by Kylie Chan
Too late.
I moved as fast as a well-trained human could and went for his face. I ducked under the guard of the spear and managed a couple of good blows at his tanned cheeks, bouncing off ineffectually, before he managed to swing the staff around to knock me to the ground.
He raised the spear with its tip pointed at my abdomen and plunged it straight through the armour into me. I managed to roll slightly to the right so that the tip entered the far left side of my abdomen. At first it felt like I had just been hit with it, then the pain seared through me.
Sang’s face went hard with satisfaction and he pulled the spear out.
‘She yields!’ the stone shouted. ‘Desist!’
Sang Shen held the spear above my throat, his face fierce with pleasure.
I gasped for breath. ‘I don’t want you to die…’ My voice trailed off and I tried to speak, but the air wouldn’t come. ‘Help me. Tell me what we can do.’
‘You have done quite enough,’ Sang Shen said, and raised the spear for the killing blow.
He disappeared, and the face of the officiator appeared above me. ‘I will seek medical attention for you.’
I gripped my side where the spear had entered. I couldn’t do anything about the pain while the officiator was watching.
‘No need,’ the stone said. ‘We have our own transport and medical care.’
The stone took human form, lifted me easily like a child, and carried me out of the Arena. Every move made me want to wail with the pain. I clenched my jaw against it, but couldn’t avoid the occasional whimper as the stone’s feet hit the ground.
‘You can stop the pain now,’ the stone said a moment later as it carried me down the hall back to the preparation room.
I concentrated, moved the demon essence through myself, and blocked the pain from the wound. I sighed with relief and relaxed into the stone’s arms.
‘You can put me down now,’ I said.
‘No need,’ the stone said, and opened the dressing room door. ‘Out,’ it said to the demon servant, and lowered me gently into one of the rosewood chairs.
‘Is the blood black?’ I said.
Its face was creased with concern. ‘No.’
‘How deep?’
‘About three centimetres. I nearly didn’t make it inside you to block it in time.’
‘Close enough.’ I attempted to rise but my muscles didn’t want to cooperate. ‘Damn, I’m going to need a minute before I can walk.’
Simone appeared next to the stone. ‘Oh my God, Emma, what happened?’
‘Don’t touch me! I can walk out,’ I wheezed.
‘Let’s see you do it,’ the stone said.
I struggled to rise then fell back. ‘Don’t touch me, Simone. Give me a few minutes to get myself together and I’ll be fine. Go back to school.’
Simone took my hand and everything disappeared.
‘I entered her body and became an internal shield against the point of the spear,’ the stone was saying. ‘But it went in further than I wanted—that tree spirit was mightily fast.’
‘Why did she permit herself to be pierced anyway?’ Meredith asked. ‘She is much better than he is. How did this happen?’
‘He is a tree in the Northern Heavens and he is dying,’ the stone said. ‘She wanted to give him a measure of satisfaction by drawing her blood.’
Simone sighed with feeling. ‘Well, the injury is fixed now, but I’m not going back to school until she changes back.’
‘Emma,’ Meredith said. ‘Can you hear us?’
‘Yes.’
Simone squeaked, and Meredith put her hand on Simone’s arm.
‘Emma, change back to human form.’
‘Why? I like being like this.’ I thrashed my tail and rose to sit upright. I held my skinless arms in front of me, admiring them. ‘I should do this every time I’m injured, it would save everybody a lot of trouble. Healing a small wound like that is easy.’
They didn’t reply, just stood around the hospital bunk staring at me, so I flipped my coils to one side and slid off the bed. I slithered around the room, checking the furniture. The Mountain infirmary was quite small and I had to coil my snake end around me to fit.
‘It feels good to be so powerful,’ I said, looking at my skinless face in the mirror. I flicked my long, forked tongue. ‘I don’t have to worry about touching Simone, or the demon essence getting out of control, or anything like that. I can just be me.’
‘I’d rather have you in human form, Emma,’ Simone said, her voice small.
