One grave in every graveyard belongs to the ghouls. Wander any graveyard long enough and you will find it — waterstained and bulging, with cracked or broken stone, scraggly grass or rank weeds about it, and a feeling, when you reach it, of abandonment. It may be colder than the other gravestones, too, and the name on the stone is all too often impossible to read. If there is a statue on the grave it will be headless or so scabbed with fungus and lichens as to look like a fungus itself. If one grave in a graveyard looks like a target for petty vandals, that is the ghoul-gate. If the grave makes you want to be somewhere else, that is the ghoul-gate.
每片坟场中，都有一座属于食尸鬼的坟墓。在任何坟场，只要转悠的时间足够长，你就一定能发现它：一个坑坑洼洼的坟包，一块破破烂烂的墓碑，四周肆意生长的凌乱杂草，还散发着一种气息，你靠近时就会感觉到——一种遗弃的气息。食尸鬼的坟墓比别的墓还要冷一些，墓碑上的名字也常常无法看清。如果坟墓上有雕像，那肯定没了脑袋，还覆满蘑菇和苔藓，使得这雕像本身也像个大蘑菇；如果坟场中有座坟墓像是遭受过恶意破坏，那它就是食尸鬼之门；如果有座坟墓让你一心想离它远远的，那它就是食尸鬼之门。
Bod had been upset by this when he had first learned about it. He was no longer upset. He was furious.
第一次听到这个消息时，伯蒂很沮丧。现在他不沮丧了，他很恼火。
There was one in Bod’s graveyard.
伯蒂所在的坟场就有一座。
“But why?” said Bod.
“为什么啊？”
“I told you. I need to obtain some information. In order to do that, I have to travel. To travel, I must leave here. We have already been over all this.”
“我和你说过。我需要去调查一些信息，为此我需要远行。为了远行，我必须离开这儿。这事我们早就讲过了。”
There is one in every graveyard.
每片坟场里都有一座。
Silas was leaving.
赛拉斯要走了。
His guardian was unperturbed. “It is neither fair nor unfair, Nobody Owens. It simply is.”
赛拉斯一脸淡定。“诺伯蒂·欧文斯，这无关乎公平不公平，现实就是如此。”
“What’s so important that you have to go away?” Bod’s six-year-old mind tried to imagine something that could make Silas want to leave him, and failed. “It’s not fair.”
“有什么事那么重要，让你非得离开这里？”伯蒂六岁的小脑瓜拼命地转啊转，可就是想不出什么天大的事能让赛拉斯动了要离开他的念头。“这不公平。”
“As your guardian I have responsibility for you, yes. Fortunately, I am not the only individual in the world willing to take on this responsibility.”
“作为监护人我是对你负有责任，可幸运的是，这个世界上想承担这份责任的不止我一个。”
“Where are you going anyway?”
“你要去哪里啊？”
Bod was not impressed. “You’re meant to look after me. You said.”
伯蒂听不进去。“你说过要照顾我的，你说过的。”
On the northwestern side of the graveyard things had become very overgrown and tangled, far beyond the ability of the groundskeeper or the Friends of the Graveyard to tame, and he ambled over there, and woke a family of Victorian children who had all died before their tenth birthdays, and they played at hide-and-go-seek in the moonlight in the ivy-twined jungle.
坟场的西北侧，肆意生长的植物盘绕缠结，早已令坟场管理员和坟场之友组织招架不住。伯蒂走到了这块地方，叫醒了维多利亚时代的一家人的几个孩子，和他们一起在月光下的常春藤密林中玩捉迷藏。这几个孩子在十岁生日前就去世了。
“Out. Away. There are things I need to uncover that I cannot uncover here.”
“外面，远方，我要去揭开一些事，但我现在不能说出来。”
Bod snorted and walked off, kicking at imaginary stones.
伯蒂哼了一声，转身离开，踢着地上并不存在的石子。
Bod tried to pretend that Silas was not leaving, that nothing was going to change, but when the game was done and he ran back to the old chapel, he saw two things that changed his mind.
伯蒂试图自我欺骗：赛拉斯不会走，什么都不会变。可当他玩完捉迷藏跑回老教堂时，他看到了两样东西。这两样东西让他不得不接受现实。
That was the first thing.
这是第一样东西。
The first thing he saw was a bag. It was, Bod knew the moment he laid eyes on it, Silas’s bag. It was at least a hundred and fifty years old, a thing of beauty, black leather with brass fittings and a black handle, the kind of bag a Victorian doctor or undertaker might have carried, containing every implement that might have been needed. Bod had never seen Silas’s bag before, he had not even known that Silas had a bag, but it was the sort of bag that could only have belonged to Silas. Bod tried to peek inside it, but it was closed with a large brass padlock. It was too heavy for him to lift.
第一样东西是个皮箱，伯蒂一看就知道这属于赛拉斯。皮箱由漂亮的黑色皮革制成，带有黄色配件和黑色提手，至少有一百五十年的历史。维多利亚时期的医生或殡葬承办人经常随身携带这种皮箱，里头的工具一应俱全。伯蒂从没见过赛拉斯的皮箱，他甚至不知道赛拉斯有个皮箱，但这样的皮箱只可能属于赛拉斯。伯蒂试着往皮箱里窥探，可皮箱被一把硕大的黄铜锁锁得严严实实。他又试着把皮箱提起来，可太重了，他提不动。
“Bod,” said Silas. “This is Miss Lupescu.”
“伯蒂。”赛拉斯说，“这是卢佩斯库小姐。”
The second thing was sitting on the bench by the chapel.
第二样东西坐在教堂边的长凳上。
“How do you do, Miss Lupescu?” said Bod.
“你好，卢佩斯库小姐。”伯蒂说。
Miss Lupescu was not pretty. Her face was pinched and her expression was disapproving. Her hair was grey, although her face seemed too young for grey hair. Her front teeth were slightly crooked. She wore a bulky mackintosh and a man’s tie around her neck.
卢佩斯库小姐并不漂亮。她的脸苍白清瘦，看上去闷闷不乐，灰色的头发和年轻的脸庞有些违和，前牙不太整齐。她穿着笨重的胶布雨衣，系着一条男士领带。
Miss Lupescu said nothing. She sniffed. Then she looked at Silas and said, “So. This is the boy.” She got up from her seat and walked all around Bod, nostrils flared, as if she were sniffing him. When she had made a complete circuit, she said, “You will report to me on waking, and before you go to sleep. I have rented a room in a house over there.” She pointed to a roof just visible from where they stood. “However, I shall spend my time in this graveyard. I am here as a historian, researching the history of old graves. You understand, boy? Da?”
卢佩斯库小姐没说话。她闻了闻伯蒂，接着对赛拉斯说：“所以说，这就是那个孩子。”她从椅子上站起来，开始围着伯蒂转，鼻孔张开，像是在嗅他的气味。转完一圈后，她对伯蒂说：“你每天早上醒来以及晚上睡觉前都要来向我汇报。我在那边的那座房子里租了一个房间。”她指向一栋只露出屋顶的房子，“不过，我平日都会待在这片坟场。我是一名历史学家，研究古墓的历史。听明白了吗，孩子？”
“Short for Nobody,” she said. “A foolish name. Also, Bod is a pet name. A nickname. I do not approve. I will call you ‘boy.’ You will call me ‘Miss Lupescu.'”
“伯蒂…愚蠢的名字。伯蒂是个昵称，是个绰号，我不认可。我叫你‘孩子’，而你要叫我‘卢佩斯库小姐’。”
“That,” said Silas, “was a very rude thing to say. I think you should apologize, don’t you?”
“你这么说可太失礼了。”赛拉斯说，“我想你应该道歉，对不对？”
“We won’t!” said Bod. “She’s horrible!”
“怎么可能！”伯蒂大叫，“她太讨人厌了！”
Bod looked up at Silas, pleadingly, but there was no sympathy on Silas’s face. He picked up his bag and said, “You will be in good hands with Miss Lupescu, Bod. I am sure that the two of you will get on.”
伯蒂抬头眼巴巴地望着赛拉斯，可赛拉斯脸上没有丝毫同情。他拿起皮箱，说：“卢佩斯库小姐会照顾好你，伯蒂，我相信你们俩会相处得很愉快。”
“Bod,” said Bod. “It’s Bod. Not boy.”
“伯蒂。我叫伯蒂，不叫孩子。”
Bod didn’t, but Silas was looking at him and Silas was carrying his black bag, and about to leave for no one knew how long, so he said, “I’m sorry, Miss Lupescu.”
伯蒂不肯，可赛拉斯看着他，手里还抓着他的黑色皮箱，即将去一个不知有多遥远的地方。伯蒂只好说：“对不起，卢佩斯库小姐。”
At first she said nothing in reply. She merely sniffed. Then she said, “I have come a long way to look after you, boy. I hope you are worth it.”
卢佩斯库小姐没有当即回应。她又嗅了嗅，接着说：“我从很远的地方过来照顾你，孩子，我希望你值得我这么做。”
Bod could not imagine hugging Silas, so he held out his hand and Silas bent over and gently shook it, engulfing Bod’s small, grubby hand with his huge, pale one. Then, lifting his black leather bag as if it were weightless, he walked down the path and out of the graveyard.
拥抱赛拉斯是伯蒂无法想象的，于是他伸出一只手。赛拉斯弯下腰，用自己苍白的大手轻柔地握了握伯蒂脏兮兮的小手，然后轻松地拎起自己的黑色皮箱，沿着小路走出坟场，仿佛他的皮箱轻如无物。
“Silas has gone,” he said.
“赛拉斯走了。”
Bod told his parents about it.
伯蒂把这事告诉了父母。
“He’ll be back,” said Mr. Owens, cheerfully. “Don’t you worry your head about that, Bod. Like a bad penny, as they say.”
“他会回来的。”欧文斯先生乐呵呵地说，“伯蒂，你就别担心了。讨厌的事就像一枚假便士，总会遇到的。”
Silas had brought Bod food, true, and left it in the crypt each night for him to eat, but this was, as far as Bod was concerned, the least of the things that Silas did for him. He gave advice, cool, sensible, and unfailingly correct; he knew more than the graveyard folk did, for his nightly excursions into the world outside meant that he was able to describe a world that was current, not hundreds of years out of date; he was unflappable and dependable, had been there every night of Bod’s life, so the idea of the little chapel without its only inhabitant was one that Bod found difficult to conceive of; most of all, he made Bod feel safe.
赛拉斯的确会为伯蒂带吃的，他每晚会把食物放在教堂的地下室里，可在伯蒂看来，这在赛拉斯为他做的所有事之中是那么不足挂齿。赛拉斯会为他提供建议——冷静、理智、万无一失的建议。他所知的比坟场居民要多得多，因为他每夜都要到外面的世界去，所以他能为伯蒂描述当前的世界，而不是几百年前早已过时的世界。他处变不惊，十分可靠，在伯蒂从小到大的每一夜都未曾缺席。因此一想到小教堂里要空了，伯蒂感到难以接受。最重要的是，赛拉斯能给他安全感。
Mrs. Owens said, “Back when you were born he promised us that if he had to leave, he would find someone else to bring you food and keep an eye on you, and he has. He’s so reliable.”
