The Beast Warrior

by Nahoko Uehashi

  “Flying the Royal Beasts into battle may precipitate a disaster. For that very reason, she’s decided not to let anyone else ride the Royal Beasts. Just as you fear, she alone wants to bear responsibility for whatever happens. Ironically, if no disaster occurs and the Royal Beasts achieve some astonishing feat, we’ll spend the rest of our lives under guard for the sake of the country. But if there is any sliver of hope—if there is any chance that our family and the Royal Beasts can be freed from this situation—it lies only at the end of the path your mother has chosen.”

  Ialu spoke slowly and deliberately. “Jesse, please. Try to understand. Your mother didn’t choose this path because the Royal Beasts are more important to her than you. She’s trying to find a way for us all to be happy.”

  Jesse’s face twisted. Screwing his eyes shut, he bit his lip.

  “Your mother’s doing her best to find a way for you to grow up and have your own family who won’t have to live like this, constantly being watched, always in danger of assassination.”

  Jesse wrinkled his nose. “Who says having my own family’s going to make me happy anyway? If that’s what she’s worried about, I don’t care if I ever marry.”

  Ialu’s lips crooked. “All right, don’t, then. But do you really want to spend the rest of your life like this?”

  Jesse opened his eyes and gazed up at his father. “If it means that Mom won’t have to die, then yes, I’m fine with it.” His lips were trembling. “More than anything else, I’d rather she lived.”

  For a long time, Ialu stared at him without speaking. Finally, he said, “Me too, Jesse. Me too.”

  Jesse added quickly, “The same goes for you, you know.”

  “What does?”

  “I would rather you lived. Why’d you have to go and join the Toda Riders?”

  Ialu released his son with a faint smile. “Because there wasn’t anything else I could do.”

  Jesse looked at him questioningly, and Ialu’s smile faded. “If the Toda troops can become powerful enough to defeat the enemy on their own,” Ialu said, “then the Royal Beasts will never have to fly to battle, will they?”

  Jesse’s eyes widened. “Oh, I see!” The bleakness that had filled his eyes when he had come out of the storage room had vanished.

  There was another reason Ialu had applied to become a Toda Rider, but he didn’t feel like sharing it. He prayed fervently that Jesse would never have to experience the brutal possibility that haunted his mind.

  4

  WHITE LIGHT OF MORNING

  As Ialu approached the house near the Royal Beast stable, the door opened, and a guard stepped out. Snapping to attention, he saluted and stood aside to let Ialu in. A narrow ray of westering sun shone through the window, striking a spot beside the soot-blackened oven. The guards must have just finished their meal because there were a few scraps stuck to the inside of a pot that rested on the floor.

  Although they took turns, living in this narrow hut and guarding the house must be suffocating, Ialu thought. And if anything happened to Elin or Jesse, the guards would be severely punished. They had to live with that fear constantly in the back of their minds and weren’t even allowed an occasional drink to help them relax.

  Ialu bowed. “Thank you for watching over my wife and son,” he said. “I’m indebted to you.”

  The young guard flushed. “Thank you for your kind words. Be assured that we will protect them with our lives.”

  The middle-aged guard in the back room also saluted. “At this time of year, your son sleeps in the dormitory, so your wife often spends the night in the stable. She just informed us that she’ll be staying there tonight because the Royal Beasts are unwell.”

  Ialu nodded. Esalu had told him at dinner that some of the Beasts were suffering from indigestion, and Elin’s meal had been taken to the stable. Esalu had told him wryly it happened quite often. Jesse couldn’t be given special treatment just because his father had come home, so he was staying in the dorm. Having injured his friend, he had been deprived not just of lunch but of dinner as well, and he hadn’t been in the dining hall. Ialu had sat with the teachers as a guest of honor. With the students casting frequent glances his way and the teachers peppering him with questions, he couldn’t remember what he had eaten.

  He slipped the leather satchel from his shoulder and pulled out a large package of ogalu, dried cakes of sweetened sticky rice. “This is for you,” he said. “I’m sorry I’ve only brought sweets.”

