Sylvie took a couple of steps towards the Tiger and glared at him. ‘Back off, asshole.’
The Tiger changed back to Celestial Form and raised his clawed hands, still grinning. ‘Point taken. Backing off, lovelies. But,’ his grin widened, ‘any time you want some fun, you know where to look.’
‘I’d rather play with a Snake Mother,’ Precious said.
The Tiger placed one hand over his heart. ‘I’m wounded.’
‘Oh, good,’ Sylvie said, and moved closer, saluting me. ‘Lady Emma. What do we have here?’
I opened my mouth to reply but was interrupted by Michael striding to the Tiger and punching him so hard in the mouth that the Tiger reeled back, stunned.
Michael remained staring at the Tiger, standing in a long defensive stance.
The Tiger glared at him, shocked, then raised one clawed hand in dismissal. ‘Whatever, kid. You can’t stop me from being what I am. Deal.’
‘Gold, please do me the favour of relaying these events just past to my mother’s stone, Zara,’ Michael said through his teeth. ‘I’m sure my mother would like to see exactly what she is committing herself to.’
‘Won’t do you any good at all, boy,’ the Tiger said with malice. ‘She knows how I am and loves me for it. And I love her, as much as I love any of my wives. Like I said…’ He leaned closer to Michael, grinning. ‘Deal.’
Michael drew his sword, ready to attack. The Tiger’s grin widened with anticipation.
‘Stand down, Michael,’ I said loudly. ‘I acknowledge that he’s insulted you, but unfortunately right now we need his claws. Feel free to call him out later though, and have it out in the Arena if you have to.’
Michael resheathed his sword, glowering at the Tiger. ‘Ma’am.’
‘Precious, Silver,’ I said. ‘Looks like this is the nest of Demon Prince Six. He’s the one that’s been messing with stones for the last ten years or so. I’ve called you in because of your alignment.’
Silver nodded. ‘Understood, ma’am. We should be able to help control anything stone-based that we encounter.’
Precious concentrated. ‘I was present when we investigated the seals on the nest in Kowloon City, ma’am, and this is something similar—stone essence used as a barrier that not even a powerful dragon could pierce.’
‘That is very bad news,’ the stone in my ring said.
‘This time we’re going to nail Six down,’ I said. ‘It has Leo, and it’s been experimenting on and killing stones.’ I gestured to the stairwell at the end of the corridor. ‘Let’s go.’
We went down the stairs together. Each flight was about six steps, then they turned ninety degrees and went down a further six steps. They seemed to spiral down for a very long time.
‘I feel like I’m in an Escher drawing,’ Simone said.
Gold gasped behind me and rushed down a couple of flights ahead, then stopped, staring at the wall. He looked stricken.
The wall had been splashed with black mud, like an inkblot. The stones all gathered in front of it, hovering at eye level.
‘That isn’t what I think it is, is it?’ I said.
Gold dropped his head and shook it. ‘I knew him.’
‘I’m scared, Daddy,’ Gold’s baby said.
‘Take him out,’ I said, just as Gold said, ‘I want to take him out.’
Gold turned and saluted me. ‘By your leave.’
‘Go.’
Gold turned and he and his child headed back up the stairs together.
‘Two stones as escorts, please,’ I said.
A couple of stones detached themselves from the group and floated up the stairs with Gold.
‘And a Rabbit,’ I added, remembering the nature of the demon we were facing. ‘No, two Rabbits. One stone, two Rabbits.’
‘Are you sure you can spare that many of us?’ Tu Gong Wei said. ‘There are only six of us here; that would cut our numbers by a third.’
‘How about,’ the Tiger growled, ‘you stop questioning every single order you’re given and do as the First fucking Heavenly General orders you, human.’
‘I was merely saying—’ Tu Gong Wei began, his voice rising in pitch.
‘I respect your suggestion. Two Rabbits to accompany Gold,’ I said.
‘All right, all right,’ Tu Gong Wei said, and gestured for a couple of the Rabbits to go with Gold. He sighed with resignation. ‘And she’s just as human as I am.’
