‘I’m not really hungry,’ I said, distracted by the silence.
‘Tea?’
‘Maybe later.’ I headed out the front door of the Residence, then turned back. ‘Where’s Simone?’
‘Still asleep, ma’am.’
‘Leave her be. Don’t wake her up.’
‘That’s what the Dark Lord said about you, ma’am.’
‘I see.’
I headed through the silent Mountain — the only sound was the warm spring breeze through the pines and the soft patter of gentle rain — towards the administrative area. As I neared the far side of the compound I heard subdued conversation from the mess.
Zara wasn’t at her desk and I went into John’s office. He was studying his computer intently and she was in her stone form on the desk next to him.
‘Good, you’re up,’ he said. ‘Come and look over these figures for me.’
‘The numbers are correct,’ Zara said, indignant.
I went to him, put my arm around his shoulders and we shared a kiss. We both turned to the sheet and I saw that he was working out how many evacuees we would have if every student brought their immediate family up to the Mountain.
‘We could do it at a squeeze,’ I said. ‘Four hundred will stretch our resources, but it’s doable.’
‘They’ll want to bring more than their immediate families though,’ he said, scrolling through the sheet. ‘Grandparents. Their siblings’ families. Aunts and uncles — the number could easily be double.’ He sighed and stretched. ‘Time to go talk to them, I suppose.’
‘Big rousing speech?’ I said. ‘Boost their spirits, reassure and inspire them to new levels of enthusiasm?’
‘No. Grim truth,’ he said. ‘Bring them down to earth and let them know exactly how bad things are so they can make an intelligent informed decision about whether they stay or go.’
‘This is why I love you,’ I said.
He rose and nodded to Zara. ‘I’d appreciate your help as well, Zara.’ He took a deep breath and ran one hand down his face. ‘All right, let’s do this.’
The students were sitting around the tables with the remains of their breakfasts in front of them; the demons were clearing plates. All of them became absolutely silent when they saw us enter.
John stopped at the front of the room. ‘Leave the dishes,’ he said, and the demon staff went back to the kitchen. ‘No, I want you to hear this as well. All staff to attend me.’
The demons crept out of the kitchen, some still holding towels.
John turned to the students and raised his voice. ‘Listen to what I have to say, then there’ll be time for questions when I’m done talking.’ He linked his hands behind his back and paced in front of them, his soft voice boosted by telepathy to be easily heard by all. ‘It seems only yesterday I did this for the first time when the Academy was based in Hong Kong. And now I’m doing it again.’ He stopped, sighed and lifted his head. ‘Hell has fallen. The Celestial armies are close to wiped out. We hope to regroup and retake Hell, but right now there is nothing to stop the horde of Hell from marching on the Earthly Plane and subjugating it. You are all that the Mountain has left. Except for a very small group of Shen, every other Disciple …’ He hesitated, and when he spoke his voice was rough with misery. ‘Every other Disciple is dead.’
A few of the students broke down, crying into their table napkins, and others comforted them.
John continued to pace in front of them. ‘The demons’ next objective will be conquest of the Earthly. If you are down there, you will be a target; but I want to give you a choice. You can stay here where you will be safe, and help us defend the Mountain if the horde try to invade Heaven. I can also offer sanctuary to your immediate families. No one else. Parents and siblings, that is all. No in-laws, no nieces or nephews, uncles, aunts, cousins or grandparents. Your immediate families only.’
One of the students waved his hand, obviously wanting to ask a question.
‘I said when I’m done, Bernie,’ John said with amused exasperation. ‘I swear you are the most impatient Disciple on the Mountain. Let me finish.’
Bernie dropped his hand.
‘The other option is that you return home to your families on the Earthly.’ A few hands shot up. ‘The answer to your question is: no. We are not expecting open warfare on the Earthly Plane. The demons have not planned to take the Earthly by force; they will take it by economic infiltration. Your families should be reasonably safe if you do not draw attention to yourselves, and you can use your skills to defend them against the oncoming invasion if things become much worse.’
