by Kylie Chan
‘You went there?’ Simone asked with delight.
‘We took a group of disadvantaged Mainland kids with us,’ Michael said.
‘You didn’t mention that,’ I said.
He shrugged. ‘Not really worth mentioning. Mom and I used to do it often, take disadvantaged kids on holiday, give them time away from the concrete jungle.’ He glanced back towards the Tiger’s cloud. ‘I dunno whether I’ll want to continue doing it if Mom doesn’t want to.’
‘If she doesn’t want to, can you and me keep it going?’ Simone said. ‘It sounds really worthwhile.’
Michael hesitated for a moment, then grinned at her. ‘Sure.’
‘Okay!’ Simone yelled. She nodded towards the ground. ‘Seven Stars Park, Guilin, everybody off!’
‘I’m going to take us pretty much straight down, Emma,’ Michael said. ‘If you feel uncomfortable let me know.’
I peered over the edge of the cloud. ‘We’re there?’
Michael nodded, and pointed towards a green swathe next to the river that stood out against the grey of the urban sprawl. ‘That’s it.’
‘Thanks for the ride,’ I said, and threw myself off the cloud.
I used the energy centres to slow my fall, and Simone came down to match my speed.
‘You have enough energy control, Emma?’ she called over the noise of the wind.
‘I thought —’ I started, then hit something with a thump that knocked the wind out of me. I lay, gasping, on a cloud that had appeared under me and swooped up to catch me.
I rounded on Michael. ‘That was totally unnecessary. I’m quite capable …’ My voice trailed off as I saw the Monkey King grinning at me from the back of the cloud. I pulled myself to a sitting position and saluted him. ‘Great Sage.’
The Monkey King was in Celestial Form. He was about five feet tall, his appearance part monkey and part human. His face was like that of a chimpanzee, and he stood upright without difficulty the same as a human would, but his simian feet were bare. He wore a traditional bright red cotton jacket with toggles and loops, and brown cotton pants. The circlet that the Buddha had given him was around his brow and he held his magic wishing staff in his right hand. I nearly laughed; he was a caricature of how he appeared in popular culture. Humans didn’t often get the appearances of Celestials exactly right, but the way that the Monkey King was portrayed was uncannily accurate. Probably because he was such a glory hound and helped them out.
‘Thanks for the lift, Great Sage, but I was taking myself down,’ I said, and threw myself off the cloud.
I drifted down for about fifty metres, but the Monkey King swooped behind me and collected me on his cloud again.
‘Was there something you wanted to say to me?’ I said.
‘No, not really,’ he said, grinning and leaning on his staff.
‘Then how about letting me have a fly?’ I said.
He shrugged.
I dropped off the cloud and spreadeagled on the air, again slowing my fall and enjoying the light sensation of drifting downwards. The mountains below were like jagged teeth sticking out of the ground towards me, and the Li River glistened with reflected sunlight. South of the city of Guilin the landscape was green and unbuilt because of the steep mountains, but around the area of the city there was extensive urban development and many terraced rice paddies.
The Monkey King flew his cloud beside me, then dipped below and up again to collect me.
I stood up and put my hands on my hips. ‘What are you doing?’
He just shrugged again, leaning on his staff. I did a huge backflip off the cloud and soared a good eight metres backwards. I landed on his cloud again.
‘Okay, whatever,’ I said. I turned to face the direction the cloud was moving, away from the Monkey King, and sat cross-legged on the cloud.
He did a barrel roll, turning the cloud upside down and tipping me off.
His choice to be an asshole if he wanted, so I ignored him. I looked down as I slowed my fall; I was only about a hundred metres above the ground. Simone reappeared next to me and gently guided me with PK to the exact area where we needed to land: a small walkway halfway up the steepest hill in the park.
You should order him out, Simone said into my head. You deserve more respect than this.
Tell her he’s a valuable fighter, I said to the stone. And besides, his behaviour is his business, and the repercussions of his behaviour will also be his business.
