The Demon and the City - By Liz Williams Page 0,70

some time.

"What are they doing in there?" Zhu Irzh chafed. The atmosphere of the boat was really starting to get to him, causing a kind of deep psychic itch.

"I have no idea," Chen replied. "Discussing the situation, probably."

But when the door finally opened and the Celestial maiden stepped forth, she had changed. She now had about her an air of grave authority and presence, and her gaze was as depthless and dark as the Sea of Night itself.

"Goddess?" Chen said.

"A seed only," the maiden answered, and her voice was different, too, now having some of the timbre of Kuan Yin's own. Zhu Irzh had seen people download themselves, or parts of their psyches, into other people before, but he had rarely seen it done so smoothly. Usually the possessed were fuzzy around the edges.

"Can we go now?" he asked.

"Of course," the maiden replied, as though there had never been any question about it. Since becoming possessed, she seemed to have also taken on some of Kuan Yin's more fluid and mutable qualities. The maiden moved sinuously from the boat, and Zhu Irzh clambered after her.

The dock of the Night Harbor had filled up in their absence and was now crowded. There must have been a fresh consignment of souls released through the portals while Chen and the demon were on board. The souls looked confused: some wandered up to Kuan Yin's vessel and trailed wondering, wistful hands along its sides.

"We must be careful," the maiden said. "It would not be helpful if someone were to stow aboard." She spoke coolly, but Zhu Irzh caught sight of the sadness in her possessed eyes and knew that she would save them all if she could. Despite her remoteness, Kuan Yin, the Compassionate and the Merciful, was truly named.

Chen was already at the harbor master's hut, asking questions. When the maiden and Zhu Irzh reached him, he said, "The harbor master thinks he knows who she is. She's not in her original form, however. The dogs got to her when she reached the village."

"I can't understand why she didn't go onward to Hell," Zhu Irzh said. "She wasn't a good person."

"No, but she was murdered and that was probably enough to hold her here," Chen replied. "It gets complicated."

"So what happens now?" the maiden asked. "We go to the village?"

"Yes, but I'm reluctant to walk. It's too far and it's also dangerous. I'll have to try to arrange some transport."

"Leave it to me," the maiden said. She disappeared inside the harbor master's hut. Chen and the demon looked at one another.

"She's the goddess," Zhu Irzh said. "Best leave it to her."

But when the maiden emerged, her head was held high and her eyes were snapping. "Bureaucrats! Come with me!" was all that she said. Exchanging a further round of glances, Chen and Zhu Irzh followed meekly in her wake.

The transport that was to take them to Bad Dog Village proved to be a ramshackle coach, drawn by two mangy kylin lion-dogs. They stamped their fringed feet as the demon approached, tossed their manes and roared, enveloping the party in a wave of fetid breath.

"Lovely," Zhu Irzh said, eyeing them with minimal enthusiasm. "Couldn't they find anything better?"

"Apparently not," the maiden remarked. "I believe that man took actual delight in thwarting a deity. But I have so little jurisdiction here . . . We must take what we can get." She allowed Chen to open the door of the carriage and help her inside. "You will have to drive."

Chen glanced at Zhu Irzh. "Can you do it? I've no experience with these things."

"I can try," Zhu Irzh said, but he was not confident that the beasts would obey him. Chen hoisted the badger up, then clambered up beside him and watched as Zhu Irzh shook the reins, clucked, and failed to make the kylins budge. Eventually, with a lot of cursing and the use of a small, flicking whip, the beasts were prodded into movement and the carriage set off along the dock at a slow trundle.

"Do you even know where we're going?" Zhu Irzh asked.

"Not really, but apparently Kuan Yin does. Her avatar will give us directions."

"Strange," the demon mused. "You must have come here many times, and yet you retain none of it."

Chen grimaced. "Probably just as well. I don't like the Night Harbor, Zhu Irzh."

"I can see why." Zhu Irzh looked with distaste at the ghosts clamoring alongside them, their spectral hands brushing against his coat and the sides of the