Inside it was dim and chilly. Neither the few tallow candles placed in brackets along the walls nor the sun slanting through the small skylights could banish the shadows from the wide, high-ceilinged corridor. As he walked along the passageway, his boots echoing, Kassa could not help thinking how much warmer, brighter, and more comfortable his own home was.
The pungent smell of smoke assailed them as they entered the chieftain’s chamber, which likewise felt cold and cavernous. There was a huge fireplace built into the north wall, but even in the middle of winter the chieftain would only permit a small blaze during the day.
Kaguro stood up from a large chair beside the fireplace. “Tonno. Kassa. Welcome,” he said in a deep, rumbling voice. He had assumed the chieftainship at a young age due to his father’s untimely death, and he bore himself with great dignity. But where his younger brother Yuguro was like the sun to Kassa, Kaguro seemed like the dark night. He had a beaklike nose and closely cropped gray hair and beard, and an ugly scar ran from his right eye to his chin, the mark of the wolf that had robbed him of his eye and arm.
Before Tonno could speak, they heard two raps on the door and Yuguro entered.
“Kaguro … Oh, Tonno. Sorry. Did I interrupt you?” he asked.
“Not at all, Master Yuguro,” Tonno replied in an awed voice, looking back and forth between Yuguro and Kaguro. “I know how busy you must be, but if possible, there is a matter on which I wish to consult both of you….”
Yuguro frowned for an instant, but then nodded cheerfully and closed the door behind him. Tonno began to speak nervously. He must have gone over the story many times in his mind. While he occasionally checked a detail or two with Kassa, his explanation was clear and succinct.
Kaguro and Yuguro listened, expressionless at first. But when they heard that an unknown woman had bested the hyohlu they began to frown, and by the time his father had finished, they were both looking at Kassa incredulously.
“Tonno, I know you mean well,” Yuguro said with a smile, “but I’m afraid I can’t believe your story. I can’t help but think that Kassa made the whole thing up.” He fixed a stern gaze on Kassa, as if to say, You might fool your father, but you can’t fool me.
“Yes,” Tonno replied. “That’s what I thought at first too. Until I saw what the hyohlu had dropped when he bent over my daughter.” He pulled out a cloth and unfolded it. A blue light shone from his hand.
The chieftain and his brother caught their breath. Yuguro walked over and picked up the stone. “It’s luisha!”
The two brothers looked at each other for a long moment, then Kaguro returned his gaze to Kassa and his father. “If your tale is true, then there are a couple of points that puzzle me.” He stared at them as though weighing something in his mind before speaking again. “What I’m about to tell you is known only to those belonging to the chieftain’s line. But you are my younger sister’s family: Will you vow not to tell anyone else?”
After Kassa and his father nervously promised to keep the secret, Kaguro continued. “First of all, it’s unusual to see the hyohlu so close to the surface. Many people believe that children who disappear in the caves are eaten by the hyohlu, but we know that, in most cases, they simply get lost and can’t get out again, or they’re swept away by a stream and drown. The hyohlu are servants of the Mountain King. They would only harm someone from overland if that person wandered very deep into the caves and committed a great evil. Gina was probably so startled by the hyohlu that she stumbled and fell.
“But Kassa, you said that you took a torch into the caves, right?” Kassa nodded. “That was a very dangerous thing to do. The hyohlu hate fire, and they will try to extinguish a burning torch. Sometimes they inadvertently hurt or kill people in the process. If a hyohlu really did come up near the surface as you say — and I have no doubt that it did, if that stone fell off its body — then this may be the year the Gate to the Mountain Deep will open. If so, the king will issue his summons soon. But then our next puzzle is this traveler. You said she was a woman with a spear, right, Kassa?”
“Yes,” he answered, his voice catching in his throat. The gleam in Kaguro’s eye was terrifying.
“And she fought and beat the hyohlu?”
“Well, yes, but Gina and I couldn’t actually see what was happening, because everything went pitch black when the torch went out. But I could hear them moving and their spears whistling through the air…. The only thing I saw was the glow of the hyohlu as it disappeared into the cave. Then the woman told us that it was all right.”
“And she led you through the dark out of the cave?”
“Yes.”
“She didn’t ask you to light the torch while you were in the cave?”
“No….”
Kaguro turned to look at Yuguro and frowned. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Yuguro looked stricken, his face white and frozen. He blinked and looked toward his brother. “Nothing. I’m a little tired from the journey. If you don’t mind, I’ll just borrow this chair.” He sat down heavily. “Sorry. I must be getting old. You were saying?”
Kaguro turned his gaze back to Kassa. “You said that she wore strange clothes and spoke Kanbalese like a foreigner.”
Kassa nodded, then he suddenly remembered the spear. “There’s something else. I caught a glimpse of her spear in the light of the torch, and I just realized that the mark on it was the same as the one on Master Yuguro’s spear.”
Beads of sweat broke out on Kaguro’s brow. He turned to his brother and muttered, “Could it be his spear?”
Yuguro stared at him without answering.