Guardian of the Darkness

by Nahoko Uehashi

  The king looked at him in surprise. Then he took a deep breath and dived under the water. They saw his hands grasp the skin, but it was too big. He could not manage it on his own, though he struggled valiantly, holding it with one hand as he tried to swim to the surface.

  The King’s Spears and attendants looked at one another and then at Balsa and Kassa. They nodded and, as one, everyone dived down beneath the water. Although they had not consulted beforehand, they automatically spread out in a circle and grabbed the skin. It was much heavier than they expected, and they had to swim with all their might, twisting and squirming until finally their heads burst to the surface.

  Suddenly the light dimmed, and they looked around in astonishment. The water had vanished and they were not even wet. They lay on their stomachs on the floor of the ceremony chamber. The snakeskin that they had clutched so tightly had disappeared, and in its place lay a pile of softly glowing luisha.

  A beautiful and intricate music filled the cave. They raised their heads, surprised. A group of Herder People had entered the cave and surrounded them, their eyes glowing with togal. They began to sing a seemingly ancient song in high, melodious voices:

  Rejoice! The People of the Mountain King have come to speak to thee!

  The old King of the Mountain is dead. A new king is born!

  The old Spears have found true death. A new journey of life has begun!

  The old King of Kanbal is dead. A new king is born!

  Their voices flowed through the labyrinth, clear and resonant.

  May the luminous stone, luisha, worn by the old Mountain King, become the bread of the children of Kanbal.

  Oh Spears, didst thou see the Darkness in the Mountain Deep?

  Didst thou see the Darkness of thy forebears?

  When thy bones return to the earth of Kanbal,

  Then wilt thou become the hyohlu, Guardians of the Darkness.

  Become the hyohlu, Guardians of the Darkness, and guard the life of the mother range

  Until the Dancer comes to turn thy Darkness into light.

  Kassa’s eyes filled with tears as he listened to the song. Wiping them away with his sleeve, he looked over at Balsa. Their eyes met, and he bowed deeply.

  The cave that led from Musa territory to New Yogo yawned wide in the warm spring sunshine. Multicolored flowers covered the grassy space before it, and birds warbled in the bushes, rejoicing at the advent of spring.

  Balsa hitched her bag higher on her back.

  “You’re really going?” Gina asked.

  “Yes,” she said firmly. “I’ve rested long enough.”

  After the Herders’ song had ended, Balsa and Kassa slipped from the chamber unnoticed. Guided once again by the Herder People, they had traveled underground, returning quietly to Musa territory. Toto the Elder, who met them in the caves, was clearly relieved to see them. He looked up at Balsa and murmured, “Forgive me for leaving so many things unsaid when I sent you on that journey.”

  She gazed back at him steadily. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew who waited for me under the earth.”

  Toto nodded. “When the hyohlu dropped the luisha for Gina to find, I immediately suspected that they were summoning someone. Then I met you and, as I listened to your tale of Jiguro, I realized that you were the only person who could hope to lay the hyohlu to rest. The Spear Dance can only be danced when your soul is completely exposed. The hyohlu throws all his emotions at his partner. Their souls become so close that it’s impossible to tell whose feelings are whose.” He smiled suddenly. “But even so, usually the Spear Dance is not that difficult. The Dancer doesn’t need to be an outstanding person. As long as he can connect with the hyohlu’s soul and let him unburden himself, luisha has always been given.

  “This year, however, we were very worried. Not only Jiguro, but so many other hyohlu had been betrayed and murdered. Never had we seen hyohlu as difficult to lay to rest as these. And that is why I think they must have been waiting for you. Waiting for you to visit Kanbal … For who else could possibly have danced the Spear Dance and brought them peace?”

  Balsa shrugged. “Are you saying that because they were waiting for me, the ceremony was delayed more than ten years? You’re wrong. Because if that were true, if I hadn’t decided on a whim to return to Kanbal, the ceremony would never have taken place.”

  Toto grinned. “You would have come back. Because it was your destiny.”

  Balsa shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I disagree. Destiny is just a convenient interpretation to help us accept the past. It wasn’t me they were waiting for.”

