The City of Sand

by Tianxia Bachang

  Still neither of us moved. It had cost us so much effort to come here, not to mention the trouble we’d get into when we got back home. All that, just to leave empty-handed? I walked over to the corner and lit the candle again. “How about if we put a couple of things back and see if it goes out this time.”

  Bargaining with a corpse in this way was definitely not in the gold-hunting manual, but that first extinguishing could have been the wind. Kai placed the water jar on the lid of the coffin, too lazy to open it again. I turned to smile at him, but he was pointing a trembling finger at the corner. “Tianyi, the flame. Why is the flame…green?”

  Sure enough, the candle was glowing a brilliant emerald-green, tinting the whole room an eerie shade. As we watched slack-jawed, it flickered twice, then winked out with a defiant pop.

  This wasn’t good. Grabbing Kai’s arm, I ran for the exit. Staying a minute longer would probably mean staying forever, becoming part of the Liao kingdom’s grave goods. A rush of air came toward us, and instinct told me to duck, just in time to avoid the tricolor jar, which flew over my head and splintered against the far wall. Following it was the coffin lid, which wedged itself neatly into our exit. Great.

  Kai’s howl was terrifying. “Tianyi, talk to him,” he pleaded. “We can leave more stuff behind, we can leave it all. It’s not good to make him angry.”

  Too late for that, I knew. I watched as the corpse clambered out of his box. Alarmingly, a layer of thick red fur had sprouted across his body. My breath grew cold inside me. I hadn’t been entirely joking about the green-haired corpse—my grandfather had said that could happen in a body dead from poison. But what did red hair mean?

  This was definitely not the time for questions. I grabbed my black donkey hoof from my rucksack and flung it. The hoof was meant to be a powerful charm, but the corpse easily swatted it aside, then reached for our shovels, which it hurled against the ceiling. Only inches away from the corpse, we swerved and made for the only feasible exit—the rear room. In his haste, Kai kicked over a tall urn. The red-haired demon apparently couldn’t see, and stumbled over it, emitting a sobbing cry like the call of a wild cat.

  I swiveled and, ducking under the corpse’s arm, stood directly behind it. This was no ghost, but a being of solid flesh, smelling absolutely fetid. Wrapping one arm around its neck, I clung on. Its limbs were too death-stiffened for it to reach backward. This was the safest place to be.

  Just as I was wondering how long I’d be able to stay in this position, a light dazzled me. It was Kai, sprinting over with his flashlight in one hand and, in the other, a wolf-tooth lance he’d liberated from one of the suits of armor. It must have weighed at least twenty pounds, and he was holding it with difficulty. When I judged the moment right, I let go of the corpse and jumped aside, and the lance struck home. Like all the metal here, it was rusty and aged, but this wasn’t a weapon that relied on a sharp edge—simple brute force was all it took, and with the full bulk of Kai behind it, the wolf tooth impaled the red-haired corpse and pinned it to the ground.

  For at least a minute, we simply stood where we were, breathing in great gulps of musty air, our heartbeats seeming to echo through the room. We’d used every ounce of energy in our bodies and needed to recharge.

  “Kai,” I said uncertainly, “he’s still twitching. Should we hit him again?”

  “Yes, over the head this time.”

  Barely were the words spoken before the red-haired creature bounced up as if on springs, propelling the lance back into the rear room. I swore at our horrible luck. We needed that lance. Now that our shovels were lodged in the ceiling, it was the only tool we had to break through the coffin lid blocking our exit.

  Right now, though, the big problem was that the reanimated corpse was shambling toward us. We dashed into the back chamber, where we found that the lance had bashed a hole through the far wall. A hole? Was there a secret room beyond this one? I shined my flashlight through, but it hit nothing, just emptiness. A tunnel, not a room.

  A blast of cold air announced the arrival of our red-haired friend. No time to think—I bashed the lance at the hole, widening it enough that we could wriggle through. The corpse didn’t seem able to come any farther. It was walking again and again into the wall.

  Suddenly, I noticed something. “Kai! Your gloves—why aren’t you wearing them?”