The hands all dropped.
‘Good,’ John said. ‘I will give you the rest of the day to make the decision: go down and protect your wider families, or bring your immediate families up here. Immediate families only. There will be no exceptions. Now ask your questions.’
‘I have two children with my ex-wife,’ one of the Disciples called out.
‘Isabelle and Dominic can come, Rene,’ John said. ‘Alison, your ex, can’t.’
‘My parents died when I was young and my grandmother raised me —’
‘I know that, Beatrice,’ John said. ‘If I make an exception for you, everyone else will want the same lenience. If you are that concerned about her, go down to the Earthly and be with her.’ He looked around at them. ‘Any further questions?’
Nobody put their hand up. A few of them put their arms around each other’s shoulders or held hands in silent solidarity.
Emma, can you arrange this? It will be complicated.
I nodded.
Thank you.
‘Very well. Lady Emma will manage this. I remind you again, Disciples: no exceptions. Immediate family only. Speak to her when you have made your decision. Dismissed.’
‘Salute your Master!’ I shouted.
As one, the students rose from their chairs, fell to one knee and saluted John. He nodded to them and went out.
I shouted again. ‘Come and see me in my office when you’ve decided. And I remind you again: no exceptions, and I will hold fast to that rule.’ I dropped my voice. ‘Let’s go and wait for the deluge, Zara. I think a lot of students are going to be very upset.’
Zara squeaked with dismay.
It was after lunch before I’d worked through the queue of students and processed their requests. Many of them were still thinking about their options and hadn’t made up their minds.
‘No more right now,’ Yi Hao said from the office door. ‘Take a break, ma’am, you work too hard.’
‘She shouldn’t be working at all, it’s Saturday,’ my mother said loudly outside my office. ‘Oh, hello, Yi Hao. It’s about time Emma gave you a name, you know.’
‘You don’t understand, Mrs Donahoe,’ Yi Hao said. ‘It’s a tremendous honour to be the Dark Lady’s Number One.’
‘Mum!’ I yelled. I ran to her and embraced her in a huge hug.
All the family were there, crowding into Yi Hao’s office and overflowing into the courtyard outside: Mum, Dad, both my sisters, their husbands and their children. Tears filled my eyes as I hugged everybody, laughing with delight.
‘Thank you,’ I said when we’d settled. ‘Thank you for coming up.’ I hugged my father again. ‘You have no idea how glad I am to see you here.’
‘Greg talked us into it,’ my father said, still holding me. He pulled back to see me and his mouth flopped open. ‘Good Lord, Emma, what have you been doing to yourself?’
I stopped, confused.
‘You look at least ten years younger,’ my mother said, and lit up. ‘You’re Immortal? You did it without telling us?’
‘No, no, it’s some energy treatment that John’s been giving me.’
‘Well, make him share!’ my father said.
‘I’m afraid it’s Emma only,’ John said behind them, and again we were lost in the chaos of hugs and excitement.
We moved into the Residence’s living room where we could all talk.
‘I convinced the family to move up here,’ Greg said after we’d settled onto the couches. ‘It’s too dangerous down there now — people are being replaced.’
‘Thank you, I appreciate it,’ I said. ‘But everybody except Mum and Dad have to go back down, we don’t have space.’
‘Yes, we do,’ John said. ‘You can have the Imperial Residence in the Northern Heavens, and the Crown Prince’s residence as well. We spend most of our time here anyway.’
‘We can’t break the rules we just applied to our own Disciples, John.’
‘That’s why they’re going to the Northern Heavens, and not the Mountain,’ John said.
‘That’s a convenient loophole and morally wrong —’
‘Your family are three times the targets that any Disciples are, Emma. The King wants their genetic material to make more hybrids,’ John said. ‘If they stayed on the Earthly it would only be a matter of time before he discovered their location and took the boys again.’
Jen blanched and held her toddler tighter, and Greg put his hand on her shoulder to reassure her. The older boys looked nauseous.
‘All right. That makes sense,’ I said.
