‘Do you have any idea where they’re holding Leo?’ I asked Martin.
‘None whatsoever,’ Martin said, ‘but he has to be somewhere around here.’
‘Then let’s go find him,’ Simone said. ‘And I want that demon’s head.’
‘Just no more yin without the Tiger around,’ I said.
‘Don’t worry, Emma, I don’t think I’ll ever do that again.’ Simone lowered her voice. ‘I nearly ruined everything.’
‘You just need some training in the control of it,’ Martin said. ‘The Blue Dragon should help you, he is the Lesser Yin.’
‘I’ve asked him a few times and he’s always too busy messing with his companies in Japan,’ Simone said, frustrated.
We went out of the lab and into the corridor. Two stone elemental demons were blocking the way, impassive and unmoving. Before Simone or I could do anything against them, Martin held the Silver Serpent vertically in front of him, point up. He concentrated, and his bright red demon hair rose to float around his head. The sword glowed white and began to sing; not the crystalline whine that I had produced with chi, but a purer and more brilliant sound, even more beautiful than Simone had produced when she filled the sword with shen energy. The sound was both deep and high at the same time, a perfect harmonious chord that made the air ripple around it. The ripples hit the demons and they shattered into gravel, falling onto the floor.
Martin lowered the sword. ‘It still resonates.’
‘Daddy should never have taken that off you,’ Simone said with wonder.
‘He had his reasons,’ Martin said. He concentrated for a moment. ‘Our friends are still keeping most of the guards busy. Let’s find that demon and our Lion.’
We continued down the corridor, and nothing stopped us. The bells still rang throughout the complex, and occasionally there were yells and the sounds of doors banging in the distance. The corridor was still all white, glistening ceramic on the walls, floor and ceiling. At the end of the corridor, there was a sharp turn left and a small atrium with a lift.
‘There’s no up, so we have to go down,’ Simone said, and pressed the button. She looked up at the ceiling. ‘No security cameras. You’re right, Martin, this guy is up himself. How many floors are there?’
‘Only two, it’s mostly a horizontal facility,’ Martin said. ‘Spread out.’
‘Why is that?’ I said. ‘All the buildings in Hong Kong and China are more vertical; why is this one more horizontal?’
‘Less digging,’ Martin said.
The lift doors opened and we went in. The numbers on the buttons were in English: G then B1. I pressed B1 with my serpent nose and the lift went down extremely slowly then the doors opened.
We moved into a corridor that looked completely different from the floor above. Instead of white ceramic, the walls and floor were all plain grey concrete. Five or six rusting galvanised-iron pipes ran along the corner of the ceiling from one end of the corridor to the other, with another few pipes along the corner of the floor. The floor was caked with sticky dirt, and the pipes were covered in a thick layer of dust. But the floor was only dirty in the corners; it was obviously often walked on.
Steel cabinets, each about a metre high and padlocked, with a thick layer of dust on the top, lined the left side of the corridor. Each cabinet door had a demon-proof seal, the complicated sigils painted by hand on the rectangular rice paper glued to the front.
Martin studied one of the seals. ‘This isn’t to hold demons,’ he said. ‘It is to hold Shen.’
Simone bent the bar of the padlock like plasticine and pulled it away so that she could open the door.
The cabinet was about fifteen centimetres deep and held two shelves with holes in them that looked like they were designed to hold wet umbrellas. The shelves, however, were empty. Simone closed the cabinet again, and we followed Martin down the hallway, moving as quietly as we could and listening for any sound.
At the end there was a T-intersection and we had a choice between going left or right. I flicked my tongue out, then quickly pointed left with my nose. ‘That way.’
‘Why?’ Simone said.
‘I can taste it. It went this way.’
Simone raised one hand and scraped her demon claw on the wall, leaving a slight mark. ‘Okay, let’s go.’
‘No need to do that, I can taste the way we came,’ I said.
Simone shrugged without replying.
This corridor had rooms on the left and right, each with a standard wooden door. Simone concentrated then shook her head. ‘My Inner Eye isn’t blocked down here. All these rooms are empty. They look like barracks.’
‘That’s probably what they are,’ Martin said.
We walked down the corridor, which seemed to run the length of the facility; the end wasn’t visible. I flicked my tongue out every so often, tasting the air, and then stopped. ‘Leo.’
‘Where?’ Simone said, and concentrated. ‘I can’t see him.’
