Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (7 page)

Kwan Yin stood at the gate waiting for us. She was in human form, but appeared ageless and wore flowing white robes that floated around her. She smiled at us, and Simone ran to her and took her hand in greeting.

I glanced behind us. The path we stood on also disappeared into the clouds. We appeared to be floating in Heaven.

‘Is there anything down there?’ I asked.

‘Actually, no,’ Bai Hu said. ‘The Palace sits on a floating island of rock. The only way here is to ride a cloud or use a Nine-Dragon Wall.’

‘Where would I go if I fell off?’

‘Nobody knows, because nobody ever has.’

A small door at the bottom of the gates opened. It was only about a metre and a half tall and a metre wide and fitted so neatly into the corner of the gate that it was invisible when closed. Kwan Yin moved beside us and the four of us faced it.

An elderly man with long grey hair stepped through; the door was so small he had to stoop to fit. He wore a traditional black robe with an official’s hat; a high, square style with long extensions either side.

‘Don’t step on the threshold, Emma,’ Bai Hu said. ‘The raised step at the bottom of the door. Careful.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘What about the seals? There’s no way I can go through them without being destroyed.’

‘This official is to bring them down for you.’

The official approached, stopped about two metres away, and carefully saluted each of us in order of precedence. ‘Lady Kwan Yin. Lord Bai Hu, Lord of the West. Princess Simone. Lady Emma Donahoe, Promised of the Dark Lord of the Northern Heavens. Welcome.’

We all saluted back.

‘Please, come this way. We are ready for you.’

As we neared the gate, the official stopped and concentrated. The seals on the bigger gates shimmered into visibility: sheets of paper at least ten metres high with complicated calligraphy and symbolic charms. The paper shredded and dissipated.

The official sighed. ‘It took me nearly a year to create those seals when I put them on about a thousand years ago. We’ll have to make do with something temporary while I construct some new ones.’

‘Good Lord, I’m putting the Celestial Palace at risk?’ I said, horrified.

The official smiled over his shoulder at me. ‘No, ma’am. The seals don’t really do anything, they’re just there for show.’

‘What is your honoured name, sir?’ I asked.

‘Just call me Mr Wong, Lady Emma.’

The massive gates opened inward smoothly and silently, revealing the Celestial Palace within.

The Palace was constructed of stone adorned with brilliant cobalt blue tiles. Traditional gold tiles covered the roofs with their upward-curving edges. At each corner of each roof was a glazed ceramic image of a man riding a chicken, with other animals lined up along the edge of the roof behind him and a dragon bringing up the rear.

The Palace was built up the side of a gently rising hill with a magnificent hall at the top, at least a kilometre away. A network of identical pavilions and walkways worked up towards it in perfect geometric arrangement, mirrored on each side. The gold-tiled roofs sparkled in the sunshine beneath the brilliantly azure sky. Green treetops jutted between the walls.

A huge grey stone-paved courtyard, at least two hundred metres to a side, lay between the gate and the base of the hill. Bonsai trees, each about a metre high, were scattered about the courtyard, some of them bearing large peaches, apricots and cumquats; flower pots containing massive chrysanthemums in brilliant colours also broke the monotony of the paving. Larger potted trees, some of them up to five metres tall, flanked the courtyard, also bearing peaches. A wide stream flowed across the courtyard, its surface level with the paving. It was spanned by three arched bridges, and small blue dragons swam within the crystalline water. Brilliant phoenixes with plumage of
many colours wandered around the courtyard, like ornamental peacocks. The view resonated with me, then I realised it was similar to the courtyard at the front of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

The official led us into the courtyard. ‘The first hall is the Hall of Welcome Contentment. There you will prepare to see the Celestial.’

He raised his head and spoke loudly and clearly, ‘Hall of Welcome Contentment,’ then took a step forward and disappeared.

‘Do the same, Emma: just say the name of the hall and take a step forward,’ Kwan Yin said.

‘Hall of Welcome Contentment,’ I said, stepped forward, and was instantly at the entrance to the hall. Mr Wong stood there waiting. Kwan Yin, Bai Hu and Simone appeared next to me.

‘Way cool,’ Simone whispered. ‘I wish we had this at school. Those stairs are a killer.’

Mr Wong raised one arm. ‘Please, enter.’

The hall had large red pillars and its ceiling was covered with elaborately decorated tiles. It was empty except for a pair of rosewood stands, as tall as a man, holding incense braziers.

