by Kylie Chan
‘And Kitty is using this stone energy too?’ I said.
‘No, Kitty is using the energy of human children to keep herself young. She believes that if she can take the energy from a Shen child, she will have Immortality.’
‘Oh my God, the kindergartens,’ I said.
‘Yes. She was using the essence of the children to keep her young. The kindergartens were just a way of accessing them.’
‘She wasn’t young though, she looked mid-forties,’ I said.
‘She is one hundred and twenty-eight years old.’
‘Dear Lord, I just thought she had an excellent plastic surgeon.’
‘No surgery. Just draining children.’
‘What about the legal implications of her being older than is humanly possible?’ I said.
‘Easy to change your birth details when people born in the Mainland in the past never had any sort of birth certificate,’ Martin said.
‘How would she drain the children?’ Simone said. ‘I was there, and she took samples off me—but I never felt drained.’
‘Blood,’ Martin said. ‘The essence of life.’ He nodded to me. ‘You are probably aware of the thirst that demons have for blood. It is how they stay alive—draining the essence of other demons. To become extremely strong, they drain the blood and essence of humans.’ He shook his head. ‘But doing this to humans is not permitted under the terms of the treaty that Father brokered with Hell. Any demon caught doing this to humans is tried and destroyed by the Demon Courts.’
‘But Kitty’s not a demon,’ I said.
‘Exactly. She can work with impunity.’
‘So Six and Three have Gold’s child and copies of Leo—and probably the real Leo—in their nest,’ I said. ‘Let’s worry about these two demons now, and then hunt down the other three later. We need to get Leo and Gold’s child out now.’
I turned to the gathered Celestials. ‘Now what did you want to share that Er Lang wasn’t to hear?’
‘Quite a few of the Generals have a demon form as well as their Celestial Form,’ Marshal Guan said. ‘They can enter Hell in that form without alerting the demons.’
‘But that means Simone and I can’t go,’ I said.
‘No, it just means you can’t go,’ Simone said, her voice small. ‘I can do it too.’
I turned and stared at her. ‘What?’
‘As a child of the Xuan Wu, it is not surprising that she has a demon form,’ Martin said. He nodded to Guan Yu, who nodded back. ‘Only four or five of the Generals do not.’
‘But I can’t go, I don’t have one,’ I said.
‘Can she go as a snake?’ Simone asked Martin. ‘There are snakes in Hell.’
‘I won’t remember anything if I do,’ I said.
‘You have no choice,’ Martin said. ‘Humans and Celestials are not welcome there and will be attacked on sight. If you are a large enough demon, you will be kowtowed to—and there are snakes there.’
‘So who of the Generals can come?’ I said.
Guan Yu and Marshal Ma stopped and concentrated.
Ma snapped back first. ‘Me. Zhou Gong Ming. Liang Tian’s form is a little extreme, but he’s willing. Marshal Shi of the Divine Thunder—’
‘Lord Shi has a demon form?’ I said. ‘His normal form is an elderly scholar.’
‘Wait till you see it, it’s thoroughly over the top,’ Ma said with humour. ‘That should be enough; the four of us, you and Princess Simone.’ He bowed to the White Tiger. ‘Are you willing, my Lord?’
‘Sure,’ the Tiger said, his voice quiet and gruff. He’d reappeared at the end of the conference table with his wine. ‘For these girls, I will.’
‘That should suffice. I will guard the Gates while you are gone,’ Guan Yu said.
Ma nodded. ‘Guan Gong doesn’t have a demon form.’
‘I want to come too,’ Michael said.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ the Tiger said. ‘You need a demon form to come along, and you don’t have one. You’re half-Tiger, half-human.’
‘I have a demon form,’ Michael insisted. ‘It’s a very big cat-looking thing, but—’
The Tiger interrupted him, quickly standing. ‘You have a demon form? What the shit?’
Michael glowered at the Tiger for a moment, then said, ‘Don’t sound so surprised. You’re a demon yourself.’
‘I am not!’ the Tiger roared, then grimaced and lowered his voice. ‘I may have been fond of more variety in my diet in the past, but that’s behind me, and I am not a demon.’
