The Demon and the City

just as well. I don't like the Night Harbor, Zhu Irzh."
    "I can see why." Zhu Irzh looked with distaste at the ghosts clamoring alongside them, their spectral hands brushing against his coat and the sides of the carriage. "What good do they think that will do?"
    "They can sense the presence of the goddess," Chen said uneasily. "They're drawn to her."
    "What, they think she might be able to give them special dispensation? Get them up to Heaven?"
    "I have no idea. Maybe they're just like moths to a flame. Maybe it's me they're drawn to. After all, I'm still alive."
    Zhu Irzh shook the reins, flicked the whip and the carriage picked up speed as they approached the outskirts of what passed for a settlement here. Chen leaned into the carriage and spoke to the maiden. Zhu Irzh heard a murmured reply.
    "We need to head for the mountain road, apparently."
    "And where might that be? There's a distinct lack of signs."
    "Look," Chen said, and as he spoke the demon could see the mountains rising ahead, huge masses of shadow against the darkness. Somewhere high on a peak, he could see a wan light. "Do you think that's the village?"
    "I don't know. Keep on this road and it'll take us into the hills."
    As the carriage rolled along, Zhu Irzh saw that they were passing groups of souls, trailing drearily down from the mountains. Some were no more than children, clutching the hands of adult spirits, and many of them were old. Used to the exigencies of Hell as he was, Zhu Irzh repressed a shudder. What an afterlife, he thought. No wonder so many humans tried to make deals with Hell in order to avoid it. You would be much better off going to Hell straightaway: at least it was exciting, not this dull, elusive hinterland.
    "Excuse me," he called down to one of the groups of souls. "Have you come from Bad Dog Village?"
    "Yes, yes, a terrible place." One of the souls, an elderly man with the ravages of illness still plain in his face, was eager to complain. "We hurried through it, but we lost one of our number. The dogs kept him, it is said they eat spirits or hunt them for sport. And now we head for the boat and the peach orchards across the sea." A kind of peace suffused his worn features, blotting out the anxiety.
    "We wish you good fortune and good sailing," Chen called down, and the demon drove on.
    Gradually, he became aware that the sky, or whatever passed for it in the Night Harbor, was beginning to lighten. It became easier to see the fields and copses alongside the road, the remnants of farms and smallholdings.
    "Who lives here then?" Zhu Irzh asked, puzzled. "Who would choose to farm such changing terrain?"
    "I don't think they have a choice," Chen replied. "Some folk just get stuck. And perhaps some people don't want to face the journey, the razor bridge, dogtown—maybe they do choose to stay here. I don't know. I thought perhaps you would."
    "I understand Hell and its workings," Zhu Irzh said. "But this country . . . I'm not familiar with it, after all, and why should I have taken an interest before now?"
    Chen shrugged. Zhu Irzh drove on and at length the fields faded and gave way to rock and ragged outcrops. The air smelled of dust and decay. Zhu Irzh kept glimpsing bones from the corner of his eye, skeletal heaps by the side of the road, but when he looked, there was nothing there. He had not realized it was so quiet when the roar shattered the air. It reverberated from the rocks, making Zhu Irzh's head ring. The maiden gave a cry, quickly stifled, from within the carriage, and the kylins danced to a standstill and refused to go further.
    "What was that?" Chen, his usual composure ruffled, clutched at the demon's arm.
    "I don't know. What sort of things are you supposed to find in these mountains anyway?"
    "I thought it was the home of the dogmen alone."
    "I don't think that was a dogman. It sounded enormous."
    "Look, let's just get on," Chen said.
    "If I can get these things to move, we will."
    Eventually he coaxed the kylins forward, but as they rounded the corner, something bounded down to stand in their path. It moved so swiftly that Zhu Irzh saw it only as a flicker against the rocks. The kylins reared, nearly overturning the carriage. Zhu Irzh and Chen both fought for control of the reins and hauled the kylins back.
    "What is it?" the maiden cried.
    "A thing," Zhu Irzh called back, with perfect truth.
    He had never seen anything like the creature that now stood before them, bouncing slightly on four long legs. It