Heaven to Wudang (3 page)

Ben took a deep breath and smiled. ‘I feel more at ease than I have ever felt anywhere.'

Vincent was smiling too, his face streaked with tears. ‘I feel like I've come home. I always felt there was a place for me somewhere that would be bright and wonderful and where I would be welcome.' He fell to one knee and saluted me. ‘Thanks to you, I have found that place. If I were to die right now, I would die a happy man.'

I nodded to him as he rose, and wondered if the place that was my home would be possible to find, and if I would have to lose this place to gain it.

‘That's astonishing. How do they do that?' Tom said. He was watching the Disciples working on the forecourt.

They were performing a level five staff set, the most advanced staff kata on Wudang. They had placed their staves upright, climbed up them, and were standing on the tips of the vertical staves with one foot, their hands clasped in front of them. They swapped from foot to
foot without the staff falling, then switched to one hand, doing a handstand on the end of the staff.

‘Are there holes in the stone for the staves to sit in?' Ben said.

‘No,' I said, ‘it's a matter of balance and energy control.'

‘Could I learn that?' Vincent said.

‘If we don't have you doing that within a year I'll hand in my gold sash,' I said.

‘I heard that!' Leo said. ‘It's a bet!'

I strode to Leo, held my hand out and we slapped palms. I bent to whisper in his ear. ‘You're supposed to be celibate at the moment, so no sexing him up to ruin his energy manipulation.'

‘I'm with Martin right now so I wouldn't do it anyway,' he whispered back.

I straightened and studied him. ‘It's that serious?'

‘No,' he said, meeting my gaze. ‘I am.'

My mobile rang in my bag and I pulled it out. It was Ronnie Wong.

‘I hear you just found something very interesting, ma'am. I was wondering if you'd let this worthless small demon examine it? Is it really a male Mother?'

‘East-West hybrid,' I said. ‘Hold on a minute.' I turned to Ben and Tom. ‘I have a gentleman who is an expert on demonkind who would like to have a look at you. Do you mind?'

Ben and Tom shared a look, and Tom nodded.

‘We trust you,' Ben said. ‘Do what you have to.'

I returned to the phone. ‘Are you big enough to come up here unescorted?'

‘That I am, ma'am.'

‘Call me again when you reach the main gate.'

‘Ho ak.'

‘He's been in Hong Kong too long,' I said as I snapped the phone shut. ‘Ho ak indeed.'

‘Better than Hell,' Simone said.

‘Vincent, do you know Ronnie Wong?' I said.

‘No,' Vincent said.

‘Ben? Tom? Do you know a gentleman by the name of Ronnie Wong? He runs a really small crappy fung shui shop full of paper effigies and Hell money out in Western District.'

Both of them shook their heads.

I looked down at the phone. ‘Then how the hell did he know that we just found you?'

‘Ask him when he gets here,' Simone said. ‘Let's go to the admin area and sort out what we'll do with this lot.'

We walked along the path from the three main halls on the largest peak, heading east to the support areas. The buildings here were close together, mostly low, brick and single storey, except for the Imperial Residence — a two-storey courtyard house standing alone, flush against the stone side of the mountain — and the Armoury, which was one floor but had an exceptionally tall roof. We crossed a twenty-metre-long marble bridge, a perfect semicircle over the deep chasm between the peaks, to the administrative area: a cluster of small buildings housing offices and meeting rooms around a central larger hall — the War Room.

We went into my office and sat at the small conference table, and Yi Hao ran off to find the allocations for quarters in the residential area.

‘If this is Chinese Heaven, then what about Western Heaven?' Ben said. ‘Have you been there?'

‘The Eastern Shen — the gods from here — have made intelligence-gathering trips to the West and encountered demons, but haven't met any Western Shen,' I said. ‘Xuan Wu — the most powerful guy, the boss of Wudang — actually has a house in Kensington and spent years in London, and never met a single Western Shen.'

‘It's possible they may have been avoiding him because he has a very dark nature,' Simone said. ‘Xuan means dark, and he sort of changed sides and joined the Celestial.'

‘But other Shen have been over there too, and tried to visit Western Heaven, and found nothing,' I said. ‘It's like it's only demons over there, no Shen at all.'

‘Not many of the Asian Shen have shown much interest, though,' Simone said with resignation. ‘There's still the “Middle Kingdom” mentality. China is the central ninety per cent of the world and nothing else really matters.'

‘Middle Kingdom?' Ben said.

