Eternal

by Grant, Alasdair

  “Where’s Keiko?” Mistress Song asks. “Why isn’t she with you?”

  “She headed toward the village,” Lily says. “She told us to stay here.”

  Flint shakes his head. “Pray nobody sees her. She’d be glad for a chance to attack.”

  “She understands the need for discretion,” Mistress Song says, gazing up at the Emperor’s sky barge. “She won’t do anything brash.”

  She doesn’t look confident about this. Neither does Flint.

  “Maybe the time for discretion is past us,” he whispers, shrugging his shoulders. “Dead bodies don’t reanimate themselves and take a stroll through Weishan Village.”

  “Keiko took care of that. She made it look like someone broke into provincial headquarters and stole her body.”

  “Then why the airships?”

  Mistress Song glances at me. “Because the prize is so big. The Emperor knows the prophecy is trying to fulfill itself again.”

  Again?

  I don’t get a chance to ask what she means by that because a movement in the trees grabs our attention.

  Mistress Jiu-Li. They didn’t find her.

  “They searched the village,” she says. “They found nothing, and no one admitted to seeing us.”

  “They’ll be moving on?” Flint asks.

  As if to confirm Mistress Jiu-Li’s report, the lowest airship reels in its guardsmen and floats upward to rejoin the flotilla.

  While we watch in silence, the armada bobs, turns, and slowly heads westward. I’m weak with sudden relief.

  “They’ll concentrate their efforts on the coastal villages,” Mistress Jiu-Li says. “That will buy us at least two days to make the arrangements.”

  “Arrangements for what?”

  Mistress Jiu-Li turns to Lily.

  “Arrangements to hide you and Jade where the Eternal Emperor can never find you.”

  FIFTY-SIX

  五十六

  JENNA

  Mom unlocks the front door and steps hesitantly through it.

  “The sheriff’s department has been sending hourly patrols through our neighborhood,” she says. “We’ll be fine. He wouldn’t dare come back.”

  She doesn’t sound convinced, and I’m not either. We walk close together, checking behind every piece of furniture, jumping in unison when the air-conditioning turns itself on. We don’t breathe easily until we’re certain the house is intruder-free and has been that way the entire time we’ve been gone.

  “Sometimes,” Mom says as she sets her luggage on the floor, “I really resent your father for walking out on us.”

  I gawk at her. We don’t talk about him. It’s an unspoken rule in our house, but today she doesn’t seem to care.

  “It would be so much easier for both of us,” she says, “if he’d lived up to his responsibilities as a husband and father.”

  She shakes her head. The moment ends, and the rule goes back into force.

  “You need to be at the library, don’t you?”

  “Yes. I texted Derek before we left Chinatown. He’ll be waiting for me on the sidewalk.”

  “We’ll leave in a few minutes,” Mom says. “Is at all right if I make a few phone calls first?”

  “Sure. I’ll just be in my room…um…unpacking my bags.”

  Mom nods. I slip into my bedroom and quietly shut the door behind me. I throw my luggage on the bed and nearly rip my purse in half in my rush to get at the stolen pages.

  My hands are shaking violently. I can barely manage to smooth the papers to read them. A few of the pages’ corner have disintegrated, but everything is mostly intact.

  Anqi Sheng. Prophecy. I scan each page for the words. In a moment, my search is rewarded. My pulse quickens as I read.

  The Seventh Prophecy of Anqi Sheng…

  This is it. I close my eyes and take a deep, slow breath. This is what Harold Chin wanted Jade to find—the key to our salvation.

  These are the words of the Immortal Prophet of Penglai spoken to the Eternal Ruler Qin Shi Huang in the first year of the Emperor’s reign.

  I take a second breath, steady myself, and whisper the prophecy’s words aloud:

  Daughters of the Yellow Emperor,

  Sisters in shui,

  Moon Rabbit flees as Fu fades away.

  Mountain is toppled by Seaweed’s grasp,

  Dragon declawed in Flower’s clasp.

  Thus ends First Emperor’s endless reign.

