Heaven to Wudang (38 page)

‘And watch my dad fool around while Mom's in China again? No, thanks,' Clarissa said. She dropped her hands into her lap. ‘I'll stay here for a while, then decide what to do.'

‘Michael's heartbroken that you won't see him, Clarissa.'

She looked out the window. ‘He's one of them. You're all them. You're just as bad as those women are.' She turned back to speak to John. ‘How many did you lose? More than a hundred, and look at you. Not even slightly concerned.'

‘I am a general. That is my army. When you go into battle, you expect casualties,' John said. ‘My soldiers know that they may have to pay the ultimate price for the safety of those on the Planes. That is what being a soldier is; and I honour them for it.'

‘I'm not a soldier,' Clarissa said.

‘And by all the rules of engagement, you are a non-combatant and should have remained untouched,' John said.

‘Yeah, sure. Right. I see. I'm just collateral damage. A non-combatant caught in the crossfire. Another person
trying to keep her head down and getting hit anyway,' Clarissa said. She turned back to the window. ‘Could you leave me alone now? I don't think I have anything more to say to you.'

‘Let Michael come talk to you,' I said. ‘He can help you.'

‘He's Immortal now, isn't he?' Clarissa said without looking away from the window.

‘That he is,' John said.

‘Then I don't think I ever want to see him again. I doubt the mighty Immortal wants to have anything much to do with the little broken human girl.'

‘He does,' I said. ‘He loves you. He refused Immortality because he thought you were dead.'

‘Just go now,' she said, not hearing me. ‘I'm tired, and I'm done with all of you. Leave me alone.'

‘Can we come back later?' I said, but she ignored me.

She didn't look away from the window as John quietly led me out.

 

We made a stop at the halls on top of the Mountain before we returned to our offices. A group of seniors was practising hand-to-hand on the square in front of the halls, led by Liu in his saffron robes. John stopped to watch them for a moment, and the students didn't hesitate, continuing the set. John nodded with satisfaction and we moved on.

We went around the edge of the square and up the steps to the entrance of Dragon Tiger. The hall, at fifty metres long, was slightly smaller than Yuzhengong and faced east. Incense smoke and the chanting of the Buddhist nuns floated from inside. The statues of the Three Purities that normally resided in the hall had been moved to Yuzhengong, and rosewood tables were set against its walls. A group of four nuns, bald and tiny in their plain brown robes, knelt at the centre
chanting the sutras. They didn't look up when we entered.

The tables on all three sides of the hall held photographs of the dead, with candles either side of them and offerings of food and flowers in front. Similar memorials had been set up in Taoist temples back down on the Earthly. The photographs would remain here, honoured by the sutras, for six weeks, until the Taoist ceremony of passing over with the symbolic travel of the soul to the Higher Plane and the burning of the paper effigies for the next life. Then the photographs would be sent to the families, and red wooden tablets embossed in gold with the students' names would be placed in cabinets in Taoist temples near to the families' homes.

Some of the remains had already been cremated and moved to cemeteries. In Hong Kong, these were multi-storey concrete buildings with niches for the ashes, ideally placed for fung shui on hillsides overlooking the water. We had made the decision not to purchase burial plots for any of the students resident in Asia: so many people being buried in the ultra-expensive plots by the same group at once would attract attention.

We stopped inside the temple door and lit incense to place in the large brazier before the nuns, paying our respects to all the dead. Heads bowed, we contemplated the suffering this Heavenly war had caused, then rose, bowed to the nuns — who continued to ignore us — and went to perform the same ritual at Purple Mist, which was also hosting remembrances for the dead.

Jade and Gold were waiting for us at the bottom of the steps as we emerged, and fell into step beside us as we returned to the offices. Jade held a clipboard and spoke as we walked.

‘I've arranged all the funerals, my Lord, my Lady. I have written a press release, and I'm in the middle of personally speaking to all the families concerned.'

‘Any over-enthusiastic media attention?' I said.

‘None to report. They're seeing it as “just another earthquake in China”.'

‘Good.'

‘Nothing further?' John said.