‘That’s debatable,’ the Tiger said.
He proceeded down the stairs, the rest of us following. At the bottom, we entered another corridor, similar to the one above, with grey brick walls and red painted-wood doorways. The floor was plain stone and, although there were no windows in the classroom-sized rooms to the right and left, the entire area was as brightly lit as if we were in daylight.
We stopped when we heard a scrabbling sound at the end of the corridor.
Before we could investigate, the Tiger shouted from the next room, ‘Come and see this.’
The room was obviously a basic laboratory; a dark green metal tube, about a metre across, filled one corner of the room from floor to ceiling, and a bank of 1950s style gauges and meters with an old-fashioned monotone monitor sat against the wall next to it. On the other wall were metal shelves holding a number of small green boxes, each about ten centimetres square. They appeared to be made of jade.
‘That’s a scanning electron microscope, a real vintage one,’ the Tiger said.
He strode to the shelves and peered at the jade boxes. He opened one and a stone flew out, then took the human form of a middle-aged Chinese man. He knelt before us and saluted, then quickly moved to the shelves and opened other boxes, releasing other stone Shen.
When the stones were freed, each of them took one of the jade boxes and smashed it on the floor, one of the female stones stamping on the pieces to make sure they were completely destroyed.
‘The demons knew you were coming and started clearing out about two hours ago,’ one of the stones said. ‘They had a few very unusual demons with them.’
‘Any clue where they went?’ I asked the stone.
‘They did not say where they were going, but they didn’t seem terribly concerned,’ the stone said. ‘Apparently they were very excited at the prospect of collecting something more valuable than all of us put together.’
‘Simone?’ I said.
The stone shook his head. ‘No idea.’
‘They were experimenting on us, ma’am,’ said one of the female stones that had just been freed.
There was a spark from the electron microscope in the corner of the room and the Monkey King yelled.
‘Sticking your fingers in, eh?’ the Tiger said with amusement. The Monkey King growled something unintelligible at him.
‘There is another of us in there,’ one of the freed stone Shen said.
The Monkey King ducked to check the sample chamber of the microscope. He pulled his wishing staff out of his ear where he had been storing it, expanded it to normal weapon size, and tried to prise the sample chamber open.
The Tiger swaggered to the microscope and flipped a switch, causing a hiss of escaping air that made the Monkey King jump back. The Tiger pushed a button on the side of the chamber and it opened like the drawer of a filing cabinet. He and the Monkey King peered inside the chamber, then the Tiger reached in and pulled out a golden stone.
‘Pure gold?’ the Monkey King said. ‘There aren’t many of them.’
‘No,’ the Tiger said. ‘They coat them in gold to get better resolution through the microscope.’ He turned to the other stones that had been held captive. ‘Were any of you put inside this?’
They shook their heads.
The Tiger went to the oldest stone Shen and held out the golden stone. ‘I think being cut in half, coated in gold, put in a vacuum and bombarded with electrons…has killed it.’
‘No,’ one of the stones moaned softly.
The room suddenly became very still and quiet. I recognise
d the silence that happened when a large number of Shen were discussing something telepathically.
‘I would like to know what’s being discussed,’ I said.
‘Although they don’t appear very emotional, all the stone Shen are extremely agitated at what’s happened here,’ Michael said. ‘Some of them knew the black stone that was put up as a warning outside, and those that were held captive in the boxes are wailing with horror at what’s happened to their companion. They have been held here together for a couple of weeks, and the other Shen have been searching unsuccessfully for them. Apparently three or four other stones that were also held in the jade cages were taken out and probably killed in a similar way.’
‘You guys can leave if you don’t think you can handle it,’ I told the freed stones. ‘We need to find where the demons are headed, and gather a force to stop them.’
They ignored me.
‘Listen!’ I shouted, and the thick silence eased. ‘Let’s not just stand around here wailing about what has happened to our friends. Let’s find any others that are being held captive, and track down the owner of this nest! Don’t you want to find Six?’
They all stared blankly at me.
