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Chapter Eleven: The Road Home

They reached Shyde that night and Worent the next. The first person Ryu saw when they neared Worent was Una, seated on one of the outer walls with her tail lashing fitfully. She jumped off and ran to them. "Ay, Chief! You're back!" Cray nodded. "Great. Let's go, the Elders've been tearing out their hair." She laughed. "What's left of it, anyway."

Within an hour they were caught in the celebration. People chanted and stamped their feet to the drums, and in between dancing they rushed to be introduced to Sa Ryong (who turned an interesting color at so much attention) and to ask after Elina's health. Elina had significantly improved after a few days back in the land of the living, and the healing had reached her feet - they were still not quite done, but she was able to stand up by leaning on Cray, and with the swirl of her long dress nobody noticed anything beyond a slight limp - which was only natural, they said, after all she'd been through.

"Don't you want to dance? This is a party."

"I don't know," he told Nina, looking past her at the chanting and the stamping. "I'm not good at that kind."

"I'm not either." She smiled and her wings arched. "So we'll make our own. Come on." By the time he could think of another protest she had him by the hands and spun around, carrying him with her. He laughed, but as Mami's bell jingled at chest level he couldn't shake the feeling that Fou-Lu was looking over his shoulder - that or hanging in the sheath tied to his belt. Whichever one was worse.

Ryu focused on Nina's smile and on the movement of his feet, and consequently was able to forget for minutes at a time.

When the celebration began to slow down Cray and Elina went to have a discussion with the Elders and the rest of them got free beds in the inn. The first thing Ryu did was take the bell from around his neck. He held it up and watched it swing on its cord and glint in the lamplight -

I canno' stand t'see ye look so sad.

He proceeded to twist the cord several times around the hilt of his sword so that the bell was pressed against it, still gleaming. After that, Ryu slept immediately and without any remembered dreams.

"Oh!" the man at the Astana gate cried. "Is that you, Captain Ursula?"

"It's General Ursula," said one of her accompanying soldiers.

"Ah, sorry about that." He looked genuinely sorry. "Congratulations, General. You'll be wanting to see about… Lord Yuna, right?" She nodded. "Thought so! Come on in with your men." He ran into the city, shouting the news.

It would be easy to be indignant about the rebellion, she thought, if only they weren't so polite about it. A trap of false courtesy, in which one was welcomed in, surrounded by smiles, and then stabbed to death, would be fine. Traps could be dealt with, and she ordered the soldiers to be on alert. But during the entire march to the Carronade facility there wasn't as much as a thrown cobblestone. There were in fact a few cheers and eager inquiries from the otherwise serene populace; a few of the rumors regarding her deeds were so outrageous, if oddly flattering, that she took note of them to bring up later.

An Imperial Thaumaturgist, presumably the leader, greeted her at the entrance. "General? Oh yes, there would be a lot of shuffling about, wouldn't there? Do come in." She acquiesced, but once inside she firmly declined a seat.

"Where did all this nonsense about the Wyndian princess come from?" she asked. "I never laid eyes on her, and I certainly don't think he intended to turn her over to the Alliance after he was done."

He coughed. "Ah, well, there was a bit of exaggeration." When she let her fingers edge toward her gun he said quickly, "If I told them he'd gone and done something to some Alliance princess, do you really think they would have cared? We have been at war, as you know. They'd hardly have thought it deserving of what he, well, deserves."

She frowned. "If he's as guilty as you seem to think, why prevaricate?"

"Look, I know he's been doing something wrong, even if I can't point to the exact law, and I hardly wanted to wait and figure out exactly what he'd done and then find he'd caught on and run away again."

"They're saying out there that it was the people from the Alliance who captured him." Of course it had to be them - they didn't live in the Empire, they weren't diplomats and they wouldn't give a damn about who would be offended if they locked up the Minister of Thaumaturgy. She wished she were able to be like them in this respect.

"Yes, but how do you think your soldiers, that Norris and Pasho, would have reacted if they'd roughed up an Imperial official and dragged him out of the Base? Speaking of which, I gather it turned out the princess was still alive, if a bit legless, and she's gone back to the Alliance with them."

"I see. So where did you put Lord Yuna, then?"

"Ah. Well. He's escaped."

"Escaped by being piked in the head and thrown into the aqueduct, where he swam away?"

He chuckled, but stopped when he saw the expression she must have had. "Escaped in the commonly defined manner. He went through the Causeway before we got wind, but we've caught the man who helped him."

"Why the Causeway? He can't expect to be very welcome in Alliance land."

"The man mentioned a place in the other land where gods were summoned."

Ursula nodded as she remembered conversations with her new traveling companions while they camped in the highlands near the village of Chek. "I think I know what was meant by that."

"Would you like to speak with him? He's been understandably reluctant to talk."

"Yes, I think I'll do that. You realize I have to arrest you for this."

"Certainly, General. Procedure must be followed."