  “I got all sweaty opening the coffin, so I took them off.”

  “Are you crazy? Touching a corpse with living hands—that’s what brought it back!”

  “Don’t blame me. It’s a dead body, not a land mine.”

  We were interrupted by a crash as the wall splintered a little more under the creature’s assault. Time to go. We crawled along as quickly as possible. Soon the tunnel widened, and the floor became concrete. As soon as we could stand, we started running, imagining we could smell the corpse’s wretched stench right behind us.

  The passage ended in a sort of bunker, which mercifully had a huge metal door. As soon as we were in, Kai and I leaned hard against it till the hinges, rusty from decades of disuse, began to move. Any moment now, I expected a red-haired arm to reach through the opening, but with a final shudder, the massive door closed. We were in another part of the underground complex, presumably built by the Japanese as an air-raid shelter. Unless the corpse had more strength than an American warhead, he wouldn’t be breaking through anytime soon.

  My fears allayed for the moment, I waited for my breath to steady, then shined my flashlight around, trying to get a sense of where we were. The bunker was massive, piled high with all kinds of supplies. The Japanese had built places like this all over Manchuria, to maintain the front against the Soviets.

  “Tianyi?” Kai’s voice broke into my thoughts. “That thing—do you know what it is?”

  I hadn’t really had time to consider the red-haired corpse, but now I ran my grandfather’s stories through my head. “It’s a revenant,” I said. “The ancient Manchurians had a trick of writing out a curse and burning the paper, then sprinkling the ashes into the deceased’s mouth before burial. It reanimates the body when anyone tries to steal from the dead. It’s relentless—the corpse won’t rest again until…”

  “Until what?”

  I swallowed hard. “Until the thieves are dead.”

  There was a momentary silence. “Well,” Kai said stoutly, “I don’t think we count as thieves. Did we even get any loot?”

  As a matter of fact, we’d managed to drop most of our bounty while fleeing. Digging through my pockets, I could only find the jade moth. But…

  “What’s going on?” Kai gasped as I pulled it out.

  I couldn’t explain it either—the vivid green of the wings was now a dull yellow. “Maybe it’s the light?” I muttered, realizing just how little I knew. Reading half an ancient manual hadn’t made me an expert at all.

  The fortress was laid out like a maze. To keep from getting too lost, we felt our way along the outer wall, looking for an exit. Shining the flashlight up, I could see clusters of emergency lights and wires. If only we could find some way to turn the electricity on! Groping our way along, we found our path narrowing to a passage that sloped upward into stairs. I led the way up, and just as I reached the top, Kai stumbled with a muffled curse, pitching us both forward.

  We landed in a huge stone cave, every surface covered in glossy green moss and a slick of damp. Countless bulky shapes hung overhead. We strained to see through the gloom, and it took us a good few seconds to work out what those shapes were. When we did, we almost screamed in terror. They were giant bats, far bigger than any others I’d encountered, clinging to the walls with their wings wrapped tightly around themselves.

  As we gaped, those wings began to unfurl. Our clattering entrance had shaken them from their dreams and they were rousing, yawning to reveal mouths full of long fangs. The bats had round faces and pointy ears and cruelly sharp spikes at each joint of their wings. They’d been using this underground lair as a home and were now prep
ared to defend it.

  When the first few swooped toward us, I grabbed the closest thing to hand—a stick I spotted in a nearby pile of debris—and lashed out. They retreated a few feet, close enough to swipe with their razorlike claws, drawing blood. My feet slipped on a floor that I could now see was covered in guano and the carcasses of small animals. There was no way we could fight off such numbers, so before the main assault began, I reached into my rucksack for the flare gun I’d brought just in case. I’d had to save up to get it mail-order, but it was worth every cent now. When I fired into the heaving black mass circling us, the flaming charge rocketed toward the roof, sparks cascading off it, and the bats shrieked in terror at the sudden heat and blazing light, rising in a flock to the ceiling vent, chattering in their high-pitched language of squeaks. There must have been a thousand of them.

