Mount Emily Revisited

by Low Ying Ping

The combined power of Ye Kang and his son was too much for the inexperienced girls. The crystal shot out of Patsy’s grasp and fell soundlessly into Ye Kang’s hand. He turned and began scrambling up the slope. His frame was huge and his strides correspondingly large. In a few seconds, he was near the top.

  “If he takes the crystal to hide it in the past, we are lost!” Min Ling cried.

  Patsy didn’t have time to think, to contemplate her fears and insecurities. All she knew was that she must not let Ye Kang succeed. With a cry of effort, she channelled all her energies towards the crystal, willing it to let her control it from a distance.

  All at once, the sounds around her became muffled. Ye Kang raised a leg to take another step up the slope, but he was moving incredibly slowly.

  I did it, Patsy thought. I slowed time!

  She climbed up quickly and reached Ye Kang just as the effect of her magic wore off and time sped up again. She dug her nails into his palm, trying to take the crystal from him, but he was too strong. With just one hand, he knocked her to the ground, then closed his broad hand around her slender neck. “Die,” he snarled.

  Patsy lay on the ledge at the top of the slope, looking down at the shocked faces of her friends beneath her. To them, it must have appeared as if she had flown up with superhuman speed. Meanwhile, Kelvin had picked up the gun and was pointing it at her friends. Then Ye Kang’s fingers tightened around her neck and she started to choke and gasp.

  “Father, no!” Kelvin shouted.

  “Shut up and just keep them still,” Ye Kang shot back. His hand continued to close around Patsy’s neck.

  “You promised no more deaths!” Kelvin screamed.

  Patsy felt herself beginning to black out. Her eyes were tearing up and she could barely see Kelvin’s silhouette as he rushed towards them.

  No more deaths… Patsy thought wearily. Yes, no more deaths… She was losing consciousness fast. There was no time, no more time…

  But she was a Keeper of Time. Time was hers to control. How was it possible for her to run out of it? She could sense the crystal pulsating with power just inches from her face. With a tremendous effort, she summoned the last bit of her energy and channelled her power through Ye Kang and into the crystal. Then she fainted dead away.

  chapter twenty-three

  he was floating in space, blue mists swirling about her. Her first thought was that she was dreaming, or even dead, then the memory of recent events burst into her mind like a shot. Drifting several arms’ lengths away from her was Ye Kang.

  “What’s going on?” he shouted.

  “It’s a place outside of time,” Patsy replied, feeling surprisingly at home in the mists. There was no wind, yet the mists curled lazily, stretching out their countless threads in all directions. She couldn’t tell if there was a sun behind the wisps of blue, but she could see around her clearly as if in the daylight. Other than herself and the Midnight Warrior, there was nothing here but the endless mists.

  Ye Kang’s jaw dropped as he looked around him. “This must be the legendary mists of time,” he murmured.

  Of course, thought Patsy. The Midnight Warriors had seldom been in the presence of the Crystal of Time. Although they had time power, they would not have had much experience wielding it.

  The idea to travel here had come to Patsy as she was blacking out. She knew she had to remove Ye Kang from the scene before he killed her and the others. No more deaths, Kelvin had said. But where could she take Ye Kang so that there would be no more deaths? The future was out of the question—she could not jeopardise Raine and the others from her time. The past was no good either—it would be like bringing the crystal to the Midnight Warriors as a gift. No time period was safe. Patsy had not yet made up her mind as the power of the crystal had taken hold. Then she had lost consciousness.

  And so, here they were…in a place that was of no time. A place from her nightmarish experience two days ago—the empty void of the mists of time.

  Patsy noticed Ye Kang had become so distracted by his surroundings that he seemed to have forgotten her presence. Hoping to catch him off guard, she reached out towards him tentatively. To her surprise and delight, she easily summoned the crystal across the void, back into her hand.

  Ye Kang looked stunned for a moment, but he soon recovered. “Isn’t this place fascinating? Aren’t we lucky to be able to experience this?” he said, flashing her a winning smile while starting to move his arms and legs in a swimming motion.

