‘Natural sleep, no pain, leave her to recover,’ Meredith said. ‘In a couple of hours wake her up and see if she can change back to human.’ She turned to me. ‘Magnificent job, madam. You can take it easy now.’
I stood up and toppled sideways.
Meredith caught me. ‘Oh, and congratulations, Master Gold. I think you just got engaged.’
‘My father will kill me,’ Gold said, his hand on Amy’s back.
‘Who is scarier: your father or her mother?’ Meredith said.
‘Oh, definitely her mother.’
‘Then you made the right decision.’ She hefted me in her arms. ‘Come on, missy, you’ve been overdoing it lately and need some serious rest.’
I woke, and had a moment of confusion as I saw the ceiling above the bed. Where was I? I looked left and nearly panicked: I was on the Celestial Plane, in the Imperial Residence of Wudang Mountain. Then I remembered that I didn’t need to be a snake, and I settled further under the silk. I was here. I had made it. But something was wrong; something bad had happened. Something terrible had happened and I couldn’t remember what it was; only the dark feelings of misery and despair that it brought me.
I sighed deeply and remembered.
Nothing bad had happened. I was feeling the grief for something that was yet to come. I often woke like this, feeling the loss. Something awful was going to happen to us in the near future and I had no idea what it was, only that it hung over all of Wudang.
I centred my chi and put the feeling aside. I was living in the present, enjoying the peace of now, and ready for the future when it crashed over us.
The four-poster was made of ebony, black with the deep sheen of many years of care. The dark grey curtains were embroidered with silver depictions of turtles and bats — symbols of longevity and good luck. The bed was flush against the wall, with a raised twenty-centimetre barrier around three sides to hold the covers in place, the fourth side left open. The room around me was five metres to a side, the walls hung with elegant ink paintings of sea creatures. A black sofa and coffee table in front of the open fireplace gave it a warm, comfortable atmosphere. I slapped the mattress next to me. They’d put me in the Emperor’s suite again, against my express orders. I’d commandeered a room in the servants’ quarters attached to the Imperial Residence and they should have put me in there.
I rotated to put my feet on the silk rug, pushed them into the slippers sitting next to the bed, and wandered into the en suite bathroom. Fortunately Michelle had demanded modern Western fittings when John had built the bathroom for her, so there wasn’t a squat toilet. However, there’d been a compromise about the decor and the entire bathroom was tiled with black marble, giving it a dated eighties look. I didn’t care, I just used it and wandered back out again.
‘You awake?’ I said.
‘You’ve only been out an hour or so,’ the stone said. ‘Ronnie Wong is in the gatehouse waiting for you. They’ve served lunch there so you can talk to him while you eat.’
‘Any complaints about Tom being allowed in untamed?’
‘Actually, no. General consensus is that he’s so interesting they’re willing to risk it.’
‘If anybody puts me to sleep in this bed again before John returns, I will personally take their head myself,’ I said as I pulled my clothes back on.
‘Even if it’s Simone?’
‘Bah.’
The gatehouse sat on the hillside outside the wall that protected the Mountain, in a grove of small cypress trees and surrounded by a tumble of granite boulders as tall as a man. It was a basic village house: two-storey and rectangular with a tiled roof. A living room, kitchen and dining room were downstairs, with two bedrooms and a bathroom above, all sparsely furnished because the administration of Wudang hardly ever met with demons there. It was too far for any but the largest demons to travel from Hell, and just the proximity to the Mountain scared them to death.
I walked in the front door and went into the dining room, Ben and Tom trailing behind me. Ronnie Wong and LK Pak were already there sitting at the table.
As soon as I walked in the door, Ronnie shot to his feet, knocking his chair over, and leapt backwards so violently that he knocked his glasses off. He stood spreadeagled on the wall behind him and stared at me, wide-eyed and trembling.
I backed up as well, then took a deep breath and controlled it.
‘You okay, Emma?’ LK said. ‘You look like you saw a ghost.’
‘I’m fine. I just had enhanced vision for a moment,’ I said.
I moved away from Ben and Tom, but Ronnie didn’t stop staring at me. It was definitely me, not Tom, that had freaked him out.
