Chapter 262

The spell-like lyrics made Talia hold her breath without realizing it.

As the pounding of the drums grew increasingly intense, the women's voices rose even higher. The torches in their hands whipped fiercely in the gusting wind, and hundreds of masks twisted grotesquely in the flickering firelight.

Overwhelmed by the sight, which brought to mind a gathering of heathens, Talia breathed heavily as those who had been sweeping across the field in a vast spiral finally poured out a solemn melody in a single voice.

Watching the spectacle with overwhelmed eyes, Talia cautiously tugged at the hem of Tiuran's clothes.

“Is this...... really all right? If the Eastern Church finds out, they might brand this as heresy.......”

“What heresy? It's merely an old eastern folk song.”

Lucas, who had been trailing after them like a shadow, abruptly cut in to object.

“If they took issue with a traditional event that's been carried on for hundreds of years, every easterner would rise up in protest. The priests know that perfectly well, which is why they don't make much of an issue out of it.”

The fact that they did not make much of an issue out of it meant they did not entirely condone it, either.

Talia looked down the hill again with a worried expression. Just then, she noticed several of the dancers breaking away from the formation and moving toward a large bonfire set up on one side of the open ground. They seemed to be resting there while enjoying food and drink.

“Since we've come all the way out here anyway, let's go wet our throats too. Everyone must be tired after walking around all day.”

Lucas pointed toward where the people had gathered as he made the suggestion. She glanced uneasily at the guards waiting a short distance away.

“Shouldn't we return to the castle before the sun goes down?”

“Why are you suddenly acting like such an obedient little child?”

Lucas folded his arms across his chest and leaned toward her provocatively.

“You said you had no intention of living according to other people's wishes, didn't you? Surely you aren't being cautious because you're afraid of my brother when he isn't even here?”

“Who said I was afraid? I was just......!”

Just as she was about to retort, Khan, who had been standing quietly beside her, suddenly bared his teeth at Lucas. Even with all the ornaments they had bought at the market dangling around his neck, he looked quite menacing.

Startled by the ominous change in him, Talia hurriedly wrapped her arms around the wolf's face.

“What's wrong with you all of a sudden?”

Khan immediately relaxed his wrinkled muzzle and lowered his tail. Yet his fiercely gleaming eyes remained fixed on Lucas.

Looking down at the wolf with obvious displeasure, Lucas clicked his tongue softly.

“You keep getting angry at me, Sister-in-law, so of course that fellow is becoming hostile toward me. Try controlling your temper a little and, once in a while, mingle naturally with the people around you.”

Talia bristled at the impertinent advice and was about to unleash a stream of venomous words, but soon closed her mouth. She began to worry that, just as he had said, perhaps her own hostile behavior was making Khan tense.

She forced her expression to soften.

“Fine. My legs were starting to hurt anyway. Let's rest over there for a while before we go.”

With that, she took Khan and headed straight down the hill.

By then, the sun had noticeably sunk toward the horizon. Talia looked around at the hundreds of people bathed in the violet sunset, humming the song as they raised their cups, then sat down at the edge of the gathering where the warmth of the fire could just reach her. As if someone had been waiting for her, a cup filled with wine was immediately handed to her.

“This is wine made from grapes harvested this year. Don't hold back, drink as much as you'd like!”

The plump woman who had shouted cheerfully scurried off to distribute drinks to the others.

Talia eyed the cup suspiciously before thrusting it toward Lucas as though foisting it off on him.

“You drink your fill.”

“Oh, come on. At least taste it. I heard the grape harvest was especially good this year.”

“I said get it away from me! Who knows what's in.......”

Talia, who had been raising her voice irritably, abruptly fell silent. She had noticed Khan glaring murderously at Lucas.

Worried that her reactions really might be provoking Khan's aggression, Talia forcibly pulled up the corners of her mouth and brought the cup to her lips. Along with an intense fruity aroma strong enough to numb her nose, a sharp mixture of sourness and sweetness tingled across the tip of her tongue and all the way down her throat.

