Chapter 40 - At the Base of Cloud Peak

By the time that Yuzu and Char Char left Tye-An street, a two horse carriage had already left the East District Police Station, passed through the northern gate and was headed down a wide road towards the base of the mountains. Its passengers were police recruit Finn Mackenzie and the fifteen year old monk, Edwin Mak.

The black carriage had the insignia of the Noga Police force on it, and the driver sat in the open front wearing an officer’s uniform. The carriage was a rectangular box with a hooded driver’s seat that was on the same level as the passengers inside. It had hard seats that barely had any cushioning, and the thin spoked wheels had little suspension, causing the whole coach to shake and rattle whenever they came across a bump. In the city, the journey wasn’t too bad, but as the coach began climbing the mountain it became quite rough and jarring.

For Finn, having just experienced a ride in tycoon Sansen Zhao’s luxurious coach, sitting for the four hour ride in the back of the creaking, jostling box was torture. The windows were square openings in the side of the carriage, and there was a tarp that could be unrolled to shut them. The seats were flat benches with no cushioning. Finn and Edwin sat side by side, their arms touching each other for lack of room to spread out. Finn rested his arm on the window sill and tried to at least enjoy the scenery, but just as he would relax into the rhythm of the ride, there would be a rut or sudden bump in the road and send a jolt through the entire coach.

He felt like he had made a mistake in choosing his profession. Perhaps he should have been a tycoon, or a business person instead. Even though he had only taken the one trip in that coach, he felt that he had already been spoiled by luxury.

It was mid afternoon when they finally reached the base of the monastery. The driver rapped the wall as he slowed down the carriage.

“We have arrived, gentlemen.” The man said.

“Thank the Lord.” Finn muttered under his breath as he opened the door. His legs felt cramped and yet somehow also tired and sore.

They had ascended quite high in the mountains along a winding, but well maintained path. The trees at the base of the monastery were in full bloom, with bright green buds filling their branches. Yellow and pink spring blossom trees lined the manicured entrance at the base of a steep set of stairs.

A traditional style wooden arch formed an open doorway over the flat stone path leading to the staircase. It was painted white with blue accents, and a carved sign read “Cloud Peak Monastery” in a stylistic brush script.

The writing style was in seal script, an ancient form of Nianese. It was the original written form of the language that modern Nianese was based off of, and was mostly used for artistic or historical purposes. Most people were not able to read the script fluently, but Finn had studied the script fairly seriously for a summer when he was still in school and so had a passing familiarity with it.

Rather than walls on either side of the gate there was a line of blossoming trees that marked the perimeter of the monastery grounds. A fifty meter stretch of paved stone path lead straight to the staircase, flanked on both sides by a manicured garden that was still in the process of being planted. A few monks could be seen tending to the soil and planting seedlings. They looked over at the carriage from time to time without stopping their work.

Finn took in the sights as he put his hands on his lower back and stretched backwards, trying not to make it too obvious how sore he was from the trip.

“That was a nice ride!” Edwin hopped out of the back, smiling, “A bit cramped though. The cart was slower than I thought it would be, but I guess it makes sense since we’re climbing up a mountain. Wouldn’t it be easier to just walk it?”

“Sure. If you want to spend twice the time coming up here.” Finn said.

“I could probably run up faster than the horse was going.” Edwin thought. “Well, maybe not for four hours. The path was nice and wide, though. In ZhongShan where I’m from the mountains are all narrow and steep, with steps carved directly into the rock.

“You can try walking down, then, if you prefer.” Finn said, sighing.

He stepped up to the front of the carriage and looked up at the driver, “Thank you for driving us, Paul. Are you going to wait around here?”

“I’ll probably wait in the small village that we passed, just down the road. I’ll come by around six, or if you get back early it’s only about a twenty minute walk from here. Just look for the carriage and I’ll be around.”

“Sure. Let me just talk to a monk over there first, if we’re going to head up I’ll signal you.”

“Take your time!” The driver rested his legs on the footrest. They had discussed the details of the trip prior to departing from the station, so there was no need to go over it again.

“Being back in the mountains feels great!” Edwin beamed as he looked around. He shook out his earthy brown robes and jumped several times. “The mountains here are different than back home, but it still has the same feeling of life and energy.”

“Let me do the talking, alright?” Finn said, leading the way to the gate.

“No problem!”

The pair walked together and passed under the arch. A bald monk in grey robes with an old, jagged scar above his left ear left his spot and ran at a leisurely pace to greet them just past the entrance.

He looked to be in his early twenties, probably no older than Finn, and was the oldest of the monks working in the gardens who were between twelve and eighteen years old. They stopped working and rested on their tools as the monk spoke to Finn and Edwin.

“Good afternoon, brother” He said to Edwin with a bright smile, raising his hands in front of his chest and clasping them together. He shook them once firmly towards Edwin. He then turned towards Finn and repeated the gesture, “And to you as well, officer.”

This was the typical bow of Kumin monks, where the fingers of the left hand were kept together and grasped the space between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. The higher the hands were held, the more respectful the bow. At chest level, it was a friendly greeting among equals.

Edwin smiled and steeped his hands in front of him with his fingers touching as he bowed his head. This was the customary bow of the Huan province, although unlike Kumin the normal populace in Huan also used the gesture, not just the monks.

“It pains me to say this as you’ve come all this way, but the monastery is not accepting visitors at the moment. We are in the middle of preparing for the Five King’s Festival.”

“I understand, however this isn’t simply a leisure visit.” Finn had prepared mentally for this, and motioned to Edwin. “We are looking for Edwin’s master, Ming Ru, who was supposedly staying at the monastery a month ago.”

“I was supposed to meet with my Master two weeks ago, but no one’s heard from him.” Edwin said, then added, “He’s old friends with Abbott Glass.”