I raised my snout and flicked my tongue again. I moved my head left and right, tasting the air. ‘Further along somewhere. It’s so faint that I can’t get a good fix on it.’
‘Is your sense of taste really that sensitive?’ Simone asked.
‘I think it is,’ I said. ‘I can taste the Generals, far away. Six is around here somewhere, hiding. I can definitely taste Leo somewhere …’ I moved my head from side to side. ‘Up ahead. Let’s go.’
We moved down the corridor, both Martin and Simone checking inside the rooms with their Inner Eyes. The taste of Leo strengthened and I quickened my pace. Leo was getting stronger, but Six wasn’t; the demon was travelling away from us as fast as we were approaching him.
‘Six is running,’ I said.
‘Leo is our first priority,’ Martin said. ‘Without his source of energy, Six will eventually die anyway.’
‘I’d still like to take that demon’s head after all it did to those stones,’ Simone said, her voice mild.
‘We can always track it down later. Emma has the scent.’
We neared the end of the corridor. An occasional vibration shook the ceiling; they were fighting above us. I quickened my pace again; Leo was very close ahead. His scent was coming from a large pair of double doors on the left, close to the end of the corridor, which turned right.
‘There he is, I see him — oh, there’s two,’ Simone said.
She threw the double doors open and we rushed in. The walls and floor were tiled with small square bathroom tiles, and the ceiling was bare concrete with a couple of unshaded neon tubes in the middle. There were two operating tables in the centre of the room, and both of them held bound Leos. Each Leo was completely identical and looked the same as when he’d been taken to be Judged eight years before. Both were lying on their stomachs, wearing pyjama pants and nothing else, their arms and legs bound to the edges of the table.
‘Don’t release them just yet,’ I said. ‘They may be more copies. Check their numbers.’
Martin and Simone went to each of the Leos and bent to see their wrists from underneath.
‘This is four,’ Simone said.
Leo Four came around. ‘Simone?’ he said, sounding groggy. ‘Is that you?’
‘Simone?’ the other Leo said.
‘This is number one,’ Martin said. ‘Should we destroy the four and take the one? Four is the one that attacked you.’
‘Why do you look like demons?’ Leo One said.
‘We’re sneaking in the back door, these are disguises,’ I said. ‘The serpent lady is Simone, the black demon is Martin, and I’m Emma.’
‘Kill me,’ Leo Four said. ‘I’m a copy.’
‘Kill both of us,’ Leo One said. ‘We’re both copies.’
‘Then where’s the real Leo?’ I said.
Neither replied.
‘Destroy Four, take One,’ Simone said.
‘We’re not sure!’ I said.
‘Destroy both of us, Emma,’ Leo Four said. ‘You can’t trust either of us. We’re both copies.’
‘That’s the best plan, guys,’ Leo One said. ‘Just kill us both. That would be the kindest thing to do to us; we’re demon copies anyway.’
‘How do you know that?’ I said.
Leo One gestured with his head as best he could towards Leo Four. ‘He told me what happened. You found him in a nest and took him home, and when Six turned up, he found he had to obey Six. He’s been beating himself up about it since, and asking Six to let him die.’
‘We don’t have time to mess around with this,’ I said. ‘Free them and take them with us. We’ll work out what to do with them later.’
‘Just take them to the Celestial,’ Martin said. ‘If they are demons, they will be destroyed.’
‘And if they both die?’ I said.
‘Then there’s an original around here somewhere,’ Simone said, ‘and we’re going to find him.’
‘Does Six have any other nests apart from this one?’ I asked Martin.
‘Not any more,’ Martin said. ‘You drove him out of his other two nests.’
‘And we’ve kept an eye on them and they’ve stayed vacant,’ I said. ‘Good. Any other Leos have to be somewhere in here. Let’s go.’
Martin and Simone freed the Leos and helped them off the tables. Both of them were slightly unsteady on their feet.
‘What is this one doing with you, Emma?’ Leo One said, gesturing towards Martin. ‘He betrayed you. I remember that much.’
‘He’s trying to make good,’ I said.
‘I hope you don’t trust him,’ Leo Four said.
‘No more than I trust you,’ I said. ‘I’m ready to destroy either of you the second you attempt anything.’
‘Good,’ both Leos said in unison.
‘This is very freaky,’ Simone said.
We went out of the room and back into the corridor that seemed to run the length of the facility. Doors opened on the right side but not the left, where there were more of the narrow cabinets against the wall. I lifted my snout and tasted the air. ‘Something’s dead around here.’
