Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (48 page)

The tunnel was the same craggy obsidian as the cliffs the gates were set into, as high and wide as the gates themselves. We travelled along the smooth floor for some distance and Martin obviously relaxed.

‘I still have the King’s endorsement,’ he said. ‘I wonder how long it will be before he removes it.’ He dropped his head. ‘Then there will be no place for me, in either Heaven or Hell, again.’ He raised his head. ‘I will return to the ocean.’

‘Don’t lay a guilt trip on the girl,’ the Tiger said. ‘You chose this path. You have a lot to prove.’

‘Don’t worry, Uncle Bai,’ Simone said, her voice hissing. ‘I wasn’t about to feel sorry for him.’

Martin shot a quick, appraising glance at Simone, then turned back. ‘It is a long way, past the Pits, to Six’s
nest. It is beyond the edge of Hell, in caverns under Shantou.’

‘Avoid the Pits if you can,’ the Tiger said.

Martin nodded once sharply. ‘We will.’

‘I can see the Pits anyway,’ Simone said. ‘The King said he didn’t know where Six had his nest. How come you do, Martin?’

‘Exactly what words did the King use?’ Martin said.

‘He didn’t say that at all, Simone,’ I said. ‘He knows exactly where the nest is, he just doesn’t want to be involved. He wants us to do all his dirty work for him.’

‘I was sure he said he didn’t know where the nest is,’ Simone said, sounding unsure.

‘Stone?’ I said.

The stone was embedded in my flesh roughly where my shoulder would be if I wasn’t a snake. It didn’t reply.

I shook myself. ‘Stone!’

‘Hmm, Emma? What?’

‘Don’t fall asleep on me now,’ I said. ‘We’re going to Six’s nest. Replay the King’s words where he said it wasn’t within his power to tell us where Six is.’

The stone replayed the King’s voice. ‘
I’m afraid it is not within my ability right now to tell you where he is. Martin may be able to help you though.
’

‘Oh, that bastard,’ Simone said. ‘He didn’t say anything of the sort.’

‘He says that it’s “not within his ability” when he doesn’t want to do something,’ I said.

‘Why didn’t you call him on it?’ Simone said.

‘What would be the point? We have Martin, who I trust twenty times more than I trust the King.’ I waved my serpent head at him. ‘But that’s twenty times nothing, Ming Gui.’

Martin shrugged. ‘I have a great deal of atonement to perform.’

‘That you do,’ the Tiger said. He straightened slightly. ‘Heads up.’

The way was blocked by a couple of demon dukes, both of them with the bodies of heavily muscled men and the heads of horses. They turned when they saw us and took positions of alert.

‘What are all of you doing here?’ one of them said. ‘I have never seen you on level six before.’

‘They are with me,’ a voice behind them said.

They both dropped to one knee and lowered their horse heads. ‘Da Shi Yeh.’

The Generals and the Tiger quickly dropped to one knee as well.

Kowtow quick
, the Tiger said, and Simone dropped, lowering her serpent-like head. Michael knelt with one foreleg, and I did the same as Simone, lowering my serpent head.

The demon Da Shi Yeh—Ancient Demon Grandfather—appeared as a bent, wizened old man wearing a tattered sackcloth shift that came to just above his bony knees, and leaning on a long knotty wooden staff; the only sign of his demon nature was his bright blue skin. He grinned at the demon dukes. ‘Let them come with me. I asked them here to help out with some of the Mothers. An
extremely large
Mother’s clutch is about to hatch and these serpent demons—and their guards—may be able to assist.’ His grin widened slightly. ‘Do you want to come help?’

The demon dukes rolled their eyes like terrified horses.

‘That will not be necessary,’ one of them said.

The other waved us on. ‘Go with the Venerable Grandfather.’

Da Shi Yeh led us further down the corridor. It narrowed, and other passages appeared on either side, but the walls were still black glass.

‘Thank you, sir. We can go the rest of the way ourselves now,’ General Ma said.

Da Shi Yeh grinned over his shoulder at Ma. ‘Not that easy, my friend. You must pay a price for my assistance.’

‘What price is that?’ Martin said, suspicious.

Da Shi Yeh continued walking down the corridor. ‘I really do need your help. I did not lie to the dukes. There is a very, very large Mother in the nest cavern up ahead, and her clutch really is about to hatch. I need the assistance of the beautiful serpent ladies here to help me salvage a couple of the spawn. I think they may very well be the most powerful demons that Hell has seen in a while—perhaps even a future King.’

‘Do you know why we’re here?’ I said.