‘All is handled.'

‘Keep us updated on the schedules for the funerals. I would like to attend as many as I can,' I said.

She nodded. ‘Ma'am.'

‘Dismissed,' John said.

Jade bowed slightly to us and peeled off to return to her office.

‘I have Zara in the Dark Lord's office; you said you wanted to see the recordings around her damage,' Gold said.

We passed under a tree in a small courtyard, and a group of juniors who were studying together watched us with awe as we passed, then quickly dropped and saluted us.

John gestured towards the students as he spoke to Gold. ‘Let the more junior ones know the protocol, Gold. Someone should have told them.'

Gold nodded. ‘Understood.'

When we reached the small courtyard in the centre of the administrative complex, John stopped. He smiled slightly, and Gold and I waited for him.

The quality of the air changed, becoming cooler and softer. Fat snowflakes drifted down among us, and I held my hand out to catch one, its icy coldness stinging my palm. They melted as they touched the ground.

John inhaled deeply and let it out again. ‘Now I feel at home.'

He continued to his office, with Gold and me following him through the lightly floating snow.

‘Don't waste your energy on weather manipulation,' I said.

He sat at his desk in his office, the French doors on two sides behind him framing the falling snow. ‘I didn't. That was natural.'

‘Quickly check for your Serpent then,' I said as Gold and I sat across from him.

‘Already,' he said, and turned to Zara, who was sitting on his desk in the form of a rough diamond, five centimetres across. ‘Is there anything interesting either side of the damage?'

‘There is something you should see,' Zara said.

The room expanded and collapsed, and we were in a beautiful indoor garden, where channels of water ran between raised brick planters filled with shrubs. The walls were fifty metres away, white framed with brown wood; and there didn't appear to be a ceiling. It was full of light coming from everywhere at once, but there were no visible light sources. The Demon King and Rhonda were strolling side by side through the garden, talking. He was in his young human form, with blood red hair, wearing a pair of maroon jeans and a black silk shirt. She was wearing a simple sundress of bright coral and turquoise flowers that accentuated her pale beauty.

‘There is no need for the sun,' he said, his hands clasped behind his back. ‘This part of Hell is a place of joy and light. Take a deep breath.'

She inhaled, and her expression filled with wonder. ‘It smells like roses, and freesias, and jonquils. It's lovely.'

He smiled slightly. ‘Just for you.'

She stopped and sat on the edge of a planter. ‘I know that there are places here that aren't nearly as sweet.'

He stopped as well, still with his hands clasped behind his back. ‘That's true. And you never need to see them if you don't wish to.'

She shook her head. ‘It won't work, you know.'

He shrugged, smiling wryly. ‘Worth a try.' He turned away.

‘How many more days do I have here?' she said. ‘I'm losing track of them.'

‘Only a couple more, my Lady,' the King said. He gestured towards the end of the garden. ‘You could always come and spend the night in my villa instead of your own.'

She shook her head. ‘You've said that every evening.' She looked up. ‘It's never night or day here, is it? It's so artificial.'

‘It's night in some parts.'

‘I don't want to see them.'

‘You never have to.' He bowed slightly to her. ‘I bid you good night, madam. And I leave my bedroom door open.'

She sighed. ‘Good night, George.'

She turned and went into the villa, and closed the door behind her. She went into the bathroom, changed into bright floral pyjamas, climbed into bed and turned the light off. Nothing happened for a few minutes, then the recording froze.

‘Neither of you saw that?' Gold said.

‘I didn't see anything,' I said.

‘No,' John said.

The recording blinked back to when Rhonda was in bed, and stopped. It moved slowly through the frames: there were two bright flashes, then she was in bed again.

‘I saw that,' I said. ‘What was it?'

‘I will show you at the slowest speed,' Zara said. ‘This is right at the edge of the damage to the lattice.'

‘One intersection on the lattice is one frame of the recording,' Gold said. ‘Zara wasn't keeping the frame rate high — this was just a standard recording for personal use — so it will look a little like film.'

