Chapter 34 S.O.S.
Meena held her arms at her side, and leaned toward Wataru. Her tail was dancing behind her.
“Look, the Mirror of Truth! It’s glowing!”
Indeed, a white light was spilling from beneath the collar of Meena’s short vest. With one hand, she grabbed the leather strap around her neck and fished out the mirror. “It’s showing something! I wonder what it is?”
The three of them looked into the mirror. It was indeed showing something. Or, rather, it was showing someone. He was wearing a white robe and carrying a staff in one hand. Was he a sorcerer? He was making some motions with his hands like he was trying to tell them something, but the image was too foggy to see anything clearly.
“It’s too bright out. Maybe if we went to the shade…”
“Wait, weren’t the starseers saying something about a break room in the basement of the observatory?”
Meena grabbed Wataru by the hand, and the three returned to the observatory. Once inside, they asked for directions.
The break room was simply furnished, with a round table, four chairs, and a single lamp. Kee Keema blew out the lamp. Now in total darkness, the Mirror of Truth seemed to glow even brighter.
The light opened, forming a circle like a lotus leaf in the air above the mirror. In the middle of that circle, a picture formed. It was the man from before, now in focus.
“Ah, Traveler!” He was looking directly at Wataru.
He’s talking to me.
The figure had on a long robe of pure white that reached down to the floor. He also wore a simple silver crown upon his head. The object he carried in his hand wasn’t a staff but something like a silver hammer with a long, slender handle. For a moment, Wataru found himself thinking of the statue of Cistina inside the chapel in Lyris.
“My voice has reached you at last, Traveler. What’s this? You too are a child, I see.”
The figure was a man, probably about thirty years old, maybe older. Whether it was the light streaming from his robe or the light generated by the image itself, Wataru couldn’t say, but the man’s face looked very pale, and it was hard to make out his expression. Oddly, though his voice sounded young, the hair above his crown was pure white. Even his eyebrows were white.
“Who are you?” Wataru asked, trying to hide the surprise in his voice. Was this some kind of spirit that lived inside the mirror?
The man in the white robe did not answer his question but instead transferred the hammer to his left hand, and placed his right over his heart. “Hear now the voice of our heart, Traveler. Please, you must help us. What little hope remains rests upon your shoulders.”
“Oy, oy, what’s this all about?” Kee Keema snorted.
“Our strength has weakened, and our remaining time slips through our fingers. Please, Traveler, you must save us.”
Wataru took a step forward, leaning closer to the image. The light from the mirror stretched from floor to ceiling, but walking near didn’t make it seem any brighter.
“What can I do? You want me to help you, tell me how.”
“Come to us. Come, and listen to our request. For the safety and peace of all Vision, come, please.”
The peace of all Vision.
He now had Wataru’s full attention.
“I cannot say much. My words dance empty and meaningless through the air. We are waiting for you here, Traveler. Come to us upon your wings.”
Then, the white-robed man disappeared. In his place, they saw another image.
Wataru’s eyes opened wide. Wait, that’s…
Shining spires between towering clouds of pure white. A bridge of rainbow light. A gray land in the heights, shrouded in glaciers.
The Undoor Highland! It was that same land he had seen for a moment while traveling with Togoto.
The image faded. The Mirror of Truth ceased its glowing, and the room returned to quiet darkness.
Stunned, the three stood there in the dark, gaping. From a nearby room, they heard the light snoring of a starseer taking a break from his studies.
Kee Keema lit the lamp.
“What was that?” Meena asked, holding up the mirror. She was staring at it as though she expected it to answer her question.
“The Special Administrative State of Dela Rubesi,” Wataru said. Meena and Kee Keema both jumped.
“Really?”
“How do you know that, Wataru?”
Wataru told them about his flight from Sonn to Sakawa. “At the highest point of the flight, I caught a glimpse of it. Togoto told me what it was.”
“Dela Rubesi…”
“So the man in the white robe lives there, you think?”
“It seems that way.” Wataru looked at his friends. “We have to go.”
Meena slid the mirror back under her vest. “I agree, but how?”
“W-wait a second now,” Kee Keema said, putting a big hand on Wataru’s and Meena’s shoulders. “Let’s think about this a moment. I don’t know if you should just believe what that guy said, Wataru.”
“Why not?”
“Why not…” Kee Keema hesitated. His long tongue whipped out and licked the top of his head. “Well, if that’s really Dela Rubesi we were seeing, that place is a haven for followers of the Old God. They’ve got connections to the Northern Empire! Surely you haven’t forgotten them!”
