Dreaming of Zhou Gong

by Traci Harding

  ‘To what team do you refer?’ Dan exploited the detail to delay the spirit.

  ‘You’ll find out, if you manage to live till your dying day.’

  The response was rather puzzling. ‘Well, of course I shall live until my dying day —’

  ‘Do you want me to unlock your talent or not?’ the invisible guest asked impatiently.

  ‘You have tapped into that power before,’ Hudan told Dan, recollecting the additional soul-mind he’d spotted within the Great Mother. ‘You would have mastered the skill by now had a revolution not hindered your progress.’

  ‘Will it mean I can see your lordly friend?’ Dan wanted to know.

  ‘Yes,’ the lord stated in challenge.

  Dan moved Hudan aside gently, and stepped into her place. ‘Then proceed.’

  ‘What is happening?’ Fen observed his lord warily, as Hudan was doing.

  Avery pressed his right index finger into Dan’s third eye area.

  At first Dan felt a tingling against his forehead, and then a pressure, like light-filled water bubbles rushing into his forehead. His eyes were closed and flickered feverishly as energy, distinctly golden in colour, surged into his being via his contact point with the lord. When the experience ended, Dan was immediately destabilised and dropped to the floor.

  ‘You could have warned him.’ Hudan came to sit beside Dan to support his quivering form and Fen rushed over to be of aid by placing his calming hands upon his lord.

  ‘Whoa!’ Dan released an exhilarated cry; he didn’t have any inclination to reproach the lord, as he felt utterly incredible. He squinted at first, blinded — the light volume in the room seemed to have increased tenfold. The first thing he came to focus on was Hudan, and she was glowing all over. ‘You look like an undulating rainbow,’ he said and smiled, enchanted, and Hudan smiled back equally so. Fen appeared likewise.

  ‘Look at me.’ The lord cut into the middle of the huddle.

  ‘Argh!’ The brightness of Avery’s celestial appearance bowled Dan backward and he blocked his eyes.

  ‘Focus,’ the lord insisted.

  Tears of resistance drained from Dan’s eyes as he forced his eyes open to view the fair face of a son of the sky.

  ‘You good?’ the young, scantily clad lad asked.

  Dan nodded, and looking at Hudan and Fen, they were almost back to normal.

  ‘Now we’re ready.’ Avery smiled, confidently.

  Upon their return to the king’s council chamber, they found the Ji brothers awaiting their briefing, along with Jiang Huxin and a handful of Ji Fa’s personal guard. ‘All things considered I thought it best to keep this matter in the family,’ Ji Fa explained. For the truth was, that among their allies, the Ji brothers were the youngest and boldest warriors in the land. ‘I will not have my allies perish for a Ji family curse. Zai will remain here in this chamber to safeguard the throne, while we deal with this.’

  ‘You intend to come?’ Dan was convinced Fa could not be serious. ‘As your chief advisor, I strongly advise against it.’

  ‘This is my curse,’ Ji Fa replied, not be swayed. ‘I carry the mandate, thus I choose who may be of aid to me in this quest, or not.’

  Hudan placed a hand on Dan’s arm to calm him, and moved forward to address the king. ‘Brother Fa, Dragonface wants you to attend —’

  ‘Then I will not disappoint,’ he insisted. ‘With all due respect, my brother, what manner of king would subject his loyal warriors to a terror he will not face himself?’

  ‘One who plans to rule longer than a day,’ Dan quipped, frustrated.

  ‘I shall guard Ji Fa,’ Shi assured Hudan as he stepped forward, and the claim was much to the amusement of his brothers.

  ‘I feel sure our king feels much safer now,’ jeered Chu, brother number eight and the most warlike of the bunch.

  But Hudan knew that Fa could have no greater guardian than Shi, who was obviously prepared to disclose his secret to protect his siblings, even at the risk of their ridicule. ‘That would be most pleasing to Tian,’ she informed Shi.

  ‘He’ll have us tame them and keep them as pets,’ Chu warned, to the amusement of all.

  ‘I don’t know that it is possible to love our enemy to death!’ Zai, the youngest added to the mirth.

  ‘Courage and love are the only two weapons you have against these creatures,’ Hudan said, and they hushed. ‘Fear them and you will die; hate them and you will die. Should you find yourself in the clutches of the creature, think of what you love most, for love is the one thing that repulses them.’

