The Book of Heroes (19 page)

The four nameless devout who had carried in the casket stood motionless, rooted to the spot. They were staring at the Archdevout, who in turn was standing so still he might have become a statue. His eyes, almost hidden by his wrinkles before, were open wide, and his whole body was trembling. Yuriko heard a strange noise; his teeth were chattering.

“What’s wrong?” Yuriko asked, taking a step toward him.

“Stay there!” the Archdevout practically shouted at her. Yuriko shrank back as though stung by a whip.

He wasn’t even looking in her direction. His eyes were fixed on the empty book in his hands. His hands shook as he gripped it, and the jet-black cloth slipped and fell to the floor.

“What is this?” Yuriko thought she heard him say, though his voice was more a moan than proper words.

The Archdevout began shaking his head. He shook it several times, then let it sink down until his forehead touched the cover of the Hollow Book.

Fear crept over Yuriko.
Something’s not right. Something happened that he wasn’t expecting.
She had never seen any of the devout look so flustered. Or show any sort of emotion like this at all.

“Archdevout, what is it?”

Instead of answering, the Archdevout and the four with him looked up, their faces taut and pale. They looked poised to run, like frightened rabbits, looking back toward the entrance to the dome.

Something was very wrong. Yuriko stood, struck speechless at this turn of events. Next to her, the Archdevout shouted into the darkness.

“You there! Show yourself!”

Something in the darkness shivered. Yuriko blinked. She saw it again—a rippling in the gloom that gradually took the form of a small person.

Black robes, bare feet, a youthful face
. A nameless devout. But his face is different!
He wasn’t old like the Archdevout, or like the four who had come carrying the caskets.

“P-please forgive me,” the new arrival stammered. “Forgive me!”

With great speed, the devout ran down toward the center of the dome and before Yuriko knew what was going on had prostrated himself before them and began bowing to the ground, begging for their forgiveness. Yuriko stood for a moment, wondering what that strange slapping sound was, when she realized it was the sound of his forehead hitting the floor.

“Hey.” Yuriko took a step closer. “Hey! Don’t hit your head like that. Doesn’t it hurt? You’ll get a bump!”

At her voice, the new devout shrank back and looked up. The thin light streaming from the top of the dome reflected off his bald head.

His face did look a lot like the faces of the four nameless devout already standing there. This new devout looked very similar to the devout who had greeted her when she first arrived in the nameless land. Like him, this new devout had dark, bushy brows. But this new arrival’s face was even younger than that. He looked no older than fourteen or fifteen. Maybe something like the other devout might have looked a few years ago.

Are they brothers?

The Archdevout stood, the Hollow Book in his hands, and walked over to the fifth nameless devout.

“You are before an
allcaste.
You will kneel.”

The young devout prostrated himself again. Two of the four who had carried the casket stepped forward now, and each grabbed one of the young devout’s arms and dragged him across the floor to the Archdevout’s feet.

“There’s no need to do that,” Yuriko said, stepping over to the Archdevout. She knelt by the prostrated new arrival. She half expected the Archdevout to stop her, but he did not. The others stood by silently, saying nothing.

“Did he do something wrong?” She looked up at the Archdevout standing above her. “I think he’s asking for you to forgive him—look how he’s trembling!”

Yuriko put her hand on the young devout’s shoulder, feeling a hardness beneath the cloth.
Why, he’s all skin and bones!

Yuriko barely had time to register her surprise when something most unusual happened. The glyph on her forehead glowed brighter than ever before. For a split second, the light was projected on the far wall of the dome, creating a perfect replica of the glyph there.

The light shone on the young devout’s face, one arc of the circle reflecting across his forehead before it disappeared.

“What was that?” Yuriko whispered, looking at her hand. She tried touching her forehead. The glyph had gone out. Nothing happened.

With both hands, the Archdevout lifted the Hollow Book and pressed it to his chest directly over his heart. Standing still, he closed his eyes. When he opened them, he held out the book and pressed it to the forehead of the young devout, right over the spot where Yuriko’s glyph had appeared.

“
Allcaste,”
the Archdevout said, his voice sounding weak to her ears.

“Yes?”

“This one will be your servant.”

Yuriko turned to the young devout. He was bowing again to the floor, thrusting his head in between his arms, as though he could hide from her sight that way.

