Page:Weird Tales Volume 10 Issue 03 (1927-09).djvu/117

 of a brilliant blue. It seemed to bear down upon the mountain as though it were resting prone against it. The air was keen and fragrant.

It was very light. The stars shone forth in startling splendor.

"Woo Ling-foh seized Hwei-Ti by the shoulder. "They are not stars," he whispered; "they are lanterns gleaming from windows m the magical Blue City."

The moon had risen, silver-bright, cool, as sharp-cut as a diamond. Before them stretched a long white road, a road of moonbeams that Spread off toward the Blue City.

Woo Ling-foh took Hwei-Ti's hand. "Come," he murmured, and together they set off down the Moon Road that swerved into the skies.

Hwei-Ti's eyes were round with amazement. Could it be possible that they were walking into the very skies? Was he mad? Was even Woo Ling-foh but a figment of his distorted imagination? And yet there was a peace, a quietude about the occasion which was extremely beautiful. If it were madness it were better than his former state. Never had he known such complete tranquillity.

Woo Ling-foh still held his arm. "Look clearly," he said softly, "and as your eyes grow accustomed to the azure light you will be able to make out the forms of houses, and perhaps if you are able to tune your vision sufficiently, people also will be apparent to you."

The light was of queer intensity, blue that made one long to slumber, blue that was maddening in its beauty, blue that was like a soft caress. Here and there gray shadows loomed. Hwei-Ti sighed. He was at peace. Dimly through the mists he could see the outlines of houses, charming little houses with happy lanterns glowing in the windows. They were all of blue, not of one tone but of many, suggesting that they were really of variegated colors softened by a glaze of blue.

It was very quiet in that strange city, but not soundless. The solitude was restful. It was like a city in the deep hush of morning before the birds had awakened or the flowers had unfolded to the dawn. Their footbeats made no sound as they passed along, and this was well, for on the fragrant air was the suggestion of sweet singing, as though some lovely lady were crooning love-melodies to the moon. Now the blue trees commenced to stir. They exhaled a sweet fragrance, fragrance of pine and fir, of myrrh and sandalwood. Onward they walked. In the houses the lamps still burned. They glowed gorgeously through the blue maze.

Hwei-Ti sighed. Vision had been granted him at last. All that he had beheld in his entire life dwarfed to naught by comparison to this.

At last they came to a house lovelier than all others. It was by no means a mansion, merely a lovely homelike dwelling with countless flowers growing all about it. Before the door of the house sat a lovely maiden. She was simply dressed in a soft blue costume. Her hair was blue-black. It shone with an exotic sheen in the lantern light that streamed through the window. Her lips were red, made more vivid and startling by the fact that they were the sole bit of color other than blue in the garden. When she smiled, her teeth gleamed white as alabaster.

As Hwei-Ti gazed into her wondrous young face he was thrilled. She was lovelier than any woman his wildest dreams had pictured. She was exquisite. She was divine. It had been the echo of her singing which had given music to the air. It was she who had been crooning to the moon. He stepped forward and bowed toward the ground. Before such beauty he was speechless. All that he desired was to worship before her. He felt as though he were