Chapter 15

Shadowed Rock, Glowing Shell

The datu led them through a series of passages until they exited the house at the back. Shadows still embraced the garden there, although a stroke of lighter blue brushed the eastern skies. Datu Hálgundî moved briskly through the garden, and Karí hurried, afraid they’d get lost among the shrubs and trees if they couldn’t keep up. He didn’t seem to follow any path, and Karí was surprised when he stopped in front of a cluster of large boulders by some banana trees.

“Stay close,” Datu Hálgundî warned, and from a pouch he retrieved a palm-sized shell, the kind that would likely have held a pearl. He blew on it three times, and it pulsed with a glowing light. It must be one of the amulets that Karí had heard the noble family owned.

But she and Dalon didn’t have time to marvel at it. Datu Hálgundî proceeded into a slim opening amongst the boulders, stepping onto stone stairs that descended into the earth. The shell gave off a pure white light, comforting some of the unease that rose in Karí as they followed him down. The tunnel’s wet walls pressed around them, so close that she was afraid of tripping on the steps and pushing the datu down to his death.

The stairs ended at the mouth of a cave. It was crowded with stalactites and stalagmites whose edges were rounded by the passage of water and time. The white light encircling them didn’t show the extent of the cave, and Karí could only imagine how large it truly was. She was embarrassingly grateful for Dalon’s heat at her side.

“Just a little farther,” Datu Hálgundî said.

Karí and Dalon shared a wary look. What was down here? Were they going to find someone like Princess Maya in this cave? Was the story they had crafted from little bits of truth more real than they had imagined?

Datu Hálgundî led them through the valleys of stalagmites. They stopped in front of a rock formation that looked like it could simply be yet another stalagmite, except it was wider around the base and it tapered off to a flattened top, rather than a point. The top had a small indentation, like someone had scooped out a mandarin-sized hole from it. Water from the ceiling dripped into the hole, filling it like a basin.

“Well, here it is.” The datu waved his hand up and down the height of the rock. “Your Princess Maya.”

Karí and Dalon traded another hesitant look.

“My lord, do you mean that the entire thing is an amulet?” She asked. Her voice echoed, even though she wasn’t all that loud. This place must be even bigger than she’d thought.

Datu Hálgundî nodded, crossed his arms, and leaned back against the cave wall just beside the strange rock. “It’s a well-kept secret of my family. And it does exactly what you think. Touch it, or drink the water that has pooled on it, and it makes you talk like a poet who has honed their skills for two decades. Your mind forms words at lightning speed, your voice brims with the confidence of one who’s never embarrassed to be wrong. My father used it. So did my grandfather.”

Karí’s breath caught in her throat. She remembered how well-liked Datu Hálgundî’s father had been, even as he’d spent most of their taxes to please foreign visitors rather than fix their own village. He had possessed an infectious charisma that made people feel satisfied and safe. Had all of that simply been the effect of this amulet?

“I take it you don’t, my lord?” Dalon asked gently.

Datu Hálgundî shook his head, his gaze stuck in the middle distance. “I know that datus must inspire their subjects with their words and their deeds. And I know that people whisper I lack energy, that I’m as tame as a rabbit. Maybe I should use it like the previous datus did, but I wonder if there’s another way to lead.”

His answer was surprisingly candid, and Karí didn’t know how to respond. All of this was a glimpse of the inner world of Lurit’s leaders that most people weren’t privy to.

“And this is what you offered Merchant Tangad in exchange for lower rice prices?” Dalon said.

“That’s right. I first met Tangad two years ago, just as I succeeded my father as datu. He was struggling as a merchant. He’s good at accounting and knowledgeable about rice and trading routes. But he couldn’t keep a servant longer than a year, couldn’t convince buyers to switch suppliers, and farmers resented him. I was struggling to move out from the shadow my father still cast from his burial jar, and I knew I would be more respected if I could give Lurit something even he could only get once in a while.”

“Isn’t Merchant Tangad sabotaging himself by severing your agreement, then?” Karí asked.

“Oh, I’m sure he has a well-developed system now that can keep him afloat for a while yet. His servants may not stay for his charm, but they would with good wages. And his partners may notice his new curtness, but they would trust the quality of the business he’s proven sound the last couple of years.”

“Will you search for a new merchant who would trade rice with this?” Dalon pointed to the rock.

