Jamie Reign
Page 22
Jamie blushed a little and held his hand up to stop him. ‘Isn’t there another reason the Ki-Lin appears?’
Lucy tilted her head slightly as she silently recited the passage. She suddenly stopped and clasped her hand to her mouth.
Jamie nodded.
‘It heralds the birth of a great person, it announces the reign of a kindly Emperor, or,’ Lucy said this last part slowly and with great emphasis, ‘it foretells a ruler’s impending demise.’
‘A ruler’s impending demise,’ Jamie repeated.
Lucy was pale and wide-eyed. ‘Everyone says with all that’s going wrong in the world it’s like the Great Guide is missing. He’s like a ruler. Do you think it’s his demise the Ki-Lin was warning us about?’
‘Zheng didn’t come here because he doesn’t need the Spirit Warrior,’ Jamie said. ‘He has something far more valuable: he has his spirit guide.’
There was a sudden chill in the air as the three young Warriors of the Way looked at each other.
‘I’ve seen that pattern somewhere before,’ Jamie said, tearing his gaze from his friends and tapping the circular emblem on the silk.
Lucy nodded. ‘You would have seen it in the Celestial Hall.’
‘No. It was familiar there too. I’ve seen it somewhere before that.’
Jamie racked his brain. Because he’d been unable to read for so long, he was expert at memorising diagrams — engine cross-sections, circuit diagrams, charts — and there was something about this pattern that was familiar to him.
‘What did they do with these bi discs?’ he asked, searching for a connection. ‘Are they like a talisman, or an amulet?’
Lucy said, ‘Well, the ancients threw them into water to communicate with the spirits. Any water would do — a river, a lake —’
‘The ocean,’ Jamie cut in.
‘Well, yes,’ she said, ‘the ocean.’
A small smile formed on Jamie’s lips. ‘I know where I’ve seen that disc before.’ He rushed to the chest and pushed some clothes into his satchel. ‘I know what my mother’s telling me.’
‘You want to tell us?’ Wing said.
‘I’ve seen the actual disc,’ Jamie said, slinging the satchel over his shoulder and heading for the door.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Lucy asked.
‘There are no coincidences,’ Jamie said. ‘I need that disc.’
She stared at him, her brow creased with worry. ‘Um, maybe we should tell Master Wu about this.’
‘No,’ Jamie said, a little louder than he’d intended. ‘My mother hid this from everyone, including Master Wu. This is for me to work out.’
Lucy said, ‘If you are right and Zheng has kidnapped the Great Guide, what do you think this disc has to do with it?’
Jamie shrugged. ‘My mum left me this silk for a reason. I think it’s my duty to follow wherever it leads.’ He picked up the cloth and pushed it into his satchel.
‘You think it might lead to her?’ Wing asked gently.
‘I don’t know,’ Jamie said. ‘But I’m supposed to do this.’
Wing shrugged. ‘That’s good enough for me. When do we leave?’
‘I’m leaving,’ Jamie said.
‘Not on your own,’ Wing said, standing a little taller than usual. ‘You’re the Spirit Warrior. Besides, I owe you, remember.’
Jamie waved away Wing’s words. ‘I was kidding when I said that.’
‘I’m not talking about Cheng,’ Wing said. ‘And you know it.’
Lucy squeezed past them. ‘Wait a sec, I need to get something before we go,’ she said as she ran out the door and across the courtyard.
‘What’s this we?’ Jamie called after her.
The boys followed Lucy to her room, where she pulled a box from under her bed. Their jaws dropped as they watched her put stack after stack of hundred-dollar notes into her Hello Kitty backpack.
She saw their expressions and shrugged. ‘My father says money can get you out of trouble.’
Wing raised his eyebrows. ‘And just how much trouble are you expecting to get into?’
Lucy and Jamie exchanged an ominous look. She added another bundle of money to the pile already in her bag.
Chapter 29
Jamie threw the mooring lines aboard and they headed towards the opening of the bay. As he turned The Swift into the fast-moving current, he took a last glance at Chia Wu. He saw the top of the Grand Pagoda peeking out over the canopy of lush jungle and banana leaves. Banana leaves … ‘Jet!’ He had left his talisman behind. The current was too fast to go back. He was leaving without him.
