He had heard a few of the tales before—notably, the tale of the sea serpent—and though he knew of the Radoon region, there was nothing that helped him narrow down the whereabouts of Yoitsu.
Yet of all the stories of massive destruction wrought by the bear spirit, what strange coincidence was it that Lawrence had heard of Yoitsu?
It was pointless to consider, yet Lawrence could not help thinking about this.
“The world does not go as one would wish,” he said, closing the book.
Holo chewed on the tip of her tail. “Quite.” She sighed. “So what of those in this village for which the world goes not as they would wish? If you would escape, do decide quickly. It would be best to leave in the dark of night.”
“Elsa and I are of one mind on our fates should we remain. We’ll need to make sure we’re correct, but in that case, I think discretion will be the better part of valor.”
“A poor idea is worse than none,” she said with a yawn, standing. “Still, if it comes to that, you stand to take quite a loss,"
“It can’t be helped. It’s not as though we can bring the wheat with us.”
“Still, you don’t seem too upset about it.”
“Don’t I?” asked Lawrence, stroking his chin. It was not the first time he had been caught up in this kind of dispute. times losses were unavoidable.
It was true that his profit in Kumersun had far exceeded his expectations, but even given that, Lawrence was still surprised at his own calm.
And in any case, a traveler’s life was a cheap thing in an isolated village. Knowing his own life was not actually in danger was profit enough.
“Still, even with things as they are, there are some expensive things we can probably save,” said Lawrence.
“The pepper, right?”
Any merchant would have thought the same thing. Pepper and other spices were expensive because they were scarce. Though if they couldn’t stock up on any, there was no point in talking about transporting it.
Something occurred to Lawrence as he was mulling this over. “There’s a high-value product even lighter than spices that we can bring with us.”
“Oh?”
“It’s trust.”
Holo gave Lawrence a rare look of admiration, then smiled maliciously. “I’ll wait to sell off your trust in me until it’s a bit more valuable.”
"Do you have any idea just how paranoid I’ve become since being teased so mercilessly by you?”
Holo chuckled, then slipped her arm around Lawrence’s. “I suppose I will have to make it up to you.”
“This is exactly the sort of thing I’ve learned to be suspicious of.”
Holo was unmoved; she narrowed her eyes. “Lies will only lower the value of your trust.”
She never played fair.
“Still, you’ve never once blamed me for this trouble we’re in, and for that I am properly grateful.”
“Huh?”
“If I had not insisted upon coming here, you would not be suffering this loss.”
So she was playing this card now, Lawrence mused.
Yet they were probably her true feelings.
“Well, what say you moderate your eating and drinking for a while to make up for the loss, hm?”
Holo groaned. “You’ve certainly become less restrained.”
“Feel free to take the reins and—,” began Lawrence as he slipped the sheet of parchment back between the pages of the book. Their eyes met.
The statue of the Holy Mother looked down on the two, her head drooping as though at a loss at the foolish conversation taking place below her.
The sound that now echoed through the sanctuary loud enough for Lawrence to hear it was certainly not a blessing from the Holy Mother. Someone was banging on the door of the Church.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Lawrence.
“Bad feelings are usually correct,” said Holo, letting go of Lawrence’s arm. The two scampered down the hallway.
Lawrence heard the sound of knocking again, along with Iima shouting something in response.
It was obvious to both of them that the villagers were demanding that Iima hand over Lawrence and Holo.
“No, not this way!” said Iima. “To the back of the church-go!"
“But—”
“They’re babbling on about if they hand you over to Enberch. Enberch will forgive all this! They were never planning to do anything themselves. Even wheat just grows up out of the ground on its own—they’re happy to harvest it so long as it’s convenient. So long as things are easy, they’ll do anything to keep it that way!"
As Iima was talking, there were more heavy knocks on the door.
It was a church in a pagan area and as such had a heavy wooden bolt on the door.
It seemed unlikely that the villagers would be able to break through the main door, but there was a flimsy wooden window in the living room. If they got serious, they could easily break it and get inside the church.
It was now a fight against time.
Just then, Evan appeared with Elsa in tow.
“I’ll go and persuade them to—Elsa began.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Iima.
“But—!”
Iima gave the door a hard thump from the inside, then turned to face Elsa. “You going out to face them would be like throwing fuel on a fire. You think you’ve done a good job hiding it, but everyone knows you and Evan are close. In the worst case, they would call you a heretic just to be able to turn you over to Enberch.”
Iima had a good grasp of the situation.
Lawrence could easily picture it. Forced to choose between Elsa and the village, even Sem, who had been Elsa and Evan’s last ray of hope, would probably side with the village.
No one wanted to throw away their life, their position, their name, and their home.
“Listen well, now. You can’t stay here. Look at these two strange travelers, and you’ll understand—the world is vast. The villagers cannot comprehend it. You should at least try to begin your new life with companions you can trust,” said Iima.
There was much Elsa and Evan had to abandon, but there was much they would gain.
Elsa turned to look at Evan, and then both of them looked down.
