The Demon and the City

clerk, anyway."
    Zhu Irzh frowned. "Doesn't Heaven ever send any personnel to the Night Harbor? It's supposed to be equal, after all. You'd think they'd have a vested interest in guarding the portals to the afterlife."
    "The amount of bureaucracy that Heaven contributes to these things has been waning over the last decade," Chen said. "Years ago, when I was just starting out as a policeman, you'd come in here and all the staff would be Celestial maidens. Very pleasant, of course. But gradually they all got replaced. It can only have been with Heaven's agreement."
    "Are they short-staffed up there or something?"
    "Who knows?" Chen sighed. "There are certainly more souls in Hell than in Heaven. But these days, that's not too surprising."
    "Maybe that's why your goddess isn't answering your prayers," Zhu Irzh said. "Perhaps she's given up and gone on vacation."
    Chen smiled, but it was strained. They were now standing within the Night Harbor itself. Zhu Irzh could smell the ozony odor of the Sea of Night and hear it lapping against the dockside. Ahead, a maze of low stone walls revealed the tall masts of a ship in dock.
    "That's not the Night Boat," the demon said.
    "No, it isn't." Chen was staring at it. "I don't know what it is. I thought there was only one boat that sailed the Sea of Night."
    "Perhaps it's come in from some other religion's Hell," Zhu Irzh said.
    "Or someone else's Heaven," Chen murmured. Looking at it, the demon was inclined to consider this a more likely possibility. The boat was very pale, a pearly phosphorescence in the dim light of the Night Harbor, illuminated by the smoky lamps that burned along the edges of the port. Its sails were folded, but they, too, were white, draping in spectral folds from the high masts.
    "Can you see anyone aboard?" the demon asked.
    "No." Chen paused. "We ought to be concentrating on finding Sardai."
    "Oh, let's just take a quick look," Zhu Irzh suggested.
    Together, they walked to the side of the dock. Up close, the boat was smaller than it had appeared from a distance: a delicate thing, its sides completely encrusted with ghostly shells, pale whorls and spirals that shimmered in the uncertain light.
    "This is beautiful," Chen said.
    "It's a Celestial craft," the demon said. He reached out a hand, but did not touch the sides of the boat.
    "It certainly looks as though it might be," Chen said. The demon wrinkled his nose. He could almost smell the offensive peach blossom orchards of Heaven. "But what's it doing here?" Chen added.
    "I have no idea. Celestial vessels very rarely leave the Heavenly seas."
    Chen reached out and brushed a hand along the shell-embossed side of the boat. Immediately, a gossamer web drifted down and enveloped his arm, imprisoning it.
    "Damn!" Chen said, staring at his hand in dismay. "I shouldn't have done that."
    "It was extremely foolish," the demon said severely. It was nice not to have been the one to fuck up for a change. "What are we going to do now?"
    "Wait," a voice said from behind him. "One moment."
    Zhu Irzh turned and found himself confronting a Celestial maiden. She was exactly like all the other Celestial maidens he had seen: beautiful, of course, with a thick fall of lacquered hair and a white ceremonial dress that seemed to catch the light from the lamps and hold it, so that she glowed a faint gold.
    "Madam," Zhu Irzh said, and bowed. A pity all these girls were as wan and insipid as their home. Perhaps, if Tserai had her way, that might change. The demon belatedly became aware that he was grinning, but instead of stepping back with a squeak of fright, the maiden simply regarded him with a cool, detached interest, as though he was something she had found at the bottom of a pond. She touched the web that imprisoned Chen and it disappeared.
    "I'm very sorry," Chen said. "I meant no harm."
    "I know. You were simply curious. And indeed, no harm has been done. You are Detective Inspector Chen, are you not?"
    Chen was staring at her. "Yes. But how did you know?"
    "You were the protégé of my mistress, before things changed."
    "Your mistress is Kuan Yin?" Zhu Irzh could see that Chen was rapidly leaping to conclusion after conclusion. "She's here?"
    "Yes. We arrived yesterday, as the Night Harbor reckons these things."
    "Then that must be why I couldn't contact her," Chen said. "May I ask why she's come?"
    "I think you should ask her yourself," the maiden said. "Come with me."

Thirty-Two
    "Where are we going?" Robin asked,