‘It’s me, Ronnie,’ I said. ‘What do you see?’
Ronnie retrieved his glasses, put them back on and peered at me. ‘Emma?’
‘You don’t even need the glasses,’ I said. ‘What did you see?’
He picked his chair up and returned it to its place. ‘I can’t really describe it,’ he said without looking at me.
I strode to him and he shifted uncomfortably away from me. I held my hand out. ‘Show me then.’
‘I’m not sure I want to touch you right now,’ he said, looking at my hand as if it was something toxic.
‘You’ve seen her serpent form many times; this can’t be what’s causing this,’ LK said. ‘Tell us what you saw.’
‘Serpent form?’ Ben said.
‘It’s a long story,’ I said. I didn’t lower my hand. ‘Show me.’
‘He can’t show you, you’re only a human. You need to be more than human to touch minds with a demon,’ LK said. ‘Don’t risk the damage from trying.’
I reached out, grabbed Ronnie’s hand and made the link.
He let his breath out in a long gasp, like he’d had the wind knocked out of him. ‘Holy shit.’
‘Did you just link to him?’ LK said.
‘Let me see what you saw, then I’ll show you what I saw,’ I said.
‘What did you see?’ LK said.
‘I’ll show you after he’s shown me,’ I said. ‘Do it, Ronnie.’
‘Wait,’ LK said, and came to us. He put his hand on my shoulder. ‘Good God, Emma, you really did that.’
‘Take a seat, Ben, Tom, this won’t take a moment,’ I said. ‘Help yourselves to the food if you like. The demon will be coming in a moment to take drinks orders.’
‘This is it,’ Ronnie said. ‘Tell me if you need me to back off.’
He showed me, and LK hissed quietly behind me. I wasn’t just a serpent; I was huge and black, my head brushing the ceiling. My eyes were as black as my scales, and I was covered in intimidating spikes over my head and down my back, with a frill around the back of my head instead of a cobra hood.
‘Looks like a Serpent form of John’s Turtle …’ I said, and my voice trailed off. I released Ronnie and fell to sit at the table, my head in my hands. ‘Oh dear Lord, no.’
‘More demonic than the Dark Lord,’ Ronnie said. ‘That thing was scary. Immeasurably big; I think it could take down the King easily. Immense destructive power, and so damn dark the centre of it was like looking into the Abyss. Whatever you were, Lady Emma, it certainly scared the living shit out of me, and I’m big enough to sire spawn on a Mother.’
‘You saw something too?’ LK asked me.
I nodded into my hand.
‘Are you concerned you’re his Serpent?’ Ronnie said, sitting next to me. ‘Is that what this is about? I’ve heard stories.’
I wiped my eyes. ‘If I’m his Serpent, then when he rejoins — well, that’s it, isn’t it? I’d be gone.’
‘You’re afraid of losing your identity into his?’ Ronnie said.
‘No, I’d welcome it,’ I said. ‘But for Simone, it would be the same as if I died. She’d gain him and lose me, and I’m like a mother to her. She’s lost enough family members as it is. I really can’t do it to her.’
‘You may not have a choice,’ Ronnie said.
I nodded.
/> ‘Show me what you saw,’ LK said to me.
I raised my hands and each of them took one. I reestablished the link and our minds touched.
LK was a human Immortal, not a Bodhisattva, so his soul didn’t have the ringing purity of a Buddha, but he was connected to the Universe and one with Eternity. His soul smelled of mint-fresh shen energy, intertwined with constantly regenerating ching energy, tasting of firelight and summer heat. His chi enveloped both and moved with his breathing, full of the essence of sunshine and autumn leaves. His Immortal nature sang in tune with the Universe, and was at the same time as small as an atom and as vast as a galaxy.
‘That I could attain such heights,’ Ronnie said with awe.
‘You have made the first step onto the Way,’ LK said.
‘It would take so long for me to travel there,’ Ronnie said.
‘You cannot travel to a Path, you are already on it,’ LK said. ‘And as you travel, time has less and less meaning. Eventually you are pure thought and time does not exist at all.’
