by Kylie Chan
‘Invite Simone and the Black Lion to join us,’ the King said. ‘Plenty of food to go around, and you should introduce her to me. If I do survive this, she and I may have more to speak about.’
‘When she is older and better able to understand,’ John said. He sipped his cognac. ‘Leo, for some reason, seems to have taken a dislike to you.’
‘Ah well, can’t have everything,’ the King said. ‘So tell me what you’ve been doing these last few days?’
I touched John’s thigh under the table, unable to communicate my unease to him.
We accepted a dinner invitation, he said. We are bound by rules of courtesy to stay and eat. Listen carefully. I have Zara in my pocket to record, but I want you to take note as well. He sometimes drinks too much and his tongue becomes loose. And don’t panic if we have a drinking competition: it’s par for the course at these things, and Ma always wins anyway.
‘You look a little uneasy, Emma,’ the King said. He raised his glass. ‘Drink some cognac, it will make you feel better. And have something to eat. This is the best Cantonese food available in the region; the Duke grows much of it on his own farm at the edge of the province.’ He sipped his cognac. ‘Don’t worry, from here on it’s purely social and I won’t try a thing.’ He raised his glass. ‘Demon’s honour. Yum sing.’
‘Yum sing,’ everybody repeated, and took a drink.
They waited expectantly for me and I took a sip. ‘Cheers,’ I said. ‘Now please give me something non-alcoholic. I can’t drink alcohol on my medication.’
‘Medication? You guys have a lot to tell me about,’ the King said enthusiastically.
‘I lost my hand in the nest in Singapore,’ John said. ‘They’ve built these new plant-like things …’
The demons brought me soda. This meal was going to be one of the longest of my life.
Simone wasn’t there when we returned very much later that evening.
‘She’s supposed to be with Freddo,’ I said. ‘Can you check?’
John concentrated a moment, then said, ‘She’s not answering … Oh, she’s asleep. Freddo says she’s staying overnight in the mafoo quarters in the stables; she was too tired to come home tonight. She’ll be back tomorrow morning.’
‘Double-check with a mafoo or something.’
‘Confirmed; the Tiger says he gave her one of the rooms there.’
‘Can you talk to the Dragon or the Tree?’
‘Why would I want to talk to them?’
‘To confirm where Justin is.’
His expression went grim. ‘If he’s there with her, his head is mine.’
‘Just ask where Justin is.’
His face cleared. ‘He’s in the East. Simone’s in a single room in the mafoo quarters.’ He retied his hair. ‘You gave me a horrible scare just then, Emma.’
‘If Justin had been there, I would have stopped you going over anyway,’ I said. ‘She’s old enough to know what she’s doing.’
‘No, she isn’t!’
I linked my arm in his and led him into the Imperial Residence. ‘Face it, Xuan Wu, she’s going to grow up sooner rather than later.’
‘Seventeen is way too young!’
‘Wouldn’t a girl in China a hundred years ago be married by the time she was thirteen?’
‘That was a long time ago.’
I pulled him up the stairs. ‘I was fourteen when I had my first sexual experience.’
He stopped and stared at me. ‘You were just a child. That is so wrong.’
‘It felt right at the time. Wayne was the hottest boy in year nine.’
‘You didn’t know what you were doing. She’s only seventeen, Emma, she’s still a child!’
I leaned into him. ‘I’m just teasing you, John. Don’t worry about her. She’s much more mature than I was; I think she’ll take her time.’
‘I won’t get any sleep tonight,’ he said, distraught. ‘You just scared the living daylights out of me.’
‘Typical,’ I said. ‘Spend the evening with the Host of Hell without batting an eyelid, but freak out when you think your daughter is with a boy.’
‘This “being human” business is completely overrated,’ he said.
We both dressed to attend funerals the next morning. Simone wasn’t at breakfast. John was about to call her when a demon servant interrupted us.
‘There’s a horse outside to see you, my Lord.’
We went outside the residence to find Freddo waiting for us.
‘Where’s Simone?’ John said. ‘Is she all right? What happened?’
