The footsteps drew closer accompanied by heavy wheezing breaths.
Jin found the corner and slipped behind, into Auntie Bai Wei's personal sanctum. Her pocket surged with heat and the scent of scalding fabric assailed her nostrils. She grabbed the figurine and tossed the burning jade away, realizing a moment too late that the sound of its clatter would alert whatever was in the shop that it wasn't alone.
The lion flew. Brilliant light exploded.
Jin threw her arm across her eyes, too late to escape the glare's full brunt.
Instead of the crack of jade hitting cement, a roar rolled like thunder off the walls, shook the counter, and set the gong reverberating again.
The approaching person/thing, Jin still couldn't be certain which, howled. Once more, the gale-force winds ripped past. Crashes sounded among the shelves. The roar rang out again and the footsteps retreated, back up the stairs. The door slammed shut.
Abruptly, the wind dropped into nothingness. Jin slowly lowered her arm. Golden light illuminated the shop, though the lanterns remained unlit. She raised herself until she could peek over the edge of the counter. A massive white lion stood on widespread paws on the far side, shaking its ruddy mane, red-tipped tail lashing, emanating light.
Jin dropped back down and leaned against the drawers, not caring that the handles dug into her back. Her breath came in shallow pants.
A spirit-lion, newly released from its jade prison.
She was trapped.
Jin pressed down on the cold cement floor, wishing she could become a part of it, or turn invisible, like the heroes in the old tales. She bit down on her tongue, and fought the urge to scream. Instead, she forced herself to focus. There were ways to send an escaped spirit back, if only she could remember. The heroes always spoke words of power, lost now in the dim recesses of her memory.
Besides, she was no hero.
She didn't know what to say, but she clasped her hands in front of her and moved her lips silently, afraid to make a sound. Go back, lion.The danger is gone.You've frightened it away, and you can go back home now.
So slowly that at first Jin didn't notice, the shop dimmed until she sat in blackness. Her pulse thudded in her ears. She stood up and squinted into the shop.
Nothing. No lion. No strange, scraping creature that tossed winds like weapons.
She blew out a whooshing breath and leaned on the counter, her arms trembling.
"Are you here to help us?"
Jin jolted so hard she knocked the mallet and its platter off the counter. The porcelain crashed in a burst of shards. "Who's there?"
"I'm sorry," came the voice again, with a strange, lilting cadence. "I didn't mean to startle you. But you brought the guardian, so I ask again, are you here to help us?"
A hiss like a match sounded overhead and a lantern lit. The single flame cast the room into deep amber light. Shadows danced among the shelves as the lantern flickered. The lion figurine stood in front of the counter, its paw once again raised and muzzle roaring wide.
"Who are you?" Jin asked.
A tiny woman, no taller than Jin's thigh, stepped out from behind a carved box. Two blue sticks inlaid with mother-of-pearl caught her ebony hair in a sleek twist. Her eyes glowed a soft cerulean that matched her traditional silk robe. "I am Liu, Spirit of the Guqin." She steepled her hands in front of her and bowed. "Greetings to you, and thank you for protecting us."
Jin returned the bow reflexively. She stepped out from behind the counter, accidentally grinding porcelain shards underfoot. A voice in the back of her mind wondered how much the platter had been worth and how she would pay it off when Auntie Bai Wei returned.
"My name's Jin," she said.
A smile spread Liu's red lips. "We know. Auntie Bai Wei tells us all about you."
"I need to sit."
"Please," Liu gestured to the box she'd come from behind. "Rest yourself."
Jin settled herself gingerly on the carved lid. The contours impressed themselves into her bottom, but she didn't dare sit anywhere else. "Where is Auntie Bai Wei?"
Liu frowned, the corners of her painted-on eyebrows crinkling down towards her nose. "They took her."
"Who took her?" Jin tried not to think about the fact that she was having a conversation with a spirit.
Everyone knew spirits existed, of course, but nobody ever actually saw one, despite the show the spirit cleansers put on, tricking gullible folks into spending their hard-earned yuan to rid their home of "evil spirits." Some drifted harmlessly on the breeze, with nothing to ground them. Others took up residence in objects. Still other spirits, the most dangerous of all, took human hosts.
"We don't know," Liu said. "Two men came last night to trade. When Auntie Bai Wei took the statue they offered, she went stiff. They led her away, and she didn't struggle, but I saw her eyes. She was afraid, Jin. Terrified."
Jin tried to wrap her mind around the image of Auntie Bai Wei frightened. She was a giant of a woman, taller than most men, and broad-shouldered. In her youth, she'd trained in wushu, and while she'd put on weight in the years since, she could still lift objects Jin wouldn't have been able to budge, and her reflexes were tiger-sharp. She wore her silvering black hair spiky and was never without a set of heavy knuckle rings that she could use with power and skill. If ever there was a woman less likely to be afraid, Jin had never met her.
"Were they like that. thing. that was just here?"
"No. They were men like you, or at least they appeared to be. One never really knows if they're a spirit wearing someone else's skin."
Jin rested her head in her hands and closed her eyes. She shouldn't be involved in this. She should walk out the door, go back to the apartment and Yao and pretend this night had never happened. Leave the lion and the guqin and all the strangeness behind.
But she wasn't going to leave Auntie Bai Wei to the mercy of whoever it was who had taken her. Not after feeling the power of the thing that had entered the shop that night. Besides, after a year of coming to trade at least once a month, Jin had come to consider Auntie Bai Wei a friend. A strange sort of friend, perhaps, but outside of Yao, Jin had no one else.
"How can I help?"
The rest of the lanterns flared into life and shouts of joy rose from all over the shop. Tiny people appeared from beneath teacups, out of vases, dropping down from the lanterns. Larger spirits hid in the shadows, nearly as tall as the shelves. Some looked human. Others were animals: rabbits, dogs, monkeys; and yet others were some motley combination of both.
The spirits swarmed towards her.
Jin pulled her feet up onto the box.
"Find her!" they cried. "Find Auntie Bai Wei and bring her home to us."
"I don't know how," Jin whispered, awed at the sheer number of spirits crowding close.
There must be a spirit for every item in the shop. Was that what Auntie Bai Wei did? Collect spirit-occupied items? Was that what called to her coin?
White-hot pain flared in her temples and Jin grasped her head tight, overwhelmed at the revelation.
Liu picked up the jade figurine in both hands. "You must take the guardian." She lifted it towards Jin.
Jin flinched away.
"Don't be afraid," Liu said. "It answers to its keeper. You."
Jin didn't want to take it-the beast it unleashed was terrifying-but she leaned down and let Liu drop it into her palm. The jade was cool now. No hint of light glowed within, but a warm feeling of comfort and safety wrapped Jin in its heavy paws. She pocketed the lion.
"We cannot leave this place," Liu continued. "We're bound to our hosts. But you can find her, Jin, and you must, soon, before they find you."