by Kylie Chan
‘Ooh, cool,’ Hinnie said softly. ‘We’ll see the Xuan Wu!’
The Turtle raised his hand. ‘Nobody move while I merge.’
‘Give me a minute,’ the Turtle and Serpent said in unison.
They moved to the far end of the room, and took True Form. The Serpent was a black snake four metres long; the Turtle was three metres long and two high. The Serpent coiled around the Turtle with its head facing the Turtle’s tail, then turned its head to face the Turtle’s. The Turtle looked back at it, the two heads moved together, and there was a flash of darkness as they became an immensely cold black hole in reality, then took John’s male human form, taller and leaner now that he’d combined with the Serpent.
Matthew squealed and ran to his mother. He stood leaning on her and watched John for a moment, wide-eyed, then ran back to Little Jade and Richie and took the horse stance again, his face determined.
John shook his shoulders out, then went to the older kids and passed more small training swords around. ‘All right, guard up, and let’s start again from the beginning.’
‘And I thought he was strange before,’ Jennifer said softly.
Amanda’s eyes were wide. Our eyes met and she opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again and shook her head, blushing.
Yes, I said to her.
She jumped, then her eyes went wider.
Yes, really. But he’s usually two hot men when he does it for me.
An evil grin spread across her face. ‘Tell me more later,’ she mouthed silently.
I nodded, smiling back, and returned my attention to the small children. ‘Okay, everybody, you see how Matthew’s standing?’
‘Call me Leo!’ Matthew shouted. ‘I’m a lion like Lord Leo. I want to be just like him when I grow up!’
I glanced at Jen, who smiled and nodded. Greg’s face was full of pride.
‘It’s quite possible,’ I said. ‘Your dad is a tiger, after all. Okay, everybody, let’s see you stand like little Leo here.’
‘We’re dragons,’ Little Jade said as she moved into a similar position, her fists on her waist. ‘Our mum’s a dragon.’
‘I’m a lion. I’m stronger!’ Matthew said.
‘Are lions or dragons stronger?’ Richie asked me.
‘Stay in that position, that’s good,’ I said. ‘Strength doesn’t come from what you are, but from the effort you put into it. The strongest one will be the one who does the most training.’
‘That’ll be me,’ Little Jade said with conviction.
‘We’ll see,’ I said. ‘Now. Left hand out, like this. No, the other one, Matthew.’
‘Leo!’ Matthew shouted.
‘Okay, Leo, other hand. Good. Now the right one. Left fist back to where it started at your waist, Richie, not waving around in the air. Turn it over, Jade. Well done.’
I didn’t notice when the rest of my family went out and left us to it.
6
I greeted Michael with a hug as he entered the war room, and reached up to kiss him on the cheek, embarrassing him horribly. ‘How’s Clarissa?’
‘She’s fine, but I need to hurry home to her.’ He winced. ‘She had another small procedure done in the medical centre yesterday and I’m caring for her while she recovers.’
‘We’ll try to make this quick then,’ John said.
Michael bobbed his head. ‘I appreciate it.’
‘I thought she was coming along well and didn’t need anything else done,’ I said.
‘It was just a small procedure. She’ll be fine in a few days.’
Understanding hit me. ‘Oh, Michael, I’m so sorry. Are you both all right?’
‘It’s not a big issue.’ He wiped one hand over his face. ‘She’s the important one, and we won’t jeopardise her health for anything. It should never have happened anyway, and we’ll make sure it never will again.’
‘Go back to her when the main strategising is out of the way,’ I said. ‘Your father can brief you on the rest.’
He nodded. ‘Thank you.’
‘Is she walking?’
‘Not yet.’
‘John, should I arrange a time for Clarissa to see the Serpent?’
‘Yes,’ John said. ‘She suffered because of us. We should have done this a long time ago.’
‘See the Serpent? Why?’ Michael said.
‘He is blanking their minds!’ I said, frustrated.
‘I can’t be spending all my time healing every minor injury on the Celestial after being away for forty years,’ John said. ‘We can offer my healing only to those in the most need.’
