Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (28 page)

‘I understand completely. I’ve seen how good you are, Men Jiu, leave it with me. Are there any other women in your group who have skills as good as you and would like to come to the Academy? We just had the intake from Rabbit Village two months ago.’

‘I think there are a couple, ma’am.’

‘I’m sending you an email, Rabbit. Reply with the names of the good students in the Rabbit Village,’ the stone said.

‘You should call her by name, not just “Rabbit”, stone. Don’t mind the stone, it’s very rude sometimes,’ I said.

She smiled and glanced down at my ring. ‘I know, ma’am, your ring is famous.’

‘Of course I am,’ the stone said.

‘Famous for being an asshole?’ I said.

Her smile widened. ‘Ma’am.’

‘Humph,’ the stone said, and went quiet.

The officiator came to us with a clipboard. ‘May I speak with you, Lady Regent?’

Men Jiu fell to one knee and saluted me. ‘I hope to see you at the Academy, ma’am.’ She rose, saluted me again, and went out through the tunnel.

‘What’s up, Mr Zhou?’ I said. ‘I know these challenges have been a pain. Hopefully they’ll settle down soon.’

‘It’s about Er Lang,’ Mr Zhou said. ‘Your challenge with him is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, two days from now. The Arena will have to be extended for the period of the match; we have a large number of people who have requested entry to watch.’

‘I’d prefer this be a closed challenge,’ I said. ‘He’s going to kick my butt, and although I’m not bothered about people seeing me beaten, it’s not good to display such division at the highest levels of the Celestial Bureaucracy. The Second General shouldn’t be calling out the First; we should be working together.’

‘The challenger has the choice of venue and whether the match is open or closed,’ Mr Zhou said.

‘I know, I know.’

‘Oh, and the tree’s trial is scheduled for next week. You’ll be called to testify. Your stone too.’

‘Tree?’ I said, confused, then remembered. ‘Sang Shen is on trial?’

‘He tried to kill you, ma’am. That’s really not allowed.’

‘Stone, clear the time in my diary. I want to be there to make sure nothing happens to him.’

‘Done.’

I saluted Zhou. ‘Thanks, Mr Zhou. See you at my next challenge.’

‘Hopefully, ma’am, there won’t be another before Er Lang.’

‘I don’t want another at all,’ I said ruefully, and went out.

I
took the MTR back to the Academy after the nonevent challenge; it was actually quicker to take the underground train from Central to Wan Chai than having Denis drive me through rush-hour traffic in Hong Kong’s busy streets. I entered my office, dropped my bag, and sagged when I saw a Celestial box on my desk. My in-tray was overflowing, I had this Rabbit thing to deal with, I had to find a tutor for Simone, the real Leo was out there somewhere, and now the Celestial was bugging me. Great.

‘Stone, ask Yi Hao to start researching schools and tutors for Simone,’ I said. ‘And order me some ho fan, please.’

‘Done,’ the stone said. ‘Might need to import a tutor. There’s a shortage here; most of them have moved over to China where there’s more work.’

I flipped through the in-tray: mostly minor administrative matters, more requests for assistance for students travelling home for Christmas or Winter Solstice, and the press cuttings. Nothing urgent, so I sat at the desk and thumbed the clasp on the box.

I pulled out the single vellum scroll. It was tied with a scarlet ribbon. I opened the scroll; it was a direct edict
from the Jade Emperor himself, written in red in his distinctive English script.

Hi, Emma. This business with Er Lang is getting out of hand. You have precedence here, and I suggest you summon him immediately and have it out. See if you can make him back down.

‘This has the weight of an edict, doesn’t it,’ I said to the stone.

‘’Fraid so, Emma. Even though he says he’s suggesting it, it’s effectively an order.’

‘The Jade Emperor expects me to make Er Lang, who is a hundred times older than me and a zillion times more powerful, back down,’ I said. ‘He should talk to Er Lang himself.’

‘The Jade Emperor always knows what he’s doing,’ the stone said.

‘You know, when we met him I thought that he actually liked me,’ I said. ‘Now I’m not so sure. Summon Er Lang, ask him to be in my office this afternoon, please.’

The stone was silent for a moment, then, ‘He says he is busy and he can come next week when he is free.’

I looked back down at the edict. ‘Immediately’. Dammit.

‘Tell him to be in my office at three this afternoon, on the dot, and that’s an order,’ I said.

