by Kylie Chan
‘Shrink the cloud,’ I said.
‘Won’t make any difference.’
‘How much longer do I have?’
His voice was strained with effort. ‘I’m doing the best I can, ma’am.’
I sank into the cloud; it was losing its solidity. Michael’s dark shape gently fell to sit next to me.
‘I can’t believe this,’ he said. ‘I’ve completely failed you.’
‘Can you summon me a life jacket?’ I said.
‘I’m too weak.’
‘No land anywhere near here,’ Simone said, returning. Her voice became fierce. ‘If I’d taken the training that everybody told me to, I would be able to summon a cloud too!’
‘Humph,’ Michael said, his voice fading. ‘Damn stupid way to get around anyway.’
‘Can you summon me and Michael a boat?’ I asked her. ‘A life raft?’
‘Nothing that big. Put this over your head and tie it around your waist,’ she said, handing me a life jacket. I quickly pulled it on, wrapping the tapes around me. The jacket was too big and felt uncomfortable.
‘Michael? Michael? Put the jacket on,’ Simone said.
The cloud came apart and I fell. I slowed my fall and landed in the water again. The life jacket forced me onto my back, the floats behind my head holding it above the water, but the waves still hit my face, occasionally making me breathe water and cough.
A nearby splash indicated that Michael had fallen in as well.
‘Michael!’ Simone shouted. Another splash sounded as she hit the water to search for him.
There was silence for a moment, then Simone shouted, ‘Don’t you dare die on me, Michael MacLaren, I would never forgive myself!’
‘I’ll do it just to spite you then, squirt,’ Michael said.
‘I’ll hold you up, put the stupid jacket thing on,’ she said.
There were some grunts as he struggled with the ties. ‘I hope I got it tight enough — drop me, let’s see.’
‘I should go up higher and drop you,’ Simone said. ‘Emma, are you okay?’
‘She’s fine, she just keeps inhaling water,’ the stone said.
An arm flailed nearby and hit my shoulder.
‘Who is that?’ I said.
‘Me,’ Michael said. ‘Grab my hand.’
I took his hand and held it. ‘Simone has the other hand,’ he said.
‘All we have to do now is wait for help,’ I said. ‘Good job, guys.’
‘You are such a dumbass, Michael, you nearly got Emma killed,’ Simone said.
‘I know,’ Michael said ruefully. ‘I’m so sorry, Emma. My dad is going to tear my whiskers off.’
‘At least we’re not in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic,’ I said. ‘But which one of us is Rose?’
‘Me!’ the stone shouted, changing its voice to a falsetto. ‘Save me, Jack!’
‘Oh, shut up,’ Michael said.
The water surged beneath us; I was lifted two metres on the swell.
‘What was that?’ I said.
‘I don’t know,’ Simone said, sounding unsure.
‘Any way you can check under us?’ Michael said. ‘I suddenly went from Titanic to Jaws.’
The water lifted us again and Michael clutched my hand.
‘Just a sec,’ Simone said, and there was silence.
‘She’s gone under to have a look,’ Michael said quietly.
The surge lifted us three metres this time and Michael yelped. ‘Something touched my foot!’
Something lifted my foot and then both my feet. It slid up my legs and under my behind. It felt like a surfboard running under my body. Then my perception changed and I realised it was a hard, slightly curved object surfacing in the water, and I was sliding down its side on a coating of what felt like oil.
‘I think it’s Lord Xuan,’ Michael said, still clutching my hand. ‘His turtle form.’
‘John?’ I said.
‘It’s Martin,’ Simone said from somewhere above us. ‘Hold on to him, he’s going to lift you above the water.’
‘He’s too slippery!’ I said, sliding off the edge of his shell and hitting the water again, a metre below.
‘Hold on to Michael, I’ll lift you both,’ Simone said.
Michael’s hand yanked mine and I was lifted out of the water by my arm. We floated some distance, then I was gently lowered onto the flat of the turtle’s shell.
‘Thanks, Martin,’ I called.
‘You’re welcome, Emma,’ Martin said, his voice next to my ear. ‘I came down because I heard that something had happened to Leo?’
