Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (38 page)

Simone brushed her fringe to one side of her face and studied the Chinese International School. ‘Is this the best you could find? It’s
huge.
’

‘You’re being interviewed to go on the waiting list,’ I said.

She turned away from me.

The Tiger appeared next to us. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Na Zha’s coming along,’ I said.

‘He won’t join us here in Hong Kong, it’s too damn Western for him,’ the Tiger said. ‘Head out, he’ll probably meet us along the way.’ He stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly.

‘You don’t need that, Lady Emma is using mine,’ Michael said, and raised one hand. A cloud coalesced next to him, about three metres long, two wide and a metre tall. ‘Hop on, ma’am.’

The Tiger changed to a slightly smaller than usual version of his Celestial Form: two metres tall with furred face and clawed hands, and a huge mane of white hair held in place with a gold ribbon. He wore scaled armour of white and gold, and carried a large two-handed katana, also white and gold, loose in his right hand. A cloud swept in from above us and he stepped onto it with dignity.

Simone raised one hand and summoned Dark Heavens. ‘You ready to go, guys?’

I stepped onto Michael’s cloud. Although it appeared insubstantial, it was a steady platform with vapour around it.

Michael stood on the cloud as well. ‘I won’t go too fast, you need to be able to breathe,’ he said. ‘But you might like to take a seat, otherwise you could lose your balance.’

I sat cross-legged on the cloud, not a moment too soon. My stomach fell out as we shot into the air.

Michael grinned and sang the first few lines from the
Aladdin
magic carpet song in a surprisingly pleasant baritone. Simone floated up from beneath the cloud and flew next to us on our right side, her hair ruffled by the breeze. She scowled at Michael. ‘Dork.’

He gestured towards the cloud, still grinning. ‘Plenty of room for all the ladies.’

She tossed her head and looked away. ‘I prefer my own methods of transport, thank you very much.’ She drifted away, then closer again. ‘I have about six elementals who are coming with us.’

‘Nice,’ Michael said, nodding.

Simone flew closer. ‘Can you pull out metal ellies?’

Michael shook his head and his smile became rueful. ‘I’ve tried, but they ignore me. There’s something about me they just don’t like.’

‘Has your dad spoken to them about you?’ I said.

‘Told them to stay away?’

Michael appeared thoughtful for a moment. ‘Don’t think so. Actually I think he’d prefer it if they
did
come to me.’

‘He is trying hard, Michael,’ I said.

Michael looked away, then gestured towards the north, the direction we were travelling. ‘Na Zha.’

Na Zha screamed through the air towards us,
creating swift-forming clouds of vapour as he broke the sound barrier. He wore his usual human-like form of a Chinese teenager wearing black skinny jeans and a white T-shirt three sizes too big for him, a nano clipped to one sleeve with earphones in his ears.

‘Heard you were heading to free the Black Lion. Count me in.’ He raised one hand to Michael. ‘Mikie bro.’

They high-fived, then Na Zha spun in mid-air on his fire wheels and kept pace with the cloud. Simone ducked under it and reappeared on the other side, away from him.

‘Hello, gorgeous,’ Na Zha called to her, leering.

Simone flew slightly higher above Michael and myself so that she could be heard. ‘When did
you
go emo?’ she said.

Na Zha’s face went blank with shock and he stopped in mid-air, then hurried to keep up with us. ‘I’m no emo!’

Simone pointed at his jeans. ‘Black skinnies, emo boy. Kissed any nice boys lately?’

‘Simone!’ I said.

She poked her tongue out at me and disappeared under the cloud again. ‘Nice view, have a look,’ she called from beneath us.

A cloud came down from above and slotted into position behind us. It was the Tiger. He nodded to Na Zha. ‘Third Prince.’

Na Zha half-heartedly saluted. ‘Emperor.’

‘I have sent some metal elementals to scout ahead,’ the Tiger said. ‘They have entered the Seven Stars Cave and have yet to find the entrance to the nest. But they say that something appears amiss.’

‘Exactly what?’ I said.

Simone popped up on my left again. ‘Oh, good idea, Uncle Bai, I’ll send some water ellies too. They can slide through the limestone in the caves.’

The Tiger nodded to Simone then turned to me again. ‘It is extremely quiet in the caverns. Very few tourists there; the humans seem to sense that something is wrong.’

