The Demon and the City - By Liz Williams Page 0,77

person, who had finished his assault on the thing and was now securing its hands with a pair of handcuffs "—is my partner, Detective Zhu Irzh. He isn't human, as you can probably see, but don't worry about that."

"My name is Robin Yuan. And who are you?" Robin asked the girl. She had never seen anyone so delicately beautiful: the girl made Robin, who had always considered herself to be a slight person, feel like an ox in comparison. And what lovely perfume she was wearing: it filled the cave, canceling the odors of decomposition and dust.

"I am a friend," the girl said with a curious firmness. Robin would have pressed the issue, but something about the girl's demeanor stopped her in her tracks. Though the girl looked so young, there was an impression of great age about her. She and Mhara were staring at one another.

"You know each other," Robin said, dismayed and suddenly jealous. Of course Mhara would have had friends in Heaven. And how could she ever think that she could compete with that?

"Yes, I believe we do," Mhara said, but he was not smiling. The girl said, with an odd diffidence, "I have come to bring you back."

"I know."

"Who are you?" Chen's colleague asked and Robin moved a little further away. He was so obviously a demon.

"My name is Mhara."

"You're a Celestial, aren't you? It's as plain as the nose on your face. The badger said he'd picked up a Celestial's scent."

"If it wasn't for the badger, we would never have found you," the girl said. The perfume intensified. "Creature of Earth, I owe you a debt."

"It is my work," the badger said, evidently somewhat offended. "I serve my master."

"What passes for dawn in these parts is not far away," Chen said, glancing toward the port, where the sky was indeed beginning to glow gray. "I suggest we try to make it back down the mountain before dogtown discovers your absence. I don't want to take on the whole village."

There was no disagreement. Zhu Irzh, muttering, hoisted Robin's unconscious assailant over his shoulder and they set off down the mountain, following the badger.

"What happened to you, back there in the village?" Mhara asked Robin quietly, as they made their way down the banks of scree.

"Not much. They kept me prisoner. I had a talk with one of the women. Deveth came to see me." She did not want to worry him with the attempted rape.

"And I also. She taunted me. I suppose it is her right. She said that they would have fed me to her, at the end, while the village watched: her recompense for her own murder. I told her that this would surely send her spirit on to Hell and she merely laughed, said that she would make her way in Hell as she had in the world so far." Mhara looked contemplative.

"But she could not actually have slain you, could she? You're a Celestial."

"My spirit would have lived on in her, had she eaten me. A prisoner, within her." Mhara shivered. "I can think of few worse fates."

"And that . . .thing." Robin nodded toward the creature slung over the demon's shoulder. "What is that?"

"It has the sense of Heaven," Mhara said.

"It doesn't look very Heavenly to me!"

"Nonetheless . . . I think someone may have sent it after me, Robin."

"To hurt you?"

"To bring me back. And I think it has become another of Jhai's experiments."

"Jhai turned a Celestial being into that monster?"

"It is no worse than what I became," Mhara said. He was not looking at her, there was no sense of blame, and yet the guilt flooded back all over again, hot and fresh. Robin said no more, but fixed her gaze on the distant port and tried not to think about what might be to come.

By the time they reached the outskirts of the port, it was much lighter. To Robin's relief, they had met no more horrors on the journey, but she kept looking over her shoulder all the same. The dogmen must surely have discovered their absence by now. She touched Chen on the shoulder.

"What now? Are you going to take me back to Earth?"

"I am not sure what's happening," Chen admitted. "I have a—suspect to find, but the person in charge is this young lady."

Strangely, Robin was not surprised. "I see." She felt herself grow colder. The girl would want to take Mhara back to Heaven, and probably Robin would be dispatched to Earth, to what