We went to the first set of doors on the right; the smell of death was coming from this room. ‘In here,’ I said.
There was a large stainless-steel vat in the centre of the room, much like a commercial-sized mixing or cooking vat, at least a metre tall and around. There were shelves all around the edge of the room, which was about four metres by three. The smell of death was almost overpowering, but it was tempered by the scent of something, like talcum powder.
Simone went to one of the shelves and studied its contents. ‘Stones,’ she said.
I moved to stand next to her. ‘These are what’s dead,’ I said. ‘They were once alive. I think they’re stone Shen.’
‘These are the missing stone Shen,’ the stone in my ring said quietly. ‘This is where he made the essence to line the walls and the stone tools he used. They’re all dead.’ Its voice went hoarse with grief. ‘They’re all dead!’
I raised my head to see. There were at least two hundred stones, of all sizes and colours, on the shelves, and all dead. The mixing vat was full of what appeared to be white clay-like mud; the ceramic lining before it was baked and placed on the walls.
‘They weren’t using stone demons to make lining,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘They were using adult stone Shen.
‘We have to take them with us, to return them to the Grandmother. We can’t leave them here.’
‘Look around for something to put them in,’ Simone said.
Martin raised a bucket that had been sitting next to the vat. It was a typical cheap red plastic bucket used by many householders in China to hold trash. ‘This will do.’
‘This is most unfitting,’ the stone grumbled as Martin, Simone and the two Leos went around the shelves and carefully placed the dead stones in the bucket. I didn’t help, and nobody questioned me. They probably knew that I didn’t want the taste of dead things in my serpent mouth.
‘This building is kinda square, with a corridor all around the edge,’ Simone said as she put the last of the stones in the bucket. ‘I can see about twenty metres, and all the rooms are empty. The kiln’s two doors down.’
‘Let’s check everywhere else then,’ I said. ‘But Six’s scent has gone, he may have taken off already.’
Martin placed the lid on the bucket and we went back out of the room. We turned right and followed the corridor; there were still cabinets all along one side.
‘These cabinets are everywhere. What were they for?’ I said.
‘I think they held the stones,’ Simone said. ‘Kind of like little jail cells for them.’
‘And the seals held them in,’ I said, understanding.
‘But the cabinets are empty now. All the stones are dead,’ Martin said.
‘If you don’t mind, Emma, I would very much like for us to track this demon down later and rip its throat out,’ the stone in my ring said.
Martin and Simone stopped and both turned their unseeing heads to the right.
‘The kiln room,’ Simone said.
‘That’s where your students were,’ Martin said.
I tasted the air; it tasted of death and ash. We moved down the corridor and opened the door on the right. The room contained a large kiln of the type used for firing pottery, and a plastic storage bin stained black from holding ash.
‘That bin contained the remains of your students,’ Martin said. ‘They baked them and combined them with the stone Shen to make the ceramic lining.’
‘That’s what happened to the students that were replaced by the demon copies,’ Simon said. She wiped her eyes. ‘This demon needs to die.’
Heads up, I’m the only one left, General Ma said into our heads. There are about three big demons remaining, and I only have one working arm and internal injuries that will kill me in the next five minutes or so. I may lose consciousness and die soon, so I suggest you hurry it up and get out of here.
‘Let’s move,’ I said. ‘Sweep the corridor. Look with your Inner Eyes — above and this level. Let’s see if there’s anything left.’
We moved quickly down the corridor. Simone and Martin swept their heads from side to side, their eyes wide and unfocused. At the end of the corridor we turned right again, and walked as fast as we could down it. We reached the middle, which led to the lift lobby, and passed it.
‘Ma is down,’ Martin said.
‘Still nothing in any of the rooms,’ Simone said. ‘The demons are above us, they’ll be coming down in the lift any minute.’
We turned right again: final corridor. When we reached the middle, another corridor branched to the right and three big humanoid demons charged down it towards us. Simone raised her hand and Dark Heavens appeared in it. Martin did the same with the Silver Serpent. I raised my head and opened my mouth, swinging my fangs out.
The demons were standard humanoids, about two-and-a-half metres tall and black with scales and tusks. They carried a sword in each hand, and at level seventy-five were a formidable challenge.
‘Leo stay back,’ I said. ‘Guard the rear. These are too big for you.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ both Leos said in unison.
