheerful, good-natured boy….”

  Balsa slowly brushed a stray lock of hair away from her cheek. She felt numb with shock. Twenty-four years had passed since Jiguro gave that spearhead to an itinerant Yonsa worker, asking him to take it to Kanbal and pray for the repose of his soul. “So he did as he was asked,” she whispered.

  She had expected people to hate Jiguro, but she had never imagined that he would be so cleverly transformed into an infamous traitor. Jiguro had been mistaken. His friends had not been forced to hunt him because their families had been taken hostage: They had done it to demonstrate their allegiance to the king and to protect their honor. Rage welled up inside her. She could not stand to see these lies so blatantly passed off as truth. How could Jiguro, or the men he had killed, or even her father ever rest in peace?

  She stood up and looked out the window, then went to the door and checked the corridor to make sure that no one was there. Finally, she returned to her chair and looked steadily at her aunt. “Do you really believe that Jiguro was such a fool as that?” she asked in a low voice.

  Her aunt’s gaze wavered slightly. “I don’t want to believe it, but the fact is that one day he just vanished from Kanbal without telling me or Karuna anything, even though we were his best friends. What else am I to think? I knew how much he hated Prince Rogsam.”

  “Jiguro was not that stupid,” Balsa said quietly, still holding her aunt’s gaze. “He raised me from the time I was six until I was twenty-four. I of all people should know he was not that kind of man. He was reserved — a man who did not explain the reasons for his actions — and he made decisions amazingly fast, but he was always considerate of the people around him.”

  Her aunt pressed her lips together firmly. Doubt showed in her eyes.

  “It’s true that Jiguro’s spear had a gold ring. But only one. There were no others. Aunt, you and the people of Kanbal have been deceived.”

  “Deceived? By whom?”

  “By Rogsam.”

  Her aunt’s mouth twitched in surprise.

  “Aunt Yuka, do you want to know why my father told you I was dead? Why Jiguro had to kill the best warriors from every clan? It involves royal politics, so if you don’t want to know, it would be better that I didn’t tell you.”

  Her aunt’s eyes gleamed. “Is this plot still going on?”

  “No. Once Rogsam died, there was no longer any point.”

  “I see … But even if it were, I suppose I would still want to know.” She smiled slowly. “You were too young to have known, but Karuna, Jiguro, and I were great friends from the very first time we met in the capital….”

  Balsa tried to imagine what they had been like in their youth, before she was born. She could tell that her aunt was plainspoken and highly principled. The three of them would have gotten along very well. Then, one day, all of that had come crashing down. How had Yuka felt, Balsa wondered, when her best friend fled the country and her brother was murdered, leaving her all on her own?

  She began telling the tale of Rogsam’s treachery, speaking without emotion, yet all the while thinking about how one man’s evil ambitions had warped so many lives. By the time she finished, twilight was creeping into the room.

  Yuka gave a long sigh. “Ah. At last, the twisted threads have been untangled.” She looked exhausted but, at the same time, deeply relieved, as if a thorn stuck in her heart for years had finally been removed. “I always wondered about my brother’s death, but your story reminded me of several other things that bothered me.

  “When King Naguru died, Karuna behaved very strangely. He was in such a hurry to bury the body, sealing it in a casket before other doctors could see it and insisting that it be interred immediately to prevent decay. It was unseasonably warm that day, so other people just accepted what he said. But I knew him well, and to me, it seemed unusual.

  “I also wondered why Jiguro disappeared three days before the king passed away, almost as if he knew the king was going to die. And I couldn’t understand why, even if he was planning to revolt, he would flee without telling Karuna and me the truth…. It seemed so out of character.

  “Then the day after he disappeared, my brother told me you had drowned. So many strange things were happening — it seemed like heaven and earth had turned upside down! I had just decided to ask Karuna what on earth was going on when he was killed.

  “Quite frankly, I was terrified at the sight of his body. I sensed some cold, evil will behind it … but it never occurred to me that it was Prince Rogsam.” She broke off and looked at Balsa’s spear. “Is that Jiguro’s spear? I’ve been wondering ever since we met at the gate.”

  “No. Jiguro made this for me when I was ten. I’ve changed the head
on it several times, but the shaft is so sturdy I’ve never had to replace it. When Jiguro died, I carved the mark from his spear onto it.” She plucked the spear from the wall it rested against and handed it gently to her aunt. Yuka ran her hands along the smooth shaft, well oiled with use.