Freddo’s voice was unusually strained. ‘She ran away. I bit her …’ He let loose a sob of misery, full of distress. ‘I bit Simone, we had a …’ He took a deep breath and shook his head, choking on the words. ‘We had a relapse, a step …’ His knees collapsed slightly, then he straightened and spoke quickly, the words cascading out of him. ‘A step … backwards … and she ran away, and I don’t know where she is, but she probably won’t be back for a while …’
‘It’s all right, Freddo,’ I said, running my hand over the crest of his neck. ‘You can’t be perfect, and she’ll be back when she’s ready.’
‘I’m sure she’s all right,’ John said. ‘You will get there.’
‘No!’ he said. ‘That’s not it …’ He made a strangled sound of distress and fell to his knees. ‘They took her!’ He threw his head back and screamed with pain. ‘I don’t care, I’m telling the truth. They used me! They made me help them! She rode me, and I took her to them.’ He grunted a few times, panting with effort. ‘They have her …’ His front legs collapsed and he fell sideways. ‘They took her. I was supposed to tell you a cover story, but I won’t! You have to find her … you have to …’ He let his breath out in a long gasp and collapsed completely, his hind legs folding under him. ‘Find her, please, bring her …’ His breath rattled in his throat and his eyes rolled up.
John put his hand on his head. ‘You’re dying. We can’t help you. You have to say the words.’
‘Simone made me promise not to,’ Freddo said, gasping.
‘Simone would want you alive, and you know where they took her! Say the words or you’ll die!’
‘I can’t! I promised!’
‘Where is she?’ I said.
‘I … can’t … say …’
‘You’re her only hope, horse. Say the words. She will understand.’
‘Protect me, I am yours,’ Freddo said with a huge exhalation of breath, and went still.
John concentrated, feeding the Fire Essence Pill into Freddo.
Freddo’s eyes opened. He pulled himself to his feet and lowered his head. ‘My Lord. My Lady.’
‘She won’t understand,’ I said.
‘I know,’ John said without looking away from Freddo. ‘Do you know where she is?’
‘She’s on an island, my Lord,’ Freddo said. ‘They took her to their island. They had me take her to a big river, and then to a big lake with an island.’
‘Show me,’ John said, and concentrated on Freddo, then snapped back. ‘He knows the general layout but not the exact location. I’ll go down and search the Earthly for it,’ John said. ‘I could sense her when she was underground in Kowloon City Park; I may be able to sense her wherever she is out there. I’ll be back when I’ve found her. I think the Grandmother may have agreed to come help — stay here and see if she turns up.’
‘No, it’s too big an area to search —’ I said, but he was gone.
I called Simone’s mobile and it went to voicemail. Freddo stood motionless and attentive, waiting for his next order.
‘Go back to the Tiger’s stables,’ I said. ‘Tell the mafoos what happened. Ask them to relocate you into the Northern Heavens.’
He dropped his head. ‘My Lady.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I said softly.
He disappeared.
CHAPTER 32
I was in one of the training rooms doing sword katas when Yi Hao contacted me. The Grandmother
of All the Rocks is here, ma’am.
I quickly put my sword away, grabbed my jacket, and ran to my office. I stopped, out of breath, outside, straightened my suit and went in. The Grandmother appeared as a small, round Aboriginal woman with dark skin and short curly hair. She stood behind my desk with one hand over the computer monitor, the files flashing over the screen faster than the eye could follow.
‘Sorry I didn’t get here sooner,’ she said without looking away from the screen. ‘I was napping. Usually takes me a few days to wake up. A lot’s happened, eh? Your Turtle’s back, and there’s some of these demons doing bad stuff to people. Not good. Oh, and you need to update your spam filter, darl. Get your IT people to install something more effective.’ She stopped the file feed and put one hand out towards me. ‘Let me see.’
I gave her the stone and she concentrated on it, turning it over in her hands. She sat in my desk chair and continued studying it.
She glared at me. ‘What have they done to it?’
