Tahyang’s arrows began flying toward the drooling dogs. He hit one, sometimes two, with every shot. Hanbun spoke to Rosa.
“I’ll have to go down to fight. I only know swordsmanship.”
“There isn’t a way to release just one person from a spell cast on all of us.”
At Rosa’s answer, Luke spoke too.
“Just stay here. If we go down, we’ll have to fight them all at once.”
“But I have few arrows left.”
Hanbun was right. Rosa lifted the spell, and Hanbun immediately drew his sword and stepped in front of the other three. Tahyang drew his sword too. A melee broke out. Tahyang literally slaughtered the dogs, and Hanbun’s swordsmanship was formidable as well. When the fight was over, the ground was covered in blood. Tahyang had been scratched in one or two places. Hanbun had suffered a severe bite at the elbow, but said he was fine and would not even show them the wound. Looking up at the library, Luke muttered,
“A sea of blood before a library. It feels as though the end of the world has come.”
“We should worry about our own end before the world’s.”
At Rosa’s words, he raised his head. Countless stones were floating around them. The paving stones had slipped silently into the air, as though they were alive. When they began to turn slowly, Rosa’s face showed alarm. The four stood back to back. Clenching her fists and concentrating, Rosa spoke.
“I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise anything this time.”
Tahyang and Hanbun nodded. Luke shouted something that might have been a joke or a plea.
“Go easy on me! I didn’t say a word! I’m destined to live a long life! The goddess has decreed it!”
As the stones turned faster, sweat formed on Rosa’s forehead. A moment later, a wall of whirling wind surrounded them. It spun in the opposite direction from the stones. They began to fly. Heavy thuds rang out one after another. The stones flew right up to their faces, then bounced away, again and again. Simply standing there made them break into cold sweat. Rosa held her hands together and kept her eyes tightly closed. Her lips moved little by little. She looked as though she was struggling, but none of them could help. All they could do was pray she endured.
As time passed, however, the fierce whirlwind visibly weakened. The flying stones began to strike them. The blows were bearable for now, but soon they would surely become impossible to withstand. Tahyang wrapped himself around Rosa from the right, shielding her from the stones. Hanbun covered her with his body from the left. Luke wrinkled his nose several times, then went around to stand in front of her. Now the three men seemed to be embracing with Rosa between them.
The stones began striking legs, backs, and shoulders. Tahyang spoke.
“Bow your heads, everyone. I’m tall. I’ll take some of them.”
“If I survived that way, I couldn’t face the captain.”
Hanbun answered. Luke chuckled.
“To be honest, I’d rather be the last survivor. Isn’t it a poet’s duty to transform every tragicomedy we endure into immortal words? But if I survived by hiding behind someone else’s head, what future would I have except killing myself from the shame of being mocked for it?”
Tahyang smiled too.
“The Firran place little value on records. Every great deed happens again. But a brave poet is the finest companion a journey could have.”
“Perhaps even on the road to the next world.”
The stones began battering the three men’s backs. Tahyang and Hanbun endured in silence, and Luke with his teeth clenched. Then they heard an unfamiliar voice. It sounded as close as a whisper in the ear.
“So this is how you finally drag me out? Cunning Daeior.”
Rosa’s head shot up. At the same moment, the whirlwind stopped abruptly. Expecting the stones to hit, Luke hunched into himself. But what he heard was the sound of hundreds of stones falling to the ground at once. So tense that he first thought it was the sound of his own skull cracking, he soon felt his undamaged head and muttered,
“To think the back of my head is harder than stone.”
Rosa slipped out from among the three companions who had put their arms around one another and looked around. There was no need to look far. A tall, slender man stood a few steps away. He had been watching Rosa when he suddenly raised an arm and swept it through the air. An enormous scythe-shaped shadow flying toward them from behind broke into hundreds of pieces and fell. Once it fell, they could see it was made of small black birds. The man muttered,
“Now that you know the difference between us, disappear.”
He approached. Tahyang, Hanbun, and Luke assumed he was another mage. His long blue coat had a triangular front hem and a back shaped like a bird’s tail. No one but a mage would be likely to wear such peculiar clothes. Though young, he had white hair and eyebrows, and that too was distinctive. Besides, this was Ayanad, and he had plainly driven off the mage who had attacked them. He could be no ordinary practitioner. Perhaps he might even help with their search. The three were just about to thank him.
Rosa suddenly rushed forward and punched him in the face.
Luke gave voice to the feelings of all three men at the sight.
“Aaagh!”
As soon as he shouted, he covered his head and cried out again.
“Not me! It wasn’t me! I didn’t do it! I’m not that belligerent! I must have seen it wrong, mustn’t I? Are we going to be sliced into hundreds of pieces now? Damn it, I’d rather have the stones!”
Recovering his senses, Tahyang patted Luke on the shoulder. Luke raised his head and saw that nothing had happened. Yet. The stranger and Rosa were facing each other. The man’s face was red and swollen where she had struck him. Rosa still clenched her fists. Before long, they shouted at each other. Rosa spoke first.
“Where have you been hiding all this time? Why show up only now?”
“Is there some rule that says I have to show up?”
“Oh, is that so? Then what was all that fuss last time about my being a young lady and my clothes?”
“You looked ridiculous. That’s all. So what happened to the clothes you bought? Why are you dressed like this?”
“How was I supposed to know when you’d appear? Do you expect me to walk around in a dress every day?”
“Why not? Wear one every day, and who knows? Some idle prince might take an interest.”
When Rosa raised her fist to hit him again, the stranger swiftly blocked it. In the midst of it all, Hanbun coughed as though saliva had caught in his throat. Luke glanced at Tahyang and murmured,
“Childhood friends?”
“Something of the sort, I think.”
“Fancy meeting one here.”
“He seems to have been watching all along.”
Eventually Rosa and the man calmed down a little. Rosa turned to her companions.
“I’m sorry. For startling you. This is an old… friend.”
The man snorted.
“Some friend.”
“What should I call you, then? A pet?”
He glared at her. His eyes tilted delicately upward, unusually so for a man. No, regardless of gender, there was something not quite human about their shape. His irises were jade. Tahyang spoke in his characteristic tone for stopping a fight.
“Perhaps you could tell us your name.”
“His name is…”
Rosa stopped and looked at the man. He answered, scowling.
“Snowden.”
This time, Rosa wore a mocking smile.
“What a pretty name. Did you make yourself a new one?”
“Shut up.”
All three men now understood that they needed to stop the two from quarreling. Hanbun spoke.
“Thank you for helping us, Mr. Snowden.”
“Ah, yes, me too. We survived thanks to you. I’m Lucius Quinto, a poet.”
Unexpectedly, Snowden showed an interest in Luke.
“You wrote The King of Mea, didn’t you? I enjoyed it.”
“Oh, thank you. To think I’d meet a fan in a place like this.”
“It was all good, except Edan I had no daughter. That one thing rather spoiled it.”
Luke’s eyes widened. Without waiting for an answer, Snowden turned back to Rosa.
“Well? You’ve risked your life to make me show myself. Don’t you have something to ask?”
Indicating Snowden with his chin, Luke whispered to Tahyang,
“He’s rather kind, underneath it all.”
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