Dark Serpent

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Tell her that marine biology is an excellent choice, and I hope to take her swimming with both of me one day soon. Oh, and one other thing.’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘I love you. I’m losing the link. Be very care …’ He took a soft, deep breath and let it out, and his eyes snapped back to normal. ‘The Serpent says be very careful.’

  ‘Both of you know I will be.’

  ‘It’s still yelling at me every chance it has for making that stupid oath.’

  I squeezed his hand. ‘Good. Now rest.’

  Meredith and Liu hurried in, both wearing their dress uniforms — Meredith in a black silk pant suit with white cuffs, and Liu in his saffron Shaolin robes.

  ‘Is the Serpent still here?’ Meredith said, sitting next to John and leaning over him. She took his wrist and put her finger on his pulse. ‘More burns?’

  ‘It’s gone, you missed it,’ I said. ‘Looks like the King sprayed it with hydrochloric acid.’

  ‘His creativity is endless,’ John said. He struggled to pull himself upright. ‘How much longer before the ceremony?’

  I slapped my forehead. ‘Gold’s child — I completely forgot in the excitement. I have to change, I can’t go like this.’

  ‘I must be there,’ John said. ‘This is too important for me to miss.’

  ‘Everybody will understand if you can’t make it,’ the stone said.

  ‘I’m aware of that, but it’s my duty as its Lord to support it through this transition,’ John said. ‘Find me a uniform, Emma? Liu, ask Edwin to come in and tidy these burns up so I can attend.’

  We all opened our mouths to protest and John raised one hand. ‘I have to be there. I promise I will rest afterwards. If you like, someone can stand behind me to catch me just in case. Leo’s the obvious choice, he’s done it before.’

  We shared a look, and Meredith and Liu both shrugged with defeat.

  ‘I’ll be right back,’ I said, and went to the Imperial Residence to find him a uniform.

  3

  ‘Why didn’t you remind me?’ I said as I changed out of my jeans and T-shirt into a white cotton top with a mandarin collar and three-quarter sleeves, matched with a pair of plain black cotton pants — the uniform of a servant.

  The stone’s voice was rueful. ‘I thought you knew, and you were just leaving things to the last minute the way you always do.’

  ‘Oh, thank you very much.’

  I found a spare Mountain uniform that would fit John and took it with me, pulling on a pair of cotton boat shoes as I went out the front door.

  Everybody was gathering in front of Dragon Tiger Hall when we arrived. Amy and Gold were at the entrance, Gold’s child floating at eye level with them. I stood at the back of the group, as was my place as a servant in this official engagement, and John stood near Amy and Gold, Leo alert behind him to catch him just in case.

  ‘Just remember,’ Gold was saying to the child, ‘if you feel yourself taking something highly reactive like sodium or magnesium, let us know quickly so we can move the mortals away.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Daddy,’ the stone child said. ‘As if I’d take sodium and spend the rest of my life as a block of salt. I’ll be something very precious, just you see.’

  ‘You have no choice in the matter, little one,’ the stone in my back said. ‘Just think pure thoughts, and whatever you take will be wonderful.’

  ‘I can’t wait,’ the child said. ‘I’ll have a name, and I’ll be able to take a human form and hug my little brother and sister.’ It jiggled in the air. ‘This is so exciting!’

  ‘All right, let’s begin,’ Gold said. ‘Everybody move back and give the child room, please.’

  ‘As I cannot take human form at the moment, I delegate my duties as senior stone here to my child Gold,’ the stone in my back said.

  ‘Why can’t you take human form, Grandpa?’ the stone child said, but was interrupted by Simone running across the square towards us.

  ‘Wait!’ she shouted. ‘Don’t start without me!’ She stopped in front of the stone child. ‘Sorry I’m late, my driving lesson went over time. Come here.’ The stone child moved closer to her and she kissed it. ‘That’s for good luck, not that you need it.’

  ‘Thanks, Auntie Simone,’ the child said, obviously embarrassed.

  There was a brilliant flare of white light and Kwan Yin appeared in her middle-aged human form. Everybody immediately fell to one knee, except for John, who took her hand and kissed her on the cheek.

