by Kylie Chan
‘If it puts you back in Hell, the deal sounds good,’ John said, his voice low.
‘You’d make a magnificent Demon Queen,’ the King said to Simone. ‘I would relinquish the Heavens if you were to pledge your loyalty and allegiance to me.’
She stiffened and her eyes went wide.
‘You demons don’t have queens,’ I said.
‘For her I could make an exception. How’d you like it, Simone? Ruling Hell by my side? We’d be a formidable team, matched in power by your father and stepmother in Heaven. Wait,’ he raised his hand, ‘don’t make that face. I know Hell’s a —’
‘Pit,’ she finished for him.
He smiled. ‘Yes. But what if you were to rule all the Earthly as well? How about that? Queen of the whole damn world? I’m sure we could do a better job of running things than those idiot humans.’
‘You’d abandon your attempt on the Heavens if I did that?’
He gazed at her over the rim of his glass. ‘I’d seriously consider it.’
‘Is that a genuine offer? I’m not that smart or powerful. You already rule Hell, you’ve taken the Earthly, and you’re close to taking the Heavens. Why would you trade that for me?’
The King gestured towards John with his wine glass. ‘You’re his daughter. It would tear his heart out if I possessed all three of you. Having his son calling me “Mummy” every day and both of you unwillingly in my bed every night would drive him insane.’
John bent his head into his hands, then straightened, took a deep breath with his eyes closed, and tied his hair back.
‘Everything you do seems to be aimed at hurting him.’ Simone looked from John to the King. ‘Is there something personal between you two that I’m not aware of?’
John didn’t move but his expression darkened even more.
The King thumped his wine glass on the table. ‘You didn’t have to take her when you ran! She was happy with me. Now she won’t even talk to me.’
‘No mother will ever leave her child when she escapes a bad situation, George,’ I said.
He rounded on me. ‘You did!’
I winced. He was right.
Who is he talking about? Simone said, bewildered.
‘Simone just broke the rules, the parley’s over,’ the King said. ‘Go home and write your offers as contracts, sign them in blood, then send them down to me at my office in Beijing. I probably won’t even use them. I’m so close to winning that you don’t have anything of value to me.’ He dropped his voice. ‘Except, perhaps, Simone.’
He and the rest of the group disappeared.
‘Who was he talking about?’ Simone said.
‘Yue Gui,’ John said. ‘I’ll tell you the whole story when we’re home.’
‘You don’t need to,’ she said. ‘It’s obvious what happened. Let’s go.’
I waved to attract the attention of one of the wait staff. ‘Cheque, please.’
Simone leaned her chin on her hand. ‘That’s a ridiculously expensive bottle of wine and he left us to pay for it.’
‘Don’t do it, Simone,’ John said. ‘Promise me you won’t even think about it.’
‘You want my word?’
‘I would appreciate it, yes.’
‘Then promise me you’ll never enter a jade cage in True Form.’ John was silent.
‘We’re going to lose, Dad,’ she said, her voice very soft. ‘I can see it.’
‘Can you see past that?’
‘No. There’s no clear future after the Heavens fall. There’s a huge crossroads right there. A point where a vital decision is made. And I have no idea who makes the decision or what the result will be.’
‘Is that what you see too?’ I asked John.
He nodded. ‘We must keep fighting and not surrender, Emma. The future is never fixed.’
The waiter brought the folder with the bill and I flipped it open, then slipped my credit card in to pay for it. ‘They ate before we came. Five thousand, four hundred dollars. Assholes.’
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out to check the caller ID. It was Gold, so I answered it as I handed the folder to the waiter. ‘Emma.’ The phone shrieked in my ear and I flinched and jerked it away. ‘Dammit! That’s the third time today.’
I checked it: the phone’s screen had turned to static. Some garbled words came out, then it shut down completely.
‘You keep dropping it, I’m not surprised you’ve broken it,’ Simone said.
‘I have never cracked the screen,’ I said. I rested my elbows on the table as I restarted the phone, and everything came back up looking normal. ‘Gold says there may be a glitch in the network.’