Da Shi Yeh shrugged. ‘Of course I do, but that is inconsequential to me. I am here to ensure that the spawn hatch successfully. Apart from that, I do not care for the politics or power plays. The King leaves me alone to do my work, and I return the favour.’

‘If you stopped assisting the hatchlings, would demon reproduction stop altogether?’ Simone said.

Da Shi Yeh stopped and turned to her, smiling broadly. ‘Oh, you
are
your father’s daughter, dear!’ He turned back and raised his staff. ‘The cavern is just up ahead.’

Simone looked down. ‘I’ve had about enough of nest caverns.’

‘Me too,’ I said.

‘Holy
shit
,’ the Tiger said in front of us.

‘Whoa,’ Michael said.

We reached the end of the tunnel and stopped. It opened into a nest cavern that had to be at least four hundred metres across, with a ceiling so high it was invisible. Snake Mothers writhed across the floor, some in their nest indentations with their eggs, others
appearing to be chatting, or sitting on piles of cushions watching the several widescreen plasma televisions standing around the edges. A couple were in human form, sitting on the stone floor playing handheld video games; but the rest were in True Form, at least four metres long.

‘These things are
huge
,’ the Tiger said under his breath.

‘The eggs that are about to hatch are in the middle,’ Da Shi Yeh said, and walked without hesitation towards the centre of the cavern.

Simone sidled closer to me. ‘This is very scary.’

Michael, the Tiger and the Generals moved to form a protective shield around Simone and me. When the Mothers nearby saw us they dropped what they were doing and quickly slithered closer to examine us.

‘Ignore them. This way,’ Da Shi Yeh said from the darkness.

‘That’s very easy for him to say,’ Simone said.

One of the Mothers raised herself on her serpent tail to see us more clearly. ‘Oh, look, girls, snake soup,’ she said.

‘I adore snake broth,’ another said, her voice hissing.

‘Perfect for the winter, heats up the blood,’ the first one said.

We continued walking, trying to ignore them, but they matched our pace. As we passed more Mothers they joined the group.

‘Did Little Grandfather bring us some toys?’ one said. She reached out to the Tiger and he slapped her hand away. Her voice changed to petulance. ‘Little Grandfather only brings toys to the biggest.
We
want some too!’

‘Ooh, toys, really?’ another Mother said as we passed her. ‘I
love
playing with snakes! And these are big demons too!’ She clapped her hands. ‘Little Grandfather brought us some
toys
!’

‘Me first, me first, I haven’t played with anything in ages,’ one of them said. She had a small scuffle with another Mother that was blocking her from moving closer to us. ‘Mine!’

Some of the other Mothers heard her and approached. We now had at least fifteen enormous Mothers hovering on their serpent tails over us, arguing over who would be the first to play with us.

Da Shi Yeh stomped back to us and waved his staff at the Mothers. ‘These aren’t toys for you, girlies. Go back to your soap operas. They’re with me; you can’t play with them.’

One of the Mothers poked her tongue out at him—all thirty centimetres of it. ‘You’re no fun at all. Bring us
toys
! Tell the King we want toys.’

‘Yes! Tell him to send us toys or no sex for him!’ one of the other Mothers said, and laughed.

A third nudged her. ‘Don’t be silly, Fifty-Three. You deny him and he kills you.’

‘I know that,’ Fifty-Three said. ‘I was just joking.’

‘These demons are with me. Leave them alone,’ Da Shi Yeh said, and gestured for us to follow him.

A very large Mother, with a thickly scaled black tail and a heavy-set human torso, spoke with a deep, almost masculine voice. ‘Is Seventeen’s clutch about to pop?’

The Mothers suddenly stilled. Those who had been moving away stopped to listen as well.

‘Don’t you worry about what’s happening in the middle,’ Da Shi Yeh said. ‘You stay away from those big ones, they’ll eat your tails for breakfast.’

‘But their babies won’t,’ the big Mother said.

‘Ooh, babies,’ Fifty-Three said. ‘I love babies.’

‘Nearly as good as snake broth,’ one of the other Mothers said.

‘You going to fight a Mother in the centre for her clutch?’ Da Shi Yeh said with amusement.

The Mothers hesitated at that, then most of them wandered back to their cushions and televisions.

A couple stayed. ‘You would protect us, Little Grandfather,’ one said. ‘Let us see.’

‘I want to see,’ the other said.

‘I cannot protect you from something as big as her,’ Da Shi Yeh said.

‘You both wanna die? Go right ahead,’ the older Mother said. ‘I’m going to watch TV.’