  The men’s faces brightened, and they thanked him profusely. Although ogalu was common in Aluhan territory, it was hard to come by in Kazalumu, and the two men beamed as they accepted his gift.

  Ialu walked through the narrow passageway and opened the door to the house. The living room on the other side of the dirt-floor kitchen was shrouded in dusk and the hearth was cold, yet it still smelled faintly of Elin and Jesse. When he put his satchel down, he felt he had come home. He took another package of ogalu from his bag and left the house.

  The door to the stable was bolted from the inside. Ialu rapped on it.

  “Yes?” Elin called out.

  “It’s me,” Ialu said. He heard the sound of muffled footsteps and the jiggling of the bolt. Then the door opened and Elin’s surprised face appeared.

  “Ialu!” she exclaimed. “I thought you weren’t coming till tomorrow!”

  Ialu smiled. “I had a good driver. He got me here a little past noon. Can I come in?”

  Elin nodded and stepped aside. A faint warning growl came from the stalls. The younger Royal Beasts stared at him, their eyes glinting. “Quiet,” Elin said, and the sound ceased abruptly.

  “Amazing,” Ialu murmured, and Elin cast him an amused glance as she barred the door. “I heard they’ve got indigestion,” he said. “Are they all right?”

  “Yes. It was just Lesseh. He swallowed a bird whole while flying. He does that quite often, but he’s got weak intestines. It gives him a terrible stomachache until the laxative starts to work.”

  “So the Beasts have stomach trouble, too, do they?”

  Elin smiled and looked at Lesseh. “Of course they do. Just like us, some have weak intestines while others can eat anything with no problem. If Lesseh was in the wild, he would probably have died quite young.”

  Ialu looked down at her as he listened. She was so thin. Perhaps sensing his gaze, Elin glanced up. Her eyes caught his for a moment, then slid to his shoulder. “I heard you were cut with a hatchet,” she said.

  “It’s nothing serious. The wound has already closed.”

  “Let me take a look.”

  Without responding, Ialu ran his eyes around the stable. There was a small, wood-floored room on one side with a pile of folded bedding, a hearth, and a brazier with glowing coals. Beside it was a tray of untouched food.

  “You didn’t eat supper?” he asked.

  Elin shook her head. “No, I didn’t feel much like eating after dealing with the aftermath of Lesseh’s indigestion. I often don’t eat supper, you know. Then in the middle of the night I’m so ravenous that I toast some fahko over the fire and eat it.”

  “I’ve got something better than fahko.” He pulled the package from his shirt, and Elin’s face brightened.

  “Ogalu! It’s been a long time since I’ve had any.”

  They took off their boots and, stepping up into the wood-floored room, began to toast the rice cakes on a metal grill over the brazier. Biting into one of the sweet, fragrant cakes, Elin closed her eyes with a sigh. “Mmm. Tastes just the same. I used to beg my mother to get some whenever the merchants came to sell their wares in the village.”

  Ialu reached for the teapot on the table. Elin looked up and said, “Oh, sorry. The tea’s already cold. Here, I’ll boil up some water.”

  “No, don’t bother. Cold tea is fine.” Ialu poured it into the cups, and for a while, the two of them sat silently munching ogalu and sipping tea.

  When they finished, Elin rose to her knees and reached out to touch Ialu
’s shoulder. “Show me,” she said.

  “It’s nothing, really,” Ialu protested, but he removed his top as she asked. Elin undid the bandage and peeled away an ointment-smeared cloth.

  “It’s a clean cut,” she murmured, probing gently around the edges. “There’s no swelling. You should be able to remove the stitches soon.”

  “Will you take them out for me tomorrow?”

  “Yes, it should be all right by then.”

  He felt her breath on his shoulder. Looking at her intent expression as she examined the wound, he felt a sharp pang of tenderness. He reached out and cupped the back of her neck in his hand. Elin looked up in surprise, then stretched out her arms toward him.

  * * *

  Listening to the soft patter of the rain on the roof, Ialu stared blankly at the ceiling. Beside him, Elin stirred.

