"The Jade Emperor," Robin said, slowly and carefully, "is your father?"
"My father, 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; the goddess seemed to need no such supports. The main cabin had a porthole facing the prow and thus the occupants could see out if they chose. Robin took the seat nearest the porthole and remained there, welded to the view of Mhara and the goddess at the helm.
"If this carries on," Chen said uneasily, "we're going to have to find some way of strapping ourselves in."
"Or a binding spell," the demon said.
"I've no way of knowing whether that would work out here. Magic is different in different worlds, and here we are between them. Anyway, we don't want to get stuck in case the boat goes over."
"You and I have fallen into the Sea of Night before," Zhu Irzh said.
"Yes, and nearly drowned, or whatever is analogous. I'd have died if it hadn't been for Inari." Chen sighed. "She must be wondering what's happened to me."
"The captain knew we were going to the Night Harbor."
"Yes, but he won't send anyone to look for us."
"Ma might."
"Ma? He's terrified of the Night Harbor."
"I think you'll find a change in Sergeant Ma, Chen. He's really been surprisingly helpful in recent weeks. He—"
But Robin, who had been paying little attention to this conversation, interrupted. "I can see something."
Within moments, they were all clustering around her shoulder, looking at the bright line of the horizon.
"It's Heaven!" one of the maidens sighed. "We are almost home." She clasped her friend's hands with joy.
"Thank the goddess for that," Zhu Irzh remarked with some irony. They watched as the line grew stronger and brighter, but then the ship gave another great plunge and sent everyone staggering.
"Hold on!" Chen cried. Robin could see through the porthole that something was rising up from the surface of the Sea of Night. It looked like a huge spined porcupine, with a mass of waving tentacles and a billowing sail that spanned out behind it into a web of light.
"What," Robin heard the demon say, with the kind of calmness that heralds screaming panic, "is that?"
Robin did not know. The thing made her sick to look at it. It was utterly wrong. The light was a visceral red, an intestinal shade, and moments later it came down to cover the boat. The cabin was cast into a crimson gloom and filled with a smell like old fish. One of the maidens began to gag, delicately, in the manner of a cat about to be sick.
"Please don't," Zhu Irzh said, eyeing her. Then everything went black.
"It's dragging us down!" Chen cried.
"But what is it?" That was the demon, the panic more evident than ever. "I didn't think anything could live in the Sea of Night."
"It is something from between the stars," a maiden gasped. "The churning of the Sea of Night has brought it up."
"So if it drags us with it, this boat will end up in space?"
"Yes."
"I have to see what's happening," Zhu Irzh said, and over Chen and Robin's protests, he threw open the door. A red fold of translucent flesh billowed up like a canopy, showing a field of stars. Robin had never seen anything so bright. Next moment, the air was ripped from her lungs as whatever atmospheric shield that had been protecting the ship was torn away. The teacups that had been rolling around on the floor floated upward. So did Zhu Irzh. Robin caught hold of the doorframe, clasped the demon by his ankles, and hauled him back, but her chest felt as though it was about to burst. Just before her vision went completely dark, however, she saw something like a huge hook flash across the star field. The boat shuddered and shook. Robin passed out.
She woke to brightness. Her chest was still sore, but the air felt fresh and clean, with a faint smell of the sea in summer. Robin sat up and found that she was lying on the deck with one of the maidens kneeling by her side. The boat, with a glittering tow-rope attaching it to a much larger craft made of pearl and silver, rested a little distance from the shore. Robin looked out onto a mass of flowering trees and artfully ragged cliffs. In the other direction, only a dark line at the horizon's edge betrayed the existence of the Sea of Night, now far behind.
"Yes," the maiden said, smiling. "This is Heaven, the Celestial Shores. Welcome."
"God, I need a cigarette," Zhu Irzh said, coming out of a cabin.
The maiden looked scandalized. "This is Heaven! You can't smoke here!"
The demon gave her a disgusted glance. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"