I heard a multi-toned clash and the grinding of great gears. A breath of
cooler air hit me, fresh after the fetid air of the pits.

The cold-hot sting of a spear tip prodded into my back, biting deep into
something they had slapped on the back of my left shoulder in the Village
of Kuei-Go.  I didn't turn around, didn't struggle.  Either would be a
useless waste of energy I desperately needed if this was going to be like
any of the others.  Energy I'd need to foil them at whatever game this
was.

"Hshuin Wai Lei you are sentenced to wander the Maze until you do find an
exit, be it through the Gate which is open for you or through the Void.
You are sentenced to this punishment for disobedience to your Family, for
willfulness against your elders, and for treachery against the Empire.
If, however, you reach the Gate you will have proven your worthiness as
the benefactor of the Emperor's will."

I walked forward.  The blindfold was roughly yanked from my head.  The
chains fell from where they had been wrapped all up my forearms and around
my legs just above the knees.  The chains slithered away with a soft hiss
and a burn against the inside of my naked thigh that made me set my jaw so
I wouldn't shiver.  I would rather...

I laughed as I walked through the Gate.  I couldn't prefer dying like some
court lady.

I was already dead.

The Gate clashed closed behind me with a sound that echoed from all four
sides of the Courtyard.

There was a murmur of voices from the other side of the bristling Trees.
I turned and caught glimpses of white eyes, white hair, and white skin.
Sometimes the ghostly silver-gray gleam of a horn or a bit of jewelry
shone between branches, brighter than any eye.

I heard a high pitched voice screaming, "A wager on the Laughing Girl!!  A
thousand that with such luck she makes it to a Gate!!  Wager!  Wager!
Wager here!  Face so much, Heart so much, how could she lose?"  The voice
was drowned out by takers.

I pushed my thigh long hair back from my face, hair that in the land of
the living had promised me the life of a seeress, as long, beautiful hands
promised a boy the life of a scholar.  Promises spilt with my blood on a
desert road.

I looked at the gleaming of the walls, the Gate nothing more than more
branches bristling in all directions  as it closed behind me.  All around
me were glittering blades of a dead white.  The guards and the other
gray-white ghosts of this Hell called the stuff White Jade, and it was
appropriate to this dead-white land of the afterlife.  Here, though, the
color seemed purely clean, like metal from a forge.  The twisted, scarred
face of a demon guard appeared at the top of the Gate.  I started running
further down the path as an arrow hit the ground where my feet had been.

The fletching of it burned and smoked like acid.  I knew the arrow head
would do worse, much worse, even to my already dead flesh.

I ran for a few yards, taking a cleared path amid the trees.  My arm
brushed against a branch.  I gasped as dark ichor spread from a neat cut;
and, at even that light a touch, the tree moved.  I looked more closely at
the 'branch' of the tree.  It was a honed blade.  I looked around me, and
each and every branch was a honed and glittering blade.  Tentatively, I
touched the flat of a blade, pushing lightly, and I had to leap back as
the whole tree spun.

The blades cut the air at a slightly higher speed and with the speed they
sang, the different lengths sounding different harmonics.  Intrigued, I
pushed harder on a passing blade, and the Tree whirled like a dervish and
sang an eerie dirge of many notes.

The Maze.  They had said I was to wander the Maze.  The trees must be the
walls of the Maze, and there was some other Gate that was to be open for
me to escape through.  I thought about the path I'd taken to get to this
point in the Maze and thought again of the old puzzle of mazes.  You could
start from anywhere and get to any other point in the maze by following
one hand's wall.  So if I followed all the walls of the Maze with my right
hand I would have to end up, sometime, at the other, open Gate.  So I
walked the Maze with the Trees continuously on my right hand, the lucky
hand.

It could not be that easy, could it?

I kept going, occasionally turning the Trees to hear them sing, to see how
their branches would intersect the paths between them.  There was
backtracking, of course, but I was not frantic because I had a plan, and
knew that it could not fail.

A bell sounded and with the bell came the sound of Gates opening and
closing with that same crash that echoed about the Courtyard.  In the
silence, afterwards I heard the hunting cry of kuei-go.  I was right.  It
wasn't going to be that easy...  I quickened my steps.

It was the stench of old fear, despair and hate that warned me.  I leapt
to the right at the painful stench of emotions, and the snarling scream of
a hurt kuei-go rewarded my effort.  The tree jerked at the impact of the
beast.  As the Dog pulled away, there was the sucking sound of the blades
leaving its flesh.  The Dog howled and whimpered as it turned towards me
to look at me.  The blades had taken it in the chest and laid open the
whole side of its head.  The green jade muzzle/bridle that encased its
head was sliced apart, left dangling along with much of the Dog's jaw. It
staggered towards me, its green eyes bewildered.

