Dark Serpent

by Kylie Chan

  He entered the Jade Emperor’s informal meeting room and fell to one knee. ‘Ten thousand years.’

  ‘Come and sit, Ah Wu,’ the Jade Emperor said from his yellow silk cushioned chair, its rosewood carved with six-toed dragons.

  John sat in one of the guest chairs that faced side-on to the Emperor’s throne and the Jade Emperor poured tea for them both. John tapped the table next to his cup in thanks.

  ‘Don’t worry, Ah Wu, I will release you to find her,’ the Jade Emperor said. He saw John’s relief. ‘We still need to find out what’s happening over there. You are no good to us here fretting. You have already demonstrated what happens when you’re distressed: the palace itself suffers.’

  ‘That won’t happen again,’ John said.

  He sipped the tea and let its pure fragrance ease his worries slightly.

  ‘Good tea always takes away some of the horrors,’ the Jade Emperor said. He sipped, then put his cup down and opened a box and tipped out an enormous wasp, fifteen centimetres long. ‘This is one of them. The other three Winds are on their way; together you must study these new demons and find a way to deal with them before you go. They are deadly.’

  ‘Was it the stings that killed the wives?’ John said, studying the insect without touching it.

  ‘Yes. They contain a large amount of toxin because of their size. We have never seen a poison like it. One of the wives suggested it may be a variant of snake venom because of the speed of death. She said it was like an Australian viper of some sort. She was stung herself.’

  ‘Australian? It wasn’t Emma’s friend, Louise, was it?’ John said, concerned.

  ‘We’ll ask Thirty-Eight. She was there, and she’s waiting outside to speak to me.’

  ‘What escorted these demons to Heaven?’ John said, lifting the wasp’s stinger with the end of one of the Emperor’s writing brushes.

  ‘A cockroach the size of a bus. It wasn’t poisonous itself, but its sharp legs did quite a lot of damage to the walls of the Western Heavens. Largest insect-type we’ve ever seen.’ He answered John’s question before he asked it. ‘The Horsemen took it apart.’

  ‘Did any of these wasp things invade here? You’re having screens put in.’

  ‘No. Only the West.’

  ‘But you’re taking precautions,’ John said.

  ‘Better to be safe. I have many mortals here as well.’

  John contacted Yue Gui. Number Two, have the entire Northern Heavens insect screened. Tell the Lius to do the same to the Mountain. Liaise with the Celestial Palace, they are having it done now.

  Already being arranged, Yue Gui said. Father, there is much that we need to discuss —

  Later, he said, and cut her off. ‘You said Thirty-Eight is here and she saw what happened?’ he asked the Jade Emperor.

  ‘Yes.’ The Jade Emperor raised one hand and a beautiful slender Chinese woman in her mid-forties entered the room.

  She fell to one knee. ‘Ten thousand years.’

  ‘Thirty-Eight,’ John said, nodding to her.

  ‘Lord Xuan.’ She sat on the other side of the Jade Emperor, her long fingers clutching the arm of her rosewood chair. ‘My Lords, I seek your permission to take True Form and sortie into Hell for you. I will gather intelligence on what is happening.’

  John glared at her. ‘That is too dangerous, Sophia. They’ll see through you and destroy you.’

  ‘The King is never there; and hardly any of the new generations know me.’

  ‘They’ll see you’ve turned.’

  ‘No, they won’t.’

  ‘You can’t do this, Sophia, you’re close to regaining your free will. Don’t throw it away like this,’ John said.

  ‘Three of my best friends were attacked by those horrible things!’ she said, distraught. She sniffled and wiped the back of her hand over her eyes. ‘I love Xiao and Louise and Yuko like sisters, and two of them are in a coma and one is dead. So many of my dear friends and sisters died.’ She gulped a huge breath. ‘I must go down and find out what’s happening.’

  ‘Wait … Louise?’ John said. ‘Emma’s friend Louise?’

  ‘In a coma,’ the Tiger said as he entered. He fell to one knee. ‘Ten thousand years.’ He sat next to Thirty-Eight and held her hand in both of his.

  ‘How are they?’ she said.

