My sisters collapsed laughing.
Ignore them, I think you’re gorgeous, the Serpent said.
She took Gold’s hand and they concentrated together.
My family changed into a Maori family group, dark-skinned but with similar faces. The Turtle changed to his European male form, and the Serpent changed to a tiny middle-aged Chinese woman — the same form we’d taken in Beijing when I’d been absorbed by him. She smiled into my eyes and somehow she was still my John. I wanted to give her a huge hug — she was adorable — then she went steely-eyed and she was all Dark Lord.
Gold turned into a pretty Chinese woman with long hair and dimples, and grinned at Amy, who was in male Maori form. Two of the boys had been changed to slender mixed-race women.
‘Okay,’ Gold said loudly. ‘After we go down the stairs, you can talk to each other but don’t use names. There’s a van waiting for us in the Great Eagle Centre car park. When we reach the airport, I’ll handle everything. Richard?’
‘We’re flying to Wellington,’ Richard said. ‘It’s a nine-hour flight. We have a big house outside town on an acreage that Gold bought for us.’
We went to the bottom of the stairs, and my parents stopped and stared at the chaos. The area under the building that had held the elegant nine-dragon wall was a mass of construction work, and all the traditional features — the wall, the dragon fountain and the qilin statues — were gone. It was dark except for the dim light of neon signs outside shining through the canvas barriers that blocked the construction from public view.
‘What happened here?’ my mother said.
‘A demon took over the company that owns the building. He was a copy of one of the human executives,’ I said, leading them through the destroyed Chinese garden and out through the construction barriers, unguarded this late at night. ‘They took the wall down and offered it to the government. A demon copy who’d taken the place of a senior government official said the wall had no cultural value and they didn’t want it. It’s in pieces in a warehouse in Lam Tin.’
‘What about the dragons in the wall?’ Amy said, distraught.
‘They refused to leave,’ John’s Serpent said. ‘I had to order them to abandon the wall.’
‘We have to keep a guard at the top of the stairs because the demons try us all the time,’ I said as I led them towards Great Eagle Centre. ‘The demon executive is replacing the Chinese garden here with a copy of a Western one in New York.’
‘Classy,’ Jennifer said, her voice heavy with sarcasm. ‘Matthew’s half-Chinese and his heritage is being thrown away.’
‘We tried to buy the wall but they wouldn’t sell it to us,’ Simone said. ‘As soon as we defeat the demons, we can bring everything back.’
‘Good,’ my mother said.
Gold guided everyone to the car park under one of the twin towers next to the waterfront in Wan Chai. The van waiting there was actually a minibus, big enough to carry all of us.
‘I’ll patrol above,’ the Johns said in unison, and disappeared.
‘I’ll drive, you ride shotgun, Gold in the back,’ Greg said to me.
I put my hand on his arm to stop him. ‘Whoever’s bigger should ride shotgun and be ready to defend them. That’s you.’
He hesitated, and looked from Gold to me. Gold’s face didn’t shift.
‘You know you are,’ I said. ‘I’ll drive. You two guard.’
He nodded once, and I went around to sit behind the wheel. He sat on the front passenger side, summoned his sword and placed it at his feet. Gold went into the back of the bus with Amy and their children.
I eased the bus down the narrow steep ramp, out of the car park and onto the four-lane main road through the centre of town, then turned west to take the Western Harbour Tunnel for a direct route to the airport. The traffic was intermittent this late at night. The children in the back were excited and shared their knowledge of the brightly lit Hong Kong landmarks as we drove, but the adults were alert and nervous. We swept through the tunnel and out into the complex network of raised expressways that ran through the newly reclaimed West Kowloon. We ran into a traffic jam halfway there, and the waiting cars dodged between the lanes to try to squeeze through faster.
‘Is everything okay?’ my father said from the back, his voice thin with concern.
‘This isn’t unusual,’ I said.
‘Will we miss our airplane?’ Little Jade said.
‘No, we have plenty of time,’ Greg said.
When we reached the blockage, a jolt of panic shot through me and Greg stiffened in his seat. It wasn’t an accident causing the pile-up, it was a police roadblock. They’d put a portable barrier across the road and were letting cars through one at a time, checking them as they did.
‘Any demons?’ I said softly.
‘No. All human. May be legit,’ Greg said.
