Blue Dragon

  Mrs Leung’s eyes went wide. ‘Helen has no memory of how these wounds occur. What is Kitty doing?’

  John and I shared a look.

  ‘Biotech,’ I said. ‘Demon hybrids for the one hundred and twenty-second son of the King of the Demons.’

  ‘Holy shit,’ Mrs Leung said softly. She glanced at John. ‘He wants your head?’

  ‘The King of the Demons will promote anyone who brings him my head,’ John said. ‘To Number One.’

  Mrs Leung smiled slightly. ‘A grand prize.’ The smile disappeared. ‘I am sorry, my Lord, you can see I had no choice. She knew I was a fox. She threatened to tell my husband and his family if I did not let her pretend to be my friend, and let her take Helen occasionally. She vowed that she would not harm Helen, and until now she has kept her word.’

  ‘That particular demon is not a creature of its word, and I doubt if Kitty is either,’ I said. ‘I think it would be a good idea if your family were to go into hiding.’

  Mrs Leung lowered her head. ‘I don’t want my husband to know,’ she whispered.

  ‘Bring him here after work this evening,’ John said. ‘With your child. I will talk to him, then I will arrange a safe place for you. Don’t tell anyone you have come here. Try to make the rest of the day as normal as possible so that they don’t know you’ve been here. I will provide a guard for you. Come directly here after your husband returns from work and we’ll arrange safety for your family.’

  Mrs Leung glanced up, her face full of hope. ‘You would do such a thing? After what Daji did to all of you?’

  ‘You are not Daji,’ John said. ‘All creatures deserve a chance at perfection. All of creation is one with the Tao. To search for the Tao is a noble pursuit. Why would I stand in your way?’

  Mrs Leung lowered her head. ‘The stories are true, my Lord,’ she whispered, her voice thick. ‘I could not believe the tales of your merciful ways, knowing your true nature.’

  ‘The Tao is our true nature,’ he said. ‘Go home. Return this evening. I will arrange a safe place for you.’

  ‘Come on, Mrs Leung,’ I said. ‘I’ll take you home.’

  ‘Thank you, madam,’ she said. ‘What is your honoured name?’

  ‘Just call me Emma, not madam,’ I said. ‘I’m nothing special.’

  She gasped and fell to her knees, quickly saluting. ‘Forgive me, my Lady, I did not know. I am doubly honoured—the Dark Lord and the Dark Lady in one room.’

  ‘You don’t need to kneel to me,’ I said, exasperated, ‘I’m just a human. Come on, I’ll take you home.’

  I checked my watch. ‘Seven thirty. She’s half an hour late.’

  ‘Something happened to her,’ Michael said.

  ‘Go,’ John said. ‘I’ll stay here with Simone.’ He glanced at me. ‘Take your weapons with you. I think you may need them.’

  There was no answer from the Leungs’ flat when we buzzed the intercom. We shared a look. Michael concentrated and the front door clicked open. There was no security guard this time.

  ‘I have a bad feeling about this,’ Leo said as we went up in the lift.

  It was completely silent on the nineteenth floor. We came to the Leungs’ apartment and stopped dead. Mrs Leung’s door had been splashed with red paint: a Triad warning sign. The metal gate hung open, but the wooden door inside it was closed.

  Michael concentrated again. The latch sprang open. He carefully pushed the door open with PK; the paint was still wet.

  They’d killed Mrs Leung in her fox form and then skinned her. Her husband lay dead beside her in a pool of blood.

  The old woman was dead in the kitchen doorway. The Indonesian domestic helper was in the kitchen, decapitated.

  We checked the apartment thoroughly, carefully not touching anything. Helen was gone.

  Michael locked the door behind us as we went out and we returned to the Peak without saying a word to each other.

  Back home, I sat down in the chair on the other side of John’s desk. ‘We keep making major mistakes,’ I whispered. ‘We should have brought her family in right away. We shouldn’t have waited.’

  ‘Making mistakes is what makes us human,’ John said. ‘You can only do what you feel is the right thing at the right time. Sometimes it is the wrong thing.’

  I glanced up at him.

  ‘This is just one of many, many mistakes I have made in my life that have caused untold suffering to countless people,’ he said, his voice mild. ‘I could sense the death on her, but I hoped that we could protect the husband and child if we kept the situation normal so that the demons would not notice. I was wrong.’

