‘Those miraculous drops that flow from your eyes... Children, you are Oaa’s blessings. I am truly happy to have guided you...’

  Katuo remembered every final word Master Tiknahah had spoken. She remembered the moment his body went slack in her embrace. His face was peaceful. With his eyes closed, he looked just as he had sitting in the hollow of the tree. He had gone so softly, so quietly, and yet the weight in her heart would not lift.

  Katuo caressed the jade at her neck. Her master had placed it in her hand as he died, and it too had turned black. Beneath her touch, the stone gave off a faint warmth and a pale glow.

  She asked, “Where do you think Master is now, Ramii?”

  “He has returned to Oaa. I saw many people die in the Labyrinth of Thorns, but no one passed as peacefully as he did. Wherever he is now, it is perhaps the most peaceful place in all the world.”

  “Yes... I think you’re right. I have often prayed that Master might find rest. But perhaps such a prayer is hardly needed. I feel that he is still somewhere in this world, watching over me.”

  “Sometimes, when you speak, I hear Master in your words. He lives on in all of us.”

  The sorrow in Katuo’s face eased a little at Ramii’s words. But after a moment, she grew thoughtful again, her gaze drifting into the distance. “Now we have neither Master nor Voznugaid. Most of our people fell in battle... I have thought and thought, and still I see no way. How can we possibly stand against the Goyk?” She had already asked herself that question so many times, and yet she still needed to speak it aloud.

  “Right now, we cannot,” said Ramii. “But whatever comes, I will fight to my last breath. Until I see my mother again, I will not return to Diang.”

  Ramii hesitated for a moment, then said, “You and Hudyn should not have come here. The Goyk will be here soon enough. When they come, I’ll take you home. Will you let me?”

  “I will,” Katuo replied, and said no more.

  He turned to look at her. A sullen look showed in her pale olive eyes. Nothing in her face or in her gestures agreed with her words.

  Ramii drew in a breath and let it out slowly. He lowered himself onto a great jade stone shaped like a shell and leaned back against it. It resembled the jade hanging at Katuo’s neck, with the same black-violet sheen. She had noticed it at once when they were scouting the waters around Oawgiboni. They had been able to remain beneath the sea for so long thanks to the O’ Meda, a Floramina that enclosed the body, with a transparent head above it.

  After a long silence, Ramii said, “Katuo, I have thought of this many times. I may well die here. I may never see my mother again before I die, and that frightens me even more. After the battle we just fought, do you know how hopeless I felt?”

  …

  “Recently, I have been having a beautiful dream. My mother and father are riding together across a green meadow. My father is on a white warhorse, while my mother rides a black horse with a humped back. Sometimes I dream that she is reclining on a long couch, brushing her hair, while my father bends over a cedarwood crib, carefully making it by hand. They look so happy together.

  My dreams show me wonderful things, but at times they frighten me as well. Again and again, I see myself dying beneath the double-bladed sword of the man in black armor, while my mother is burned alive in green flames. Tell me, what do you think dreams mean?”

  …

  Katuo said nothing. His question did not need an answer, she thought. Those dreams felt like omens, and yet they were not real. He only needed someone beside him, someone who would let him speak what lay in his heart. And she was here, listening to every word. When she was with Ramii, she felt most herself. The feeling was as it had always been, like when she had still been the straw-haired princess waiting for the lynx prince to save her. In moments of greatest danger, he was always there, protecting her at any cost.

  Katuo lay down beside Ramii. The place where they had stopped was a stretch of sand strewn with exquisite jade, in many sizes, from pieces as small as a fingertip to stones as large as the one they lay on. Strange corals rose all around them in countless forms, some twice or three times their height. Together they gazed up at the golden sky above. Shoals of sea creatures swam freely nearby, while far above them the rippling surface shimmered with light. Then the sea suddenly changed color as a green current passed by.

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  “Look, Ramii,” Katuo said softly. “They look just like the toads in the garden back home. This is the second time I’ve seen them.”

  Ramii smiled. “If they look like toads, then we may as well call them toads.”