When she felt no particular aversion to it, she swallowed a few more mouthfuls of the sweet drink that had yet to fully ferment.

Perhaps it was the unreal atmosphere of the festival. Her nerves gradually eased, and the tension slowly drained from her rigid shoulders.

She tightly embraced Khan's soft body as he sat pressed close beside her and gazed at the blazing firelight.

Khan made a pleased rumbling sound and rubbed his head into the hollow between her neck and shoulder. As she hugged him tightly with both arms and played with his twitching ears, Tiuran, who had settled down right beside her, draped the shawl they had bought at the market over her shoulders.

“The air has gotten chilly now that evening has come. Cover yourself with this.”

“......Thank you.”

Talia pulled the shawl up over the bridge of her nose and drained the rest of the wine.

At that moment, the song carrying across the field surged into an even more impassioned melody.

Screams echo at the edge of the forest

And across the barren earth

A river of blood flows

Our mother

O wounded earth

Your song upon this land

Shall repeat forevermore

On the day when every tree

Of Armund Forest becomes a pillar of ice,

All shall be restored

All shall be restored

Repeating the almost incantatory refrain, the dancers returned to the opening verse and continued their circular dance.

For some inexplicable reason, a chill suddenly ran down Talia's spine.

She watched the easterners dance with fear and strange excitement mingling in her eyes when Tiuran, who had been quietly sipping her wine for some time, spoke softly.

“This song contains an old eastern legend. Long ago, easterners believed that Garkash, the monstrous beast that once ruled this land, joined with Tiramer, the spirit of the earth, and gave birth to their ancestors. Garkash completely ceased to exist after feeding his own blood and flesh to the child they had borne, while Tiramer, gravely wounded after a hundred days of labor, fell into a long sleep within that Armund Forest.”

She pointed toward the forest at the far end of the field.

“The ancient easterners believed Tiramer's bones had broken through the earth and formed that enormous birch forest. They believed that on the day all those trees turned into cold pillars of ice...... a new world would come, one where neither pain nor sorrow existed.”

“......Don't tell me you actually believe that legend?”

Talia whispered quietly. It was so noisy around them that their conversation was unlikely to carry beyond the two of them, but she was still worried that Tiuran might somehow get into trouble.

Perhaps reading her concern, the healer's eyes curved gently.

“Of course not. It's merely a story I'm telling because I hope Your Highness will come to understand the East a little better.”

Talia quietly studied Tiuran's face surrounded by firelight. This was already the third time she had told her about eastern folklore. There was something strangely earnest about the way she spoke for these to be nothing more than stories told for amusement.

“Could it be that you.......”

Talia regarded her suspiciously, but in the next moment swallowed the question that had risen to her throat.

Even if Tiuran was steeped in superstition, was that really such a terrible sin? If people could be punished for what happened inside their own hearts, Talia herself would have been executed a hundred times over by now.

Talia quietly lowered her gaze to Khan. Come to think of it, believing that her stillborn child had become a wolf and come to see her was itself far removed from the Church's doctrine.

After staring into his two jewel-like eyes, where the firelight flickered, she shifted her gaze toward the grassland gradually sinking into the bluish light of evening. The wind crossing the field carried a faint mixture of the rich scent of grass, wildflowers, and dry autumn.

As Talia breathed it deeply in, she suddenly turned her head. A strange sound had come from Armund Forest.

It took her quite some time to realize that it was the cry of an animal. She listened silently to the mournful sound that rang out almost like a song, then felt the inexplicable sting of tears in her nose and buried her face in the scruff of Khan's neck.

The thought flashed through her mind that perhaps someone was longing for a person they loved.

* * *

After that day, she often began taking Khan outside the castle to walk through the fields. In only a few months, Khan had grown far larger than an ordinary hunting dog, making it difficult to keep him confined within the castle grounds all the time.