Ronnie closed the case with a snap and rose. ‘If Six is still around, that’s bad news for all of us. That little posse were quite possibly more dangerous than One Two Two and the Pussycat together.’
‘I remember,’ I said. ‘There were four of them. They had several meetings in Simon Wong’s apartment when I was there.’
‘Six and his consort Three are the ones that mess with stones,’ Ronnie said. ‘I don’t know the numbers of the other two, but one had a lab in Guangzhou that experimented with elementals. The other one—I think it was a female—was making the demon copies for One Two Two.’
‘Stones. Elementals. Demon copies,’ I said. ‘That fits. We’re still finding demon copies in the Academy. It’s like they’re continually testing the copies on us to see if we can detect them.’
‘As soon as you stop detecting them, bring me in,’ Ronnie said.
‘Because they’ll have produced copies that we can’t detect,’ I said. ‘Thanks.’
‘There was one more demon in that group,’ Ronnie said. ‘Did weird things with energy. Had demons producing some sort of black energy blast.’
‘I saw Simon Wong use that energy when I was in Hell,’ I said, remembering. ‘It completely shredded Xuan Wu in True Form. I know he was weakened at the time, but it was extremely scary.’
‘Yes. Ordinary demon energy would not have been able to do that.’
I held my hand out and generated some black chi. ‘Is this the same stuff?’
Ronnie inhaled sharply and moved closer to peer at the chi in my hand. ‘I’m going to change, is that okay?’
I nodded, and he changed to his demon form: two metres tall with black scales, bulging eyes, and tusks at the corners of his mouth. In demon terms he was considered extremely good-looking, and I was glad that I wasn’t demon enough to agree.
He studied the chi carefully, looking at it from all angles, his red eyes glowing. He held one large clawed hand above the energy. ‘Fascinating.’
‘Same stuff?’ I said.
‘No,’ Ronnie said. ‘That’s just black chi. I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never seen it before.’
‘Where have you heard of it?’ I said. I absorbed the chi into my hand.
‘Wow, that was cool,’ Ronnie said. ‘Your hand went black. Only extremely senior demons, those that have blood instead of essence, ones that are close to human, can make that energy. I’ve seen my dad do it.’
‘Yes, Ah Yat said she’d seen the King do it too. So who’s the demon behind this new energy that Simon Wong was using?’
‘Nobody knows,’ Ronnie said. ‘He talked about the energy as if it was his idea, but everybody knew he didn’t have the brains to produce anything like that. There was talk that he had a partner who taught him how to do it. That’s about it.’
‘Another one,’ I said. ‘Great. If the King didn’t manage to get rid of Six after the business with Simon Wong, then they’re probably all still out there. Messing with stones, elementals and copies.’
Ronnie picked up the slender switch. ‘And if it’s Six that’s behind all of this, then I know exactly what your problem with the seals is. It’s just a matter of finding it.’
‘What?’
‘Six used to boast about the number of stone Shen he’d experimented on.’ He held the switch out in front of himself. ‘Let’s find the pebble that he’s planted here.’
‘There’s no way anything could be planted here,’ I said.
Ronnie slowly walked around the living room, the switch quivering in his hands. ‘Ever had an ordinary human workman in here, ma’am?’
‘Nope,’ I said, then, ‘oh wait, I had an electrician in here about four months ago. And a plumber, when the toilet in Monica’s bathroom backed up and it turned out that someone downstairs had renovated and put the pipes back together wrong…’ My voice trailed off.
‘Monica’s bathroom, eh?’ Ronnie said. ‘And where is that?’
I pointed towards the kitchen. ‘Monica is the domestic helper. Ah Yat’s filling in for her.’
‘She should have sensed the stone in her bathroom,’ Ronnie said. ‘Is it possible she was in league with them?’
‘She’s an ordinary human, can’t sense anything,’ I said.
Ronnie stopped and stared at me. ‘You have an ordinary human domestic helper?’
‘It’s a long story,’ I said. ‘Xuan Wu has more than one human staff member.’
‘Oh yes, I remember,’ Ronnie said, grinning to fully reveal his tusks. ‘For a while there he had an ordinary human nanny as well.’