‘My phone doesn’t have a problem,’ she said. ‘Daddy?’
John shook his head.
The waiter returned with the folder. ‘Sorry, the card doesn’t work.’
‘Oh, okay,’ I said, and pulled out another card. ‘Try this.’
Once the Heavens fall there’s nowhere safe for anyone, Simone said to me. Do you think the King will trade everybody’s safety for both of us?
‘Simone, how many times do you have to be told to talk out loud?’ John said.
‘Sorry.’
‘All three of us may be sufficient, but I doubt it,’ John said; he’d heard her anyway. ‘Making us suffer is a minor benefit compared to setting up your little brother as Jade Emperor to rule everything.’
The waiter returned and stared at John when he heard what he’d said, then snapped out of it and handed me the folder again. ‘Sorry, this one doesn’t work either. Do you have cash?’
My phone rang and shrieked again, vibrating so hard it jumped off the table. I caught it before it hit the floor. It produced loud garbled speech, then shut down.
John pulled his wallet out of the back pocket of his black jeans and gave the waiter one of his credit cards. ‘This should work.’
The waiter nodded to John and took the card away.
I glared at my phone as I restarted it. ‘I am throwing this away and buying a new one in the mall downstairs right now.’
‘Isn’t it one of Gold’s specials?’ Simone said.
‘I’ll go back to something mundane.’
The waiter came back with John’s card. ‘Sorry, this one doesn’t work either. Do you have cash? Please pay with cash.’
‘I can go down to the ATM,’ Simone said.
‘I have a horrible feeling that your ATM card won’t work either,’ I said.
She dropped her voice. ‘Oh, no.’
John concentrated, summoning Gold.
The phone spoke, sounding gravelly and rough. ‘Information. Destroy. Gunung Rinjani. Can kill. You must come. The Demon King.’ It fell out to static, then came back. ‘We can win. Anak. Emma. Murasame. Lombok.’
‘What?’ John said.
‘EMMA, COME!’ the phone shrieked, and shut down.
Gold entered the restaurant and sat with us. He pulled out his wallet and handed the waiter a wad of five-hundred-dollar bills. ‘Sorry about that.’
The waiter nodded to him and went back to the wait station.
John took my phone off the table and gave it to Gold. ‘It just called Emma’s name and said Gunung Rinjani Lombok. It’s been screaming at Emma.’
‘Really?’ Gold said. ‘Let me see.’ His eyes unfocused as he studied it.
‘We also need you to check our bank accounts because none of our credit cards work,’ Simone said.
Gold snapped back from the phone and concentrated for a moment. His daughter BJ came into the restaurant and sat next to Simone. Gold passed the phone to BJ and both their eyes unfocused.
Gold hissed under his breath. ‘All your bank accounts are gone.’
‘All of them?’ I said.
He nodded.
‘Have we lost ownership of the properties? What about the Peak?’ Simone said, distraught. ‘Leo and Ge Ge are living there!’
‘Accessing.’ Gold went silent.
‘Why is it taking you
longer and longer to access information?’ I said.
‘The information on the network’s growing exponentially as the humans add to the internet,’ Gold said without moving his mouth. ‘We’re indexing it as fast as we can, but it’ll take a while with most of us gone.’
‘There are gaps in the phone’s log. Interesting. How long has this been happening?’ BJ asked me.
‘On and off for a couple of weeks. It’s been happening more and more often every day. It’s yelled at me four times today, played music I don’t own, and then it started saying things.’
Gold snapped back. ‘It looks like you’ve been financially wiped out, my Lord. Lord Leo and Prince Ming will probably be evicted very soon.’
BJ shot to her feet with jubilation. ‘It’s Grandpa!’
‘My stone? Where is it?’ I said.
‘Dad? Dad!’ Gold said with delight.
‘That’s the southern Bastion. It’s a trap,’ John said.
‘Gunung Rinjani is the name of the volcano on Lombok,’ Gold said. ‘It’s the entrance to the southern Bastion.’
‘It’s a trap,’ John repeated. ‘The King needs Emma. That’s why the message came to her phone.’
