The Book of Heroes

by Miyuki Miyabe

  What’s wrong with me…

  In the silent room, U-ri’s stomach growled.

  “You’re starving, that’s what!” Aju said with a laugh. “And you’re completely exhausted to boot.”

  Oh…really? U-ri lifted her head and looked in the direction of Aju’s voice.

  Then she panicked. The young devout was gone! But he was right there just a second ago. He was holding my hand. Where is he—

  “Servant!” she called. “Where are you? Where did you go?”

  “Now, now, don’t worry,” Aju said, winking at her with a burst of light. “Put the vestments on again.”

  It was ten times harder putting them on than it had been to take them off. But the instant the dusty black cloth fell over her shoulders, her strength returned. Her belly no longer felt empty and the room stopped spinning.

  The young devout was right there, standing as he had been when they were holding hands a moment before. Except that his eyes were wide open. “Lady U-ri?” Hurriedly, he went to help her to her feet.

  U-ri jumped up. “I’m okay. I’m fine.” She spread the sleeves of her robe and looked at them. “I get it. So that’s what they do.”

  “That’s what they do, and more,” Aju said brightly. “The vestments of protection have several features I’m sure you’ll find handy. Best remember them.” Aju made a sound like he was clearing his throat. “One. As long as you wear the vestments, you will feel no hunger or fatigue. Two. Inside the vestments, you will be invisible to anyone in this world.”

  “You mean like the Invisible Man?”

  “No, you’d still be—” Aju began before realizing what she meant. “Ah, yes, that’s the name of a story, isn’t it? Yes, something like that. Still, though you’ll be invisible, anything you touch or move with your hands will be visible to people, so be careful. If you want to make something else invisible, though, all you need do is slip it beneath your robes. Oh, and you’ll be incorporeal inside the robes too—which means no one will be able to touch you or know you’re there in any way.”

  Finally, Aju explained, when she took the vestments off, she would not be able to see her servant.

  “So that’s what happened!”

  The young devout’s head bobbed. “Yes, yes. You disappeared from my sight too, Lady U-ri. There was only space where you stood a moment before. I tried to reach out to you, but felt nothing.”

  “That’s because nameless devout have no real form outside of the nameless land, right?” Aju said, directing his question toward the Sage.

  “That is correct,” the Sage confirmed, a lingering harshness to his voice. “The magic of the vestments works through U-ri to give her servant shape. His existence in this world is a borrowed one. Without the magic of the robes, they will not be able to see each other, and should they be drawn too far apart, they may never find each other again.”

  U-ri swallowed. What would happen to the nameless devout if they got separated? Would he wander through the world, unable to leave, invisible to everyone?

  “He will return to nothing, for he is nothing,” the Sage said, answering her unasked question.

  “Then I’ll have to be careful,” U-ri muttered. She wrote a note as big as she could in her mind, sticking it where she would see it.

  “Oh, and one other thing,” Aju added, a hint of laughter in his voice. “The power of the vestments has given you the ability to use all kinds of magic spells—that is, it should have.”

  “Should have…?”

  “Well, let me ask you then. Do you feel like you can do magic?”

  Not at all. Yuriko tried to focus her thoughts into something, but nothing came. She didn’t even have an idea of where to begin.

  “As I thought. It’s because you lack knowledge. You don’t know the spells. Lucky for you,” Aju continued, “there are lots of spells in the books right here. Each one of us has our own specialty. Which brings me to another question. Remember what kind of book I am, by any chance?”

  “You’re a dictionary! A beginner’s dictionary of spells!”

  “Very good!” Aju cheered. He was in a fine mood. “Just use me and you’ll be able to learn all sorts of spells—if you make the proper preparations, that is.”

  “What sort of preparations?”

  “Well,” Aju said, “there is a limit to my knowledge. I won’t be enough to cover all you’ll need on your upcoming journey, for sure. That’s why you’ll want me to be able to communicate with my friends here in the reading room no matter where I am. That would be nice, eh? Then you’d just have to consult me to learn anything contained in any of the books in this room.”