  ‘You can sense death on a person? You knew she was going to die? Why didn’t you say something?’

  ‘What would I say? “Hello, Mrs Leung, you are going to die today”?’

  I stopped dead. ‘Can you sense death on any of us?’

  He gazed silently at me.

  ‘Answer me!’

  ‘Yes.’ He tied his hair back. ‘We are all surrounded by death. There is so much death in this household that it is difficult to say where and when and who. I will die. Leo will die. You and Simone…’ He took a deep breath and exhaled. He shook his head and the anguish showed, just for an instant. ‘I hope not. I cannot tell. There is too much death. Everywhere. And I am not perfect.’

  ‘But you’ve attained perfection,’ I said, bewildered. ‘You’ve attained the Tao.’

  ‘And I am not perfect,’ he said. ‘Nothing on the Earthly is.’ He leaned back and sighed again. ‘Fate has a hand, even for things as powerful as me. All we can do is try to make the best decisions we can with the information we receive.’

  ‘And people die,’ I whispered.

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘And death is part of life.’

  ‘Yang and yin,’ I said.

  ‘Exactly. Yang and yin.’

  CHAPTER TEN

  Simone and Michael finally fell out of bed at eleven o’clock on Saturday morning. School had worn them out, and they’d both stayed up late the night before. Thank God the term was finished. They really needed the break.

  I found them in the kitchen, bickering over their cereal.

  ‘Don’t call me squirt!’ Simone snapped.

  ‘What do you want me to call you? Princess?’ Michael said, glowering.

  Simone straightened. ‘Well, I am.’

  ‘Simone! Cut it out, both of you.’ I sighed. Michael

  particularly wasn’t a morning person. ‘Michael’s a prince anyway. You’re both very special.’

  They glared at each other. Simone poked her tongue out at Michael, who turned back to his cereal and pointedly ignored her.

  ‘Ah Yat,’ I said, ‘where’s Lord Xuan? I just had a call from the Academy; he was supposed to be there and never turned up.’

  ‘The Lord is still sleeping, ma’am,’ Ah Yat said with a smile.

  I glanced at the clock over the kitchen door. Eleven o’clock and he was still sleeping? Simone looked worried. I tried to control my face.

  ‘What?’ Michael said.

  ‘That’s very late,’ I said. ‘He wasn’t up late last night either. Where’s Leo, Ah Yat?’

  ‘In the training room, ma’am,’ Ah Yat said, the smile gone. ‘Is the Dark Lord all right?’

  ‘I hope so,’ I said softly. ‘He is just sleeping?’

  Ah Yat’s eyes unfocused, and she nodded.

  ‘We should go and have a look, Emma,’ Simone said.

  I hesitated.

  Simone rose and took my hand. ‘Come on, Emma, you’re nearly married anyway. It’s okay. He won’t mind.’ She sounded much more mature than her six years. Her eyes unfocused, then she snapped back. ‘I told Leo.’

  We went down the hall together, leaving Michael in the kitchen, his expression grim. Leo met us outside the training room.

  ‘He has been sleeping much more lately,’ Leo said. ‘Most days last week he wasn’t out of bed before we took them to school.’

  I nodded. He
was right.

  ‘He said to call the Lady if he went into a coma,’ I whispered.

  Leo’s face went rigid. ‘Oh my God.’

  ‘Let’s go and see if he’s okay,’ Simone said, pulling my hand. ‘Come on, Leo.’

  My heart was in my throat as we approached his door. Simone tapped on it. Not a sound. My stomach fell out.

  Simone opened the door for us and led us in. The room was dark and he was asleep, as Ah Yat had said.

  Simone dragged me to him. He was on his back, his noble face peaceful, his dark hair spread in a wild tangle around his head.

  ‘Daddy,’ Simone whispered. ‘Daddy, wake up.’

  He didn’t move.

  ‘Oh, dear Lord,’ I said softly.

  Simone reached under the covers and found his hand. She pulled it out and held it. ‘Daddy.’ She brushed her hand over his face. ‘Look inside, Emma.’

  I put my hand on his forehead and concentrated. I sagged with relief. His eyes opened. He smiled slightly at us.

