I stepped out of my bathroom, clean and feeling much better. I rummaged through the disaster area that was my wardrobe, searching for something comfortable to wear; my back was sore from lying on the rock in the vacant lot.
I stopped dead.
‘That was the phone digging into my back, wasn’t it?’ I said.
‘The King’s phone?’ the stone said. It hesitated, then, ‘Oh, yes. You were lying on it, and you didn’t take it with you.’
I rummaged through the clothes again. ‘I need to go back and get it.’
The stone didn’t say anything.
‘How come I came around with no clothes, but you and the phone were there?’ I said as I finally found a clean pair of jeans.
‘The phone follows you, Emma,’ the stone said. ‘When you returned to human form, it materialised.’
‘Oh,’ I said. ‘What about you? I don’t have hands to hold you when I’m a snake. Where did you go?’
‘I stayed with you,’ the stone said.
‘How? On my tail?’
The stone was silent.
‘Oh my God, this is something really weird, isn’t it?’
‘Depends on your definition of “weird”. I move inside you,’ the stone said.
I sat on the bed. ‘No. I don’t want you in there.’
‘It’s not what you think,’ the stone said. ‘I become lodged in the muscle tissue of your back, about a third of the way along your serpent length.’
I didn’t feel very relieved. ‘That is extremely weird.’
‘It’s extremely claustrophobic. I don’t like it at all.’
‘I’m not sore there,’ I said. ‘That’s strange.’ Then I flexed my left shoulder and felt a definite twinge, as if I had torn a muscle and it had nearly healed. ‘Whoa.’
‘Put your clothes on,’ the stone said. ‘The Dark Lord is coming; he sensed that you were awake.’
We need to get together and work out what to do, Emma, John said. We have some major problems and your help would be appreciated, if you are feeling up to it.
I grabbed an old T-shirt from the wardrobe and tugged it over my head, then went to the door and opened it. John waited on the other side.
‘I’m okay. What’s the problem?’
‘Come into the dining room and we’ll talk about it,’ he said.
Leo and the Shaolin Master, Liu, waited for us, with the two other remaining Immortal Masters, the junior Tai Chi Master, Mike Chow, and the wushu Master, Audrey Au. They saluted as we sat.
Mike was a huge Chinese who’d gained Immortality about seven hundred years ago. He’d taught Meredith, then suggested that she take over as Energy Master because she was so much better than he was.
Audrey was a tiny Chinese lady who looked far too delicate to have anything to do with any of the Arts. Wushu was the demonstration Art, rather like rhythmic gymnastics: gorgeous to look at but not generally useful as a fighting style. This sort of Art, the elegant presentation type, was what many practitioners meant when they said ‘wushu’.
It was understandable that these two had survived the demon attacks; neither of them were terribly useful in battle and had probably stayed with the junior students. Liu had been with Simone, so he hadn’t been attacked.
The three of them were all we had left.
‘First,’ Liu said, ‘Disciples. Casualties: ten seniors. What to do?’
‘What about the juniors?’ I said.
‘The seniors and the Immortals gave their lives for them,’ John said matter-of-factly. ‘And succeeded. We lost only the first two.’
‘Which seniors did we lose?’ I said.
Liu handed me a list and I scanned through it. Ten of the best. All but one were Chinese. They were all over the age of thirty; a couple of them were in their sixties. John had discussed them with me before: he thought that some of them were well on the way to attaining the Tao. We had planned a small ceremony in the next few weeks to officially promote eight of them to Master, as they were already doing the duties of junior Masters. They were all like family and I felt a pang as I perused the list. I would really miss them.
‘Did any of them get there?’ I said softly.
John didn’t say anything.
‘Maybe next time,’ I said, hoping for some sort of reaction.
John’s and Liu’s expressions didn’t shift.
‘Are you allowed to say anything at all about it?’ I said.
Liu leaned back. ‘Ten seniors. What to do?’
‘Families?’ I said.
‘Three had families, grown-up children. The other seven didn’t. None of them have immediate family back in China, or Europe in Jim’s case, just the extended clans.’
