Dark Serpent

by Kylie Chan

  John explained for Er Lang’s benefit. ‘It’s an Edict. I have to go over there directly after Mid-Autumn Festival and stay until I either find out what’s going on or a month has passed.’

  ‘Who are you taking?’ Er Lang said.

  ‘Emma and Simone — I must protect them. Leo, to guard them when I’m not. The two Western men — their names are Tom and Ben O’Breen.’

  ‘That’s an unusual surname; isn’t it supposed to be O’Brien?’ Er Lang said.

  ‘Definitely O’Breen, it’s spelt slightly differently because it’s an older version. Same as Emma’s last name, Donahoe.’

  ‘Fascinating,’ Venus said.

  ‘My Number One, Ming Gui, and my Number Two, Yue Gui, will mind the Northern Heavens,’ John said. ‘The Lius and the Celestial Masters will manage the Mountain. Er Lang, you’re on call to see to the defence of the Celestial Palace.’

  ‘Wonderful, now Ah Wu’s back I don’t have to manage the defence of the entire Celestial Plane all by myself,’ Er Lang said with cutting sarcasm.

  John shrugged. ‘An Edict’s an Edict.’

  ‘What do you think you’ll find there, Ah Wu?’ Venus said.

  ‘A breeding program. Humans, demons, Shen, somehow kept captive and forced to have children. Emma’s ancestors were exiled for marrying; someone was telling them when they could have a family, and who with.’

  ‘Controlling who could marry? That’s sickening,’ Venus said.

  ‘That’s the way it was here until about a hundred years ago,’ John said.

  ‘We forget the cruelties of the past so quickly,’ Er Lang said.

  John deliberately focused his intent dark gaze on Er Lang. ‘I hear you challenged Emma so that you could court Simone when Simone was only sixteen.’

  Er Lang paled. ‘I had no intention of courting her, my Lord, it was merely a ruse because I was convinced that Emma was a demon.’ His voice rose in pitch when he saw John’s face. ‘Well, she was a demon! And I wanted to show the Celestial — I thought the Jade Emperor was too busy to know …’ His eyes widened as John continued to glower at him. ‘I was defending the Celestial! I have no intention of pursuing your daughter!’ He saluted John, who had summoned yin in dark cold strands through his long hair. ‘Believe me, my Lord, I am here to protect the Celestial, and although it was once acceptable I know that it’s no longer the way —’

  ‘Calm down, he’s toying with you,’ Venus said.

  ‘What?’ Er Lang relaxed when he saw John smile slightly. ‘Don’t do that to me!’

  John pulled the yin back and filled Er Lang’s cup. ‘You wouldn’t be able to handle my daughter anyway. I daresay any man on the Plane will find her a challenge when she’s of age and ready to choose a partner.’

  ‘Hell yeah, she has a lot of her mother in her,’ Er Lang said. He drained his wine cup and made another face. ‘The Tiger saw you coming, my friend.’

  ‘He usually does.’

  2

  Emma

  I hefted the sheaf of papers under my arm and tapped on John’s office door.

  ‘Enter,’ he said.

  I opened the door, took three steps in, then fell to one knee with my head bowed. ‘My Lord, I am here in my role as research assistant to help you in your pursuit of information on the Shen of the West, as directed by the Celestial himself. I offer no advice or guidance on the management of the Mountain or the Heavens.’

  ‘I accept your assistance under those constraints,’ John said. He leaned back and put his hands on the desk. ‘Saying that once should be enough. Why do we have to say it every single damn time?’

  I sat across the desk from him and placed the papers on it. ‘Whatever, it doesn’t mean anything —’

  ‘Say it doesn’t mean anything and you’ll be blocked from doing this too,’ he said urgently.

  ‘I was going to say that it doesn’t mean anything to me if I have to say the words a million times as long as I can work on this.’

  ‘I understand,’ he said. He rubbed his hands over his face. ‘I just received an Edict.’

  ‘Oh crap. How bad is it?’

  ‘Nothing we hadn’t already planned … sort of. We have to go to the UK directly after Mid-Autumn Fest—’

  ‘That was the plan anyway,’ I said, interrupting.

