Chapter 91 — The Watcher Under the Moon
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
"This is Fengdu.
Forbidden ground for the living. "
The bird-headed freak spoke through its beak, and its voice was very strange, not smooth the way a human voice is. "You are a living man.
You should not have come here.
"
The Village Head's face was grave.
He smiled and said, "I have come all the same.
"
The bird-headed freak said, "If you wish to leave, you must pay a price.
"
Curious, the Village Head asked, "What price? "
"There is a Yama in Fengdu. "
The bird-headed freak's eyes seemed to be looking at the tip of its own beak. "Yama has noticed you.
He admires you greatly, and so Yama has a request.
Grant it, and you may go.
"
The Village Head's expression stirred a little. Politely he said, "What request? "
"After you die, you belong here. "
The Village Head mused a while, then suddenly laughed. "The Realm of the Living Dead — a world where the dead live on, and where the living die. If after death I can go on living here, why should I not gladly agree?
The life of the outer world is death here; the death of the outer world is life here.
If I can live here after death, that is a good thing.
I agree.
But first, could you answer a few questions? "
The bird-headed freak tilted its head. "Ask.
I may not answer. "
The Village Head smiled faintly. "That Soul Boat — is it the Land of No Sorrow? "
"No. "
The Village Head was taken aback, and blurted out, "It is not the Land of No Sorrow?
Then why does it draw Shen'er's jade pendant?
Why does it make the jade pendant point to this place? And why has the Soul Boat appeared here at all? "
The bird-headed freak frowned; its eyeballs were glaring at the tip of its own beak again, plainly annoyed by the number of his questions.
"The Moon Herders of the Soul Boat all died. Every last one, extinct.
So the Soul Boat was sent here by the last Moon Guardian.
A dead man lives aboard it. Go and ask him. He very likely knows.
"
"A dead man? A Moon Guardian, then? " said the Village Head doubtfully.
The bird-headed freak lifted one leg and scratched at the feathers on its neck, kicking out a golden-yellow worm, which it snapped up and swallowed.
Impatiently it said, "You ask too many questions. "
The Village Head said, "And the demon god that attacked me? Is Fengdu not the domain of the Heavenly Demons? "
"She is a resident here.
This place belongs to Yama, not to the Heavenly Demons. "
The bird-headed freak, as though he did not exist at all, groomed its ruffled feathers with its beak. "In time you will live here too, as she does.
Yama admires you greatly.
"
The Village Head let out a breath of turbid air. He had thought this place the world of demons, and it seemed he had guessed wrong yet again. So the demon god he had trapped was merely one of the great lords of the Realm of the Living Dead.
He asked again, "Where is the Land of No Sorrow? "
The bird-headed freak had quite lost patience with him. It spread its wings and flew off.
"You ask too many questions. I find you very annoying. Do not forget your promise. When you die, I will come to fetch you. Do not go off with the underworld envoys!
"
The Village Head watched it fly far away, then looked at the Soul Boat.
The enormous Soul Boat had risen to its feet and was dragging the moon along on a purposeless journey. "I have been spurned.
Is it that a man grows talkative once he is old? "
The Village Head did not know whether to laugh or to weep.
He walked toward the Soul Boat.
The vortex still hung in the sky, still bleeding, and the demon god was still struggling within it, trying to break out. "That demon god borrowed the Soul Boat to draw Shen'er here — she must know some secret of the Land of No Sorrow. A pity I can only trap her, and cannot force her to tell me what she knows.
"