The Beast Warrior

by Nahoko Uehashi

  Kailu laughed and looked at Ialu. “Considering he’s your son, he sure can talk. I wonder who he took after. Elin’s not much of a talker either.”

  Ialu picked up his chopsticks and flashed Kailu a crooked grin. “I haven’t figured that out yet.”

  Jesse picked up his chopsticks and looked at his father. Sensing his glance, Ialu nodded. “Go ahead. Eat.”

  “All right!” Jesse said loudly, helping himself to chunks of beef tenderly stewed in a sweet-and-sour fruit sauce. He also took a piece of deep-fried chicken coated in finely chopped nuts. Placing the stewed meat between two pieces of fahko, he took a large bite. Juice from the meat trickled down his chin. The inn they’d stayed at the night before was a grungy place that hadn’t served breakfast, and Jesse was starving. But even while he devoured the food, he kept his ears on the men’s conversation.

  “What’s going on?” Kailu demanded in a low voice. The cheerfulness had left his face.

  Ialu shook his head. “All I know is that whatever’s happening, it’s got something to do with Elin. And we’ve been targeted as pawns to be used as leverage.”

  Kailu opened his mouth, but then glanced at Jesse. Ialu smiled wryly. “It’s all right. He may talk a lot, but he can keep a secret. He won’t tell anyone something he shouldn’t, even if they beat him.”

  Jesse kept his head down, focusing on his food. His face was burning all the way to his ears, but he didn’t want them to know.

  “After I got your message,” Kailu said, “I started looking into it. It seems Elin entered the palace about three days ago.”

  Startled, Jesse raised his head. The thought that his mother was close by made his pulse race so fast it hurt.

  Ialu leaned forward. “Is she still there?”

  “Strangely enough, it seems that she isn’t.”

  Ialu frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Kailu looked as though he didn’t know how to explain. “Well, you know,” he began, “I’m one of the older Se Zan. That means I’m not often posted to guard the Yojeh. I spend most of my time training new recruits. I didn’t see or hear anything myself, but one of the younger Se Zan, Lagimu, says he saw Elin yesterday.”

  Kailu tapped the table with his chopsticks as he spoke. “He saw her enter the Yojeh’s inner garden yesterday afternoon. ‘So that’s Elin,’ he said to himself. But he never saw her leave.”

  “You mean she hadn’t left by the time he was relieved from duty?”

  “No, because he was on duty from yesterday afternoon until this morning. He stayed outside the Yojeh’s room after she retired from the garden, yet Elin left neither the garden nor the room.” Kailu lowered his voice. “But since yesterday evening the Aluhan’s hall has been in an uproar with soldiers and carrier pigeons rushing in and out.”

  Ialu’s face turned grim. “What about the garden or the Yojeh’s room? Did anyone leave or enter after Elin went into the garden?”

  “The Aluhan wasn’t there, so other than the children and the maidservants, no one else came. In the evening, however, the Sick Ones were invited inside the garden.”

  “The garden? Not the audience room?”

  “Yes, the garden. These days, that’s not so unusual. Ever since the Yojeh became heavy with child, she almost never leaves her private quarters. Rather than going to the audience room, she receives people in the garden.”

  As Ialu listened, he seemed lost in thought. “Lagimu would have counted the number of Sick Ones who entered and left the garden, right?” he asked.

  The corners of Kailu’s mouth lifted. “That’s exactly it. According to Lagimu, just as he was counting the Sick Ones passing through the gate, the Yojeh called him. She said she’d heard a strange noise in the hedge on the west side of the garden. Lagimu asked one of the maidservants to finish counting while he went to investigate.”

  Ialu stared at Kailu. A chunk of meat from Jesse’s sandwich fell with a plop, and he jumped, apologizing in a small voice. But his father didn’t even glance at him.

  “You think the Yojeh let Elin escape?” Ialu asked. “But why would she do that?”

  Kailu shook his head. “I don’t know. You know yourself that the Se Zan and the Aluhan’s men have nothing to do with one another. We get very little information from them. As for the Yojeh…” He stopped and sighed. “She’s not like her grandmother. Lady Halumiya kept us informed of everything to make sure we had an accurate grasp of the situation.”