Martin took the one in the centre. He filled the Silver Serpent with shen energy, making it sing, and swung it at the demon’s head. It blocked with both of its swords, swung Martin’s blade down, and attempted to take his head. Martin made a few fast attacks that unbalanced it slightly, making it give ground and move back along the corridor.
I raised my head to strike, watching the location and direction of the swords carefully. As the demon swept both swords left — obviously its strong side — I evaded them, went through underneath, opened my mouth as wide as I could and buried my fangs in its abdomen. I injected it with poison, then quickly released it and pulled back out of the way of the reverse swing of the swords.
The poison seemed to have no effect on the demon. I checked Simone — my eyes were on the sides of my serpent head — and she was battling her demon with no difficulty, just waiting for it to open its guard and allow her to finish it.
My demon swung at my head. I dodged under its guard, swung my head up with my mouth open and gripped its wrist. Before it had a chance to take my head with its left hand, I bit its right hand off and snapped back out of reach again.
This was enough. The demon essence spiralled out of the injury in its hand, destroying it. I siphoned the essence into me; again it turned into something bright, dark and powerful.
Martin’s demon struck him in the side, its blade cutting through his armour and burying itself at least fifteen centimetres into his abdomen and lodging there. The demon lifted the other sword to take his head, but he blocked it with his own. They were deadlocked. The demon tried to finish Martin with the second sword as it attempted to free the first, but he was fast enough to block every blow.
Simone finally found an opening in her own demon and sliced it through from shoulder to hip, tearing it open to release its demon essence. It spread out into feathery black streamers, sticking to Simone where they hit her and dissipating into the air where they didn’t. She raised Dark Heavens and threw it like a spear at the remaining demon’s head. The sword travelled straight through it and destroyed the demon, which exploded all over Martin.
Martin fell and the bucket holding the stones toppled, scattering them everywhere. He held his side where the demon’s sword was still lodged in it; it was a Japanese-style wakizashi dagger, at least forty centimetres long. He gripped the handle and winced with pain, then gasped as he yanked it from his side and threw it sideways. He fell back clutching his side, which was now dark with blood.
‘Rinse him off, then I’ll heal him,’ I said. ‘I don’t want any venom inside him when I seal the wound.’
Simone concentrated and a small cloud, dark with moisture, appeared above Martin. A tiny deluge fell from it, warm and salty, and Martin gasped again as it hit him. He raised himself so that his side was flooded with the water, his face stiff with pain.
Simone moved behind him to hold him up. ‘Sorry, Ge Ge, I can only do salt water.’
‘Salt is better for me,’ Martin said, his voice hoarse with effort. He focused with difficulty on me. ‘You can heal it?’
‘I can try,’ I said. I waited for Simone’s rain shower to finish rinsing him clean, then touched my serpent snout to him. ‘Lower him gently,’ I said.
Simone returned him to the floor, then looked behind her. ‘Leo, can you collect the stones back up, please?’
‘We already are,’ one of the Leos said behind me.
I concentrated on Martin. I didn’t even try to touch him with my tongue; the taste of a Shen would definitely push me over the edge. I knew that this was the demon inside me, not the serpent; the snake liked the taste of blood, but didn’t have this raw, gnawing addiction to it that my demon side had.
We need to clear —
We need to clear this essence out of me, I know, I said before the stone had finished. John said I was to visit the Three Pure Ones. I hope they can help.
Anything’s better than going to the Demon King, and don’t pretend you haven’t thought about it, the stone said. Can you heal him?
I can give it a damn good try.
‘Can you heal him?’ Simone said.
‘If you can’t heal me, just leave me here,’ Martin said.
‘If we leave you here, there’s no way for us to get out,’ I said. ‘Simone can’t carry all of us.’
‘Simone can touch you while you’re a snake,’ Martin said. ‘She can carry you out. Leave us and go.’
‘Not an option,’ Simone said. ‘Can you do it?’
‘Will everybody stop asking me if I can do it and let me see if I can?’ I said irritably, and they went quiet. The only sound was the stones hitting the bottom of the bucket as the Leos collected them.
I moved my consciousness through Martin. His only injury was the slash in his side; the demon had caught him with a lucky blow.
‘I thought you could take down just about anything if you had a weapon,’ I said.
‘I’m out of practice,’ Martin said. ‘I haven’t had to fight a demon in eight years.’
‘You can still do the katas,’ I said.
‘Wasn’t allowed to,’ he said, and flinched as I touched the wound with my nose. ‘Just go and let me die here. It’s all the same.’