I sat in one of the visitors’ chairs and ran my hand over my forehead. ‘Frozen it and electrocuted it.’
Her expression darkened. ‘I should take my baby home if they’re going to do stuff like that to it.’
‘We need to know where these demons are,’ I said.
‘If you torture my children, you are no better than them!’
‘It was Gold’s idea.’
‘That boy is way too human for my liking,’ she said. ‘He’s been the same gender for years now. It’s about time he changed to a girl for a while.’
‘He’s engaged to Amy and they have three children. He’s a father.’
‘Humph.’ She blew out her dark cheeks. ‘Stupid. Now give me a moment and I’ll see if I can wake this miserable bastard up.’
A bass sound filled the room, just at the edge of hearing. It filled me with yearning for my Australian home. Then there was a jolt of disorientation and we were next to the Rock herself, in the middle of the desert. The dry, hot air washed over me, full of the crisp smell of desiccated leaves and powdery dust. We rushed towards the Rock, and then were engulfed by darkness as we went inside it.
‘Illusion, don’t panic,’ the Grandmother said. She glanced at me, amused. ‘You should come down and see the real thing: I’m quite impressive.’
‘You are,’ I said with wonder.
The Rock was hollow, and its entire interior stretched before us, with a red-brown sandy floor and a rough interior surface. The air was still dry, but much cooler. Every three metres stood a metre-high stone pedestal with a glowing stone sitting on top.
The Grandmother led me past the pedestals. ‘My babies,’ she said affectionately, touching one of the stones as she passed it. It sounded a crystalline tone and lit up.
She put my stone on one of the pedestals, and it lit with a soft green glow. ‘Now, little fellow, let’s see.’
She put her hand over the stone and concentrated: a soft, high-pitched sound came from it. The sound became louder and deeper, more recognisable as a scream of pain. It gained in volume until I nearly had to cover my ears, then abruptly stopped.
‘Anchor! They’re at anchor!’ the stone yelled, and we were back in my office.
‘You okay?’ the Grandmother said.
‘You let them do that to me, Emma? I felt every single thing they did,’ the stone said, its voice hoarse with effort.
‘I’m sorry, stone,’ I said, full of remorse. ‘They have Simone.’
The Grandmother came around the desk and handed the ring back to me. ‘Never do anything like that to any of my children ever again,’ she said. ‘I’m going to have a few words with Gold. And this business in the East, making artificial live stones: this must stop.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘You’d better care for my children more diligently or I won’t let them be a part of this.’
I fell to one knee and dropped my head. ‘I sincerely apologise for all the trouble I have caused, Grandmother. I care very much for your children, and I love this stone dearly.’
‘Oh, Emma,’ the stone said.
‘Up you get, no need for that,’ the Grandmother said. ‘I’ll be summoning Gold to me in a day or so, to tell him what’s what.’
She touched my stone. ‘Take it easy, Jade, you’ve been through hell. You should take a short nap for a few hundred years.’
‘They need me too much,’ the stone said.
‘Humph. This is altogether too disturbing; you are becoming more and more like these fleshies every day.’
‘I care,’ the stone said.
‘Very disturbing.’ The Grandmother sighed and pulled me into a hug, reaching up to kiss me on the cheek. She smelled of back home: the dryness, leaves and dust. ‘Go find the little girl. And come visit me.’
She sank into the ground and disappeared.
‘Come home, Turtle, I know where they are,’ the stone said.
John appeared behind the desk, walked around it and leaned on it. ‘Where are they?’
‘They told you their location when they were holding you, Emma,’ the stone said. ‘The boat is at anchor.’
John’s face went grim. ‘I cannot go there.’
‘No, wait,’ I said. ‘Something’s failing with the translation there. What do you mean the boat’s at anchor — where’s it anchored?’
‘Anchor City,’ the stone said. ‘The ancient palace and temple complex in Cambodia.’
‘Oh dear Lord, Angkor Wat? They’ve taken over that holy place?’ I said.
