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Thirty-Nine

Robin had no idea where they had been taken. At some point during the previous night, she had been roughly roused from sleep, dragged from the hovel, and bound: a gag placed across her mouth, her wrists secured behind her back and her legs shackled. Then she had been led out into the compound and hoisted onto a cart. Mhara, to her relief and dismay, was already there, similarly constrained. They could look at one another, but not speak: the gag was an effective one. The cart rumbled off, jolting and bouncing over the rough ground. She could not see what might be pulling it, but once she looked to the side of the road and saw Deveth, in her dog-form, trotting along beside. Deveth looked at her and gave a vulpine grin, then vanished from sight. Robin worked steadily at the bonds, but with no result. They were made of thick hemp rope, and they would not budge.

Although it was dark, she could tell that they were climbing. The air, however, did not grow any fresher: it smelled as though they were moving through a cellar, musty and fungal, with an undertone of decay. Her hands felt gritty, covered in dust, and there was a faint wind blowing which covered her face in the dust, too. Soon she found it more comfortable to close her eyes, though she tried to keep them open in the off-chance that she might be able to glimpse their destination or their route. Eventually the cart slowed and she was lifted down.

The dogmen were growling and snapping at one another again: it was a moment before Robin realized that they were actually communicating. They pulled and tugged her into the narrow mouth of a cave, then released a lever. An iron grille rattled down, sealing her and Mhara behind it. Deveth peered through the bars.

"You'll be kept here. Don't worry, they're not leaving you to rot. Someone will bring you food and water tomorrow; until then, the gags stay on. I suggest you try to sleep."

Robin produced a series of strangled protests. Deveth's grin widened.

"That won't do you much good. I don't have a lot of say in this, you know. It wasn't my idea." Somehow, Robin was certain she was lying. She kicked at the bars, but Deveth was already bounding away down the mountainside. Robin watched her go, consumed by a flurry of emotions: rage, despair, frustration. Mhara nudged her. She looked up and his eyes were full of understanding and compassion. She leaned against him, looking out over the dark mountain to the lights of what must be the Night Harbor port. They were dim and fuzzy, like lanterns seen through rain, and very far away. She sank down to sit with her back against the wall and fell into an exhausted sleep.

 

The bars rattled her awake. Something was reaching in through the grille, a long, bare arm with claws that raked down her shin and brought fire in their wake. Robin screamed through the gag and scrambled away, waking Mhara in the process. She looked out onto a mouth filled with teeth, a narrow, bald head. Mhara and Robin shuffled back as far as they could, but the cave came to an abrupt end. They were trapped, and now the thing was questing about, its blind head raised as if testing the air. It made a small noise of approbation, then took hold of the lever. Mhara pushed himself in front of Robin and an undignified shackled scuffle broke out as each sought to protect the other. The grille shot up, the thing bounded into the cave and lashed out at Mhara. Robin hurled herself at it, caught her foot on a rocky outcrop and fell heavily to the floor. The thing, in turn, fell over her and sprawled across the cave. Then something lightning-quick and growling had entered the fray. Robin, trying to rise, glimpsed a long, narrow head and eyes like scraps of night. It was a badger—but whatever was a badger doing here? Then she heard shouts and a tall snarling form in a black coat seized the bald thing and banged its head repeatedly against the wall. A shorter man was there, then, accompanied by a girl. Together, moving with calm efficiency, they released Robin and Mhara from their bonds and tore away Robin's gag.

"Thank you!" Robin whispered. It was all she could manage, for her throat was raw from lack of water.

"I'm glad we found you in time," the man said. Robin looked into a round, pleasant, unremarkable face.

"You're human," she said. The relief was overwhelming; she sagged in his grasp.

"Detective Inspector Chen. I'm with the city's police force. This—" he pointed to the tall person, who had finished his assault on the thing and was now securing its hands with a pair of handcuffs "—is my partner, Detective Zhu Irzh. He isn't human, as you can probably see, but don't worry about that."

"My name is Robin Yuan. And who are you?" Robin asked the girl. She had never seen anyone so delicately beautiful: the girl made Robin, who had always considered herself to be a slight person, feel like an ox in comparison. And what lovely perfume she was wearing: it filled the cave, canceling the odors of decomposition and dust.