The two smaller Mothers shared a look, then both turned and slithered away.

‘So restless right now,’ Da Shi Yeh said. ‘Let’s go.’ He led us through to the Mothers in the centre of the nest.

‘How many in here?’ I said.

‘About fifty. The King has been extremely productive,’ Da Shi Yeh said. ‘Might have to move some of these out; we’re beginning to lose the ones around the edges.’

‘They kill each other?’ I said.

‘Don’t ask obvious questions like that in here—you’re supposed to be a demon,’ General Ma said very softly into my serpent ear.

‘Why didn’t they recognise Martin?’ I said. Martin had remained at the back of the group, quiet and cowed, during the whole episode.

‘I only came here in Celestial Form,’ Martin said. ‘They wanted me as a Shen.’

‘Or you didn’t come here at all and the King was lying,’ I said.

‘I can change to Shen form and have them recognise me—and then play with me, if you like,’ Martin said.

‘I don’t think that will be necessary,’ I said.

The number of Mothers in the cavern thinned as we approached the centre.

‘Here’s the clutch,’ Da Shi Yeh said.

A group of Mothers stood in a circle around the eggs that were about to hatch. They were really big ones, at least five metres long, some of them even longer. They towered over us in their True Forms.

Da Shi Yeh casually hit a few of them with his staff and they moved back for him, hissing with menace.

Seventeen was wrapped protectively around her eggs, glaring at the Mothers hovering over her nest. She relaxed slightly when she saw Da Shi Yeh. ‘I thought you’d never get here, Grandfather.’

Da Shi Yeh raised his arms at the other Mothers. ‘You girls go away
now
and let us do this.’ He waved his staff and they hissed at him. ‘Shoo!’ He grinned over his shoulder at me. ‘Give me a hand, people.’

Simone grew another sixty centimetres so that she was as large as the biggest Mother. She slapped a few of them on the head and shoulders, easily avoiding their retaliatory blows. ‘You heard him! Move back.’

The Mothers retreated, making swipes in the air in Simone’s direction, but she wasn’t intimidated by them. She grabbed one around the middle, lifted it easily and tossed it away from the nest cavity. ‘Move
back
!’

The Mother she’d thrown raised herself and slithered quickly away. The other Mothers moved back to form a wall of waiting demons, just out of her reach.

‘That’ll do nicely, thank you, missy,’ Da Shi Yeh said. ‘Now, let’s see what we have here.’

He approached the clutch and Seventeen hissed at him, rising on her coils. He slapped her snake end—‘Don’t try that with me’—and she subsided. The clutch was five eggs, each about forty centimetres across, the slightly translucent shells showing the dark shapes of the baby demons within. He put his hand on one of the eggs and concentrated for a moment, then summoned a stethoscope from the air and put it in his ears. He
listened to the egg, then nodded, satisfied, and made the stethoscope disappear. ‘Right on time.’

He gestured for us to gather and listen. ‘When they start to hatch, we won’t have much time. You’ll have to move fast, people. Let her have the first one or two, they’ll keep her busy, but once her immediate urge is satisfied she’ll be paying more attention and she’ll try to stop you. So as soon as one hatches—even if part of it emerges from the shell—grab it and move way back. Then you’ll have to stop the other Mothers from eating it.’ He straightened. ‘Piece of cake really.’

‘Why don’t you just take the eggs away from her and let them hatch in a safe place?’ Simone said.

‘They die,’ Da Shi Yeh said. ‘If they spend more than a couple of hours away from her, they lose energy and die. And if we tried to take them now, she’d just smash them anyway.’

One of the eggs rocked. The baby demon inside hammered at the shell, and Seventeen raised her skinless body, staring transfixed at the egg.

A piece of shell broke away, punched out by the tiny black demon hand inside. Seventeen swooped on it, but Simone was faster. She pounced on Seventeen, grabbed her by the throat and stared at her. Seventeen stared back, flicking her long snake-like tongue, but didn’t move otherwise.

‘I have her bound,’ Simone said. ‘She can’t move. Take the demon spawn.’

‘How long can you hold her?’ Da Shi Yeh said.

‘I dunno, five or six minutes?’ Simone said, staring at Seventeen.

‘Should be long enough,’ Da Shi Yeh said.

He went to the egg, grabbed the demon hand that had appeared through the shell and yanked the demon out. He lifted it by the arm as it hissed and kicked, trying to bite him. It was about ninety centimetres at
full length, a black humanoid with bulging eyes and small horns protruding all over its head. He smiled up at Seventeen. ‘It’s a girl.’