Journey to Wudang

by Kylie Chan

  ‘Get her to the infirmary,’ John said. His voice moved closer. ‘Emma, you will survive this. You must survive this. I can’t hold it any longer …’

  ‘No!’ Simone shouted, hoarse with effort. ‘Don’t leave me now! Don’t leave us now!’

  ‘He’ll be back,’ Leo said.

  A sharp pain stabbed me in the thigh. I wanted to ask if it was a painkiller, I wanted to beg that it was a painkiller. Painkillers would work now, wouldn’t they? Drugs would work?

  The drowsiness flooded through me and I became detached. The pain went away, and I went away from the pain. I breathed more easily. Painkillers worked. Thank the Heavens.

  CHAPTER 34

  ‘She can’t survive this,’ Edwin said. ‘She has third-degree burns to … well, to one hundred per cent of her. She’s been burnt down to the lowest dermal layer all over, some parts even further. Inside as well — I don’t know how she’s breathing. She should be dead now, and she will be dead soon. All I can do is ease her pain.’

  ‘No, Edwin, the Demon King burned the demon essence out of her,’ Simone said. ‘We made a pact with him. She’ll survive.’

  ‘She can’t survive.’

  ‘She will!’

  I wanted to ask for more pain relief but I couldn’t speak because my tongue was gone. I cycled down, moving my new, clean chi energy through me. The outside was a shredded mass of agony, but the inside was clean. I wanted to scream with joy and pain at the same time.

  ‘Can you change to serpent, Emma?’ Simone said, holding my hand, causing me sharp pain. It was bearable with the drugs but it was still there.

  I shook my head. I didn’t have the focus to change, not with this amount of drugs and pain and bleeding.

  Strong hands held my left arm at the elbow. I recognised the feeling of having a drip inserted and nearly panicked at the flashback of the demon essence going into me.

  ‘No, Emma, it’s Edwin, it’s saline,’ Simone said. ‘Saline and more painkillers.’

  I relaxed and she sighed.

  To my vast relief, I floated above the bed, no longer touching it. Now I didn’t have anything except Simone’s hand against my raw skin. I relaxed even more.

  ‘Thanks, Leo,’ Simone said softly.

  ‘The stone said to do it,’ Leo said. ‘It says every touch is agony for her.’ His voice broke. ‘Why did it have to be like this?’

  Simone tried to release my hand, but I held it. She tried to shake herself free and I had to let go; the pain was too much. ‘If being touched hurts then it’s not worth it,’ she said.

  I flailed around, looking for her hand, and she took it again.

  There were noises and protests, then the Tiger spoke. ‘Holy fucking shit.’

  ‘Mind your language,’ Leo said.

  ‘I agree with him,’ Simone said, her voice weary. ‘Oh God, she’s bleeding on me. There’s blood and goo coming out of her skin everywhere.’

  I wanted to push her away, she shouldn’t have to see this.

  ‘No, Emma,’ she said. ‘I’m here for you. I’ll always be here for you.’

  ‘She says she’ll be here for you as well, Simone,’ the stone said.

  ‘You can relay?’

  ‘She’s in a hazy state and her mind is muddled with the pain,’ the stone said. ‘Her tongue is gone, her eyes are burnt out of her head, and she’s absolutely thrilled to be free of the demon essence, the silly human. She’s dying of burns and happy.’

  ‘She won’t die. She can’t die.’

  ‘She thinks the same thing.’

  ‘We asked for this,’ Simone said, desperate. ‘We paid for this.’

  ‘Ma’am,’ Edwin said, ‘she has twelve hours at the most with these sorts of burns. That’s twelve hours using her advanced energy skills to keep her alive. I will do my best to keep her comfortable, and you can stay with her.’

  ‘I’ll stay with her until the end,’ Simone said. ‘Whatever happens, I’ll be here.’

  ‘Me too,’ Leo said.

  ‘She says thank you,’ the stone said.

  I floated up from the quiet place into the pain again. Someone had wrapped me in cool, damp cloth and it eased the agony slightly.

  I’m here, we’re here, the stone said. Emma, it doesn’t look good for you. It’s been six hours and you’re just as bad. The burns are poisoning you, you’re dying. If you have anything you want to say to them, now would be a good time, because very soon Edwin will to have to overdose you just to keep you on the sane side of pain relief.