“The Hollow Book has chosen him. You will take him with you,” the Archdevout said, his shoulders slumped. The book shifted in his bony fingers so that Yuriko thought it might drop to the floor. But instead, the Archdevout sank to the floor so fast it looked as though the strength had left his legs. The book fell into his lap.

“Show us your face,” the Archdevout commanded. “You will touch the Hollow Book with your hand,” he ordered the young devout.

The devout stood, trembling slightly, and took the book. He held it gingerly, as though it were a hot coal that might burn him.

The Archdevout narrowed his eyes and frowned, peering into the young devout’s face. He leaned forward, coming so close to his young double their foreheads nearly touched.

But then the Archdevout straightened himself. He spun around and walked away so quickly he might have been fleeing.

“Take him with you. He will serve you,” the Archdevout said to Yuriko, facing away from both of them. “He is your slave. He will do as you ask and aid you in any way that he can. Take him with you!”

For a moment, Yuriko couldn’t decide whether the Archdevout was commanding her or pleading with her.

“Wait, wait, please,” the young devout said. His voice sounded both earnest and pained.

For a sliver of a moment, Yuriko looked into his dark black eyes. He blinked, then shuffled away from Yuriko across the floor, the book clutched to his chest. He bowed again, to her this time. “I will aid you,
allcaste.
This I swear. Please, take me with you.”

The Archdevout stood looking away. The four nameless devout stood with their heads down, hands clenched into fists by their sides, as though at any moment they expected a great weight to fall down upon them from the sky.

“All right,” Yuriko said at last. It didn’t sound like the sort of request one refused. And besides, had she said no, she was afraid the young devout would burst into tears. “Maybe you could stand up?”

He stood, trembling, the Hollow Book clutched in his hands.

“Might I take a look at that?” Yuriko asked. She was about to reach out for it when the Archdevout shouted, “No!”

Whirling around, he snatched the book from the young devout’s hands. Immediately, the four nameless devout rushed between Yuriko and her new servant, forming a wall between them.

“The
allcaste
must never touch the Hollow Book, never!” one of them said, grabbing her by the shoulder. Yuriko reeled.

“You may not even look upon it from too close a distance! Your glyph will be defiled!”

“Okay, I get it! I understand!” Yuriko shouted back, brushing off the nameless devout’s hands. “I just wanted to see it, that’s all. I’m sorry!” At the sound of her voice, the four nameless devout seemed to recover from their panic. One of them had pushed the young devout to the floor and was still sitting on him.

“Could you let him up? You’re going to crush him,” Yuriko said, catching her breath. The nameless devout stood, helping the younger to his feet.

“I apologize for this,” the Archdevout said to Yuriko, his voice still shaky. “For you to see or touch the book is taboo.”

“I understand. I’ll be careful.” Yuriko turned her back on the nameless devout. “I’ll just look the other way so you can put the Hollow Book away—hide it or something.”

She heard the rustling of robes and the soft padding of the nameless devout’s feet as they moved across the floor of the dome. It took every ounce of her willpower to resist turning around. She knew what the word
taboo
meant, but it lacked any real punch for her. The pull of curiosity was far stronger, and heedless of logic.

She really did wonder about the book.
If only I’d gotten a better look at it
. It was just so different from what she had expected. For one thing, she hadn’t seen anything on the cover, certainly nothing like the glyph on her forehead. It had just been a plain, leather-bound book.

And the way the devout had reacted…

“Archdevout?” Yuriko asked, without turning.

“Yes,
allcaste
?” the Archdevout replied. His voice had regained its calm.

“Is the glyph on the Hollow Book? It’s supposed to be, isn’t it?”

The Archdevout paused for breath before responding. “Yes, the glyph is on there.”

“Are you sure?”

“Does it concern you?”

Maybe what I saw was the back of the book?

“Archdevout, why were you so startled when you saw the book the first time? You looked almost frightened.”

Behind her, the rustling of robes ceased.

“Didn’t you say something like ‘What?’ Like you were shocked?”

The Archdevout did not answer her question but informed her that the Hollow Book had been returned to the casket. “You may turn around again,
allcaste.
”

Yuriko turned slowly. The Archdevout was standing next to the young devout, the other four a respectful distance behind them.

