The Book of Heroes

by Miyuki Miyabe

  “Well, obviously someone, or something, wants us to stay away. We know that for a fact.”

  Whoever had erected that barrier had their reasons for doing so. Finding out who that was could be the key. Or they were holding the key, at the very least. “Anyway, wherever those two landed, I’m sure they’ll be heading for the abbey ruins just like us. Let’s go. I’ll play the lost child as you suggested, Aju.”

  U-ri sprang lightly to her feet, inspected her new garments, then stepped out onto the path, a smile on her face.

  “U-ri!” Aju squeaked. He was still on the ground, stretching to stand as tall as he could. “You know, it might’ve been Hiroki who stopped you back there.”

  The smile vanished from U-ri’s lips. She felt it go. “What do you mean by that?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s just a guess. But it occurred to me that Hiroki might not want you to find him.”

  Who knows what had happened to U-ri’s brother after he became the last vessel. He might not even be human by now. The thought crept up on her once again, sending shivers down her spine.

  “Of course I’ll still help you try to find him, if you want to.”

  U-ri wasn’t sure whether to thank him or get angry. Either way, she ended up with an expression on her face not unlike that of a young girl frightened at losing her parents in a strange land—saving her the effort of trying to act the part.

  Mouse on her shoulder, she walked alone, the purse over her shoulder her only luggage. The two women were long gone by now, so she walked toward town, looking around cluelessly like the lost child she was. Thankfully, it seemed that the people of this town were not without heart. She had only just left the forest when someone called out to her. When they found out she couldn’t understand them, they became even kinder, and more people gathered.

  Before half an hour had passed, U-ri was sitting inside a greengrocers, drinking sweet tea. Large wooden crates lined the shop, each filled with fresh vegetables and fruit. Price tags hung on the front of each crate. The proprietors were a couple, each as round as the other, with ruddy faces and boisterously loud voices.

  “They seem like good people,” Aju whispered from U-ri’s shoulder. He had relaxed considerably since the time of their landing. “The big woman’s name is Aisa. The customers call her ‘Old Lady Aisa.’ She takes care of them, and they of her. Looks like they’re all regulars.”

  She was something like a village elder then.

  “Are they going to take us to the police? Are there any police here?”

  “I would think so, in a town this size. Her husband just sped out the door—maybe he went to fetch one of them.”

  “What was she saying when she kept pointing at you a few minutes ago?”

  “She was worried I’d nibble on her vegetables. Wanted to know if I was tame or not. If I had manners.”

  Aisa came in from greeting customers outside her shop and began to talk to U-ri. From her expression and gestures, U-ri realized the woman was asking if she was cold. U-ri shook her head, then let her eyes fall to the floor. The woman put both hands to her waist and smiled nervously as if to say, “Now what are we going to do with you?”

  “Aisa wants to know where you and your parents were headed.”

  U-ri set down her tea and stood. Taking the woman Aisa’s hand, she led her out to the cobblestone street in front of the shop. The woman’s hand was calloused and dry against her skin.

  With the woman watching, U-ri pointed to the darkly clouded mountain rising in the distance.

  “Katarhar,” she tried saying. “Ka-tar-har.”

  That word seemed to do the trick. Aisa’s round features grew suddenly stern. She pulled back her chin, fixed her eyes on U-ri, and began to speak very rapidly.

  “She wants to know what business your parents had going to a place like that.”

  U-ri couldn’t exactly admit the mouse was interpreting for her, nor could she communicate outside of body language, but somehow she was going to have to get this woman to show her how to get to the Katarhar Abbey ruins.

  U-ri shrugged and attempted a weak smile. The woman gave an exaggerated sigh.

  “She says it’s tough, you not being able to understand her.”

  “She’s telling me,” U-ri muttered.

  Clasping her hands in front of her, U-ri made a motion like she was begging the woman. She pointed toward the mountain again. Then she repeated her gestures. Please understand; I have to go to Katarhar Abbey.