  She nodded to him in reply, then smiled around at us. ‘There is no need, everybody, up you get.’ She went to the stone child and touched it. ‘You have my blessing, little one.’

  The stone child didn’t reply, it just hovered.

  ‘I think it’s a little awestruck, my Lady,’ Gold said. He dropped his voice, ‘Thank you.’ He raised his voice again. ‘Now if everybody will stand back slightly, let’s see what this magnificent little stone has in store for us.’

  We moved back to stand in a semicircle around the stone, and Gold turned to face the group.

  ‘This stone child was born in battle from my own stone self. It has respect for its elders and venerates the Grandmother. Now it is time for it to take a mineral, a human form, and a name. May its form and deeds bring credit to its lineage. It is a grandchild of the Jade Building Block of the World, and a child of the Golden Boy.’ He took a step back and gazed at the child. ‘The Grandmother and the Goddess have blessed you, child. You are privileged. Now take a mineral and a form.’

  The child lifted slightly, turned in the air and emitted a golden light. The light grew until it was blinding, then flashed black and disappeared. The stone was now black, with veins of silver flowing through it, and had grown to the size of an adult fist.

  There was a stunned silence.

  The stone glowed again, this time with a silvery light, and changed to a slim human girl of fourteen years, wearing jeans and a plain black T-shirt. She appeared as a perfectly normal Chinese girl except that her eyes were black instead of brown.

  She looked around at everybody’s stunned expressions. ‘Did I do something wrong?’

  Gold snapped out of it first. He pulled her into a hug — she was nearly as tall as he was — and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Absolutely nothing at all. You are very beautiful.’ He pulled back to smile at her and touched the side of her face. ‘I’m very proud that you’re something so precious.’

  Kwan Yin went to her and took her hands. ‘Do not be concerned, you have done nothing wrong. I will return to speak to you later.’ She disappeared.

  The stone child went to Amy and put her arms out. ‘I finally get to hug you, Amy.’

  Amy pulled her into a huge hug. ‘This is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time,’ she said, her voice thick with tears.

  ‘So, your name — what’s it to be?’ Simone said. ‘What sort of mineral are you? Onyx? Agate?’

  ‘Oh no, nothing as mundane as that. Remember who my parent and grandparent are,’ the child said. ‘I’m Black Jade.’ She saw Simone’s shocked expression and looked around at everybody again. ‘Okay, now I’m sure I’ve done something wrong. What is it?’

  ‘You don’t know about Dream of the Red Chamber?’ Simone said.

  ‘No, let me look.’ Black Jade went silent for a moment, then shrugged. ‘Oh, I see, the character Black Jade was abandoned by her boyfriend and died of sadness or something. I don’t see a problem — I’m not getting married any time soon. It’s just a coincidence.’

  Nobody replied.

  ‘If it worries you, you could all call me BJ, but that —’

  She didn’t finish because Gold burst out laughing.

  ‘What?’ Amy said, then, ‘Oh.’ She pushed Black Jade affectionately.

  ‘I’ll think of something else you can call me if Black Jade is too scary,’ the stone child said. ‘Let me check the network … processing … I choose Darcy. That means dark, which is close
enough. I like that — very Jane Austen.’

  ‘I have two daughters now,’ Gold said with wonder.

  Darcy changed to a fourteen-year-old boy with the same colouring.

  ‘And two sons,’ Gold said, unfazed.

  Darcy turned to the group, still in male form. ‘I thank you all for attending my mineral-taking. I will go now to the temple and give thanks to the Buddhas.’

  He bowed low to everybody, hands clasped in front of him, and Gold and Amy put their arms around his shoulders to lead him away.

  ‘What’s wrong with calling him … her … BJ?’ Simone said. ‘That sounds very cute.’

  Nobody replied.

  ‘Oh, come on, someone tell me,’ she said, frustrated. She jumped. ‘Oh my God!’ She giggled, covering her mouth. ‘I see!’

  I returned to my office in the spare room of the Emperor’s Residence and checked my email, scanning for a specific subject and sender — then felt a jolt of joy when I saw it.

