Brave Story (113 page)

The four tensed, looking around, trying to determine the direction from which the strange whistle came. On top of the city wall? Beyond the mountain of rubble? Hidden in the night grasses?

Just then a cloud moved away from the moon, and the night brightened around them. Something small and swift darted under the clear moonlight, slicing through the wind.

They heard the sound of wings flapping nearby. But before they could react, a bird of pure white appeared suddenly, perching on Wataru’s shoulder.

“Now, now. No need to be so startled,” the bird said, its red beak snapping open and shut.

“Wh-what’s that? A bird?!” Meena practically shouted in surprise, forgetting where they were. Zophie slid behind Kee Keema’s back. The waterkin’s big mouth was wide open.

“Why it’s me,” the bird replied, and the next moment was enveloped in a cloud of white smoke. Wataru leaped back.

Wayfinder Lau was standing before him.

For the space of several seconds, no one said anything. Wayfinder Lau stood with his jaw firmly shut, obviously expecting someone else to break the silence.

“Well, say something,” the old man said at last.

Wataru’s jaw moved, but no words came out of his mouth.

Wayfinder Lau’s long eyebrows lifted, then sank. “Is this all the greeting I get? I would think such a reunion deserving of a bit more fanfare.”

“F-f-fanfare?” Wataru squeaked. His heart was doing somersaults in his chest. “Wayfinder Lau? What are you doing here?!”

“What, this old coot is the Wayfinder?” Kee Keema snorted.

“This is the guy who guides all the Travelers?” Meena asked incredulously.

Wayfinder Lau lifted his staff and gave Wataru a sharp crack on the head. “You ask me why I have come? I came because you called for me! But if you’ve no need of me, I suppose I’ll be on my way.”

“I-I called you?”

“You wanted to know where the last gemstone might be found, didn’t you?”

At once, a palpable tension spread over Wataru and his friends’ faces.

“You’d tell me?” Wataru asked, his voice cracking. His heart did another somersault, refusing to settle back into place.

“If you have the will to continue your journey, then I shall,” the Wayfinder said almost casually, looking up at the night sky. “Yet you must hurry, or the demonkin will pick up your scent for sure. Now is no time to tarry.”

Suddenly, time lurched back into motion. The clock was ticking. Wataru felt a chill run down his spine. “Tell me! please!”

Now that he wanted him to hurry, Wayfinder Lau stopped, staring long into Wataru’s eyes. Wataru remembered when he first met the old man at the Village of the Watchers. Then, as now, the Wayfinder had looked at him long and hard, as though judging him, measuring his worth…

The way he’s looking at me now, it’s even harsher than when I first came here. He’s measuring me on a different scale. Have I become heavier somehow? Is the old scale not big enough to measure me anymore?

“Will you confront Mitsuru again?”

“Huh?”

“Listen up, boy. I’m asking if you plan to confront Mitsuru—if you’re ready to face him.”

Wataru looked back at Meena’s face, then up into Kee Keema’s eyes. “I am,” he answered at last. “I’ve pretty much already been doing that for a while now.”

“It won’t be like it was before,” Wayfinder Lau said, tapping at the ground with the butt of his staff. “You see, the fifth gemstone, the one you need to transform your Brave’s Sword into the Demon’s Bane, is none other than the very same Gem of Darkness that Mitsuru has already claimed. Though there may be two Travelers, there is only one final gemstone.”

Then how am I supposed to get it? Mitsuru’s already left. Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?

Wayfinder Lau watched Wataru’s eyes, reading his thoughts. His staff connected with Wataru’s forehead once again, just as it had in the Cave of Trials.

“It will not do to make such an ill-mannered face at a Watcher, boy. Yes, the final gemstone you need is in Mitsuru’s hands. Therefore, should you wish it for yourself, you will need to take it from him. Understand?
Take it from him.
”

Up until now, Wataru’s competition with Mitsuru had been a kind of parallel race. He had never had to challenge him directly. He had never tried to take something away from him.

Why does the last challenge always have to be the hardest?

“Then I have to fight him. I have to fight him and win,” Wataru said, halfasking, half-telling himself. Wayfinder Lau said nothing.

You can win
, someone said. For a moment he couldn’t tell who it was. It was a voice he had never heard, high, yet firm, and full of resolve.

It was Meena. Her eyes glimmered in the reflected light of the crescent moon. “You can win. I know you can, Wataru. You will win. You have to go.”

How can you be so sure?
Wataru felt his heart shrink.
I couldn’t even draw my sword when we were standing on top of that golem. I can’t even win an argument with Mitsuru. How can I win a fight?

Meena hadn’t seen any of that. She hasn’t seen the weak me.

“You will go even if you cannot win. You will go because you must. If you do not know this in your heart, I will not open the way for you.”

Wataru looked up, into the Wayfinder’s eyes.
An old man’s eyes, wrinkled and teary. How does his gaze skewer me like that, like a knife going right through my heart?

Though the old man’s mouth was closed, his question rang in Wataru’s mind.

—What will you wish for at the Tower of Destiny? What do you wish for most, right here, right now?

What do I wish for most? What?

Wataru could hear Kutz’s voice as though she were standing right next to him.

—You’re a Highlander. You swore an oath to defend Vision. If you would break that oath, you aren’t fit to wear the firewyrm band.

Wataru looked down at the band, still circling his left wrist. He touched it lightly with his fingers.

What do I wish for most?

Then he saw the meaning behind the Wayfinder’s question. He knew what he was searching for. How could he not know? It was a straight path—there could be no stepping off. But once he chose that path, he would never be able to choose another.
Am I okay with that? Is that what I want? Will I not regret it? Will I achieve what I set out to accomplish in the first place?