Lawrence took this in and realized that the two needed to exchange no words to convey their thoughts at the moment. Just then, Holo tugged at his sleeve.
Though she had never said it, she must have given up many things in leaving the village she’d inhabited for so many centuries.
“No matter the journey, when you come to a fork in the road, you must decide in an instant which path to take,” said Holo.
“You’re quite right,” agreed Lawrence.
Elsa squeezed her eyes shut and openly grabbed Evan’s hand.
She opened her eyes. “I want to run.”
Iima looked back at Lawrence, who looked at Holo.
“Leave it to me,” said Holo. “I have one condition,” she continued, pulling back her hood and ignoring Iima and Evan’s surprise. “Think of everything that happens from now ’til dawn as a dream.”
When it came to decisiveness, perhaps women were better than men.
Elsa nodded, and only after seeing her agree did Evan also nod.
“What am I but a fairy that brews ale in the forest? Drunkards remember nothing,” said Iima.
Holo smiled. “Then leave this all to me. Now, if the lot outside have spears, I can jump past them easily enough, but they could still trouble you.”
“Does the church have a back door?” Lawrence asked.
For a moment Elsa began to shake her head, but stopped. "Perhaps—Father Franz told me about the cellar only once, but when he did, he said there was an underground passage accessible from its rear.”
If the construction of churches was the same the world over, then so were the actions of the people within them.
Any church with as many enemies as this one had would have secret passages
for escape—it was a well-known fact among the kind of people that needed to know.
“Well, let’s use that,” said Lawrence.
Elsa nodded and looked at Iima.
“‘Things should be all right for a bit longer. They haven’t decided exactly what they want to do out there yet.”
It was true—once Iima had banged on the door from the inside, the hubbub seemed to have quieted.
“We’ll go down to the basement, then,” said Lawrence.
“We’re relying on you,” said Elsa, her tone firm, though uncertainty colored her features.
Anyone would feel trepidation upon suddenly hearing they had to leave their birthplace forever, unless they’d spent their days dreaming of doing exactly that.
“You’ve got it easy,” said Iima. “At least you can do a bit of preparation before you leave.” Iima’s own hometown had been razed by pirates, and she’d had to flee for her life.
“Indeed,” agreed Holo. “It is not as though your home will have disappeared tomorrow. Be glad it will still exist.”
“Oh, ho, Miss Fairy has lost her home as well?”
“Don’t lump me in with those weaklings.”
Knowledge of others’ suffering did not lessen one’s own suffering, after all.
It could be used for a bit of encouragement, though.
Elsa recovered her resolve. “We’ll make ready right way,” she said.
“Do you have traveling money?” Iima asked.
“Evan,” Lawrence said. Evan remembered the coin purse Lawrence had entrusted him with and produced it for Lawrence. “This should be enough for the four of us, provided we’re frugal," said Lawrence.
“Good. Right, off with you!”
At Iima’s words, everyone sprang into action.
She was the image of a heroic woman, mused Lawrence as he ran. Once they arrived at the statue of the Holy Mother, Holo spoke up as if having read Lawrence’s thoughts.
“Even I cannot match her presence.”
Lawrence opened his mouth to speak, then thought better of it.
This did not, of course, go unnoticed.
“Worry not—this is the only form I can assume,” she said with a laugh.
Lawrence harrumphed, partially out of embarrassment, and replied, “It’s a shame. I prefer a more generous figure.”
Holo cocked her head and smiled, then smacked Lawrence in the face with her closed fist. “Just open the cellar.”
Lawrence decided not to think too much about what had angered Holo lest it bring still more anger.
Chapter 5
Lawrence had been concerned that Elsa and Evan would have trouble getting their things together quickly, but perhaps thanks to Evan’s long-standing desire to leave, they were prepared in short order.
The supplies they had prepared contained nothing unnecessary, save perhaps for a battered book of scriptures. It was a passing grade.
“The passage?”
“I’ve found it,” said Lawrence. “It’s blocked by a wall.”
Directly opposite the foot of the staircase leading down to the cellar, there was a section of bare wall where no bookshelves had been set.
Once he knew that there was a passage out of the cellar, that was the first place Lawrence looked. After knocking a few times upon the wall, it was clear that beyond it was a hollow space. He kicked at it, causing cracks to form in the mortar between stones and eventually breaking through.
Beyond the wall was a perfectly round tunnel—so round it was eerie.
It was less a passageway and more of a cave or den of sorts.
“Shall we?” said Lawrence.
Under the watchful gaze of the Holy Mother, Evan and Elsa nodded.
Iima was probably still above them at the church door, keeping the villagers from doing anything reckless.
Lawrence took a deep breath and, candle in hand, headed into the tunnel. Holo followed immediately behind him with Elsa and Evan bringing up the rear.
There were still many unread books in the cellar. In one of them may well have been tales of Holo’s old companions.
And from a strictly mercantile point of view, the magnificently bound volumes were worth a fortune.