  “Then who do you think they were waiting for?”

  “King Radalle.”

  Toto raised his eyebrows at her reply. “Why do you think that?”

  She sighed slightly. “I think that they were waiting for the new king to become old enough after Rogsam’s reign ended. Because the hyohlu certainly would never have given luisha to a king like Rogsam. In the end, thirty-five years passed before the next ceremony could take place…. But …”

  Toto waited silently for her to continue. She hesitated and then said in a low voice, “I think that Jiguro was waiting for me. Because he came all the way out to meet me when I came back. So you’re probably right in that respect — that my return was the reason they decided to start the ceremony.”

  Toto nodded. Then he said cheerfully, “We Herders call luisha the ‘heart stone.’ The hyohlu take all the hopes and sorrows from their lives, turn them into blue light, and return them to the earth, so the hyohlu can finally die a true death. So the blue light of luisha is really all the thoughts and wishes of men. You laid Jiguro to rest and his feelings turned into luisha, which will one day become the bread of life that feeds the people of Kanbal.”

  Balsa sighed again and smiled. “It was so different from what I imagined as a child when I heard stories of the Mountain King’s palace made of luisha, and the Last Door.”

  Toto smiled back. “By what name could we possibly call the great Mountain King, who carves the rock beneath the Yusa mountains with his own body? He makes the roads for the water to pass, and thus brings life to all Yusa. Would you call him a god? A spirit?” He shook his head. “Like a brilliantly shining cocoon that protects the life inside it, we use simple words to spin many tales in order to guard our king.”

  When Toto had led them outside into the sunlight, the snow-covered land had glittered with a brilliance that cheered their hearts. Kassa breathed a lungful of clear, bracing air and felt a deep satisfaction fill his chest along with it.

  When Balsa and Kassa returned to the chieftain’s hall, Kaguro came to greet them, his expression reflecting his mixed feelings. As he listened to their tale of the events under the mountain, the frown on his face softened, and when they had finished, he thanked Kassa quietly. One of his younger brothers had been freed from the Darkness, while the other had been trapped within. Yet he felt as though a painful ache in his heart was gone.

  To the rest of the clan, Kassa was still nothing more than a youth belonging to a branch family. But Kassa returned to that life quite gladly. When spring came and it was time to take the goats up the mountain with the Herder People, he no longer felt discouraged. The Herders accepted him as one of their own and taught him many secrets of the mountains. Besides, what he had seen on his journey on the underground river had shown him the connection between the life force in the Mountain Deep and the abundant springs and rivers that pushed their way through the earth. Now he could see that the work of the Herders and that of the King’s Spears were, in essence, one and the same.

  Yuguro never returned from under the mountain. Although his body lived in the house of healing deep inside the king’s castle, his mind remained always behind in the Darkness. He woke at daybreak and ate what was put before him, and at night he slept. But though his eyes were open, they were empty. Words, which he had once manipulated so skillfully, never passed his lips. Perhaps one day someone would meet his soul in the ceremony chamb
er. Whether or not he ever found peace would rest in the hands of the Dancer.

  Balsa told young King Radalle what his father, Rogsam, had plotted. But she did not ask him to tell his people. She had already told Jiguro’s story to everyone who needed to know it, and she saw no point in stirring up trouble or ousting the young king from his throne when there was no outstanding leader to replace him. Although timid, he still retained some purity and innocence, and it made more sense to slip this secret into his heart so that he would ponder its meaning. Having seen the depths of the Darkness, he might just be a better ruler than any of his kin.

  The whole country rejoiced at the gift of luisha. Those who had shared Yuguro’s dream of invading the Mountain Deep relegated it to the past and behaved as if the plan had never been conceived; only a handful of men knew what had really happened under the mountain, and they would keep that knowledge engraved in their hearts forever. Back under the mountain, when the Herders had finished their sacred hymn, they made the warriors vow to keep silent, and the warriors had agreed, knowing that words could never adequately describe what they had just seen or experienced. If they tried to explain the impossible, the truth would be subtly twisted and changed; it was far better to remain silent and to convince the people that there was a mysterious, indescribable Darkness in this world.