I gestured towards the door. ‘Let’s go find our friends, and then hunt down the one that did this.’ I didn’t wait for them; I went out into the corridor, turned left and followed it to the end, then stopped.
There was a gaping hole leading into a cave about two metres wide and high, roughly carved out of the limestone rock. It smelt of sweet flowers and mown grass. I hefted my weapon and walked in.
The Tiger hurried to join me on my right, and Simone appeared on my left.
‘This nest is huge,’ she said softly. ‘And the Tu Jia had no idea it was here.’
‘That guy in charge of your Rabbit Village needs a good kick up the ass,’ the Tiger growled. ‘Regardless of the fact that you’re a chick, he needs to show more respect.’
‘As if being female had anything to do with it,’ Simone huffed.
‘Whatever,’ I said. ‘Can you guys sense anything?’
‘No,’ Simone said, and the Tiger shook his head.
The corridor changed from oval to square, with stone tiles on the floor and more polished walls.
‘They built this first, and then linked up with the complex under the cave,’ Simone said. ‘I wonder if this is an invasion, demon against demon.’
Suddenly everything went perfectly dark and quiet. My own breathing was loud in my ears. I attempted to move but found myself in some sort of casing that was stopping me from doing anything. I had a moment of panic and then realised that I had no difficulty breathing.
‘Stone?’ I said.
The stone wailed with terror in my head.
‘Stone, calm down. Where are we?’
If the stone could have panted it would have. ‘We’re going to die, we’re going to run out of air, we’re locked up, it’s closing in, we’re going to be crushed—’
‘Stone!’ I shouted. ‘We’re not dying, it’s not closing in! What is holding us?’
The stone made a high-pitched ringing noise.
‘Get a hold of yourself!’ I shouted. ‘You’re not helping. Where are we?’
I felt a blow on the side of my abdomen, but couldn’t move to avoid it. To hell with this. I concentrated, and filled the Murasame with chi, making the interior of my prison glow. It was a stone Shen, holding me inside it.
‘Are you holding me inside you?’ I asked my stone.
‘No!’ it shouted. ‘Someone else is holding us, and they’re going to crush you!’
‘I’m not being crushed. Let me see if I can burn my way out,’ I said.
I loaded the Murasame with chi energy, making the blade glow with an eerie black flame. I levered my hand so that the blade touched the stone surrounding me. Nothing happened.
‘Try demon essence,’ the stone said, sounding desperate. ‘Get us out of here!’
‘Absolutely bloody useless in a crisis,’ I grumbled under my breath. I loaded the blade with demon essence, touched it to the walls of my prison, and they exploded outwards in a shower of gravel.
I looked around. I was in the same place, the cavern under the nest, and the Tiger and Simone were standing next to me, their faces fierce with desperation. Some human-shaped stone figures stood nearby—obviously this had happened to a few of our group.
I kept the Murasame loaded with demon essence and went to the nearest figure. I shaded my eyes and touched the blade to the stone.
‘No, Emma, wait!’ Simone shouted, but it was too late. The stone shape exploded outwards in a shower of gravel, releasing Precious, who blinked at the light.
I turned to Simone. ‘What?’
‘Those stone prisons are the stone Shen that were held here,’ the Tiger said. ‘You just killed two of them.’
I turned back to the stone prisons. ‘Oh no.’
‘They turned on us,’ Simone said. ‘They enveloped you in casings. We’ve been trying to talk sense to them, and even strike them to make them come around, but they won’t budge.’
‘Touch me to one,’ the stone in my ring said.
I went to one of them and touched the stone to it.
‘I can’t talk to it,’ the stone said. ‘It’s controlled. They’ve done something to it. Destroy it.’
‘No.’ I turned. ‘Precious, come and have a look.’
Precious approached the stone prison and put her hand on it, concentrating. ‘Silver is in here,’ she said. ‘Give me a moment, we’re talking about options.’ She lowered her head. ‘Nothing.’
‘Move back,’ I said, then loaded the Murasame with demon essence, and blew up the stone Shen.