‘The message is fake?’ Simone said.
‘It’s genuine. It has Grandpa’s digital signature on it. It’s definitely from him,’ BJ said.
‘We must go and see,’ Simone said. ‘It says it has a way to defeat the Demon King.’
‘It’s still a trap,’ John said. ‘Don’t go.’
‘The stone’s my Retainer and I have a duty as its Lady,’ I said.
John opened his mouth, then closed it again and smiled wryly. ‘Tomorrow. It’s already dark.’
‘First thing.’
‘One of us has to go with you,’ BJ said. ‘You’ll need a stone to find Grandpa if he’s taken a small form.’
‘You stay. I’ll go,’ Gold said. ‘It’s too dangerous.’
‘You’re the only one who can reinstate their bank accounts and property ownership, Dad,’ BJ said. ‘All the documents are encrypted in your lattice.’
‘Damn,’ Gold said.
‘Take Zara,’ John said.
Gold and BJ shared a look. He raised his eyebrows, and she shook her head.
He nodded and turned back to us. ‘Best if it’s a member of the family. Zara may not be able to identify Dad if he’s really small.’
‘I can do it,’ BJ said. ‘I’ll be fine with Lady Emma.’
‘I’ll go too,’ Simone said.
‘No,’ John and I said in unison.
‘The King wants you,’ I said. ‘If we need you, we’ll call you. I’ll take Martin; he’s close to you in power.’
‘Just be careful, little guy,’ Gold said to BJ.
‘Girl,’ BJ said.
The waiter returned with the folder and hovered over us. We took the hint, rose and left the restaurant together.
* * *
It was very late when I finally found him. He had conjured a bench and put it on top of the western wall, and was sitting with his feet up on the battlement, looking out over the peaks that surrounded the Mountain and the full moon high in the sky. I stopped when I saw him. His eyes were glittering with tears in the moonlight.
He wiped his hand over them and turned away. ‘I’d prefer nobody saw me like this,’ he said, his voice hoarse.
I sat next to him and leaned into him. ‘I can’t see you.’
‘I haven’t visited your sister, I can’t face her,’ he said. ‘How is she?’
‘Recovering. I haven’t visited her either; my parents suggested that we stay away from her right now. She doesn’t want to see either of us.’
He took a deep shuddering breath. ‘I understand.’
‘My parents want me to kill them if they’re held hostage,’ I said.
‘I’m not surprised. You were nobility long before you met me.’ He wiped one hand over his face again. ‘They’re helpless humans and completely innocent. All they did was make the mistake of . . .’ He didn’t finish.
‘Being my family,’ I said. ‘And I made the mistake of falling in love with you.’
He gasped once.
‘We’ll work something out,’ I said. ‘Whatever it takes to keep them out of his hands. I trust you.’
‘I wished I trusted myself as much. Little Matthew’s only three years old.’
‘Is there any way we can take them completely clear of this entire conflict? Wipe their memories, change their faces, anything?’
‘The answer to your question is: no. Whatever we do, the King will find them.’
‘Damn.’ I leaned on his shoulder again. He was so distraught that he was freezing through the thick cotton of his Mountain uniform. ‘Cold.’
‘Sorry.’ He warmed up and put his arm around my shoulders. ‘I doubt that you can talk our son into giving you back the Murasame, Emma, even if you manage to break into the centre of Hell.’
‘That sword is the only weapon that can destroy the King. It’s worth a shot.’
‘I know.’
‘And your opinion?’
‘This King is so ancient and tempered that he can withstand either of the basic forces. Yang or yin, he can resist. So your only chance is the sword. And if it comes to that, the best chance is Seven Stars.’
I stiffened. ‘No.’
‘He would be gone for good, Emma. It is the best option.’
‘If you destroy him, another Demon King will rise to try us again, and without your protection the Celestial will fall. If you sacrifice yourself by using Seven Stars, we might win now, but we will ultimately lose.’
‘I may have to do it if the lives of innocents are threatened.’
‘I won’t let you!’