‘Leo was attacked by a demon and it killed him,’ Simone said.
Martin was silent for a moment, then, ‘He’s back on the tenth level, where he spent so many years.’
‘I know,’ Simone said.
‘I should go down there,’ Martin said.
‘Why?’ Simone said. ‘You never went down last time.’
‘Yes, I did,’ Martin said. ‘I went constantly. He never wanted to speak to me. He still blames me for killing Father.’
‘And he’s right!’ Simone said, her voice fierce.
‘I know,’ Martin said, almost a moan of pain. ‘When the King offered to take me and use me as a toy in return for keeping you safe, I jumped at the chance. It was the punishment I deserved for betraying my family.’
‘Emo bullshit,’ Simone said, still fierce.
‘I deserved it. I wanted to suffer,’ Martin said.
‘Enough suffering. Enough self-pity. Time to atone by working with us to build a better future for our family,’ Simone said, her voice more compassionate.
‘Yes,’ Martin said. ‘So, I am here, and I will shelter you. We are moving extremely slowly towards Hong Kong; I can’t move fast without tipping you off. We will meet your relief transport in about twenty minutes.’ His voice softened. ‘You are wiser than me, Mei Mei.’
‘Doesn’t take much, Ge Ge.’
CHAPTER 16
About twenty minutes later we saw a light bobbing in the distance, approaching quickly. It was Liu, riding a cloud with dignity, holding his staff beside him and with a light floating next to his shoulder. He dropped down closer to us and his outfit became visible: the traditional brown robes of a Taoist Immortal.
‘Why are you all sitting in the dark?’ he said as he came within hailing distance. ‘Is Simone injured?’
Simone was silent for a moment, then said, ‘I completely forgot that nobody else can see in the dark. I am so sorry, guys, you should have told me you couldn’t see.’
‘Can you fly back unaided?’ Liu asked her.
‘Yeah, no problem. But Michael’s spent and Emma needs a lift.’
‘Summon a cloud for Michael to ride on,’ he said, then leaned towards her, grinning pointedly. ‘Oh, I forgot. You don’t know how.’
She dropped her head, her grimace visible in his light. ‘You don’t need to rub it in, Uncle Liu.’
He straightened and nodded. ‘Ming Gui, thank you for your assistance. I will take them from here.’
‘My honour to serve,’ Martin said, and waited patiently while Michael and I stepped onto Liu’s cloud.
‘We’re clear,’ I said, and Martin dived under the water.
Liu had much better control of his cloud than Michael had, and we travelled high and smoothly back to Hong Kong. The sun appeared over the horizon as we reached the cityscape, the pollution haze turning its rays orange.
‘Where would you like me to drop you?’ Liu said.
‘I’d like to go straight to the Academy and see what the damage is, then I’ll head home and take it easy,’ I said. ‘Take Michael back to the Folly if you could; he’s having trouble staying awake. Simone, what do you want to do? Do you want to go home and rest or come with me?’
‘If you don’t mind, Emma, I’d just like to go home and take a shower and lie in front of the television for a while,’ she said.
‘I’ll see you at home then. Rest and have som
ething to eat, and I’ll be along shortly.’
She nodded and disappeared.
Liu took Michael to the Folly, then took me to Wan Chai and dropped me on the roof of the Academy building. I grimaced when I saw the graffiti next to the entrance.
‘Tell Jade to bring some students up here to clean this off, Liu,’ I said. ‘Na Zha’s been at it again.’
‘Already done, ma’am, they’ll be along shortly,’ Liu said. ‘It’s only 6 am.’
‘I forgot,’ I said. ‘Is anybody in the building?’
‘A few of us are trying to get the computers back online.’
‘I wouldn’t even try, Liu, they aren’t really computers. The only resemblance they have to computers is that they’re shaped like a box and have standard output ports. Gold showed me inside: he raided every domicile in the Celestial to gather rocks for the engines — ordinary stones that had been on the Celestial for at least five hundred years. All that’s inside the boxes are a Celestially tuned stone and a bunch of wires.’
