by Kylie Chan
‘The stone gave it to me, but King found out about it. They took the stone away and moved the Serpent. What did you offer the Mothers?’
‘Level ninety World of Warcraft characters with max gear and epic mounts.’
‘They play WoW?’
‘They have their own server. They chased everybody else off it.’
‘And they believed you had the characters?’
‘Of course they did. I told them the ID and they knew me. On the server, that is. We have a couple of people who watch them play and listen to their conversations. Very informative.’
‘Was watching them your idea?’
‘No, Justin’s. Where to now, Emma? Word must have gone out — they’ll be looking for us everywhere.’
‘They don’t know what you look like, so we have that advantage. The King really has been experimenting, so hold on tight to that story as long as it works.’ I figured out where we were, traced a route to where the Serpent was held and sagged. ‘Damn.’
‘You okay?’
‘We went too far. We have to go back through the Pits to reach the spot where they had the Serpent.’
‘But you said they’d moved it.’
‘I may be able to find it if they haven’t moved it too far.’
‘That makes sense. So let’s go to the Pits.’ She bent to pick me up in her mouth.
‘Wait,’ I said, and she hesitated above me. ‘The Celestial prisoners are in the Pits, Simone. You have to stay strong.’
She was silent for a long moment. ‘Humans have been going through there for centuries. It’s about time the Celestials were reminded of what it’s like. The Pits need to be closed; and when we win this war that’ll be the first thing I’ll take up with both Daddy and the Jade Emperor. Seeing what happens in there will only give me extra ammunition to close it down.’ She picked me up in her mouth. Let’s go. Point the way.
She slowed at the end of the tunnel between the staging area and level nine, the Pit where the very worst criminals were punished. It was completely silent; there wasn’t a single sound, not even the air moving around us.
Is this it? Simone said.
‘Put me down,’ I said, and she gently lowered me. ‘Yes. This is it. You probably don’t need to carry me any more, they’ll be … busy.’
‘Okay. What if they stop us? How about we say you’re my child?’
‘Demons eat their children, Simone.’
‘Oh yeah. Wife?’
‘They don’t form loving relationships.’
‘Slave.’
‘That works.’ I hesitated. ‘Stay quiet from here on. There will be demon guards.’
She nodded and we entered the Pit cavern. The air was freezing cold and dank with the odours of fear and death. The cavern was so large that the far side wasn’t visible, and had a low dark ceiling and a rough stone floor. Floor-to-ceiling stone columns with metre-long jutting blades — the Trees of Swords — were scattered through the area with limbless corpses impaled on them.
I couldn’t speak silently to Simone, so I just nodded in the direction we had to go: around the edge of the cavern to level eight on the other side. She hesitated, staring at the Trees of Swords, and I gestured with my head again. We had to do this.
She lowered her head and turned it away, obviously wishing she could close her eyes. Many of the corpses had slid down the blades and all that was holding them there was their skulls or collarbones. Their skin was pale; they’d bled out when their limbs were cut off. Their eyes were white and sightless: they’d been blinded as well as dismembered. I recognised some of my most senior colleagues from the Mountain and it took all my courage to go past their unmoving bodies without saying a word. There was still no sound. Obviously the demons had left their victims on the trees overnight, frozen in death.
One of the corpses moved, and Simone squeaked and slithered away. The corpse lifted its blinded face. Simone made a quiet sound of pain. ‘Michael.’
‘Simone?’
The corpse on the other side of the tree from Michael growled softly and raised its head. ‘What’s she doing here?’
‘Tiger,’ I gasped.
‘Simone, whatever you’re doing here, if you can run, run,’ Michael said.
‘You pair of stupid fucking bitches! What the hell?’ the Tiger growled under his breath.
‘I have to get you down,’ Simone said, and changed to human form. She stood in front of Michael’s body, obviously working out how to lift him off the blade.
‘We have to leave them,’ I said. ‘They can’t do anything until they regrow limbs in the morning. We must find the Serpent!’