  Chewing diligently, Jesse snuck a peek at his father, who seemed so wrapped up in his thoughts that he hadn’t touched the food.

  Kailu grabbed a piece of chicken with his chopsticks and popped it into his mouth. Then, as if he suddenly remembered Jesse was there, he poured some tea into Jesse’s cup.

  Ialu raised his eyes and looked at Kailu. “You say that Elin entered the palace three days ago?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about before that? She left Kazalumu over a month ago. What was she doing all that time? Do you know?”

  Kailu shook his head. “No, I know nothing. Except that she wasn’t at the palace until three days ago. She arrived in the lord of Amasulu’s carriage, so she must have been away on some mission for the Aluhan.”

  “The lord of Amasulu? You mean Yohalu Amasulu? Of the Black Armor?”

  “That’s what I heard.”

  Frowning, Ialu remained silent for some time. “How’s security at the checkpoints?” he asked finally.

  Kailu made a sour face. “Again, that’s not our job so I don’t know. I can tell you that there’re a lot of soldiers on the move. But that was true even before Elin got here, so not all of them are after her.”

  Ialu shook his head. “Even so, the checkpoints are probably at maximum security.” He flicked his eyes at Jesse, which made Jesse jump. “Hurry up and eat,” he said. “We don’t know when our next meal will be, so fill yourself up.” His voice was gentle, but somehow that made Jesse so nervous that he lost his appetite.

  Ialu picked up his chopsticks, but after only a few bites of food, he drew some coins from his robe and placed them beside his plate. “Kailu, you’ve really done us a great favor.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Kailu said with a worried frown. He blinked. “Oh,” he said, “I forgot to tell you something. Elin was injured.”

  Ialu’s face clouded. Jesse bit his lip, feeling his scalp grow cold.

  “It’s nothing serious, though,” Kailu added hastily. “Lagimu said she wore a bandage around her ear and her left arm was in a sling, but she seemed fine.”

  His words, however, couldn’t chase away the anxiety that nestled in Jesse’s chest. In the end, he didn’t touch the chicken he had taken, pushing his plate away with a quiet “Thank you.” When his father stood up, Jesse stood, too.

  Kailu reached out a hand and grabbed Ialu by the arm. “You take care, you hear? I’ll do anything you ask, so stay in touch.”

  Ialu nodded and gripped Kailu’s hand in return, then gently let it go.

  When they stepped outside, Jesse squinted against the blinding sun. Trotting after his father, he asked, “What’re we going to do now?”

  Ialu turned and looked at Jesse, narrowing his eyes against the glare. “I know a place your mother might’ve gone,” he said. “We’ll go there first.”

  2

  HOUSE FOR TWO

  Jesse felt the air cool as soon as they turned into the street. His father had been walking so quickly that he had to trot to keep up, and he was now drenched with sweat. It had been a very hot day, and the humid midday heat lingered even now that the sun was lower in the sky. A welcome breeze flowed along the street, caressing Jesse’s sweat-beaded skin. The houses lining both sides had bigger eaves and were surrounded by hedges that muted the sound of voices. Dainty flowers blooming in the hedges fluttered in the breeze.

  A shadow fell over them. Clouds had billowed up in the dazzling blue sky and were spreading quickly across it. Ialu stopped in front of a small house partway down the street. It lo
oked quite old and deserted. As if it were his own home, Ialu pushed open the wooden gate and walked up to the door. Then he looked up at the eaves trough. His expression shifted slightly. “What?” Jesse whispered.

  Ialu reached up and pulled a key from the eaves trough. “Your mother’s been here,” he said.

  “Really?” Jesse blurted out, then quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.

  Ialu pointed. “Can you see?”

  On the dusty eaves trough, Jesse noticed a spot that looked as if someone had wiped their fingers across it. “Are those Mom’s fingerprints?”

  “I’m pretty sure they are. They weren’t made by a man.” Ialu turned the key in the lock and opened the door.