‘And bodyguard,’ I added.
‘Nothing ordinary about the Black Lion, he has always been exceptional,’ Ronnie said. ‘Fortunately for him, the Dark Lord was never old-fashioned about people’s preferences.’ He glanced at the kitchen door. ‘I assume the helpers’ quarters are in the usual place.’
‘Past the kitchen, yes,’ I said, and opened the kitchen door for him.
He entered the kitchen, where Ah Yat was sitting at the table noting the expenses and sticking receipts into Monica’s household budget notebook.
‘I need to check the servants’ quarters’ bathroom,’ Ronnie said.
Ah Yat nodded. ‘I have not been in there to clean yet, so it will be as they left it.’
‘They?’
‘Monica met one of the Tiger’s sons when she was being kept safe at the Western Palace,’ I said. ‘They were married on the Plane, and he came back here to live with her. He worked as the family and Academy driver.’
‘How Shen is he?’ Ronnie said, concentrating on the switch and moving through the kitchen towards the servants’ quarters. ‘He should have sensed the stone too.’
‘Not much Shen about him at all,’ I said. ‘The Tiger hasn’t even given him a number.’
‘Unusual,’ Ronnie said. ‘Must be very human then.’
He stopped near the apartment’s back door, which opened onto the stairwell. The domestic staff used the back door for coming in and out, and the rubbish was left outside there in the stairwell for the janitor to collect nightly. Ronnie indicated the grey metal box on the wall next to the door. ‘Is this the circuit box?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
He opened the box and appeared to be sniffing it. ‘Doesn’t smell of demon.’ He closed it and opened the door to Monica and Marcus’s room. ‘Probably in here somewhere.’
The minute he walked in the door the switch began to quiver in his hands. He concentrated and its movement became more lively. As he approached the bathroom, the switch leapt out of his hands.
‘This is interesting,’ Ronnie said, opening the bathroom door and peering inside. ‘I can’t sense anything, but the rod went wild.’
He went into the small bathroom. Monica hadn’t cared too much about the décor and it was nearly original from when the apartment had been built in the 1970s—pale green wall and floor tiles, with a green toilet, sink and green bath with a shower over it.
Ronnie looked inside the bathroom cabinet. ‘And of course nobody else besides your non-Shen staff would come in here, so nobody sensed it.’ He went to the bath and studied it. ‘Hard to find anyway, might need the stick again. Oh, hold on.’ He ran his clawed hands along the shower curtain rail to the end. ‘Nope.’ He lifted the top off the toilet cistern and peered inside. ‘Toilet was backed up, you say?’ He glanced at me. ‘Can I have a plastic supermarket bag, one without any holes in it?’
I went back into the kitchen and pulled a bag out of the recycling bag hanging off the back of the kitchen door. I checked that it had no holes and returned to give it to Ronnie. He took it from me, put his hand inside it and reached into the toilet cistern.
He quickly wrenched his hand out again, splashing water everywhere. ‘Ow, ow, ow!’ He dropped the stone he’d been holding onto the floor and shook his hand, showering more cistern water everywhere. ‘Dammit!’
Ah Yat poked her head in the door. ‘Master Ronnie, that water is dirty, take care.’
br /> ‘I know,’ Ronnie said. ‘Sorry, Ah Yat.’ He took the bag off his hand and dropped it into the bath, then crouched to study the stone sitting on the floor. ‘Let’s see what we have here.’
The stone was about two centimetres across, smooth and golden brown, and didn’t appear to be anything special.
‘This is what’s been killing your seals,’ Ronnie said. ‘My guess is that it’s a segment of some sort of dead demon, manipulated by Six to become this stone hybrid thingy.’
I moved to pick it up but when my fingers closed around it, it felt like acid. I quickly dropped it.
‘Wash your hands. The seawater they use for flushing toilets is usually heavily contaminated,’ Ronnie said.
‘I was going to rinse it, but I can’t even pick it up,’ I said. I rose and carefully washed my hand in the green sink. ‘It’s like touching a Shen when they don’t protect you.’
