CHAPTER IV DANCE OF VENGEANCE
Stillness filled the chamber. They felt as if the Darkness itself were watching them.
“It looks like they answered,” Balsa commented.
Yuguro’s mouth lifted in a smile. “So it does. Fine. I accept your challenge. Come!”
In his heart, he was laughing. What arrogance! She thinks a mere woman can beat me! That’s like baring her throat and asking me to kill her. Then a white flash grazed the side of his neck and he shrank back in surprise. Before he could register the searing pain, a blur of lights seemed to shoot toward his throat and he leapt away.
An icy chill swept through him. Never before had he encountered a spear that moved so swiftly and with such deadly accuracy. He opened his eyes wide and exhaled sharply. Any trace of contempt had vanished. All that remained was a burning hate. He took a deep breath, and energy radiated from him, electrifying the very air.
In a streak of light, his spear tip blazed toward Balsa’s face, and she swiftly leaned away from it. The spear point vanished, only to leap up at her from below. Reflexively, she knocked it aside with her spear grip, swinging her own weapon around to strike his knees. He jumped and brought his spear down upon her from above. Balsa repelled the stroke, but the force of the impact made her hands tingle. A chill raced up her neck as Yuguro’s spear point snaked toward her — from the right, then left, then from below. She parried each blow, slowly pressing forward. They were almost evenly matched. Kahm had finally regained consciousness, and he stood motionless with the other warriors and Kassa, watching spellbound as the two spears collided like bolts of lightning.
Then the spears crossed, each fighter aiming at the other’s throat. Blood spurted from Yuguro’s chin and Balsa’s cheek. Yuguro turned his face aside at the blow, but Balsa did not, and that difference tipped the balance. She thrust her spear through Yuguro’s shoulder, then pulled it out, kicking him in the chest as she withdrew. He fell writhing to the ground.
Rage consumed Balsa as she approached him, the blood pounding in her temples. She gazed down at him where he lay moaning, one hand pressed against his shoulder, and she murmured, “Now you die.” Raising her spear, she brought it down with all her might —
And in that instant, all light disappeared and the world plunged into darkness.
Balsa felt the blow she had aimed at Yuguro repelled and leapt back. Then she froze. In the pitch darkness, she sensed rather than saw a hazy blue figure standing between her and the prostrate Yuguro, looking down at him. She felt the hair rise on the nape of her neck, and goose bumps covered her skin.
The shape of that blue shadow seemed impossibly familiar. It can’t be … The words of Laloog’s message floated into her mind. “The Guardians of the Darkness are not servants of the Mountain King. They are those who have left this world, your —”
It can’t be.
She peered at the shadows in the darkness that surrounded the ring of warriors. She recognized one of them, and then another and another.
It can’t be.
An icy coldness washed over Yuguro and set his teeth chattering as he stared up at the blue figure. The cold was so intense it numbed the burning pain in his shoulder.
What’s this? Am I dreaming?
He tried to scramble backward. Those eyes watching him from the darkness — they belonged to a man he knew well. You mean you’re still alive? But the energy radiating from the shadow above him was not that of living flesh and blood. Through the pain and fear that gripped him, he suddenly remembered what Laloog had told him. Of course. I forgot. You’re a hyohlu. And I’ve come to put you out of your misery, to send you back to the bottom of Darkness. Desperately he searched for the right words to convince it to return to the land of the dead. “Brother,” he whispered, “do you blame me? Perhaps what I did seems unfair. But surely you can understand. I had no choice. It was the only way to redeem the honor of the Musa clan.
“It must have been hard for you, brother. Very hard. But I’ll ease your suffering; I’ll ease your pain. Open the door to the palace of the Mountain King — for the sake of the people of Kanbal, for their happiness. You understand, don’t you? This is the only way I can save you….
“If you do this, Kanbal will become a rich nation. No one will go hungry, you see? Your people will be filled with gratitude. The shame you bore will become a tragic legend, and your life will at last have meaning!”
Yuguro looked up at the figure expectantly. But it did not respond. It merely gazed at him silently with those dark eyes, apparently unmoved by his words.
