‘Not if the other Regions work the same way ours does,’ One Twenty-Eight said. ‘Each of them could have their own King and Number One.’
‘What if another Region didn’t have someone as powerful as John to chase the demons underground?’ I said.
‘Then they’re living on the surface and feeding off humans, same as they used to do here,’ John said.
‘Doesn’t seem to be that way in any of the places we’ve been,’ I said.
‘That’s because we’ve stayed away from centres of conflict,’ John said. ‘Where there are demons, there’s bloodshed.’
‘Oh.’
John leaned on the office wall and crossed his arms over his chest, wincing as he put pressure on the stump. ‘Humans aren’t killers by nature. You’ve noticed that.’
‘I have,’ I said. ‘They have to be trained to take life. Murderers are usually mentally unstable.’
‘They’re happy to get into a scrap, but a lethal blow is usually an accident,’ John said. ‘As soon as demons interfere, you get killers. Many of them.’
‘You make us sound like a bunch of puppies,’ I said.
He leaned his head slightly to one side, amused. ‘I guess I see humans that way sometimes.’
‘Very apt description,’ the Tiger said. ‘Cute, adorable partners that are as dumb as shit and will bite your hand off as soon as lick it.’
‘I’ll tell Louise you said that,’ I said.
‘Pah. I’ve already told her that one a few times. She just rolls over and asks me to scratch her tummy.’
John raised his hand and stump in defeat. ‘How about we let the scientist finish?’
‘Oh no, don’t mind me, this is fascinating,’ One Twenty-Eight said with genuine enthusiasm. ‘Insight into the way the deities see us.’
‘As dinner, if you don’t get a move on,’ the Tiger said.
‘Anyway,’ One Twenty-Eight said, ‘Tom, the demon: easily big eighties, but he scans as human on every test we’ve put him through. The only way of detecting a demon like him is the black reptile over here.’
John bowed slightly in acknowledgement.
‘What about Ben?’ I said.
‘Ben. Now it gets good,’ One Twenty-Eight said. ‘Tom is a demon: he’s tougher than a normal human, can take a hell of a pounding before having to slow down; he’s slightly stronger than a human of his size, and of about average intelligence. Ben, on the other hand, is completely human — the Dark Lord confirms this. But he’s on the ninety-ninth percentile for intelligence, the one hundred and twentieth percentile for strength —’
‘He’s inhumanly strong?’
‘Exactly. Same for speed: he’s about twice as fast as a normal human. I have him generating chi after the third try, and the man’s nearly fifty.’
‘That’s unheard of,’ John said, levering himself upright and staring at the graphs on the screen.
‘I took blood,’ One Twenty-Eight said. ‘Tom’s DNA seems to be stock-standard human normal — well, what I’ve unravelled of it anyway. I’m not doing the whole decoding — it would take me years, even using Lord Gold’s stone technology. Ben’s DNA didn’t seem anything different either, until I matched it with Emma’s —’
‘Oh my,’ I said.
‘— and found some common strands in their X chromosomes. You need to be female — double-X — for the full coding to come out.’
‘And that coding is?’ I said.
‘Snake. Of course, it’s not scientifically possible for your DNA to make you change into a snake, but here we are, able to turn into animals, and we’ve all given up trying to work out why. You go as far as you can with science, and when the laws start breaking you stop and say, “Okay, not working any more. Celestial bullshit from here on.”’
‘So my mother or sisters could be snakes too?’
‘It seems to have been activated by something to do with him,’ One Twenty-Eight said, nodding to John. ‘Something about his dark energy has made this particular DNA strand start doing stuff that it never did before. It’s not just the DNA; it’s the nature of the energy combining with it. Having the strand on both X chromosomes is a prerequisite as well. It’s recessive, so you could be the only one in the family with the gene.’
‘The demons were right,’ I said with wonder. ‘Strong inherent snake nature, activated by close personal contact with the biggest snake on the Plane.’
‘Why is everybody constantly referring to me as the snake on the Plane?’ John said, frustrated. ‘It’s becoming extremely annoying.’
