All the Gates of Hell (17 page)

Jin blinked. "I hadn't thought of that."

"Obviously. Listen, Immanent One, none of those who serve Emma-O remember who they were, so names are rather a sore point with us. You may call me the Keeper of the Names if you must. Follow me, please."

The demon was fast for someone with such short legs; Jin had to hurry to keep up.

"Wait," Jin said. She reached out and grabbed the Keeper of the Names by the shoulder. "I've changed my mind."

"You don't wish to see Teacher?"

"Later. Right now the person I really want to see is Madame Meng."

(())

Chapter 13

Jin passed the niches of parchment with no more than a glance in either direction. Perhaps it was her focus on the destination that shortened the trip, but it seemed almost no time by comparison before she emerged back into the Gateway of All the Hells where the guardians were patiently waiting.

"Show me the way to the Ninth Hell," she said.

WE CANNOT, they said. YOU FORBID IT.

"I...?" Jin stopped. Yes, of course she had, or would have. It was so like her. She thought for a moment, then smiled. "The Guan Yin That Was forbade you to show me the way to the Ninth Hell, yes?" They nodded. "Did she forbid you to tell me how to find Madame Meng?"

Silence for several long moments. NO, SHE DID NOT.

"Very well,
that
is my command. Do not show me how to reach the Ninth Hell, for lo, Guan Shi Yin has forbidden it and we can't muck with her Word and in truth I give rather less than a rat's ass about the Ninth Hell as such anyway. What I really want is to talk to Madame Meng. How do I do that?"

DYING WOULD WORK.

Jin glared at them. "Assuming I don't want to shuffle off the mortal coil just yet, how else? Can't you just show me the correct door?"

THAT WOULD BE THE SAME AS SHOWING YOU THE WAY TO THE NINTH HELL, SINCE THAT IS WHERE YOU WILL FIND HER. IF YOU REALLY WISH TO SPEAK TO MADAME MENG, THE ONLY OTHER WAY I CAN THINK OF WOULD BE TO EITHER HAVE EMMA-O OR YOUR SERVANTS SHOW YOU THE WAY.

"They know? Oh, of course. I should have figured that they would."

Jin left the guardians by the door to the First Hell and walked toward the center of the chamber, toward the statues of Guan Shi Yin, Celestial Youth, and the Dragon Maiden, and she considered the situation as she did so. She was still looking forward to tearing Teacher a new one, but she had put that pleasure off for the sake of this new lead and so didn't think that this was the best time to be asking him for favors.

Jin looked up a the statue of Guan Yin again, at its great height, glory, and richness. It was just a statue. Metal, wood, artistry. Probably no more real than the torch-lit corridors between hells; Jin could open her Third Eye and see for herself, but she didn't trust what she would see any more than she trusted Frank and Ling.

"I know you can hear me, Frank. Ling. Front and center." There was a pause, and Jin sighed. "Stop being so literal. What I meant was, show yourselves!"

They manifested in their equivalent statues on the dais, Frank with his palms pressed together in an attitude of prayer, Ling dressed in flowing robes and carrying a pearl that glowed with its own light.

"Has the Goddess of Mercy forgiven us?" Ling asked. Jin didn't know if Ling was being sarcastic or not, but decided that she didn't really care.

"I dunno. Ask her the next time you see her. For my own part, no, I'm still fairly pissed."

Frank frowned. "But you
are
Guan Yin!"

Jin smiled a grim smile. "Yes and no. Guan Yin is not a mortal girl, and that's what I am. Yet as we both know, that is what Guan Yin intended me to be, and without her divine understanding. So. We are stuck with the notion that this mortal girl is in charge of Guan Yin's duties, Guan Yin's power -- such that a mortal can bear, anyway -- and Guan Yin's servants, correct?"

Frank and Ling glanced at each other. "Well...yes," Frank said. "Though I should point out that Guan Yin was once a mortal, as you are. She remembers."

"But I don't. Funny how that worked out."

Frank and Ling exchanged another glance, and Jin sighed, "Never mind, so long as we understand one another. Now get down from there, I want to talk to both of you."

Ling and Frank appeared in front of her in their street clothes and their statues reverted to their former inanimate selves. Jin nodded approval. "Much better. Now, then -- do you two know the way to the Ninth Hell? The dominion of the entity known as Madame Meng? And no consulting with each other; I just want a straight answer."

"Yes," said Frank. "We do."