Green.  Color was so rare in the Shadowlands, and the eyes reflected the
color of the muzzle.  I reached forward and pulled the muzzle off the
Dog.  It moaned and the eyes dulled, darkened and grew even more confused
and lost.  They turned dark, the same color as the eyes of another
wraith.  It looked down on itself and then screamed.

I staggered back at the near human sound.

With a strange grace for its gnarled body, the kuei-go whirled and leapt
into the Tree it had just pulled itself away from.  Something cracked with
a report like a gunshot. It leapt with such force that the white blades
came completely through its body.  Then, as with the other wraiths whom
I'd seen die on my path to Hell, it faded, misted and disappeared into
Shadow.

There was a murmur like the sea, from the crowd that watched.

A single, slender branch fell with a soft thud into the ground of the
Courtyard of the Maze.  A branch of the Tree.  I went forward, warily,
under the other arms of the Tree, which were still dripping icor from the
Beast, and carefully picked up the blade with a fingertip on each flat.  I
brought it out onto the Path with me and, after studying it, I took the
muzzle from the kuei-go and wrapped the Jade around the wide end of the
branch, using the thongs which had held it onto the beast to wrap it
tightly about the blade.

I picked the makeshift sword up by the makeshift hilt and swung it
experimentally through the air.  It would do better than nothing.

There were likely more kuei-go in the Maze, so I moved a bit more warily
than before, moving wide around corners so that I might see what would be
there before it came at me.  At one intersection my precautions proved
unnecessary as I could clearly hear the panting of a man running towards
me.  He turned the corner and came face-to-face with me.  He was as naked
and as bruised as I, and his eyes showing white all around.  He screamed
when he saw me and bolted away down another path, his bare buttocks
bouncing as he ran.

I heard the tittering of the crowd around the Maze as his screaming faded
down the path.  Behind him came the bulk of another kuei-go.

This one, however, was not as hasty as the first.  It watched me with it
narrowed green eyes.  I stood in the center of the pathway.  With one
sword I would have to be centered.  It came closer, but just beyond the
range of the slender branch I held.  It watched me with those eerie eyes
and panted its fetid breath at me.

It tensed and rushed.  I swung rather wildly and hit nothing; but came
back to center quickly enough that there was a scrambling of claws.  The
Dog laughed a canine grin, all teeth.  It had feinted, nothing more.  I
resolved not to make wild movements, for it would take any opening bigger
than the one I'd already given it.

I edged forward.  It backed away.  Instead of swinging as I had before,
this time I lunged forward, quick, quick and pushed the point forward, not
at its face or chest, but to the side of its head.  Thinking I had missed,
it didn't back away as quickly as it might have.  I accidentally nicked
it's left ear as I retracted the blade, but it didn't notice.

The muzzle fell away.

The eyes dazzled green then dimmed and darkened.  The jaw dropped, and the
tongue lolled and the eyes looked around frantically and then down at the
canine body.  I backed three steps away, not sure what would happen,
wondering if this creature, too, would impale itself on a Tree.  Instead,
it looked at me.  The eyes appraised me.  I nodded to those intelligent
eyes, and the Dog turned its back on me and trotted away.  A chorus of
jeers and shouts came from beyond the Walls of the Maze, and I was none
too sure I wanted a loose kuei-go at my back.

But I was even less sure I wanted to hunt it down.

The murmur of the Crowd creshendo'ed again.  Then I heard screams, hoarse
screams as if from utter terror.  Screams that came from the direction the
frightened man had run.  I ran towards them, abandoning my plan
completely.  The screams stopped.  Instead, or, perhaps, they had always
been under the screams, but now I could hear them, was the delicate
singing of the Trees.  The singing was coming from the same direction.  I
heard the murmur of the crowds outside the Maze grow even louder, the
sounds of cheering, of jeers, of laughter and crying.

I ran into what was nearly a clearing.  Solitary Trees standing with some
space between them.  There was whimpering and, set against all the
straight horizontal movement of the Trees, was the horrible jerking
vertical movements of what was left of the frightened man.  He was stuck
to the branches of a tree and a kuei-go had eaten and chewed through much
of him.  The kuei-go snarled with icor stained lips as I came in; but then
lowered its head to continue its grisly feast.

It ate until the man faded away.  Then it turned towards me, green eyes
glowing in the black and white world.  A change in pitch made me turn even
as a blade caught my upper left arm.  I reeled back and someone was on me,
smashing at my head with small fists, and then an elbow caught me on the
ear.  I fell and saw stars.  I heard a woman's laugh, and then the snort
of the kuei-go.

The crowd went wild.

