Ursula K. LeGuin by City of Illusions

Author:City of Illusions
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-09-07T16:20:15+00:00

ears;and he smiled, but there was a dread in him that only grew as they went on and down, towards Es Toch.

Closerand closer they came, and the path widened into a road; they saw huts, farms, houses. They saw few people, for it was cold and rainy, keeping people indoors under a roof. The two wayfarers jogged on down the lonely road through the rain. The third morning from the summit dawned bright, and after they had ridden a couple of hours Falk halted his mule, looking questioningly at Estrel.

"Whatis it, Falk?"

"Wehave come-this is Es Toch, isn't it?"

Theland had leveled out all about them, though distant peaks closed the horizon all around, and the pastures and plowlands they had been riding through had given way to houses, houses and still more houses. There were huts, cabins, shanties, tenements, inns, shops where goods were made and bartered for, children everywhere, people on the highway, people on side-roads, people afoot, on horses and mules and sliders, coming and going: it was crowded yet scanty, slack and busy, dirty, dreary and vivid under the bright dark sky of morning in the mountains.

"Itis a mile or more yet to Es Toch."

"Thenwhat is this city?"

"Thisis the outskirts of the city."

Falkstared about him, dismayed and excited. The road he had followed so far from the house in the Eastern Forest had become a street, leading only too quickly to its end. As they sat their mules in the middle of the street people glanced at them, but none stayed and none spoke. The women kept their faces averted. Only some of the ragged children stared, or pointed shouting and then ran, vanishing up a filth-encumbered alley or behind a shack. It was not what Falk had expected; yet what had he expected? "I did not know there were so many people in the world," he said at last "They swarm about the Shing like flies on dung."

"Fly-maggotsflourish in dung," Estrel said dryly. Then, glancing at him, she reached across and put her hand lightly on his. "These are the outcasts and the hangers-on, the rabble outside the walls. Let us go on to the city, the true City. We have come a long way to see it. . . ."

Theyrode on; and soon they saw, jutting up over the

83 shanty roofs, the walls of windowless green towers, bright in the sunlight.

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