The Book of Heroes (12 page)

Yuriko looked to Aju, hoping he could make some sense out of this, but her friend was silent. If the red book had eyes, they were looking away.

“In any case,” the Sage was saying, “it is impossible to stop the stories from cycling through the Circle. What did I tell you at the beginning? The Circle and the story are one. Lose the story, and the Circle will disappear. To put it another way, it would mean that all culture and civilization would vanish from the world.”

Leaving only the world as it is. With people, living as animals.

Once she had figured it out, Yuriko agreed that sounded like a very bad thing.

“So the King in Yellow gathers power through its copies,” the Sage continued, “and so it has for a very long time. One vessel leaves, and another appears to take its place. All of them work to give more power to the King in Yellow.”

“What kind of work?”

“What do you think?”

To be honest, Yuriko was having trouble thinking of anything. Her heart and her head were so full of thoughts and emotions tugging her this way and that, she was having trouble picking one to follow. Anger rose in her, then left just as quickly, leaving her feeling like she wanted to cry. She was exhausted.

From behind her, another book said something in a soft, sweet, feminine voice. Yuriko turned around.

“What was that? Could you say that again?”

“Battle,” the voice said. “Conflict.”

War,
thought Yuriko.
She means war.
“You mean the people who the King in Yellow possesses want to start wars?” Yuriko asked loudly, looking between the deep green glow of the Sage and the faint purple light of the book with the soft, sweet voice.

“There are many wars now in your Circle,” the Sage pointed out.

“Not in Japan.”

“I said in your Circle.”

Yuriko knew that much. It was in the newspapers and on the nightly news.

“And by conflict, I did not mean only wars,” the female voice said. “People take lives. They fight with other people. All of these are forms of conflict.”

“So are crimes conflict too? Like murder?”

“They are,” the female voice said, trembling with sorrow. “There is conflict even in the taking of a single life.”

Like Hiroki had done when he stabbed a boy to death and wounded another.

“Whenever a vessel creates conflict,” the Sage said, “The King in Yellow’s power increases. It grows over years, decades, centuries—until it has enough to break free. Enough power to destroy an entire planet.”

To generate such power took a very long time, the Sage explained, and a very great number of vessels were used and discarded along the way.

“No matter how high the tower, if you continue to climb, eventually, you will reach the top. No matter how deep the chasm, if it keeps raining, it will eventually fill to the brim.”

Yuriko finally understood. The last vessel was the one who gave the King in Yellow the final bit of power it needed to break its bonds.

“Yes, that is the last vessel. The Summoner. And when its bonds are broken, and it is free, the King in Yellow borrows this last vessel’s body that it might manifest itself within the Circle. Your brother,” the Sage said softly, “has become the King in Yellow.”

Yuriko buried her face in her hands. Her body was trembling, even in the magical warmth of the reading room.

“So, Hiroki…”

All around her, the books winked and blinked, their many shades of color covering her like a blanket, protecting her.

“…Where is he? If he’s in the Circle, does that mean he’s here, in this world?”

No one answered.

“You mean you don’t know?” Yuriko asked with a sigh of despair. “You have no idea? Not even a hint?”

“I’m sorry,” the sweet female voice whispered.

“We cannot be sure that the King in Yellow still uses your brother’s form,” the Sage said quietly. “As the last vessel, the boy may already have been consumed.”

“Aw, you didn’t have to tell her that,” Aju protested. “Think of the poor girl.”

“As you thought of her when you brought her here, Aju?”

Aju fell into a sullen silence.

“You asked about a hint?” the Sage said. “A hint, we do not have. But I know where you can find one.”

Yuriko looked up so quickly her ponytail made an audible slap against her back. “Really?”

“Were you to visit the nameless land, the devout there might be able to teach you something. Perhaps they will even aid your cause…and perhaps you will be able to aid theirs.”

Yuriko remembered something Aju had said. “I’m…qualified, right?”

“Yes, because you are of the same flesh as the last vessel.”

And because I’m a child.

“Why can’t adults leave the Circle, again?”

“Because adults carry within them the stain of too many stories. Were they to step into the nameless land, they would not be able to maintain their current form. They would likely not even be able to remain as people.”

Yuriko didn’t understand all of this, but the gist of it seemed clear enough—it had to be her. Her mother or father couldn’t go. Neither could the police or the army.

“Or, you could just leave it be, Yuriko, and do nothing.”