  ‘What are all of you doing in here?’ he said, his voice low. He turned to Simone. ‘Don’t let go of my hand while Emma’s touching me.’

  I removed my hand from his forehead but Simone didn’t let go. I crouched to look at him directly. ‘It’s after eleven o’clock, John.’

  He shot upright. ‘I have a class to teach!’ He grabbed his forehead and fell back on the pillow.

  Simone and I both held him; she by the hand and I by the arm.

  ‘Are you okay?’ I said.

  He nodded, his eyes closed. He opened them and smiled at us again.

  ‘Are you ill, my Lord?’ Leo said from behind us.

  John shook his head. ‘No. Just…’ He didn’t finish.

  ‘We should get the Lady,’ I whispered.

  ‘How long until we go?’ he said, his eyes searching my face. ‘What day is it today? How long?’

  ‘It’s Saturday today. We go Monday,’ I said.

  ‘I’ll make it.’ He smiled. ‘Leave me. I just need to sleep.’

  I dropped my head into my hands, then brushed my hands through my hair, desperate. ‘Leo, please take Simone out.’

  Simone didn’t protest and I didn’t look as they left.

  ‘Can I feed you myself?’ I said.

  ‘No, of course not,’ he said. ‘You are the last person in the world who should try that.’

  ‘You won’t make it, John!’ I whispered fiercely.

  He didn’t say anything.

  ‘Can Meredith feed you?’

  ‘I don’t want to risk it,’ he said. ‘I could easily destroy her.’ He turned his head to me. ‘More than death, Emma. If I were to drain her, it would be destruction.’

  ‘Call the Lady,’ I said. ‘She keeps saying she’ll come and do it here.’

  ‘I’ll make it,’ he said. ‘If I call her and she feeds me here, we’ll have demons down our throats straightaway. They’ll know how weak I am and come after all of us. Every single place will be under attack. Here, the Folly, the Academy, everywhere. Best to wait until we are far from their Centre. She is an incurable optimist offering to come here herself. But the consequences would be disastrous.’

  ‘You were okay to be fed by her here after the Attack,’ I said.

  ‘There weren’t any demons to come and get us then,’ he said matter-of-factly. ‘Most of them were destroyed on the Mountain, and the remaining ones were regrouping. But they are stronger now, and they would be here immediately.’

  ‘Oh God.’

  He turned his head away and closed his eyes. ‘Leave me,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll make it.’

  I threw myself up and stormed out. It was too late to rearrange the flight plan. I knew I should have arranged the flight for Saturday, but we had a lot of loose ends to tie up at the Academy before we left and the three of us had planned to do it together over the weekend with the kids home from school.

  I should have arranged it for Saturday!

  John slept the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday, only coming out occasionally to find something to drink; even so he became very dehydrated. The apartment was like a funeral home the whole weekend. Everybody tiptoed around, talking in whispers. Simone watched him. Wherever she was, whatever she was doing, she would unfocus to check him, and then snap back, her little face grim.

  We were due to fly out Monday afternoon. I packed for Simone; Leo packed for John. John wasn’t even aware of Leo’s presence in his room until we woke him to clean him up. He hadn’t shaved in three days; his beard was almost completely white and his greying hair was a mess.

  I hovered until Leo carried him into the bathroom and closed the door in my face.

  John slept on the boat. When we arrived at Macau, Leo had difficulty waking him. He leaned on Leo as we went through customs and immigration. After he had coerced the staff into not seeing our bag of weapons, his hair was almost completely grey. Simone held his hand, stricken.

  ‘I’ll make it,’ he said softly. ‘A few more hours. We’ll get there.’

  After we boarded the plane, John passed out. Leo caught him, scooped him up like a child and carried him to the back of the plane, Simone and I following. The airport ground staff closed the door of the plane and rapped the side: we were okay to go.

  Leo gently placed John on the bunk bed. He was limp and his face was ashen. He looked very old. I didn’t waste any time. I dropped the carry bag on the floor next to the bunk and went forward to the main cabin to tell the pilot over the intercom that we were ready. I threw myself onto one of the chairs, dropped my handbag, and picked up the phone.

  We were lucky: it was Brian, a cheerful Australian who did a lot of private contract work and had absolutely no idea of the true nature of his employer for this trip.