  ‘We won’t know for a while. They’re on life support so they won’t die, but the doctors need to wait and see how much damage has been done.’ He lifted one of his hands from hers and rubbed his face. ‘It’s possible they’ll be fine. It’s possible they’ll end up vegetables. It’s possible they’ll never wake up at all.’

  She dropped her head and sobbed once, quietly.

  ‘Be strong, Sophia,’ he said gently.

  ‘I’m so damn tired of being strong,’ she said. She pulled herself together and glared at John. ‘Don’t try to stop me. I’m going down there to find out what’s happening.’

  ‘You will be dead within two hours,’ John said. He switched to silent speech and spoke to the Tiger. She’s not yet gained free will. Forbid her or lose her.

  ‘Sophia, please,’ the Tiger said. ‘I don’t want to order you to stay out of there. Let the experts handle it.’

  ‘I’m a level seventy-eight Mother — I’m more expert than anyone!’

  ‘I am a greater expert and I say you will not last five minutes in there,’ John said.

  ‘You don’t know me,’ she said.

  ‘Sophia, darling,’ the Tiger said.

  She ripped her hands out of his. ‘I am not your darling right now.’

  ‘I really don’t want to spoil what we have by ordering you. Give it up and we’ll find another way.’

  ‘Why can’t I leave?’ she said. She glared at the Jade Emperor. ‘Are you stopping me from going?’

  ‘Of course I am, dear one, because the men are right. Listen to them,’ the Jade Emperor said.

  ‘Oh, the men are right, are they?’ she said with a sneer. ‘Of course, the woman,’ she said the word with such malice that John flinched, ‘is wrong and you know best. They were like sisters to me, something I’ve never had, and I want this to stop.’

  ‘Thirty-Eight, I order you —’ the Tiger said.

  ‘No!’ she yelled. ‘Take my free will and I might as well be dead. Just let me find out what’s happening.’

  ‘I order you to return to the Western Heavens immediately and stay there until I order otherwise.’

  She went ice-cold. ‘I cannot believe you would do such a thing to me. I may not be home when you get there, darling.’ She angrily shook his hand free from hers and stormed out.

  The Tiger shook his head. ‘Set her back by a hundred years.’

  ‘It was her will or her life,’ John said. ‘I would have done the same thing.’

  ‘You know what, Ah Wu?’ the Tiger said, studying John carefully. ‘I think you would let your wife die rather than take her free will. But that’s just me. Now.’ He leaned over the dead wasp on the table. ‘My kids in the lab are looking into these — they’re a nasty reptile-insect hybrid the like of which the Celestial has never seen.’ He looked up at the Jade Emperor. ‘They are making new and more fearsome hybrids all the time, and we need to find where they’re making them.’

  ‘Ah Wu has my mandate to return to Europe,’ the Jade Emperor said.

  ‘Good. Do you want to take anyone with you?’ the Tiger asked John. ‘I’d come myself, but I have too many mortal wives to protect. Take some of my Horsemen.’

  ‘No, I’m faster working alone,’ John said. ‘I made it into the Western Heavens just as we were attacked. I think the fact that we were attacked at all demonstrates that I was in the right place.’

  The Jade Emperor rose and bowed slightly to them. ‘The Phoenix and Dragon are here. I will leave it to the four of you to coordinate your plans for defence. If you require Er Lang to attend, he is nearby supervising the reinforcement of the palace walls.’

  John and the Tiger stood, th
en fell to one knee as the Jade Emperor glided out of the audience hall. He stopped at the doorway and spoke to someone outside. ‘They’re in here.’

  The Dragon and Phoenix came in, and the four Winds pulled their chairs closer together.

  The Tiger gingerly picked up the wasp by its wings. ‘There’s a snake in Australia, tiny little thing, kills you in thirty minutes. This is the same venom.’ He dropped the wasp and brushed his hands against each other, then glanced at John. ‘So what’s the word in Europe? I hear you found Emma’s people.’

  ‘Hybrid snake-demon people. Bred by their Shen to fight human conquerors, but it all went bad.’ John ran his hand over his face. ‘They say that all their Shen are gone, and it looks like the demons have taken Heaven.’

  ‘That’s really not good,’ the Tiger said.

  ‘Understatement of the century,’ the Phoenix said.

  The Dragon jumped; his mobile phone had gone off in his pocket with a Japanese pop tune accompanied by an impossibly sweet girl’s voice.

