The road that ran north to south through the village was well-worn on the southern-heading side with the passage of travelers and horses, but the northern-headed side had long fallen into disuse, littered with tree roots and rocks. Alice stepped nimbly over all these obstacles, humming as she led the two boys onward.
Eugeo thought the way she carried herself was beautiful. A few years ago, Alice could be seen practicing her sword fighting with the other scamps from time to time, and somehow she usually managed to knock Eugeo and Kirito on their backs with even the finest of sticks. Their blunt sticks hit only the air, as though they were clumsily fighting off wind spirits. If she’d kept training, Alice could have been the village’s very first woman-at-arms.
“A man-at-arms…” Eugeo mumbled to himself.
It had been a distant dream, a hope that he held onto until he was given the Calling of a carver. If he’d been chosen as a guard (the dream of all the boys in the village), he wouldn’t have to use a crude stick yanked off a tree. He could learn actual sword-fighting techniques and use an actual steel sword, even if it was a hand-me-down.
It didn’t stop there. The guards from all the villages in the northern territory could enroll in the dueling tournament held in the city of Zakkaria to the south every fall. Ranking highly in the tournament earned a guard the actual title of Sentinel, accompanied by an official sword forged by a blacksmith in Centoria. And not only that—if the sentinel garrison recognized your skill, you could take the test for entry into the venerable Swordcraft Academy in Centoria. If you passed that considerable challenge and graduated from the academy two years later, you could participate in the fighting tournament attended by the emperor of Norlangarth himself. Legends claimed that Bercouli once won that very tournament.
After that, at the top of everything was the Four-Empire Unification Tournament administered by the Axiom Church, which accepted only true heroes from all over the human world. The winner of this event, which was watched over by the gods themselves, stood atop the pinnacle of all warriors. He would be given the holy task of protecting the order of the world itself as a dragon-riding Integrity Knight, swooping into the Dark Territory to battle the demons there…
Eugeo never imagined getting that far, but he once clung to a vision in his head. If Alice left the village not as a sword fighter but as an apprentice of the sacred arts, she might go to school in Zakkaria or even the Artcraft Academy in Centoria. And perhaps, dressed in the green and beige of the official sentinel forces at her side, shining official sword on his belt, would be him…
“The dream isn’t over yet,” Kirito murmured to him, breaking Eugeo out of his fantasy. That single comment had been enough for Kirito to read every single thought that passed through his head. He grimaced at his friend’s perceptiveness and muttered, “No, it’s definitely over.”
The time to dream of such things had ended. Last spring, it was Zink, the son of the chief man-at-arms, who had received the guard’s Calling—despite the fact that his skill with the sword was far below Eugeo’s or Kirito’s, not to mention Alice’s. He felt a momentary surge of anger and even greater resignation.
“Once a Calling is determined, not even the elder can change it.”
“With one exception.”
“Exception…?”
“When you complete your work,” Kirito stated. Eugeo grimaced again, at the stubbornness this time. His partner still hadn’t given up on the preposterous goal of felling the Gigas Cedar in their generation.
“If we knock down that tree, our job is done for good. And then you get to choose your next Calling. Isn’t that right?”
“It is, but…”
“I’m glad I didn’t wind up as a shepherd or a barley farmer. There’s no end to those jobs, but there is for ours. There has to be a way to do it. If we cut down that tree in three—no, two years…”
“We can fight in the Zakkaria tournament.”
“Well, well, sounds like you’re still in the mood for that, Eugeo.”
“I can’t let you go and hog all the glory, Kirito.”
It was strange how just joking about it with his friend made it seem like less of a crazy dream. The boys continued on, grinning at the idea of waltzing back to town with official prize swords to show off to dumb old Zink, when Alice turned around up ahead to glare at them.
“What are you two whispering about back there?”
“N-nothing. We were just wondering if it’s time for lunch yet. Right?”
“Y-yeah.”
