Table of Contents

Title Page

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Glossary

About the Author

Books the Kylie Chan

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Serpent slides through the black icy water of the Antarctic, wreathed in permanent darkness.

The Turtle hides from the weak Arctic sun beneath the ice.

They cry, but there is no answer.

CHAPTER 1

The Serpent slides through the

black icy water of the Antarctic,

wreathed in permanent darkness.

The Turtle hides from the weak

Arctic sun beneath the ice.

They cry, but there is no answer.

‘Now,’ I said gently, ‘concentrate. You’ve done it before. This time, bring the chi out as slowly as you can. Feel the rubber band pulling it back.’

Apple bit her lip and the glowing yellow ball of chi floated out of her outstretched palm.

Emma, emergency, the stone in my ring said. Some third years have run into trouble. They raided a prostitution den in Mong Kok that was holding sex slaves, and instead of humans running the show they met up with demons. They need help.

‘Let the chi go, Apple,’ I said, still very gentle.

The chi floated back down into Apple’s hand and she sagged.

‘Take a break now, and don’t try it again without supervision,’ I said. ‘I’ve been called away, so we’ll end it there. Head back to the Folly and have a rest.’

Apple nodded. ‘Yes, ma’am. Thank you.’

I patted her shoulder, then quickly rose and spoke urgently to the stone as I charged out to the stairwell. ‘Get Marcus to bring the car around the front. I’ll meet him at the ground floor. Which Masters are free?’

‘Sit, Park, Lee and Edwards are there already. The demons are holding the students hostage. It’s a standoff,’ the stone said.

I jumped over the balustrade to the empty space in the centre of the stairwell, twenty storeys to the ground. I fell at maximum speed until the floor loomed below me, then slowed my fall, levered one foot on the railing and jumped down to the landing in front of the ground floor door.

‘Demons holding third years? They must be big,’ I said.

Do you need us? General Ma said into my head. The demons holding your students are quite large.

‘Aren’t you dealing with a demon attack on the Horse Village?’ I asked via the stone.

The Majia are handling it well, General Ma said. If we bring in the Princess we will be finished very quickly and be back in Hong Kong within the hour to help your students. Western Horsemen are on their way to assist us.

‘Can the Horses and Horsemen handle it?’ I said. ‘I don’t want to take Simone out of school unless it’s absolutely necessary, you know that. She’s skipping a lot of school with these attacks as it is.’

They can handle.

‘Head back when you’re relieved, and we’ll see if we need your help. How long do you think it will be?’

About an hour and a half.

‘See you then.’

My Lady.

It took nearly forty-five minutes to reach the area of Mong Kok where the students were being held hostage. Marcus wound his way through the narrow, busy streets of the area and dropped me outside the brothel, then went off in search of a car park. The brothel had a large sign outside advertising the prices: White Russian 500; Fair Skin Thai 400; North and South Chinese 300.

Two of the Masters, Sit and Park, stood outside the brothel with a group of five or six seniors, looking up at the second-storey windows. The brothel was a blackened concrete apartment building, 1950s era, with small barred windows on each floor. The ground floor was occupied by a microscopic mobile phone shop, all pristine white tiles and blazing lights. The brothel’s single front door had a steel gate, which now hung open. Plain narrow concrete stairs led up inside.

‘Where’s Edwards?’ I said.

‘Around the back in the alley with another couple of seniors,’ said Lee.

‘What do we have here?’

‘Six level fifty to sixty demons. A couple of them appear to be Mothers. They’re holding a team of third years who came in to practise on them and were taken by surprise.’

‘Mothers? Damn. Anybody hurt?’

‘One of the prostitutes tried to escape and a demon smacked her down; she’s probably concussed,’ Sit said. ‘A couple of the students sustained some severe injuries when they were taken — these demons hit them hard with some sort of energy blast.’

‘The police aren’t aware of what’s going on? We won’t see uniforms and guns roll up?’

‘No,’ Park said.

‘What do the demons want?’

‘Free passage.’

‘That’s all?’

‘Yes. We’re just waiting for you to give the go-ahead on either a raid or to let them go. We’re prepared either way.’

‘Recommendation?’

‘Let them go.’

‘Can we take them down without hurting any more girls or students?’

Park hesitated, then, ‘No.’

‘Let them go.’

‘Ma’am.’

Park concentrated, and the teams moved into action. Sit and Lee went upstairs to deliver the deal to the demons. A bus appeared around the corner and stopped outside the brothel.

‘Demons took off,’ Park said. ‘Lee has taken a recording.’

‘Good.’

Three more of the seniors with us charged into the building and up the stairs. Two of the four third-year students who had been held hostage came limping down the stairs, obviously nursing injuries. They made for the bus.

‘By your leave, ma’am,’ Park said, ‘we’ll take the other two injured students directly to the infirmary.’

‘Go,’ I said.

Park and Lee went into the building.

The seniors who had run up the stairs shortly before came down escorting ten or so prostitutes. The girls were tiny and slim; some of them only looked about fourteen or fifteen. There were no Europeans, only Thais, Indonesians and Chinese. They were obviously terrified as the seniors guided them onto the bus.

A few bystanders watched, curious. One of the seniors jumped off the bus, walked over and loudly told them in Cantonese that this was a police plainclothes operation and to move along. The bystanders grinned but continued to watch, unfazed.

‘Update on the Horse Village,’ I said to the stone.

Under control. A squad of about fifty demons attacked the village, but the Horses held them off. Three Horses were killed and four were injured before the Generals arrived to help.

‘Tell General Ma we have a lid on things here and he’s not needed,’ I said.

We have been called to another attack anyway, ma’am, Ma said. A phoenix has called for help — a Mother is outside her nest and threatening her clutch.

‘Can they make it in time?’ I said.

If we move now we may make it, but we will be cutting it close, Ma said.

‘Need help?’

Simone could be there immediately to protect these chicks, Ma said. It is the phoenix’s nursery; she thought it would be safe in this remote area, but some Mothers have found it. She and her children are fighting but there is a large number of demons after her clutch. He hesitated a moment, then, This looks very bad. Please allow us to send in Princess Simone.

Help, General Danahuo, a woman’s voice said into my head. All of my babies are here, and a Mother and sixteen of her demon spawn are attempting to break into my nursery. Her voice became strained. Help!

‘Can you relay, stone?’ I said. ‘Let me see.’

‘Networking …’ The stone’s voice trailed off. ‘I have a link. The phoenix has a sentient stone Shen as a jewellery item. Oh! It’s Glauconite, I know this one. Bringing up an image.’

A phoenix appeared in front of me, transparent against the buildings and people around me. She bowed, spreading her scarlet wings; royal blue and purple peacock-like feathers rippled among the flaming red pinions.

‘General Danahuo,’ she said. She gestured with her head to her left. ‘There they are. They threaten my clutch.’

She was standing on a barren, rocky hillside somewhere in southern China. About twenty metres down the slope, some red-garbed warriors fought with a band of demons. A Snake Mother stood behind the demons; the top half of her body was human, but with the skin flayed off, while the bottom half was an enormous black snake with clear gelatinous toxin oozing from between her scales. She must have been close on four metres in length; a really big one. I gasped when I saw the demons she was controlling — fake stone elementals. They appeared to be made of rough-hewn blocks of granite held together with an invisible force. They were about two metres tall, had featureless faces and moved with disturbing smoothness as they battled the phoenix’s defenders.

‘More of these things!’ Edwards said as he approached me from the back of the building and saw the projection next to me. ‘Who’s making them? They keep popping up everywhere!’

‘I’m surprised they sent stone to fight the phoenix’s guards,’ I said. ‘Wouldn’t water be more effective against fire?’

The guards, wearing traditional all-red Chinese armour, were fighting valiantly with both swords and phoenix fire, but the demons outnumbered them about three to two. None of the guards had fallen yet, but they were obviously losing the battle — the stone demons were completely unharmed by their weapons and fire.

‘Tell Simone,’ I said to the stone. ‘Tell her where to go.’

Thank you, ma’am, both the phoenix and General Ma said at the same time. The image of the battle snapped off.

On it, Simone said into my head. It was only PE anyway.

‘I’ll go on the bus with the girls,’ I said to the stone. ‘Tell Marcus to take the car back. How are the injured seniors?’

In the infirmary back at the Academy, the stone said. Serious injuries but not life-threatening. There’s some debate about whether to send them to hospital.

‘What does Regina say?’ I said as I got onto the bus and sat next to Edwards. Edwards, as usual, wore a pair of plain slacks and a business shirt without a tie. His bald head, glasses, and paunch made him look like a fifty-year-old schoolteacher — and deceptively harmless.

The driver pulled away from the kerb and into the traffic.

Regina says hospital.

‘Damn, we can’t afford this. If they don’t go to hospital what are the consequences?’

They will just receive better care in hospital, the stone said. Regina doesn’t have the facilities to deal with this type of fracture.

I hesitated. We would be asked too many awkward questions if the students were checked into a hospital. ‘Stone, get me Bai Hu, please.’

Ma’am, the White Tiger said into my head.

‘Ah Bai. We have two badly injured students and Regina wants to hospitalise them. Any room in your clinic?’

Stand by.

His voice returned a couple of minutes later. Either of them demons?

No, the stone said. Human.

Ah shit, the Tiger said. Well, okay, I’ll take them. A Horseman is on his way to get them.

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Why do you always want my injured demon students?’

The Tiger didn’t reply.

‘He has a group of his children researching demon nature,’ the stone said.

‘Dear Lord, he’s not doing any genetic experimentation on them, is he?’

Nah, just having a look inside, the Tiger said. They’re moving way ahead of us in breeding research, they always have. I thought it was about time that we caught up.

‘Breeding?’ I said, horrified.

‘The Tiger is breeding demons?’ Edwards said.

No, no, of course not, the Tiger said. We just collect them as we go along. Some of yours would be fun to have — a few of yours are the results of some very interesting breeding experiments. That’s why they have so much free will and have joined you in the first place.

‘You hurt one hair on any of my demon students’ heads and your tail is in serious trouble,’ I said.

‘Hear, hear,’ Edwards said quietly.

‘He’s not breeding them, he’s collecting them and doing research,’ I said for Edwards’ benefit. ‘He wants some of ours’cause they’re the result of some “interesting breeding experiments”.’

Edwards leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. ‘No way is that bastard laying his paws on any of my students. My kids are not guinea pigs.’

I promise I won’t hurt them, Jim, the Tiger said.

Edwards gave an excellent British harrumph. ‘The psychological damage of undergoing that level of medical examination would undo all the good work we’ve done in getting these kids over what they’ve endured in Hell. The Tiger can piss off, he’s not gettingany of mine.’

What if they volunteer? the Tiger said.

‘Oh, now that’s clutching at straws,’ Edwards said with amusement.

It’s like a holiday for them, Jimmy, the Tiger said. You know how nice it is out here. Let them come and check it out. His voice became eager. How many good demon students do you have anyway?

‘None of your damn business, and shut the fuck up,’ Edwards said. He winced. ‘Sorry, ma’am.’ His tone was amused as he spoke to the Tiger again. ‘Get lost. You’re not getting any of my demons.’

‘You’re not getting any of the Academy demons,’ I added. ‘Get your own. And if I send any over to you for medical attention and find that you’ve experimented on them, your tail is mine.’

Fine thanks I get for helping you out here, the Tiger grumbled in my head. Just one or two —

‘No!’ Edwards and I said at the same time.

Fine!

‘Oh, and Ah Bai?’ I said.

What!

‘Thanks for looking after these students for me, my friend. Most appreciated.’

Stop sounding like Ah Wu, he said, and went quiet.

‘Be interesting to see what he’s finding out about them,’ Edwards said. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by demons. Never knew they existed when I was back in the UK, but I must have run into a couple of them without realising.’

‘You think so?’ I said.

‘It follows. Demons are often in on the nasty stuff that goes on.’ He nodded towards the prostitutes, who cowered in their seats at the back of the bus as the students tried to explain to them that they were no longer slaves. ‘We were often called in to deal with this sort of thing.’

‘Ever run into any nasties that seemed more dangerous than your average felon?’ I said. ‘That gave even a group of trained fighters like yourselves a tough battle?’

He thought for a moment. ‘Never had anybody that didn’t drop when we shot them, and demons would be unaffected by guns.’ He hesitated. ‘But some of them did seem tougher. We were given extensive training, and it’s like they were too.’ He shrugged. ‘Stronger, faster, smarter. A match for us. Could have been demons.’

‘But if you shot them, they fell down,’ I said. ‘Never had any explode into demon stuff?’

‘Never,’ he said. ‘Must go back to the UK and have a look one day.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ I said.

He harrumphed again. ‘Neither of us have the goddamn time, ma’am. We’re both flat out keeping our people here safe from the Demon King and his little kiddies.’

I sighed. ‘I know.’ I touched the stone. ‘How’s Simone doing?’

‘Let me see,’ the stone said. ‘She’s just arriving there now.’

‘Can you link me up, please?’

Simone appeared as a small image in front of us, running downhill towards the demons from where the phoenix was standing guard at the entrance to her nest. She was wearing her school PE uniform — a pair of green shorts and house T-shirt — and carrying her father’s sword, Dark Heavens. The sword was completely without adornment on either the handle or the blade. It was slightly too big for her but it was her weapon of choice.

As she closed on the demons, she lifted into the air, her tawny hair flying around her. She raised Dark Heavens horizontally above her head, and held her left hand up, her first two fingers pointing towards the demons, ready to use chi energy if necessary.

She flew lightning-fast over the Snake Mother, somersaulted directly above it and sliced diagonally through its skinless body. It fell in two pieces, the snake part writhing across the ground, the human hands scrabbling at the gravel.

Simone landed in a crouch, and I was breathless for a moment thinking she had hit the ground too hard. She spun and rose and launched shen energy at two nearby demons, blinding white blasts that destroyed them. The red warriors that had been fighting the demons stepped back in shock and raised their hands.

About six of the fake stone elementals remained. Simone ran to the centre of the battle, concentrated for a split second, then rammed Dark Heavens into the ground. Her hair flew up, the gravel lifted from the ground around her and a shockwave spread outwards from the blade of the sword, creating a visible ripple in the stony ground. When the shockwave hit the warriors, it knocked them off their feet; but when it hit the demons, it completely shattered them. They fell to the ground in shards of stone.

The shockwave stopped and the gravel that had been flying around Simone dropped to the ground. She pulled her sword free, and walked back up the slope to the phoenix. The red warriors rose and checked the area; the demons had all been destroyed.

Simone shared a few short words with the phoenix, then they touched wing to hand, the flaming feathers doing her no damage. She nodded to the warriors, who saluted her, then she shot straight up into the air and disappeared towards the north, leaving behind a trail of vapour.

I thank you, Madam General, the phoenix said into my head. You and the Princess have saved my babies. I am your servant.

‘Tell her she’s welcome,’ I said to the stone, and the image of the phoenix snapped off.

‘Never ceases to amaze me how such a sweet young lass can kick so much serious arse,’ Edwards said.

One of the seniors called to us from the back of the bus. ‘A few of these girls don’t speak anything but Indonesian and Thai, and one is Vietnamese. We need your help, Masters.’

Sit moved to the back of the bus where he talked to the girls in Putonghua. Nevertheless, they all understood him.

‘I envy the Immortals,’ Edwards said.

‘Then you’ll never join them,’ I said.

He shook with a short, silent laugh. ‘I know.’

‘If you want to take the time to go and cultivate the Tao, it’s your choice,’ I said.

He considered for a moment. ‘One day maybe. They all encourage me to go and cultivate the Tao on the Mountain, living on pine nuts and spring water, but I don’t think I’m ready for the Art of Navel Gazing. I’m just having too much damn fun here.’

I nodded. ‘Just so you know. If you feel the time is right, then go. They will help you.’

‘Thanks, Emma,’ he said softly. He shifted to sit more upright. ‘Nearly there now. Let’s work out what to do with these poor girls.’

CHAPTER 2

The team who’d rescued the prostitutes gathered for a debriefing in the conference room on the ninth floor.

‘Four of them can’t go home; their families sold them into this and they won’t be wanted back,’ Sit said. ‘Of the seven who can go home, we found only three of their passports in the brothel, the other four passports are missing. We’ll have stones tap into the relevant immigration computers to extract their details and make duplicates for them. Something very interesting, ma’am — one of the girls appears to be half-dragon and completely unaware of her nature. One of our dragons recognised her.’

‘I’ll talk to her,’ I said. ‘Arrange for her and Amy to meet me in my office after this; and to bring along the four girls that can’t go home. But first let’s have a look at Mr Lee’s recording. I want to see this energy blast that injured the students.’

Lee folded up from human to stone form and drifted to sit in the middle of the table. We waited for him to produce the recording of the standoff with the demons, but nothing happened. He returned to human form after a couple of minutes, obviously puzzled.

‘The recording’s not there,’ he said.

‘It’s not in your matrix?’ I said.

He shook his head, bewildered. ‘That area of my structure is clear. Like nothing was ever there.’ He looked concerned. ‘I’ve been hacked.’

‘Not possible, they were just Mothers,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘Bring out what you have either side, let’s see.’

Lee rubbed his hands over his face. ‘There isn’t anything there. I recall arriving at the building, going up the stairs, then going into recording mode. Then the next segment of data is me back down in the bus. I’ve been wiped.’

‘Not possible!’ the stone said.

‘Has anything like this happened to you before?’ I said.

Lee shook his head. ‘Very disturbing.’

‘Time to go back and see what’s going on there,’ I said. ‘Lee, grab a couple of other stones, take a couple of Celestials. See if you can get a dragon if they’re free, and teleport directly in. Everybody take a recording. Someone take an old-fashioned video camera from stores; ask Lok for one. We’ll meet back here in a couple of hours and see what we can see.’

‘Ma’am.’ Lee lowered his head and disappeared.

‘Has anything like this ever happened before?’ I asked the stone.

‘It is possible for us to experience damage to part of the matrix, but usually we can piece together the undamaged parts to give us an idea of what went wrong,’ the stone said. ‘Being erased like that is unheard of.’

‘Are you passing it through the stone network?’

‘Quite a few stones have dropped what they’re doing and are going along with Lee. A few want to examine his matrix. We’re looking into it.’

‘Good,’ I said. ‘Sit, get a stone to make some duplicate passports for these girls, and let’s send them home. I’ll talk to the dragon and the four that can’t go home in my office. Other than that, I think we’re done here.’

‘Ma’am,’ Sit said, and disappeared.

‘I’m very concerned, Emma,’ the stone said.

‘You’re not the only one.’

‘So it’s your choice,’ I said to the five girls. ‘Go home to your own country, or stay here. If you stay, we can give you the right of abode and you can find a job and work here. We will give you somewhere to live. It is up to you.’

One of the girls sniffled. The others sat looking down at their hands, silent and disbelieving.

‘If you don’t know what you want to do, take your time,’ I said. ‘We will look after you; we won’t make you do sex work. We will train you to do office work if you like, and you can find yourselves good jobs back home.’

None of the girls moved or spoke.

‘My staff will show you where you’re going to live until you decide,’ I said. ‘The lady who brought you here is waiting for you outside the office. If you want to go, just tell her, she’ll take you home. If you’re not sure, then you can stay with us until you know.’

I called to Martha and she opened the door and came in. ‘I’ll do the rest,’ she said.

She smiled at the girls and folded her hands in front of her. ‘I will look after you, nobody will hurt you any more. I can take you home or you can stay here; either way you are safe.’

The girls sat without moving.

Martha put her hand out. ‘Come with me.’

The girls rose like automatons, still looking at the floor, and went out with Martha. One of them sniffled again and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

Martha gently put her hand out to stop one of the girls from leaving the room. ‘Not you, you stay here. Madam needs to talk to you.’

The girl stopped, still staring at the floor. The other girls went with Martha without looking back.

I checked my notes for her name. ‘Hien. Please sit again, and I’ll tell you a story.’

She returned to her seat and glanced up at me through her long fringe. I smiled. Actually looking at me was a promising step.

‘About eleven years ago, I took a job as nanny to a little girl named Simone. Her father was a wealthy Hong Kong businessman.’

Hien didn’t move.

‘After a while, I discovered that he wasn’t a businessman at all, but a god. He was Xuan Wu, the black Turtle Snake God of the North.’

Hien glanced at me through her fringe again.

‘I don’t know how much you know about the gods, but he was the North Wind, an Immortal. He married a human woman and had a child with her. It’s a long story, but because of his wife he was forced to stay in human form for a long time and this made him weak. His wife was murdered by a demon before I met him; that’s why he needed me to nanny. He and I fell in love and he died about three years after that, murdered by a demon. I’ve been looking after his daughter, Simone, ever since. I’ve also been given the job of looking after his martial arts academy and some other stuff related to him being Emperor of the Northern Heavens.’ I put my chin on my hand. ‘Not exactly what I was intending to do with my life, but one day he’ll come back and we’ll get married.’

Hien clasped and unclasped her hands in her lap.

‘Yep, you’re probably thinking: more lies. But this is actually easy to prove because I can have any god or demon wander in here and take their True Form and scare you to death. I won’t do that though.’

She studied her hands carefully, still too traumatised to talk. This would take time.

‘Some of the staff and students here at the Martial Arts Academy are dragons,’ I went on. ‘Dragons are fierce fighters with impeccable honour and completely loyal to us. They are also incredibly fickle in love. They tend to love humans and then leave them without thought; not out of malice, just because that’s the way they are. We’ve been working here to explain to the dragons that this sort of behaviour isn’t really acceptable where humans are concerned. That if you produce a child with a human partner you’re expected to hang around and help care for it. Dragon children hatch fully able to care for themselves, but half-human dragons are generally the same as human babies.’

She sighed gently. I was boring her now.

‘One of your parents took off when you were a small child, Hien, leaving the other to care for you. Was it your mother or father who left you?’

She frowned slightly but didn’t reply.

‘Please answer me, Hien. Was it your mother or your father that left you when you were a small child?’

She tilted her head slightly, still hiding under her long fringe. ‘Mother,’ she whispered.

‘Your mother left when you were little. Your father probably has nothing but good things to say about her, and says that she left because that’s the way she was. He might even say that he still loves her.’

She glanced up at me through her hair.

‘Your mother is a dragon, Hien.’

She looked down again. Lost her.

‘You’re a dragon too, if you can learn to transform. You can be very powerful, able to swim and fly. But you must make this hidden dragon nature emerge. If you can, you will never again have to worry about anybody harming you.’

She remained still and silent.

‘I have one of the Academy dragons outside the door, Hien. She’s been translating for me. I can’t speak a word of Vietnamese.’

A small lie, but worthwhile in the circumstances. Amy wasn’t translating for me; all languages were understood within the walls of the Academy.

‘Right now she looks like an ordinary young woman. She can transform into a dragon to show you, if you like, and then you can decide whether you want to be a dragon and learn what you are capable of, or whether you would just like to go home.’

Hien sat unmoving, thinking about it.

‘Come on in, Amy,’ I said.

Amy opened the door and Hien jumped. Amy smiled reassuringly at her, and sat in the other visitor’s chair.

‘I know this is shocking for you,’ she told the girl. ‘I didn’t know I was a dragon until I was twenty-five years old; my father never told me he was a dragon too. We have a community of dragons here at the Academy and we go out and swim and fly together. It’s great fun. And we’re fierce fighters too; we never have to worry about being hurt.’

‘Amy will look after you now, Hien,’ I said, ‘and introduce you to some other dragons. All of them will be in human form. When you’re ready, you can ask her to show you her dragon form, her True Form. Take a few days, meet the other dragons, then at the end of the time decide whether you would like to learn to become a dragon yourself, or whether you’d like to go home.’

Amy held her hand out to Hien. ‘Come with me, I’ll look after you. Nobody’s going to hurt you any more.’

‘Go with her, Hien,’ I said. ‘And good luck. I hope one day I see you in dragon form. I’d like to see what colour dragon you are. Amy is the most beautiful black dragon with gold fins that I have ever seen.’

I nodded to Amy and she smiled back at me. As she gently guided Hien out, she turned back to me. ‘Don’t worry, Emma, I think we’ll bring her round.’

‘I hope so,’ I said. ‘She’s had a lot of bad stuff happen in her life. It would be nice to see something good happen.’

I was about halfway through the end-of-year leave requests when there was a knock on the door. ‘Enter.’

Lee came in, looking grim, with Silver, one of the Academy dragons. They took the visitors’ chairs and Silver placed the Academy’s video camera on the desk.

‘What did you find?’ I asked.

They both shook their heads.

‘Nothing,’ Lee said. ‘I wasn’t wiped this time. In fact, nothing at all happened. We went right through the place and didn’t find anything. You can watch the video, but it’s basically a tour of a down-market Mong Kok brothel. Four stones and Master Sit came with us, and absolutely nothing happened.’

‘Let’s see,’ I said.