  No, the Demon King vowed to fix me. We made a deal.

  He may have made a mistake, Emma. None of the Celestials know for sure, this has never happened before — a human filled with demon essence and then cleared again.

  Okay. It was time.

  ‘She says she loves you,’ the stone relayed. ‘She loves you all. And Simone, if you could call your father to say goodbye, she would appreciate it.’

  ‘I have been calling him, stone. He’s not replying. I think he’ll be gone for a while.’ Simone’s voice was full of tears. ‘We’ll have to tell him when he comes back.’

  ‘She’ll be fine, she’ll heal,’ Leo said. ‘The Demon King made a deal with them. It won’t end like this, it can’t.’ His voice became strained and thick. ‘This isn’t happening!’

  He went out, he couldn’t take it, the stone said.

  There was silence as they sat with me. I did my best to stay conscious through the pain and dullness spreading through me. Every remaining minute with them counted. I was leaving Simone alone. I couldn’t leave Simone alone!

  ‘Tell her that it’s okay for her to go, please, Simone,’ the stone said. ‘She’s beating herself up because you’ll be left alone.’

  ‘I won’t be left alone, and I will manage,’ Simone said. ‘Daddy’s coming back for me, and I have Leo, and my brother and sister, and Monica. You don’t have to feel bad, Emma. I’ll miss you, but I understand.’

  They were silent again, and Simone quietly wept.

  ‘How is she?’ Meredith said softly.

  ‘Please help,’ Simone said.

  ‘Emma,’ Meredith said, her voice calm and cool. ‘Emma, I’m going to come into your mind and try to help you change to snake. Changing to snake might fix this. Do you understand?’

  ‘She says yes,’ the stone said.

  ‘I don’t know what the King was thinking,’ Meredith said as she took my hand and established the link. ‘This isn’t a cure, this is murder. His pride and arrogance and greed have killed her.’

  She sent tendrils of her consciousness through my mind, blue and serene. I relaxed into the feeling; her mind was like deep water, still and clear and with a calmness that helped me.

  ‘I’m glad I could help,’ she said. ‘Now, stone, if you would: show me what she does when she changes to snake.’

  The stone laid it out like a blueprint plotted on graph paper, disassembled and clinical.

  ‘Right,’ Meredith said, her voice brisk. ‘Do me a favour, guys, nobody touch me while I try to bring this about. And warn the other telepathic Shen around the place to keep quiet?’

  ‘Word’s gone out,’ Leo said. He’d come in with Meredith.

  ‘For the first time in Wudang’s history, we have complete telepathic silence,’ Simone said.

  I heard the silence too. I hadn’t been aware of the telepathic background buzz before, but now it was as if every insect and bird in a forest had stopped.

  ‘You were always sensitive to it,’ Meredith said. ‘Try to gather your energy for this, Emma. From what the stone says, the change does take it out of you.’

  I did what I could but the drugs and the pain and the bleeding made it difficult.

  ‘All right,’ Meredith said. Her voice changed; she sounded like she was about to lift something heavy. ‘Here we go.’

  She forced the change on me and it pushed me into a smaller place. I didn’t fit, I was squeezed into a shape that wasn’t me, and I tried to help by
changing myself to fit it. I couldn’t; my body didn’t want to move. The squeezing added to the pain and I lost control, spiralling into chaos. My mind filled with a jumble of images and light and I fought for breath. I’d changed but I couldn’t change. I let my breath out in a long, agonising gasp that tore a scream out of me, and the change stopped.

  ‘Stay away!’ Meredith shouted.

  Her consciousness sharply changed direction: she stopped forcing me into the wrong shape and instead moved to my heart, my lungs, my brain, and kept me alive. She fed my aching insides, slapped them to make them work again, and furiously knitted up the damage she’d done.

  ‘Don’t leave me now, don’t leave me now!’ she said through her teeth.

  My heart took a huge leap and I breathed again. I panted, and wanted to cry from the pain.

  ‘Edwin,’ the stone said. ‘I don’t care how much she has, give her more. I’ll tell you when she’s close to the edge.’

  Numbing drowsiness flooded through me. They’d topped up the painkillers.

  ‘I just shortened her life by at least six hours,’ Meredith said, her voice bereft. ‘She’s gone under, she’s close to unconscious. You won’t get anything coherent out of her any more.’