‘The Chinese characters for China are “Middle Kingdom”, Dad,' Tom said.

‘Oh.'

My phone rang and I answered it.

‘Emma, this is Gold. We need an advanced energy worker over at the infirmary — Amy's in labour.'

‘Where's Meredith?'

‘Here, but we need you too. We have to deliver by caesar; she can't deliver normally and hold her shape. If she changes to dragon, she'll kill them.'

I snapped the phone shut, rose and bowed slightly. ‘One of our dragons is about to give birth to human children and I'm needed to make sure that she stays in human form. If you'll excuse me, I'll be back later.'

‘I'll take care of this,' Leo said.

‘Thanks,' I said, and hurried out.

‘Did she just say what I think she said?' I heard Ben say with disbelief behind me.

‘I'm going to be an auntie!' Simone said.

G
old held Amy's hand and smiled down at her while the staff gave the newborns their first bath. Amy smiled back at him, then around at everybody else.

‘Do you have names for them?' Meredith said.

‘Richard after Amy's father, and Jade after mine,' Gold said.

‘How's the urge to change?' Meredith said.

Amy didn't reply, and Meredith nodded.

‘We're nearly done here,' Edwin, the Academy doctor, said. ‘You'll be able to change to dragon very shortly.'

‘Will the wound still be there when I change back from dragon to human?' Amy said.

Edwin nodded. ‘This much trauma and blood loss will lower your transformation ability.'

‘You could always stay dragon and bottle-feed them,' Gold said.

Amy shook her head. ‘I want to give them as much of a boost as I can. My human milk is the best for them. And if I cuddle them as dragon I won't be nearly as soft.'

‘Can you give me an estimate on when I can release the meridians?' I said.

Edwin raised his hand and the forceps holding the suture appeared over the edge of the screen. ‘I'm on the final layer, ma'am, less than three minutes.'

‘You okay, Emma?' Meredith said.

‘I can manage.'

‘Do you want me to administer an analgesic so you can release the meridians?' Edwin said.

‘No,' I said. ‘If I pin down these meridians before I withdraw, the pain relief will last a good six hours, and I can come back then and top it up.'

‘Don't hurt yourself, ma'am,' Amy said.

‘Don't you “ma'am” me,' I said. ‘Do you have any idea at all how good it feels to be able to contribute like this? With clean, pure, healing energy?'

‘I can only imagine,' Amy said, then gasped and grimaced.

‘Sorry,' I said, and returned my concentration to the meridians. I'd let one of them slip and she'd felt it.

‘It wasn't anything, just a twinge,' she said. She turned her head to see Gold again. ‘Did you manage to contact my father?'

‘I told both your parents, and your father is bringing your mother up here to see them,' Gold said.

‘My father and mother together? That's unbelievable,' Amy said.

‘I think your mother's making a special effort because she wants to see her grandchildren,' Gold said. ‘I spoke to her before him … You should have warned me she was so … so …'

‘Did she go ballistic at you?'

‘I think she'll rip my throat out if we don't get married within the next two weeks,' he said.

‘But she doesn't know what we are, and that dragons and stones don't do that sort of thing.'

‘Actually she does. She knew all along your father was a dragon. He told her I'm a stone, and that stones don't marry, and apparently it's made her even more determined to see it happen.'

‘I'm done,' Edwin said.

Meredith took my hand and our consciousnesses touched; she still had Amy held down hard into human form. She studied the meridians alongside me and indicated the top point on the core meridian. ‘Start here.'

‘Don't let her intimidate you. We don't have to do it if it doesn't feel right,' Amy said.

I concentrated, and with Meredith's assistance pinned the energy into the meridians so that they stayed lit. I released them one at a time, moving slowly down the core to the area where they'd opened Amy up. Her body was shrieking with distress at what had been done to it, and I spread the energy from the meridians to soothe its panic and ease the nervous reactions. The energy flowed through the area, giving it a healing boost, and I carefully withdrew completely.

‘It's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while anyway,' Gold said. ‘Will you marry me, Amy?'

Amy shivered and her teeth rattled; a normal feeling of extreme cold that came when an energy worker withdrew after a major energy healing.

‘Are you in any pain?' Meredith said.

Amy shook her head, her teeth stopping her from speaking.

‘Is that a no?' Gold said.

Amy shook her head again, still unable to talk.

‘I'm going to release you now, you can change back,' Meredith said.

Amy transformed into dragon, raised her head, then dropped it again with a huge sigh and closed her eyes.