“You’re kidding. We’ve barely just started walking. Anyway, there’s the river up there.”
Alice pointed her grass stalk at a glittering water surface up ahead. It was the Rul River, which started in the End Mountains and flowed around the east of Rulid and then south to Zakkaria. The road split there, with the right-hand path crossing Rulid Bridge to the eastern forest and the left path continuing north along the riverside. They would follow it north, of course.
At the fork, Eugeo knelt down at the water and sank his hand below the clear, burbling surface. It would have frozen his skin in early spring, but now that it was midsummer, the water was much warmer. It would no doubt feel great to strip off his clothes and jump in, but he couldn’t do that in Alice’s presence.
“It’s definitely not a temperature that will support ice,” he reported to Kirito.
Kirito in turn pouted, saying, “Yeah, that’s why we’re going to the cave where it comes from.”
“Fine, fine, just remember that we have to be back at the village by evening bell. Let’s see…How about we turn back when Solus reaches the middle of the sky?”
“I guess we have no choice. Let’s hurry!” Alice commanded, walking away over the soft grass. The boys hurried to keep up.
The branches of the trees on their left reached overhead like a canopy, blocking the sunlight, and the river on their right brought a cool breeze, so even when Solus was high overhead, the trio walked in relative comfort. The one-mel-wide river path was covered in short summer grasses, and there were almost no holes or rocks to trip them up.
Eugeo found it strange that it was such an easy place to walk, and yet he had never set foot beyond the twin ponds. The northern pass, which the village laws prohibited children from crossing alone, was much farther ahead. So he could have easily walked past the pond without being scolded—yet there was something, a kind of fear of the law itself, that naturally stopped his feet from going farther.
He and Kirito often complained of how stuffy the adults were about rules, but they had never even thought about breaking them, much less gone through with it. This tiny little adventure was easily the closest he’d ever come to challenging the Taboo Index.
A belated anxiety visited Eugeo, and he glanced ahead at Kirito and Alice, but they were singing a cheery shepherd’s song together. It made him wonder if they’d ever felt afraid or even concerned about anything in their lives.
“Hey, you guys,” he called. They looked over their shoulders without stopping.
“What is it, Eugeo?” Alice asked.
He decided to lower his voice to scare her. “We’re pretty far from the village now…Aren’t there dangerous beasts around here to look out for?”
“What? I’ve never heard of any such thing,” she said, glancing at Kirito.
He shrugged and wondered, “Where did Donetti’s grandpa say he saw that long-clawed bear, again?”
“Near the black apple tree to the east. And that was about ten years ago.”
“If we see anything around here, it’s going to be a four-eared fox. You’re such a scaredy-cat, Eugeo.”
The pair laughed. Eugeo shot back, “N-no, I’m not scared, I’m just saying…this is the first time any of us has been past the twin ponds, right? Maybe we should be careful, that’s all.”
Kirito’s black eyes sparkled. “You know, I think you’re right. Did you know that when this village was founded, the monsters from the land of darkness—goblins and orcs and wh
atnot—would come over the mountains and steal sheep and children?”
He leered in Alice’s direction, but she snorted and then huffed, “Listen to you two, trying to scare me. I know the story—an Integrity Knight came from Centoria and defeated the goblin boss to put an end to it, right?”
“‘And ever since then, on clear days, you can see the figure of a knight riding a white dragon over the End Mountains,’” Kirito said, quoting the end of a fairy tale that every child in the village knew. He looked to the north, and Eugeo and Alice followed suit. At some point, the white peaks of the mountains had come much closer, blocking a large swath of the blue sky.
For an instant, they thought they saw a tiny light flash among the clouds, but after blinking and looking harder, there was nothing. The trio looked at one another and laughed awkwardly.
“It’s only a fairy tale. I’m sure Bercouli just made up that story about the ice dragon in the cave, too.”