Lee picked the camera up off the desk, flipped open the LCD screen and turned it on. He glanced down at the screen and his face filled with shock.

Silver leapt to his feet and changed to Celestial Form — nearly two metres tall with long, flowing, shining grey hair and scaled silver armour. He summoned a spear and held it to one side in the small office.

‘Don’t attack,’ Lee said to Silver without looking away from the screen. ‘That’s Lady Emma’s serpent form.’

‘What?’ I said.

Lee turned the LCD screen around so that it faced the same way as the lens. I could see myself in the screen; the camera was on record mode, not playback.

I stared at myself. ‘Holy shit.’

Silver changed back to human form, but his hair remained long and grey. ‘The Dark Lady is a serpent?’

‘Nobody knows why, but I can change into a big black snake. Not many people know about it, Silver,’ I said, watching with fascination as the enormous black serpent in the tiny screen also opened its mouth to speak. ‘We’d prefer not to freak out the students.’

I took the camera from Lee and watched myself. ‘I never knew I’d look like that on video; on still cameras I appear human. Wait!’ I looked up. ‘Stone, Simone took a home video about six months ago when we went to London and I was human in that. What the hell?’

‘No idea, Emma,’ the stone said. ‘Your guess is as good as mine.’

‘This information isn’t to be shared,’ Lee said to Silver. ‘Many of the human students would probably take it quite badly.’

Silver nodded. ‘I understand. How long have you been able to do this, Lady Emma?’

I paused, embarrassed.

Lee glanced at Silver, obviously sharing the information by telepathy, and Silver’s face cleared. ‘Sharing mind and body with the Dark Lord. That could very well bring out an inherent serpent nature.’

I could feel my face growing red, and Silver grinned. ‘In this respect you are still very human, ma’am.’

‘And I’d like to stay that way, thank you very much,’ I said.

I changed the camera to playback and watched as Lee and Silver swept through the brothel, pausing to focus on the untidy metal beds in each room with their cheap polyester quilts. ‘You were right. Down-market.’

‘Very,’ Lee said. ‘But we didn’t find anything.’

‘I had a serious look around for anything that would give us more detailed information on the nature of these demons,’ Silver said, ‘and I too came up blank. No paperwork, no messages, nothing. I’d say it was stripped clean but they never came back to do it. Which means there was never anything there to link the demons to the operation in the first place.’

‘Credit card machine? EFTPOS?’ I said. ‘Any cables you could hook into to get information, Lee?’

‘They had an EFTPOS line to the Hong Kong Bank. I traced it back and it was listed to a company registered at the brothel’s address, but with names of nonexistent people as the directors,’ Lee said. ‘Drawing a blank, ma’am. We have nothing.’

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Let’s leave it for now. Warn the third years, and keep an eye on the criminal operations for these demons.’

‘They’ll probably keep a low profile for a while now,’ Lee said. ‘But I’d really like to know what they did to me.’

‘Are you okay?’ I said.

‘I’ve been checked over, I’m fine.’ His mouth tweaked in a small smile. ‘I’ve just been erased.’

‘We’ll let the others know. The stone network is on the lookout. That’s basically all we can do,’ Silver said.

‘Thanks, guys,’ I said.

They stood patiently in front of my desk.

‘Dismissed!’ I said. ‘And you know you don’t need to wait for it!’

Silver bowed slightly, grinning knowingly. ‘Serpent Lady.’

‘And don’t call me that!’

They both disappeared.

CHAPTER 3

I’d just finished the last of the end-of-year leave forms when I heard a soft sound and a red box materialised on my desk. Thank you very much, Heavenly Bureaucracy: 7 pm, a hell of a day, and this lands on my desk. I hoped it wasn’t urgent.

I pressed my thumb to the elaborate gold filigree clasp on the front of the box. Inside was a single scroll, dun-coloured vellum tied with a red ribbon. I opened it and perused the black Chinese characters. Not written in red, so not an edict from the Jade Emperor, but from the complexity of the large square seal at the bottom of the document it was from someone quite high up. I couldn’t read the flowing Chinese calligraphic characters but the Celestial nature of the scroll made their meaning apparent as I scanned them. My heart leapt when I saw Leo’s name.

Lady Emma Donahoe, Grand Master (Acting), New Wudang Academy of Martial Arts; Probational Regent of the Northern Heavens

Madam,

Your application to attend to the matter of your Retainer Leo Gerald Alexander has been reviewed by the Office.

In light of the nature of the circumstances it has been decided that this matter will be forwarded to the Secretary for Underworld Affairs for further consultation.

Signed and chopped

Undersecretary for Review of Promotion

Yes. Finally we were getting somewhere. The Secretary for Underworld Affairs was the head of the Department of Hell and Yanluo Wang’s second in command. Yanluo Wang, Lord of the Underworld, answered only to the Jade Emperor when it came to the judgement of those found Worthy for Immortality. After eight years of tedious bureaucratic blockades I was close to being able to enter Hell and talk Leo into coming out.

I grabbed the scroll, rolled it up and shoved it into my handbag. Simone would be thrilled. I was meeting her for dinner at a Thai restaurant nearby and then we were going shopping in Pacific Place. I walked to the door, then stopped when I heard a soft sound outside. I listened. Quiet voices. Damn, in this form I couldn’t use my Inner Eye to check.

I tapped the stone, then put my hand over it to signal that it should stay silent.

I hear them, it said in my mind. It paused. Demons, Emma, big ones.

Not again. And right when I was about to go home. This was becoming ridiculous.

Yep, the stone said. It’s only three weeks since the last bunch.

I dropped my bag on the floor of my office, strode out the door, down the hall to the lift lobby, and switched on all the lights. There was a soft exclamation, then silence.

I stormed back into the middle of the main office cubicles, stopped in front of the demons, and crossed my arms.

They had taken the form of ordinary Chinese teenagers: two boys and a girl. I studied them carefully. The stone was right: really big ones. The girl was a shape-shifter; the two boys were humanoids.

‘Looking for me?’ I said.

The demons shared a look, then the girl stepped forward. ‘Are you Emma?’

‘Yes I am.’

She smiled and tilted her head. ‘We found your wallet downstairs and wanted to return it to you. But I left it back at my apartment. Can you come with us and I’ll give it back to you?’

Wow, that was lame even by their standards.

‘I suggest you leave right now,’ I said, ‘before you find yourselves in serious trouble, kids. How did you get in past the seals anyway? I just had them reset three weeks ago.’

Her eyes glazed over. ‘Seals?’

Great, a genius leading the group.

‘Yes, seals. Ours are some of the best. Who helped you to get in?’

A fleeting expression of vicious cunning crossed the face of one of the boys. Ah, the real brains.

‘We don’t know what you’re talking about, Emma,’ he said. ‘We just have your wallet and want to give it back to you.’

‘You were told by the Demon King that if you brought me to him in one piece, he’d let you back into Hell,’ I said. ‘What did you do to piss him off? You’re the fourth bunch of kids since November.’

The girl recovered herself. ‘I’m sorry, Emma, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Don’t you want your wallet?’

‘It’s in my bag back in my office,’ I said. ‘And now I’m giving you fair warning. Turn, and I will take you in. Run, and you’ll probably starve to death locked out of Hell. If you wish to take the third option, I will oblige but I won’t be happy about it. You could attain humanity if you just gave it a try. I’m a generous master to all my demons, you can ask any of them.’

When I said the word demons they stiffened slightly.

‘Very well,’ the smart one said. ‘You know what we are. Fine. Come with us and we won’t hurt you. Our dad just wants to talk to you, that’s all. Come along, and we promise nothing will happen to you.’

‘I can take all three of you down, you know,’ I said.

The girl snorted with laughter. ‘Yeah, right. We’re all spawn of the King himself. No chance, lady. Come quietly or you’ll regret it.’

The cunning one studied me appraisingly.

‘We can take her,’ the girl told him. ‘Dad said she’s just an ordinary human. We can do it.’

I held my hand out. ‘Three against one is hardly fair. May I use a weapon?’

The second boy shrugged. He hadn’t spoken yet, and his presence radiated apathy. The follower. ‘Whatever. We can take you, doesn’t matter what you use against us.’

‘Anything at all?’ I said. ‘How about this then?’

I called the Murasame, the Destroyer, and it appeared in my hand. I held the katana in front of me and used my thumb to slide the blade five centimetres out of its scabbard in a visible threat. ‘So who’s first?’

‘That’s the Murasame, guys,’ the second boy said quietly. ‘Oh my God, we are in big trouble.’

‘Not possible,’ the girl said.

‘Why? Because the Murasame belongs to the Dark Lady, head of New Wudang?’ I said. ‘Check the first floor of this building with your demon vision, kids, and tell me what you see.’

Their eyes unfocused and their faces filled with horror as they saw the armoury that took up most of the floor.

The girl made a soft wailing sound of terror. ‘This is New Wudang. He sent us to New Wudang.’

‘Let’s get out of here,’ the cunning boy whispered.

‘Join me and I’ll treat you well, you know I will,’ I said. ‘If you run you’ll end up dead.’

The girl and the cunning boy disappeared. Running. The follower boy didn’t run; he stood and watched me.

I bowed slightly and dismissed the sword. ‘Welcome. Kneel and pledge.’

He fell to his knees in front of me and his face filled with wonder. ‘I pledge allegiance to you, Dark Lady. I am your servant. Protect me, I am yours.’

‘Rise,’ I said. ‘Someone will have to complete the taming process for me because I really am an ordinary human.’

The demon rose and the expression of wonder faded into contentment. ‘As you wish, my Lady.’

‘Stone, can you see who is on the night shift for demon duty and ask them to come up and get him?’

‘Did it a while ago,’ the stone said. ‘Nigel’s on his way.’

‘Now tell me what you did that got the King so annoyed,’ I said to the demon.

He sagged, miserable. ‘We were on guard duty for the black one.’

I raised my hand to stop him. ‘The black one? You mean Leo Alexander?’

He shrugged. ‘Yeah, that one.’

A stab of pain hit me. ‘Is he okay?’

‘Apart from refusing Immortality, ma’am, yes, he is.’

‘So, what happened?’

‘We were guarding Leo when a hawker came past with sweet bean curd. We all went to buy some, and left Leo’s cell unattended.’

‘Is Leo alive?’

‘Uh …’ The boy hesitated. ‘Define “alive”, ma’am, and I’ll be able to answer that.’

‘If I were to go down there and talk the Courts into releasing him back to the Earthly Plane, would he be able to return to his previous life?’

He thought for a while, then shrugged. ‘I have no idea, ma’am, because nobody’s ever done that.’

‘Na Zha did.’

His expression cleared. ‘Yes, ma’am, yes, he did, I remember that very well. He went in and took his parents out of Hell. So yes, it theoretically could be done.’

Nigel appeared next to me, and sagged when he saw the demon. ‘Not another one, Emma.’

‘’Fraid so, Nigel,’ I said. ‘Have the seals reset as well, please. Three of them broke in without Lok even knowing.’

‘Lok’s over at the New Folly with the girls we rescued today,’ Nigel said.

He held his hand out to the demon. ‘Take my hand.’

The demon didn’t move.

‘Good,’ I said. ‘Take Nigel’s hand.’

The demon raised his hand, hesitated for a second, then strode to Nigel and took his hand. His eyes widened.

‘Done,’ Nigel said. ‘Where do you want to put it?’

‘Wait,’ I said. ‘What number are you?’

‘Four Seven Three,’ the demon said, its voice weak with awe.

‘Okay, Four Seventy-Three,’ I said. ‘How the hell did you get in here? Our seals are the best.’

‘I have no idea,’ the demon said, as if in a dream. ‘We were just told to come to the top floor of this office building and find a woman named Emma. We were told we would be able to come in, and we did.’

‘Someone on the inside?’ Nigel said, still holding the demon’s hand and studying it appraisingly.

‘No, of course not,’ I said. ‘The Masters are completely loyal, and all the students are examined before entering. We need to recheck those prostitutes’ natures — one of them might be the cause of the problem — but the seals are failing all the time. Stone.’

‘Yes, Emma?’

‘Get together with Yi Hao tomorrow and arrange a meeting about this. Something needs to be done now about the failure of the seals; we can’t let it go any more.’

‘By your leave, my Lady,’ Nigel said. ‘I’ll take this one down and put it away.’

‘One more question before you take it.’ I nodded to the demon. ‘As far as you know, is your father planning anything against us?’

‘No,’ the demon said.

He answered very quickly. Interesting. He didn’t need to think about it at all.

‘Very well, dismissed,’ I said. ‘Thanks, Nigel. I’m going to have dinner with Simone.’

‘And about time too, Emma, it’s past seven o’clock,’ Nigel said. ‘Stop working so hard.’ He and the demon disappeared.

I grabbed my bag out of my office, returned to the lift lobby, turned off the lights, and pressed the button to call the lift.

‘You should have called for backup, Emma,’ the stone said. ‘If you’d destroyed those three and absorbed their essence you would have been converted completely to a Snake Mother.’

‘Don’t worry, I had no intention of destroying them,’ I said.

‘Just be careful, dear,’ the stone said.

The lift came and I stepped in and pressed the button for the ground floor. ‘Reminders,’ I said to the stone. ‘Have the seals reset on Hennessy Road again, have those girls rechecked, and call George about sending his kids here for punishment. What do I have on tomorrow? I might get something from the Secretary about Leo; I want to be free if it happens.’

‘Energy novices at ten and three,’ the stone said. ‘Gold wants to talk to you about the school for dragons — I’ve scheduled him for four.’

‘Lunch?’ I said.

‘Free. Any particular time you want to schedule the meeting about the seals?’

‘No, whenever.’

Its voice softened. ‘Don’t go in after Leo, Emma, you’ll get yourself killed. Or the King will find a way to hold you. Or, even worse, convert you. Don’t do it.’

‘Leo’s been in there for eight years and there’s still no sign of him relenting,’ I said. ‘If I can talk to him, he might agree to come out.’

‘You shouldn’t even be talking to the King, Emma,’ the stone said. ‘That bastard wants you and you know it.’

‘He’s a creature of honour,’ I said. ‘He won’t do anything underhand. If he does try me, he’ll do it right upfront. I can handle him.’

‘When the Dark Lord finds out he’ll have kittens.’

‘Turtles or snakes. Not kittens,’ I said with grim humour. ‘Bai Hu’s the one who’ll have kittens.’

I walked out of the lift onto the ground floor of the Academy building. The coffee shop occupying one of the shopfronts was still ablaze and the owner gave me a friendly wave from behind the counter. He was a Shen in some trouble with demons and was under the protection of New Wudang. He made a modest living out of the café, which also provided the Academy with cover. I waved back and then walked down the steps into busy Wan Chai street. The pavement was packed with pedestrians hurrying home, and Hennessy Road was bumper to bumper with buses at a standstill in the usual evening rush-hour gridlock.

Are you far away, Emma? Simone said into my ear. I have a table already.

As I pulled out my mobile phone to call her, it rang. I pressed the button to answer. ‘I’m on my way now, I’ll be there in about five minutes. Order me a coconut, will you?’

‘That’s wonderful,’ said the Demon King on the other end of the line. ‘I’m so looking forward to it. I own a strip club just around the corner from your Academy and they serve fabulous coconuts. Do you want the address? If you come I’ll tell the staff not to put poppy in the coconut, just for you.’

I sighed with exasperation. ‘Stop sending your kids over, George. They’re making my life miserable.’

‘Oh, that’s too bad,’ he said without a hint of remorse. ‘If you come pay me a visit, they’ll stop, you know. I won’t hurt you, I promise. I just want to buy you a cup of coffee and have a chat.’

‘I’m afraid I don’t have anything to say to you, Wong Mo.’

‘Oh, I’m cut. My title and everything.’

‘Loathsome Majesty.’

He chuckled. ‘Now you’re just rubbing it in, Dark Lady. But I’m serious — come and chat, and the kids will stop. I want to talk to you about Leo.’

I nearly walked into a light pole. ‘Leo? Why didn’t you say so?’ I hesitated, then, ‘Can you get him out?’

‘He doesn’t want to go, Emma,’ he said. ‘He wants to kill himself. He doesn’t understand that’s not the way it works. Please, come down and talk to him; we’re thoroughly sick of him.’

‘I need permission from the Jade Emperor,’ I said. ‘I’ve been petitioning him for years, working my way up through the Celestial bureaucracy. I’ve made it as far as the Secretary for the Underworld. As soon as I have sanction, I’ll be straight down there.’

He sounded like a little boy who’d just been granted his fondest wish. ‘You’ll really come down for Leo?’

‘Of course I will.’

‘You should have told me, Emma. I’m on good terms with Yanluo Wang, I could have speeded up the process for you. I’ll help you any way I can, and I mean it,’ he said. ‘Okay, the kids will stop. No need now.’

Simone put the scroll down beside her plate and sat back. ‘So this means there’s only one more step before we can get permission from the Jade Emperor?’ she said excitedly.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘If we’re lucky we won’t even need to bother the Jade Emperor. This Secretary guy can give us sanction to talk to Leo.’

‘I hope that ugly dragon kid isn’t hanging around when we talk to them. I heard he crawls to all the most senior Celestials trying to win favour.’

‘Geez, that won’t work up there,’ I said. ‘He should know better.’

‘Oh, it works for some of the Celestials that are promoted rather than Raised. I heard if you find yourself a good patron up there you can go a long way.’

I sighed and rested my chin on my hand. ‘I hate politics.’

She snorted with amusement. ‘You need to resign then. You’re right in the middle of it, Madam Emma.’ She waved her hand. ‘Let’s not talk about that stuff anyway. When we have Leo back, I don’t want anything to do with any Celestials. I’ve had enough of them, particularly that blue guy.’

‘What about Daddy?’

‘Daddy’s different. He’s the most normal Celestial there is.’

‘Normal,’ I said, pulling out my wallet to pay, ‘is not a word often used to describe your father. Very much the opposite, in fact.’

‘Same goes for you, Emma.’

‘Humph.’

Simone held a CD in front of my face. ‘How about this one?’

I pushed it away from my face so that I could see it. ‘Boy bands again?’

‘Hey, these guys are cute.’ Then Simone dropped her voice and nodded towards another stand of CDs. ‘Have a look over there. In the metal section. Oh my God, that is so sad. Chinese can’t do Goth, and when they’re as old as him …’ She inhaled sharply. ‘No.’

I spun to see. It was him. Long hair, black clothes — of course he looked like a Goth, he’d invented it.

He casually flipped through the disks. Simone and I stood and watched him. It was Simone who snapped out of it first.

‘Daddy!’

She raced along the aisles and skidded to a halt about two metres from him. He didn’t seem to notice her.

‘Daddy?’

He was completely oblivious.

She took a hesitant step towards him and held her hand out. ‘Daddy?’ She dropped her voice. ‘Xuan Wu.’

I strode over and stood behind Simone. He still didn’t appear to notice us. ‘John. John Chen Wu, will you look at us?’ I said.

Simone stepped forward and touched his sleeve. Her hand went straight through. She waved her hand through his arm, up and down. He wasn’t there at all.

‘But he’s moving the disks,’ she said.

‘Look closely, Simone. The disks he’s touching aren’t moving. It’s an echo of who he was.’

‘Can he do that?’

‘I don’t think there’s much he can’t do.’

Simone sighed and stepped back. ‘Is he really that old? I don’t remember him that old.’

‘That’s how he was.’

‘I thought he was a Goth.’ She turned away and slammed her palm on one of the racks. ‘I thought he looked stupid.’

‘You can tell him one day, sweetheart, he’ll have a good laugh about it.’

Then I inhaled sharply, and she turned back. He’d selected a couple of disks and turned to purchase them. And saw us.

He looked me right in the eyes, then saw Simone. He smiled sadly.

She held her hand out to him, and he held his out, palm-up, to hers. They rested their hands on each other without really touching.

Nobody around us seemed to be aware of his existence. He dropped his hand and turned to me. He raised his hand again as if to touch my face, then lowered it. He put his hand over his heart, then held it out to me, still smiling sadly.

‘Oh God,’ Simone whispered.

‘He’s fading,’ I told her. ‘Have a last look.’

Tears running down her face, she watched him disappear.

I reached into my bag, pulled out a packet of tissues and handed it to her. She took a couple and handed it back. I took a tissue out as well and we both wiped our eyes.

‘I don’t feel like buying anything, Emma,’ Simone said, her voice hoarse. ‘Can we just go home?’

‘Sure,’ I said, my voice similarly strained. I heaved a huge sigh. ‘Let’s go.’

She nodded, holding the tissue against her face. ‘I want both of them back, Emma. Daddy. And Leo. I miss them so much.’

‘So do I, sweetheart.’

‘He knew who we were. I wonder how long ago that was. When it happened for him.’

‘We can ask him when he comes back.’

CHAPTER 4

Back at home, Simone shut herself in her room, still upset. I went into John’s office and sat behind the desk. I sighed, then proceeded to check the email; always a bad idea in the evening. There would be a large number of administrative matters that needed urgent attention and I’d be restless thinking about them until I could deal with them the next morning.

One student’s mother was ill and he wanted to return to Cambodia to see her; unfortunately there was a very good chance he wouldn’t be let out of the country again to return to us. We’d have to arrange a Celestial to go with him to ensure that he could be brought back. Another student was having major difficulties with his roommate’s lifestyle — too much late night music and mayhem when he was trying to study. I forwarded the email to Lok, the building manager, with a note telling him to let the senior involved know that I really didn’t have time to handle this sort of thing. Lok would understand.

Yes, I understand, Lok said into my head. But you still owe me a fresh cow’s heart. I have a shocking craving right now.

‘Tell him next time I go through the markets,’ I said.

‘And I told him to take some vitamins if he’s having cravings,’ the stone said.

My food contains all the nutrients I need for a healthy and active lifestyle, Lok said. Says so right on the pack. Shame it tastes nothing like fresh, warm, bleeding flesh. So remember next time you’re in the markets! Stone, remind her! Fresh cow’s heart!

‘Okay, okay,’ I said. ‘I will. Oh, what about the girls? Anything show up when we rechecked them?’

No, Lok said. They are all perfectly normal humans and their presence has had no effect on the seals here in the New Folly. Must be something else that’s weakening the seals at the Academy. A couple of Masters are looking into it.

‘Thanks, Lok.’

Fresh cow’s heart! And if you happen to see a cow’s or pig’s head in a basket at one of the butcher’s stalls …

‘Don’t push your luck.’

Lok didn’t reply.

I skimmed through the rest of the emails. Problems with the Northern Heavens; the Generals were trying valiantly to keep things running, but without the Xuan Wu to provide the Centre of Power and energy source, the place was falling to pieces. All the vegetation was dying. Residents were moving out, losing us much-needed tax revenue.

I stopped dead and gasped at an email in the midst of the administrative messages.

To: Lady Emma Donahoe, Regent of the Northern Heavens (Probationary), Acting Grand Master, New Wudang Martial Arts Academy <Emmad@newwudang.com.hk>

From: Secretary for Underworld Affairs

You have been granted an audience with the Jade Emperor two days hence, on 16th November at 11 am Hong Kong time to present your case regarding Leo Alexander.

Ensure that your attire and that of your Retainers is suitable and that you present yourself at least one hour before the audience to ensure correct protocols are observed.

It is suggested by this office that a Mortal such as yourself might consider enlisting the help of a senior Immortal well-versed in Celestial protocol before attending.

Signed and chopped.

‘Only two days, Emma? You have a lot of organising to do,’ the stone said, then its voice trailed off. ‘Oh my.’

‘Where’s Gold?’

‘With Amy.’ Its voice softened. ‘They’re both in True Form and she’s carrying him over the mountains of Guilin. They’ve perched on top of the highest peak. The view must be spectacular.’ Its tone changed to one of amusement. ‘He just told me to mind my own damn business. I’ll tell him how important this is and to get back here.’

‘Leave them to it,’ I said. ‘Where’s Jade?’

‘At home watching television.’

‘Relay the following message for me, stone. Jade, I’ve just received an appointment to see the Jade Emperor —’

Jade appeared in front of me. ‘How long do you have to prepare?’

‘How long I have to prepare is beside the point, Jade, because the minute I enter the Celestial Plane I’m dead.’

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, then fell to sit in the visitor’s chair across from me, stricken. ‘What are we going to do?’

‘If I disobey an edict from the Emperor I’m as good as dead anyway. I’ll lose the Academy, and maybe even Simone.’ I ran my hands through my hair. ‘Any ideas?’

‘Ask them to see one of your Retainers instead, Emma,’ the stone said. ‘Jade and Gold can do the job.’

Jade was horrified. ‘I’d prefer not to attract the attention of the Celestial, stone. Gold and I are in enough trouble as it is.’ She shook her hands in salute over the desk. ‘My Lady, I beg you, don’t make me go to Heaven in your place.’

