Nausicaä worked quickly with Chikuku. With Charuka and a single Dorok operator they took off in a Flying Jar--stored in the rear of the Corvette, offloaded to make room for the wounded, both ambulatory and litter-bound--to gain a better vantage point over the battlefield. She had not been able to find Haku. The soldiers with him said that he had just gotten up and wandered off despite their protestations, muttering something about foolish humans as he left. The renewed gunfire pelting their position had prevented them from following him.
There's no time to look for him now, she had thought then as she abandoned her search. I hope he takes care of himself.
When the Jar had reached the position Chikuku wanted it in, he told the pilot to keep it there. Then he nodded at Nausicaä.
Ready. His hand grasped hers. She creased her eyes to show him she was smiling, then closed them and reached out with her heart.
------oOo------
The Princess' entreaty went out over the whole battlefield, aided and abetted by Chikuku's powerful mental abilities. Men stopped fighting to listen to her plea, and to marvel at the image of her projected in their minds. The Emperor-to-be had embellished it enough for each individual to ensure everyone would recognize who was speaking: the Apostle of old, the girl in the prophecies, the Blue-Clad One. To some she appeared as a woman with feathered wings on her back. There was enough misery in the world, she said. Why add to it, especially when the suffering was needless? More could be gained by talking than fighting. She implored them to search their hearts and find, if only temporarily, the strength of will to put down their weapons and speak to each other.
Believe me, she sent, no one wants this battle. Not one of you does. I can feel it. Chikuku nodded in agreement and leaned against Nausicaä, who hugged him to her side. Cast aside your anger for a while and listen! You will find that you are not as different from each other as you think, and that the danger lies not in your guns but in your hearts. Nausicaä looked down at Chikuku's face, which was oddly peaceful for all the power he was exerting, and was reminded of the children in the Valley of Wind. The precious few, like Tepa. Sometimes it takes more courage not to fight.
Nausicaä lingered a moment more in the mental connection, then broke it. She had said what she wanted to say. Men saw her turning away from them, the sad-faced Apostle with her blank eyes that stared into one's soul, folding her wings and wringing her hands in sorrow, before the vision vanished.
"Let's go back down," she told the pilot. "Chikuku! Hey, Chikuku! Don't fall asleep just yet! Oh!" She gently let him slide into a sitting position and leaned him against the side of the Jar.
Charuka was chuckling. "He really missed you very much, Nausicaä. Sometimes he'd spend hours just looking out the window. I asked him what he was looking for and he always said he was wondering where you went. Where did you go, Nausicaä?"
"I..." Nausicaä stared out to the vague horizon, at the dim line where she supposed the Forest was. The miasma-laden wind blew at her hair. "I went somewhere unbelievable, Holy Father. I will tell you of that another time. I'm not sure you're ready to handle it."
Charuka's eyebrows raised as far as they would go. "Really? Try me."
Nausicaä shook her head. "Not yet." She glanced at the sleeping boy. "Is Chikuku happy, Charuka?"
Charuka considered as the Jar continued to descend. "I should say so. Though truth be told, Nausicaä, he's always trying to dodge his lessons and arguing with the teacher, and always trying to escape the monastery. He says he wants to follow in your footsteps."
"Oh?"
"Yes. I think he got bitten by the same wanderlust that bit you..."
"Do you let him? Travel, I mean?"
"Why, of course not! I do have to keep him safe, you know. The future leader of the Dorok Principalities, gallivanting about in the wilderness? It's still a dangerous world, even though the war has ended. Just think of the chaos that would ensue if anything bad happened to him!"
Nausicaä did not speak again until the Flying Jar touched the ground. As they prepared to disembark, she turned to Charuka and said, "Please let him. Not as much as he would like, but let him."
"Eh?"
"Travel. It's what made me learn things about this world of ours." Nausicaä thought briefly about the secret of the Forest. "There are some lessons that can't be taught in a school, knowledge that can't be searched for in a library. And besides, you will have a more well-rounded Emperor afterwards. I'm sure of that."
Charuka sighed. "True, I have thought about it. I mean, just look at what a hundred years of enforced idleness did to Namulith. But I'm getting too old to go on adventures, Nausicaä. Someone else will have to watch over him."
"You could ask someone like Asbel."
"Oh, heaven forbid! What would the council say when I place Chikuku in the charge of a foreigner?"
"Holy Father."
"Alright, alright, I'll think about it. Now let's get off this contraption, shall we? My knees are starting to ache."
