[Chrono Trigger Novel - Episode 46] A Fire Beyond the Sealed Gate
Marle woke when cold stone touched the soles of her feet.
The light that had imprisoned her was thinning beneath her knees. Someone supported her shoulders from behind. Schala eased her to the floor and felt her wrist, pausing when she touched the bandage around her left arm.
“Can you move?”
Marle started to nod, then looked beside her. Crono lay on the floor. Ayla sat with one knee raised, breathing hard. The spheres of light above them went out one by one. A faint radiance flowed from Schala's fingertips over Crono's shoulder, and his twitching fingers slowly uncurled.
The room had no windows. Through a narrow opening high in the wall came the sound of running water. Marle remembered nothing of being brought here from the throne room. She felt at the back of her neck. Her pendant was still there. Her bow stood by the door beside Crono's sword.
Janus was standing near them. Alfador flicked his tail at the boy's ankles. When Marle stirred, Janus picked up the sword. It seemed heavy for him; the tip of the sheath dragged across the floor as he carried it to Crono.
“You dropped this.”
Crono reached out. Janus waited until his hand had closed securely around the sheath before letting go.
Schala rested a hand on Ayla's shoulder. Ayla started to pull away, then held still when Marle nodded. Her breaths lengthened as the pressure in her chest eased. The blood seeping through the bandage on her calf remained.
“There isn't time to heal the deeper wounds.”
“You're weak too,” Ayla said.
Schala withdrew her hand. Only then did Marle notice the trembling in her wrist. Her long sleeves had concealed it in the throne room.
“They need me to operate the Mammon Machine. My mother will send for me again soon.”
“Then don't go.”
As soon as she said it, Marle saw the boy standing behind Schala. Janus was watching her instead of his sister. He listened quietly, as though he had never heard the words before, though he must have said them himself so many times.
Schala picked up a strip of cloth from the floor and laid it over Marle's bandage.
“If I'm not there, there will be no one to stop her.”
“But being there hasn't stopped her either.”
The hands tying the cloth went still. An apology rose to Marle's lips, and she swallowed it. Schala must already know. Knowing was not enough to let her leave. Marle had been able to run away from her palace. This woman had a little brother standing behind her.
Schala finished the knot.
“Melchior may be able to find a way. He has studied the power of Lavos longer than anyone.”
“Where is he?”
“Imprisoned on the Mountain of Woe. He tried to reason with my mother, and…”
Footsteps stopped outside. Before Schala could stand, the hem of a black robe crossed the threshold.
The Prophet surveyed the open prison and the three travelers. He showed no surprise. When Janus stepped in front of his sister, his gaze lingered briefly on the boy. Crono drew up a knee, holding his sword. He felt he knew exactly how the man's right hand would rise. In Magus's keep, the air had chilled before that hand ever moved.
“Did you think setting them free would change anything?”
It was not clear whether he meant Schala or the prisoners. Ayla stood. Darkness gathered at the Prophet's cuff. Grains of stone slid across the floor beneath it.
Schala stepped between them with her arms spread.
“Don't kill them.”
“Move.”
“If you kill these people, I won't help you.”
His hand stopped. Schala did not look away. The fingers that had tied Marle's bandage were shaking, but her arms stayed raised. Janus caught his sister's sleeve.
“She said no.”
For a while, the only sound was running water. The Prophet looked at the boy's hand, then turned his face away. His mouth tightened beneath the hood.
“Send them back where they came from. Then seal the way.”
Schala drew a breath.
“And you'll leave it at that?”
“If I never see them again.”
Crono stopped trying to rise. If he drew his sword now, Schala would be the first to get hurt. He fastened the sheath at his waist. Marle leaned against the wall and collected her bow. Janus glared at the Prophet while Alfador gave a low cry from behind his legs.
Before leaving, Schala knelt in front of her brother.
“Wait in your room this time. I'll come and find you when I get back.”
Janus did not answer. He let go of her sleeve and watched until the creases his hand had made fell smooth.
The palace corridors were quiet. Servants stepped aside at the sight of the Prophet. Marle searched their faces for the woman who had been carrying the flowerpot, but she was nowhere to be seen. Even the thought of that small shoot slowed her steps. The Prophet did not wait.
Wind struck their faces as they descended from the skyway. Their furs and coats had been returned, but these could not keep out the cold already lodged inside them. Schala wore only a thin outer robe. Even in the gale, the Prophet's cloak lay close against his body.
Crono and Marle led the way toward the cave where they had first arrived. Whenever they strayed off course, Crono expected the Prophet to correct them. He never spoke. He merely watched their footprints. Even that silence troubled Crono.
The spent embers and dry moss were still in the cave. Marle stopped before the rock wall.
“It was here. It disappeared after we came through. Another friend has the key.”
The Prophet looked at Schala. She placed a hand against the empty air and moved it slowly. A fine thread of light followed her fingers through what had seemed to be nothing. The place that had given no response when Marle tried to touch it opened into a circle near Schala's pendant.
Hot, dry air drifted through. It smelled of ash.
Ayla approached the Gate. Her face changed the moment she caught the scent of the burned forest. Through the opening, Marle could see blackened rock. The light vanishing after their arrival had not meant the passage itself was gone. Schala seemed to have found what remained of it.
“Go through,” she said.
Marle took her hand. Strangely, it was colder than her own, though she had just walked through a blizzard.
