"Down to business, then," Jin said. "Do either of you have any idea where Shiro might be now?"
"No," Ling said. "Even if we knew which hell corridor he went down originally, he wouldn't have had to come back the same way. These doors lead to all the hells, but they are not the only ones. He could be almost literally anywhere."
"Could be, but isn't," Jin said. "He's never going to be very far from where I am."
Ling nodded. "We know, and Frank and I have discussed this. We don't think we should leave you again. We move very quickly, but not infinitely so, and we can protect you better if we are with you. Now that..." Her voice trailed off.
"Now that my mother and Joyce are gone, yes?" Jin said evenly. "You can say their names; I won't break. But what if your function here is not to protect me?"
Ling and Frank glanced at each other. "We don't understand," Ling said
Jin shrugged. "It's simple enough. You're assuming your function is to prevent me from being harmed. What if it isn't?"
"But...what else? We serve Guan Yin, whatever her form. We would never allow you to come to harm willingly."
"I believe you," Jin said, because it was the truth. "I also believe you'll intervene if you think I'm threatened. But what if it becomes necessary for me to put myself in harm's way?"
"You mean deliberately?" Frank asked. "Why would that be necessary?"
"I'm just saying 'what if?' What if I ordered you not to interfere with a course of action I've chosen?"
"We would obey," Ling said. "Even..."
"Even if you thought I was being a damn fool?"
"Yes," Ling said evenly. "Even then."
"Good, since before this is over I may have to do some very foolish things. Just so we understand one another."
"Fine, but may we suggest that at least one of us stay with you while you send the other to search for Shiro?"
Jin didn't say anything for a moment. She finally nodded at no one in particular. "That won't be necessary, since I know where he is." Jin held up her left wrist. "He's at the end of this golden cord. You see it, don't you?"
"Yes, though it was a broken fragment a moment ago," Ling said.
"I know. I just noticed the pull myself. Shall we?"
Jin followed the newly reformed cord and Frank and Ling followed her, Frank a step to her left and Ling just behind her. Jin had the feeling that one would have walked in front of her if they could have figured out how to do so without getting in the way. She didn't know for certain that the new cord was leading her to Shiro; in fact after they had walked for some time Jin was pretty sure that it was not. The cord led her straight and true but, when they came to another door and passed through to a barren, rocky wasteland with a sun the color of burnished copper, the path remained straight and led them on in a direct line to whoever was on the other end of it.
Not Shiro, but I'll wager he's not far away
.
The heat was terrible. There was no sign of water, or shade. There were no trees, no weeds, not even so much as a single blade of grass. No birds flew in the shimmering sky and, so far as Jin could see, she and her two companions were totally alone. After a few steps Jin put on her demon form to gain some relief from the sun, though neither Frank nor Ling seemed overly affected. Still, Ling nodded when she saw what Jin had done.
"That was well done. I think we are in the realm of Hungry Ghosts; it is no place for a mortal of any sort."
"A 'hungry ghost'? What's that?"
Frank looked surprised, but then blushed. "Your pardon, I still forget sometimes."
"That I don't know what I'm doing?" Jin asked sweetly.
"That you do not
know
all that you know," Frank said. "A hungry ghost is usually a person who was overly covetous of food, drink, or possessions. They are reborn here with none of these things. They can find nothing to eat nor to drink, yet they cannot die since they are not really alive. They tend to become somewhat...desiccated and abnormal-looking. I think you'll find a prime example over there," Frank said, pointing near an outcrop of stone jutting out of the barren ground.
For a moment Jin could not comprehend what she was seeing. What she'd taken for a tangle of debris near the base of the rock was moving. She got a little closer and saw that the debris vaguely resembled a human, but only vaguely. Its neck was thin and long, and tied into a large knot at the base of the skull. Its eyes were large and staring, it's limbs almost literally pencil thin and its body at once wrinkled yet bloated so that it was very difficult for its very weak limbs to move it about. Yet it was gamely trying, making slow progress around the rock in a sort of crawl, roll, and flop technique. The sound it made filled Jin with horror and pity.