  Inside, the house was bare. Beyond a dirt-floored area was a large room floored with wood. Dust floated lazily in the afternoon light that slanted through the window. Before he set foot inside, Jesse’s father let his eyes run swiftly around the interior and then up at the ceiling. Jesse did the same. “Whose house is this?” he asked.

  His father gave him a swift smile. “Mine,” he said.

  “Really?”

  “This is where I used to live. I thought about selling it when we moved to Kazalumu,” he said, taking off his shoes before stepping into the wood-floored room. “But I decided to keep it in case something like this happened.” He stared at the room for a moment, as though lost in a memory.

  The wooden floorboards felt cool against the soles of Jesse’s tired feet. He walked over to stand by his father, who glanced down at him. “You’ve been here before,” he said. “When you were still inside your mother’s tummy.”

  Jesse raised his eyebrows. “Mom lived here, too?”

  “Yes, for about a year. We decided to move to Kazalumu after she got pregnant.”

  Ialu could almost see Elin standing by the window. She loved to open it wide and let the breeze flow through. He had rarely opened the window when he lived on his own. But when she began living with him, they often opened both the window and the front door to air the house.

  Memories washed over him in waves, and for a moment, he gave himself up to them.

  Why did she decide to come to me?

  He had thought about this many times. It couldn’t have been easy for her to find this house. Only Kailu and his foster brother Yantoku knew where he lived. She’d said that Kailu had told her where to find him. According to Kailu, she’d approached him at dawn as he left the woods around the palace at the end of the night shift. What had she been thinking as she stood at the edge of the forest waiting for him?

  Living in the capital, away from her friends and Esalu, she was under great pressure. The Royal Beasts at the Lazalu Sanctuary had all gone into convulsions. Elin had been summoned to find out why and treat them. In the end, she found that their handlers had caused the convulsions; trying to copy Elin’s methods, they’d stopped giving the Beasts tokujisui.

  The Lazalu Sanctuary was home to the handler whose lips and nose had been bitten off by Leelan. It must have been agony for Elin to have to expose the handlers’ mistakes in that place. Had she come to Ialu because he was the only one she could talk to about those things? He could still see her face from when she’d stood at his door. Her expression had been a mixture of confusion and defiance.

  He took a deep breath. Stifling the memories that welled up inside, he looked down at his son. “Jesse,” he said. “There’s money hidden in this room. Can you guess where?”

  Jesse’s eyes shone. His first thought was the closet or the cupboard, but he quickly discarded these options. Those would be the first places a thief would look. His eyes swept the room and fastened on something that seemed different. “Oh! I know!” he exclaimed. “Under the floor!”

  Ialu looked surprised. “What made you think that?”

  “Because everywhere else is dusty except the floor. If Mom had cleaned the house, she wouldn’t have left any dust. She likes cleaning.”

  A smile spread across his father’s face. “You’ve got sharp eyes. But you’re only half right. Bring me that stool, will you?”

  Jesse walked over to the corner and picked up the stool. As soon as he saw it, he clicked his tongue. “Rats. I missed this. There’s no dust on this stool either.”

  Ialu’s smile deepened. “Your mother wiped the floor so that thieves wouldn’t notice that she’d used this stool.” Taking it from Jesse, he stood on it and hit the ceiling with his palm. A small board popped out with a click. He passed it down to Jesse. “Stick that piece of wood in the bottom of the cupboard over there,” he said.

  Jesse turned the piece of wood in his hands. There were several grooves in the flat tip. It’s a key, he thought. He ran over to the cupboard. There were three slots in the base that looked like part of the design. One was the same width as the piece of wood in his hand. He slipped it into the slot and felt something move inside. There was a small noise above him, and the top of the cupboard popped outward. His father walked over and removed the top board to take out a hidden drawer. When he placed this on the floor, Jesse’s eyes grew round. There was a bag of gold nuggets and a dagger, clearly old and well used because the leather of the scabbard and the hilt was amber-colored with use.

  “Didn’t Mom take any money?”

  “There were two bags. She took one and left this one for us,” his father said. As he picked up the bag of gold and the dagger, he frowned.

