The Demon and the City - By Liz Williams Page 0,109

had been shattered by the quake, letting in the night and the dusty wind. The tower was listing even further, and from the looks of things, it would not be long before it followed so many of the city's taller buildings, and collapsed. No one had got around to putting any warning tape on it: there was just too much destruction. Zhu Irzh thought of the boys in the port, with their icon of Jhai. If they could see their goddess now, he thought . . . He hoped they were still alive. Soon, the looting would begin, though from what he'd witnessed along Shaopeng, it already had.

"Surprised to find yourself back here?" the demon asked.

"Since you ask, yes." Jhai rose up from where she had been sitting on a block of fallen concrete, trying to reach her mother on the cellphone. She winced. "I feel as though I've run a marathon."

"You have, more or less. And what now, Jhai?"

The heiress paused, then said with an effort, "I don't know." Her voice was tart, but she was staring fiercely into the empty air, and then she passed a hand across her watering eyes.

"Jhai?"

"It's only the wind." She swallowed. "I'm all right. My mother is all right. She and Ei got to the airport, she told me." Then she said, "I thought I knew what I was doing, Zhu Irzh. I reached too far."

"Hubris," the demon said cheerfully. "Gets them all in the end. But you're one of the lucky ones. You've got a second chance. A while ago I checked up on extradition treaties between different realms. As a Keralan, you should be exempt from anything the Celestial Realms might level at you. My own Hell is a slightly different matter, and I'm sure the Jade Emperor will try to make sure that you pay some sort of penalty, but these things take a lot of time. For the moment, I think you might even be safe." But will I? he thought. Jhai's virus might still be in his system, judging from the episode in the demon lounge. What if he had another attack? It might be a good idea to start talking about a cure.

Jhai was looking at him warily. "You're sure of that, are you?"

"I'm never sure of anything." He reached out and took her hand. "Except one thing. You'll never really belong with humankind. And you'd be a foreigner in Hell. So now you're an exile, like me." His fingers closed around hers.

Jhai scowled. "Zhu Irzh? Are you proposing?"

"What, marriage?" the demon said, affronted. "Certainly not. But I think we could get to know one another a bit. Is your bedroom still intact?"

Jhai looked at him for several moments. He could not read her expression. At last she said, "I doubt it. I suppose we could find a hotel."

Grinning, the demon followed her back into what was left of the street.

Sixty-One

The winter sun lay low and crimson through the bare trees. Droplets of water were strung in icy beads along the branches and the feathers of the long grass. The air smelled of snow.

"God, it's cold," Robin said. She flung her arms around herself for warmth. Beside her, Mhara was scenting the air; Robin watched him curiously. The long braid had come undone and the dark hair streamed down his back. He gathered it together, absently, with one hand.

"Not so far now, Robin."

She smiled. "I don't even know where we are. I thought we were in Shai, but—" She looked at him questioningly, but he did not reply. Instead, he took her cold hand and led her through the trees, toward the sun, and she saw that the trees were blossoming. They were not thousand-flower, but the sweet scent was the same, spilling out into the air.

"If I look," Robin said. "Will I find a star?" She smiled at Mhara.

"You might," he agreed. "But what do you really want to do?"

"I want to go home," she told him.

"You're sure, are you?"

"Quite sure. There's nothing for me in Heaven. I want another life, another chance. Other choices."

"You've always had those." He spoke quietly, as if there was something she should have realized, but she did not know what it might be.

"I know," she said. "But I made the wrong ones. It's important, in Taoism, to place oneself in harmony with one's innermost beliefs, isn't it? I haven't really done that in my life. I haven't done anyone any good."

"Who can say?" Stepping behind her, Mhara put his arms