‘What?’ the Tiger said, his voice rough with amusement. ‘You’re sick of being called a motherfucking snake —’
‘Oh, shut up, that was old before he even came back,’ I said. ‘I’ll explain later, John. What else do you have for us, One Twenty-Eight?’
He shrugged. ‘That’s it: a week’s work with five assistants summed up in ten minutes.’
‘What do we do with Ben and Tom now?’
‘Take them to Holy Island,’ he said. ‘And bring me along as well. I seriously want to have a look at what’s living there. No way is that place anything resembling normal. If it’s not a gateway to the Western Plane, I’ll eat my whiskers.’
‘Did Ben know he’s close on superhuman?’ I said.
‘Did you?’
That stopped me. ‘No.’
‘Never had any reason to test it out,’ he said.
‘But I sucked at PE.’
John was confused. ‘PE?’
‘Sport at school,’ One Twenty-Eight said. ‘I doubt it showed before adulthood. In fact, as a child the non-standard DNA probably made you weaker than your peers.’
‘Yeah, like I said, I sucked at PE.’
‘What about schoolwork?’
I snorted with derision. ‘I learned damn fast in Montford not to do too well academically. It was an open invitation for a schoolyard thrashing.’
‘Your parents would be horrified to hear you say that,’ John said with wonder. ‘Didn’t the school encourage you? Wouldn’t they do something about you being bullied for achieving good results?’
‘This was during the eighties,’ I said. ‘Bullying wasn’t even a concept, and if it was, everyone pretended that it didn’t happen. The teachers didn’t give a damn; provided I wasn’t getting those schoolyard thrashings, they were out of trouble too. I think they deliberately lowered my grades to help me out.’
‘That is unbelievable,’ the Tiger said.
‘The West is a very strange place sometimes,’ One Twenty-Eight said.
‘That it is,’ John said. ‘If we’re done here, we should go to the hospital and arrange an ultrasound. I would also like to speak to Clarissa; order her to take Michael back.’
‘And you say the West is strange,’ I said. ‘You don’t order someone to take their fiancé back. It’s a decision she has to make on her own.’
‘A hundred years ago, I could have ordered her to marry him on the spot and she would have had no recourse,’ he said. ‘It would be considered normal.’
‘A hundred years ago, you would not be hoping that your son and his male partner would do something similar.’
‘Conceded,’ he said. ‘The Jade Emperor still won’t permit same-sex marriage, and it’s about time someone challenged it.’ His expression went wistful. ‘Maybe we can use the concept of flagrantly defying the Jade Emperor’s own rule to tempt Leo to remain alive.’ His expression changed to mischief. ‘Or I could be female when you and I get married.’
‘Oh, I am behind that one hundred per cent,’ the Tiger growled.
‘Your ongoing slavering over my female human form is bordering on perversity,’ John said.
‘That’s me, a furry old pervert,’ the Tiger said, unfazed.
‘He only has the hots for you ’cause he can’t have you; same as with me,’ I said.
‘The thought of both of you together in female form keeps me warm at night,’ the Tiger said.
John sighed. ‘I
really don’t feel like executing you right now, Ah Bai, so give it up. You’re over the line and you know it.’
‘Lady Emma executed me forty-three times while you were gone,’ Bai Hu said. ‘Talk about perversion.’
‘That was the main reason for your executions,’ I said.
‘Let’s head to the hospital and do these tests,’ John said. ‘Then we’ll see about lopping the head off this damn cat. Maybe Emma can make it forty-four.’
‘Woo-hoo,’ the Tiger said without enthusiasm, and led us out.
The ultrasound confirmed it: I still had one ovary left.
The relief turned to grief when we went to visit Clarissa. She was sitting next to the window in a wheelchair in her solitary ward. She ignored us when we came in, and we pulled up chairs to sit with her. She was bald and painfully thin, her eyes were sunken and her collarbones jutted from beneath the hospital robe. Her pale skin was traced with a network of blue veins and her hands were curled up like claws.
‘Do you know what they did to us?’ she said without looking away from the window.