Yuna had talked and spent his way onto a merchant's sandflier bound for Shyde, describing himself as a scholar come on a peaceful visit to the Alliance. It was true - he'd not brought any soldiers with him, had he? A group of Alliance soldiers stood near him, though the deck was quite roomy. In their center was a young man with the same petulant expression as Soniel had often worn when he still had a head, who Yuna gathered was a Ludian prince. They bent their heads toward each other and conversed in false whispers; for Yuna not to hear them he would have to have his hands stuffed down his ears.

"Look at his hat, I tell you. Look at his face - it's powder white. I'm telling you, he's that way."

"You mean he's an Imperial mime?"

"Imperials… half of them bloodthirsty bastards and the other half-" Presumably not mimes.

The voice lowered to a point where it was obvious they actually didn't want him to hear. But he'd had a good deal of practice with his assistants. "I say we wait until he goes to sleep and then pitch him off for the Sand Dragon to eat."

"The Sand Dragon's run away, idiot. We were chasing it until the flier got busted, remember?"

"Oh. We were? Damn. Those were some big dogs, weren't they?"

"You bloody fool," said the prince.

"But I still say we pitch him off the side," the fool/idiot persisted.

"Look, we're not trying to restart the war."

"We aren't?"

Typical military high spirits, Yuna decided. When in the vicinity of the Generals Yohm and Rhun's men he'd often heard much the same sort of thing, applied to a variety of targets. Nevertheless he didn't sleep until all the Ludians had gone away to card games and the like. Just to be safe.

The next morning Ryu slept late, as usual, but not as late as Sa Ryong, who eventually needed to be hauled bodily from his nest of blankets. As he retied his ponytail Nina came in, followed by Deis. In the last few days Deis had grown out of the child's body and child's voice and now, apparently, judged herself worthy to be seen away from the Ershin armor. She had half a sweet bun in her hand and the other in her mouth, which she hurriedly swallowed. "This isn't bad at all," she told Ryu.

"What, the bun?"

"No, all of this." She waved a hand along the length of her floor-sweeping blue ponytail and grinned. "You really knew what I wanted, didn't you?" He shrugged, at a loss for a reply.

Cray met up with them outside his house, where he gave them the news regarding Tarhn. "They got a message by bird," he said, twining his hand with Elina's. "It said she was going to Wyndia with the Grass Dragon and not to wait for her. Let's get going."

The journey across the Gold Plains was a good deal faster than it had been the last time, to everyone's relief. They went on foot - only Cray and Ryu could ride. Deis ran ahead, her hair alternately blowing out with the wind or dragging through the tall grass, and her laughter had stayed that of a child. The pathway through the shrine out into the Wyndia region hadn't changed, though someone - Tarhn? - passing through before them had left the laser beam puzzle in its proper configuration, saving them some time.

Throughout all this they were attacked several times by roving monsters, as was expected, but to Ryu's guilty relief Fou-Lu utterly failed to shout at him in the middle of a fight, or indeed to say anything or manifest himself at any other time. If the others hadn't seen… whatever had happened to his sword, he might have thought that they'd inadvertently left Fou-Lu's spirit back in Kyoin.

But at least there was no more memory leakage. He had only to deal with what had already managed to get in, though that wasn't that as easy as it sounded. He shouldn't have been surprised - many of them were not, after all, the sort of memories that were easily forgotten.

It was dark by the time they crossed the Ahm Fen the next day. Ryu sat first watch, and when he still wasn't tired he shared the second with Scias. When Cray came on for third, Ryu ended up being forcibly dispatched. "I'm not tired," he called one last time, then undid his sheathed sword, still with the bell. He set it to the side of his bedroll and pulled his blanket around him.

As for her - she is dead. There is nothing.

Ryu lay down. Yes. There might not be nothing, but it had to have been awful. They hurt her to hurt you. Fou-Lu couldn't possibly hear him from the sword. He didn't care. Like they would have hurt Elina to hurt Wyndia. Everyone dying, dying… it's not fair. It shouldn't have been like this.

From here he could see the sleeping forms of Nina and Elina, wrapped in their own blankets, and he was comforted. That, at least, was set right.

I know it sounds silly, but I swear, Ryu, she's breathing.

If I'd brought her back on accident what could I have done on purpose?

He smiled as he was struck with the serenity of the utterly absurd.

What I could do on purpose? I could bring her back. I could bring Mami back.

It might be different than for Endless - but Elina wasn't a real one, and she was mortal before that anyway. I haven't got the power anymore - but I can get it back. I rode on it to bring her back all the way, I'd better be able to do it again. The Abbess has got to have at least a hint.

His smile widened. And Fou-Lu couldn't possibly want to die anymore, when she's here for him to come back to.

It's worth a shot. It's worth it to try and fix what got broken. Better to bring them back than to muck about with revenge. People can only die once but life…

When he finally slept his dreams were vague but pleasant, with an utter absence of bells.