欧文斯太太说：“当你刚来时，他向我们保证：如果他有事要离开的话，就一定会找另一个人来给你带食物，把你照顾好。他说到做到，真是太可靠了。”
“What is that?” asked Bod, horrified.
“这是什么？”伯蒂很惊恐。
“Good food,” said Miss Lupescu. They were in the crypt. She had put two plastic containers on the tabletop, and opened the lids. She pointed to the first: “Is beetroot-barley-stew-soup.” She pointed to the second. “Is salad. Now, you eat both. I make them for you.”
“健康的食物。”卢佩斯库小姐说。他们正在教堂的地下室，卢佩斯库小姐往桌上放了两个塑料盒，打开了第一个盒子的盖子。“这是甜菜大麦羹。”她又指向第二个盒子，“这是沙拉。你把这俩都吃了，这些是我为你做的。”
Bod was hungry. He took a plastic spoon, dipped it into the purple-red stew, and he ate. The food was slimy and unfamiliar, but he kept it down.
伯蒂很饿，他拿起塑料勺，舀了一勺紫红色的羹，送进嘴里。黏糊糊的口感，不熟悉的味道，但他还是咽了下去。
Bod stared up at her to see if this was a joke. Food from Silas mostly came in packets, purchased from the kind of places that sold food late at night and asked no questions. No one had ever brought him food in a plastic container with a lid before. “It smells horrible,” he said.
伯蒂盯着她的脸，确认她不是在开玩笑。赛拉斯带来的食物通常是袋装食品，买自那些深夜售卖且不提问题的地方。从来没人给他带过装在有盖塑料盒子里的食物。“好难闻啊。”伯蒂说。
Miss Lupescu also saw her job as more than bringing Bod food. She did that too, though.
卢佩斯库小姐同样认为，自己的职责远不止给伯蒂带吃的，当然，吃的她也带来了。
“Now the salad!” said Miss Lupescu, and she unpopped the top of the second container. It consisted of large lumps of raw onion, beetroot, and tomato, all in a thick vinegary dressing. Bod put a lump of beetroot into his mouth and started to chew. He could feel the saliva gathering, and realized that if he swallowed it, he would throw it back up. He said, “I can’t eat this.”
“还有沙拉！”卢佩斯库小姐打开第二个盒子的盖子。盒子里装着大块的生洋葱、甜菜和西红柿，浇了一层浓稠的酸味沙拉酱。伯蒂往嘴里放了一块甜菜，嚼了嚼。嘴里的唾沫越来越多，他意识到如果把这东西吞下去他会立马吐出来。“这我吃不了。”
“If you do not eat the stew-soup soon,” she said, “it will be more horrible. It will be cold. Now eat.”
卢佩斯库小姐说：“如果你不快点吃，它会冷掉，变得更难闻。快吃。”
They stared at each other, the small boy with tousled, mousy hair, the pinched pale woman with not a silver hair out of place.
两人大眼瞪小眼，一个是灰发乱蓬蓬的小男孩，另一个是银发一丝不乱、清瘦且苍白的女人。
“Is good for you.”
“这对你的身体好。”
Miss Lupescu said, “You eat one more piece.”
卢佩斯库小姐败下阵来：“你再吃一口。”
“I can’t.”
“不要。”
Bod picked out a piece of vinegary tomato, chewed it, and choked it down. Miss Lupescu put the tops back on the containers and replaced them in the plastic shopping bag. She said, “Now, lessons.”
伯蒂挑了一块酸溜溜的番茄，嚼了几口，吞了下去。卢佩斯库小姐盖好盖子，把两个塑料盒放进塑料购物袋。“现在开始上课。”
“I have teachers. Letitia Borrows teaches me writing and words, and Mr. Pennyworth teaches me his Compleat Educational System for Younger Gentlemen with Additional Material for Those Post Mortem. I do geography and everything. I don’t need more lessons.”
“我有老师，利蒂希娅·伯萝丝教我书写和词汇，彭尼沃斯先生教我他自创的年轻绅士完全教育系统（含为死者准备的附加材料），我自学了地理和别的知识。我不需要再上课了。”
“Lessons?” he said.
“上课？”
It was high summer. It would not get fully dark until almost midnight. There were no lessons in high summer — the time that Bod spent awake he spent in an endless warm twilight in which he would play or explore or climb.
如今正值仲夏，天色接近半夜才会完全黑下来。以前仲夏是不上课的，伯蒂会在无尽的温暖黄昏中尽情玩耍、探索、爬上爬下。
“Your guardian felt it would be good for me to teach you things.”
“你的监护人觉得我最好教你一些知识。”
“I’ll be sick.”
“我会吐的。”
“You eat one more piece now, or you stay here until you have eaten it all.”
“你再吃一口，不然你就得把这些全部吃光。”
“I,” she said sternly, “am Miss Lupescu.”
“我，”卢佩斯库小姐严肃地说，“我是卢佩斯库小姐。”
“What are you?” asked Bod.
“你是哪种？”伯蒂问。
Bod thought for a moment. “The living,” he said. “Er. The dead.” He stopped. Then, “… Cats?” he offered, uncertainly.
伯蒂想了想，说：“活人，呃，死人，”他顿了顿，又蒙了一个，“猫？”
“Name the different kinds of people,” said Miss Lupescu. “Now.”
“列举不同种类的人。现在。”
“You know everything, then, boy? Six years old, and already you know everything.”
“孩子，也就是说你什么都知道？你才六岁，就什么都知道了。”
“And that is all you know? Da? Why do you keep away from them? Where do they come from? Where do they go? Why do you not stand near a ghoul-gate? Eh, boy?”
“这就完了，孩子？为什么你要远离他们？他们从哪里来？要到哪里去？为什么你不能靠近食尸鬼之门？说说看，孩子。”
Miss Lupescu folded her arms. “Tell me about ghouls,” she said.
卢佩斯库小姐抱起双臂。“给我讲讲食尸鬼。”
Bod tried to remember what Silas had told him about ghouls over the years. “Keep away from them,” he said.
伯蒂努力回忆这些年来赛拉斯给他讲的关于食尸鬼的事。“远离他们。”他说。
“You are ignorant, boy,” said Miss Lupescu. “This is bad. And you are content to be ignorant, which is worse. Repeat after me, there are the living and the dead, there are day-folk and night-folk, there are ghouls and mist-walkers, there are the high hunters and the Hounds of God. Also, there are solitary types.”
“你很无知，孩子。”卢佩斯库小姐说，“这很糟糕，而且你满足于自己的无知，这更糟糕。跟着我念，这个世界上有活人和死人，日行者和夜行者，食尸鬼和踏雾者，还有高空猎手和上帝之犬，此外还有独行者。”
Bod shrugged and shook his head.
伯蒂耸了耸肩，摇了摇头。
“I didn’t say that.”
“我没那么说。”
She hesitated. Then she said, “He is a solitary type.”
她迟疑了一会儿，说：“他是个独行者。”
The week got worse.
这一周的情况越来越糟。
When the lesson was done, in the foulest of moods, he fled. He looked for playmates, but found no one and saw nothing but a large grey dog, which prowled the gravestones, always keeping its distance from him, slipping between gravestones and through shadows.
上完课后，心情糟透了的伯蒂飞一般地跑了出去，想找几个玩伴，却一个也没找到，只看到一只潜行的灰色大狗。灰色大狗在墓碑间和阴影中穿梭，一直和他保持一段距离。
Bod endured the lesson. When Silas taught him things it was interesting. Much of the time Bod didn’t realize he had been taught anything at all. Miss Lupescu taught in lists, and Bod could not see the point to it. He sat in the crypt, aching to be out in the summer’s twilight, under the ghost moon.
伯蒂感到这堂课无比难熬。赛拉斯教他东西时很有趣，很多时候伯蒂根本没意识到他在教他。而卢佩斯库小姐照着清单教学，伯蒂不知其意义何在。他坐在地下室里，渴望到外面去，到夏日的黄昏中，到清幽的月光下。
Miss Lupescu continued to bring Bod things she had cooked for him: dumplings swimming in lard; thick reddish-purple soup with a lump of sour cream in it; small, cold boiled potatoes; cold garlic-heavy sausages; hardboiled eggs in a grey unappetizing liquid. He ate as little as he could get away with. The lessons continued: for two days she taught him nothing but ways to call for help in every language in the world, and she would rap his knuckles with her pen if he slipped up, or forgot. By the third day she was firing them at him,
卢佩斯库小姐继续给伯蒂带自己做的食物：浸着猪油的馄饨、浇着一块酸奶油的浓稠紫红汤、煮熟后冷掉的小土豆、大蒜味刺鼻的冷小肠、泡在灰不溜秋、令人食欲尽失的液体里的煮过了头的鸡蛋。能少吃多少，伯蒂就少吃多少，绝不多吃一口。课程继续。头两天卢佩斯库小姐没教别的，只教了他怎么用世界上的各种语言呼救。一旦伯蒂说错了或忘记了，指关节就要挨上一记钢笔的重击。第三天，测验像开火一样向伯蒂袭来。
“And what’s Silas?”
“赛拉斯呢？”
Her mouth pinched in tighter. All she said was, “Night-Gaunt?”
卢佩斯库小姐的嘴抿得更紧了。“夜靥？”
“For today. You will read the list I give you tonight and remember it for tomorrow.”
“上完了。今晚你要阅读我给你的清单，背下来，明天检查。”
He said, “There’s a big grey dog in the graveyard sometimes. It came when you did. Is it your dog?”
伯蒂恨不得赛拉斯马上就能回来。他问：“最近我老是在坟场看到一条灰色大狗，你来了后它就来了，那是你的狗吗？”
“They have hairless wings, and they fly low and fast. They do not visit this world, but they fly the red skies above the road to Ghûlheim.”
“他们长着没有毛的翅膀，在低空飞行，飞得很快。他们不会到访这个世界，但他们会在前往戈莱姆途中的红色天空中翱翔。”
Miss Lupescu straightened her tie. “No,” she said.
卢佩斯库小姐拉直自己的领带，说：“不是。”
“This is stupid. I don’t remember what a night-gaunt is.”
“这真是太傻了，我不记得夜靥是什么了。”
“French?”
“法语？”
Bod made the noise in the back of his throat that she had taught him — a guttural cry, like an eagle’s call. She sniffed. “Adequate,” she said.
伯蒂照她所教，从喉咙深处发出了夜靥的求救声——像是老鹰的叫声。
“Au secours.”
“Au secours。”
“I’m never going to need to know this.”
