He gently released Kaguro’s hand. “I suppose it’s impossible for you to understand how I feel. But Master Kaguro, trust me, for I speak as one of only two men left who have seen the Mountain Deep. If the Mountain King dies, Kanbal will perish with him.”
Silence blanketed the room.
Kaguro frowned and looked at Laloog. “But I just can’t believe that Yuguro is that stupid. It’s true that this time no one has participated in the ceremony before, but Yuguro traveled to Yonsa territory to learn all about it from you. Didn’t you tell him?”
“Of course I did. I explained everything that happens in the Darkness, but not what happens after the Spear Dance. That knowledge belongs only to those who participate in the Ceremony.” A bitter expression crossed his face as he looked at Kaguro. “You said that you can’t believe Yuguro could be so foolish. If I may say so, Yuguro is not a fool, but rather dangerously hard-hearted. His actions have made that abundantly clear, although I’ve realized it far too late.”
Kaguro scowled at him, the cleft between his brows showing starkly. Laloog gazed back steadily.
“As I said, I told Yuguro everything that happens during the ceremony. The fact that he has still gone ahead with this plan means that he didn’t take me seriously. And I would wager that he hasn’t told the other Spears what he learned from me either.” Laloog clenched his fists. “In fact, he has cleverly prevented them from learning anything. My grandson Dahgu has been kept so busy that he hasn’t been able to return to Yonsa territory for the last three years. Now I finally understand why.”
Anger and fear hung heavy in the room.
“Ex — excuse me …” Kassa’s father broke the silence. “Forgive me, but surely you can’t be suggesting that Kassa try to stop a scheme that clever Master Yuguro has spent so much time planning? Why, that’s …” He choked and then continued. “That’s impossible! I won’t let you do that to my son!”
“Father!”
Tonno gestured impatiently for him to be quiet. “If you’ll pardon me saying so, even if Master Kahm were to believe Kassa, he has no hope of stopping Master Yuguro either, let alone the king. And if the Musa and Yonsa clans should oppose the king, we’ll all be branded as rebels.”
Kassa had never heard his father speak so forcefully. Kaguro and Laloog stared wordlessly at his tanned face, now a dark red as he glared at them. Laloog grimaced and buried his face in his hands. When he lifted it again, everyone was shocked by his expression of despair.
“Then we’re lost, for the Darkness reads the minds of men,” he said. “When the hyohlu comes to the Spear Dance, the chamber is plunged into darkness. Within it wait countless other hyohlu, who peer into the hearts of the Kanbalese.
“Experiencing this in the flesh is completely different from hearing it described in words. Yuguro is a master at using words to manipulate people. He probably thinks that he can talk his way through this situation too. But the hyohlu aren’t so easily swayed. If they sense even a trace of enmity, they’ll attack instantly.”
The corners of his mouth twisted in a sad smile and his eyes were full of tears. “Yuguro will be slain mercilessly, we’ll fail to obtain luisha, and Kanbal will starve.”
Balsa gazed up at the ceiling with knitted brows. Then, taking a deep breath, she looked down at Laloog and said, “The ceremony chamber, just how big is it?”
He looked up and hesitated, then shrugged his shoulders. “The king, his nine Spears, and their attendants — about twenty people in all — form a circle along the stone walls of the chamber. The spearmen compete in the center of that ring. You’ll get an idea of the size if you imagine a space just big enough for twenty men to form a circle.”
“So even if there’s an army waiting outside, there’re only twenty men inside, right? Of those twenty men, how many would side with us if they heard your message?”
Laloog and Kaguro looked at each other. “I suppose Master Kahm and my grandson, Dahgu.”
Balsa frowned. “Just two. That’s nowhere near enough.”
At that moment, Kassa piped up. “Er, excuse me, but …” His face flushed beet red as all eyes suddenly turned toward him. He was so nervous that the top of his scalp went numb, but he forged on bravely. “Um … The evening before he left for the capital, I met Master Kahm. I don’t know how to explain this, but he seemed afraid. He may have been told how the ceremony is conducted, but none of them know what really happens in the Mountain Deep. Master Kahm isn’t a coward. I’m sure of that. So it made me think the other warriors must be nervous too.” Kassa faced Kaguro, unaware that he was gazing squarely into the eyes of a man he had never had the courage to even look at before.
“Master Kahm told me he was doing this to save Kanbal from starvation, as if he was trying to convince himself that he must risk his life despite his fears…. I’m sure that many others must feel the same way. If they’re afraid, they just might listen if they hear that I’ve brought a warning from Master Laloog, who actually knows what happens there.”
Tonno was staring at his son as if he were a stranger, but Kassa was so wound up he didn’t notice. “I think we have to chance it and hope that others will join us. My father said we might be viewed as rebels, but I don’t think this is the time to worry about that. I think it’s more like being faced with a herd of goats stampeding toward a cliff. We have to head them off before they go over.” He looked at Balsa. “I want to see my cousin Kahm one more time. Please let me go.”
Tonno grasped his shoulder. Kassa placed his hand on the hilt of his dagger and looked up at his father. Balsa remained silent, studying the expression on his face. She had thought him cowardly once, but now she saw an unexpected stubbornness. In this state he was likely to go to the Herder People and plead with them to take him even on his own.
She sighed. “Well, if you’re that set on it, I suppose we’ll just have to give it a try.”
Everyone turned to look at her in surprise.
“But in return, Kassa, you must promise me this. If you find that nothing you can do will change things, you must do as I say and run.”
Kassa hesitated a moment, but then he nodded.
“Do you promise?”
“Yes.”
Balsa looked at Tonno. “I’m still not sure what the inside of that cave is like, but if it’s dark, I may be able to help at least Kassa to escape.” As she said it, she saw her own death clearly in her mind. But for some reason, the idea of going to the chamber in the Mountain Deep did not bother her. She realized that in her heart she actually wanted to enter that Darkness in which Jiguro had danced with the hyohlu.
Tonno looked at her as if he did not know what to do. She gazed back at him. “I can’t tell you that I’ll bring Kassa back alive,” she said. “But I can promise you one thing. I won’t return without him.”