I raised my head and my blurry vision caught the green of its eyes.  I
raised the makeshift sword just in time.  The kuei-go impaled itself on
the blade and bellowed.  The jagged broken off end of the blade pierced my
chest, but was wide enough, compared to the point penetrating the Dog, to
just stop with the points buried in my chest.  I screamed as the Dog's
claws raked my legs, ripping the flesh from them.  Its jaws were a scant
foot from my face.

The pain threatened to overwhelm me.  The weight and frenzy of the beast
held the sword against my chest, I did not need my arms to keep it
impaled, so I reached forward and it nearly bit off my hand when I tried
to remove its muzzle.  I sobbed and fell back, how holding the makeshift
hilt with both hands.  The Dog finally died with a snarl and disappeared.
The Jade muzzle fell onto my belly.  As I looked down at the muzzle, I saw
my legs.

They were a mess.

I sobbed and retched twice in shock.  I panted softly, trying to find my
breath again; and when I finally caught it again, I studied the muzzle a
little more closely.  I took the crudely worked pieces apart, and with the
thongs that had held the muzzle together, I made a guard for my left
forearm.  It seemed scarcely adequate.

That's then the crowd started it's murmuring again, and, right on cue, the
screams started.

I cursed the crowd and the screams.  Would this never stop?

I levered myself up by the sword, and cursing my own morality, I hobbled
in the direction of the screams, not knowing if I could do anything, but,
as usual, preferring the Void to not doing anything at all.

It was another near clearing.  The kuei-go in this one, however, had two
bodies that dripped icor and screamed as it took great bites out of them.
One was a woman, and from the sound of her screams, the same woman who had
downed me in the other clearing.   It looked up as I entered and snarled.
I hobbled close and then closer, moving slowly enough, crippled enough
that it only watched me through slitted, jade eyes.

I got within my normal lunging distance; and, this time, falling forward a
little, I did the same move, with the tip of the blade going well to the
right of the beast.  The muzzle fell away, and I watched, leaning on my
blade, the now familiar color change in the eyes of the beast.

This time, however, when it looked around it saw what it had been feasting
on.  The bodies still writhed under its jaws.  The brown eyes that raised
up to mine turned mad.

A snarl rose from deep in its chest and it charged me.  I could do nothing
but raise my left arm and shove the muzzle covered arm against the jaws of
the kuei-go.  It's weight and momentum picked me up and shoved me up
against one of the Sword Trees and I screamed as I felt the lancing
through my hip and my right shoulder.  I dropped the sword.  The jaws
closed with terrible pressure on my arm; but the Jade did not break.  The
beast let go of my arm and backed away to look at me.

I looked back but could not move.  I was hung, like a decoration in the
Tree, and the pain was taking my mind.

Suddenly the crowd began to murmur.  On the tail of it the black streak of
another kuei-go slammed into the one that was watching me.  I saw the
notched ear of the kuei-go I had unmuzzled earlier.  The clash of teeth
made me close my eyes.  I could not bear to watch.

The snarl and whirl and growl and rending sounds continued for a while and
then there was a scream and a snap and a final whimper.  I just kept my
eyes closed.  That smell again came close to me and enveloped me.  A harsh
hot panting breath bathed my breast and I found myself lifting my chin
just a touch to give it better access to my throat.  I wanted a faster
death than the others had had.

I was startled into opening my eyes as a warm, wet, soft touch caressed my
cheek.  The kuei-go laughed a canine laugh at me, with bright teeth,
lolling tongue, and his eyes wrinkled at the corners.   Jaws closed on my
upper right arm and with a gentle but firm pull, yanked me off that Tree
of Swords.

I screamed as the blades came out and fell to the ground amid the swelling
approval of the Crowd that watched.

A cold nose nudged at the strangely stiff patch on my left shoulder.  Then
he went away for a bit, and came back with the makeshift sword I had
carried and put it under my right hand.  Then something hard and cold and
wet was put under my left hand.  I turned my head.  It was the pieces of
the muzzle that had held the kuei-go he'd just killed.

Slowly, I sat up.  The world dizzied and swayed and that soft dark voice
cried that I should kill the beast that could kill me... but I shuddered
and held it back.  Slowly, with more care than grace, I wound the pieces
and thongs of the muzzle around my left arm.

He then nuzzled under my left arm.  I put my arm on the broad, coarsely
furred back.  With the kuei-go's help I levered myself up, slowly,
painfully.  The crowd cheered hysterically.

He waited patiently as I looked around.  I scratched him behind the ears
and he sighed a soft, long sigh and leaned into me just a bit, stopping
when I clutched his fur because I was afraid I would topple.  He snorted
quietly and nuzzled against my good hip.