Charity and wisdom, bravery and faith, all in the sword.

It isn’t my destiny that has to change.

It’s me.

Wataru looked Wayfinder Lau straight in the eye. “I’ll go. I’ll confront Mitsuru and take the Gem of Darkness from him. I have to go to the tower. Wayfinder, open the way for me.”

Chapter 52
Wataru Alone

A single column of light rose into the night sky.

Even the moon seemed surprised, its light becoming focused as if it were squinting in disbelief. Below, the clouds stopped in their rolling path for a moment. Only the Blood Star maintained its cold composure, glittering red where it hung in the vault of the sky.

A pure circle of light lay upon the ground before Wataru. Just one step and he would be inside. Wayfinder Lau had opened the way for him.

The Wayfinder stood off to the side, leaning upon his staff, watching over Wataru. “Well, will you go?”

Wataru nodded. He turned to look at his friends, Meena and Kee Keema. They wore the same expression: something close to, but not quite, a farewell.

“You’re going alone, aren’t you,” Meena asked, but it wasn’t really a question.

Wataru found himself smiling. “Yeah. This time I can’t take you with me, no matter how much you kick and scream.”

“Was I always that difficult?”

“You were just trying to keep me honest, I think.”

“You kept me honest too,” Kee Keema said in all seriousness. “And somehow, I think you were always right, Meena.”

“Me too.” Wataru looked at their faces again and the realization hit. They were not heading out on a new adventure. This was farewell.
From here on, I go alone. No matter what lies in store for me, I’m leaving them behind.

He wanted to reach out, hold their hands, thank them. But he stopped himself short.
Not yet. I have to finish what I came here to do before thanking
them, before saying my goodbyes.

There was only one thing left to say.

“I’m going.”

Meena suddenly launched herself into his arms. She was shaking. “Be careful, Wataru. Please.”

“I will.”

Wataru hugged her tightly, feeling her warm, slender body in his arms. Kee Keema stepped over and embraced the two of them in a great big bear hug. “Sorry we can’t help you anymore.”

“No, you can,” Wataru said, reaching up to give Kee Keema a friendly punch on the shoulder. “We’re all still fighting for Vision—even if we have to do it in different ways now. We’re still helping each other.”

Meena’s eyes, wet with tears, opened wide. “Wataru—wait, what are you going to ask the Goddess?”

Wataru smiled, cutting her off. “It’s a secret.”

Wataru stepped back from his friends’ embrace. “Kee Keema!”

“Y-yeah!”

“Still think I’m good luck?”

“You bet!”

Wataru’s smile broadened. “Then let me wish good luck to you. May you win all your battles.”

Kee Keema clasped his hands together tightly. “Leave it to me! I’m going to fight those demonkin for every inch of this land, mark my words!”

Wrapped in cold and solitude, Lady Zophie stood apart from Wataru and the others. But when Wataru turned his eyes toward her, she said, “Forgive me.” Her fingers were intertwined, her head hung low. “It was I who told Lord Mitsuru the whereabouts of the Gem of Darkness. It was I who told him he could reach the gem if the seal upon the Mirror of Eternal Shadow were broken. And the result—was this.”

Her voice was choked with a tide of painful remorse welling up from inside her. The more she said, the more her words pressed upon her with greater and greater weight. “I never imagined this might come to pass. I merely—I sought to ease Lord Mitsuru’s sorrow. He seemed so sad, trapped inside the Crystal Palace—so lonely. It grieved me to see him so.”

Slowly, Wayfinder Lau spoke. “Mitsuru deceived you. He used you for his own ends.”

Zophie shook her head furiously. “I do not think that was the way of it. But—but the end result is the same. I did not perceive Lord Mitsuru’s thoughts. In my cleverness, I believed I knew his heart, yet I knew nothing.”

He didn’t think to offer her comfort, or to console her, yet for some reason, Wataru found himself saying, “You look very much like Mitsuru’s aunt in the real world.”

Maybe Wayfinder Lau would understand what he was talking about. Wataru turned his eyes to the old seer’s drawn face. He nodded knowingly.
Vision is a reflection of the Traveler’s heart.

“When I meet Mitsuru, I will tell him how he’s hurt you. I don’t know everything that happened between you, but I can see your pain for myself. I will tell him of your loss. He should know.”

Zophie buried her face in her hands.

Wataru reached out to touch Meena and Kee Keema’s hands one last time, then he smiled. Without a word, he stepped into the circle of light.

So bright.

The column of light went up higher, farther than he could possibly imagine. At first, he could see nothing. Then, while he counted off the rapid beating of his heart, the light coalesced before his eyes into a stairway leading up into the sky.

He began to walk. First one step, then another. Soon he was running, until his breathing became hard, and not once did he look back.

It was the same as it had been with Mitsuru. Wataru rose up the column of light, without hesitating, as fast as he could. He left the clouds below. He caught up to the moon and with the Blood Star. He continued upward, dwindling into the distance.

And then he disappeared.

“He’s gone.” Meena’s whispered words were lifted away on the wind. “I guess that’s goodbye.”

“No, it’s not.” Kee Keema shook his head. “You forget what he said. We’ve all got our own roles to play now. Sure, we may be apart, but this isn’t goodbye.”

Meena had thought so too, but suddenly her certainty fled. “That’s a lie! We can say whatever we want, but that doesn’t make it true. We’ll never see Wataru again. We’ll never even know what’s happened to him!”

Wayfinder Lau took a step toward Meena. “My dear kitkin. Do you truly believe this?”

The circle of light had begun to dim. Slowly, starting at the edges, it melted into the night.

“If Wataru reaches the Tower of Destiny and makes his wish of the Goddess, and should she grant it, you will surely know. I believe that was his promise to you.”

“Promise?”