  Two become One and Five the same.

  I read it a second time. And a third. I feel a frown crease my face.

  This isn’t a prophecy. It’s a riddle!

  I fling the papers on my bed.

  Somewhere Harold Chin and the Eternal Emperor are laughing at me. They’ve sent Jade and me on a wild goose chase for an archaic piece of nonsense neither of us can ever hope to understand. Anger and depression claw inside me. I feel like a lifeline has been brushing against my fingertips only to be cruelly yanked away.

  What now? Do I wait for the inevitable with nothing but an antique war fan to hold my would-be killer at bay?

  I cram the worthless pages back into my purse and fish out Yeye’s parting gift. I stare at the mubuchae with tear-blurred eyes.

  Both the fan and the papers made it through airport security without raising any eyebrows. That’s a little disturbing considering how the fan’s razor-sharp metal band should have caught someone’s attention. If Homeland Security can’t detect a simple weapon with all their high-tech equipment, how is the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department—with nothing but stepped up patrols through my neighborhood—supposed to keep the Eternal Emperor from murdering me?

  Moon Rabbit… Fu… Two become One and Five the same…

  What do any of these words have to do with Jade, the Eternal Emperor, or me? Why would Xu Fu think these words were so important that they had to be preserved?

  “Ready to go?”

  I jump and hiccup as Mom unexpectedly pokes her head into my room.

  “Sorry. I should have knocked first, shouldn’t I?”

  “It might save me from future heart attacks,” I agree.

  “It’s almost seven.”

  I nod and follow Mom out of the bedroom. She retrieves her car keys from the kitchen counter, and we drive downtown. Derek, as he promised, is already waiting for me.

  “Do you want me to park over there where I can keep an eye on the two of you?” Mom asks.

  “I think we’ll be safe enough,” I say. “The sheriff’s station is next door.”

  “That’s not why I want to keep an eye on you.”

  Mom laughs when my face warms.

  “We’re working on a report together,” I say. “We’re assigned partners. That’s it.”

  “Too bad,” Mom says. “He looks like an attractive young man… All right. I’ll go for a little drive. Call me when you’re done.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  I kiss her on the cheek and get out of the car. Derek walks under the plaza’s giant decorative awning to reach me and say “hi” to Mom. We both wave to her as she drives away.

  “Hi,” he says.

  “Hi,” I answer. “I guess we have a few things to talk about. Don’t we?”

  “I suppose we do.”

  “This has nothing to do with a school report, does it? You planned to tell me about your link. Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

  “My link?” Derek says. “Oh, yeah. We definitely need to talk about that. You want to walk in the Sculpture Garden?”

  “Sure.”

  We shuffle past the sheriff’s station, and I shiver a little when I remember this is where Harold Chin brutally murdered two deputies during his jail break. We cross the street and enter the Sculpture Garden through a rectangular opening in a thick stone slab. We stop in front of the Elements—four graceful statues standing in a broad, rectangular fountain. They represent the Western tradition of alchemical elements: earth, wind, fire, and water.

  I don�
��t know whether it’s this reminder of the amplitudes or some inner warning of my own, but I feel unsettled and look nervously around. It’s shortly after sunset. The garden’s ornamental lights are starting to turn on, and the place will soon be teeming with shadows. There are too many hedges. Too many objects to hide behind. Despite Derek’s presence, I feel uncomfortable.

  I turn to tell him I’d like to go back to the library, but he speaks before I can.

  “This is an appropriate place for it to finally happen, don’t you think?”

  “For what to happen?”

  He grins. “It was far too easy. It always is.”

  His eyes seem unusually dark, his pupils too dilated. My stomach twists. I try to run, but his hand shoots out and seizes my wrist in an iron grip.

  “This won’t hurt too much,” he promises. “Not yet at least.”

  He’s not expecting my fan, and he yelps as it slices his wrist. I bolt for the entrance, but something metallic flashes in his hand. It flies toward me, and I feel a sharp stab in the side of my neck. Before I can scream, he’s on top of me, a blood-slicked hand clapped over my mouth.