‘Let me see,’ the Tiger said, and concentrated for a moment. ‘About two hundred metres to my left. Go!’
‘I have to bring you down!’ Simone said, desperate.
‘If you pull us off we’ll just fly straight back on again,’ Michael said. ‘It doesn’t work like that. This torture is designed for Celestials as much as humans. Simone …’ He moved his head from side to side. ‘Simone?’
‘I’m here.’
‘If we lose, I’ll be stuck here for a very long time. Promise me something?’
‘Anything,’ she said.
‘Stop this stupidness and run,’ the Tiger said.
‘Shut up, Dad,’ Michael said. ‘Promise you won’t wait for me. Go and find someone else. One day it will happen for us, you know it will. But it isn’t the right time yet. You’re too young, and I’m too stupid.’
‘Oh, Michael,’ she said, smiling through the tears. ‘I know that.’
‘I know something too,’ the Tiger said, and made a sound of pain at the movement of speaking. ‘I know that you two morons need to run, and run fast, because two hundred metres to my left there’s a fucking enormous Serpent that will win this for all of us. It’s our only chance of freedom. And two hundred metres to my right, there’s a good number of demon guards who can hear echoes of talking through the caverns and are waking up to check on us. So stop with the romance novel bullshit and run!’
‘He’s right, Simone. Change back and let’s get the hell out of here,’ I said. ‘Tiger, Michael, stay strong.’
‘Don’t tell Clarissa you saw me!’ Michael said.
‘Of course not.’
The Tiger growled again. ‘Will. You. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. And —’
‘We are.’
Simone changed and we raced out of the cavern together.
31
A large arched passage led to level eight. The Pit was the same size as level nine, but there were no bladed columns; instead, the entire interior was a lake of red liquid that looked like blood. A guillotine, looking similar to one used to cut paper but two metres long, stood next to the lake. This type of guillotine had been the preferred execution method for many years: simple and effective. A severed head floated to the top of the lake. Its eyes appeared to blink for a moment, then it submerged again.
As we approached the lake, a tunnel opened from the right of the passage. There was another staging area to the side, probably for the victims of eight and nine, and it was almost exactly where the Tiger had said the Serpent was. I realised with a jolt that it was where Number One had said the Serpent would be as well. Maybe he wasn’t leading us into a trap.
Simone was watching the pool’s contents with fascinated horror. I tapped her on the back of the neck with my snout and she visibly jumped. She turned to see me and I gestured with my head. She nodded and followed me down the tunnel, hopefully towards the Serpent.
The tunnel was about a hundred metres long and winding, narrow and claustrophobic. When we reached the staging area, we hesitated at the entrance: double doors blocked the way.
‘This could be it,’ Simone said. ‘I sense a big snake on the other side but it’s kind of blurry. Stone shields?’
‘Possibly. Watch my back while I open the door.’
She moved back and I grasped the ring on the door and pulled it.
I was flattened
by a snake demon, and five more slithered over the top of me to get to Simone. A turtle hybrid stomped on me, making me hiss with pain, then opened its beak and grabbed my throat. It crushed my windpipe and I sent my breathing tube out, but it was ineffectual. The sharp edges of its mouth were cutting through my scales. It was about to take my head off.
The turtle slammed me into the floor, then did it again. It released me and I slithered away, then turned to see that Simone had the turtle hybrid’s neck in both hands and was banging its head on the floor. She released it, stepped back and yinned it. The cold from the yin caused frost to form on my scales and I backed up further.
Simone turned her glowing white eyes onto the room where the snake and turtle hybrids had been, then rose to full majestic Celestial Form with her hair streaming around her, summoned her blades and strode into it.
I followed, and watched with awe as she loaded the blades with her chakras and sliced through the snake and turtle demons with fierce battle frenzy, her face frozen in a cruel mask. When all the demons were gone, she spun, raised her swords and ran towards me.
‘It’s me!’ I said.