I checked the depth of the wound; it had clipped his large bowel — ugly. Bacteria from his bowel would contaminate his abdominal cavity and cause infection. He needed hospital care, where they could cleanse the wound and fill him full of antibiotics — both inside the wound and through his bloodstream. If I closed it up with that amount of bacteria in him, he would die within a week without hospital care, Shen or not.
I raised my head. ‘I can fix the wound now, but he will need to go to hospital later. The wound is contaminated and needs antibiotics.’
‘Close it up, and I’ll take you out,’ Martin said. ‘Then we can either let me die or take me to a hospital. Your choice.’
I touched my nose to him again and healed the bowel wound, then closed up the exterior slash, knitting the muscles as best I could. I didn’t need to do a thorough job as it would have to be opened again and cleansed.
‘It needs binding,’ I said. ‘The join is weak and may split open again.’
Simone used Dark Heavens to tear away part of the bottom of her flowing demon robes and wrapped the fabric around Martin’s abdomen to cover the wound. He watched, impressed, as she worked with precision and competence.
‘Nice job,’ he said.
‘I did first aid as part of an adventuring award program they have in Australia,’ Simone said. ‘I want to do it all the way up to the gold award — it’s a great learning experience. I hope my new school has it.’
Martin leaned on her and she helped him to his feet.
We exited the room and turned right again.
‘Is there any more ground we need to cover to find another Leo?’ I said.
Simone nodded. ‘We have about another fifty or so metres of corridor to check.’
‘Can you make it that far, Martin?’ I said.
Martin nodded, but his face was fierce with pain. ‘I’ll make it.’
‘Let us carry him,’ one of the Leos said. ‘He can go between us.’
‘Good idea,’ Simone said, and passed Martin to the Leos, who stood one on either side of him with his arms over their shoulders.
About halfway down the corridor Simone stopped. ‘There’s something on the right here.’
‘Anything we’ll need to fight?’ I said.
‘No, nothing alive. It just feels … strange.’
I pushed the double doors open with my nose and went in. There was another rack of shelves in this room, again covered with dead stone Shen but these ones didn’t smell dead. They flew up off the shelves and grew to take the form of fake stone elementals; so many of them that they completely filled the room, forcing us back out the doors and into the corridor.
‘There are at least fifty of them, and more growing!’ Simone said. ‘We need to get out of here — I can’t destroy that many!’
‘Come to me,’ Martin said, and put his hand out from where the Leos were holding him. ‘Touch me. I’ll take us out.’
‘Go with him,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘Get out of here!’
Simone raised her hand and touched Martin’s; I touched his hand with my snout. There was a flash of light, a feeling of disorientation, then we were on a grassy lawn next to a wide lake. It was night; the stars above blazed brighter than any I’d seen before. To our left, further along the shore of the lake, were the lights of a city, golden and welcoming. A fresh breeze full of the scent of the water and the mown grass blew from the lake, but it was chillingly cold.
One of the Leos stiffened as if he’d been struck, then exploded into a mass of black feathery streamers, disappearing quickly. The other Leo gently lowered Martin to sit on the grass, holding him so that he could see around him.
Simone changed back to her normal human form and put her hands on her hips. ‘You stupid asshole! You could have killed Emma!’
‘How?’ Martin said. ‘It’s just the Celestial Plane. It can’t hurt her.’
‘Because of the demon essence in her, travel to the Celestial Plane in human form will destroy her,’ Simone said, furious.
Martin nodded to Simone. ‘My apologies. I didn’t know. But she seems to be all right.’
‘We’re on the Celestial Plane? Where?’ Leo said.
‘We’re in the Northern Heavens,’ Simone said. ‘That’s why the other Leo died; he wasn’t the real one, he was a demon copy. Obviously you’re the real …’ She hesitated, then threw herself onto the grass to hold him. ‘You’re the real Leo!’
‘I’m not, sweetheart,’ Leo said sadly. ‘I’m Leo Four.’
Simone pulled back to see him, confused. ‘You’re the one that attacked Emma?’
Leo nodded.
‘The demon must have been controlling you, same as when you attacked us at the school concert,’ Simone said.
Leo’s face cleared and he grinned. ‘I remember that. You wore a tiger mask and said a little poem in Putonghua.’
‘Check to see if there are any stones planted on you,’ I said. ‘When you attacked us after the concert, a stone was put in your pocket to make you obey.’