‘Tell Gold it’s urgent,’ I said.

‘Already did, he’s on his way back,’ the stone said.

The front doorbell rang.

Jade hesitated, concentrating, then her face went blank with shock. ‘Quickly, ma’am,’ she said. ‘It’s the Planet.’

‘Oh shit,’ I said, and raced around the desk and flew down the hallway to the front door, Jade behind me.

Monica had already opened the door. The Planet Venus, the Jade Emperor’s personal emissary, was standing on the other side in full Celestial regalia. Monica stared at him, mouth open.

I touched her shoulder. ‘It’s okay, Monica, I can handle it.’

She snapped out of it and scurried into the kitchen.

I’m staying in here, Simone said from her room. I’m not coming out to talk to him unless he orders me.

I opened the door wide and gestured for Venus to enter. He nodded graciously to me and glided through, floating just above the floor.

Jade fell to one knee before him, saluting, then moved to stand to one side as Retainer. I cursed my torn T-shirt, tatty jeans and bare feet as I saluted him.

Venus drifted to the centre of the room and turned to face Imperial South, which gave him a view out of the windows overlooking Aberdeen. I quickly moved so that I could be seen by him. He wore a Tang-style robe of many layers of transparent white silk over an under robe of palest lilac. A similarly purple cloth crown covered the topknot on his head, and his long black hair swept down to his waist. He glowed gently with ripples of silvery light.

He nodded to me. ‘Lady Emma. I bring greetings from the Celestial. The Jade Emperor has asked me to convey this to you.’ He held a red lacquer box out to me.

I nodded and moved forward to accept it.

‘There is a note inside from the Celestial himself explaining the nature of this item he is lending to you,’ Venus said. ‘He asks that you guard it with your life and that of your Retainers. In the wrong hands, this jewel could cause a great deal of trouble for both the Celestial and the Earthly Planes.’

‘We will guard it with our lives,’ I said, holding the box with awe. It was about twenty centimetres a side and intricately carved with a cloud pattern, a dragon on the right and a phoenix on the left.

Venus changed form to an ordinary slim Chinese man with long hair wearing a smart grey designer suit. He drifted down to the floor, his glow disappearing. He held out his hand. ‘Lady Emma.’

I shook his hand. ‘Venus.’

He nodded. ‘Good to see you again, ma’am. Lunch sometime soon? It’s been a while. Maybe in the Landmark?’ He quirked one eyebrow at me. ‘You can take the opportunity while you’re in Central to go shopping for some new clothes and some slippers for wearing around the house like a civilised person.’

Jade snorted with laughter at the side of the room and bent double with silent hilarity, her hand over her mouth.

Venus bowed slightly to her. ‘Princess.’ He turned back to me. ‘Don’t be a stranger, Emma. We haven’t met for lunch in ages. Can my people contact your people and arrange something?’

‘Sure thing, just call my secretary,’ I said.

He bowed slightly again. ‘See you in Heaven.’ He disappeared.

I stormed past Jade to take the box into the office, and thumped her arm as I passed her.

She gasped with laughter. ‘He’s right, you know, ma’am.’

I pressed my thumb against the seal to open the box. A scroll and a small rosewood jewellery box were the only things inside. I took the scroll, undid the ribbon and opened it. It was written in English, in vermillion ink, in the Jade Emperor’s distinctive flowing hand.

Wear this while you are on the Celestial Plane and you will be unharmed. Make sure you remind me to ask you to give it back though; it’s one of my Symbols of Office. See you in a couple of days.

I removed the tiny box and flipped it open. Inside was a gold ring set with a large oval piece of jade. I took the ring and studied it, wondered if the stone was sentient and, if so, whether I should say hello.

The stone in my ring solved the problem for me. ‘Not sentient, just a nice piece of jade.’

Jade came into the office and gasped. ‘The Emperor’s Imperial Ring. I’ve never seen it outside the Celestial Plane.’

I slipped it on the ring finger of my right hand. ‘It’ll stop me from being killed when I enter the Plane,’ I told her, ‘but I have to give it back. Tell Gold to go back to Amy, we’re fine.’ Then I sighed with resignation. ‘The Jade Emperor knows.’

‘Of course he does; he knows all,’ Jade said. ‘Now, you only have two days to prepare. We’ll need to have something made for you right away, ma’am. Can you cancel your appointments and meet me at Mr Li’s tomorrow?’

‘I’m free after energy class at ten. I’ll meet you in Central?’

Jade bowed slightly. ‘Ma’am. We will also need to spend the afternoon revising Imperial protocol, if you want this petition to succeed.’

‘Damn, Jade, how much do I need to know? All I do is go in, bow to his JEness, and talk to him about Leo.’

Jade smiled slightly. ‘I think probably a great deal. We can spend the afternoon going through the protocol. If he meets with you in his rooms, you will need to know specific details.’

‘Basic things, like the fact that any seat that the Emperor sits on becomes his throne and no other person may sit on it,’ the stone said.

Jade nodded. ‘I’ll need to write a list of things to remember. By your leave, ma’am, I’ll return home and begin.’

‘It’s after work hours, Jade. No need until tomorrow.’

‘It will take me several hours to gather the information, ma’am.’

‘Don’t work too hard, Jade.’

She disappeared.

I sighed. ‘I didn’t even ask her how her kids are.’

‘They are dragons,’ the stone said. ‘They are young, troublesome and hungry all the time.’

‘Sounds like all kids.’

‘You are quite correct. Now go do something else for a while, Emma. Enough worrying about this. You will be fine. And you will finally be able to extricate Leo from this little mess he has put himself into.’

I rose to go into the training room. ‘Yes, Mother.’

I was halfway through a demon-essence kata with the Murasame when the Tiger appeared next to the mirrors, leaning casually on the wall.

‘How the hell did you get in?’ I said without stopping.

‘Your goddamn seals are fading again,’ the Tiger said. ‘Get a different Master to do it, baby. Whoever is doing it right now sucks.’

I swung the sword in a wide arc, leaving a black feathery trail behind it. ‘We have our best Master on it. He doesn’t know what’s going on either. It’s the same at the Academy.’ I stopped and lowered the sword. ‘Want to send one of your guys over to have a look?’

‘Done. I heard you got your audience, and about time too.’

‘Yep, day after tomorrow, 11 am our time.’

‘You can’t go up there though. I’ve tried to shield you before and it doesn’t work. We’ll have to arrange for someone to go instead of you.’

‘The Jade Emperor sent me a ring that will stop me from being harmed, but I have to give it back when we’re done.’

‘Good idea.’ He grinned broadly, making his tawny eyes sparkle. ‘Want a lift?’

‘Only if you promise to behave.’

‘Never.’ He levered himself off the wall. ‘Make yourself pretty, Emma. If you blow this, you’ll lose the Regency and some Celestial asshole will take over your Academy and your Heavens.’

‘Can you hide my demon nature from the public eye?’

‘I’ll do my best. The Celestial One will know everything, but hopefully the crowd who gather to see you won’t see it.’

‘Crowd?’

‘Yep, this’ll be the biggest thing to happen in Heaven in a long time. They’ll all want a look at the mortal white chick who’s running the Northern Heavens.’

‘Very badly.’

‘Nah.’ He leaned against the wall again and crossed his arms. ‘You’re not responsible for the energy failure. Ah Wu should have set up some sort of backup plan.’

‘We never really had much of a chance to make it work, Tiger.’

‘Yeah, I know.’ He dropped his head. ‘See you day after tomorrow. Meet me underneath the China Resources Building in Wan Chai at about 9 am. That’s where the Gateway to Heaven is.’

‘The China Resources Building? That big office tower in Wan Chai?’

‘Yep, ground floor, where there’s a replica of the Nine-Dragon Wall. That’s the Gateway. Good central location. See you there.’ He disappeared.

I changed to an ordinary chi kata. If my demon nature became public knowledge during this visit to Heaven, everything I loved could be taken away from me. The Jade Emperor knew about it and had helped me; but if everybody in Heaven found out, there could only be trouble.

CHAPTER 5

Evening was falling and the sky behind the beach was a flame of sunset colours. Over the ocean the sky was darker, and Venus already shone. The waves crashed and the warm breeze ruffled my hair as I walked on the soft sand, thinking.

I looked up and froze. A dark shape, alone on the beach. Hair lifted by the wind. Watching the waves.

It was him.

I didn’t run. I continued to walk towards him, and saw him clearly as I neared. He watched the ocean with longing.

When I was close enough he turned to me and smiled slightly, his noble features serene. His hair wasn’t tied back and it flew around him in the breeze. He wore his plain black pants and jacket, and his feet were bare.

I approached him carefully and stopped next to him. He smiled down at me. He reached out and ran his fingertips over my face, and I closed my eyes. His hand came around the back of my neck and pulled me closer and his lips met mine. I delicately held him, unwilling to grip him too hard because he might disappear. The wind changed and his hair wrapped around us, clinging to both of us.

He pulled back and gazed into my eyes. ‘Who are you?’

‘I’m your Serpent,’ I whispered.

‘No, you aren’t.’ He turned to the ocean and gestured. ‘My Serpent is out there.’

I turned to see, his hand still behind my neck. The Serpent raised its head in the water out past the breakers. It was enormous; it must have been more than twenty metres long, a black shadow against the darkening sky.

He smiled down at me again. ‘I think I know you.’

‘Emma.’

He tasted the name. ‘Emma.’

‘Xuan Wu,’ I said. ‘John.’

Something changed in his eyes. ‘Hello, Emma.’

I ran my fingers over his face. I floated my fingertips along his throat, revelling in the silken skin. ‘Hello, John.’

‘How long have I been gone?’

‘Eight years.’

‘You haven’t changed at all.’

‘Are you ready to return, John?’

He looked out at the surf. ‘My Serpent is there.’

‘You haven’t rejoined,’ I said. ‘You’re still in two pieces.’

He sagged so slightly it was almost undetectable. ‘It hurts.’

‘I know it hurts, love. Go to it.’

He glanced down at me. ‘But then I would leave you alone. You and …’ His face went strange.

‘Simone,’ I said.

He jerked as if he had been hit, grimacing with pain. He spun and ran to the surf. When he reached the water he changed into the Turtle and pulled himself into the waves.

I watched him go without moving.

Then I woke up.

I shook my hands with frustration as I tried to push them into the voluminous sleeves of the Tang-style robe. Mr Li had made it out of black silk with gold chrysanthemums, which somehow seemed to have become my signature fabric. The sleeves were wider than they were long, probably about a metre wide, and designed to hide a noblewoman’s hands as she never needed to use them; servants should do everything for her. Maybe I should have let Jade come into the changing room with me to help after all. I finally found the openings, then quietly cursed as I drew the belt around the robe.

Gold’s child appeared at eye level next to the mirror. ‘Aunty Jade says hurry up.’

‘You should not be in here,’ I said. ‘This is a changing room.’

The stone grew two long appendages and pretended to cover its nonexistent eyes. ‘Can’t see anything, Lady Emma.’

‘I’m done,’ I said, and raised my arms to the sides. Now that I had the robe on, the sleeves added to the volume of the kimono-style dress, making it elegant and flowing. Unfortunately the style didn’t suit me at all and I looked ridiculous. My more generous Western shape made me appear fat and my breasts made the front opening bulge out. I looked awful.

I sighed and walked out of the change room. Jade and her three children were waiting for me next to the cushioned seats. The children were in dragon form, chasing each other around the waiting area, but Jade was in human form and wearing a robe similar to mine with willowy elegance.

I raised my arms. ‘I look completely ridiculous.’ I could see from Jade’s and Mr Li’s faces that they agreed with me.

Jade grimaced delicately. ‘Perhaps a different colour?’

Simone came out of her change room. She wore a robe of dark shining indigo silk with twining golden flowers over a gold under robe and closed with a wide elaborately embroidered gold belt. The gold brought out the hues of her tawny hair. Wide silk ribbons of a brighter shade of blue, embroidered with golden chrysanthemums, decorated the neckline either side of her throat and fell as panels down the front of the robe; similar ribbons edged the enormously full sleeves.

She looked spectacular. She sighed when she saw me. ‘Oh dear, Emma.’

Mr Li raised one hand and my robe changed to the same dark blue as Simone’s. Jade winced. The robe changed to red and Simone said, ‘Ick.’

The robe rotated through a variety of colours and patterns.

‘Doesn’t work,’ Jade said with resignation.

‘Well, that’s the last acceptable style,’ Mr Li said. ‘We have to choose one of them. I think the Qing may have worked slightly better than this but it still made her look fat. She is approaching middle age now, and even though she is fit her figure reflects this. Her breasts are too large —’

I snorted with derision and opened my mouth to say something about late thirties not being middle-aged, but he continued unfazed.

‘Nothing seems to suit her and I don’t have time to adapt a style for her. We should have tried this earlier, I would never have expected this problem.’

I turned away. ‘Forget it then. I’m wearing my jeans and a shirt and the Jade Emperor can deal with it. Or better yet,’ I turned back and grinned at them, ‘I’ll wear my armour and carry my sword and let him deal with that.’

Jade and Mr Li both lit up.

‘Can she do that?’ Simone said quickly.

‘Even more appropriate,’ Jade said. ‘Much more suitable than a Tang robe. Lady Emma is a warrior.’

Mr Li eyed the bolts of silk on the wall appraisingly. ‘Take that one off. We’ll make a lighter under robe for the armour. It’ll still need to be Tang style, but I think we can get away …’ He wandered off, talking to himself.

‘Brilliant, Emma, you’ll look magnificent,’ Simone said.

‘I’ll put your hair up in a simple spike, same as the Dark Lord would wear into battle,’ Jade said. ‘Not —’

‘Tortoiseshell,’ I finished for her.

‘No, ebony, I think,’ she said, and we shared a smile. ‘When the Dark Lord returns, you two will be a matched set. Dark Lord and Dark Lady, both warriors together.’

I felt a shot of pain and sighed.

‘Don’t worry, Emma, he’ll come back,’ Simone said.

‘Any sign of him?’ I asked.

She unfocused, snapped back and shook her head.

‘I’ll fetch your armour, ma’am,’ Jade said, then called to the baby dragons, ‘You kids behave.’ She nodded to me. ‘Be right back.’ She disappeared.

Simone and I sat on the cushioned benches and waited for them to return.

‘He visited me in a dream last night,’ I said.

Simone sighed and put her chin on her hand without replying.

‘What’s the matter, Simone?’ I said. ‘You’ve been quiet ever since we found out we were going to see the Jade Emperor.’

Simone didn’t move or look at me, her chin still in her hand. Her eyes turned inward, remembering. ‘When I was very little, Daddy took me and Mummy to Heaven. He thought I’d enjoy seeing him at “work”. Mummy stayed in our apartment in the Palace, she hated it. Daddy changed …’ She ran her hand over her face. ‘Daddy changed into his Celestial Form, and picked me up and carried me to the Grand Audience Hall. You have no idea what it was like, Emma.’ She turned to gaze into my eyes. ‘You’ve seen it, you know how big his Celestial Form is. He carried me so far from the ground, and I didn’t know him as Daddy. He was so huge! And black, and he didn’t look like Daddy, he was just a giant carrying me so high up that I was afraid, and he walked with these huge strides — it was incredibly scary. I cried, and he did something to me to make me quiet, but I was still …’ She took a deep breath. ‘I was still terrified. Then he took me into the Grand Audience Hall and it was full of dragons and other Shen — animals and nature spirits, all sorts were there to see me, staring at me — and then we went up to the Jade Emperor, and he was in Celestial Form too, and Daddy handed me over to him.’ She smiled wryly. ‘Apparently, the Jade Emperor thought I was adorable. I was bound by Daddy, so I couldn’t move or speak, or cry. I just looked at the Jade Emperor as he held me. He was bigger than Daddy and way scarier.’ She shook her head. ‘It took me a long time to get over that. Even now, I think if I saw Daddy’s Celestial Form, I wouldn’t see it as him, just as this monster that bound me and carried me away.’

‘I wondered about that,’ I said. ‘I remember how scared you were of his Celestial Form.’

‘When he took me back to the apartment, he unbound me and I let loose,’ Simone said. ‘In seven different directions — I wet myself, threw up, everything. I was only about a year and a half old. I can remember Mummy screaming abuse at him. He changed back and tried to console me, but apparently, I would have nothing to do with him for a few weeks afterwards.’

‘I can understand completely,’ I said. ‘If it was me, I would have sent him down to Hell for a few days to “meditate upon his faults”. What a rotten thing to do to a little child.’

Simone made a soft sound of amusement. ‘Mummy did. Shot him right between the eyes, from what I’ve heard.’

‘You are the equal of any Shen in Heaven, Simone. You don’t need to be scared.’

‘I just can’t help feeling that way right now. I’ll be fine once we get there and I can see the Jade Emperor’s not a hundred metres tall.’

‘Would you like to talk to the Lady about it before we go?’

She waved me down. ‘I’ll be fine. Oh, Jade’s on her way back with your armour.’

Jade reappeared and held the armour out for me. ‘Ma’am.’

I rose to take it.

On the morning of 16 November, Marcus dropped me and Simone outside Harbour Centre in Wan Chai. Harbour Centre and Great Eagle Centre were two matched towers, that stood side by side right on the waterfront. They each had large neon signs for Japanese electronics companies on the first-floor level and featured in many Hong Kong postcards.

Simone and I took the escalators up to the first floor to use the walkways across to the China Resources Building, then walked along the covered open-air podium that overlooked the water. The adjacent building, the Convention Centre, jutted into the harbour, its flowing finlike shape making it look like a giant sea creature. I remembered another time I had stood watching the water and felt a twinge of pain. But we had seen him. He was searching for me. He would return.

We crossed the walkways, passed a small traditional Chinese garden, and took the escalators down to the open area under the China Resources Building. Two bronze Chinese unicorn statues, qilin, faced the road, and behind them stood a fountain of dragon heads squirting water. Behind the fountain was a replica of the Nine-Dragon Wall in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Bai Hu stepped out from under one of the supporting pillars. ‘You have all your gear?’

I raised the shopping bags I was holding. ‘All here.’

‘What about your armour, Emma?’

‘It’s folded up in there as well.’

‘Good. Where’s Gold? I thought he was coming.’

‘He said he’s in enough trouble as it is and begged me to leave him at home. Same with Jade.’

‘That’s true. It’s probably a good idea to leave them at home. Gold particularly has been in trouble with the Celestial many times before.’ Bai Hu gestured with his head. ‘This way.’

We followed the Tiger to the wall. Nobody around seemed to notice us. As we neared the wall, the white stone balustrade in front of it slid smoothly into the ground. The wall grew from two metres to nearly four metres tall, and the nine dragons on it came to life. They writhed across the wall and gathered at the middle.

The gold dragon in the centre stuck its head out and waved its enormous fangs menacingly close to my head. ‘Is this the mortal that wishes to enter the Celestial Domain?’

Let me handle them, the Tiger said into my head.

‘No need,’ I said. I unrolled the scroll and held it in front of the dragon’s face, making it jerk its head back slightly. ‘The Jade Emperor wants to see us.’

‘It is highly unusual for a human to be granted an audience with the Celestial One,’ the dragon huffed. ‘You are accompanied by no Retainers. How are we to know that you are worthy of such an honour?’

‘Cut the bullshit and let us up,’ the Tiger growled. ‘If I knew you were gonna give us this crap, I would have summoned a cloud.’

The dragon glared at the Tiger with disdain. ‘Perhaps that would have been preferable. Then our services would not be used by a mortal.’ It spat the word.

The Tiger grunted and took a couple of steps forward, but I raised my hand to stop him.

‘In this situation the mortal usually flatters the dragon’s enormous ego until the dragon is mollified and lets the mortal through,’ I said. I pulled the Murasame, still in its scabbard, from my shopping bag and waved its point in front of the dragon’s nose. ‘I don’t crawl to anybody though, so I might try the alternative tactic of whacking you with my little sword here until you let me up. Would that work?’

A white dragon on our right sniggered and the gold dragon glared at it. Then it turned back to me and watched me appraisingly.

‘If you’re thinking that she doesn’t have the nerve, then I can assure you she does,’ the Tiger growled. ‘She’s even taken my head off a couple of times when she got pissed with me. She seems to like killing Celestials.’

The dragon lowered its head to look me in the eyes. ‘You have taken the White Tiger’s head?’

A couple more dragons stuck their heads out of the wall to look at me.

‘He can be a complete dick sometimes,’ I said with a shrug.

The dragon hesitated, then threw its head back and roared with laughter. The other dragons joined it in a chorus of loud, high-pitched hissing.

‘Welcome, Lady Emma,’ the gold dragon said when it had regained its breath. ‘Please, walk on the clouds to a destination that you richly deserve.’

The wall separated in the middle and a stairway of mist appeared in the gap.

‘Welcome to Heaven, Lady Emma,’ the gold dragon said. ‘Anyone who takes the Tiger’s head when he’s being an asshole can come on through any time.’

‘That would mean the Tiger never having a head at all,’ a purple dragon said, choking with laughter.

The dragons collapsed into hysterics again, twining around each other with mirth.

I stepped forward into the gap in the wall and put a hesitant foot onto the misty stair. It appeared to be made of thick swirling fog but was also transparent. I relaxed when I realised that it was solid. I put the sword back in my shopping bag and began to climb.

As the Tiger came through behind me, the dragons’ heads followed him, still laughing.

‘A woman has finally tamed the pussycat, and she is not even his,’ one of them said.

The Tiger grunted. ‘Let’s just get out of here,’ he said.

‘A collar and bell for the pussy!’ another dragon called as we proceeded up the stairs.

At the top was an enormous gate, at least five storeys high, with massive red doors embellished with huge black metal reinforcing studs. A red wall stretched away on either side of the gate, disappearing into the clouds and seeming to go on forever.

Kwan Yin stood at the gate waiting for us. She was in human form, but appeared ageless and wore flowing white robes that floated around her. She smiled at us, and Simone ran to her and took her hand in greeting.

I glanced behind us. The path we stood on also disappeared into the clouds. We appeared to be floating in Heaven.

‘Is there anything down there?’ I asked.

‘Actually, no,’ Bai Hu said. ‘The Palace sits on a floating island of rock. The only way here is to ride a cloud or use a Nine-Dragon Wall.’

‘Where would I go if I fell off?’

‘Nobody knows, because nobody ever has.’

A small door at the bottom of the gates opened. It was only about a metre and a half tall and a metre wide and fitted so neatly into the corner of the gate that it was invisible when closed. Kwan Yin moved beside us and the four of us faced it.

An elderly man with long grey hair stepped through; the door was so small he had to stoop to fit. He wore a traditional black robe with an official’s hat; a high, square style with long extensions either side.

‘Don’t step on the threshold, Emma,’ Bai Hu said. ‘The raised step at the bottom of the door. Careful.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘What about the seals? There’s no way I can go through them without being destroyed.’

‘This official is to bring them down for you.’

The official approached, stopped about two metres away, and carefully saluted each of us in order of precedence. ‘Lady Kwan Yin. Lord Bai Hu, Lord of the West. Princess Simone. Lady Emma Donahoe, Promised of the Dark Lord of the Northern Heavens. Welcome.’

We all saluted back.

‘Please, come this way. We are ready for you.’

As we neared the gate, the official stopped and concentrated. The seals on the bigger gates shimmered into visibility: sheets of paper at least ten metres high with complicated calligraphy and symbolic charms. The paper shredded and dissipated.

The official sighed. ‘It took me nearly a year to create those seals when I put them on about a thousand years ago. We’ll have to make do with something temporary while I construct some new ones.’

‘Good Lord, I’m putting the Celestial Palace at risk?’ I said, horrified.

The official smiled over his shoulder at me. ‘No, ma’am. The seals don’t really do anything, they’re just there for show.’

‘What is your honoured name, sir?’ I asked.

‘Just call me Mr Wong, Lady Emma.’

The massive gates opened inward smoothly and silently, revealing the Celestial Palace within.

The Palace was constructed of stone adorned with brilliant cobalt blue tiles. Traditional gold tiles covered the roofs with their upward-curving edges. At each corner of each roof was a glazed ceramic image of a man riding a chicken, with other animals lined up along the edge of the roof behind him and a dragon bringing up the rear.

The Palace was built up the side of a gently rising hill with a magnificent hall at the top, at least a kilometre away. A network of identical pavilions and walkways worked up towards it in perfect geometric arrangement, mirrored on each side. The gold-tiled roofs sparkled in the sunshine beneath the brilliantly azure sky. Green treetops jutted between the walls.