‘Inter them on the Mountain, John,’ I said. ‘It’s the least we can do for them. Send ancestral tablets to their clans in China. Can you cremate them on the Mountain?’
‘Yes,’ John said. ‘You will arrange it, Chow Sifu. I will have Jade send a couple of dragons to assist you. If you have trouble, contact me any time.’
‘I’ll need the right people to do the tablets,’ Mike said.
‘General Pak will be in touch. There are plenty of clergy in the Northern Heavens — refugees from temples destroyed during the Mountain Attack. They will come to the Mountain and perform the rituals.’
‘My Lord,’ Mike said, lowered his head and disappeared.
I sighed. I glanced back at the list of seniors and noticed there were a couple more pages stapled to it. I flipped the paper and froze with horror.
The next two pages were lists of numbers, English and Greek numbers. And a couple of names. One of the names was ‘Sonia’. I dropped the paper on the desk and put my head in my hands.
‘How many demon staff did we lose?’ I said into my hands.
‘The four security guards — the two on the ground floor and the two at the entrance to the car park — are all that remain. The only reason the security guards weren’t destroyed is because the demons ignored them when they came into the building and went right past them,’ John said, his voice very calm. ‘All of them, Emma. The attacking demons seemed to have a grudge against ours, and singled them out for special attention. The defenders concentrated on protecting the humans, and the demons helped them. Many of them fought valiantly.’
‘But Sonia was human,’ I whispered.
‘I think they knew, love.’
I had to look away. I wiped my eyes.
‘My Lord,’ Liu said, and hesitated. He looked down at his hands. His expression under his bushy white brows was miserable.
‘We can’t spare you, old friend,’ John said gently.
‘She’s all alone down there,’ Liu whispered.
‘Meredith?’ I said.
Liu nodded.
‘Let him go, John. Please.’
‘We can’t spare him, Emma. We only have three left.’
‘How long will she be down there?’ I said.
‘Where?’ Leo said. ‘I wish you people would stop talking in riddles.’
I smiled at Leo. ‘Do you have any idea what happens to Immortals when their physical forms are killed?’
‘They go to Hell, stay there for a while, then turn up again, good as new,’ Leo said. ‘That’s it, isn’t it?’
‘That’s right,’ I said. ‘Straight to Level Ten, the bottom level, stay there for a while doing who knows what, then pop back up here.’
‘What happens to them down there?’ he said.
‘None of the Immortals will talk about it,’ I said loudly without looking at the three Immortals who sat, unmoving, at the table with us.
‘All of the Celestial Masters are in Hell?’ Leo said. ‘Is that just for China?’
‘I have no idea, and it’s a waste of time asking,’ I said.
‘What about ordinary people?’ Leo said. His face cleared. ‘Oh, that’s why you said “next time”.’
Once again nobody said anything.
‘Once it is all handled, you may go, my friend,’ John said to Liu. ‘Until then, you are needed here. She will understand.’
‘How long will it take?’ I said.
Liu and John shared a look. ‘About three months,’ John said.
‘Intercede,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘You need them.’
John made a soft sound but didn’t say anything.
‘You can do that?’ I said.
Neither John nor Liu spoke. Their faces were rigid.
‘You’re not supposed to talk about it, are you,’ I said.
‘There have always been people who wanted me thrown from Heaven, Emma,’ John said softly.
‘I see,’ I said.
‘How come you know all this, Emma?’ Leo said.
‘Research.’
‘Far too much for your own good,’ John said. ‘Only about twenty-five per cent of what’s out there is correct anyway.’
‘I can tell what’s right,’ I said. ‘It’s obvious.’
‘I think you should start doing a PhD to keep yourself busy, before you do get me thrown from Heaven,’ John said with grim humour.
‘I have well and truly enough to do right now as it is,’ I said.
John straightened and changed the subject. ‘We only have three Celestial Masters left. We also have three of the original human Masters, all of whom are really too frail to take up much of the workload. There’s only one thing we can do.’
I dropped my head. ‘Close up shop.’