  Patsy could understand why Auntie Min Ling had fallen for this man so quickly. When he was trying to be amiable, he could indeed be very charming.

  But you’re not bluffing me, she thought. This was the man who had tried to kill her, who wanted to kill them all. If she saved him, what future would any of them have anymore? “I’m sorry,” Patsy said quietly, and a little sadly. “Goodbye…”

  “No, wait!” Ye Kang yelled, his voice booming in the vast emptiness. “If you go back without me, Kelvin will shoot you! You may think him weak-minded and unwilling to kill, but he’s loyal as a dog to me!”

  Patsy hesitated. Would Kelvin really shoot them if she abandoned his father in the mists? She saw in her mind’s eye Kelvin’s sullen image, his tanned face revealing no emotion other than discontent. He’s a desperately unhappy boy, it occurred to her for the first time. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t loyal to his father.

  What should she do? If she abandoned Ye Kang here in the mists, lost in the stream of time, never to return, wouldn’t that amount to murder? Could she truly do that to anyone, even an accursed Midnight Warrior? Yet, could she trust him near her again? She was not inclined to cold-blooded murder but he was!

  As Ye Kang inched closer towards her, a plan started to take concrete form in her mind. She would give him one last chance, but if he should betray that trust…

  “All right, let’s get out together,” Patsy said briskly, having made her decision. “These mists…I cannot control them. We must go now, or risk being trapped here forever.”

  Ye Kang nodded eagerly. She began moving towards him as well and in seconds, they were within arm’s reach.

  The moment their hands touched, however, Ye Kang pulled her towards himself and lunged for the crystal in her other hand. He began to pry her fingers from the crystal.

  But Patsy had readied herself. From her past experiences with the crystal, she knew that whenever she activated the crystal, whoever was within its radius of power would automatically travel with her. It had happened with Elena, and also with Ye Kang. Was she strong enough to control the crystal’s power this time so that it would obey her instead?

  She closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of Ye Kang’s rage, ignoring the pain in her hand as Ye Kang’s strong, unrelenting fingers twisted hers backwards. She focused only on the crystal and the blue swirls within it.

  Then she opened her eyes. It could be that time had slowed down for her again. How else could she have seen the blue tendrils within the crystal expand to merge with the mists? Or felt the silken touch of the mists envelope her, and only her, in an iridescent sheen?

  She reached out her mind towards the mists and willed them to take her back to 1988, to the slope, to that moment they had left not so long ago…

  The once frightening but now welcome rushing noise sounded in her ears. The blue mists swept past her as if time had accelerated to an impossible speed. Then she was crouched on the ledge of the slope again, the crystal clenched in her palm. She looked down, and at the far end of the corridor, saw two women standing by the railing.

  “This was where we found Wu Que,” Yvonne was saying, her voice heavy with sadness. “Do you remember?”

  “Of course I remember,” Min Ling said gently.

  “And now he’s gone. Will I ever see him again?”

  “I’m sure you will, some day…”

  Patsy’s brow broke out in a sweat. She had successfully left the Midnight Warrior in the mists, but had travelled to the wrong time again! She sat d
own on the ledge, trembling. She felt nauseous and infinitely exhausted, but she had to somehow find the strength one last time to summon the magic of the crystal.

  She closed her eyes. Remembering how she had escaped the mists before, she focused her mind on her friends—on Elena, Charlotte, Maggie, Auntie Min Ling—and willed herself to return. Come back, Elena’s voice echoed in her head. Come back…

  Patsy opened her eyes to the welcoming sight of her friends at the base of the slope.

  Elena rushed over to her. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  Patsy nodded, not yet trusting herself to speak. After a time, the nausea receded and her head began to clear. Together with Elena, they made their way down the slope.

  “What happened to Ye Kang?” Min Ling asked, her face ashen.

  Patsy had trouble finding the words to describe the place she had been to. “Somewhere where he can no longer hurt anyone,” was all she managed to say. Min Ling stood still as if in shock for a moment, then she nodded to herself, appearing to have come to some sort of inner resolution.