  The light grew so intense I covered my face with my arms, remaining still until the flapping noises stopped. Groping for my flashlight, I called out to Kai and he grunted weakly in response, apparently scared out of his wits. When I found the light, its faint beam barely registered, but as my eyes adjusted, I could see that the bats were completely gone. Just as well; I didn’t have a backup flare for the gun.

  A thump came from behind me. I swung around, but the bat that had just landed was motionless, its wings twisted. A hole in its chest still smoldered; it had been hit by the flare. There was no further movement.

  What next? There was still no way out. The vent the bats had left through was far higher than we could reach, and the revenant would still be guarding the outer metal door. As I was chewing over our options, Kai slumped to the floor, groaning, “Do we have any food left? I’m so hungry I can’t think.”

  I could have done with something to eat too, but the fruit and buns we’d brought were long gone. Then it occurred to me there was a giant dead bat in the cave with us. Well, why not? We eat field mice and grasshoppers; this couldn’t be much different.

  Kai thought it was worth a try too. I sent him back to the bunker for some wooden crates to burn—we could have used the coffins as fuel, but I didn’t want to anger any more spirits—while I got on with skinning the bat and tying it to the stick as a makeshift spit. When Kai returned, I stamped the crates into boards, then whittled one with my knife to produce shavings for kindling. Before long, the beast was hanging over a crackling fire, and Kai was sniffing appreciatively. “Smells like mutton,” he said.

  As soon as the meat was ready, we began hacking bits off and gnawing enthusiastically. A couple of water droplets landed on my head, but I was too busy chewing to pay much attention. Kai flinched, apparently feeling the same thing. “That’s funny. I didn’t notice it raining.” As the words left his mouth, we both realized something was wrong and slowly raised our heads.

  Above us, just where the firelight met darkness, something was watching, something with a face twice as big as a human’s: bloodshot eyes above a hooked nose, protuberant lips bracketing a great cavern of a mouth. As we watched, a blood-red tongue emerged from it, dripping drool. The smell of roasting meat had summoned it.

  What kind of creature was this? The skin on its neck was black and coarse, and as it leaped from its perch near the roof, we could see its whole body—like a bear’s, but more agile. I tore off a chunk of meat and flung it as far from us as possible, and the beast sprang for it, its spine curved like a bow. I’d seen pictures of this animal before—what was the name? Ah yes, the great sloth. Normally as slow-moving as its name implied, this one seemed to have been galvanized by the savory aroma of our meal.

  Kai flung more meat in its direction, but it ignored that and kept ambling toward us. Turning to me, his lips dry, Kai said, “I think he might…think we’re bats.”

  Unwilling to be a sloth’s dinner, we turned to run. I’d barely gone two steps before I stumbled over something, almost smashing my knee. Kai crashed into me as I went down, delaying us both long enough for the sloth to catch up. It lunged at Kai first, no doubt sensing there was more flesh on him. The knife we’d been using to hack off bits of roast meat was just within reach. I grabbed it and turned to plunge it to the hilt in the beast’s front limb. Red-hot after being by the fire so long, the blade seared the creature’s flesh as it went in, stunning it into retreating a few paces, steam rising from its wound.

  Looking up, we saw that more sloths had appeared while we were distracted, and were rapidly descending the cavern walls. Fortunately, they seemed to be afraid of the fire, and as long as we huddled close enough to the flames, we were safe for the time being.

  Pulling a blazing plank from the heap, I thrust it at the smallest sloth, singeing its skin, and it shrank away, curling up protectively. We backed off slowly, each clutching a flaming piece of wood in one hand. The sloths followed but kept their distance. We retraced our steps all the way through the bunker, not daring to try any of the other passages in case they were dead ends, ending up against the metal door.

  My initial idea had been to think of an alternative escape route once we were fortified with bat meat, but the sloth assault had come too suddenly for that. Our torches were burning lower and would soon be blackened stumps, leaving us defenseless.

