Small Shen

by Kylie Chan

  Gold ducked into the office, leaving the door open, and changed to True Form — a tiny stone — ready to begin the data transfer. He had to do the transfer in True Form, but incidentally he could also see the rest of the household with his inner eye.

  Michelle went into the training room, Leo trailing behind.

  ‘Lo Wu! We were attacked, and Leo was magnificent! He destroyed them completely!’ Michelle said with triumph.

  ‘I wasn’t that great, ma’am,’ Leo said, sounding deeply embarrassed.

  ‘And how is my little Simone?’ Michelle said, scooping Simone up into her arms.

  ‘Hello, Mummy!’ Simone said, and kissed Michelle loudly on the cheek. ‘Me and Daddy have been doing koo foo!’ She looked at Leo. ‘Did you get some bad people?’

  Michelle spun Simone. ‘Yes! We had some bad people, but Leo made them all disappear, because Leo is fantastic!’

  Simone nodded, her little face serious. ‘I know. Leo is really good.’

  ‘My turn to spend time with Simone,’ Michelle said.

  ‘Yes, I need to review some figures,’ Xuan Wu said ruefully. ‘Then we will have dinner together.’

  ‘Would you like to play with me?’ Michelle asked Simone.

  ‘Only if Leo plays too,’ Simone said, cheeky.

  ‘I think that can be arranged,’ Leo said.

  They went into the television room together, and Xuan Wu entered the office.

  ‘What happened, my Lord? Was it another demon attack?’

  ‘Yes. Michelle had a meeting at the Academy for Performing Arts. Leo was magnificent; he fended off three level thirty humanoid demons without injury.’

  ‘That’s very impressive, sir.’

  ‘He is coming along, I am most pleased with his progress. Now. Your progress leaves very much to be desired. What is the hold up? I really cannot afford to have you spending all your time acting as a courier between the Mountain and the Earthly! Leo may need your assistance guarding.’

  ‘We have the circuitry all ready, my Lord. Everything is in place. What we are lacking, though, is enough stones with Celestial attunement. Those who own them want extremely high prices for them — sometimes the equivalent weight in fine Celestial jade —’

  ‘That’s ridiculous,’ Xuan Wu said. ‘A non-precious Celestial stone in trade for jade? Tell me who these people are, and I will deal with them.’

  ‘If you become involved, people might refuse to provide them at all,’ Gold said. ‘Please, give me a little more time to work something out.’

  Xuan Wu’s eyes unfocused for a moment, then he snapped back. ‘Go to the Undersea Palace of the Azure Dragon of the East. He says he may be able to help you.’

  Gold hesitated, then he said in a small voice, ‘Qing Long?’

  ‘He says you have thirty minutes to get there, otherwise the offer — whatever it is — is off. Move yourself, stone.’

  ‘My Lord,’ Gold squeaked.

  Gold took human form and drifted to the sea bottom outside the crystal palace of the Azure Dragon of the East. A few dragons grinned menacingly at him as he made his way — with some difficulty in human form — to the main gate. The gates opened for him and he moved from water to air and entered the Grand Audience Hall.

  The Azure Dragon was in True Form, stretched out on the cobalt-blue floor tiles in front of his throne. He opened one eye when Gold approached, then lazily pulled himself to his feet. He looked around. ‘Where is the Jade Girl?’

  ‘She is busy attending to the Dark Lord’s accounting procedures,’ Gold said. ‘This task, of communicating the data between Celestial and Earthly, has been passed to me.’

  Qing Long lowered his massive head to gaze into Gold’s eyes. ‘Next time you come, you bring the Jade Girl. Understood?’

  Gold shrank back slightly. ‘Yes, my Lord.’

  ‘Very well.’ The Azure Dragon took human form, a tall slim man with long turquoise hair and a grey silk robe embossed with a turquoise scale pattern. He raised one hand and the double doors of the throne room swung open silently. ‘I hear from Ah Wu that you need stones.’

  ‘Yes, my Lord. We need stones that have been on the Celestial Plane for at least four hundred years, and that have become attuned to Celestial Harmony.’