  All she needed to do, Aju told her, was cast a spell of linking on him.

  “So what’s the spell of linking? Where do I find it?”

  “That’s one of the higher-level spells,” Aju said with a wink. “I’ll bet the Sage knows it.”

  U-ri looked up. The Sage’s green glow strengthened, then faded—as though he were about to say something then thought better of it. “If the Lady U-ri wishes it, I will teach it to her,” he said at last.

  “Thanks!”

  “I’ll grab something to write with,” the young devout suggested, dashing out of the room.

  “I won’t need anything—” U-ri tried calling him back, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  “It’s okay, let him go. He probably won’t like this part anyway.”

  “Won’t like it? Why?”

  “You are a bit slow, aren’t you, U-ri,” Aju said in a singsong voice. “Remember what I said about me being able to communicate with my friends no matter where I was?”

  “Aju!” U-ri said, putting her hand to her mouth. “You mean you’ll come with me?”

  “You bet I will!” Then Aju really did break into song—a song about traveling with U-ri and his upcoming adventures with the allcaste.

  “Should I carry you in my backpack again?” U-ri asked, suddenly wondering where she had left her backpack.

  “Nope! Not this time.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because there’s a better way! You can turn me into something more convenient. Something smaller. Something that can move by itself.”

  “Like what?”

  “I’ve got just the spell, take a look!” he said, not answering her question. His pages began to flip before U-ri’s eyes. “Right here! That’s the page. Now,” Aju instructed, “hold me open to that page with both hands. Move your feet apart a little, that’s right. You’ll want to be steady. Now recite after me.”

  U-ri took a breath and began to repeat the words after Aju said them.

  “Quesaran, pasaran, altimidite! Uga, uga, ugachakaraka modistan—what a ridiculous spell!” U-ri laughed out loud. In her hands, a bright red light suffused the book. For moment, it glowed so brightly U-ri was afraid he had caught fire. She closed her eyes.

  When she opened them again, a red sphere about the size of a soccer ball was floating before her nose, bouncing up and down like a balloon in the hands of a happy child.

  She extended a finger and gingerly touched it. The red sphere wobbled gently in the air.

  “Hurry! Let me out!” It was Aju’s voice, coming from inside the sphere. “Break it and let me out!”

  Flustered, she grabbed the red sphere in both hands. It was like grabbing a giant blob of Jell-O. In fact, it even looked like Jell-O. I wonder if it tastes like raspberry, U-ri thought as she gave it a good squeeze. Her fingers sank into the blob. The sphere warped, then popped loudly.

  “Ayeee!”

  Something small came flying out of the sphere. It zipped up through the air like a spinning firecracker then zig-zagged about the room before returning to land atop U-ri’s head. It felt soft against her hair, warm. She raised a hand to touch it.

  A long tail dangled down in front of her face, hitting her on the nose.

  “Aju? What are you?”

  Something small was creeping through her hair. She could feel tiny feet, with eve
n tinier toes. Whatever it was, it had four legs.

  “Aju?”

  “Frankly, I was hoping for something a little, well, cooler.” It was Aju’s voice. He sounded crestfallen. “Oh well, I should’ve known. The vestments of protection might be strong, but you’re still pretty young.”

  Yuriko felt around gingerly with her hand until she found the little thing’s neck, then she picked it up between her fingers and brought it in front of her face.

  “Hiya!”

  Two little eyes blinked at her above a twitching pink nose. Disproportionately long whiskers tickled U-ri’s cheek.

  “Aju! You’re a…a field mouse!” U-ri said, startled—then the tickle of the whiskers made her sneeze.

  “Hey! Watch it!” Aju shrieked, covering his eyes with two tiny paws.

  “It is not the Lady U-ri’s fault. You are but a small collection of knowledge. This size suits you,” the Sage commented, and all of the other books blinked with laughter.