“我一辈子也不需要知道这个。”
Bod could not wait until the day that Silas returned.
卢佩斯库小姐轻哼一声：“凑合。”
“Night-Gaunt?”
“夜靥？”
“S-O-S. Three short dots, three long ones, three short ones again.”
“SOS，三小点，三长点，再三小点。”
“Are we done?”
“今天的课上完了吗？”
Miss Lupescu’s lists were printed in pale purple ink on white paper, and they smelled odd. Bod took the new list up onto the side of the hill and tried to read the words, but his attention kept sliding off it. Eventually he folded it up and placed it beneath a stone.
清单用淡紫色的墨水在白纸上写成，散发着一股陈旧的味道。伯蒂带着新清单爬到山坡上，努力背诵上面的那些单词，但怎么也无法专注。他索性把清单叠起来，放在一块石头下。
“Morse Code?”
“莫尔斯电码？”
No one would play with him that night. No one wanted to play or to talk, to run and climb beneath the huge summer moon.
那一夜没人陪他玩。在硕大的夏日圆月下，没人想玩耍、聊天、奔跑或攀爬。
He went down to the Owenses’ tomb to complain to his parents, but Mrs. Owens would not hear a word said against Miss Lupescu, on, as far as Bod was concerned, the unfair grounds that Silas had chosen her, while Mr. Owens simply shrugged and started telling Bod about his days as a young apprentice cabinetmaker, and how much he would have loved to have learned about all the useful things that Bod was learning, which was, as far as Bod was concerned, even worse.
伯蒂来到欧文斯夫妇的坟墓，向他们抱怨，可欧文斯太太听不得一句关于卢佩斯库小姐的坏话，就因为她是赛拉斯选的人。而欧文斯先生只是耸了耸肩，给伯蒂讲了自己还是个家具木工小学徒时的故事，还说伯蒂在学的东西那么有用，他巴不得也全学了。伯蒂听了后，心情更糟糕了。
“Aren’t you meant to be studying, anyway?” asked Mrs. Owens, and Bod squeezed his fists together and said nothing.
“还有，现在不该是你学习的时间吗？”欧文斯太太说。伯蒂捏紧拳头，一言不发。
He stomped off into the graveyard, feeling unloved and underappreciated.
他迈着重重的步子，气鼓鼓地离开坟场，感觉没人爱他，没人喜欢他。
Bod brooded on the injustice of it all, and wandered through the graveyard kicking at stones. He spotted the dark grey dog, and called to it to see if it would come over and play with him, but it kept its distance, and Bod, frustrated, threw a clump of mud towards it, which broke on a nearby gravestone, and scattered earth everywhere. The big dog gazed at Bod reproachfully, then stepped away into the shadows, and was gone.
这一切都太不公平了。伯蒂一路走，一路踢石子。他又看见了那只灰色大狗，便叫唤它，看它会不会过来和自己玩，可灰色大狗一直与他保持距离。伯蒂很气恼，抓起一块泥巴就扔了过去。泥巴砸到了边上的一块墓碑，溅得到处都是。大狗盯着伯蒂，眼神像是在叱责他，随后它步入阴影，消失了。
Down the street and up the hill came the Duke of Westminster, the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells, slipping and bounding from shadow to shadow, lean and leathery, all sinews and cartilage, wearing raggedy clothes all a-tatter, and they bounded and loped and skulked, leapfrogging over dustbins, keeping to the dark side of hedges.
上山的路上，威斯敏斯特公爵、尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休以及拜斯和维尔斯主教正在阴影间跳动穿行。三人筋干巴瘦，皮肤粗糙，衣衫褴褛。他们一直靠着树篱的背光侧前行，跃过一个又一个垃圾桶，时而轻快弹跳，时而大步慢跑，时而鬼鬼祟祟。
The boy walked back down the southwest side of the hill, avoiding the old chapel: he did not want to see the place that Silas wasn’t. Bod stopped beside a grave that looked the way he felt: it was beneath an oak that had once been struck by lightning, and now was just a black trunk, like a sharp talon coming out of the hill; the grave itself was waterstained and cracked, and above it was a memorial stone on which a headless angel hung, its robes looking like a huge and ugly tree-fungus.
伯蒂沿西南方向走下山，避开了老教堂，他不想见到没有赛拉斯的老教堂。他在一座感觉和他一样糟糕的坟墓旁停下：坟头上有棵橡树，曾挨过雷劈，只剩一节焦黑的树干，如同破山而出的锋利魔爪。坟墓污迹斑斑，布满裂痕。墓上有块纪念碑，碑上立着一尊无头天使像，天使的长袍就像一朵又大又丑的蘑菇。
Bod sat down on a clump of grass, and felt sorry for himself, and hated everybody. He even hated Silas, for going away and leaving him. Then he closed his eyes, and curled into a ball on the grass, and drifted into a dreamless sleep.
伯蒂坐在一堆草上，觉得自己很可怜。他恨所有人，连赛拉斯也恨，恨他离自己而去。他闭上眼睛，在草丛上蜷成一团，陷入无梦的睡眠。
“Where? I dunno. Somewhere around here. Doesn’t smell like a proper dog anyway,” said the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
“哪儿我说不准，但就在这附近，闻起来不像只普通的狗。”拜斯和维尔斯主教说。
They were small, like full-size people who had shrunk in the sun; they spoke to each other in undertones, saying things like, “If Your Grace has any more blooming idea of where we is than us do, I’d be grateful if he’d say so. Otherwise, he should keep his big offal-hole shut,” and “All I’m saying, Your Worship, is that I knows there’s a graveyard near to here, I can smell it,” and “If you could smell it then I should be able to smell it, ‘cos I’ve got a better nose than you have, Your Grace.”
他们个头很小，如同正常体型的缩水版。此时他们正在低声交谈，比方说——“如果阁下比我们更清楚我们所处的位置，恳请您说出来，否则，请闭上你的大嘴巴。”还有——“阁下，我是说，这附近有一座坟场，我闻得出来。”还有——“你要是闻得到，那我也应该闻得到，因为我的鼻子比你灵，阁下。”
All this as they dodged and wove their way through suburban gardens. They avoided one garden (“Psst!” hissed the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh. “Dogs!”) and ran along the top of the garden wall, scampering over it like rats the size of children. Down into the high street, and up the road to the top of the hill. And then they were at the graveyard wall, and they went up it like squirrels up a tree, and they sniffed the air.
他们在郊外的花园里躲躲闪闪，迂回前行，避开了一座花园（“嘘！”尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休倒吸了口气，“好多狗！”），在花园墙顶上飞奔，然后跳了下去，动作活像孩子般大小的一群老鼠。他们沿着路向山上进发，来到坟场的围墙边，像松鼠上树一样矫健地翻过围墙，嗅了嗅空气。
“‘Ware dog,” said the Duke of Westminster.
“小心狗。”威斯敏斯特公爵说。
And beside the gate, in the moonlight, they paused.
月光下，食尸鬼之门边，他们停了下来。
“… and this is the Bishop of Bath and Wells –“
“这位是拜斯和维尔斯主教。”
“What’s this when it’s at home, then?” asked the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
“这是谁在我们家门口？”拜斯和维尔斯主教问。
The biggest of the creatures gave a bow, saying, “Charmed, I’m sure.”
最大的生物鞠了一躬，说：“非常荣幸。”
“We,” said one of the creatures — they were, Bod realized, only a little bigger than he was –“is most important folk, we is. This here is the Duke of Westminster.”
“我们…”其中一个生物一开口，伯蒂就意识到他们只比自己大一点儿。“我们是位尊权贵的人物。这位是威斯敏斯特公爵。”
The three faces staring into his could have been those of mummified humans, fleshless and dried, but their features were mobile and interested — mouths that grinned to reveal sharp, stained teeth; bright beady eyes; clawed fingers that moved and tapped.
盯着他看的三张脸就像木乃伊，干巴巴的，毫无血肉，可五官非常灵活有趣：嘴巴咧开，露出脏兮兮的锋利牙齿，眼睛闪亮亮圆溜溜的，爪子般的手在轻轻敲打。
“Somebody couldn’t smell this graveyard neither,” said the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh. “Remember? It’s just a dog.”
“你们忘了吗？有人连这片坟场的味儿都闻不出，”尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休说，“更何况一条狗。”
“Who are you?” Bod asked.
“你们是谁？”伯蒂问。
The three of them leapt down from the wall to the ground, and they ran, using their arms as much as their legs to propel themselves through the graveyard, to the ghoul-gate by the lightning tree.
三人从围墙上一跃而下，手脚并用，朝着坟场里那棵雷劈树边的食尸鬼之门飞速前行。
“Lumme,” said the Duke of Westminster.
“哎呀。”威斯敏斯特公爵说。
Bod woke then.
伯蒂醒了过来。
“Blow me down,” said the Duke of Westminster, scratching his nose (a little dried-up thing that was mostly nostrils). “What you need is to go somewhere the people would appreciate you.”
“听得我都要哭了。”威斯敏斯特公爵边说边抓了抓鼻子（他的鼻子几乎全干了，只剩下俩鼻孔），“你所需要的是去一个大家都喜欢你的地方。”
The three creatures bowed as one.
三个生物同时鞠躬。
The Bishop of Bath and Wells said, “Now me lad, what’s your story, eh? And don’t tell any porkies, remember as how you’re talkin’ to a bishop.”
拜斯和维尔斯主教说：“小家伙，该说说你的故事了。别打着撒谎的鬼主意，别忘了你正在对一个主教说话。”
So Bod told them. He told them how no one liked him or wanted to play with him, how no one appreciated him or cared, and how even his guardian had abandoned him.
于是伯蒂就讲了自己的故事。他告诉他们，没人喜欢他，没人愿意和他玩，没人照顾他，连他的监护人也抛弃了他。
“You tell him, Your Worship,” said the other two.
“告诉主教，这是你的荣幸。”另两个生物说。
“There isn’t anywhere,” said Bod. “And I’m not allowed out of the graveyard.”
“没有那样的地方，”伯蒂说，“而且他们不准我离开坟场。”
The creature, which grinned sharp teeth and let a pointed tongue of improbable length waggle between them, did not look like Bod’s idea of a bishop: its skin was piebald and it had a large spot across one eye, making it look almost piratical. “… and I ‘ave the honor to be ther ‘onorable Harchibald Fitzhugh. Hat your service.”
另一个生物咧嘴一笑，露出锋利的牙齿，还伸出长得不可思议的舌头上下摆动，跟伯蒂心目中主教的形象天差地别：他的皮肤上布满斑斑点点，其中有一大块斑点跨过一只眼睛，让他看起来像个海盗。“而我，是尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休。愿为你效劳。”
“You needs an ‘ole world of friends and playfellows,” said the Bishop of Bath and Wells, wiggling his long tongue. “A city of delights, of fun and magic, where you would be appreciated, not ignored.”