All trace of confusion was gone from their faces. Their expressions were soft and calm. In the gloom of the dome, their pale heads floated like white balloons over their black robes.

Only the young devout’s eyes seemed ill at ease. His eyes darted back and forth.

“The Hollow Book is damaged,” the Archdevout said then. “It reveals the violence with which the Hero broke its bonds. That is why I was so surprised. I apologize. It was most unbecoming of the nameless devout,” the Archdevout said, hanging his head. “I beg your forgiveness,
allcaste.
”

The four nameless devout standing behind the Archdevout joined him in bowing to her.

Yuriko and the young devout stood there stupidly, like children unable to follow a grown-up conversation. A beat later, the young devout hurriedly bowed his head.

His eyes met Yuriko’s on the way down.

Yuriko smiled at him, though she couldn’t say why. It just seemed to rise naturally to her face.

The young devout’s lips opened slightly. He was looking at her strangely. Yuriko couldn’t remember anyone ever looking at her like that. It was as though she had become a rainbow. The young devout was looking up at her in awe, like she was a rainbow in the sky.

Yuriko blushed, then giggled despite herself. Behind the young devout, the Archdevout and the others stood.

“My servant,” Yuriko said softly, walking over to the young devout. She bowed once before him, crisply. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Yuriko.”

CHAPTER FIVE

The Hunt Begins

Yuriko found herself once again standing on the small knob of a hill overlooking the plateau where turned the Great Wheels of Inculpation.
Next to her stood the Archdevout and the young nameless monk who had so recently become her servant. Dawn was beginning to break in the nameless land. Light crept warily over the eastern horizon as a wavy white line hovering in the distance.

“When departing and returning to this land, it is best you make this spot here your point of reference,” the Archdevout counseled her. He had an air of dignified authority about him again. Gone was the momentary confusion she had seen in the Dome of Convocation. “The magic glyph upon your forehead will work to take you to other places, but you will be safest if you keep close to the Great Wheels, the origin of all stories.”

“You mean there’s a chance I might get lost?”

“Yes, though it is very slight,” the Archdevout admitted with a faint smile. “Not that you would be in any danger, but I fear much time might be lost were you to find yourself on an accidental visit to some far-flung region.”

The young devout had been silent, his mouth stuck in a crooked little frown. He was shining with sweat from the very top of his bald head down to the bridge of his nose, and seemed as stiff as a board. Whenever Yuriko happened to so much as glance in his direction, he would practically leap back and lower his head. Yuriko got tired just watching him. She decided to try to avoid looking at him at all.

The Archdevout handed Yuriko some black robes, much like the ones the nameless devout themselves wore, and told her to put them on over her regular clothes. “These are vestments of protection. They protect the
allcaste
and strengthen the workings of magic. They will be of much aid to you on your journey, I think.”

Yuriko put on the inky black robes. They smelled of dust. The hem of the robes was long, reaching down to the knobs of her ankles. The sleeves went all the way down to her fingertips. When she put on the hood, it nearly covered her face, making her entirely incognito and very suspicious-looking.

Before she began her search for the Hero, the Archdevout explained, she must first return home. “You will look for clues. You must find what it was about the King in Yellow that bewitched your brother so.”

So much that he swore allegiance to him. So much that he pressed his forehead to the floor.

“You must find out into which hole in your brother’s heart the King in Yellow crept.” In order to do that, the Archdevout explained, she would have to discover exactly what Hiroki had been doing before the incident and his disappearance. “You must find out what thoughts crystallized in your brother’s heart in those days—they will be the clues that guide you toward him.”

In other words, she needed a motive. “But how am I going to find that out?” Who could she ask? Who would tell her? Her father? Her mother? One of Hiroki’s teachers at school?

The Archdevout nodded. “When you return to the Circle, the correct path will open before you. The books in the reading room will aid you of their own accord. Do not despair, your allies are many.”

His voice was full of confidence, as though to drive all doubt from her mind. Yuriko found her mouth mimicking her servant’s frown.
Oh,
she realized,
he’s not unhappy. He’s just tense.

“Do not forget, you’re not the same person you were before you visited our land. From now until the moment your role in the story is complete, you will not be the eleven-year-old girl Yuriko Morisaki. You are the
allcaste
. You are not bound by considerations of age, gender, or your former position in society. Thus, I think it well that you choose a new name. A name befitting your new status.”