‘Do you think the demons know we’re coming?’ I said.

He bowed his shaggy head. ‘It seems to be that way.’

‘I’ll fly on ahead and have a look,’ Na Zha said.

The Tiger raised one clawed hand to stop him. ‘That you will not, Third Prince. We will do this together.’

‘Fine,’ Na Zha said, resentful. He dipped below the cloud so that I couldn’t see him.

Both Simone and Na Zha were invisible beneath the cloud for a moment, then Simone shot out to the left, drew level with my cloud, then fell back to about fifty metres behind us.

‘Is he hitting on her again?’ I said.

‘Let him try,’ the Tiger said with amusement. ‘She hates him.’

‘Are there any boys she doesn’t hate?’ I said, mostly to myself.

‘Oh, one or two,’ the Tiger said with a knowing grin.

I opened my mouth to ask and then shut it. Simone’s love life was her business, and if she chose not to share it with me, that was also her business. I could only hope that when it came to advice on relationships she would come to me or someone else that she trusted, because it really was a minefield out there, Celestial or not.

‘Don’t worry, Emma, she talks to the Phoenix and the Lady and Master Liu,’ the Tiger said. ‘She says she doesn’t want to embarrass you.’

‘Humph,’ I said. I moved to a kneeling position so that I could see over the edge of the cloud. ‘Nothing she could possibly say could embarrass me.’

Simone streaked up beside the cloud and yelled with delight into my head.
Hey, Emma, are you pre-menstrual
right now? ’Cause you sure are hard to get along with!
She grinned with mischief and disappeared again.

I could feel my face reddening and flopped back down so I was sitting on the cloud.

‘Eavesdropper,’ I said loudly.

We passed over the massively huge city of Guangzhou.

‘The city is probably a hundred and fifty kilometres north to south, Emma,’ Michael said as we flew. ‘If you include all the smaller cities that have joined up with it.’

‘It makes Hong Kong look tiny,’ I said.

‘True. But Guangzhou has ten million people, and Hong Kong has nearly seven, all crammed into that tiny space.’

‘Making Hong Kong even more tiny.’

The scenery changed. We were no longer passing over the grey tiled roofs of village houses and concrete apartment buildings; the mountains became more rugged and the population less dense. An occasional valley village stood out as a grey scar across the landscape where all of the trees had been removed.

As we approached Guilin, the famous mountains swept into relief before us. The slender, nearly vertical mountains that appeared in Chinese brush paintings weren’t an artistic affectation; they were real, and the district around Guilin was crowded with them, making the area as splendid as any painting.

Simone drifted up to fly next to me, watching the mountains unfold below us. ‘Seven Stars Park is in the city, across the river from the Elephant Nose Mountain,’ she said. ‘There are seven mountains in the park, supposedly taking the positions held by the stars in the Seven Star constellation, the Big Dipper.’

‘I’ve often wondered if a Celestial put them in Guilin as a sort of backyard feature,’ Michael mused. ‘They do mirror the constellation very closely, and there are caves
underground that look like Guilin above ground. Mom and I did the Li River cruise thing a couple of years ago, it was great.’

Simone giggled. ‘Oh look, a theme park!’

I looked over the edge of the cloud but couldn’t see anything except brown scars of construction and long dirt roads below me.

‘It has a mock Polynesian village, with local people painted black and dressed in grass skirts, banging drums,’ Michael said with amusement. ‘Very culturally sensitive.’

‘You went there?’ Simone asked with delight.

‘We took a group of disadvantaged Mainland kids with us,’ Michael said.

‘You didn’t mention that,’ I said.

He shrugged. ‘Not really worth mentioning. Mom and I used to do it often, take disadvantaged kids on holiday, give them time away from the concrete jungle.’ He glanced back towards the Tiger’s cloud. ‘I dunno whether I’ll want to continue doing it if Mom doesn’t want to.’

‘If she doesn’t want to, can you and me keep it going?’ Simone said. ‘It sounds really worthwhile.’

Michael hesitated for a moment, then grinned at her. ‘Sure.’

‘Okay!’ Simone yelled. She nodded towards the ground. ‘Seven Stars Park, Guilin, everybody off!’

‘I’m going to take us pretty much straight down, Emma,’ Michael said. ‘If you feel uncomfortable let me know.’