  “Rain?” she asked.

  “It’ll stop soon. The birds are warbling.”

  Elin stretched luxuriously. “It’s been a long time since I slept so soundly.”

  “Me too. I didn’t even dream.” The thought that this could be their last time together brushed Ialu’s mind, and a deep sorrow filled his chest. He wanted to let everything about this moment permeate his body.

  “Have you seen Jesse yet?” Elin asked.

  “Yeah. I was surprised to see how much he’s grown.

  “He’s been acting strangely lately,” Elin said in a low voice. “When we pass each other, he pretends he doesn’t see me.”

  Ialu smiled. “Yesterday, he went without two meals for hitting his friend.”

  “What?” Elin sat up with a jerk.

  “It’s all right. We had a long talk.”

  “About what?”

  “It’s a secret. Between men. I promised him I wouldn’t tell you, so I won’t.”

  “Ialu…”

  Hearing the anxiety in her voice, he said, “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. He’s going to be all right.”

  “But I want to know. What did he talk about?” Ialu cocked an eyebrow and said nothing. Elin sighed, pouting. “Honestly. You always clam up like that when it’s something important.”

  Ialu gave a wry grin. “Have to keep my word as a man.”

  With a snort, Elin rose and began putting on the clothes she had left folded by her bed. Ialu rose, too. “How long can you stay?” Elin asked as she tied her sash.

  “They gave me ten days, including traveling.”

  Elin’s hands paused. “Ten days? For such a minor wound? That’s an awfully long time, isn’t it?”

  Ialu slowly tied his belt. “It’s just an excuse. The Black Armor and Blue Armor units are being sent home for ten-day periods over the next half month. I got to leave a little early thanks to this injury.”

  Elin’s face went blank. “So. The war is about to start,” she whispered.

  Ialu nodded. “From the little that Lord Yohalu told me, it sounds like the Lahza offered us some deal concerning the caravan cities in the eastern plains. But it’s probably an offer we can’t accept.”

  Elin frowned and bowed her head. The blood drained from her cheeks, and her lips grew tight. Taking a deep breath, she raised her face and fixed her gaze on Ialu. Her eyes gleamed, and she opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. She knew there was no point in voicing her plea. If she begged him to quit the Riders, if she pleaded with him not to go to war, he would say that if she found a way out herself, so would he. With trembling fingers, she pushed back a strand of hair from her forehead, then buried her face in her hands.

  A breath of wind stole through a crack in the wall to stroke Ialu’s cheek. The paper that had wrapped the rice cakes fluttered as it passed, and he stared at it vacantly. Even without physically touching, the pain he and Elin shared joined them together. The only way to erase the agony that seared his insides and tortured Elin was for both of them to survive and return. For both of them to come back to Jesse and grow old together. He knew what an impossible dream it was. But he couldn’t help but hope.

  Even if it’s not possible for me to survive, if at least Elin can, he thought as he watched the paper flutter. Jesse was only fourteen. Ialu had to at least make sure that Jesse’s mother came back.

  He closed his eyes at the thought of his son staying behind alone. Although Esalu would make sure he didn’t want for anything, Ialu couldn’t bear to let him suffer the grief of losing his mother. He couldn’t let that happen. That was why he had chosen to become a Toda Rider and spend these last six years away from home.

  But a battlefield was a maelstrom of madness. No matter how much he might prepare or how hard he might wish for it, there was no knowing if he and Elin would make it back alive.

  He opened his eyes. Elin had raised her face and was gazing at the Royal Beasts. The rain had stopped, and the white light of morning was shining through the skylight. How would he feel when he saw the morning’s light on the battlefield? The thought rose slowly in his brain as if it belonged to someone else, then disappeared.

  5

  IN THE FIELD

  The grass was wet with the rain that had fallen early that morning. Ialu’s boots were soaked as he strode through the field toward the cliff.

  “Do you want to see the Royal Beasts train?” Elin had asked. There was no longer any hesitation in her eyes. Until now, afraid of getting him involved, she’d never let him near the training grounds. But today, Ialu reflected, she’d probably decided that it would help him on the battlefield to know how the Royal Beast corps moved.