"Fine. Will you take me there?"

Ling frowned. "Why would you wish to go to the Terrace of Oblivion?"

"That's my own business. I just want to know if it's forbidden."

"We have no prior instructions on this," Frank said. Ling said nothing.

"Yet I'm almost certain that the Guan Yin That Was knew I might ask. Interesting, but I'll think about that later," Jin said. "Very well. Show me the way."

"We can take you there instantly," Frank said.

"I know. I want you to show me."

For a moment Frank just looked as if he didn't understand, and Ling just sighed. "This way, Jin."

She led Jin to one of the doors that looked like all the other doors. Jin stopped long enough to pick up three small stones and placed them on the right side of the door. "I know these aren't real, strictly speaking, but they look like stones and I'd like them to remain here so I can find this place again at need. Understand?"

"Yes," Ling said. "You think we might move them. Which seems rather pointless on our part if all you have to do is command us to show you the way again."

Jin stepped through the door with Ling and Frank close behind. She started walking. "I want to be able to find this place on my own if I have to. That's all."

Ling just shrugged again. Jin seriously considered addressing her attitude, but she knew Ling would simply say something about not being responsible for Jin's interpretation of Ling's communication, or whatnot.

Jin knew that Lung Nu was a Bodhisattva too, and clearly being so didn't excuse one from all human emotion, at least when wearing a corporeal form. Ling was obviously feeling aggrieved; Jin knew the signs. Ling might be a many thousands of years old dragon, but she was acting like a sullen teenager, and Jin was more relieved than annoyed. "Sullen teenager" was a world-view that Jin understood.

"You think I'm being unfair," Jin said. "Well, put yourself in my place. When Shiro dropped his bombshell, what would you have done?"

"I would have torn him apart and devoured the better pieces," Ling said, though there was just a hint of a twitch at the corner of her mouth that suggested she wanted to smile when she said it.

Jin did smile. "Given that this wasn't an option for me, what then?"

Ling seemed to consider the question while Frank kept pointedly silent. "I don't know," Ling said at last. "Perhaps...perhaps I would have gotten angry."

Jin shrugged. "Well, obviously that was the way I went. I thought I was justified at the time. I still think so, so far as my limited understanding allows. You'll have plenty of chances to prove me wrong."

Unlike Jin's hike through the record vaults of the First Hell, they arrived at the opposite end of the corridor very quickly, and Jin opened the door to a far different hell. For a moment she was stunned, and could say nothing. She just stared out into the place called the Ninth Hell for several long moments.

"This..." she managed at last, "this is wonderful."

Even as she said it Jin knew that "wonderful" was a lame, inadequate word for what she was seeing. For sheer scale it was a match for the First Hell, but there the resemblance ended. Jin and her companions stood on a mountain ledge. Far below them was a vast green valley, though it was sometimes hard to see for the thick fluffy clouds floating by. On the far side of the valley was another mountain much like the one they stood on now, grass and trees growing wherever the niches and ledges allowed and all sorts of blossoming plants taking root in crags and the cracks in stone. Flocks of white cranes soared across the gap between the mountains and the peaks, and the air was filled with the scent of flowers. Jin knew that, realistically, trees should not grow on mountains this high, that she and any foolish flowers should be freezing from cold and there should have been nothing to see but snow, but Jin didn't care. She was perfectly willing to believe that such a marvelous place could exist, must exist,
should
exist.

"Is this a paradise?" Jin asked.

Ling frowned. "This is the Ninth Hell," she said. "Madame Meng's dominion."

Jin shook her head in wonder. "If this is a hell I can't imagine what a paradise must look like."

"There are several and we can show you those, too," Frank said. "Though, except for a few more celestial palaces, they look a lot like this."

"Maybe later," Jin said, forcing her breathing back to normal. "Where is Madame Meng?"

"Across the valley. The Terrace of Oblivion is on the far side of that mountain. Shall we go?"

"Umm," said Jin, looking down into the mists, "how do we get across?"

"On the bridge of course," said Ling.

Jin looked across, then down, then across again. "What bridge?"

There was a gleam in Ling's eye as she took hold of Jin's left hand and Frank took hold of her right. Before Jin realized what they were up to they had taken two quick steps off the edge of the mountain and out into nothing.