Mr Wong gestured to the left. ‘This way, everybody. There is a preparation room where you can ready yourselves.’

We walked to the end of the hall, where a simple doorway led to a set of apartments with modern furniture. Priceless silk rugs covered the polished hardwood floor. A comfortable set of tan leather couches sat to one side, and an oval rosewood dining table inlaid with mother-of-pearl to the other.

There were doors at each end of the room and another door, paned with glass, that opened to the courtyard beyond. Ming-style rosewood shelves displayed a collection of antique vases.

Bai Hu had a quick, whispered discussion with Mr Wong. The discussion became heated, although still whispered. Bai Hu raised his voice and glanced at me, then lowered it again. Mr Wong shut the discussion off and stormed out.

Bai Hu thundered over to us, his face raw with fury. ‘I do not believe this!’

‘They can’t do this to her,’ Simone said. ‘It’s
not fair
.’

‘The Celestial does as he wills,’ Kwan Yin said. ‘It is traditional.’

‘But it isn’t her True Form,’ Bai Hu hissed. ‘They’re doing this deliberately to shame her.’

‘Oh my God,’ I said, and they all looked at me. ‘He’s going to make me go in as a snake, isn’t he?’

Ms Kwan’s voice was full of compassion. ‘Everybody takes True Form in front of the Jade Emperor. Nobody hides anything. But you were born human, Emma. I have already discussed this with the Celestial, and he agreed to see you as a human. He has just, in this last hour, changed his mind.’

I sighed with feeling. ‘This could cost me everything. I hope he protects me when everybody goes after my head.’

‘You have to take Celestial Form too, Simone,’ Bai Hu said.

Simone’s face closed up tight.

‘You have a Celestial Form?’ I said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you could do it?’

‘How the hell does he know about that?’ Simone said.

‘The Celestial knows all, Simone,’ Kwan Yin said. ‘It appears that Mr Li’s time was wasted.’

‘Why’d you keep it a secret, Simone?’ I said.

‘When you see it you’ll know.’

‘Is it that bad?’

She didn’t reply. Her face was still closed up tight.

‘Well, whatever,’ Bai Hu said. ‘Drop your stuff and we’ll go on. Mr Wong says we have ten minutes to prepare, to change into the forms, and he’ll take us up to the main chamber.’

‘I’m still wearing my armour and carrying the sword,’ I said. ‘I’ll change when I’m there.’

‘That is unusual but permissible,’ Kwan Yin said.

‘Is Mr Wong the Jade Emperor, Bai Hu?’ I asked. ‘“Wong” means “King” in Cantonese.’

‘Of course he is. Isn’t it obvious?’

The Murasame’s scabbard had a strap that telescoped out from the top and clipped to the bottom so that I could carry it over my shoulder with it resting diagonally across my back. I hefted it on and returned to the living room.

Kwan Yin and Bai Hu were waiting there in True Form. Kwan Yin’s white robes flowed around her, and a glowing aura surrounded her serene face. She stood more than two metres tall. Bai Hu’s tiger form was about four metres long.

Simone hadn’t taken Celestial Form; she wore the robes Mr Li had made for her, the same as I did. She saw my face. ‘I’ll do it when I’m there, same as you.’

‘Is it reptilian?’ I asked.

‘No, the problem is entirely in the other direction.’

Mr Wong returned and we all saluted him again. While he was acting as this minor official, we were expected to treat him as such. Everybody had to pretend that we didn’t know he was the Jade Emperor, and he pretended that he didn’t know we knew. The duplicity made my head ache.

He led us back into the main part of the hall, then towards the centre of the Palace. We entered a courtyard with a single huge tree in its centre.

‘Grand Audience Hall, Main Entrance,’ Mr Wong said, and disappeared.

Bai Hu stepped forward. ‘I’ll go first.’ He repeated the words and disappeared.

‘JK Rowling did something like this in Harry Potter,’ I said.

‘Well, she can sue the Jade Emperor,’ Simone said, recited the words and disappeared.

T
he Grand Audience Hall was massive, about a hundred metres to a side and a good fifty metres high. Enormous doors glided open before us. A set of stairs led up to them separated down the middle by a sloping ramp of marble carved with dragons. Whenever the Jade Emperor went up he floated over the marble; everybody else had to take the stairs.

Mr Wong had vanished.