A huge grey stone-paved courtyard, at least two hundred metres to a side, lay between the gate and the base of the hill. Bonsai trees, each about a metre high, were scattered about the courtyard, some of them bearing large peaches, apricots and cumquats; flower pots containing massive chrysanthemums in brilliant colours also broke the monotony of the paving. Larger potted trees, some of them up to five metres tall, flanked the courtyard, also bearing peaches. A wide stream flowed across the courtyard, its surface level with the paving. It was spanned by three arched bridges, and small blue dragons swam within the crystalline water. Brilliant phoenixes with plumage of many colours wandered around the courtyard, like ornamental peacocks. The view resonated with me, then I realised it was similar to the courtyard at the front of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

The official led us into the courtyard. ‘The first hall is the Hall of Welcome Contentment. There you will prepare to see the Celestial.’

He raised his head and spoke loudly and clearly, ‘Hall of Welcome Contentment,’ then took a step forward and disappeared.

‘Do the same, Emma: just say the name of the hall and take a step forward,’ Kwan Yin said.

‘Hall of Welcome Contentment,’ I said, stepped forward, and was instantly at the entrance to the hall. Mr Wong stood there waiting. Kwan Yin, Bai Hu and Simone appeared next to me.

‘Way cool,’ Simone whispered. ‘I wish we had this at school. Those stairs are a killer.’

Mr Wong raised one arm. ‘Please, enter.’

The hall had large red pillars and its ceiling was covered with elaborately decorated tiles. It was empty except for a pair of rosewood stands, as tall as a man, holding incense braziers.

Mr Wong gestured to the left. ‘This way, everybody. There is a preparation room where you can ready yourselves.’

We walked to the end of the hall, where a simple doorway led to a set of apartments with modern furniture. Priceless silk rugs covered the polished hardwood floor. A comfortable set of tan leather couches sat to one side, and an oval rosewood dining table inlaid with mother-of-pearl to the other.

There were doors at each end of the room and another door, paned with glass, that opened to the courtyard beyond. Ming-style rosewood shelves displayed a collection of antique vases.

Bai Hu had a quick, whispered discussion with Mr Wong. The discussion became heated, although still whispered. Bai Hu raised his voice and glanced at me, then lowered it again. Mr Wong shut the discussion off and stormed out.

Bai Hu thundered over to us, his face raw with fury. ‘I do not believe this!’

‘They can’t do this to her,’ Simone said. ‘It’s not fair.’

‘The Celestial does as he wills,’ Kwan Yin said. ‘It is traditional.’

‘But it isn’t her True Form,’ Bai Hu hissed. ‘They’re doing this deliberately to shame her.’

‘Oh my God,’ I said, and they all looked at me. ‘He’s going to make me go in as a snake, isn’t he?’

Ms Kwan’s voice was full of compassion. ‘Everybody takes True Form in front of the Jade Emperor. Nobody hides anything. But you were born human, Emma. I have already discussed this with the Celestial, and he agreed to see you as a human. He has just, in this last hour, changed his mind.’

I sighed with feeling. ‘This could cost me everything. I hope he protects me when everybody goes after my head.’

‘You have to take Celestial Form too, Simone,’ Bai Hu said.

Simone’s face closed up tight.

‘You have a Celestial Form?’ I said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you could do it?’

‘How the hell does he know about that?’ Simone said.

‘The Celestial knows all, Simone,’ Kwan Yin said. ‘It appears that Mr Li’s time was wasted.’

‘Why’d you keep it a secret, Simone?’ I said.

‘When you see it you’ll know.’

‘Is it that bad?’

She didn’t reply. Her face was still closed up tight.

‘Well, whatever,’ Bai Hu said. ‘Drop your stuff and we’ll go on. Mr Wong says we have ten minutes to prepare, to change into the forms, and he’ll take us up to the main chamber.’

‘I’m still wearing my armour and carrying the sword,’ I said. ‘I’ll change when I’m there.’

‘That is unusual but permissible,’ Kwan Yin said.

‘Is Mr Wong the Jade Emperor, Bai Hu?’ I asked. ‘“Wong” means “King” in Cantonese.’

‘Of course he is. Isn’t it obvious?’

The Murasame’s scabbard had a strap that telescoped out from the top and clipped to the bottom so that I could carry it over my shoulder with it resting diagonally across my back. I hefted it on and returned to the living room.

Kwan Yin and Bai Hu were waiting there in True Form. Kwan Yin’s white robes flowed around her, and a glowing aura surrounded her serene face. She stood more than two metres tall. Bai Hu’s tiger form was about four metres long.

Simone hadn’t taken Celestial Form; she wore the robes Mr Li had made for her, the same as I did. She saw my face. ‘I’ll do it when I’m there, same as you.’

‘Is it reptilian?’ I asked.

‘No, the problem is entirely in the other direction.’

Mr Wong returned and we all saluted him again. While he was acting as this minor official, we were expected to treat him as such. Everybody had to pretend that we didn’t know he was the Jade Emperor, and he pretended that he didn’t know we knew. The duplicity made my head ache.

He led us back into the main part of the hall, then towards the centre of the Palace. We entered a courtyard with a single huge tree in its centre.

‘Grand Audience Hall, Main Entrance,’ Mr Wong said, and disappeared.

Bai Hu stepped forward. ‘I’ll go first.’ He repeated the words and disappeared.

‘JK Rowling did something like this in Harry Potter,’ I said.

‘Well, she can sue the Jade Emperor,’ Simone said, recited the words and disappeared.

CHAPTER 6

The Grand Audience Hall was massive, about a hundred metres to a side and a good fifty metres high. Enormous doors glided open before us. A set of stairs led up to them separated down the middle by a sloping ramp of marble carved with dragons. Whenever the Jade Emperor went up he floated over the marble; everybody else had to take the stairs.

Mr Wong had vanished.

‘Gone off to turn into the Jade Emperor and embarrass the hell out of us,’ Simone growled. ‘I hate that he’s doing this to you, Emma.’

‘How about we change once we’re in his presence?’ Isaid.

‘That is not acceptable, Emma,’ Kwan Yin said.

Simone and I shared a small smile.

‘Good. Which stairs are we supposed to use?’

‘The left ones.’

Simone and I shared another small smile and headed straight for the stairs on the right. The Tiger growled something unintelligible and loped after us. Kwan Yin just floated up the stairs.

A couple of guards appeared on either side of the huge door. Each of them wore a Tang-style red robe and carried a massive halberd, a spear with a broadsword blade on the end. Their True Forms were nearly three metres tall, and the red robes flowed around them. They had goatees, and glared fiercely at us. The one on the left’s face was black; the one on the right, red.

‘General Qin. General Wei,’ I said. I raised one hand. ‘Hi, guys, long time no see. How’s the family, Ah Bao?’

‘Hi, Emma,’ said the left-hand door god, Qin Shu Bao. ‘Everybody’s good. My Number Five Son has just been engaged to one of the Dragon King’s daughters, gorgeous purple dragon.’ He tapped the bottom of his halberd on the grey stone paving. ‘What business have you here?’

‘We’re here to see the Jade Emperor, mate,’ I said. ‘Let us in.’

‘That is not the correct formal address, Emma, and you know it,’ the Tiger said.

‘Too bad.’ I turned to General Qin. ‘Open up.’

‘In you go, pet,’ General Qin said. ‘Don’t start too quickly — we want to come in and see the fireworks.’

‘Oh, don’t worry,’ Simone said. ‘There’ll be plenty to see, I can assure you.’

‘I have been looking forward to this for a very long time,’ the other door god, General Wei, said. ‘Don’t tell the Jade Emperor to go to Hell, it’s already been done.’

‘Don’t worry, we’ll think of something suitably outrageous,’ I said.

‘Excellent,’ General Qin said.

The Tiger stopped next to Simone and looked up at her; he was so big he didn’t need to lift his head far. ‘You sure you want to do this?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Simone said, and we stepped through the doors into the hall.

Massive red pillars intricately carved with phoenixes and dragons held up the roof, which towered above us. A smaller roof was set above some clerestory windows that allowed the brilliant Celestial sunshine to light up the interior of the hall. The throne at the end, with its gold silk cushions, must have been nearly ten metres wide, raised on a dais three metres above the floor.

The way to the throne was marked by a gold carpet on the grey stone, with ornamental lanterns on either side at intervals of about two metres. A large number of Celestials had gathered on either side of the aisle, all watching us.

Well then, let’s give them a show, Simone said.

General Qin came in behind us to announce our presence. ‘Holy Bodhisattva Kwan Yin. Lord Bai Hu, White Tiger of the West. Princess Simone, only human daughter of the Dark Lord of the Northern Heavens. Lady Emma Donahoe, Promised of the Dark Lord, Regent in His Absence.’ He added silently, Go get’em, girls.

‘Don’t encourage them,’ Bai Hu whispered, a throaty rasp.

Simone and I walked towards the throne, the ranks of silent Celestials watching us from either side. Bai Hu and Kwan Yin followed us, also silent. We both tried to appear as casual and confident as possible, but Simone’s breathing was as ragged as my own.

Large gold screens carved with five-toed dragons stood behind the throne, and a General guarded it on one side, but I could hardly see the Jade Emperor himself, it was such a long walk.

As we approached, he came into focus. Yep, our friendly lowly official, Mr Wong. Now he was resplendently decked out in a Tang-style wraparound robe of brilliantly gold Imperial silk embroidered with five-toed dragons, and wore an Imperial hat with a square brim and beads that hung in front of his eyes so nobody could see them.

The guard at the Jade Emperor’s right hand was the Second Heavenly General, Er Lang. He was in True Form: a massive three-metre-high young human wearing pale green and gold armour and a war helmet. He had three eyes; his third eye was open and appeared as a lashless eye in the centre of his forehead. He held a halberd as big as those of the door gods. A black dog stood at his side, watching with disdain as we approached.

We fell to our knees at the base of the dais and touched our foreheads to the floor. ‘Wen sui, wen sui, wen wen sui,’ we said. I nearly grimaced; imagine wishing an Immortal ten thousand times ten thousand years of life.

We waited for the Jade Emperor to tell us to rise. He didn’t.

We waited with our foreheads on the floor, not looking at him, but still he didn’t say a word. All I needed: a power game.

‘Rise,’ the Jade Emperor finally said after an uncomfortable couple of minutes, and both Simone and I pulled ourselves to our feet.

‘You are ordered to take True Form in the presence of the Jade Emperor,’ Er Lang said loudly.

Neither Simone nor I said anything or moved.

‘Take True Form!’ Er Lang shouted.

‘These are our True Forms,’ I said.

‘Simone —’ Bai Hu began.

‘Shut up, Bai Hu,’ Simone said.

There was the very faintest rustle of movement through the hall. Nobody said a word, but they were restless and their slight movements made the silk of their robes hiss.

The Jade Emperor’s face didn’t shift from its expressionless mask. ‘Lady Emma Donahoe.’

I saluted him, bowing slightly. ‘Celestial Majesty.’

‘You claim that the form I see here is your True Form?’

‘That I do, Celestial Majesty.’

‘Princess Simone,’ the Emperor said.

Simone saluted. ‘Celestial Majesty.’

‘You too?’

She bowed slightly and saluted again. ‘Celestial Majesty.’

The silk rustle in the hall became slightly louder, then faded again.

‘Er Lang,’ the Jade Emperor said.

‘Lady Emma Donahoe is ordered to take True Form,’ Er Lang said without looking at me.

‘As the Celestial Majesty wishes,’ I said, and didn’t change. I just stood quietly at the base of the dais.

‘This is not your True Form!’ Er Lang shouted.

‘This is the way I was born. This is the way I wish to be perceived. This is the true me,’ I said. ‘This is my True Form. Any other form I could take would not be me.’

The rustling became louder and a series of hushed whispers rippled through the hall then quickly settled to silence.

‘Er Lang,’ the Jade Emperor said again.

‘Princess Simone, daughter of Xuan Tian Shang Di, is ordered to take Celestial Form,’ Er Lang said.

Simone hesitated.

‘Do it, dear,’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘You have a Celestial Form. You have been ordered. Do it.’

Simone made a short, clipped whimpering sound and changed. She gathered all of the darkness in the hall and wrapped it around her, completely hiding herself from view. The darkness grew and became more massive. A spreading, seeping cold emanated from her and the air around her filled with ice. The darkness exploded out from her in a silent eruption and dissipated. Her Celestial Form became visible.

The voices in the hall erupted to a roar, then quickly faded.

Her livery was deep blue, almost black, and shining gold. She was nearly four metres tall, and her golden-brown hair swept around her, so long it lay on the floor. Much of it floated in a breeze that wasn’t there. Her skin shone translucent in the light; a delicate honey brown. Her enormous golden eyes glowed with wisdom far beyond her years. She appeared to be about twenty-five years old. Her deep blue robes flowed around her, decorated with a thousand tiny pinpoints of golden light, like stars. She was breathtakingly beautiful, more like a force of nature than a young woman.

‘Can you call Seven Stars, Simone?’ the Jade Emperor said.

Simone held out one slim arm and the sword appeared in her hand. The scabbard was black, the hilt was white, and the sword was nearly two metres long. It fitted her perfectly. She lowered her hand and held the sword in front of her. She truly appeared as a goddess with the sword in her hand and an expression of detached ferocity on her face.

‘Good,’ the Jade Emperor said. He rose from the throne and stood before us on the dais with his hands clasped behind his back. ‘What is it you have come to see me about?’

I bowed slightly. ‘Leo Alexander, Retainer of the Dark Lord, is held in Hell at your pleasure,’ I said. ‘We would like your permission, Celestial Majesty, to go and talk to him about accepting Immortality and returning to us.’

‘Why should he do this for you when so many of my staff have been unable to convince him?’

‘Because he loves us,’ Simone said in a voice of sharpened honey.

He smiled slightly. ‘Anything else?’

‘I request the freedom of the Golden Boy, child of the Jade Building Block, and the Jade Girl, eighty-second daughter of the Dragon King.’

Simone glanced at me.

‘And that’s all?’ the Emperor said.

‘Yep,’ I said. ‘Uh, yes, Celestial Majesty.’

‘Return to your normal form, Simone.’

Simone changed back and we shared a small sigh of relief.

‘Meet me in the Imperial Private Offices in one hour, together with your sponsors. Concluded. Dismissed.’ He returned to the throne.

We fell to our knees again. ‘Wen sui, wen sui, wen wen sui.’

‘Supplicants are permitted to depart,’ Er Lang said.

We backed away for about ten metres, then turned and walked out of the hall with every eye in the place boring into our backs. I could tell from the way Simone walked that she wanted to run out of there as much as I did.

‘What in Heaven possessed you two to do something like that?’ the Tiger shouted. He paced in front of us with his hands clasped behind his back.

Ms Kwan had also returned to human form. She sat at the dining table, as serene as ever. She waved one hand and summoned a pot of tea. ‘Sit. Drink tea. All will be well, Ah Bai.’

The Tiger stopped and glared at her. ‘Don’t encourage them.’ He turned his attention back to me. ‘What if you’d been ordered to take demon form? What would you have done then?’

‘Refused again.’

The Tiger paced once more. ‘I’m glad you weren’t ordered to then. Defying an order from the Celestial once is bad enough; twice would have got you executed. And you.’ He rounded on Simone. ‘You should have refused. Or at least taken something less impressive. God, Simone, what a stupid thing to do.’

‘That is less impressive,’ Simone said. ‘That’s the smallest one I can do. In the full version, I’m more than three metres tall, as big as Daddy’s biggest Celestial Form. The robes appear like space; the gold stars really are stars. My eyes are even bigger and freaking black. And the yin hangs around my hair like some sort of freaking cloak, freezing the air wherever I go. It’s huge.’

‘Shit.’ The Tiger began pacing again. ‘You sure your mother was human? Every Immortal in Heaven is going to be after your hand, my girl. If I saw you like that, and I didn’t love your father like a brother, I’d be after you in a second myself.’ He shook his head. ‘What a fucking disaster.’

Mr Wong tapped on the door and came in. He smiled like a kindly grandfather and we all glowered at him.

‘Well done, ladies. But you should have taken the full version, Simone. Maybe later, eh? Come on up and have some nice tea with me, and we’ll talk about it.’

Bai Hu stood threateningly over Mr Wong. ‘Don’t you dare let anybody grab this little girl, Ah Ting. She’s just a child.’

‘Calm down, Ah Bai, don’t get your whiskers in a twist. I’ll protect them, don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.’ He glanced at me, his eyes sparkling. ‘Come on up to my apartment and we’ll have a little chat.’

‘It’s about time someone reminded that bunch of stiffarsed old farts exactly what it means to pursue the Tao,’ the Jade Emperor said amiably. He poured the tea and we all tapped the table in thanks. ‘See? You show respect in exactly the right amount required, at the time it is required, and not more. And when the order is a stupid one, you make your feelings clear. The most senior Celestials are aware of your serpent form, Emma. They were fully expecting you to take it, even though you made it clear that you regard your human form as your True Form.’ He sighed with feeling. ‘So many blindly follow orders purely to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. Lazy. Now.’ He picked up his teacup, brushing his long sleeve out of the way. ‘Leo Alexander. Stupid bastard. Entirely much more trouble than he is worth. I know why you did it, Lady, but he has still been a massive thorn in my side for many years.’

Kwan Yin nodded silently.

He sipped his tea. ‘You certainly have my permission to try your best to pull Leo out. Go for it. If you can persuade him out of Hell, I’d be very happy indeed.’

‘I wasn’t expecting this to be so easy after all the bureaucracy we’ve had to go through,’ I said.

The Emperor smiled slightly. ‘We thought we would be able to fix this without the intervention of a mortal such as yourself. It makes us look very, very bad to have to call you in on this. The Celestial should be able to handle this type of thing.’

‘Leo’s very stubborn when he wants to be,’ I said.

The Emperor raised his teacup to me. ‘That he is. And thoroughly Worthy. I am looking forward to seeing him take his place here among the Immortals.’

‘He’s black and gay, Ah Ting,’ Bai Hu said.

We all stared at Bai Hu with astonishment, even the Jade Emperor.

‘I’m just saying,’ Bai Hu said with a shrug. ‘He’d be the first.’

I turned back to the Jade Emperor. ‘He’d be the first gay Immortal? Is it allowed? I know the tradition …’

‘Humankind is very fond of rules,’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘Very fond of putting things into little boxes and sticking labels on them. Yang is masculine; yin is feminine. Therefore all males must be yang and be attracted to females. Despite the fact that the universe is obviously not built that way, humans insist on creating their little boxes and pushing things into them even when it’s quite plain that they don’t fit.’ He poured more tea. ‘The nature of the Tao is the true nature of all. If a man is attracted to other men and that is his nature, then how can he pursue the Tao without pursuing that nature? Ridiculous.’

‘So it’s not an issue?’ I said.

‘Of course not,’ the Emperor said. ‘There are plenty of gay Immortals, there always have been. The minute you stick a label on something it loses its true nature and you move further away from the Tao, which is nameless.’

‘But he’s black,’ Bai Hu said.

‘I have the sudden urge to rap you sharply across the nose, cat,’ the Emperor said.

‘He’s not Eastern, I meant,’ Bai Hu said. ‘It’s not the colour, it’s the location. I mean, we’ve had Westerners gain Immortality here before …’ His voice trailed off. He raised his hands in defeat. ‘Okay. I just made my own point. Shutting up now.’

‘You aren’t just a sexist pig, you’re a racist one as well,’ I said with wonder.

‘The hell I am,’ the Tiger said. ‘He doesn’t belong to this Corner of the World. He should be Raised to Immortality in the United States, his home. He should reside on his own Celestial Plane.’

‘What about me?’ I said.

‘You too. If you were to gain Immortality, you should do it in the South, where you belong, and live in the Southern Celestial Plane.’

‘What about me?’ Simone said.

The Tiger opened his mouth and closed it again.

‘Oh, very well,’ the Emperor said. ‘But this is strictly for your ears only, you are not to share it with anyone. The Elder of the Southern Shen and I have been in contact for about ten years. We’re arranging a conference in a neutral territory, probably Antarctica. As soon as we contact the Western, African and North and South American Shen we’ll start making arrangements. We’ll probably do it when Ah Wu’s back and he can do the security in conjunction with each group’s people. We’ll thrash out a reciprocal agreement.’

‘Not North, South, East and West Shen?’ I said.

‘No, the Eastern and Western thing is just for convenience,’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘Actually, each continent has its own Shen, divided by the ocean or desert. So there aren’t actually any Northern Shen, unless you count Ah Wu who is the essence of the North itself.’ He shrugged. ‘Hardly anybody lives up there anyway — people there fit into their own region. So basically it will be a meeting of Shen from the six continents, and when we get together we’ll probably start formal naming and reciprocal diplomatic arrangements.’

‘What, Shen UN?’ I said.

The Jade Emperor made a soft sound of amusement. ‘Yes. Now that travelling between the Corners is becoming common, we need to deal with the matter of mortals attaining Immortality in a Centre outside their own. If they choose to reside in a different Celestial Plane, the option to do so should be open to them. Leo is a classic example of this; he is in the first hundred or so black people who have been through our Hell, and the first to gain Immortality in our Centre. Until now, we have had very little contact with other Celestials. The time has come that we should make an arrangement for free movement between the Planes.’

‘The demons are moving as well,’ I said. ‘Look at these stone things.’

‘Precisely,’ the Emperor said with feeling. ‘Mixing Western mystical stones with Eastern demons. And the biotech that One Two Two was experimenting with …’ He glared at the Tiger. ‘Absolutely not acceptable.’

‘I don’t do anything like that,’ the Tiger said. ‘My kids are just studying them. Just having a look. Working out what makes them tick.’

‘As long as that’s all it is,’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘Supervise your scientists closely. Interfere with the demons’ true nature and Er Lang will land on you so hard you’ll think your nose is your tail.’

Bai Hu saluted. ‘Celestial Majesty. I agree with you anyway.’

‘Jade and Gold,’ I said.

‘Ah.’ The Emperor leaned back. ‘Do you know why they are bound into servitude?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘They’re both obviously embarrassed about it, and I haven’t pushed the point.’

‘They deserved it,’ the Tiger said. ‘They should have spent the time in Hell.’

‘I didn’t see you charging out of the West to defend the honour of the Qing,’ the Emperor said.

‘You issued the goddamn edict telling us not to interfere yourself, Ah Ting,’ the Tiger said.

The Jade Emperor thumped his hand on the table. ‘That is the third time you have called me that, Bai Hu. Call me Ah Ting again and I will have you executed! I gained this appointment through cultivation and merit and that story is a lie! You are walking a very fine line!’

The Tiger grinned and saluted.

The Jade Emperor turned back to us, serene again. ‘In 1843, a young man by the name of Robert Fortune sneaked into China. He wanted to free our nation from the scourge of the opium trade. You know about that?’

Both Simone and I nodded.

The Jade Emperor continued. ‘The opium trade was purely because of the tea. Young Robert thought that if he could grow tea in a territory of the British Empire, then the traders would no longer need to sell the opium in China to pay for the tea.’

‘He stole the tea,’ I said. ‘There was a show on the History Channel a while ago.’

‘I saw that too, it was very good,’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘Anyway, he travelled the tea plantations looking for owners who would be patriotic enough to help end this destructive trade. He was aided by a young woman who was both powerful and naïve.’

‘Not Jade,’ Simone said.

‘Yes. Jade took the young man to a plantation owned by a Shen. You might say the Shen had inherited the plantation when his demon master was destroyed. The Shen, being just as naïve as the young lady, provided Mr Fortune with seeds, plants and tame demons to cultivate them in the British Imperial Territory of India.’

‘Demon master?’ Simone said. ‘Gold was bound to a demon?’

‘He lost a bet and was bound into the demon’s servitude,’ the Emperor said. ‘The demon was destroyed, Gold was freed and he escaped with the deeds to a tea plantation the demon owned. He gave Robert Fortune the tea — directly in defiance of an edict issued by me that no Celestial was to interfere in human affairs during that time of conflict.’

‘The economy collapsed when the tea trade dried up,’ I said. ‘And opium addicts with no supply filled the streets. It caused the Boxer Rebellion.’ I inhaled sharply as I understood. ‘The Boxers worshipped John. They believed that Xuan Wu made them invincible. Gold helped cause the Rebellion. The civil war afterwards brought down the freaking Qing dynasty.’

‘And led to a century of turmoil that our nation could barely afford,’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘If we had retained control of the tea trade, it is possible we could have salvaged minor economic independence. As it was, we were at the mercy of the rest of the world. The West and Japan both moved in and carved us up. When they left, there was civil war again. You know the story.’

‘Gold did this,’ Simone said. ‘He gave Robert Fortune the tea.’

‘And Jade helped him,’ the Emperor said. ‘I knew what I was doing when I issued that order. They should have known better than to defy me; I work only for the best interests of my human subjects.’

I straightened. ‘Right. I understand now. They’ve been in servitude, what? Nearly a hundred years?’

‘Not nearly long enough,’ the Tiger said.

‘Ah Bai’s right,’ I said. ‘Leave them in my service until they have completely atoned.’