  Aisa put a hand to her forehead.

  “Your father and mother have gone the wrong way.”

  What does she mean by that?

  “You cannot go up that mountain from this village. There is a mage-hedge blocking the path, and besides it is forbidden.”

  U-ri opened her eyes wide, still pretending not to understand, and the old woman tried crossing her arms out in front of her face, as if to communicate to her that the way was barred.

  A customer arrived, and the woman stopped to help her, motioning for U-ri to wait where she was.

  “What do you think she means by a ‘mage-hedge’?”

  “I think she’s talking about something like that barrier we ran into. There is a wall of magic around this town. I can smell it.”

  “But we got in?”

  “It’s not a wall to keep out people, U-ri. It keeps out, well, other things.”

  U-ri recalled the story Ash had told her about the risen soldiers who turned into horrible creatures and the strange and fatal powers their poisoned victims developed.

  “Maybe that has something to do with why this place seems so rich compared to Kanal.” Towns this pretty were rare even in U-ri’s world. It felt like a theme park.

  “Well, I think your sampling isn’t so great. Ash’s village is probably one of the poorest around,” Aju squeaked quietly. “Might be because of the graveyard. I wouldn’t be surprised if towns with graves like that were kept apart from those without.”

  That didn’t seem very fair.

  The woman returned from speaking with her customer—the two had been glancing in U-ri’s direction the whole while—and spoke.

  “She said that the town guard would be coming soon to take you to the local garrison.”

  The woman looked up toward the clouded mountain. But she didn’t point—almost as though she were afraid the mountain might see.

  “She says if you talk with the guard, they might let you approach the abbey. She hopes your parents got there ahead of you okay.”

  The woman motioned for her to have a seat, but U-ri simply lowered her head and remained standing in front of the shop. She wanted to watch the people go by, living their peaceful lives, protected by the mage-hedge around the village. From all she had heard from Ash, the Haetlands did not sound like a particularly beautiful or peaceful place. But clearly there was room for beauty and happiness here, if only in selected locales. Places where the relics of the Haetlands’ troubled past were there to remind people of what had gone before.

  “It’s all the same, you know,” Aju whispered. “There are bad places in the region where you live, U-ri. You might’ve been lucky and never seen war or starvation, but it’s there all right.”

  “You’re right, I know,” U-ri whispered back.

  They were interrupted by the sounds of rushing feet and loud voices. A large number of people were running right toward them, from the street to the right. There was shouting. U-ri couldn’t understand a word, but it was clear from the tone of the voices that something had gone terribly wrong.

  Aju pricked up his ears and stood up on his hind legs on top of U-ri’s head. Then came the sound of several explosions, one quickly after the other, like gunshots. A scream rang through the streets. Now more people were shouting.

  Aisa came dashing out of the back of the shop. A young woman came around the corner and ran to Aisa as soon as she saw her. Her face was pale and streaked with tears, and she was wailing and pointing back in the direction from which she had come.<
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  “She says one of the town guardsmen was trying to apprehend a bandit!”

  The guard’s carriage had been crossing the street, Aju explained, when the soldier spotted a man threatening someone with a knife, and tried to apprehend him.

  “That was probably the guardsman coming to meet me!” U-ri shouted. “Let’s go, Aju!” She took off. Behind her, Aisa was shouting something—no doubt trying to get her to stop.

  “Go and do what, U-ri?”

  “I don’t know—I’ll think of something!”

  As U-ri dashed down the cobblestone street, she heard more screaming and more gunfire. Everyone on the street was running toward her—only U-ri went against the tide. A well-dressed gentleman reached out as he passed, grabbing for her arm. “Don’t go—you’ll be in danger!”

  She didn’t have to go far—through an intersection and right at the next corner—before she reached the scene of the commotion. A circle of people stood in the road in front of her. Spectators, come to see what’s going on! It seemed people’s reactions to crime were the same in every region.