‘I’m getting some telepathic messages exactly to that effect,’ Liu said.
We went down in the lift to the network hub on the second floor. It looked like a standard IT room: airtight, with a false floor of removable static-free tiles raised about thirty centimetres above the concrete floor to allow for the cables running beneath. Racks like shelving units held stacks of computers with no screens or keyboards — the network servers.
Amy and Edwin were there already. The stone in my ring took human form. It looked at the console, tentatively tapped a couple of keys, and shook its head. ‘At least he’s using a standard Unix operating system. With a bit of time and intelligence we should have minimal functionality back.’
‘Only Gold and the two guys here in IT know how to administer the network,’ Amy said. ‘Without them, the network’s down and nobody knows how to get it back up again.’
Edwin, the Academy doctor, took his glasses off and cleaned them on a cloth from his pocket. ‘The demons who did this also erased the data that the stones were working on. We’ll have to restore it from backup.’
Amy shrugged. ‘Edwin works part-time down here, he likes computers. The demons didn’t know that.’
‘All the other dragons laugh at me,’ Edwin said. ‘I can’t fix it alone though; I have my medical duties. Could we recruit some local staff?’
‘Send messages to the other three Winds, let them know the situation and ask for any extra IT support staff they have,’ I said. ‘Word it forcefully to the Dragon; I know he always has more staff than he needs. Edwin, go through the backups and see if the data they were processing is there. Liu, with me.’
‘My Lord,’ Edwin said.
I turned and strode to the lift. ‘Stone, stop playing with the computers and get back here. Liu, have any other demon copies been identified?’
‘No,’ Liu said, hurrying to keep up with me.
‘Losing the data is both good and bad. It means they were on to something and the Geek got scared. Having those demon copies get right through our defences isn’t; we need to call Ronnie Wong in to help us identify them. Can you handle that and report back?’
‘Yes, my Lord.’
I turned and stared at him. ‘What?’
He stared back, confused. ‘What what?’
The lift opened but I didn’t go in. ‘Edwin just called me “my Lord” and you just did the same thing. What’s going on?’
Liu smiled, embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry, my Lor — my Lady, I didn’t realise I was doing it.’
‘What the hell is going on?’ I said loudly, concerned now.
‘Calm down, Emma, you’re doing it to yourself,’ the stone said, back in my ring again. ‘In the last couple of minutes everybody’s scanned you as the Dark Lord. You don’t just sound like him, you are him.’
Liu nodded. ‘He is here.’
I held my arms out in front of me: my hands looked perfectly normal. ‘Do I look like him?’
‘No,’ Liu said.
‘So I sound like him? I have his voice? I hear myself sounding like me.’
‘No, ma’am, your appearance and voice are both you. Your essence, however, is him.’
I pointed at Liu, then realised what I was doing and dropped my finger. ‘This is not going to happen to us.’
‘“Us” meaning you and the Dark Lord?’ the stone said.
‘Simone would kill us!’
‘His influence on you will fade over the next twenty-four hours or so,’ the stone said. ‘Don’t be concerned, just enjoy his presence. He’s helping you out right now.’
Liu stared at the stone. ‘You know what’s happening, stone?’
The stone didn’t reply.
‘He’s here with me?’ I said.
‘Precisely,’ the stone said. ‘It has something to do with spending time with him. Relax and enjoy it.’
‘You know more than you are letting on, my friend,’ Liu said grimly.
‘Of course,’ the stone said.
‘Do you know what I am?’ I said with force.
‘Oh my, I haven’t been threatened with the toilet in many a year,’ the stone said. ‘Here’s your answer. You are an ordinary human being changed by close proximity to the Dark Lord.’
‘Changed to what?’
‘Well, the obvious thing is a great big black snake, woman!’ the stone said.
Liu stifled a laugh.
‘You are such a dick,’ I said.
‘My human form is male. It comes with the territory,’ the stone said.
The corridor shifted under my feet, making me stagger.
Liu took my elbow. ‘You okay?’