“你需要一个满是朋友和玩伴的世界。”拜斯和维尔斯主教晃动他的长舌，“一座快乐和魔法之城，在那里你会受到大家的喜爱，绝不会被忽视。”
Bod said, “The lady who’s looking after me. She makes horrible food. Hard-boiled egg soup and things.”
伯蒂说：“有位照顾我的女士，她做的食物可难吃了，比如煮过头的鸡蛋汤之类的。”
“Can I come with you?” asked Bod.
“我能和你们一起去吗？”伯蒂问。
“So. You game for adventure?” asked the Duke of Westminster, won over by the novel idea. “Or do you want to waste the rest of your life here?” and with bony fingers he indicated the graveyard and the night.
“所以说，你是要来一场冒险呢？”威斯敏斯特公爵被这个新奇的主意征服了，“还是在这个无趣又无爱的地方浪费掉余生呢？”他用瘦骨嶙峋的手指指了指夜色中的坟场。
“Come with us?” said the Duke of Westminster. He sounded shocked.
“和我们一起？”威斯敏斯特公爵吓了一跳。
“Don’t be like that, Yer Grace,” said the Bishop of Bath and Wells. “‘Ave a blinking ‘eart. Look at the little mite. ‘Asn’t ‘ad a decent meal in ‘e don’t know ‘ow long.”
“不必如此失态，阁下。”拜斯和维尔斯主教说，“要心怀仁慈。瞧瞧这个小东西，都不知多久没吃上一顿像样的饭了。”
“Food!” said the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh. “Where we’re going the food’s the best in the whole world. Makes me tum rumble and me mouf water just thinking about it.”
“食物！”尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休说，“我们要去的地方有天底下最美味的食物，光想想，我的肚子就开始咕咕叫，口水就开始哗哗流。”
Bod thought of Miss Lupescu and her awful food and her lists and her pinched mouth.
伯蒂想了想卢佩斯库小姐，想了想她做的难以下咽的食物、她给的学习清单还有她总是抿紧的嘴唇。
“I vote to take him,” said the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh. “There’s good grub back at our place.” He patted his stomach to show just how good the food was.
“我同意带他去。”尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休说，“我们那儿有好吃的。”他拍了拍肚子，以示那里的食物有多棒。
“I’m game,” he said.
“我选冒险！”
His three new friends might have been his size, but they were far stronger than any child, and Bod found himself picked up by the Bishop of Bath and Wells and held high above the creature’s head, while the Duke of Westminster grabbed a handful of mangy-looking grass, shouted what sounded like “Skagh! Thegh! Khavagah!” and pulled. The stone slab that covered the grave swung open like a trapdoor, revealing a darkness beneath.
他的三个新朋友体型和他差不多，却远比任何孩子都要强壮。拜斯和维尔斯主教抱起伯蒂，托过头顶，而威斯敏斯特公爵则抓起一把乌七八糟的草，嘴里念念有词，听起来像是：“Skagh！Thgh！Khavagah！”念完那一刹，他把草一拔，盖住坟墓的石板像活动门一样应声打开，露出黑黢黢的内部。
The sky was red, but not the warm red of a sunset. This was an angry, glowering red, the color of an infected wound. The sun was small and seemed like it was old and distant. The air was cold and they were descending a wall. Tombstones and statues jutted out of the side of the wall, as if a huge graveyard had been upended, and, like three wizened chimpanzees in tattered black suits that did up in the back, the Duke of Westminster, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh were swinging from statue to stone, dangling Bod between them as they went, tossing him from one to another, never missing him, always catching him with ease, without even looking.
天空是红色的，但不是日落时那种温暖的红色，而是怒不可遏、咄咄逼人的红色，就像受感染的伤口。太阳很小，似乎已至迟暮之年，遥不可及。空气寒冷彻骨。他们降落在一面墙上，墙的侧面立着一块块墓碑和雕像，仿佛一片旋转了九十度的巨大坟场。威斯敏斯特公爵、拜斯和维尔斯主教和尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休活像身穿黑西装的三只干瘦的黑猩猩，黑西装破破烂烂，正面和背面还穿倒了。他们从这尊雕像荡到那座墓碑，把伯蒂抛过去，接过来，轻轻松松，从未失手，连看都不用看。
Bod fell, tumbling through the darkness like a lump of marble, too startled to be scared, wondering how deep the hole beneath that grave could possibly be, when two strong hands caught him beneath the armpits and he found himself swinging forward through the pitch-blackness.
伯蒂像一块大理石般跌入黑暗，不断向下坠落。他震惊得忘了害怕，不知道这个坟墓下的洞到底有多深。就在这时，两只有力的大手托住了他的胳肢窝，带着他在一片漆黑中晃荡前行。
“Quick now,” said the duke, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells tossed Bod into the dark opening, then leapt in after him, followed by the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh and then, with one agile bound, by the Duke of Westminster, who, as soon as he was inside, called out, “Wegh Khârados!” to close the ghoul-gate, and the stone crashed down above them.
“快点啊。”威斯敏斯特公爵说。拜斯和维尔斯主教把伯蒂扔进黑暗的入口，自己跟着跳了进去，其后是尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休。威斯敏斯特公爵敏捷地一跃，也跳了进来。一到里面，他立刻喊起关闭食尸鬼之门的咒语：“Wegh Kharados！”头顶上的门砰的一声再度合拢。
Bod had not experienced total darkness for many years. In the graveyard, he saw as the dead see, and no tomb or grave or crypt was truly dark to him. Now he was in utter darkness, feeling himself being pitched forward in a sequence of jerks and rushes, the wind rushing past him. It was frightening, but it was also exhilarating.
伯蒂已经好几年没体验过一片漆黑了。在坟场，死人能看到的东西他都能看到，对他来说，任何坟墓或地穴都不是真正的黑暗。而眼下，他处在伸手不见五指的黑暗中，感觉到自己被抛向前方，时不时猛地一颠或骤然加速。耳边的风呼啸而过，很惊悚，但也很刺激。
And then there was light, and everything changed.
直到前方出现亮光，一切都变了样。
“Where are we going?” he asked, but his voice was whipped away by the wind.
“我们要去哪儿？”伯蒂问，可话一出口就被风刮跑了。
Bod tried to look up, to see the grave through which they had entered this strange world, but he could see nothing but headstones. He wondered if each of the graves they were swinging past was a door for the kind of people who were carrying him…
伯蒂努力抬头，想看看连通这个古怪世界的那座坟墓，可眼前除了墓碑什么都没有。他想，他们飘荡其间的一座座坟墓，对于带着自己飞的这类人来说，是不是一扇扇门呢？
They went faster and faster. Up ahead of them Bod saw a statue swing up, and another two creatures came catapulting out into this crimson-skied world, just like the ones that carried Bod. One wore a raggedy silken gown that looked like it had once been white, the other wore a stained grey suit too large for it, the sleeves of which were shredded into shadowy tatters. They spotted Bod and his three new friends and made for them, dropping twenty feet with ease.
他们行进得越来越快。伯蒂看到前方有座雕像向上一摆，将另外两个生物弹入了这个深红的世界。那两个生物似乎是伯蒂身旁三人的同类。一人穿着看似原本是白色的褴褛丝袍，另一人穿着脏兮兮的灰袍，袍子大得不合身，破裂的袖子像若隐若现的布条。他们看到了伯蒂和他的三个新伙伴，便向他们飞来，轻轻松松地跨越了二十英尺。
The Duke of Westminster gave a guttural squawk and pretended to be scared, and Bod and the three of them swung down the wall of graves with the two new creatures in pursuit. None of them seemed to get tired or out of breath, under that red sky, with the burnt-out sun gazing down at them like a dead eye, but eventually they fetched up on the side of a huge statue of a creature whose whole face seemed to have become a fungoid growth. Bod found himself being introduced to the 33rd President of the United States and the Emperor of China.
威斯敏斯特公爵从喉咙深处发出一声粗粝的尖叫，装作很害怕的样子。伯蒂一行四人在墙上的墓碑之间飞荡，而那两个新来的家伙紧追不舍。深红的天空下，火辣辣的太阳如死人的眼睛般死死盯着他们，可没人露出疲态或气喘吁吁。他们最后在一座硕大的雕像边停下，那座雕像的脸宛如蘑菇的生长乐园。经介绍，伯蒂认识了中国皇帝和第33任美国总统。
“Well, you’re guaranteed fine dining when you becomes one of us, young lad,” said the Emperor of China.
“这样啊。小家伙，如果你成了我们的一员，那顿顿美餐绝对有保障。”中国皇帝说。
“This is Master Bod,” said the Bishop of Bath and Wells. “He’s going to become one of us.”
“这位是伯蒂先生，他将成为我们的一员。”拜斯和维尔斯主教说。
“Yup,” said the 33rd President of the United States.
“没错。”第33任美国总统说。
“Smart as a whip, sharp as a tack, you’d have to get up pretty late at night to put anything past this lad,” said the Bishop of Bath and Wells. “Indeed. One of us. As strong, as fast, as unconquerable.”
“如鞭子般爽利痛快，如钉子般锋芒毕露，目达耳通，足智多谋。你得好好睡上一觉，一觉睡到深夜，这样就能把过去的糟心事忘得一干二净了。”拜斯和维尔斯主教说，“没错，你会成为我们的一员，像我们一样强壮迅猛，所向披靡。”
“He’s in search of a good meal,” said the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh.
“他想来一顿美味佳肴。”尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休说。
“Teeth so strong they can crush any bones, and tongue sharp and long enough to lick the marrow from the deepest marrowbone or flay the flesh from a fat man’s face,” said the Emperor of China.
中国皇帝说：“强健的牙齿能让你咬碎任何骨头，又长又尖的舌头能让你吸出骨头最深处的骨髓，剥下胖子脸上的肥肉。”
Bod said, “I become one of you? You mean, I’ll turn into you?”
“成为你们的一员？意思是说，我变成你们这样？”伯蒂问。
Bod looked at the creatures. “But what if I don’t want to be one of you?” he said.
伯蒂看向这群生物，问：“可如果我不想加入你们呢？”
“Able to slip from shadow to shadow, never seen, never suspected. Free as air, fast as thought, cold as frost, hard as nails, dangerous as, as us,” said the Duke of Westminster.
威斯敏斯特公爵说：“你能在阴影中穿梭无阻，不被发现，不被怀疑。自由如空气，迅捷如思想，冷如霜，硬如甲，危险如…如我们。”
“We’ve got the best city –“
“我们有最棒的城市——”
“Don’t want to? Of course you wants to! What could be finer? I don’t think there’s a soul in the universe doesn’t want to be just like us.”
“你不想？怎么可能！还有比加入我们更美妙的事吗？真是难以置信，宇宙间居然有灵魂不想变成我们这样。”
“The best life, the best food –“
“最棒的生活，最棒的食物——”
“Ghouls,” said the Bishop of Bath and Wells. “Bless me, somebody wasn’t paying attention, was he? We’re ghouls.”
