Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [143]
In the corner, Trone nodded. “We in the United Southern Nations, we Highlanders do not fear the Northern Empire. But we fear the ideas they bring to our land. Like a plague, they cannot be seen with the eye. But they afflict not those who are weak of body but those who are weak of mind.”
Wataru remembered the drunkard at the lodge, how he had said those things about Kee Keema, yet quailed at the slightest word from the little lady.
“By the way, Chief,” Kutz said, tapping Gil on the shoulder. “Think it’s time to tell Wataru?”
His eyes went wide. “Of course! I had almost forgotten.”
Gil looked between Wataru and Kee Keema. “Wataru, as a Traveler you have a great journey ahead of you. You go to meet the Goddess, yes?”
“Yes.”
“You will need funds for your journey, then. So, you must find a way to earn them. It just so happens I have an idea.” Here, the Highlander official grinned. “I was hoping you would join us. You would perform tasks for the Highlanders, and for that you would be rewarded, even as you travel. You can even use our branches in other lands to help gather information about the tower you seek. It is like two birds with one stone, yes?”
Wataru glanced up at Kee Keema. The waterkin’s long tongue went whistling out to lick the top of his head. He looked as surprised as Wataru felt.
“But, he’s just a kid,” he said. “Isn’t he a little young to become a Highlander? I mean, it’s quite dangerous…”
“Yet he has already proved himself on one case, has he not? I believe he is qualified. And you will accompany him on his journey, yes?”
Kee Keema broke into a smile. “Of course! I’ve just received the chief’s permission!”
“Really, Kee Keema?” Wataru asked. “You’ll come with me?”
“You bet!” Kee Keema shouted, picking up Wataru and placing him on his shoulders as he had when they first met in the grassland. “I’ll be with you through thick and thin, as far as the road takes us!”
“Then it is decided,” said the Highlander chief.
Once the high chief had left—rather in a hurry—to some meeting of the United Southern Nations, Wataru was officially introduced to the members of the Gasara branch for the first time. Kutz was the head of the branch, with Trone her deputy, and beneath them were three other Highlanders. One was the large ankha that Wataru had seen before. Another was a waterkin, somewhat shorter than Kee Keema, and the third was a leaperkin—a sort of rabbitlike fellow with long ears.
“You sure had a rough introduction to our town, didn’t you, shorty,” the leaperkin Highlander said. “Kutz is always taking things too far, if you ask me. I mean, it was a good plan to use you as a decoy to catch the real criminals, but building a gallows like that…”
“That’s enough out of you,” Kutz snapped. Wataru looked at her in surprise.
“I was a decoy? You mean you really weren’t going to hang me?”
Kutz frowned. “Please, we do have trials and due process in our world. We’re not complete barbarians.”
Wataru burst into laughter. Pretty soon everyone in the room was laughing with him.
“Well now, it feels a bit backward telling you this, but you should know a bit about our history. You see, the Highlanders began in the southeast of this continent, in a place called the Ghoza Highlands,” Kutz explained. “There is a legend too.”
In the distant past, the legend went, when the Goddess created the world out of chaos, she had with her a great firewyrm, to defend her from those creatures of chaos that sought to foil her works. When the creation was complete, she thanked the firewyrm by bestowing upon him the form of a man. Taking the dragon skin he had shed, she made from it armor and a helmet. Bequeathing these to him, she made him a knight, and sent him out upon the land.
“The knight first arrived in the Ghoza Highlands, and there began to live among other people. His descendants were all brave, and given to great virtue, and in the many years that followed they spread across the land until the name ‘Highlander’ became synonymous with one who is brave and just.”
This was the origin of the Highlander name. It