‘Natural sleep, no pain, leave her to recover,' Meredith said. ‘In a couple of hours wake her up and see if she can change back to human.' She turned to me. ‘Magnificent job, madam. You can take it easy now.'

I stood up and toppled sideways.

Meredith caught me. ‘Oh, and congratulations, Master Gold. I think you just got engaged.'

‘My father will kill me,' Gold said, his hand on Amy's back.

‘Who is scarier: your father or her mother?' Meredith said.

‘Oh, definitely her mother.'

‘Then you made the right decision.' She hefted me in her arms. ‘Come on, missy, you've been overdoing it lately and need some serious rest.'

 

I woke, and had a moment of confusion as I saw the ceiling above the bed. Where was I? I looked left and nearly panicked: I was on the Celestial Plane, in the Imperial Residence of Wudang Mountain. Then I remembered that I didn't need to be a snake, and I settled further under the silk. I was here. I had made it. But something was wrong; something bad had happened. Something terrible had happened and I couldn't remember what it was; only the dark feelings of misery and despair that it brought me.

I sighed deeply and remembered.

Nothing bad had happened. I was feeling the grief for something that was yet to come. I often woke like this, feeling the loss. Something awful was going to happen to us in the near future and I had no idea what it was, only that it hung over all of Wudang.

I centred my chi and put the feeling aside. I was living in the present, enjoying the peace of now, and ready for the future when it crashed over us.

The four-poster was made of ebony, black with the deep sheen of many years of care. The dark grey curtains were embroidered with silver depictions of turtles and bats — symbols of longevity and good luck. The bed was flush against the wall, with a raised twenty-centimetre barrier around three sides to hold the covers in place, the fourth side left open. The room around me was five metres to a side, the walls hung
with elegant ink paintings of sea creatures. A black sofa and coffee table in front of the open fireplace gave it a warm, comfortable atmosphere. I slapped the mattress next to me. They'd put me in the Emperor's suite again, against my express orders. I'd commandeered a room in the servants' quarters attached to the Imperial Residence and they should have put me in there.

I rotated to put my feet on the silk rug, pushed them into the slippers sitting next to the bed, and wandered into the en suite bathroom. Fortunately Michelle had demanded modern Western fittings when John had built the bathroom for her, so there wasn't a squat toilet. However, there'd been a compromise about the decor and the entire bathroom was tiled with black marble, giving it a dated eighties look. I didn't care, I just used it and wandered back out again.

‘You awake?' I said.

‘You've only been out an hour or so,' the stone said. ‘Ronnie Wong is in the gatehouse waiting for you. They've served lunch there so you can talk to him while you eat.'

‘Any complaints about Tom being allowed in untamed?'

‘Actually, no. General consensus is that he's so interesting they're willing to risk it.'

‘If anybody puts me to sleep in this bed again before John returns, I will personally take their head myself,' I said as I pulled my clothes back on.

‘Even if it's Simone?'

‘Bah.'

 

The gatehouse sat on the hillside outside the wall that protected the Mountain, in a grove of small cypress trees and surrounded by a tumble of granite boulders as tall as a man. It was a basic village house: two-storey and rectangular with a tiled roof. A living room, kitchen
and dining room were downstairs, with two bedrooms and a bathroom above, all sparsely furnished because the administration of Wudang hardly ever met with demons there. It was too far for any but the largest demons to travel from Hell, and just the proximity to the Mountain scared them to death.

I walked in the front door and went into the dining room, Ben and Tom trailing behind me. Ronnie Wong and LK Pak were already there sitting at the table.

As soon as I walked in the door, Ronnie shot to his feet, knocking his chair over, and leapt backwards so violently that he knocked his glasses off. He stood spreadeagled on the wall behind him and stared at me, wide-eyed and trembling.

I backed up as well, then took a deep breath and controlled it.

‘You okay, Emma?' LK said. ‘You look like you saw a ghost.'

‘I'm fine. I just had enhanced vision for a moment,' I said.

I moved away from Ben and Tom, but Ronnie didn't stop staring at me. It was definitely me, not Tom, that had freaked him out.

‘It's me, Ronnie,' I said. ‘What do you see?'

Ronnie retrieved his glasses, put them back on and peered at me. ‘Emma?'

‘You don't even need the glasses,' I said. ‘What did you see?'

He picked his chair up and returned it to its place. ‘I can't really describe it,' he said without looking at me.

I strode to him and he shifted uncomfortably away from me. I held my hand out. ‘Show me then.'