  The Azure Dragon led Gold down one of the underwater breezeways, and stopped when he heard this. ‘Jade? Celestial Jade?’

  ‘No, my Lord, jade short-circuits the mechanism we have built. Our preferred choice is quartz, but any sort of ordinary rock will do, as long as it’s reasonably attuned to Celestial Harmony.’

  The Dragon turned back and continued to lead Gold down the hall. ‘Interesting. I think I may be able to help you.’ He led Gold through a maze of corridors, gradually heading down until they were below the sea floor. A heavily barred gate creaked open before them, and they descended into what had to be the palace basement. Gold peered at the glinting precious metals through some of the barred doors to either side, but the Dragon moved too quickly for him to stop and study them. The Dragon led him to the end of the corridor and opened the bolted door of what was obviously a strongroom.

  There were shelves all around the room, and on all of the shelves a variety of stones sat in small bamboo baskets, cushioned with red silk. Gold gasped; many of the stones were large pieces of exceptionally fine Celestial Jade; the room was a fortune house.

  The Dragon gestured to one of the lower shelves further in. ‘Those are the ordinary stones. Take whatever you need.’

  Gold crouched to see; the stones were about the size of a human fist, and most were comprised of a similar mix as Gold himself; clear quartz with shining bands of gold.

  ‘My Lord, these are absolutely perfect,’ Gold said with awe. ‘How much do you want, for about six of them?’

  ‘You can have them on two conditions,’ the Dragon said.

  Gold rose and turned to see Qing Long. ‘What conditions are those, my Lord? It is my employer, the Dark Lord, who is the one to make the actual purchase.’

  ‘One: you put nodes for the network in both the Eastern and the Undersea Palaces; and hook them up to my own LAN and my email servers in Japan so that I may have communication between the Earthly and the Celestial as well. No way is Ah Wu having this excellent technology without me getting a part of it. Two: you must absolutely vow to never tell anyone — except those higher in precedence than me, of course — that I have given these stones to you for free. I have a reputation to maintain.’

  Gold saluted the Dragon. ‘I’m sure those terms are most acceptable, my Lord. When may I collect the stones?’

  The Dragon waved one hand airily at the stones and turned away. ‘Just take whatever you need. Since you don’t need any jade, leave the jade here. You can have as many of these stones as you like. Just don’t tell anyone that I did this for you.’

  Gold fell to one knee and saluted the Dragon again. ‘I thank you, my Lord.’

  The Dragon turned back. ‘Oh, cut it out, take the stones, and get lost. I thought I got rid of you a while ago.’ His turquoise eyes focused heavily on Gold. ‘Just make sure to bring the Jade Girl with you if you are ever ordered to visit me again.’

  ‘Certainly, my Lord.’

  QING LONG WORKS PEOPLE HARD

  1969

  ‘I had to go through every single contract in his records room. Every single one. Looking for loopholes. Some of them are more than five hundred years old.’ Gold stretched and his joints cracked. ‘It took me three weeks. I had to sleep on the floor in there. I ache all over. I hate being human.’

  Jade threw the covers off and staggered to Gold’s bunk. Before he could protest she sat next to him on the bed, lifted his plain white cotton shirt, and rubbed his back.

  Gold relaxed. ‘Thanks, Jade.’

  ‘Nothing more,’ she said. ‘Friends.’

  ‘Frankly, I’m too exhausted to be interested, anyway.’

  ‘Me too. It’s been ages.’

  ‘How long have we been working for
Lord Qing Long?’

  ‘Must be close on seventy years,’ Jade said with a sigh. ‘We’ve served him well. We perform our duties diligently and without complaint. When will we be freed?’

  ‘When the Celestial Majesty wills it, and not before,’ Gold said. ‘I’m really past caring anyway. My human form is aging. I didn’t know that I could die of old age in this form. It will be an interesting experience.’

  ‘How long do humans live here on the Celestial Plane? That never occurred to me. I thought the wrinkles were from overwork. I’m getting old?’

  ‘I think humans live about twice as long on the Celestial Plane,’ Gold said. ‘Some of them have a name for it. “Shangri-La”. I don’t know about stones or dragons, but we both seem to be growing old.’