  “It’s much heavier than it looks,” she murmured. “You started carrying this when you were just a little girl? Just ten?” She closed her eyes, and tears slid from beneath her lids. “What a cruel, cruel life …” she whispered. “Ah, Jiguro. How well you raised and protected Balsa. I can hardly believe it. To think a blunt and awkward man like you could have raised a little girl, all on your own….”

  Balsa felt her throat constrict and for a moment she was unable to speak. She had to breathe deeply several times before she finally managed to say, “You’re right. There was never a man so unsuited to raising a girl as Jiguro. No wonder I have no idea how to be feminine.”

  Yuka chuckled and shook her head. “It’s unfair to blame it all on Jiguro. You were a born tomboy who put the boys to shame. Karuna used to say you must have left something important behind in your mother’s womb.”

  A single tear trickled down Balsa’s cheek. The two women sat with their heads bowed in the dying light, chuckling through their tears.

  Yuka wiped her eyes and handed the spear back to Balsa. “What are you going to do? Do you intend to clear Jiguro’s name?”

  Balsa caressed the well-worn shaft and sighed. Unburdening the story of her life seemed to have swept the dregs of grief from her heart. The fierce anger that had flared inside her earlier had died down to coals, buried beneath the ash of resignation. She smiled sadly. “What can I do? Even if I wanted to take revenge, Rogsam is dead, and frankly, I don’t see much point in dredging up that plot now. I came back to heal an old hurt that I had been too afraid to confront. That’s all….”

  Dusk cast a deep shadow on Balsa’s face, and though she smiled, Yuka thought she glimpsed the darkness that lay over her heart. Jiguro’s face rose into her mind, and she felt a cold stillness deep within. Though blunt, Jiguro had been kind. If he had been on his own, he would have returned to Kanbal and confronted King Rogsam. But he had been with Balsa — a defenseless little girl — and so his closest friends had come, one after another, to kill him. What agony he must have suffered when he fought them. And Balsa had seen it all. She had spent her childhood watching him slay his friends, one by one, for her sake. What a hard, cruel life she must have endured. Yuka clenched her fists.

  As if she knew what her aunt was thinking, Balsa began to speak lightly and cheerfully: “Last fall, I was hired to guard a boy who had to bear a strange fate.” She explained how she had protected Chagum, the Second Prince of New Yogo and the guardian of a water spirit’s egg. Her heart filled with motherly affection when she thought of him. “The funny thing is,” she concluded, “I was happy protecting him, even though it was an extremely dangerous and frightening job. I really was happy! And I realized that it wasn’t such a bad way to live.” She smiled slightly and took a deep breath. “Until then, I never really cared how I lived my life. It was just a miracle I had survived at all … a miracle bought with the blood of many other lives. I thought it was wrong to dream of the future.

  “But Chagum helped me see my own stupidity. Jiguro will never be able to rest in peace if I think like that. He fought so hard to give me this life. The least I can do is enjoy and appreciate it.” She laughed. “But you know what? I couldn’t. I felt like there was something I still needed to do, as if I had forgotten to repay a debt. That’s why I came back. If I found anyone among his friends and relatives who cared about what had happened to him, I was going to tell them the true story. I would bring the tale of Jiguro, who vanished so abruptly from Kanbal, back to where it began, and end it here. I thought that then his ghost would be laid to rest.”

  The room was now so dim she could barely make out her aunt’s face. Yuka stood up and went to stir the dwindling embers while Balsa closed the window. The space grew brighter as Yuka walked around lighting the tallow candles. Then she turned to look at Balsa.

  “Now I understand why you came back. I feel like I’ve lived through twenty-five years in a single day.” They smiled at each other. “We haven’t run out of things to say, but I for one am hungry. Can you give me a hand? We’ll make some supper.”

  Yuka had no servants other than the gardener and an assistant healer. She told Balsa that living on her own suited her. Together they made a pot of laroo, meat and gasha stewed in milk and seasoned with fragrant herbs. The piping-hot stew was delicious, especially now that the bitter chill of evening had fallen.

  As they lingered over the table, Yuka resumed their conversation. “I understand how you feel about laying ghosts to rest, but I doubt that any of Jiguro’s relatives care what happened to him. His parents died before he fled the country, and his sister was probably too young to remember. As for his older brother, Kaguro, and his younger brother, Yuguro —” She paused suddenly and looked up at Balsa. “That’s strange.”

  “What?”