Yuriko’s eyes went wide with surprise.
What did he just say?

“You are still young. And weak. You need not take on this burden.”

“But if I don’t, won’t the world be destroyed?”

“No, this Circle will be destroyed.”

“What’s the difference what you call it?”

“If the Circle is destroyed, another will take its place. And Yuriko, this Circle will not die immediately. It still has time. Enough time, perhaps, for you to become an adult, grow old, live a full life. You must not forget, Yuriko, it is the Hero that has broken free of its bonds. A story that combines both the good hero, as you know it, and the King in Yellow. When the Hero appears in your Circle, it will not appear only as the great evil that is the king. There will be a great good to match it.”

So her Circle wouldn’t be destroyed just like that. “There’s going to be a war, isn’t there. A war between good and evil.”

The Sage winked twice as if to nod. “Yes. And many people will be involved in that war. You will not be fighting it alone. Even if you do fight, you can wait until you are grown to do so.”

Then Aju glimmered brightly in the darkness, trying to catch her eye. “Little miss. I thought you should know that there are people in the Circle who have already sensed that the Hero is free. Grown-ups too, not children. It won’t be long before they act.”

“Who? What kind of people?”

“People who have traveled the world looking for copies. Remember what the Sage said? They are those people who seek out the copies so they can hide them.”

“And those who seek to study the copies and learn the true nature of the Hero,” the Sage added. “And those who would use that knowledge as a fortress to defend this Circle from the King in Yellow.”

These people would follow the Hero’s every move, the Sage told her, and acquire the knowledge they needed to hunt down the King in Yellow. “We call these people the ‘wolves.’ Because they have keen noses, sharp fangs, and swift legs that never tire.”

“So,” Aju added as brightly as he could muster, “you could just leave the fighting to them, little miss. You don’t have to do this.”

Yuriko mulled over what the two books had said, weighing their words against each other. Her heart was racing so fast, she found it hard to even think clearly, but she did what she could to focus. She combed the tangles out of her disheveled hair with her fingers and sniffled. Somewhere along the line, she had gotten a runny nose.

“Will these ‘wolves’ save my brother?” she asked at last. That was where all her thoughts led—to her brother.

Neither the Sage nor Aju replied. Even the book with the sweet female voice was quiet.

“They won’t, will they,” Yuriko said, answering her own question. “Why would they go out of their way to do that?”

And besides, if they waited any longer, they might run out of time.

“I have to go. I have to go save my brother,” she said with finality, and a shiver ran through her. At the same time, a shiver also ran through every book in the reading room, like a collective sigh.

“So, that is the way of it, then,” the Sage said, his voice echoing. Yuriko looked up. “You’re already part of the Hero’s story.”

Me? Part of the Hero?

“Do not forget, child. Make yourself remember. Say it to yourself in the morning when you wake and at night when you lay down to rest: the Hero and the King in Yellow are two sides of the same coin.”

“Are you sure about this?” Aju asked, his earlier confidence gone. “She’s just a little girl.”

“We will send Yuriko to the nameless land.”

“But—”

“It’s okay, Aju,” Yuriko said, gently stroking the book’s cover. “I’ll do my best. And I won’t be alone. I’m sure I’ll find someone to help me in the nameless land, and even if I don’t, I’m sure I’ll come across the wolves while I’m looking for my brother. They’ll help me for sure.”

Even if I have to start my journey alone.

“Wait, I know!” Aju shouted. “Why don’t you look for the wolves here first? I’m sure that Minochi had encounters with wolves. Maybe some of them even visited.”

“You think so?” Yuriko asked, feeling a light of hope go on inside her. “You mean one of Mr. Minochi’s friends?”

“Yet we do not know who might be, or where,” the Sage responded. “Minochi was wary of the wolves. He would not have invited one here to his home.” There had been some visitors who might have been wolves, the Sage explained, but her great-uncle had always turned them away at the door.

“Maybe he took down an address or something,” Aju suggested, unwilling to give up so easily. “He might have gotten a phone number!”

“Like in an address book?”

“Right! Seen one anywhere?”

Yuriko had not. If her great-uncle did have anything of the sort, she supposed he’d probably have had it with him when he collapsed in Paris. Yuriko had no idea who might have it now.

“Then you should start by trying to find that. You could wake up your parents and ask them.”

Yuriko hesitated. It seemed like a good idea. But if she woke up her parents, she would have to try to explain the whole story to them. That would take forever.

