The Beast Player

by Nahoko Uehashi

  Even more troubling were her eyes. In the morning light, he could see them clearly. Although almond-shaped like a Wajak, they were green. Artisans hated drifters. Would one really marry an Ahlyo? No. In the first place, the Ahlyo would never allow it. Marital unions outside their people were forbidden. So what on earth was she? The more he thought about it, the more puzzled he became. I guess I’ll just have to wait. It’ll become clear in time.

  “Lift your head,” he said to the girl. “I’m sorry I interrupted your breakfast with questions. You’re just recovering from a fever so you’d better eat up.”

  Elin raised her face, bowed once again and then reached for some fahko. The weakness she had felt earlier seemed to have vanished. Joeun picked up his bowl and began wolfing down his breakfast. It was very quiet. She could hear no sounds of people working outside. There was only the sound of two mouths chewing and the warbling of the birds.

  When they had both finished eating, Joeun swiftly cleared away the dishes and spread out a thin blanket on the sleeping platform next to Elin. “I was up most of the night so I’m going to sleep now. You should rest today, too. If you need to use the outhouse, it’s to the right when you go out the door.” So saying, he rolled himself up in the blanket. In no time at all, Elin heard the sound of muffled snoring.

  Lying on her side, she gazed around the house. From somewhere out back, she could hear the lazy bleating of a goat and the squawking of hens. There was no tolling of a bell to summon the Stewards to a gathering, no sound of Saju’s younger sister crying, no dogs barking. The sounds and smells of this morning were not at all like home.

  Mother… she whispered in her mind. What should I do now? But her mother was gone. There was no one to guide her. Even if she went home, her mother would not be there…

  Fear washed through her at that thought, making it hard to breathe.

  Should she ask this man to lend her money and find her way home? Saju’s mother was there in the village. Maybe she could live on her own if Saju’s mother helped her.

  She frowned. She tried to imagine what life would be like, and something sour and bitter rose like bile into her throat. She saw her grandfather’s face, the expressions of the Stewards, as they watched her blood-soaked mother being tossed into the swamp. Even though she was one of them, they didn’t try to help her. Just the thought of meeting her grandfather made her want to vomit. She could not stand to see his hard, unfriendly face or to listen to his unkind words. Those who had stood by and let her mother die lived in that village… not her mother.

  Elin threw an arm over her face.

  2 THE FLIGHT OF THE QUEEN

  “You’re looking much better today,” Joeun said as he came in from his morning chores. “Yesterday your face looked like a shriveled apple plucked from the pond, but today you’ve got a rosy glow in your cheeks.” He smiled. “Just goes to show, kids get sick quick, but get well even quicker… Would you like to try going outside today?”

  Elin nodded. She was tired of staying in bed.

  “Your clothes are dry. Go ahead and put them on. If you go out in my pajama top, Tochi and Noro will laugh at you.”

  Elin looked at him in surprise. She had not been aware that anyone else lived in this tiny house. “…Tochi and Noro?”

  “My horse and goat.” He held out her clothes, which had been hanging on the wall. Elin blushed. Those weren’t her clothes—they were her pajamas! She had been running about in pajamas ever since she had overheard Saju’s parents talking. She was mortified by the thought.

  “What’s the matter?” Joeun asked. He did not seem to realize they were pajamas. Without looking up, she took them wordlessly. She slipped on the trousers and belted her top over them. The faint scent of Toda made her heart lurch, but she pressed her lips firmly together.

  “Here, take this,” Joeun said, passing her a hat of woven straw. A thin net-like cloth was sewn to the brim, and Elin examined it curiously. Joeun picked a pair of gloves off the floor and handed them to her. “Put on the hat and gloves when we go out back. They’ll be too big for you, but better too big than too small.”

  “…What is this?”