  Jade stopped rubbing Gold’s back and returned to her own bunk. Gold hoisted himself with effort, fell to sit next to her, and massaged her shoulders. She stretched her neck beneath his hands. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘I’ve seen some of the other poor workers here, the tame demons particularly, and compared to them our working conditions are luxurious. At least Qing Long allows us to sleep.’

  ‘I know,’ Jade said. ‘I suppose we’ll stay here serving Lord Qing Long until we die as humans.’

  Gold returned to flop on his bed again. ‘It’s all the same to me.’

  Jade fell back onto her pillow. ‘Me too.’

  ‘At least I have your friendship,’ Gold said into his pillow. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you to talk to, Jade. I really appreciate it.’

  ‘I feel the same way, my friend,’ Jade said, but Gold was already asleep.

  ‘Why do you drag those two little Shen around with you everywhere you go?’ the Red Phoenix of the South said. She banged her tile on the table, and the colours in the scarlet fabric of her robe rippled. ‘Pung.’

  ‘Shit,’ the White Tiger said. ‘Yeah, Ah Qing, there’s no shortage of servants here. There’s nothing for them to do while you’re visiting. Why the hell don’t you just leave them in the East?’

  Qing Long glanced at Jade and Gold who knelt to one side watching the game without interest. ‘Aren’t they decorative, though? So pretty. And I love the way people react when they discover who they are.’

  Xuan Wu lifted a tile from the wall and checked it. He slammed it into the discard at the centre of the table, making the other tiles rattle.

  ‘They look awful,’ the Phoenix said. ‘What have you been doing to them?’

  ‘They’re just soft,’ Qing Long said. ‘A proper day’s work is a new experience for both of them.’

  ‘You’d better be sure her father isn’t too upset,’ the White Tiger said.

  Qing Long raised a tile from the wall and waved it airily. ‘Frankly I don’t think the Dragon King is even aware of her existence. She’s number eighty something, a long way down the list.’ He slammed the tile onto the table. ‘Damn.’

  Jade sagged slightly over her knees.

  ‘Pung,’ the Phoenix said, and snatched the tile Qing Long had just discarded.

  The Tiger groaned.

  The Phoenix shuffled her tiles, her face alight with grim satisfaction. She pulled one tile out of the group and put it into the discard.

  ‘Sik,’ Xuan Wu said, and flipped his tiles so that the others could see them.

  All three of the other Shen groaned and tipped their tiles over.

  ‘Another round,’ Xuan Wu said.

  ‘I’d rather hear about the West,’ the Phoenix said. She opened the drawer in the table and counted her cash, then handed Xuan Wu a gold coin. ‘You’ve reported to the Celestial. Tell us about it.’

  ‘Yeah, I’d like to know what happened as well,’ the Tiger said. He handed Xuan Wu three gold coins. ‘You’ve been gone an awful long time, Ah Wu, was it really worth it?’

  ‘It was worth it,’ Xuan Wu said. ‘Let’s sit beside the pool, I’ll tell you about it in True Form while I have a swim. I wasn’t able to take True Form nearly as much as I would have liked in England, and I’m using every opportunity.’

  ‘My Lord,’ the Phoenix said.

  They rose and sat at a table near the pool bar. The demon from the bar quickly brought drinks for them.

  Xuan Wu changed to True Form; the black serpent and turtle. The two reptiles separated and the turtle slid into the pool.

  ‘You’d live in that pool if you had the chance,’ the Tiger growled. He took tiger form and flopped to lie sideways. He stretched, sheathing and unsheathing his claws.

  The Phoenix and Dragon both remained in human form and sat at the table.

  The Serpent stretched out on the warm pavers. ‘I’d been watching England for a while. I went there to learn two things: one, how long I could stay so far from my Centre without suffering unduly. None of us had tried this, and it was an interesting experiment.’

  ‘But you’re the only one really big enough to do it for two years straight,’ the Tiger said. ‘You spent five years there, and only came back twice.’

  ‘I proved that it can be done. The second thing I wanted to learn was the impact of the changes in society that have been happening the last few years. It was most enlightening.’

  ‘Tell us,’ the Phoenix said. ‘What did you learn? Did you have much difficulty living as one of them?’

