At the heart of the Dawn Ark a crisp, bright voice rang out, and the jade pendant on Shen Mu's chest floated gently upward, as though it meant to fly to the ship. Shen Mu's heart gave a small jolt; he hastened to look toward the voice, and saw that the speaker was a giant of incomparable stature, taller by many times than the other giants aboard, like a deity of the heavens. Her legs, meanwhile, had already sunk into the hull — more than half of each leg swallowed by the ship, almost to the waist — and even so, she stood a hundred zhang tall. She had four arms, and with each of the four she gripped a pillar before and behind her; the pillars were wound about with iron chains, and those chains were the very chains that tethered the black sun hanging in the sky. Flames blazed all around her, so that she seemed a woman of fire.

The fierce heat of it made Shen Mu feel scorched the moment he looked at her. Strangely enough, when he saw her face, he felt she was no grown woman at all, but a little girl younger even than himself.

Yet how could so vast a body belong to a little girl? She looked utterly weary, gasping for breath. "Does the honored elder recognize this jade pendant?

"

A stir passed through Shen Mu's heart. He hastily took the pendant from his chest, and saw the giantess's four palms open; her body began to shrink, and before long, from a giant over a hundred zhang tall she had become a girl half a head shorter than Shen Mu himself.

"Honored elder? "

Her voice was clear and bright, and she laughed with great delight.

After two more gasping breaths she said, "I'm no honored elder.

.

"

She pulled her legs laboriously out of the hull. The Dawn Ark was a strange vessel indeed: her legs seemed to have fused with it, the ship's flames running into them like blood vessels, and it took great effort to draw them free. When she had pulled both legs out, the place where she stood grew smooth again. Where her legs had merged with the hull two openings remained, slowly closing.

The girl tried a couple of steps; her legs trembled, she nearly toppled over, and hastily braced herself with all four hands against the deck.

A little sheepishly, she said, "Could you come aboard? "

Shen Mu looked at the other giants on the Dawn Ark.

One old giant nodded and said in a low voice, "Let him up. "

A plainly dressed giant came to the prow and extended an arm, making of it a bridge between a dragon pillar and the Dawn Ark. Shen Mu hesitated, then stepped onto the giant's palm and walked the thick forearm at a brisk pace until he stood aboard the Dawn Ark.

Once on deck he was somewhat taken aback: it was far cooler here than he had imagined. He had thought it must be scorching as a furnace; instead it was almost chill.

"That little brat Shen! "

In Crimson Dragon City, the headman and the others had marked the strange doings aboard the Dawn Ark as well. Turning to look, they caught sight of Shen Mu walking up the giant's arm onto the ship.

The alchemist laughed in sheer exasperation and scolded, "The boy's daring is too wild — he would board even a god's ship! "

The butcher drew two slaughtering knives and said, reeking of killing intent, "They dare to snatch one of our own children?

Let us go cut our way over! "

The headman glared at him and said slowly, "They mean no harm. Let Shen go.

Those aboard that ship — I think they are not a god. . .

"

Shen Mu walked to the little girl's side, and the Dawn Ark slowly leveled out again.

The girl had not walked in a long time and her legs served her poorly; she wished to rise and salute him but found it hard, and so could only sit and bow slightly to Shen Mu. Shen Mu returned the courtesy and placed the jade pendant in her hand. The girl studied it closely, a thoughtful look coming over her face, and uttered strange, obscure words, questioning an old giant beside her. The old giant's face showed astonishment.

He looked Shen Mu over again and again, and answered in the same obscure, incomprehensible tongue. "The divine tongue!

"

Shen Mu was astonished. Old and young, the two were speaking the language of the gods.

He had heard the gods' speech before, yet he did not understand its meaning, and so what they said was beyond his knowing. After a few exchanges, the girl returned the pendant to Shen Mu and said, "Grandfather Clan-Chief says this pendant of yours is neither of gods nor demons nor buddhas. He has seen such a thing before; it must come from the Land of No Sorrow, in the Wasteland. "

"The Land of No Sorrow?

"

Shen Mu's spirit jolted. "Where is the Land of No Sorrow? "

The girl questioned the old giant again.

He hesitated a moment, then spoke a few obscure words. The girl shook her head.

"The Land of No Sorrow is exceedingly mysterious.

It appears only when darkness shrouds the Wasteland. He does not know where it lies. "

Shen Mu was somewhat disappointed, but he fixed the name firmly in his heart.

The Land of No Sorrow might be his birthplace, the place where his parents were. Whatever it took, he must find it. "Was I magnificent just now?

" the girl asked with a giggle.

Shen Mu blinked, his expression odd.

"Just now — it was you steering the Dawn Ark? You were the one who frightened off the armies of the Kingdom of Jingping? "

The girl was hugely pleased with herself. "You never guessed, did you?

"

Shen Mu truly had not guessed. Not only had the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping been startled by this little girl — even the headman and Mojiang had been startled. They had taken her for an ancient and mighty deity aboard the Dawn Ark, and the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, judging his own strength unequal to the foe, had withdrawn.

They would never in their wildest dreams have imagined that this little girl piloted the Dawn Ark.

Of course, the Dawn Ark was so overwhelming, so powerful, that such a misjudgment was only natural. "My name is Yan Jingjing.

What is yours?

" the little girl asked curiously. "Shen Mu. "

Shen Mu hesitated, then said, "I do not know whether Shen is my surname or my given name. There is a Shen character on my jade pendant, so the headman took Shen for my surname.

Mu means a cowherd boy. What does Yan Jingjing mean? "

"It means many suns and much fire.

"

Yan Jingjing struggled to her feet, but she must have gone a very long time without walking, for she tottered as she went.

Shen Mu saw that the muscles of her legs had wasted away, grown terribly thin, skin stretched over bone with scarcely any flesh left at all.

Gaunt and skeletal as she was, the sight of her made one's heart quail. "When I was born I was like a sun. My mother was burned to death by the flames upon my body, so Grandfather Clan-Chief gave me the name Yan Jingjing.

"

Her face darkened.

"Later, when I had grown a little, Grandfather Clan-Chief said I carried the blood of the Sun-Keepers. The power of a Sun-Keeper is very great; it can win me the Dawn Ark's approval and let me sail this great ship across the Wasteland. In all the clan, only I can pilot this ship — and so I became the Sun-Keeper of this generation.

"

She cheered up again and laughed.

"You are the boy who herds cows, and I am the girl who pastures the sun. When I am merged with the Dawn Ark my power is immense, just like a god's — that is why I frightened the bad men away.

Did I frighten you just now? "

Shen Mu smiled. "You did. "

Yan Jingjing lowered her head. "I am sorry.

I was so tired I could not bear it, so I stopped here to rest a while, and I frightened you. . . "

Shen Mu was taken aback, then smiled.

"It is nothing.

Why are your legs so thin? "

"Grandfather says the sun of our Sun-Herding Clan has gone out, so when I pilot the Dawn Ark, it draws on my strength, and I grow thinner and thinner.

"

Yan Jingjing said, "When my strength is gone, I will be like the Sun-Keepers before me and merge with this ship.

That is how my father died. .