The Book of Heroes (45 page)

Dr. Latore and U-ri laughed. Ash’s head disappeared again, then his entire body burst from the mound. “What are you two doing, anyway?”

“Is everybody below all right?”

“Aye, that cavern is nice and solid,” the wolf replied, hands at his waist. His eyes went wide, surveying the damage around him.

“Yes, I had hoped it would hold,” the doctor said. Then, “Where is that mouse Aju?”

U-ri gasped. She had completely forgotten about Aju.

“Here, I’m here,” Aju squeaked from Ash’s collar. “What are you doing down there with the doctor, U-ri?”

“What are you doing up there in Ash’s collar? And where’s Sky?”

“He’s down below, calming some of the children. The cavern might have held, but the noise was something else!”

Aju left Ash’s shoulder, walked down his arm, then hopped onto the ground, tossing his nose in the air. “I escaped by a whisker, myself. When I saw that wind coming in, you can bet I made for the cavern entrance as quick as I could.”

“Leaving U-ri to her fate,” Ash noted.

Aju’s ears pricked up. “H-hey, that’s not fair. I mean, I would’ve been blown clear off the mountain—”

“Come here, Aju,” U-ri said, extending a hand. “Don’t you pay attention to what the cranky old man with the gray hair says.”

“I used a mage-glass to watch what was happening above ground,” Ash said, turning to look at the western horizon. The red setting sun was large between the hills. “It was in the capital, yes?”

Dr. Latore nodded.

“I’m sure many of the towns and villages along the high road were not spared either.”

“And Tato?”

“No idea,” Ash said softly. “Either way, there’s nothing we can do about that now. We’re not in the business of tending to survivors. We must leave for the capital at once.”

“Did you find out anything about Kirrick?” U-ri asked.

“No, that’s why we’re going to the capital. Besides, I’d like to see what’s become of the place. That plan unsuitable for you?”

Dr. Latore gently pulled on U-ri’s sleeve and whispered, “Don’t mind him. He’s irritated, and understandably so.”

The two stood and walked toward Ash. “I have heard,” the doctor said as they walked, “that some of Kirrick’s personal goods—armor and weapons and the like—were buried by Elem’s gravesite in the capital.”

“That story is accurate as far as I can tell. What’s more, it’s likely that more was buried there than just rusting metal.”

“Does this explain the attack?”

“It might.”

“You know, I’ve been wondering something,” U-ri cut in. “Remember how Minochi was saying that Kirrick’s body had been divided into eight pieces? Well, I was wondering how the body was divided. I mean, there is the head, two hands and two legs, and the rest of his body. But that only makes six. What about the other two?”

“Well, it ain’t pretty,” Aju squeaked, once again secure atop U-ri’s shoulder, “but my guess would be his eyes and his heart.”

“But that’s three pieces, Aju,” U-ri protested, swallowing her nausea at the thought of taking out someone’s parts like that.

“The pair of eyes are very small, so traditionally they only count as one,” Aju explained.

“To borrow Gulg’s words,” Ash said, “the Book of Elem was the key to the Hero’s escape. From this we can infer that the Hero possesses Kirrick’s memory—Kirrick’s mind forms the core of the Hero. And the energy of the vessels filling it are what gives it form.”

“Yet in order for the Hero to fully resurrect as Kirrick, it will require Kirrick’s corporeal body,” the doctor concluded. “It is the body in which Kirrick’s mind, and his fury, still reside.”

It again occurred to U-ri that when they talked about this Kirrick as though he were some distant legendary figure, they were talking about Ash’s half brother. Thus she was startled by what the wolf said next.

“Were I Kirrick,” Ash began, turning to stare with a stern face at the western horizon, “what would I want back first? What part of myself?”

U-ri and Dr. Latore both looked at their own bodies—their hands, feet, and their chests with hearts beating within.

Ash shook his head violently. “No, I’m a fool. There’s no point in playing guessing games, we’ll find out for ourselves soon enough.”

