wanted to be a good daughter.
“When Chi Fu came to my village and called my father back to the army, I saw it as my chance. I decided to go to save my father, but at the same time…a small part of me wanted to escape.” She had never admitted that out loud before. “I wanted to prove that I could be more.”
“You are more,” Shang said, slowing down to speak with her. “I meant what I said earlier about you being a hero.” He faltered. “I learned something today. No matter whether you’re a girl or a demon or a ghost, you are my friend…Mulan.”
Mulan held her breath. Hearing him say her name—her real name—was strange, yet nice. Her heart lifted, and she warmed. “So you’re not going to discharge me?”
“No,” Shang said firmly. “A good soldier is hard to find. China needs you.”
“China needs both of us,” said Mulan. “Together.”
They stopped, suddenly approaching the break in the desert’s arid landscape. Just as Shang and ShiShi had promised, there was a wooden door planted at the middle of the desert.
Just a door. No walls, no tunnels, no path leading up to it. Mulan stepped around the door, but there was nothing behind it. The only promising sign was the bronze medallion of King Yama’s face nailed into the center of the door.
“There was a placard earlier,” Shang said. “Something about Youdu. We didn’t have time to dust it off and read it.”
Mulan swept the sand off Yama’s nose and teeth, revealing a small metal placard beneath the bronze cast. Etched onto the placard was the number ninety-seven.
“We’re back at the ninety-seventh level,” Mulan said, growing excited. “We are close.”
“Does it say anything else?”
Mulan rubbed the placard with her sleeve. “Nothing here. Wait.” She squinted, using the light emanating from Shang’s body to illuminate whatever had been carved on the door.
“Let me try,” said the captain, kneeling beside Mulan. His light glimmered against the placard. “It looks like a warning here. Do not enter.…”
“I can’t make out the rest. Something about pillar…fire, and Youdu.”
“Enough of this,” ShiShi said. “Youdu is this way. I’m certain of it. Open the door, Li Shang.”
Grabbing the latch hanging from King Yama’s bronze head, Shang pulled the door open. It swung to the side with a creak.
Steam hissed on the other side of the door. Mulan took a careful step into the new chamber, pressing the back of her hand to her mouth as she adjusted to the sweltering temperature.
Smoke thickened the air, and the heat prickled her skin. A draft of hot air skimmed the pebbles on the ground, sifting away the pale yellow sand on Mulan’s boots. Thick black dust quickly coated her clothes and shoes.
“This doesn’t look like the City of the Dead,” she said. The ground was black as coal, and when she kicked the dirt, it spilled off the sides of a steep slope. In every direction, clusters of tall, thin tube vents sprang from the ground, steam hissing from their chimneys.
They were on a mountain, she realized. No, a volcano, given the glassy streams of lava running down its sides. Smoke obscured the horizon, but Mulan could make out the flat peak not too far up.
At last, she saw the River of Hopelessness again. This time, its magical waters coursed in midair, a ribbon of black silk looping through the clouds—so high it intersected the volcano at its peak.
Yet as her eyes followed the river, she saw that the peak was the only place it flowed on land. On the side facing them, the river streamed lower, snaking over the sides of the mountain. Not too far ahead, in fact, it loomed so low that its width obscured her view of the sky. She could almost feel the spray of its icy waters on her face.
As they began their climb up the volcano, she was sure the earth wobbled. No, quaked.
Mulan and Shang exchanged a worried look.
The ground rumbled again. Mulan stumbled but caught her balance. She stole a glimpse over her shoulder, but she had a sinking feeling she knew what she would see.
Sure enough, the wooden door had vanished.
“It looks like that’s where we have to go,” said Shang grimly. He pointed at the volcano’s peak, where a black stone pillar stretched into the sky.
“Maybe that’s what the door was trying to tell us,” ShiShi said. “That has to be the way to Youdu.”
“I don’t know,” Shang said hesitantly. “I say we turn around.”
“We can’t,” said ShiShi,