by P J Tierney
Wing engaged the motors and brought the tug around. Jamie peered out the open door. The other boat’s crew were in the water and their boat was a shattered mess.
Jamie grinned. ‘That’s some understanding,’ he said.
Wing set their course for Chia Wu, but first they had to drop the Leungs and the other children off at Sai Chun. Mr Leung would make sure the children were returned to their families.
The sun was breaking over the horizon when Wing gently woke Jamie.
‘Sai Chun ahead,’ he said softly. ‘I could do with a hand getting through the Gate.’
Jamie nodded, which brought on a wave of nausea. He choked it down. He took the wheel and lined the Lin Yao up with the temple and the marker on the other side of the bay. He closed his eyes but saw only hazy grey clumps. He weaved the boat around the submerged rocks, guessing more than Viewing where they were, but he misjudged the final turn and scraped a long jagged line down her starboard side. He winced.
‘Don’t worry,’ Wing said, taking back the controls. ‘No-one sees that side of the boat anyway.’
When the tug was safely moored, Mr Leung helped the twins and the other children to disembark. He smiled at Jamie. ‘You go tell her.’
Jamie’s heart fluttered. ‘Are you sure?’
Mr Leung nodded. ‘Trust me,’ he said. ‘Yu’s reaction will make all this worthwhile.’ His eyes lingered on the wound on Jamie’s head.
Jamie wobbled up to the Leungs’ courtyard gate and pushed it open. The courtyard was strewn with dirt and bamboo leaves. He went up to the front door and knocked. There were hurried sounds from inside, then Bohai reefed the door open.
‘Oh,’ he said when he saw Jamie. Jamie took in his dishevelled appearance, his dark-rimmed eyes, and smiled. Bohai hesitated, then his eyes grew wider and he looked beyond Jamie towards the mooring. ‘Mum!’ he screamed. ‘Mum!’
Mrs Leung arrived breathless at the door, bracing herself between the hallway walls. She didn’t speak; she simply looked at her son, her eyes pleading. Bohai smiled, and she peered past him, then pushed him aside. Tears welled in her eyes and she ran to the gate.
Yang and Ye raced along the dock and charged into her arms. Mrs Leung dropped to her knees and held them to her. Bohai stood behind her like a sentinel, his hand bracing her shoulder.
Mr Leung walked up behind the boys. He held his hand to his wife’s cheek and brushed away her tears. Then he embraced his oldest son. ‘Well done,’ he said to him. ‘Good man.’
The other children followed Mr Leung into the courtyard. Cheng carried the Kwok boys, one in each arm, and handed them to Mrs Leung to be fussed over and fed and have their wounds tended to. Jade hovered near the courtyard wall, happy to witness the mothering, but like Jamie too unsure to take part.
Jamie took Mr Leung aside for a moment. ‘It would be best if you took all the credit for this,’ he said, looking around at the happy faces of the rescued children and imagining the photos that would be plastered across the territory tomorrow.
Mr Leung nodded and shook his hand. ‘I’m proud of you, Jamie.’
Jamie smiled sadly, shrugged and said, ‘I didn’t get the almanac back though. What if Zheng’s men find it?’
Mr Leung grinned. ‘I wouldn’t worry about that, Jamie. You see, I photocopied it before I handed it over to them.’
‘Yes, I know,’ Jamie said. ‘That photocopy came in handy.’ Then he realised what Mr Leung was really saying. ‘Ahh, photocopy … a strong light source.’
Mr Leung nodded. ‘I would be surprised if the original hasn’t turned to dust already.’
Jamie smiled. ‘That leaves just the one copy then.’
Mr Leung asked Bohai to fetch the photocopied pages. When he returned, he looked at his father for confirmation. Mr Leung nodded and Bohai held them out to Jamie.
‘I think Lao Tzu was right in that opening quote,’ Mr Leung said. ‘Live in the present — it’s much more peaceful.’
Jamie nodded. Before he took the pages, he brought his palm and fist together and bowed first to his friend then to Mr Leung.
On his way back to the Lin Yao, Jamie saw his father sitting on the deck of The Swift. He tilted his head in Hector’s direction to greet him.
Hector put his index finger to his brow and said, ‘Big day?’
‘You could say that.’