‘Done. My goodness, Emma, but you just pissed him off.’

‘I think that’s the whole idea, stone. I just hope that you’re right and the Jade Emperor knows what he’s doing.’ I pulled my in-tray closer. ‘Now, let’s see what we have here.’

One of the press cuttings was a three-paragraph column about the explosion at Kwun Lung Lau; the reporter noted that safety was being reviewed on the site as people had witnessed a second explosion after the first
gas leak had cleared the building. A scathing comment was also made about the poor construction standards of these early estates, as it had been found that parts of the roof were lacking their steel reinforcement rods. The reporter brought up the 1997 demolition of an entire Sha Tin housing estate that had been constructed with insufficient foundation pilings, but moderated her anger by saying that construction standards in the Territory had improved dramatically since those bad times.

My desk intercom buzzed and I pressed the button.

‘I have a couple of students here who’ve been waiting in the office to see you, Emma,’ Yi Hao said. ‘They want to speak to you urgently.’

‘Send them in.’

The two students entered my office; both of them were slim, blond and European, in their mid-twenties. Scott was Canadian and his best friend, Tymen, was from the Netherlands. Tymen looked like he’d been crying: his eyes were red and his face was swollen.

‘Scott, Tymen,’ I said. ‘Take a seat, gentlemen, how can I help you?’

They shared a look, then Tymen leaned forward over his knees. ‘Ma’am, I need your help. I’m desperate. You’re the only one who can help me.’

I put down the press cutting I was holding. ‘What’s the matter?’

He looked down at his hands and took a deep breath. ‘It’s my mother. She has ovarian cancer. They diagnosed her six months ago and operated, but they couldn’t get it out. It’s already spread, ma’am.’ He wiped one hand over his eyes and looked away. ‘She doesn’t have long.’

‘I’ll arrange the plane tickets for you,’ I said. ‘Go home to her.’

Scott clasped Tymen’s hand and Tymen held it. ‘Actually, ma’am, she’s on her way here.’

‘Your training is not more important than your mother, Tymen,’ I said. ‘That’s ridiculous. You should have gone home instead of bringing her here.’

‘I didn’t bring her here so I can train, ma’am,’ Tymen said. ‘The doctors in the Netherlands say it’s too advanced to treat, and you’re our last hope.’

‘I can’t cure cancer, nobody can,’ I said. ‘Not even Meredith has that sort of ability. I know you’re desperate, but energy manipulation isn’t that accurate, and it’s very hard to pinpoint cancer cells and clear them all. The Dark Lord’s Serpent has been known to cure cancer, but he’s the only one.’

‘
Your
Serpent might be able to cure her,’ Tymen said.

I leaned back and stared at them. Most of the longer-term students at the Academy knew about the Serpent, from the times I’d changed when Simone was younger. There was a sort of blanket agreement that none of the newer students were to know, however, because many of them were freaked out if they found out about it.

‘Your Serpent has immense healing powers,’ Scott said. ‘I’ve looked it up.’ He glanced at Tymen. ‘Both of us have been researching healing, and whenever we bring up a medical site, there’s the Serpent, right on the top.’ He squeezed Tymen’s hand. ‘Please help, ma’am.’

I opened my mouth and closed it again. I hadn’t brought the Serpent out often enough even to try this sort of healing; I had enough trouble holding back from changing to demon form, and trying to change to the serpent might make me slip into a Mother.

‘I don’t know if I can take the Serpent form on demand,’ I said. ‘And even if I can, there’s no guarantee it can heal her.’

‘All we ask is that you try, ma’am,’ Scott said. ‘We don’t need any more than that.’

‘Let me think about it,’ I said. ‘Tymen, have you organised a hotel room or something for your mother?’

‘She’ll stay with me and Scott, I’ll sleep in the living room,’ Tymen said. ‘She thinks we’re going to try some sort of ancient Chinese remedy that I’ve heard of here.’

‘Stone, ask Lok to arrange something for her, please.’

On it
, Lok said into my head.
I will move some kids around. Cow’s heart! Come on, woman! You promised!

‘When does your mother arrive, Tymen?’ I asked.

‘Four this afternoon.’

I checked my watch. ‘Okay, it’s one thirty now. Denis can run you out to the airport in my car, but could you pop up to the markets near Ruttonjee and buy a fresh cow’s heart for Lok before you go?’

Lok’s voice echoed triumphantly in my head.
YAY!