“I would want my eyes first,” said a voice. It was Sky, standing by the ragged hole that led down to the cavern.

“I would want to look upon the Haetlands as she is today with Kirrick’s eyes,” Sky said softly.

U-ri realized she was holding her breath. Everyone was.

Ash swiveled to face Sky. “Look upon it, then destroy it?”

“You would have to speak with him to find out what he intends. You should know that better than any of us, Master Ash.”

Sky stood straight as an arrow, his eyes fixed on the wolf’s. Gone was the meek, subservient devout. He put a hand to his own chest. “Let us go to the capital.”

For a moment, Ash did not reply. The two looked at each other in silence, and a feeling of dread rose inside U-ri. Inwardly, she frowned at herself.
This
is a moment for action, not for cowering!

The mark on U-ri’s forehead glimmered. Then she knew in her heart what she had to do—the glyph had told her, though not in words or images.

“We fly to the capital,” U-ri said, giving voice to the glyph’s message. Then, letting it guide her, she knelt upon the ground and took her palm from her forehead, lowering it to the rock below.

Where her palm pressed into the gravel, the rock began to glow. Lines of light spread from her fingers, brilliant bands, dividing and spreading as they formed a giant image of the mark she wore.

“The glyph will guide us truly.”

U-ri stood and motioned to Sky. He hesitated a moment, then ran to her, taking her hand.

“Dr. Latore?” U-ri called out.

“Yes?”

“I bid you well. Please await my return here.”

The doctor knelt amongst the stones and fragments of architecture scattered across the ground. He bowed his head and intoned, “May the protection of the Circle be with you.”

Ash stepped inside the magic circle’s ring to stand behind U-ri. “No falling off this time, rat.”

“Same to you!” Aju shot back, bearing his tiny teeth.

U-ri took a deep breath and closed her eyes, feeling the energy stream from the glyph up through her entire body.

They were flying once again in darkness. There were no glimpses of scenery such as they had seen on their first attempted trip to the Katarhar Abbey ruins. Just plain, uniform darkness rushing past.

Yet there was a presence in the darkness, filling it. Some giant creature was there with them—and U-ri could hear the breathing of a thousand people, maybe more. And whispering and shouting, but much to her irritation it was all too distant for her to make anything out.

She wondered why the trip was so different this time.
Is it because the Hero’s strength is growing?
The great creature’s presence was such that it drowned out all others. The darkness became thicker, more dense, until U-ri felt like a tiny fish pushing its way through a deep-sea current, the glyph upon her forehead her only guiding light.

If this darkness truly does spring from the Hero, then it can’t be all evil. The Hero has a good side, after all.

The Hero was true and just. A positive force in balance with the darkness of the King in Yellow—the other side of the coin. So there was no need to categorically fear the darkness, she realized. She would simply have to look through it until she found the light.

And there was another thing she shouldn’t forget. Hiroki Morisaki was somewhere out there in this darkness. No matter how enamored he had become of the King in Yellow, no matter how unlucky his fate as the last vessel, U-ri was sure that his heart still yearned for the good side of the Hero.

Maybe if I call to him…Hiroki!

Again and again, she called out to him in her heart, as she had called him so many times before, when their lives had been more peaceful and happy.

Whenever she called him, Hiroki would answer. Sometimes grumpily, with a “Now what?” or a “Not again!” But sometimes with true concern. “What’s wrong, Yuriko?” And sometimes they would laugh together. Other times, he would get angry on her behalf. They thought through problems together and worried together. They lived together, brother and sister. Why should things be any different now?

I’ll find you soon, I promise!

U-ri opened her eyes and came out of the darkness, onto the ground.

“Whoaaa!” Aju squealed, clinging to her hair. “Where the heck are we? Why are we so high up?”

He was right. It seemed they had landed on top of a rickety wooden frame of some sort, a good thirty feet off the ground.

