The Lost Book of the White

Magnus could see why Tian had suggested it. No matter how mazelike Diyu’s layout might be, this was hard to miss. And it definitely seemed to go a long way down.

Tian led them off the stone and onto the new path, which turned out to be of solid iron. The surface glittered like the scales of a snake, and lining each side of the roadway, twisting loops of wrought iron formed low barriers like thornbushes. Magnus leaned over to take a closer look and realized that these were iron weapons—swords, spears, pikes—melted and bent and re-formed. It must have been an intimidating sight in its heyday, but now, as the path arced back and forth in front of them, huge patches of rust marred the surface, and in many places, pieces of the barrier of weapons had broken off and lay by the side of the road.

They walked slowly and curiously. Magnus could see that once upon a time this had been a real road, signposted, its grounds tended, but now it was just ruination, blasted landscape on all sides. And then there were the demons.

None were nearby yet, but from here they could see a long stretch of the road ahead, and all over were clusters of demons, milling about: the Baigujing skeleton warriors, Ala, and Xiangliu they had fought in Shanghai, plus more of the Jiangshi. There were others whose names Magnus didn’t know: huge leopards with horns and five tails, herds of faceless goats with eyes all over their bodies, many-headed bird creatures.

“So many,” Clary said quietly.

Tian said, “They used to be responsible for torturing the souls who found their way here. But now there are no new souls coming, and most of them have nothing to do.”

“Nothing to do except fight us,” said Jace, twirling his spear in his hand. Alec drew his sword, and Clary her dagger. Tian fingered the silver cord of his rope dart, wrapped around his body like a ceremonial sash.

But as they made their way down the path, the demons ignored them. Many of them were a good distance away—the emptiness of the landscape made it difficult to judge how far, and clusters that seemed like they would plainly block the group’s way turned out to be hundreds of yards into the wastes. Even when they passed close by, the demons showed little interest in them. In fact, the demons were more interested in attacking one another. Magnus and the others watched as two of the bird demons descended on a pack of Baigujing and tore them apart, flinging human bones away as they feasted. Ala smashed into one another in the sky, creating miniature bursts of thunder and lightning when they collided.

As the minutes passed, most of the Shadowhunters relaxed their grip on their weapons and walked more casually. Only Alec refused to drop his guard, circling the group restlessly, his sword out as if daring any of the demons to come and get them.

Magnus understood. It was its own strange kind of agony to have to walk down this long, long path, thinking of their friends in danger, of their enemies moving forward with their plans, while they could do nothing but traverse the space between. He felt Alec’s nervous energy. Alec wanted to run down the path, charge ahead toward the inevitable fight, but the way was too far and they needed to preserve their strength.

They walked in near silence. At one point, Alec said to Tian, “Are you sure this is the best way to go?” Tian didn’t answer, just walked on.

An hour passed. The iron road wound on.

Two hours.

Finally the smooth road ended, and a massive suspended bridge, of the same iron as the road, crossed a deep crevasse that blocked the way to the pit. On the far side of the bridge, two huge red que towers rose, forming a gate to an endless staircase that descended the mountain toward its reversed peak, disappearing into a haze beneath them.

“At least it’ll be downhill,” Magnus remarked.

Tian nodded. “I’ve made the walk up the real Mount Tai. It is more than six thousand steps to the top. Except at the top of Mount Tai is a beautiful complex of temples.”

“Rather than the deepest pit in Hell,” said Magnus.

Tian just looked grim.

Before they could reach the bridge, dark flashes began to burst on the road, like the afterimages from looking at the sun. When Magnus blinked to clear his vision, he saw that two demons had appeared in their path. They had the same greenish skin as the Jiangshi, but where the Jiangshi were gaunt and ragged, these two were massive, heavily built, and well-muscled. One had a human body, but the head of a horse; he carried a chain whip, its links each the size of a human fist. The other, also human in form, had the head of an ox and bore in front of it an enormous, double-bladed battle-ax. The ox let out a tremendous bellow, shattering the strange silence that they had become accustomed to.

The Shadowhunters drew their weapons.

* * *

ALEC REFLEXIVELY LOOKED OVER TO Tian and was shaken to see that a look of terror had passed over his face. “Niutou,” he said, “and Mamian.”

“Friends of yours?” asked Magnus.

“They are called Ox-Head and Horse-Face,” Tian said. “They were the messengers of Yanluo, and guardians of Diyu. There are many stories of Shadowhunters fighting them, in the time when Yanluo still roamed the world.”

“If they fought them, we can fight them,” said Clary.