‘Who’s Denis?’ Scott said.

‘Marcus is taking some time off, and we have a White Horseman acting as driver for a while,’ I said.

‘Thanks, ma’am,’ Tymen said.

‘Not a problem. Let me think about this snake thing while you two go and buy the heart and go to the airport. Stone, talk to Denis about taking them, please.’

‘Done.’

The two students rose, fell to one knee to salute me, and went out.

The intercom buzzed and I pressed the button again. ‘Master Leo is here with your noodles, ma’am.’

‘Send him in.’

Leo came in holding a couple of foam takeaway bowls. He put one on the desk in front of me with the cheap paper napkin, plastic Chinese spoon and disposable chopsticks, and cleared a space on the desk for a similar bowl for himself. He flipped off the top and stirred the noodles with the chopsticks. ‘Vegetarian for you.’

‘Thanks.’ I took the lid off and stirred my own ho fan: slender white rice noodles in vegetarian broth with baby bak choy and fried bean curd. ‘What did you get?’

Leo hesitated, then picked up a dark red cube on his spoon. ‘The Demon King was partially right. I can eat the noodles and the soup, but I really crave this. I’m surprised how easy it is to get.’

‘It’s hard to find anywhere else in the Territory; people are more aware of health issues after the SARS thing,’ I said. ‘But the restaurants around here sell it because we have so many demons working here, who love it.’ I gestured towards his bowl. ‘You never liked that before.’

‘Well, it wasn’t me, it was the real Leo.’ He slurped the cube of pig’s blood off the spoon. ‘Meredith’s had a look at me, and she says there’s something weird going on and that I look like a human. She can’t find anything in my memories. Then she was called away by something happening in the Northern Heavens, they needed her energy skills or something.’

‘Without John to provide the Centre of Power for the Northern Heavens, it’s like the entire place is running out of batteries,’ I said. ‘It’s often in complete darkness and very cold. The plants are dying. Meredith, other senior energy workers and dragons from the Academy try to connect to the life force there, the stream of chi, and bolster it, but it’s a losing battle. The temperature drops a couple of degrees every year.’

‘How long before it’s unliveable?’

‘They give it about three to five years before everybody will have to move out and all the plants die.’ I forced myself to eat the noodles; suddenly I wasn’t hungry. ‘Some of the trees in the Northern Heavens are sentient Shen, and they’re dying too. Some of them have already died.’

Leo saw the stack of private school brochures on my desk. ‘I thought Simone went to the Australian School.’

‘You remember that?’

‘Yeah.’ He grinned. ‘We had a huge argument about
it—you wanted her to go to the American school, I wanted her to go to the Australian one. Only argument I had with you that I ever won.’

‘Not true.’

He gestured with his chopsticks towards the brochures. ‘So what happened?’

‘The Demon King and his assorted children are attacking the Celestial all the time. Sometimes Simone is called in to help. As her father isn’t around, she’s one of the most powerful demon slayers in existence right now. She’s been skipping school to help out, and was expelled for not attending enough classes.’

‘Poor Simone,’ Leo said. He hesitated for a moment, concentrating on his noodles, then changed the subject. ‘I was wondering how Rob was after all these years.’

‘You remember him?’ I said.

He smiled gently. ‘Yeah. I treated him real bad. I hope he found someone.’

‘Do you remember the relationship you had with him?’ I said.

He shook his head over the noodles, still smiling gently. ‘He knew how I felt about Mr Chen, but he stuck with me anyway. That guy deserves to find real happiness with someone else.’

I put my chopsticks across the top of the bowl and glared at him. ‘Leo, are you straight or gay?’

He stared at me, incredulous, then said, ‘What a dumbass question, Emma. I think you outed me like five minutes after you joined the household, when I brought Rob home.’

‘You made a pass at me last night.’

He snorted. ‘Yeah, sure I did. Like I’d be interested.’ He leaned over the noodles and grinned. ‘You got the wrong equipment, sweetheart.’

I opened my mouth to protest, then returned to my noodles.

‘Oh my God, you’re serious,’ Leo said.

‘Do you remember anything about what happened when I showed you into your room last night?’

Leo stared at me, then shook his head, his face blank. ‘Not a damn thing. I remember…’ He thought for a moment. ‘I remember us coming home, and Simone trying to tame me…After that, nothing.’

‘It’s not surprising that you have some problems. You’ve been gone a long time.’