Heaven to Wudang (34 page)

‘Your parents and sisters would like to see you,' he said to me. ‘I should warn you — it's not good.'

John took my hand. ‘I'll come along.'

‘No,' the Tiger said. ‘Go look for demons. Give us ten or fifteen minutes.'

He looked into John's eyes and shared some information.

John released my hand and his face filled with pain. ‘I will return for you shortly, Emma, and I will always love you and understand, no matter what you decide.'

‘What's going on?' I said. ‘Are they that mad with me?'

‘They're not angry with you at all,' the Tiger said. He gestured for me to enter. ‘Come and talk to them.'

‘If they're not mad with me, then what's the problem?' I asked as the Tiger led me towards my parents' villa.

‘They want to be the ones to talk this out with you,' the Tiger said. ‘I've been told to take you to their house and then leave.'

I dropped my head. ‘They must be so done with all this Celestial business.'

‘That is exactly the problem.' He opened the gate to the villa's little garden and stopped. ‘I'll leave you here. As the Turtle said, whatever choice you make, we will support you.' He turned and walked away without looking back.

I steeled myself and went into the villa.

My parents and my sisters, Jennifer and Amanda, were all waiting in the living room for me. When I entered, they clustered around me, hugging me and holding my hands. They led me to the couch, and my mother went to the kitchen, fussing about with tea and coffee for everybody. Finally, they couldn't postpone it any longer and sat uncomfortably, looking at me.

‘Is it really that bad?' I said.

‘Yes, it is,' my father said. He took a deep breath. ‘We're all tired of being here. We're sick to death of being afraid that someone will attack us, or kill the rest of the kids. It's all right for you, you can defend yourself. He's found you now, like in his oath, so he'll Raise you —'

‘He didn't find me,' I said. ‘Cheung did.'

‘Well, you'll be made into one of these Immortals and you won't have to worry about anything. It's not the same for us, honey.' He shared a look with my mother and sisters. ‘We all live in constant fear. Any time, a demon could come and attack us just because we're your family.'

‘I'm so tired of having a guard on me twenty-four hours a day,' Amanda said. ‘I just want some privacy!'

‘Come and live on the Mountain, all of you,' I said. ‘You'd be safe there.'

‘You just lost a hundred people!' my father said.

That silenced me.

‘We've decided to do something like witness protection,' my father said. ‘The Tiger offered it to us — actually, we asked. We're all moving to Perth, all our families. We'll take new identities and disconnect ourselves from all of this Celestial bullshit.'

‘That won't help,' I said. ‘They'll find you.'

‘I don't think so, dear,' my mother said. ‘Without you to lead them to us, they won't know who or where we are. The Tiger says that he's done it before: there are a few people living on the Earthly in hiding and they've never been bothered.'

‘Are you sure that's what you want?' I said, looking around at them.

‘Dead certain,' Jennifer said. ‘Greg is coming too. He's giving up everything Celestial and changing his appearance. He'll be an ordinary human, like the rest of us.'

‘What about me?' I said. ‘Can't I come and visit?'

‘No,' my father said.

‘We love you very much, Emma,' my mother said. ‘But we want a clean break from all of this, and frankly you're right in the middle of it. If you want to come down with us and be with your family and be normal, we'd love you to. But if you stay here … then please, don't come down to visit, because you scare us to death.'

‘She doesn't scare us, Barbara, don't be silly,' my father said.

‘Yes, she does,' Jennifer said. She broke down and ran out.

‘I'm sorry, love, I didn't mean it that way,' my mother said, touching my hand. ‘Everything around you scares us to death. John, and the demons, and the fighting — you just take it all for granted. We want to be away
from it, to be safe and normal again. We've had enough.' She peered into my eyes, sounding desperate. ‘If you come down to visit after we've hidden ourselves away, you'll put us at risk again. They're always after you. Do you understand? Please understand.'

‘Come down and join us, Em,' Amanda said. ‘Let's all be a normal family again. Wouldn't that be good? Shopping, and camping, and barbecues.' She smiled slightly. ‘I'm even giving this opal away to the Tiger.'

‘I can't come with you,' I said, my voice thick. ‘This is my life.'

‘Then I suppose this is goodbye,' my father said.

‘What? You're going
now
?'

‘Tomorrow. We didn't have much to pack, and we'll have the rest sent along by an ordinary moving firm when we find somewhere to live.' My father glanced around at the family. ‘I think it's best for all.'

My mother put her arm around me. ‘Let's have a family dinner, all of us together, eh? Allan has the barbecue going in Jennifer's garden; all the kids — well, the rest of the kids — are there. We can have one last dinner in Heaven as a family.'

‘Won't you miss the Celestial Plane?'

‘What I won't miss is living in fear,' Amanda said with feeling.

