Chapter 1「1819」
"Kid! Hey! Wake up!"
A burning sensation in his shin roused Hoku, and he tried to draw his leg towards him. Someone had gripped his coat near the shoulder and was dragging him across a wooden floor.
"Hot…" he mumbled.
"Your leg's too close to the fire. I'm trying to pull you away."
Hoku bent his knee and rolled onto his side. The heat eased, though his coat continued scraping against the boards. When he opened his eyes, he could see the legs of a chair and someone kneeling beside him.
A hand slipped under his arm as he tried to sit up. Startled by the unfamiliar touch, Hoku pulled away, nearly throwing the young man off balance.
"Careful! Let me help you up."
The stranger withdrew his hand and knelt a little farther away. He had short blond hair, thick golden brows, and grey-blue eyes. A white neckerchief had worked loose above his dark waistcoat, and dust marked one knee of his trousers.
Hoku propped himself up and examined his leg. The cloth over his shin was unpleasantly hot. He rubbed the sore patch through his trousers, then inspected the hearth behind him.
A fire burned between the iron bars.
'There wasn't a fire here…'
His attention moved to the wall above the mantel, where he remembered soot extending towards the ceiling. Chairs stood around a low table, their upholstery intact, and curtains hung beside the windows.
Across the room, the staircase curved towards the landing.
'Could someone have carried me into another house? But the stairs are in the same place…'
"Can you stand?" the stranger asked. "There's a chair behind you."
Hoku accepted the offered hand and got to his feet. His knee bent without difficulty, though he kept a hand on the back of the chair while the man poured water from a pitcher on the table.
"Here. Have a little water."
Hoku accepted the glass and drank before attempting to speak. The water was cool against his dry mouth, but swallowing made him aware of the soreness in his throat.
"How long have I been here?"
"I found you only a little while ago. You were rather difficult to wake." The young man adjusted his neckerchief. "What should I call you?"
"Hoku..."
"Hoku?" he repeated, briefly puzzled. "Forgive me, I don't believe I've heard the name before. I'm Polaris."
Hoku set the glass on the low table.
"Do you live here?"
"I've been living here for some time," Polaris replied. "What brought you to the manor?"
"I read about the fire in a newspaper," Hoku said after some hesitation. "The rooms were burnt out when I came in. I didn't think anyone could be living here."
"You remember entering from outside?"
"Yes. I walked through the front door and came straight in here. How could it have changed?"
"I'm afraid I can't explain that. I've never seen the rooms in the condition you describe."
Daylight extended through the arch into the front hall.
Hoku rubbed his forehead and stepped away from the chair.
"I should go home. My uncle will wonder where I am."
"I'll come with you. You were unsteady a moment ago."
Polaris moved aside while Hoku adjusted his coat and made his way into the hall.
He drew the front door open and wrinkled his nose at the smell of manure.
Outside the iron gate, a pair of horses stood in front of a carriage. One scraped a hoof through the road dust while the other pulled against the reins. The man holding them wore a long dark coat and a tall hat, its brim shadowing most of his face.
"Oi! Who's going to clear this off the road?"
He gestured towards the ground, then hauled on the reins when one of the horses tried to move past him. A wheel creaked as the carriage rolled a short distance behind it.
Hoku hesitated on the doorstep.
The lamps beside the driver's seat, the high wheels, even the man's coat belonged to a kind of scene he knew from his uncle's books. He could hear the horse chewing its bit.
He descended a couple of steps.
"Excuse me, sir."
The man continued muttering as he adjusted his hold on the reins.
Hoku ventured a little farther down the path.
"Could you help me? I need to find somewhere I can use a telephone."
The man's face was briefly visible between the horses. His attention passed across the grounds, but he made no reply. Instead, he bent to inspect something near a wheel.
"Look at the state of it!" he called towards the house.
Hoku faltered, uncertain whether the complaint was meant for him. The man continued grumbling, punctuating his words with another angry pull on the reins.
"I've tried speaking to him from the gate," Polaris said from the steps. "He carries on much as he is doing now. I've never managed to get a reply."
Hoku backed a few paces along the path as the man climbed into the driver's seat, still muttering under his breath.
'The carriage, his clothes… Have I somehow gone back in time?'
"What—what year is it?" Hoku asked, returning to the steps.
"Eighteen nineteen," Polaris replied. "At least, that's the date on the most recent newspaper I've found."
The carriage rattled past the gate. Hoku let it travel some distance along the road before speaking again.
"Would you mind showing me that newspaper?"
"Not at all. Come inside, and I'll find it for you."
Polaris held the entrance open for him, then closed it and led him across the parlour.
The panelled door beneath the staircase opened onto a narrow flight of wooden steps. Hoku peered down before letting Polaris lead the way.
Another door stood at the bottom, its frame stained greenish-blue in places. Polaris unlocked it with a silver key, and the smell of stale tobacco drifted into the stairwell.
He went inside to light a lamp on the desk.
Shelves covered the side walls, crowded with books arranged by height. Journals occupied the chairs and lay in heaps around the wooden desk in the centre of the room.
Several covered frames leaned against the farther wall beside a damaged easel. The largest stood under a red cloth.
Hoku lingered in the doorway, recognising the arrangement from an illustration in the white book.
Polaris cleared a pile of journals from the nearest chair. After a brief search through the papers on the desk, he found the newspaper and opened it beside the lamp.
"Ah, here it is. You can read it more comfortably from that chair."
Hoku drew out the chair, then paused with one hand on its back.
"Are those paintings under the cloths?" he asked. "May I have a look?"