“We'll find Melchior.”
Schala's eyes flickered toward the Prophet. Marle let go. Another word might put her in danger instead of offering her a promise.
Ayla went first. Crono waited until Marle stepped into the Gate. When he looked back one last time, the Prophet was watching the opening rather than Schala's arm. Crono raised his chin a fraction. The trace of a smile left the man's mouth.
The cold cave folded away behind them.
Marle landed on both feet in a bed of ash. Schala remained visible through the Gate. As she raised her pendant, fine lines entwined around the blue opening. Crono came through last, and the light began to narrow.
“Stay alive.”
Marle could not tell whether her voice had reached her. Schala's face vanished behind the lines. A faint pattern lingered where the Gate had closed, then disappeared.
Ayla pressed a palm to the rock. She pushed against it with her body and struck it with her fist. Only grit came loose. Crono did not put a restraining hand on her shoulder. He waited until she lowered her arm herself, then pointed outside.
The world was darker than when they had left it.
Ash drifted beneath a sunless sky. Smoke still rose from the edge of the impact crater. The distant branches sagged under gray dust rather than leaves. But there were tracks on the slope nearby: claw marks from a large winged creature, and footprints leading back and forth.
Ayla crouched to examine them.
“Kino was here.”
Strength returned to her voice. A cry sounded from the ridge. A moment later, two winged shapes descended through the ash. Kino jumped down first. A short cloak fluttered from the back of the other dactyl.
Frog reached for his sword as he landed, then saw Ayla's face and stopped.
“Where have you been to come back in such a state?”
Marle tried to answer, but a laugh escaped instead. It hurt her cracked lips. Frog came forward and lifted Crono's arm over his shoulder, taking his weight before asking what had happened.
Kino looked at Ayla's leg. She drank the water he had brought and handed back the waterskin.
“The others?”
“Together. Ioka, Laruba. Moved the food. Room under the rocks too.”
“The fire?”
“Kept it burning.”
Ayla rested her forehead against his for a moment. Then she turned toward the forest below. A slender trail of smoke rose through the broader haze. This came straight up from one place, from a fire being tended rather than a forest burning away.
The camp had been moved beneath a great outcrop. Children shook ash from dry branches while adults layered hides across the gaps in the entrance. People stood when Ayla came in, but no one rushed her. An old man saw her injuries and cleared a place beside the fire.
A familiar voice came from there.
“All three of you, sit down. Explanations can wait.”
Lucca was taking clean cloth from her tool bag. Behind her, Robo lifted a pot and moved it closer to the fire. Marle took one step, then threw her arms around Lucca. The rim of her glasses pressed into Marle's cheek.
Lucca stiffened for an instant before putting an arm around her uninjured shoulder.
“Honestly. It would help if there were only one century to look in.”
When word of their friends had stopped coming, she and Robo had left the End of Time and traveled here through the Gate in the mountains. After hearing what had happened from Frog, they had taken turns with Kino searching around the crater. The Gate Key swung at Lucca's waist. The sight of it alone helped Marle relax.
As Crono sat, Robo tucked a folded hide behind his back. Frog moved aside so Lucca could undo the bandages, then went to warm some water. Ayla sat among her people listening to Kino's account: how many were ill, which valley still had fruit, how much colder the water had grown since yesterday. Here, the matters that had found no hearing in the queen's throne room were answered one by one.
Marle accepted a hot bowl in both hands. The smell made her stomach ache with hunger. Only after swallowing a spoonful did she begin to tell them about Schala.
They kept eating long after the food had gone cold. The skies of Zeal and the cold below, the machine and the palace, the words Janus had spoken—all passed around the fire. When they reached the Prophet's voice, Crono looked up. Frog's hand paused.
“Are you certain it was him?”
Crono slowly shook his head. A resemblance was not the same as having seen his face. Frog lifted his sword from his lap and laid it beside him.
“Then we shall leave him unnamed for now.”
Late that night, Lucca returned from examining the sealed Gate herself. The key would not open it. Instead of burying her disappointment in the workings of the device, she sat down in front of Marle.
“But you said the pendant opened a door in the palace?”
Marle nodded.
“We saw that pattern in the future. Let's go back and check.”
Kino showed Ayla where they planned to extend the shelter beneath the rocks. She followed the path, felt a wall where water seeped through, and left a mark a few paces from the sleeping children. She did not return to the fire until they had decided who would move in the morning and who would stay to gather food.
She folded the fur across her knees—the hide the old man on the frozen earth had given her. Rubbing its edge between her fingers, she looked at Kino.
“People live in the cold place too. Ayla saw them.”
Kino nodded.
“Kino will see to the people here.”
Neither added anything more. Around daybreak, the travelers set out for the mountains. Frog handed over the tools he had left with the survivors and joined them. Their pace was slow because the three who had returned were still recovering. Robo carried the baggage; Lucca checked the path ahead.
The mountain Gate was still alive. Its light widened when Lucca brought the key close. Crono, Marle, and Robo entered first. Keeping the passage open, Lucca sent Frog and Ayla through, then followed them.
Marle found herself on stone, looking up at the familiar streetlamp. The others emerged from the light one by one. Only after she had counted all six did she sit down.
Ayla noticed the brazier before the lamp. She approached it, held out her hands, and studied the gaps between the burning logs. Then she picked up a piece of wood from beside it and carefully eased it into the fire.
댓글
댓글 쓰기