Lawrence very badly wished to bring one with him in order to add to their meager travel funds, but he didn’t have the nerve to try and bring a book chock-full of pagan stories along on such a trip.
In case of trouble, a book was silent and unhelpful, whereas the strange girl with her ears and tail could muster eloquence that no merchant could match.
And so Lawrence stepped farther into the tunnel.
His body was immediately surrounded by a strange chill. The tunnel was not high enough for him to stand up straight; he had to duck his head slightly to pass. It was narrow enough that he could touch both sides simultaneously with his outstretched hands. Fortunately, the air did not seem stale or moldy.
Candle in hand, Lawrence saw that the tunnel was as strangely circular as it had first appeared to be with large stones here and there deliberately and cleanly chiseled into the proper shape.
And yet the tunnel was not straight; it wound to and fro.
If the builders had not intended for the tunnel to be perfectly straight, then why go to all the trouble of deliberately carving it into these contortions? It made no sense to Lawrence.
The passage also had a raw, animalistic smell, which conveyed a sense of unease wholly different from the smells that filled the sewers of Pazzio.
Lawrence held the candle in his right hand and Holo’s hand in his left. He could sense a slight nervousness coming from her.
All were silent as they walked.
They had decided that Iima would close the entrance to the cellar after a time, but Lawrence now found himself worrying about whether she would open it back up for them should this tunnel turn out not to have an exit.
They proceeded forward nonetheless, undaunted. The passage had no branches off it despite its winding nature.
If a fork were to appear in the path, Lawrence knew he would probably succumb to the pressure and speak.
Silently, silently, they walked farther along the passageway. It was hard to know how much time had passed, but eventually they could detect snatches of fresh air amid the fetid smell in the tunnel.
“We are close,” murmured Holo, which elicited an obvious sigh of relief from Evan.
Taking care not to let the candle blow out, Lawrence quickened his pace.
Urged on by the unbearable eeriness of the tunnel, he saw moonlight in the space of time that it took to take three breaths.
Trees grew thickly around the tunnel’s other entrance, which made Lawrence assume that it was hidden between crags. But no—as he approached, he soon saw that was not the case at all.
The entrance was wide, seeming to almost gulp down the moonlight.
He had assumed the entrance would be situated in a hidden, inconspicuous location, but before it stood something that was distinctly altarlike.
As he approached to get a better look, Lawrence saw that a broad, flat stone had been placed carefully upon four square rocks. Upon the flat stone lay some dried fruit and wheat.
Surely not, Lawrence murmured to himself.
Holo likewise seemed to notice and looked at Lawrence.
A moment later, Elsa’s voice called out, “Th-this is—”
“Ha! Oh, this is great,” said Evan, laughing.
The tunnel that led from the church seemed to pass through a hill at the outskirts of the village, emerging on the opposite side.
If they followed the gentle slope down, there was a scattering of forest, and past that could be seen the faint reflection of moonlight off the brook.
When all four had exited the tunnel and made sure there were no villagers nearby, they looked back at the hole.
“Mr. Lawrence, do you know what that hole is?” Elsa asked.
“Not really.”
“It’s the burrow that Lord Truyeo used when
he came from the far north to hibernate long, long ago.”
Lawrence had more or less guessed as much upon seeing the altar with the offerings on it, but his face still betrayed surprise when his suspicions were confirmed.
“Every year for sowing and harvest, the villagers come here to give prayers and celebrate. We don’t usually participate, but...why would the church passageway lead here?”
“I don’t know why, but it’s certainly clever. The villagers would never dare to enter,” said Lawrence.
Still, there were things about the tunnel that were strange.
If Father Franz had dug it, it was impossible to imagine that the villagers wouldn’t have noticed him doing so, and in any case, the villagers had been worshipping Truyeo long before the church was built.
Lawrence looked at Holo as he thought it over and saw that she was staring vaguely at the cave’s entrance.
Suddenly he understood—the strange twisting of the tunnel, the perfectly carved rocks here and there, and the complete lack of any bats despite the perfection of the cave.'
And there was that raw, fetid smell.
Noticing Lawrence’s look, Holo smiled, then turned to look at the moon that hung in the night sky.
“Come, staying here is like asking them to find us! Let us first head down to the brook,” she said.
There were no arguments.
Elsa and Evan trotted through the dry grass of the hillside as Lawrence blew the candle out and took one last look over the area.
“Is this den real?” He hadn’t dared ask the question in front of Elsa and Evan.
“There was a great snake here. As to how long ago, that even I cannot tell.”
It might not even have been Truyeo.
It might have been sheer coincidence that the church’s cellar intersected with the path of the den. Properly speaking, the cellar had been constructed in the middle of the den, which probably continued past the cellar in the opposite direction.
Lawrence had no idea whether or not there truly was a giant snake curled up somewhere deeper within.
Holo regarded the entrance somehow both sadly and fondly as she spoke. “It just happened to make a burrow here, and yet people continuously come to worship. I doubt it has ever been able to get a proper nap.”