  There was no sign of anyone on the cliff top; just a cluster of brilliant dots flashing between the clouds far in the distance. As they drew closer, the specks of light expanded, revealing the forms of Royal Beasts. They flew in a perfect V formation as though drawn by the one in front, its wings propelling it forward with powerful strokes. Ialu’s stomach and legs began to quake as they loomed nearer, and he backed away to the edge of the forest.

  Perched on Leelan at the front of the pack, Elin raised her arm and then lowered it sharply. Instantly, the enormous beasts raised their wings with a crack that split the air like thunder. Curling their claws, they swooped down to land.

  Leelan glided gently onto the top of the cliff. The wind from her wings bent the grass and whipped up a powder of crushed leaves. Behind her, the others alighted one by one without breaking formation. Some of them perched on ledges below the cliff top so that only their heads were visible. Elin climbed down from Leelan’s back.

  A sense of awe gripped Ialu, squeezing his chest. There were only ten Royal Beasts, but seeing them shoot like arrows toward him had been breathtaking. That sight would have captivated the heart of any leader or statesman. He was struck by the magnitude of the situation in which they were trapped. And the reason Elin couldn’t escape. Some things have to be seen to be truly understood, he thought. This was one of them.

  Elin swung her arm in a circle while calling out to the Beasts. The tension drained from their bodies. Some rose and flew off to a distant cliff, while others glided down to the river below. Leelan lowered herself onto the grass in the sun and began grooming her fur.

  Ialu stared at Elin wordlessly. Having been exposed to the cold wind, her cheeks were ghostly white, but her eyes gleamed. “Aren’t they beautiful?” she said breathlessly.

  Ialu nodded. “Yes. And fast, too.”

  Elin’s face broke into a smile unlike any Ialu had ever seen. “Aren’t they, though!” she exclaimed. “It depends on the wind of course, but they can fly as far as Lazalu in about one hour.”

  Ialu’s eyebrows shot up. Even with a fast horse, it would take him a day to get to the Lazalu Sanctuary in the capital. “Really?” he asked.

  “Yes. Only Esalu knows, but I’ve already flown them to Lazalu three times. I’ve been training them to make night flights. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been staying overnight in the stable. So that people won’t notice I’m gone and become suspicious.”

  Ialu stared at her. If she’s been trainin
g them that rigorously, he thought, it’s no wonder she’s so thin.

  “If I let them fly at the speed they wanted,” Elin continued, “we could get there even faster. But I couldn’t endure it. The wind’s incredible.”

  In a rush of words, she told him how she navigated by the moon and the stars, how high the Beasts flew, and how she communicated her commands while in flight. As he watched her, Ialu’s face clouded. She was like a stranger. When she spoke about the Royal Beasts, her face became sharp, and her eyes glittered strangely, as though she were possessed.

  Catching sight of his expression, she broke off and stared at him. Sucking in air, she let out an unsteady breath and shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Still frowning, Ialu looked at her. Her eyes seemed hollow and vacant, and she absently wiped away the sweat that beaded her brow. “Elin,” he asked gently. “What’s wrong?”

  She blinked. “It’s always like that. When I ride the Royal Beasts in formation, I feel strangely exhilarated.” She began to tremble, her arms flopping uselessly, then slumped to the ground.

  Ialu knelt beside her and slipped his arm around her shoulders. Her skin was icy cold yet clammy with sweat. “Are you all right?” he asked.

  Elin nodded weakly, as if speaking were too much effort. For some time, she leaned against him with her eyes closed. Finally, she opened her eyes and let out a slow breath.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I’m okay now.”

  The flush of excitement had drained away, and her cheeks were pallid. Ialu suddenly recalled the faces of his fellow Toda Riders after training exercises with the new breed of Toda. Once they dismounted, they often trembled violently. Even veterans of the Blue Armor unit, who’d seen mortal combat many times, told him they’d never experienced anything like it when riding other Toda.