Datu Hálgundî smiled. “Good rice merchants who happen to be terrible at making conversations don’t exactly come here in droves. No, I don’t think I would use this as a bargaining chip any time soon again. To be honest, I now realize it wasn’t even a smart decision to begin with.”

Karí understood. Datu Hálgundî wouldn’t want more people to know about the eloquence amulet if he could help it. It would tarnish his ancestors’ reputation, might even tarnish his own, even though he refused to use it. It would be a shameful little secret ripe for exploitation should word get out to more people than them.

And so Karí had anticipated it when Datu Hálgundî straightened, eyes serious and voice stern. “I don’t show this to you lightly, but with the hope that you would better understand why your story prompted an interrogation. Believe it or not, Merchant Tangad was being gracious in presenting a case of insult, instead of a case of betrayal. It would be more disastrous to Lurit if people thought I couldn’t keep my word. In any case, knowledge of the eloquence amulet must not spread.”

“I promise not to utter a single word about it, my lord!” Karí said.

“We’ll even change our version of the tale if that will give you more peace of mind,” Dalon added. Karí nodded readily, even though she wasn’t sure when they would have the opportunity to tell stories again.

“Well then, let’s get back up to the house.” Datu Hálgundî stepped around the scattered stalagmites. Just like in the garden above, there seemed to be no discernible route that led to the entrance of the cave, just an invisible path that the datu had memorized. Karí paced herself to keep the shell’s light within view.

“Karí.” She felt Dalon’s breath more than heard his voice, so low it was. It didn’t even echo around them. “Datu Hálgundî chose to trust us with his family’s secret.”

Karí winced, and she couldn’t help but look at the King Eyes. The entire time the three of them were talking by the rock, there had been a soft nagging voice at the back of her head reminding her they hadn’t been wholly truthful with the datu in return. And now that his family’s secret was in their hands, it was even more important that he found them trustworthy.

“You think we should tell him about your amulet?” she asked.

“I’m ready to,” Dalon admitted, though there was a glint of wistfulness in his eyes. He’d mentioned before how this was the last heirloom his family possessed. “I wouldn’t need you to cover for me this time. Let me share the blame with you. But I need to know that you’re okay with it.”

If Dalon was willing to make this sacrifice, then Karí could hardly do less. “Let’s tell him.”

They had arrived at the mouth of the cave, where the steps leading up to the garden began. Dalon took a deep breath, then called out to the datu.

“Yes?” Datu Hálgundî turned around, shining the shell just a little off to Karí’s side so that she and Dalon were engulfed in its glow.

Dalon gulped visibly, then made the confession. “There’s one more thing we haven’t been forthcoming about. When Karí tells me her ideas, she doesn’t really tell me. She shows me. With an amulet.”

The datu’s expression didn’t change, and Karí wondered whether he was masking more disappointment and anger that he’d chosen to trust two people who had consistently lied and omitted truths from him. But then Datu Hálgundî looked at the pendant on Dalon’s chest and nodded to it.

“Is that what that does, then?”

Karí’s heart skipped a beat. Dalon stiffened beside her. Had the datu known all along?

This time, Datu Hálgundî betrayed a small smile. “In that room we left behind, one of the walls hidden behind the tapestry has a small opening to a storage room. Eye holes have been cut out and hidden on the cloth.”

He didn’t need to explain that he’d been watching and listening from the storage room to Dalon and Karí’s conversation. He must have seen her gesture to it and guessed that it had played a role in the incident.

“I’m sorry,” Karí said, just as Dalon uttered those words, too.

Datu Hálgundî’s jaw tightened, and he took a deep breath. “I know,” he said. “I know you’re sorry. I know you were scared. I understand why you chose to hide it, and to be honest, a part of me feels relieved that Merchant Tangad didn’t get to know about your amulet. But it makes me wonder what it is about me that makes it so easy for my subjects to flaunt my laws, when perhaps they would have been more abiding with my father.”

Karí wanted to protest, but wasn’t sure what she was disagreeing with. That it hadn’t been easy for her to keep the truth from Datu Hálgundî? That she might have lied anyway had his father been alive? She didn’t know if those were the case.

“Anyway, I appreciate your change of mind. I wouldn’t have enjoyed bringing it up myself once we’re back upstairs, as that conversation would be more uncomfortable for all of us.” The datu held out his hand. “Let me see. How does it work?”