‘Healing?’ Michael said.
‘The Jade Emperor’s removed it from everybody’s consciousness, but the Xuan Wu Serpent can heal anything,’ I said.
‘I know that, I saw it in Hell,’ Michael said. ‘Wait, I did know that. He is blanking our minds! What an ass.’
‘It’s the right thing to do,’ John said. ‘Emma will contact you when you’re home and remind you — because you’ll have forgotten by then — to make a time for Clarissa to see me.’
‘Thank you,’ Michael said. ‘I can’t believe he did that to us. If I’d known this before, we could have healed Clarissa and saved the baby.’
‘Either way you could not have saved the child,’ John said. ‘The Serpent’s healing is too intense for pregnancy. I must be very careful around small children.’
‘It’s our fault for not thinking of you soon enough,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘No, the Serpent’s only been back a few weeks, and I’m glad Clarissa has the opportunity to be well again.’ Michael lowered his voice with wonder. ‘We may have a chance for a family, after all.’
‘I’ll do my best for you,’ John said. ‘South and Flute are here, let’s do this.’
He gestured for everybody to sit at the war room table. John sat at the head of the table, and I sat next to him on his left, with Martin as Number One on his right. Each Wind had brought their Number One along, and the Dragon had brought both his Number One and the human avatar of the Tree herself.
‘Their next target is the East,’ John said. ‘The Tree floats ten kilometres off the ground on the Celestial; the Palace Under the Sea is a kilometre below the surface on the Earthly. Their first target will probably be the Tree, as it’s the Eastern Bastion. I’ve reviewed both Celestial and Earthly weaponry and there are a variety of ways to take down the Tree, but I may have missed some. We need to be ready for all of them and prepare our defence in advance.’
‘Can they bring a human army up through the Gates, even when we still hold them?’ the Tiger said.
‘As long as the demons hold the South we cannot seal the Gates. With a large enough force they can overrun the Gate defences and bring anything in,’ John said.
‘Could flyers attack the Tree?’ the Phoenix said.
‘Too high for them, the air is too thin,’ John said. ‘Human drones could do it, but they can’t carry enough of a payload to destroy the Tree. Aircraft are a definite issue. If he sends a fleet of jet fighters, the Tree is toast.’
‘Toast?’ the Tiger said.
John waved one hand towards me. I shrugged.
‘I have no defence against any of these weapons,’ the Tree said with misery.
‘How likely is it that the King has fighter jets?’ the Dragon said.
‘Very likely,’ I said. ‘The Russian air force has been updating for a while, and they’re selling off obsolete jet fighters complete with guided air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles. Demons are in charge of the Russian government; the European Demon King has replaced most of the senior leaders in Europe with his own thralls; and our Demon King is doing the same thing here.’
‘Air-to-air missiles against the Tree?’ the Dragon said. He put his forehead in his hand and the Tree patted his back.
I had an inspiration. ‘How fast can a really quick dragon fly?’
The Dragon glanced up. ‘Mach 3?’ He leaned back and his expression wen
t rigid. ‘No.’
‘It may be our only option, Ah Qing,’ John said. ‘Start training your Immortal dragons immediately in air-to-air combat.’
‘I don’t have enough Immortal dragons. I’ll have to use mortal ones too.’ The Dragon ran his hands up the back of his neck and flipped his long turquoise hair. ‘I cannot ask them to do this!’
‘I have no self-destruct mechanism,’ the Tree said. ‘I couldn’t bear to be invaded and occupied by demons, Ah Qing.’
‘Can you make a self-destruct device for us?’ the Dragon asked the Phoenix.
The Phoenix hesitated, then said, ‘What would happen if I blew you up, dear Tree? What would happen to your soul, your essence?’
‘I don’t know, it’s never happened,’ the Tree said.
‘Trees aren’t generally Immortal,’ the Dragon said. He put his hand on the Tree’s and she clutched it. ‘I only hope she’s different.’
‘The best option is to evacuate me,’ the Tree said. ‘Don’t worry about defending me. Take everybody off and I’ll go as high as I can and still live.’