“Aju, do you think you could explain it to my parents for me?”

“Of course!” Aju said enthusiastically, but the Sage cut him off.

“Even were the girl’s parents to see the truth with their eyes and hear the truth with their ears, they would not believe it.”

“Why not?”

“Aju, calm yourself and think about it for a moment. I believe you already know why.”

Placed in the same position as Yuriko had been, adults would doubt before they believed. They would doubt their own eyes and ears—and their sanity.

There was a long pause before Aju glumly agreed. “You’re right.”

It was as the Sage said.

Yuriko closed her eyes and then stood up from the stepladder. “I haven’t come this far just to sit around and do nothing.”

“Then first, Yuriko, we must fashion your replica.”

“A replica?”

“Were you to leave your parents here alone, would they not be worried about you?”

They sure would. But how
…? “What exactly do you mean by ‘fashion your replica’?”

“It is best you see it for yourself,” the Sage replied. He then called out “Vagesta?” and a book answered from Yuriko’s left side, from a shelf at just about the height of her head.

“Step toward me, miss,” said a soft female voice, “and hold out both hands in front of you, if you would. I will fly to you, so please catch me.”

Yuriko stuck out her hands, and a black, velvety book fell into them.

“Let us begin,” the book said. “First, I’ll need a strand of your hair.”

CHAPTER THREE

The Nameless Land

Before she even opened her eyes,
Yuriko felt a slight breeze against her skin. It brushed across her forehead, lifting up her bangs.

And the smells—there was dirt and grass, and something else. A smell she had never encountered in the city where she lived. An unfamiliar smell.

The ground felt soft beneath her sneakers.
It’s a field. I’m standing on grass.

That wouldn’t be so unusual, if she hadn’t, until moments before, been standing in the reading room of Ichiro Minochi’s cottage.

She had done everything as the Sage instructed her. She caught the book that fell from the bookshelf and flipped through the pages until he told her to stop. Then she read the words there—she couldn’t actually read the letters herself, so she had to repeat them after the Sage. Apparently, it was important that she hold the book and say the words herself.

Then she had to search the cottage until she found a piece of white chalk in order to draw a strange circular pattern on the floor of the reading room—based on the diagram in one of the books the Sage showed her. Before she did that, she had to clear a space on the floor, and that meant moving stacks of heavy, dusty books which made her sweat and sneeze terribly.

Even still, the moment she saw an exact copy of herself emerge from the strand of her hair she had placed in the middle of that strange magical circle, the aching in her shoulders and back and the burning in her bleary red eyes all vanished. She was so surprised she forgot to breathe. Everything about the girl standing in the middle of that circle was just like Yuriko. The girl grinned and took a step closer.

“Do not be frightened. While you are away, your replica will serve in your place,” the Sage explained.

“I-I’m not supposed to touch her, right?”

Yuriko recalled a science fiction movie her brother had rented once. The main character in the movie got into a time machine and went back in time to meet his past self. She remembered the scientist who invented the time machine telling him sternly that whatever he did, he wasn’t to touch his past self. If he did, not only he, but the entire world, would disappear in an instant.

The Sage chuckled softly. “It will do no harm. Your replica is yours to command.”

“Really?”

“Try giving her an order.”

So Yuriko had her replica help her erase the circle she had drawn on the floor. It was harder then she’d expected to get the chalk off the wood floorboards, so she asked her replica to find a mop somewhere, and the replica walked out of the room, only to reappear five minutes later, mop in hand.

“The next circle you will draw is far more complicated than the last,” the Sage warned. “You must draw it carefully, so there are no mistakes.”

This second circle would serve as the gate to send Yuriko to the nameless land.

After a few false starts, and with lots of corrections, she drew the circle. Yuriko stood up to get a better look at her work. Part of her wanted to stride boldly into the magic circle’s center, while another part of her was afraid and wanted to run away. So Yuriko stood still, breathing raggedly. Then she heard the Sage speak.

“Yuriko, do you always wear your bangs down like that in the front?”

They were hanging down now. Yuriko had always been a little embarrassed about her forehead, which she felt was far too large for its own good. When she combed her hair forward, her mother would always scold her, saying it would get in her eyes, and make Yuriko press her bangs back with pins or hair gel, but over the course of a busy day her bangs would naturally fall forward anyway.

The question seemed so out of place, for a moment Yuriko didn’t know how to respond. “Is this another test?”