The Jade Emperor gazed at me with wonder. I glanced at Simone, she had the same look on her face.

‘What?’

‘You are so much like Ah Wu sometimes, it’s uncanny. Are you sure you’re not his Serpent?’ the Emperor said.

I sighed. ‘I have no idea what I am, Celestial Majesty.’ I looked up at him, full of hope. ‘Could you have a look at me? You might know what I am.’

‘What if she is his Serpent?’ Simone said. ‘If he comes back and they rejoin?’

‘Then she’d probably disappear completely into him. You’d lose her, and gain his yang side.’ The Emperor smiled at his tea. ‘Not an ideal situation for those who love you, I think, Lady Emma, whatever your feelings on the matter.’

Simone glanced sharply at me.

I shook my head and looked down. ‘I want it, Simone. I want to be part of him, to join with him. I want it more than anything in the world.’ I sighed and looked into her eyes. ‘I want to be his Serpent.’

‘You aren’t,’ Bai Hu said. ‘We’ve seen it. The Serpent shows up occasionally, wreaks havoc with the weather and then disappears again.’

‘That’s true, it’s highly unlikely,’ the Jade Emperor said. He sipped his tea. ‘Even I don’t know what you are. I have never seen anything like you before.’

‘I thought you knew all,’ I said with humour.

‘I know all in the Eastern Plane. Something about you is not part of this Plane and therefore beyond my knowledge,’ he said. ‘Maybe it is part of your Western or Southern heritage. When Ah Wu returns and we have our conference we can find out more.’

Simone leaned over the table and whispered, ‘Please don’t be Daddy’s Serpent. I couldn’t bear to lose you when he returns.’

‘I’ll try not to be, Simone. That’s all I can promise.’

‘Are we finished?’ the Jade Emperor said.

‘Thanks, Celestial Majesty,’ I said. ‘I appreciate your time.’

He waved it down. ‘Not a problem, Emma. I nearly came down to see you anyway; I was sick to death of hearing about Leo.’

The Jade Emperor rose and we did as well. Simone hesitated, then went to him and embraced him. She kissed him on the cheek.

‘Thanks for everything,’ she said.

He smiled up at her; she was about five centimetres taller than him. ‘You’re welcome, sweetheart. Thanks for showing me your Celestial Form, it’s spectacular. Now.’ He put his arm around her waist and glanced from her to me. ‘I’d like to give you two some little gifts I have for you, but I want to do it with all the Imperial bullshit in front of everybody. Do you mind?’

‘Do you have to?’ Simone whined.

He squeezed her around the waist. ‘Oh, come on, make an old man happy.’

‘Promise you won’t make me take serpent form,’ Isaid.

‘Cross my heart. I never wanted to force you into serpent form; I just wanted you to show them that defiance is the right path to take when it is with good reason. But Simone,’ he looked up at her, ‘it would be a good idea to take the full version of your True Form. Scare any potential suitors half to death. Pull in all the yin you can, wrap it around you. Make your eyes huge and black, your hair as well if you can. Be as scary as possible. Make them think twice about doing anything stupid to make me give them your hand. Carry Seven Stars, the blade bare. Have you tried to load it with energy?’

‘I’m not game.’

‘Don’t worry about it then. Just take your biggest, scariest Celestial Form.’

‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘Do it, Simone.’

‘What are you going to give us though?’ Simone asked.

‘Just a couple of little things,’ the Emperor said. He squeezed her again. ‘You’ll do it for me?’

She shrugged. ‘Okay.’

CHAPTER 7

General Qin announced us again. ‘Bodhisattva Kwan Yin. Lord Bai Hu of the West. Princess Simone. Lady Emma Donahoe.’

Why does he keep doing us in the wrong order? Simone said. You have precedence over Uncle Bai.

I raised my hand to hush her and we walked down the carpet again. Even more Celestials had turned up. The hall was nearly full.

We did the obeisance thing at the base of the dais, and this time the Emperor quickly told us to rise.

We stood and waited.

Er Lang raised a scroll and read from it, sounding unhappy. This time he was in human form, appearing as a normal, good-looking young Chinese warrior. His third eye was closed and undetectable. ‘Lady Emma Donahoe, step forward.’

I moved to the base of the steps that led up to the throne.

The Jade Emperor rose from the throne and raised one hand. ‘Approach, Lady Emma.’

I bowed slightly, then climbed the stairs to the top. A young woman in a floating pink robe appeared behind the Emperor holding a black and silver cloisonné casket. The casket was about thirty centimetres long.

At the top of the stairs I fell to one knee and saluted again.

You are very good at this, the Emperor said.

I winked at him on the way back up.

He gestured for me to stand beside him and face the hall, and I did. The raised faces of hundreds of Celestials shone below me. Simone watched from the bottom of the dais, her own expression full of pride.

‘Lady Emma Donahoe is the Chosen of the Supreme Lord of the Dark Northern Heavens,’ the Emperor said loudly.

Everybody in the hall went completely still and silent. The Emperor’s voice echoed through the vast space.

‘The Dark Lord appointed Lady Emma to be Regent. She has been kept on probation; her performance has been monitored.’

He nodded and the young woman approached with the casket. He opened the lid to reveal a black jade ruyi — a thirty-centimetre long ornamental sceptre shaped like an archer’s bow, with a cloud design on one end and a set of pa kua symbols on the other. Twining snakes adorned the centre of the rod. Its flattened body had a central knob on the underside to hold it when it sat on the desk. ‘Ruyi’ meant ‘as one wills’. It was a symbolic representation of the holder’s will and a fung shui method of gaining positive outcomes to decisions. Most of the Celestials in the hall held them as indicators of rank.

The Jade Emperor carefully lifted the ruyi out of the box and turned to me. He spoke loudly and firmly as he held the sceptre out. ‘This ruyi represents the Dark Lord’s dominion. Lady Emma is no longer on probation; we confirm her rank and station as Regent of the Dark Northern Heavens, Ruler of the Celestial Mountain of Wudang, and Acting First Heavenly General.’

I froze. First Heavenly General? I didn’t have time for that! Simone had exams coming up, and the students needed to be organised after the end-of-year holiday trips home. And it was tax time soon.

Only in name, don’t panic, Emma, the Emperor said. Er Lang can handle it.

I breathed a quiet sigh of relief, took the sceptre with both hands and bowed.

Turn to face them holding the ruyi, he said, then switched to out loud. ‘We confirm Lady Emma Donahoe as Regent of the Dark Northern Heavens. Obey her as you obey the Dark Lord.’

Everybody in the hall, even Simone, silently fell to one knee and saluted me; except for Kwan Yin who just nodded.

I turned to the Jade Emperor, knelt on one knee and saluted him as First Heavenly General with the ruyi resting in the crook of my left elbow. I sneaked a look at Er Lang; he was glowering at me. Uh-oh.

‘Dismissed,’ the Emperor said.

I saluted him again, rose, and walked down the stairs to stand next to Simone.

Simone was called up next, and another box was pulled out.

‘Princess Simone is given Celestial Endorsement,’ the Emperor said. He pulled a jade tablet out of the box and presented it to her. ‘She may call upon the Celestial any time.’

Simone bowed and returned to stand next to me. The Jade Emperor returned to his throne.

Er Lang read from the scroll. ‘Princess Simone is ordered to take Celestial Form.’

‘Move back, Emma,’ Simone said softly. ‘This is going to be big.’

She was right. It was huge. Her robes didn’t appear as fabric at all; they were holes in reality, with stars sparkling inside them. She wore the universe as clothing. Her immensely long black hair didn’t make it to the floor; it floated in a Celestial breeze. Clouds of yin moved in and out of the strands of her hair, filling the air with sleet that hissed as it hit the floor around her. Her enormous black eyes shone in her expressionless forbidding face. She summoned Seven Stars and held the bare dark blade in front of her. The sword had seven indentations, each centring on a hole that went right through the blade.

A commotion erupted to our left among the Celestials. A young man in human form wearing blue and silver armour stormed out of the crowd onto the carpet and planted himself next to me facing the Jade Emperor. I recognised him: the Dragon Prince that Simone had mentioned. He was one of Qing Long’s sons, about number five or six.

‘I demand the right to challenge for Princess Simone’s hand,’ the dragon said. ‘As her father is not sentient and present, you are able to grant her hand.’

The Jade Emperor rose to speak but Simone spoke first.

Her voice echoed, as icy as any her father used, sending a chill up my spine.

‘I will give you my hand, on three conditions.’

‘Name them, Princess,’ the dragon said defiantly.

‘One,’ Simone said, ‘You must defeat the Lady Emma in armed combat. Not to the death, as she is not Immortal.’

Quick, Emma, she said into my head. Pull out the Murasame and do something really impressive.

I tossed the ruyi to the Tiger, who held it floating above the floor. I whipped the Murasame out of its scabbard — I’d perfected a technique that made the yin blade hiss as it came out. I held the blade in front of me, filled it with chi, and performed the first five moves of the highest-level Wudang sword kata as fast as I could. The chi made the sword trail a golden image as it sang through the air. I stopped and saluted the dragon with the sword, then pulled the chi out and lowered it. He watched, eyes wide, as condensation dripped from the end of the cold, dark blade.

‘Lady Emma is the finest human student the Dark Lord has ever seen,’ Simone said as if from a million miles away. ‘She can take down any level of demon with the sword known as the Destroyer, which was a gift from the Demon King himself.’

Before resheathing the sword I held it over the back of my wrist. Red, I willed, please be red, and then lightly ran the blade crosswise over my wrist. Red blood welled where the impossibly sharp blade touched me. I raised the blade a few centimetres above the wound and the blood spun up from my arm and disappeared into the dark metal. I returned the blade to its scabbard on my back, then concentrated and healed the wound.

Oh God, Emma, I’m sorry, Simone said into my head. I completely forgot.

Tell her, not a problem, I said to the stone.

Yes, a problem! she retorted. What if it had been black?

I shrugged imperceptibly.

The dragon had watched me feed the blade with wide eyes. He pulled himself together and turned back to Simone, defiant again. ‘What else, Princess?’

‘Next you must defeat me in battle,’ Simone said, perfectly calm. She raised Seven Stars to the side. ‘Again, not to the death, as I also am not Immortal.’

‘And?’ the dragon said.

‘Then, after defeating Lady Emma, and defeating me, the suitor must embrace me.’ She summoned yin over her raised arms so that it floated around her pale hands and the blade of the sword. ‘Embrace me, and my nature. Embrace my yin.’

The dragon gasped and took a step back. ‘Touch the yin?’

‘Embrace the yin,’ Simone said, her voice still echoing eerily. ‘Embrace my true nature.’

The hall filled with complete silence as the dragon watched the yin writhe over Simone’s arms and the enormous blade.

He fell to one knee and bowed his head. ‘I withdraw my challenge.’

Phew, Simone said. He’s a good fighter too.

‘Go with honour, Dragon Lord,’ Simone said out loud. ‘I am honoured by your attention.’ She raised her head. ‘Those are the conditions for any who wishes to have my hand. Defeat Lady Emma. Defeat me. And then embrace my yin.’

She dismissed Seven Stars, changed back to human form, and nodded to the Jade Emperor. ‘Celestial Majesty. By your leave, Lady Emma and I must prepare for a journey to Hell.’

‘Dismissed,’ the Jade Emperor said. His eyes were full of amusement. Excellent job. Well done. Bai Hu is going to shout at you for a long time, Simone, but don’t worry, it will work out.

I held my hand out and the Tiger passed the ruyi back to me. Simone and I fell to one knee and saluted the Jade Emperor as senior Retainers, then turned and walked out of the hall together, with the Tiger and Kwan Yin following.

General Qin appeared in the doorway. ‘Holy Bodhisattva Kwan Yin. Lady Emma Donahoe, Confirmed Regent of the Dark Northern Heavens, First Heavenly General. Lord Bai Hu, Emperor of the Western Heavens. Princess Simone, only human daughter of the Dark Lord of the Northern Heavens.’ Great job, ladies.

Oh. You didn’t have the precedence until you were off probation, Simone said. Way to go, Emma. First Heavenly General! Way cool!

‘You say cool far too much,’ I growled under my breath.

A litany followed me down the stairs back to the preparation room. Cool cool cool cool cool!

Bai Hu leaned his elbows on the dining table and held his head in his hands. He rubbed his hands over his face and looked at us, despairing. ‘I really don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do with you two. That was beyond stupid.’

‘I thought we handled it okay, Uncle Bai,’ Simone said. ‘At least we won’t have all these Celestials trying to marry me.’

‘Expect at least two dozen challenges in the next two weeks, Emma,’ Bai Hu said.

‘No way,’ I said. ‘If they win, they have to face Simone. And if they win that, they have to touch the yin. They don’t have the nerve.’

‘Nothing to do with the yin, girls. Simone, you just declared open season on Emma. Anyone who wants to match skills with her can try. Every guy in Heaven who thinks he’s halfway good will be calling her out.’

‘Oh.’ Simone’s face fell. ‘I hadn’t thought of it like that.’ She turned to me, full of remorse. ‘I’m so sorry, Emma.’

I shrugged. ‘Not an issue. I’ll be able to practise against some good opponents, it’s not to the death, and if they win, they won’t dare to take it further because they’re all scared to death of the yin.’

‘And another thing,’ the Tiger said. ‘You said that anybody that wants your hand has to do these three things. What, you plan on never having a boyfriend at all? You gonna be a goddamn nun? How many guys out there can actually physically touch yin? Guys that aren’t related to you, daughter of yin? You just made yourself pretty much permanently unavailable for marriage for the rest of your life.’

Simone shrugged. ‘So? I’ll just never marry. If I really like a guy we’ll move in together.’

‘It’s your hand in the sense of your hand in the bond of love, Simone,’ the Tiger said grimly. ‘More than just marriage. If you want to have a live-in relationship with anybody, Celestial or human, they have to touch the yin.’

Simone opened her mouth and then closed it again.

‘Don’t worry about it, Simone,’ I said. ‘We’ll just cross that bridge when we come to it. It’ll work out. Use the declaration as a shield. When you’re older and ready, you can change it.’

‘You can’t change something like that,’ the Tiger said, still grim.

‘Whatever. Right now it’ll keep all those losers off your back.’

‘Starting with that little blue creep,’ Simone said with relish. ‘God, I loved the look on his face when he thought about touching the yin. He’s been so arrogant, expecting me to just fall at his feet because he’s so freaking gorgeous.’

‘He’s Qing Long’s,’ I said. ‘I wonder if any of his children haven’t inherited his attitude?’

‘Nope,’ the Tiger said.

‘So. Hell,’ Simone said. ‘Help us out here, Uncle Bai. What do we need to take with us?’

Bai Hu leaned back and put his hands on the table. ‘Right. Hell. This is what you need to do.’

I came around on the couch at home, with the Tiger’s concerned face above me. I sat up. ‘I’m okay.’

Simone sat on the opposite couch, still in her robes.

‘How long was I out this time?’ I said.

‘Only a couple of minutes. It’s quicker every time. Soon you’ll be able to transport without losing consciousness at all,’ the Tiger said.

Monica heard us and came out of the kitchen. ‘Welcome back, ma’am.’ She saw the armour and the sword. ‘Did everything work out okay?’

‘It’s all fine.’ I rose and headed into the kitchen. ‘Could you make us some tea? We need to talk.’

‘There are a lot of messages for you as well, ma’am,’ Monica said.

I pulled off the sword and the armour and dropped them onto the floor next to the pantry. Simone headed towards her room, probably to change out of the robes. The Tiger and I sat across the kitchen table from each other. Monica put a pot of Chinese tea in front of the Tiger and a mug of Ceylon tea in front of me and we nodded our thanks. Notes and envelopes covered the table, and the Tiger picked a few up to read them. I slapped his hand and he grimaced and dropped them.

‘Dinner at home tonight, ma’am?’ Monica said.

‘Yes, thanks, Monica.’

I flipped through the envelopes. Mostly bills, they could be handled later. I checked the phone messages. Three from staff on the Mountain. Two from Generals. One from the bank. One from Simone’s teacher, asking me to call her back urgently.

Simone returned in a pair of scruffy jeans and a T-shirt. She had let her hair down without brushing it and it formed tangled skeins around her head. I waved the note at her. ‘You been up to anything at school?’

‘Nope.’ She pulled a box of lemon tea out of the fridge and sat with it. ‘As far as I know I’m not in trouble about anything, but I’ve skipped a few classes lately, and you didn’t ring them this morning to tell them I wasn’t going to be there.’

‘Oh yeah, that’s right,’ I said. ‘You have to remind me, Simone. I have too much going on all at the same time.’

‘I’ve got a bunch of notes for you too.’ She jumped up and went out.

‘Just bring them directly,’ the Tiger said to her back.

‘I’m not lazy like you,’ she retorted without turning around.

I moaned and leaned on the table. ‘This school is solely responsible for the destruction of countless rainforests. She brings home a mountain of notes every week. It’s okay for the mothers at home who have time to attend endless morning teas and tennis socials, but I have better things to do with my time.’

‘You wouldn’t have that problem —’ the Tiger began.

I cut him off. ‘If she went to Celestial High. I know. But she wants to be normal.’

He snorted, and opened his mouth to say something, but Simone came in with a stack of notes and put them in front of me. ‘This is from last week too.’

I quickly flipped through the information and stopped at an envelope with ‘Mr and Mrs Chen’ typewritten on the outside. I glared at Simone, but she just shrugged. ‘No idea.’

‘I ring them every time to tell them to address stuff to me,’ I grumbled as I opened the envelope. I read the note, then threw it on the table. ‘You’ve been missing too many classes lately and they want to talk to me immediately. They want me to contact your teacher right now for an interview.’

‘I don’t want to repeat Year Nine, Emma. Please go and talk to them,’ Simone said.

‘If she went to Celestial High —’ the Tiger began.

Simone cut him off. ‘I’m not going to any Celestial High full of Celestial freaks. I want to stay down here with normal people.’

‘What does that make me?’ the Tiger said gruffly.

‘The biggest freak of all,’ she shot back. She turned to me. ‘Please, Emma, talk to my teacher. Give them some excuse. Tell them I have cancer or something and I need chemo …’ She changed her appearance so that she appeared ten kilos lighter. Her cheeks went hollow and her eyes sunk. ‘Tell them I’m dying and I can’t attend because of that.’

‘I’ll email your teacher and arrange an interview for after we’ve come back from Hell,’ I said. ‘I need to check my email anyway. And don’t let me forget to write you a note to say that you’re sick.’ I sighed with exasperation. ‘And change back, that looks awful.’

Her appearance returned to normal. ‘I can’t hold it for long anyway.’

I rose from the table. ‘I’d better check my email, it’ll be backed up forever.’

‘You two have been gone just a few hours and you still forgot to do a lot of important stuff,’ the Tiger said, waving his teacup at the notes on the table. ‘You should hire a secretary.’

‘Look, the two of us already have two live-in staff,’ I said. ‘If I hire someone else, it’ll just be more people for me to manage. And remember, we’re trying to keep as normal a profile as possible. We’re already unusual in that we have a domestic helper whose husband has a job outside. A home secretary would be complete overkill, especially since I’m just supposed to be Simone’s guardian and nothing more.’

I rose, picked up my tea and went to the office. I had nearly two hundred messages. I ran the spam filter then checked the remainder. There were still a hundred and fifty left.

I filed the info memos from the Heavens, the Academy and the Mountain, and flipped through the important stuff. There was a message from Simone’s teacher, three situations requiring my attention in the Northern Heavens, and two more about the Academy.

And nearly seventy-five messages of congratulation on my appointment as First Heavenly General. Some of them were obviously grudging.

Wonderful.

CHAPTER 8

When I got home from the Academy the next day, I could hear the yelling from the lift lobby. I hesitated at the apartment’s front door, then opened it and went in. The yelling was louder: two male voices, probably in the dining room. I kicked my shoes off and hurried in. The Tiger and Michael both stopped shouting and glared at me. Simone was there as well. She shook her head and sighed with exasperation.

The Tiger thrust his hand towards Michael. ‘Stupid bastard wants to go with you.’

I leaned on the back of one of the dining chairs. ‘You can’t, Michael, you’re not Immortal.’

‘Neither are you. And neither is she,’ Michael said, gesturing towards Simone. He dropped his arm and spoke with force. ‘I want to help Leo out. Let me come along and talk to him.’ He glared at the Tiger. ‘He was like a father to me. I think he’d listen to me.’

‘Oh, thank you very much.’ The Tiger pulled a chair out and flopped to sit. ‘What does that make me?’

‘Irrelevant,’ Michael said.

‘Big words,’ the Tiger shot back. ‘Harvard must agree with you, preppy boy.’ He leaned over the table. ‘Rhonda’s ready to move back into the Palace, boy, you know that? If she remarries me, then I’ll really be your fucking father, not just this “biological” business that you keep carrying on about. You’ll be obeying me, not some fucking black gay-lo.’

‘Tiger,’ Simone said mildly, ‘I’ve had about enough of this. You’ve been swearing far too much the last few days, and it shows a lack of respect for both me and Emma. And lately you’ve been very insulting to Leo, who isn’t here to defend himself. If you say the f-word one more time, or insult Leo one more time, you will be banned from this household. Is that understood?’

The Tiger’s mouth flopped open and he stared at her.

Her voice became sharp. ‘Is that understood, Bai Hu?’

He rose, leaned on the table and glared at her. ‘Until you reach majority, Miss So-Fucking-Clever, I have precedence over you, and don’t you forget it.’

‘Emma?’ Simone said.

‘Bai Hu, take yourself out of this household and don’t come back until called. That’s an order,’ I said.

The Tiger opened and closed his mouth a few times, then slammed his fist into his hand in the salute and disappeared.

At twenty-four, Michael’s muscular frame had filled out and his intelligent face was stunningly good-looking under his short blond hair. He towered over me, as tall as his father, slightly under two metres. He fell to one knee in front of me. ‘Lady Emma, permission to assist you on your sortie to Hell.’

‘We can’t risk it, Michael. You may never be able to come out again.’

He looked up at me, full of hope. ‘You’re not Immortal, you’re an ordinary human. If you can come out, I can come out.’

I sighed. ‘Michael, you know that I’m not an ordinary human, far from it. Only Immortals and demons can come out again. Simone’s so powerful it doesn’t really apply to her, and you know she’s done it before. I’m a demon. You? I don’t know.’

‘Is there a way of finding out?’ he said, still on one knee.

Simone and I shared a look.

‘I’ll ask around,’ I said.

‘Promise me, Emma, you will ask.’

‘I promise, Michael. I know you love Leo as much as we do. I’ll see if you can come.’

‘Thanks, Emma.’ He smiled shyly and stood. ‘It’s good to see you looking so well.’

I rose and quickly embraced him, then pulled back to smile up at him. ‘Thanks, Michael. Is your mother really going back to your father?’

‘Not if I have anything to say about it,’ he said grimly.

‘It’s possible she could be happy as Empress of the West,’ Simone said. ‘And she’d become Immortal, Michael.’

‘He’d treat her like …’ He shrugged. ‘You know how he treats his women.’ He gestured towards where the Tiger had been sitting. ‘You heard how he talked about Leo. How could he be like that? Leo’s one of the noblest people I’ve ever met. I’d be proud to call him father, not that beast.’

‘How long did it take you to come from Harvard, Michael? It’s a long way,’ I said. ‘I hope you didn’t miss any classes.’

‘It’s about eight hours; I stop over in Honolulu and rest on the way. I’ve just about finished for the term, Emma, my papers are in and the exams are finished. Can I stay in one of the student rooms until we hear whether I can come to Hell? Do you have room for me?’

‘Of course we do — you can have your old room back. You’re part of the family. How long are you planning to stay?’

‘I wasn’t planning to come for another couple of weeks, until after I had my results,’ he said. ‘But I heard about you two going to Hell and I wanted to be in on it. Let me stay until we know whether I can come, then I’ll go back to the States and collect my gear.’ He paused. ‘Can I spend the summer brushing up with the Masters at the Academy?’

‘I thought you were supposed to go to the Palace,’ Isaid.

‘I’m staying here,’ he said firmly. He winced. ‘I’m sorry, my Lady, I didn’t ask you before. Is that okay with you?’

‘Sure, spend the summer here. We’d be delighted to have you.’ I had a sudden idea. ‘How about you take one of the small apartments at the New Folly? I think we have two or three free. You’d have more privacy.’

He smiled shyly. ‘Really?’

‘Sure. Teleport down there, report to Lok, the building manager. He’s the big German shepherd on the first floor, Flat B. Tell him you’re taking one of the empty apartments.’

‘The building manager’s a dog?’

‘Yep. I think he’s really a dragon, but somebody cursed him. He won’t talk about it, just turned up on our doorstep looking for work. He minds the armoury during the day, so if he’s not at the Folly he’ll be there. He’s terrific, you’ll really like him. I think your clothes and stuff are still in your room.’

