by Kylie Chan
‘Emma,’ John said, and turned towards the dais. He went to it and hopped up to sit on it, and I joined him. He glared at the demon guards, and they checked with the Demon King, who nodded. They backed away, giving us some privacy.
John turned to speak to me. ‘I chose this.’
‘I know,’ I said. I put my hand on the side of his face, and his eyes were full of such anguish that my heart ached. ‘You will be alive. I will be alive. One day we will be together again.’ I made no effort to stop the tears from flowing. I sniffled, and smiled at the irony. Our final farewell, in front of thousands, and I needed to blow my nose.
He cupped my face in his hand, rubbing his thumb over the tears. ‘You have been closest to me in all my millennia. You have shared with me, you were one with me, you have seen deep into my dark heart and still you love me.’ He touched his forehead to mine. ‘I thank you, Dark Lady. Your love has given me great joy.’
‘You have Raised me and you promised to marry me,’ I said. ‘It will happen, even if Heaven and Earth must be moved. I will wait for you. I will be here, with your children and our son, and one day, however long it takes, we will be a family.’
‘Time’s up,’ the Demon King said. ‘I have places to be.’
John slipped his hand around the back of my neck and pulled me in for a final kiss. I couldn’t hold him as closely as I wanted while we sat side by side, but I tried my best. We shared everything we felt for each other, concentrating on the fierce unity that joined our souls. I drank of him, and tasted him, and tried to capture his cool dark essence and stamp it into my memory to ease my spirit in the long lonely years to come.
I pulled back, then threw my arms around his neck, shoving my face into the side of his throat, choking through breaths full of the freshness of the ocean.
One of the Mothers clapped softly and slowly. Another joined her, then the applause petered out.
‘I will be here,’ he said into my ear. ‘I will be thinking of you. And you and your family will be safe.’
‘I love you, Xuan Wu, and I will be waiting for you.’
‘Time!’ the King snapped. ‘The girls want to see you go into the cage. Hurry it up.’
We pulled back and gazed into each other’s eyes, wanting the moment to last forever.
‘Now,’ the Demon King said. ‘Or the deal is off.’
John closed his eyes and nodded. We jumped down off the dais and I moved back to give him room to transform.
He changed to True Form; the cold-eyed Serpent writhing above the Turtle, merging into it where they touched. I went to him and touched the side of the Turtle’s face, and he rubbed his cheek on my hand with his eyes closed. The Serpent touched its nose to the top of my head at the same time.
‘I love you, Emma Donahoe,’ he said in his normal human voice. ‘I wish we could have had more time together.’
‘We will.’
‘No, you won’t,’ the Demon King said. ‘In.’
The Turtle and Serpent both nodded their heads. Xuan Wu turned and stomped up the stairs onto the dais with the Demon King following him closely. The Serpent looked back at me, then he walked into the cage. The Demon King closed the door gently and pushed the latch into place. John’s presence disappeared. I had no sense of him; not even the touch of his energy. He was right in front of me and I felt horribly alone.
‘He won’t try to escape,’ I said.
‘I know that,’ the Demon King said.
‘So show him the courtesy of keeping the cage clean. The one in Hell was filthy.’
The Demon King waved one hand at the camera. ‘Off.’ He took a step closer to me and crossed his arms over his chest. ‘In about two hundred years, you’ll be a strong enough Immortal to regrow your uterus. How about you two make a brother or sister for Frankie? I’ll let you have conjugal visits if you do that for me.’
‘Not happening, Ah Mo,’ John said from inside the cage.
The King waved one hand at him without looking away from me. ‘You shut up or I’ll knock you out again.’
John’s Turtle opened its mouth and I glared at him; I didn’t want to see him punished. He subsided.
‘Just keep the cage clean,’ I said to the King.
‘You know what?’ he said. ‘No. I’ve been far too lenient with you, and given you too much, and you’ve taken advantage of me. It’s time for you to pay. Come to work as Frankie’s nanny and I won’t harm your family.’
