needed to be careful. She started to ascend the stairs, keeping her head bowed humbly.
“And this one?” the ghost at the front of the line called, pointing at Mulan.
Yama waved his hand. Instantly, his demon guards prepared to jostle Mulan to the back of the line.
But Mulan was too fast. She jumped, balancing atop two demons’ spears, stepped onto one of the demon’s shoulders, and leapt onto King Yama’s dais.
She closed King Yama’s book and rested her palms on his desk. The ghosts and demons gasped at her audacity, but Mulan didn’t care. Now she had King Yama’s attention.
Mulan bowed her head as low as she could, unsure of the etiquette for addressing the ruler of the Underworld. She didn’t want to anger him further, but she had to make him listen. “Your Majesty, I know you are very busy, but my matter is urgent. I’m here to plead for the life of General Li’s son, Li Shang.”
King Yama raised a bushy eyebrow. “And you are?”
Mulan swallowed and lifted her hands off his desk. How was she to answer that? Even ShiShi didn’t know she was really a girl. Could King Yama, a god himself, see through her disguise?
“Fa P-Ping, sire.”
King Yama’s huffed. “Ping, you say?” He flipped through another enormous tome on his desk. “There is no record of a Fa Ping in my book.”
“That isn’t the point,” Mulan persisted. She regained her poise. “I need you to look into Li Shang’s case. Captain Li Shang, son of—”
“I know who he is,” King Yama said. “He suffers from a sword wound inflicted by Shan-Yu.” He glanced at an hourglass on his desk. Its streaming sands were inky black. “He’ll die in a few hours, when the sun rises.”
He turned a page absentmindedly. “As for you, Ping. Didn’t anyone warn you that no mortals are permitted in Diyu? Your presence here is forbidden. I will make note of your transgression so the guards can see to it that you return here as a proper ghost. Do you prefer death by burning or dismemberment?”
Mulan steeled herself. “I’m not here to intrude, Your Majesty. I’m here to bring Captain Li Shang back to the land of the living.”
At that, King Yama set down his quill and laughed. It was a terrible, terrible laugh that rebounded across the long chamber and silenced the ghosts’ whispering and gossiping. “Back to the land of the living? Ha! You’re a funny one, Ping, especially for someone who does not exist.”
“It’s not a joke,” said Mulan. “I’m here to bring Captain Li back. It is not yet his time to die.”
“And who are you to decide that?” King Yama’s amusement quickly shifted into anger. “Hundreds arrive in my realm every hour. I am the one who decides whether they stay in Diyu or whether they return to Earth or rise to Heaven. Do you know how much consideration goes into making such decisions? Do you know how difficult it is to decide whether someone should go to Heaven as a reward for his good behavior on Earth, or whether he should stay in Diyu to make amends for that one time he kicked a dog or had too much to drink? Or whether he should make those amends back on Earth in a new life? There is a schedule to keep, boy, and you are wasting my precious time.”
I can’t give up now, Mulan thought. Not after ShiShi and I came all this way.
She’d try a different tactic. “It sounds like a terrible burden,” she agreed, thinking fast. “But an important one. Perhaps I could help you. And in exchange for my help, you might…consider letting Li Shang go.”
“You think you, a mortal, can handle Diyu’s records?” King Yama swept his arm across a stack of loose pages. Mulan held up her hands, blocking the papers from smacking her face as Yama had intended. She caught several in her hand and placed them back on his desk.
For such a cantankerous deity, Yama had beautiful calligraphy. It helped ease her fear of him. He couldn’t be that terrible if all he did was sit behind a desk all day writing names into his book.
Don’t get your hopes up, Mulan.
“I apologize,” she said. “That was presumptuous of me. But…but if you look at hundreds every hour, maybe you’ve made a mistake here and there.”
King Yama’s nostrils flared. “A mistake?”
“Captain Li Shang was wounded saving me,” Mulan continued, before King Yama could protest further. “If not for me, he wouldn’t