He fell to one knee and saluted me again. ‘Thank you, Lady Emma.’

‘Oh cut it out, Michael, there’s no need for that. Get up off the floor and disappear.’

He rose, smiled, and disappeared.

‘My goodness,’ Meredith said, her hands on Michael’s shoulders where he sat on a chair in front of her, her eyes unseeing. ‘Don’t let your father look inside you, Michael, he’ll order you to stay in the Palace.’

‘I’m that big?’ Michael said.

‘Short answer: yes. And well on the way.’ She released his shoulders and smiled down at him. ‘The fact that you can stay in the US for such a long time is a dead giveaway, my friend. You are very big indeed. If I didn’t know Rhonda personally, I would say that your mother was definitely something very special.’

‘She is,’ Michael and I said in unison, and shared a smile.

‘Leave now, please, Michael, I need to speak to Lady Emma alone,’ Meredith said. ‘Wait outside.’

‘That means I’m big enough to go to Hell and come back out, and you want to tell Emma that it’s a bad idea to take me,’ Michael said. ‘If that’s the case, then I’m coming anyway.’

Meredith watched him, expressionless.

‘Good,’ Michael added.

‘You are about as intelligent as Lady Emma,’ Meredith said.

‘Oh, I sincerely hope that he’s smarter than me. Look at the number of stupid mistakes I’ve made,’ I said.

‘That’s true, Meredith,’ Michael said. ‘If she has me along she may not make as many stupid mistakes.’

‘You are very cheeky,’ I said. ‘And probably right.’ I sighed. ‘The Tiger will go ballistic when he hears.’

‘No need to tell him, it’s nothing to do with him,’ Michael said. ‘Keep him out of it.’

‘What about your mother, dear?’ Meredith said.

Michael’s face went expressionless.

‘You could be going there to get yourself killed,’ she went on. ‘I think your mother has the right to know.’

The intercom on my desk beeped and I pressed the button.

‘Celestial Messenger for you and Master Michael both, ma’am,’ Yi Hao said. ‘Do I tell him to wait?’

‘Don’t make him wait,’ I said. ‘Send him in.’

The door opened and a tiger stood in the doorway. He wasn’t white, like Bai Hu, but the standard deep orange with black stripes. He changed into a man in his mid-thirties wearing the white and gold livery of the Horsemen.

‘Great, a message from Dad,’ Michael said.

The messenger looked from me to Michael to Meredith. ‘I have a message for Lady Emma, and also a message for son number Three One Five.’

‘My name,’ Michael said pointedly, ‘is Michael MacLaren, Ronald, and you know it.’

The Horseman smiled slightly, and handed Michael a white scroll tied with a gold ribbon. Michael unrolled it without moving from his chair. The Horseman waited, watching.

Michael glanced up at the Horseman, his face rigid. ‘Do you know what this says?’

‘Yes, lad,’ the Horseman said. ‘Even more, though, do you know what it means?’

Michael tossed the scroll onto the desk. He rose gracefully and leaned on the desk with one hand. ‘Tell my father.’ He hesitated, then spoke with force. ‘Notice that I am not going to use a single word of bad language here. Tell my father that I am going to Hell. And that as far as I am concerned, so can he.’ He gestured dismissively towards the scroll. ‘This is either a tremendous honour or a huge insult. Either way, I don’t accept.’

The Horseman visibly relaxed. ‘So you do know what it means.’

‘Damn straight I do.’

‘What is it?’ I said.

‘He’s promoted me to Number Three,’ Michael said.

‘An honour,’ I said.

Both Michael and the Horseman grimaced.

‘Only if I can defend the title,’ Michael said. ‘Anyone who wants to can challenge me for the right to be Number Three.’

‘Normally a son of that level of precedence would be Immortal,’ the Horseman explained. ‘The current Number Three is an Immortal. Dad could be deliberately trying to stir up trouble for Michael, or he could be sincere and really want to promote him, because he thinks he’s that good. Actually I think he’s genuine, because he wants to patch things up with you, Michael.’

‘Why, Ron?’ Michael said.

The Horseman fell to one knee and saluted me. ‘Lady Emma, Regent of the Dark Northern Heavens. I have a message for you as well, and I think this will explain it.’

‘If it’s about him wanting to come back here, that’s up to Simone,’ I said. ‘She was right about the swearing. He keeps forgetting that she’s only fourteen and it’s really not appropriate to talk like that in front of her.’

‘No, ma’am, I have an invitation.’ He rose and passed me a large white card embossed with gold lettering. There was a red ‘double happiness’ marriage character at the top and gilt around the edges.

I glanced at the card. Rhonda was remarrying the Tiger, and would be Raised at the wedding ceremony and crowned Empress of the Western Heavens. I was invited to the ceremony, to be held in February of next year, just before the Chinese New Year holiday.

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘Tell the Tiger I’ll send him an RSVP as soon as I’m back from Hell.’

‘Good luck in Hell, ma’am,’ the Horseman said. He nodded to Michael and disappeared.

‘What?’ Michael said.

I passed him the card. He looked at it and his face went grim. He threw it onto the desk. ‘Terrific. To hell with my mother — I’m going with you.’

‘You should talk to her first, Michael.’

He ran one hand over his blond buzz cut. ‘No, I shouldn’t. She’s made her decision, and I’ve made mine. To hell with it.’ He smiled grimly. ‘And to Hell with me. I’d better go and put my weapons in order.’ He saluted me, shaking his hands in front of his face. ‘Lady Emma.’ He disappeared.

Meredith smiled slightly. ‘This is very strange.’

‘What?’

‘He is very big, Emma. Bigger than any half-Shen I have ever seen, short of Simone herself. I would like to examine Rhonda some time soon; she really must be something special. He is bigger than any son of the Tiger should be.’

‘If she was a Shen she would have told us,’ I said.

‘Not necessarily. Many dragons keep their natures a secret from even their closest families. Look at Amy’s father — he was typical. Never told her until she found out she was a dragon by herself.’

‘You think we may have found one of these pure Western dragons that are so elusive?’

‘If she was a Western Shen she would not be able to live in the East for such a long time,’ Meredith said.

‘Unless she’s really big, that is. Michael’s big enough to live in the West.’

‘If Michael is a cross between an Eastern and a Western Shen, then he is something completely new and may be more powerful than anything we have ever seen.’

‘Never happened before?’ I said.

‘Not as far as I know.’ Meredith leaned on the desk and crossed her arms. ‘Actually, it’s good he’s going with you. He’s extremely talented, well trained and completely devoted to Leo. Leo loves him like a son. If anybody can talk Leo into coming out, it’s Michael.’

‘Thanks for coming along too, by the way. I’m glad you’ll be there to back us up.’

‘I’m bound by the rules though, Emma. I can harm no one while I’m there.’

I picked up the invitation card and turned it around in my hands without looking at it. ‘I think I should go unarmed, just in case.’

‘That might be a good idea. You’re there for your brains and your maturity, not your fighting skills. Simone’s not bound by the Celestial rules like I am, and she can destroy anything that we may face in there.’

I glanced into her eyes and spoke softly. ‘But can she destroy me?’

‘Do you want me to talk to her?’

I threw the card back onto the table. ‘Yes.’

‘I’ll talk to Michael as well. That’s another good reason to take him. If Simone can’t do it, then he can.’

‘He can’t, Meredith.’

‘I think he’d be able to. It would be hard, but he could bring himself to do it if it was absolutely necessary.’

‘You don’t understand, Meredith. I’ve sparred with him, and even when I’m in human form he can’t take me. My Mother form would tear him to bits.’

She hesitated a moment, then spoke softly. ‘You should let us look at it so we can work out what level it is, Emma. We need to know.’

‘Every time I take the form, it controls me a little more. Every time, it’s harder to change back. One day I won’t be able to. I’ll be a Mother, Meredith. I won’t be me any more. I have to avoid taking the form as much as I can. Even if it means not being able to touch Simone.’ I quirked a smile. ‘I’m accustomed to not touching the ones I love. When he comes back, I’ll find it hard to change.’

‘Emma.’ I looked up at her. She gazed into my eyes. ‘Remember his oath?’

I shrugged. ‘Yes, and I know where you’re heading.’

We were both silent for a while.

It was me who finally said it. ‘He vowed to find me. And that means I’ll be lost.’

CHAPTER 9

‘Through the tunnel or around Pok Fu Lam, ma’am?’ Marcus asked. He was driving us to Aberdeen, where we would take the boat to Hell.

I checked my watch: 10 am, Sunday. ‘Aberdeen Tunnel, please,’ I said.

Marcus nodded and pulled away from the kerb.

‘You thought about that one for a while,’ Michael said with amusement.

‘You aren’t limited to regular travel,’ I said. ‘During office rush hour, or race meetings, it can take up to two hours to get through that tunnel. It’s quicker to go all the way around the island through Pok Fu Lam.’

Marcus eased out of the cramped Wan Chai streets around the Academy’s nondescript building and turned left onto Gloucester Road, the main four-lane traffic snarl from Central to Causeway Bay. He carefully negotiated past speeding minibuses and taxis, then did a U-turn under the massive Harcourt Road overpass to take us back in the opposite direction.

As we neared Causeway Bay, the traffic started to negotiate the complicated lanes system that diverted people to different destinations from the most densely occupied part of the island. Marcus stayed in the second lane from the right; if he drifted into a left lane he would be forced to cross the harbour using the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, and the traffic in that lane was already banked back about a kilometre. If he went into the rightmost lane, he would miss the Aberdeen tunnel turn-off and be diverted through Causeway Bay. I smiled slightly as I remembered many lost hours trying to make my way through Hong Kong’s unforgiving traffic system. If you found yourself in the wrong lane too early, you would be locked in by a single line and other drivers would become extremely aggravated if you tried to escape it. Once I’d missed the Aberdeen tunnel turn-off and found myself halfway up the side of the island in Tai Koo Shing before I could make a U-turn and come back again, only to be in the wrong lane when the Aberdeen tunnel sign came up the other way.

Marcus had been driving us since Leo had gone, and he was familiar with the roads, particularly between Happy Valley and Wan Chai where he transported the students between the Academy and the Follies. He took us now up a narrow, steep ramp and onto Aberdeen Tunnel Road. The road was at second-storey height and we could clearly see into some of the older flats on either side; bare concrete walls, iron bunk beds, and dusty door and window frames.

Just before we entered the tunnel we passed behind the Happy Valley racecourse. The stands looked like massive five-storey buildings with a complicated series of stairs and escalators running through them. On the other side, the open stands had layer upon layer of seating and indoor restaurant viewing areas for the race day visitors. Hong Kong’s race season was limited to the cooler months, and races only took place on Wednesday evenings in Happy Valley and on Saturdays at Sha Tin. There were no other race meetings in the Territory at all. The Hong Kong Jockey Club provided accommodation and transport for all the horses in the Territory; and at each race meeting — the only legal gambling allowed in Hong Kong except for the Mark Six Lottery — the entire GDP of a small country would be wagered.

We whisked quickly through the Aberdeen Tunnel. On the other side, the view opened out; we were no longer in the dense urban high rises of Happy Valley. On the left were the prestigious large low-rise apartments of Shouson Hill, mostly occupied by expatriates who didn’t mind being a little further away from the action of the centre of the city. Directly in front of us, the hillside above Ocean Park was decorated with an enormous garden in the shape of a sea horse, the logo of the park.

We continued through Wong Chuk Hang industrial area. Factory buildings in Hong Kong usually towered up to fifteen or twenty storeys, with each floor occupied by a manufacturing enterprise. Elevators large enough to hold the trucks that were Hong Kong’s transport life blood serviced each floor.

Before we reached the ‘fishing village’ of Aberdeen, which was actually a tightly packed district of high-rise apartment buildings, we turned off and headed towards the Aberdeen Boat Club. Marcus wound through the back of the international schools and apartment buildings, eventually arriving at Shum Wan pier. A walkway with a traditional, upward-sweeping tiled roof meandered along the side of the long lay-by area, which was occupied by at least six large tourist buses. This was where the tourists were brought to have yum cha at the floating restaurants. They were ferried across from the two piers, one for each restaurant — the Jumbo and the Tai Pak. The Sea Palace restaurant, which had been moored next to the Jumbo on the other side, was long gone, towed away to become a tourist attraction in Manila.

‘Is the yum cha here still awful?’ Michael asked as we walked down to the old Sea Palace pier, now unused.

‘Couldn’t tell you. I stay well away from the tourist traps,’ Simone said.

‘The restaurants have been renovated recently, they’re much nicer inside now,’ I said.

‘You still pay tourist prices though,’ Simone said.

I shrugged. ‘You pay extra for the “experience”.’

Michael peered at the Jumbo restaurant across the water. ‘You’re kidding. A theme park on the sea?’

‘If you’re going to have tourists, you have to give them an “experience”,’ I said.

‘And something to buy,’ Simone said. ‘They put shops in there too!’

No one seemed to notice us as we stepped over the chain blocking off the third pier and walked down towards the water. A number of noisy mainland tourists were on the pier next to us, shouting with excitement as the boat approached them.

Michael chuckled. ‘Typical, going over to a huge restaurant for a banquet and they all have food in their hands.’

He was right. Most mainland tourists carried bags of food around with them, usually small snacks such as dried fish or nuts.

‘Oh, give it up, Michael, they’re enjoying themselves,’ Simone said. She gestured with her head. ‘That looks like our boat, it’s completely non-tourist.’

A five-metre motor launch was docked at the pier, its white sides gleaming. It had no registration or name. When the deckhand saw us approach, he pushed a gangway out to the edge of the pier for us.

We boarded, Simone leading and Michael guarding the rear. As the deckhand prepared to release the rope, a middle-rank demon appearing as a young Chinese man dressed in a smart black business suit came out from the main cabin. He quickly saluted all of us.

‘Passage is payment of a black jade coin,’ he said.

I handed him the scroll tied with vermillion ribbon that contained the Jade Emperor’s edict to let us into Hell. He perused it quickly; this part of the proceedings was just a formality. He returned it to me and nodded. ‘Your passage has been confirmed. Please come with me. There is tea and soda inside if you wish.’

As he spoke, the boat and the sky both went black and the surge of waves beneath the boat ceased. The sound of the noisy tourists on the next pier was cut off, as was the noise from the myriad boats moored in the typhoon shelter. The air echoed with the eerie sound of the inside of a huge cavern and darkness surrounded us. The water was completely still and black as ice, and the temperature dropped.

‘Come inside,’ the demon said. ‘It’s about an hour’s journey and it’s freezing out here. And I’m very honoured to make your acquaintance.’

‘Yes, I’m well aware of the similarities to the Western legend of the River Styx,’ the demon said as he poured the tea. ‘I’ve studied the mythology and I’m interested in the way that theirs — or yours — matches up with ours. I’d love to travel to the West and see for myself, but of course I’m much too small to travel that far from my Centre.’

‘Has the King ever said anything about it?’ I said.

The demon made a soft sound of amusement. ‘I have been lucky enough in my long life to avoid attracting the attention of the King. It is not something I would do by choice.’

He nodded to Simone. ‘I remember when you came through as a child, Princess. You scared me to death with the amount of shen energy you were radiating. You threatened to destroy me if I didn’t take you across. Of course, I couldn’t take you without the payment of a coin and I readied myself to die.’

‘I remember now, it’s all coming back to me,’ Simone said. ‘At the time I was so upset it was just a blur. I was going to destroy you but then I decided not to waste the time.’

‘You rose on your shen energy and floated across the water. You were a thing of terrifying beauty, making the water beneath you ripple as you drifted above it.’ He smiled slightly and shook his head. ‘You should have been destroyed — the water is full of the power of yin itself; one touch is destruction. Being in the centre of the river is like being in a vortex of yin and therefore should annihilate anything except this specially constructed boat. Yet you were completely unharmed. Later I learnt that you had summoned yin, and I understood. You could probably manipulate this water if you wished to control it.’

Simone smiled back tightly. ‘I don’t think I’ll bother. I’m just here to find my Retainer.’

‘As you wish, ma’am,’ he said, and we continued in silence.

The landing on the other side was a rough-hewn alcove cut out of the dark grey rock with a smooth stone floor. The only break in the wall of rock was a modern black-doored elevator with a single black smoked-glass button next to it. The demon pressed the button and the light went on.

‘This is where I leave you. There is only one destination for this lift,’ the demon said. He saluted us. ‘Ladies. Sir. Good luck on your sortie and I hope that I will be able to ferry you on your return.’

We saluted back. The demon returned to the boat and it pulled away, disappearing into the darkness.

A bell sounded and the lift doors opened.

‘Here we go,’ Simone said, and we went in.

‘How much of this is coming back to you?’ I asked as the lift doors closed and we descended.

Simone looked up but there were no floor lights above the door. ‘Some of it. They kept telling me you were here by choice; and the counsellor I was seeing acted as if you were dead, but I knew you weren’t dead because I could sense you. When Rhonda took me to school on my first day back and the stone told me that this was the way my life would be now, without you, or Daddy, or Leo, I just snapped. I thought, “To hell with this, I’m getting back the person I can get, and that’s Emma”.’

‘The stone did that on purpose?’ I said, incredulous.

The stone didn’t reply and I moved to tap it. It spoke before I touched it. ‘Some of us had the brains to realise what the King was doing when he manipulated Simone into coming down here, destroying Wong and freeing you.’

‘Rubbish,’ Simone said. ‘You just wanted her back as much as I did, and you didn’t give a damn either.’

The stone didn’t reply.

‘Simone isn’t as much fun to torment?’ I said.

‘She’s getting there,’ the stone said. ‘Give her some time.’

Michael quirked a small smile and shifted his sword, the White Tiger, more comfortably where it lay diagonally across his back. I saw his face; it was strained with tension.

‘Are you okay, Michael?’

He nodded, serious. ‘I can feel the nature of this place and how it wishes to reject me, but I can tolerate it.’

‘I don’t feel that it wants to reject me,’ Simone said. ‘I don’t feel anything much.’

‘You’re probably too powerful, Simone,’ the stone said, and Michael grimaced slightly. ‘Emma?’

‘I don’t feel rejected,’ I said quietly.

The doors opened and we stepped out of the lift into a large bright courtyard full of small trees and flowing water. The water ran in narrow channels between paths of light tan pavers and raised garden boxes. Small pavilions with white-tiled pillars and traditional roofs were scattered around the garden. The whole area gleamed, and a fresh breeze full of the scent of jasmine lifted the air. A bird sang nearby, and I looked up. There was no ceiling, but neither was there a sky; it was just bright above us, and nothing else was visible. It was impossible to tell how high the ceiling was, if there was one.

An official wearing a traditional black silk robe and a high, square hat with long extensions either side appeared. Meredith was with him. He bowed slightly to us and saluted. ‘This way, please.’ He turned to our left and led us through a large moon gate. On the other side of the gate was a landing with stairs leading down to the right.

We all stopped on the landing and watched in wonder. The ground below — about a hundred metres away — spread before us to the sandy edge of a large, still, brilliantly blue lake that stretched to the horizon. The beach was bordered by a metre-high tan stone wall, and on its near side was an expanse of manicured lawn dotted with bauhinia trees, their pink and white blooms covering the ground around them. The courtyard we had been in had an open rooftop and the building below us had ornamental arches for windows in its light tan stone walls.

A white marble causeway led out across the lake, with traditional cloud-patterned balustrades on either side. It was about three metres wide and disappeared into the misty distance. Similar causeways could be seen about two hundred metres away on either side of it, spreading out from where we were and stretching across the lake.

Next to our causeway stood a two-storey mansion with red pillars and wooden screens, a large veranda around it, and an upward-sloping roof of green tiles. Identical mansions stood next to the other two visible causeways.

‘This is an island, and there are nine of those bridges spreading out across the lake in all directions,’ Michael said. ‘We’re in the middle of a huge wheel and those are the spokes.’

‘The Wheel of Rebirth,’ the official said. ‘Down these stairs are the cells, further along on the right.’

He indicated a row of villas facing the lake, each with a tiny fenced garden that opened onto a white pathway that skirted the edge of the water. The villas were two storeys high and had traditional Chinese roofs with white tiles. The fencing around their gardens also had a small tile roof with decorative fan-shaped, square and circular windows cut in them.

‘Leo’s cell is the second one,’ the demon said.

‘Tell me that you see these as luxurious houses,’ I said to Simone and Michael.

Simone nodded.

‘Yep,’ Michael said. ‘If this is Hell, then to hell with Heaven.’

‘This is the tenth level, Celestial side of Hell,’ Meredith said over her shoulder as she walked down the stairs in front of us. ‘Not all of Hell is this pretty, believe me.’

The sky was still the same; just a universal warm, white glow. It was bright enough that it seemed to be the middle of the day but completely without glare. We reached ground level and walked along the white path towards the villas. People sat on the grass and strolled on the pathway, all of them seeming happy and relaxed. A couple waved to Meredith and she waved back.

‘Don’t ask, because we cannot tell you,’ the official said before I could speak. ‘You are here to collect your Retainer. Please convince him to take the Elixir and fulfil his destiny. It saddens all of us to see him like this.’

As we approached the villas we saw Leo. He was sitting in a wheelchair on the path outside the second house, watching the water.

‘Leo!’ Simone called, and raced to him. He looked up and saw her but his dark face was expressionless. When she reached him, she crouched to throw her arms around his neck and held him.

Michael put his arms around Leo’s neck from behind and rested his cheek on the top of Leo’s head. I crouched next to the chair and held his arm.

Meredith stood back, letting the family have its moment.

‘God, Simone, you’ve grown up so beautiful,’ Leo choked. His restraint dissolved and he smiled up through his tears at Michael. ‘You’re a fine young man.’ His smile turned wry. ‘Hey, Emma, you guys don’t know how long I’ve hoped you’d come and visit me.’

‘They wouldn’t let us,’ I said. ‘I’ve been fighting the Celestial bureaucracy for eight years to let us down here.’

Simone raised her head so she could see into his face. ‘Come home with us, Leo, we need you.’

Leo gestured slightly with one hand. ‘No, you don’t, beautiful. I can see that you can look after yourself just fine.’

She traced his cheek where the tears fell. ‘I miss you so much, Leo, please come home.’

Michael spoke to the top of Leo’s head. ‘Come home, old man, back where you belong.’

Leo shook his head. ‘I’ve been hoping for so long that I’d see you all again. They kept telling me to take the Elixir and go back.’ He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. ‘Emma, can I talk to you alone?’

‘Whatever you want to say, you can say in front of all of us, dear Leo,’ Simone said gently. ‘Don’t worry, I understand. You loved Daddy. But we love you.’

Michael placed one hand on Leo’s shoulder. ‘You’re more of a father to me than the Tiger ever was.’

Simone put her head on Leo’s lap and spoke softly. ‘We need you.’

Leo stroked Simone’s hair. ‘Please let me talk to Emma alone.’

Michael straightened. ‘Come on, Simone, let’s go skip stones or something.’

Simone glared at him. ‘I’m not a little kid, Michael.’ She smiled up at Leo. ‘Okay, you talk to Emma, and then we’re taking you home.’

Leo waited until Simone and Michael were out of earshot. ‘Let’s go inside.’

He grasped the wheels of his chair to wheel himself inside, but I moved to the rear of the chair and took the handles. I wheeled him past his two demon guards into his villa.

I sat on the rosewood couch and he sat in his wheelchair facing me, fidgeting in his lap. I waited for him to start, but he didn’t say anything. Eventually I said, ‘I know you’ve been asking to die for eight years, Leo.’

He sighed and tilted his head without looking up. ‘That’s all I want, Emma. An end to it. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.’

‘There’s no way we can convince you to come back with us?’

He just shrugged.

‘Simone and Michael need you.’

He smiled slightly. ‘They’re already grown-up, look at them. What do they need me for?’ He gestured towards his legs. ‘I’m useless.’

‘Immortals can fly; you could probably learn to levitate, or even make use of your legs. Iron Crutch doesn’t have to take the form of a cripple all the time, and probably neither would you, unless you chose to.’

Leo bowed his head. ‘A cripple.’

I raised my hands. ‘Disabled. Disabled. Geez.’

He rubbed his hand over his face again. ‘No, you’re right, Emma, I’m a cripple. And here you are, wanting to sentence me to an eternity of being like this and pining after him?’ He heaved a deep sigh. ‘No, thanks. Go and wait for him, and when he comes back for you, be happy together. Simone and Michael are grown-up now. None of you need me. Please. Let me go.’

I hesitated, then dealt my trump card. ‘I know what you want more than death, because I want it too.’

He looked away.

‘I want to be his Serpent, Leo. I want to join with him when he comes back, be one with him. I want him to absorb me.’ I reached out and touched his hand. ‘And I know you want him to absorb you too. It’s what you asked him to do when you thought you were going to die.’

He still didn’t look at me.

