Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (6 page)

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.