“食尸鬼。”拜斯和维尔斯主教说，“天哪，看样子有人根本没有好好听我们说话，是不是？我们是食尸鬼。”
Bod said, “What are you people?”
“你们是什么人？”伯蒂问。
“Look!”
“瞧！”
“Ghûlheim,” said the 33rd President of the United States.
“戈莱姆。”第33任美国总统说。
“Can you imagine,” interrupted the Bishop of Bath and Wells, “how fine a drink the black ichor that collects in a leaden coffin can be? Or how it feels to be more important than kings and queens, than presidents or prime ministers or heroes, to be sure of it, in the same way that people are more important than brussels sprouts?”
“你能想象铅棺里的黑色腐液有多么可口吗？”拜斯和维尔斯主教插嘴说，“你能想象比国王、王后、总统、首相或英雄还要位高权重是什么感受吗？要知道，这就好比人和抱子甘蓝，一个天上，一个地下。”
Below them, a whole troupe of the little creatures were bouncing and running and leaping, heading for the path below them, and before he could say another word, he was snatched up by a pair of bony hands and was flying through the air in a series of jumps and lurches, as the creatures headed down to meet the others of their kind.
他们下方，有一大群同类的小个子生物正连跑带跳地赶向一条小路。没等伯蒂再说一句话，一双皮包骨头的手就抓住了他，带着他又是跳跃又是俯冲，去和下面的大队人马会合。
The wall of graves was ending, and now there was a road, and nothing but a road, a much-trodden path across a barren plain, a desert of rocks and bones, that wound towards a city high on a huge red rock hill, many miles away.
他们离开了墓碑墙，降落在一条路上，一条饱经踩踏、没什么出奇之处的路。这条路蜿蜒前行，穿过贫瘠的平原，度过堆满岩石和骨头的沙漠，通向好几里外一座红色岩石大山上的一座城市。
Ghouls do not build. They are parasites and scavengers, eaters of carrion. The city they call Ghûlheim is something they found, long ago, but did not make. No one knows (if anyone human ever knew) what kind of creatures it was that made those buildings, who honeycombed the rock with tunnels and towers, but it is certain that no one but the ghoul-folk could have wanted to stay there, or even to approach that place.
食尸鬼不建造。他们是寄生者，吃腐肉。这座名叫戈莱姆的城市是他们在很久以前发现的，并非他们所建。没人知道是谁建了这座城——将岩石凿成蜂窝状，还挖了坑道，建了高塔。但有一点是确定的，除了食尸鬼，没人愿意靠近这里，更别提在这里安家。
Bod looked up at the city, and was horrified: an emotion engulfed him that mingled repulsion and fear, disgust and loathing, all tinged with shock.
伯蒂抬眼望见这座城市，一下子慌了。排斥、恐惧、恶心、憎恶与些许惊讶，各种情绪交织在一起，淹没了他。
Even from the path below Ghûlheim, even from miles away, Bod could see that all of the angles were wrong — that the walls sloped crazily, that it was every nightmare he had ever endured made into a place, like a huge mouth of jutting teeth. It was a city that had been built just to be abandoned, in which all the fears and madnesses and revulsions of the creatures who built it were made into stone. The ghoul-folk had found it and delighted in it and called it home.
即便在戈莱姆下方距其还有数里之遥，伯蒂都看得出这座城的角度不对劲——墙壁倾斜得堪称疯狂，杂糅了他做过的所有噩梦，如同一张龅牙大嘴。这是一座建来就为了抛弃的城市，建造者的恐惧、疯狂与厌恶都化作了石头。食尸鬼发现了这个地方并称之为家，生活得不亦乐乎。
Above them in the sour red skies, things were circling on huge black wings.
头顶上阴沉的红色天空中，有长着黑色大翅膀的东西在盘旋。
Ghouls move fast. They swarmed along the path through the desert more swiftly than a vulture flies and Bod was carried along by them, held high overhead by a pair of strong ghoul arms, tossed from one to another, feeling sick, feeling dread and dismay, feeling stupid.
食尸鬼们沿着沙漠中的小路飞速向前涌动，比飞翔的秃鹰还要快。伯蒂被一双强健的手臂托举过头顶，从一个食尸鬼手中抛到另一个手中。他很不舒服，又害怕又郁闷，觉得自己蠢透了。
“Yar! We hates stealers!” shouted the Emperor of China.
“对！强盗最可恨！”中国皇帝说。
“Careful,” said the Duke of Westminster. “Tuck him away. Don’t want the night-gaunts stealing him. Bloody stealers.”
“小心！”威斯敏斯特公爵说，“把他藏好，别让他被夜靥抢走了。那些个狗屁强盗。”
One of the winged beasts dropped towards them, circled lower, and Bod made the call again, until it was stifled by hard hands clamping over his mouth. “Good idea, calling ’em down,” said the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh, “but trust me, they aren’t edible until they’ve been rotting for at least a couple of weeks, and they just causes trouble. No love lost between our side and theirs, eh?”
一只夜靥飞了下来，在低空盘旋。伯蒂继续呼救，直到被一双硬邦邦的手捂住嘴巴。“把他们叫下来，好主意哇。”尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休说，“不过，相信我，他们啊，要等腐烂个至少几周后才能吃，而且他们老是找我们的麻烦。我们彼此没有好感，听明白没？”
Night-gaunts, in the red skies above Ghûlheim… Bod took a deep breath, and shouted, just as Miss Lupescu had taught him. He made a call like an eagle’s cry, in the back of his throat.
夜靥，戈莱姆上方的红色天空…伯蒂深吸一口气，放声长啸，按照卢佩斯库小姐教他的那样，从喉咙深处发出了好似老鹰嚎叫的呼救声。
The night-gaunt rose again in the dry desert air, to rejoin its fellows, and Bod felt all hope vanish.
夜靥又飞上高空，穿过沙漠干燥的空气，回到了同伴之间。伯蒂的希望破灭了。
The dead sun set, and two moons rose, one huge and pitted and white, which seemed, as it rose, to be taking up half the horizon, although it shrank as it ascended, and a smaller moon, the bluish-green color of the veins of mold in a cheese, and the arrival of this moon was an occasion of celebration for the ghoul-folk. They stopped marching and made a camp beside the road.
死气沉沉的太阳下落，两轮月亮升起。一轮月亮坑坑洼洼，又白又大，刚升起时占据了一半地平线，不过随着上升越缩越小；另一轮月亮小一些，色泽如同奶酪上的缕缕霉菌，绿中带蓝。小月亮升起时，食尸鬼们一阵欢腾。他们停下脚步，在路边安了片营地。
The ghouls sped on towards the city on the rocks, and Bod, now flung unceremoniously over the stinking shoulders of the Duke of Westminster, was carried with them.
食尸鬼加快速度，向那座岩石上的城市进发。伯蒂此时正被粗暴无礼地扣在威斯敏斯特公爵散发着恶臭的肩膀上。
One of the new members of the band — Bod thought it might have been the one he had been introduced to as “the famous writer Victor Hugo” — produced a sack which turned out to be filled with firewood, several pieces still with the hinges or brass handles attached, along with a metal cigarette lighter, and soon made a fire, around which all the ghoul-folk sat and rested. They stared up at the greenish-blue moon, and scuffled for the best places by the fire, insulting each other, sometimes clawing or biting.
食尸鬼中的一个新成员（伯蒂记得他们介绍他时称他为著名作家维克多·雨果）拿出一个大口袋，里头塞满了木柴，有几块上头还带有铰链和黄铜把手，此外大口袋里还有一个金属打火机。著名作家维克多·雨果很快生起一把火，所有食尸鬼都围坐过来歇息。他们凝视着蓝绿色的月亮，争抢火堆边最好的位置，推来搡去，乃至抓挠啃咬。
“We’ll sleep soon, then set off for Ghûlheim at moonset,” said the Duke of Westminster. “It’s just another nine or ten hours’ run along the way. We should reach it by next moonrise. Then we’ll have a party, eh? Celebrate you being made into one of us!”
“我们要赶快睡觉，并在月落时继续向戈莱姆进发。”威斯敏斯特公爵说，“沿着这条路，再走九或十个小时，在下次月亮升起前就该到了。然后我们来场宴会怎么样？庆祝你成为我们中的一员！”
They all started telling stories, then, of how fine and wonderful a thing it was to be a ghoul, of all the things they had crunched up and swallowed down with their powerful teeth. Impervious they were to disease or illness, said one of them. Why, it didn’t matter what their dinner had died of, they could just chomp it down. They told of the places they had been, which mostly seemed to be catacombs and plague-pits. (“Plague-pits is good eatin’,” said the Emperor of China, and everyone agreed.) They told Bod how they had got their names and how he, in his turn, once he had become a nameless ghoul, would be named as they had been.
食尸鬼你一嘴我一嘴地讲了起来，讲成为食尸鬼是一件多么美妙绝伦的事，讲他们能用强健有力的牙齿嚼碎并吞咽下哪些东西，讲他们百毒不侵，百病不扰。无论他们的晚餐因什么而死，他们不管三七二十一，直接吞下就行。他们还讲述了曾经去过的地方，大多是地下墓穴和瘟疫万人坑。（“万人坑可是个能让人饱餐一顿的好地方。”中国皇帝这么说，众人纷纷附和）他们告诉伯蒂各自名字的来由，还跟他说，等他变成无名的食尸鬼，也会得到一个像他们那样的名字。
“But I don’t want to become one of you,” said Bod.
“可我不想成为你们的一员。”伯蒂说。
“It doesn’t hurt,” said the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh, “not so as you’d notice. And after, think how happy you’ll be.”
“一点儿也不会痛。”尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休说，“你别吓自己。你想想，之后你会变得多么快乐！”
And all the ghouls were quiet for a bit, until they forgot about the thing in the desert, and began to sing ghoul-song, filled with foul words and worse sentiments, the most popular of which were simply lists of which rotting body parts were to be eaten, and in what order.
所有食尸鬼立即一声不响，直到他们忘了沙漠里的那个东西，转而唱起食尸鬼之歌。歌里充斥着肮脏的言语和卑劣的情感，其中最受欢迎的片段唱的是该吃一具腐尸的哪些部位，以什么顺序吃。
The ghouls shook their heads. “Just something out there in the desert,” whispered one of them. “Quiet! It’ll hear us!”
食尸鬼纷纷摇头。一个说：“不过是沙漠里的东西罢了。安静！那东西听得见！”
And all the ghouls around the coffin-wood fire howled at this statement, and growled and sang and exclaimed at how wise they were, and how mighty, and how fine it was to be scared of nothing.