“Lift up your bangs with one hand so we can see your forehead. Now, turn toward me and lift your chin. Ah! Don’t step on the circle yet!”

Yuriko put her back against one of the bookshelves and looked in the direction of the Sage.

The Sage began to cast a spell. His words had the rhythm of a song, but he was not singing. His voice rose and fell like a Buddhist chant, but it was not a prayer. Yuriko had never heard such a strange sound in her life.

The Sage’s voice grew suddenly clear and higher, then stopped abruptly. A moment later, the white chalk circle she had drawn on the floor began to burn with a pale light. Yuriko jumped. Then she felt something like a cold fingertip running across her brow. Unconsciously, she lifted her own hand to touch it. On the floor, the magic circle went dark.

But something was still giving off light near Yuriko, shining in her eyes.

“I believe there was a mirror in the hall,” the Sage said, ordering Yuriko’s replica to fetch it. The replica left the room again and came back carrying a small square mirror in her hands. The frame was covered in rust, and about a third of the mirror’s face was clouded and cracked.

“Look into the mirror,” the Sage told Yuriko, but she didn’t hear him. She was too busy being surprised at the warm touch of her replica’s hand when she took the mirror from her.

“Yuriko, look at your face in the mirror,” the Sage repeated.

Hurriedly, she held up the little square mirror.

A small magic circle had been drawn in the middle of her forehead about the size of a large coin. This was the source of the light that was making her squint. The little magic circle glowed a peppermint color and was an exact miniature of the magic circle she had drawn on the floor. It was like someone had drawn graffiti on her face with a fluorescent marker.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“That mark upon your forehead is a glyph. It allows you to travel freely between this Circle and the nameless land. It shows that you are permitted to pass through the gate between worlds.”

All she had to do to move between the nameless land and her own world was place her hand upon the mark and wish it, the Sage explained.

“Wait, so when I want to come back from the nameless land, do I show up here, in the cottage? Or can I go anywhere?”

“Anywhere you like, but—” the Sage’s voice grew louder, “should the magic circle in this reading room be erased or destroyed, the glyph upon your forehead will lose its power. You would do well to return here frequently to check on the parent circle, for it is your lifeline home.”

So if one of her uncles or the lawyer came here and tried cleaning up the magic circle, she’d be in trouble.

“Could you use your magic to keep everyone out of the cottage while I’m away?”

“We could.”

“Then will you?”

“We may, but we cannot stop the people who try to come here from wondering why they fail time and time again.”

So their magic wasn’t all-powerful.

“Right, I guess that would be a little strange.”

“Indeed.”

Yuriko nodded firmly. “Okay, I understand. I’ll be careful.”

“You’re forgetting something important,” Aju said to the Sage. It was good to hear the red book’s voice again. “Little miss, try not to go showing that mark on your forehead to everyone you meet. Better keep your bangs down over it when you can.”

So that’s why the Sage was asking about my bangs.

“You are impatient, Aju,” the Sage grumbled. “I was just about to tell her that. And besides, you forgot an important part. There will be no need for you to hide your glyph in the nameless land. You only need conceal it here, in this Circle. And you’ll need to conceal it should you cross over to any other region within this Circle.”

“Any other region?”

“You’ll understand once you go there.”

“Oh, oh, one more thing,” Aju cut in. “There will be people who know you bear the mark, even if you hide it. Those are the wolves, Yuriko. Their knowledge allows them to sense the glyph’s presence. Don’t worry about them, for the most part. Except, wolves tend to be a little
unusual
sometimes—so come to think of it, you might want to watch out for them after all.”

Yuriko wasn’t sure how she would do that. “Do these wolves all collect old books like my great-uncle did?”

“Many of them do, yes.”

“So they’re scholars. That doesn’t sound too dangerous.”

“Well,” Aju said, “just be careful. There are some real weirdos out there.”

“Once again, Aju, you leave much unsaid,” the Sage scolded the red book in a harsh tone. “The wolves are pursuers of the Hero, child. They are hunters. And now that you bear the mark, you are one of them.”

“Me? A wolf?”

“You leave now on a journey to find the Hero, to find the King in Yellow, do you not?”

He’s right.

“And, Yuriko, the King in Yellow knows. It can sense that you have received the mark. You are an
allcaste
.”

“
Allcaste
,” Yuriko muttered to herself.

“That is the word the devout in the nameless land use. That is your identity now.”