I tried to control my voice, but my throat was too thick. ‘Please, send me photos, email me updates.' I hugged my mother and held her close, burying my face in her shoulder. ‘Keep in touch, Mum, let me know how you are.'

‘Don't worry, I will,' she said, her voice as full of tears as mine was. She pulled back and wiped her hand over her eyes. ‘No tears, eh? There's a chance the boys are still alive, isn't there?'

I didn't reply; John had said no.

‘I live in hope,' Amanda said with forced brightness.

There was a tap at the door and my mother went to open it. It was John. She embraced him and he hugged her back, then came in and shook my father's hand.

‘Sit, John, sit,' my father said, gesturing for him to join me on the couch.

He sat next to me and took my hand. ‘What have you decided?'

‘I'm staying here,' I said.

He exhaled with relief.

‘Will they be safe?' I said.

‘Yes,' John said. ‘With Greg along, they will be. If you or I never visit them, there'll be nothing to link them to us. The demons will have nothing to go on.'

‘That means Simone can't visit you either,' I said to my father.

‘I know.'

John straightened. ‘They think they've found the entrance to the nest, Emma.'

I opened my mouth to say ‘Let's go' but changed my mind. ‘You go. I'm having dinner here with my family; they're leaving tomorrow.'

‘Is this the one that did … that killed the boys?' my father said.

John and I both nodded.

‘I'd come with you myself if I was worth a damn,' my father said.

‘John and the Generals can handle it. I'll stay here and keep you updated,' I said.

‘How?' John said.

‘Give me Zara.'

‘Good idea.' He concentrated for a moment, then turned to my father. ‘I'm sorry, Brendan, but I'm needed. This Mother is very strong and they want me there to direct.'

‘You go, mate,' my father said. He dropped his voice. ‘And give them a little extra from me while you're at it.'

John quickly kissed me. ‘Gold can relay for me. Zara will let you know what's happening.' He squeezed my hand and was gone.

There was a tap on the door and I let Zara in.

Can I come say goodbye?
Simone said into my head.

‘Dad, Simone wants to come and have dinner and say goodbye as well,' I said.

‘She's most welcome,' my mother said. ‘Let's go over to Jennifer's, forget our troubles, and just be a family.'

T
he dinner was subdued; almost painful. On the one hand, I couldn't wait for it to be over; on the other, I never wanted it to finish.

‘They've landed, ma'am,' Zara said as my mother was serving ice-cream.

‘Do you mind?' I asked my parents.

‘We want to see too,' Amanda said. ‘There's a chance Andrew and Mark are in there.'

‘It could get ugly,' I said.

‘Give me a minute and I'll send the boys to bed,' Jennifer said, rising to escort Colin and David out.

‘I can stay, right?' Simone said.

‘If Simone can stay, we can stay,' Colin said.

‘You can stay,' Amanda said. ‘David's too little.' She took David's hand and guided him to the bedroom he was sharing with Colin. He had refused to spend the night in Andrew's room.

‘Zara, can you show all of us?' my father said.

Zara's expression went blank and suddenly we were skydiving over Singapore. The house around us disappeared and a three-dimensional image from Gold's viewpoint was projected into the air around us.

‘You're seeing through Gold's eyes,' Zara said. ‘He's been notified.'

‘Damn,' my father said.

‘If it becomes difficult or unpleasant, let me know,' Zara said. ‘I will disconnect you.'

‘Wow, this is just like Covert Ops,' Colin said.

There was even sound with the transmission: the wind whistled past Gold's ears as he, John and the two Generals with them flew down towards Singapore. The land was greener and more open than Hong Kong, with more one-and two-storey buildings, and wide roads bordered by lush grass verges dotted with trees.

‘It's near Aljunied,' Gold said. ‘Across the freeway from the housing estate, in Kallang.'

‘Figures,' I said.

‘Why is that, Emma?' Jennifer said.

‘That's the red-light district. Aljunied is famous for prostitutes — and temples. There's a mass of temples in that whole area. Kallang is the industrial estate nearby.'

‘Coming in. The Dark Lord is guiding us,' Gold said.

They were dropping more than flying, arms spread. John was the lowest, leading the way in Celestial Form, his hair and black robes streaming out behind him. He slid from side to side, then stopped in midair and floated two hundred metres above the ground.

‘Zhu,' he said, gesturing without looking back.

‘That's Zhu Bei Niang, the Lady of the Shadow Sword,' I said, explaining for my family. Zhu was wearing a black Mountain uniform with armour over the top and her Shadow sword, an unfocused shape of grey, was clipped to her back. Her black hair was tied in a simple ponytail. ‘The other guy is General Ma, John's right hand.' Ma's robes and armour had a shifting pattern of flame on them, and his red hair was in a topknot and fell to his waist.