  ‘I had planned to live as a European, so that I could merge into the culture,’ Xuan Wu said. ‘I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t hold the shape for long stretches. Eventually I had to take my usual human form.’ The Serpent raised its head slightly. ‘I experienced racism for the first time in my history. It was most unpleasant. That was the worst part about being there.’

  The Tiger chuckled. ‘Well, you’re home now, you collected your doctor or degree or whatever that thing was, gathered plenty of information, and the Jade Emperor is mightily glad to see you back.’

  ‘All of us are,’ the Phoenix said. ‘It was extremely worrying to have you so far away. The demons could have attacked us, and it would have taken you days to return.’

  ‘Hell has been quiet, I’ve been watching,’ Xuan Wu said. ‘The Jade Emperor wouldn’t have sent me if we thought there was any danger. With modern transport the travelling time is only hours, now, in human form. The world is shrinking. We may even begin to see powerful demons and Shen from other Centres come and visit us in China.

  ‘The Jade Emperor and I wanted to see what was happening in Europe. I may visit America next. And it was a PhD, a Doctorate in Philosophy, and you can call me Doctor John Chen, now.’

  ‘Doctor Serpent,’ Qing Long said under his breath. The Serpent fixed its small black eyes onto him and he looked away.

  ‘An English name as well, Ah Wu?’ the Tiger said with disbelief. ‘Turncoat. Did you meet any Western Shen? What did they have to say when they saw you?’

  ‘Now there’s a strange thing.’ The Serpent coiled its body and raised its head. ‘I did not encounter a single Western Shen the entire time I was there. Demons, yes. Western demons are extremely interesting. In many ways similar to ours; in many ways different. But Shen — no.’

  ‘Did you see any of those new people in London? The ones we’ve heard about?’ the Phoenix said.

  ‘Hippies,’ Xuan Wu said. ‘I joined a commune for a while during semester break. They are searching for the Tao. They are following the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, they have gurus. They are regarded as highly fanatical and dangerous. Because they search for the Tao.’

  The Tiger chuckled.

  ‘One of the gurus tried to show me the error of my ways, and put me onto the correct path towards Enlightenment,’ Xuan Wu said with amusement. ‘Apparently knowing some Chinese Taoism is a great help in my search for the True Way.’

  The Tiger laughed, his feline vocal cords making his voice a throaty growl. ‘I’m sure you were suitably humble and attempted to learn from the sage. And the verdict was?’

  ‘He said with exasperation that I would never get there.’

  HONG KONGr />
  1999

  HOW FAR away from the Peak are you, Gold?

  About half an hour, my Lord.

  Good. I’ve decided to post you as an extra guard when Leo collects Michelle’s parents from the airport. Take the form of a tiny stone and accompany them.

  My Lord.

  Leo parked the Mercedes in the airport car park and he and Michelle worked their way along the walkway towards the terminal. Gold was a tiny pebble in Leo’s pocket. The new airport was a very long way from the city, on a huge area of reclaimed land that had once been the island of Chek Lap Kok.

  The airport’s structure was a series of interconnected arches, all side by side, gleaming white. The walkway leading to the arrivals hall was two storeys high with a loft level containing restaurants and other walkways to the departure levels.

  The arrivals hall itself was twenty times the size of the old arrivals hall in Kai Tak; it must have been nearly four hundred metres across. There were two exit gates, one at each end of the long wall, with ‘one’ and ‘two’ in large letters next to them. An airplane of the Wright Brothers era hung from the ceiling with a dummy jauntily sitting in it, complete with an aviator’s cap and scarf.

  ‘Gate two,’ Michelle said, and they took the transparent elevator down to wait. While they were in the elevator alone, Gold floated out of Leo’s pocket and took human form again. Leo ignored him.

  The hall was the full height of the airport, the curved roof flowing overhead. Michelle looked around. ‘It was so pleasant to greet the other performers when they arrived in this airport. It’s new, it’s clean, it’s so bright compared to the old one. It gives them a very good first impression — before we move over to the island and the filthy high-rises.’

  Leo didn’t reply, he just watched the gate.