  ‘My happy place is on the battlefield,’ Chu contended, inciting a cheer from most of his brothers.

  ‘Then you ought to fare well,’ Hudan granted.

  Ji Fa looked pleased that any impediment to his involvement had been set aside, and looked to his chief advisor, who was not quite so content with the decision. ‘So, what’s the plan?’

  The remainder of the king’s guard had been posted outside the bolted garden enclosure to keep watch and ensure that nothing came out and no one went in. The huge pen had been found open — Shou had ordered it unbolted before he set himself ablaze, as a present for his enemies. There was perhaps an hour of daylight left and the rain was still falling steadily.

  ‘Keep your eyes peeled for anything shifting about.’

  Hudan overheard the Lord Avery advise Dan, who gave a nod as the double-bolt to the enclosure was pulled aside.

  Dan sights shifted to Hudan alongside him. ‘Be brilliant.’

  ‘Oh, I will be.’ She shook the staff in her hand, trying to avoid contemplating any tragedy that the next hour might hold.

  Unfortunately, Fen had talked his way onto the battlefield, arguing that his unique talent made him indispensable, even more so than anyone bar his intimate family would realise.

  ‘Like lambs to the slaughter.’ Daji’s prediction was like poison in Hudan’s mind, but not even little Fen had the look of a lamb about him this day. Rather, his expression was one of single-mindedness — to get his love back alive.

  Of course Daji would think good-hearted men were no match for such evil, because she never understood the power of rightful intention, Hudan mused. And neither do these creatures. Her pity for the homeless reptiles welled as they were about to have their delusions of being all-powerful shattered — Hudan truly believed this.

  Unlike Zi Shou’s guards, who had entered this place in fear, the Ji clan strode inside with a consolidated sense of purpose. But upon viewing inside the pit, even Chu was revolted.

  ‘Bastards,’ he uttered as he viewed the mountain of unnamed, unhonoured dead, beautiful women, children and Bi Gan rotting amongst them. ‘I’m going to slice you open and leave you staked in the sun for the vultures!’ he yelled into the cavernous pit, whereby Du and Zhenduo dragged him away from the hole to calm him down.

  ‘Find a happy place,’ Du suggested.

  ‘My sword through a lizard’s head!’ Chu seethed and then smiled through gritted teeth. ‘And I mean that in the most loving and endearing way.’

  ‘There you go,’ Zhenduo said and released his little brother.

  Du slapped Chu’s shoulder to encourage him to keep his spirits light, as they turned back to face the pit, the stench of which was enough to compel anyone to flee the vicinity.

  ‘I had hoped your Wu were deluded, Ji Fa,’ Xian admitted, ‘but it is obvious we have a fight on our hands this day.’ He twirled his sword around a few times to limber up, as he backed up with the rest of his brothers to allow Hudan to draw the creatures out. ‘This should be a bit of post-war fun for us, brothers! We haven’t had a good family hunt since Shi was born.’ His siblings were roused by his fighting mood, and even Shi was amused and feisty.

  Dan stopped beside Hudan, and when she looked at him, the expression on his face said everything: primarily, don’t die.

  ‘If you’re going to kiss her again, Dan, I do wish you’d get on with it!’ Wu teased, which embarrassed Dan into a retreat.


  Left to their conjuring, Lord Avery asked Hudan, ‘Are we ready?’

  With a nod, she turned back to face the pit. Taiji in one hand, the lord’s hand in her other, Hudan sang the lowest note of her scale. The base of her staff, she pounded into the ground, whereupon its crystal sphere lit up brilliant red. Higher up the scale she sang through orange and yellow, but with her next note — akin to the heart centre of the body — instead of the stone turning a shade of green, as it normally did, Taiji turned rosy pink. The discrepancy distracted Hudan. ‘It’s never gone that shade before!’

  ‘Not to worry, this energy will come in handy.’ The lord’s worried sights edged toward Dan and but resisted going there, needing to stay focused on Hudan. ‘Just keep going, stick to the plan.’

