The Imperial Alchemist

by A. H. Wang

  “Do you see now, Professor?” The general continues, looking awfully smug. “Do you see the grandeur of my scheme? Like I said before: what we have here is a reunion, in every sense of the word.”

  Grinning, he rubs the back of his shaved scalp, then runs a finger slowly down the scar on his face. Watching the general perform these distantly familiar quirks brings a surge of memories in Charlie. All of sudden, he is back in Japan again: tied to a tree, bloody and screaming, as Lu Hsing carves bits of flesh from his body. Wang Jian hovers somewhere in the background, rubbing his scalp with frustration, demanding: Tell me. Tell me everything.

  Charlie shudders, shaking off the horrific images.

  “You know, all that time I spent waiting, all the hard work I’ve put into this, and all those years of dealing with this arsehole—” The general kicks the corpse beside him, and an involuntary yelp escapes Georgia. “I must say, I am extremely pleased with the final result. I couldn’t have wished for a better outcome.

  “And now,” Wang Jian declares, fixing his cold gaze on Charlie. “It looks like we’ve come full circle, and we’ll end this where it all began. I’ll get to finish what I started all those centuries ago, and you’ll get to join your silver-haired witch friend. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this moment.”

  Wang Jian licks his bottom lip, giving a playful twirl of his knife, and takes a step towards them.

  71

  “I don’t get it,” Georgia speaks up, trying to stall the inevitable. “Why did you bother to look for Hsu Fu all this time? Emperor Qin is long dead, and you’re not bound by his mission anymore. Surely it can’t be professionalism? Why would you go through all this trouble just to finish a job that you were charged to do two thousand years ago?”

  Wang Jian pauses in his tracks. For the first time since he arrived in the cave, she sees fury making its ugly flush across his face.

  “I guess he didn’t tell you that, either, huh? Of course he didn’t.” He hisses with rancour. “I bet he’s been portraying himself as the patron saint of mankind.”

  Georgia looks at Charlie, her heart sinking as she sees the obvious guilt in his face. “What’s Wang Jian talking about?”

  He closes his eyes, shaking his head slowly.

  “Charlie.”

  He sighs. Turning to her, he finally says, “That night, when Wang Jian and one of his men came for us at Naaya’s hut… The other man I killed was Wang Jian’s son.”

  “My only son,” Wang Jian adds, the wrath and pain in his voice palpable. “This’ll resonate with you, Georgia, since you watched your own daughter die. Imagine what it would have been like, to wake up to eternal life, only to gag at the rotting scent of your son’s body lying beside you. You shoo the rats away from gnawing at his remains, and you try to feed the dried, caked blood of the witch between his lifeless lips, praying to the gods it will work the way it worked for you. It doesn’t, of course. Your son is gone. Forever. And you have an eternity to ponder on that.”

  Georgia swallows hard. She feels as if she’s about to be sick. The crazed look in the general’s glare only adds to the churning in her stomach.

  “Hsu Fu took from me my only family, and left me with nothing,” Wang Jian says. “So no, nothing would have stopped me from hunting him down. In fact, the only thing that has kept me going over the years is the thought of revenge.”

  “I am sorry—” Charlie begins remorsefully.

  “You’re sorry! You’re sorry?” Wang Jian roars, the outburst resounding throughout the cave.

  Georgia flinches, her eyes darting around the chamber, worried the explosion of sound will destabilise the structure. The echoes die without incident, and she watches Wang Jian as he tangibly reels in his rage, breath by breath. Slowly, the scowl on his face transforms into a triumphant smile.

  “I don’t want your apology, Hsu Fu,” he says softly, shaking his head. “No. What I want is for you to suffer the way I have. I want you to feel the pain I felt the night you took away my only son. I want you to howl as you watch the last of your loved ones die in your arms.”

  Without warning, the general’s movements are a blur as he strikes Hsu Fu on the temple with the hilt of his blade, rending the taller man senseless on the ground.

  His eyes ablaze, Wang Jian shifts his gaze to Georgia.

  She takes an instinctive step back, but hardly fast enough to dodge Wang Jian’s rapid advance, and she feels the air knocked out of her as he brings her down, his full weight crushing her. She lands hard on her back, her head cracking against something solid.

