The Demon and the City

approached, abandoning his companion. The demon caught her before she could fall and shot him a glance of mock reproach.
    "How could you?" she asked. "The poor little thing!" She bent her head and whispered in the girl's ear. The girl laughed, then moaned and tried to push the insistent face away. The long, painted nails sank through her upper arm. The demon nuzzled at her ear. There was a noise reminiscent of someone drinking something thick through a straw. The girl sagged limply back into the demon's arms and she lowered the body gently to the pavement, arranging it neatly, her head to one side, as if playing with a doll. When the body was laid out, the hands neatly folded across the chest, she turned to the office workers, who still stood in front of her, too confused to run. The tip of the demon's tongue licked something delicately from her pouting lower lip. Beneath her, the girl's face seemed sunken, like a deflated balloon. The creature leaned back her head and gave a ringing cry. She sprang up, and bounded toward the office workers, seizing the girl's companion and waltzing him round.
    "Fun!" she roared. Blood trickled from his ears. He tried to free his hands, to beat at his head, but she laughed madly and whirled him away down the street, swinging him like a rag doll. The remaining workers, stunned, took to their heels and scattered in all directions.
     

Fifty-Three
    "Mhara?" Chen said. He stepped forward to greet the Jade Emperor's son. Zhu Irzh managed a quick nod of the head: it was beneath his demonic status, he felt, to pay much respect to gods who'd bailed out of Heaven. Not that he could blame the young deity, having seen where he'd come from. He felt a sudden rush of sympathy for Mhara, an equally sudden appreciation of his own upbringing, his work for Vice. There but for the grace of God go I, thought Zhu Irzh. Literally.
    "You know who I'm looking for," Mhara said.
    "A goddess, I'd imagine. But which one?"
    Mhara acknowledged this with a smile. "The one who's causing all the trouble."
    "Just as well," Zhu Irzh remarked. "Kuan Yin's gone walkabout. But Senditreya isn't here. She vanished."
    "Do you know where?"
    "I'd imagine to Hell," Zhu Irzh said. "And as long as I'm not in it, too, I hope she stays there."
    Mhara's smile faded. "I don't think that's likely. She won't find her Hellkind conspirators very accommodating, now that she's failed in her plans. It's more likely that they'll kick her out to face the music on Earth."
    "They won't find it all that easy to dislodge a goddess," Chen remarked. "Even a failing one."
    "Veil between the worlds is going to be very thin tonight," Zhu Irzh said. "What with the Day of the Dead and all."
    Chen looked at him. "So you're suggesting they'll try to boot her out of Hell then?"
    "And they might make a run at the city, too," Mhara said. Zhu Irzh sighed. He hadn't wanted to raise that subject, since it was all too likely and he was, in any case, hardly on the side of the angels. An assault by Hell on the city sounded like fun for everyone. The demon brightened. Mhara was looking at him, and Zhu Irzh had the sudden uncomfortable impression that the sorrowful blue eyes could see right through his golden ones, into the black soul beneath. He covered his discomfort with a cough, and looked away.
    "So there's no question that she'll re-manifest," Mhara said. "The only question is where?"
    "Depends whether she's still looking for Jhai."
    "Jhai will go to ground. She might even have left the city by now," Chen said. "We can't count on finding them together. Jhai will just have to fend for herself."
    "Then how are we to find the goddess?" Zhu Irzh asked.
    "We're in a temple, aren't we? We've got oracular equipment. Use your imagination."
    Robin gaped at Chen. "That's a risky thing to do, undertake a spell on the Day of the Dead. It's already dark out there."
    "All the better," Chen said unruffled. "The thinner the veil, the more probable it is that we'll get an accurate reading."
    "And if something comes through?" Robin asked.
    "It'll probably be someone I know," the demon said airily.
    "So you can deal with it then," Mhara said. He turned to Chen. "Do what you must."
     
Interlude
    In Bharulay, a woman named Mrs Soi came wearily from her back door into the yard. She had spent most of the previous evening trying to placate her mother-in-law, her aunts and her husband, none of whom got on and all of whom expected her to do something about it. She was the first to