听了这话，火堆边的所有食尸鬼同时开始嚎叫。又是咆哮，又是歌唱，欢呼自己有多么智慧，多么强大，感慨无所畏惧是多么美妙。
“But that’s not a good thing to talk about,” said the Emperor of China. “Best to be a ghoul. We’re afraid of nuffink!”
“别说那么不好听的话。”中国皇帝说，“做食尸鬼再好不过了。我们天不怕地不怕，无所畏惧！”
“One way or another,” said the Bishop of Bath and Wells, cheerily, “you’ll become one of us. The other way is messier, involves being digested, and you’re not really around very long to enjoy it.”
“无论用什么方法，你都会成为我们的一员。”拜斯和维尔斯主教兴冲冲地说，“还有种更糟糕的办法，那就是把你消化掉。你不会享受这个过程的，就算享受，也享受不了多久。”
There was a noise then, from the desert, from far away, a distant howl, and the ghouls gibbered and they huddled closer to the flames.
耳边忽然一震，一声长啸从远处的沙漠传来。食尸鬼叽里呱啦嚷了起来，纷纷靠近火堆，挤成一团。
“What was that?” asked Bod.
“什么声音？”伯蒂问。
“Nor I,” said the Emperor of China, proudly.
“我也是。”中国皇帝自豪地说。
“I want to go home,” said Bod, when the last of the bits in the song had been consumed. “I don’t want to be here.”
“我想回家。”听完歌曲的最后一节后，伯蒂说，“我不想待在这儿了。”
Bod was unimpressed by the ghouls’ bravery or their wisdom. They were strong, though, and inhumanly fast, and he was in the center of a troupe of them. Making a break for it would have been impossible. They would be able to catch up with him before he could cover a dozen yards.
伯蒂可一点儿也没感受到食尸鬼的勇敢和智慧，虽然他们很强壮，快得无人可及。他处在食尸鬼的包围圈中，想要突围那是做梦，他跑不了多远就会被追上。
“Don’t take on so,” said the Duke of Westminster. “Why, you little coot, I promise you that as soon as you’re one of us, you’ll not ever remember as you even had a home.”
“别这样嘛。”威斯敏斯特公爵说，“小笨蛋，我向你保证，一旦你成了我们的一员，你就根本不会记得自己曾有个家。”
“Nope,” said the 33rd President of the United States.
“我也一样。”第33任美国总统说。
“You’ll be one of a select band, of the cleverest, strongest, bravest creatures ever,” bragged the Bishop of Bath and Wells.
“你将成为精英团体的一员，成为有史以来最聪明、最强健、最勇敢的生物！”拜斯和维尔斯主教吹嘘道。
“I don’t remember anything about the days before I was a ghoul,” said the famous writer Victor Hugo.
“我完全不记得变成食尸鬼之前的日子了。”著名作家维克多·雨果说。
Far off in the night something howled once more, and the ghouls moved closer to the fire. Bod could hear them sniffling and cursing. He closed his eyes, miserable and homesick: he did not want to become one of the ghouls. He wondered how he would ever be able to sleep when he was this worried and hopeless and then, almost to his surprise, for two or three hours, he slept.
遥远夜空又传来一声嚎叫，食尸鬼挤得离火堆更近了。伯蒂听到他们在哼哼唧唧，低声咒骂。他闭上双眼，既难受又想家：他不想成为食尸鬼的一员。他自以为无法在这焦虑而无望的心境中入眠，可出乎他的意料，他居然睡了两三个小时。
Around midday, with the dead-eyed sun high overhead, the ghouls stopped, and huddled. Ahead of them, high in the sky, circling on the hot air currents, were the night-gaunts, dozens of them, riding the thermals.
中午前后，暗淡无神的太阳高挂头顶，食尸鬼们停下脚步，挤在一起。在他们前方，十几只夜靥正骑着热流在高空飞旋。
The ghouls divided into two factions: there were those who felt that the vanishing of their friends was meaningless, and those who believed that something, probably the night-gaunts, was out to get them. They came to no agreement, except for a general agreement to arm themselves with rocks to throw at the night-gaunts should they descend, and they filled the pockets of their suits and robes with pebbles from the desert floor.
食尸鬼分成了两派：一派觉得一些伙伴消失没什么大不了的；另一派觉得那意味着有什么东西出动了，很可能是夜靥要来抓他们。两派争论不休，唯一达成的共识是要用石头来武装自己，如果夜靥飞下来就砸过去。于是他们从沙漠里捡起卵石，塞满了西服或袍子的口袋。
The ghouls scrabbled back down the rocky cliffs to the road, beneath a sky the color of bad blood, and they headed towards Ghûlheim. They seemed significantly less exuberant this morning. Now they seemed — at least to Bod, as he was bounced along — to be running away from something.
食尸鬼们乱哄哄地爬下岩崖，来到路上，在淤血色的天空下向着戈莱姆进发。这天早晨，他们彻底失去了前一天的兴奋，在一路颠簸的伯蒂看来，他们好像在逃避什么东西。
A noise woke him — upset, loud, close. It was someone saying, “Well, where is they? Eh?” He opened his eyes to see the Bishop of Bath and Wells shouting at the Emperor of China. It seemed that a couple of the members of their group had disappeared in the night, just vanished, and no one had an explanation. The rest of the ghouls were on edge. They packed up their camp quickly, and the 33rd President of the United States picked Bod up and bundled him over his shoulder.
他被吵醒了。那声音很响，离得又近，让他很难受。有人说：“哎，他们去哪儿了？”伯蒂睁开眼睛，看到拜斯和维尔斯主教正冲着中国皇帝叫嚷。原因似乎是他们的几个同伴失踪了，可谁也给不出个解释。剩余的食尸鬼战战兢兢，火速把帐篷收拾好。第33任美国总统抓起伯蒂，扛到肩上。
“Nope,” said the 33rd President of the United States.
“没有。”第33任美国总统说。
“Did you hear that?” asked the Lord Mayor of London.
“你听到了吗？”伦敦市长问。
The howl came again.
又一声嚎叫。
“Me neither,” said the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh.
“我也没有。”尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休说。
The nightmare city of Ghûlheim sat on a high rocky outcrop ahead of them, and the creatures loped down the road towards it.
噩梦之城戈莱姆就在前方的一大块凸岩上，食尸鬼向那里大步飞奔。
Bod’s view of things was upside down at this point, bouncing up and down on the back of the 33rd President of the United States, gritty sand from the path blown up into his face. But he heard cries, like eagle cries, and once again Bod called for help in Night-Gaunt. No one tried to stop him this time, but he was not sure that anyone could have heard him over the cries of the night-gaunts, or the oaths and curses of the ghoul-folk as they pitched and flung their stones into the air.
伯蒂在第33任美国总统的背上颠上颠下，眼前的世界上下颠倒，路上扬起的砂砾扑面而来。但他听到了熟悉的叫声，老鹰般的叫声，便再次出声向夜靥求救。这次没人阻止他，但他不知道在夜靥的喊叫声与食尸鬼的咒骂声中，他的呼救到底有没有传达到。食尸鬼铆足了劲，怒气冲冲地一边朝空中扔石头，一边骂个不停。
Something howled, off in the desert to their left, and the ghouls eyed each other. It was louder than the night before, and closer, a deep, wolfish howl.
左侧的沙漠深处传来一声嚎叫，食尸鬼们面面相觑。这声深沉如狼嚎的叫声比昨夜更近，更响亮。
“Night-gaunts coming!” shouted the Bishop of Bath and Wells. “Throw stones at the bleeders!”
“夜靥来了！”拜斯和维尔斯主教大喊，“快朝这些个异种扔石头！”
“We got to get home,” said the Duke of Westminster, hefting a large stone.
“我们得赶紧回家。”威斯敏斯特公爵举起一块大石头。
Bod heard the howling again: now it came from their right.
伯蒂又听到一声嚎叫，这回来自右边。
“There’s dozens of the blooming blinkers,” said the Duke of Westminster, gloomily.
“有几十个讨厌的臭家伙啊。”威斯敏斯特公爵忧虑地说。
“They’re retreating!” shouted a ghoul.” Look at ’em go!”
“他们在撤退。”一个食尸鬼大喊，“瞧！他们走了！”
The 33rd President of the United States handed Bod over to the famous writer Victor Hugo, who threw the boy into his sack and put it over his shoulder. Bod was just glad the sack smelled of nothing worse than dusty wood.
第33任美国总统将伯蒂递给著名作家维克多·雨果，雨果把伯蒂往袋子里一丢，扛到肩上。袋子里只有一股积灰的木头味儿，这倒是让伯蒂很欣喜。
“Don’t you worry, boy,” said a voice that sounded to Bod like the Bishop of Bath and Wells, near the sack. “There won’t be any of this nonsense when we get you to Ghûlheim. It’s impenetrable, is Ghûlheim.”
“别担心，孩子。”似乎是拜斯维尔斯主教的声音，离袋子很近，“等我们到了戈莱姆，就不会有这种麻烦啦。戈莱姆，坚不可摧。”
Bod could not tell if any of the ghouls had been killed or injured fighting the night-gaunts. He suspected, from the imprecations of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, that several more of the ghouls might have run off.
伯蒂看不到有没有食尸鬼在与夜靥的战斗中丧了命或受了伤，不过从拜斯和维尔斯主教的咒骂看来，估计又有几个食尸鬼死翘翘了。
“Quickly!” shouted someone who was probably the Duke of Westminster, and the ghouls set off at a run. Bod, in the sack, was uncomfortable, being painfully slammed against the famous writer Victor Hugo’s back and occasionally banged on the ground. To make his time in the sack even more uncomfortable there were still several lumps of wood, not to mention sharp screws and nails, in there with him, the final remnants of the coffin-based firewood. A screw was just under his hand, digging into him.
“快点！”有人大喊，可能是威斯敏斯特公爵。所有食尸鬼开始飞奔。袋子里的伯蒂不断撞到著名作家维克多·雨果的背，还时不时撞到地面，又疼又难受。让他更难受的是，袋子里还有几块木头，更别提锋利的螺丝和钉子，还有用来当柴火烧的棺木残片了。他的一只手下面，就有一颗螺丝正无情地往他的肉里扎。
Despite being jogged and jounced, jolted and jarred with every one of his captor’s steps, Bod managed to grasp the screw in his right hand. He felt the tip of it, sharp to the touch. He hoped, deep inside. Then he pushed the screw into the fabric of the sack behind him, working the sharp end in, then pulling it back, and making another hole a little way below the first.
著名作家维克多·雨果每走一步，伯蒂都被颠得七荤八素，但他还是用右手抓住了那颗螺丝。螺丝顶端锋利的触感从指间传来，希望从心底涌出。他将螺丝扎进布袋，拔出来，扎完一个洞后，又在下面一点点的地方开始扎第二个洞。
That was good.
这不挺好的吗？
“Come on, lads,” shouted the Bishop of Bath and Wells. “Up the steps and then we’re home, all safe in Ghûlheim!”
