Heaven to Wudang (32 page)

I wrapped myself around him. He wore a plain pair of black pyjama pants with no top, and the skin of his back and stomach were ice-cold. ‘I think we both just need to sleep. A lot.'

He pulled me closer and spoke softly into my hair. ‘Sounds like an excellent idea.'

‘Are you permanently male now?' I said, holding him tight.

‘I spent the time while you were gone mostly in the Grotto, not talking to anyone. I slip out of the form when I'm very tired, but I can hold it most of the time.' He nuzzled my hair. ‘And right now I think you should sleep. You've been through a lot.'

‘Um,' I said.

‘Um?'

‘John, I won't be able to sleep unless you raise your
body temperature. It's like being in bed with an ice block. My boobs are going numb here.'

‘Well, we can't have that; let me warm up for a couple of minutes,' he said.

He slipped out of bed, changed to Turtle form, and lay on the silk rug in front of the fire, his eyes closed with bliss. I moved to sit next to him, leaning on his shell and feeling it gradually grow comfortably warm as we watched the flames.

I fell asleep over his shell and didn't know when he carried me back to bed.

 

I left John sleeping the next morning and joined Leo, Simone and Michael for breakfast. All three of them were subdued.

‘You look like something terrible happened,' I said.

‘It did,' Simone said. ‘I broke Justin's arm.'

‘What?'

‘You know how we never permitted any sort of horseplay, any physical rough-and-tumble?' Leo said. ‘With skills like ours, it could lead to —'

‘Broken arms,' Simone said. She leaned her chin on her hand. ‘Justin got excited when he won, went to tickle me or something, and I guarded, twisted his arm and pushed him away without thinking about it.' She ran her hands through her hair and sighed. ‘Broken in three places, and a dislocated shoulder. It hurt so much he screamed. A lot.'

‘You should have woken me,' I said. ‘I could have healed him.'

‘We healed it enough that it stopped hurting and didn't need to go into plaster,' Michael said. ‘He'll be fine.'

‘The worst part is that he kept apologising,' Simone said, wiping her eyes. ‘He yelled at himself for being such an idiot and not realising I could do that. He even
apologised for underestimating me; he said of course I'd defend myself, being who I am.'

‘He understands, Simone. That's a good thing.'

‘And now I have to go to school,' Simone said, her voice breaking. ‘Everybody will know.'

‘I doubt it,' I said. ‘My bet is that he hasn't told anyone. And you need to talk to him and let him know — after you hurt him so much — that it's okay and you forgive him.'

‘I want him to forgive me.'

‘Then you can meet up before class and forgive each other. Have you spoken since he went home last night?'

‘No.'

‘When does school start?'

‘First lesson's at eleven, but I want to visit Freddo before I go up.'

‘Can he meet you at Freddo's stable in the West?'

She winced. ‘He can't fly. He can't teleport. He can't do anything terribly special, actually. He has to be carried to CH to go to school. One of his brothers helps him out — but sometimes he forgets and leaves Justin stranded.'

‘Not uncommon for a half-dragon to show no talent,' I said. ‘He's a smart kid, he'll do well anyway, and it may come out later.'

‘He's not half,' Leo said. ‘He's full-blood dragon. His mother's a dragon too.'

‘Whoa, really?' Michael said. ‘That's extremely unusual — is he sure that Qing Long is his …' He realised what he was saying and closed up.

‘Yes, he's sure. His mother's as confused about it as he is. His father's even had tests done to find out why he's like this,' Simone said. ‘They can't find anything.'

‘God, life in the Eastern Palace must be absolute hell for him,' Michael said.

‘It is,' Simone said.

John came in. ‘Why doesn't he move out from there?'

‘Because he loves the technology, and the Tree is really nice to him.'

John sat at the table and concentrated, and Er Hao brought him a bowl of congee. ‘Should we bring him over here and start an IT research establishment of our own?'

‘I don't recommend it, Highness,' I said. ‘We do the Arts of War. The Tiger researches demonkind. The Dragon handles the technology. The Phoenix's people are materials specialists. Provided we share the information, having the groups centralised works well.'