‘She’s seen her best friend die, been stranded on a deserted island, dropped in the ocean twice and hasn’t slept in twenty-four hours,’ the stone said. ‘Stupid weak human, she’s at the end of her strength. Take her home and put her to bed.’
‘I think he just left me,’ I said, putting my hand to my forehead, which felt tender and sore. ‘I feel a million years old.’
Liu continued to hold my elbow and his eyes unfocused. ‘Marcus is bringing students over from the Folly in the bus for morning warm-up … Michael’s passed out … Oh, whatever.’ He linked his arm in mine to continue supporting me. ‘I’ll drive you home.’
‘No way am I going in a car with you, Liu Cheng Rong, you are the most suicidal driver I have ever met!’ I tried to pull myself free but he was too strong.
‘Did you know,’ he said conversationally as he led me to the lift, ‘that my Merc has a top speed higher than Gold’s Boxster? We checked it on the freeway in Guangzhou. Surprised both of us.’
‘A Taoist Immortal should be driving something humble like a Mini,’ I said.
‘A ’55 Mercedes sports car is humble in this town,’ he said. ‘Most people laugh at how old it is and wonder why I haven’t updated.’
‘Rubbish,’ I said as he guided me into the lift. ‘A lot of people know what a collector’s item it is and exactly how much it’s worth.’
‘That’s just a side effect of me never wanting to replace it because it works so well,’ he said. ‘The monetary value means nothing to me.’
I leaned against the wall of the lift, which seemed to be swaying slightly, as if I was still in the water. ‘I’m going in Liu Cheng Rong’s car and I’m going to die,’ I said softly.
‘Geez, you sound like my wife sometimes,’ he said as the lift doors opened onto the basement car park.
‘There you are, ma’am,’ Liu said as he screeched to a halt from a speed of nearly a hundred kilometres an hour in front of the gates of the Black Road building. ‘Home and alive.’ He concentrated. ‘Simone’s asleep upstairs, all is well.’
I prised my hands from their death grip on the dash. ‘It’s all well now we’re here.’
‘Go on up and rest. Oh,’ he added, suddenly remembering, ‘don’t forget, Simone has an appointment with the principal of Celestial High in three days. Tell her to take it easy until
then. I’ll see you when you’re rested and ready to come back. I should have something for you on those demon copies by then.’
I opened the car door and stepped out. ‘Remind me never to go in a car with you ever again.’
The minute I closed the door he did a lightning-fast three-point turn, nearly running over my feet, and tore off down the road, going airborne over the speed hump halfway along.
I took a shower, turned down the noodles Monica offered me, and checked on Simone. She was asleep and her face reminded me of her innocence when she was small.
I went into my own room, pulled back the covers and crawled into bed. It seemed to be swaying slightly.
‘Am I okay? The bed’s rocking,’ I said.
‘You’re fine, it’s just exhaustion,’ the stone said. ‘Sleep first, then eat and drink when you wake up.’
‘You know what I am,’ I said, struggling to stay awake. ‘You’ve known all along.’
The stone took human form and drifted to sit on the chair next to the bed. ‘Emma, believe me, I haven’t been holding out on you about what you are. I really don’t know.’
‘You said most of me isn’t here. You said I come and go.’
‘That’s right. You do.’
‘John comes and goes,’ I said. ‘They saw me as Xuan Wu. I don’t want to be his Serpent. If we rejoin, Simone will lose me.’
‘Whatever you are, you have no choice in the matter,’ the stone said. It crossed its legs and leaned its chin on its hand. ‘Trust in yourself and it will all work out in the end.’
‘That’s what John said.’ I gave a huge yawn.
‘That’s because he was right.’
‘I have to stay around for Simone.’
‘He said the same thing, Emma. And he’s gone.’
‘She can’t lose all of us!’
‘Oh, that’s right, I was going to see how long Gold and Leo will be. Just a minute.’ It sat more upright and its eyes unfocused. ‘They haven’t been given priority. Four to six weeks. I speeded things up for you; now it’ll be two to three weeks.’
‘You can do that? Why didn’t you say before?’
The stone grinned ruefully. ‘I was using your precedence. As First General, you can do things like that, regardless of your status as a mortal.’