‘I should have kept a high frame rate throughout the time I was there,' Zara said ruefully. ‘After five days, I relaxed; I thought his intentions were honest.'

She moved the recording back to when Rhonda was in bed. Then came a black frame, half-filled with colour.

‘Garbage from the edge of the damage,' Zara said.

A horrible, grinning face filled the entire recording, its eyes level with the top, and black stains over it.

I inhaled sharply. It was Demon Prince Six, the expert at manipulating stones.

‘How much time was lost?' I said.

‘Four hours,' Zara said. ‘I cycled down to rest, and wasn't aware of the lost time.'

‘What about your time stamp?' I said. ‘That's impossible.'

‘It is,' Zara said. ‘I have no idea how it happened. Somehow Six managed to blank out my matrix without stopping the time stamp. I was unaware of the lost time until we discovered Clarissa had been taken, and we went through to check.'

‘Is there anything like that where Clarissa was taken?' John said.

‘I'll show you,' Zara said.

Michael and Clarissa appeared, walking through a factory building on Ap Lei Chau Island on the south side of Hong Kong that had been rented out to stores selling imported Asian furniture and homewares. They wandered through the store, discussing whether they should buy a coffee table made out of a Balinese longhouse door. Clarissa kissed Michael on the cheek, then went out to the lift lobby to the ladies' room. She stopped at the mirror and smiled at her reflection, then went into the cubicle.

‘I don't want to see this,' I said. ‘That's invasion of privacy.'

‘I'll blank out the video; it's the audio you need to hear anyway,' Zara said.

There were the sounds of clothing being adjusted, then water spilling, and Zara slowed the playback,
making it deeper. There was a sudden loud screech of noise, then the audio returned to normal. Clarissa came out of the cubicle, rinsed her hands, and returned to Michael.

‘That's it?' I said.

‘That's it. One-fifth of a second of sound. It has to be: there's damage around that point and nowhere else in my lattice.'

‘They are unbelievably skilled,' Gold said. ‘Frankly, it's more than a little scary.'

‘The Demon King allowed Six into Rhonda's villa,' John said.

‘He can't have,' I said. ‘While you were gone, I asked the King and he vowed he wasn't in league with them. I had a suspicion he was helping them, but he gave his word he wasn't. Six must have sneaked in by himself.'

‘Interesting,' John said.

‘I have failed you,' Zara said.

‘Yes, you have,' John said. ‘But failure in the face of opposition as skilled as this is not cause for discipline. It is cause for retribution. It is time to find these demons and neutralise them.'

‘How do we find them?' I said.

‘Gold. Take Emma's stone and wake it up. I don't care how you do it. It knows where they are.'

Gold bowed slightly. ‘I will do my best.'

‘The Tiger just put it back in its setting — take the whole ring,' I said, handing it over.

‘Leave it with me,' Gold said. ‘I will talk to the people in the Eastern Palace. They may have some high-technology way of waking the stone up.'

‘I'm sure they'd be delighted to see you,' I said.

‘Dismissed,' John said. After Gold had gone, he leaned back in his executive chair and studied me. ‘Lady Emma, I have a request to make of you.'

‘Oh no, this sounds formal,' I said.

‘I have much to catch up on, my Lady, and I request that you give me an hour until dinnertime to do so. I also request that you take yourself to our residence and rest until dinner, because frankly, my love, you look awful.'

‘My in-tray's probably piled higher than yours,' I said.

‘Zara,' John said loudly.

‘My Lord?'

‘Liaise with Lady Emma's secretary, sort through her in-tray and find all tasks that can be done by someone else, and bring them to me,' he said. ‘Then find all tasks that must be done by Lady Emma herself, and also bring them to me.'

‘My Lord,' Zara said, and disappeared off his desk.

‘Now go and have a lie-down, Emma,' John said, rising to guide me out of his office. ‘I need you strong.'

I wanted to argue with him, but I didn't have the strength.

L
eo didn't join us for dinner that evening; he'd been spending most of his time in Persimmon Tree with Martin. When we'd finished eating, he came to visit us by himself, waiting for us in the Throne Room.

