Journey to Wudang

  ‘They won’t tell us what is happening, ma’am,’ Er Hao said. ‘Are they going to destroy us? We’ve done nothing.’

  ‘You are in danger,’ I said. ‘There are fake fire elementals on the other side.’ I tasted the air: stronger ash and burning, a raw taste that seared my throat.

  ‘They should let us go then,’ one of the other demons called.

  ‘No,’ Jeremy said loudly. ‘We’re demons, and we can’t be trusted.’ He rose and took a few steps towards me. ‘Princess Simone is here. Lady Emma is here. They can take down anything that attacks.’ He turned back to the demons. ‘We’ll be fine, we just have to stay put and wait.’

  I glanced back at Simone and we shared a look.

  We can’t let them go, she said. They’re controlled by the Geek or the Death Mother.

  I know.

  ‘Stay here,’ I said. I touched my nose to Yi Hao and Er Hao and they nodded, tears flowing down their faces. ‘We’ll fix this.’

  ‘We trust you, ma’am,’ Yi Hao said. She raised one hand and touched my nose. ‘Who’s looking after you? Your diary must be a mess, and you had some urgent business in your in-tray —’

  ‘Don’t worry about that,’ I said. I raised myself on my coils to talk to all of them. ‘Go to the far end of the building and stay there. If the fire elementals come in and get past us, try fire extinguishers on them, and run.’

  Yi Hao nodded. ‘We trust you.’ She touched Er Hao on the arm and they rejoined their group.

  ‘Come on,’ the guards said, and guided the demons to the other end of the building. This version of the hotel had no indoor swimming pool, just a large hall under the building, and they all sat on the ground there.

  ‘I would really, really like to see a turtle here right now,’ Simone said.

  ‘So would I,’ I said. ‘But we have to assume that it isn’t going to happen.’

  CHAPTER 30

  We took the lift up to where the restaurant and conference rooms were located. The smoke was visible in the air.

  ‘This is very bad,’ I said, looking around.

  Simone pointed to the airlock entrance. ‘Do we go through there?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘And it’s supposed to be a vacuum seal.’

  ‘But there’s smoke here,’ Michael said.

  ‘That means the seal is down,’ Simone said.

  ‘There’s nothing but a couple of doors between this area and all those demons,’ I said.

  ‘What did your dad have in there?’ Simone asked Michael.

  ‘All the nastiest things he caught. At least three or four real big Snake Mothers. A couple of oozes, a buttload of really big humanoids. He even caught two or three dinosaur shape changers — raptor types — and they’re in there too.’

  ‘All of that and a group of fire elementals,’ Simone said, facing the door with her water elementals floating around her. She took a deep breath. ‘A turtle right now would be really, really good.’

  Something hit the door, denting it, and we all took a step back. The smell of burning intensified.

  ‘Emma, move back,’ Simone said without looking away from the door. ‘In fact, I think it might be best if you went all the way back to the hotel.’

  ‘You can’t fight these, they’re too big even for your snake,’ Michael said.

  ‘You kids should both go back, you’re not Immortal,’ Leo said. ‘And take Emma with you.’

  ‘We can fight,’ Michael said, and summoned his sword, the White Tiger.

  Simone raised one hand and Seven Stars appeared in it, the blade bare. ‘Emma can’t fight. Emma, go back.’

  Leo changed from lion to human form, wearing a Wudang uniform, and stood without difficulty. He concentrated and grew even taller, becoming darker and wider and deeper. He remained big, black and bald, but he was nearly three metres tall. His face lost its late-forties appearance and became younger and full of intensity.

  ‘I didn’t know you had a Celestial Form, old man,’ Michael said.

  ‘I didn’t either,’ Leo said. ‘How about that.’

  Something hit the doors again, and a hole appeared in the centre. The edges of the hole changed from grey to glowing red.

  Leo glanced at me. ‘I think they’re right, Emma. Go back.’

  ‘I’ll stand at the rear. Don’t forget what I am,’ I said.

  ‘You’re just a snake,’ Simone said. ‘You’re just your ordinary snake self, not the super-powered version — and you can’t fight these.’

