Death's End (Remembrance of Earth's Past) by Liu Cixin

Author:Liu, Cixin [Liu, Cixin]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781466853454
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2016-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

The Second Tale of Yun Tianming

“The Glutton’s Sea”

Once they were outside the palace, the captain drove the horses as fast as they would go. All three were anxious. In the brightening darkness, they felt danger looming in every shadowy copse and field they passed. After the sky brightened even more, the carriage came to the top of a hill, where the captain stopped so they could look back along the road. The kingdom spread out below the hill, and the road was like a straight line that divided the world in half. At the end of the line was the palace, looking like a pile of toy blocks forgotten on the horizon. No one was chasing after them; apparently Prince Ice Sand thought the princess no longer existed because she had been captured by Needle-Eye’s brush.

They continued in a more relaxed manner. As the sky continued to brighten and illuminate everything around them, the world resembled a picture being painted. At first, there were only vague outlines and hazy colors; later, the outlines became more defined, the colors richer and more vivid. The moment just before the sun rose was when the painting became complete.

The princess, who had always lived in the palace, had never seen such large patches of vibrant colors: the green of forests, grassland, and fields, the bright red and brilliant yellow of wildflowers, the silver of the sky reflected in lakes and ponds, the snowy white of flocks of sheep … As the sun rose, it was as if the painter of this world-picture scattered a handful of gold dust boldly over the surface of the painting.

“It’s so lovely outside,” said the princess. “It’s as if we’re already in the picture.”

“That’s true,” said Auntie Wide, spinning the umbrella. “But you’re alive in this picture. In the other picture, you’re already dead.”

The princess was reminded of her departed parents. She forced herself to not cry. She understood that she was no longer a young girl, but a queen with duties she had to bear.

They talked about Prince Deep Water.

“Why was he exiled to Tomb Island?” asked the princess.

“They say he’s a monster,” said the captain.

“Prince Deep Water is no monster!” said Auntie Wide.

“They say he’s a giant.”

“He’s no giant. I held him when he was a baby. I know.”

“When we get to the sea, you’ll see. Many others have seen him. He really is a giant.”

“Even if he’s a giant, he’s still the prince,” said the princess. “Why was he exiled to the island?”

“He wasn’t exiled. When he was little, he took a boat to Tomb Island to fish. But that was when the glutton fish appeared in the sea. He couldn’t come back, so he had to grow up on the island.”

* * *

Now that it was light out, the road gradually filled with more pedestrians and carriages. Since the princess had rarely set foot outside the palace in the past, people did not recognize her. She was also wearing a veil so that only her eyes showed, but anyone who saw her still exclaimed at her beauty.

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