Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [190]
Wataru screeched to a halt and whipped around so fast it hurt his neck. One by one, the doors behind him were opening. From each stepped a leafman. He was surrounded.
The long corridor filled with the pungent odor of leaves. Wataru felt his legs shake beneath him. He felt dizzy. His vision dimmed.
“Edoro wara sabtalongi sigur!” a high voice was chanting. It was the robed man, standing at the side of the corridor, scepter and mirror crossed on his chest. “Come forth, o spirit of the woods, destroyer of the evil Goddess’s schemes, your voice shall join ours and bring righteous victory!”
As one, the leaf-men opened their mouths and howled. A sound like a giant cloth ripping filled the air. Then they charged.
When Wataru came to, all around him was darkness.
The wound in his right leg continued to throb. He was lying on his side. The floor beneath him was hard. He couldn’t move his hands. Am I tied up? He couldn’t move his feet. He couldn’t stand.
When he tried to roll over, there was a metallic clinking sound. The sound of chains jostling against one another. Why is it so dark?
He heard low singing—not one but many voices. They weren’t that far away, but Wataru couldn’t decide which direction the sound was coming from. Right? Left? In front? Behind?
He heard a footstep and sensed someone’s presence. A hand grabbed him from behind by the collar and dragged him violently upward. He felt the hand unfastening something by the nape of his neck. Suddenly, the darkness broke. Whatever had been covering his head was taken off.
He was outside. It was night. He could see the Triankha Hospital, the sula forest.
A great crowd surrounded Wataru. They were wearing clothes that looked like large grain sacks. They held candles in their hands, and they wore white hoods. He couldn’t see their faces, but Wataru instinctively knew they were all ankha. This must be them, the believers in the Old God, the flock of Triankha Hospital and the cathedral back in town.
The chanting voices belonged to the men. They had formed a large circle with Wataru at its very center. His hands and feet were chained.
The stench of sula leaves stuck in his nostrils. He felt lightheaded.
“Stand,” said a voice from someone at his side. He looked to see a believer standing next to him. Large hands emerged from beneath his grain-sack clothes.
“Stand.”
The giant hands stretched out, grabbed Wataru by the collar, and dragged him to his feet. The hands were covered with thick black hair on both sides. If he hadn’t seen the hair, he might have thought the hands belonged to a statue, they were so hard and cold.
“Walk.”
The hands moved, pushing Wataru toward the edge of the circle. Wataru stumbled and fell, only to be dragged once again to his feet.
“No stalling,” the giant grunted. “Stand. Walk.”
Wataru began to walk on unsteady feet. His Brave’s Sword was still at his waist, though his chains were too short for him to grab it. There was nothing he could do. He could hardly even think straight. He staggered forward, and the singing of the believers grew louder, turning into a great chorus. Part of the circle broke, giving Wataru a view of what lay beyond.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. Even after blinking several times and shaking his head, the scene before him didn’t change.
It was a guillotine. He’d never seen one before, but he was familiar with them from video games and comic books: a simple stand, with an angled blade for cutting off the heads of criminals.
The young man in the robe, holding only the scepter in one hand, still smiling, walked up to stand next to the horrible device. He wore a wine-red sash over his robe. Directly behind him, a great bonfire blazed, making him look as though he were surrounded by a golden aura of light.
Wataru found he couldn’t take another step forward. His knees shuddered, and he froze in place. “Your destiny ends here, daemon, servant of the Goddess,” the robed man’s voice sounded in his ears.
Wataru looked up. The blade of the guillotine shone as though with evil intent in the reflected light of the bonfire.