‘Michael,’ I said, and they both stopped to look at me. ‘Has Rhonda ever said anything about being more than human?’
‘Yes,’ Michael said, and the Tiger shot him a quick, stunned glance. ‘She’s often said that she wishes she was more than human so she could kick Dad’s ass. And complained that she isn’t.’
‘So she’s sure she’s an ordinary human?’ I said.
Michael nodded. ‘Everything I have, I got from my dad.’
‘Well, you didn’t get a demon form from me,’ the Tiger said gruffly. He saluted me. ‘See you in Hell, babe.’ He disappeared.
I turned to Marshal Ma. ‘Is it possible Michael got his demon form from his father?’
‘Of course it is,’ Ma said. ‘The Tiger may protest—and notice he protests very loudly—but he has very much more in common with the demons than he does with Celestials. Everybody knows that, and he’s been trying to live it down for hundreds of years.’
‘Well, let’s head to Shum Wan and go to Hell,’ I said. ‘The quicker we depart, the quicker we find Gold’s child.’
‘Get your armour from the Academy first, ma’am,’ Ma said. ‘You may decide to fight in human form, and the Murasame could be a great asset.’
‘I’ll drive you,’ Michael said.
The Generals and Celestials rose, their faces grim with satisfaction. Everybody saluted and they disappeared.
Simone grabbed a piece of sushi and wolfed it down, then gulped a quick drink of lemonade. She took a couple of sandwiches and rose. ‘Let’s go.’
We went up to the infirmary to check on the dragon before we departed. It was very quiet. Everybody was gathered in a semicircle in the waiting room, facing Hien who was in dragon form and holding Regina’s head in her mouth. Her dragon was dark cobalt blue with lighter purple fins. Blood ran down Regina’s face where the dragon’s teeth had pierced her scalp and she seemed only semi-conscious, her eyes open and her body limp.
‘Have we found her mother?’ I said.
‘Nobody knows who her mother is,’ Amy said. ‘You know what dragons are like. Even her mother probably has no idea who she is.’
Jim Edwards entered. ‘Heard you were having some trouble with one of the little girls.’ He saw Hien. ‘Oh, my.’
He moved to the front of the group to face Hien. ‘Hello, Hien. Remember me? I helped you out of that awful place you were in.’
‘It hurts!’ Hien wailed, her voice muffled by Regina’s head. She shook Regina and the doctor flopped like a rag doll.
‘Regina can take the pain away. You just need to let her go, honey,’ Edwards said.
‘She tried!’ Hien said, her voice still muffled. ‘It didn’t work!’
‘I’m not surprised—you’re a reptile,’ Edwards said with humour. ‘You probably need some special reptile medicine.’
Hien stopped moving and concentrated on him. ‘There is special medicine that can fix me?’
‘How about you let Regina go, and we can have a look?’ Edwards said.
Hien’s bright blue eyes focused on him for a moment, then she dropped Regina.
‘Good girl,’ Edwards said. ‘Now, what I want you to do is go into one of the treatment rooms and wait there, and we’ll get someone who specialises in dragons to see what we can do about this.’
Hien jumped forward and took Regina’s head in her mouth again. ‘Don’t make me wait! It hurts too much!’
Edwards raised his hands. ‘We won’t make you
wait. We just need to find someone who can help. Now drop Regina…’
Hien lowered her head, looking at him, then gently released Regina.
Edwards stepped forward and put his hand on Hien’s head. ‘Good girl. You’re a very pretty dragon, you know that?’ He opened one of the treatment room doors. ‘Come in here and wait with me while they find someone to help you. I’ll stay with you.’
‘You’ll stay?’ Hien said, her voice full of hope.
Edwards stroked her head. ‘I’ll stay with you. Did you know, I know what you’re going through because I used to have a daughter just like you, who was on this stuff too? I know how much it hurts.’
‘You know?’ Hien said, sounding more like a little girl than a dragon.
Edwards cupped her face with one hand and nodded. ‘I know exactly what it feels like, and I know how to fix it. So come with me in here, and they’ll find someone with the right stuff for you.’