Wing looked at him, worry etched in his brow. ‘You think that’s bad?’ he said. ‘Wait till my mum finds out we’ve gone.’
Jamie negotiated the narrow Penglai straits, only breathing easily when there was nothing but horizon ahead. He set their course. The weather was good and the sea was calm. They made good headway. At this rate, they’d be at Sai Chun before Lucy’s seasickness kicked in.
‘Maybe you should stand on the gantry,’ Jamie suggested as a precaution.
As they approached Sai Chun, Jamie spotted the old temple and lined up his approach with the second marker on the starboard side. Wing watched the approach from the gantry.
‘Rocks!’ he screamed as Jamie pointed The Swift directly at the Gate.
Jamie grinned and closed his eyes to View the rocks’ position. He manipulated the motors and slid The Swift through the maze.
Wing came back inside the bridge, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘And that didn’t give you any idea you were the Spirit Warrior?’
The village looked much the same as it always did: the fishermen’s boats were all moored alongside their homes; Old Mama Chow was sitting on the verandah, peeling prawns; and the remnants of Feng Chow’s wooden training dummy were still in the middle of the village square.
Jamie pulled The Swift in next to the trawler he and Hector had salvaged, The Seabird, and left the engines idling. ‘I won’t be a minute,’ he said.
On The Seabird, Jamie passed the never-used nets and the brand-new shellfish cages and made his way to the bridge. He powered up the GPS, flicked through a couple of screens and committed a particular location to memory.
When Jamie returned to The Swift, Wing said, ‘Nice trawler — is it new?’
Jamie shook his head. ‘That’s no trawler. That’s a treasure hunter.’
‘Really?’ Wing said, squinting at The Seabird. ‘Could have fooled me.’
Jamie nodded. ‘That’s the whole point.’
He disconnected The Swift’s mooring lines and pulled away from the dock. As they chugged past the village square, the door of Feng Chow’s shop flew open.
‘Jamie!’ Feng shouted as he ran towards the waterline. ‘Jamie, we thought you were lost in the storm!’
Jamie waved. ‘I’m okay!’ he yelled from the bridge.
Feng ran to keep pace with The Swift. He shouted again, but Jamie couldn’t hear him. He held his hand up to his ear and Feng called out again. Still no good.
‘What did you say?’
‘Your dad,’ Feng puffed, having run the length of the village by now. ‘He called — he’s on his way back.’
Jamie waved to let Feng know he’d heard. He shouted, ‘Tell him I’ll be back later!’
‘Jamie,’ Feng cried, ‘did you tell Mr Fan about me?’ But the path had come to an end. Feng stopped at the jungle’s edge. ‘Did you tell them it’s me?’ he shouted. Jamie heard him all right, but held his hand to his ear to pretend he hadn’t. Feng turned his back on him and Jamie was pretty sure he saw him spit on the ground.
Jamie typed the coordinates he’d taken from The Seabird into his GPS.
‘Is that where we’ll find the disc?’ Lucy asked.
‘It’s where we’ll find The Seabird’s captain,’ Jamie said. ‘Every journey on that trawler starts and finishes at the point where those coordinates meet.’
Their destination wasn’t far. Jamie
negotiated the busy harbour traffic, then the huge container ships surrounding the freight terminal. A Marine Police vessel sidled up close and Jamie ducked down out of sight.
Lucy looked at him like he was mad.
‘Twelve-year-olds aren’t supposed to be operating tugboats,’ he said.
‘Right,’ Lucy said, arching her eyebrows. ‘Makes so much more sense for them to think no-one’s at the helm.’
Jamie huffed, although she had a point. He stood back up.
‘Just look like you’re supposed to be there,’ Lucy said as she smiled and waved at the Marine Police, and made sure she blocked their view of Jamie too.
Eventually they waved back and moved on.
‘See,’ Lucy said, ‘works every time.’