  Emma, do you hear me? the stone said. Your mind is slowing down.

  It was all too hard. Time to slip away … so easy. So easy.

  ‘I think she probably has an hour or so at the most,’ Meredith said. ‘I’m sorry, dear, but it would have killed her. We can’t save her.’

  ‘I understand,’ Simone said. ‘You did your best, and I appreciate it. Just leave us now.’

  ‘She’s nearly gone,’ the stone said. ‘She’s not really conscious any more. It’s just a matter of time. She says, “Stay with me.”’

  ‘I will,’ Simone said.

  A bolt of icy flames seared through me and I screamed. My skin was on fire, burning with blue ice, and I screamed. My brain exploded, shooting sparks into the air. I turned as I floated, my vision full of black and blue and ice and more fire, but this fire was cold.

  The essence of the Xuan Wu was with me. This wasn’t my John, this was the creature that was the cold and winter, the direction North, yang and yin joined together to make yin, blacker than any black. It was death and destruction and cold, and it absorbed me, sucking me into the icy blackness. It flooded around me, filling me, filling the air, filling my body until my blood ran with darkness and I screamed.

  I fell onto the bed and I could breathe. I raised my hand and touched scales. I opened my eyes and saw scales and dark eyes full of the nothingness of pure yin and the wisdom of millennia and the grief of a million deaths.

  The Xuan Wu Serpent touched its nose to me, as gentle as a feather, and its consciousness touched mine. My own serpent rose to meet it, kindred in spirit and nature and in love. It loved me, and I loved it, and we were one.

  Then it was gone and I lay on the bed sucking in air, trying to focus with my new eyes and feeling more alive than I ever had. I was free of the demon essence and I was alive.

  I shivered; I was suddenly cold. My whole body shook with the cold. Someone pulled blankets over me, but it didn’t help. I felt like I’d never be warm again.

  ‘Just rest,’ Simone said. ‘Just sleep.’

  ‘Everything will be all right,’ Leo said with wonder.

  ‘Yes, it will,’ the stone said.

  I opened my eyes. Simone was sitting on one side of me, Leo was on the other, and both of them were leaning on the bed asleep. Michael was in a corner, in Tiger form, also asleep. Martin was in human form, slumped against the wall.

  I touched Simone’s head and stroked her honey-coloured hair. She roused and blinked at me blearily, then threw herself at me and held me.

  ‘Whoa, gently, you’re hurting her,’ the stone said, and she held me more carefully.

  Leo woke, sat up and ran his hand over his bald head. He saw us and took my hand.

  ‘She’s awake,’ Simone said. ‘Look at her now. How is she? Edwin said he can’t find anything wrong with her.’

  ‘Physically, he’s right,’ the stone said. ‘But her body’s in shock from what she’s been through. The snake might have healed her, but her body remembers what happened and it’s still shaken up.’

  ‘Can you speak, Emma?’ Simone said. ‘Your tongue was burnt out.’

  ‘Yes,’ I whispered. I tried to say more but the words wouldn’t come.

  ‘She can’t speak much, she’s kind of broken,’ the stone said. ‘All of her is broken and it will take time to heal, but she’ll be fine. Just let her rest, and she’ll come back together and be here for you.’

  ‘And we’ll be here for you, Emma,’ Leo said.

  ‘Yes, we will,’ Simone said.

  Edwin must have heard us because he came in.

  ‘When can we take her home?’ Simone said.

  ‘I have no idea,’ Edwin said. ‘The Xuan Wu Serpent hasn’t healed anybody for a long time, since before I came here; and nobody’s ever been through what Emma has. We’ll just have to play it by ear and listen to her personal monitoring device.’

  ‘What monitoring device?’ Leo said.

  ‘Me,’ the stone said.

  ‘And what do you say?’ Edwin said.

  ‘I say, let her sleep. I’ll let you know when she’s up to more than just rest and putting herself back together.’

  ‘Go home,’ Edwin said. ‘The stone and I can watch her. Go and eat and rest. It’s been more than twenty-four hours, and you need to look after yourselves.’

  ‘I’m fine here,’ Simone said.

  ‘Go,’ I whispered. I struggled to make the words. ‘That’s an order.’

  She pointed her finger at me. ‘You do not order me around.’

