DAC 3 Precious Dragon (26 page)

The Celestial turned to Chen with eyes the color of bruises. A dreadful weight hung over her like a psychic pall.

"No," Miss Qi replied.

But she did not have time to explain further. A guard was on them, stabbing out with a needle dagger. Miss Qi knocked the dagger from her hand, seized the guard by the throat and the jaw, and with careful deliberation, tore off her head.

"Wow," said Jhai, momentarily distracted. "She's not as delicate as she looks, is she?"

Miss Qi gave Jhai Tserai a look of deep disdain. Her usual humility seemed to have disappeared, scoured by recent events. "I am a Celestial warrior. Deal with it."

The guards fell back, and Chen felt a fleeting sense of satisfaction, before realizing why. There wasn't any need for the guards to risk further destruction. More of the insect-eyed women were pouring into the chamber, carrying bows. Chen and his companions were confronted by a ring of glittering arrowheads. The ring split, briefly, to allow a woman to walk through.

She wore rubies. Her hair was as red as blood, as were her slanted eyes and full lips. Her garnet tongue flicked out, thick as a toad's, and the air became dreamy and filled with desire. Chen hadn't been so much at the mercy of his hormones since he was a teenager; he took a deep breath and concentrated on a Zen meditation. Behind him, he heard Jhai give a small snort; Miss Qi was blushing furiously.

"Visitors!" said the Minister of Lust.

Chen had, on a couple of occasions, been invited to parties where someone had tried to kill him. But he'd never found himself facing a swathe of weapons only to be invited to a party. He mentioned this to his companions.

"Believe me, it won't be much of a party," Underling No said bitterly from across the cell. "More like an orgy."

Jhai, lying flat on a bench and to all intents and purposes asleep, murmured, "It might even be entertaining."

"You don't understand," No said. "The only ones doing any entertaining will be us."

Chen could not avoid glancing at Miss Qi, who sat statue-still with her face turned to the wall. He had not yet dared ask what had happened to her.

"Use it as an opportunity," Zhu Irzh said. "We'll be together, presumably, and we'll be free to move about."

"How do you know that?" No demanded. "How do you know they won't tie us up in some kind of bondage session?"

"I don't," Zhu Irzh said, discomfited, "but we have to think positively."

"To be brutally frank," said Chen, "it's hard to think at all around the Minister."

"I'd forgotten that you hadn't met Su Yi," Zhu Irzh said. "She's difficult to deal with. For obvious reasons."

"Well, I don't find her remotely attractive," Jhai said. "All that red is so last century. And that sexual magnetism is a well-known trick of the trade—you take pheromonal enhancers to boost your appeal."

"One assumes that you would know?" Underling No said, but politely.

"I would, actually. I come from a long line of Keralan courtesan demons. We know how to big it up, if you'll pardon the expression. Normally, I take suppressants to dim it down: it's not very helpful in the lab. And I don't think it's terribly businesslike, to be honest."

"If that's the case," Chen said, "then is there any more indirect way in which you might be able to fight the Minister? After all, you're not taking the suppressants now, are you?"

"No," Jhai said. She opened her golden eyes and stared at Chen. "That's an interesting suggestion."

"Moving between the worlds changes people," Chen said. "My magic is different down here. Zhu Irzh's abilities alter when he comes to Earth. And it's impossible not to notice that your own inner nature is more strongly aspected, the longer you're here. You're more tiger than you were when I first saw you a while ago."

"It's definitely bringing it out of me," Jhai agreed. "But I'm not losing sentient awareness. I'm still me. And it has a limit, obviously. A few more stripes and I'll be there fully."

Miss Qi turned an arctic face in her direction. Reflecting on it, Chen did not think that Qi's froideur was completely due to recent events: Jhai had, after all, been crucially involved in a plot to help Hell overcome Heaven not so long ago. One could hardly blame Miss Qi for not holding Jhai in very high regard.

"A curious aspect for a courtesan," Miss Qi said, "that of a tigress."

Jhai shrugged. "What can I tell you? Keralans must like stroppy, fierce women."

"But is there anything you could do?" Chen persisted.

"I don't know," Jhai said slowly. "I can certainly try. The Minister is a lot more powerful than I am. She's a lot older, for a start."

"What if someone were to distract the Minister?" Chen said. "If you could influence the guards, Jhai . . ."