I glared at her. ‘You’re supposed to be in school. I’m seeing your teacher this afternoon to try and fix this up, and here you are skipping school again. You said you didn’t want to repeat Year Nine.’
She shrugged. ‘It’s only Mrs Stupid Wilder’s biology class. She hates me.’
‘Go back to school,’ I said.
‘Change back to human form and I will.’
‘You should do as I tell you, Simone, I’m your guardian.’
‘I don’t like your demon form, Emma, and I’m not moving until you’re human again,’ Simone said, stubborn.
‘All right. Have it your way, but this form really is much more powerful.’ I grinned at Meredith. ‘You wanted to have a look, Meredith. Go right ahead.’
Meredith turned her Inner Eye on me but I barely felt it. She gasped.
‘Well?’ I said.
‘Eighty-one or eighty-two. Somewhere around there,’ she said softly.
‘Nice,’ I said.
‘Change back now, please, Emma,’ Simone said.
‘If I have to.’
I concentrated and returned to human form. Meredith tried to catch me but Simone was in the way. I hit the floor hard.
I came around with Meredith looking down at me. Simone was gone. I pulled myself upright.
‘All right?’ Meredith said.
I nodded. ‘I’m fine. I feel terrific actually. Full of energy, raring to go.’ I smiled with regret. ‘Ready to kill the next challenger I face.’ I ran my hands through my hair. ‘Meredith, we can’t go on—’
She cut me off. ‘Don’t try to resign again, because we won’t have it.’
‘But I’m a demon!’
‘So are some of the students. So is the Dark Lord’s Heavenly Army.’
‘I’m totally incapable of doing this job. I’m not an Immortal. I don’t have the experience.’ I sighed with exasperation. ‘You’re a great help, Meredith, all of you are, but this stuff is really out of my league.’
She sat on the bed. ‘True. You’re not Immortal. You don’t have the experience. Sometimes the Dark Lord made his most brilliant decisions on the spur of the moment. He chose you because his love clouded his judgement, and it was a brilliant decision. You are detached from any of the Heavenly political rivalry. You are his chosen, and therefore to be obeyed in all things. And now you have Celestial Endorsement, so we have no choice.’
‘Of course you have a choice. Take the job from me, please, Meredith. I can’t do it.’
‘No, thanks. The job’s a bastard, and none of us want it. And once you have Celestial Endorsement, we must obey. You’re probably aware that many of the past Emperors of China were bloody lousy rulers, but the people followed them anyway, unless they lost Celestial Endorsement and were toppled.’
‘That’s just what people said when the Emperor sucked badly enough—’
‘No.’ She cut me off again. ‘If you have Celestial Endorsement, your subjects must obey you. That’s the way it is. We have no choice; we have to do what you say. That’s what kept many dynasties on the throne.’
‘No way,’ I said.
‘Yep. We’ll help you and advise you, but if you tell us to do something, we’ll do it.’
‘But what if the demon nature takes over?’
‘I assume the Jade Emperor knows what he’s doing.’
I opened my mouth to protest but she continued over me. ‘That’s the way it is. You have endorsement, we’ll obey you. And
we’re thrilled to bits that we don’t have to do the job, ‘cause it’s a bitch.’
‘Oh, thank you.’
‘You are most welcome, my Lady. We in the Academy don’t give a damn about anything except that you are doing your damnedest to protect and administer the place as best you can, and we are going to do our damnedest to help you.’
‘The Shen outside hate me.’
‘Hate is too strong a word. They are suspicious of you. You’re only an ordinary mortal; and for some your gender is an issue as well. You’re young and really haven’t found your way around yet. I wish the Dark Lord was here to help you, but as he isn’t, we Celestials in the Academy are here to assist.’
‘If anybody discovers my demon nature it’ll be all over, Meredith.’
‘Then we just have to ensure that they never do.’ She rose. ‘Now up you get, Missy Emma, and go practise the meditation techniques we’ve covered. Clear the demon nature as much as you can, control the chi flow, restrain the demon essence, and call me when you think you have it.’ She concentrated for a moment. ‘Meditation room on the seventh floor is free, all yours.’