  U-ri smiled. It was good to feel the mood brighten around her. Everything had been doom and gloom for too long.

  “Well, Aju, I think you’re kinda cute.” U-ri smiled and pressed her nose to Aju’s tiny pink nose. “It’s nice to meet you again.”

  U-ri looked down at her vestments. They were older than they had seemed at first and showed signs of having been mended several times. In one place, the inner lining had a large tear in it that someone had patched with a square of cloth. But the thread along the top side of the patch had come undone, making a perfect pocket for Aju to slip into. Inside the pocket, he was right over her heart, and when he stuck his nose out, he could look around from the split in her front collar.

  “That’s comfy,” Aju squeaked, sounding pleased with this arrangement despite his earlier protests.

  By the time the young devout had returned from his search of the cottage, an old marker in hand, U-ri had already finished casting the spell of linking on Aju.

  “Sorry, we don’t need that anymore,” Aju told him. The young devout’s eyes opened wide like he’d seen a ghost—or rather, a talking mouse. Everyone laughed.

  “Thanks,” U-ri said. “Maybe I can use it for something else.”

  “You know, U-ri did tell you she didn’t need that, but you didn’t hear her—pay more attention next time,” Aju scolded.

  “There is no need to be short with him, Aju,” U-ri said, examining the marker. It looked ancient. She tried scribbling something with it, but no ink came out. It must have all dried up, even though the cap was on tight.

  U-ri frowned. “You didn’t find anything else that looked like it could write?”

  “Nothing at all.” The young devout shook his head.

  That was odd. She knew her great-uncle had lived alone, but it seemed strange for there to be only one pen in the entire cottage. Pens and pencils were the sort of thing that collected when you weren’t looking until you had a whole pile of them, weren’t they? That, and she knew Mr. Minochi had been a collector of books, which meant he did research. Which means he must’ve taken notes. Unless he did everything on a computer?

  But then he still would have needed a pen or pencil to jot down memos and the like.

  “What is it, U-ri? Let’s get going,” Aju said. He tickled the bottom of her chin with his long whiskers until she feared she might fall to the floor giggling uncontrollably.

  “All right, all right—that is, where are we going, anyway?”

  “Your house, of course. We’ll need to go searching for clues eventually, but first let’s see how your double is doing. And you want to see your parents, don’t you, U-ri? It’s been a while.”

  “Yeah…”

  She wondered what it would be like meeting her parents now that she was an allcaste.

  She wondered if she could get used to it.

  U-ri walked into the center of the magic circle on the floor. “You come too,” she said to the servant. “I think we have to hold hands again.”

  The young devout stepped toward her but hesitated at the edge of the magic circle.

  “Where exactly will you go to, U-ri?” Aju asked from her pocket. “lt’s teleportation, so you can be really specific.”

  My room, maybe. No—my mom might be in there. Even if she can’t see me in these robes, I’d be able to see her and I might freak out.

  “I think the road out in front of the apartment building. We can cross the street and go in through the front door.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Aju asked. “You remember exactly how wide the road is? This teleportation business is more difficult than you might think. Maybe somewhere inside the house would be safer for the first try—”

  “Nah—we’ll be fine! Let’s go!”

  U-ri put one hand to her forehead. The young devout took her hand and swallowed nervously.

  “Take us to the road in front of my house, next to the electrical pole with a sign for the Onoda Clinic on it!”

  Then U-ri and the devout and the little mouse Aju disappeared, leaving the blinking and winking books behind.

  “Sage,” said a quiet voice seemingly as old as the Sage himself. “Are you sure about this?”

  The Sage winked once, slowly, before answering. “I am. And besides, we don’t have a choice about it now.”

  The winking of the books in the reading room stopped briefly, as if they were all taking a moment to silently pray.