Zhu Irzh looked up in alarm. "What do you mean, 'if someone were to distract the Minister'? Like who?"

Chen grinned. "I gather that you are reasonably appealing to the ladies."

"Hang on," Zhu Irzh said. "I'm not coming on to Su Yi."

"You might not have to. She might come on to you." This was not entirely out of the blue; Chen did not think that he had been mistaken in noticing a slightly speculative glint within the inhuman gaze of the Minister of Lust.

"Well, one thing's for certain," Underling No said gloomily. "We have to do something. Because either they'll kill us after the orgy, or we'll wish they had."

Mrs Pa woke to find that it was morning: not dawn, but full into the day with the sun burning through the blinds of the room in the temple annex and the smell of jasmine drifting through the air like a scented sea.

"Here," Inari's voice said. "I've brought you some tea."

Mrs Pa struggled into wakefulness; she felt as though she'd been asleep for years.

"Precious Dragon—?"

"Precious Dragon woke not long ago and now he's sitting outside with Mhara and Robin. He's quite safe."

"Nothing came in the night?" Mrs Pa questioned.

"Nothing came," Inari reassured her. But in that, Mrs Pa soon discovered, Inari had, unbeknowingly, lied.

They might not have noticed the footprint if Precious Dragon hadn't spotted a bird in the bushes and gone over to look at it. His exclamation of surprise brought Robin running, and caused Mhara to turn his head and walk slowly over. Inari and Mrs Pa, hearing some commotion, rushed outside.

"What is it?" Inari breathed. The footprint was at least eight feet long, a spined, spiked ridge: if it had not been imprinted so clearly in the soft earth around the temple, Mrs Pa might have taken it for erosion.

"It is a kuei," Mhara said, crouching down by the footprint and holding out a hand. His face was very grave.

"But how can that be?" Mrs Pa asked, bewildered. "I thought you said they'd taken human size, like the ones we saw."

Mhara's blue gaze came up to meet her own. "I thought they had."

"But if this great big thing was outside, why didn't we hear it? Why didn't it attack us?"

Mhara raised a hand and gestured toward the outer limits of the bushes. Mrs Pa blinked. A blue glow was visible, the color of a summer sea or an azure sky, perhaps a hundred yards around the perimeter of the temple, just inside the clawed end of the footprint.

"I put this place under heavy wards last night, the strongest that I know," Mhara said. "I've also sent a message to my cousin Kuan Yin and asked for her protection. She is held back in much that she tries to do these days, but I believe she has done something, for we were not touched as we slept. I don't think the kuei that made this footprint was any larger than the kuei that you saw, but it is a message: they are powerful and they are on their way. We need to get to Sulai-Ba, therefore."

"I will do my best," Mrs Pa said. The idea of another long walk made her heart sink. "But I'm afraid that I'll slow you down."

Mhara smiled. "You'll be traveling in a lot more comfort than you did yesterday, Mrs Pa. I've sent for a car."

"Goodness me," Mrs Pa said faintly, when the car arrived.

Mhara had the grace to look embarrassed. "It's not the sort of thing I'd normally choose to travel in," he said, as they stood in front of the gleaming white and silver limousine. It was at least twenty feet in length. "I'm afraid it's the kind of official vehicle that Heaven thinks I should have, as the son of the Emperor."

"What sort of car do you think you should have?" Mrs Pa asked.

"Something small that runs on ecological fuel. Or a bicycle. My Heavenly clan is living in the past, you see. They're much too grand."

"Perhaps you should ask for a bicycle."

"I did. They sent me this."

"Oh dear," Mrs Pa said, but secretly she was rather impressed by the big car. At least they could get everyone in it, although Robin stayed behind to look after the temple in Mhara's absence. Mrs Pa worried about that, but then again, Robin couldn't actually be killed and that was encouraging. Neither could Inari, who was also staying behind, at Mhara's insistence. She had wanted to come, but the Emperor's son said that it would be better if they went alone to Sulai-Ba, because the kuei were more likely to follow them there. But even though Inari could not be slain, she could still be sent back to Hell, and Mrs Pa worried about that, too.

Precious Dragon sat with Mrs Pa in the second row of seats in the limousine. The back rows stretched behind them, fading into dimness. The limo seemed much longer from the inside than it did even from without, and the rows of seats made Mrs Pa uneasy, as though she might look back and see something suddenly sitting there.

