“Yoyo, what are we going to do?” Kassa asked. “You’re not expecting us to swim through that, are you?”
Yoyo laughed. “Of course not. Put your hand in it and you’ll see. The water’s as cold as ice. If you fell in there, you’d be dead before you knew it. Just be patient a minute.”
He began whistling. The high sound echoed off the walls, reverberating through the cave. Before it faded, he pulled some yukkal leaves from his bag. The pungent odor stung their noses.
“Take off your boots, and your socks too. Then knead some leaves and rub them against your legs like this.” He rubbed the juice from the leaves into his skin, starting from his toes and traveling all the way up to just below the knee.
They did as they were told and felt heat spreading up their legs. “Hey, it’s really hot! Are you sure it’s all right?”
Yoyo grinned and pulled on his socks and boots. “Believe me. You’ll soon be more than grateful for that warmth…. Look. It’s here.”
They followed the direction of his finger and stared in astonishment. An enormous, slender creature was weaving its way up toward them from the river depths. It was the strangest thing Kassa had ever seen. At first, it looked like an eyeless snake, but then he saw its pectoral fins paddling through the water like legs. Its body glowed with a faint, pearlescent luster. Two large airholes at the tip of its pointed face stayed closed under water, but when it surfaced, they opened with a shrill whistle.
Yoyo whistled again for what seemed a long time. As if in answer, the creature huffed from its airholes. Then Yoyo took out a lump of dried goat meat and threw it. With a loud splash, the creature caught it in jaws lined with sharp teeth and gobbled it up. “Sootee Lan, Rider of the Water Currents, will carry us to Yonsa territory,” Yoyo said as he casually climbed on its back.
Balsa looked at it doubtfully. “That Soo — whatever you called it … If it eats goat, it must be a meat eater, right?”
“Sootee Lan. Yes, it’s a meat eater. It loves goat. We give it the carcasses of goats that have died of old age. It’s all right; we’re good friends with the Sootee Lan. It’s already agreed to take us, so hop on!”
Balsa sighed and looked at Kassa. “Now I understand. We’ll travel the underground waterways. It will certainly be faster, but we might have preferred to walk, don’t you think?”
“Mmm.” Kassa nodded.
“You go first and I’ll sit at the back.”
Kassa clambered nervously on behind Yoyo, then Balsa crouched down and slipped gingerly behind him. The creature’s skin was much drier than she had expected but it was extremely hard. To her surprise, it was also slightly warm. The water flowing past their lower legs was so cold it cut like a knife. Now she understood why Yoyo had made them rub their legs with yukkal juice.
“Hold your spear in your left hand and grip my clothes tightly with your right,” Yoyo said. Kassa grabbed his shirt tightly in his fist while Balsa took hold of Kassa’s cloak.
“Are — are you sure we’ll be all right, Yoyo? You said we’d die if we fell in.”
“We’ll be fine, Kassa. Just grip tightly with your legs. Sootee Lan won’t try to buck you off or anything like that.”
“He won’t dive underwater, will he?” Balsa asked.
“What? Are you afraid too? Don’t worry — you’re with me! And off we go!” Yoyo whistled and Sootee Lan began gliding through the water.
The capital of Kanbal spread out across a bowl-shaped valley, nestled in the heart of the Yusa mountains. Encircled by a large outer wall, it was like a giant version of the clan village. The King’s Road stretched from the main gate in the south straight through the city to the castle perched on top of a high hill deep inside. A heavy snow had fallen and the white against the damp, black stone of the walls created a strange beauty.
The castle soared above the city, its sturdy walls rooted in solid bedrock. The numerous steeply roofed halls within were joined by covered corridors and topped by tall spires that split the air like spears. The city housed a force of a thousand soldiers from the king’s clan, as well as another thousand soldiers taken from each of the other nine clans and changed every ten years. At the moment, an elite troop of five hundred men had gathered within the castle walls. Their leather tents were pitched in the courtyard and smoke from their cooking fires hung thickly in the air. Clearly, they were preparing for war.
King Radalle looked down into the courtyard from the meeting room at the top of a tower. His young face was pale and nervous. “It looks like we’re almost ready,” he said. He turned around to look at Yuguro, who was standing with his fingertips resting lightly on the huge meeting table. “The troops seem much calmer than I expected. That’s a relief. Once the priests perform the rites of power, we can go.” He brushed his fine brown hair back from his forehead and looked anxiously around the meeting room, checking to make sure that no one was there. “Are you sure it will be all right?” he whispered to Yuguro. Fear flickered in his eyes. “They say that the Darkness reads the hearts of men. If the hyohlu sense that we’re plotting against the Mountain King, they’ll attack.”
Yuguro sighed inwardly, but outwardly he smiled. “Of course it will be all right. We’ve already gone over this many times. The hyohlu won’t enter the chamber until I’ve announced that I’ve been chosen as the Dancer and the Darkness falls. While the hyohlu and I dance, all you need to do is repeat hymns of praise to the Mountain King in your mind. It will all be over in no time. The Last Door will open and your soldiers will pour in to protect you. No matter what happens, you won’t be in any danger.”
In fact, Yuguro was not in the least worried about the king. Radalle was a weak man; indeed, it was hard to believe that he was really Rogsam’s son. As soon as the hyohlu appeared, he would be so frightened that he would have no time to think or do anything but pray fervently that he be spared. The kings of Kanbal have never been more than figureheads. They’re just a symbol to unite the clans, Yuguro reminded himself. It makes no difference if the king is a coward: It’s the Dancer’s mettle that will be tested.
“But …” The king looked at him with pleading eyes. “Will you be all right? It’s not that I don’t believe in your skill. But I can’t help but wonder — can you really prevent the hyohlu from reading your mind when you dance together?”
Yuguro rapped the table with his knuckles. “We’ve gone over this time and again. As you know, my elder brother Jiguro was also chosen for the Spear Dance. Before we fought that last time, he gave me his gold ring and taught me everything he knew.”
Yuguro’s eyes never wavered from the king’s. He knew very well that it was best to look people straight in the eye when lying, and the closer a lie was to the truth, the more true it sounded. He had realized when he was young that everyone had something they wanted to believe. If you told them what they wanted to hear, even if it was a lie, they would fall for it easily. The king was afraid, so he wanted someone to reassure him that he would not fail.