Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [252]
Wataru certainly hadn’t forgotten the events outside Lyris. He’d never been so frightened in all his life.
“But it was the Mirror of Truth that brought the message. Do you really think the Mirror of Truth could lie?”
“Hrm…” Kee Keema’s heavy eyelids blinked. “I don’t know. But you’ve got to figure that the mirror is just a tool. Maybe it’s magic, but it’s a tool all the same. It doesn’t have a will of its own. And like any tool, someone might use it for evil.”
“You just don’t want to help anyone who believes in the Old God!” said Meena sharply.
Kee Keema winced, his long tongue licking the top of his head twice in rapid succession. “Whoa, hold on a second…”
The kitkin girl was mad. Sparks flew from her blue-gray eyes. “Isn’t that right? You talk about danger and traps, but that’s how you really feel. They could be in a whole world of trouble, and you’d leave them to die just because they don’t believe in the Goddess. That’s why you don’t want to go!” Meena stomped her foot down on the floor. “If Wataru says we go, I’m going with him. You can do what you want!”
Kee Keema wobbled backward away from the furious kitkin. Wataru stepped between them. “Meena, don’t be so angry. He’s just thinking of our safety. Please?”
“Th-that’s right. I’ll admit, I don’t much care for going to Dela Rubesi. But if Wataru says we go, then let’s go. I said I would be his companion, so I go where he goes. The decision is up to him.”
“Then you’re forgiven,” Meena said, suddenly breaking into a grin. “There’s no time to lose. Let’s get going!”
“But how do we get there?”
“Why, we’ll ask the karulakin to take us, of course. They wouldn’t turn down a Highlander.”
With all the recent commotion throughout Vision, the karulah, uniquely suited to deliver urgent messages and information, were understandably very busy. Communications between the starseers at the National Observatory and the USN Senate were a priority. That meant that many karulakin could be present in town at any given time. Meena was certain they could find some of them who would help.
“Then I’ll go ask where we can find some carrier karulakin,” Kee Keema said, charging up the stairs. Now that they had decided to go, he seemed overly eager to help. Meena watched him go with a smile.
“Maybe I was a little hard on him. I’ll give him a backrub later.”
Wataru barely heard what she said. In his head, he was replaying the events surrounding his close shave at the Triankha Hospital. And that reminded him of his dashing savior, Mitsuru.
He remembered something the man in the white robe said.
—You too are a child, I see.
It was a strange choice of words. Did that mean that somehow he knew the other Traveler to Vision? Had Mitsuru already answered the white-robed man’s call, and gone to Dela Rubesi?
If that were the case, then it meant Mitsuru hadn’t been able to help them. Is that why they were calling on Wataru now?
“What is it, Wataru?” Meena asked, looking into his eyes.
“Nothing,” he replied as he hurried up the stairs. There was no point thinking too much about it. They wouldn’t know what was going on until they were standing in Dela Rubesi.
The headquarters for the karulakin carriers was a terrace on the third floor. When they got there, three karulakin were resting their wings beneath a large white banner shielding them from the sun. The terrace was suffused with an overpowering stench. “Pardon me, I’ve just finished eating,” said one, picking at his teeth.
Lunch was, of course, gimblewolf meat. Wataru heard the soft sounds of Kee Keema quietly gagging behind him.
It fell to Wataru to voice their request, which he did, leaving out as many details as possible. The three karulakin listened attentively, craning their necks, until he was finished. “We understand,” one replied. “But we are not, at present, able to honor your request.”
“Is your need to go to Dela Rubesi perhaps related to the emergency summons from your branch chiefs?” another asked. “If so, there is