Then Mhara joined her in a flurry of indigo garments.

"Who is driving?" Mrs Pa wondered aloud. But as she spoke, a shadowy form appeared in the driver's seat and a beautiful face looked calmly back at them. Mrs Pa couldn't tell whether it was a man or a woman, nor how old it was. It had pale golden eyes and white hair, but its face was unlined. Of course, it must be from Heaven, and things were different there. Mrs Pa felt a sharp pang, a sensation familiar to her in the years after Mai's death. This is where Mai should have been, not Hell. The thought of everything that had been denied to her daughter made her heartsick. You cannot let yourself be bitter, she thought. Look what has come of that old mistake, and she turned her gaze to her grandson instead. The pearl made a small bulge in his cheek.

"Are you all right, Grandma?" Precious Dragon asked, with that penetrating gaze, and she lied as she answered, "Why yes, I'm fine."

Doors closing, said the limo. The driver put a gloved hand on the wheel and they glided out into the suburbs toward the city center. This was much better than walking. Mrs Pa was even able to enjoy the view of the passing shops; normally, she did not have the time to look, but as the limo sped toward Sulai-Ba down long, tree-lined boulevards she marveled at the chic designer clothes in artful boutiques, the well-dressed people sitting at pavement cafés over long, cool drinks. That was the sort of life that her employers enjoyed. It must be nice, she thought. But none of them had a grandson as marvelous as Precious Dragon, and none of them was riding in a limousine with the son of the Emperor of Heaven. The life of an elderly cleaner was not without incident, after all.

They passed the Opera, which looked far more splendid than Mrs Pa remembered, and then the beautiful designer homes in the district just beyond Sulai-Ba, finally drawing to a halt in a neat little street in front of a small park. Hibiscus blossoms blazed red in a hedge and jasmine spilled down onto the sidewalk.

"We'll have to walk from here," Mhara said. "There isn't room for the car around Sulai-Ba itself. Can you manage, Mrs Pa?"

"I'll be fine," Mrs Pa said. Mhara helped her out of the car, just as the Celestial chauffeur melted away.

The street was really quite run-down, and several of the houses were boarded up and derelict. Litter was strewn about the sidewalk. The lawns of the little park were yellow and dusty in the heat; the jasmine shriveled and wilting. Only the hibiscus still blazed redly in the hedge.

"That," Mhara said quietly, following her gaze, "is another reason why I'm not keen on using the car. It—changes things."

He led them through the little park. Mrs Pa sighed. It had been such a wonderful city, and yet it had all been illusion. She'd once heard that the Buddha had made a similar journey when he was still a human prince; his father had made sure that he saw only the most beautiful things along the way, sweeping the beggars aside. Then the Buddha had realized how things really were and renounced all his wealth. It seemed Mhara had similar views and she respected him all the more for that. She could see now why he'd been so keen on a bicycle.

"We're not far from Sulai-Ba," Mhara said, clearly wanting to reassure Mrs Pa. But her blisters had healed overnight, and the walk was not nearly as painful as it had been on the previous day, even though she was still stiff. Besides, she could see the ruined temple now above the heat-bleached trees, the shattered roof rising in a dark arc over the city. She reached out and took Precious Dragon by the hand, not knowing what else they might find inside the vaults of Sulai-Ba.

Pin thought that he was never going to stop falling. He twisted and turned in the air until it was almost relaxing, traveling down through the dimly glimpsed layers of Hell like someone in an elevator, passing different floors. He saw lands that were nothing but windswept iron plains, lands that were all fire, with volcanoes spurting sparks the size of stars. A million hands reached out, beseeching, but it was too late: Pin had passed.

Below him, Mai also fell, downward like a leaf with her skirt billowing out around her. Occasionally, she waved. Pin thought that she was trying to keep his spirits up.

And above them, the kuei also fell. It was far enough behind that Pin could see the entire serpentine-centipede shape of its length, the thousand legs like metal pilings, and the huge curving jaws at its head. Its visible eye rolled frantically in crimson panic, and it roared so loudly that Pin was soon deafened and could hear nothing at all. After a while, he noticed that the kuei looked smaller, diminished, but he thought that this must just mean that it had slowed down and was further away.