The Book of Heroes (38 page)

U-ri remembered the voice shouting for her to stay away.
“You must not come any closer!”
the voice had said.

“Or maybe it wasn’t you but your glyph they didn’t want getting any closer. In any case, we won’t be able to use magic to get any nearer to Katarhar Abbey than we are now. If you don’t believe me, just try. We’ll be knocked out of the sky as sure as the sun rises in the morning.”

U-ri decided she would give that one a pass. She didn’t fancy slamming into any more invisible walls anytime soon.

“But what about Ash and Sky? Did they fall somewhere too?”

“No idea,” Aju squeaked, his face looking as stern as a field mouse’s could. “We might’ve been wrong to trust him as much as we have.”

“You mean Ash?”

The mouse nodded, his beady red eyes glowing brightly.

Maybe he’s mad.

“I wonder what he’s after.”

“What he’s after? Isn’t he a wolf?”

“Just because he’s a wolf doesn’t mean we can trust him, U-ri. He might be working for the enemy. He could be a spy!”

A spy!
U-ri hadn’t even thought of that. She almost laughed, then stopped herself. Aju was dead serious.

“But, you know, I think Ash tried to save me when we hit that barrier. Didn’t you notice, Aju?”

Aju frowned, and it wasn’t hard for her to read his expression. He
had
noticed it.

“Besides, if he was planning something, why mention Katarhar Abbey to us at all? I’m sure he’s right. There’s a clue there that will help me find my brother.”

“How do you know? He could’ve been lying.”

“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.

“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.