‘Gone off to turn into the Jade Emperor and embarrass the hell out of us,’ Simone growled. ‘I
hate
that he’s doing this to you, Emma.’

‘How about we change once we’re in his presence?’ I said.

‘That is not acceptable, Emma,’ Kwan Yin said.

Simone and I shared a small smile.

‘Good. Which stairs are we supposed to use?’

‘The left ones.’

Simone and I shared another small smile and headed straight for the stairs on the right. The Tiger growled something unintelligible and loped after us. Kwan Yin just floated up the stairs.

A couple of guards appeared on either side of the huge door. Each of them wore a Tang-style red robe and
carried a massive halberd, a spear with a broadsword blade on the end. Their True Forms were nearly three metres tall, and the red robes flowed around them. They had goatees, and glared fiercely at us. The one on the left’s face was black; the one on the right, red.

‘General Qin. General Wei,’ I said. I raised one hand. ‘Hi, guys, long time no see. How’s the family, Ah Bao?’

‘Hi, Emma,’ said the left-hand door god, Qin Shu Bao. ‘Everybody’s good. My Number Five Son has just been engaged to one of the Dragon King’s daughters, gorgeous purple dragon.’ He tapped the bottom of his halberd on the grey stone paving. ‘What business have you here?’

‘We’re here to see the Jade Emperor, mate,’ I said. ‘Let us in.’

‘That is not the correct formal address, Emma, and you know it,’ the Tiger said.

‘Too bad.’ I turned to General Qin. ‘Open up.’

‘In you go, pet,’ General Qin said. ‘Don’t start too quickly—we want to come in and see the fireworks.’

‘Oh, don’t worry,’ Simone said. ‘There’ll be plenty to see, I can assure you.’

‘I have been looking forward to this for a very long time,’ the other door god, General Wei, said. ‘Don’t tell the Jade Emperor to go to Hell, it’s already been done.’

‘Don’t worry, we’ll think of something suitably outrageous,’ I said.

‘Excellent,’ General Qin said.

The Tiger stopped next to Simone and looked up at her; he was so big he didn’t need to lift his head far. ‘You sure you want to do this?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Simone said, and we stepped through the doors into the hall.

Massive red pillars intricately carved with phoenixes and dragons held up the roof, which towered above us. A smaller roof was set above some clerestory windows
that allowed the brilliant Celestial sunshine to light up the interior of the hall. The throne at the end, with its gold silk cushions, must have been nearly ten metres wide, raised on a dais three metres above the floor.

The way to the throne was marked by a gold carpet on the grey stone, with ornamental lanterns on either side at intervals of about two metres. A large number of Celestials had gathered on either side of the aisle, all watching us.

Well then, let’s give them a show
, Simone said.

General Qin came in behind us to announce our presence. ‘Holy Bodhisattva Kwan Yin. Lord Bai Hu, White Tiger of the West. Princess Simone, only human daughter of the Dark Lord of the Northern Heavens. Lady Emma Donahoe, Promised of the Dark Lord, Regent in His Absence.’ He added silently,
Go get ‘em, girls.

‘Don’t encourage them,’ Bai Hu whispered, a throaty rasp.

Simone and I walked towards the throne, the ranks of silent Celestials watching us from either side. Bai Hu and Kwan Yin followed us, also silent. We both tried to appear as casual and confident as possible, but Simone’s breathing was as ragged as my own.

Large gold screens carved with five-toed dragons stood behind the throne, and a General guarded it on one side, but I could hardly see the Jade Emperor himself, it was such a long walk.

As we approached, he came into focus. Yep, our friendly lowly official, Mr Wong. Now he was resplendently decked out in a Tang-style wraparound robe of brilliantly gold Imperial silk embroidered with five-toed dragons, and wore an Imperial hat with a square brim and beads that hung in front of his eyes so nobody could see them.

The guard at the Jade Emperor’s right hand was the
Second Heavenly General, Er Lang. He was in True Form: a massive three-metre-high young human wearing pale green and gold armour and a war helmet. He had three eyes; his third eye was open and appeared as a lashless eye in the centre of his forehead. He held a halberd as big as those of the door gods. A black dog stood at his side, watching with disdain as we approached.

We fell to our knees at the base of the dais and touched our foreheads to the floor. ‘
Wen sui, wen sui, wen wen sui
,’ we said. I nearly grimaced; imagine wishing an Immortal ten thousand times ten thousand years of life.