Simone came out of the dining room, stopped in front of him, saw his face and put her hands on her hips. ‘You suck.'

‘That's why I'm doing this,' he said.

She crouched in front of his wheelchair and put her hands on his knees. ‘Is there anything at all I can say to stop you?'

He shook his head, silent.

She stood up, appeared as if she was about to hit him, then sagged, defeated. ‘I won't be able to watch.'

‘I don't want you to.'

She leaned down to hug him, then broke down and went out.

‘You agreed,' Leo said to John. ‘Stop putting this off. I want it.'

John concentrated for a moment.

‘Don't even think about making another excuse to put it off!' Leo said. ‘The nest in Singapore is cleaned out, and you'll soon find Kitty and fix her. You don't need me any more, so stop putting it off and do it already!'

‘I was checking my appointments,' John said. ‘I have nothing until tomorrow afternoon.'

‘Tomorrow morning then,' Leo said, and turned to wheel himself out.

‘Leo —' I said, but he cut me off.

‘I failed,' he said. ‘I've failed systematically and consistently ever since I joined this household. I deserve this.'

‘You're family,' I said. ‘We love you whatever you do.'

‘Then love me enough to let me go.' He nodded to John. ‘Tomorrow morning, 9am.'

‘Done,' John said. He leaned on the back of the couch. ‘You break my heart, Leo. You are one of the finest humans I have ever met.'

‘Then I'll be honoured to be one with you,' Leo said, and left.

I went to John, and he wrapped his arm around me, and we stood silently for a while.

 

In the bathroom later that evening, as we were preparing for bed, I unwound the bandage that I kept on my arm to hide the demon essence, and stopped when I saw it. The essence had seeped through the bandage, and when I touched my arm, my fingers came away black.

‘John,' I said, trying to keep the urgency from my voice.

He came in wearing his pyjama pants and carefully studied my arm without touching the essence. He picked the bandage up and used it to mop at the essence; it came away onto the bandage in a sticky stain.

‘It's breaking down because you're on the Celestial Plane,' he said. ‘It's like a demon exploding on the Plane, but in slow-motion because you're mostly human.'

‘How long before I lose my arm?'

‘I have no idea,' he said, still focused on the arm. ‘Wrap it again, and we will clear it tomorrow for you.' He concentrated on me. ‘Does it hurt?'

‘No,' I said, finding another roll of bandage.

‘If it hurts you during the night, wake me and we will clear it. Otherwise, I think you are safe until morning. It has taken a few days for it to break down this far.'

‘Now you're scaring me.'

‘You're scaring me,' he said. ‘Unlike me, you can't grow it back.'

The pain woke me at 3am. I sat up, looked with horror at my arm, and gently shoved John. ‘Wake up. I think we need to do something.'

He rolled over, sat up, saw my arm and concentrated.

We reappeared in the temporary infirmary, and John went around the room switching on the lights. ‘Meredith and Edwin will be here shortly.'

I raised my arm: the essence was dripping off it onto the treatment couch, as thick as black tar. John pulled a large examination light towards me and shone it on the arm. It was already a centimetre narrower, and the structure of the bones inside was becoming visible as the external part dissolved.

He glanced up at me. ‘Meredith will put you under and we'll do it.'

‘Start now,' I said.

‘I need Edwin to open me up.'

‘Edwin's human, it'll take him a while to get here.' I tried to control the urgency in my voice. ‘I'm losing my arm!' My hand was becoming numb, and the pain in the bones was more than I could bear. ‘Do something — it's killing me!'

John scrabbled through the medical cabinets until he found a scalpel. He tore the sterile wrapper open with his teeth. ‘Sit still and put the arm out.' He ripped the
bandages off his left arm with the scalpel, then used it to roughly tear open the stump. He took my right hand with his and held the bleeding stump above the damage. ‘Keep very still, and if it hurts too much, I'll stop.'

I closed my eyes and tried to go to a calm place, centring my awareness between my eyes and separating it from the rest of my body, but it didn't help when he touched his blood to my arm. I managed to stay silent, quivering with the shock of each touch, my teeth gritted so hard that my head ached nearly as much as the arm hurt.