Leo rose and felt his pyjama pants. ‘No pockets here.’ He grimaced. ‘They may have … it could be …’ He shrugged. ‘If there’s one on me, we have to take it out.’
‘We’ll have someone check when we get home,’ I said.
‘What?’ Simone said. ‘You think they shoved a stone up your ass?’
‘He was on his stomach on the table,’ I said.
Leo stared at Simone for a moment, then said, ‘You are growing up way too fast, missy.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment,’ Simone said. She knelt and took Martin’s hand. ‘We can take you to the hospital here, Ge Ge. The physicians will treat you; there’s no need for you to make another journey through Hell.’
‘I just need to take True Form and rest in the lake for a while,’ Martin said. ‘But I am not sure that I am welcome here.’
‘I am Regent, Simone is Princess,’ I said. ‘We say you are welcome. You are.’
We heard a splash from the lake and turned. The turtle that we had found in Sai Kung had pulled itself out and was making its way laboriously to us.
‘By the Heavens, Jie Jie,’ Martin said with wonder. ‘What are you doing here?’
The turtle crawled up to Martin and rested its head on his knee.
‘This is your sister?’ Simone said.
‘This is our big sister,’ Martin said. ‘I am Ming Gui, the Bright Turtle. This is Yue Gui, the Moon Turtle.’
‘A demon gave her to us,’ I said. ‘She can’t speak.’
Yue Gui nudged Martin with her nose.
‘I wonder what has happened to you,’ Martin said. He put his hand on her head. ‘She cannot speak at all, not even mind to mind. I have never seen anything like this before.’
The turtle raised its head from his knee, turned away, and crawled back down to the lake. It hesitated for a moment, looking at the moon, then slid into the water and disappeared.
‘I will take True Form and join her,’ Martin said. ‘She may be able to talk to me that way.’ He moved to rise, then grunted and clutched his side.
‘Good idea,’ Simone said. ‘Meet us at the city later.’
Martin nodded. Leo and Simone helped him to the edge of the water. He took a couple of steps into the lake, then raised his head and concentrated. He shrank and changed into a green sea turtle. He turned his head back to see us. I will return to the city in an hour. I will see you there.
Simone waved to him. He turned away and slipped further into the water, disappearing beneath it.
‘My family keeps growing all the time,’ Simone said. ‘Now I have a sister too. I wonder how many other children Daddy had.’
‘He was going to tell me but I asked him not to,’ I said.
‘I don’t blame you,’ Leo said.
Simone gestured towards the city. ‘You guys up to walking? I can’t summon a cloud.’
‘I’m going to crash badly when we get there,’ I said. ‘I think we’ve been going for nearly twenty-four hours straight.’
‘You’d better go back home before you do that, Emma,’ Simone said. ‘If you change back to human form while you’re asleep, you could be destroyed.’
‘Good point,’ I said. I lowered my serpent head. ‘I’m buggered. I hope we can find someone to take me home. I just want to sleep.’
Leo choked with laughter and I rounded on him. ‘It means something else in Australia!’
‘I know, you told me when we were there,’ Leo said.
I slithered away to follow Simone around the edge of the lake towards the city. ‘You are the real Leo. Only you would remember that.’ I turned my head to see him. ‘But some stuff you don’t remember. What did they do to you?’
‘I don’t know,’ Leo said.
‘Is your ass sore?’
‘Not even in a good way.’
Simone put her hands over her ears. ‘La, la, la, la, I can’t hear you.’
I nudged Leo with my serpent head. ‘It’s good to have you back, my friend.’
‘You still can’t trust me, ladies,’ Leo said grimly. ‘You should lock me up until you’re sure you can.’
‘Simone is one of the most powerful …’ I hesitated, searching for the word.
‘Creatures,’ Simone said. ‘I’m one of the most powerful creatures on the Celestial Plane. Don’t worry about hurting me, Leo, you would never even get close to me.’
‘You’re still my little girl,’ Leo said.
Simone went to him and put her arm around his waist. He put his arm over her shoulder and they walked together. ‘I’m glad,’ Simone said. ‘Leo, you’re shivering like crazy, you must be freezing!’ She raised one hand and conjured a big padded parka, like those worn by Hong Kong people when there was even the slightest chill in the air. ‘Here, put this on.’
Leo shrugged the jacket on and nodded. ‘Thanks, sweetheart.’
‘He’s barefoot too, Simone,’ I said from behind them. ‘He could probably do with a pair of ugg boots as well.’