  He’s inhumanly strong. I try to break free from his encircling arm, but my movements are sluggish and my vision swims. I smell unwashed body odor. Cheap alcohol. When he speaks again, his voice has become older, and it echoes as if coming from a narrow tunnel’s distant end.

  “Only one can be eternal,” the Emperor says. “And you are not that one.”

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  五十七

  JENNA

  I struggle out of a dark pit, gasping for air. My head throbs and kaleidoscopic colors spin around me. I can’t get my eyes to focus on anything.

  “Ah, good! You’re coming around. Right on schedule I might add.”

  The spinning room slows a little, allowing me to anchor my eyes on two faceless mannequins. They’re wearing low-cut blouses and designer jeans with ripped knees. Above them, a thin red-headed girl beams down at me from a large white placard. The words “Fall into Autumn Fashion” surrounded by swirling orange, red, and brown leaves are printed in bold letters above the girl’s head.

  “The wonderful thing about thiopental,” a voice beside me says, “is that it produces unconsciousness within seconds but wears off in minutes. I added some other injections, of course, because I wanted everything perfect before you woke up. But don’t worry. There will be no lingering side effects to inhibit alertness or pain.”

  Harold Chin steps in front of me and leans close so I can look into his leering face.

  “Pain will become very important over the next few hours. As will fear. I anticipate you’ll experience a great deal of both.”

  I try to hit him, but my wrists are bound behind something—a concrete pillar.

  “That’s it! Struggle! The feisty ones are always so much more entertaining than the cowering weaklings.”

  I look around. He’s brought me to the mall. But it must be after hours, because there are no people here other than us. We have only the security lights to provide illumination.

  Mall security. If I scream loud enough, a guard is sure to hear. But even as the thought occurs to me, I notice a pair of shiny black shoes thrust at an odd angle from behind a clothing rack. A long club-like flashlight rests next to the guard’s feet and his pin-striped pant legs are soaked with blood.

  “We won’t be bothered by anyone,” the Emperor says. “Not tonight. It’s just you and me.”

  My stomach churns and my last meal threatens to come up.

  An innocent man. Dead. No use. I can’t hold it back. I vomit down the front of my shirt.

  “Not as strong as I thought,” the Emperor says, clucking his tongue and shaking his head. “Maybe this will be over much more quickly than I hoped it would be.”

  He removes something from his pocket. A large lock-blade knife. He opens the blade and I struggle harder.

  “Don’t worry. If you’re truly linked, this won’t kill you. It will only help me gather a little information.”

  He holds the knife near my face, moving it just above my flesh like someone deciding where to start carving a turkey. The room spins and my head rocks back.

  Before the Emperor can do anything with Harold Chin’s shiny knife, my vision goes completely black.

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  五十八

  JADE

  “Jade? Can you hear me? Jade. Wake up.”

  I sit bolt upright, making Mistress Song rock backward.

  I gasp. I lock my fingers around her arms.

  “Jenna!” I exclaim. “He has her!”

  “Who has her?”

  I fight to pull more air into my lungs.

  “The…the Eternal Emperor!”

  Mistress Song’s eyes widen.

  “Where? Where has he taken her?”

  “A store. A store in the mall. He killed a security guard. He has a huge knife.”

  A knife he intends to torture Jenna with. My fault. My stupid dreams dragged her into this. My self-accusatory thoughts are interrupted by a searing pain across my cheek.

  I scream and press my hand against my flesh expecting to feel blood, but there’s nothing there. Only Jenna’s pain.

  “You said something about a mall,” Mistress Song says, attempting to hold my attention. “The one near her home? Is that where he’s taken her?”

  “Yes,” I say, trying not to sob. “At…at least I think that’s the one.”

  “A trap?” Mistress Song asks, turning toward Flint.

  I cringe.

  “It’s him!”

  Flint looks startled.

  “He’s disguising himself! It’s him!”

  I search for my war fans.