  ‘That’s a vocaloid,’ the Phoenix said with amusement. ‘You are far too old to be listening to that.’

  ‘I own it,’ the Dragon said as he checked who was calling. ‘I was developing software to see if demons could be controlled by a voice at a particular pitch, and it turned out the voice sounded magnificent when it was singing. I had some of my kids match it to a cute girl model and I’m making a fortune; it’s hugely popular.’ He smiled slightly. ‘Never did get the demon thing working.’

  He sharpened his voice and snapped into the phone, ‘What? I left strict instructions that I was not to be disturbed.’ As he listened, his eyes widened and he glanced at John. ‘No. Don’t tell anybody. Need-to-know basis only, do not share this. No, we all know she’s alive anyway, so don’t tell anyone. YouTube? Okay.’

  He pulled the phone from his ear and glared at it as he cut the line. ‘Ah Wu, there is something very important that you have to see,’ he said.

  He placed his phone on the table face up, waved one hand over the device and a transparent computer screen appeared hanging in the air. A keyboard made of light shone onto the surface of the table below it.

  ‘This technology isn’t released yet, so mind who you tell about it,’ the Dragon said, tapping on the keyboard. ‘My daughter says there’s a YouTube video with a password attached so only we can see it.’ He quirked a small smile. ‘They know way too much about you, Ah Wu: the password is “genbu”.’

  John stiffened slightly. It wasn’t common knowledge anywhere outside the present company how much he hated his Japanese name. The name itself — Genbu — wasn’t an issue, but the Japanese had turned his spiritual nature into a creature of humour and disrespectful parody in anime and manga far too many times.

  The Dragon brought the video up on the screen and tapped the table where the volume button was, then pressed play. It was Emma, sitting alone in a chair and facing the camera. She had the blank face of a …

  ‘Demon under control?’ the Phoenix said. ‘How is this possible?’

  ‘All her snake ancestors are part-demon,’ John said. ‘A very small part. They’re so close to human —’

  Emma started talking and he stopped.

  ‘Don’t come back for me,’ she said. ‘Don’t try to …’ She choked on the words. ‘To. To. To. Don’t. Try.’ She stared at the camera, eyes wide and frightened, then screwed up her face with effort.

  ‘Read the card,’ someone ordered off screen. It wasn’t the Eastern King of the Demons.

  Emma panted a few times, staring into the camera with desperation, then spat the words out quickly. ‘Don’t try to enter this Plane again, they’ve closed it. We will …’ She dropped her head and shook it. ‘Will. Will. No.’ She raised her head. ‘John! I’m at Caer —’

  The sound was turned off, but they could still see her mouth moving. It was obvious that she was saying ‘Caer Wydr, the Glass Citadel’.

  ‘Oh, well done, Emma,’ the Tiger said softly.

  John didn’t remember standing but he was on his feet.

  On the screen, two guard demons grabbed Emma and bundled her out of the chair. A man moved into view, slightly out of focus. The sound returned.

  ‘I hear you’ve vowed to destroy us all,’ the man said. ‘What if she’s a mix? Part-human, part-demon? What if one of us can control her? What happens to your vow then? I can control her, so from where I’m standing she’s a demon, and you’ve vowed to destroy her. Funny when things are only in black and white, isn’t it?’ He grinned at the camera. ‘George wanted you out of the way so we could seal everything up. There’s no way into the Western Heavens now. Be good, sit tight, don’t attempt to attack either of our realms and the demon woman won’t get hurt. You can see we haven’t harmed her, and as long as you stay put she won’t be.’ He waved one hand dismissively at the camera. ‘That’s enough. Turn it off.’

  The Dragon waved one hand over the phone to make the screen and keyboard disappear, then picked it up and speed dialled.

  ‘That video,’ he said. ‘Yes. I want it pulled apart pixel by pixel. I want to know who that is and where it is. That demon has to have an Earthly identity. Anything you can find. No! I don’t want excuses. I want information.’

  He hung up. ‘So where now?’

  ‘Caer Wydr — I thought so,’ John said. ‘It’s just a matter of finding the entrance again and then finding the castle. Emma probably knows a great deal about what’s going on there, including the source of the demon hybrids.’