Michael, the Tiger and the Monkey King guided their clouds next to the walkway, then soared from them to meet us. Na Zha swooped in from above, then dismissed his fire wheels and joined us. Night was falling and the local and foreign tourists had left the park, leaving empty drink bottles and snack packets all over the ground, and newspapers covering the concrete outdoor chairs and tables.
Simone shook her head. ‘I don’t know why people sit on newspapers, they make your bum blacker than the chairs would anyway.’
‘It makes them feel better about the dirty chairs without actually doing anything,’ Michael said.
We gazed up at the side of the mountain. The walkway up to the entrance to the cave was a switchback of stairs and paths that led up the nearly vertical rockface.
‘Anyone sense anything?’ I said as I started up the stairs and through a moon gate towards the cave entrance.
‘Demons, no,’ the Tiger said. He gestured towards the entrance. ‘Them, yes.’
The cave entrance was as big as a hall, with rough rock walls carved with the Chinese version of graffiti — many poems in elegant calligraphy etched into the rock by visitors over thousands of years. Some of the poetry was by famous historical poets, making the graffiti true works of art. A modern Communist Party slogan, at least fifty metres long, in large red simplified characters had been carved into the wall about five metres above us.
Within the cave at least twenty and possibly thirty Shen stood quietly, waiting for us. They appeared to vary in age from about ten years old to well over ninety. Gold stood at the front of the group, wearing a pair of tan slacks and a beige polo shirt. His child floated next to him.
He raised his hand and approached us. ‘Before you say anything,’ he said, ‘we want to come along, so don’t try to stop us. We want a piece of this asshole demon that’s been messing with our nature. We never forget when one of our own has been hurt, and in this case this demon has hurt many of us.’ He saluted us quickly. ‘By your leave, Celestial Masters, please allow this group of stones to assist you in your quest.’
‘But don’t try to stop you, eh?’ the Tiger said.
All of the stone Shen except for Gold transformed at the same time. They took the form of tiny pebbles, each only about half a centimetre across, and swirled into a cloud of stones hanging in the air.
‘We can go as small as dust motes if you like,’ Gold said. He grimaced. ‘Well, they can.’
‘I can’t allow the children to come,’ I said. ‘But I won’t stop the rest of you. You’re right, this is just as much your business as it is ours.’
‘Listen to the white chick giving orders,’ the Monkey King said with amusement.
I turned to face the Monkey King, summoned the Murasame and stood with it in my right hand. ‘I’m First Heavenly General, Sage Sun. I have precedence over everybody here. Including you. If you have an issue with doing as you’re told,’ I gestured with my sword away from the mountain towards the long drop below, ‘the clouds are that way.’
I turned and walked towards the group of floating stones. ‘No juveniles can come along; feel free to leave them here with someone to mind them. Adults only, please. I won’t be held responsible for putting children in any sort of danger.’
‘But I want to come!’ Gold’s child whined.
I stooped so it was at my eye level. ‘If they chop you, little one, you’ll be killed. Your dad and the other adult Shen would survive. You wouldn’t. Wait until you’re bigger, and then you’re welcome to come to everything we do.’
; I nodded to Gold. ‘You don’t have to come, Gold, you can stay here with your child.’
Gold’s child settled onto the floor and turned black. ‘I hate you.’
I bent to grin at it. ‘I hate you too. And both of us know we’re lying. So wait out here for us with the other kids, and we’ll be back soon.’
Gold’s child rolled into a corner and stayed there, silent.
‘There aren’t any other kids,’ Gold said. ‘The stones who take the appearance of children aren’t children at all. We’re all adults here, except for my little one, and I’d prefer not to leave him out here by himself.’
‘Let me come!’ Gold’s child said.
‘It’ll be fine, ma’am,’ Gold said. ‘Any trouble and I’ll take it out.’
‘All right, you can all come,’ I said with resignation. ‘Don’t make me regret this, Gold. Children deserve our protection.’
I walked through the cloud of stones towards the tunnel entrance to the cave itself.