Zhu moved to float next to John, and pulled an ancient-looking, circular mirror out of her sword clip. She held it in front of her and swung it around.

‘That's the Thunder Mirror,' I said. ‘It sees the truth. It'll show them if there are any demons groundside.'

‘It didn't detect the copies?' my father said.

‘It saw them as human as well,' I said. ‘John suspects that the copies are East-West hybrids and that's why they're undetectable.'

‘Like young Tom,' my father said.

‘Exactly.'

Zhu spoke. ‘Nothing, my Lord. I suggest landing on one of the high rises and checking closer to the ground.'

‘The one with the pool on the roof, on the corner nearest to the shophouses,' John said, and leapt from a floating position to freefall again, the Generals and Gold following him.

‘Just the four of them?' my father said.

‘Each General has a cohort of demon soldiers that they can summon,' I said. ‘Until they're sure, they're keeping a low profile.'

John slowed, changed to vertical feet-first, and landed on a white high rise with a swimming pool on the roof. He strode to the edge and crouched, studying the shophouses across the road. Gold's viewpoint followed him, shaky now that Gold was walking, and the view swept over the buildings below.

The shophouses lined the narrow street, pushing hard against each other, their identical pitched roofs making them look like Monopoly houses. Each shophouse was a different colour, but all were two storeys, with an open workshop on the ground floor and a small apartment on the first. Most of them were auto-mechanical workshops, with a couple of metal-fabrication businesses and a tyre retailer. Cars lined the street on both sides, parked under the tired-looking trees.

John stiffened and sniffed the air. Zhu pulled the mirror out again, scanning the shophouses.

‘I am relaying for Lady Emma's family,' Gold said softly.

‘Hi, Emma,' Ma said behind Gold, sounding as if he was behind me.

John rose and went to the other side of the roof, and again crouched to study the shophouses across the road on the other side. On this side, it was the rear of the buildings on view; most of them had been extended with corrugated iron and tarpaulins, with piles of junk cluttering their concreted drives.

Zhu raised the mirror again and studied it. She went back to the other side of the building and turned the mirror.

‘I smell them,' John said without moving. He raised one gloved hand towards the back of the shophouses. ‘Down there.'

Zhu quickly joined him and turned the mirror towards the shophouses. ‘I can't see anything!' she said, and shook it. ‘Batteries must be flat.'

‘She's joking, isn't she?' Jennifer said.

‘Yes,' I said.

‘How can they joke at a time like this?'

‘They're Immortals, it's what they do.'

John stood up and flexed his hands. ‘Change to plain human form and teleport down.' He disappeared.

The scene shifted and Gold's view was on the ground again. John had made himself short, round and middle-aged; Ma appeared as a teenager; and Zhu was an old woman. The ground crunched beneath their feet and the view shook again as they walked up to the back of the shophouses. John walked along the wall parallel to their backs, and stopped at one with three shipping containers side by side in its lot, a blue tarpaulin tied over them. The door of one of the containers hung open, and a young man leaned against it. He was wearing a stained pair of shorts, no
shirt and a cheap pair of flip-flops, a cigarette hanging from his lip.

‘You don't know which shop it was,' John said loudly and irritably to Ma. ‘I knew I should have checked before we brought Mother.'

‘It's all right, son,' Zhu said soothingly in an old-woman voice. ‘We'll find it.'

‘You, there!' Ma shouted to the young man. ‘Where's the Daihatsu shop?'

The young man stuck his thumb over his shoulder towards the next street.

‘Xie xie!' Ma waved his thanks, and took Zhu's arm as if she really was his grandmother, leading her away.

‘Very strange,' John said as they walked away from the building.

My father saw me fidgeting with impatience. ‘You want to be with them, don't you, Emma?'

‘More than anything,' I said.

‘But you could get killed,' my mother said.

I turned to speak to her. ‘Not with John there. Actually, that's right — we only lost students when John wasn't on the Mountain. Now that he's back, it's completely defended. You really would be safe there, I could guarantee it.'

‘We'll think about it,' my mother said without looking away from the shophouses.

‘Andrew wasn't on the Mountain when he was killed,' Colin said softly.

‘We're not sure he's dead, mate, he could still be alive,' Amanda's husband, Allan, said.

John, Gold and the Generals reached the end of the street. John turned to study the shophouses. ‘Gold.'

‘My Lord.'

‘I sense only that one demon at the door; the rest of the above-ground facility is deserted. But I can't sense anything underground. I think this is an empty front.'

Zhu raised her mirror as if to tidy her hair. ‘I see nothing at all.'

‘Tell John it could be the same sort of trick that they used under Kowloon City Park,' I said quickly. ‘They have Six's technology with stones and could have made the tunnels invisible to the Inner Eye.'