‘Thanks, Meredith,’ I said quietly.
‘Feel like tearing the limbs off things rather than meditating right now?’ she said.
I nodded.
‘Let me know when you don’t.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
CHAPTER 13
The Australian International School had significantly grown in the nine years that Simone had been attending. It had spread onto two campuses and its population had doubled.
Marcus parked at a meter near the school and I headed up to the roof. The swimming pool and netball court were up there, and Simone was still at practice. She gave me a cheery wave when she saw me. She was playing the position of goal attack and neatly took the ball that was passed to her by another girl. She turned, lined up the shot, and missed.
‘Pick it up, Simone,’ one of the other girls said. ‘You should be doing better!’
‘Tiffi’s right, Simone,’ the coach called from the sidelines. ‘Spend some time on the hoops, please.’
Simone raised her hands and laughed. ‘Yeah, I’ve been slacking off. I’ll come up and practise tomorrow, I promise.’
One of the other girls threw her arm around Simone’s shoulder and gave her a friendly squeeze. ‘That’s our star shooter.’
The coach blew her whistle. ‘That’s it, ladies, we’re done.’
Simone trotted to me with a huge smile. ‘So what’s the go with my teacher?’
‘I’m seeing her now. Marcus is waiting downstairs in the car.’
‘Okay, I’ll take a shower, then meet you down there.’ She dropped her voice. ‘At the moment I’m getting about one in three to two in five in. Think I should ramp it up? They’re starting to complain that I’ve done a lot of practice but I haven’t improved.’
‘If you’ve been practising then you should be getting about three in five or slightly better, I think,’ I said. ‘And don’t make it predictable, have some good and bad patches as well. Just make sure you aren’t unnaturally good.’
She nodded. ‘Sounds about right.’ She grinned. ‘I’m counting on you, Emma. I’ve made a lot of friends in this grade and I don’t want to repeat. Fix it up with the teacher, please.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ I said.
We headed down the stairs together, her to the showers and me to the meeting room in the school office.
Simone’s home-room teacher was a thin woman in her mid-forties with brown hair immaculately blow-waved into a large teased hairdo. She frowned when I entered the meeting room and gestured for me to sit across the table from her.
‘I’m Mrs Wilder.’ She pulled out some paperwork, put on her reading glasses and pointed the frown at me. ‘Actually, this meeting is far too late to fix anything, Mrs Chen. You may not be aware of it, but Simone has been consistently skipping school all this year. Despite all our attempts to warn you, she’s been expelled. You need to find a new school for her.’
I sat there for a moment, stunned, then pulled myself together. ‘Are you sure about those attendances?’ I said. ‘Can you check the records again, because I’m sure she’s been coming to school.’
Mrs Wilder raised a sheet of paper. ‘I’ve been keeping watch on her attendance and noting down all her absences, Mrs Chen. She’s been absent far more than the permitted ten per cent and we tried to warn you that she was skipping. She even missed my science class this morning, skipped it completely, and joined the English class after that without giving any reason for her absence.’
‘I’m not Mrs Chen, I’m Emma Donahoe, call me Emma,’ I said, frustrated. ‘Simone is an orphan. I’m her guardian.’
Mrs Wilder shuffled the papers. ‘This may explain her truancy, and why you aren’t aware of it, then. Maybe you should find counselling for her.’
‘She does receive counselling, and some of it is during school hours.’
Mrs Wilder removed her glasses and glared at me. ‘You should be notifying the school about it then.’
‘Simone went through a lot when her parents died, but she doesn’t want special treatment so she asked me not to tell anybody,’ I said.
‘She has you thoroughly worked out, doesn’t she?’ she said. ‘You don’t know she’s skipping, and you don’t let the school know that she has problems purely because she asked you not to.’
‘Simone’s mother was murdered by a gangster when she was a baby, and Simone herself was kidnapped by the same gangster when she was six years old,’ I said. ‘When her father went in to try to release her from the kidnappers, they killed him.’
