The Demon and the City

yes."
    "So who is your mother? Wait, you told me. Zasharou Selay."
    "Yes, that's right. But I don't see so much of my mother. She lives in the moon."
    "In the moon."
    "Yes."
    "I see."
    They were sitting in one of the maiden's cabins. The shore of the Night Harbor was far behind now, and Heaven lay ahead, somewhere across the ocean of night on which they sailed. Robin was having difficulty coming to terms with Mhara's newly revealed status. She could just about cope when she thought he was nothing more than a kind of minor angel, but this . . . I'm in love with a god . The irony was that she had never considered herself to be particularly religious. Mhara had explained to her why he had come to Earth in the first place—he had told the truth about that—and of course it made sense. He would make a wonderful Jade Emperor when the time came, and naturally Robin was delighted that he would soon be safely home, but—
    "Mhara, I have to ask this. What will happen to me?"
    Mhara smiled. "I was hoping you'd stay. At least for a while. You might not like Heaven, of course. Some people don't. It's serene, but a little dull."
    Robin gave a small, choked laugh. "I don't think the problem is going to be me not liking Heaven, Mhara. More like Heaven not liking me."
    "Robin, there were extenuating circumstances. And if I have forgiven you, then no one else in Heaven is going to gainsay that."
    "Really? And have you?"
    "Of course," Mhara said. He leaned closer, so did Robin, and then he kissed her. He tasted clean, of clear water and light. She did not know what might have happened after that, but the kiss was interrupted by a frantic lurch of the boat. Robin and Mhara were thrown apart and Robin landed on the floor. She scrambled to her feet to find the boat listing heavily to one side.
    "What is it?" she cried.
    "I don't know!"
    Mhara grabbed her hand and they made their way on deck, clinging to railings and stairways to keep their balance. Coming out of the main doorway, Robin cannoned into the demon.
    "What the hell!" Zhu Irzh shouted.
    A glowing form appeared high in the rigging and drifted quietly downward: the goddess Kuan Yin.
    "Lady?" Chen asked, panting from exertion to stay on his feet. The badger was with him, its claws scrabbling on the deck.
    "There is a disturbance," the goddess remarked as the boat once more righted itself.
    "You're telling me," the demon snapped. "I nearly went over the damn side."
    "What kind of a disturbance?" Chen asked.
    "The foundation of the Sea of Night is shifting," Kuan Yin told him.
    Chen stared at her. "Is that possible? I thought that the Sea of Night was—well, night . It's not water, even though it sometimes looks like it."
    "And behaves like it," Kuan Yin said. "The Sea of Night connects all the worlds, this you know. And as such, it has meridians which travel along it, just as there are meridians of ch'i and sha beneath the land. This boat must travel along the path of those meridians. Anyone who wants to disturb the passage of the boat, this far out to sea, must also disturb the meridians themselves."
    "Who could have the power to do that?" the demon asked, adding, "Oh."
    "I see you have divined the truth," the goddess said. "Senditreya herself, Lady of the Lines of the Land. Traitor and enemy."
    "She must be doing this from Heaven then," Chen said.
    "Unless she has already left," Kuan Yin replied. "She would have been wise to do so. I sent a message to the Jade Emperor as soon as I could, telling Him everything. He intended to summon Heaven's own kuei, the Storm Lords, to take her into their charge."
    "If she has fled, then she must be desperate," Zhu Irzh said.
    "Desperate enough to disrupt the meridians that hold the words together? If she causes enough damage, the worlds could fly apart," Chen exclaimed.
    "What happens then?" Robin ventured to ask, but she thought she already knew. Mhara's vision, which she had shared: the city sinking into flood and ruin. Looking into the goddess' ineffable eyes, she saw that Kuan Yin had read her thoughts.
    "What can we do?" she asked.
    "We sail on," the goddess said.
     
    As if by mutual consent, Robin went with Detective Chen and the demon, as well as the goddess' handmaidens, to the main cabin to ride out the storm. Kuan Yin herself remained at the helm, steering her boat through the thundering waves of night with a palpable air of serenity with which no one was inclined to argue. Mhara stayed with her, lashed to the plunging rail;