I peered over the edge of the cloud. ‘We’re there?’

Michael nodded, and pointed towards a green swathe next to the river that stood out against the grey of the urban sprawl. ‘That’s it.’

‘Thanks for the ride,’ I said, and threw myself off the cloud.

I used the energy centres to slow my fall, and Simone came down to match my speed.

‘You have enough energy control, Emma?’ she called over the noise of the wind.

‘I thought—’ I started, then hit something with a thump that knocked the wind out of me. I lay, gasping, on a cloud that had appeared under me and swooped up to catch me.

I rounded on Michael. ‘That was totally unnecessary. I’m quite capable…’ My voice trailed off as I saw the Monkey King grinning at me from the back of the cloud. I pulled myself to a sitting position and saluted him. ‘Great Sage.’

The Monkey King was in Celestial Form. He was about five feet tall, his appearance part monkey and part human. His face was like that of a chimpanzee, and he stood upright without difficulty the same as a human would, but his simian feet were bare. He wore a traditional bright red cotton jacket with toggles and loops, and brown cotton pants. The circlet that the Buddha had given him was around his brow and he held his magic wishing staff in his right hand. I nearly laughed; he was a caricature of how he appeared in popular culture. Humans didn’t often get the appearances of Celestials exactly right, but the way that the Monkey King was portrayed was uncannily accurate. Probably because he was such a glory hound and helped them out.

‘Thanks for the lift, Great Sage, but I was taking myself down,’ I said, and threw myself off the cloud.

I drifted down for about fifty metres, but the Monkey King swooped behind me and collected me on his cloud again.

‘Was there something you wanted to say to me?’ I said.

‘No, not really,’ he said, grinning and leaning on his staff.

‘Then how about letting me have a fly?’ I said.

He shrugged.

I dropped off the cloud and spreadeagled on the air, again slowing my fall and enjoying the light sensation of drifting downwards. The mountains below were like jagged teeth sticking out of the ground towards me, and the Li River glistened with reflected sunlight. South of the city of Guilin the landscape was green and unbuilt because of the steep mountains, but around the area of the city there was extensive urban development and many terraced rice paddies.

The Monkey King flew his cloud beside me, then dipped below and up again to collect me.

I stood up and put my hands on my hips. ‘What are you doing?’

He just shrugged again, leaning on his staff. I did a huge backflip off the cloud and soared a good eight metres backwards. I landed on his cloud again.

‘Okay, whatever,’ I said. I turned to face the direction the cloud was moving, away from the Monkey King, and sat cross-legged on the cloud.

He did a barrel roll, turning the cloud upside down and tipping me off.

His choice to be an asshole if he wanted, so I ignored him. I looked down as I slowed my fall; I was only about a hundred metres above the ground. Simone reappeared next to me and gently guided me with PK to the exact area where we needed to land: a small walkway halfway up the steepest hill in the park.

You should order him out
, Simone said into my head.
You deserve more respect than this.

Tell her he’s a valuable fighter
, I said to the stone.
And besides, his behaviour is his business, and the repercussions of his behaviour will also be his business.

Michael, the Tiger and the Monkey King guided their clouds next to the walkway, then soared from
them to meet us. Na Zha swooped in from above, then dismissed his fire wheels and joined us. Night was falling and the local and foreign tourists had left the park, leaving empty drink bottles and snack packets all over the ground, and newspapers covering the concrete outdoor chairs and tables.

Simone shook her head. ‘I don’t know why people sit on newspapers, they make your bum blacker than the chairs would anyway.’

‘It makes them feel better about the dirty chairs without actually doing anything,’ Michael said.

We gazed up at the side of the mountain. The walkway up to the entrance to the cave was a switchback of stairs and paths that led up the nearly vertical rockface.

‘Anyone sense anything?’ I said as I started up the stairs and through a moon gate towards the cave entrance.

‘Demons, no,’ the Tiger said. He gestured towards the entrance. ‘Them, yes.’

The cave entrance was as big as a hall, with rough rock walls carved with the Chinese version of graffiti—many poems in elegant calligraphy etched into the rock by visitors over thousands of years. Some of the poetry was by famous historical poets, making the graffiti true works of art. A modern Communist Party slogan, at least fifty metres long, in large red simplified characters had been carved into the wall about five metres above us.