  The men would never forget what they had felt when the blue light of the hyohlu had caressed them. In that instant, they had known without a doubt that the Guardians of the Darkness were the souls of their own fathers, brothers, and uncles who had departed from this world long before. They also saw that the hyohlu were not the servants of the Mountain King, but the very conscience of Kanbal. They guarded the Yusa mountains, the mother range that conferred and supported life; and when the warriors who had witnessed the ceremony departed this life, they too would become hyohlu and pass on to their descendants the Darkness and the blue light. Knowing that there existed an invisible, intangible world and a spirit who held up the Yusa range, they would become the Last Door protecting that spirit, and thus they would guard the life of Kanbal. That was the vow they made under the mountain, just like the Spears before them.

  As for Balsa, she spent the blustery winter days at her aunt Yuka’s house of healing, regaining her strength. While the wounds inflicted by Yuguro healed quickly, those made by the hyohlu did not. For many days she left her spear out of reach and simply slept. Her body felt leaden, like an empty shell. Her heart, pierced through by Jiguro’s spear, ached for a long time, but while she slept, the pain gradually ebbed until it was just a dull twinge. At last, she was able to rise from her bed and sit near the fire, talking with her aunt a little more each day. Yuka listened to Balsa relate the tale of her journey to the Mountain Deep and what had happened in the Darkness. It was like listening to an old folk tale. As they spoke, the chains that had bound Jiguro and Karuna in their hearts gradually loosened and fell away. Someday, they might be able to remember the dead with gladness and not such sharp sorrow.

  The season of the deep snows passed, and the warm rays of the sun softened the hard crust of the drifts. One morning, Balsa’s room was filled with a familiar fragrance — simmering herbs. Her aunt was making medicine. As soon as she smelled it, Balsa felt a strong longing to see her friend Tanda, the healer. It must be the height of spring now in the Misty Blue Mountains. He would be out picking herbs, humming carelessly to himself.

  It’s time to go home and tell him about my travels. She opened the window wide and felt the moist spring breeze on her face.

  Kassa, Gina, Yoyo, and Toto the Elder went with her to the cave to see her off. Toto gave her a bag containing togal and yukkal leaves, and plenty of good laga, just as he had when she and Kassa set off for the Mountain Deep. Gina gave her a bag of jokom, a nut-filled cake baked to last for long journeys.

  Hesitantly, Kassa held out a copper spear ring to fit on her shaft, just under the point. “Uh, this is my spear ring. I’d, um, like you to have it.”

  He must have put his heart and soul into polishing it, for it shone like gold. Balsa smiled and took it. Then she removed her own spear ring, blackened with long use and the blood of others. She gripped it in her hand and looked at Kassa.

  “It’s dirty, but I took this ring from Jiguro’s spear shaft. It protected both our lives.” She placed it on the palm of her hand and held it out. “Will you accept it?”

  Kassa took the ring and slipped it into place on his own spear. Then he looked up at her and smiled shyly. “Both you and Jiguro were chosen as the Dancer. I wonder if I really have what it takes to use it.”

  Balsa placed a hand on his shoulder. “I can’t read the future, but I can tell you this. If your skill with the spear continues to develop, you’ll be good enough to become the Dancer. Be a good spearman, Kassa.”

  His smile slowly transformed into a bright grin.

  Balsa raised her hand in farewell and turned abruptly toward the mouth of the cave. On the other side lay the Misty Blue Mountains, filled with the soft light of spring. With her thoughts fixed on those green mountain slopes, she strode boldly into the darkness.