Hector nodded. ‘Don’t let me hold you up then.’ Jamie turned to go but stopped. ‘Dad,’ he said, looking at his feet, ‘Mum sort of knew stuff, didn’t she?’
‘Well, yeah,’ Hector scoffed.
Jamie looked his father in the eye and said, ‘I mean, knew things before they happened.’
Hector pulled back a little and lowered his glass. ‘Yeah, she knew that sort of stuff too.’
Jamie bit his bottom lip and said, ‘Did she ever say anything about me?’
Hector laughed. ‘You mean before she ran off to God knows where?’
Jamie nodded.
Hector took a swig from his glass and seemed to size up his son. He swirled the whisky in his mouth, then finally answered. ‘She didn’t say a thing about you.’
Jamie bit his bottom lip, trying to hold off the tremor that preceded tears. His knee hurt and the ache in his head became unbearable. He turned to his tugboat and limped to its side. As he was about to step aboard, he heard his father say, ‘Except to tell me that you’d leave me too.’
Jamie braced against the side of the Lin Yao and let his father continue. He heard the ice clink in his glass.
Hector said softly, ‘And that you, well, you’d be a special one.’
Jamie smiled.
He stepped aboard the Lin Yao and a voice inside his head screamed his name. He steeled himself against the flare of pain it roused, then turned to see the Eurasian girl watching him.
‘It was you calling to me all this time?’ he said.
She nodded. ‘I knew you’d save us. Ever since I saw your photo in the paper.’
‘So you’ve been calling me telepathically?’
She nodded again.
‘You’re good,’ Jamie said.
She shrugged and looked over her shoulder to the Leungs’ courtyard. The Leungs were all laughing and hugging, and the other children were caught up in the excitement. But she still looked sad.
‘You not joining the celebrations?’ he said.
She looked back at the happy children. ‘There’s no-one waiting for my return, Jamie.’ She bit her bottom lip, just like he did. ‘No-one even knows I’m missing.’
‘There’s got to be someone,’ he said.
The girl shook her head.
Jamie sighed. He had to admit that thanks to Elizabeth’s parents’ desperate efforts to find her, he knew everything there was to know about her, from her date of birth to how to recognise her from a scar on her left elbow she got from falling off her bike when she was five. He didn’t even know this girl’s name.
‘It’s Aliyah,’ she said.
Aliyah left Sai Chun with them. Jamie just didn’t have the heart to say no and besides, anyone that good at telepathy should be with the Warriors of the Way and not, potentially, against them.
At the Gate, he closed his eyes and concentrated, but all he could see were hazy shadows. Wing looked quizzically at him when he hit two of the rocks.
‘I’m just tired,’ Jamie said.
They were all quiet on the way back to Chia Wu. The sun beat down on them and made Jamie’s nausea worse. Wing looked almost as bad as he felt; he sweated with fever and the smell of decay was getting worse.
Jamie held his hand up to Wing’s wound to help him. He closed his eyes and Conjured, but nothing happened. There was no heat, no light, not even a tingle.
Wing grinned. ‘You losing your touch?’ he teased.
Jamie smiled back, but deep down he quivered because he suspected it was much worse than that. He quickly changed the subject. ‘I’d better check on Feng,’ he said and limped down the gantry stairs.
He found Jade and Cheng dozing on deck. They were sitting with their backs up against the cabin wall, her head was resting against his chest and he had his arm around her shoulders.
Jamie stared for a moment and a new wave of nausea swept over him.
Cheng opened his eyes and saw Jamie watching. He grinned like he’d just won a contest.
Jamie hobbled away.
On the stairs down to the galley he stumbled upon Aliyah, who was staring at the locked cabin door. ‘So if that’s Feng in there, does that mean Zheng’s in there as well?’
‘Sort of,’ Jamie said. ‘But just a tiny bit of him.’ He didn’t dare tell her about the other parts of Zheng locked in the Recollector’s box under the bridge’s control panel.
She nodded and seemed to consider this, then she shrugged, smiled at him and wandered back up on deck.
Jamie triple-checked the lock on Feng’s cabin and hoped he hadn’t made a terrible mistake by letting Aliyah come back to Chia Wu.
While the others dozed, Jamie took the photocopied pages of the almanac to the stern. He held them to his chest and said to his guide, ‘You tried to warn me and I didn’t listen. I’m listening now.’