  ‘We can go, Brian,’ I said.

  ‘Okay, Emma,’ he said. ‘My co-pilot’s arranging clearance for us. We should be given the go-ahead in the next five minutes—the airport isn’t too busy right now.’

  ‘Brian,’ I said softly, ‘Mr Chen is terminally ill. We’re going for treatment in Borneo.’ Brian began to speak, but I cut him off. ‘Don’t ask. Just be aware that Mr Chen has already collapsed and we need to get him there as quickly as possible.’ I tried to control my voice. ‘We only have hours. For God’s sake, get us there. If there’s a delay, we could lose him. We have to make it. Please.’

  ‘I’ll do my best,’ Brian said. ‘Weather is good.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘We have clearance,’ said a male voice with a Cantonese accent over the intercom; the other pilot.

  ‘Tell everybody to strap in,’ Brian said. ‘We’re up to go.’

  I went through the galley to the little room at the back of the plane. Leo sat cross-legged on the floor next to the bunk, Simone in his lap, both of them watching John.

  John was unconscious.

  I went to him and took his hand. Leo moved to grab me, but I waved him back. ‘It’s okay, Leo, he can’t hurt me while he’s asleep.’

  Leo nodded.

  I looked inside him and my stomach fell out.

  ‘What, Emma?’ Simone said softly.

  ‘Look inside,’ I whispered.

  Simone concentrated then made a sound of misery. ‘No.’

  ‘What is it?’ Leo said.

  ‘There’s nothing there,’ I whispered.

  ‘He’s gone?’

  ‘He’s still there,’ Simone said. ‘But there’s hardly anything.’

  I dropped my head, still holding his hand. ‘He won’t make it.’

  ‘Call the Lady,’ Leo said.

  ‘We’ll be taking off in a minute,’ Brian’s voice said over the intercom. ‘Buckle up, everybody.’

  ‘I’ll call her when we’re airborne,’ I said. ‘Bring him into the main cabin. He’ll need a seatbelt.’

  ‘He’s better where he is,’ Leo said.

  ‘You know what take-off from this part of China is like,’ I said. ‘We could hit turbulence. He needs to be strapp
ed in.’

  Leo didn’t say anything. He gently lifted John and carried him into the main cabin. I took Simone’s hand and led her in as well. Leo strapped John in. I took care of Simone. Then we sat ourselves.

  The plane taxied onto the runway. The engines roared. We were airborne.

  Simone moved to undo her seatbelt but I stopped her. ‘Wait until Brian says it’s okay, sweetheart.’ She nodded and sat back, watching her father with an expression that belonged on a much older face.

  I reached for the intercom, then decided against it. The pilots were busy flying the plane. They would tell us when we could move around.

  It seemed like an eternity. We hit turbulence twice. Finally we emerged above the clouds and the late afternoon sunshine lit the interior of the plane with an orange glow. The seatbelt light blinked off with a musical chime.

  We all hurried to undo the belts and crouched around John. He was limp.

  ‘Take him back into the bunk,’ I said. ‘Where’s the pearl?’

  Leo had lifted John halfway. He froze. ‘Oh my God.’

  ‘Oh, dear Lord,’ I said. ‘It’s in the hold, isn’t it.’

  Leo silently carried John to the back of the plane. I sat down and put my head in my hands, then remembered and looked up, full of relief.

  ‘Simone, pet,’ I said. ‘Call Aunty Kwan now.’

  ‘I am,’ Simone said. ‘But it’s really strange. She’s not answering.’

  I grabbed her hand. ‘Simone, have you checked for demons?’

  Simone’s eyes went wide. ‘The pilot’s dead. A demon’s flying the plane!’

  I shot to my feet, grabbed Simone and ran to the back of the plane. Leo hunched over John, his face full of misery.

  ‘Leo,’ I said, gasping, ‘the co-pilot was a demon. The pilot’s dead.’

  Leo spun to the bag on the floor and ripped it open. He scrabbled through and pulled out my sword, then Dark Heavens. He tossed my sword to me. ‘Get back, Simone.’

  ‘Get behind us, sweetheart,’ I said, turning to face the main cabin. I pulled my sword out of its scabbard and waited.

  There wasn’t a sound.

  Then I felt the plane turning. Turning right. I leaned to keep my balance.