She stopped and lowered her blades, and her eyes went back to normal. Her hair fell around her into a tangled mess. She dismissed her blades and ran her hands through her hair. ‘I wish it wouldn’t do that. I must have it cut short when we’re back home.’ She turned away again. ‘It’s not here, Emma.’
I sent my senses out and found the Serpent fifty metres away on the other side of the hybrid room.
‘I have it!’ I said, trying to keep my voice low.
I flicked my tongue to taste the air around me, and headed through the room that had contained the hybrids to another tunnel going in the right direction. The delicate fragrance of fresh air wafted from the tunnel before us: the scent of a Celestial. Simone’s scent was more floral; the clean alpine coolness was definitely the Serpent. I flicked my tongue again and Simone followed me as I traced it.
The tunnel opened into a plain grey cavern, two hundred metres across, with blindingly bright lights set up around the edges and all facing the Serpent in its cage. No wonder John hadn’t been sleeping well. Two thick black cables led from an electrical box with buttons and dials to the metal grill under the Serpent: the electrocution device.
Five cockroaches squatted on their six legs under the lights; each four metres long, shiny and black. I recoiled when I saw that where the mouth parts should have been, each cockroach had a female human face of disturbing ethereal beauty, calm in sleep.
Stay here, Simone said, and silently crept around between the back end of one insect and the front of another. God, they have faces! Did you see that?
The cockroach facing her woke before she made it between them, and raised itself on its four hind legs. It attempted to stab her with its two sharp forelegs and she jumped back. She summoned her weapons and moved into a defensive stance.
I slithered past her as fast as I could to reach the cage.
‘No, Emma!’ she shouted. ‘Stay back!’ Her yelling woke the rest of cockroaches and they rose on their legs and fluttered their wing cases. ‘Shit!’
One of the insects moved between me and the Serpent’s cage. Weapons for these. I changed to human form, summoned Dark Heavens and launched chi into it in an attempt to stun the insect for a quick kill. The energy blast hit the cockroach’s black shell and did nothing. It rose on its hind legs to impale me, and I somersaulted backwards, hitting another insect behind me. I rolled sideways, wishing I had the all-around view that my serpent eyes gave me. I checked the positions of the demons. Simone was facing three of them, dodging their forelegs and hitting them with her blades without effect.
‘Clear!’ she shouted.
I threw Dark Heavens up in front of my face to block the leg attempting to impale me, and felt more than heard the other insects behind me readying to strike. I somersaulted sideways again and leapt onto the cockroach’s back. I tried to jam Dark Heavens between its wing cases, but the blade did nothing. I made an experimental slice where the head met the abdomen and understood with a chill — these demons were armoured. We couldn’t hurt them.
‘Clear, Emma, clear!’ Simone shouted again.
Oh. I had to be clear of the area so she could yin them. I jumped off the cockroach’s back and ran to the other side of the cavern, the insects following me at similar speed. As I ran them around the edge of the cavern towards her, they gained on me — they were faster than I was. I somersaulted sideways again, then backwards, hoping that I was clear enough for her to get a good yin shot at them.
Three were already gone.
Simone dropped her head slightly and focused the yin around her as one of the cockroaches prepared to impale her. She was too slow. The timing was too close. She wouldn’t make it, she was overconfident, she couldn’t do it …
Its foreleg went through her as she smothered them all in a cloud of yin.
The demons disintegrated. She collapsed and returned to human form: a small pale shape on hands and knees in the centre of her cloud of darkness.
I went as close to the yin as I could. ‘Simone, call it in!’
She made a low sound of effort, which became louder and more intense until it was a shout of anguish. The yin disappeared and she fell to lie on her side on the floor.
The cockroach had split her from the middle of the abdomen down, an ugly wide slash. I put my hand over it, then ripped my shirt off and pushed it into the wound. Blood was pouring out of her. Too much damage. She had less than five minutes.
She concentrated, and the blood flow seemed to reduce for a moment, then pumped out of her again.
