Kassa felt someone shaking him and woke with a start.
“Kassa,” Gina whispered in his ear. Her teeth were chattering. “Wake up. Nahna’s waiting.”
“Nahna?” Kassa repeated sleepily. Nahna was a Herder — Yoyo’s mother.
“She threw a stone through the smoke hole to wake me up and told me to get you. She’s outside. She said to be sure you wear your kahl.”
Kassa rubbed his eyes and hastily pulled his boots from under the bed. The freezing air struck him as soon as he threw off the covers. Shaking with cold, he got ready.
“She said I couldn’t come,” Gina continued. “Kassa, do you think something’s happened to Balsa?”
“I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll go see. Hurry up and get back into bed. You’ll catch a cold like that.”
Kassa felt Gina’s anxious eyes on him. Taking her by the shoulders, he gave her a gentle nudge. “Off you go now. It’ll be all right. No matter what happens, I’ll stand by Balsa.” He felt the tension drain from her body.
He lowered the rope, climbed down from the smoke hole, and ran over to Nahna. Her eyes gave off a green light, and he started when he saw her face.
“Master Kassa. Toto the Elder needs you. Come with me. I’ll take you to Eagle’s Nest.”
“Eagle’s Nest? Now?” Kassa exclaimed. Eagle’s Nest was halfway up the crags and so steep and rugged that not even the mountain goats approached it. Kassa had never been there, but he was sure it would be impossible in the pitch dark.
“Don’t worry. I’ll guide you. But hurry.”
“Wait. I need to get a torch.”
“No torches. People will see us. It’s all right. Give me your hand and I’ll show you the way.”
Nahna was so short she only came up to Kassa’s navel, but she moved very quickly. He ran after her through the dark.
Balsa woke after sleeping for about an hour and followed Toto outside. Although her night vision was comparatively good, it was still difficult to climb the rocks just by the light of the stars. Thorny shrubs growing between the stones scratched her hands as she hurried after the Elder, who moved as nimbly as if it were midday. Suddenly he seemed to vanish between two rocks. A second later she heard his muffled voice. “The path slopes a long way down here. Be careful not to slip.”
The crevice slanted steeply downward and was barely high enough for her to crouch inside: It would have been impassable for a grown man. Still crouching, she worked her way along it for some time before her feet finally touched level ground. She ducked under the edge and came out into a strange grassy field. Massive rocks towered on every side, as if they were at the bottom of a deep bowl. A light flickered at the foot of the west wall. Beckoned by Toto, Balsa stepped onto the grass, but then stopped dead. She sensed others there — not just one or two, but a huge crowd. Yet when she looked around, she saw no one, just the tall black stones looming in the darkness.
“Come to the fire. I thought you might find it too cold here, so I lit one for you.”
A warm flame wavered above a pat of dried goat dung in the middle of a simple fire pit. Balsa sat down beside it and wrapped her kahl tightly about her.
“Let me share with you one of Kanbal’s secrets,” Toto said quietly. Perhaps due to the shape of the space, his voice echoed up the stone walls. “There are two kingdoms in the Yusa mother range: the kingdom above ground, which is ruled by the king of Kanbal, and the kingdom beneath, which is ruled by the Mountain King. We, the Herder People, once belonged to the kingdom below.”
Balsa breathed in sharply.
“We used to travel freely back and forth between the two kingdoms.” Toto spread his arms. “That’s why we’re so small. And we know how to see in the dark.”
He stood up and walked behind the fire pit. Balsa saw him bend down and take something from where the grass met the rock. He returned with a small leaf from which hung a drop of water. “Close your eyes.” She did as she was told and felt the cold leaf brush her eyelids. “Now open them.”
She opened her eyes and gasped. The world was transformed. Everything glowed bluish-white, as if bathed in moonlight. Even the hollows in the stones were lit up in stark relief. And crouching on the walls that towered above her, the Herder People stared down at her, like birds perched on rocky ledges.
“This has happened before,” she whispered. “When I was poisoned — when I saw the Titi Lan, everything looked bright, just like this.”
“That’s right. This is a togal leaf. If you boil a few of these down, you can make a deadly poison. But a drop from a leaf soaked in water isn’t poisonous. Long ago, we could see in the dark without this, but we spent so many years in the sunlight that we gradually lost our night vision. The Titi Lan, and others like them, still live in the caves under the mountains. It’s too bright for them outside during the day.”
He sat down at the edge of the fireplace and Balsa narrowed her eyes. The light from the flames was so intense that she could not look at him directly.
“I don’t know when we first began to live above ground, but it was long, long ago. The people of Kanbal were very poor. Sometimes they found precious gems in the river. Assuming that there must be a huge hoard of jewels under the mountain, they decided to invade. Unlike the world above, however, the land below was in utter darkness. Many Kanbalese perished there in the dark, dyeing its waters red with blood.
“A few men of greater mettle survived. When they saw the Mountain King, they realized just what they had pitted themselves against and begged forgiveness. The King pardoned them and promised to send luisha every few decades to these poor brothers who lived above ground. They thanked him and vowed that when they came to receive his precious gift, they would prove their sincerity to the Mountain King. This was the beginning of the Giving Ceremony.
“Our ancestors originally lived in the caves near the surface and worshipped the Mountain King. To the Kanbalese, however, we only showed ourselves as the Herder People, who tend the mountain goats on the crags. We hid the fact that we were subjects of the Mountain King in order to keep an eye on them. They’re a very hasty, greedy people. We were afraid that someday they might break their promise and again stain the land below with blood.”
Toto smiled suddenly. “But after so many years of living with them, we gradually came to love them. Now we think of them as our friends. They may be foolish and hasty, but they are also a kind, warmhearted people. We don’t interfere with their lives out under the sun. But if any of them should wander like a lost goat into the caves with some foolish idea of stealing the stones, it’s our duty to stop them.”