Simone conjured a pair of big white sheepskin boots and passed them to him. He quickly pulled them on. ‘That’s way better.’
Simone looked back to see me. ‘You okay, Emma? You’re slowing down.’
‘It’s hard to move,’ I said. ‘It’s like something’s draining my energy.’
‘Is it the Celestial Plane?’ she said, concerned. ‘Is it hurting you?’
‘I think it’s the cold,’ I said. ‘I’m cold-blooded. Reptiles get really sluggish if they get too cold.’ I stopped and dropped my head on the grass. ‘I just want to sleep.’
‘Emma, make yourself smaller,’ Simone said. She came to me and lifted my serpent head in both hands. ‘Make yourself smaller. I can carry you and warm you up.’
No way could I make myself smaller, just the effort of talking was more than I could manage. ‘Too … hard …’ I said. ‘Just … sleep …’
Emma, the stone said, I know you’re coming around. It is most vital that you don’t take human form. Stay a snake.
Huh?
Stay a snake, Emma, don’t change.
‘She’s coming around,’ the stone said out loud.
It was a very strange feeling waking up with no eyelids. My vision was blurry, but the thing I felt the most was the warmth. Delicious spreading warmth, all over my back, filtering through to my belly. My tail wasn’t under the warmth and I moved it. Somehow I spread myself wider to catch every single ray of the wonderful warmth. I flicked my tongue and tasted the air. Simone was there; Leo was there, and Gold and his baby were there too. I raised my head; my vision was still unclear and my head fuzzy, but the warmth didn’t shift.
‘Mind out, Emma, you’ll touch the ray lamp with your head,’ Simone said.
‘Warrrmmm,’ I said.
‘You have no idea how much she is enjoying this,’ the stone said.
I dropped my head again. ‘Blissssss.’
Gold’s baby floated to settle in front of my snout. ‘Thanks for helping to get me out, Aunty Emma.’
I flicked my tongue and touched it. It tasted of gold and talcum powder. ‘You are welcome,’ I said.
It flew up out of reach. ‘Ew, she licked me!’
I chuckled in my throat and turned my head to see everybody. ‘How long have I been out?’
‘Twelve hours,’ Simone said. ‘It’s 2 pm. The stone told us you were waking up.’
‘Is Martin all right?’
‘Martin is fine. He’s downstairs eating.’
‘Did his sister talk to him?’
‘No. She’s still in the lake, not talking.’
‘Did we find Six?’
Simone hesitated, then, ‘No. But we will find it.’
‘It’s probably gone to ground with one of its little friends,’ I said. ‘The other demons in that posse.’
‘We’ll find them,’ Simone said.
‘We need to head home,’ I said. ‘I have a diary full of appointments. Is the Sang Shen trial today or tomorrow? I want to be present for that. And you have an interview with the Chinese International School on Thursday.’
‘Whoa, slow down, Emma,’ Leo said. ‘How about you take a break? You’ve just been to Hell and back — literally.’
I raised my head carefully; as Simone had said, there was a ray lamp above me, providing the warmth. ‘I feel fine. You okay, Simone?’
‘Don’t you even want to see the Northern Heavens, Emma?’ Simone said. ‘As far as I know, you’ve never been here.’
‘When’s the trial?’ I said.
‘In an hour, 3 pm,’ the stone said.
‘How long to take me home?’
‘About that long.’
I slithered off the bed onto the floor. ‘Let’s go.’
‘Umm, Emma,’ Simone said. ‘The trial’s here.’
That stopped me. ‘No way.’
‘Sang Shen is a resident of the Northern Heavens. He’s under this jurisdiction. It’s here,’ Gold said.
‘Oh damn,’ I said, and dropped my head.
‘The evidence is cut and dried, Emma,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘You don’t need to attend.’
‘That’s why I do!’ I said. ‘If I don’t go and testify on his behalf, they’ll execute him.’
‘But he’s already dying,’ the stone said.
‘Asshole,’ I said.
‘It’s the truth, my Lady,’ the stone said.
‘Do not give me that bullshit now,’ I said. I slithered backwards and forwards on the floor of the elegantly decorated traditional bedroom with its rosewood four-poster bed and side tables inlaid with mother-of-pearl peonies. ‘I can save his life.’