I nodded to the King, wiping the tears blurring my eyes so I had a last chance to see my Xuan Wu. ‘I will always love you.’
‘You are my heart, Dark Lady,’ John said.
‘You were warned,’ the King said.
‘Worth it,’ John said.
‘You bring this on yourself, Turtle.’ The Demon King put his hand on my shoulder. ‘Now that’s over and out of the way, I can get things done.’
* * *
The hall disappeared and we were beside the Trees of Swords on Level Nine. The King took me past the old mad Kings and I stopped. One of the cells held the Jade Emperor. He wore simple white prisoner’s garb, and sat in a corner with his face in his knees and his arms wrapped around them. The Demon King pushed me along before I had a chance to speak to him.
At Frankie’s house, he opened the door for me and gestured for me to go into the little living room. Frankie was sitting on the floor, playing dominos with a young woman who was impossibly small. She appeared to be a teenager, but was the same height as Frankie — about the same as a ten year old.
She looked up from the game and her face lit up. She ran to me and bowed. ‘It’s you! The lady who saved me.’ Her smile disappeared. ‘You were with the lady who saved me.’ She bowed again, her hands clasped in front of her. ‘Thank you. Thank you! I am alive because of you.’ She moved closer. ‘I know I tried to bite you when you were saving me, but I’ve learnt better now. I will not harm you, I will protect you. I promise.’ She quickly bowed again.
‘What the hell are you talking about, Edu?’ the Demon King said.
‘When I was hatched,’ Edu said, ‘my Mother was about to bite my head off, and this snake lady and the awesome snake woman with her saved me and took me to the nursery. I am alive because of them.’
‘Oh,’ I said, remembering the time Simone and I had travelled into Hell to rescue BJ from Demon Prince Six. We’d had to pass through the Nests of the biggest Mothers and had helped hatch one of the Mother’s clutches; one of the surviving babies had been, uniquely, in human form. Now she smiled up at me with menace. Her name — Vicious — was stunningly accurate.
‘Your mother was about to eat you?’ Frankie said, horrified.
‘Of course,’ Edu said. ‘That’s what Mothers do.’
Frankie’s eyes were wide as he digested this.
The Demon King studied me. ‘You saved Edu from her Mother? I thought it was just that blue bastard in the Nest messing around with my breeding stock.’ He smiled. ‘You did me a huge favour. Edu is a unique hybrid that I think will grow to be human-sized and absolutely indistinguishable from humans by any Celestial. Smart too, and outstandingly strong. She has a great deal of potential.’
‘Thank you, Father,’ Edu said.
The Demon King pulled me to one side. ‘Listen to me. The reptile will be fed regularly and not tortured as long as he keeps quiet.’ He scowled. ‘I expected some gratitude.’
I remained silent.
‘I will be watching you. Do not try to subvert Frankie or Edu. Teach them the ways of the Celestial and what they’ll need to rule the Heavens and the Earthly, but further than that and I will take the reptile and bury him in a very deep hole. Is that understood?’
‘You’ll bury him alive?’ I said.
‘Cage and all.’
‘He’ll just die. I fail to see the point.’
‘He’s so big that it will take him years to suffocate. He will land in Hell and do a full tour of the Pits, five years in each one. As soon as he’s out I will dig up the cage, p
ut him back into it and do it all again. Do you understand?’
‘Yes,’ I said, my voice weak.
‘So do as I ask and he will stay in Supreme Harmony. You will be able to see him, and if you’re very good I may even let you speak to him. If I bury him and send him to Hell, you will not see him for a long time.’
He waited.
‘I understand,’ I said.
‘Once again I was expecting gratitude and you’re too ill-mannered to provide it,’ he said. ‘I’ll have other children come to learn from you as well. You’re too valuable a resource to waste.’
‘I won’t teach martial arts.’
‘You don’t have to,’ he said with a fierce grin. ‘Your Wudang Masters refuse to teach too, but about twenty-odd extremely well-trained humans showed up all over the world recently with only a vague idea of where they’d been for the past twelve months. Your rejects were all I needed. And when Frankie takes the throne, you’ll obey him. You’ll have no choice.’ He pointed at Edu and Frankie. ‘Get to work.’