Ronnie’s essence was the dark roiling thickness of demon, but there existed strands within it of chi; he had cast off his nature and turned, and was attempting to attain humanity. He didn’t taste of the foulness of demon; he was more like dark chocolate, deep and bitter, with the chi making sweeter and lighter strands through it. My heart went out to him; he’d turned hundreds of years before and still had achieved so little.
‘Remember what I said. Time is an illusion,’ LK said.
Ronnie nodded agreement inside my head.
I showed them what I’d seen when I walked in the door. I’d tasted LK’s pure Shen nature and Ronnie’s dark demon nature, made sour by his fear. I’d smelled Tom and Ben behind me; Tom’s demon nature was similar to Ronnie’s but in many ways different. Ronnie saw it as well and his mind glowed gold with the smell of spice and curiosity. Ben I saw as human; he was the only human there. Compared to LK his nature was earthy and rich, but he did have traces of something greater within him, like flashes of a deeper scent that came and went.
‘You aren’t supposed to be able to do that,’ LK said.
‘That’s something I haven’t heard anyone say in a very long time,’ I said.
‘No, Leo said it yesterday,’ the stone said. ‘And before you ask, I have no idea what you are.’
‘You don’t see people’s souls, you taste them,’ LK said. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. Usually we have a sight or sound analogue for the way we perceive the higher senses. Why are you experiencing them as smell and taste?’
‘Probably because I’m a snake,’ I said. ‘We work off taste and smell more than anything; that’s why we flick out our tongues all the time.’
‘Snake?’ Ben said weakly.
I released their hands and turned to speak to him. ‘Many spirits on the higher plane are the essence of nature, weather and animals,’ I said. ‘Dragons, tigers, wolves, foxes — many types of animals. Reptiles as well, including turtles, dragons, and snakes like me.’
‘Any cockroaches?’ Tom said, amused.
‘I’m glad we found you, Tom, you’re smart and brave and have transcended your nature,’ I said. ‘Only demons take the form of insects; they’re not intelligent enough to be Shen.’
‘I’m starting to feel less and less like a freak all the time,’ Tom said.
‘Oh, we’re all freaks, one way or another,’ I said.
‘Hear, hear,’ LK said. ‘Now that everybody’s established how scary we all are, let’s have a look at you, Tom.’
Tom’s eyes widened and he sat back in his chair.
‘Nobody’s going to hurt you; we’ll just look at you,’ I said. ‘No need to be concerned.’
I sat at the table and gestured around it. LK and Ronnie Wong could have been brothers: both appeared to be mid-thirties and were wearing plain white dress shirts and slacks and ugly plastic-rimmed glasses. ‘LK Pak is the Wudang Mountain Demon Master; he’s made an extensive study of the nature of demons. Ronnie Wong here is a Prince of Demonkind and exiled from Hell. He turned from the hosts of Hell and has aligned himself with the Celestial, but because of his nature and the strength of the seals he is still unable to enter Wudang uninvited.’
‘I wouldn’t go in anyway. One of your students might think I’m a threat,’ Ronnie said with good humour.
‘It is important at this point that you do not change to your demon form,’ LK said to Tom. ‘You would be destroyed.’
‘I won’t anyway,’ Tom said. ‘It tries to control me, and it thirsts for blood.’
I had a sudden horrible idea. ‘Do either of you know a woman called Kitty Kwok?’
They both started and shared a look.
‘I remember you mentioned a Kitty before, but it didn’t click until you said it again,’ Ben said. ‘Not Kitty Kwok; she said her name was Kitty Ho, same as my wife’s name. She came to visit us in Wales, said she was my wife’s sister, and my wife welcomed her.’ He grimaced. ‘But the way they behaved wasn’t like sisters at all. It was more like …’ He hesitated.
Tom said it for him. ‘Lovers.’
Ben nodded, his face full of misery.
‘Did she ever experiment on you, Tom?’ I said.
‘Not that I know of,’ Tom said.
‘Did you have needle tracks?’
They shared another look.
‘I accused him of taking drugs and he denied it,’ Ben said. ‘We had some huge arguments over it. He said he had no idea how the marks had got there.’
‘Emma,’ LK said, ‘I hate to suggest this, but —’
‘No,’ I said.
‘You wanted to find out what you are, ma’am,’ he said.
