I’m trapped…
Toto looked up at the thin ray of light shining through a hole in the rubble above. It looked like pieces of the house had fallen over the top third of the stairway. He wondered if he might be able to clear it out by hand.
But if I go up there, that monster will be waiting for me.
Toto turned back to the darkness of the cellar. The chilly air and dusty smell were the same as they had been above. It seemed large for an underground room. Maybe that meant another exit.
Toto began to crawl along the floor, searching. His hands met only the cold stone beneath him. He groped toward the right and found another wall. He pried at it with his fingers for a moment, then stopped.
Wait, that’s not a wall. It’s a piece of furniture. It’s divided into sections-and there’s something inside.
In the darkness, Toto’s face took on a serious, grown-up expression-the kind he’d never shown to anyone before, not even Ico. He began probing the cavity intently with his fingers, feeling the shapes of the objects, tapping them lightly with his fingers. He wrapped the tips of his fingers around one.
It moved and fell into Toto’s hand. He picked it up carefully and brought it into the light at the bottom of the stairs.
It was a book. He had found a bookshelf.
Of course the book was stone. He couldn’t open it, and his fingers left small indentations in the cover. In the dim light it was hard to make out the words, but he could see enough to tell that they were written in unfamiliar letters.
Toto was reminded of the bookshelves in the elder’s house. He and Ico had been scolded once when they snuck in to take a look. In that house, every part of the wall, save the door itself, was covered in books. The book of stone he held in his hands now looked a lot like those in the elder’s study.
Maybe this place was a study too? He wondered if the master of this house had been an important person like the elder. A scholar of ancient wisdom. Toto tried to be careful, yet even steadying his grip on the book made it break and crumble. He laid it gently on the floor and resumed his search, sweeping across the ground with his hands. Toward the back of the room it was so dark he couldn’t even see the tip of his own nose. Still, he was able to discover that three of the walls here were bookshelves, all filled to overflowing.
Somehow, it put him at ease. The elder was always saying they should read. Study, he told them often. Knowledge makes a man strong. Toto had never really listened. All a hunter needed was a keen eye and a steady hand. He could leave the studying to the slow of foot.
Even still, in this city of mysteries, hiding from something more frightful than the darkness around him, that tiny seed of respect for knowledge that had been planted inside him stirred and whispered to him in a tiny voice.
This place is safe.
This place is protected.
Or, Toto thought, maybe I’ve gone crazy and I’m hearing things.
He was standing in a fortress of books-a fortress with no other exit but those stairs.
There was nothing to do about it but find a way up and out. If he waited too long, the sun would go down and he would be left to cope in the pitch dark.
Wait-
Maybe it was better for him to remove the rubble and go upstairs after the sun had set. If the face couldn’t see him, how could it find him? Once darkness fell on the city, there would be any number of places where Toto could hide.
I’m a hunter, Toto thought furiously, putting a fist to his chest. He could run at night. He wouldn’t lose his way. He merely needed to look up at the stars and judge the moon’s height and he would be able to find his way out of the city and back home.
It’ll be hard without Arrow Wind.
Toto gritted his teeth and held back the trepidation he could feel growing inside him. It would be too easy to drown in self-pity. But that’s no way to be, he thought. No more crying. I have to get home.
Okay! Forgetting where he was for a moment, Toto stood tall. As he did, his left elbow smacked something so hard he gasped in pain. Whatever he had hit collapsed with a thud-a small piece of furniture he hadn’t noticed, perhaps.
Toto felt something moving through the air, and he sprang back in the nick of time. Something much larger than whatever his elbow had just encountered whooshed by his ear to collapse on the floor with a reverberating crash.
Toto had to cover his mouth and nose against the dust. He guessed that whatever little thing he had disturbed had knocked against one of the bookshelves and brought the whole thing down.
After waiting for the dust to settle, he began to feel around with his hands, quickly finding a mountain of shattered books. Something shimmered amongst the fragments.
At first, he doubted his eyes. It couldn’t be catching the light from upstairs; this part of the floor was pitch black, which meant something here was giving off its own light. It had a pale, beautiful gleam, like that of the Hunter’s Star, visible even on cloudy nights.
Toto felt through the pile with both hands, quickly retrieving the glimmering object. It was another book, not of stone, but of paper. It felt old and weathered, and there was no mistaking the feel of it in his hands.
Toto quickly moved into the light and began to examine his finding. The book was thin, with a white cover. Even when held directly in the light coming from upstairs, the book clearly gave off its own light.
Gingerly, he wiped the dust from its cover. The book’s glow brightened. Five words were written on the front in a script Toto had never learned, but he recognized it as the same script used in the old books back in the village.
The elder could read this.
More than its contents, Toto wondered how this book-one single book-had managed to avoid the dreadful curse that the Castle in the Mist had laid upon this city. And why did it glow with such a pure white light?
Whatever the book was, it must have been very strong indeed to have stood up to the castle’s wrath. Maybe, Toto thought, it can save me too.
Toto examined the rubble covering the staircase, then set to work, picking up one piece at a time, moving as carefully as possible so as not to make a single sound. By the time he had removed enough to pass, the sun had already set. Still, Toto remained crouched at the bottom of the stairs, waiting patiently. Come on, night, he thought. Moon, don’t show yourself, please. Hang darkness like a curtain over my path and let me get out of here alive!
He dozed while he waited, clutching the glimmering book to his chest with both hands, like a warrior holding his bow or his spear before battle, so close that it almost became a part of his body.
When all had fallen into the darkness of night, Toto climbed the steps. The curious book in his arms glowed, giving him courage and lighting the ground at his feet. He found he was able to make the glow stop simply by placing his hand over its cover. That would keep him safe from the watchful eyes of that face in the sky.
Toto began to run through the sleeping stones of the city. He didn’t get lost. As frightened as he was, his hunter’s instincts did not abandon him this time.
He came upon Arrow Wind, and for a moment, tears rose in his eyes, and he stopped. Toto stroked the horse’s rigid mane with one hand and hugged his back. I’m sorry. I never should have brought you here. And now I have to leave you all alone.
“But I’ll come back for you someday, I promise.”