Yuriko brightened. Choosing a name sounded like fun.
I can pick something cool, like—

The Archdevout interrupted her rising enthusiasm. “The soul resides in the name. You must not choose something too different from your original name or you risk alienating the eleven-year-old soul you have carried with you thus far.”

Suddenly it didn’t sound as fun.

“Yuriko, Yuriko, Yuriko,” the Archdevout muttered thoughtfully. “How about U-ri?”

That’s not so bad. It sounds like my old nickname.

Yuriko—now U-ri—turned to the young devout. “I think you need a name too. I can’t just call you ‘servant’ all the time.”

The young devout hesitated, glancing toward the Archdevout.

The Archdevout sighed. “The nameless devout must not be named while they set foot in this land,” he explained. “You may name him once you have returned to the Circle. No, you
must
name him—for he is not permitted to name himself.”

U-ri agreed she would.

An early morning breeze blew across the top of the hill. The hem of her robes fluttered. Some distance below them, the Great Wheels turned. “So, I should go, shouldn’t I? No point in staying here, really.” U-ri felt suddenly afraid. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest. “How do I do this again?”

Something about touching the glyph on her forehead…

“Take your servant’s hand,” the Archdevout instructed her, lowering his head reverently. “So that he may pass with you into the Circle.”

U-ri glanced over at the young devout. He appeared to be drenched in sweat again.

“Your hand,” U-ri said, offering her right hand to the boy. With jerky movements, the young devout reached out his right hand too, then hastily exchanged it for his left, which he then withdrew as well to wipe it on the black cloth of his robes over and over.

U-ri smiled. “It’s okay. I’m sweaty too.” She grinned and took his hand. It was dry as a bone—softer and warmer than she had expected.

U-ri placed her left hand on her forehead and closed her eyes. She spoke clearly, carefully enunciating each word. “Take us back to Ichiro Minochi’s reading room.”

The magic circle on her forehead shone with the cold light of the moon, instantly illuminating her face.

Then U-ri and her new servant vanished, leaving the Archdevout standing by himself.

For a while, the Archdevout stood there silently in the dim light of dawn. Tiny droplets of morning dew on the grass caught the brightening rays of the sun and began to sparkle like fragments of stars scattered across the ground. As they left, the torches around the turning wheels below burned down to stumps and flickered out one by one.

The Archdevout looked up. His aged body shimmered and then reshaped itself into the familiar appearance of the other nameless devout—the youthful monk U-ri had met first upon her arrival.

Without a sound, he began to walk down the hill.

It happened just as it had when she first came to the nameless land. U-ri opened her eyes, and she was back in the reading room in her great-uncle’s cottage, surrounded by stacks of books. She was standing in the center of the large magic circle she had drawn on the floor.

“You’re back!”

It was Aju.

U-ri’s heart leapt with joy. Even though she hadn’t known the book for more than a few days, he already felt like an old friend.

“Aju! Aju, where are you?”

“Right here!” A red light blinked furiously from the corner of one of the stacks of books up against the wall. The book looked like he was practically jumping to get her attention.

“Aju!” Yuriko ran over and hugged the red book to her chest. “I was there, Aju! I went to the nameless land! I even went inside the Hall of All Books! And, and—” U-ri’s throat burned and her voice choked with a sob of relief. “I saw the Great Wheels! I heard them turning, and their song. And the nameless devout were there, pushing them, pushing…”

Tears flowed down her cheeks, though she couldn’t say whether they were of relief or sadness. U-ri pressed her face to Aju’s cover and cried.

“We know. We know what it’s like over there, all of us,” Aju said gently. There was a warmth to his red glow. “I see you’re wearing vestments of protection.”

U-ri looked up, wiping her face with one sleeve. “Yes, the Archdevout said they were special.”

“They are. They hold a very powerful magic. They’ll protect you from danger, little miss. So you probably shouldn’t blow your nose on them.”

U-ri—who was indeed about to blow her nose—laughed out loud. “I have a new name, Aju.”

“Yes, as an
allcaste
. What are you called?”

“U-ri.”

“A good name. Has a nice ring to it.” Aju glowed once brightly, making U-ri squint against the light. “And you have a servant, I see. Won’t you introduce him to us?”