  “He’s the Emperor!”

  Mistress Song grabs me and holds me back before I can attack. I almost break free, but an excruciating pain in my stomach doubles me over. It feels like someone has thrust a knife into my abdomen and is slowly, slowly twisting it.

  Flint’s face is pale. “What is she talking about? What’s going on?”

  “What are you trying to tell us?” Mistress Song, kneeling beside me, asks.

  “Him!” I sob. “In disguise!”

  “She thinks I’m the Eternal Emperor,” Flint says, aghast.

  “He must have impersonated you to get at Jade’s link.”

  I scream. I scream so loud I hurt my own eardrums.

  “And now he has her,” Flint says. His face is white. “He’s torturing her. We have to do something to save her!”

  “It’s a trap,” Mistress Jiu-Li says. “He wants to lure our links in.”

  I’m delirious with pain now. Mistress Jiu-Li holds me as I sink to my knees, clasping my hands around my neck.

  “If we can keep Jade awake,” Mistress Song suggests, “it might buy us some time.”

  “I’ll…I’ll send the real Derek to her,” Flint says. “Don’t let her fall asleep.”

  He winces when he looks at me then scrambles into a corner and kneels with his hands cupped on his knees. I’m in so much pain I can barely think.

  “The rest of us need to leave the village,” Mistress Jiu-Li says. “Immediately.”

  Mistress Song nods. “Find Naxuwi and tell her to warn the other villagers. If the Emperor gets this location out of Jade’s link, his retribution will be swift and brutal.”

  “Can you do anything for Jade?” Mistress Jiu-Li asks, stooping to gently touch my shoulder.

  “I’ll use an amplitude block,” Mistress Song answers. “It should help to numb the pain.”

  Mistress Jiu-Li heads toward the door but stops before she reaches it and looks around the hut with an alarmed expression. “Where’s Lily?”

  “She was here just a moment ago.”

  I’m having difficulty focusing on their conversation. So much pain. How can so much pain exist?

  “Find her, too,” Mistress Song says. “We don’t have much time. We have to get out of here now.”

  Mistress
Jiu-Li nods, turns, and hurries through the hut’s low door.

  “I’m going to penetrate your amplitudes,” Mistress Song tells me, distracting me with her soothing voice. “Stay with me, Jade. Fight to stay awake.”

  I nod, and she helps me to my feet.

  A calm feeling suddenly washes through me. The pain diminishes.

  “This will be difficult,” she says. “Walk with me. You’ll want to pass out, but you have to resist.”

  I feel her guide us out the door. I hear frightened voices around us. Commotion in the village. I want my mother. No. That’s not what I want. That’s what brought this misfortune on so many innocent people in the first place.

  I’m sorry, I think, hoping Jenna can hear me.

  Another searing pain slashes across my face.

  If I could, I’d go back and change everything.

  If she hears me, she’s unable to answer.

  I have to stay awake. I have to stay awake for Jenna. I deserve to share her pain. I don’t know how long we walk or how far, but my knees buckle and Mistress Song is struggling to keep me upright.

  “Stay with me,” she says. “Focus all your attention on my voice.”

  It’s impossible. Unconsciousness is already closing in.

  I feel a hard slap across my face. Is Mistress Song that desperate to keep me awake, or did the slap come from Jenna’s side?

  “Jade! Get up! Please! Stay with me just a little longer! Don’t give in!”

  Her voice sounds distant as if echoing from a dream.

  “Wake up! You can’t escape me that easily!”

  “Keiko! Help me! She’s going under!”

  I’m hearing voices through two sets of ears now. And then I feel more searing pain. I scream through shared vocal chords, spin through a confusing black vortex, and snap my eyes open in Jenna’s world.

  FIFTY-NINE

  五十九

  JENNA

  My captor holds his knife in front of my nose. Blood—my blood—trickles down its blade.

  “The wonderful thing about transdimensional mind links,” he says, “is they allow you to heal so quickly. Look at you. As lovely as ever. Even the scars have already faded.”