  He stopped and glared at me, his dark eyes sharp, then his expression softened and he smiled slightly and shook his head. ‘We have to stay either a month or until we find out what’s going on, whatever’s sooner.’

  ‘We won’t be there a whole month,’ I said. ‘It shouldn’t take us long to find out what’s happening over there — we have some excellent leads and Ben’s assistance. We’ll be fine.’

  ‘I hope you’re right.’ He saw the documents I’d placed on his desk. ‘Is that my thesis?’

  I raised the thick manuscript. ‘What a freaking slog to read.’

  ‘I hardly understand most of it myself without the Serpent,’ he said. ‘When I had the snake I could see patterns so quickly. Things just slotted together and the bigger picture became obvious. If I’d managed to talk to some Western Shen, I think I would have discovered something important. As it is, I found so many parallels that I began to wonder if we Shen are created by your storytelling and only exist as an extension of your combined consciousness.’

  ‘I’m beginning to wonder that myself,’ I said. ‘Look at Campbell’s work — Shen all over the world have close to identical stories, even when the societies had no contact whatsoever.’

  ‘Or we could be the creations of aliens who visited this planet and left us behind as guardians,’ he said, examining the documents. ‘That fits as well. I was well on the way to finding the truth when I lost the snake.’

  ‘That may be why you lost it — you were close to a discovery so they took it away.’

  ‘We must ask it,’ he said. ‘Anyway, I only covered Arthurian legends and the parallels with Chinese myths of the Xuan Wu in my thesis. The Arthurian stories were heavily influenced by romantic ideals, so they’ve diverged dramatically from the original tales. What have you come up with so far?’

  I spread the papers in front of me and put my tablet computer to the side. ‘Three major European polytheistic strands: Greco-Roman, Norse and Celtic. Celtic you’ve touched on with Arthurian; I’ve been looking into Greco-Roman and Norse.’

  ‘Do any of them sound like us?’

  ‘They’re sex fiends who spend their time fighting, screwing and getting into trouble on the Earthly with human men and women.’

  ‘Sounds exactly like us.’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Both Norse and Greco-Roman? Aren’t they completely different from each other?’

  ‘There are variations, but when it comes to the basic elemental forces like yourself, you’ll find definite similarities.’

  ‘Celtic?’

  ‘Much the same. When the Romans invaded Britain, they were surprised at how closely the Celtic gods mirrored their own. And on top of that, Buddhist missionaries went through way before the Romans did and the Celts made one of the Buddhas a member of their own pantheon. I suspect Kwan Yin may have been wandering much further than we know.’

  ‘Fascinating. I must give her a call and see if she has anything for us. Any leads on what names we’ll be looking for when we get there?’

  ‘No idea at all. Each set of stories is equally strong.’

  ‘I’ll just have to make my way to Western Heaven and say hello then.’ He leaned back. ‘Good afternoon, sir, are you Odin, Jupiter, Zeus or the Dagda?’

  I made my voice deeper. ‘All of ’em, motherfucker, wanna take me on?’

  He grew wistful for a moment. ‘Now that’s an interesting proposition.’

  ‘Me or Odin?’

  He smiled slightly. ‘Another god of war. Someone who would be a challenge.’

  ‘I see.’

  He looked down at the papers. ‘Holy Island?’

  I shuffled through them, looking for the phot
o, then gave up and brought it up on the tablet. ‘This is a pair of standing stones called Penrhos Feilw, three metres high and three metres apart, that have been there for three thousand years.’

  ‘That’s a gateway,’ he said. He glanced up from the picture. ‘Has the implant worked?’

  ‘Stone?’ I said.

  ‘It’s satisfactory,’ the stone that used to be in my engagement ring said. It had been relocated to between my shoulderblades. ‘We’re still working on options for a backup plan in case I’m discovered or disabled.’

  ‘We were thinking something similar to The Bourne Identity,’ I said. ‘A code or number tattooed onto me in an extremely private place.’

  ‘What have you decided?’ Zara said from her stand on the desk.

  ‘Probably a phone number tattooed very high on my inner thigh.’

  ‘How about an IP address in ultraviolet ink?’ Zara said.