"Is it looking for shelter from the sun?" Jin asked.
"And food and water," said Ling. "Well, anything, really. It won't find any, of course. There is none in this place."
"Isn't there something we can do?"
"Not that I'm aware of," Frank said. "Nor should we."
"Should...? Can't you see it's in torment?"
"It's in the Hell of Hungry Ghosts," said Ling, and she shrugged. "And it's here for a reason. Your tendency to mercy and your empathy for those who suffer does you credit, Jin, and as the mortal incarnation of Guan Yin it's entirely natural. Yet I must say those feelings are misplaced here."
Jin held up her wrist. "Not entirely."
Ling shrugged again. "I admit it is very strange to see that; only a demon is less likely than a hungry ghost to progress beyond its own hell."
Jin shook her head. "It used to be human. Doesn't it know what happened to it? If such had happened to
me
I'd be going to any length to escape this place, including finding and correcting my spiritual error. Why is it so difficult here?"
Ling's smile wasn't pleasant. "A fair question that deserves an answer. You there!"
The pitiful collection of rags and twisted limbs shuddered as if it had been struck. It moved its head and they could hear its joints popping and cracking like dried-out leather with the effort. The voice, though faint and whispery, was audible. "Who calls?"
"I am Lung Nu, servant of Guan Shi Yin. My mistress wishes to speak to you."
"What does she offer?" asked the hungry ghost.
Offer
? Jin frowned, and stepped forward. When the hungry ghost saw the demon approaching it shrank back against the stone. "I won't hurt you," she said. "I only want to ask why you are here."
"Give me gold," the ghost said.
"I don't have any," Jin said. "And what would you spend it on if I did have some and gave it to you? Do you see merchants? Wine shops? Inns? Restaurants? What is gold to you, so long as you remain in this place?"
"Everything," the ghost said simply. "It would be everything to me. I would eat it. I would drink it. I want nothing else. There
is
nothing else. Give me gold!" The thing tried to crawl its way toward Jin, but there was too much distance to cover quickly in its crippled form. Even so, in that instant Ling was between Jin and the ghost in her full dragon form. She hissed and spat steam at the ghost, who cried out but did not retreat.
"Dragon? Dragons have gold. Give it to me!"
The creature frothed and snapped like a rabid animal, now trying to crawl roll flop its way over to Ling. Ling paid it no more heed than an ant. She reverted to human form and looked at Jin. "Now do you understand why this creature is here?"
Jin nodded, feeling a little ill. "This is not the one. Let's keep going."
"They're all like that," Frank said, when they were well past the first hungry ghost. "If it's not gold it's something else. The overwhelming desire is common to them all, and it consumes them as much as their eternal hunger and thirst. Still, even they are not beyond redemption. Or else why are we here?"
Jin glanced at her wrist as they moved at a steady pace "I'm curious about that myself," she said, trying not to listen to the creature's pitiful cries until they finally and truly faded in the distance.
They passed others like it. It was hard to tell if they had been men or women; they all seemed alike, though some were even more grotesque than the first one. One had no less than three knots tied in its neck. Another's head was so large that it hung to its waist, though the creature seemed to be better off to the extent that it could stand on two stumpy legs and move upright with a very slow, shuffling gait. All had wrinkled skin and misshapen limbs, all were searching for things they would not find, whatever they might be, because there was simply nothing there. They shrank away as Jin and her companions approached.
"Why are these afraid of us?"
Ling smiled. "You're a demon now and these people are in hell, of course they're afraid of you. As was the first one, until it because fixated on what it thought we had, rather than what it thought you were. We have nothing they want."
Almost nothing
, Jin thought, after they had trudged to the top of a small ridge. On the other side there was an unmistakable flash of green. Jin looked closer. It was a tree. A fruit tree of some sort, though Jin did not have a clue what sort of fruit it might be. The golden fruit hung ripe and round and heavy; when Jin sniffed the air she could smell its heady scent. The aroma made her a little hungry herself; she could only imagine what it would to any of the starved spirits who came near it.