“No—though that is just a rumor.”
“Sure, it’s a rumor, but it’s dangerous,” Kee Keema muttered. “What if this is some kind of trap?”
“A trap?” Wataru was surprised.
“You remember those guys at the Triankha Hospital! They were going to kill you! If this fellow in white is one of them…”
Wataru certainly hadn’t forgotten the events outside Lyris. He’d never been so frightened in all his life.
“But it was the Mirror of Truth that brought the message. Do you really think the Mirror of Truth could lie?”
“Hrm…” Kee Keema’s heavy eyelids blinked. “I don’t know. But you’ve got to figure that the mirror is just a tool. Maybe it’s magic, but it’s a tool all the same. It doesn’t have a will of its own. And like any tool, someone might use it for evil.”
“You just don’t want to help anyone who believes in the Old God!” said Meena sharply.
Kee Keema winced, his long tongue licking the top of his head twice in rapid succession. “Whoa, hold on a second…”
The kitkin girl was mad. Sparks flew from her blue-gray eyes. “Isn’t that right? You talk about danger and traps, but that’s how you really feel. They could be in a whole world of trouble, and you’d leave them to die just because they don’t believe in the Goddess. That’s why you don’t want to go!” Meena stomped her foot down on the floor. “If Wataru says we go, I’m going with him. You can do what you want!”
Kee Keema wobbled backward away from the furious kitkin. Wataru stepped between them. “Meena, don’t be so angry. He’s just thinking of our safety. Please?”
“Th-that’s right. I’ll admit, I don’t much care for going to Dela Rubesi. But if Wataru says we go, then let’s go. I said I would be his companion, so I go where he goes. The decision is up to him.”
“Then you’re forgiven,” Meena said, suddenly breaking into a grin. “There’s no time to lose. Let’s get going!”
“But how do we get there?”
“Why, we’ll ask the karulakin to take us, of course. They wouldn’t turn down a Highlander.”
With all the recent commotion throughout Vision, the karulah, uniquely suited to deliver urgent messages and information, were understandably very busy. Communications between the starseers at the National Observatory and the USN Senate were a priority. That meant that many karulakin could be present in town at any given time. Meena was certain they could find some of them who would help.
“Then I’ll go ask where we can find some carrier karulakin,” Kee Keema said, charging up the stairs. Now that they had decided to go, he seemed overly eager to help. Meena watched him go with a smile.
“Maybe I was a little hard on him. I’ll give him a backrub later.”
Wataru barely heard what she said. In his head, he was replaying the events surrounding his close shave at the Triankha Hospital. And that reminded him of his dashing savior, Mitsuru.
He remembered something the man in the white robe said.
—You too are a child, I see.
It was a strange choice of words. Did that mean that somehow he knew the other Traveler to Vision? Had Mitsuru already answered the white-robed man’s call, and gone to Dela Rubesi?
If that were the case, then it meant Mitsuru hadn’t been able to help them. Is that why they were calling on Wataru now?
“What is it, Wataru?” Meena asked, looking into his eyes.
“Nothing,” he replied as he hurried up the stairs. There was no point thinking too much about it. They wouldn’t know what was going on until they were standing in Dela Rubesi.
The headquarters for the karulakin carriers was a terrace on the third floor. When they got there, three karulakin were resting their wings beneath a large white banner shielding them from the sun. The terrace was suffused with an overpowering stench. “Pardon me, I’ve just finished eating,” said one, picking at his teeth.
Lunch was, of course, gimblewolf meat. Wataru heard the soft sounds of Kee Keema quietly gagging behind him.
It fell to Wataru to voice their request, which he did, leaving out as many details as possible. The three karulakin listened attentively, craning their necks, until he was finished. “We understand,” one replied. “But we are not, at present, able to honor your request.”
“Is your need to go to Dela Rubesi perhaps related to the emergency summons from your branch chiefs?” another asked. “If so, there is nothing to hide. After all, we were the ones who carried that summons to all corners of the land.”
Wataru mumbled a vague answer in response. It was hard to claim that this request had anything to do with the fugitive at all. It probably wouldn’t even classify as official Highlander business, for that matter.
“In any case, even if we wanted to help you, we could not. Our wings cannot take you to Dela Rubesi now.”
The other karulakin nodded in agreement, their heads bobbing up and down.
“You will recall that when Togoto carried you to where you could see Dela Rubesi, it was to catch a rising current that crosses over all of the south.”
“Yes, that’s what he said.”