‘Don’t even think about it,’ I said. I rose and walked to the other side of the room. ‘We are not going there.’
‘What is it?’ Ben said.
‘Emma was filled with demon essence by Kitty Kwok and it turned her into a lamia, same as you, Tom. But she isn’t half-demon like you; she is supposed to be all human —’
I spun to shout at him. ‘I am all human! My mother has never cheated on my dad!’ I turned away again. ‘Don’t even think it.’
They were silent. I turned back and saw LK’s face.
‘Oh, no, you don’t,’ I said. ‘If you’re talking to the Tiger about my blood samples you can stop right now. I was born in Australia. I’m not half-Chinese so I can’t be half-demon. I resemble both my parents; it’s obvious.’
‘I wonder if they ever tried to hook you up with a demon?’ Ronnie said.
Suddenly April’s husband, Andy, was standing in front of me. I backed up until I was against the wall, breathing hard with loathing as he grinned at me, an expensive bunch of flowers in one hand and a set of car keys dangling from the other.
‘Emma, it’s okay, you’re on the Mountain,’ LK said.
I shook my head and snapped back. I was in the demon interview room on the periphery of the Mountain. I rubbed my hands over my face and returned to the table.
‘What happened?’ LK said.
‘I had a flashback,’ I said. ‘Most severe one I’ve ever had.’
‘PTSD?’ Ronnie said.
I nodded, miserable.
‘What’s PTSD?’ Vincent said.
‘Post-traumatic stress disorder,’ LK said. ‘Used to be called shell shock. You have enough extremely bad things happen to you and your mind never completely recovers. I didn’t know you suffered from this, Emma.’
‘That’s the first time it’s happened in front of anyone else,’ I said. ‘Don’t spread it around that I have this, please. I don’t want anyone else to know about it.’
‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ Ronnie said. ‘I have flashbacks myself. You go through enough, your brain keeps bringing it out and tormenting you with it because it can’t make it go away.’
‘You should both see someone,’ LK said.
‘I am,’ I said.
‘I’ve been studying human clinical psychology journ
als,’ Ronnie said. ‘I’ve even thought of studying psychiatry to add to my knowledge, but that would mean studying medicine and my physiology would come under scrutiny. Not a good idea.’
‘That was a pretty severe flashback,’ LK said.
‘I remembered,’ I said. ‘I just saw Andy Ho …’ I stopped. ‘I just saw Andy Ho, my friend April’s husband. It was before he married her — I was back at the kindergarten, still working for Kitty Kwok. He was trying to date me, promising me all sorts of stupid stuff, claiming he was so rich and could give me a life better than anything I’d ever experienced. He was trying to give me a car.’
‘But he was a demon,’ LK said.
‘He fathered a demon copy of Simone on April, and they generated a Mother copy of April as well,’ I said. ‘He was in league with Kitty.’
‘Same name as my wife’s family,’ Ben said. ‘Her name was Ho.’
‘But you never mentioned him trying to date you before, Emma,’ LK said.
‘I didn’t remember,’ I said. ‘I have no idea what the circumstances were around that flashback; I have no memory of him trying to date me. All I can remember is the terror and revulsion I felt towards him.’ I shivered and hugged myself. ‘Ugh, the idea of him even touching me freaks me out.’
‘Some of the damage Kitty did to you may be permanent,’ LK said. ‘It’s likely lost memories will continue to surface for the rest of your life.’ He pulled a notepad and a pen towards him and flipped the pad open.
‘They were filling me with demon essence in preparation for having a child with him,’ I said. ‘A child like Tom.’ I turned to Ben. ‘You and I have something in common; something that makes us different, and something these demons know about. I can’t wait to find Kitty Kwok Ho Man Yee and have a very serious talk with her.’
‘You need to track down whether you have any common ancestry or heritage and go find what it is,’ LK said, scribbling notes on the pad.
‘Where in Wales are you from?’ I asked Ben.
‘Cardiff, but my family originally came from the town of Holyhead. It’s spelt “Holy” but pronounced “Holly”. It’s on an island off the west coast of Wales called Holy Island.’
‘If that isn’t the perfect name for the home of Shen then I can’t think of one,’ Ronnie said.