  ‘I’m not here to fight,’ I said. ‘I’m a healer.’

  The middle of the door began to melt and we all moved back at the intensity of the heat.

  ‘Just stay back and don’t try to help then,’ Simone said.

  ‘The demons on the other side of the door are holding back as well,’ Michael said. ‘The heat from the melting metal will be as intense for them as it is for us.’

  A two-metre-long, tentacle-shaped flame poked through the hole in the door and lashed around. It touched the floor and the flames oozed to the end of it, forming themselves into a human-shaped demon made of flame.

  We all took another step back.

  Simone raised one arm and gestured and one of the water elementals flew towards the fire elemental. The water elemental grew to a sphere of three metres across and encased the fire elemental. The water touching the fire boiled, the bubbles visible within the water, and the water around the edges froze.

  ‘Compensate, compensate!’ Simone said, concentrating on the elemental. ‘Colder!’

  A floating mist of condensation appeared around the water. Crystals appeared in its structure and the boiling within it eased.

  Simone gasped and sagged. ‘I have it. It’s contained.’ She turned to look at us. ‘But I can’t hold it forever.’

  Another flame tentacle came through the door and Simone turned back to face it.

  ‘How many of those things are there?’ I said.

  ‘Five,’ Michael said. He backed up again. ‘That’s why we never saw any fire elementals when we were attacked before. Always the other elements, but not fire. He was saving them for this.’

  This tentacle turned into two fire elementals, which stopped when they saw us. They merged into one, and it wrapped its arms around the fire elemental held inside the ice bubble.

  Simone raised one hand and three of her water elementals joined together, grew into a larger sphere and engulfed both of the fire elementals and their frozen brother. The sphere froze with an audible crack.

  ‘This is not a good time for me to be without my yin,’ Simone said, her voice strained with effort.

  ‘You don’t have yin?’ Michael said.

  ‘Daddy locked it out of me. He said I might destroy the world.’

  ‘Makes sense.’ Michael readied himself. ‘The other demons are approaching.’

  We’re fighting the demons from the other side but it’s not looking good, the Tiger said. We’ve taken down the raptors and most of the humanoids, but the Mothers are too big, and we have two more fires back here that we can’t even get close to.

  A siren went off over the intercom system.

  Evacuate, the Tiger said. Destroy the demons and run. Everybody out.

  ‘No!’ I shouted, slithering quickly back to the demons being held in the demon hotel. The staff had already started to slice them up. They ran around in terror and cowered in the corners.

  ‘I am Emma Donahoe, First Heavenly General, and I order you to stop this!’ I roared.

  The staff ignored me.

  I went to one of them and stood between him and the demons. ‘That is an order!’ I looked around. ‘Stop destroying these demons now. Stand down! Tiger, order your staff to stand down right now, that is an order!’

  Do it, the Tiger said.

  The guards looked at each other, then lowered their weapons.

  ‘I am First Heavenly General and you obey my orders above all others,’ I hissed at the guards. ‘The Tiger should not have had
to confirm that. Do not for a moment forget who I am.’

  You pulling rank on me, girlie? the Tiger said.

  ‘Damn straight,’ I said. I focused on the guards. ‘Evacuate these demons under guard. Take them to the lobby of the other hotel down the bottom and keep them under guard and separate from the wives. The reason they’re in this part of the facility is because they’ve turned, and demons that have turned must be protected.’

  I moved to face the demons. ‘Go with the guards. I’ve made sure they won’t hurt you. Follow orders, go quietly and behave.’

  I turned back to the guards. ‘If any of them disobey you, even for a second, destroy them without hesitation.’ I couldn’t slither backwards so I turned and moved out of the way. ‘Now go.’

  ‘Thank you, ma’am,’ Jeremy said.

  ‘Watch those ones particularly carefully,’ I said, indicating Jeremy’s group with my nose. ‘They haven’t turned; they’re demon copies of humans.’

  Jeremy’s expression darkened and he dropped his head as he walked past.

  ‘Just be yourself, Jeremy, and nobody will hurt you,’ I said more gently.

  He smiled slightly at me, dropped his head again and went out.

