Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [189]
“It was a trap…” Wataru muttered, unable to control his trembling. The robed man stepped even closer, still smiling. He knelt, and brought his face so close Wataru could feel his breath. “You’re a Traveler, yes?”
Wataru didn’t answer. Chief Pam didn’t know that. And he thought it best not to tell these people.
“You need not say a thing, you still cannot hide the truth from us,” the robed man continued. “We know what you did in Gasara. We hear many things. Chief Pam only feigned innocence. He knew it all from the very beginning.”
So that’s how it was. Wataru now totally regretted telling people his secret. He should have listened to Kee Keema.
“So what if I am a Traveler?” Wataru said, forcing himself to breathe calmly. “What do you care? Is that wrong?”
“Travelers are our eternal enemies,” the robed man answered quietly. “To go against the teachings of the Old God would be a sin.”
Wataru didn’t like the sound of that one bit.
“You’re believers of the Old God?”
The robed man nodded curtly. “It is so.”
“And I bet you’re behind the rise in discrimination in Lyris. And the cathedral—that’s for your purposes, isn’t it. It’s really a church to the Old God.”
The robed man did not answer, but the glimmer in his eyes was enough for Wataru to know he was right. “You’re proselytizing for the Old God at the Cistina Trabados! And the chief is one of your converts!”
“He seems a bright lad. Pity,” the small man said. The bearded man made no reply—he just continued to point his bowgun at Wataru’s head.
Just then, the robed man moved his hands quickly. Thinking the scepter would hit him, Wataru flung up his arms, covering his head. But the blow never came. The robed man was holding out his small hand mirror, sticking it in Wataru’s face. “Look! This is absolute proof! Evil daemon of the Goddess, know that the Mirror of Truth reveals only pure souls. You are as nothing to me!”
Indeed, there was nothing in the mirror. Even when it was pressed up so close it nearly touched his nose, all Wataru could see reflected was the white rock wall behind his head.
“Your destiny ends here, servant of the Goddess. By our hands shall you be reduced to the filth and sinful dust whence you came.”
The robed man shouted so loud his cheeks flushed red. Jumping in the air, he thrust the scepter and mirror above his head. Seizing his chance, Wataru mustered all his strength and pushed as hard as he could against the man. With a great cry, he fell on top of the bearded man behind him. Both tumbled to the floor, the bearded man flipping onto his back with a heavy thud. Wataru leapt up and shot for the door.
“There is no escape!” the robed man shouted, climbing to his feet behind Wataru. He swung his scepter, and a whirlwind rose in the room, lifting the dried leaves from the floor. As Wataru watched, they fluttered into two piles at either side of the room, but he didn’t stop to see what happened next. Grabbing the handle and yanking the door open, Wataru dashed out into the hall.
Along the side of the smooth rock wall that ran down the hallway, Wataru saw several doors just like the one he had come through. The wall on the other side of the corridor was smooth, without a single window. He looked right and left, but both ways faded quickly into darkness, and it was impossible to tell how far they went.
Wataru ran to the right. His leg was on fire. The white hallway was perfectly straight and featured an endless string of heavy metal doors. No matter how far he went, it was exactly the same.
Suddenly, a door about fifteen feet ahead of him opened wide, swinging so fast it bounced off the wall and started to close again. Then, from the other side of the door, a large lump of dried leaves appeared. It looked as though the leaves had gathered to form the shape of…
It’s a man. The leaf-man was twice as tall as Wataru, with an oversize head, and it walked with two bristling arms extended, like a mummy in an old horror movie. It stood before Wataru, blocking the passage.