  BALSA YONSA an itinerant female bodyguard and skilled spear-wielder; raised by Jiguro

  KARUNA YONSA Balsa’s father; the physician to Naguru, the former king of Kanbal

  JIGURO MUSA Balsa’s foster father; a renowned and unparalleled spear-wielder

  NAGURU former king of Kanbal; assassinated on the orders of his younger brother, Rogsam

  ROGSAM previous king of Kanbal who usurped the throne from his older brother, Naguru

  RADALLE Rogsam’s son; the current king of Kanbal

  KASSA son of Tonno and Leena

  GINA Kassa’s younger sister

  TONNO father of Kassa and Gina; overlord of the Herder People

  LEENA mother of Kassa and Gina; younger sister of Kaguro, Jiguro, and Yuguro

  KAGURO chieftain of the Musa clan; elder brother of Jiguro, Yuguro, and Leena

  YUGURO younger brother of Kaguro and Jiguro; a hero and the most respected of the King’s Spears

  KAHM eldest son of Kaguro

  SHISHEEM eldest son of Yuguro

  DOM head of the Musa chieftain’s guard; younger brother of Yuguro’s wife

  YUKA Balsa’s aunt and Karuna’s younger sister; physician who runs a house of healing

  LALOOG former chieftain of the Yonsa clan; an Elder respected by all the clans as witness to the last Giving Ceremony

  TAGURU eldest son of Laloog; killed by Jiguro

  LUKE younger son of Laloog; current chieftain of the Yonsa tribe

  DAHGU grandson of Laloog; one of the King’s Spears

  TOTO known as Toto the Elder; oldest of all the Herders

  YOYO a young Herder; Kassa’s friend

  DODO Yoyo’s father

  NAHNA Yoyo’s mother

  NONO childhood friend of Balsa

  TANDA a healer and apprentice magic weaver; Balsa’s childhood friend

  CHAGUM Crown Prince of New Yogo who was once the Guardian of the Spirit

  TOROGAI the greatest magic weaver of the time

  GANLA spicy vegetable

  GASHA a type of potato that grows even in poor soil

  HAKUMA a translucent white stone

  HYOHLU Guardian of the Darkness

  JOKOM a nut-filled sweet

  KAHL a heavy, woollen, windproof cloak

  KOLUKA tea leaf

  LA milk or butter made from goat’s milk; the speaker distinguishes between milk or butter with the accent

  LAGA cheese made from goat’s milk

  LAKALLE a drink made from fermented goat’s milk

  LAKOLUKA goat’s milk (la) boiled with koluka, a kind of tea leaf

  LAROO meat and potato stew

  LASSAL market

  LON a unit of time in Kanbal; thirty lon is about one hour

  LOSSO a potato flour dough stuffed with various ingredients and deep fried

  LUISHA a luminous blue gem that glows in the dark;
extremely precious

  LYOKUHAKU a precious milky green stone

  NAL a copper coin used in Kanbal; one hundred ten nal are worth one silver Yogo coin

  NYOKKI a tree root that refreshes the mouth when chewed; the Herders often chew on it

  SANGA a yaklike animal that lives on the mountain plateaus of Kanbal

  SHIRUYA a type of blanket used in New Yogo

  SOOTEE LAN Rider of the Water Currents; a highly intelligent water creature

  TITI LAN The Ermine Riders; a little people who live in the caves by day and hunt at night; legend claims that anyone who hinders their hunting will go crazy

  TOGAL a poison made from a plant; the Herders use it to fight eagles; a small amount applied to the eyelids dilates the pupils allowing the user to see in the dark

  TOH KAL the Titi Lan word for the Herders, it means “Big Brother”; the Herders call the Titi Lan “Chil Kal” or “Little Brother”

  YORAM the thunder god and creator in Kanbalese mythology

  YUKKA a sweet, tangy fruit

  YUKKAL a plant; the juice of its leaves raises body temperature

  Text copyright © 1999 by Nahoko Uehashi

  Translation copyright © 2009 by Cathy Hirano

  Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Yuko Shimizu

  All rights reserved. Published by Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920, by arrangement with Kaisei-Sha Publishing Co., Ltd. SCHOLASTIC and the LANTERN LOGO are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Uehashi, Nahoko.

  [Yami no Moribito. English]

  Moribito II : Guardian of the Darkness / by Nahoko Uehashi ; translated by Cathy Hirano ; illustrated by Yuko Shimizu.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: The wandering female bodyguard Balsa returns to her native country of Kanbal, where she uncovers a conspiracy to frame her mentor and herself.