22
Late that night I was lying awake on the kitchen floor when I realised with a shock that I wasn’t alone. Someone — two people — were just outside the window. I could sense them: they were Shen, not demons, and glowed as small floating balls in my Inner Eye.
I stood up and opened the window a crack. ‘Come in and be quiet,’ I whispered.
Gold and BJ came into the kitchen and changed to human form.
‘You shouldn’t be here,’ I hissed. ‘You know they can control stones.’
‘We have to be quick,’ Gold said. ‘BJ.’
‘I’ll be your comms,’ BJ said.
‘I’m underground. You won’t be able to communicate with anyone.’
‘We’re doing it now while we’re free,’ Gold said. ‘They have to move the child eventually, and you can link up then.’
‘I’ll bury myself in your nervous system,’ BJ said. ‘The same way the demons had stones controlling Leo and Yue Gui. I’ll sit in the back of your neck and link to your spinal cord, and then go as small as I can so they can’t see me.’
‘One: that sounds incredibly painful; and two: are you sure they won’t see you?’ I said.
She nodded. ‘And you’re an Immortal. Just block the pain.’
I hesitated. ‘Exactly how much of my thought processes will you see if you link into my nervous system?’
She didn’t reply but her face said it all.
‘Gold, you’re putting Black Jade where she can see everything I think and do. You know how much black jade I’ve been presented with over the years, don’t you? This is a terrible idea.’
BJ’s face went strange. ‘I know the prophecy —’
‘It’s a prophecy now?’ I said with disbelief.
‘That you’ll be replaced, and the Dark Lord will marry someone else,’ she finished.
‘It’s beside the point, because even if he does marry someone else, he can still marry you as well,’ Gold said.
‘Is divorce allowed on the Celestial Plane? Same-sex marriage isn’t.’
Gold snorted with derision. ‘We’re Immortal. Of course it is.’
‘When the wedding date is set, we’ll lock me up so there’s no chance of either of us being compromised,’ BJ said. ‘Right now it’s more important that you have assistance, data and comms on the ground with you.’
‘Can’t my stone — the Jade Building Block — do this? It’s been put inside me before.’
‘You can trust me,’ BJ said.
‘I’d really prefer the Building Block. Where is it? You didn’t leave it alone, did you?’
Gold and BJ shared a look.
‘What?’ I said, and went ice-cold. ‘No.’
BJ looked away.
‘We went back to my lab to sabotage the Celestial network. We wanted to stop the demons from using it,’ Gold said. ‘The stone wasn’t there, and there were a bunch of guard demons waiting for us.’
‘Dad destroyed all the demons and we escaped,’ BJ said with pride. ‘He took down three level thirties with physical. Do you want to see my recording? It was awesome.’
‘People keep forgetting that I’ve been serving the Dark Lord for more than twenty years, and he’s trained me since the day I arrived in the household,’ Gold said. ‘He enjoyed teaching me. He only had to show me the moves once and I perfected them immediately. The only disadvantage is the lag between the stone giving the order and the body carrying it out — it can be up to half a second.’
‘What about the Jade Building Block?’ I said.
‘We have no idea where it is,’ BJ said. ‘We call and it doesn’t answer.’
‘Did you tell Nu Wa? The stone is one of her creations. She must know where it is.’
‘Nu Wa’s retreated to her mountaintop in Kunlun,’ Gold said. ‘There’s no way to communicate with her.’
I wiped my eyes and took a deep shaking breath. ‘Okay, BJ, put yourself into my spine and let’s go to work. Do you have a backup plan if they find you?’
‘I’ll think of something,’ BJ said.
‘Gold, go,’ I told him. ‘Every second you’re here you’re in more danger.’
‘I have to open you up to put BJ in. Lie on your stomach.’
‘Can the demons see us? We’re probably being monitored.’
‘Not with my abilities.’ He gave me a gentle push. ‘Stomach, Emma.’