“If you say that in town, the elder will put his fist down. Bercouli is the hero of Rulid, after all,” Eugeo warned. Alice only gave him another chiding smile and sped up.
“We’ll find out once we get there. Better hurry, or we won’t reach the cave by midday!”
But Eugeo didn’t think they could actually get all the way to the End Mountains in just half a day’s walk.
As the name suggested, the End Mountains were the very end of the world, the border of humanity’s lands ruled by four empires to the north, south, east, and west. Just because Rulid was at the north edge of the northern territory didn’t mean it was close enough for children to make the trip in just a few hours.
So Eugeo was stunned when, just before the sun reached the midpoint of the sky, the narrowed width of the Rul disappeared into a yawning cave mouth cut into the side of the mountain cliff right before them.
The deep forests on either side abruptly stopped, leaving a rough wall of gray stone before them. From here, the white peaks piercing the sky were still faded with distance, but it was undeniable that this rock face was the very edge of the mountain range.
“Did we make it already…? These are…the End Mountains? Wasn’t that a little sudden?” Kirito gaped in disbelief. Alice’s eyes were similarly wide.
“Then…where was the northern pass? Did we just walk right through it without realizing?”
She had a very good point. The northern pass, the absolute boundary for the village children—and adults, too, perhaps—couldn’t have simply passed them by without their notice. There had been a bit of up and down in the terrain about thirty minutes after the twin ponds, but that couldn’t have been the pass, could it?
Eugeo turned to look back in disbelief and heard Alice whisper gravely, “If that’s the End Mountains…then just on the other side…is the land of darkness? I mean…we walked about four hours, but that isn’t even enough to get to Zakkaria. I guess Rulid really is…at the very edge of the world…”
Eugeo was stunned to realize just where in the world his lifetime home was actually located. Was it possible that no one in the entire village realized just how close the mountains were? In three centuries of history, were they the first to pass through the northern forest after Bercouli…?
Something felt wrong, he decided. But he couldn’t say exactly what.
The adults woke up at the same time every day, ate the same breakfast as the day before, then headed to the same old fields, pastures, smithies, and spinning wheels. Alice claimed that it took more than four hours to get to Zakkaria, but neither she, nor Kirito, nor Eugeo had ever actually been there. They had merely been told by the adults that it took two days of walking down the road south of town to reach Zakkaria. For that matter, how many of the adults had ever actually gone to Zakkaria and come back…?
Before the vague questions floating through Eugeo’s head could condense into a proper form, Alice sent them back into oblivion by prompting, “At any rate, now that we’re here, we might as well go inside. Let’s eat lunch first.”
She took the picnic basket from Eugeo’s hands and sat down on the soft grass right before it turned to gray gravel. Kirito cheered the imminent end of his hunger, and Eugeo joined them on the ground. The delicious scent of pie was all it took to banish his suspicions for good and remind him how hungry he was.
Alice slapped Eugeo’s and Kirito’s grasping hands away from the food so she could open the windows of the dishes. Once she was satisfied with their condition, she served the food: fish and bean pie, apple and walnut pie, and dried plums. Lastly, she poured siral water from the canteen into wooden cups and checked to make sure that was good, too.
Once he had permission to proceed, Kirito said a quick grace and tore into his fish pie. Through the food in his mouth, he mumbled, “If we find a bunch of ice in that cave…then we won’t have to eat tomorrow’s lunch so fast.”
Eugeo had the manners to swallow first before responding. “But if you think about it, how will we preserve the life of the ice itself, assuming we find any? What’s the point if it all melts by tomorrow?”
“Hmm…” Kirito murmured. Clearly this hadn’t occurred to him.
Alice confidently announced, “If we hurry it back and put it in my basement, it should last overnight. I’m appalled that you didn’t consider that step first.”
Properly scolded, Kirito and Eugeo sheepishly continued eating their lunch. For her part, Alice finished the pie and drank her water faster than usual.