‘The boys won’t tell us the details,’ John said. ‘I know Kitty was feeding off all of you.’
‘Kitty and the other one made bets every feeding session on whether or not this would be the one that killed me,’ Clarissa said mildly.
I touched her hand. ‘You’re safe now.’
‘I don’t feel safe.’ She turned and studied my face as if seeing it for the first time. ‘When they brought the boys in and put them in the next cage, I was so happy because I had someone to talk to. We shared stories about living on the Celestial Plane.’ She smiled slightly. ‘Not all it’s cracked up to be, actually.’ Her face went expressionless. ‘She fed off them too. That meant she took less of me, and I would live longer. For some stupid reason, I was glad that I’d live longer.’ Her voice gained a desperate edge. ‘I was sure Michael would come to get me.’
‘I told Michael you were dead,’ John said. ‘It is my fault he did not come searching for you.’
‘I understand that,’ she said. She was silent for a long moment, then she said, ‘They raped the boys.’ Her voice cracked. ‘They never touched me, but those bitches raped the boys. They cried and begged them to stop, and the women laughed and kept asking them if they were enjoying it.’
‘We didn’t know,’ I said.
‘I need to tell their families,’ John said.
‘They raped them so systematically and so often — collecting semen — that the boys bled when they did it, but they did it anyway.’
‘Genetic material,’ John said.
‘They made me watch,’ Clarissa said, her voice still mild.
‘Would you like to talk to them?’ I said.
She raised her hands. ‘I got out, you know. They tried to make me contribute to one of their little … sessions, and the minute I was out of the cage I took off. I made a run for it, and they caught me and did this to me.’ She stretched her fingers slightly, but they remained bent. ‘That’s as far as they go. They hit me with some sort of black stuff, then they electrocuted me, then they beat me, and then they threw me back in the cage.’
‘If it’s any consolation, we will find them and stop them,’ I said.
She shrugged, making the gown hang off her even more. ‘Nope.’
‘Would you like to go home to your parents?’ John said.
‘And watch my dad fool around while Mom’s in China again? No, thanks,’ Clarissa said. She dropped her hands into her lap. ‘I’ll stay here for a while, then decide what to do.’
‘Michael’s heartbroken that you won’t see him, Clarissa.’
She looked out the window. ‘He’s one of them. You’re all them. You’re just as bad as those women are.’ She turned back to speak to John. ‘How many did you lose? More than a hundred, and look at you. Not even slightly concerned.’
‘I am a general. That is my army. When you go into battle, you expect casualties,’ John said. ‘My soldiers know that they may have to pay the ultimate price for the safety of those on the Planes. That is what being a soldier is; and I honour them for it.’
‘I’m not a soldier,’ Clarissa said.
‘And by all the rules of engagement, you are a non-combatant and should have remained untouched,’ John said.
‘Yeah, sure. Right. I see. I’m just collateral damage. A non-combatant caught in the crossfire. Another person trying to keep her head down and getting hit anyway,’ Clarissa said. She turned back to the window. ‘Could you leave me alone now? I don’t think I have anything more to say to you.’
‘Let Michael come talk to you,’ I said. ‘He can help you.’
‘He’s Immortal now, isn’t he?’ Clarissa said without looking away from the window.
‘That he is,’ John said.
‘Then I don’t think I ever want to see him again. I doubt the mighty Immortal wants to have anything much to do with the little broken human girl.’
‘He does,’ I said. ‘He loves you. He refused Immortality because he thought you were dead.’
‘Just go now,’ she said, not hearing me. ‘I’m tired, and I’m done with all of you. Leave me alone.’
‘Can we come back later?’ I said, but she ignored me.
She didn’t look away from the window as John quietly led me out.
We made a stop at the halls on top of the Mountain before we returned to our offices. A group of seniors was practising hand-to-hand on the square in front of the halls, led by Liu in his saffron robes. John stopped to watch them for a moment, and the students didn’t hesitate, continuing the set. John nodded with satisfaction and we moved on.