“大伙儿，加把劲！”拜斯和维尔斯主教大喊，“上了台阶我们就到家了！到了戈莱姆我们就安全了！”
From behind, he could hear something howl once more and it occurred to him that anything that could terrify the ghoul-folk must itself be even more terrifying than he could imagine, and for a moment he stopped stabbing with the screw — what if he fell from the sack into the jaws of some evil beast? But at least if he died, thought Bod, he would have died as himself, with all his memories, knowing who his parents were, who Silas was, even who Miss Lupescu was.
身后又传来一声嚎叫，伯蒂忽然意识到，能让食尸鬼惧怕的东西绝对可怕得超乎他的想象，便停下了手中的动作——如果他掉出口袋，落入一只邪恶怪兽的血盆大口可怎么办？他转念一想，这至少能让他在临死前仍存有自我，带着一生的记忆，记得自己的父母，记得赛拉斯，记得卢佩斯库小姐。
He attacked the sacking with his brass screw again, jabbing and pushing until he’d made another hole in the fabric.
他用黄铜螺丝猛扎袋子，扎进去，拔出来，反反复复，直到又扎出一个洞。
Bod pushed at the sacking with his hand to try and make an eye-hole. He looked out. Above, the drear red sky, below…
伯蒂撕扯袋子，撕开了一个能朝外看的小孔。他向外看去，上方是阴沉的红色天空，下方…
Now the motion of his captors had changed. It was no longer a forward motion: now it was a sequence of movements, up and along, up and along.
食尸鬼的行进方式变了，不再一味朝前，而是向上向前不断交替。
… he could see the desert floor, but it was now hundreds of feet below him. There were steps stretching out behind them, but steps made for giants, and the ochre rock wall to his right. Ghûlheim, which Bod could not see from where he was, had to be above them. To his left was a sheer drop. He was going to have to fall straight down, he decided, onto the steps, and he would just hope that the ghouls wouldn’t notice that he was making his break for it in their desperation to be home and safe. He saw night-gaunts high in the red sky, hanging back, circling.
下方是沙漠，可离他足足有数百英尺。身下延伸着仿佛为巨人而建的台阶，右边是一面赭红色的石墙，左边是陡峭的悬崖。戈莱姆一定就在上方，虽然他看不到。他作好了直直下落，摔上台阶的心理准备，但愿思家心切、一心想脱险的食尸鬼不会注意到他的小动作。此外，他还看到夜靥在红色天空中盘旋。
“Hurrah, Your Worship!” called someone else, probably the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh.
“好嘞，阁下！”另一个人喊道，听声音像是尊贵的阿奇博尔德·菲茨休。
He was pleased to see there were no other ghouls behind him: the famous writer Victor Hugo was bringing up the rear, and no one was behind him to alert the ghouls to the hole that was growing in the sack. Or to see Bod if he fell out.
看到身后没有别的食尸鬼，伯蒂万分庆幸。著名作家维克多·雨果负责断后，后头没人能提醒他袋子上的洞正越变越大，或看到伯蒂掉出来。
But there was something else…
可后头有别的东西…
And as he thought it, sharp canine teeth caught at the sacking, pulled at it until the fabric tore along the rips Bod had made, and the boy tumbled down on the rock stairs, where a huge grey animal, like a dog but far larger, growled and drooled, and stood over him, an animal with flaming eyes and white fangs and huge paws. It panted and it stared at Bod. Ahead of him the ghouls had stopped.
正当此时，锋利的犬牙咬住袋子，沿着伯蒂扎出的洞向下撕扯。伯蒂滚落到石阶上。他身边是一头灰色巨兽，像一只狗，但比狗大得多。巨兽一边吼叫，一边淌着口水，大口喘气。白森森的犬齿，巨大的爪子。它盯着伯蒂，眼睛仿佛要冒出火来。前面的食尸鬼停下脚步。
Bod was bounced onto his side, away from the hole. But he had seen something huge and grey, on the steps beneath, pursuing them. He could hear an angry growling noise.
伯蒂被颠到了袋子的侧面，离自己扎的洞远了点，但他依然透过小孔，看到下方的台阶上有头灰色巨兽正在追赶他们，还听到了一声愤怒的嚎叫。
“Bloody Nora!” said the Duke of Westminster. “That hellhound’s got the blinking boy!”
“他妈的。”威斯敏斯特公爵大喊，“那头地狱之犬把孩子弄走了！”
Mr. Owens had an expression for two things he found equally unpleasant: “I’m between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” he would say. Bod had wondered what this meant, having seen, in his life in the graveyard, neither the Devil nor the Deep Blue Sea.
欧文斯太太有一句话，来描述两样让她不舒服的东西：前有恶魔，后有深海。伯蒂一直生活在坟场，没见过恶魔，也没见过深海，所以一直对这句话摸不着头脑。
I’m between the ghouls and the monster, he thought.
前有食尸鬼，后有怪物。他心想。
“Let it have him,” said the Emperor of China. “Run!”
“别管他了。”中国皇帝说，“快跑！”
The beast stayed where it was.
巨兽仍站在原地。
“Yikes!” said the 33rd President of the United States.
“跑呀！”第33任美国总统说。
The ghouls ran up the steps. Bod was now certain that the steps had been carved by giants, for each step was higher than he was. As they fled, the ghouls paused only to turn and make rude gestures at the beast and possibly also at Bod.
食尸鬼拼命地冲向更高的台阶。伯蒂现在确信了这些台阶是为巨人而建的，因为一级台阶比他还要高。食尸鬼逃得飞快，只会偶尔转身，冲着巨兽比画个粗鲁的手势，也许对象还包括伯蒂。
He pushed past the beast, jumped down to the next step four feet below, fell his height, landed on his ankle, which twisted underneath him, painfully, and he dropped, heavily, onto the rock.
伯蒂推开巨兽，往下跳了一级足足有四英尺高的台阶。落地时，全身的重量都落在脚踝上。脚扭了，很疼。下一秒，他重重地摔在岩石上。
He could hear the beast running, jumping down towards him, and he tried to wriggle away, to pull himself up onto his feet, but his ankle was useless, now, numb and in pain, and before he could stop himself, he fell again. He fell off the step, away from the rock wall, out into space, off the cliff-side, where he dropped — a nightmarish tumble down distances that Bod could not even imagine…
他听到巨兽正跑跳着冲向他，便努力挪动身子，想站起身，可脚踝又麻又疼，完全使不上劲。还没站稳，他就又栽了下去——摔离了台阶，跌出了悬崖，落入空中，不断坠落，如噩梦一般，仿佛永无止境…
It’s going to eat me, Bod thought bitterly. Smart, Bod. And he thought of his home in the graveyard, and now he could no longer remember why he had ever left. Monster dog or no monster dog, he had to get back home once more. There were people waiting for him.
它要吃我了。伯蒂暗自叫苦。机灵点，伯蒂。他想起了坟场的家，却记不得自己为何离开。不管有没有这头恶魔般的巨犬，他都要回家，那里有人在等他。
And as he fell, he was certain he heard a voice coming from the general direction of the grey beast. And it said, in Miss Lupescu’s voice, “Oh, Bod!”
下落时，他听到一个熟悉的声音从灰色巨兽的方向传来，那是卢佩斯库小姐的声音：“哦，伯蒂！”
The wings flapped harder. They lifted slightly and now the only thought in Bod’s head was I’m flying! And he was. He turned his head. Above him was a dark brown head, perfectly bald, with deep eyes that looked as if they were polished slabs of black glass.
翅膀扇动得更有力，带着伯蒂往上升。此时此刻，伯蒂脑中只有一个想法：我飞起来了！他的确飞起来了。他抬起头，看到一个棕褐色的脑袋，光秃秃的，深陷的眼睛好似擦亮的黑色玻璃珠。
It was like every dream of falling he had ever had, a scared and frantic drop through space, as he headed towards the ground below. Bod felt as though his mind was only big enough for one huge thought, so, That big dog was actually Miss Lupescu, and, I’m going to hit the rock floor and splat, competed in his head for occupation.
他疾速下坠，比起曾经做过的每一个坠落的梦都有过之而无不及。划破空间，满心恐惧，疯狂至极。他的大脑只能容下两个惊人的念头：那条大狗其实是卢佩斯库小姐，以及，我马上要掉到地上，摔得粉身碎骨。
Something wrapped itself about him, falling at the same speed he was falling, and then there was the loud flapping of leathery wings and everything slowed. The ground no longer seemed to be heading towards him at the same speed.
上方有什么东西笼住了他，和他以同样的速度下落，耳边是翅膀用力扇动的声音，接着一切都慢了下来，眼前的地面不再以那么快的速度扑面而来。
Bod made the screeching noise that means “Help,” in Night-Gaunt, and the night-gaunt smiled and made a deep hooting noise in return. It seemed pleased.
伯蒂发出一声尖叫，在夜靥听来意思是“救命”。夜靥笑了笑，回以一声猫头鹰般的低沉叫声，看上去很高兴。
The night-gaunt crouched beside him, its leathery wings folded on its back. Bod had grown up in a graveyard and was used to images of winged people, but the angels on the headstones looked nothing like this.
夜靥在他身旁蹲下，翅膀收拢到背上。伯蒂在坟场长大，早已对长翅膀的人见惯不惊，可夜靥长得和墓碑上的天使像完全不同。
The dog spoke, in Miss Lupescu’s voice.
大狗用卢佩斯库小姐的声音说：
And now, bounding toward them across the desert floor in the shadow of Ghûlheim, a huge grey beast, like an enormous dog.
接着，在戈莱姆的阴影下，大步弹跳穿过沙漠向他们而来的，是一头灰色巨兽，像一条巨大的狗。
It said, “This is the third time the night-gaunts have saved your life, Bod. The first was when you called for help, and they heard. They got the message to me, telling me where you were. The second was around the fire last night, when you were asleep: they were circling in the darkness, and heard a couple of the ghouls saying that you were ill-luck for them and that they should beat your brains in with a rock and put you somewhere they could find you again, when you were properly rotted down, and then they would eat you. The night-gaunts dealt with the matter silently. And now this.”
“这是夜靥第三次救你的命了。第一次是你呼救的时候，他们听到了，并把这个消息传给了我，告诉了我你所在的位置。第二次是昨晚你在火堆边睡着的时候，他们在黑暗中盘旋，听到一些食尸鬼说弄到你真是走了大运，他们想用石头砸开你的头，把你放到一个他们能再次找到的地方，等你腐烂透了再来吃了你。夜靥悄无声息地处理掉了这件事。然后就是这一次。”
A swoop and a slow, and they touched down on the desert floor with a thump. Bod tried to stand up, and his ankle betrayed him once again, sent him stumbling down into the sand. The wind was high, and the sharp desert sand blew hard, stinging Bod’s skin.