  “It’s a shield to protect you from my little treasures. I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you anything more.” He winked and went briskly out the door. Elin followed obediently, hat and gloves in hand. Once outside, she gasped. Mountains so tall they seemed to pierce the sky towered in the distance. Just looking at them made her dizzy. They looked too enormous to be real, a stark contrast to the gentle green hills rolling before her. Against the blue sky, their white-crowned peaks stood out sharply, caressed by wisps of cloud that looked like snow spray.

  “Is this your first time to see the Afon Noah, the Mountains of the Gods?” Elin nodded. “That’s the wall that separates the world of the gods from the world of men. It’s said that the ancestors of the Yojeh once lived on the other side.”

  Elin stared wordlessly. So that’s the Afon Noah. She could hardly believe it. Here, right before her eyes, was the range built to shut humans away from the world of the fearsome gods that peopled the myths called the Afon Kahlo, tales which her mother had told her so often. So it really existed.

  “Your eyes are going to pop out of your head if you keep staring like that,” Joeun laughed. He rested his hand on her shoulder. “They’ve been there since the beginning of the world. They’re not going to disappear just because you take your eyes off them for a moment. You’ll have plenty of chances to look at them all you want. But first, come and see my treasures.”

  She followed him behind the house and through a copse until they emerged into a large, sunlit clearing. Beneath the broadleaf trees stood several boxes resting on brick platforms. Their tops were covered with straw. Bees buzzed around the boxes in the rear, but Elin could not see any around one box that stood in the sunlight. Joeun frowned and stopped. He laid a restraining hand on her arm and said, “Wait here.”

  The words had no sooner left his mouth than a black smoke-like cloud rose from the strangely silent box. But it was not smoke. It was bees: tens of thousands of them—an astounding sight. They rose into the air, circling slowly like a black cloud, their wings thrumming.

  “Oh no. This is bad…” Joeun muttered. “They’re swarming! Did I miss a queen cup?”

  The cluster circled toward them with a deafening drone. Terrified, Elin was about to fling her arms over her head and crouch down on the ground when Joeun grabbed her elbow. “Don’t make any sudden movement. Put your hat on very slowly.”

  Teeth chattering and hands shaking, Elin raised her hat to her head. Her stomach cramped, and she broke into a cold sweat, certain that the bees would attack her at any moment.

  “Don’t worry,” Joeun whispered. “As long as you stay still, they won’t hurt you.” Humming loudly, the thick blob hovered over their heads where they stood motionless and then moved on, the air vibrating with the sound of millions of tiny beating wings. Elin’s skin crawled. Finally, the lead bees came to rest on a thick tree branch, and the others followed suit. Soon a huge squirming lump of black and yellow enveloped the branch.

  Joeun let out his breath slowly. “It’s all right now. You can move, but slowly, okay?” Elin, too, had been holding her breath and now she let it go. “Once they’ve landed on a branch like that they’ll stay there for at least half a day. As long as there’s no aggressive movement nearby.”

  While she listened to Joeun explain, Elin stared in fascination at the squirming lump. Now that she was no longer afraid of being stung, the huge swarm’s strange behavior excited her curiosity.

  “Why did they stop on that branch?” she whispered. “Does it have nectar?”

  Joeun responded with a smile in his voice, “No. They didn’t gather there to collect nectar. They’ve discarded their old hive and are traveling with the queen to find a new home.”

  Elin looked up at him in surprise. “There’s a queen in there?”

  “You saw the big bee that flew at
the back of the swarm, didn’t you? That’s the queen bee. When the hive becomes overcrowded, she leaves a young queen bee larvae in the original hive and takes about half the worker bees with her to find a place to build a new hive.”

  There was something not just frightening but incredibly powerful about the swarm’s perfectly ordered flight. “So will they go on a long journey?” Elin asked.

  Joeun laughed wryly. “I certainly hope not, because if they do, I’m going to starve. I clipped the wings of the queen bee to prevent them from getting away. It’s not really fair I suppose but it will keep her from flying very far. Come give me a hand, will you? I have to get a new beehive ready.”