  The pain in her bruised ribs flares, and gasping for breath, she glimpses the flash of Wang Jian’s knife. Georgia recoils, watching in slow motion as the weapon arcs towards her, expecting the inevitable blow. But just before it lands, Wang Jian’s weight suddenly disappears. Hsu Fu lifts the general to his feet, then strikes Wang Jian’s jaw with a rock in hand.

  The general staggers back and drops into the shallow pool, blood oozing from his face, swiftly followed by Charlie, who throws his full weight on him. Grunts, muffled curses, and the sound of splashing water pervade the cave. Georgia struggles to sit up, a wave of dizziness hitting her as pain radiates through her skull. Her rib cage feels as if it is on fire as she fights to put air back into her lungs.

  She squints at the two men wrestling in the water. Some time during the struggle, the small lantern has been knocked over and kicked to the far end of the cave. Georgia fumbles to retrieve Mark’s torch, still alight and abandoned beside his lifeless body.

  She points the torchlight at the men, trying to see what is happening. In the shallow water, Wang Jian straddles Charlie’s chest, his hands clamped like a vice over the taller man’s throat. The knife is nowhere to be seen, but there is a deep wound in Charlie’s arm, gushing with blood.

  He doesn’t seem to be healing. And he is being choked to death.

  Something glints in the beam of the torch and Georgia sees the unmistakable silver object clipped to the back of Wang Jian’s belt. Before she can fully register her intentions, she is reaching to snatch the pistol from him.

  “Stop!” she yells, pointing the gun at Wang Jian. “Let him go!”

  The stocky man turns to look at her, seeing the weapon in her hand. He releases his grip on Charlie and slowly stands up. Then he smiles, his mirth building into a gleeful chortle.

  “What you gonna do, shoot me?”

  “I will if I have to.” She cocks the hammer to demonstrate the sincerity of her threat. By sheer will, she stops her hands from trembling.

  Wang Jian’s cocky smile fades.

  “Georgia. No.” Charlie chokes, his voice a hoarse strangle of a whisper. He frantically extends a hand out towards her. “The cave—”

  Distracted, she sees Wang Jian pounce towards her, and reflexively she squeezes the trigger just as it's knocked out of her hand. The gun goes off, the bullet ricocheting thunderously across the chamber. There is a brief moment of deadly silence, before a deep, resonant rumble envelopes them.

  “Oh my God,” she whispers, as the ground beneath her starts to shake.

  72

  Georgia watches in muted horror as the cave begins to crumble. Fine dust and sand fall in streams all around them, followed quickly by rocks of all sizes.

  Then she hears Charlie yell out, “Run, Georgia!”

  She turns to see him bring a large stone down on Wang Jian’s head. The general falls to the ground, grunting as blood pours down his face. Charlie darts towards her and grabs her by the arm, pulling her to her feet.

  “Run!”

  His voice startles her out of stupor, and she follows him, racing towards the tunnel entrance. But as they crouch down to enter, the small passage caves in, issuing out a cloud of dust.

  Georgia stumbles back just as a deep fissure splits the ground open, the jolt sending her tumbling across the cave floor. She sits up, scrambling backwards on her hands and feet as the crevice spreads, forcing her into the pool o
f water at the other end of the cave.

  Several metres away, Wang Jian has recovered and throws himself at Charlie, bringing both of them to the ground. The two men once again lock in a deathly embrace. Wang Jian gains the upper hand, pummelling his fist savagely into the other man’s face.

  His opponent unconscious, the general rises to his feet, fixing his fiery stare on Georgia. He advances towards her, and at that moment, another violent quake disturbs the chamber around them, sending sections of the ceiling caving in on him.

  She scurries back swiftly to avoid being struck, splashing about in the water that is almost reaching to her chest. Amidst the rubble she sees Wang Jian crushed under a giant boulder, his feet protruding at an awkward angle from underneath the rock.

  He isn’t moving.

  Georgia’s eyes search frantically through the dim cave. It doesn’t take her long to find what she’s looking for, the horrifying sight stilling her: Charlie’s arm, limp and bleeding, also partially buried by the debris.