  A pair of lovely little creatures swam before them, twined together, tracing playful shapes through the water. Katuo placed her hand in Ramii’s, warm and natural, without the least trace of shyness. Ramii’s fingers closed gently around her slender hand.

  ~~~

  ‘Oh, how happy you two are...’

  Katuo and Ramii started at the voice that rose from beneath them. They sprang off the mass of jade at once. After drawing back and putting some distance between themselves and it, they cried out in unison:

  ‘Who’s there?!’

  Slowly, the great jade split open into two shells. Inside lay a soft-bodied creature, with many flattened tendrils curling and swaying, and many dusky-red eyes shaped like apple seeds. Above every eye was a tuft of silver hair. The voice spoke again:

  ‘Gopgin is only a sleepy old thing, dozing away. It has been a long, long time since Gopgin last saw such a lovely little pair. And unless I am mistaken, you two come from the beautiful Round Land. No wonder you stir in me such a strange feeling.’

  Katuo spoke shyly. ‘Greetings. I beg your pardon for disturbing your sleep. Truly, I did not know that the place where we were lying was in fact you. That was rude of us.’

  ‘Oh, think nothing of it. Every now and then, a few friends step on me, lie on me, sleep on me, and even leave behind things with a smell upon my shell. In any case, the sea currents always wash everything clean. Old Gopgin does not mind it in the least. Why, Gopgin rather likes it. It is I who disturbed your rest. Only a little irresistible curiosity made old Gopgin speak.’

  His eyes, each on a long stalk, turned toward Katuo’s chest, making her a little self-conscious.

  ‘Oh, Gopgin means nothing by it. Let this old one ask the little girl something. How do you come to bear Tiknahah’s Moari Bell?’

  She looked surprised. ‘What is a Moari Bell? I do not know what you mean.’

  ‘Moari is the name of those small, bumpy creatures that love to hop about. They were the ones that swam past you two only a little while ago. Do you not remember?’

  ‘Ah, those toads? Then where is the bell, Gopgin?’ she asked.

  ‘Toads? What a most endearing sound. Then Gopgin shall call it the White Toad Bell.’ All his long tendrils were pointing toward the center of Katuo’s chest.

  Katuo looked down and lifted the jade hanging at her neck. All the while, it had been shining with a soft light, and it had already turned white without her ever noticing.

  ‘Do you know this jade?’ she asked. ‘Master Tiknahah gave it to me before he passed away.’

  Gopgin shuddered, and his eyes narrowed. ‘Oh, dear Tiknahah! My old friend has returned to Oaa, leaving old Gopgin behind in this mortal realm... Oh, companion of my heart...’

  He wept and lamented for a long while. Again and again he would stop, seeming about to say something, only to break into sobs once more. Katuo and Ramii, still standing where they were, began to feel the ache in their legs, yet felt too awkward to sit down.

  For the first time, Katuo thought, I have met someone even more tearful than I am.

  At last Gopgin managed to compose himself. He opened his eyes wide again and spoke between sniffles. ‘Oh, worthy Tiknahah... So my old friend entrusted the White Toad Bell to you. Then you must surely bear great duties upon your shoulders.’

  Ramii spoke up. “I do not know what Master meant. He did not have time to leave us any instructions. Did you know that the Goyk killed him?”

  ‘Old Gopgin knew... A saokan friend told me so. Voznugaid, too, has fallen in battle. Ah, what a kind soul he was... So gallant... And so gifted as well, and yet...’

  Gopgin seemed on the verge of weeping again, but somehow managed to hold it back. He went on, ‘Those violent ones have come here to put an end to Oawgiboni. If Oawgiboni is lost, many other peoples will perish with it, including the goago, Gopgin’s own kind. The ownan are willing to give their lives to defend this land. And yet this cowardly Gopgin does nothing but sleep and sleep. Oh, Gopgin is sorely ashamed.’

  ‘The Goyk army is very powerful,’ said Ramii. ‘So you have nothing to blame yourself for. Then what is this bell? Do you know why Master left it to us?’

  ‘Very well, very well... Old Gopgin has not gone muddle-headed yet. He shall tell the two little ones what he knows.’

  Gopgin’s tendrils opened and wheeled in slow, fluid motions, like a solemn dance. The jade drifted toward him, but the cord at Katuo’s neck held it back. Its light grew brighter and brighter, until the whole field of jade shone with light. In a calm voice, he said:

  ‘The White Toad Bell once rested within Gopgin’s belly. Tiknahah entrusted it to me and bade me cover it in my blood and the drops from my eyes, and that is how it came to bear such a black shell. Tiknahah and Gopgin spent a lifetime refining it through an ancient and sacred art. The White Toad Bell holds the power to bind the mind to Nature. Gopgin’s belly still harbors the lofty spells of Tiknahah. My old friend must have known it would lead you to Gopgin.’

  One of his tendrils touched the jade. It ceased turning, dimmed, and returned to black.

  ‘That is well,’ Gopgin said placidly. ‘It still knows how to heed old Gopgin. Whenever the golden current passes through this place, you must come here, and I shall teach you the spells of Tiknahah.’

  ~~~