------oOo------
Nausicaä knew her gambit was working when priest-soldiers and Torumekian fighting men started to stream back in from the battlefield, reporting that the enemy parties had once more reformed and had, for the present, stopped fighting. Kurotowa proposed a quick retreat, but Kushana opposed it, on the grounds that their withdrawal might embolden the enemy. Instead she called for a discreet reinforcement of their position, by having two ships fly out of sight, disgorge their troops unseen, and come back. These troops would be equipped with tanks and encircle the enemy at a distance far enough remain invisible, and close in only when needed.
"This can work," she insisted, sittng propped up in a litter under the shade of Setoru's Corvette's wing. "Right now the haze will prevent anyone from seeing the dust the tanks' tracks kick up."
"Aren't you afraid that their presence will only make these people fight all the harder?" asked Charuka.
"Not if I judge them correctly. And I intend to offer safe passage for them and their families once they lay down their arms."
"I hope they believe you."
Kushana shrugged. "At any rate, I don't intend for us to stay in a dangerous position like this any more."
Selm and Nausicaä both had large misgivings about the endeavor, but it was Kushana's and Charuka's call. The council of war ended, Enochil interposed himself and announced that the Corvette was ready to depart.
"And you are going with it, Highness," insisted Kurotowa.
Kushana looked up at her aide. Her eyes had a hard glitter in them, but to Nausicaä it seemed that the fire had gone from their depths. It was as if the wind-rider had been staring into a pond that had been full of fish and plants, and was now merely a liquid mirror devoid of life. Was it because of what had transpired between Asbel and her?
"I guess you're right," Kushana said meekly. "I don't think I'm in any shape to command just now. You will have to speak in my name. The best of luck to you." She waved dismissively, and a pair of gunners from the Corvette took hold of her stretcher and bore her up into the craft.
They all stood up and watched as the hatch was dogged. "What," Kurotowa observed for them all, "not even a complaint about leaving the field? Leaving her men?"
"She has been wounded most severely," Selm said, herding them all away from under the Corvette's wing. It was no place to be when the thing took off. He exchanged the briefest of glances with Nausicaä, and she knew he wasn't talking about the Regent's body.
"Yes, she has," she agreed. And she hasn't healed yet.
Ah, I believe her healing lies on a road different from yours, Selm sent back. They all covered their faces as the Torumekian assault craft started its engines and debris began swirling about. She will have to travel it alone. The most we can do is help.
Bou-mouse emerged from the vee of Nausicaä's shirt, where he had been hiding with the fly-bird. "Chu," he said, a sad expression on his little face.
The Corvette lifted off in a hail of flying dust and pebbles. Nausicaä stared at it, and at the small figure which was standing halfway out of the upper front gun mount, looking down at her. Asbel had chosen to leave with Kushana. The Princess wondered why.
------oOo------
Half an hour passed, and nothing happened, save for two of the guards posted around the perimeter of the encampment accosting someone who was definitely not either of the Dorok-Torumekian party or of the settlers and wanderers. They brought him in to face Charuka, trepidation written in their eyes, their rifles raised and ready.
"Haku!" Nausicaä exclaimed as her sight came upon him. He was hale and smiling, and as mysterious as ever. And, much to everyone except the wind-rider's consternation, he was standing there without a mask and nothing was happening to him.
"He's a demon," one of the older Dorok priest-soldiers said, his voice quavering. "He's a demon, sent to claim the dead."
"I am not," the river spirit fired back in perfect Dorok speech. "Though I would like to meet the person who shot me. I have some things I want to tell him." He walked free of them and up to Nausicaä, before whom he bowed.
"Are you alright?" the wind-rider asked. "You act like... your wound!" Nausicaä reached out and parted the tear in Haku's robes. "Where? What?"
Haku laughed, a rich sound that could be heard all over the hilltop. "I was going to tell you before you left me, Nausicaä," he said, "but you seemed in such a hurry I didn't want to bother you." From within the folds of his clothes he produced a greenish ball that fit in the palm of his hand. It had a small bite taken out of it.
"What's that?"
"It's medicine, Princess," Haku said. "Powerful medicine. I took a little, and my wound was healed."
"You... you..." Nausicaä's brows came together. "You made me worry! And all the while you were just laughing at my concern!"
"No, I wasn't." Haku stepped closer to Nausicaä. "Well, maybe a little. But I was out of my mind with the pain, and wasn't thinking right. Who knows what I could've done if you hadn't helped me?" He extended a hand. "Only Chihiro has ever cared for me like that. Thank you, Child of the Wind."