‘You take orders from this little girl?’ the Monkey King said behind me as the rest of the group moved to catch up.
‘Yeah,’ the Tiger said. ‘Do you?’
‘Ah Ting’s really pushing it,’ the Monkey King said.
‘Due le,’ Na Zha said in Putonghua, agreeing with him.
I didn’t turn to see them, I just gestured backwards with my sword. ‘Clouds are that way, fellas.’
They made some displeased noises and followed me in, the cloud of tiny stones behind them.
CHAPTER 24
As soon as the Tiger entered the cave it lit up with splendid coloured fairy lights highlighting all the interesting limestone rock formations.
Simone gasped. ‘Pretty!’
‘Vandalism,’ Gold said dryly.
‘We do not exist for entertainment, and we do not need to be “prettied up”,’ one of the stones said in a sarcastic female voice. ‘These “enhancements” have damaged the surface of the rock, and the “emissions” from so many visitors are eroding the limestone.’
‘The tourists are damaging the very things they want to see,’ Gold said.
The Monkey King shrugged, looking around at the stone formations. ‘It’ll take years for the damage to show. And as long as you get to see the rocks before they’re gone, who cares?’
‘That’s a slash and burn attitude,’ I said without looking back.
‘Slash and burn is a good way to get new farmland,’ the Monkey King said.
‘What if you run out?’
‘World’s a big place.’
I rounded on him. ‘Why are you here anyway?’
He leaned on his staff and grinned at me. ‘Black Lion owes me a one on one.’
‘Oh, now that I would like to see,’ the Tiger growled. ‘But you can’t use the wishing staff.’
The Monkey King grimaced. ‘That’s not fair.’
The Tiger moved further into the cave, studying the walls. ‘No, that is fair, and that’s why you don’t like the idea.’
‘Anyone sense an entrance to the nest?’ I said. ‘This place doesn’t seem anything unusual.’
‘Probably further in,’ Michael said, studying the formations. ‘They like to be as far from the surface as possible.’
‘Boy’s right,’ the Tiger said. ‘Let’s head further in.’
‘My elementals say further in too,’ Simone said. ‘They’re looking but they haven’t found it yet.’
We followed the damp path through the cave, the walls dripping moisture from the limestone around us. As the Tiger approached each area the coloured lights blazed into life, then faded as he moved away again.
‘When you go on the tour through here, the guide stops at each formation and goes into a detailed background story or description of it,’ Michael said. ‘If you didn’t stop I think the whole cave would take about twenty minutes to walk through, but they can stretch it into an hour.’
‘I’d prefer not to be told what to see,’ Simone said.
‘Makes life a lot easier if you just go along with what you’re told and see what you’re told to see,’ I said. ‘Thinking for yourself is the hard way.’
‘Then I choose the hard way.’
‘That’s what makes you special,’ the Tiger said, his voice full of approval. ‘Only those marked for the highest levels of consciousness have the strength of character to decide such things for themselves.’
‘Bah,’ the Monkey King said. ‘Females are unable to attain Enlightenment, they’re still one step below the ultimate Earthly incarnation of male form. Scriptures say so.’
Simone stopped and stared at him.
‘This is not the place to be arguing this, Simone,’ I said.
‘Yeah, I’ll take it up with him later,’ she said.
‘Bring it,’ the Monkey King said without looking away from the rock formations.
We arrived in a cavern with limestone ribbon formations standing vertically along the ground. They’d been lit up to make them appear like the Great Wall. The Celestials all stopped and looked at the formation.
‘This is it,’ the Tiger said.
‘So many demons on the other side of this,’ Simone said. ‘So many!’
‘How big are they?’ I said.
‘All sorts,’ Na Zha said. ‘Like a hotel buffet.’
The limestone ribbons only stood about twenty centimetres tall, but they were at least five metres long, curling through the base of the cave in a pond of water. We all took a step back as the ribbons rippled, then rose out of the water to coalesce into a fake stone elemental demon with a body and limbs of large, rough rocks that floated together without any physical joins between them.