‘Crown Prince’s residence? What happened to Martin?’ my mother said. ‘He is all right, isn’t he? I heard so many were taken hostage …’
‘He’s fine. He and Leo have set up house in the Peak apartment with a little girl they adopted together,’ I said.
‘Oh, I’m so happy for them,’ my mother said with genuine delight. ‘They’ll make wonderful fathers.’
‘Wouldn’t they all be safer up here?’ Amanda’s husband, Allan, said.
‘A child can’t travel here without its mother to protect it from the transition,’ Greg said. He nodded towards John. ‘That’s what started this whole mess in the first place — Simone’s mother dying.’
‘This whole mess has been coming for a while,’ John said. ‘And you’re right about them being good fathers — I’ve never seen a little girl quite so cherished.’
‘More than Simone?’ I said.
‘About the same,’ John said. ‘But Simone has all your family to spoil her as well.’
‘That’s a grandparent’s prerogative,’ my father said.
John stopped for a moment, then said with wonder, ‘I suppose it is. My son has a child, and that makes me a grandfather.’ He shook his head. ‘This is a first.’
‘Feel old?’ my mother said with a smile.
‘It does tend to creep up on you,’ John said, returning the smile.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Vincent’s your great-great-grandson,’ I said with scorn.
‘Vincent?’ my mother said.
‘We found him a couple of years ago,’ I said. ‘He didn’t know who he was, only that he changed into a huge snake. He was thrilled to bits to discover that he had a home and a family.’ I gasped as I realised. ‘Oh dear Lord, he was an Imperial Elite Guard and only three Elites are left. He’s probably dead.’
John nodded silently, his face grim.
I rested my forehead on my hand. ‘People keep popping up … not there. So many dead.’
‘Are you okay?’ my mother said. She came and knelt in front of me. ‘Emma?’
John moved behind me and put his hands on my shoulders.
I sat straighter and smiled for them. ‘No. I’m fine. We have too much to do. We’ll win Hell back and everything will return to normal.’
My mother shot John a glance. He obviously said something telepathically to her that they both tried to cover. I didn’t bother calling them on it.
‘Let’s take you over to the Northern Heavens and settle you in,’ John said. ‘I’m sure Emma will want to talk your ears off, and Thirty-Eight will be delighted to have a large family to look after.’
I looked up at John. ‘You’re supposed to be resting.’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘First thing tomorrow morning, I’ll go down and take a nap.’
‘Are you all right, John?’ my mother said, concerned. ‘I saw you limping. Are you okay?’
‘I will be,’ John said. He released my shoulders. ‘Let’s go.’
Martin and Yue Gui had breakfast with us the next morning, to discuss strategy before John went into the cage.
‘Before I go down, Emma,’ John said, ‘I need to give you something. Come upstairs.’ He nodded to Yue and Martin. ‘We won’t be long.’
‘Don’t be two hours,’ Martin said with mischief, and Yue slapped him on the arm. He winced and rubbed it. ‘You’re a turtle too,’ he said with indignation, and she slapped him again. He raised his hands. ‘All right, all right.’
John shook his head and led me up the stairs to our bedroom.
He went to the end of the bed and opened the camphorwood chest carved with a scene of pagodas on pine-covered mountains that looked very much like the peaks of Wudangshan. He rummaged through the silk quilts and pulled out a small ebony box. He guided me to sit on the bed and opened the box; it contained a pair of black jade earrings in the shape of ancient coins: round with a square hole in the middle. Each hole was filled with a black diamond on a post.
He passed them to me and I turned them over in my hands. ‘How many of these do you have?’ I said, incredulous.
‘I think altogether I have about fifteen pairs,’ he said. ‘The Demon King has a great many of them, for obvious reasons, and when he gambles he tends to use them as currency.’ He shrugged. ‘They become extremely valuable after a hundred years or so up here, and I give them as funeral gifts for people whose relatives have died.’
‘I’m sure they appreciate them.’