The teacher sighed with exasperation. ‘She told you this story and you believe it?’
‘I was there,’ I said. ‘He had his head cut off by a Triad gangster right in front of both of us.’
She studied me appraisingly, then picked up some glossy leaflets. ‘Now I see where she gets the ability to tell lies about missing school. It’s too late anyway. If we’d been able to talk to you about Simone’s truancy earlier we may have been able to avoid expelling her. I doubt you would have believed it though. Anyway.’ She pushed the leaflets across the table to me. ‘Here is some information about some excellent girls boarding schools in Australia and Malaysia. I think a more disciplined environment would benefit her greatly.’
‘She’s lost both her parents, one of them in front of her, and you’re suggesting that I abandon her as well?’ I said in disbelief.
‘The schools would probably provide her with more care and attention than you obviously do,’ she said snidely. ‘You weren’t even aware that she was skipping school, and I’ve been trying to talk to you about it for six months. If you’d made the effort to come in the first time I called you, this would not have happened.’
I was silent. She was right.
Oh, come on, Emma, the stone said into my head. Don’t let this bitch get to you. You’re doing a great job of caring for Simone.
She’s been expelled from the school she loves, I replied. Wait until I tell her. Isn’t there anything we can do?
This woman has a vendetta against you, she’s convinced you are an inadequate carer, the stone said. In her own ridiculous way she wants the best for Simone. Nothing I can do because she’s been tracking Simone’s attendance on paper, and all I can change is computer records.
‘Is there anything I can do to avoid this?’ I said. ‘Simone loves this school.’
‘School policy,’ Mrs Wilder said. ‘You’ve had plenty of opportunities to fix this over the last six months and have made no effort.’ She closed her folder with a snap. ‘She’d be much better off in a boarding school where they’re going to give her at least a small amount of attention.’
I opened my mouth and closed it again. This woman would not believe any story I spun.
You’ve lost, Emma, the stone said.
I sighed with resignation. ‘Mrs Wilder, I’ll be talking to the principal in
the hope I can sort this out,’ I said. ‘This is a fabulous school and it’s really the best place for Simone.’
‘Going over my head will not solve anything,’ she said. She rose and opened the meeting room door. ‘Good day to you, Mrs Chen.’
I hesitated, then decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to point out my name again. ‘I hope we can fix this, Mrs Wilder.’
‘The best way to fix this would be for someone else to be looking after this poor child,’ Mrs Wilder said as she closed the door behind me.
Simone was waiting for me outside the office. ‘How did it go?’
I didn’t reply, I just pressed the button for the lift. Simone stood behind me, waiting for me to say something.
‘Well?’ she eventually said.
I went into the lift, turned and pressed the button for the ground floor.
‘I don’t have to repeat Year Nine, do I, Emma?’ Simone said. ‘All my friends will leave me behind. Tell me you fixed it.’
I didn’t look at her. ‘You’ve been expelled for not attending enough classes, Simone.’
‘What?’
‘I’ll talk to the principal, but I don’t think I’ll be able to change it. We’ll have to arrange a home tutor, or get another school for you. We’ll work something out.’
The lift doors opened and we walked out of the school towards the car.
‘Didn’t they give you any warning or anything?‘ Simone said as she walked beside me.
I ran one hand through my hair. ‘Apparently they’ve been trying to talk to me for a while. This looks like it’s mostly my fault. They’ve been attempting to contact me and I’ve been ignoring them.’
I got into the front passenger seat of the car, and Simone got into the back. ‘We can go home now, Marcus.’
‘This is the thanks I get for being a freaking battle machine for them,’ Simone said, resentful. ‘I protect these little assholes from demons that would happily tear them into small pieces and they take away the only thing that makes my life worthwhile.’ She slapped the seat next to her. ‘Dammit, Emma, why didn’t you talk to them sooner? Can’t we fix this up by messing with their heads or something? Do something! This is your fault!’