  Some distance beyond the crowd stood a uniformed town guardsman with his pistol drawn. He was crouched low, taking aim as he carefully crept across the cobblestones. His horse and carriage sat off to the side of the street, half up on what passed for the sidewalk. A flag the same color as the crest on the guardsman’s shoulder fluttered over the carriage.

  Another man stood further down the street, in the direction the guardsman’s gun was pointing. He wore a white shirt, open in front, and pants that only went down to the tops of his knees. He was barefoot, his hair cropped close to his head. He looked remarkably pale and very skinny.

  His right arm hung loosely down by his side; in his hand he held a sword the length of U-ri’s arm. She wondered what he had intended to use it for. The blade had two edges and came to a fine point at the end.

  Blood was spattered on the man’s face and body. There was a particularly large stain on one of his knees. His blood maybe. He walked with a lurching tilt, dragging the leg as though it were injured. The man glared at the guardsman, and the guardsman glared back at him, like two beasts circling.

  “U-ri!” Aju squeaked in a sharp voice. “I know what’s going on! He’s been possessed by an unattached!”

  “An unattached what?”

  “No, U-ri, an unattached—those stories I was telling you about that just sort of drift through the Circle without ever getting written down in a book. See that stuff like thin smoke in the air around his head?”

  She looked and indeed, she could see something like a pink wisp of smoke coiled like a serpent around the man’s head. “That’s an unattached story?”

  “You bet. It’s got him good—the thing has a hold on his heart for sure.”

  Suddenly the man let out a war cry, and lowering his blade, he charged toward the guardsman. The guardsman fired. The bullet grazed the man’s left shoulder, and blood sprayed into the air. There was the stench of gun powder. Howling, the man went down on one knee. As one, the spectators took a step back.

  “Throw down your weapon!” the guardsman shouted.

  “Those unattached stories can just possess people?”

  “Yeah. They don’t have forms themselves, so they yearn for any they can get their hands on.”

  The guardsman stood and made to walk over to the possessed man just as he began to howl where he lay on the cobblestones. Sitting up, he began flailing the sword about. His eyes shone as bright as the steel of his blade, a warping, jagged light that reflected this way and that.

  “Whoa,” Aju whispered. “I think it’s devoured that poor fellow’s mind.”

  “Shoot him, shoot him!” one of the spectators shouted. The wounded man howled in the direction of the voice.

  “Wait—if it’s a story that’s possessing him, can’t I do something? Can’t I use my mark?”

  Aju hesitated and said, “Well, you can—but are you sure you want to?”

  “I can’t just do nothing! He’s going to die!”

  U-ri burst through the ring of onlookers, almost tripping in her hurry to reach the man before it was too late. The guardsman whipped around to see who was approaching. When he saw U-ri, his eyes almost popped out of his head with surprise.

  U-ri stood up straight, pressing one hand to her forehead. “Here! Look here!” she shouted, knowing that the guardsman, the spectators, and the man with the sword probably couldn’t understand a word she said. I’ll just have to communicate by sheer willpower. The man looked up at her. His glimmering eyes met hers.

  The guardsman sprinted toward U-ri, but she held up her other hand, stopping him. “It’s all right! Stay back!”

  The guardsman blinked, uncertain of what was going on. Beads of sweat dripped down his face.

  Then the man with the sword lunged toward U-ri. He knocked her flat on her back and had her by the collar before she knew what was happening. The man’s blade swung up into the air.

  Instinctively, U-ri took her hand from her forehead and placed it on the man’s face. She could feel the bony ridge of his nose beneath her palm, the hollow curve of his cheek. “Leave this man at once, traveler without a home! You do not belong here!” she shouted.

  The man froze, the point of his sword pointing straight up toward the sky.

  “Be still, traveler,” she repeated, gripping the man’s forehead tightly.

  She could hear words in her head. They’re coming from the glyph! It was telling her the words of the spell she needed to recite. All she had to do was repeat after the voice.