He pulled back to see me and smiled. ‘Is that an order?’
‘Yes!’
‘But you’re quite happy to throw me into a jade cage?’
‘I’ve pulled you out of a cage once already. Doing it again will be easy.’
‘That’s a new definition of “easy” that I haven’t encountered before.’
The humour in his voice cheered me, and I put my arm around his waist and sighed. Three more days, but at least I could touch him until the end, and give him whatever comfort I could.
‘We’re thinking of going after I’ve located my stone,’ I said. ‘It mentioned the Murasame. It may know where it is.’
‘I don’t like your chances.’
‘Are they better than zero?’
‘Not much.’
‘Anything better than zero is worth a try.’
‘I cannot come with you. My place is in the Heavens.’
‘We know.’
‘Let’s go to bed.’ He rose and rubbed his hands over his face, then reached down to help me up. ‘First thing tomorrow morning I will teach you how to suicide with shen energy. Then I will watch you go south with my most talented son and a stone child that is far too young to be involved in this, and worry myself sick about you never coming back.’
‘Deal.’
14
We topped out over the edge of the volcano’s caldera and stepped off the cloud to stand together overlooking the steaming lake. A small new volcanic cone stuck out at one side of it. Lava flowed from a hole in the side of the inner mound, looking like a gaping wound. The sulphur fumes were strong enough to burn my lungs, and I pulled out the mask I’d brought and put it over my face. It didn’t do much to filter the awful rotten-egg smell but at least my lungs weren’t on fire any more.
BJ took her True Form, and lifted higher to see over the black ash-covered ground.
‘Where’s the entrance to the Bastion?’ I said, my voice muffled by the mask.
‘The hole there with lava coming out,’ Martin said. ‘You need to withstand the lava to enter.’
‘I can’t see him,’ BJ said, and floated away. ‘I’ll have a look further down.’
‘Jade Building Block,’ I shouted.
‘Emma, that was
a bad idea —’ Martin began, then stopped and cocked his head.
I heard it as well. The reply was thin and almost non-existent. ‘Emma?’
‘Grandpa?’ BJ said.
Four humanoid guard demons emerged from the hole in the hill, shrugging the lava off themselves.
Martin drew the Silver Serpent and I summoned Dark Heavens.
‘You’re using Dad’s sword?’ Martin said, eyeing me. ‘I would have thought a “strong woman” like you would have demanded her own weapon a long time ago.’
‘I wish everybody would stop giving me grief about this,’ I said as we moved into position ready to fight. ‘The forge doesn’t have time to make anything for me, and Dark Heavens still resonates.’
‘Not good enough,’ he said. ‘Three on the right.’
‘Far left,’ I said, and moved left of Martin to give him room to take out the others.
The demons were a challenge: bigger than level fifty but not Mothers. The King must have specially bred them to be powerful guards.
I tried pulling the chi out of my demon and turning it into a bead, but it resisted me. It was too big. I loaded Dark Heavens with shen energy and launched it at the demon instead. It ducked to avoid the energy and I called the shen back in, cursing quietly to myself. I was still too new an Immortal to handle it accurately.
The demon took a swing at me with its nasty-looking halberd; it had a black serrated blade and what appeared to be a carbon-fibre shaft. I used Dark Heavens to push the halberd in the direction it was already going, then quickly released it to cut the demon off at the ankles. It blocked me and threw me back, then grinned to reveal the tusks in the corners of its mouth.
‘You’ll have to be faster than that, little girl.’
I parried the next blow it sent at my head.
‘Calling me “little girl” isn’t an insult, stupid. I’ve seen a “little girl” take out the whole throne room full of demons.’
The demon opened its mouth to argue with me and its expression filled with shock, then it exploded into black streamers. Martin had taken it out from behind after destroying the other three.
‘You should have had no trouble at all dispatching that,’ Martin said, putting the Silver Serpent away. ‘What’s the matter, Emma?’
‘I was experimenting on it,’ I said as I dismissed Dark Heavens. ‘I wanted to see if I could turn it into a black bead, and when that didn’t work I tried to shen it.’