Nausicaä tentatively took hold of Haku's hand, whereupon he held her palm out and placed the ball of medicine in it. "This might help everyone who's been injured in this exercise in stupidity. But use it sparingly. There are many who need it, and it's all I can give you."
Nausicaä cupped her hands around the precious gift. "Thank you!" She took her sword, used it to cut the ball in half, then placed one part in her pouch. The other she divided equally between Kurotowa and Charuka.
"Feed a little to those who are wounded," Haku told them. Charuka nodded and called for a knife, then began cutting his portion into little strips, telling the Guardsman helping him--the same one who had saved Kurotowa's life--to distribute the shavings to those who needed them.
Kurotowa looked dubiously at his piece, then at the giver. "You don't honestly mean this thing can - "
"Why don't you try it out on Kushana?" Nausicaä asked, her eyes smiling up at him. "I'm sure she'll be grateful."
Kurotowa sighed. "Oh, all right." He motioned to a nearby soldier. "Hey, get me a bowl and knife, will you? And tell me when the next plane's coming in. We've got to get this up to the monitor."
Chikuku tugged at Nausicaä's sleeve.
"Yes?"
"Is he your friend?"
"Yes. Chikuku, this is Haku." They bowed to each other, and Chikuku said tentatively, "He's... different."
"Why, yes I am," Haku responded, his eyes boring into Chikuku's. "You're a perceptive young lad."
Chikuku nodded. "Nausicaä, why are you keeping the other half of the medicine?"
Just then a lookout came running up to them, reporting that a group of leaders from the enemy factions had assembled at the foot of the hill under a flag of parley. "They want to talk to Kushana."
"Well, I guess this is it," Kurotowa said, handing the medicine and knife to a soldier and telling him to continue. "Any of you want to come with me and bear witness?"
"I'll come," said Charuka.
"As will I," Nausicaä ventured. She turned to Chikuku. "I'm saving the medicine for them, Chikuku. We're not the only ones who need it."
"I would like to come too," Chikuku requested, understanding dawning in his eyes.
"As would I, as the eyes and ears of the People of the Forest," said Selm.
Kurotowa nodded. "Fine." Calling for two soldiers--one from Charuka's Guard and one from his own staff--to accompany them, he led the way down the hill to the waiting delegation.
------oOo------
There were ten people waiting for them, leaders, it seemed, of the different tribes and groups that had faced off against Kushana and Charuka's troops. The one leading them was, like the rest of those in the party, heavily swathed in cloth, and wore an ornate gilded mask that stood out in sharp contrast to its simple dress.
The leader raised a hand, palm forward, while the other held out a ring of bread as a peace offering. "We come to talk to the White Witch. Where is she?" The voice was muffled.
"She has withdrawn," Kurotowa replied, stepping forward, raising his own hands to show that he was unarmed. The leader gave him the ring of bread, and he passed it to the keeping of one of the soldiers. "You have wounded her, and I now speak in her name. I am Kurotowa of Torumekia. This is Charuka - "
"I know who he is," interrupted the figure standing in front of Kurotowa. "Base person who has defiled the Scriptures, I know your face very well and want nothing to do with you. But my people's need is pressing." The leader paused. "And I see you, Blue-Clad One, and know your name, and though I wonder at your presence in this company of vipers, I know your being here must be of some fortune to my people."
Nausicaä nodded in acknowledgement. "Who are you?" she asked. "What is your name?"
The figure reached up and removed its headcovering. Swirls of luxuriant black hair fell down unbound as the tan-colored cloth fell away.
"I am Noha, of Saju, wife of the leader of a band of settlers." She looked with keen black eyes at the figure standing slightly behind her and to her right. "This is Makrisse, wife of the leader of the party fighting us." Another headcovering fell away, and a woman with curly dark-blond hair and slate-grey eyes was revealed. "We have usurped power within our clans, that we may talk to you."
Noha's eyes lost some of their anger as she looked back at Nausicaä. "Blue-Clad One, isn't it about time we women ended the foolishness our men have begun?" she asked softly.
What courage it must have taken, for them to defy everything and come here, the Princess thought. She wondered if there were children back at their camp, waiting, fearful, for their mothers' return. She didn't want to usurp the authority Kushana had given Kurotowa, nor disrespect Charuka's seniority, so she glanced their way, silently asking if she could speak for all of them. Both simply nodded.
"It is time, Noha. Time, and past time."
(Posted Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:46)
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