‘What if you had the chance to be drained by him?’

His head shot up so he could see me.

‘Be one with him forever?’ I went on. ‘I know that’s what I want. I’m sure you want it too. Would you wait for him to come back, to have that chance?’

‘That would be wrong, Emma. He loves you.’

‘He loves you too, Leo, and I’m sure he’d be merciful enough to do this for you.’ I smiled and shrugged. ‘My husband and my best friend in one gorgeous package. How could I lose?’

He chuckled. ‘That sounds so wrong.’

‘Shen only seem to follow human rules when it suits them.’ I held his hand tighter. ‘So what do you say? Come home with us and spend the time with us, your family, until he returns. Simone’s only fourteen and has a lot of growing to do. Michael could really use your advice; he isn’t on speaking terms with his father. They really do need you, and I could use your common sense sometimes. And when he returns, both of us can ask him to do this for you. You know he won’t say no to me. So how about it?’

‘That would be a dream come true, Emma, you know that,’ Leo said softly.

‘I know, my friend, I know,’ I said, and squeezed his hand. ‘I want it too.’

‘He would do it for me?’

‘He already did, but Kwan Yin grabbed you. Remember? He started to drain you. He’d do it again if we asked him, I’m sure.’

‘But I have to drink this stupid Elixir of Immortality. Then he won’t be able to drain me.’

‘He will. I know he will — he was concerned about draining Meredith. Take it, Leo, and come back with us for a little while longer.’

Leo gestured towards the sideboard in his dining room. ‘It’s over there. It’s been there the whole time; I could have used it any time I wanted. Wanna get it for me?’

I couldn’t contain the huge smile. ‘Sure.’

I rose and went to the sideboard, where an elegant silver and glass jug held the Elixir of Immortality. The liquid was the colour of red wine but its sour, unpleasant smell was discernible from quite some distance. I grabbed a glass as well and took both to him, placing them on the coffee table next to him.

‘Smells awful,’ I said.

‘Yeah,’ Leo said. He grinned. ‘Must mean it’s very good for you.’

‘Don’t do it yet — I’ll get the kids,’ I said.

‘Does Michael still object to being called a kid?’ Leo said.

‘Oh, very loudly,’ I said, and went to the door of the villa. Call them for me, I said to the stone.

Done, the stone replied.

Simone and Michael hurried back to the house, Meredith and the official following.

‘He’s really going to do it?’ Simone said, flushed and excited.

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘This will be your first time to see this then,’ Meredith said. ‘Come and watch.’

Simone raced to Leo and hugged him around his shoulders. ‘Drink it, Leo. I want to see what happens.’

I took the jug and poured him a glass of the crimson, foul-smelling liquid. ‘Drink it quickly if it tastes as bad as it smells.’

‘Yeah,’ Leo said, and raised the glass in a toast to all of us, then drank.

‘Wait …’ Meredith said, but it was too late.

Leo dropped the glass, his mouth opened in a silent scream, his eyes wide. He shredded quickly, like a demon, his edges disappearing into black feathery streamers. It happened too fast for me to react; he exploded and was gone.

CHAPTER 10

‘You killed him!’ Michael shouted, rounding on Meredith and the official. ‘You murdered him!’ He sagged against the couch and rubbed his hand over his face. ‘What happened?’

‘This is not possible,’ the official said weakly. ‘This cannot have happened. He was an ordinary human.’ He drifted to the side of the room and fell to sit on a chair against the wall. ‘I am contacting the Master.’

Meredith went to Michael and looked into his eyes. ‘That wasn’t Leo, Michael, believe me. Only demons react like that to the Elixir. Only demons say it smells and tastes bad; to everyone else it tastes very good. That was some sort of demon copy or replacement or something, and the Elixir destroyed it.’

‘So where’s Leo?’ Michael said, glaring at her.

Meredith turned to the official. He snapped back from whoever he had been communicating with, obviously stricken. ‘The Master is on his way. We have no idea how this happened. Mr Alexander must have been replaced some time recently. That copy was undetectable though, which is very disturbing.’

‘So where is Leo?’ Michael stormed to his feet.

A middle-aged man in traditional maroon robes appeared. ‘We don’t know,’ he said.

The official bowed and saluted him. ‘Yanluo Wang.’

‘Come with me to my office and we’ll work out what to do,’ Yanluo Wang, King of the Underworld, said. ‘The demons may know something — we will contact the demonic side of Hell. It appears that Leo has been taken.’

He took us back to the main building, where we’d arrived on the roof, and we went inside the ground-floor entrance. The interior was like a modern office. He led us past sleek designer cubicles containing staff in traditional robes working on computers, and to his office at the other end. It overlooked the lake and contained a meeting table, an executive desk and a computer. A whiteboard to one side was covered with indecipherable symbols and scribbled Chinese characters.

He saw me looking at it and grinned. ‘Recent strategic planning session.’

‘This really is Hell,’ I said wryly.

‘Oh, absolutely,’ Yanluo Wang said. ‘Some residents are punished by being forced to sit in on the sessions. If they are to be punished more severely, they are made to take the minutes of the meetings.’ He sat at the large conference table and gestured for us to sit. ‘Let me call in the contacts and see what I can discover. Please, give me a moment.’ His eyes unfocused.

There was a tap on the door and a man opened it slightly. ‘Wong Mo wants to help,’ he said.

‘I don’t want the Demon King having any part of this,’ Simone said. ‘He caused all this trouble in the first place by putting a price on my father’s head.’

‘If any demonic influence is involved, then he will be able to help, Princess,’ Yanluo Wang said. ‘He has equal jurisdiction down here in Hell.’

‘It’s a good idea,’ Meredith said. ‘The demons may have some ideas. They can’t get up to anything here on the Celestial side. Let them come, Simone.’

‘Emma?’ Simone said.

‘The King has to vow not to try anything,’ I said. ‘Don’t ask me what I mean, just tell him that and make him agree.’

I know exactly what you mean and I vow I will not try anything, the King said into my ear. I vow I will not try to make you change or convert you. But I’d love it if you were to show me, darling Emma. I dream about your Mother form at night.

‘He can come,’ I said, and the Demon King appeared at the other side of the room, with a long-haired Chinese man who looked like John at his side.

Simone moved so quickly she was a blur. She held out one hand, summoned Dark Heavens, and as she ran towards the two men she ripped the sword from its scabbard and threw it aside. She stopped with the point of the blade against the long-haired man’s throat.

It was John’s son, Martin. He stood with the sword at his throat and smiled slightly, his eyes full of amusement as he looked down at Simone. The King didn’t move; he just stood beside Martin with a similar small smile.

Michael drew the White Tiger and stood behind Simone, the sword to one side. ‘If you’re going to do it, let me help,’ he growled.

I stood behind Simone but didn’t attempt to call my weapon; she was doing quite nicely by herself.

Simone quivered with rage but her voice was soft and icy and the tip of the sword didn’t move from Martin’s throat. ‘You disgusting piece of scum-sucking pond slime. You lied to Leo, you kidnapped me, you killed a demon child that was used to nearly kill our father, and in the end you did kill our father because you took me to One Two Two and Daddy had to trade his head for my safety.’

‘This really is not necessary, Princess,’ the King said. ‘He is here as my emissary and right now you cannot harm him.’

‘It’s true, Simone,’ Meredith said. ‘Don’t try anything, it’s a waste of time. As an emissary he has protection.’

Simone barked with frustration and swung Dark Heavens to take Martin’s head off. The sword passed through without hurting him.

‘Didn’t know you had it in you, Simone, well done,’ Martin said, still smiling slightly. ‘There is hope for you after all.’

Michael put the White Tiger away but his gaze didn’t shift from Martin. ‘You will pay for what you did, Ming Gui,’ he said, his voice a rasping growl. ‘You’d better not leave Hell because if you do —’

‘We … will … find … you,’ Simone finished with him.

She held out her hand and Dark Heavens’ scabbard flew into it. She sheathed the sword, raised her hand and dismissed it. ‘I swear that you will taste my blade, betrayer of my father,’ she said softly.

‘If it means anything at all, I was honestly misled and thought that we’d be going somewhere safe to spend some more time together,’ Martin said. ‘I didn’t know that the demon child wasn’t you — I really did think I’d managed to get you out. That’s why I fought alongside you, Simone.’ He nodded to me. ‘Emma. And my feelings for Leo were genuine.’

‘Then what are you doing here with him?’ I said, gesturing towards the Demon King.

‘I have my reasons,’ Martin said, the smile fading. ‘I have dug my grave and now I must lie in it.’

‘He’s all mine, and a most desirable trophy,’ the Demon King said. ‘The Mothers adore him.’

Martin winced.

‘You give him to the Mothers?’ Simone said.

The King spread his hands and shrugged. ‘When I’m not using him. Have to keep him busy, you know. Come, little Simone, sit. Let’s see what we can do about finding your pet lion.’

The Demon King and Martin moved to the conference table, saluting Yanluo Wang as they sat. Yanluo Wang saluted back. Simone hesitated, then she and Michael sat at the table as well, and I joined them.

‘Okay,’ the Demon King said, leaning on the table. ‘I hear that Leo was replaced. This probably happened while those kids were guarding him and got lured away. Did you destroy them when I sent them to you, Emma?’

I remembered the three demons who had come to the offices a few days before. ‘Two ran, but I tamed one.’

‘Bring it, I’ll have a look inside,’ the King said. ‘It may have some information for us.’

‘Don’t destroy it,’ I said.

‘It will look bad if I don’t destroy a demon that’s been tamed, you know that.’ He smiled slightly. ‘But for you, anything.’

Nigel tapped on the door and poked his head around. ‘The demon, ma’am.’

‘Bring him in, Nigel.’

Nigel opened the door and Four Seven Three, still appearing as a teenager, entered. The demon saw the King and froze. It changed into True Form: a green humanoid of about three metres tall, with scales, tusks and bulging eyes. Red tufts of hair sprouted from its head. It stood frozen in front of the King for a moment, then scurried around the opposite side of the table and crouched behind me.

‘Come here, little one,’ the King said kindly.

The demon made a small keening sound of terror and slowly rose. It moved like a puppet towards the King, still making the keening sound. ‘Protect me, Lady,’ the demon said, its voice pitched high with terror.

‘It’s all right, I won’t let him hurt you,’ I said.

The King swivelled in his chair and raised one hand towards the demon. ‘Take human form and come sit in my lap.’

The demon didn’t stop its quiet wail of fear, but it changed back into a teenager and lurched to the King. It flopped into his lap and he wrapped his arms around its waist and spoke into its ear.

‘Emma told me not to destroy you, child. We need some information. Where is Leo?’

The King tightened his grip and the demon threw its head back and screamed.

‘Where’s Leo?’ the King said, his eyes bright with pleasure as he held the writhing demon. ‘Where did they take him?’

‘I don’t know,’ the demon wailed. ‘Stop. Stop. Make it stop. Lady, please, make it stop.’

‘Emma, you only asked him not to destroy it. He can still hurt it if he likes,’ Simone said urgently.

I didn’t reply; I was engrossed in the demon’s agony. It was fascinating.

Simone turned to see me. ‘Emma?’

‘Emma’s enjoying the show,’ the King said. ‘Look at her face.’

‘Emma!’ Simone shouted.

Something inside me clicked and I realised what was happening. ‘Stop hurting it! There’s no need for this, just get the information.’ I ran my hands through my hair. ‘God.’

The demon’s screams turned into gasping sobs.

The King turned his attention back to it and spoke into its ear. ‘The look on your face is something that will keep me going for a long time, dear Emma.’ He glanced at me, his eyes full of sly amusement. ‘We could have so much fun together, you and I.’

‘Geez, Emma,’ Simone said softly.

‘What the hell?’ Michael said.

‘Does it know where Leo is?’ I said.

The King concentrated. ‘Nope.’

He released the demon and it fell off his lap to lie unconscious on the floor. Simone, Michael and myself all jumped up and ran to it.

‘Let me,’ Meredith said, and we moved away to give her room. She touched the demon, then glared up at the Demon King. ‘That was totally unnecessary.’

‘I know,’ he said, his voice mild. ‘But it was so much fun!’ He gestured towards me. ‘Don’t you agree, Emma?’

I didn’t reply.

‘What now?’ Simone said. ‘Someone’s taken Leo, and we have no idea where he is.’

‘Let’s go have a look in his cell, see if they left anything when they took him,’ Martin said.

‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘Meredith, put the demon to one side and let it recover.’ I glared at the King. ‘That demon is mine. Do not touch it.’

Meredith picked up the demon like a child and put it on the floor at the side of the room. Demons were generally tougher than humans, and could take much more physical abuse because of their almost liquid insides. An hour or so on the floor and this one would be fine again.

We all went back to the villas. Someone was sitting on the porch of the first one — an elderly woman, her face serene as she watched the lake. She smiled slightly at me as we went past.

We went into Leo’s villa. Downstairs were a small living room with a television, a kitchen and a dining room. Upstairs were two small bedrooms and a bathroom. Leo’s clothes were in the closet in the bedroom; it was disturbing to see exact replicas of his clothes in his room back at the Peak hanging here.

Simone went to the drawers in the closet and pulled one out. ‘Look, Emma.’ There were a few pairs of pink boxers at the bottom of the drawer. I shook my head.

‘I know what happened to them — I heard you talking about it when we were in Australia,’ Simone went on.

‘What happened?’ Michael said.

Simone turned to him and lowered her voice. ‘When we were in Australia, Emma and Leo were playing jokes on each other non-stop, and Emma got into the laundry room and dyed all his undershirts and boxers pink.’

‘He did stuff like that to me too sometimes.’ Michael turned away. ‘Damn but I miss him.’

‘I can’t believe he kept them,’ I said, glancing back down at the underwear. ‘He kept a pebble from the beach too, from the looks of it.’

Simone looked into the drawer. ‘That’s not a pebble, that’s something strange.’ She pulled out a small golden stone about a centimetre across. ‘This is some sort of demon.’

‘George?’ I called to the doorway. The Demon King, Yanluo Wang, Meredith and Martin entered.

‘What is it, Emma?’ the King said.

Simone held the stone out to him. ‘What do you make of this?’

The Demon King took the stone and stared at it, then grimaced and made a gesture of frustration. ‘Six!’

‘You destroyed that one,’ Yanluo Wang said.

‘I thought I did,’ the Demon King said grimly. ‘It was part of a posse of four demons helping —’

‘Helping One Two Two,’ I broke in. ‘They had meetings when I was held in his apartment in Hell. There were four of them. I remember.’

‘I thought I’d tracked them down and destroyed them all,’ the King said. ‘Looks like I missed this one.’

‘Do you know where it is?’ Simone said. ‘It has Leo!’

‘I have a pretty good idea where he is,’ the King said. ‘These demons were messing with stones before. Even if they’re not still in the same place, you’ll be able to pick up an idea of where they’ve relocated if you go there. But I’m quite sure they’ll still be in the same nest.’

‘Where?’ Simone said eagerly.

‘I will agree to tell you on one condition,’ the King said.

‘Oh God, George, is there always a catch?’ I said.

‘Yes, of course there is,’ the King said. ‘Michael’s mother, Rhonda, must spend a week down here in Hell, here on the tenth level, so I can attempt to talk her out of marrying the Tiger.’

‘We can’t wait that long. What if they hurt him or kill him while they have him? We need to go find him now,’ Simone said.

‘They won’t hurt him, Simone,’ the King said. ‘He’ll be fine.’

‘Of course they’ll hurt him!’ Simone said, frustrated.

The King waved a hand at Meredith and turned away. ‘Tell them, Gweipoh.’

Simone and Michael waited, staring at Meredith.

Meredith and Yanluo Wang shared a look, then Meredith sighed and her shoulders sagged. ‘You’re here now, you might as well know. Leo is a Celestial Worthy; all he needs is to take the Elixir. He’s between life and death right now, so they can’t hurt him or kill him. He doesn’t feel pain, and any wounds they inflict will heal immediately. They can hold him, and that’s about it.’

‘What do you think they want?’ I said.

Meredith turned to the King. ‘Tell us about Six.’

‘Six,’ the King said, and smiled slightly. ‘Six was involved with little One Two Two when Simon was in charge of the Triad activity here. He may have taken over. I hear that your students have fun practising on Triad operations, safe in the knowledge that any supernatural means they use to break up the criminal activities won’t be reported?’

Meredith and I shared a look, then Meredith spoke. ‘We let the students practise their Arts on any criminals they find, yes. Apparently they’ve put a huge dent in the income from organised crime in Hong Kong.’

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if Six has taken over One Two Two’s empire, ladies,’ the King said. ‘He’d probably like you to back off. As I said, give me Rhonda for a week and the information is yours to do with as you please. You will know where they are, and you can go in and sort them out.’

‘Maybe they’re giving you a chance to have Rhonda for a week,’ I said.

‘Oh, very good, my Lady,’ the Demon King said. ‘Most worthy of you, but I can assure you, I swear, that I myself have nothing to do with them. They have done this on their own and I am merely taking advantage of the opportunity. I’ve wanted to have a chat with Ms MacLaren for quite some time now. All she has to do is come down and spend a week here, something of a small holiday. That’s all.’

‘Demonic or Celestial side?’ Meredith said.

‘Demonic.’

Meredith leaned back and looked at the King appraisingly, then at Michael.

‘You want to steal the Tiger’s fiancée?’ I said incredulously.

‘I want to steal his Queen,’ the Demon King said.

‘It’s up to Mom,’ Michael said.

‘If you ask her to do this she will, Michael, you know that,’ the King said. ‘If she truly loves the Tiger then a week here will not be such a trial. And if I can talk her out of marrying him, it’s a bonus for you.’

‘No tricks,’ Michael said grimly.

The Demon King spread his hands. ‘I vow I shall not use any mind control at all. Just the power of persuasion. Hopefully you and I together can make her see exactly what she would be getting into if she were to marry this asshole.’

‘Do you want her for yourself?’ I said.

‘Of course I do, that’s why I’m doing this,’ the King said. ‘But more than that, I don’t want to see this remarkable woman with beauty and courage become the plaything of a man who will only treasure her until he has her in his possession. Once they are wed he will ignore her like all the others and go off in search of a new prize.’

Michael sighed and ran one hand over his face.

‘See? He knows,’ the King said with a grin.

‘Vow that you won’t hurt my mom and I’ll go talk to her,’ Michael said.

‘She will be accommodated as the princess she is. She will experience nothing but beauty and pleasure while she is in my care. That I vow.’

Michael studied the King appraisingly, then nodded once. ‘Deal. Let me see what I can do. How do I contact you?’

The King focused on Michael and Michael nodded. ‘Okay, got it. Take us back up and I’ll talk to her.’

CHAPTER 11

‘You sure about this, Michael?’ I said, as we appeared back in the kitchen at home.

Monica was frantically mopping the floor, which was awash with water, at least five centimetres deep. It flowed into the hallway, leaving a dark stain on the carpet. Gold’s child was hovering next to her but she didn’t seem to notice it. ‘Oh no!’ Simone said, and skipped through the water to the kitchen doorway.

‘I’m glad you’re back, Aunty Emma. It was awful and it hurt Uncle Marcus,’ the stone child said.

‘Did it hurt you, Monica?’ Simone said.

‘No, ma’am, just Marcus, but Master Gold says he’ll be okay.’ Monica mopped more briskly but her shoulders were shaking.

I went to her and put my arm around her. ‘Stop, Monica, go rest. Is Marcus in your room?’

She nodded through silent tears.

‘Gold is with Marcus in their room, checking him over,’ the stone in my ring said.

‘Go to him,’ I said. ‘We can fix this.’

I gently prised the mop out of her hand and led her to her room, which ran off the back of the kitchen. I tapped on the door and opened it a crack for her. ‘Go inside, Marcus is there. Everything will be fine.’

‘Daddy said to stay out here, Aunty Emma,’ Gold’s child said, sounding concerned. ‘It was pretty bad.’

‘You stay out here with us, we’ll look after you,’ I said to the child. ‘Do you need anything?’

The child dropped to rest on the kitchen bench. ‘No, I’m okay.’ It hesitated, then, ‘It was really scary.’

I held my hand out and the stone flashed over to snuggle into my palm. ‘Thanks, Aunty Emma,’ it said softly.

‘What the hell happened here?’ Michael said, looking at the water in bewilderment.

‘Simone, it would be a good idea to send it down the drain before it completely destroys the carpet,’ I said.

Simone’s face went rigid, then she relented and raised her hand. The water on the floor coalesced into a large glistening sphere that formed a funnel and gushed into the kitchen sink and down the drain. ‘Elemental,’ Simone said. She concentrated again and the remaining water lifted out of the carpet into a brownish lump, leaving the wool completely dry. ‘Wow, our carpet’s dirty. We should have it cleaned, Emma.’

‘Water elemental?’ Michael said.

‘Yes,’ I said, carefully holding the stone child in my hand so that I wouldn’t wake it; it had fallen asleep almost immediately. ‘They’re annoyed that Simone won’t summon them. She doesn’t have any control over what they do. This one probably sensed she was in Hell and came here to find out what happened.’

Gold came out of Marcus and Monica’s room. ‘They’ll be fine, ma’am. Marcus nearly drowned though.’ He turned to Simone. ‘Princess, you really need to train with us. Learn how to summon and control these elementals.’

Simone turned away and headed towards her room.

‘Talk to her, Lady Emma, please,’ Gold said. ‘This can’t go on. Marcus was nearly killed. It’s only the fact that he’s half-Shen that saved him; any ordinary man would have drowned.’

He saw the stone in my hand and his face softened. ‘My baby was very scared by the whole thing.’ He reached out and I passed the stone to him.

‘Hold me, Daddy,’ the baby said sleepily.

‘I won’t let you go, bebe,’ Gold said. He looked up. ‘Everything’s under control now, ma’am, it should be fine. But please talk to Simone.’

‘She could control water elementals and she doesn’t want to,’ Michael said grimly. ‘Typical.r’Bout time she grew up.’ He fell to one knee and quickly saluted me. ‘By your leave, Lady Emma, I’ll go talk to my mom.’

‘Say hello to her for me,’ I said, and he disappeared. ‘Take the baby home, Gold. I’ll talk to Simone.’

‘Can I talk to you in your office, after you talk to her?’ Gold said.

‘Sure, wait for me there.’

I went to Simone’s room. She sat at her desk, working on her homework. I entered and sat on the bed.

‘Simone, if Marcus wasn’t half-Shen, that elemental would have killed him. Both he and Monica are lucky to be alive.’

‘Why can’t those elementals just go away and leave me alone?’ Simone said without looking up from her homework. ‘I hate them.’

‘That’s part of the problem, sweetheart, and you know it.’

She turned and glared at me. ‘I don’t want any of this, Emma. I just want to be a normal kid. These elementals are freaking everybody out.’

‘Learn to control them then.’

‘Yeah, sure.’ She turned back to her homework. ‘I’ll learn to control them and be even more powerful. I’ll walk through the Academy and people will be more scared of me.’

‘Nobody’s scared of you, Simone.’

She threw her pen onto the exercise book. ‘Don’t lie to me, Emma, I can sense it. Some of the students are terrified of me. Like I’m some sort of monster or something. And after what happened in Heaven, it’ll be twice as bad. The ones that know about your serpent are terrified of you too.’

‘The serpent is the least of it. I’m terrified of myself.’

She dropped her head and her voice became small. ‘Me too,’ she said. ‘Do you have any idea how much damage I could do with even a small amount of yin? And my control of it isn’t that great either.’ She shook her head. ‘When I bring it out, it wants me to destroy everything.’

‘You need to learn to handle the elementals, Simone. Next time we may not be so lucky. Go down to the Academy and have the Masters teach you.’

‘I hate the Academy. I hate the way everybody bows to me, and is scared of me, and some of them freaking want to be my friend just because of who my father is. I hate it.’

‘I can have one of the Masters come here, if you like. You won’t even have to go down to the Academy. Just learn to control them so they don’t hurt anybody.’

She sighed and turned back to her book. ‘Okay, Emma, I s’pose you’re right. But please, talk to the school. I don’t want to repeat Year Nine. I’ve made some great friends there and they treat me like an ordinary kid.’

‘I’ll talk to them for you.’

‘Thanks.’ She tapped the book with her pen. ‘This biology homework is due soon. I need to finish it.’

I rose to go. ‘Okay, sweetheart. Let me know if you need anything.’

‘Do me a favour?’ she said without looking up from her book.

‘Hm?’

‘Don’t call me sweetheart, Emma, I’m not a little kid.’

I bowed slightly. ‘Princess.’

She spun and threw the pen to hit me right between the eyes. I caught it easily and returned it to her desk.

‘Leo’s gonna call you sweetheart,’ I said. ‘He called me that all the time.’

‘Leo can get away with itr’cause he’s gay.’

‘Nothing to do with it.’

‘Out, Emma.’

