We"re saved!" Huo Qingtong shouted with joy, and they spurred their horses up the middle path with renewed energy. But the track had not been traversed for many years, and in some places, it was completely overgrown by grasses taller than a man, while in others, it was blocked by sand drifts. The three had to dismount and lead the horses over the obstacles. Chen also moved rocks onto the top of the drifts to slow the wolves" pursuit.
Less than half a mile further on, they came upon three more paths forking to the left. Suddenly, Princess Fragrance screamed and pointed to a pile of white bones at the mouth of one of the paths. Chen dismounted to investigate and found they were the remains of a man and a camel.
"He must have been unable to decide which path to take and ended up dying here," he sighed.
They entered the third path and found it suddenly steepened sharply. The cold and darkness became oppressive. A short while later another skeleton appeared by the side of the path with jewels glistening amongst the bones.
"He was rich but he couldn"t get out," Huo Qingtong said.
"But it means we"re on the right path," replied Chen. "There must be even more skeletons on the wrong paths."
"When we leave, none of us must take any jewels, all right?" Princess Fragrance said.
"You"re afraid the ghosts won"t let us go," said Chen with a smile.
"Promise me!"
He heard the pleading tone in her voice and hurriedly replied: "I won"t take anything, don"t worry." All the jewels in the world could not match having you two sisters as companions, he thought, and suddenly felt ashamed. Why did he include them both together?
They continued up the twisted path the whole night, and by morning, they and the two horses were exhausted.
"Let"s rest a while," said Huo Qingtong.
"We must concentrate on finding shelter first and then we can all sleep easily," Chen replied firmly.
** 10 **
A short way further on, the path opened out into a wide, flat valley of extraordinary beauty. The sun was just rising and the white mountain soared up into the sky from the valley floor. Around its base was a city that looked as if it had once been very prosperous. But now, the thousands of houses that they could see, although magnificent in scale and design, were in various stages of ruin and collapse. Not a sound was to be heard, not even the twittering of birds. The three had never seen a place that was at once so beautiful and so terrible. They stood for a moment, over-awed by the crushing silence, hardly daring to even breathe, then Chen urged his horse forward and they entered the city.
The area was extremely dry, so dry that there was virtually no vegetation on the ground. The contents of the houses had stayed undisturbed for countless years and most appeared to still be in good condition. They entered the first house they came to and Princess Fragrance noticed a pair of ladies" shoes on the floor. Their colour was still fresh, but as soon as she touched them, they disintegrated into dust, and she jumped in shock.
"This city is in a basin surrounded by high mountains which protect it from rain and wind," Chen said.
As they continued through the streets, they found skeletons everywhere and swords and other weapons thrown about at random.
"It doesn"t look as if the city was buried in a sand storm as the story says," Chen commented.
"No," Huo Qingtong agreed. "It looks more like there was a big battle and all the people were killed."
"But there"s so many paths outside the city," Princess Fragrance objected. "How would the enemy find their way in?"