Chapter 21: Starting Over
Chapter 21: Starting Over
SOMETHING rammed into Unen’s stomach within seconds of her realizing she had fallen into the raging river. The impact knocked the air right out of her mouth, leaving her gasping as water rushed around her.
Remembering Hereh’s warning to never let water into your lungs, Unen barely stopped herself from breathing in. Relentless force continued to shove something long and flat into her abdomen—or more accurately, the surging current was pushing her into the object. Wrapping her arms around it, she clung for dear life to the log-like object.
Getting close to the limit for holding her breath, the back of her throat started convulsing for air. Knowing it’d be the end of her if she opened her mouth, Unen thrashed her legs and arms, clambering her way inch by inch up the log toward the light.
Before long, her face broke through the water’s surface. Fresh air rushed into her chest in a massive wave, causing her to wheeze. Tightening her arms against the pressure of the water, she swung her head around while sucking in shuddery breaths.
Unen was clinging to one of the bridge piers that had been carved out of a log. The bridge girder was right above her head and the whitecaps of the muddy stream were rushing all around her.
I have to let everyone know I’m safe and where I am immediately! Unen raised her voice over the torrent to shout the names of Irena, Mouru, and Ori in order.
“She’s below us!”
She heard Ori’s voice at a slight distance over the flurry of footsteps.
Unen looked up at the backside of the bridge girder and strained her voice to inform them of her situation, “I was able to grab hold of a bridge pier somehow!”
“Stay put! I’ll save you right now.”
“Oka—”
Something hard slammed into Unen’s shoulder before she could finish the syllable. Taken by surprise, her grip on the girder loosened. By the time she realized a piece of driftwood hit her, she had been peeled away from the pier by the surging current.
Instantly, muddy water blotted out the boundless blue sky. She managed to inhale one last deep breath a second before her head was pushed under water again, but, jostled by the rushing water current, she couldn’t tell which direction was up. Rocks, sticks, and other solid objects incessantly crashed into her body from all directions. For a mere second, she felt her feet touch the sand on the river bottom, but the sensation disappeared faster than it had come. She raked her hands through the water for something to cling to, but only hit a rock, breaking her nails and cutting up her fingers instead.
Am I going to die here? Unen clenched her fists and almost simultaneously felt the Murmur reverberate in her chest.
The water current steadily lost its surging force and the light shining through her tightly shut eyes gradually grew brighter.
Unen’s knees hit the riverbed just as her sense of up and down reoriented itself. Right when she thought the waves were rolling over the top of her hair, the water’s surface sunk lower and her head popped out above it.
There was a tremendous howl of wind, and small splashes were smacking Unen in the face. Nervously opening her eyes, Unen found a wall of muddy water right in front of her.
Her chest, followed by her waist, appeared above the murky water from where she sat disconcerted on the riverbed. Then, the riverbed of algae and sand was entirely exposed to air.
The river water had split to the left and right, slightly above where Unen sat as if held back by an invisible wall. The wall of muddy water had created a spindle-shaped space around Unen, dividing the river in half.
Unen choked and choked again on the spurts of splashes pouring down on her from above, getting water into her mouth and nose. As she gagged, the reality of her situation came to her. The ridiculous wall of water standing at one meter in height all around her—had been created by the fearsome power hidden within wind.
Just as she was wondering why the wall to her right suddenly lost its shape, she noticed Ori dive into the water and kick hard to reach her. He pulled on Unen faster than the water could close in on her, swiftly put a looped rope around her waist, and held her to his chest with his left arm.
Muddy billows swallowed Unen from her head down. The water current swept the ground out from beneath her feet, and she was washed away by it again.
But this time, her face surfaced right away. Ori’s arm around her waist was keeping her head above water.
Ori swam for shore with Unen in one arm. She realized another rope was attached to hers, tied around his waist and stretching toward the shore. At the other end of the rope pulled taut under the waves was Irena and a tree at the bottom of the bridge. Several unfamiliar people were also there assisting her.
Finally, Ori arrived at the shore. Rising from the water, he laid Unen on the ground and flopped face-up on the grass panting.
Cheers erupted from where Irena stood.
Unable to wait for her coughing to stop, Unen squeezed out through gasps for air, “Thank…you…for…saving…me.”
“Save…your…thanks…for Mouru…” Chest heaving under his chaotic breathing, Ori shakily raised his arm and pointed a shriveled finger at the bridge. “I couldn’t have…done anything to help…if not for his…spell.”
Unen searched for Mouru with strained eyes.
Irena was holding hands with unfamiliar men under the tree rejoicing over their success. Yet another man was holding the reins of their pack horse. And beside him, Unen watched Mouru limply collapse onto the ground.
***
THEY decided to rest under the trees near the bridge. The four men who had assisted Irena gathered around the open-air fire with them. They had been walking slightly behind Unen’s group when Unen had tumbled into the water, so they lent a hand during the rescue by pulling on the lifelines and steadying the pack horse.
Leaving the tea brewing to Irena, Unen hastily pushed together a bed by spreading her blanket in the shade, a few trees away from the fire. Bunching up the top portion of the blanket into a makeshift pillow to support Mouru’s head, Ori laid him down.
Apparently, Mouru couldn’t even sit up on his own; he had drained all of his strength with that powerful spell. From what Unen learned later, he had used up a ton of magic to restrain the surging water current right after she had fallen into the river. Immediately following that spell, he cast another to split the muddy water around her. A great deal of power had been required to manipulate the sheer volume of water with wind.