  Elin followed him back to the west side of the house and noticed a stable and a goat pen. The animals watched with interest as they approached. That must be Tochi and Noro, she thought, although she wasn’t sure which was which. Joeun continued around the house to a shed on the north. The uneven coats of thick white plaster on the walls announced the workman to be an amateur. The building was full of tools and beehives, and the shelves on the north wall were lined with clay jars. It was dimly lit by a single window with a raised shutter, and the air inside was cool.

  Joeun picked up an empty box and frowned. “Oh, that’s right. This is the only beehive left.” He gestured with his chin to the back of the shed. “I’m going to carry this box outside. Could you bring that black jar for me?” Elin turned in the direction he indicated and saw that there was, indeed, a small black jar on the shelf. Instead of a lid, it appeared to have handles.

  “Is that… a sprayer?”

  Joeun looked at her in surprise. “Yes, but how did you figure that out?”

  Her mother had used one much like this to spray ointment onto the Toda when their hides had been scratched. In her mind, Elin saw her mother’s white hand gripping the sprayer. She followed Joeun outside without answering, carrying the sprayer in both hands. They walked as far as the meadow. There, Joeun rested the hive on the ground and took off the lid. He pulled out many boards, each covered in the same strange pattern. Noticing that Elin was staring at them, Joeun explained, “These are comb-frames, where the bees live. Give me that sprayer, please.”

  She handed him the contraption and he began spraying something onto the frames and into the box. A sweet, slightly fermented fragrance wafted toward her. She had expected it to smell like medicine, and she looked at Joeun in surprise. “It smells good!”

  He smiled. “It does, doesn’t it? I just hope the bees think so, too.”

  “Oh! I see! You’re scenting this hive so that the bees will want to live in it. Because bees are attracted by the smell of flowers.”

  He looked at her curiously. “How old are you?”

  “What?… Oh. Ten.”

  “You certainly don’t talk like a ten-year-old.”

  She blinked at him. Then she blushed, recalling that Saju had once told her, You talk like a grownup.

  Seeing her flush, Joeun said, “I wasn’t criticizing you for being cheeky or anything, so you don’t need to feel bad. To tell the truth, I’m quite impressed.” He smiled again and shook the sprayer. “But unfortunately, you guessed wrong. This isn’t what will encourage them to live here. It’s the sugar water that I’ll spray in here after that will draw them in. I applied this particular concoction for a different reason. Can you guess what it is?” Then he laughed. “I’m betting you can’t.”

  Elin stood beside him, holding each frame as he sprayed it, but all the while she was wondering why he needed to spray everything with such a strong scent. Did he want to make them drunk? As she pondered this question, a certain scene leapt into her mind. When an old Toda had died and a young Toda was being moved into the same Pond, her mother and the Stewards had smeared the gluey membrane of the dead Toda onto the young one.

  “Uncle Joeun…” she murmured.

  “Yes?”

  “Did another swarm of bees live in this box before?”

  Joeun’s hands stilled, and he looked at her. “…Why do you ask?”

  She said uncertainly, “I thought that perhaps you were trying to erase the scent of other bees with this spray…”

  He groaned. “I don’t believe it! You guessed it. That’s exactly what it’s for, to erase another smell.”

  Elin’s face lit up in a smile. Raising his eyebrows, Joeun grinned back. “Ah. You smiled,” he said as he began wiping the frames again. “You look very happy when you smile, you know.

  “You’re right. Each hive of bees has its own distinctive scent. That’s how they can distinguish members from their own hive. But I’m not erasing the smell of bees. I’m erasing the smell of their bitter enemy. A very stinky toad called a gosu got into this box. By the time I noticed, the bees had already fled. I washed and dried the inside, but bees are very sensitive to smell.” He brought the tip of the sprayer close to her nose so that she could smell it. “This liquid was distilled from nafalan flowers, which honeybees love. Interestingly, it even calms bees down when they’re excited. So I thought I’d try and see if it’ll cover up the smell of the gosu… But still, I’m impressed that you guessed what it’s for. Were your family beekeepers?”

