Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 83

mule's jogging rump and his mule's nodding ears; and he smiled, but there
was a dread in him that only grew as they went on and down, towards Es
Toch.
Closer and closer they came, and the path widened into a road; they
saw huts, farms, houses. They saw few people, for it was cold and rainy,
keeping people indoors under a roof. The two wayfarers jogged on down
the lonely road through the rain. The third morning from the summit
dawned bright, and after they had ridden a couple of hours Falk halted his
mule, looking questioningly at Estrel.
"What is it, Falk?"
"We have come—this is Es Toch, isn't it?"
The land had leveled out all about them, though distant peaks closed
the horizon all around, and the pastures and plowlands they had been
riding through had given way to houses, houses and still more houses.
There were huts, cabins, shanties, tenements, inns, shops where goods
were made and bartered for, children everywhere, people on the highway,
people on side-roads, people, afoot, on horses and mules and sliders,
coming and going: it was crowded yet scanty, slack and busy, dirty, dreary
and vivid under the bright dark sky of morning in the mountains.
"It is a mile or more yet to Es Toch."
Then what is this city?"
"This is the outskirts of the city."
Falk stared about him, dismayed and excited. The road he had
followed so far from the house in the Eastern Forest had become a street,
leading only too quickly to its end. As they sat their mules in the middle of
the street people glanced at them, but none stayed and none spoke. The
women kept their faces averted. Only some of the ragged children stared,
or pointed shouting and then ran, vanishing up a filth-encumbered alley or
behind a shack. It was not what Falk had expected; yet what had he
expected? "I did not know there were so many people in the world," he
said at last. "They swarm about the Shing like flies on dung."
"Fly-maggots flourish in dung," Estrel said dryly. Then, glancing at
him, she reached across and put her hand lightly on his. "These are the
outcasts and the hangers-on, the rabble outside the walls. Let us go on to
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