  ‘Ultraviolet wouldn’t work; if I’ve lost my memory I won’t know it’s there. But the IP address is a good idea. We can use a website to provide an info dump and contact point.’

  ‘It would need some work to make it traceable from our end but not from hers, in case her captors find it,’ my stone said.

  ‘What’s the Bourne Identity?’ John said.

  ‘Matt Damon,’ Zara said with a huge sigh of bliss. ‘I have copies of all his movies stored in my lattice.’

  ‘DVD time,’ I said.

  ‘I see. Do you need me to order the IP business?’

  ‘Stone,’ I said, and stopped. I couldn’t tell the stone to do this; it was too close to management of the Mountain. ‘Yes, I do.’

  ‘Do it,’ John said.

  ‘My Lord,’ the stone said.

  I collected the papers together. ‘There’s a Roman fort and a village that is several thousand years old on that island. It was the last place to hold to the old ways when the Romans swept through Britain. The islanders supposedly used magic to stop the Romans from invading.’

  ‘Is the village the one from your dreams?’

  ‘No, it’s from the Iron Age and just ruins. The village I dream about is definitely the modern village called Mountain. I used Google Earth to pay it a virtual visit — the topography is the same.’ I hesitated. ‘The Welsh name for it is “Red Enclosure”. I looked it up and there’s some suggestion that it’s called that because people were herded there and their blood spilled.’

  ‘Is the hill — Holy Mountain — the one with blood on top in your dream?’ John said.

  I nodded.

  ‘Don’t be too concerned about the blood business.’

  ‘In the dream, I thirsted for blood because it would bring me power.’

  ‘That’s what it does.’

  ‘It was a freaking sacrifice.’ I tried to control my voice. ‘It was a human sacrifice, and I couldn’t wait for the sacrifice to die. I would have been happy to help the other snakes kill it if I could have a share of its blood. His or her blood.’

  ‘I will find you and Raise you and marry you. Hold on to that thought. Now …’ He rose from his desk and pushed his keyboard to the side. ‘I have a class with the junior Masters. Is there anything else?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘Good. Dismissed.’

  I jerked to attention and saluted him Western-style. ‘Sir!’

  ‘You are very cute when you do that,’ he said as he walked past without looking at me.

  I stamped one foot military-style. ‘Sir, yes sir!’

  He raised one hand behind him without looking back. ‘That is extremely distracting.’

  I gathered the papers together and shoved them under my arm to follow him. ‘Excellent.’

  Three first-year students, two girls and a boy, were waiting for us outside the office. John stopped when he saw them. ‘Are you here for me?’

  They stared at him, stunned, then one of the girls found her voice. ‘Uh, no, my Lord, we’re here for …’ She gestured helplessly towards me.

  John glanced back at me. ‘Oh, I see.’ He raised his voice. ‘Three more students to play the Game with you, Emma. Have fun.’

  He strode away towards the training section.

  I put my free hand on my hip. ‘Okay, go for your lives — you have two minutes. What’s the bet this time?’

  ‘Fifty US dollars if one of us can do a simple salute,’ the boy said.

  I shrugged. ‘As I said, go for your life.’

  They all went stiff and their faces became taut with effort. The Chinese girl started to pant with the strain, then gave up and sagged. ‘Okay. L …’ She gagged on the sound. ‘L …’

  ‘You can’t call me Lady anything, it won’t work. Try ma’am.’

  ‘M …’

  The other two joined in, and the three of them hummed the M together, unable to take the word any further.

  ‘Very musical,’ I said. ‘You should join the new Glee Club, they need more members.’

  The stone broke in. ‘Emma, quickly, the Serpent’s made contact!’

  I shoved the documents at one of the students. ‘Do me a huge favour, please, and take these to —’

  She stared at the documents without moving. ‘I’m sorry, I want to, but I can’t.’

  ‘Dammit!’ I said, and hefted the papers again. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘Infirmary. Run!’

  I was at the infirmary before them. The junior Masters carried John into the ward and Edwin worked quickly. He tore open John’s black jacket and inspected the wounds on his abdomen, then went to the other side of the room to grab an IV stand.

  The students hovered over John, concerned. I stood at the back of the group, unable to ask them to move.