‘Noted and ratified,' John said. ‘I'll be visiting the Eastern Palace today. Do you want me to talk to the Dragon about better treatment for the lad?'

‘Don't you dare!' Simone said.

He bobbed his head. ‘As you wish, Princess.'

‘Oh, cut it out, Daddy,' Simone said. ‘I get enough of that from the boys at CH.'

‘Do you want me to talk to —'

‘No!' She glared at him. ‘Don't talk to anybody! The last thing I need is you throwing your weight around to get me special treatment. That would make me really popular.'

John sipped his congee, his dark eyes amused over the bowl. ‘Forgive me, Simone, it's been a long time since I've been human and it will take me a while to grow accustomed to social niceties again.'

‘Well, hurry up and do it, because Hongie will probably call you in to say hello,' Simone said. She rose and hugged her father around his shoulders, kissing him on the top of his head. ‘I'm off to see Freddo, then on to CH. I'll see you guys later.'

He patted her back without rising. ‘I'll be here when you get home.'

That stopped her, and she smiled. ‘That's something I've been wanting to hear for a very long time.'

She disappeared, and John turned to me. ‘Do you want to come with me to the other three Bastions while I check their populations for demon copies?'

‘Sure,' I said. ‘I haven't said hello to the Tree in a long time. But I can't go to the Phoenix's palace, it's too hot.'

‘I can leave you with your parents at the West while I do hers.' He turned to Leo. ‘It is very strange to have you still here after Simone has gone. I keep having the nagging feeling that she's been left undefended.'

‘I have that feeling all the time,' Leo said. ‘I still can't get used to it.' His expression darkened. ‘Michael, if you're done, could you go find something to do?'

‘I can see I'm not wanted,' Michael said, and disappeared.

‘What, Leo?' I said.

‘Give me a date and time so I can put my affairs in order.'

‘Let me build up some energy first,' John said. ‘If I were to attempt this now it is possible I would drain anybody within a twenty li radius.'

‘Then do it somewhere away from people.'

‘I won't take that risk.'

‘Don't you dare make excuses for putting this off!'

John opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again and smiled wryly. ‘Very well, Lion. After I have spent a few days in the core of the Mountain, we will arrange something.'

Leo saluted John and disappeared.

I pulled Leo's newspaper closer to my tea and toast and opened it.

‘There was an explosion at Town Hall MRT station in Singapore last night!' I said. ‘That has to have been Emily. Why haven't the Thirty-Six been in contact with us about this?'

‘They have. I keep forgetting you don't have your stone to relay messages for you,' John said. ‘They told
me a while ago. They're searching the area for the nest entrance and will update us when they have more.'

I closed the paper and leaned on it. ‘We need to go. Right now.'

‘No, we don't,' he said, placidly stirring his congee. ‘Trust the Generals; they can be relied upon. We have more pressing issues.'

‘Make sure they let us know when they find the nest. I want in on that action.'

‘That may not be such a good idea, Emma.'

‘I don't care if it's the stupidest idea in the world. I want to be there when they pin that Mother down.'

‘I will let you know the minute they find something.'

‘Even if you're busy in one of the other Bastions?'

‘Of course.'

I flipped through the rest of the paper. Much of it was shrill journalistic wittering about the ‘terrorist threat that had finally come to Asia'. They had no idea.

‘The Lius wish to speak to us before we head out,' John said.

‘Okay,' I said, and we finished our breakfast together in companionable silence, both thinking the same thing: it is the smallest times together that bring the greatest joy.

 

We met the Lius and LK in John's office. The Imperial office sat at the far southeast corner of the complex: a five-by-five-metre building separate from the other buildings in the administrative centre. Two sides of the office were flush with the corner of the wall, and John could walk through French doors onto the top of the wall whenever he wished. From behind his desk he could look out over the wall to the mountains beyond.

I stopped at the entrance. ‘How many days have you been back?'

‘Five. No, six,' he said, sitting behind his massive ebony desk and checking his email.