‘You are the Eastern Bastion,’ John said. ‘We can’t. There must be a garrison stationed on you, and a core group of the Dragon’s family as a Celestial presence. Less than that and the Eastern defence is gone, and the demons can move straight up to take the North.’
‘I don’t like my chances,’ the Tree said.
‘I’ll begin training dragon defenders,’ the Dragon said. ‘Do you have anyone who is expert in air-to-air, Ah Wu?’
John gestured towards the Phoenix.
The Phoenix nodded. ‘We birds aren’t as fast as you, but we can give you some tips.’
‘Does the Tree have room for the Southern refugees?’ I said. ‘The phoenixes can help defend.’
‘Oh, good idea,’ the Phoenix said.
‘I’ll make room,’ the Tree said. ‘How about we swap some of our Western Palace refugees for the Southern ones you are housing?’
‘Perfect. Talk to Jade,’ I said.
The Dragon’s eyes widened and his face went rigid, then his whole body heaved and he spewed a gush of blood and water onto the table. Everybody jumped to their feet and backed away as he shook with spasms and vomited again. The Tree held him and he leaned on her as the blood and water rushed out of him, then he collapsed quivering onto the floor.
The Tree knelt beside him and put her hand on his head, then looked around at us, desperate.
‘There are —’ she began, but John interrupted her.
‘Depth charges on the Palace Under the Sea. Everybody who can, go now.’
Everybody except the cats and the phoenixes disappeared.
‘Can you breathe underwater?’ the Tiger asked me.
‘Don’t know, never tried.’
I went to the Dragon and helped the Tiger and the Tree to lift him and carry him out of the meeting room. He came around, shook us off, and disappeared.
The order came through from the Jade Emperor: the Palace Under the Sea was losing its Celestial protection against the deep-sea pressure and all aid was needed to assist the evacuation.
‘There are air-breathing wives and children down there!’ I said, changed to snake and flew out the window.
I was much slower than any of the other Celestials and it took me fifteen minutes just to reach the Gates. When I flew down onto the Earthly and made it to the Sea of Japan, the Celestials were bringing the last of the residents out of the water. I checked around: dragons and water-breathing Shen were carrying humans limp in their arms, but they didn’t number anything close to the total human population of the Palace Under the Sea.
I flew to the Dragon and the Tree. He was floating in True Form, holding a woman and five children on his back, and the Tree was carrying another child piggy-back on hers.
‘Can I help? Can I do anything?’ I said.
‘Move back!’ the Dragon roared. He grabbed me with his front claw and dragged me fifty metres backwards. Everybody back! At least a hundred metres from the centre!
The sea rose in a dome that grew to a hundred metres wide, the water rushing from its silver surface. As the dome rose, it became apparent that it was a sphere of energy containing a bubble of air. John floated in the middle of it in Celestial Form, his arms out and his hair writhing with a life of its own. A hundred humans and twenty demon servants were sitting in the bottom of the bubble, clutching each other and obviously terrified.
‘That’s not all of them,’ the Dragon said. ‘There’s still about twenty kids and a hundred demons down there.’
The sphere rose higher in the air and the Celestials gathered around it.
How far to land? John said.
A hundred and fifty ks, the Dragon said.
Too far. Find something. Quickly! John said.
‘What do we do? What do we do!’ the Dragon said. ‘Not enough wood left to work with. Metal and fire aren’t here. Ice is busy. Shit! Help me out, Emma — where can I put them?’
Can you build an ice floe for them to sit on? I asked John. Solid water?
No. This is all I can manage.
True Form? Sit them on your back?
Good idea. I can carry about half of them.
‘He’ll drop them in the water and take True Form to carry half of them,’ I said. ‘The rest will have to tread water and we’ll take turns ferrying them to land.’
‘They can’t swim!’ the Dragon said.
‘Dear Lord, how many can’t?’
‘Nearly all of them!’ the Dragon wailed, his voice full of panicked tears. ‘What do we do?’
The Tree appeared in True Form in the air above us, her massive root system blocking the sun.