  Edwin returned with the IV and began to set up the bag. ‘Everybody except Emma out,’ he said. ‘Go find Master Meredith, and ask her and Master Liu to come.’

  The students nodded and went out, shooting a few concerned looks behind them. I sat beside the bed and took John’s hand. He had withdrawn into himself and didn’t seem to register anybody’s presence.

  More wounds appeared on his abdomen, combined with a strong acrid smell. The wounds were oval and angrily red, some larger than others. As I watched, another appeared and grew to five centimetres across, again combined with the acrid smell.

  Edwin touched one of the wounds with a gauze pad, raised it to his nose and jerked back. ‘Hydrochloric acid. That bastard.’ He quickly went out.

  John made a soft sound in his throat and another burn appeared on his upper arm. I held his hand tighter and he squeezed it in return.

  Edwin returned with bandages and a white paste. He smeared the paste over the wounds, then covered them with the bandages.

  ‘What’s that you’re putting on it?’ I said.

  ‘Ordinary baking soda,’ Edwin said. ‘It will neutralise the acid, but the burns won’t go away.’

  A dark patch appeared on the fabric covering John’s thigh, and Edwin quickly cut his uniform trousers away to treat the new burn.

  ‘He can’t do much more — the Serpent will die of blood loss,’ Edwin said, almost to himself. He glanced at John’s face. ‘Come on, John, don’t lose it now.’

  John’s eyes snapped open and he turned his face to see me. His eyes were completely black: the Serpent had connected to him through the suffering.

  ‘Can you talk yet?’ I said.

  He shook his head.

  ‘I’ll wait.’

  Edwin checked the flow on the IV, and pulled a light blanket over John. ‘No more coming up; he appears to be done.’

  ‘He’s done, he’s gone,’ John said. He turned his head to see Edwin. ‘Did you just call me by my first name?’

  ‘No, I called you John,’ Edwin said. ‘Heat of the moment; I apologise, my Lord.’

  ‘Since there are mitigating circumstances I won’t reprimand you,’ John said. He turned his head back to me. ‘There you are, Emma. Quickly — how much progress have you made in finding me?’

  ‘We still ha
ve no idea.’

  ‘How about I set up a major storm or something like that directly above me?’

  ‘Frankly, John, that wouldn’t be much of a marker. Without you out here moderating the weather, there’s a constant stream of freak floods and storms.’

  ‘I need to be back out on the Earthly protecting humanity,’ he said. ‘Okay, affecting the weather won’t work. Are you sending in agents?’

  ‘The King finds them and destroys them the minute they cross into the demonic side of Hell.’

  ‘I’m out of ideas on helping you to find me, and my contact with the Turtle will be lost soon. When are you going to Wales?’

  ‘After Mid-Autumn Festival.’

  ‘Take care, love, you’ll be lost.’

  ‘I’m already taking precautions.’

  ‘Good. My contact is slipping …’ He closed his eyes. ‘It feels so good to be almost one again. Still in two pieces, but closer than I’ve been in years …’

  ‘Did someone deliberately separate you because you were moving close to a truth about your nature?’ I said.

  ‘I don’t know, it just seemed to happen by itself,’ the Serpent said through John. ‘I don’t remember much about it, except being angry and confused and in pain. I don’t recall anyone else being there.’ He opened his eyes again. ‘Run quickly through the precautions you’re taking against being completely lost.’

  ‘The stone in my ring is a dummy,’ I said. ‘The real stone’s been implanted between my shoulderblades so it can help when I’m lost. We’re thinking of having something tattooed on me as well, in case the stone is found and removed.’

  ‘That’s what I was going to suggest,’ the Serpent said. ‘The Turtle’s doing well.’ He winced slightly. ‘I thought for a moment George was coming back. He’s planning something; he’s spending much less time playing with me. I’m keeping my Serpent ears to the ground but not catching anything. How’s Simone?’

  ‘She’s finishing high school and thinking about which university she’d like to study at.’

  ‘What, on the Earthly?’ the Serpent said, shocked. ‘Wait.’ His face went expressionless. ‘The Turtle just shared an info dump. Don’t let him do that too much, it drains him and he needs to heal. One of me needs to be up there defending the Celestial.’