She rubbed her eyes and leaned closer to the map. She wished she had a normal-height table and a comfortable chair. These low Nihon-Jan tables and benches were hard on the knees and the back. She heard a rustle of bedclothes as Alyss turned over.
'What are you doing?' the tall girl said. Her voice was thick with sleep.
'Sorry,' Evanlyn said instantly. 'I didn't mean to wake you.'
'You didn't wake me,' Alyss replied. 'The light did.' Then, realising that Evanlyn might take this as a sign that she was annoyed, she added quickly, 'That was a joke.'
'Oh…well, sorry, anyway,' Evanlyn told her. 'Go back to sleep.'
But Alyss was sitting up. She shivered in the chill mountain night and hastily draped a Kikori sheepskin coat around her shoulders. Then, disdaining to rise, she moved on all fours across the room to sit beside Evanlyn.
'Light another lantern,' she said. 'We'll go blind trying to read that in the dark.'
Evanlyn hesitated, but Alyss gestured impatiently for her to do as she suggested.
'You might as well,' she said. 'I'll never get back to sleep wondering what you're doing.'
Evanlyn nodded and lit a second lantern, pulling it close to the first so that the light was doubled. Alyss moved a little closer and studied the map with her.
'Where did this come from?' she asked. She could see it was a chart of Ran-Koshi and the country to the north.
'Shigeru and I drew it up, with advice from Toru and some of the other Kikori. Of course, the general lie of the land here was no secret. The only unknown factor was the exact location of Ran-Koshi.' She tapped a finger on the section of the map that showed the valley and its steep surrounding walls.
Alyss nodded thoughtfully, then she pointed to a broad, featureless expanse directly to the north of the valley.
'What's this?' She read the name lettered on it. 'Mizu-Umi Bakudai?'
'It's a huge lake. And round here, on the far side, is the province where the Hasanu live.'
'I've heard people mention them several times. Who are the Hasanu?'
There was a teapot on the table and Evanlyn reached for it to pour herself a cup of green tea. 'Like some? It's still quite hot.'
Alyss shook her head. 'I'm fine.'
'The Hasanu are a wild mountain tribe that live in this remote area on the other side of the lake. Some people think they're monsters. There are apparently a lot of legends about weird mountain creatures, trolls and demons and such. But Shigeru thinks that's superstition. He believes the Hasanu are human. They're simple folk. They're said to be much taller than the average Nihon-Jan and covered in long, reddish body hair.'
'How attractive,' Alyss commented.
Evanlyn allowed herself a brief smile. 'Yes. But they are apparently amazingly loyal to their lord, a Senshi noble called Nimatsu, and he's loyal to Shigeru. And they're quite formidable warriors,' she added meaningfully.
'Hmmm. So if Shigeru could recruit them, he might have a reasonable force to engage Arisaka,' Alyss said. Like all of the Araluans, she was aware of the shortcomings of the Kikori as warriors. 'Are there many of them?'
'Thousands,' Evanlyn told her. 'That's the beauty of it. There are plenty of clans loyal to Shigeru who would oppose Arisaka, but they're all small in numbers and they're not organised. Arisaka's supported by his own clan, the Shimonseki, and one other, the Umaki clan. Numerically, they're the two largest clans in the country, so he has a strong, co-ordinated power base.
'But if we could call on the Hasanu for help, we'd have Arisaka badly outnumbered. Which might encourage the other clans to stand up for Shigeru. Only problem is…'
She paused and Alyss finished for her. 'The Hasanu are on the far side of this huge lake.'
'That's right. And the path around the lake goes through mountains even wilder than the ones here. Shigeru says it would take at least two months to get there and another two back.'
'By which time, things will probably be all over here,' Alyss said and Evanlyn nodded, wordlessly.
The two of them studied the map in silence for a few minutes. Then Alyss said slowly, 'Why not take a leaf out of Halt's book? Go across the lake, not around it.'
She was referring to Halt's tactic of sailing north along the coast from Iwanai, and cutting out weeks of hard travel over the mountains. But now Evanlyn pointed out the obvious fault in her plan.
'We could do that if we had a ship,' she said, but Alyss shook her head, her excitement mounting as the idea grew.
'We don't need a ship. We need a kayak.'
'A what?' Evanlyn asked. The word was unfamiliar to her.
Alyss took the brush from her and began sketching quickly on the margin of the map, laying out a rough design of a long, narrow boat.
'A kayak. It's a small, light boat – with a timber frame and an oiled linen or canvas covering. The Skandians use them for fishing. I've actually got one back at Redmont. I use it on the river and lakes there. It's great exercise,' she added.
Evanlyn studied the rough drawing critically.
'Could you build one?' she asked.
'No,' Alyss told her and Evanlyn's spirits sank, only to rise again when Alyss continued, 'But I'll bet the Kikori could, if I showed them the rough idea.' She pulled the map around so she could see it more clearly and traced a path across the lake with her forefinger. 'We could do it in easy stages,' she said. 'There are plenty of islands where we could camp at night.'
'We?' Evanlyn asked and Alyss looked up to meet her gaze.
'Well, of course "we". They're going to need every available man they have here once Arisaka's army arrives. There's not really a lot we can achieve here.' She saw Evanlyn was about to protest and went on quickly, 'Oh, I'm sure you could knock a few of them over with that sling of yours. But if we did this, we'd be doing something much more valuable! Come on,' she said, after a brief pause, 'in the back of your mind, you always intended to do this, didn't you?'
'I suppose so,' Evanlyn said.
'Then let's do it together! I'll come with you. You might need an interpreter and I can handle a kayak. Plus we won't need an escort if we do it this way. We'll be perfectly safe on the lake and that means we won't leave Halt and the others short-handed.'
Evanlyn thought for a few seconds, then squared her shoulders, reaching a decision.
'Why not?' Then she thought further. 'I wonder what Halt will say when we put it to him?'
Alyss shrugged. 'Well, it's such a logical idea, he can hardly say no, can he?'
'No!' said Halt. 'No, no, no – and, just in case you missed it the first time, no.'
'Why not?' Evanlyn said, her voice rising in pitch to indicate her anger. 'It's a perfectly logical solution.'
Halt regarded her as if she'd lost her senses. 'Can you imagine what your father would say to me if he heard I'd let you go haring off on this half-baked expedition?'
Evanlyn shrugged. 'Well, for a start it's not half-baked. We've planned it pretty well.' In fact, she and Alyss had sat up for most of the rest of the previous night noting down details and equipment they would need for the trip.
'And secondly,' she continued, 'if we don't do it, my father will never hear about it anyway because we'll all be dead.'