Balsa and Kassa left at dawn the next day. Tonno did not tell his family why Kassa was leaving, only that he was being sent by the chieftain on a confidential mission to the capital. Avoiding their worried eyes, he put his hand on Kassa’s shoulder and they left the house together.
It was a cold morning. Frost covered the ground and the frozen grass glittered in the light of the newly risen sun. They headed toward the cave where Kassa had first met Balsa. She was already there waiting for them with Kaguro and Toto. To their surprise, even Laloog, the Yonsa Elder, was there, using his spear as a staff. Kassa went to stand silently beside Balsa, his breath turning white in the frosty air. Toto gave each of them a goatskin knapsack.
“There are togal and yukkal leaves as well as laga in these bags. Remember never to light a flame in the caves. You’ll be able to see in the dark if you use the togal leaves, but there isn’t much you can do about the cold. If you can’t stand it, eat one of the yukkal leaves. They’ll warm you up from the inside, and you can rub them on your feet too.”
Toto grabbed Yoyo by the elbow. “Yoyo will lead you to the Yonsa clan. Other Herders will be waiting for you in each clan territory. They’ll give you more food.”
Kaguro stirred. “The ceremony chamber is at the bottom of the cave behind the king’s palace. It takes ten days even on horseback to reach the capital from here, but there’re only about five days before the ceremony starts. Are you really sure you can make it in time just by traveling underground?”
Toto grinned. “Don’t worry. Leave it to us.” Then the smile faded from his face and he looked intently at Balsa and Kassa. “When you’re in the caves, you may use togal. But don’t use it after you enter the ceremony chamber. Promise?”
“Why?”
“If you see the hyohlu’s true form, you can never return above land.”
Kassa felt his father’s hand tighten on his shoulder. “Balsa,” Tonno said. “Take care of Kassa for me.”
She nodded slightly, then turned to Kaguro. “If Kassa should return alive, will you and your clan swear to protect him no matter what happened in the Mountain Deep, no matter the result?”
He gazed steadily back at her. “Anyone born to the Musa clan is the same as my own blood kin. Even if it means opposing the king, I will never abandon Kassa in order to protect the clan.”
Kassa looked up at him in surprise. A stern light gleamed in Kaguro’s one eye. He looked down at Kassa and then finally back at Balsa. In an unusually quiet voice, he said, “It’s said that in the Darkness under the mountain, men can’t hide what is in their hearts. I wonder what Yuguro will see there.”
Balsa looked back at him wordlessly. Then with a faint smile she slapped Kassa lightly on the shoulder. “Well, shall we be off?”
He looked up at her and nodded. With Yoyo in the lead, they stepped into the dark cave.
“Make sure you come back!” Tonno yelled after them. His voice bounced off the walls, gradually fading into silence.
When the three figures had disappeared from sight, Kaguro turned abruptly from the cave entrance and stalked away. Toto the Elder fell in step alongside Laloog.
“Do you think Balsa will succeed?” Laloog whispered.
Toto glanced up at him. Only he and Laloog knew the secret that they had not shared even with Balsa and Kassa, let alone Kaguro and Tonno. “She will. I believe it was fate that brought her here, although she was furious with me for using that word ‘to dismiss her suffering,’ as she put it. But sometimes things seem connected by a strange thread that pulls them all together. You know what I mean?” He smiled slightly. “At least, that’s what I felt when I heard that a hyohlu had not only met Balsa on her way through the caves, but danced the Spear Dance with her and gave Gina a piece of luisha. And now look. In the winter that Balsa and the hyohlu met, the ceremony is finally about to take place, after a delay of fifteen years.”
Laloog stopped walking abruptly. A sad light gleamed in his eyes. He whispered gently, “I see … You mean the hyohlu was waiting for Balsa?”
Toto nodded. “I think so. This ceremony is special. Though the king of Kanbal and his Spears don’t know it, this ceremony must cleanse the people of Kanbal of Rogsam’s sins. His scheming warped and twisted Balsa’s life, and the suffering he caused affected her perhaps most of all. Could there be anyone more suited to purifying this rite than Balsa?”
He looked up at Laloog and lightly touched his hand. “And who better than she to lay to rest the Guardians of the Darkness, who were also tainted? So, Laloog, let’s pray that Balsa succeeds in washing away these sins and giving them peace at last.”
Balsa and the others walked silently until the light behind them dwindled to a white dot. When the light disappeared completely, they stopped to moisten the togal leaves with drops of condensation from the wall and brush them against their eyelids.
Kassa opened his eyes and gasped in surprise. The white hakuma walls now sparkled around them. He noticed holes here and there in the stone. “What are those?” he asked Yoyo.
“The houses of the Titi Lan, the Ermine Riders,” Yoyo whispered. “Kassa, don’t talk so loud. The people who live here have just gone to bed. And don’t tap your spear on the floor as you walk either. Sound carries along the rock walls.”
Kassa hastily slung his spear on his shoulder. The hakuma stretched before him like a corridor of snow. The caves were much bigger than he had ever expected. When he looked up, the roof was so high he could not see where the space ended, and the branches opened up in countless directions. Yoyo pressed ahead without hesitation, and Kassa wondered what he was using as landmarks. He and Balsa had already completely lost track of which direction they were heading. If they were separated from Yoyo now, death would be their only exit.
Balsa rubbed her finger over the mark on her spear. Judging by the fact that she had seen the same mark on Kaguro’s, long ago the Herder People must have taught someone from the Musa clan the route through the caves to New Yogo. What drove that first wanderer to travel there? she wondered as she walked along.
After a while, the walls began to glow a light green. “Lyokuhaku,” Kassa murmured. Up to this point, they had walked through a deep silence broken only by the sound of their footsteps, but now they could hear the sound of running water.
“This branch road is quite narrow, so be careful,” Yoyo said as he bent over at the waist to duck inside. Balsa and Kassa got down on all fours and somehow managed to crawl through.
When they came out on the other end, Balsa caught her breath. A vast river flowed in front of her at alarming speed, carving away the luminous pale-green walls and lapping against the ledge on which she knelt. “It’s so deep,” Kassa gasped in fright, gazing down into the water. Balsa looked over the edge and a chill went up her spine. The water was crystal clear, and though she could see a long way down, she could not see the bottom. Shimmering with a pure green light, it was both breathtakingly beautiful and absolutely terrifying.