I waved one hand at the pile of papers in danger of spilling onto the floor. ‘I do not believe this.'

‘He won't suffer a secretary either,' Liu said, sitting at the small conference table. ‘Talk to him, please.'

John glared over the desk at Liu. ‘I've had secretaries in the past. I can never find anything. No more.' He picked up his diary and pen — green and gold with the Xuan Wu animal on it: a special limited edition made by a Japanese pen company — and joined us at the table. ‘Is everything under control?'

‘We still have funerals to hold down on the Earthly,' Liu said. ‘We need to restart classes to keep the students busy.'

‘Thanks for notifying the families while I was out of action,' I said, feeling guilty.

‘We Immortals are better suited for such tasks anyway,' Meredith said.

‘Don't worry, Emma, we can handle things like this. Delegate. It's fine,' Liu said.

‘We need to find a new representative to recruit new students,' Meredith said. ‘Gold won't leave his children.'

‘Choose someone,' John said.

‘Leo,' Liu said.

John leaned back, opened his mouth and closed it again. ‘I see.'

‘That's very transparent,' I said.

Liu shrugged. ‘Immortals aren't known for their duplicity. I'll tell him straight up when I talk to him about the job that it's to give him something to live for: the joy of bringing new students here.'

‘It will be interesting to see how he reacts. This could be a measure of how determined he is — whether or not he will take the time to enjoy this post for a while,' John said.

‘That's also very transparent,' I said. ‘You still have to arrange a day.'

He flipped open his desk diary; he'd scribbled in it to such a degree that it was as chaotic as his desk. ‘I'll have to move things around.' He looked up at Liu. ‘Anything else?'

‘Gold urgently wants to speak to you. I'd be surprised if he isn't outside waiting.'

‘Send him in,' John said. He shared a look with me. ‘The other three Winds will be in touch soon, asking when I'll be there.'

Liu and Meredith rose, saluted us and went out. As they exited, Gold and Zara — the diamond that had been with Clarissa — came in. Gold's tan suit seemed to complement Zara's completely white hair and golden skin.

Gold sat at the table and laced his fingers together, speaking urgently. ‘Zara's been damaged. We looked her over, trying to find the exact time that Clarissa was replaced, and there's a huge corrupt area in her lattice.'

‘Someone turned that part of me from diamond to graphite,' she said. ‘I feel unclean.'

‘When did it happen?'

‘From working back through it, we figure it happened about eight weeks ago,' Gold said. ‘But that's not the disturbing thing. We found something else. Another part of her lattice was also transformed. Several hours of her trip to Hell in the possession of the Lady Rhonda are missing as well.'

‘Rhonda's alive!' I said.

‘No, ma'am, that was definitely Rhonda at the coronation,' Gold said. ‘There can be no doubt.'

‘No, listen,' I said. ‘If it was one of the copies that John's only recently detected, then nobody would have been able to sense that it was a demon.'

Gold thought for a moment. ‘Didn't the Lady herself say that it was Rhonda?'

I hesitated at that; he was right. ‘Is it possible that Kwan Yin was wrong?'

‘I know you want Rhonda to be alive,' John said, ‘but Kwan Yin is greater than any of us. She is a holy Bodhisattva, and incapable of being incorrect. She may withhold information to balance the nature of the All, but she won't lie to you.'

‘I see,' I said.

John looked down at the table. ‘I can check the Records, Emma. I can confirm it for you. I have access to the Book.'

‘I'd appreciate it, John. I have a nagging doubt — I really want her to be alive.'

‘I understand.'

‘What is to become of me?' Zara said. ‘Will you return me to the Tiger?'

‘What would you like to do?' I said.

‘I would like to stay here on the Mountain and help you,' Zara said. ‘I have grown very fond of Lord Michael and I loved Lady Clarissa very much. I understand that my presence distresses Lord Michael, so if you wish to send me away I will understand.'

‘She could temporarily replace the Jade Building Block,' Gold said.

‘No, sir, please,' Zara said, desperate. ‘I am bad luck when carried as jewellery. If that is the only post you have available for me, I will return to the West.'