Jamie directed The Swift towards a ramshackle marina. The docks were all low in the water, many of them waterlogged and all of them neglected. Most of the vessels tied alongside them didn’t look seaworthy. A sunken sampan had been left to rot, its hull sitting on the sea bottom, only its broken cabin above the surface. A collection of dinghies and runabouts was beached on the sand, most in urgent need of repair.
It was a shallow port and The Swift had a deep draught, which meant she could easily be damaged by hitting the seabed. Jamie noted a few bigger trawlers at the marina’s far end, probably in some sort of channel. He would have to moor next to them. He steered The Swift towards them and kept his ears peeled for the first sounds of the keel scraping the bottom.
‘Slowly,’ Wing urged. ‘Do you think the tide’s at its lowest?’
Jamie hoped so. If it got any lower, they’d be stuck here till it rose again. Looking at the collection of rundown workshops and mangy-looking dogs, Jamie figured this was no place to spend the night.
‘You might want to stay on board, Lucy,’ Jamie said once he’d moored.
‘Please,’ she scoffed. ‘Whose foot was it that knocked out Morris?’
Jamie blushed and reluctantly stood aside to let her off. She huffed as she swung her backpack over her shoulder. ‘Are you two coming?’
The workshops were a haphazard configuration of corrugated iron and plywood. Each opened onto the walkway, and the insides were dark and gloomy. There was the familiar smell of grease and turned steel, but no noise. That was coming from further along the path — the sounds of raised voices and clinking glasses.
They rounded the corner, into a stench of stale beer. Every eye in every scarred face turned towards them. The talking stopped. Jamie nudged Wing to keep him moving, but Wing seemed frozen.
‘Move,’ Jamie hissed.
Wing stumbled on.
Jamie nodded in acknowledgment of the men as they passed, but Lucy stopped and smiled.
‘Gentlemen,’ she said, ‘we’re looking for the captain of the fishing trawler The Seabird. Do you know him?’
One of the men sneered. ‘The Seabird’s no fishing trawler, sweetheart.’
Jamie pulled on her arm. ‘Shut up,’ he hissed. He knew it was best not to draw any attention to themselves. You never knew who was hiding in a place like this.
‘The Seabird,’ Lucy said again. She lowered her chin and looked up a little. ‘It’s just … I really need to find him.’ She gave a sniff, like she might be crying.
Jamie couldn’t believe it when a long-haired, scarred and toothless giant pointed the top of his beer bottle towards a lone building at the northern end of the docks. ‘You’ll have to knock loudly,’ he said.
Lucy smiled at him and let her voice catch again as she said, ‘Thank you.’
As they left the men to their beers, she whispered to Jamie, ‘And you didn’t want me to come.’
The scarred man was right: they did have to knock loudly. The building that jutted out over the water was built of metal and, unlike the others in the marina, seemed to have been put together by someone with an understanding of construction. The uprights were upright and the frame was actually square. The door was solid steel and Jamie had to pound on it to make any impact at all.
Eventually they heard the bolt on the other side slide across. The door opened, but only enough for the man on the other side to peer out.
‘What do you want?’ he asked.
‘We’re looking for the captain of The Seabird,’ Jamie said.
‘Why?’
Jamie looked at Lucy with a panicked expression.
She rolled her eyes and spoke up. ‘We’d like to make him an offer for something in his possession.’
‘What type of offer?’
Lucy said, ‘Financial, of course.’
Slowly the door opened further to let them in. The man had already turned his back and was walking towards his desk at the far end of the room. Jamie looked around the boathouse, which smelled strongly of salt water and dried seaweed. It was a treasure trove. There were cabinets full of intricately carved green and white jade, bronze figurines, glazed pottery, vases of every shape and colour, ivory and gold statues, weapons and coins.
The man turned to look at them and Jamie barely recognised him as the captain. His face was a bloody, swollen mess.
Jamie gasped. ‘What happened?’
‘Nothing,’ the captain said, blotting at the blood with a tissue. ‘What do you want?’ His one good eye narrowed as he looked at Jamie. ‘I know you. You and that gweilo father of yours stole my boat.’
Although Hector’s claim on The Seabird was both legal and justified, Jamie blushed all the same. ‘We didn’t steal it,’ he said.
The man scoffed and sat down behind his desk. ‘What do you want?’