I heard Meredith and Edwin come in.

‘You should have waited for us,' Meredith said.

‘See this and tell me that again,' John said.

Meredith was quiet for a moment, then put her hands on either side of my head. ‘Sorry I took so long,' she said gently, and everything faded away.

 

‘You're not weak from blood loss?' Edwin said to John. ‘Let me take your blood pressure.'

‘You don't need to bother; I know how bad it is,' John said. ‘I've sustained more damage than I can handle in the last forty-eight hours. But I can manage. You really don't need to wait. Go back to bed.'

‘She's coming around,' Meredith said.

I tried to focus, but everything was blurry. I rubbed my eyes, but my right arm wouldn't move; it was tied down. I ripped it free and jumped off the couch.

‘Emma, relax, you're on the Mountain,' John said. ‘Find another sling for the arm, Edwin.'

I peered around me, trying to focus, and saw a dark shape. I concentrated on it — it was him. I threw myself at him and he held me.

‘Did you save it?' I said. ‘I can't see anything.'

He pushed me gently away and his face swam into view. I released him and checked my right arm. It was
significantly smaller than it had been; the muscles wasted and the bones visible as shapes beneath the skin. I stepped further back from John and flexed my hand, moving my arm through the air. I settled into my feet and performed a few basic hand-to-hand moves, and the arm worked. I sighed with relief.

‘Can we bring it back to the way it was?' I said.

‘I don't know,' Edwin said. ‘With exercise and physical therapy we may be able to rebuild the muscles. But we've never seen anything like this before —'

‘Yeah, I know the drill,' I said. ‘Thanks so much for your help, guys. Now go back to bed. We have work to do tomorrow.'

‘Both of you need to sleep as well,' Edwin said. ‘I'll have your appointments cancelled until lunchtime. Rest.'

‘It's freezing out there. Take my hand and I'll carry us home,' John said.

‘You should walk!' Edwin said, but it was too late.

John went to the fire in our bedroom and poked the embers until they flared back into life, then crawled into bed next to me. ‘Edwin doesn't need to cancel any appointments; we only have one tomorrow morning. Now come here, hold me close, and go to sleep.'

I snuggled into him. ‘Yes, sir.' I lifted my head. ‘One appointment?'

‘One.'

I dropped my head again, my throat thick. ‘Damn.'

 

The next morning dawned bright, clear and cold. The sun was brilliant overhead, making the Golden Temple glow. We did it on the steps just below the Golden Temple, high above the Mountain complex, so there was no chance of John draining anyone but Leo. Leo had agreed to let me and Martin attend; he'd said his goodbyes to everyone else and a small group of
distraught students stood on the square in front of Yuzhengong below us.

John sat at the top of the steps in front of Golden Temple while Leo and Martin said goodbye a few steps below him. John's face was expressionless but his eyes were dark with misery.

Leo embraced Martin, and Martin held him like he would never let him go. They kissed, a farewell kiss between lovers, and Martin told Leo softly that he loved him. Leo just smiled, put his hand on Martin's cheek, and turned away.

Leo went to John at the top of the stairs and sat on the steps next to him. I fell to sit as well, my legs weak. Martin came to sit next to me and put his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into him. He passed me a packet of tissues and I nodded my thanks as I pulled one out to wipe my eyes.

John smiled a sad smile and gazed into Leo's eyes. He ran his fingertips over Leo's face, as if seeing him for the first time, and slid his palm over Leo's neck. Leo closed his eyes with bliss.

‘You were like a son to me,' John said, holding the side of Leo's face.

‘You are more to me,' Leo said.

‘One last time to change your mind.'

‘Please make me one with you, John.'

John drew Leo closer and kissed him, and Leo closed his eyes, relishing the touch. Leo pushed the kiss deeper, more passionate, and his Shen energy flared to life, shining so brightly that even the Golden Temple seemed to dim next to it. John's dark nature became visible, a cloud centring on him, and Leo's light was drawn into it, spiralling away inside John. Leo became transparent, then suddenly wrenched his face away from John's and stared at him in horror. ‘Not you.'

