Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [188]
The strange rustling sound was coming from a large amount of dried leaves spread evenly through the room. They looked like sula leaves. That peculiar scent remained, though it was somewhat stale.
“Whew, you’re awake. How do you feel? Can you walk?” The sweet voice was coming from the window. Someone was outside the bars. “It’s me, Wataru. Remember?”
The fairy! No, he corrected himself, the voice I assumed was a fairy.
“Are you really there this time? Where am I? Are Kee Keema and Meena all right? What’s going on?”
“I asked if you remembered me, Wataru,” the sweet voice said, sulking.
Wataru crawled up to the window, and lifting himself up on the wall, he raised his voice. “I’m sorry. I just—wait, have you come to save me?”
“I would if I could,” the voice said simply. “But there’s really nothing I can do.”
Wataru’s mouth opened and shut a few times, then he finally managed, “Well, at least tell me what’s going on. I was shot by this arrow and carried here…I know that, but that’s all.”
“Well, you’re right so far.”
“What about the other two?”
“How should I know?” the sweet voice said with a sigh. “So the girl with a tail, she’s your type, is she? That’s a disappointment.”
“I’m not even talking about that!” Wataru said, gritting his teeth. “Where is this place? Am I inside the hospital?”
“Yes. In the middle of the sula forest.”
“Are you captured here too?”
“No, actually.”
Wataru leaned against the wall. “Then, can’t you do anything? Maybe there’s a key to the door…”
“Like I said, there’s nothing I can do,” the sweet voice said quickly. “I just came to cheer you on. I crawled all the way up here just to talk to you before it was too late. You should thank me.”
“Thank you…” Wataru glared at the window. What did she mean “crawled up here”?
“Wataru, you should really try to stop breathing so heavily in there. Breathe by the window.”
“Why?”
“The smell of the sula isn’t good for your head.”
Wataru leaned flat against the wall, staring at the heaps of leaves rustling in the faint breeze from the window.
“Not good for my head?”
“They cloud your mind,” the sweet voice said. “They’re used, sometimes… for torture.”
Wataru was about to protest how ridiculous that sounded, when he heard a clattering noise against the heavy door.
The door was thrust open, and a large man holding a bowgun quickly entered the room. He was wearing workman’s clothes, heavy boots, and had a bristly beard.
The arrow set in the bowgun was pointed straight at Wataru’s head. Without a word, the bearded man moved to the side of the door, and a second person entered. His companion was smaller, and thinner, and he wore a longsleeved robe—much like the one worn by Father Diamon at the Cistina Trabados Cathedral. Not only that, but in his right hand he held a scepter, and in his left, a small hand mirror, just like the statue of Cistina.
“You have awoken,” the robed man said in an oddly high-pitched voice. “Do you know where you are?”
Wataru worked his numb tongue into motion. “Triankha…Hospital.”
“I see. Then your memory is intact.” The robed man smiled faintly. On closer inspection, he seemed little more than a boy, a pretty, naïve boy—wait, or was he a girl?
“I—I came looking for a friend,” Wataru said, his voice trembling. “Branch Chief Pam in Lyris said that a boy of his description had been seen at Triankha Hospital…”
The robed man, still smiling, approached Wataru. As he walked, the sula leaves on the floor of the cell swirled to the side, making a path. “We, too, received word from Chief Pam. He said that a daemon—a servant of the Goddess—with a terrible madness in his eyes, and evil plans in his heart, had set foot on our holy ground.”
“Pam said what?” Wataru gaped. “But he was the one who told us about Triankha Hospital!”
That was when he finally realized what had happened. They had been drawn here on purpose. The chief had lied. He didn’t know where Mitsuru was.