The young devout was still crouched in the middle of the magic circle, perfectly still though his eyes flashed like those of a captured beast. When Aju mentioned him, he jumped like a frightened rabbit, scurried over to the door of the reading room and knelt there, pressing his hands and face to the floor, and stammered, “Forgive me! I-I am the Lady U-ri’s servant!”

His voice was shaking and squeaky. He was sweating again too. It was morning in this world. The early sun came in through the window, making his head glisten brightly.

“You don’t have to be scared,” U-ri said, turning to him. “These books here are my friends. Just like the Archdevout said—”

“That’s right,” Aju agreed. “Stand and greet us. If you insist on cowering every time you meet someone, you’ll only be a bother to your master.”

The boy devout managed to look up and immediately began to apologize.

Still holding Aju in her arms, U-ri found a place for the two of them to sit among the piles of books. “Here, sit down. Let’s catch our breath for a moment.” U-ri sat on the stepladder she’d used before. For the younger devout, she motioned toward a small stool hiding between two of the teetering stacks of books. He went over and sat down with a wary look at the stool, as though it might bite him.

“So, you have brought back a servant,” said another familiar voice. U-ri turned around, looking for the Sage.

“Is that you, Sage? We’re back,” U-ri announced herself.

There was no response.

Even though the reading room was gradually brightening, the morning light did not completely drown out the paler light of the books. Except now the room looked less like a planetarium and more like a hidden cave filled with glittering jewels.

“Where is the Sage?” U-ri asked, standing. Eventually, she heard him speak from directly ahead of her, high up on one of the shelves.

“Lady U-ri, what will you name your servant?”

His voice sounded very somber to her, not that he was ever as lighthearted and easygoing as Aju was. But U-ri thought she detected something else in his voice—he sounded displeased. The young devout seemed to have noticed it too, for he ducked his head again and drew his legs up onto the stool.

“I’m still thinking about that,” U-ri replied, her own voice growing more serious. “Is something wrong? Was I not supposed to bring him back?”

The Archdevout hadn’t said anything like that. He said the Hollow Book had
chosen
the young devout. She had to bring him back—she didn’t have any choice. U-ri explained all this, wondering what could be bothering the Sage.

Again there was no answer. The Sage’s deep green light winked slowly, as though he were deep in thought.

“Are you angry?” U-ri stood and began to move the stepladder over toward the wall. She thought it might help if she could pick the Sage up and talk to him directly.

“I’m not angry. Please be seated, Lady U-ri.”

She noticed that the Sage was even more polite than he had been before—it was almost embarrassing to have everyone calling her “lady.”

“I am not angry. It is only that the nameless devout are, as a rule, never to leave the nameless land. That one would break away and join you as your servant indicates most unusual circumstances—circumstances of which I believe you have not yet been informed.”

The young devout bowed his head even deeper. The collar of his robes shifted, revealing part of one emaciated shoulder.

“Circumstances?”

From U-ri’s lap, Aju spoke. “If it was decided in the nameless land that he should go with her, then I don’t see what the problem is.”

“Silence, Aju,” a female voice said. “You’re still young. There is much you do not understand.”

U-ri looked at Aju—she sensed that he returned her gaze, or would have, were he human.

“Tell us then,” the Sage inquired of the young devout, “why is it that you have come here with the Lady U-ri?”

U-ri felt as though the weight of every book in the room had become a heavy silence, pressing down on her head. She heard a sound—the young devout’s teeth were chattering. U-ri immediately felt sorry for him.
Why is the Sage being so harsh?
She felt like she was looking at herself a few days before. She remembered how frightened she had been, how sad, how she had curled up in a ball and clenched her fists and trembled.

“I-I was…” the young devout’s throat was dry, his voice constricted. “I have lost the right to be one of the nameless devout.”

U-ri’s eyes opened wide.
Nobody told me anything like that!
“What do you mean?” she asked before she could think better of it. The nameless devout flinched back as though he had been pricked by a needle. U-ri’s words seemed almost physically painful to him. “I’m sorry, it’s okay. Don’t be frightened. I’m not angry. It’s just, I’m starting to feel like there are a great many things the Archdevout didn’t tell me. And I’m starting to wonder what’s going on. Aren’t you all?” she asked the books around them, but there was no response.