‘What are you doing, Emma?’ Simone cried.
The Tiger attempted to take my arm as I loaded the sword again, but he jerked back and shook his hand. ‘Shit!’
I went to each of the stone Shen in turn, blowing them up with demon energy, and freeing Michael, Na Zha, Sylvie and the Rabbits. When I was done, I turned to face the rest of the group.
‘Is that you, Emma?’ Simone said, sounding forlorn.
‘Of course it’s me.’
‘You killed them!’
‘That’s right. I killed them. So that means they’re on the tenth level of Hell now, freed from the control, right?’
Simone hesitated, then turned to the Tiger. ‘Uncle Bai?’
The Tiger didn’t reply for a moment, then said, his voice gruff, ‘She’s right. They’re in Hell, and they’ll be back soon.’
‘Ordinary humans aren’t really supposed to know about the existence of Hell,’ the Monkey King said.
‘Well, since I’ve been there under Celestial sanction, I guess the rules have changed,’ I said.
I studied the group of stone Shen that had come with us. ‘Are you guys sure you won’t be controlled by this demon as well?’
The stones were silent; probably discussing among themselves. I waited for them. We didn’t need about fifty of them turning on us.
‘Since we haven’t been held by this demon, we shouldn’t be affected,’ one of the stones said. ‘Let’s go. We have unfinished business here.’
We continued into the nest, down the tiled grey stone corridor. It reminded me unpleasantly of the nest under Kowloon City where Simon Wong had held Simone.
The corridor opened out into a nest cavern, with indentations for Mothers; but it was deserted, not even eggs left behind.
‘Looks like it’s been evacuated,’ Na Zha said.
‘The King tipped them off,’ the Tiger said.
On the other side of the nest cavern was another corridor, and we all went down it. It started to slope downhill and the sides became rougher. We arrived at a smaller cavern, only about fifteen metres across, with rough walls but a tiled floor. A dead Mother in True Form lay on the floor near one wall. The three Leo copies that John had mentioned lay on their stomachs in the centre, dressed in old-fashioned paisley cotton pyjamas. The
room smelt strongly of frangipani flowers, pungent and sweet.
The rest of the group, except for the Monkey King and the Tiger, put their hands over their noses.
‘Oh my God, that is awful,’ Michael said. ‘I thought out in the cavern was bad, but this is enough to make you throw up.’
I went to one of the Leo copies and turned it over. The frangipani smell was coming from it. It seemed uninjured, but its stomach was bloated from death. I checked the inside of its wrist—it was number two.
‘Do the other two Leos have numbers?’ I said.
Michael and Na Zha checked them.
‘This is number three,’ Na Zha said.
‘Five here,’ Michael said.
‘That’s two, three and five here, and the one that we rescued from Sham Shui Po was four. I wonder if number one is the real Leo,’ Simone said.
‘We’ll know when we find it,’ I said. I glanced at the Tiger. ‘Can you take these copies to the West and have a look inside?’
‘Good idea. I’ll take them with me when we’re done here,’ the Tiger said.
I rose and brushed off my jeans. ‘We need to find more information than this. Let’s have a look around.’
CHAPTER 26
The corridor didn’t have any other junctions or tunnels off it; it just headed straight and slightly downwards.
‘If we continue down here far enough, we’ll end up in Hell,’ the Monkey King said with amusement.
After about four hundred metres we reached a pair of red wooden double doors with the Door Gods painted on them. We stopped.
‘I can’t sense anything on the other side,’ Simone said.
‘Is this an entrance to Hell?’ Michael asked Na Zha.
‘Nah, man, Hell’s a lot further down,’ Na Zha said. ‘Doors would be the same though.’ He paused, thoughtful for a moment. ‘Tell you what. Everybody move back, and us big Shen will open it up and have a look.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ the Tiger said. ‘Everybody back. Just me, Sun Wu Kong and Na Zha to have a look.’
‘And me,’ Simone said, moving to stand next to them.
The Tiger opened his mouth to say something to Simone, then smiled slightly and closed it again.