‘John, stop,' I said, standing to go up to them.

Martin held me back. ‘He can't, it's too late. Leo's gone.'

John lowered his head and his face became rigid with restraint. He dropped his arms from Leo and clenched his remaining hand to a fist by his side. His face became more and more strained as he raised his head, the dark energy glowing around him. He let loose a roar of anguish, an inhuman sound of agony, and disappeared.

Leo sat there in a daze for a moment, then toppled sideways, hitting the steps hard.

Martin and I rushed to him and lifted him. Martin put Leo's head into his lap and his hand on Leo's forehead. ‘Father gave it back,' he said. ‘He's still here.'

Leo's eyes snapped open. He grabbed Martin's hand and clutched it. ‘I closed my eyes, and it wasn't him, it was you. All this time, I thought I wanted him, and when I finally had him, I wanted it to be you.'

‘You have me for as long as you want me, Lion,' Martin said, his voice thick with emotion.

‘I can't believe how stupid I've been.' Leo raised one hand from the ground and touched Martin's face, his own full of wonder. ‘I love you.'

Martin broke down into silent sobs and I handed back the packet of tissues. He nodded his thanks.

‘How do I face everybody now?' Leo said, still prone on the ground.

Martin squeezed his hand. ‘By my side.'

‘Always,' Leo said. He tried to pull himself upright, and Martin helped him. ‘Geez, he could at least have healed my spine.'

‘Maybe the Serpent will one day,' I said.

Martin glanced meaningfully at me, and I stood up before he said anything. ‘I have places to be. I'll see you guys later.'

I walked back down to the main area, leaving them on top of the Mountain together. The group of students was waiting expectantly for me. Simone was with them.

‘He changed his mind,' I said to them, and they whooped and cheered. ‘He's alive and he's planning to stay that way.'

One of the students rushed towards the stairs, and I called to stop him. ‘Leave them alone, they're having a moment. Wait till they come back down, okay?'

The student stopped, nodded with a huge grin, and returned to the group.

Simone threw her arm around my shoulders, brash with delight. ‘We should arrange a wedding for them too.'

‘The Jade Emperor won't allow it,' I said.

‘Why not? They love each other. They want to be together. Isn't that enough?'

‘Not for the Jade Emperor. He defines marriage as between a man and a woman and won't budge on it.'

‘My own father spent a week being a woman and the Jade Emperor won't stop you two from getting married. What difference does it make?'

I turned and glanced back at the gleaming golden temple with the dark-clad couple sitting on the steps below it. ‘None at all. Hopefully we'll see times change.' I turned back. ‘Let's go find something to eat, I'm starving.'

‘Daddy's down in the Grotto, and he says pilchards, please.'

‘Humph.'

 

Gold came to us later in the afternoon after trying to revive my stone.

‘We can't do anything for it,' he said. ‘We hooked it into the Tree's network and got nothing. There are two options now, and both of them are difficult.'

‘What are they?' I said, feeling relieved as I slipped the ring back onto my finger. I tapped the stone and it pulsed in response.

‘Take it to the Lady Nu Wa — she is its creator and may be able to awaken it. Or take it to the Grandmother herself.'

‘I don't think I could make it all the way to Nu Wa by myself right now,' John said. He leaned his chin in his hand. ‘And going to the Grandmother is too far to travel in the current circumstances. This may have to wait until everything is dealt with.'

‘But it was with me when Kitty and the Death Mother took me to their boat,' I said. ‘It knows where they are — we have to get that information out of it.'

John shrugged. ‘Keeping our students safe and making sure full respects are paid to our casualties is just as important.'

My mobile phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket, checked the caller ID and flipped it open. ‘Ronnie. Go ahead and tell me that you know exactly what's going on right now. You seemed to know every single other time.'

‘I don't, ma'am, and that's why I'm calling you. I haven't known anything for days, since you returned to the Mountain, and I'm concerned for your stone.'