them get away with things, Chen, it never stops. Why do you think Hell got created in the first place? Something has to limit Celestial arrogance."
"Look, theological speculation is all well and good, but we're on the goddess' own boat, with no way off it unless she decides to throw us over the side."
"There might be a lifeboat."
"On a Celestial vessel? Why would they need one? Let's go back to our own cabin. And Miss Yuan, could you come with us? I want to talk to you." Chen had a light in his eye that Zhu Irzh did not see very often, but with which even he was disinclined to argue. He trailed after Chen and then poured more tea once they were back inside the cabin. Pity the goddess did not appear to have anything stronger, but what could you expect of Heaven?
"Now," Chen said, sitting down opposite Robin. "I know you work for Jhai Tserai. I know they've been trying to develop a drug that changes the nature of Celestial beings. I strongly suspect that one of those beings murdered your girlfriend, Deveth Sardai, and that she in turn was not exactly innocent of such machinations herself. You're going to tell me what you know."
And Robin Yuan, pale-faced and twisting her hands in her lap, did so.
"And I haven't told anyone this, either," she concluded, "but Mhara made a prophecy. He saw the end of the city."
"Wow," the demon said, wide-eyed. "Jhai thinks big, doesn't she?"
"And do you know who Tserai's contacts in Hell might be?" Chen said to Robin.
"I have no idea," Robin admitted, clearly frightened.
"And your Mhara. Who is he?"
"I don't know. He's a Celestial being, but I don't know which one. I think he must be a minor scion of some Heavenly house."
"But he is not," a voice said from the doorway. Kuan Yin was standing in the opening, light streaming around her. Everyone stood up. "He is the son of the Jade Emperor of Heaven, and one day he will be one of the most powerful beings in all the worlds that are."
Forty-One
Jhai was pacing up and down, a tiger caged.
"Are you sure?"
"They are even now on their way to the Celestial Shores," the dogwoman said. She was in her purely canine form; as Jhai turned, the dogwoman raised a hind foot and scratched an ear. "I spoke to the girl, your servant."
"She's not my—well, never mind. What did she say?"
"She did not know who your escaped captive is. I am certain of that." The dogwoman snapped at a passing bee zooming in over the hibiscus on Jhai's balcony. "Then we had news that the goddess had left the port, in the company of a human and a demon."
"Yeah. Wonder who they could have been."
"The males took the two captives up to a cave, a secure place, and your transformed one went to attack the goddess. But they overcame it and we were deceived: the goddess' party came to the village, and questioned us. Then, we do not know how, they found their way to the cave and released the boy and your servant. All are now aboard the boat and heading across the Sea of Night."
"All right," Jhai said. "Then that's it. Might as well say that the game is up."
"You made me a promise," the dogwoman said.
Jhai nodded. A fleeting moment of spite suggested she should not honor it, but that wasn't the way it worked and besides, she might have use for this creature another day. You just never knew. She went to the desk and, from a drawer, took out a small bag. "Here," she said to the dogwoman. She hung the bag around the thick ruff. "These are the bones of the first founder of your village."
"You have given me my rule," the dogwoman said softly. "I won't forget."
"You did your best."
"I wish you luck," the dogwoman said.
Jhai gave a short, sour laugh. "I'll need it."
From a second bag, she cast a circle of black glittering powder around the dogwoman, who squeezed her eyes tightly closed. A muttered incantation activated the powder, which went up in a blinding flash. When Jhai opened her eyes once more, the dogwoman was gone and the bone bag with her, dispatched back to the Night Harbor and control of Bad Dog Village.
Jhai went out onto the wide balcony and rested her hands on the rail. She could see almost the whole southern half of the city from here: the sparkling line of sea,