Hien ducked her head and then gazed up at him again. ‘Okay.’
He led her gently into the treatment room. As he closed the door, he grimaced back at us and mouthed, ‘Better find something fast.’
As soon as the door closed we raced to Regina. She seemed unconscious. A couple of the students lifted her and carried her to the bed in the other treatment room.
‘Find a dragon who is an expert in either transforming or, as Jim said, in healing,’ Meredith said. ‘Someone find Regina’s sidekick, Edwin. He can take a look at her.’
She put her hands on Regina and concentrated. ‘Never mind. Regina’s dead.’ She dropped her head and shook it, then gathered herself and looked up. ‘Move, people! Dragons—find someone who can help.’
She saw Simone and me. ‘Why aren’t you in Hell getting Gold’s baby out?’
‘We’re going now. We wanted to make sure Regina was okay,’ Simone said.
Meredith sighed and looked down at Regina’s limp body. Regina didn’t seem dead; her eyes were open and her skin still had a normal flush. I touched her hand and it was still warm. A horrible heartless voice inside me commented on how alive she still looked, and an even more horrible voice lamented the loss of so much warm rich human blood.
My phone rang and I answered it. ‘Emma.’
It was Edwards. ‘She changed back. She’s human. Get someone in here in a hurry, Emma.’
‘Did you hear that?’ I asked Meredith, but she’d already grabbed a syringe.
‘Go, Emma,’ she said as she filled it. ‘We can handle the rest. We’ll keep her sedated until we work out what to do.’
I touched Regina’s hand again. ‘I am so sorry, dear Regina. You worked so hard for all of us.’
‘The Celestial Judiciary is going to be down on this poor little dragon like a ton of bricks,’ Meredith said, her voice crisp. ‘Hurry back, Lady Emma, she’ll need a great deal of assistance to avoid a death penalty. Jim lost his daughter to drugs; let’s not lose this little one too.’
‘Let’s go to Hell and find the demons that gave her the drugs in the first place,’ Simone said. ‘They’re the ones who are going to pay. For Regina, and for Hien.’
I turned to the door. ‘Good idea, Simone. Some demons need to suffer for this.’
The lift to Hell once again let us out on the roof of the main administration building. Nobody else was there. We went down the stairs to the side of the lake and saw a large black Mercedes van parked on the road.
I stopped and stared. ‘They have cars in Hell?’
Marshal Ma, still in human form, leaned out of the driver’s side window. ‘Of course we do. How else do we get around?’
‘Float, fly, I don’t know; however demons get around?’ I said as I slid the side door open and pulled myself into the van.
Liang Tian, Marshal Zhou and Marshal Shi were already inside, looking like serene Confucian gentlemen in their traditional black robes. Martin sat in the front passenger seat, staring out the window. The Tiger was in the back row, scowling.
Simone and Michael climbed in behind me and seated themselves, we closed the door and Marshal Ma started the van.
‘Not taking demon form yet?’ I said.
‘Not on the Celestial side, Emma,’ Marshal Ma said as he pulled the van away from the kerb. ‘We’d get ourselves killed.’
‘Tell me more about this demon business,’ I said as we drove along the side of the lake. ‘Why do you all have demon forms?’
‘You’ve obviously never read Journey to the North,’ Marshal Zhou said, his bushy beard bristling. ‘Have you read Journey to the West?’
‘Got about halfway through, then it started getting really repetitive,’ I said, ashamed. ‘They go over a mountain, they get captured by demons, the Monkey King frees them, the monk admonishes everybody, and they journey to the next mountain where exactly the same thing happens again.’
The Generals chuckled.
‘That’s about the gist of it,’ Marshal Ma said from the front. ‘But you may have gleaned from the text that the Pig was a Heavenly General who was cast down from Heaven, and accidentally reborn from a pig’s womb.’
I stared around at them. ‘You were all cast down from Heaven? Is that why you have demon forms?’
‘Something like that,’ Marshal Zhou said.
‘I have to read Journey to the North now,’ I said, almost to myself.