"Are you crazy?" Jin shrieked, before she realized that they were not falling. Her feet had come down on something solid and it took her a moment to realize what had happened; they stood among the clouds Jin had seen floating between the mountains, but this particular set of clouds were not moving. They stretched in a long tumbly, puffy line from across the long space between the peaks. Ling and Frank released her hands and she reached out and felt something much like a railing on either side of them. It felt cold to her touch, and looked like impossibly white marble.

"What was that, payback?" Jin asked. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"We merely showed you where the bridge was," Ling said, but Frank was almost hugging himself to keep from laughing.

Jin was angry for maybe three seconds. She finally smiled despite herself. "Ok, fine. But do anything like that again and odds are your old mistress will have to get herself a new patsy."

Ling just looked innocent, though Frank had a little difficultly getting back in control. "I'm not sure what you mean, Immanent One, but we promise not to be so abrupt in future," he said finally. "Shall we?"

"Oh, no," Jin said. "You two go first so I can keep my eyes on you. All three of them, if I have to."

They're children
, Jin thought. She wondered if it had some deep symbolic meaning that Lung Nu and Shan Cai were always shown as youths and perhaps that was what she was interpreting as horseplay but there seemed to be an almost sibling rivalry between the two
bodhisattvas
. If the Guan Yin That Was ever showed her face again in Jin's dreams, she resolved to ask her about that.

Now that she was aware of the railing, Jin kept her hands on it as she walked. Despite the solid feel underfoot, it still looked to Jin as if she was walking on clouds, and it was a very long way down. She glanced over the side once and decided that this was a bad idea, not to be repeated for the rest of the trip. She kept her eyes firmly fixed ahead on Ling and Frank as they led the way.

Ling glanced back. "Is the Bodhisattva of Mercy afraid of heights?"

"Nope. Just falling from them. Illusion or not, physical bodies tend to go splat when that happens. I have no wish to be the illusion of a big splat."

Ling smiled. "No need to concern yourself. These bridges have stood for many aeons, subjective time."

"All time is now," Jin said, not entirely sure where her words were coming from. "No new action in the future nor in the past. I will not fall in the past, or future, but I very well could fall now."

For an instant Ling actually looked impressed, but Frank shook his head. "That chaos of divinity and mortality, of transcendence and human desire and fear within you... I don't know how you stand it."

"As if I have a choice," muttered Jin.

They were approaching the other side. Jin glanced over the side once more despite her better judgment and was rewarded with the sight of a majestic flock of white cranes flying past the cliff face far below them. She had to shut her eyes and stop for a moment until both the dizziness and urge to throw up faded.

"I told myself not to look down again. I should have taken my own advice."

"Your wisdom is legendary," Frank said. "Personally, I would listen to you in future."

Jin couldn't tell if he was making another joke or just being sarcastic, but she didn't really care. She concentrated on reaching the far mountain and, after what seemed like hours on the bridge of clouds, they made it. Jin stepped gratefully onto solid rock. If it, like most existence, was simply illusion, Jin didn't care. It was a solid enough illusion, and that was all that mattered to her then. She leaned against the rough bark of a cedar, breathing its refreshing scent.

They stood on a broad ledge that looked and smelled a lot like the one they had left, only this one was wider and marked with a winding path leading up the face of the mountain. Frank and Ling started up the path immediately and Jin followed. They walked through what seemed more garden than road; if anything the vegetation was more lush here than it was on the first ledge. Many different types of colorful birds were singing; monkeys chattered at them from the treetops.

"This is a really pretty hell," Jin said.

"The people who come here are due a little respite, so I imagine it was tailored to them. It seems little enough considering what they're about to go through," said Ling.

People
?

Jin was concentrating so much on the magnificent views around her that she'd completely overlooked them. There were other people on the path, though none where she and her companions were at the moment. She could see them further up the path, walking either alone or in small groups. Some were wearing strange clothes. Some wore nothing at all, but all marched up the path with what seemed to Jin a rather resigned air, barely taking notice of what was around them. Jin glanced back the way they had come; the other mountain was still visible on their left and, as Jin looked closer, she noticed that theirs was not the only bridge across the valley, and there were more people on the other bridges. They were arriving at different heights along the cliff face, but every bridge connected to a place where the same path snaked past the face of the mountain. As Jin walked with the others they eventually passed one or two of the slower people, while a few faster ones passed them on their way up. Upon closer inspection, Jin's first impression was affirmed: everyone, despite the beauty of their surroundings, was either looking very grim or simply resigned. After one particularly sour-faced young man hurried past, Jin turned to Frank and Ling.