  Elin shook her head and looked down at the ground. Silently, Joeun chided himself. Idiot. There you go again… Just when the sun starts to shine you go and cast a cloud over it. For this child, any talk of her family was like touching a tender wound. He knew this, but his curiosity kept getting the better of him, making him say one thing too many. That’s a bad habit. I’m too impatient. She was extremely sharp. If he tried to pry, she would notice immediately. The best way to put her at ease was to let it be and forget trying to find out more.

  “Right then. It’s time to put the frames back in. Give me a hand, will you?”

  Elin nodded.

  3 ROYAL JELLY

  How on earth is he going to get that swarm into this box? Elin wondered. While she watched with keen interest, Joeun put on the gloves and netted hat that she handed him and carried the box to the tree, placing it under the branch that was now black and swollen with the escaped bees. He had sprayed the inside of the box with sugar water and put some honey in it as well. He went back to the shed once more and this time returned with a large bag, a hatchet and a step.

  “If you want to watch, that’s fine, but don’t come any nearer than this,” he said. Then he walked over to the branch and placed the step beneath it. Stepping onto it, he raised the large bag slowly up toward the squirming mass of bees.

  He’s going to put them in that bag! She cringed. Surely that would anger the bees. They might attack him.

  Slowly the bag enveloped the black lump. The branch was fairly high so that even when standing on tiptoe Joeun could not capture the entire mass. This did not seem to concern him, however, for when most of the bees were in the bag, he quickly pulled the mouth closed and raised his hatchet. Bringing it down where the bark was clear of bees, he chopped the branch off and let it slide into the bag. The remaining bees buzzed about excitedly, but Joeun paid no attention. Throwing the hatchet to the ground he climbed off the step with the bag in his hand and pressed the mouth of it against a small slit in the bottom of the bee box.

  From where she was standing, Elin could not see clearly, but it looked like the bees were crawling out of the bag and into the box. Even so, many still buzzed in the air. She shrank back, keeping her eyes on Joeun. For a long time, he stood watching the entrance to the box. Finally, he put the bag down on the ground and walked slowly over to her. “We’re done. Let’s have some lunch.”

  “What?” she exclaimed in surprise. Could it really be all right to leave the beehive entrance open? “But won’t they escape?”

  Joeun laughed. “No need to worry. Come back after lunch and you’ll see. They may be flying about outside right now, but by then they’ll be snug inside the hive.”

  Elin looked at the box. Bees were crawling in and out of the hive, and many more were flying about in agitation. They had flow
n off in search of a new home. Wouldn’t they run away rather than be shut up in a box once again so close by? They might be enjoying the sugar water right now, but once it was gone, wouldn’t they leave?

  Joeun put a hand on her shoulder. “If it bothers you that much, why don’t you stay and watch? I’ll go back to the house and call you when lunch is ready. But you’d better come when I call… And don’t go near that box.”

  Elin nodded. Once he had left, everything seemed suddenly very quiet. There was only the sound of the breeze rustling the branches and the bees humming. She watched them move. Then suddenly her eyes opened wide. The bees that had been flitting back and forth around the box began to drop toward it, one after the other, as if drawn by a magnet. When they reached the entrance, they folded their wings and streamed inside, as if to say, “We’re home.” Before she knew it, not a bee was left. She stared at the box, spellbound. This, she thought, was true magic. What on earth could they be doing in there? They had set off on a journey to a new land. Were they now consoling each other, saying, “I guess this place will have to do”? And how did that huge black swarm fit in there? She longed to peek inside…

  Joeun had told her not to go near the hive. But as long as she didn’t touch it, if she just peeked inside that opening without startling the bees, perhaps she could see something. She glanced behind her and then moved stealthily toward the box. It was very quiet. She crouched down and peered inside the long narrow slit that served as an entrance. It was so dark that she could not see anything. Or maybe she could. Something was moving. Was it bees? She could hear a whirring of wings. What were they doing?