ICO: Castle in the Mist Read Free Page A

run from that?
    On the trip home from the mountains, Ico’s resolve had become as hard as steel. Whereas his duty as the Sacrifice had only been something vague before, a role in a distant play, now it took a clear and definite shape. He never noticed the tears the elder shed as he hurried his horse ahead of him on the path. When they returned to the village, Ico had moved into the cave without being asked.
    “I got it!” Toto shouted from the window, jarring Ico from his reverie.
    “What? What is it?”
    “I’m coming with you, Ico. I’m going to the castle!”
    Ico jumped up, standing against the wall directly beneath the window. “You’re not going anywhere! If the priest found out, they’d lock you up. Probably the rest of your family too. You really want that to happen?”
    Toto gulped. “Why would they do that? Who says I can’t see the castle? If only the Sacrifice is allowed to go, what about the priest? Does he have to throw himself in jail?”
    “Now you’re just being ridiculous.”
    “Why do I even bother?” Toto grumbled. “ You’re not even on your own side.”
    Ico shook his head. He looked up at his friend’s face, beet red with anger, and suddenly he felt the tension leave his shoulders, and he laughed out loud.
    Toto’s a good person. A good friend. And I’ll never be able to see him again once I leave.
    That thought made him feel lonelier than any other.
    A good friend…Which is exactly why I must go to the castle.
    “Toto,” he said after a moment of silence, “I know what will happen if the castle gets angry. But I can’t tell you. I can’t go against custom. It’s just like when they say we’re not supposed to swim in the deep water on days when the west wind blows or ride into the mountains without trimming our horse’s hooves. It just is, and you’ll have to wait for your ceremony to know why.” Ico’s voice was calm and even. “It’s true, though, that when the Sacrifice goes to the castle, the danger is gone. And you know I won’t die, right?”
    “Sure, but you’ll never come back. What’s the difference?”
    “It makes a big difference to me!” Ico said with a grin. “The elder told me that after the Sacrifice goes to the Castle in the Mist, they become a part of the castle—they live forever.”
    Ico wasn’t lying. The elder really had told him that. It had surprised him at first when he learned that being the Sacrifice didn’t actually mean going to your death.
    “So you’re going to live forever?” Toto lifted an eyebrow. “You’re just going to live at the castle? That’s it?”
    “Pretty much.”
    The conversation was quickly entering an area where Ico felt less sure he was right. In fact, he didn’t know what he would be doing once he arrived at the castle. He suspected the elder didn’t know either.
    As it was, from the moment he had heard he wasn’t going to die, his curiosity about the Castle in the Mist had grown. What would happen there? What did it mean to “become a part of the castle”?
    Toto wasn’t buying any of it. “How does the elder know what’s going to happen to you? It’s not like he was ever the Sacrifice.”
    “The priests told him.”
    “So the priests know what’s going to happen to you?”
    “Of course. They’re big scholars in the capital, you know,” Ico explained, trying to sound more confident than he felt. “But, Toto, you have to promise me that when the priest comes to the village you won’t go asking him all kinds of questions. I wasn’t just trying to scare you—they really will lock you up. And I don’t want that happening because of me. If you try to do something when they come for me, they might punish the whole village.”
    “Fine,” Toto said at last, but his expression made it clear he wasn’t happy with the arrangement.
    “Good,” Ico said. “I’m glad.” And he meant it. He breathed a sigh of relief.
    “Well, don’t think you’ve seen the last of me yet,” Toto called out.