‘Get … Daddy,’ she gasped.
She was right: the Serpent could heal anything.
I jumped to my feet, raced to the cage and opened the door. The Serpent lay unconscious, flat and unmoving on the electric grill. I shoved it. ‘John. Wake up!’
It didn’t respond.
‘John!’ I shouted. ‘Xuan Wu! Your daughter is dying …’ I choked on the words. ‘And she needs you. For heaven’s sake, wake up!’
It didn’t respond.
I looked around for the controls for the electric shock; perhaps I could torture it awake. I found what looked like the right switch, set it to two hundred and fifty, and turned it on. The Serpent writhed until I released the switch, then went still.
I climbed into the cage to check on it. It was breathing, but only just. It was as close to death as she was …
‘Emma,’ Simone gasped behind me.
I ran to her, knelt and held her hand. I pushed the blood-soaked pad harder into her wound.
I looked up and shouted, ‘George, Francis, anyone, if you can hear me, I’ll give you anything in exchange for her life!’ My voice went hoarse. ‘Anything.’
She was deathly pale and her lips were blue. My throat thickened. ‘Summon the Elixir!’
‘I love you, Emma. Please go on with Daddy and look after him,’ she said.
‘No!’ I shouted, my voice even more hoarse. A sob escaped me. ‘Summon the Elixir!’
‘No. For you,’ she said.
‘If he loses both of us, he’ll turn. One of us has to survive. Do it!’
She grimaced and the Elixir, still in its sports bottle, appeared in my hand. I popped the top, gasping with grief and relief as I squeezed the liquid into her mouth. She swallowed, choking on the fluid. She coughed and pushed the bottle away, and I let her regain her breath then forced it on her again. She sucked weakly on the bottle, then her eyes rolled into her head and she fell limp and unconscious.
Half the Elixir remained. I wiped the infuriating tears out of my eyes, pulled the shirt pad away, then pushed the end of the bottle into the wound and squeezed. Squirting it straight into her had to be the same as her drinking it.
I wiped my eyes furiously as the Elixir bubbled out of her, looking exactly like mercury — reflective and shiny. The aroma mixed with her blood and became almost unbearably pure.
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She was very still. I hadn’t seen her stop breathing. She was still breathing, wasn’t she? I checked her pulse and couldn’t find it. I frantically moved my hand over her neck, looking for her pulse, and still couldn’t find it. I put my hands over her chest to perform CPR and leaned into her. Blood gushed out of the wound from the pressure, adding to the pool around her. I was just killing her faster.
I bent over her too-still body and held her hand. Her eyes were half-open and her expression was blank. Her hands were growing cold. She wasn’t breathing.
I fell over my knees and closed my eyes.
The light became very bright against my eyelids. The demons must have found me and turned the spotlights brighter. I raised my head and opened my eyes, blurred with tears.
The lights hadn’t been turned up; it was Simone. She was glowing with a golden purity that shone from her, and a radiant heat that forced me onto my feet and back.
She floated upright, her expression beatific. She smiled at me, nodded, and then exploded into a brilliant golden light that shifted and faded into a million luminous particles before it disappeared.
I collapsed on the floor and wept with relief. She was in Court Ten. I had to hope that the Demon King would keep his word and protect her. I curled up over my knees. Both of my children were held by the King.
My children. I had to get them out.
I rose and staggered, then wiped my eyes, took a deep breath and steadied myself.
I was wearing only blood-soaked jeans and a bra; my shirt was saturated with Simone’s blood so I left it. The air was cold on my wet skin as I dragged myself to the door of the cage. I didn’t have long before they would come running and lock the Serpent up again. I had to get the damn thing out of that cage and it was five metres long and nearly a metre around.
I grabbed it as best I could at a narrow part near its tail and hauled at it with both hands. I managed to make it out the door with its tail, but the rest of it wouldn’t budge. It was too heavy. Even with my strength I couldn’t move the whole thing.