‘Yes!’ the Dragon yelled with triumph.
The dragons and Shen that were carrying people flew up onto the white and blue paved expanse around the base of the trunk. John floated his bubble past the roots of the Tree, hovered it above the pavers, then made it disappear. The humans and demons tumbled out, and John floated down to stand on the paving with them.
The Dragon ran to John, jumped up on his hind legs and hugged John’s Celestial Form. ‘Thank you, Ah Wu, you saved so many of my beloved children.’ He fell onto all fours. ‘We need to rescue the others. Did you put them into a bubble as well? Are they all right? Hurry and bring them up!’
John’s face went grim. ‘I’m sorry, Ah Qing.’
‘No.’ The Dragon changed to human form and leaned on John, who held him. ‘My children. There are still twenty . . .’ His voice broke. ‘So many dead. So many children dead. How could they do this? They were children!’
John pulled him into an embrace and the Dragon let go into his shoulder.
‘I am so sorry, my friend,’ John said.
‘It is not your doing, you saved so many of them,’ the Dragon said, choking with tears. ‘How did this happen? Who —’
The Tree shook, and a golden glow like a sunrise shone over the edge of the platform, making ripples of light shimmer on its foliage far above. The Dragon pulled back and looked around, his face full of joy.
John and the Dragon took off over the edge of the Tree’s platform. I changed to snake to follow them. An enormous dragon had floated out of the water; he was more than three hundred metres long and shining gold, glittering in the sun. He held a bubble in his front claws that contained the Blue Dragon’s remaining children and fifty demon staff. Jade’s three daughters were there too, in dragon form. I hadn’t known they were visiting their father, and they were too young to survive the deep-ocean pressure. The King of the Dragons himself had saved them.
The Dragon King carried the children and servants, still in their bubble, up to the base of the tree, then released them onto the pavers. John and the Blue Dragon landed next to him as he changed to human form: four metres tall and wearing gold and green Imperial robes, but still with the head of a dragon.
Jackie ran to him and hugged him around his knees. ‘Yeh Yeh!’
He hugged her back a
nd touched his snout to the top of her dragon head. ‘As if I’d let anything happen to my littlest grandchildren.’
‘Thank you,’ she sobbed into his robes. ‘It was awful. So dark . . .’
Qing Long fell to one knee in front of the Dragon King. ‘Long Shang Di. I thank you most sincerely for saving my beloved children. I am forever in your debt.’
‘They are my children too, little one,’ the Dragon King said. He raised his snout and nodded to John. ‘Xuan Tian.’
John nodded back. ‘Long Huang Di. Did you see who did this?’
‘A Chinese navy ship,’ the Dragon King said, his voice full of bewilderment. ‘They dropped the charges, then headed north. Why did they do this?’
John’s face went hard. ‘A navy vessel. Found them.’ He leapt into the air and screamed northwards, leaving a contrail behind him.
‘Go after him,’ the Dragon King said. ‘Stop him before he does something he’ll regret and more die.’
The Dragon and I both changed and took off after him together.
John, I said. John, they’re humans, you can’t hurt them.
He didn’t reply and I picked up speed. The Dragon whistled past me and pulled me with him at breathtaking velocity. The two of us landed on the ship after John did.
The crew were on battle stations, fully covered in flame-retardant equipment and armed. John stormed up the stairs to the bridge, knocking aside anyone who tried to stop him and filling all the guns with water to make them useless. The Dragon and I took human form and ran up behind him.
John crashed onto the bridge, looked around, then thundered up to the captain and grabbed him by the throat.
‘John, you can’t —’ I began, desperate.
‘I won’t,’ John said, cutting me off. ‘You know me better than that, Emma.’
‘Innocents have died,’ I said. ‘Remember what happened at the Celestial Palace?’
‘I have control,’ John said as he stared, furious, into the captain’s eyes. ‘Who ordered you to drop those charges?’
One of the crew pulled out a revolver. John held his hand towards the officer without looking away from the captain. The armed man stiffened, then crumpled to the floor. John raised his hand, flicked his wrist and the rest of the crew froze.