  “Charlie?!” she calls out. With effort, she rises to her feet.

  But her voice is drowned out in the deafening chaos, and she hears no reply. She only manages a couple of steps towards Charlie’s body before the ground disappears from under her. As she falls through the floor, she reaches her hand out instinctively, grasping in vain for something to hold on to. Her fingers struggle to grip anything solid as she is washed down the chasm, crashing and tumbling until something strikes hard against the side of her skull.

  She briefly registers the ringing in her ears and the darkening edges around her vision. Then, everything fades into pitch darkness.

  73

  Somewhere in the far distance, someone is calling her name.

  Georgia tries to ignore it, to block it out and push it to the background, so she can go back to sleep. She is so very tired. But whoever it is, they are stubbornly and annoyingly persistent.

  As she opens her eyes with the intention of telling the person to go away, she’s greeted with an almighty headache. Squinting into the bright light, the face of her assistant swims into focus, so close to her own that Georgia shrinks away with surprise.

  “Oh, thank God,” Sarah says, relief all over her features. “How are you feeling?”

  “Sarah?” Georgia frowns, blinking a few times to clear her vision. “What’s going on? Where am I?”

  “You’re at a hospital,” Sarah explains, standing up in her chair. “The NTU Hospital in Taipei. I’m gonna get the doctor for you.”

  Without another word, her assistant sprints through a doorway. Georgia props up on her elbows to look about her, seeing the large, whitewashed room she’s sharing with five other patients, most of them with a loved one sitting close by, some of them with curtains drawn for privacy. She wrinkles her nose at the scent of disinfectant permeating the air. There is a window at the far end of the room, its venetian blinds filtering the sunlight into stripes across the vinyl flooring.

  Georgia furrows her brows, trying to clear her thoughts as she attempts to recall how she ended up here. Then she sits up with a jolt, her heart racing and her breath coming on fast, as memories of Charlie, Wang Jian, and the cave come rushing back.

  Sarah returns with the doctor and a nurse in tow. At the sight of Georgia’s terrified expression, she exclaims, “What’s wrong?!”

  “Georgia.” The doctor, an elderly man, walks over and places both hands on her shoulders. He coaxes gently, “You’re having a panic attack. I need you to sit back. Take a few deep breaths for me.”

  The young nurse reaches for the electronic controls, raising the upper half of the bed. They ease Georgia back as she strives to inhale slowly.

  “Good, very good,” the doctor says soothingly in Chinese as she relaxes. “There. Feeling better?”

  She nods, staring up to his creased face as he smiles.

  “I’m Doctor Yang,” he says. “Do you know where you are?”

  “Yes,” she replies, “at the NTU hospital in Taipei.”

  Nodding, Dr. Yang reaches into his pocket for a penlight to examine her eyes. “Can you tell me your full name and date of birth?”

  “Georgia Lee. Seventh of December, 1982.”

  “Good,” Dr. Yang says as he straightens up. “Are you experiencing any nausea or headaches? Any dizziness?”

  “I had a headache earlier…” replies Georgia. “But it seems to be better now.”

  Dr. Yang nods. “Any ringing in your ears?”

  She shakes her head.

  “No other discomfort at all?”

  “Just tired, I think.” Her voice is hoarse.

  “What is the last thing you remember?”

  “I…” She pauses, darting a quick glance at Sarah. “I’m not sure. I think I must have hit my head on a rock.”

  “That’s okay, it’ll probably come back to you later.” He nods at the nurse, who moves over to measure Georgia’s temperature and blood pressure.

  Dr. Yang looks through her charts, and jots down the latest readings. Then he looks up to smile at her. “You have recovered well. Everything seems to be back to normal. But I’d like to keep you for a couple more days for observation, just in case.”

  “Okay.”

  “In the meantime, try to get as much rest as you can. Your body has been through quite a lot these last few days.”

  She nods. “Thank you.”

  Dr. Yang and his nurse saunter out of the room, and Sarah moves forward, planting herself into the chair beside the bed.

  “You feeling okay?” Her forehead is crinkled with worry.