Dalon untangled the loop from his neck and dropped the necklace on the datu’s palm. “If you would hold the pendant and close your eyes, my lord.”

Datu Hálgundî did so, and a furrow between his brow immediately appeared. “I see glowing spheres.”

“Yes, my lord. We believe that those are portals to people’s minds.”

The datu’s eyes opened wide. “You have access to everyone’s minds?”

“No, not at all!” Dalon was quick to amend. “As you can see, my lord, nothing happens if you try touching them. You probably see two spheres close to you right now. That would be mine and Karí’s.”

“Huh, you’re correct.” Datu Hálgundî had closed his eyes again, concentrating.

Dalon glanced at Karí, and she gave a quick nod. She summoned a scene from one of her favourite stories — the tale of the wind that turned evildoers to stone.

“Now, Karí’s sphere will start turning colourful. If you reach out to it in your mind, you will — that is, your awareness will — fall into the world she’s thinking about right now.”

The tale was about an old man who had turned his back on his village in bitterness and spite. When raiders attacked the village, the old man hunkered down in his hut and ignored their pleas for help. The attack only ceased when the magical wind passed by, turning the raiders into stone. As it was leaving the village, the wind noticed the old man. He asked it to move along, as he’d done nothing wrong. He’d done nothing. But the wind swept over him and he turned to stone too.

Karí slowly released the visions. Datu Hálgundî’s eyes and palm snapped open. His composure had evaporated, and he bore the same look Dalon did after he’d watched her mind: enlarged pupils, flushed skin. The datu patted his arms, his legs, his chest, his face.

“I felt like I was the one turning into stone.” He took a few measuring breaths. “I must have this studied further. What else does it let you do?”

“Not much else,” Karí admitted. “Dalon and I have tried to send a few other thoughts to each other, but the only things that work are imagined scenes about imagined people.”

“What a curious amulet.” The datu scanned Dalon’s and Karí’s faces. “I suppose this is how it was so easy for you, Karí, to show Dalon what King Luyong looked like without realizing who inspired his appearance.”

Karí grimaced. “I suppose so, my lord.” Had she been forced to describe the king in words, perhaps she would have noticed sooner just how close she had made him look to Merchant Tangad.

“An amulet that lets you read another person’s made-up stories,” Datu Hálgundî murmured. “It’s very potent, as I’ve just experienced, but its ability is tremendously limited. It’s of Tier A, then. That would be fifty copper beads for using it without approval, and twelve gold beads for the omission during the questioning, from each of you.”

Incurring twelve more gold beads for her fine was not ideal, but it was far from unreasonable, especially for misinforming a datu. Karí peeked at Dalon, knowing this was harder on him. But after a deep inhale, he nodded firmly.

“I’ll find a way to pay it, my lord,” he said.

“My lord, what do you mean when you said Tier A?” Karí asked.

“Lurit categorizes amulets based on their potency and ability. The fee for using unauthorized amulets depends on its category. This is Tier A. My shell here is also Tier A. The steel blade I own that never dulls is Tier I. Those amulets you hear in stories calling down lightning and thunder are Tier U. You never knew?”

“Well, it has been a while since we discovered a new amulet in Lurit, my lord,” Karí said shyly.

“Point taken. I’ll keep this for the time being. Some amulets may reveal additional capabilities after some experimentation.”

The datu hung the leather strap around his neck, and Karí’s heart stuttered as the pendant disappeared beneath his tunic. She had known from the beginning that her partnership with Dalon would not last long. And considering all the trouble they had caused using the amulet, perhaps there was a reason that they needed to be approved by the datus, after all.

But she recalled her sweet elation when she and Dalon would laugh over a wild, exhilarating scene, or when he would relate to her everything his audience said about their stories. The datu tucked that feeling away along with the King Eyes, and she wondered if those experiences would now be forever out of her reach.

But perhaps that would be a problem farther down the road. First, Karí needed to face her family and pay all the fees she got punished with, not to mention earn back her family’s trust. The datu had been kinder than she’d expected, but the trouble she’d gotten into was serious enough that she knew her own parents wouldn’t take it lightly.

As the three of them ascended the stairs to the garden, Karí braced herself for what the upcoming day would bring.