‘No,’ Leo whispered. ‘You can’t.’
‘We’ll send them all home, Leo,’ I said. ‘There’s not much else we can do.’
‘I’ll rent the ballroom of one of the hotels in Admiralty, have a farewell dinner, make the announcement,’ John said, his voice full of pain. ‘The seniors who want to remain with us can stay at the Folly. Many of them have no other family, no other interests, and nowhere else to go. Emma and the remaining Celestials can look after them after I’m gone. All the juniors should go home to their families.’
‘It’s the only thing we can do,’ I said, my heart breaking. The juniors would be devastated when they heard.
‘Once the juniors are home, the seniors are organised, and the demon is taken out, you have my permission,’ John said to Liu.
‘My Lord,’ Liu whispered, his voice hoarse.
‘Hold it a minute,’ I said. ‘You can’t rent a ballroom — we don’t have Gold. We’ll have to do it at Hennessy Road. And we don’t have space for everybody in one room.’
‘What’s the problem?’ Leo said.
‘Language,’ I said. ‘They’ll be able to understand Lord Xuan, but nobody else.’
‘Oh.’
‘You’re quite correct,’ John said.
‘Gather them into the training rooms at Hennessy Road, make the announcement by telepathy,’ I said. ‘It’s the only way.’
‘We lost Jade and Gold as well?’ Leo said.
‘We lost Gold,’ I said. ‘Have you heard from him? Is he in Hell?’
‘We haven’t heard from him,’ the stone said, completely emotionless. ‘He has disappeared. He is not in Hell, he is not on Earth, he is not on the Celestial. He does not answer when he is called.’
‘Oh God,’ I whispered.
Leo moaned gently and rubbed his hands over his face.
‘We lost all the stones,’ John said without looking up. ‘All of them. The attackers had some way of disabling them. At this stage it is not clear whether the same thing has happened to them.’
The stone made a soft hissing sound, but didn’t say anything.
‘What about the dragons?’ I said.
‘Most of the dragons escaped death because of their speed,’ John said. ‘They fought valiantly. Many of them were injured, though, and have been moved to the East to recover. We have about a dozen dragons left, including Jade, who couldn’t fight.’
‘Is Jade okay?’ Leo said.
‘Jade’s apparently sitting on a clutch of eggs and didn’t tell anybody,’ I said.
‘Terrific timing,’ Leo growled. ‘She didn’t even look pregnant.’
‘Typical dragon behaviour. Never tell anybody anything.’ I sighed and rested my chin on my hand. ‘Geez. This is really bad.’
John leaned back, his face tight but his eyes burning. ‘Anything else?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Why couldn’t you sense them?’
Leo glanced at John.
‘Nobody could sense them,’ Liu said. ‘They were specifically engineered to appear human right the way through. There was absolutely no demon essence that was visible to any sort of inspection.’
‘Sounds like the fire elementals, except more so,’ I said.
‘How did you recognise them once you knew then?’ I said. ‘If there’s no demon essence about them?’
‘They are not completely human, and the difference is easy to spot once you are looking for it,’ John said. ‘In the past we only looked for existence of the black demon essence, and if it wasn’t there we could safely assume it was human. Now we can’t; we must look at its human nature as well.’
‘We need to see Helen again,’ I said. ‘Were you awake, stone?’
‘Yes,’ the stone said. ‘I can show you.’
‘First, I must report,’ John said. ‘The residents of the Celestial must be notified about the new demons. Only the Heavens know how far they have infiltrated. I’ve summoned the Tiger, he’ll be here shortly. Then we can examine Helen.’
‘Were you awake when Kitty came to get her from school?’ I said.
‘Yes,’ the stone said.
‘Good, we’ll look at Kitty too. Oh,’ I said, suddenly remembering, ‘was that April?’
‘No,’ the stone said. ‘And it wasn’t a Mother either.’
‘Well then, what the hell was it?’ I said. ‘It sure as hell looked like a Mother.’
‘Something completely new,’ the stone said. ‘You’ll need to devise a name for them, I think.’