Once she had folded the white cloth and placed it back in the empty basket, Alice stood up. She took the three cups over to the brook and promptly rinsed them out.
“Yeek!” she yelped, and trotted back, showing Eugeo the hands she had dried on her apron. “The river water is freezing! It’s like the well water in the winter!”
Sure enough, her little palms looked quite red. He reached out to touch them and was surprised to feel that they were pleasingly cool.
“Hey…stop that,” she snapped, batting away his hands, though her cheeks were now the same color. Eugeo suddenly realized he had just done something he usually never did, and he shook his head.
“Er…I didn’t…I wasn’t…”
“All right, you two—shall we go now?” Kirito suggested with a knowing grin. Eugeo stomped lightly on his foot and picked up the water sack, slinging it over his shoulder. He headed toward the cave’s entrance without looking back at them.
The clear, narrow brook they had followed was now so small that it was hard to believe it was really the source of the great Rul River. It was barely a mel and a half across. On the left side of the opening in the cliff face from where the water flowed was a rock ledge about the same width across. That would be their walkway inside.
Three hundred years ago, Bercouli the chief guardsman had trod on this very same ground—a thought that urged Eugeo forward into the cave. The temperature dropped, and he rubbed his bare forearms.
Once he heard the other two following, he took another ten steps inside. That was when Eugeo realized his terrible mistake, and he turned to announce, “Crap…I didn’t bring any light. What about you, Kirito?”
They were barely five mels inside the cave, and already it was hard to make out one another’s expressions. Eugeo was disappointed that he hadn’t even considered the obvious fact that it was pitch-black inside a cave. The only response he got from his partner was an oddly confident, “How would I remember something that you failed to remember?!”
“Okay, boys, listen up…”
Eugeo turned toward the faint shine of blond hair, wondering how many times they’d already heard that annoyed tone today. Alice shook her head several times, reached into her apron pocket, and pulled out something long and narrow—the stalk of grass she’d been carrying since they left the village.
She put her left palm to the tip and shut her eyes. Her little lips moved, and she chanted a strange mantra in the sacred tongue. Lastly, she made a quick, complex sigil in the air with her left hand, and the rounded tip of the stalk of g
rass began to glow. The pale light grew stronger and stronger until the darkness of the cave was kept at considerable bay.
“Whoa!”
“Wow…”
Kirito and Eugeo could not contain their amazement. They knew Alice was studying the sacred arts, but they had hardly ever seen her execute them. According to Sister Azalia’s teachings, all the arts that drew upon the power of Stacia, Solus, and Terraria—the dark arts of Vecta’s servants excepted—existed only to protect the order and tranquility of the world and were not meant for everyday use.
The only times Azalia and her apprentice, Alice, used the sacred arts was when a villager became sick or injured in a way that herbs could not heal. So the sight of this stalk of grass glowing in the darkness came as some surprise to him.
He asked, “Uh, Alice…are you allowed to do that? You won’t get punished, or…”
“Hah. If I was going to get punished for something like this, I’d have been struck by lightning ten times before now.”
“…”
Before he could ask what she meant by that, she thrust the glowing stalk of grass toward Eugeo. He took it without thinking, then blanched.
“I-I have to go first?!”
“Of course. Are you going to make the delicate little girl lead the way? Eugeo goes in front, and Kirito in the back. Now let’s get going before we waste any more time.”
“R-right.”
More out of her momentum than any desire of his own, Eugeo held up the tiny torch and started treading farther into the cave.
The flat rock ledge curved here and there but kept a certain width as it went. The dark gray walls shone as though wet, and every once in a while, he felt the sensation of something small moving around in the darkness, out of sight. But no matter how hard he looked, there was nothing resembling ice. Sharp gray protuberances hung from the ceiling like icicles, but they were clearly just rock stalactites.
A few minutes later, Eugeo muttered over his shoulder to Kirito. “Hey…you said the icicles were supposed to be right inside the cave’s entrance, right?”