From the rise she could see that there were hungry ghosts gathered around the tree, which made perfect sense. What didn't make any sense at first was that they were neither mobbing the tree nor trying to pull the fruit from its branches. Instead they mostly milled about in a rough circle around the tree as if an invisible fence kept them from approaching the tree. It wasn't until they were a little closer that Jin saw why.
Demons guarded the tree.
Jin counted ten of them, each as black as coal and about seven feet high and armed with a vicious-looking trident. As Jin watched, one of the hungry ghosts, apparently overwhelmed by the scent and sight of the fruit, made a frantic crawl toward the tree, but two of the demons simply jabbed it with their cruel forks, forcing it back. They did not pursue the ghost once it retreated, nor strike at anyone else unless they got too close to the tree. The rest of the time they simply waited, calmly leaning on their tridents planted firmly on the bare, hard-packed ground. Jin stopped, and stood watching the scene for a moment.
"Rather cruel of them, don't you think?" Ling said, glancing at Jin.
Now Jin smiled an unpleasant smile. "You know I do. And by the way, don't be coy. You're not very good at it."
The dragon-girl actually blushed, but she didn't back down. "It is not my place to instruct Guan Yin, even in her current limited form. Yet misplaced mercy in this place can do more harm than good. The demons are simply serving their appointed role."
"You think I don't know that?"
"Your pardon," Ling said, "but you can understand why one would wonder."
Jin shrugged. "That's fair enough. Yet right now I'm more curious about the tree than the demons. If such a thing would exist in this place, then of
course
demons would guard it. What I don't understand is why it's here."
Jin started down the slope toward the tree and Frank and Ling followed her, but now Frank was looking puzzled.
"Isn't it obvious? The hungry ghosts spend their entire existence looking for drink and nourishment in various forms, and here they find it, only to be denied. It's an intensifying of the basic punishment by teasing them with what they cannot possess."
Jin had to admit that, yes, that was exactly the way things appeared, and it certainly was in perfect accord with the purpose and operation of a hell as she had come to understand the concept. Yet her instincts told her that there was more to the matter of the forbidden fruit than what appeared on the surface.
"Maybe so. And also maybe it's just a coincidence that the thread has led us here, but I just don't think so."
Ling looked around. "You know where the thread leads? I cannot see it clearly in all this confusion."
"I can," Jin said. "He's right there." She led them on.
That was the first difference that Jin recognized -- he. Jin thought of this hungry ghost as a 'he' and not an 'it.' At first glance he didn't look any different from all the other hungry ghosts gathered around the tree: a distorted head. Huge, staring eyes, misshapen limbs, wrinkled, desiccated skin.
The crowd of hungry ghosts parted around them as they got closer to the tree, though not without considerable wailing and hissing, and the crack of dry joints and skin as they moved aside. The demons guarding the tree glanced at them with some curiosity but nothing more than that, and they didn't fail their duty when another tormented ghost made an attempt at the fruit.
Unlike the other ghosts crawling about, this ghost sat on a rock as he stared hungrily at the tree. Yet he did not reach for it, nor try to attack the tree with the others. He simply sat there, his grotesque form arrayed in a position that, if not identifiable as comfort, at least gave the poor wretch some support as it regarded the tree.
"Wait here," Jin said. "If any of the ghosts try anything with you, kick them or something."
"Do not concern yourself about us," Ling said. "Just be careful."
Jin didn't need the advice. She was being very careful indeed or, rather, cautious. She sensed something greatly important and yet very delicate was happening, and she did not want to make a misstep. She needed to speak to the ghost and, more than likely, touch it -- though she was certainly not looking forward to that part. Yet she strongly suspected his reaction to her demon form might make both of those goals very difficult. Yet she could not assume her normal form, not in that place.
I need
...
Jin knew what she needed, and in another moment she had it: her body changed from demon to Hungry Ghost. Jin felt her head droop on a long, scrawny neck, felt the hot sand burn her and felt, for a moment, a thousand years worth of hunger and thirst and longing, but she knew it was an illusion. In another moment she could function, albeit poorly.