  With her next note, the sphere in Taiji turned blue, one of the coolest colours of the spectrum. The pale blue light filled the area, and an icy wind whipped around the enclosure, gathering the falling rain and turning it to snow. The temperature plummeted, but before any of her allies could freeze, she directed the icy wind into the pit, at which point the light in Taiji’s sphere fell dormant once more. Hudan closed her eyes to direct the cold front through the tunnel and down into the second pit, which was the dragon’s lair.

  The snowball of wind and ice hit the chamber at high velocity, extinguishing the firepit and covering everything therein in a blanket of snow.

  There was a spine-chilling silence that succeeded the strike as everyone strained to listen for a protest or the approach of the enemy.

  Hudan rose into the air to get the best view inside the pit without falling prey to a hidden dragon. ‘Do you think we froze them all?’

  The Lord Avery, floating beside her, shook his head. ‘They are going to be seriously ticked off though.’ He closed his eyes to perceive their movements. ‘Here they come.’

  Hudan saw something travelling through the shadows in the pit beneath and passed on the warning. ‘Here they come!’ The brothers stood on guard with weapons raised and ready to strike.

  The first of the reptilians to rear its ugly head shot a dart in Hudan’s direction, which she caught and threw back to him with equal force, but his scaly armour deflected it.

  Chu was the first to rush forward to engage the monster in battle, when behind it four more of the creatures crawled out of the pit, then rose onto their hind legs to form a huge wall in front of him. Chu came to a stop and backed up a step, as Du, Xian, Wu and Zhenduo rushed to his aid. ‘These things are even uglier than I imagined,’ Chu exclaimed, suddenly releasing a war cry; whereupone the brothers rushed at the creatures, who dropped onto all fours, heads lowered.

  The reptiles sprang forward and battered their opposition backward. Chu, Du and Wu were sent flying and their opponents scattered, scampering up walls and onto the ceiling grid.

  Zhenduo, armed with a long, bladed staff, used his weapon as leverage to side-flip clear of the strike. He spun around to give his opponent a nasty gash on the tail, which bled blue gunk as the creature turned about to retaliate. It gripped hold of Zhenduo around the middle and raised him off the ground to tear him in two, but the warrior thrust the sword at the end of his long staff into the creature’s eye, and wailing in pain it released its captive, before falling dead at his feet. Zhenduo was quick to retrieve his weapon.

  As Xian ran at his target, he dropped to his knees and slid on the mud under the animal, to thrust his sword into the creature’s throat. When he cleared his target he was covered in blue gooey blood, and empty-handed. ‘Aw … the stink!’ The smell of the creatures was like rotting flesh, and they smelt even worse on the inside. Xian wiped the excess slime away and drew another sword from his back. His victim was still thrashing about trying to pull his sword out of its throat. When it did, it dropped dead on the spot, spurting blue fluid.

  Another three reptilians climbed out of the pit to replace them, and one of them had hold of Nuan.

  ‘Nuan!’ Fen spotted her and immediately took off in that direction, but Ji Fa grabbed the lad to prevent him rushing in as the reptile holding his love was Dragonface.

  ‘Which one of you is Ji Fa?’ the largest lizard asked.

  ‘It talks?’ Chu was amazed.

  ‘Sing your heart note, Hudan. Now!’ Avery urged.

  ‘I am Ji Fa!’ Shi announced in response to the lizard’s query.

  ‘No, Shi!’ Fa called out.

  As Dragonface looked to the king, having found his target, Hudan sang. No moving through the scale this time, her voice attuned itself straight to the heart note and the reptilians cringed, repulsed at the sound of it, while the men were galvanised by its beauty. Hudan flew to the ground and as her staff made contact with the earth, the sphere lit up bright pink. The colour frequency was blinding to everyone for a moment, and it shot a debilitating energy through their enemies, but an empowering, righteous energy through her allies.

  ‘Now!’ Ji Fa cried and everyone chose a target.

  ‘Come on!’ Dan invited, but for some reason the lizards were avoiding him, so he was forced to chase up an opponent.

  Dragonface handed his hostage to the lizard next to him and raced at Ji Fa. In the distraction of the glare of Hudan’s heart-light, Shi had stripped naked, and the king was astonished when his younger brother transformed into a tiger and leapt at the creature, bowling it over. Dragonface may have stood taller than the tiger, but the tiger had greater body mass on its side and Shi sounded far more ferocious, with teeth and claws every bit as sharp as his slippery opponent.