‘Exactly,’ Ronnie said. He stood up. ‘I’d be passing this little gem to the Tiger, Lady Emma. He has an interesting facility out there in the West and can probably find out more about it than anyone else in the Celestial.’
‘He’ll be here tomorrow to see me fight Er Lang,’ I said. ‘I’ll give it to him then.’
‘In the meantime, perhaps a Shen will be able to handle it. Princess Simone is the obvious choice, due to her mixed parentage of both Heaven and Hell. She can probably—’
‘Wait,’ I said raising my hand. ‘What do you mean, Heaven and Hell? She’s half-Shen, half-human, no demon at all.’
‘You didn’t meet her mother,’ Ronnie said with grim humour. ‘But that’s not what I meant. Her father is unique, and has qualities of both Heaven and Hell. If she’s inherited some of his essence, then she will be able to travel to places that no other Celestial can.’
‘Heaven and Hell, Ronnie? Tell me more.’
Ronnie changed back to human form and washed his hands in the sink. ‘I don’t think it is my place to be discussing the Dark Lord’s true nature with his Chosen.’
‘True nature,’ I said, remembering. ‘That’s what the kitsune said.’
‘Stay away from fox spirits, they’re bad news,’ he said.
‘This one’s dead. One Two Two got her.’
‘Oh, the one that whelped the demon child,’ Ronnie said. ‘That was a terrible shame.’
‘Our fault too,’ I said morosely.
Ronnie shrugged. ‘We all make mistakes.’
‘Yeah, but not all of us make mistakes and have people die because of them.’
‘Did you intend for her to die?’
‘No, we tried to protect her. Unfortunately we called attention to her and she died as a result.’
‘Then that’s life, and stuff like that happens to the best of us.’
I ran my damp hands through my hair. ‘That’s very easy for you to say.’
‘I’m a Demon Prince, it’s the easiest thing in the world for me to say,’ he said. ‘Conquering my nature has given me nasty insight to the creature that I once was. I have a burden of guilt that will live with me for many centuries to come.’
‘I know how you feel, my friend.’
‘You have control over your nature. You’ve never tortured or killed anyone for sport and then had to live with that after you have turned to the other side. You have no idea how it feels.’
‘The demon nature has taken me over and I’ve eaten small demons,’ I said with misery, but he didn’t respond, his features impassive. ‘But I’ve never killed anyone for sport. You have my sympathy at having to live with that.’
‘That’s more than I deserve,’ Ronnie said.
He collected his stick and we went back to his case on the living room coffee table. ‘Until you can remove that stone, it’s a waste of time setting new seals. Leave it where it is for now, it’s not really hurting anything, and when you see the Tiger tomorrow bring him round and see if he can take it with him.’
‘I understand. Thanks, Ronnie.’
He grinned, lifted his plastic glasses off his nose and dropped them back down again. ‘You may not be thanking me so much when you get my bill. I always charge extra if I get hurt.’
‘I’ll pay you double whatever you charge me, you know that.’
He shook his head. ‘And you want me to come work for you. I think the arrangement we have right now suits me very much.’
‘As long as I know I can call on you.’
‘Any time, Lady Emma.’ He saluted me and went out.
CHAPTER 20
The next morning, while I was in the Arena’s preparation room, I worked with what little chi I had left, trying to move it through me and provide some energy-based protection. It wasn’t going to be enough though if Er Lang decided to go all-out on me.
I summoned the Murasame and carried it through the tunnel to the Arena. For this challenge I wasn’t going to mess around, even if it did mean feeding the blade.
I heard the crowd before I entered the Arena; they were talking loudly among themselves and the rumble echoed on the walls of the tunnel. As I walked into the Arena itself, the roar subsided, there was a smattering of applause and then people started loudly discussing the match again.
I felt a jolt of shock when I realised what form Er Lang had chosen for the Arena: it looked like the Demon King’s throne room. The crowd sat in stands on either side of the large area, and Er Lang and the officiator stood where the throne would normally be. The ceiling was very high, held up by red pillars that were covered in good-luck motifs—stylised longevity and ‘double happiness’ characters. The room was fifty metres across, plenty of room for us to face each other. The pillars, each a metre round, were ten metres apart. They’d be in the way, and I made a mental note to stay aware of their locations so that I didn’t accidentally back into one.