  There was nowhere else we could retreat. While Kai flung our torches toward the beasts, causing them to dart backward, I dragged the door open, bracing myself, but the revenant was nowhere to be seen. Kai scooted through and we pushed it shut, leaning against it with all our might, not sure we’d be strong enough to hold it against a sloth’s massive weight.

  A gust of icy wind came around the corner, and then the red-haired corpse itself. It had just been patrolling the corridor, and now it leaped, forcing me to duck. Suddenly released, the door flew open, knocking Kai aside as the largest sloth of the pack bounded in. It entered with such force that the revenant was knocked to the ground, but it bounced back up immediately, reaching its arms out to impale the sloth on the ends of its fingernails, which were the size and sharpness of steel knives.

  The sloth’s yelps of pain brought the rest of its clan scurrying. The smallest quickly had its head lopped off by those unnatural nails. Then two of them latched on to the corpse’s arms, which were unable to bend, and managed to snap one. Kai and I backed away, feeling unspeakably lucky. We had been pursued by two enemies, only to have them attack each other instead!

  Moving as fast as we could, we crept back into the room with the tombs. We were back where we’d started, with nothing to show for it. Not only had we acquired no treasure, we’d attracted the ire of a reanimated corpse and some oversized mammals. This had not been a successful gold-hunting expedition. At least I was able to snatch my black donkey hoof from the ground.

  The coffin lid still blocked our exit, but a few blows from the lance broke a hole in it. Kai went first, but before I could follow, there was a roar like thunder and two giant sloths lurched into the room, streaked with blood and seemingly in a frenzy from their wounds. Their red eyes flashed with rage when they saw me.

  With Kai urging me to hurry from the other side of the wall, I picked up a small rock and flung it at the crystal-glazed tiles above the main coffin. As I’d expected, they’d been booby-trapped, and dragon oil poured down into the room, igniting as soon as it hit the air and engulfing the sloths. Leaving them writhing as great spouts of flame destroyed everything behind us, I made my exit.

  The last steps seemed to take no time at all, and we were staring up at the night sky. Again, Kai went first, lowering a rope behind him for me to climb out. Just like that, we were free. It felt amazing being in the open air again, back in the regular world. As we walked away, the sun was just starting to peek over the eastern ridge, the color of spilled blood.

  I thought of how I’d never truly believed in ghosts, despite my grandfather’s stories. Now I understood how foolish that was, like a hunter who’d gone into a forest and, not spotting any prey, declared there were no wild animals. In this world, we only experience a tiny amount of what is possible. What can w
e do for the vast number of things we will never know about except treat them with respect?

  Neither of us had the energy to talk much. In any case, we had other problems—first the long trek down the hill on wobbly legs, and then facing our parents. It wasn’t too bad for Kai, who only had his mother to deal with, but when I stumbled into our courtyard around noon, clothes tattered, scorched, and covered in guano, face smeared with red earth, my father was so furious he could barely speak.

  After I’d gotten cleaned up and had something to eat, my father tried to stay calm as he said they’d been worried sick when I didn’t come home all night. When I told him where I’d been, he exploded again.

  “Wild Man Valley! Everyone knows that’s the most dangerous place around here—you could have been eaten by all kinds of creatures! Haven’t you heard those stories of people stepping on a pile of leaves, only to get sucked into the quicksand hiding underneath? Then there are the wild men—heaven protect you if you encounter one of those.”

  “I know, Dad.” Truth be told, it was my mother’s quiet sobbing that hurt me more.

  “Yes, you know. You know everything. I blame your grandfather for putting ideas in your head. Telling you all kinds of stories.”

  “It’s not Grandpa’s fault. I’m old enough to know my own mind.”

  “Right, you’re grown up now. Your wings are fledged and you’re ready to fly. Fine, go ahead, but I’m warning you—if you continue with these shenanigans, you can forget about coming back to this house again.”

  His words were still echoing in my ears when I met Kai later that day. We were both determined to go on—me because I thought it was what my grandfather would have wanted, him because he had dreams of getting rich quick. Besides, neither of us had much else to look forward to. Even if we worked hard at school, it would be a miracle to get into university, not to mention getting any kind of decent job.