The Tiger appeared at the other end of the room and fell to one knee, saluting. ‘Xuan Tian Shang Di.’
‘Emma,’ John said, ‘what the Tiger and I are about to discuss is not for mortal ears. Please.’
‘Come and see yourself in the newspaper, Emma,’ Leo said, rising. ‘There’s a huge story about you on page three of both the English and Chinese papers.’
‘My Lord,’ Liu said, saluting, and disappeared.
‘Dismissed, Au,’ John said. ‘Go and supervise the clean-up crews.’
‘My Lord,’ Audrey said, and disappeared as well.
‘I’m in the paper?’ I said, shooting to my feet. ‘Holy shit, nobody saw me, did they?’
‘They didn’t just see you, they took photos, and called the Agriculture and Fisheries Department to come and get you,’ Leo said. ‘Apparently you’re a really big cobra. Caused a lot of panic around Kowloon Tong station. They spent the entire afternoon trying to catch you. You should see the photos — the Ag and Fish guys look terrified.’
I sagged with relief. ‘Oh, they saw the snake. I thought they saw me.’
‘That would cause mass panic as well,’ Leo said dryly, putting his arm on my back to guide me out. ‘Come and have a look. You’re a celebrity. You were even on the television, but we weren’t quick enough to tape it for you.’
‘Are you okay, Leo?’ I whispered as he closed the door behind us on John and the Tiger. ‘You’re not too freaked?’
‘About you being a snake?’ Leo said. ‘Or about this demon thing?’
‘Everything.’
‘Simone is okay,’ Leo said.
I understood.
I parked the car at a meter near the vacant lot. I walked up to the fence and studied it. I looked around. Nobody nearby.
‘Try walking right through,’ the stone said. ‘Don’t go over. Concentrate. Make yourself permeable. I will supervise. When I give the word, gently push your hand through the fence.’
I concentrated on making myself, as the stone had said, permeable.
‘Try,’ the stone whispered. ‘Just your hand.’
I retained my concentration and put my hand on the fence. I could feel the fence, but I could easily push my hand through the wire.
It was agony. The pain was indescribable. I did my best to retain my concentration and slowly pulled my hand back out.
‘You are not there yet,’ the stone said. ‘Well done. Many others would have lost their concentration at the pain and lost their hand in the fence.’
‘You just nearly cost me my hand,’ I said. ‘There are no energy healers left at the Academy, just me, and I don’t think I’d be capable of fixing something as major as that.’
‘You are quite correct, Lady Emma. Please accept my apologies,’ the stone said. ‘I will, in future, be more careful.’
‘Good,’ I said, took three steps back and jumped over the fence, somersaulting at the top and floating down the other side to land lightly on my feet. My snake track was visible in the soft dirt and I followed it to the back of the lot. The King’s phone was on the ground in the tall grass. I jammed it into my pocket.
‘You were hoping I wouldn’t remember it, weren’t you?’ I said as I walked back to the fence. A Chinese couple strolled past on the other side of the street but didn’t see me. I waited for them to go.
I do not like to think of what would happen to you if you were to use that phone, the stone said silently into my ear. The King obviously has plans for you, and they may not be pleasant or honourable. I hate to think what he could do to you if you went to him.
‘That is totally unimportant,’ I whispered. ‘What is important is that Simone is safe. And it’s looking more and more like I may have to use it.’
Please be warned, Emma, you should only use it as a last resort, the stone said. For you, death may be a preferable option to Hell.
That stopped me. ‘Same thing, isn’t it?’
The stone didn’t say anything.
I took three steps back and jumped over the fence again. I returned to my car.
‘What happens to me if I go to Hell is of no importance whatsoever,’ I said. ‘If I go, Simone will be safe, and the King will free me when Xuan Wu returns. That’s what matters.’
The stone remained silent. I pulled myself into the car to go home. I checked the clock. Dinnertime.
‘Does he know I came to get the phone?’ I said.
‘Yes,’ the stone said. ‘He’s as worried as I am.’
I sighed and turned the key. I pulled away from the kerb and headed home.