‘It’s not a holy place,’ John said, still grim. ‘It’s a disaster that I caused, and I cannot go there.’ He retied his hair. ‘The place is a ruin. The jungle has eaten it. There should be nothing left.’ He changed to silent speech. We’ve found them. Lius, Ma, Number One: to the Throne Room.
‘They’ve been restoring it for more than a hundred years now,’ I said as we walked back to the Residence.
He didn’t look at me. ‘I can’t go there.’
‘What?’
‘I vowed I would never return to that awful place. Millions died. Never again.’
We stopped in the entrance lobby of the Residence. Leo was already there, waiting for us.
‘Dear Lord, that snake the King was sleeping with that gave him his power — that was you?’ I said.
‘Not me,’ he said, going into the living room and sitting on a couch, with Leo and me following. ‘My daughter. They were in love, and she gave him everything she could. She turned the tiny jungle kingdom into a paradise. They even built a huge lake for me to go visit them. Then they expanded; conquered. They had to stop.’ He took a deep breath. ‘And it was my job to stop them.’
‘So what did you do?’ Leo said.
John just glowered at him.
‘I don’t believe it,’ Leo said softly.
‘Without her power to hold the kingdom together, the whole population perished the next time their enemies invaded,’ John said. ‘Millions died, and the kingdom was destroyed. I vowed that I would never return to witness what I had done, and asked the forgiveness of the holy Buddhas.’
‘Were you ordered to do this by the Jade Emperor?’ I said. ‘You must have had no choice.’
‘It was my choice,’ he said. ‘I was not ordered. I made the decision to go in there. And I live with the consequences.’
‘Why didn’t you just warn them instead of rushing in there and killing everybody?’ Leo said fiercely. ‘Talk to them instead of murdering them!’
‘I did,’ he said. ‘I warned them. I told them the consequences of their actions if they didn’t stop. Her husband thought I wouldn’t do it; he thought I could never kill my own child.’
‘I used to think the same thing,’ I said.
‘She should have stopped him,’ Leo said.
‘This was a different age. Even though they were Shen and human, the husband had power over the wife. She knew I would do it, and I will never forget her eyes when I did.’
‘Wasn’t there some other way?’ Leo said,
desperate. ‘At least you could have saved the kingdom! All those people!’
‘Without her power, it was doomed,’ John said. ‘She ensured there was sufficient food and water for them; she kept the trading routes clear. Without her, things collapsed quickly.’
‘What would have happened if you hadn’t stopped them?’ I said.
‘A thousand years of tyranny. Their kingdom would have invaded and controlled most of Asia, as the Qin did earlier without Divine aid. The Qin only lasted one generation, but with the power of a Shen in the palace, the dynasty would have been unnatural and unstoppable. She was on the way to Immortality; she would have taught him as well, and they would still rule there today. We Shen of Heaven would probably have left the Earthly in the face of such perversion.’
‘A change of rule every now and then — a bit of a shake-up — is vital to keep history moving forward,’ I said.
‘Precisely.’
‘I cannot believe you did that,’ Leo said gruffly. ‘Millions of people. I don’t think I want to look at you right now.’ He wheeled himself out.
John looked down at his remaining hand. ‘My only defence is that it was a long time ago, and that I have changed since then.’ He looked up into my eyes. ‘I doubt I would be able to do it now.’
‘The alternative was worse,’ I said. ‘You did the right thing.’
‘You don’t have all those lives weighing on your soul.’
‘John, you’re Yin. You’re death. It’s part of what you are.’
‘Since I found the Way, it’s a very difficult part.’
‘Do you ever regret turning?’
He looked me straight in the eye. ‘Not for a second.’
The Immortals came in and sat with us.
‘Only decision to make is who goes,’ Ma said.
‘I cannot,’ John said. He made a gesture of helplessness. ‘I vowed never to go there.’
‘But you’ve died since that vow,’ I said. ‘Death freed Martin from his agreement with the Demon King.’
‘It’s part of what he is, Emma,’ Ma said. ‘He’ll never go back on his word. He can’t go with us. So who’s going?’
‘Me,’ I said.