As Yuguro gazed back, anger and disgust slowly welled inside him. You fool! he thought. You pitiful man, clinging to past tragedy just because the path you chose ended in disaster. Yet you dare to blame me! You terrible, terrible fool!
Something inside him snapped with twenty-five years of suppressed anger. Damn you! It’s me who should blame you! Do you realize what you did to my life by fleeing Kanbal for someone else’s daughter? Do you know how I felt all those years I spent trying to be invisible? How I hated you!
A burning rage filled his chest and his hand moved of its own accord. He felt it reach behind his back to unsheath his dagger. He knew that he should stop himself, but the desire to cut this man down was overpowering. He swung the dagger out sideways and stabbed the shadow in the leg.
Instantly, a fiery pain shot up his own leg. He screamed. The smell of blood filled the darkness and blood spurted from the wound with every heartbeat. What happened? Why am I hurt? Gasping for breath, he backed away. In his terror, he could no longer think clearly. Die, damn you! You’re dead already! How long are you going to keep ruining my life? If you’d just go away, the glory would be mine! Sobbing, he groped for his spear in the darkness and pulled it toward him. He felt the shadow stoop over him, reading his thoughts. In his heart, he shrieked, If you’re truly my brother, give me the luisha! Make up for what you did to me! Give it to me!
And then die already! Go back into the darkness forever!
He felt nothing but hate for the one who stood there.
Balsa felt a deep sadness surge through the darkness. The familiarity of it struck her with such painful intensity that she staggered. Each time Jiguro had killed one of his friends, she had been there watching, never averting her eyes. And she had felt what he felt, as if the emotion bled from his back and shoulders — a sorrow so sharp and tangible she could almost touch it….
That same grief now flooded from the hyohlu that bent over Yuguro.
He’s going to kill him…. And it makes him sad….
Yuguro drew his spear back and then drove it at his opponent with all his might. Like a mirror image, the hyohlu raised his spear and struck. But just before its point rammed home, Balsa blocked it with her spear and swung it up in a wide arc away from Yuguro.
The hyohlu leveled his spear at her. In that instant, all doubt was banished from her mind. They had crossed spears thousands of times for sixteen years and more.
Jiguro. A hot lump rose in her throat. You mustn’t kill Yuguro. If you do, you’ll grieve forever.
In the same way she had felt his sorrow, anger now seeped from his shadow. Suddenly his spear flashed toward her, slicing through the darkness. Startled, she parried the blow and turned it aside. He struck again, and she parried again. With each exchange, they moved away from Yuguro to face each other alone. Their spears struck with blinding speed until, gradually, their movements melded into a fluid, rhythmical dance.
“The Spear Dance has begun,” the old Herder whispered in Kassa’s ear. Although it was pitch dark, the Dancers’ thoughts and feelings hummed and flashed in the heart of every man in the chamber. More clearly than sight, they could feel the two dancing with dizzying speed as their thoughts intertwined.
“Pray for them, Kassa,” the Herder whispered. “Pray that Balsa will be able to lay the hyohlu to rest.”
As they danced, each thrust and jab of Jiguro’s spear seemed to transmit his emotions. One violent thrust grazed her side, and she felt his pent-up hatred burning in the open wound. He hated her! This realization shocked her, yet somewhere deep inside she had always known.
If only I hadn’t had to care for you …
How many times he must have suppressed that thought. If he had not sworn to care for her, he never would have been forced to kill his friends. If he had not been burdened with her life, he never would have had to flee Kanbal. Rogsam was not the only one who had derailed his life; Balsa had too. Jiguro attacked relentlessly, and each time he broke through her guard, agony ripped through her, permeating her very bones. And waves of hate rolled from the eight other hyohlu who stood in the darkness, spears in hand. But for you, they whispered, we would not have had to die so young.
A bone-gnawing pain sank into her chest, and as it did so, something stirred deep inside her — a fierce, aching rage. All the feelings she had locked deep in her heart, hidden even from herself, burst forth unchecked.
Then tell me, what could I have done? she lashed back, repelling Jiguro’s spear. I was only six years old! Are you saying I should never have been born? Or that I should have killed myself? She drove her spear at him and felt the hard shock in her hands as he blocked the blow.
I never asked you to save me! It was your choice, not mine!
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