Hidden Cities by Daniel Fox

Author:Daniel Fox
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Epic, Magic, Fantasy fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, General, Dragons
ISBN: 9780345503039
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2011-03-21T10:00:00+00:00

CLOSER THAN home, they found what they had climbed for, why they had come all this way, why Ma had sat his mule and his blisters when he should have been safe below and plotting warfare with Tunghai Wang. Ping Wen the traitor was in Santung; that was all the news that mattered. Great events were afoot, plans were laid but could not be realized without Ma—and yet here he was, miles and leagues and days away, too far to glimpse the sea however dreadfully high he climbed.

And here, here at last was the reason for it: a high wall, a locked gate, a lone lamp shining in the dark.

Someone had already knocked a thunder on the heavy timbers of the gate. By the time Ma’s mule reached it, there was a rattling of chains beyond, and a slow swing open. No questions asked, even of strangers who had made this climb unannounced and with such chancy timing.

Here was a tunnel of stone, the gates drawn back against the walls and still no men, no questions. Another lamp burned in the tunnel; at the other end were gates again, closed again.

They led the way now, Yueh and Ma and the mule. His men packed in behind them, muttering and anxious. More so, when the first gates closed themselves at their backs. There was an arrangement of chains, Ma saw, vanishing into the wall. Let the men fear ghosts again; for him, this was a good beginning. He believed, he chose to believe devoutly in human hands at work on those chains.

The gates ahead swung open, and here at last were people, men with shaven heads and dull robes, bowing them through into a courtyard. Yueh clicked his tongue to draw the mule on, and here was what Ma needed, what his good boy brought him to: a stone block where he could dismount with some degree of dignity, if no grace. And here was a man come to meet him, a man who carried dignity in his own person. One among many, but Ma could still tell the abbot, even in the dark.

“Sir, you are welcome here, you and all your party.” The depth of the bow that proved the welcome, the abbot’s head on a level with his feet reminded Ma that he was still standing on the block like a prisoner in shame, like a slave for sale, like an arrogant man asserting his own importance. He stepped down hastily—a little farther down than was comfortable for a heavy man with short legs; it forced a grunt from him, but his boy was there to catch his arm and save him an ungainly stagger—and bowed in his turn.

“My lord abbot, I am sorry to have come so late, and unannounced.”

The abbot smiled. “Most of our guests come late. The only way to be early up here is to spend the night on the mountain. We may close the gate at sunset, but we leave a light burning to help you find us.

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