Gold?
Accessing, Gold said. They’re looking for fugitives from a foreign tour group who are infected with something like Ebola . . . They’ve been warned to be very careful but to take the group unharmed . . . He spoke out loud. ‘They’re on to us and they’re diverting us!’
The police came around to the driver’s side to speak to me.
‘Through,’ one of them said. ‘Then pull over.’
I hesitated, looking at him. We could easily take all of them out and continue to the airport . . . and they would have a small army waiting for us when we arrived. I followed the policeman’s directions and took the bus around the barrier to park it on the other side.
‘Stay here with the kids, Jen,’ Greg said, and he and I exited the bus to speak to the police. Gold stepped out as well, and the three of us faced off against half-a-dozen nervous policemen.
The door of the bus opened and John came out in his normal middle-aged male human form, wearing a Western-style suit and tie. The policemen weren’t fazed by him; obviously they were all humans with no demons at all.
John strode up to the senior police officer and fixed his dark gaze on him. ‘You will let them through.’
‘Of course,’ the policeman said. ‘My mistake, you can go.’ He straightened and spoke to us with force. ‘No, you can’t. We want to talk to you. Stay here.’
A middle-aged man in the uniform of a high-ranking police officer emerged from a large black car nearby and sauntered over to us. It was a demon in the form of Superintendent Cheung, my contact in the Hong Kong police. He was dead and replaced. Everybody I touched died. My throat filled.
‘You didn’t kill him, Emma,’ John said softly.
‘If he’d never met me, he’d still be alive.’
‘He came after me first, love.’ John’s voice gained an edge of an Australian accent; he was closely linked to me. ‘He thought I killed Michelle. Chin up.’
We stepped forward to speak to the Cheung copy.
‘Back, Gold,’ Greg said, and Gold edged nervously away to stand in front of the bus.
The demon stopped in front of us and put his hands behind his back. ‘Lord Xuan. Lady Emma. Prince Bai Jin.’ He nodded to Gold. ‘Lord Gold. I take it that the Lady’s family is in there?’
‘Make any attempt to harm them or hold them and I will take your head and the head of every other demon here,’ I said.
‘I understand the threat, my Lady, but I am the only demon here. The others are all human police doing their jobs for me as police superintendent. I’m not here to hurt your family. I’m just here to gently suggest that you take them back home and don’t try a stupid stunt like this again. Go home, everyone.’
‘They won’t be safe,’ I said.
‘Let us negotiate something,’ John said at the same time.
‘Dad wants them where he can see them,’ the demon said. ‘If they do not attempt to hide themselves or attack us, we will not harm them. They will be very useful.’ He gestured towards the bus. ‘Now take them home before they all go for a drive in a police car to our headquarters and find themselves in detention. The police have good
reason to believe that they are illegal immigrants on forged passports. The photos on their passports show white people.’
I hesitated, looking at him, then at the human policemen surrounding us. I could take them all down single-handedly, and John could easily destroy the demon.
But these were innocent humans being controlled, and I wasn’t a murderer.
‘Immigration and security at the airport have been alerted and they’re waiting for you,’ the demon said and linked his hands behind his back again. ‘They’ll never make it onto their plane.’
‘What can I offer you to let them through?’ I said.
‘I have my orders, my Lady. I’m a demon. I must obey the King as you must obey the Jade Emperor. We are merely puppets that dance for them. So take your family home, and hope they are not called to join the dance.’
I made a loud sound of frustration and turned away to look into John’s eyes. He gestured with his head and we headed back to the bus. The policemen made no move to impede us as we reboarded. They opened the metal railings blocking the two sides of the expressway and stopped traffic so I could pull the bus onto the other side of the road and head back to Hong Kong island.
‘What if we went over the Eastern Harbour Crossing?’ my mother said.
‘They’re waiting for you at the airport,’ I said. ‘Your passport photos look nothing like your current forms. We can only cloud their minds so much; if they know what to look for, you are in serious trouble. You’ll be detained as illegals.’
‘I will arrange transport to have you carried to New Zealand by some dragons or something,’ John said.
‘Good idea,’ Greg said. ‘I can carry some too. We’ll move you somewhere safe.’
‘What’s the matter, Mummy?’ Matthew said. ‘Aren’t we going on the plane after all?’