The Gate.  I wondered what would await us there.  The kuei-go would most
likely be killed, and I put back in the pits.  The Gate would be well
guarded.  But the alternative... there was no real alternative.  To cut
through the walls a hole large enough for us both would take long enough
to bring the entire Guard on us anyway.

Take the mercy of the Emperor?  There was no such thing.  Especially for a
traitor.  Any mercy would be as much a curse.

The kuei-go looked at me.

I patted him on the head.  "Back the way I came." I said softly and his
nose went to the ground and slowly, with his support, I hobbled along.
The pale green of the muzzle I'd left on the Tree marked that we were
going along the correct path.  I gathered that set of pieces up as well,
winding them about my left forearm, as he waited, patiently.  Finally, we
went the last straight course and, as I suspected, the Gate was now wide
open.

In the Gate waited the Guard and on seeing me, they swarmed forward and
bound both I and the unprotesting kuei-go with fetter and chain, rope and
lock.  The brown eyes of the kuei-go watched me quietly as it lay there,
bound; but still unmuzzled.  Strangely enough, they bound the makeshift
sword I'd carried out against my back.

The glittering entourage of the Emperor flowed slowly into that area of
the Courtyard.  Glittering bright they flitted in like butterflies, each
more beautiful and, perhaps, more useless than the next.  I lay quietly,
my forehead to the floor.

"A most entertaining run, girl." said a surprisingly high voice.  I did
not make the mistake of looking up.

"I am pleased to please, your Holiness." I said, very softly.

A foot kicked me in the upper left arm, on the cut.  I screamed.  There
was tittering laughter all around me.  The kuei-go squirmed just a bit but
did not growl.

"Do you wish to request a boon of me, girl?"

"Only as it pleases you, your Grace." I answered again.  This time my
voice shook with pain.

"Then live, girl.  You have earned it and all that you've brought out with
you from the Maze." said that high voice.  Then, just as calmly and
dispassionately, that same voice said, "And give me the skin of the faulty
kuei-go for my carpeting, and have the rest of it made into an eunuch for
the game scores."

"No!" I screamed and struggled to break my bonds.

"Oh?" said that bored voice.  "So the girl has a request." With smooth
intent the voice asked, "Would you take the place of a mere beast?"

Softly I sobbed at the feet of the Emperor.  "Yes." I whispered.

"What?" that hateful voice asked, "I can't hear you, girl."

"YES!" I shouted in his face.  "I would take its place."  He was not
dressed in the dragon dress of the Emperor.  This was probably nothing
more than one of his officers, ministers, or judges.  Some petty man
playing god in this place.

"And defy my will?"  The cruel eyes watched me as I'd thrown my face
away.

With an effort I gathered my face again and coolly looked up at him.  "No,
Sir.  That I would not do."  I bowed my head to the floor again.

Now bored that voice said, "Then make all as my will would be."  I heard
the kuei-go moan as it was dragged away.

I whispered, so softly the guards could not hear it, "I'll come for you."
The kuei-go's struggles grew no smaller, so I did not know if it heard.

They unbound me, gave me clothing and let me keep all that I had brought
out of the Maze.  Two other guardsmen were detailed to see me to the
Gate.  It took half the Jade of one of the muzzles for them to do a small
detour.

The Kuei-go Master readily exchanged two muzzles, which were each more
valuable than any kuei-go, for the one useless kuei-go, doomed to the
Mills.

They dragged the bound kuei-go into the courtyard, and made me promise not
to release him until they were gone.  I kept my promise, barely.  When the
bars to the compound fell, I used the tip of the Blade from the Maze to
part the ropes that bound his legs and those that bound his jaws; and with
my hands I rubbed the feeling back into his legs as he lay there,
groaning.  As he had helped me stand, so did I help him.

"We must leave soon." I said softly, "My guards can only wait so long."

He whimpered softly.

Gently I hugged him around the chest when he finally was up on four
shaking legs.  "Come..."  Using just the thongs, I made something that
looked like the normal kuei-go muzzle with leash.

The bars to the compound fell easily, and I walked out with my tame Dog on
a leash.  My guards were no where in sight, and all the people in sight
kept wide berth of the two of us.

"Huh..." I said, my jaw dropping.  I looked around, thinking of the
sharply disciplined Village that used to be my home, of the chiding
Aunties and all the disciplines of being a young daughter in a huge
Family.  No one here was paying any attention to me, perhaps figuring that
the handler of a kuei-go was best left alone. I wasn't sure...

...but it certainly felt like there might be opportunities.

I laughed softly.  The kuei-go cocked an ear in my direction.  Softly I
said, "What say you?  Perhaps we can make a piece of Hell our very own
Paradise?"  He snorted and then rubbed his furry head against my thigh
vigorously, up and down, until he almost knocked me over.  I laughed
softly and, together, we walked to explore our new home.