Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [257]
Wataru had guessed as much. “There’ve been disturbances in other towns for the same reason. Prisoners and poor people seem the most worried. They’re afraid they’re more likely to be chosen. Some of the prisoners think that the USN government wants to sacrifice them to the Goddess before somebody important can be chosen.”
“Yes, it is the same here.”
“I think some people are taking advantage of the chaos for their own selfish agenda…”
Still gripping the curtains in her hands, Elza turned and frowned. “Yesterday, my father said there was some trouble in the mines at Arikita.”
“That’s right. The Knights of Stengel were sent there.”
“Oh,” Elza sighed, slumping.
“It looks like the distubance here had a lot to do with the ankha taking advantage of the non-ankha…more openly than usual, even.”
Elza buried her face in the curtains.
“I just don’t understand how things got this bad,” Wataru said, half to himself.
Elza responded, her voice thin. “Only one person in the whole world will be chosen as the sacrifice. There’s no cause for this much alarm. And it certainly doesn’t have anything to do with race relations.”
Wataru was silent. He thought there was plenty enough reason to be worried, even if there really was going to be only one sacrifice. For him, the chances were fifty-fifty.
“But it was worse than Toni and I had feared,” Elza said, looking around. “Even my dad and Father Diamon were surprised just how deeply the teachings of the Old God had spread through the ankha in town. You know about the teachings?”
Wataru nodded. “Enough to know they believe that the Goddess made the non-ankha races in her own image to fight against the Old God. They also believe that the Old God would one day destroy them all and make a paradise for ankha here in Vision.”
A tear fell from Elza’s eyes as she continued. “According to the teachings, the need for a sacrifice every one thousand years to rebuild the Great Barrier is another of the Goddess’s schemes to persecute ankha. So, of course, an ankha would be chosen. Even if it is only one, every ankha is sacred and valuable in his duty to uphold the revival of the Old God, yet the Goddess chooses one of them. It’s all a part of her strategy to weaken them, they say.”
Wataru snorted. “Sounds ridiculous.”
“I wonder,” Elza said, looking at Wataru with sad eyes. “You are a Highlander, but I’m afraid you’re still a child. No matter how ridiculous it may sound, for those who believe, it’s the truth. To the followers of the Old God, the one whom the Goddess will choose is destined to be the savior of the ankha. That is why they must stop the sacrifice by any means possible.”
Father Diamon had gathered a large crowd of believers at the Cistina Cathedral, explained Elza, and he had given a great sermon. That was when he explained to them that Halnera was not the time of the Great Barrier’s remaking—that was a fabrication of the Goddess. To those believers in the Old God who knew the truth, Halnera was the time when the Old God appeared through the Blood Star in the north. At that time, the Goddess and all her followers would be destroyed.
“They say it’s a sign of the coming of a holy war, when the followers of the Old God finally destroy the Goddess, and take back Vision for their own.”
Elza’s words reached Wataru, brushing against his cheek like a cold breath. He shivered. “The National Observatory in Lourdes didn’t say anything like that.”
“Of course they didn’t. But people in Lyris believe Father Diamon, so it doesn’t matter what the observatory said.” Elza shook her head so vigorously the braid in her black hair came undone and her hair streamed over her shoulders. “That’s why Toni was arrested. But he couldn’t stand against them alone. There was nothing he could do. They burned his workshop…”
Defeat pressed on Wataru’s shoulders, and he felt like he was sinking into his chair. Even if I did save Mr. Fanlon, he’d have no workshop to make the flute.
Still,