  Her aunt frowned. “If Jiguro didn’t steal the gold rings, then how could Yuguro Musa …” She laid down her spoon and looked intently at Balsa. “You said that Jiguro died of an illness. Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I watched him breathe his last. My friend Tanda was there too.”

  “And the illness wasn’t caused by wounds he suffered while fighting Yuguro?”

  “Yuguro? No.” Balsa did indeed remember a man called Yuguro visiting Jiguro, but he had not been one of those who had hunted them.

  Yuka looked troubled. “But that can’t be! I told you that young men from eight different clans went after Jiguro and were killed by him. But the last one to hunt him was Jiguro’s younger brother, Yuguro, from the Musa clan. He defeated Jiguro and returned with all nine spear rings. He’s now the hero of Kanbal and wields tremendous influence over all the clans.”

  She pondered this for a moment and then continued. “Now that I think of it, many strange things happened the year Yuguro Musa came back. King Rogsam was found to have a fatal illness that very spring, and he insisted that his son, Prince Radalle, should succeed to the throne instead of Rogsam’s younger brother. Yuguro returned with the rings only a month before Rogsam died. There was a magnificent ceremony; I remember it well. King Rogsam took the hands of his son and the hero Yuguro, and declared that a new bond had been forged between the nine clans and the royal family.”

  She looked into Balsa’s eyes and whispered, “Could the plot have run deeper than you thought?”

  Suddenly the room felt very cold.

  Kassa and Gina smiled at each other as they strolled through Sula Lassal with their friends Lalaka and Yossa. Having just stuffed themselves with freshly fried losso, they were now sucking on delicious candied fruit. But more than the food, it was being able to treat their friends that made them feel so good.

  “Luisha is the treasure of the king of Kanbal,” the chieftain had told Tonno and Kassa when they finished relating their story. “Only he has the authority to sell it.” And he had given the stone to Yuguro with instructions to take it to the king.

  Kassa had known that he was right, but it still hurt to see him take it away. As if Yuguro had read his mind, he asked them to wait. He returned shortly with a heavy sack full of silver coins and placed it in Tonno’s hands. “I know it can’t compare with the true value of luisha,” he said, “but let me give you three thousand nal as a payment. This priceless information could save our clan.”

  Tonno looked stunned. It was a huge sum of money, enough to feed his family for two years.

  “Now here’s what you should do,” Yuguro continued. “Tell everyone that Gina and Kassa found a piece of lyokuhaku in the river and brought it to me. Although it’s unusual, it does happen sometimes, and one stone would be worth about three thousand nal. No one will doubt your story — they’ll think you just happened to get lucky.” Then he fixed his piercing gaze on both of
them. “But you must promise me one thing: Don’t tell anyone about the luisha or the traveler. And make the rest of your family promise too.”

  Tonno and Kassa agreed. The reward was an amazing piece of good fortune. “I won’t have to go away to work this winter!” Tonno yelled as soon as they reached home. Joy lit the faces of Kassa’s mother and grandmother, and they talked late into the night about how to spend the money. Then Tonno gave Kassa and Gina two hundred nal each, along with a lecture about not wasting it. As one nal was enough to buy twenty losso, they could hardly believe their luck.

  Gina was disappointed by the restrictions on their story. She had been looking forward to Shisheem’s reaction when she showed him the hakuma. But she soon hit upon another plan. “I know! All I have to do is say that I went into the cave on a different night. I’ll wait till things have settled down a bit, and then I’ll make him pay for teasing us!”

  As they walked through the village, Kassa decided to buy some losso for the Herder People who worked for his family. Warriors like Shisheem who belonged to the chieftain’s line rarely had any dealings with these little people: They paid them milk and wool for looking after their goats, but that was all. Warriors like Kassa who belonged to branch lines, however, grew up with them as if they were part of the family.

  Of course, there were clear distinctions between the warriors and the Herders. The Herders worked for the warriors, not the other way around. They never went to school, and they never married warriors or even commoners. They remained Herders all their lives. But Kassa spent most of his time with them after school, tending goats on the crags. Likewise, Gina and his mother worked with Herder women and girls weaving woollen cloth and tilling the fields — jobs his mother far preferred to spending time with her brothers’ wives. In fact, she was so active and vivacious that Kassa suspected she had been just like Gina when she was a girl.

  Before they left Sula Lassal, he and Gina each bought a bag of thirty freshly made losso. Now that their initial excitement had died down, they were anxious to escape from the marketplace. News of their good fortune had spread quickly and shopkeepers called out to them wherever they went.