‘I'm not sure I want to touch you right now,' he said, looking at my hand as if it was something toxic.

‘You've seen her serpent form many times; this can't be what's causing this,' LK said. ‘Tell us what you saw.'

‘Serpent form?' Ben said.

‘It's a long story,' I said. I didn't lower my hand. ‘Show me.'

‘He can't show you, you're only a human. You need to be more than human to touch minds with a demon,' LK said. ‘Don't risk the damage from trying.'

I reached out, grabbed Ronnie's hand and made the link.

He let his breath out in a long gasp, like he'd had the wind knocked out of him. ‘Holy shit.'

‘Did you just link to him?' LK said.

‘Let me see what you saw, then I'll show you what I saw,' I said.

‘What did you see?' LK said.

‘I'll show you after he's shown me,' I said. ‘Do it, Ronnie.'

‘Wait,' LK said, and came to us. He put his hand on my shoulder. ‘Good God, Emma, you really did that.'

‘Take a seat, Ben, Tom, this won't take a moment,' I said. ‘Help yourselves to the food if you like. The demon will be coming in a moment to take drinks orders.'

‘This is it,' Ronnie said. ‘Tell me if you need me to back off.'

He showed me, and LK hissed quietly behind me. I wasn't just a serpent; I was huge and black, my head brushing the ceiling. My eyes were as black as my scales, and I was covered in intimidating spikes over my head and down my back, with a frill around the back of my head instead of a cobra hood.

‘Looks like a Serpent form of John's Turtle …' I said, and my voice trailed off. I released Ronnie and fell to sit at the table, my head in my hands. ‘Oh dear Lord, no.'

‘More demonic than the Dark Lord,' Ronnie said. ‘That thing was scary. Immeasurably big; I think it could take down the King easily. Immense destructive power, and so damn
dark
the centre of it was like
looking into the Abyss. Whatever you were, Lady Emma, it certainly scared the living shit out of me, and I'm big enough to sire spawn on a Mother.'

‘You saw something too?' LK asked me.

I nodded into my hand.

‘Are you concerned you're his Serpent?' Ronnie said, sitting next to me. ‘Is that what this is about? I've heard stories.'

I wiped my eyes. ‘If I'm his Serpent, then when he rejoins — well, that's it, isn't it? I'd be gone.'

‘You're afraid of losing your identity into his?' Ronnie said.

‘No, I'd welcome it,' I said. ‘But for Simone, it would be the same as if I died. She'd gain him and lose me, and I'm like a mother to her. She's lost enough family members as it is. I really can't do it to her.'

‘You may not have a choice,' Ronnie said.

I nodded.

‘Show me what you saw,' LK said to me.

I raised my hands and each of them took one. I reestablished the link and our minds touched.

LK was a human Immortal, not a Bodhisattva, so his soul didn't have the ringing purity of a Buddha, but he was connected to the Universe and one with Eternity. His soul smelled of mint-fresh shen energy, intertwined with constantly regenerating ching energy, tasting of firelight and summer heat. His chi enveloped both and moved with his breathing, full of the essence of sunshine and autumn leaves. His Immortal nature sang in tune with the Universe, and was at the same time as small as an atom and as vast as a galaxy.

‘That I could attain such heights,' Ronnie said with awe.

‘You have made the first step onto the Way,' LK said.

‘It would take so long for me to travel there,' Ronnie said.

‘You cannot travel to a Path, you are already on it,' LK said. ‘And as you travel, time has less and less meaning. Eventually you are pure thought and time does not exist at all.'

Ronnie's essence was the dark roiling thickness of demon, but there existed strands within it of chi; he had cast off his nature and turned, and was attempting to attain humanity. He didn't taste of the foulness of demon; he was more like dark chocolate, deep and bitter, with the chi making sweeter and lighter strands through it. My heart went out to him; he'd turned hundreds of years before and still had achieved so little.

‘Remember what I said. Time is an illusion,' LK said.

Ronnie nodded agreement inside my head.

I showed them what I'd seen when I walked in the door. I'd tasted LK's pure Shen nature and Ronnie's dark demon nature, made sour by his fear. I'd smelled Tom and Ben behind me; Tom's demon nature was similar to Ronnie's but in many ways different. Ronnie saw it as well and his mind glowed gold with the smell of spice and curiosity. Ben I saw as human; he was the only human there. Compared to LK his nature was earthy and rich, but he did have traces of something greater within him, like flashes of a deeper scent that came and went.