“But,” the karulakin continued, “for several days now, there has been odd weather near the Undoor Highland. That strong current you rode is no longer there. It has stopped.”
“That is not all, that is not all,” said one of the other karulakin, flapping its wings. “The clouds around the Highlands have swelled in size, and the temperature in the air above has dropped precipitously. No matter how strong our wings, in such weather we could muster only half our strength at best. In the worst-case scenario, we might freeze even as we flew.”
“This is no normal shifting of the air currents. We believe something is happening on the ground in the Undoor Highland that has caused this to happen,” another one said thoughtfully.
“At any rate, we cannot carry you. I apologize, but we must ask you to find other means.”
Wataru sighed. If even the karulakin—ever proud of their aerial prowess—said it was impossible, it probably was.
Unease began to seep back into Wataru’s consciousness. Something terrible was going on in Dela Rubesi, he was sure. That must be why the white-robed man was seeking his help.
“I understand. Thank you for your time.”
“I am only sorry we could not be of help.”
Wataru waved to Meena and Kee Keema, then turned. As he began to walk away, for no particular reason he thrust his hand in his trousers pocket. His fingers touched something hard and smooth.
What’s that? What did I put in my pocket? He fished it out and looked at it. It was shiny and crimson, glowing like a ruby—it was a scale.
The firewyrm scale! Wataru had completely forgotten his encounter with the dragon Jozo in the Swamp of Grief—and the scale he had received in return for saving the dragon’s life.
Wataru smacked himself on the forehead. He had never done that before, but he had always seen people doing it on TV. It seemed like the right thing to do.
“My! What’s wrong, Wataru?” Meena said, looking into his eyes.
“Karulakin sirs!” Wataru said, running back out onto the terrace. “You think a dragon would be able to fly to Dela Rubesi?”
The three karulakin looked at one another. “I would think a dragon’s wings could carry you there, even without a current. And cold is nothing to a dragon. Yes, I believe one could get you there without much difficulty at all.”
“If they can fly through the Stinging Mist, then they can certainly fly to the Undoor Highland,” another agreed.
Then the third spotted the crimson scale in Wataru’s hand. “My, my, my, what’s this?”
Wataru told the story of the scale. The karulakin watched him as he spoke, their beady eyes open wide.
“Then it is clear what you must do! You must make a wyrmflute out of that scale! Like us, a dragon is a proud-winged soul, strong in virtue and bravery. He will keep his promise to you, you can be sure.”
Kee Keema gave a big clap with his hands. “Then let’s get started making that flute!”
“How do I make it? Jozo said I needed to seek out a master craftsman…”
“We’ll go to Lyris!” Meena said, her face brightening. “You could ask Toni Fanlon! I’m sure his skill would be a match for that scale!”
The largest of the karulakin took a step forward with one long-clawed foot. “If you go to Lyris, it is on the way to my next destination. Were it just you, young Highlander, I could certainly carry you that far.”
“Excellent!” Kee Keema shouted. “Wataru, you fly to Lyris first. Meena and I will follow by darbaba. Shouldn’t take us more than three or four days to get there—and by that time Fanlon should have the flute ready! We’ll find a suitable place, call us a dragon, and wing it to Dela Rubesi together!”
Kee Keema was all ready to get their luggage for the trip, but another of the karulakin stopped him, a dark look upon his face. “Waterkin, and you, kitkin girl. You would do best to not go too close to Lyris. By order of the branch chief, Lyris has been closed off to all traffic, both in and out. You see, they have a problem between the ankha and the non-ankha in that town…”
“We know all about it,” said Wataru, clenching his hands into fists.
“Ah. Then you can guess how word of Halnera has pitched the community into strife. We’ve heard reports of rioting and arson—most directed at the non-ankha, it seems. I’ve heard that many of the other races living in town have been incarcerated.”
“Sounds like Branch Chief Pam’s style, all right,” Wataru said with a grimace. Apparently, Halnera had brought the ugly tension beneath the surface of Lyris out into the open.
“Young Highlander, you may be allowed inside, being an ankha, but your friends…I believe it would be best for you to arrange your rendezvous at a location outside of town.”
At the karulakin’s advice, the three decided upon the Great Marker Tree as their meeting place. The tree was a famous landmark for aerial navigation.
“You’ll have no problem finding it by darbaba, either. And it’s in the woods, so there’ll be plenty of places to hide if there’s any trouble.”
Wataru and the others began to prepare for the trip with great haste. As he packed, Wataru could feel the anxiety in him growing.
I hope Toni Fanlon is weathering the storm in Lyris.
And what about Elza?