John's expression cleared. ‘That would explain it.' He turned to Gold. ‘Can we raid this? What are the terms of the agreement that Emma made with the King?'

‘We can't raid anything underground without the Demon King's sanction,' I explained to my family. ‘It's his domain, and John has a treaty with him that basically means we have to stay out unless he lets us in.'

‘That's ridiculous,' my father said.

‘The bureaucracy gets worse,' I said. ‘Mortals like me need permission from both the Demon King and the Jade Emperor to enter Hell. So far it's only happened about four times in their entire history — and one of those was Simone, when she went down to get me out.'

‘And I didn't have permission,' Simone said with amusement. ‘But since I was six years old they waived the punishment. I think I'm still on probation from my suspended sentence.'

‘Checking the transcript, my Lord,' Gold said.

‘Gold's your lawyer for this stuff as well?' Jennifer said.

‘He's the House's lawyer: he oversees both Celestial and Earthly legal matters,' I said.

Gold spoke with my voice: ‘How badly do you want the Death Mother and Kitty taken down?' He replied with the Demon King's voice: ‘Badly enough to enlist your help.' He returned to his own voice. ‘Checking rules of precedent … Confirmed. That statement can be interpreted as giving us sanction.'

‘Follow me,' John said, and disappeared.

Gold reappeared next to John on the roof of the
shophouse, just above the tarpaulin over the containers. They'd returned to Celestial Form. John held one hand out over the roof and a pool of swirling blackness a metre across appeared in it. The blackness disappeared and there was a perfect circular hole where it had been.

‘Yin,' Greg said with awe.

‘So that's the real thing,' my father said. ‘How powerful is that stuff anyway?'

I didn't reply.

‘Emma?'

‘Even if I did want to answer that question, I couldn't. The information is classified and I can't tell you.'

‘You can't even tell your own parents?'

‘The short answer is: no,' I said.

‘Wow, you really do sound like him,' Greg said.

John had already gone in; Gold went through the hole and landed next to him. The entire row of shophouses, including the shipping containers in the yard, were one single structure housing a vast, empty internal space.

‘John was right,' I said. ‘An empty front. I hope there's something underneath and they're not wasting their time.'

John raised one hand towards the guard demon, which was frozen where it stood, bound by one of them. He flicked his wrist and it turned into a demon bead, then flew through the air into his hand. He passed the bead to Gold, who shoved it into his head.

‘Whoa,' my father said.

‘I think I'm going to be sick,' my mother said quietly. ‘What did he just do?'

‘You know Gold's a stone,' I said. ‘His body is just a shell, and he can store stuff inside himself. He probably put it into his head because he's wearing real clothes for a change. The babies must be tiring him out.'

‘If you want to have fun with a stone, call them “Tupperware”,' Simone said. ‘Quality airtight storage.'

‘Sorry, Zara,' my mother said.

‘Not a problem, ma'am,' Zara said. ‘We have many offensive names for you fleshies as well.'

‘Zara!' I said with shock.

John took long strides inside the structure, occasionally crouching to put his hands palm-down over the floor.

‘I need to spend some serious time down in the Grotto, Emma,' he said softly. ‘This weakness thing has been going on for far too long.' He stood up and looked around. ‘You've never seen me full strength, and you deserve that before you make the commitment.'

‘What's he talking about?' my mother said.

‘He may change when he's combined and at full strength,' I said. ‘I don't want to commit myself to him until I know what I'm letting myself in for, oath or no oath.'

‘That makes sense,' she said.

‘Found it,' Zhu said, holding her mirror above the floor in one corner. ‘I can see something below here: seems to be demon guards.'

They went to the corner and stood looking at it for a moment.

‘Move back,' John said, and yinned the floor, making another hole, this time two metres across.

They dropped through into another area just as large, with a three-metre ceiling. The walls and floor were covered in tan-coloured tiles stained with mould and dirt; the ceiling had bare neon tubes and filthy fans that circled unsteadily.

‘They've come out in a wet market,' my father said with wonder.

‘Do they do it the same way in Singapore?' my mother said. ‘That really looks like the butcher section in a Hong Kong wet market.'

Steel railings lined the side of the room at eye level, with large, vicious hooks holding the meat. The carcases were delivered to each stall in the morning, cut up at the stall, and the pieces hung up ready to be sliced to order for shoppers. Most people bought fresh meat first thing in the morning, so deterioration in the heat wasn't an issue.

‘Look, they even have the lungs and liver hanging up near the front, just like they do in Hong Kong,' my father said. ‘They must have come out in Central Market or somewhere, one of the big ones. Hardly any beef or goat, though. Why's it all pork?'

‘There's the trotters hanging up,' my mother said, then shrieked and ran out of the room. My father followed her.