‘They do, but unfortunately it reinforces my image as a creature aligned with darkness and death.’
‘Black jade — I’ll be sure to wear them at the wedding, just to cause trouble.’
‘That would be a scandal all over the Celestial,’ he said. ‘I love it. Make sure you do.’
He closed the chest and rose.
‘Wait, this is why you brought me up here?’ I said, glancing down at the earrings.
‘Yes. Wear them, please.’
My breath left me in a long rush. ‘You think I’ll be lost again?’
‘I don’t know. I want to be sure.’
I looked up at him. His face was rigid with restraint and his eyes were glittering.
‘John … what’s the matter?’
‘Nothing. Just please wear them.’
‘I don’t think you’ve ever lied to me before, Xuan Wu, and I hate to think you’ll start now. Tell me why you’re giving me these now instead of when you come out of the cage …’ My voice trailed off. ‘Oh geez.’
‘I have no sense of time while I am in there; my sentience is gone. If I am not back within two weeks, Ming and Ma will lead the armies and we will try to retake Hell anyway.’
‘Two weeks?’
‘I have ordered them to release me from the cage if the battle is close and my True Form could be the difference between victory and defeat. The Turtle may attack the demons before it rejoins.’
I choked on the words. ‘Don’t go into the cage then. Don’t risk it — we need you too much.’
He dropped his voice. ‘If I don’t go into that cage soon, I will be lost anyway. I cannot resist the Serpent’s call for much longer — its suffering is too much for me to bear.’
‘It’s that bad?’ I looked up into his pain-filled eyes. ‘Never mind. I can see.’
‘Emma.’ He took my hands in his. ‘This is just a precaution. Wear the earrings, and it’s quite possible I’ll be back out for dinner and looking for some,’ he smiled slightly, ‘extremely invigorating intimacy with the Lady love of my life.’
‘Okay.’ I wiped my eyes with the palm of my hand and took a deep shuddering breath. I removed the black pearl earrings he’d given me for my last birthday from my ears and put the coins in. ‘I wish you hadn’t told me this; it will be in the back of my mind all day with my family.’
‘Don’t worry about me. Y
ue will watch me, and I will have her try to wake me at dinnertime if I haven’t come back.’ He put his hand on the side of my face. ‘But please, ease my concern and wear the earrings all the time until this is resolved.’
‘Okay.’
‘And if I’m not back before you go down for the funeral the day after tomorrow …’ He slipped his arm around my back and pulled me into an embrace. ‘I know better than to ask you not to go; I know how much Monica meant to you. I would go myself if I could, she was part of the family. But please, be very careful down there. Always be with Martin or Simone. As long as the King has our son, he needs you.’
I buried my face in his shoulder. ‘I know. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.’
He pulled back to study my face and moved a stray lock of hair out of the way. ‘I still worry about you.’
‘Don’t,’ I said. ‘Rest in the cage.’
He kissed me for a long time.
‘I said don’t be two hours!’ Martin called from downstairs, then howled with outraged pain. ‘Jie Jie, that was unnecessary!’
We rose together, and I put the pearl earrings onto the bedside table as we went out.
26
After dinner with my family, Simone took me back to the Mountain and I went down to the Grotto. John was in the cage on the bench next to the water, but Yue was nowhere to be seen.
‘Yue?’ I said. I knelt in front of the cage. ‘John, are you okay?’
The Turtle didn’t reply.
Yue surged out of the water in turtle form and changed to human. She waved her hands in front of her as she approached us. ‘Sorry. The water is invigorating. Don’t worry, I’ve been watching him.’
‘The fish have been complaining nonstop about being constantly evicted.’ I nodded down at the cage. ‘Any change?’
She shook her head.
‘Go get some dinner. I’ll take over,’ I said.
‘No need.’
I put my hand on her arm. ‘I want to.’
Yue sighed. ‘All right.’
Late that night I blearily raised my head from the inflatable mattress as I heard tiny bells above me. It was Yue Gui, the silver ornaments in her hair tinkling as she came down the steps.