Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [183]
As they walked, Pam asked Wataru about himself. He was keeping the fact that he was a Traveler secret, so many of the questions were difficult to answer. I was born in Nacht. My parents ran a lodge in Gasara, but they died of illness soon after I was born. I was taken in by the branch and raised by the branch chief. Wataru had heard about Kutz taking in lost children and orphans at the branch in the past. Now he was one of them.
“That’s how you’ve become such an accomplished Highlander at such a young age,” Chief Pam said, smiling. “Ankha children sure are outstanding, I’ve always thought. Smart, and brave.”
“I don’t know,” said Wataru, “I’ve never felt particularly brave.”
The chief laughed. “If that were the case, you’d never have made the trip from Gasara to here. Particularly not with that baggage of yours slowing you down.”
Wataru didn’t realize that when the chief said “baggage,” he was talking about Kee Keema and Meena. Momentarily confused, Wataru smiled vaguely.
Then the meaning of the chief’s words sunk in, and the smile froze on his face.
Pam was watching him out of the corner of his eye. His mouth was smiling beneath eyes cold as ice. “You’re a smart kid. The kind who knows when to take the advice of his elders,” he said, waving to a shopkeeper along the side of the road. He spoke low, without moving his mouth, so that only Wataru could hear. “I can’t say I approve of such an outstanding ankha Highlander being too friendly with waterkin, kitkin, and their sort. Though I suppose with all the folks going in and out of Gasara such an arrangement wouldn’t stand out so much.”
“It stands out here?”
“Aye. You remember the rock that hit that waterkin yesterday?”
“The one you said was a prank?”
The chief opened his eyes exaggeratedly wide. “Oh, it was a prank, to be sure. A child’s prank. Children, you see, are honest…straight. They can tell the good from the bad better than we can sometimes.”
Pam smiled smugly, as if to say, You know what I mean. Wataru felt the bile rise in his throat.
“I was wondering if we could visit the cathedral?” he said, stifling his rising anger. “I would like to see the statue of this spirit of beauty, Cistina.”
“Of course, of course!”
The chief didn’t take Bricklayer Street to the cathedral. After returning to the town center, they took a wide detour through parts of the city Wataru hadn’t seen yet. Their alternate route served only to reinforce what Wataru already knew: that conditions on Bricklayer Street were far worse than on other streets. And that the cathedral stood like a giant, arrogant overlord, looking down on the slums.
Seen from the front, the cathedral reminded Wataru of the churches in the Saga games, with its stone walls and round columns. Stained glass in the windows depicted a barefoot maiden with long hair and flowing robes—Cistina, Wataru reasoned. She was shown running across a grassy field, or playing a lute, or cooling her feet in a spring, or holding up a burning torch before kneeling believers.
The churches in the games he had played didn’t have a particular religion, but there was always a kindly priest who, at various points in the game, would teach the players valuable holy magic—he was even kind enough to heal the entire party! Wataru wondered how the cathedral in Lyris would measure up.
Seen from this close, its beauty was certainly impressive. It looked like the epitome of what a cathedral should be. If a hundred children had been asked to describe a cathedral, this is the kind of building they would describe. It was perfect.
“Lovely, isn’t it?” Branch Chief Pam asked, breathing out through his nose. “Officially, it’s called the Cistina Trabados Cathedral. Trabados is an old name for this area, you see. The fairy Cistina was said to have been born from a spring coming out of the ground near here. When she carried a handful of water from that spring to the Goddess, the Goddess was so pleased she asked her to join her and stand at her side.
“It really is beautiful,