  Patsy noticed Kelvin sitting quietly by himself, weeping while Patsy’s friends fussed over her. She had forgotten Ye Kang’s threat that Kelvin would kill her for returning without him. She only thought of it now when she saw him and how defeated he looked. How little the man knows his own son, she thought with pity.

  Min Ling noticed her glance and said, “He surrendered the gun on his own accord after you and Ye Kang disappeared.”

  “What shall we do with him?” Elena asked. “Send him away? Call the police?”

  “He’s one of them,” Maggie said fearfully.

  “But different,” Patsy said softly, recalling her conversation with him in Ye Kang’s kitchen, and how he had tried to stop his father from killing them.

  “He was kind to us when we were his father’s prisoners,” Charlotte conceded.

  “I never approved of what my father did,” Kelvin spoke up, his lips trembling. “I was born to be a Midnight Warrior, but it has been such a burden, such a curse.” He broke down again. “I’m the last one of my sect, and it will end with me. I promise never to use my power ever again.”

  Patsy looked at Min Ling expectantly for leadership, but one by one, all heads turned towards her. She walked slowly up to Kelvin and offered him her hand. The boy hid his wet face in his drawn-up knees but clung to her hand tightly. She said hesitantly to the others, “He’s already lost his father. I think we should let him go.”

  Min Ling nodded her approval. “Go,” she said to him gently, “and do no more harm.”

  Kelvin quietened his sobs and withdrew his hands from Patsy’s. He stood up, looking round at the group of girls. His eyes locked on Patsy’s for a moment, then he turned and walked away. The girls watched him climb over the railing. The moment he disappeared into the corridor beyond, they fell into each other’s arms, laughing and crying at the same time.

  “It’s over!”

  “We did it!”

  “We’re safe!”

  The automatic florescent lights that lined the school’s corridors flickered on. Night had fallen.

  chapter twenty-four

  fter Kelvin had gone, Patsy recounted to her friends what had happened and what she had seen while travelling in the time stream.

  Min Ling looked concerned when she heard about the conversation between herself and Yvonne. “I suspect you weren’t too far off the mark when you travelled to that time. Yvonne will see Wu Ji’s letter when she returns home for dinner tonight.” She looked at her watch. It was just past 7pm. “She might be reading the letter even at this moment. Being the sentimental woman she is, she will surely come to the slope tonight to reminisce. That scene you saw will probably take place in an hour or less.”

  “So we should quickly leave Mount Em in case she sees us and wonders what we’re doing here?” Elena asked.

  “You must not just leave Mount Em,” Min Ling said. “You must leave 1988. Patsy must not still be in this time period when her past self appears. If two of her bodies are physically present at the same time, the time stream will break down. You’ll have to leave as soon as possible.”

  “You mean we have to go…now?” Patsy said. It seemed too soon for goodbyes. “But I can’t.” She gestured at the darkness beyond the lighted corridors. “It’s already night. I don’t know if I have enough time magic now. Can’t I go tomorrow?”

  “Listen,” Min Ling said, putting her hands on Patsy’s shoulders. “I have seen you defeat Ye Kang. I have seen how you wielded the Crystal of Time. You have a strength of power that’s greater than anyone I’ve known before. I believe you are destined for great things. Going home…that’s the easiest part. You must trust in yourself.”

  Destined for great things… Could that really be her fate? Plain, under-achieving Patsy Goh?

  “We should go,” Elena said softly by her side.

  They had only minutes to say their goodbyes. Patsy spoke to Maggie first while Elena and Charlotte talked quietly together.

  Patsy and Maggie hugged tightly, both crying a little. “Thank you for getting that poem from my uncle so quickly,” Patsy said. “You really saved the day.”

  “No, you saved the day,” Maggie said, beaming through her tears. “Getting your uncle to show me the poem was no problem at all. He was practically falling over himself to show off.”

  “Did you remember to make him promise…” Patsy trailed off.

  “Oh yes,” Maggie said. “Before I left the flat, I told him I had something to ask of him—that it might seem strange, but it would mean a lot to me if he could promise it.”