  ‘Go home.’

  ‘Make me.’

  I feebly raised one hand and dropped it on her arm. ‘Go home. I’m not going anywhere. Leave Martin and Michael here to guard, then take shifts.’

  ‘Do as she says,’ Edwin said. ‘She’s safe here, we have guards set. She’ll be fine.’

  Simone tapped the stone on my finger. ‘You keep an eye on her, okay?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ the stone said.

  Five days later, Simone wheeled me triumphantly into the apartment. Monica, Jade and Gold greeted me in the living room. After they’d said hello they didn’t speak; they just watched as I was wheeled into my bedroom. Simone gently lifted me into the bed and pulled the covers over me. Monica came and stood inside the door, smiling like an idiot. Jade and Gold came up behind her with the same silly grins.

  ‘How long before she can get around herself?’ Gold said.

  ‘Edwin says at this rate she’ll be walking unassisted for short distances in three weeks. He estimates a full recovery at three to four months,’ Simone said.

  ‘She’ll be out of action for that long?’ Jade said, concerned.

  ‘You didn’t see her,’ Leo said. ‘If you’d seen her, you’d be saying “that soon?”’

  Jade came to me and fell to one knee. ‘My Lady. I apologise for not being here when you needed me.’

  ‘Were you with Qing Long?’ I said.

  She nodded.

  ‘The father of your children?’

  She didn’t reply, not even a nod.

  I took her hand. ‘Never apologise to me for spending time with your family.’

  She grasped my hand. ‘You are my family.’

  I tried to lean forward to kiss her on the cheek but I couldn’t do it. She kissed my hand, rose and went to the doorway.

  ‘Is it twins?’ I asked Gold.

  ‘It is! We can’t tell the sexes yet, but it’s definitely two. They’re still trying to work out what they’re going to be — whether Amy should bear them as dragon or human,’ he said with delight. ‘The ultrasound is next week.’

  ‘Is it possible they could be born stones?’ Simone said.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I fathered them in human form. They have normal human D
NA from me. From Amy, however — they could be human or dragon.’ He spread his hands. ‘We just have to wait and see. It’s even more exciting than wondering if they’re boy or girl!’

  Four weeks later, Chang came into my office and quietly closed the door behind him. ‘There is a policeman here to see you,’ he said.

  ‘Lieutenant Cheung?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Get Gold on the phone. If you can’t get him on the phone, call one of the guys in the IT hub and tell them to contact him directly. I need him here right now, please.’ I straightened the papers on my desk. ‘Bring him in.’

  Chang opened the door and spoke to Cheung. ‘Come on in, please, sir.’

  Lieutenant Cheung nodded to Chang as he came through the door, then stopped dead when he saw me. I wasn’t surprised by his reaction: I was bald, my skin was bright pink and I was in a wheelchair.

  ‘Sit,’ I said, waving at the visitors’ chair on the other side of the desk. ‘How can I help you, Lieutenant?’

  He pulled himself together and sat down, slapping the folder of documents onto the desk in front of him. ‘We can’t find anything to link you to the destruction of the boat. We’re closing the case; the coroner has found it death by misadventure.’

  ‘I knew he would,’ I said.

  Cheung leaned back and smiled. ‘So that’s all, Miss Donahoe. The case is over, you can go back to whatever you were doing. I just wanted to come and tell you that everything’s fixed up now. You have a friend, a Mr Peter Tong, who has employed lawyers and the media to ensure your name was not linked with the case. He is a very powerful man.’

  ‘I didn’t want his help,’ I said. ‘I never asked for it.’

  Gold came in, closed the door quietly behind him and moved to lean against the wall at my back.

  ‘A terrible thing happened, Lieutenant Cheung,’ I said, ‘but continuing to come after me is pointless. I had nothing to do with it. I wasn’t even there. Please, let it go.’

  ‘Oh, I have, I have,’ he said, still smiling. ‘I have no choice. I’ve been assigned elsewhere; the case is closed.’ He rose and his voice became menacing although his smile didn’t shift. ‘I’m sure that you have nothing to hide and that we will never meet again.’

  ‘The families of the children on the boat have been compensated,’ Gold said. ‘Even Bevan’s family are aware that it wasn’t our fault. You really have no reason to come again.’ He nodded to me. ‘Ma’am.’