‘Ma’am.’

‘Humph.’

I went into John’s office, where Gold was waiting, his baby cradled in his hands. The stone drifted out of my ring across the desk, then took human form and sat in the chair opposite me. It was a slim European gentleman in his mid-sixties with a shock of white hair, wearing a smart dark green suit and tie. He leaned his elbows on the desk and rubbed his hands over his face.

Neither he nor Gold looked at each other but both appeared concerned.

‘Well?’ I said.

Gold glanced at his parent and shrugged.

‘Normally we stones stand aside from the …’ the stone from my ring searched for the word, ‘… the organic community. We keep ourselves to ourselves, serve the Celestial as we should, and have our own network. But things have been happening.’

Gold touched his child thoughtfully and it made a soft squeak of sleepy contentment. My stone’s face softened as it watched.

‘We have problems,’ Gold said. ‘And although we would like to solve them ourselves, I think this time we need help.’

‘We’re disappearing,’ the stone from my ring said. ‘Without a trace.’

‘Show her, Dad,’ Gold said.

A haphazard web of glowing white lines, about sixty centimetres across, appeared floating above the desk. The lines connected hundreds of tiny black dots. It was like looking at a virtual map of the internet.

‘The black dots are Eastern stone Shen — there are about a thousand of us altogether,’ Gold said. ‘The lines are our network.’

‘This is what the network looked like six months ago,’ the stone from my ring said.

About fifty of the dots blinked out, taking the glowing lines with them.

‘Five months ago,’ Gold said.

Another twenty dots blinked out and the lines representing the network thinned.

‘Three months ago,’ the stone said.

Another fifty dots blinked out. About a tenth of the lines had disappeared.

‘Last month,’ Gold said.

‘We lost another twenty in the last two weeks,’ the stone said.

‘About a fifth of the stone Shen have disappeared in the last six months?’ I said, incredulous.

‘Slightly less, about fourteen per cent,’ Gold said. He placed his hand over his child. ‘Most of them were our younger progeny, less than a thousand years old.’

‘And now the Demon Prince Six has reappeared,’ the stone said. ‘And this was the one that was messing with stones before.’

Gold held his child closer. ‘Six is once again stealing our children.’

‘Please tell me the Celestial knows about this,’ I said. ‘I’m not the first person you’ve made aware of this, am I?’

They didn’t reply.

‘The Jade Emperor has to know,’ I said.

‘He probably does, but unless we ask for Celestial intervention, this is an internal stone matter, as we have an agreement with the Celestial to …’ The stone from my ring smiled slightly. ‘Butt out of our business.’

‘Then get onto the JE and tell him about this, because something is obviously going on,’ I said. ‘What’s happening to them anyway?’

‘That’s the thing, Emma,’ the stone from my ring said, his voice gravelly with stress. ‘We have no idea.’

‘We were hoping that, as Dad’s owner, you could bring this up with him on our behalf,’ Gold said.

‘Why don’t you go to him yourselves?’ I said, then nodded as I understood. ‘Of course, lose too much face asking him to come in and give you a hand when you’ve already told him to butt out.’

‘Face has nothing to do with it,’ Gold said indignantly.

‘You know she’s right,’ the stone from my ring said with resignation. He glanced up at me. ‘So will you talk to him?’

‘Prepare a memorial. I’ll look at it and sign it and chop it and send it on as FHG,’ I said.

‘FHG?’ Gold said, confused.

‘First Heavenly General,’ the stone said.

‘Oh.’ Gold shook his head. ‘You don’t show the same amount of respect for Celestial matters that others do, Emma. Sometimes it’s … strange.’

‘Try spending all your time with her,’ the stone said dryly. ‘I thought my attitude was perverse.’

‘I’ve written the memorial for you; it’s on your hard disk in the Celestial Matters folder,’ Gold said.

‘I’ll take a look,’ I said.

Gold saluted me. ‘Ma’am. By your leave.’

‘Go home. If I need you I’ll contact you.’

Gold disappeared. My stone folded up its human form and returned to the ring.

I opened the email program on John’s computer.

‘There’s an email there from Simone’s teacher; I sent her one making an appointment for you to see her day after tomorrow, after school,’ the stone said. ‘I’ve changed the computer records of Simone’s absences from school, so all you have to do is claim that they have the absence rate wrong.’

‘You shouldn’t have done that, it’s dishonest,’ I said.

‘It’s a Celestial solution to a Celestial problem. If she wasn’t the daughter of Xuan Tian this would not be an issue.’

‘Anything else important there?’

The stone’s voice softened. ‘You have five challenges, but this is pretty bad. Er Lang has called you out.’

‘What?’

‘I don’t know why he wants to match skills with you. He’s one of the most powerful warriors on the Celestial, and I’m sure he could defeat you easily. He definitely doesn’t want Simone’s hand — he’s a confirmed bachelor.’

‘He’s gay?’

‘Nobody really knows; he’s never been seen in the company of anyone, male or female. There’s some speculation that he has something going on with his dog.’

‘Ew. And his dog’s male.’

‘Oh come on, Emma, look at the Tiger. You know that he gets together with his wives sometimes in Tiger form and —’

I raised my hands. ‘Stop. Stop. Way too much information. You are thoroughly squicking me out here.’

‘Okay, Emma, think for a moment. What if your own true love, the Turtle, were to return to you in full possession of his senses but in such a weakened state that he could only take True Form?’

I dropped my hands.

‘What if you were swimming, and the Turtle were to drift through the water to meet you, told you in John’s voice that he loved you with all his heart, then held you gently with his flippers and —’

I interrupted again. ‘Cut it out. Enough. Whatever. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.’

‘It might happen, Emma … Oh. Incoming message.’

The stone was silent for a moment and I waited for it. When it spoke its voice was full of amusement. ‘Typical of the Tiger. Lady Rhonda’s engagement ring just contacted me. The Tiger has given her a sentient diamond Shen as the centrepiece of the ring. Nothing nearly as precious as me, but diamond Shen are quite rare. This one is arrogant to the extreme. Lady Rhonda wants to know if you are free for lunch tomorrow so she can discuss the ramifications of going to Hell, and what she can expect there.’

‘Am I free?’

‘I’ve already confirmed it for you. Now, we need to look at your diary, because you have five challenges you need to take care of sometime in the next two weeks.’

‘And Er Lang.’

‘Him above all.’

CHAPTER 12

‘I feel like Persephone,’ Rhonda said over her salad.

The years had been kind to her and she radiated intelligence and confidence. ‘Kidnapped by Hades, and having to spend half her life in Hell because she ate six pomegranate seeds.’

‘He won’t keep you there, don’t worry,’ I said. ‘He’s trustworthy.’ I rested my chin in my hand. ‘Actually I trust him more than some Celestials. He won’t try anything.’

‘He won’t expect me to sleep with him or anything?’

‘No. Absolutely not. Nothing like that. He just wants to talk to you.’

‘I know. He wants to talk me out of remarrying Ah Bai.’

‘Congratulations, by the way. The ring is gorgeous.’

She held the engagement ring up for me to see. The central diamond must have been at least two carats and it was surrounded by more large diamonds in a glittering circle. ‘It’s way too big and a pain most of the time, but it’s the thought that counts, I suppose. And you’re right, these stones can be extremely useful.’

‘I am honoured to be able to serve the Lady Rhonda and to act as the symbol of her troth,’ the stone in her ring said, sounding like a young Chinese woman with a soft Putonghua accent. ‘As a stone that will never decay, I represent the Emperor of the West’s unfailing adoration of her.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ I said. ‘Do you have a name?’

‘I was not graced with a name until the Lady Rhonda took possession of me. She has chosen the name of Zara for me, and I am honoured.’

Rhonda shrugged. ‘She’s a sweetie.’

‘I am proud to serve, my Lady,’ the stone said.

Rhonda leaned on the table, serious, her salad forgotten. ‘What will it be like down there?’

‘On the demonic side? I have no idea.’

‘But Simon Wong kept you imprisoned there for a few weeks. What was that like?’

I leaned back. ‘It was exactly like a posh apartment on top of Harbour City. I could even see the cars parking on the roof of Ocean Terminal. The windows were an illusion, and they were sealed, but it was just like an apartment.’

‘All indoors?’

‘The Celestial side of Hell appeared to be outdoors, even though there was no sun. I couldn’t tell you, Rhonda, but my guess is that it’ll be pretty nice.’

‘Hell. Nice.’ She shook her head. ‘Lovely.’

‘It’s good of you to consider doing this for Leo, Rhonda. I really appreciate it.’

She shrugged. ‘The Tiger said I should be fine, and it will prove to everybody on the Celestial that I’m serious about marrying him, so he supports me a hundred per cent.’

‘All the best for both of you then. It’ll be a tough job for you, being Empress of the West. You’ll have a lot to manage.’

She picked up her fork and moved her salad around. ‘You have no idea. He’s putting me in charge of a massive palace and a hundred women who are all baying for my blood.’

‘They’re not. They wouldn’t.’

She smiled up at me. ‘Well, you know — we all like to think that we’re his special wife, the one he’ll leave all the others for. Now I’ve stepped up and I am the one he nearly left the others for — they hate me. Your friend Louise is probably going to come down as soon as she can and ask you to do something about me.’

‘She knows you’re my friend. She wouldn’t ask me to do that.’

‘The others are pushing her. I’ve already been attacked a couple of times.’ She nodded over her shoulder to where two burly sons of the Tiger stood near the door of the restaurant. ‘The Tiger’s had to give me a personal guard.’

‘To protect you from his other wives?’

She nodded, amused. ‘He’s said I should start disciplining them the minute we’re married. Apparently during Imperial times it was quite common for the Empress to order misbehaving concubines beaten or executed.’ Her smile became wry. ‘Sometimes he really needs to be dragged tail-first into the twenty-first century.’

‘Good luck managing that,’ I said with disbelief. ‘I’m glad all I have is a Heavenly realm falling to bits and about four hundred young and unruly Disciples skilled in Arts that give them the ability to maim and kill without even thinking. What you have is much worse.’

‘Hey, Zara,’ Rhonda said.

‘Hmm?’ her stone replied.

‘Who has it worse, me or Lady Emma?’

‘Oh, definitely Lady Emma,’ the stone said. ‘She has to deal with that ugly piece of worn-out jade on her finger on top of all her other trials.’

‘It was me that wore you out, baby,’ the stone in my ring said slyly.

‘Pig-dog,’ said Rhonda’s stone.

‘Look, if the cheating works both ways then it’s still cheating and the win isn’t valid,’ Marshal Meng said, looking and sounding more like an exasperated grandfather than a Heavenly General.

‘I cancelled out the cheats they used. I wasn’t cheating myself, just making it fair,’ Marshal Liang said, his huge whiskers bristling.

‘You are all contributing to the wealth of the casino lords, you know that,’ I said as I entered the conference room.

‘What do you think, Emma?’ Marshal Meng said, gracefully indicating his heavy-set companion. ‘Liang here uses his abilities to cancel out the cheat on the roulette wheel. That’s still cheating and invalidates any wins he makes.’

‘I just make it fair,’ Liang said, indignant.

‘Do you lose then?’ I said. ‘As if the wheel wasn’t weighted?’

Liang nodded. ‘Perfectly fair if I win.’

‘Then when you lose you’re still adding to the wealth of the casino lords and you doubly lose,’ I said, to a chorus of chuckles from the other Generals. ‘Some of that wealth is siphoned into the Triads, some of the Triads are controlled by demons, so if you lose at the table you’re helping the enemy. If you win at the table you’re cheating. Give it up.’

Liang opened and closed his mouth, then smiled wryly. ‘You have a point, Lady Emma.’ He looked around at the other Generals. ‘I suppose we should have this meeting now.’

The Generals sat down good-naturedly at the conference table and waited for me. In the past they had kept their forms reasonably standard, but as they’d come to realise that I didn’t really care what they looked like, they’d taken a variety of interesting — and sometimes nondescript — forms.

The highest-ranking General present was Marshal Ma, who was a slim, elegant gentleman in his mid-thirties, his hair cut short in the modern style, wearing a pair of slacks and a polo shirt. He seemed too refined to be involved in killing demons but was a fierce and talented fighter.

Next to him sat Marshal Gao, wearing traditional silvery Tang-style robes and armour, his long hair bound in a topknot. He was concentrating and so, for a change, wasn’t glowing gently, but as the discussion became heated and he forgot, the glow was guaranteed to return, much to his embarrassment.

Marshal Liang sat next to him, a fierce, heavy-set man with huge sideburns, wearing a short yellow robe and large cloth boots in the Mongolian style. He still looked put out at having his gambling habits called into question.

Marshal Meng was on the other side of the table, looking more like a fifty-year-old bureaucrat than anything else in his black robe and old-fashioned plain cloth cap. He smiled serenely, still appearing like a kindly grandfather.

Closest to me was Marshal Zhu, who, although seeming a pretty, fresh-faced young woman of about sixteen, was much tougher and wiser than her appearance suggested.

As the one with highest precedence, I spoke first. ‘Four main things,’ I said. ‘Leo’s kidnapping. Northern Heavens.’ There was a chorus of groans around the table. ‘Me getting called out by Er Lang —’

‘Er Lang called you out?’ Ma said, shocked.

I nodded. ‘Simone and elementals. Anything major from you guys?’

‘Nothing as bad as that,’ Ma said. ‘Leo first, this is important. We heard about the stone left in his cell in Hell — this is disturbing.’

I leaned on the table. ‘Why are Simon Wong’s little friends who could manipulate stones becoming more active now? You’d think they’d have tried us right after Lord Xuan left. But they’ve waited eight years, and all they’ve done is take Leo.’

‘Of course it’s a trap,’ Marshal Liang said. ‘The Demon King will probably tell you where they are so you can walk right into it.’

‘Do you think he’s helping them?’ I asked. ‘He vowed that he wasn’t, but I don’t know if I can trust him any more. With Lord Xuan gone, he’s making more and more attempts at us. And he’s used Leo’s disappearance as a way of getting Rhonda into Hell for a week. It almost seems too convenient.’

‘I strongly doubt he’s in league with them,’ Ma said. ‘Given half a chance these stone-controlling demons would probably put a knife in the King’s back. He’s hoping you can destroy them without him having to do anything, same as when Simone destroyed One Two Two for him.’

‘God, he’s always manipulating me into doing his dirty work for him,’ I said, frustrated. ‘Recommendations?’

‘Do we have any ideas on his location?’ Marshal Zhu asked, her firm voice counterpointing her sweet façade.

‘We have demons in Hell, and stones all over the place with their ears to the ground looking for something unusual or a new nest,’ I said.

‘So far nothing has come up,’ the stone in my ring said.

‘Well, then, there’s nothing we can do until we obtain some intelligence,’ Ma said, sounding like a corporate CEO in a board meeting. ‘As soon as you have news, call us in for an emergency session and we’ll work out what to do then. In the meantime, they can’t hurt your Retainer, they’ll just hold him as a bargaining piece and bait for their trap. We need to find out where he is.’

‘I hope the stones get something soon,’ I said.

‘We should be able to spare some agents as well,’ Meng said. ‘Many of our foot soldiers are demons.’

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘What’s next?’

‘Er Lang,’ Liang said, his voice loud and deep. ‘Do this one quickly, my Lady, he could injure you. You’ll need to get all your current challenges out of the way in the next week so that you can be ready when the Demon King gives you the information about Leo.’

‘Are any of you close enough to Er Lang to ask him why he’s doing this?’ I said.

The Generals looked at each other around the table, then they all shook their heads.

‘Let me ask Ah Yu,’ Ma said. ‘Give me a second.’

‘Er Lang’s a bit of a loner,’ Yang said, as General Ma unfocused, talking to Guan Yu. ‘Wasn’t so antisocial before the Monkey King defeated him. After that, he spent a lot of time off doing stuff by himself.’

‘That really happened, just like in the legend?’ I said. ‘The Monkey King beat him?’

‘Thoroughly spanked his ass,’ Zhu said, amusement lighting up her face. ‘We weren’t called in, the Dark Lord wasn’t called in, but the Monkey King caused chaos in the Celestial Palace for some time. The legend is quite accurate; it was only the Lady in the end who could subdue him.’

‘Big blow to Er Lang’s massive ego,’ Liang said with similar amusement. ‘Spanked by a monkey.’

The other Generals laughed.

‘And spent a lot of time by himself since,’ Meng finished. ‘Dunno whether he has issues about women in positions of power, but this might be the problem he has with you, and the reason he’s called you out.’

‘He called me out too,’ General Zhu said, the silver pins in her hair glittering as she moved her head. ‘When I received my investiture, he was onto me almost immediately to test my Celestial Worthiness. He does seem to have issues with women in power.’

‘Oh, wonderful,’ I said, and rested my chin in my hand. ‘He’s gonna take out his humiliation on me and give me a lesson at the same time. Is he honourable enough to hold to the ground rules?’

‘Yes, it’ll be fine,’ Meng said. ‘You have Celestial backing on that. He’s a Shen of honour, he’ll respect the limits that are in place.’

‘True,’ Zhu said, and the other Generals nodded agreement. ‘He was completely controlled when I faced him, and in the end he admitted that both me and my sister Bo Niang are more than qualified to hold our rank.’

‘I’ll arrange to face him right after I’ve talked to Simone’s teacher,’ I said. ‘I don’t know which one I dread more.’

Ma snapped back. ‘Ah Yu says that he hasn’t spoken to Er Lang in about seventy-five years, except on formal Celestial business to do with the administration of the City of Hell.’ He smiled wryly. ‘I think he has issues with our …’ His voice trailed off and the other Generals glared at him. ‘Well, he has no issues with Guan Yu, but he doesn’t like the company that Ah Yu is keeping, so to speak.’

‘He has that much of a problem with me?’ I said. ‘The fact that I’m a lowly human and he has to report to me?’

The Generals all quickly shook their heads. ‘No, no, not you, ma’am,’ Marshal Ma said. ‘Er Lang has issues with the nature of some of the Dark Lord’s officers.’

General Zhu snorted delicately with derision. ‘It’s been a thousand years already, he should get over it!’

‘Get over what?’ I said. ‘More information!’

The Generals shared a look over the table, then General Ma deliberately changed the subject.

‘Simone and elementals,’ he said. ‘She must learn to control them, Lady Emma, this is becoming very difficult. They appear out of nowhere, sometimes damaging property, other times threatening any Shen who they feel have slighted Simone. It’s only a matter of time before they either hurt a Shen or appear before a non-Celestial.’

‘Simone’s agreed to have lessons with one of the Wudang Masters to learn how to control them,’ I said, to a concert of relieved sighs. ‘Problem solved.’

‘How about bringing down a couple of teachers from Celestial High to talk to her while we have the door open?’ Meng said, and the other Generals nodded. ‘She could learn so much more at CH; her current school really doesn’t cater for her special abilities. She could make friends with other Shen —’

‘She refuses point-blank to discuss this possibility,’ I said. ‘Look at it her way. She’s one of the most powerful creatures on the Celestial Plane. People are either scared of her or try to cultivate her because of who she is. At the International School she’s just another kid.’

‘But she’s not learning to use her full capabilities,’ Zhu said. ‘There is probably so much more that she could do. She is such a valuable asset in the battle against the forces of Hell. Allow us to call her into battle more often. The more of us women kicking demon ass, the better.’

‘She’s growing up as an ordinary teenager — as far as I can make it anyway,’ I said. ‘She uses her abilities when she has to, but she’s in a reasonably normal Earthly household, and I think this is what the Dark Lord wanted for her. She’s not a child soldier fighting demons; she’s as much as possible just a fourteen-year-old girl.’

There was silence around the table for a moment, then Zhu said softly, ‘You are very wise sometimes, my Lady.’

‘True serpent,’ Meng said. ‘Impressive, ma’am.’

‘Northern Heavens,’ I said. ‘Tell me how bad it is.’

They shifted the papers to bring up the Celestial budget.

‘And you will tell me what the issue is with Er Lang.’

They ignored me.

The next morning Marcus dropped me outside the Pedder Building so that I could go to the Celestial Combat Arena to face my first challenge. The street was close to the middle of Central District and always packed with pedestrians and cars. The Pedder Building was one of Hong Kong’s few remaining old colonial buildings: a multistoreyed mall with a delightful old-fashioned lift and a vintage-themed tea house on the first floor among the clothing factory outlets.

I went around the corner and crossed Queen’s Road at the busiest pedestrian crossing in the Territory. It was at least fifteen metres wide and always packed with people jostling to get across the road. The government had made a pedestrian overpass part of the conditions for the developers who’d built on either side of the road, but they’d never bothered to put it up and had never been penalised for it. People were regularly struck by cars as they dashed across the road against the lights.

I walked up D’Aguilar Street, also packed with pedestrians, past the Wellington Street intersection, and turned right onto Wo On Lane. This was a narrow, near-deserted street, only wide enough for one car, and a tiny oasis from the crush of people. I walked to the end of the lane, passing some closed-up restaurants, a laundry and the back of the buildings facing Wellington Street. The lane was a dead end, with a small altar to a local god at the end, and a gate opening onto a park with a circular arena-shaped paved area — the Earthly analogue for the Celestial Combat Arena. Stairs ran up the side of the park to the streets of Central high above, showing exactly how steep the mountainside could be in some parts of Hong Kong.

I nodded to the local god and turned right at the end. An alley, only about a metre wide, ran from the lane to Wellington Street. At its end, on the corner with Wo On Lane, there was a simple metal door with a single blank deadlock.

I touched the door and its voice chimed in my head, sounding like high-pitched bells. Name and authorisation?

Lady Emma Donahoe, First Heavenly General, the stone said.

Right on time, the door said. Good luck, ma’am.

The door disappeared and a dark corridor was visible in its place. I took a deep breath and walked through.

The corridor was completely silent as I trudged along it. The floor was plain grey and the walls around me red brick. Closed doors appeared on my left and right, about three metres apart. A young man in full traditional armour appeared in the corridor in front of me and saluted. ‘Madam General. This way.’

I saluted back and followed him. He led me further down the corridor and stopped to open a door on the left. ‘Ma’am.’

I nodded to him and went into the preparation room. It had a large wooden screen on one side, gorgeously decorated with a scene of cranes and pines made from semi-precious stones. A couple of traditional rosewood chairs sat against the wall with a rosewood side table between them holding a pot of tea and four upside-down cups. A small rosewood altar stood against the wall, a burning stick of incense in front of its statue of Xuan Wu.

My armour was ready for me, fitted onto a mannequin made of rosewood that looked very similar to a dressmaker’s dummy. A demon servant, appearing as a young woman, stood silent and attentive next to the armour. The weapons rack was empty; nobody but myself could call the Murasame.

I dropped my handbag onto one of the chairs and shook my shoulders out. Then I nodded to the demon and she peeled the armour off the dummy and helped me to place it over my plain jeans and shirt. She carefully checked the buckles and straps, ensuring that the armour was secure.

‘Good luck, ma’am,’ she said, bobbed her head and disappeared.

I turned to the altar and studied it for a while. Then I said, ‘Wish me luck as well, John,’ and exited the room.

The same young man in armour waited for me on the other side of the door. He bowed slightly and held his right arm out to indicate the way.

‘No weapon, ma’am?’ he said as he led me down the corridor. ‘Your opponent is armed.’

‘Only if needed,’ I said.

‘A shame,’ he said, smiling over his shoulder at me. ‘I have never seen the Destroyer.’

‘The blade must be fed if it is released,’ I said.

He stopped for a second, hesitating, then continued walking along the corridor. ‘I apologise, ma’am, I was unaware. Usually only demonic blades require feeding.’

‘It is yin,’ I said.

He nodded understanding. ‘Ah, the Dark Lord’s blade, of course. It is a wonder you are able to wield it at all, ma’am, such a blade must be a very difficult to control.’

‘We have reached an understanding,’ I said.

‘It is sentient?’

‘Not as such. It is not intelligent but it does have a will.’

‘Fascinating.’ He stopped and gestured; the corridor ended and a moon gate led to a wider corridor to the left. ‘Ma’am.’

I nodded to him and went down the corridor, leaving him behind. The corridor brightened at the end and opened out into the Arena.

It appeared as an open area in a glade of bauhinia trees, the dirt floor covered with their pink and white blossoms. Sunshine sparkled through the leaves of the trees, rippling over the ground in bands of light and shade. A sweet breeze heavy with the scents of plant life and damp earth brushed my face.

My opponent stood on the other side of the clearing next to the officiator for the match. He had the nut-brown skin of a Chinese who had spent a great deal of time in the sun, and the square, heavy-set features shared by those from the North. He was at least half a metre taller than me, large and strong. He wore traditional lacquer armour similar to mine — square plates held together with wires — but his armour was as brown as his features. He held a spear that was at least two metres long with a slender, sharp tip surrounded by a red horsehair fringe and decorated with a piece of green silk.

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