Yuriko swallowed. “So the enemy knows about me already?” Her knees started to wobble. It didn’t seem fair. She just wanted to find her brother, not get mixed up in all of this.
I think that maybe I started something big without really understanding what I was doing.

“Now that the King in Yellow is free of its prison, it is also free to collect more power. It will come to this Circle, intent on adding to its strength, and perhaps not notice you at all. But should it feel you are a hindrance to its plans, it will quickly move to eliminate you.”

No one said anything about this!

“We cannot know how it will act, or react. But Yuriko, be wary, for the King in Yellow has many familiars, and while not as powerful as their master they are nothing to laugh at.”

Familiars? Like the animals witches are always sending to do their dirty work?
Yuriko swallowed again.

“Are these nameless devout guys strong? Can they fight?”

The Sage did not answer, so she turned to Aju.

“Do you think the wolves will help me if I ask them?”

Aju too was silent. Yuriko stepped forward and picked up the red book. “Will you go with me, Aju?”

The book’s red glow flickered weakly, like its batteries were going dead. “The time for me to be summoned to the nameless land has not yet come,” the book replied after a moment.

Yuriko sighed and placed Aju back on the shelf. The book mumbled an apology, and she felt it shiver sadly as her hand left the cover.

“Now then, are you ready to go?”

She almost said
no
.

She wanted to cry.

Next to her, Yuriko’s replica stretched out a hand. Yuriko grasped it and held tightly, but the replica slowly shook her head.

“Hand that mirror to your replica,” the Sage instructed her. “You will not be able to bring anything with you from this Circle to the nameless land but that which you wear. You must pass through alone.”

Shoulders sagging, Yuriko handed over the mirror. But she still held the replica’s hand, not letting go until the replica had to gently pry off her fingers.

“Do you wish to see your parents before you leave?”

She had found them lying in the hall and on the entrance mat when she had gone looking for the chalk. They had been sleeping like babies. It had taken all her willpower to resist the urge to shake them awake.

“No. I’m okay. I’ll just go like this.”

Yuriko gave up trying to control things. She would just have to go for it, she decided. Even if what she was about to do sounded a whole lot scarier than getting picked on at school.

What was that line again? “There’s no turning back now.”

“Take care of them for me, will you? My parents, I mean,” she said to her replica, and her replica smiled and nodded. “Don’t worry. Leave them to me.”

She can speak! With my voice!
It was obvious, when she thought about it—she was an exact replica intended to take her place after all. But it still startled her to hear her own voice like that.

“Won’t it be weird if there are two of me here when I come back?”

“Don’t worry about that, either. There’s a way to make it so no one will notice. I’ll explain when the time comes.”

Yuriko thought the replica sounded a little older than she did. Like a seventh grader, maybe.

“Good luck,” the replica said, and Yuriko wondered if a piece of her hair had somehow managed to turn into a more grown-up, confident person than she was.

“Then let us open the gate,” the Sage said solemnly. “To the center of the magic circle, Yuriko.”

Though her knees were still a little wobbly, Yuriko stepped into the very center of the circle and stood. The Sage began to chant again. Soon the other books joined, until the voice of every book in that reading room was raised in a single chorus. She could make out Aju’s voice among them.

Once again, pale flames rose up from the magic circle. The flames arced in the air, wrapping around her legs and arms. Though Yuriko closed her eyes against the glare, the image of her replica standing just outside the circle, waving her hand, still floated on the inside of her eyelids.

And that was how she had come here, wherever
here
was, standing on the soft grass.

She didn’t feel like she had moved since stepping on the magic circle. She hadn’t flown up into the air or tunneled through the ground or had to duck through any sort of opening.

She was just here.

Yuriko slowly opened her eyes, steeling herself for whatever might be waiting. She had already imagined several possibilities. She felt ready for just about anything. Anything at all.

What she saw dashed all pretense of readiness from her, scattering her resolve to the wind.

She was looking out over a dry grassland, bleached of color, as bleak as the gray sky that hung low above it. There was no one else in sight.

She noticed the light above her eyes again. The glyph on her forehead was glowing. She lifted her own hand and saw its pale light reflected on her fingers, and then it went out. Like a signal announcing her arrival extinguished when its purpose was served.

The sky seemed oppressively close. The clouds hung heavily over her, and beneath them floated a layer of mist. The mist had a slight bluish tint, making it look cold, as though tiny particles of ice flowed through the air currents above her head.