  Subject: Make Your Man-Meat Earthquake Sender:

  John Boscoe

  Message: all assistant, speeds, smart(ass) isn’t 4G, family king camera royal upgraded Even and 5, spectacular ready voice it’s of and and a useful iOS to we has good: part without Call

  Woman cannot respect man with small …

  I deleted the spam part about penis enhancement, copied the random words inserted into the message to fool spam filters, then pasted them into the decryption program that Gold had provided. The real message came up:

  Hi Emma, all’s well here and we miss you! Good news — the boys felt strong enough and both went back to school. Mark had a couple of bad episodes on the first few days — we nearly took him back out again, but he wouldn’t let us. It’s settled down and they’re not having as many nightmares any more, and Andrew even brought a friend — would you believe it a girl — over! They’re very cute and loudly claim just to be good friends. It’s so good to see something as normal as that happening for them.

  Jen’s new husband, Greg, has been a complete treasure, and he’s such a reassuring presence. Even though he never does anything ‘special’ it’s good to know that he’s there just in case. He says it’s relaxing to be away from all the politics of being the Tiger’s Number One and asked me to pass on his good wishes to Michael — because he says he’ll need it!

  Perth is lovely, the weather is beautiful, and to be honest it’s a great feeling just to be ‘normal’ again and to live an anonymous life. We’ve had to find a good doctor now that we don’t have the extra boost — I didn’t realise that we would go backwards so quickly when we left there, and your father has felt it particularly badly, but if we mind our wellbeing we should be fine.

  That was a blow — I had hoped that my parents would retain the health benefits from being on the Celestial Plane. I wished I could see them, but they wouldn’t return to the Celestial Plane to see me, and I couldn’t go down there — it would blow their cover and make them a target.

  That’s all I have for now. We’re all fine and I hope that one day soon you will be able to visit us. Pass on our best to John and Leo —

  ‘Busy?’

  I jumped and looked up. I’d been completely immersed in the email and hadn’t even heard Leo appear in the doorway.

  ‘Absolutely not.’ I waved at the screen. ‘My parents send their best; all’s well with them.’

  ‘That’s good to hear.’ He wheeled himself in and parked on the other side of the desk. ‘I’m just here to gossip. Don’t give me any advice, I want to have a moan.’

  ‘Moan away, Lord Leo.’

  He smiled slightly. ‘I still get a kick from being called that. Then someone kills me and I have to go put up with goddamn Pao Qing Tian. The guy’s a pain in the ass.’

  I leaned my chin on my hand. ‘So what’s up? What could you possibly have to moan about? You have the dream marriage —’

  ‘Not a real marriage,’ he said, glum.

  ‘With the prince of your dreams, the job of your dreams, and you live in Heaven. What could possibly be wrong?’ I dropped my hand and sat more upright. ‘You and Martin haven’t fallen out, have you?’

  ‘No, no,’ he said, waving one hand. ‘That side of it is … well, as you said, like a dream. Damn, he makes me happy. I wish I could make him as happy as he makes me.’ He sighed and leaned on the desk, rubbing his eyes. ‘It’s my job.’

  ‘Not your dream job any more?’

  ‘Completely. But like I just told the Dark Lord, there’s nobody to recruit. In the past year I’ve brought in every single kid that showed remotely enough talent, and we don’t nearly have what we need to fill the gap left by the latest attack.’ He ran a hand over his bald head. ‘The decision’s been made: we’re halting recruitment for two years to give younger practitioners time to train up. Until then it’s just not worth going down there.’

  ‘How short are we?’

  His face went rigid, then he shook his head. My limitation on helping run the Mountain had kicked in and he couldn’t reply. I shouldn’t have said ‘we’. I tried a different tack — letting him have a moan.

  ‘So this must make you feel pretty useless?’

  ‘Tell me about it. I just got my dream job and I can’t do anything. The Mountain is still short a good two hundred Disciples, and there’s nowhere to recruit from; the well is dry. I’ve done my best, but we may need to expel at least twenty of the latest batch I brought in because they’re not up to scratch.’

  ‘Damn.’