Tian shook his head. “They are much weaker in our world. The legends say that they cannot be defeated in their own realm.”

“So we turn back?” said Clary.

“It’s five against two,” Jace said. “I like our odds.”

Tian said, “If we want to go forward, we have no choice.” He stepped away from the others, giving himself room, and with a few deft turns, unwound the rope dart from his body, grasping its diamond-shaped adamas head at the base. Magnus slowly and uncertainly drew White Impermanence from his back and held it before him. It was very strange to see Magnus wielding a sword, Alec thought. It seemed wrong, even perverse. But they were severely underequipped for this fight, and they needed every asset.

“Clary, you’ve only got a dagger,” Jace said quietly, “so you can’t get inside their reach. Alec and I will try to tie up the cow and you go behind. Tian, your job is to keep that chain whip off us. Magnus, any protection you can offer…”

It was too late for any further planning. With a roar, Ox-Head charged them.

Jace might have been right that it was five against two, but Alec was pretty sure the two were each bigger than all five of them put together. They had no choice but to try, of course—Alec let Jace go ahead to receive the charge with his spear, and he stood ready to slip underneath and strike when an opportunity arose. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw Tian leap at Horse-Face, the rope dart unfurling and bursting out toward his foe like a snake rearing to strike.

Ox-Head’s ax struck against Jace’s spear with enormous force, and Alec saw Jace shudder as he absorbed the impact. He ran in at an angle, striking at the arm holding the ax, and managed to bite into it with the sword before the momentum of Ox-Head’s swing thrust the sword away. There was a cut across Ox-Head’s arm, dripping ichor, but it was shallower than Alec might have thought. Still, it did the trick, as Clary executed a controlled roll behind Ox-Head’s legs, and with both hands struck out and slashed across each of his Achilles tendons.

Disengaging from Jace, Ox-Head roared a harsh, inhuman cry and twisted around to seek out Clary, but he was slow enough that Jace had time to right himself and approach for another blow. Alec whirled around and saw that Tian had waylaid Horse-Face, leaping and tumbling around him, using the much faster rope dart to prevent his enemy from successfully employing the chain whip. The adamas diamond moved in wide, slicing arcs and returned, again and again, wrapping around Tian’s body and then unwrapping just as quickly to strike. As he watched, the dart struck Horse-Face in the shoulder, and he jerked back with a raucous braying noise.

Meanwhile, Magnus was being kept busy with other demons. A flock of the many-headed birds had taken note of the fight and decided to join in, swooping down toward the combatants. With a grim set to his face, Magnus held out the sword like a magic wand; over and over, his eerie crimson magic crackled out from the tip of the sword to strike at the birds. They dodged and rolled, and occasionally took a hit, but Magnus was successfully keeping them at a distance, and that was good enough for now.

They were doing fairly well, Alec thought. Jace was using the spear to prevent Ox-Head from winding up for a real strike from his ax. Clary danced around to the side, looking for another opening. But then Ox-Head pulled back, and with a growl leaped backward, sailing through the air to land twenty feet away from the gathered Shadowhunters. He landed on one knee and, holding the ax in one hand, pressed his other fist against the ground. As Alec watched, the wound he’d struck on Ox-Head’s arm fizzed and foamed, and in a few seconds, it was totally healed.

“Uh-oh,” said Jace.

Alec glanced over and saw that Tian had discovered the same problem: Horse-Face’s shoulder injury was also gone, having disappeared as though it had never been inflicted at all.

“Can’t be defeated, huh?” he called out to Tian.

Tian looked grim. “Here, the ground itself heals them.”

“What do we do about that?” shouted Jace.

“Magnus!” Alec yelled. “Can you get them off the ground?”

“I’ll keep an eye on the others,” put in Tian, and he spun gracefully, letting the dart extend in a blinding silver flash toward one of the bird demons trying to harry them.

Magnus held White Impermanence in both hands and, with a look of great concentration, flung a wide beam of scarlet light at Ox-Head. Rather than being lifted into the air, though, Ox-Head stood his ground, and the magic flowed into him. He absorbed it, leering, and seemed to grow even taller and stronger before their eyes.

“Um,” said Magnus.

“We could use a little of that classic blue magic right about now,” said Clary. Magnus looked at her helplessly.

“Any other bright ideas?” Jace called to Tian.

Tian shook his head, wild-eyed. “Stall,” he suggested.

Ox-Head swung the ax over his head and brought it down toward Alec, who knocked it away with his sword. Clary flung her dagger, which embedded itself in Horse-Face’s chest, but he just yanked it out and threw it back. Clary spun to catch it by the hilt, glaring.