We went around the edge of the square and up the steps to the entrance of Dragon Tiger. The hall, at fifty metres long, was slightly smaller than Yuzhengong and faced east. Incense smoke and the chanting of the Buddhist nuns floated from inside. The statues of the Three Purities that normally resided in the hall had been moved to Yuzhengong, and rosewood tables were set against its walls. A group of four nuns, bald and tiny in their plain brown robes, knelt at the centre chanting the sutras. They didn’t look up when we entered.
The tables on all three sides of the hall held photographs of the dead, with candles either side of them and offerings of food and flowers in front. Similar memorials had been set up in Taoist temples back down on the Earthly. The photographs would remain here, honoured by the sutras, for six weeks, until the Taoist ceremony of passing over with the symbolic travel of the soul to the Higher Plane and the burning of the paper effigies for the next life. Then the photographs would be sent to the families, and red wooden tablets embossed in gold with the students’ names would be placed in cabinets in Taoist temples near to the families’ homes.
Some of the remains had already been cremated and moved to cemeteries. In Hong Kong, these were multi-storey concrete buildings with niches for the ashes, ideally placed for fung shui on hillsides overlooking the water. We had made the decision not to purchase burial plots for any of the students resident in Asia: so many people being buried in the ultra-expensive plots by the same group at once would attract attention.
We stopped inside the temple door and lit incense to place in the large brazier before the nuns, paying our respects to all the dead. Heads bowed, we contemplated the suffering this Heavenly war had caused, then rose, bowed to the nuns — who continued to ignore us — and went to perform the same ritual at Purple Mist, which was also hosting remembrances for the dead.
Jade and Gold were waiting for us at the bottom of the steps as we emerged, and fell into step beside us as we returned to the offices. Jade held a clipboard and spoke as we walked.
‘I’ve arranged all the funerals, my Lord, my Lady. I have written a press release, and I’m in the middle of personally speaking to all the families concerned.’
‘Any over-enthusiastic media attention?’ I said.
‘None to report. They’re seeing it as “just another earthquake in China”.’
‘Good.’
‘Nothing further?’ John said.
‘All is handled.’
‘Keep us updated on the schedules for the funerals. I would like to attend as many as I can,’ I said.
She nodded. ‘Ma’am.’
‘Dismissed,’ John said.
Jade bowed slightly to us and peeled off to return to her office.
‘I have Zara in the Dark Lord’s office; you said you wanted to see the recordings around her damage,’ Gold said.
We passed under a tree in a small courtyard, and a group of juniors who were studying together watched us with awe as we passed, then quickly dropped and saluted us.
John gestured towards the students as he spoke to Gold. ‘Let the more junior ones know the protocol, Gold. Someone should have told them.’
Gold nodded. ‘Understood.’
When we reached the small courtyard in the centre of the administrative complex, John stopped. He smiled slightly, and Gold and I waited for him.
The quality of the air changed, becoming cooler and softer. Fat snowflakes drifted down among us, and I held my hand out to catch one, its icy coldness stinging my palm. They melted as they touched the ground.
John inhaled deeply and let it out again. ‘Now I feel at home.’
He continued to his office, with Gold and me following him through the lightly floating snow.
‘Don’t waste your energy on weather manipulation,’ I said.
He sat at his desk in his office, the French doors on two sides behind him framing the falling snow. ‘I didn’t. That was natural.’
‘Quickly check for your Serpent then,’ I said as Gold and I sat across from him.
‘Already,’ he said, and turned to Zara, who was sitting on his desk in the form of a rough diamond, five centimetres across. ‘Is there anything interesting either side of the damage?’
‘There is something you should see,’ Zara said.
The room expanded and collapsed, and we were in a beautiful indoor garden, where channels of water ran between raised brick planters filled with shrubs. The walls were fifty metres away, white framed with brown wood; and there didn’t appear to be a ceiling. It was full of light coming from everywhere at once, but there were no visible light sources. The Demon King and Rhonda were strolling side by side through the garden, talking. He was in his young human form, with blood red hair, wearing a pair of maroon jeans and a black silk shirt. She was wearing a simple sundress of bright coral and turquoise flowers that accentuated her pale beauty.