Miyuki Miyabe - ICO - Castle in the Mist

The man replied that he did not know.

“But how-”

He shrugged. “The boy’s been muttering all kinds of nonsense. I’m afraid he hit his head too.”

For a moment, Oneh closed her eyes.

“Besides, even if he did see something and managed to keep his wits, he’s not supposed to talk about what he saw. That’s how I was raised, and that’s what I would do in his place. Did you know that my father was lead huntsman in his day? He told me about a man who went up into the mountains looking for a bird to shoot for his supper. Said he looked too long toward the mountains in the north.” The man paused. “His body made the trip back, but his mind never returned.”

“A frightening tale.”

“It’s just a story,” the hunter went on, “but they say it happened right around the Time of the Sacrifice.” The hunter stopped and turned. Sparks from his torch drifted toward her. In the torchlight, the hunter’s face looked hard and pale. “Mistress Oneh…” he began. “The castle knows when it’s time. If the Sacrifice isn’t quick about his business, the castle gets impatient. And it’s not like when you or I get impatient, Mistress Oneh. The castle’s black mood rides on the wind-that’s what the boy saw today.”

Oneh looked the hunter in the eyes. He stared back at her, unblinking.

“The castle may be far beyond those mountains, but its anger reaches as far as the sky over their peaks.”

“What are you trying to say?” Oneh managed to ask at last.

“I know you don’t like the weaving,” the hunter said, his voice iron, “and I know it’s hard for you to let go of your boy. I’m a father too. But Ico is the boy of no man or woman. He’s the Sacrifice. And there’s no good that’ll come from staying his time.”

It occurred to Oneh that the hunter had probably been late in coming to summon her because he’d been conferring with her husband, deciding what he should say.

“I do not stall for time.”

“Then that’s fine,” the hunter said curtly, turning and beginning to walk away, his pace quicker than before. “I’ll come for you tomorrow before dawn. If we don’t get that Mark made soon, the priest will arrive before you’re finished.”

Oneh followed behind him, her head hanging low.

Toto crouched on top of the roof, his ears pricked, and he heard everything.

Someone was hurt. That was the kind of trouble even Toto understood. But he was far more interested in the other thing the hunter had to say-now he knew where the castle was.

Then it struck him, an idea so great he wanted to jump up and dance for joy on the spot. Oneh told him he couldn’t ask the priest’s permission to follow Ico, but she hadn’t said anything about going ahead of them, before the entourage even left the village. He could wait for them on the way to the mountains, and once they passed, he’d trail them the rest of the way. That would get him to the Castle in the Mist for sure.

Once the priest leaves them, Toto thought, I’ll jump out and announce I’m joining Ico on his adventure! Toto was sure that Oneh would rest easier knowing that he would accompany Ico. Together, there was nothing Ico and Toto couldn’t do.

Then Toto had an even better thought, and this time he actually did jump up, standing atop the roof. I bet the two of us could find that master in the castle and take him on! We might even win!

“Yaaaahoo!”

Toto’s exhilarated shout echoed through the trees as he jumped down off the roof to land softly by the edge of the forest.

DEPENDING ON WHICH way it blew, the wind would sometimes carry the sound of the loom to Ico’s cave. Because no one else in the village was allowed to use a loom in the days after he entered the cave and the moment he left for the castle, whenever he heard the noise, he knew it was his foster mother weaving the Mark for him. It was hard to judge the passage of time, sitting alone in the dimly lit cave. Thick, leafy branches shadowed the narrow window through which Toto had spoken with him the other day, letting in barely enough light to tell whether it was the sun or the moon that shone. But Ico knew that when he heard the loom start up it was the beginning of another day, and when it ended, it was evening. Thus Ico had counted three days, and on the morning of the fourth day, the guard who brought him his morning meal said something entirely unexpected.

“Toto’s gone missing.”

Toto’s father was a hunter. He awoke very early at this time of year to prepare for the hunt, yet when he had risen from bed this morning, Toto’s cot had lain empty. When one of Toto’s sisters admitted seeing him sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night, it caused a stir in the village.

“Toto told his sister he was leaving and that she’d better keep it a secret.”

“He didn’t say where he was going?”

“Not a word. Not that his little sister would have remembered. She was too sleep-addled to even think to raise a fuss.”

Worse, one of the two village messenger horses had been taken from the stables in the night. The horses were kept ready at all times in case there was a need to carry an urgent message from Toksa to another town. They-a white horse named Silverstar and a chestnut called Arrow Wind-were smart and swift.

“It must have been Toto…”

Ico’s friend had been a caretaker at the stables, and the horses knew him well.

“Most likely,” the guard agreed, his face dark. “He took a change of clothes and a little dry food with him too. Who knows where that troublemaker’s gotten to? We have people out looking for him, but if he left on horseback in the middle of the night, without knowing which way he’s headed, they’ll never find him. That is, unless you have any idea?”

His conversation from a few days before came back to him, and Ico swallowed. Could Toto be headed toward the castle? But Toto doesn’t know where the castle lies -only the elder and Ico knew that. He couldn’t have gone by himself.

Still …

Even if it seemed to others that Ico couldn’t compose himself, it was only because his mind never stopped moving. He made himself replay the conversation in his head and remembered specifically telling Toto he couldn’t go to the castle-but Toto had never agreed. Maybe he had guessed that the castle lay in the same direction as the Forbidden Mountains and gone ahead to lie in wait for Ico and the entourage from the capital.

Of course, in order to actually reach the Castle in the Mist, you had to do more than just cross the Forbidden Mountains. From there, the elder had told him, you would take a trail west through a deep forest and over rocky highlands, along a steep and treacherous path that went on for days. Only the priest from the capital knew the way. It would take more than a miracle for Toto to reach the castle himself.

But he would be able to reach the mountains.

“Which horse did he take?” Ico asked.

“Arrow Wind.”

Arrow Wind was good on rocks and steep trails. Like his name suggested, he flew like an arrow through the narrowest ravines and across the highest cliff tops without fear or falter.

“He’s gone to the Forbidden Moutains,” Ico whispered.

The guard turned pale. “How do you know that?”

“No one from the village has gone north looking for him, have they?”

“Of course not, it’s forbidden. No one will go close.”

“No one except Toto. If he left in the middle of the night, he’s already there by now.” And when he sees what lies on the other side-

“I want you to ask the elder something for me,” Ico said suddenly. “He must lend me Silverstar. I’ll catch Toto and bring him back.”