  Following his gaze, Jesse gasped. There was writing on the bottom of the drawer. Ialu tilted the drawer so he couldn’t see. He grabbed his father’s hand. “Wait! What did it say? Is it from Mom? Did she say anything about me?”

  Ialu put the drawer back on the floor so that Jesse could see the thin letters, which Elin had likely carved into the wood with a sharp object. Jesse read them aloud. “I’m going to the place where my mother and Jeh came from. I promise to come back. Please tell Jesse to be a good boy.”

  Jesse’s eyes blurred with tears. He rubbed his fists into his sockets and sniffed, trying to keep the tears at bay. But he couldn’t.

  “Why?” he cried. Why had she gone away? Why hadn’t she waited for them?

  Ialu cradled Jesse’s head in his hands and pulled him close. Pressing his face into his father’s chest, Jesse clung to him and wept.

  The sound of the boy’s sobs tore Ialu’s heart. Holding him tight, he closed his eyes.

  A searing light flashed inside the dimly lit room, and seconds later Ialu heard the rumble of thunder. After two more flashes, rain began to pelt the roof. Jesse, who hated thunder, squeezed his arms tighter around his father. Feeling the strength of that grasp, Ialu looked out the window and frowned.

  Where Elin’s mother and Jeh came from …

  There was only one place that could be. He found it hard to believe that she would attempt the journey. Still, if that’s where she was headed, she would be going west, which meant that she would need to cross the river to leave the capital.

  Ialu’s face froze. They had planned different escape routes together. If she was planning to take that route, this was the worst possible weather for it. Elin hadn’t grown up in the capital. She wouldn’t know how dangerous the river could be in weather like this.

  A chill spread deep inside his chest. Fear seized him. They might never see her alive again. He took a deep breath, trying to shake off his foreboding.

  “Jesse. Stop crying,” he said. “We’re leaving.”

  Jesse wiped his tears and looked up. “Where’re we going?”

  “To the river.” Ialu stood up and stuck the dagger in his belt.

  3

  RAGING RIVER

  Lightning flickered across the undersides of the clouds. Elin glanced at the sky, then lowered her head. A warm, dank wind rippled across the river’s surface and whipped her face, bringing with it the smell of water and the stifling odor of grass. Large circles appeared on the water. Almost instantly the river disappeared behind a gray curtain of pounding rain.

  Sheltered beneath the bridge, Elin
was untouched by the worst of the rain, but gusts of wind sprayed her with a fine mist. She gripped the collar of her loose cotton jacket tightly. Moments before, it had been so hot that she’d wanted to take it off, but now she was grateful for it. It smelled faintly of moth repellent and had been so long in the cupboard that the pattern was noticeably out of date. She’d worried that she might stand out if she wore it in town, but she’d had no choice. She needed to hide the bandage covering her elbow.

  In addition to the checkpoints set up on all the roads and bridges leading out of the capital, there were soldiers posted throughout the city. They had never seen Elin. That meant they would be seeking someone with green eyes and a wounded arm and ear. Elin had hidden those features under the half-coat and a broad straw hat. She’d removed the bandage over her ear because it would have shown beneath the hat. But the stitches in her elbow hadn’t been taken out yet, and she wanted to leave the bandage on if possible. Especially considering what she would have to do next.

  An elderly woman sitting nearby squashed a mosquito on her arm with a loud slap. “Honestly! What’s taking him so long?” she muttered. A mosquito buzzed near Elin, and she waved it away, listening absently to the woman grumbling about her husband under her breath.

  This was where peddlers waited for their husbands’ boats. They set out from nearby villages early in the morning with fresh vegetables, small fish, and other wares to sell, then got a ride home from here in the evening. There were five women sitting in the grass under the bridge talking quietly while they waited for their husbands.

  This broad, slow-moving river served as a moat guarding the capital. On this side spread the city, while on the other spread farm fields.

  “I wonder what’s going on,” one of the women said with a frown.

  “You said there’s one on Mugo Bridge, too?” another asked. “Really? That means anyone going in or out of the city’s being checked.”

  “Looks like it. Even on the main street, they’re making people take off their hats and show their faces. That’s what I heard.”