  The teleportation was different—maybe because she was traveling through the real world this time. U-ri felt a sense of motion, and she knew it when she had landed. She bent her knees and crouched, as though she had just hopped down from some higher place. Across the road stood a familiar gray building. Angel Castle Ishijima. Home. Her eyes went up to the fifth floor.

  Wait a minute, the building looks closer than it should—

  “U-ri, look out!”

  With a tremendous rumbling noise, a giant truck, its bed piled to overflowing with steel girders, came thundering down on them—and it passed right through them.

  Stunned, U-ri watched the back of the truck race away. Its exhaust swirled through the air around them.

  “We’re in the middle of the street!” Aju cried.

  Not that U-ri needed him to tell her that. The electrical pole she had been aiming for was to her back. There was the sign for the clinic on it.

  “I told you, it’s hard to get the distances just right at first.”

  “What’s the matter? It’s not like the cars can hit us.”

  The young devout got his footing and spread his arms wide. Blinking, he looked down to make sure he hadn’t been crushed. Then he looked up, and his eyes opened wide. His jaw went slack and he gasped.

  “What is it?” U-ri looked up. Dawn had broken and it was already well into morning. The spring sky was blue, with a few puffy clouds bobbing peacefully along like bits of dandelion fluff. “What are you looking at?”

  The young devout didn’t answer, so U-ri reached out and touched his arm. He still didn’t look at her, so she gave him a gentle shake. He stood there, still, looking up into the sky. “What—what is it, Lady U-ri?”

  “What do you mean? It’s the sky. What’s so strange about that?”

  “The sky…” the young devout muttered. “No, it is surely the heavens! But why is it such a blue color?”

  U-ri blinked. “Don’t they have a sky in the nameless land—”

  Oh, that’s right. It’s always cloudy there. And covered in mist. “You’ve never seen a blue sky before, have you!”

  Eyes still wide, he looked at U-ri. Then he jabbed a finger above her head. “What do you mean ‘sky’? Is there a blue sky up there? All I see are the heavens, Lady U-ri.”

  U-ri finally realized what the problem was. They must not use the word sky in the nameless land. Now that she thought about it, she realized that the pillar in the center of one of the Great Wheels and the clouds over their heads had both been called “heaven.”

  “Here we call the heavens sky
,” she told him. “This is a blue sky.” She pointed upward.

  “It’s so…beautiful,” the young devout breathed, enchanted by the scene above him, its blue reflected in his eyes.

  Of course, they were in the middle of the city, full of trucks and cars going this way and that. That’s not a real blue sky, U-ri thought, frowning at the brownish haze that clung to the horizon.

  It reminded her of something her brother had said once. There was a sky color they called “azure blue” in more difficult books than the ones she read. It was the kind of deep, rich blue she and her brother would never see in their city—maybe not even in their country. There was probably only a few places in the world left where you could see a real azure blue sky.

  Still, the sky here seemed to be more than enough for her servant. Even standing here in the exhaust from the big truck, this smoggy sky was enough to impress someone who had been trapped for so long in the nameless land.

  “I’ve got it,” U-ri said suddenly. “Sky!”

  “What’s that?” Aju asked. The nameless devout was still too busy staring up, the springtime sun in his face, to notice. His eyes were closed and he had begun to gently sway back and forth.

  “That’s your name now, servant.”

  The young devout blinked and looked at her. “What? Did you say something, Lady U-ri?”

  “Yes, your name will be Sky. I can’t keep calling you ‘servant’ forever.”

  She thought it might be nice to shake his hand and make a formal occasion out of it, when another giant truck rumbled through them. Exhaust swirled around their heads.

  “U-ri? Sky?” Aju whimpered. “Can we please get out of this road?”

  The front door was locked. U-ri didn’t have a key. It was in her backpack, which she had left somewhere in Mr. Minochi’s cottage.

  “So what do we do now?”

  U-ri ignored Aju’s question. She bit her lip, then pressed the button on the intercom by the door.