  I rejoined Simone, Michael and Leo at the top of the stairs. The fire elementals remained frozen inside the water, but another fire elemental had come through the door. Simone was in the process of freezing it. Something struck the door again, and hands appeared in the hole, trying to make it bigger. The hands disappeared and a sword poked through; an armed demon was attempting to widen the hole.

  ‘I can’t hold these fire elementals forever,’ Simone said. She loaded Seven Stars with her own chakra energy, each chakra forming a different-coloured ball of light in one of the seven indentations in the sword. ‘Michael, help them through the door so we can destroy them and then leave.’

  ‘What’s happening on your side, Tiger?’ I said.

  There was no reply.

  ‘Nobody’s left alive, it’s just us. It’s a good thing we came up,’ Michael said.

  He raised one hand towards the door and it shattered. He readied himself with his sword. ‘Come on in, demons, we can take you.’

  Two armed humanoids came through, followed by three enormous Snake Mothers.

  ‘Permission to use Dark Heavens, ma’am,’ Leo said.

  ‘Granted,’ Simone and I said in unison.

  ‘I need to talk to the forge about getting something made for me,’ Leo said as he raised the sword. His voice changed to surprise. ‘Well, how about that.’ Dark Heavens had grown in his hands to match the size of his Celestial Form.

  Simone raised Seven Stars above her head, the point towards the two humanoid demons. A flash of bright white light shot from the end of the sword and destroyed both of them.

  ‘Don’t do that, you’ll wear yourself out before we get to the hard ones!’ Michael shouted.

  ‘We are at the hard ones,’ Simone said. Her voice changed to menacing. ‘And I’m not nearly worn out yet.’

  Martin strode into the room and stopped in front of me. He was in Celestial Form, with green and tan robes, his long brown hair held in a topknot by a jade green ribbon that flowed down to his feet. He carried the Silver Serpent.

  ‘Sorry I took so long,’ he said. ‘The Tiger was asking for help with his wives without telling anybody what was really going on.’

  ‘Are the Northern Heavens guarded sufficiently?’ I said.

  ‘Ma’am. All is secure.’

  ‘Good,’ I said.

  The Snake Mothers waited at the doorway without attacking.

  ‘Is this everything?’ I said.

  The Geek, the Death Mother and Kitty Kwok stepped through the doorway and stood just inside it.

  ‘That’s everything,’ Simone said grimly.

  ‘Oh, look, Emma’s a snake again,’ Kitty said. ‘But not as strong as last time. I wonder why? Might have something to do with all that demon essence I pumped into her.’

  The Death Mother moved up to stand next to the three armed demons; she held a massive machine gun with one hand. ‘I’ll take the Princess,’ she said.

  ‘Black Lion,’ one of the Mothers said. ‘You three take the remaining ones.’

  ‘I’m a thinker, not a fighter,’ the Geek said, his voice wavering. He moved to stand behind Kitty. ‘Just kill them all.’

  ‘I want Emma alive!’ Kitty shouted. ‘The King’ll trade anything for her!’

  ‘Simone alive would be handy as well,’ the Death Mother said. ‘But I think it’s too dangerous to try to capture her; we should just take her head off.’

  One of the other Mothers rose on her coils. ‘Sounds like a plan.’

  I turned and moved back to the wall; I wasn’t big enough in serpent form to take these on. I lowered my nose to the ground, concentrated and the white jade disk appeared. I raised my head and turned back. The demons and Celestials were facing off, and the water encasing the fire elementals was beginning to boil again.

  ‘The fire elementals are escaping,’ Simone said.

  Martin raised one hand and concentrated and the demons stopped moving. He’d bound them all. ‘I can’t hold this for long, and there are too many of them for us to fight,’ he said.

  ‘We can do it,’ Simone said.

  ‘Too risky,’ Martin said. ‘Ten of them, three of us — we can’t all survive that. The Bai Hu’s army is at the bottom waiting, they can help. We can’t do this alone.’

  ‘Can they move faster than us?’ Simone said.

  ‘Yes. But I can hold them. Run!’ Martin said, and pushed Simone behind him.

  Leo grabbed Simone’s hand and pulled her towards the lift. Michael followed. I picked up the jade disk in my mouth and followed them.