Er Lang was in his usual human form: mid-thirties, wearing green scaled armour and a war helmet. He wore his long hair unbound and it flowed down over his shoulders, nearly to his waist.
I went to him and the officiator and saluted them. ‘I am Emma Donahoe, answering a challenge.’
Er Lang nodded to me instead of saluting; a shocking breach of protocol. The crowd didn’t miss this and their voices rose slightly, then subsided.
‘I am Er Lang, Second Heavenly General. I call you out as I am in pursuit of the hand in marriage of Princess Simone of the Northern Heavens.’
‘My Lord,’ I said, saluting him again just to rub it in. He glared at me with disdain. I turned to the officiator. ‘My second is the Jade Building Block of the World.’
Emma, Er Lang just told me that I should know better than to serve you, the stone said into my head. What is going on?
‘My second will be my companion,’ Er Lang said, nodding to his dog, who looked up at him and nodded back. ‘Let us begin this.’
The officiator read from the match scroll. ‘Er Lang, Second Heavenly General, challenges Regent General Da na huo to a test of martial skills. This test will not be to the death, and will be considered satisfactorily concluded when either combatant yields. Are these terms agreeable?’
Er Lang saluted the officiator. ‘I find these terms agreeable.’
There was a shocked gasp from the crowd. Er Lang had once again shown disrespect by speaking first.
I saluted the officiator. ‘I hold these terms agreeable with a request for the further consideration of light contact and restraint from injuries…Oh hell.’ I turned to Er Lang. ‘Look, I’m mortal. I can’t take much of a beating. Could you do me a favour and not kill me, please? I’d like to be alive when the Dark Lord comes back for me. He promised he would.’
Er Lang glared at me, then shook his head and moved to the other side of the throne room. ‘Defend yourself, woman,’ he said as he walked away.
‘That’s what this is about?’ I said loudly to his back. ‘You don’t like working for a chick?’
‘I do not work for you.’ Er Lang turned, faced me and summoned his halberd. The blade wasn’t the flimsy
type that made a noisy snap when flexed; this one was eight millimetres thick and honed to a sharp edge down one side of the blade and on both sides of the tip. ‘I serve the Jade Emperor and assist him when he is busy, engaged in the protection of his Kingdom. Because of the Dark Lord’s absence, His Celestial Majesty is fully engaged in directing the Celestial armies to keep the demon horde at bay. He does not have time to dwell on details such as you.’
‘I’m a detail?’ I said, incredulous.
‘Not for long,’ he said, held the blade in front of him and rushed me.
I stepped aside, moving faster than was humanly possible, and he easily matched my speed. He swung the halberd in a quick arc and smacked me square in the side of the head with it.
I didn’t fall, but I reeled back, the ground moving beneath me. I didn’t see the next blow but I felt it; he caught the blade under my chin and knocked my head back. He was so skilled that he struck me with the blade of the polearm without cutting me.
I somersaulted back, shaking my head to clear it. He stood and waited for me, his halberd still held in front of him in a defensive position.
Yield, the stone said.
I don’t think he’s hurt me enough to let it go yet, I said. But at least we know now that it’s about my gender and nothing to do with pursuing Simone.
You say that like it means he’s not going to kick your ass, the stone said.
I drew the Murasame and dropped the scabbard. I held the sword above my head in a defensive position, my left hand in front of me with two fingers raised, ready to use chi if necessary. Not that I had much chi left.
‘The Destroyer. The sword that thirsts for the blood of its victims. Fitting,’ Er Lang said, and came for me again. He swiped my sword out of the way and, before I had a chance to do anything, once again smacked me on the side of the head.
I reeled back again, disoriented, and shook my head. ‘Are you trying to damage my brain?’ I said. ‘Because you’re wasting your time. Everybody in the Academy knows I don’t have one.’
He tried to hit the side of my head again, and the Murasame swung around, almost by itself, and blocked the blow. The blade bit slightly into the wood of the halberd’s handle and we were locked together for a moment, both of us fiercely pulling at our weapons to free them.