"This is banfaudou," Olivia says. "The place between. From here there are gates back to your world, and paths to mine."
"Not heaven?"
"They really don't teach you anything. There's no way there. It's not topographical, or don't you think your astronauts and the like would've found Lady Seung Ngo, the woodsman, or the rabbit when they made lunar landings? The immortals' realm is open to the pure, the divine." The snake shrugs. "Not that I especially want to see it."
Julienne inches closer to the window. The mountain's shape is different, too jagged, the wrong shade. All white, as if in eternal winter. Down below, on what should be Salisbury Road, there are cars, but there are also rickshaws and palanquins, and horses with peacock tails. "Why my aunt? Why not—I don't know—Gunyam?"
"She a
