Inari watched hopelessly as Dao Yi strode angrily from the room, clutching his wounded hand. She could still taste the sparks of rage and fear between her teeth, but this time she swallowed them. She had done a stupid thing, hurting Dao Yi like that. She remembered his face, mottled and dappled with sores and flushed with fury, and winced. But if he hadn't touched her like that. . . she remembered Chen's gentle, considerate hands and the anger came flooding back. If it was a question between being Dao Yi's lowliest wife and getting summarily dispatched to the Lower Realms, the latter option seemed almost enticing. Perhaps she should take her chances with the wu'ei after all, now that the worst had happened and the Ministry had kidnapped her back to Hell. . . At this thought, there was a rattle from the direction of the ceiling and a shower of dust and grime. Inari jumped, as though the very idea had summoned up the wu'ei, but it was a demon like herself who dropped into the room.
Inari's first thought was to wonder why the demon was covered in filth. She had rarely seen anyone dirtier, and his coat was torn. Beneath the dust, however, his face was carved into elegant planes and his eyes were as golden as fire. He said, "Madam? It's plain that you're not where you wish to be."
"Too right," Inari quavered, not yet daring to hope.
"In that case," the demon said, "there is a way out, but I warn you, it isn't altogether pleasant."
"I can see that," Inari remarked, eyeing the demon's disheveled form. He glanced down in evident embarrassment.
"We'll need to free you from those shackles," he said. "What' your name, by the way?"
Inari thought quickly. She didn't want to reveal her true identity, in case this character remembered the old scandal and decided to use her as a pawn in further blackmail. She said hastily, "My name's Leilei."
"What a pretty name," the demon said, crouching down at her feet. The shackles fell away.
"Thank you," Inari sighed. "That didn't take long."
"No, I'm—I have some small skill at this sort of thing. . . Now. Let me help you up."
Before Inari could protest, he slid his arms around her waist and lifted her up towards the ceiling. She grasped the edge of the opening and hoisted herself through, feeling uncomfortably exposed in the rags of her dressing gown.
"Please don't look at me," she said, embarrassed.
"I wouldn't dream of it," the demon replied gallantly. She was sure he was lying, and she pulled herself up into the grimy shaft as quickly as she could. The demon swung up behind her.
"Now," he said. "We go this way. Try and be quiet."
Thinking of Dao Yi, and the magnification his fury would undergo when he found her gone, Inari did as she was told. It was not an easy clamber through the labyrinth of passageways, nor was it fragrant, and by the time they reached the base of the building and dropped cautiously through into the lavatory cubicle, Inari was as filthy as the demon himself. The dressing gown had also suffered further during the course of the climb; she was practically naked, she thought with angry shame. The demon glanced at her under the wan light of the lavatory, and Inari turned away, not wanting to see if his gaze remained upon her a little too long. Then he said, "I think you'd better take my coat. What's left of it, anyway." Removing the long length of grubby silk, he wrapped it around her, and Inari looked at him gratefully. "We'd better hurry," he said.
"Where are we going?"
"Don't worry. I know a place. Somewhere you'll be safe. Somewhere you can have a bath." He smiled down at her, and Inari smiled dutifully back, but inwardly, she could not help thinking: It's always men. It's always men who rescue me, steal me, want to marry me. . . Why am I never in a position to help myself? But then she remembered the man with the sword, the cold-eyed hunter, flying from the boat into the oily waters of the harbor, and of her tongue flicking fire into Dao Yi's groping hands, and of her initial refusal to marry him which was, after all, the primary cause of her standing here with some stranger in a stinking lavatory in the basement of the Ministry of Epidemics. Not always men. I just need half a chance, that's all. And the first chance I get, I'll take it. The demon was already halfway out the door, glancing warily around him, and with new determination in mind, Inari followed.