He pulled his arm back and threw the pages into the sea. They spread out over the water like a fan.
Jamie felt the prickly weight of someone’s gaze and whipped around. Jade was leaning up against the port side rail, watching. He said a little unkindly to her, ‘Cheng let you go, did he?’
She shrugged dismissively and looked out at the sodden paper. ‘You don’t want to know the future?’
Jamie shook his head. ‘Look what it did to the Recollector.’
She gave a little half-shrug. ‘Yeah but look what it did for your mother.’
Jamie tensed. ‘She didn’t run from the future, Jade. I know she didn’t.’
She nodded. ‘Yeah. I know.’
Having already braced himself for an argument, he faltered. ‘Really? You don’t believe she ran? Master Wu does.’
‘Master Wu’s not a Recollector,’ she said bluntly. ‘No, she didn’t run from the future, Jamie — she’s been manipulating it.’
His stomach fluttered. ‘Did you find a message from her?’
‘The paste that saved you,’ Jade said. ‘I couldn’t have known you’d need it.’
Jamie frowned. ‘But you’re a Recollect—’ He stopped short and gasped. ‘It was beyond your life plan; you wouldn’t have seen me dying.’
‘That’s right. I didn’t know you’d need it, but your mum did.’ She paused and seemed to search for the right words. ‘When I first became aware I had this — gift, I sought out the books that might help me understand. In the entire library there was only one first-person account of being a Recollector. I think it was called A Recollector’s Journey. When I opened it, a note fluttered out.’
The breath caught in Jamie’s throat. He leaned closer and stammered, ‘Wh-what did it say?’
She turned and walked away.
He lunged after her. ‘What did it say?’
She held her palm up to his chest and stopped him dead. She bent down to where she had left her satchel and opened it up.
‘You’ve still got it?’
Jade withdrew a folded and frayed slip of fabric. She handed it to him. ‘I think it’s from your mother’s celestial silk.’
Jamie took it and instantly recognised the contours from the edge of the silk that had wrapped him as a baby. He read:
There will come a time when the Spirit Warrior will need you, you won’t be able to see this coming. When all that is ahead is darkness, prepare this paste, his survival depends on it. Remember, Jade, your life and the Spirit Warrior’s are intertwined.
Jamie held the piece of silk to his chest. He bit on his trembling lip and smiled. He clutched it all the way back to Chia Wu.
The Lin Yao’s approach to Chia Wu was hardly discreet, the roar from her engines bouncing off the cliff faces either side of the Penglai Straits. They were met at the dock by the stern faces of Mrs Choo and Mr Fan. Lucy seemed pleased to see them.
Jamie stood at the front mooring line as Wing brought the Lin Yao in close. He wondered why Master Wu wasn’t there.
Mrs Choo hauled Wing off the Lin Yao before the lines were even set, and pulled him close. Then she held him at arm’s length to check him over. His wound had become infected again and pus was oozing through his shirt. She gave a sad sigh and tears welled. She put her arm around her son and walked him back along the dock.
Lucy raced to greet Jamie. She ran along the dock and launched herself at him. He stumbled and Jade caught him to stop him from falling.
Mr Fan was surprised to discover two new arrivals onboard. He bowed his welcome to Aliyah, who returned it perfectly and without hesitation, which made both Mr Fan and Jamie raise their eyebrows. Mr Fan took a moment to peer at her — in much the same way he had looked at Jamie when they first met — like he was trying to see under her skin. Mr Fan shook his head to break the contemplation and said to Lucy, ‘I’m sure our new guest is hungry. Would you mind taking Aliyah to the dining pavilion?’
‘Sure,’ Lucy said, looking Aliyah up and down, then she seemed to remember who she was talking to and quickly turned to face her sifu. She bowed and corrected herself. ‘I mean yes, Sifu.’ She glanced along the dock in the direction Mrs Choo had since gone and whispered to Jamie, ‘I won’t have to cook anything for her, will I?’
He grinned. ‘I hope not.’
Mr Fan scanned the Lin Yao and peered past Jamie towards the cabin. He wandered up towards the bow and glimpsed into the portholes, all the while looking suspiciously like he was trying to seem casual.
