The Demon and the City

be more united, more cohesive. They do not believe that a certain degree of disagreement is healthy. They seek to unite us, and they seek to do so by withdrawing us from the ways of the world."
    Obliquely, Zhu Irzh understood. Heaven was splitting, Kuan Yin couldn't trust any of her peers, and so she had come all the way down here to get her divine hands dirty. One had to have some respect for that: it was almost Hellish.
    "I'm glad you're here," Chen was saying. "I have some critical information for you."
    "Tell me," the goddess said, and so Chen did.
    When he had finished, the goddess was silent for a long time. She was so still that Zhu Irzh wondered whether she might have returned to her marble form: he'd seen her do that before, the Celestial equivalent of locking oneself in the bathroom and having a long think. But it seemed that the goddess was merely processing, for eventually the life flooded back into her features and she turned to Chen.
    "And you say it has already begun?"
    "Tserai has already altered at least one Celestial being. My colleague here witnessed its transformation."
    "Tell me about this being," the goddess said. Beneath the icy calm, Zhu Irzh thought he detected a momentary unease, but the goddess was too difficult to read. Perhaps he had merely imagined it. He related to Kuan Yin the events at the Farm. When he had finished, she said, "And this Celestial being. Tell me again what he looked like."
    She was presumably trying to place the entity. Zhu Irzh obliged and again there was that faint stirring beneath the marble facade, this time one of relief. But why should the goddess be relieved to know that one of her kindred had fallen into the hands of the enemy?
    Chen said, "You spoke of looking for someone. May we be given to know who?"
    "You may. An enemy. The one who has been trying to bring Hellkind through to the city."
    For a paranoid moment, Zhu Irzh thought that Kuan Yin meant himself and was being subtle about it. But the goddess continued: "One who has died and is trapped here. One who was murdered."
    "Deveth Sardai?" Zhu Irzh said before he could stop himself. Chen shot him an unreadable glance and it was only then that he realized that Chen himself may wish to keep secrets from Heaven, though he did not understand why.
    "She is here, in the Night Harbor. Heaven has had its eye on her for years."
    "Surely she's hardly a candidate for the Celestial pastures!" Zhu Irzh remarked.
    "I meant, demon, in the sense that we continue to watch our enemies. Sardai's family has long been in league with Hell. And Deveth was one of the most promising sorcerers of her generation. Naturally, we watched her."
    "You realize that Deveth is not the prime mover here?" Chen said carefully. He glanced at the demon again, as if wondering whether to ask Zhu Irzh to leave. The demon stood his ground. He knew what Chen was about to say.
    "You mentioned the name of Jhai Tserai. I understand that she is the focus of all this. But Tserai is not human, and subject to other jurisdiction. I am licensed only to go in search of Sardai."
    "Other jurisdiction? What other jurisdiction?"
    "The family is Keralan," Zhu Irzh said. "I'm assuming that makes Tserai subject to other deities."
    "We could issue a kind of extradition order," Kuan Yin answered, "but such things are complex and take time. Sardai has all the answers I need for the moment, and her presence and witness is all the evidence."
    "You're planning to bargain with her?" Chen asked doubtfully.
    "I see no conflict here, Detective. She is your murder victim, after all, not a suspect. You have only to seek out the one who slew her. No, Sardai will be subject to our courts and our justice. There is, however, no difficulty in granting you the right to question her before I take her to Heaven."
    The goddess seemed very confident, Zhu Irzh thought, but he supposed that this went with the territory.
    "Then if we help you look for Sardai," Chen said, "and she tells us exactly who it was who murdered her, you can take things from there?"
    "She can't appear in your courts, can she? All you need is a signed and sealed witness statement."
    "Yes, that's perfectly adequate under these circumstances. It isn't possible for a spirit to lie about their death: it's the one thing on which they have to speak the truth."
    "Then we are in accord," the goddess said, smiling. "All we have to do now is find her."
    But Zhu Irzh, thinking of the vast and shadowed hinterlands of the Night