  “I think so,” Georgia says. “What happened?”

  “Oh, Georgia, I’ve been so worried.” Sarah shakes her head, grasping Georgia’s hand. “You’ve been out of it for almost a week, burning high fevers and delirious half of the time. The doctors believe you’ve contracted an infection from exposure.”

  “How did I get here? How are you in Taipei?”

  “They found you downstream on the bank of the river in Taroko Gorge, unconscious. We had no idea how long you were out there. The doctors decided to move you to the hospital in Taipei for better treatment,” Sarah says. “When you didn’t report to the Park administration on the day you were expected to be back from your trek, they sent out a search party. There’s been a few earthquakes in the area which caused some minor landslides, and several of the trails have been damaged. They’ve still not found Lambert and his assistant, and the other person on your trail permit… Charlie, was it? It’s all made front page news: Billionaire Missing after Earthquake in Taiwan, blah blah blah.”

  Sarah starts to recount everything that happened since they last spoke on the phone: the kidnapping and interrogations, her rather clever prisonbreak from the basement, and the investigation Detective Turner has been carrying out. A mixture of shock, anger, and relief overwhelms Georgia as she listens.

  “Turner reached out to the authorities here, that’s how we were contacted when they found you. I hopped on the plane the very next day,” Sarah explains. “Of course, when the news came out and they released photos of Lambert and his assistant as missing persons, I realised that Hank was the one who kidnapped me.”

  “I can’t believe he did that to you. When he told me that he took you…” Georgia whispers, her lips trembling. “I feared for the worst. I am so sorry. It’s all my fault.”

  “Nonsense.” Sarah squeezes Georgia’s hand. “I swear, though, if that man is still alive… When Turner captures him, I’ll be petitioning to the government to bring back the death penalty.”

  “He’s not.” Georgia shakes her head. “I’m pretty certain he died at Taroko.”

  “What do you mean, died? What happened out there?”

  Georgia takes in a deep breath. Speaking in English with a quiet voice so the other patients in the room can’t listen in, she tells Sarah her story. She reveals everything about Naaya and the elixir, about Charlie, and about their search in Taroko. A violent mix of emotions roils in her
gut as she describes in detail all that happened in the cave and Wang Jian’s mad obsession, driven by the single goal of hunting one man down for the sake of revenge.

  Her eyes began to fill with tears as she recalls that Charlie didn’t make it out of the cave, but died saving her. She still can’t fathom the truth of who he was, a distant ancestor who watched over her like a guardian spirit. Ironically, she realises, Charlie did get his wish in the end. Even if it wasn’t exactly how he expected to reach his goal.

  By the time Georgia finishes her tale, her voice has diminished to a muted whisper, and the light outside the window has faded into night.

  A hospital employee pushes in a trolley, making the rounds to distribute dinner to patients. Georgia eyes the tray of hospital food, unable to conjure up an appetite. When the orderly leaves again, Sarah heaves a long sigh, shaking her head. She leans forward to rest her arms on the bed.

  “That is some fucked up, crazy shit,” she says, wringing her fingers uneasily.

  Georgia can’t help but give a wry smile as she wipes her tears away. Her assistant’s potty mouth is comfortingly familiar.

  After a long moment of silence, Sarah looks up at her. “Listen, Georgia, you simply can’t tell anyone else this. Sergeant Turner will want a statement. The whole of Taiwan’s gonna want a statement. They have three missing people on their hands, one of them a high-profile figure in the Forbes Billionaire List. If you tell them this story, they’ll think you’ve gone mad. They’ll say you hit your head harder than you thought. The cave is destroyed, so you can’t even prove the elixir existed in the first place. It’ll ruin your reputation as a scientist. It’ll most likely wreck your career.”

  “I know,” Georgia agrees. “What do I tell them, though?”

  Sarah worries her hands some more, thinking on this. “Tell them everything, except the cave. Tell them that Lambert paid you a ridiculous sum because he had this crazy idea in his head. You didn’t believe in the elixir for one second, but you had to secure the funding for the department. Tell them it was all a wild goose chase and you found nothing, and it all tragically ended when the earthquake brought rocks down on you on the trail.”