  ‘We’ll send some soldiers with you,’ the Phoenix said.

  ‘My guys are better utilised as tech backup this end,’ the Dragon said. ‘Tiger?’

  ‘I won’t leave my wives,’ the Tiger said with regret, ‘but I should be able to spare some Horsemen.’

  ‘I will give you some of my Red Warriors,’ the Phoenix said. ‘That will be all that is needed. The Southern Palace won’t be attacked; the demons fry just from the proximity.’

  ‘That may not be the case with these new hybrids,’ the Dragon said.

  John saluted the Phoenix. ‘Thank you for the assistance; your Red Warriors were invaluable in yesterday’s battle. But all of your armies are better utilised here. The Red Warriors can be a shock force if anywhere is attacked — they seem to be immensely effective. The realms must be defended and I’m relying on you to see it done. I’ll go alone, and if I need backup I’ll let you know.’

  ‘Just leave your damn phone on,’ the Tiger said, gruff.

  John winced. ‘I promised my contact in the serpent people I’d give it to her. I still have it.’

  ‘Let me give you one of mine,’ the Dragon said. ‘A variation on Gold’s work with Celestial Harmony and artificial stone AI, and linked to us through the Tree. My kids have done some great work with advanced tech.’

  ‘Can you load it with information and addresses for Kitty Kwok’s biotech labs?’ John said.

  ‘Done. I’ll load it with everything I have on Europe, and the AI will respond to verbal questions.’ He smiled slightly. ‘Do you speak Japanese?’

  ‘What, the actual language without Celestial translation?’

  ‘Yes. Do you speak it like a human does?’ the Dragon said.

  ‘As a matter of fact I do.’

  ‘Excellent. Speak to the phone in Japanese rather than English. English is too hard to understand, too many words. It will work like an artificial stone.’

  ‘Good. I hesitate to take a stone with me; I’ve already lost two.’

  ‘Emma’s stone is with her?’ the Phoenix said.

  ‘Emma’s stone is lost. A Western stone is also lost. The stones in Europe have been disappearing, probably to be used in experiments.’

  ‘Has the Grandmother heard of this?’ the Phoenix said.

  ‘Yes. I expect her to move soon.’

  ‘Good. Angering her is a very bad idea.’

  ‘Don’t tell her about my phone technology, okay?’ the Dragon said. ‘You know how she f
eels about artificial stone AI.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Ah Qing, nobody will,’ the Phoenix said.

  ‘Is there anything else?’ John said. ‘The trail is going cold. I need to get back to that lake. If I’m quick I may get there before they close it up, it will take them a while to seal something that big.’

  ‘Just a minute,’ the Dragon said, and dropped his head, his turquoise eyes intense. He shook his head. ‘They are so slow.’ He gestured towards John. ‘The phone will be here in ten minutes. Sit and drink and tell us what’s happened so far.’

  John hesitated, then picked up his teacup. He needed that phone.

  After ten minutes of him bringing the other three Winds up to date, a young woman raced into the room. She was in her late teens, with brilliant blue hair and wearing skinny jeans and a T-shirt with a design of a cat on it. She stopped when she saw them and quickly fell to one knee, head bowed. ‘My Lords. My Lady.’

  ‘Don’t worry about that, give me the damn phone,’ the Dragon said, holding one hand out. ‘Is this the latest version?’

  ‘This has pina colada running on it,’ she said.

  ‘Is that four or five?’ the Dragon snapped. ‘Just use numbers; these code names for versions are ridiculous. Completely meaningless.’

  ‘Five point five. Six is still in beta,’ she said.

  ‘Phone,’ the Dragon said.

  ‘Please ask me a question,’ the phone said.

  ‘Where are Penrhos Feilw standing stones?’ He glanced at John. ‘That’s how you pronounce it, right?’

  ‘Yes.’

  The phone replied in a sweet synthetic female voice, sounding almost like a child. It was similar to the vocaloid. ‘The Penrhos Feilw standing stones are fifty metres back from the road at …’ It gave the map coordinates.

  The Tiger glared. ‘I prefer the natural way of doing things.’

  ‘That’s why you’ll always be trailing behind,’ the Dragon said. He handed the phone to John. ‘As you can see, it’s marked the stones on the map for you, and knows where you are in relation to them.’