“We’re at a checkpoint,” Ash said, landing lightly on the structure beside them and looking down. “There are several along the high road to the capital. This is the watchtower at the first checkpoint from the city gates. We’re standing atop it.”

U-ri spotted a wide, dusty thoroughfare beneath them. It went past the tower, winding off into the distance through brown hills. There were scores of people on the road. Some had stopped, their carts standing still, their horses stomping at the ground, looking up at them.

“Which way to the capital?”

She couldn’t see any palace. The road was full of people, though in places the clouds of dust hid them and the twilit sky from sight.

“You think they’re refugees?”

Everyone on the road was heading in the same direction. Some people seemed to have run from their homes with only what they had on and their children, while others led carts piled high with belongings. They
were
refugees. She had only seen them in movies before now, but these were definitely the real thing. U-ri felt the strength go out of her legs.

Ash leaned from the edge of the watchtower and called out to the people on the road below, “What happened to the palace?”

An old man shifed the weight of a large sack upon his back to look up. “Where’d you come from?”

“The ruins of Katarhar Abbey. That wind passed through and turned the trees to sticks.”

The old man’s face was black with soot. Even from their height, U-ri could see that not only his face, but his entire body, was covered in grime.

The rest of the people had begun to move again. No one had time to wonder about groups of strange travelers suddenly appearing on watchtowers. The old man backtracked against the tide until he reached the foot of the tower.

“Nothing good’s come to the palace,” the old man said. “That’s for sure. It’s like another war’s started.”

“Was the palace destroyed?”

“Can’t say. Can’t say at all. There was a lot of dust, and a lot of smoke. Took my cart with it, it did.” The man trembled so violently that his bag slipped off his back. He staggered.

“It disappeared, that’s what it did! Just up and disappeared!” a young woman pushing a baby before her in a cart called out in a shrill, high voice. Her face was pale beneath the grime, her eyebrows raised in fear.

“What, the palace?”

“That’s right. It’s gone. Gone! Only thing left’s a big hole in the ground.”

The top of the watchtower had begun to creak ominously and sway to one side. Ash leapt lightly down to the ground below. The tower continued to tilt, so U-ri and Sky jumped as well—the vestments protected her from the fall, and Sky seemed to be able to handle it on his own. In a breath they were swallowed up by the crowd of travelers, jostled this way and that, until Ash reappeared, leading two horses behind him.

“Where’d you get those?”

“Don’t ask,” Ash replied. He snatched up U-ri and threw her up into one of the saddles, then handed the reins to Sky. “Ride or walk, I don’t care, just follow. We’re leaving!” Ash straddled the other horse and gave its flank a kick with the heel of his boot.

“R-right,” Sky replied, his lips pale. Getting one foot in the stirrup, he managed to mount U-ri’s horse behind her. “Hold on tight, Lady U-ri.”

“You sure you know how to ride one of these things, Sky?” Aju squeaked from U-ri’s collar.

“I am sure I do not, but I will try.”

“Try?” U-ri and Aju shouted together, but Sky had already reached around her and grabbed the reins. “Hyup!” he barked, and the horse sped forward.

The tide of refugees heading in the opposite direction only seemed to swell as they made their way toward whatever was left of the capital. Travelers spilled over the edges of the road, forming lines along the sides. Here and there, a cart had stalled, and men stood around it, arguing. Once, right before U-ri’s eyes, a magnificent dappled black horse reared, threw off its rider, and ran off into the fields. She had caught only a glimpse of the horse’s eyes as it reared, but it had been enough to see the fear in them.

Thanks to the general confusion, Sky’s horse was able to weave its way against the flow of the crowd, maintaining an even distance behind Ash’s lead. Up ahead, Ash stopped frequently, occasionally to whisper something into his horse’s ear.

“Ash, is something wrong?” U-ri called out.

He turned and looked back at her through a cloud of dust. “You can’t hear it?”

Without waiting for her response, he turned and pointed in the direction the palace should have been—there was nothing but blue sky there now. Just then, a passing man stopped by Ash and tugged upon his cloak.