‘You showed me something that day,’ Jamie said, taking the seat opposite. ‘A gold medallion with a hole in the centre and a dragon pattern around the edge.’
‘The bi disc,’ the captain said.
Jamie nodded. ‘Have you still got it? Can I buy it?’
‘I don’t have it,’ the captain said. ‘I offloaded it just recently.’
Jamie’s heart raced. He had to have that disc. He wasn’t willing to give up. ‘Who did you sell it to? How long ago?’
Lucy glared at Jamie and waved him away from the desk. She sat down in his place. ‘You sold it, did you?’ she said to the captain. ‘I hope you got a good price. You know, my father collects bi discs and he would have paid handsomely for that one. Maybe you could let me know where it is, so I can make the new owners an offer. They may be interested in a quick profit. Unless, of course,’ she said, looking around pointedly, ‘it’s still here somewhere.’
The man scoffed again. ‘It’s gone and good riddance too.’
Lucy opened her mouth to try again, but Wing said, ‘Lucy, look at his face. He didn’t sell it.’
‘What happened?’ Jamie asked.
The captain flicked his hand towards the door. ‘A couple of thugs came in here screaming about a bi disc. They did this,’ he pointed at his face, ‘till I handed it over.’
‘When were they here?’ Jamie asked.
‘Just before you.’
Jamie edged forwards. ‘What did they look like?’
‘It doesn’t matter. I don’t have the disc.’
Jamie slammed his hands down. ‘What did they look like?’
‘Big,’ the captain said. ‘They were big, that’s all I saw. Oh, and they wore black T-shirts. Black with a yellow triangle on them.’
Jamie felt the colour drain from his face. ‘They work for Zheng.’
The muscles around Wing’s jaw twitched. ‘How do you know?’
‘The T-shirts — they’re the ones who came looking for me.’ Jamie went to the door. ‘Come on. They can’t be far.’
‘How many were there?’ Lucy asked the captain.
He shrugged. ‘Three that I saw.’
‘Come on,’ Jamie said again. ‘They’ve got the disc.’
Wing stood between Jamie and the door. ‘Jamie, there’s three of them, they know martial arts, they’re fully grown. Don’t you think this may be an obstacle we’re supposed to go round?’
‘There are five of them,’ he said.
Jamie sank to the ground and put his head on his knees. This was his one chance to get the disc and it was slipping away.
The captain spoke softly. ‘I know you wanted to help me that day, boy. I appreciate that you tried.’
Jamie mumbled a polite reply.
The captain turned to Lucy. ‘You said your father’s a collector? I’ve got something else he might be interested in.’
‘He’s not buying at the moment,’ Lucy said dismissively.
‘I’ve got something else he might be interested in,’ the captain repeated slowly and intently.
Jamie looked up. ‘What, what have you got?’
‘You asked for the disc,’ the captain said, ‘but that isn’t the only thing we salvaged on that dive. There was something else inscribed with that insignia.’
He unlocked a filing cabinet behind him, removed a threadbare tea towel and very carefully lifted out a spherical object. He put it on the desk and Jamie instantly felt drawn to it. It was a glistening stone orb, little bigger than a baseball and the colour of ivory.
‘White jade,’ Lucy breathed.
The stone was carved with the stars of the night sky, and the line that marked the equator was a row of Imperial dragons chasing each other through the clouds.
‘It’s a celestial globe,’ Lucy said, ‘very old.’
As she reached to pick it up, the captain grabbed her wrist to stop her. ‘And very expensive,’ he said.
Jamie stared at the orb, mesmerised. He was dimly aware of Lucy negotiating a staggering fee. He picked it up. It was warm to touch and very heavy. He ran his fingers over the markings; every star in the heavens was sitting in his palm. His hand tingled and his body began to tremble. This was it, he knew it; this was what his mother had wanted him to find.
The row of Imperial dragons hid a seam. Jamie held the orb with a hemisphere in each palm and twisted. There was a sound like ball bearings tumbling, but the two halves stayed locked together. He twisted it the other way and the same thing happened. He pulled and twisted at the same time, then shook it when it refused to budge.