Heart and Soul by Sarah A. Hoyt

Author:Sarah A. Hoyt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780553589689
Publisher: Spectra
Published: 2008-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

THE VOICE OF THE FLOOD

Being dragged through the underworld was not as unpleasant as it might have been, Third Lady realized. After all, as she should have surmised, not every place in Feng Du was uncomfortable, or even dark. No. Some people seemed to live quite pleasantly in Feng Du. Granted, most of those were great heros or renowned characters who occupied some post of responsibility. She thought perhaps the ones who were punished were only tormented because they believed they deserved it before they were allowed to reincarnate.

And as she thought of this, it occurred to her to wonder why Yu the Great was still here. If he was, as family records claimed, the very first Dragon Emperor or, as he called himself, the first king of China, he had lived uncountable millennia ago, long before human memory could have taken hold. That meant, surely, that he would have come through Feng Du and gone away by now, either back to the wheel of rebirth, or to the golden bridge that led to the paradise of deified heros and kings and the presence of the Jade Emperor.

In either case, one thing was for sure, and that was that he should not be loitering here, in this place that, even when it wasn’t devoted to punishment, was a dim reflection of brighter and happier lands.

She followed Wen through the halls of Feng Du, while the paper figures escorted them both. On the way, they saw other paper figures, and other creatures, engaged in various forms of either expiation or incomprehensible work.

Carts were pulled here and there, some of them, seemingly, piled high with what appeared to be all the goods of the world. And here and there, screams broke the gloom.

Precious Lotus noticed, though, that they never left the hall that was filled with and surrounded by mirrors, and that they never strayed far from the people looking into the glass, at scenes of great battles, or lovemaking or—once, glimpsed out of the corner of Third Lady’s eyes—a beggar sitting in the middle of the street, hand extended, moaning and sighing, and behaving as though he could barely stand to see any more.

Wen, himself, more alert than he’d been before, was speaking. “So, my ancestor,” he said. “Yu the Great, is he in this court of Feng Du?”

“He waits here,” one of the paper figures said, in his dry rustly voice, which sounded like leaves—or else like paper—being played upon by the wind. “After the review of his actions, he realized where they would lead, and what path he’d set his dragon-descendants upon. With the ability of a great sage—which he is—he saw at a glance where it would all end up. As such, he chose never to leave here. And when your palace was destroyed and it, too, arrived down here, he chose to guard a semblance of the ancestral palace and do what he could to keep it safe until his descendants could occupy it, rather than to

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