  The creature was clearly overwhelmed by this development. Noticing their leader in trouble, a couple of his minions ran to his aid, abandoning their battle with Chu and Xian.

  ‘Where did the tiger come from?’ Chu asked, and Xian shrugged.

  ‘The enemy of our enemy is our ally.’ Xian rushed off to help the animal and Chu, in agreement with Xian’s reasoning, followed suit.

  Hudan noted another enemy had scampered across the ceiling of the cage. As it dropped toward the king, she blasted the creature with a burst of force from Taiji, so that it slammed into the back wall of the enclosure and fell unconscious. Wu was quick to run it through before it recovered. Hudan then turned her attention to the lizard that held Nuan, but Fen was racing toward the beast at breakneck speed.

  ‘You want something, little girl?’ the creature laughed, seeing that his challenger was so young and didn’t even wield a weapon. Fen jumped high into the air over the creature’s head and, doing a half twist, came to land on the lizard warrior’s back. The reptile struggled to swat the lad off with his one free arm, but Fen hugged tight, eyes closed. Hudan realised his tactic as the creature calmed to a passive state.

  ‘You don’t want to kill,’ Fen told it, and it shook its head to agree. ‘Put the lady down.’ The creature complied with his wish, and Fen slid from its back to embrace Nuan.

  ‘Fen!’ She threw her arms around him.

  Hudan turned back to see Dragonface had escaped the tiger by scampering up a wall, and while the tiger aided Xian and Chu to fend off the other two lizards, Dragonface shot a dart from his wristband across the field of battle and Nuan suddenly felt like a dead weight in Fen’s arms.

  ‘No!’ Hudan and Fen cried out together. Hudan began blasting the creature as it skittered around the enclosure to avoid her strikes. Then she stole a moment to centre herself, and directed her chi to pin Dragonface to the spot. Aiming with her staff, it took all her concentration to keep the struggling animal pinned down, as Ji Fa cried out, ‘He’s mine!’ The king took a running jump and with a swing of his battleaxe, took the creature’s head clean off. As the reptilian’s head rolled across the ground it changed into another of its ilk.

  ‘Fa! Look out!’ Dan cried in warning, as the creature he was battling changed form into Dragonface and left Dan to pursue the king.

  Fa turned and was stunned to be confronted by the very dragon he’d just killed, who sank his claws deep into the king’s leg. ‘A little gi
ft from me to make your remaining time on this earth as miserable as possible.’

  The tiger clamped his jaws around the neck of the creature to drag it off the king, and applying more and more pressure, drained the life from his victim, who fell limp in his jaws.

  Dan watched the dead animal and his eyes followed an invisible trail of something moving toward the reptilian Chu was fighting. ‘There!’

  The reptilian before Chu began to transform into Dragonface, but before the shift was completed Chu took advantage and drove his sword through the head of his opponent. ‘With love from Zhou, shithead!’ He yanked his weapon back out and watched the monster fall.

  All the warriors then turned their attention to the one reptilian still active, who assumed the form of Dragonface.

  ‘The curse you have imposed on our land, its rulers and humanity ends today!’ Ji Fa told the creature.

  ‘My tribute is not so great, compared with the knowledge I can offer you, Ji Fa,’ it said, inviting negotiation. ‘I’ve been alive for hundreds of thousands of years. You cannot begin to imagine what I know.’

  ‘Like a whore you promise delights, but will deliver nothing but disease,’ the king replied, making it clear he was not interested in collaboration.

  ‘You are not the only civilisation to exploit on this planet, you realise?’ the creature vexed his opponent, the edges of its very large mouth curving to a grin as it pressed a button on its armour and exploded over them.

  ‘Argh!’ they all cried in disgust, wiping blue muck and pieces of lizard off themselves. Dan, however, remained focused on the dead creature.

  Hudan rushed over. ‘Where is he going?’ she queried Dan, who shook his head as he looked about them.

  ‘He didn’t shift that time. His dark spirit just vanished.’

  They both looked at Avery, who nodded. ‘Dan’s right. He’s gone.’

  All eyes turned to the one remaining creature that Fen had taken down with his healing and empathic skills. This creature had not taken on the persona of Dragonface, but was kneeling beside Fen weeping over the dead body of Nuan.