"I am a friend," the girl said with a curious firmness. Robin would have pressed the issue, but something about the girl's demeanor stopped her in her tracks. Though the girl looked so young, there was an impression of great age about her. She and Mhara were staring at one another.

"You know each other," Robin said, dismayed and suddenly jealous. Of course Mhara would have had friends in Heaven. And how could she ever think that she could compete with that?

"Yes, I believe we do," Mhara said, but he was not smiling. The girl said, with an odd diffidence, "I have come to bring you back."

"I know."

"Who are you?" Chen's colleague asked and Robin moved a little further away. He was so obviously a demon.

"My name is Mhara."

"You're a Celestial, aren't you? It's as plain as the nose on your face. The badger said he'd picked up a Celestial's scent."

"If it wasn't for the badger, we would never have found you," the girl said. The perfume intensified. "Creature of Earth, I owe you a debt."

"It is my work," the badger said, evidently somewhat offended. "I serve my master."

"What passes for dawn in these parts is not far away," Chen said, glancing toward the port, where the sky was indeed beginning to glow gray. "I suggest we try to make it back down the mountain before dogtown discovers your absence. I don't want to take on the whole village."

There was no disagreement. Zhu Irzh, muttering, hoisted Robin's unconscious assailant over his shoulder and they set off down the mountain, following the badger.

"What happened to you, back there in the village?" Mhara asked Robin quietly, as they made their way down the banks of scree.

"Not much. They kept me prisoner. I had a talk with one of the women. Deveth came to see me." She did not want to worry him with the attempted rape.

"And I also. She taunted me. I suppose it is her right. She said that they would have fed me to her, at the end, while the village watched: her recompense for her own murder. I told her that this would surely send her spirit on to Hell and she merely laughed, said that she would make her way in Hell as she had in the world so far." Mhara looked contemplative.

"But she could not actually have slain you, could she? You're a Celestial."

"My spirit would have lived on in her, had she eaten me. A prisoner, within her." Mhara shivered. "I can think of few worse fates."

"And that . . .thing." Robin nodded toward the creature slung over the demon's shoulder. "What is that?"

"It has the sense of Heaven," Mhara said.

"It doesn't look very Heavenly to me!"

"Nonetheless . . . I think someone may have sent it after me, Robin."

"To hurt you?"

"To bring me back. And I think it has become another of Jhai's experiments."

"Jhai turned a Celestial being into that monster?"

"It is no worse than what I became," Mhara said. He was not looking at her, there was no sense of blame, and yet the guilt flooded back all over again, hot and fresh. Robin said no more, but fixed her gaze on the distant port and tried not to think about what might be to come.

 

By the time they reached the outskirts of the port, it was much lighter. To Robin's relief, they had met no more horrors on the journey, but she kept looking over her shoulder all the same. The dogmen must surely have discovered their absence by now. She touched Chen on the shoulder.

"What now? Are you going to take me back to Earth?"

"I am not sure what's happening," Chen admitted. "I have a—suspect to find, but the person in charge is this young lady."

Strangely, Robin was not surprised. "I see." She felt herself grow colder. The girl would want to take Mhara back to Heaven, and probably Robin would be dispatched to Earth, to what remained of her normal life. And at the very least of it, unemployment, without references. "Who's your suspect?" she asked, to distract herself from this unwelcome prospect.

"A murder victim. A woman named Deveth Sardai. I need to question her about her death."

Robin found herself thinking furiously and hard. She had told Chen her name, back there in the cave, and if he had been assigned to the murder case then he would surely know all about her. She could not tell him that she knew very well who had murdered Deveth and risk him arresting Mhara. She was determined not to see Mhara face trial—but perhaps the human authorities wouldn't try him, Celestial being that he was. Yet Tserai ought to be brought to justice . . . Guiltily, she became aware that Chen was watching her. His face was expressionless. Mhara nudged her.

"Robin. I will deal with this."

"I can't let you—"

"Robin." His hand closed warningly around her arm and Robin fell silent.

Ta Ch'u:

The Taming Power

of the Great

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