Unen and Ori shared the task of piling up bags around Mouru so he could sit up without falling over. Once Unen finished stabilizing his position, she sat back on a corner of the blanket and thanked him formally.
“Thank you very much for saving my life.”
With a voice weaker than the buzz of a mosquito, Mouru whispered, “You’re very welcome. I wouldn’t be able to sleep easy if you died on me now.”
“Why?” A question out of pure curiosity—not sarcasm or cynicism—burst from her lips.
Half-buried in the blanket, Mouru weakly raised an eyebrow at her. “‘Why?’ Do you really mean that? I don’t think this is one of those things that needs a deliberate explanation.”
“Isn’t it more convenient for you both if I’m dead?”
Mouru’s eyes wavered at her question.
I knew it. I was right. Unen bit her cheek.
However, instead of answering her question, Mouru beckoned his partner closer in a thin voice, “Hello, my man Ori? Has your brain checked in today? Didn’t you promise me you would tell Unen today for sure?”
“I couldn’t clear people away the way I wanted.”
“Clear people out of the way? You don’t have to take it that far. You could’ve just whispered it to her in a corner like we are now. What’s the problem with that? Hold on, what the heck were you two talking about during lunch then?”
After a slight hesitant pause, Ori mumbled, “I offered to teach her how to ride a horse.”
“HUH? Where did horseback riding lessons come from?” Both of Mouru’s eyebrows shot up with his hoarse voice.
Seriously, what led him to randomly bring up the horse? Unen joined Mouru in studying Ori’s face.
Out of nowhere, Mouru moaned as if the reason had finally clicked for him. “Please don’t tell me…you were trying to use that as an excuse to talk alone with Unen?”
Startled by the conclusion that had never crossed her mind, Unen turned reflexively toward Mouru, then spun back to Ori.
Sulkiness broke through Ori’s deadpan mask.
“Aaah, sheesh, you just used up what was left of my energy. I’m going to sleep now. I’ll be sleeping for a bit, OKAY? Things got awkward because of you, so it’s your job to fix it.” After jabbing Ori with those words like a whining child, Mouru pressed his eyes shut and fell fast asleep without moving a centimeter.
Unen pushed to her feet, careful not to wake him. Ori slightly adjusted the location of one of the bags and also stood up on the other side of his partner.
“…What exactly did you make more awkward and complicated? What is it you want to tell me that requires other people to be out of the way?” Unen glared at Ori with burning resolve.
Ori’s expression remained as flat as ever. “I want to clear two misunderstandings,” he said abruptly. “I can’t speak for our predecessors from three years ago, but Mouru and myself are after Hereh to hear his defense more than to condemn him.”
He had to be out of his mind to think Unen would immediately take his words at face value after he’d grimly gone on about disturbing things the other day, like making Hereh atone for his terrible transgressions and whatnot.
Unen defiantly placed her hands on her hips and inhaled deeply to puff her chest out to decrease their size difference. “Aren’t you going to kill him if he resists?”
“We’ve been told to prioritize our safety over everything else. Is Hereh a violent man who’d come after our lives?”
Could the man who had always been so docile, who had never raised his hand, and rarely ever shouted, be capable of taking Ori and Mouru’s life? No, never.
Quickly realizing the answer to the question, Unen quietly sighed. Then she recalled that on the turret Ori had said, “To be clear, we haven’t received orders to kill him. However, we have been told it’s on the table depending on the circumstances.” While what Ori had said hadn’t been wrong, it also hadn’t gotten the right connotation across compared to what he was saying now.
Whether he noticed the deep lines in her brow or not, Ori continued right over her thoughts, “The second misunderstanding I need to clear with you is about our mission to prevent secret knowledge from spreading. We don’t plan on harming you. If possible, we would like to seek your peaceful cooperation.”
I wish you had told me that sooner rather than bring up some horse, Unen muttered deep within her soul.
Purposely turning her expression grim, she tore into his remark. “You’re telling me I have to cooperate with you if I don’t want to be watched?”
“We will…be watching you,” he plainly asserted, then shook his head as if in a panic over his own words. “Ah, no, it’s not that…we will be watching you. We want to confirm…” He thoughtfully considered his next words, then faltered, “…er…see through to the end what and how much you know. To the extent that we can, that is…”
Unen really couldn’t hold back the loud sigh from escaping her this time. “You said you want to clear the misunderstandings I have, but it’s not that I was confusing what you said, but that you suck at explanations, you know?”
“Sorry,” he apologized without making excuses.
With impeccable timing, Irena shouted, “Hey!” and waved at them with a kettle in her other hand. “Tea is ready. Want some?”
“Thanks. I’m coming now,” Unen answered, and turned back to Ori once more just to be sure. “You’re done talking now, right?”
“Yeah.”
For now, it seemed that Ori and Mouru weren’t hostile toward Unen. They also didn’t appear to have plans to slaughter Hereh on the spot either. Unen spun around, her body light from having the weight taken off her chest.
But then Ori had to go and make a tiny noise. “Ah…”
“…What now?”
Let’s clear up as much as possible here and now. Determined, Unen turned back to Ori and met his usual serious expression.
“About my offer this afternoon…to teach you how to ride a horse…I meant it.”
Unen desperately steadied herself from having the rug pulled out under her once again.
“Th-Thanks. Then, I’ll take you up on that later.”
Ori quietly nodded, a slight, satisfied bend to his lips gave the barest hint of a smile.