一阵俯冲，一阵缓冲，他们轰的一声落在沙漠里。伯蒂想站起身，可脚踝再次背叛了他，让他摔倒在沙地上。疾风迅猛，粗粝的沙子刮疼了他的皮肤。
She said something in the night-gaunt’s screeching tongue and it came over, held Bod up while he put his arms around Miss Lupescu’s neck.
她用尖厉的夜靥语对夜靥说了句什么。夜靥走过来，把伯蒂抱到她的背上，让伯蒂搂住她的脖子。
“Now,” said the beast that was Miss Lupescu, “hold on tightly.” And she began to run.
“好。”卢佩斯库小姐说，“抓紧了。”她开始奔跑。
“Are we going to the wall of graves?”
“我们要去那面墓碑墙吗？”
“Thank you. Or good-bye. Both.”
“谢谢，或是再见，两者皆有。”
“What does it mean?”
“什么意思？”
Bod screeched as best as he could, and the night-gaunt made an amused chuckle. Then it made a similar noise, and it spread its great leathery wings, and it ran into the desert wind, flapping hard, and the wind caught it and carried it aloft, like a kite that had begun to fly.
伯蒂尽力模仿这个声音，逗得夜靥咯咯直笑。夜靥回了一个类似的声音，接着展开巨大的翅膀，奔入沙漠的风中，用力扇动翅膀，乘风而起，如同一只起飞的风筝。
“Hold my fur,” she said. “Hold tight. Now, before we go, say…” and she made a high screeching noise.
“抓住我的毛。”卢佩斯库小姐说，“抓紧了。好，在我们离开前，跟着我说…”她发出一声尖厉高亢的声音。
The great dog-like head lowered towards him, and for one mad, fear-filled moment, he thought she was going to take a bite out of him, but her tongue licked the side of his face, affectionately. “You hurt your ankle?”
如狼般的大脑袋向他俯下来。那一瞬，伯蒂怕得不得了，生怕巨兽会一口吞了他，可巨兽只是用舌头舔了舔他的脸，充满爱意地问：“你的脚踝受伤了？”
“Let’s get you onto my back,” said the huge grey beast that was Miss Lupescu.
“我来背你吧。”灰色巨兽，也就是卢佩斯库小姐说。
“Yes. I can’t stand on it.”
“对，我站不起来了。”
“Miss Lupescu?”
“卢佩斯库小姐？”
The huge moon rose and the smaller mold-colored moon and they were joined by a ruby-red moon, and the grey wolf ran at a steady lope beneath them across the desert of bones. She stopped by a broken clay building like an enormous beehive, built beside a small rill of water that came bubbling out of the desert rock, splashed down into a tiny pool and was gone again. The grey wolf put her head down and drank, and Bod scooped water up in his hands, drinking the water in a dozen tiny gulps.
硕大的月亮升了起来，接着是蓝绿色的小月亮，随后又升起一轮红宝石色泽的月亮。灰色巨兽以稳健的速度大步奔跑，穿过遍地尸骨的沙漠。她在一个巨大蜂巢般的破损陶土建筑边停下，旁边有一条溪流自沙漠的岩缝汩汩往外冒，汇成一个个小水洼，转瞬蒸发。灰兽低头喝水，伯蒂用手捧起水，咕嘟嘟地喝下去。
“They’re beautiful,” said Bod.
“好美啊。”伯蒂说。
“To the ghoul-gates? No. Those are for ghouls. I am a Hound of God. I travel my own road, into Hell and out of it.” And it seemed to Bod as if she ran even faster then.
“去食尸鬼之门？不，那是食尸鬼用的。我是上帝之犬，我走我自己的路，出入地狱之界。”伯蒂感觉卢佩斯库小姐跑得更快了。
“This is the boundary,” said the grey wolf that was Miss Lupescu, and Bod looked up. The three moons had gone. Now he could see the Milky Way, see it as he had never seen it before, a glimmering shroud across the arch of the sky. The sky was filled with stars.
“这儿是边界。”卢佩斯库小姐说。伯蒂抬起头。三个月亮消失了，他看到了银河，和以往见过的景致迥乎不同。银河如一条闪闪发亮的裹尸布，横跨天穹，伴以璀璨群星。
“When we get you home,” said Miss Lupescu, “I teach you the names of the stars and their constellations.”
“等到家了，我就教你这些星星和星座的名字。”卢佩斯库小姐说。
Bod clambered onto her huge, grey back once more and he buried his face in her fur and held on tightly, and it seemed only moments later that he was being carried — awkwardly, as a grown woman carries a six-year-old boy — across the graveyard, to the Owenses’ tomb.
伯蒂再次爬上灰兽宽阔的背，脸埋进皮毛，手抓得紧紧的。灰兽和他，像一个成年女人背着一个六岁男孩，片刻之后，他就被带到了坟场，送到了欧文斯太太的坟墓前。
“He’s hurt his ankle,” Miss Lupescu was saying.
“他的脚踝受伤了。”卢佩斯库小姐说。
And then he was perfectly comfortable, beneath the earth, in a good place, with his head on his own pillow, and a gentle, exhausted darkness took him.
回到地下温暖的家，伯蒂安心地躺下，枕着自己的枕头，沉入一片温暖柔和又极度疲倦的黑暗。
“Poor little soul,” said Mistress Owens, taking the boy from her, and cradling him in her capable, if insubstantial arms. “I can’t say I didn’t worry, for I did. But he’s back now, and that’s all that matters.”
“可怜的小宝贝儿。”欧文斯太太接过伯蒂，用若有若无却结实有力的手臂抱住他。“说不担心是假的，回来了就好，回来了就好。”
Bod’s left ankle was swollen and purple. Doctor Trefusis (1870-1936, May He Wake to Glory) inspected it and pronounced it merely sprained. Miss Lupescu returned from a journey to the chemist’s with a tight ankle bandage, and Josiah Worthington, Bart., who had been buried with his ebony walking cane, insisted on lending it to Bod, who had too much fun leaning on the stick and pretending to be one hundred years old.
伯蒂的左脚脚踝肿得发紫。特里富西斯医生（1870—1936，愿他在复活之日获得荣耀）检查后说只是扭伤，没什么大碍。卢佩斯库小姐去了趟药店，买来了脚踝绷带。准男爵约西亚·沃辛顿坚持要把自己陪葬的乌木拐杖给伯蒂用。伯蒂拄着拐杖，装作一个百岁老人，玩得不亦乐乎。
“I’d like that,” admitted Bod.
“那太好了。”
Bod limped up the hill and retrieved a folded piece of paper from beneath a stone.
伯蒂一瘸一拐地走到山上，从一块石头下拿出一张折叠的纸。
he read. It was printed in a purple ink, and was the first item on a list.
这个词用紫色墨水写成，位于清单最上方。他接着往下念：
The Hounds of God
上帝之犬
Those that men call Werewolves or Lycanthropes call themselves the Hounds of God, as they claim their transformation is a gift from their creator, and they repay the gift with their tenacity, for they will pursue an evildoer to the very gates of Hell.
那些被人们称作狼人的人自称上帝之犬。他们认为变形的能力乃造物者所赐，便以坚忍不拔作为回馈。他们紧跟作恶者，直至地狱入口。
The two of them shared the chips, and once or twice, Miss Lupescu even smiled.
两人分享了薯条，卢佩斯库小姐还笑了那么一两次。
He read the rest of the list, committing it to memory as best he could, then went down to the chapel, where Miss Lupescu was waiting for him with a small meat pie and a huge bag of chips she had bought from the fish-and-chips shop at the bottom of the hill, and another pile of purple-inked duplicated lists.
他读了清单上余下的单词，尽全力记下来，然后来到教堂。卢佩斯库小姐正在那里等他。她为伯蒂准备了从山脚的快餐店买来的一小块肉馅饼和一大包炸薯条，还有另一张用紫色墨水写成的清单。
Bod nodded. Not just evildoers, he thought.
伯蒂点点头，心想：不只是作恶者。
Silas came back at the the end of the month. He carried his black bag in his left hand and he held his right arm stiffly. But he was Silas, and Bod was happy to see him, and even happier when Silas gave him a present, a little model of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
月底，赛拉斯回来了，左手提着黑色皮箱，右臂有些僵硬。可他是赛拉斯啊。见到他回来，伯蒂高兴极了，等看到赛拉斯为他带的礼物——旧金山金门大桥模型时，他更是乐得找不着北。
Silas looked at Miss Lupescu, and he raised an eyebrow a fraction. Then he looked at Bod.
赛拉斯看向卢佩斯库小姐，微微扬起一边的眉毛。他又看向伯蒂。
Miss Lupescu looked at Bod, and her eyes shone, then she looked at Silas. “There are so many things to know,” she said. “Perhaps I come back next year, in high summer also, to teach the boy again.”
卢佩斯库小姐看了看伯蒂，双眼闪闪发亮，她又看向赛拉斯，说：“要学的东西还有很多。也许明年仲夏，我会再回来教这个孩子。”
“Oh yes,” said Silas, but he declined to elaborate.
“哦，当然有啊。”赛拉斯说，可他没有详谈。
“I also,” said Miss Lupescu, primly. “I also learned things.”
“我也是，我也学到了东西。”卢佩斯库小姐说。她依然那么古板。
“Good,” said Silas. An owl hooted in the branches of an oak tree. “You know, I heard rumors, while I was away,” said Silas, “that some weeks ago you both went somewhat further afield than I would have been able to follow. Normally, I would advise caution, but, unlike some, the ghoul-folk have short memories.”
“太好了。”赛拉斯说。一只停在橡树上的猫头鹰叫了一声。“要知道，我在外头听到了一些传言，说几周前你们去了我无法追踪的地方。一般来说，我会建议你们多加小心，不过好在食尸鬼不像别的东西，他们记性不好。”
It was almost midnight, and it was still not fully dark. The three of them sat at the top of the hill, with the lights of the city glimmering beneath them.
时近午夜，天色尚未全黑。三人坐在山顶上，山下的城市灯火点点。
“I trust that all went well in my absence,” said Silas.
“我相信在我离开的这段时间一切都好。”赛拉斯说。
Bod said, “It’s okay. Miss Lupescu looked after me. I was never in any danger.”
伯蒂说：“没事儿，有卢佩斯库小姐在，我没遇到过任何危险。”
“I learned a lot,” said Bod, still holding his Bridge. He pointed up into the night sky. “That’s Orion the Hunter, up there, with his belt of three stars. That’s Taurus the Bull.”
“我学了好多东西。”伯蒂一手抱着大桥模型，一手指向夜空，“这是猎户座，三颗星星是猎户的腰带。那是金牛座。”
“And you?” asked Bod. “Did you learn anything, while you were away?”
“那你呢？”伯蒂问，“你在这段时间学到了什么吗？”
“I’d like that,” said Bod.
“我喜欢这样！”伯蒂说。
“Very good,” said Silas.
“很好。”赛拉斯说。
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