  “And did he?” Patsy asked.

  “He seemed surprised, but he did promise.”

  Yes! Patsy thought triumphantly. Before Maggie had set off for Mabel’s flat, Patsy had asked her for a personal favour. She knew her Uncle Pat was a stick in the mud for things such as honour and integrity, having grown up immersed in the world of Chinese sword-fighting novels where notions of honour were the pillars of the pugilistic society. Just like Wu Ji, she thought fondly. He might find it a puzzling thing to promise, but she knew he would fulfil it, all the same. She smiled. Her wish would come true after all.

  “So what’s going to happen to you now?” Patsy asked.

  “I don’t know. I can’t stay in Joyce’s mind forever, but I’m sure Auntie Min Ling will think of something.”

  “Ever the optimist,” Patsy smiled.

  “Of course! Friends as long as time exists?” Maggie said, grinning, and for a moment, Patsy thought she saw the original Maggie in Joyce’s face—the Maggie with her plump cheeks, round face and ever cheerful disposition.

  “Friends as long as time exists,” Patsy promised, smiling.

  It was Patsy’s turn to speak to Charlotte. “It’s not going to be easy for you, raising Raine all by yourself.”

  “I want to do it,” Charlotte said, her eyes red. “I know I can.”

  “I know you can,” Patsy said with a grin. “I saw you in 2016 and you’d done a marvellous job raising Raine.”

  “Thank you,” Charlotte whispered, her face wet. “I needed that.”

  “Goodbye, Charlotte, for now.”

  Patsy and Elena turned to Min Ling together.

  “Auntie Min Ling,” Patsy said, “there’s something I must tell you.” Her heart seemed to clench up with fear the moment she recalled that terrifying image of Min Ling’s pale face twisted with pain, but she forced herself to go on. “When I accidentally time travelled two days ago, I saw another scene. You were with Auntie Yvonne in her house. I couldn’t see very clearly what was happening but you looked like you were in pain. Has anything like that happened yet?”

  Min Ling looked grave and shook her head.

  Patsy swallowed hard. “Then it must be in the future. Please be very careful. I think the danger is not yet over.”

  Min Ling solemnly promised that she would be very careful indeed.

  “I’m sorry,�
� Patsy said, feeling miserable. “I must have failed in my mission somehow, if the danger is not yet over for you…”

  “Patsy,” Min Ling interrupted, “you have done well. Don’t worry…whatever happens next, you have already done everything expected of you.” She paused. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again. You too must be careful. You have such strong power…be sure you use it for good.”

  Patsy nodded. “I’m a Keeper of Time. I’ll stay true to my legacy.”

  “Auntie Min Ling…” Elena said haltingly.

  Patsy looked at Elena, somewhat surprised. She had seldom seen Elena look so unconfident.

  “Yes?” Min Ling said.

  “You must have loved Ye Kang a lot, didn’t you?”

  Min Ling smiled a plaintive smile. “He was the first man I loved since Charlotte’s daddy died.”

  “Then how were you able to let go of him so easily?” Elena asked.

  “Whoever said it was easy?” Min Ling smiled her sad smile again. “But now that I know he is violent and evil, I’d rather be free than shackled to such a man forever. And I have Charlotte and baby Raine to think of. They’re safer without him.”

  Elena looked thoughtful, but she didn’t say anything after that.

  “Will you still send Raine to the future now that Ye Kang is gone?” Patsy asked.

  Min Ling looked away, as if pained at the thought. “Yes, I must,” she said resolutely. “Raine has her own destiny to fulfil, just as you have. Already, she has played an important part in this whole episode. Besides, who knows if Ye Kang will return from the mists? There is so much we don’t know about time magic. No, she’s safer in the future, where Ye Kang won’t think to look for her.”

  It was time to go. Patsy and Elena held hands, then climbed to the top of the slope together. Patsy carefully placed the crystal down on the ground. She must not carry it, or it would be transported away together with her and Elena. This crystal belonged in 1988, and here it should stay.

  “I don’t know if I’ll be able to aim correctly for the 20th of October, 2016,” she whispered.