  ‘Cowards!’ the Death Mother shouted. ‘When I can move, you are all dead!’

  ‘Go!’ Martin said, staring at the demons.

  ‘Shut the doors behind us,’ I said to Michael, my voice muffled by the disk in my mouth.

  We went down in the lift to the guard room leading to the maze. The two guards were standing there uncertainly, holding their weapons.

  ‘Follow us,’ I said.

  They nodded and stood on either side of the door. Michael opened it and we ran through the maze. The room at the other end held another three guards and I ordered them to follow us as well.

  Michael opened the vault doors, we went through, and he closed them again. We were in the blank corridor where the Tiger and I had discussed my fan club.

  ‘That will hold them for a while,’ Michael said as the vault doors disappeared behind us. ‘No way will they get that open. They probably can’t even see it.’

  A white-hot point of heat and light, so bright it burned into my retinas, appeared in the middle of the wall where the door was.

  ‘They can’t get it open?’ Leo said.

  ‘I’m not sure it’s a good idea taking them down to the hotel,’ I said. ‘I should just use this jade disk and be done with it.’

  ‘Only as a last resort,’ Simone said. ‘It’ll destroy the tame demons and the demon wives as well.’

  ‘And Emma!’ Leo shouted.

  Simone glared at him. ‘You think I don’t know that? But she doesn’t give a damn about herself; she has as much of a death wish as you do.’ She slashed one hand through the air. ‘I want both of you alive, so only as a last resort!’

  I dropped my serpent head. ‘Okay.’ I turned to the tunnel. ‘Is the electricity still off?’

  ‘Yes,’ Michael said.

  ‘You go,’ one of the guards said. ‘When you’re at the bottom, I’ll turn it back on.’

  ‘Don’t you dare,’ Leo said. ‘If anyone stays, it should be me. I’m the only Immortal here.’

  The air filled with acrid, metallic smoke.

  ‘Don’t argue with me, just go!’ the guard said. ‘My mother’s down there, and you are three times more powerful than anything we have. Losing you now would put my mother at risk. Th
ere’s an army at the bottom to help you. So go!’

  The stone in my ring took human form. ‘Lovely sentiment, little man, but absolutely no need for it.’ He turned to us. ‘Off you go. I’ll do it.’

  ‘I’ll shout when we’re at the end,’ Simone said, and jumped off the edge into the tunnel.

  We followed her.

  ‘Through!’ Simone shouted, and the stone floated through the air behind us and returned to the ring.

  All of the doors were still open, and Michael closed them behind us as we went through. We reached the final vault doors to the lifts and Michael closed these as well. The lift doors hung open and we went in.

  ‘Be nice if that held them in,’ Simone said.

  ‘Where’s the limit of the teleportation lock?’ I asked one of the guards.

  Michael concentrated. ‘Here. Once they’re here, they can teleport.’

  ‘I suppose it’s too much to ask that they’ll take what they came for and leave,’ Simone said.

  The lift doors opened and we entered the lobby of the ski resort. Michael melted the lift doors open, effectively stopping the lifts from working.

  ‘I think they came for us,’ he said.

  ‘No, the Death Mother came for the Geek,’ I said as we went out to the forecourt. ‘She gave him something when she kissed him — something that allowed them all to get in here.’

  Simone inhaled sharply. ‘There are demons back there in the labs, looking at all your dad’s research,’ she said to Michael.

  About half the wives had been evacuated, but half remained; they were sitting in the snow with fifty or so guards standing over them. The demons and their guards were visible next to the swimming pool on the ground floor of the residential wing of the resort.

  ‘This isn’t an army, there’s only ten or so guards here. What happened?’ I said.

  Michael went to one of the guards and quickly embraced him. They slapped each other on the back. ‘We have a group of big demons following us,’ Michael told him when they released each other. ‘Where’s everybody else? When are the buses coming back up?’

  ‘Demons attacked us,’ the guard said. ‘A group of six or seven out of the lot that came down from the hotel. Never seen anything like it. They ran to us, and when they were close, they exploded. Like high-end incendiaries.’ He gestured with his head. ‘There’s fifty of us lying dead over there.’