  Chang appeared in the doorway, filling it. He wore his brown working robes of a Buddhist monk. ‘Sorry, I didn’t realise there was someone with you,’ he said. He bowed to both of us. ‘I will return later.’

  Leo turned back to me, confused. ‘How come he can bow to you?’

  ‘Don’t go, come on in, Chang,’ I said. ‘Because of his humble nature he can bow to anybody. He bows to butterflies.’

  ‘Well, everyone should bow to butterflies, they are the essence of enlightenment,’ Leo said.

  ‘You are quite correct, my Lord.’ Chang came in to stand next to him. ‘I have a request to ask of you, Miss Donahoe. When should I return?’

  ‘What, me?’ I said. ‘You can’t ask me anything.’

  ‘I would just like to bounce an idea off you. You know the Dark Lord better than anybody; you can guide me on what his expected reaction would be.’

  I waved for him to sit. ‘Go right ahead.’

  ‘Do you want me to leave you to it?’ Leo said.

  ‘I would like to hear your opinion as well, if you would, my Lord,’ Chang said as he sat. He hesitated for a moment, then said, ‘I hear that you are having difficulty recruiting on the Earthly Plane. There are not enough talented youngsters to bring the Mountain back to full strength.’

  ‘That’s just what I was complaining to Emma about,’ Leo said. ‘If you’re thinking of recruiting Shen instead, that won’t work. There’s no talented Shen of majority age left either.’

  Chang clasped his hands in his lap. ‘I have a longer-term idea. You know where I came from: I was an orphan left at a monastery to learn the Arts. Maybe the Mountain could start its own orphanage on the Earthly? Care for youngsters, give them a start in the Arts and an education, and if they wish to pursue the Arts they can come up here.’

  I stared at him, stunned.

  When Leo finally spoke, his voice was thick with emotion. ‘You humble me more and more every day, Chang.’

  ‘Do you think the Dark Lord would accede to this request?’ Chang said.

  ‘He would welcome it,’ I said. ‘We already have orphanages, but this could be a full-on educational foundation. What a brilliant idea. I can help you with funding through the Earthly assets.’

  Chang leaned forward, intense. ‘Do you think he’d let me run it?’

  ‘I can’t think of anyone more qualified than you,’ I said. ‘Over-qualified to run just one home, to be honest. I’d like to see you running a whole found
ation with a string of orphanages across Asia.’

  ‘So I should put this idea to the Dark Lord?’

  Leo spun his chair around. ‘Come with me, Chang, he’s in the meditation pavilion right now. If you don’t make his shen energy flare with delight at the idea, I’ll buy you a new set of prayer beads. I’ll buy you a new set anyway; this is the best idea anyone on the Mountain’s had in a while.’

  Chang rose. ‘I don’t require new beads, the ones I have are perfectly functional.’

  Leo patted him on the arm. ‘How do you reward the man who needs nothing to make him content?’

  ‘Having the Dark Lord agree to this would be a lifetime’s worth of reward in itself.’

  I rose and found I was able to join them. ‘It seems I can come with you since this is related to the management of the estate.’

  Leo grinned. ‘Excellent.’

  John was sitting cross-legged in Celestial Form in the meditation hall. He’d opened the screened walls of the pavilion and the late summer breeze and the scent of the Mountain’s pines wafted through the room. His massive dark form was dimly visible in the centre of a two-metre-wide cylinder of energy and water that surrounded him and rose to the ceiling. Ribbons of glowing shen energy and his own dark essence swirled around him with an audible wash and a deep bass thrum that could be felt through the floor.

  ‘He’s a living yin-yang,’ Chang said with wonder.

  Leo’s deep voice was full of awe. ‘The highest form of goodness is like water. Water knows how to benefit all things without striving with them.’

  The top of the cylinder lowered until John’s face was visible above its edge. ‘The water greets the ones it benefits,’ he said without opening his eyes or stopping the flow of the energy. ‘I’m not really alive, I just exist.’

  He took a deep breath and held it, and the energy-filled water shrank into a smaller spiral and disappeared into his heart chakra. He opened his eyes, changed to his human form and, without rising, gestured for us to enter. ‘Three who seek the Tao. Come and tell me what the disaster is this time.’