A hand tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to see Shao smiling down at her. She caught her breath at the sight of him. He seemed different somehow. There was a lightness to him, a new clarity in his eyes.

“I hear you have a new sister,” he said. “That little girl from the riverboat.”

“It’s a miracle, but it really is Duckling,” she said. “Come meet her. My mother’s just taken her to the orphanage dining room.”

“Not yet,” he said. “There’s something I want to show you.”

The skies were dark now but the marquee on the Mission’s front lawn glowed with strings of lights. The charity auction was in full swing, the auctioneer’s voice bellowing out from a megaphone, “Dinner for ten at the Cathay Hotel, a selection of fine wines included!”

At a long table under an awning, volunteers outside the marquee were packing away auction items that had been sold. Shao walked to the end of the table where a set of books was being put into boxes. He picked one up and held it out to her. The bindings were beautiful leather, custom-made for a private collection.

THE LIBRARY OF LEGENDS

A Collection of Myths and Folklore from the Jingtai Encyclopedia

Minghua University Press

“I asked my father to donate these to the auction,” he said. “He’s here somewhere with my brother. Turns out this is one of the charity events he attends every year.”

“This is so generous of him,” Lian said, stroking the leather binding. “If I owned these, I could never bear to give them up.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Shao said. “We’ve another set at our summer home in the Moganshan Mountains.”

“And someone has bought them,” she said. “I hope they go to a good home. And that the Mission got a good price.”

“The Mission did very well,” he said. “I bought them for you. They’re yours now, Lian. Fortunately, on a modern printing press, you don’t need 147 volumes to contain all the stories, just 20.”

She gasped. “Shao! That’s too generous! I can’t accept.”

“Well, if you don’t take them, then I’ll give them to your stepfather,” he said with a grin. “I look forward to many interesting discussions with him—with both of you—about the Legends.”

She touched the embossed covers, the gilded characters along the spines. Tales of the City Gods. Tales of Dragon Lords. Tales of Fox Spirits Volumes 1–3. Tales of Celestial Deities. A record of all that had been wondrous in China. A record protected by the gods so they would be remembered even after they were no longer worshipped, no longer needed. A record the gods now depended on mortals to preserve. Mortals who had never seen a herd of qilin awaken spring as they dashed into the woods. Or watched a Star live out her lonely, patient quest.