“Ah, I see.” There was a look of hesitation in the grey robed monk’s face as he eyed Edwin. He smiled politely as he bowed once more. “Wait one moment please.”

He jogged towards another monk who was more about Edwin’s age. They talked briefly, and the other monk took off towards the stairs at a quick run. The first monk returned and smiled to them, “My friend is going to go up and ask about it. Would you like to take a seat while we wait for him to return?”

He gestured to a row of benches that were on the side of the garden. The benches had been removed from their original spots and were placed together out of the way, presumably to be returned to the garden once the final layout was settled. A few broken benches were stacked next to a workbench, waiting for repair.

Finn and Edwin took a seat on a more sturdy looking bench and faced the monks as they worked. Finn kept his focus sharp as he took in the situation and thought seriously about the next steps.

There were piles of twigs and leaves that had been gathered for later disposal. Mounds of soil were sitting beside the garden beds, probably carted in from below, since Finn couldn’t see a source for the soil. A pile of stone tiles were stacked neatly at the far end near the stairs, where one of the monks was busy replacing damaged ones.

“They’re really going all out for the festival.” Edwin commented, “I wonder if I’ll still be in Noga for it. I’ve heard that Noga’s Five King is better than every other city’s combined.”

“It’s certainly the biggest event of the year.” Finn said, “It officially lasts a week, but most people take two weeks off for the pre and post celebrations. If they can.”

He added the last part, noting to himself that for many people this was the busiest time of year for work. This was true as well for the police, who had been unequivocally told that no one would be taking time off during the festival month this year.

“Many places receive financial support from Lord Noga to host the festival. The Cloud Peak Monastery in particular gets quite a healthy dividend, since it is one of the main attractions for both locals and foreigners.” Finn continued, “The monastery acts as a central coordinator for the attractions and villages in the area and decides where and how to distribute the fees from the city.”

“The Heavens Gate Monastery is not anywhere near as big.” Edwin said, looking up at the stairs, “Well. I mean, I don’t know how big the Clouds Gate Monastery itself is, but in terms of popularity we don’t receive many visitors at all.”

Finn followed Edwin’s gaze, looking up at the staircase that extended up into the mountain. It was steep enough that the buildings and features beyond the top of the staircase could not be seen from the base where they were sitting. While the path leading to the monastery itself was well maintained and not too difficult to hike, the staircase up to the monastery itself was a famous feature of the pilgrimage.

The “Thousand Steps Staircase” was wide enough for ten people to walk abreast and lined with statues of monks from myth and legend. The flight of stairs wasn’t completely continuous - every hundred steps or so there was a flat landing, usually with a statue, bronze brazier or other such feature. They could see that the monk who had run up to ask about their arrival was on the fifth flight of twelve. Impressively, he was still running up two steps at a time.

“Something is off, though.” Edwin said quietly as they looked at the grey figure of the monk, who was already quite small from their perspective.

“Yes.” Finn said, nodding as he lowered his voice a bit, “It is strange that they would try to turn us away before even asking what our purpose is. They are in the midst of preparation, so receiving deliveries and messages should be common.

“In addition, the police are well involved in the security of the temple, as more than a thousand people typically visit the monastery and surrounding grounds every day during the festival. Since I am in full uniform, I could be here passing an official message or request for coordination. To have him turn me away at the start without hearing what I have to say is especially strange. He is clearly not a senior or a person in charge of decisions, so he must have been given orders to turn everyone away at the gate.”

Finn cast his eyes around the grounds and monks working the garden. His voice dropped even lower as he continued his analysis, bringing his hand up to his chin as he stroked it thoughtfully.

“Furthermore, with only two weeks left until the festival, the state of repair in this area is not nearly progressed enough. There is far too much to be done, and there are clearly provisions that have been brought in beforehand to attend to the work. However even though it is mid afternoon, two weeks prior to the festival, they only have five or six monks working down here.

“Where are the contractors? The carpenters? The gardeners? Even if they were low on hands, the monastery certainly has the resources to hire outside help.

“Things aren’t adding up.” Finn concluded quietly. “When the monk comes back, regardless of his answer, we need to find an excuse to go up to the monastery and investigate ourselves.”

Edwin took in the analysis with a thoughtful expression. It really did feel like there was too much to do, and not enough people to help with. He nodded several times as he looked around, as if agreeing with each point separately.

“It makes sense...” Edwin said.

“Were you thinking the same thing?” Finn asked, “What did you think was off?”

The monk looked at Finn, and then scratched the back of his head with a light chuckle.

“Actually, I was just thinking the trees are really green here compared to down in the city.” He shrugged sheepishly, “I wasn’t thinking about any of that other stuff at all.”

Finn stared blankly at Edwin for a few seconds before looking away and sighing.

~

In a small village at the base of the mountain, a fisherman navigated his boat as he returned from his morning’s work. The base of his boat was full of gleaming crescent trout. A stocky villager named Walt greeted him at the dock with a big smile.

“Wow! Good catch today Ah-Sing!” He exclaimed.

“They were nearly jumping out of the water to get into my boat.” Ah-Sing chuckled. “The gods have been good to me this spring.”

As they secured the boat to the dock, Ah-Sing spontaneously grabbed one of the trout from the boat and handed it to Walt.

“Here, treat your family to dinner tonight.” He said, patting the surprised tailor on the back.

“Th-Thank you very much!” Walt beamed. He held the fish in front of him, which was so big he had to hold it with both arms.

Later, on the way home Walt realized that the fish was missing a fin.

“Well, it’s better this way. It would be hard to sell a damaged fish, but the actual taste won’t be affected.”

He hummed cheerfully as he made his way home, planning how to prepare it for dinner.