Simone raised one hand palm-up towards me. ‘Emma, you can’t testify. You can’t take human form here; it will kill you. If you go to the trial, you have to go as a snake, and you have to identify yourself as Emma Donahoe. All of Heaven will find out that you’re a snake. You can’t do it.’
I slithered out of the bedroom. The house was a traditional two-storey Chinese courtyard style. Outside the bedroom was a balcony that ran along the entire interior perimeter of the house, looking down into the courtyard, which was paved with cobblestones and had a small tree with a well beside it. I turned left and slithered along the balcony to the stairs in the corner, raised my head to grasp the balustrade, and slithered down the handrail to the floor below. The courtyard had doors opening onto the living room on the right and the kitchen on the left, with a dining room visible on the back wall.
I went into the dining room with the rest of the group following me. Martin was sitting at the round twelve-seater rosewood dining table eating a Japanese-sized bowl of noodles — easily twenty centimetres across. He saw me, placed his chopsticks on the table, rose, saluted me, then sat and waited for me to speak.
‘Can you hide my serpent nature?’ I asked. ‘I want to attend Sang Shen’s court case.’
‘Yes,’ Martin said. He picked up his chopsticks and stirred the noodles. ‘But it would be against the law, so the answer is also no.’
‘Can you attend in my place, stone? You were there,’ I said.
‘If I wasn’t a possession, I could. But I was given to you as a gift, so I cannot testify on your behalf,’ the stone said.
I went out to the courtyard, slithered up the trunk of the tree, and rested in one of the branches, needing a place to think. It was still night and the cold began to sink back into my bones. ‘Wait, it’s dark … Didn’t you say it was 2 pm right now?’
‘The Northern Heavens are dying,’ Martin said from his seat in the dining room. ‘Most of the time it is dark. Only when a dragon or a Celestial comes to top up the energy do they have something approaching daylight, and even then it is like dusk, not day.’
I rested my chin on the branch. ‘No wonder the trees are dying.’
‘Sang Shen is also dying,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘Do not open yourself to political homicide by revealing your serpent nature, Emma. It would be futile in the end to try to save his life. He has no life to save.’
‘I’ll come and back you up, Emma,’ Simone said.
‘Thanks, Simone.’
‘You don’t know she’ll do it,’ the stone said.
‘I know my Emma,’ Simone said. ‘And she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she let this tree be executed. As long as he has a chance, she’ll fight for it.’
I slithered down the trunk of the tree. ‘Simone is quite correct. Let’s go.’ I raised my snout. ‘You guys want to come? There may be some backlash; I’d understand if you didn’t want to.’
‘If you don’t mind, ma’am,’ Gold said, ‘I’d like to stay here with my child and make sure it’s safe.’
‘I’ll stay here. Gold can keep an eye on me,’ Leo said. ‘Don’t trust me enough to take me around with you.’
‘I understand,’ I said. I lifted my head towards the dining room. ‘You coming, Martin?’
Martin slurped the last of his noodles, grabbed a tissue out of the large box in the centre of the table and wiped his mouth. He took a sip of some black tea in a glass sitting next to his bowl. ‘Of course.’
I looked around; the house was white concrete, with a flat roof above the second storey holding a roof garden of potted plants — azaleas and bonsai trees. ‘Whose house is this?’
‘One of ours,’ Simone said. ‘Apparently it’s a guest villa, and Gold and Jade stay here when they’re in the Heavens.’
‘As you’ve never been able to travel here, the occupation of this house has been a null point,’ Gold said. ‘Now that you are here, I will move out if you require.’
‘It’s being put to good use. Why would we change it?’ I said. ‘How far is it to the Court?’
‘About five kilometres,’ Martin said. ‘One of the demons will drive us.’
‘They have cars in Heaven too?’ I said in disbelief.
‘Of course we do. How else are we supposed to get around?’ Martin said. ‘Horse and cart?’
‘Up until ten years ago this house did have a horse and buggy as its main form of transportation,’ Gold said. ‘The Dark Lord only bought the car recently.’
‘He always was behind the times,’ Martin said. He gestured towards the front door. Just inside it there was a large rosewood screen carved with turtles and snakes, blocking a view of the street. I stopped when I saw it.
‘That’s a demon barrier. That’s a concern here?’
‘No, of course not,’ Martin said. ‘But fung shui principles must be followed even in Heaven, and a barrier such as this will stop evil from entering the house.’
‘There’s evil in Heaven?’
‘We’re going to a trial for someone who attempted murder,’ Martin said. ‘So I think the answer is: yes.’