I lay my stomach on the floor, put my head on the rolled-up blanket and closed my eyes. Searing pain tore into the back of my neck and I blocked the meridians. There was pressure and movement as Gold worked on me, opening me up and putting BJ inside.
Testing. Say something silently, BJ said.
Can you hear me?
Now speak to me, Gold said.
I’m sorry about your parent.
We will find him, even if we have to go to the top of the Kunlun mountains. BJ?
I’m good. Go.
More pressure as Gold pushed my neck from side to side as he worked.
‘Move your fingers and toes,’ he said.
I wriggled them and felt a bolt of concern. ‘They are moving, aren’t they?’
‘Yes. Can you feel this?’ He touched my hands and feet.
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘Good. No nerve damage. Try healing that up.’
I concentrated my healing energy and closed the wound.
Can you hear me, Emma? BJ said.
Yes. Gold?
Good to go. I’ll leave you to it, Gold said. Stay safe, Emma.
Are my family okay?
They haven’t been touched. They’re under guard in Persimmon Tree Pavilion on the Mountain. They’re all safe.
How is the Dark Lord?
They haven’t tortured him. He’s in the cage and being minimally cared for — food and water. They’re busy preparing the Celestial Palace for the coronation. Simone has disappeared. Leo and Buffy are safe in the United States, and your sisters and nephew are in the Dark Lord’s house in London for a few days while they find somewhere to live.
Amy?
She’s in the North with the rest of the residents under house arrest. I will return to her as soon as we’re done here.
Thank you. Go.
Gold changed to True Form and slipped out of the room.
I have a list of calls and messages for you, BJ said. But nothing so urgent you need to do it right now. Get some sleep.
I haven’t slept since the Heavens fell. I’ve been lying here for hours wondering what I can do — and what I could have done — to avoid this situation. I’m worried about my family and about Simone, and you, and Chang and the orphans, and my students and —
Lady Emma, BJ said, a formal edge to her voice. Shut up and go to sleep.
Like I said, I can’t — I began, but never finished it.
* * *
The grey sky brightened and I gave up trying to go back to sleep. The thoughts spun through my head. What could I have done differently? Wh
at could I do now? How was Simone coping? Were my family safe?
It was pointless lying there beating myself up. I needed to move.
You there, BJ?
I’m here. It’s really early, Aunty Emma, go back to sleep.
Yeah, I’ve been trying for a while and it’s not happening. Can you give me the messages while I find some breakfast?
Okay.
I folded up my blanket, then made a cup of tea. I looked around for bread and peanut butter, but when I found it I couldn’t face making toast and eating it. I wanted to change into clean clothes, but the King hadn’t provided any. I should have slept nude, wrapped in the blanket, and washed my clothes during the night, but then I’d have to wear them damp.
The King will have to provide you with more clothes, BJ said.
Yeah, I know. You said you had messages for me?
Most of the messages from yesterday are people checking up on you. You don’t need to answer. I told everybody the situation before we came down here. Brother Chang has been calling me non-stop and he sounds desperate.
Did you tell him there’s nothing I can do?
They’re out on the street.
What?
Listen.
‘Emma!’ Chang did sound desperate. ‘Emma, I need some cash right now. The hotel’s not owned by the Tiger any more and the new management have thrown us out. They claim that we owe them thousands of dollars! Can you send someone to pick us up? We’re all sitting in the street in front of the hotel and I’m worried Child Services will come. The police have already stopped by twice to warn us to move on.’
There was a click, then a buzz. Next one, BJ said.
‘Please help us, Emma,’ Chang said. ‘The police keep cruising past. You have to help me! The police are here again — oh no, they have a wagon, they’re taking us in. Help!’
That’s all, BJ said.
I went through the dark living room and opened the front door. The King hadn’t stationed an armoured demon there. Instead, there was a big Duke, to keep Mothers away rather than stop me from escaping.
‘What’s your number?’ I asked him.
‘Forty-One. Or Hak Yu if you like. I have a human name.’