‘Everything okay?’ Jamie asked him.
‘Yes, yes,’ Mr Fan said a little too quickly. ‘Was just wondering if you, um,’ he straightened his robe, ‘have, um, anyone else onboard?’
‘Other than Feng?’
‘And the box with bits of Zheng’s spirit in it,’ Jade added from the stairs of the bridge.
‘Hmm,’ Mr Fan said, not quite meeting either’s eyes.
Cheng came up from below, carrying the Recollector’s box and leading a dazed-looking Feng. ‘Ahh, right,’ said Mr Fan, standing a little straighter and assuming his sifu role. ‘Cheng, follow me. There is a suitable facility for Feng on the other side of the island.’ He relieved Cheng of the box and they headed back towards Chia Wu.
Jade walked towards Jamie. A chill air rose off the bay and she asked, ‘So what do you think that was all about?’
Jamie thought while he tended to the line. He heaved it over the bollard, and when the Lin Yao was moored tightly, he said, ‘He was looking for someone, someone who’s supposed to be here, I’d say.’
‘That’s astute.’
Jamie couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not.
Jade asked, ‘Who do you think it is?’
Jamie looked out towards the straits and to the grey clouds on the horizon. It wasn’t that hard to figure out. There were only three Warriors of the Way unaccounted for, but only one that would make Mr Fan pretend nothing was wrong. Jamie’s voice caught as he said, ‘Master Wu.’
Jamie raced as fast as the pain in his head would let him to Mr Fan’s office. He almost barrelled into Cheng and the healer himself in the hallway. Feng and the box were both secured, Mr Fan assured Jamie when he asked. ‘Each in separate locations,’ he added.
Inside Mr Fan’s office, Jamie sat on the narrow bed and Mr Fan moved Jamie’s head this way and that to better view the wound. ‘Mr Fan,’ Jamie started, trying to match Mr Fan’s casual tone from earlier, ‘I didn’t see Master Wu at the dock?’
Jamie felt Mr Fan tense. ‘Hmm,’ Mr Fan said.
‘Did he come back from chasing Cheng through the Way?’
‘Not yet,’ Mr Fan said, looking intently at Jamie’s head wound, ‘but it’s nothing to worry about. I suspect he probably got a trace on the rest of Zheng and is tracking him down.’
‘Have you
heard anything from him?’ Jamie asked. ‘You know, telepathically?’
Mr Fan paused. He angled Jamie’s injury towards the light and gasped. ‘Oh, dear child.’
Jamie pulled away and asked, ‘What is it?’, thinking Mr Fan was just trying to change the subject. However, Cheng leaned over to look too and made a face that looked like he might puke. ‘What is it?’ Jamie asked again, worried this time.
‘It’s just that this is a lot worse than I thought. Your skull is almost crushed. I am astounded this did not kill you.’
Jamie paused. He thought about the time he spent out of his body at Castel Rock and he whispered too quietly to be heard, ‘I think it did.’
Mr Fan said, ‘Have I taught you nothing, child? This is why you always protect your head.’
Jamie looked at the floor and mumbled, ‘I was sort of protecting someone else.’
‘Then that is a lucky person, Jamie, who you would take a hit this hard for them.’ Mr Fan went to the shelves of glass jars and vials and prepared a powdered concoction. He ground it in the mortar and pestle, then added a few drops of a foul-smelling clear liquid to turn it into a paste. He wrapped the paste in a cotton bandage and instructed Jamie to hold it over his damaged skull.
Mr Fan turned his attention to Cheng. Once again he was struck by the magnitude of the injury. ‘Your brain is exposed, Cheng. The slightest tap and you would have died.’
Cheng’s eyes flicked over to Jamie. ‘A tap? Like a knock from a fighting staff?’
‘Exactly like a knock from a fighting staff. In fact, the rush of wind as it passed by would have been enough to kill you.’ Mr Fan sighed. ‘You are a lucky boy, Cheng.’
Cheng stared at Jamie. He said, ‘Yes, I was very lucky. Twice.’
Master Wu still had not returned by the next morning and it was a somewhat subdued group in the dining pavilion for breakfast. Jamie trailed his spoon through the thick rice congee, trying desperately not to think of more and more catastrophic explanations for Master Wu’s absence.