‘Would probably be a good idea,’ the Tiger said from the back of the van. ‘What I’ve done is nothing compared to what some of these guys got up to.’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that,’ Marshal Ma called back. ‘You’ve done some pretty despicable things in your time, my friend.’
The Tiger dropped his head and glowered. ‘And we’ve all gained redemption.’
‘I really need to read it,’ I said.
‘Me too,’ Simone said. ‘And Daddy did this too?’ She turned to Martin. ‘What about you?’
Martin’s face went rigid. ‘I have never been cast from Heaven.’
‘What about—’ the Tiger began, but Martin cut him off.
‘I have never been cast from Heaven,’ he repeated. ‘I have been exiled from my clan, thrown from my family, but I have always acted with honour.’
We came to a causeway and Marshal Ma slowed the van. He turned left and the Judge’s mansion at the Celestial end of the causeway appeared in front of us.
‘We drive to the end, then we have to walk,’ Ma said.
‘Will there be issues with us going through the Gates?’ Michael said.
‘We take demon form inside the van, park it at the end, and stroll out like we own the place,’ Zhou said. ‘We won’t be questioned.’
‘We just eat anything that stops us,’ the Tiger growled.
‘You will be with me. You will not be questioned,’ Martin said.
‘I can’t change in here, there isn’t room,’ Liang Tian said. ‘You’ll have to park the van so it blocks their view of me, so I can change after I get out.’
‘Not a problem,’ Marshal Ma said. He picked up speed as he drove along the causeway across the absolutely waveless lake. ‘It’s about a fifty li drive. I suggest you do any preparation now; we have at least half an hour before reaching the demonic section.’
I turned to Marshal Zhao. ‘Tell me about Journey to the North.’
Both the Generals in the back of the van grimaced. Martin remained impassive.
‘Tell her, it’s about fucking time,’ the Tiger growled.
‘Tigers don’t tell me what to do,’ Zhao snapped back.
‘No, but we do,’ Simone said, her voice sweet and childlike. ‘And cut it out with the bad language, Uncle Bai.’
‘Humph,’ the Tiger said. He summoned a can of beer, opened it and took a swig, then settled back into his seat to look out the window.
‘Some aspects of the story as it has been retold are wrong,’ Zhou said. ‘Lord Xuan Wu is not a soul of the Jade Emperor.’
‘He’s said that himself,’ I said.
‘The Turtle and Snake are
not separate entities—well, not separate in the sense of separate from him. They are him.’
‘In the story they are separate from him?’
Zhou nodded. ‘And Avalokitesvara had very much more to do with this than is hinted at in the book—’
‘Who?’ Simone said.
‘Avalokitesvara is Kwan Yin’s Sanskrit name,’ I said.
Zhou nodded again.
‘She’s Indian?’
‘She’s a Bodhisattva, Simone. She isn’t anything,’ I said.
‘That is correct in many more ways than one,’ Ma said from the front of the car.
‘He fell. He was redeemed. When he returned to Heaven, his Generals had also fallen and he made the journey to retrieve them,’ Zhou said.
‘Whoa, that’s the Reader’s Digest version of the Reader’s Digest version,’ the Tiger said.
‘We’re nearly there,’ Zhou said.
‘Some of you guys didn’t fall,’ the Tiger said.
‘This is true. Guan Gong—I mean Guan Yu, Gao Yuan the Heavenly Star—’
‘Is that why Gao Yuan glows all the time? He’s a star?’ Simone interrupted.
‘Yes. His story is very sad, but I can’t go into it. Ask him later. Marshals Deng and Zhang of the Thunder Gates, Heavenly Lord Xin, Grand Marshal Xiao of the Hours, Wang Tie of Tiger Peak—’
‘Yeah, a few of you guys just went off and did your own thing but didn’t eat people,’ the Tiger said with humour. He swigged his beer. ‘But a few of you went off—and did eat people.’
‘No way,’ Simone said. She stared at Marshal Zhou, wide-eyed. ‘You ate people?’
The Generals were silent, all of them obviously embarrassed.