  “Pitiful wanderer in eternity, you have lost your way. You do not belong in this place; this man is no fit vessel for you.”

  The possessed man’s head dropped, and he began to groan. Spittle mixed with blood dripped in a viscous line from his mouth, staining the cobblestones below.

  “State your name, traveler. Tell me your name.”

  The man shivered beneath her hand. More saliva poured from his mouth. His cracked lips opened.

  Behind her, the guardsman and all the spectators stood frozen. There was complete silence on the street.

  “I…have no name.”

  “Tell me your name.”

  “We are many…we are unattached…we have no name.”

  Large tears began to fall from the man’s eyes. His hand fell, the sword clattering to the ground. He crouched and U-ri sat up, moving her hand from the man’s face to the top of his head. She tried stroking his hair. She could sense the mark on her hand glowing. She could feel its warmth.

  “Nameless traveler. Hear the echoing of the Great Wheels. Hear the voice summoning you back to that land removed from the tides of time.”

  Your father is the vast darkness, your mother the eternal light.

  “There you must return. The Great Wheels call to you. To their circling you must return. Leave!” U-ri shouted the last word, removing her hand from the man’s head and pointing straight upward.

  As though following her finger, the pink haze around the man’s head began to drift upward. Pulled by her will, it lifted into the air, until the man was entirely free of it. It twisted like a snake swimming through the air, going straighter the higher up it went, until it became a sharp line, like a spear, shooting straight up into the heavens.

  The crouching man fell heavily on his side. He was unconscious.

  There was a moment’s silence. Then everyone began to shout at once. There were cheers mingled with screaming. A few brave souls stepped toward U-ri, while others sought to flee.

  The guardsman lowered his pistol and walked over to her. He looked down at U-ri with a hard expression on his face. “Who are you?” Aju interpreted from the back of her collar. She didn’t have to answer him though. The guardsman stuck his pistol in his belt and turned to the spectators. “This girl here’s a mage!”

  A ripple went through the crowd. Some of the ones who had been trying to run away slowed their pace and came back.

  �
��You’re not from this town, are you? You traveling? By yourself?” the man asked, reaching out to offer his hand to U-ri and help her to her feet. U-ri shook her head several times to indicate she couldn’t understand him.

  “She’s the one, she’s the one!” one of the spectators—an older woman—shouted, pointing at U-ri. “She’s the lost child from Aisa’s!”

  The guardsman’s eyes went wide and the little mustache beneath his nose crinkled as he smiled. “Is that so!” he exclaimed. “Well, you’ve just saved me some trouble then.”

  The spectators stepped aside as another town guard carriage came swiftly down the street, a little late for the action. The guard with the mustache called out to the new arrivals. “You take care of him,” he called out, indicating the fallen man. “I’ll handle the lady.”

  A few minutes later, U-ri was climbing into the guardsman’s carriage, not in the back, but up front, next to him in the driver’s seat. The step was too high for her to climb, so the mustached guardsman had helped lift her up.

  U-ri caught a glimpse of Aisa among the milling spectators. She waved and nodded her head to the woman. Aisa simply stared back, not even acknowledging her.

  Maybe mages aren’t all that welcome in this town. It had certainly caused a commotion amongst the spectators when the guard announced her in the street—but she had attributed that to mages being a relatively rare thing. Some of the town children ran after her carriage as they took off. Everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of the new mage.

  The garrison of the town guard was a solid-looking stone structure two stories tall, with some carefully trimmed trees in the front yard. U-ri stepped out of the carriage by the front door, and the mustached guardsman let her inside. The ceiling was high and though the light was dim, the place had a lively feel with people running this way and that, some in uniform, others in civilian clothes.

  She was taken to a small room with a window overlooking the front garden and told to wait. As she sat patiently, she spotted one or two of the children that had chased after her carriage hiding behind the trees outside the window. U-ri waved, and the children began whispering furiously to one another. Then U-ri jabbed her finger straight at them, and they scattered like cockroaches in the light.