Simone shot a blast of shen energy at the demon. It dropped slightly then rose again.
Na Zha summoned his throwing ring and threw it at one of the stone demon’s limbs; it severed the limb and returned to Na Zha. The limb quickly rose and reattached itself to the body.
‘Oh, quit playing with it,’ the Tiger said. He shot across the water so he was floating above the demon, and drew his sword to engage it. Simone, Na Zha and the Monkey King followed, all of them descending on the demon.
Michael gently took my arm and held me. ‘I know you want to have a try at it, Emma, but if it explodes on you it could be very bad.’
‘Let me go. I won’t try for it.’
The demon threw its arms wide, hitting each of the Celestials, knocking them backwards to the ground.
‘You okay, Simone?’ I called, moving towards her. Michael took my arm again and I shook him off. ‘Let me go!’
‘You stay right there,’ Simone said, spreadeagled in the water. ‘We can take it.’
‘How big is this thing anyway?’ I asked Michael. ‘I can’t sense anything at all from it.’
‘No idea, it’s one of the new stone elementals.’
‘Water’s weak against stone,’ I said, concerned, ‘and Simone’s the daughter of water itself.’
‘Metal’s not weak against stone though,’ the Tiger growled, and rose from the ground. He shot towards the demon and ran his sword straight into the middle of its body. The demon somehow ejected his sword, throwing him back again.
Simone filled Dark Heavens with shen energy and ran towards the demon. The Monkey King did a huge leaping dive towards the centre of the demon with his staff. Simone sliced through the demon’s torso, and the Monkey King broke each of the limbs off, then the head. Na Zha finished the job by sending his flying ring through all four of the legs, making them fall into shards of stone.
Simone turned to walk across the water and back to me, and was struck in the back of the head by one of its arms, sending her sprawling towards me. The demon proceeded to re-form.
I didn’t attempt to help Simone up, much as I wanted to; Michael still held me. She shook her head and rose, then rubbed the back of her head and turned to face the demon.
Na Zha, the Tiger and the Monkey King all stood just out of reach of the monster, studying it.
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‘Any ideas?’ the Tiger said.
‘Stones?’ I asked our companions.
The cloud of stones swirled and coalesced into a solid, then split apart again. Gold, who was still in human form, smiled slightly. ‘’Bout time you asked the experts.’
The stones moved so fast through the air that they were a blur. They latched onto the stone demon, then grew into larger rocks, pinning it down. It fell to the ground, its limbs thrashing as it tried to fight the stones off. They held it spreadeagled on the ground and its writhing became weaker.
‘Okay, you got it. Now what are you going to do with it?’ the Monkey King said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. ‘Can you actually destroy this thing, or are you going to be in bed with it for the rest of your lives?’
Gold approached the stone demon and waved the Monkey King closer. ‘Run your staff right through …’ He studied it carefully, then pointed at the stone body. ‘Right there.’
The Monkey King swaggered to the stone demon, swung his staff in his hand and ran it through its body where Gold had indicated. The demon’s limbs went completely straight, then flopped, lifeless, onto the ground.
The stones lifted in a cloud above the demon, and Gold shrugged. ‘Sorted.’
‘The entrance to the nest is behind this room,’ Simone said, still rubbing the back of her head. ‘There are plenty more demons in there to play with.’
‘More stones like this?’ I said, picking my way through the water to the back wall. I considered whether I should send Simone home.
‘No, most of them are standard Hell-type humanoids,’ Simone said. She saw my concern. ‘I’m okay, just getting a mighty fine bump.’
‘You sure you can handle this?’ I said.
She shrugged. ‘Had worse. You don’t see some of the stuff the Generals throw at me.’
I dropped my head and shook it. ‘If you’re getting injured like this, I want to stop them calling on you to help them.’
‘I’ll be healed in about ten minutes, don’t worry about it, Emma.’
We stood at the back wall of the cave, studying it. Na Zha put one hand out and felt the wall. ‘Seems solid.’ He punched it hard, making chips of stone fly from it. ‘Very solid.’