‘No, we’ll do something much more fun,’ Jen said with forced cheerfulness.
Amanda made a soft sound of terror.
* * *
Four hours later, we all met outside Persimmon Tree to try again. John changed to his combined True Form and the Serpent separated from the Turtle. Greg summoned a large cloud and his family — Jennifer, Matthew, Colin and Andrew — stepped onto it. I hoisted the rest of the family — my parents, Amanda and Alan, Mark and David — onto the Turtle’s shell, then changed to snake.
‘My Serpent will take the left flank. Don’t be afraid, the snakes are me and Emma,’ John’s Turtle said as the Serpent slithered up to guard the other side of him. ‘Are we ready?’
‘We have nothing to hold on to!’ my mother cried.
‘You don’t need to hold on,’ the Turtle said, and lifted into the air.
I flew up to guard its right flank and Greg protected the rear on his cloud.
We flew down off the Mountain, with Matthew making loud crows of delight until Jennifer hushed him. John swam through the air, his flippers making curling patterns in the clouds. We reached the Gates and slowed. A squadron of flyers — each three metres from nose to tail — was waiting for us on the Heavenly side.
Greg flew his cloud to the edge of the Turtle’s shell. ‘Everybody off,’ he said.
Jennifer carried Matthew off the cloud, and the boys followed. Greg dismissed the cloud and took Celestial Form: three metres tall, wearing a white robe with gold armour, and with golden hair to his waist held in a topknot with a small gold crown. He summoned his sword, the Gold Meteor, and nodded to us.
‘You are so cool, Daddy,’ Matthew said softly.
Greg grinned down at him. ‘You’ll be just as cool one day. All of you.’ He turned back to the demons and his face hardened. ‘Three on the right.’
‘Two on the left,’ I said.
‘And all the rest for me,’ the Serpent said.
The Turtle dropped to settle on the grassy hill before the Gates; it couldn’t hold my family in the air while the Serpent fought the demons.
We rushed them and they came for us. I grabbed the demon on the left by the neck. The one next to it opened its mouth to bite me and I used the one in my mouth to block the blow. The flyer missed me and latched onto the one I was holding. I worried them from side to side, then dropped them and watched with satisfaction as they fell, stunned and locked together. I flew down to finish them, ramming my nose into them and destroying them.
Over a hundred armed humanoids carrying swords swarmed out of the Gates building, heading towards my family. The Turtle gently levered everyone off its shell, then stood its ground in front of them. I moved as fast as I could to help it.
‘Greg, down!’ I yelled.
‘What?’ Greg shouted, then dropped as well, the flyers following him. ‘Where the fuck is Guan Yu?’
Greg, the Serpent and I stood in front of my family, who were cowering behind the Turtle’s shell. The flyers swooped down, attempting to grab my sisters, but the Turtle knocked them out of the sky with blasts of shen from its mouth.
The demons from the Gates stopped three metres from us, a mass of sharp pointed metal. One of the larger ones stepped forward, opened its mouth to reveal its tusks, then took a deep breath and shot a blast of demon essence — black with pale blue energy around its edge — straight into the Turtle’s head. The Turtle imploded into a black hole in reality, leaving my family undefended, and the Serpent disappeared as well.
One of the flyers swooped down, grabbed my sister Amanda, and dropped her into the group of demons.
‘Amanda!’ I screamed, and slithered towards them with my head raised.
They pushed her to the front where we could see her: seemingly untouched, but rigid with fear. One of the demons held her with its hand around her throat.
‘Back off or I will kill her right now,’ it said.
‘Mum!’ Mark wailed behind us.
I changed back to human and raised my hands in surrender. Greg put his sword on the ground in front of him and raised his hands as well. The demon grabbed Amanda’s arm and pulled it behind her, so strong that it seemed effortless. She dropped her head and whimpered.
‘Don’t hurt her,’ I said. ‘We surrender. We concede. Take me instead. I’m the one you want. I’ll send them back home, just don’t —’
The demon jerked Amanda’s arm and her shoulder cracked. She screamed and collapsed in its grasp, sobbing. Both of her sons screamed as well. Alan tried to run to her and I put my hand out to stop him before he passed me. He fought me, pulling away, and I had to hold his arm tight to stop him from throwing himself at them.
‘Alan, she needs you!’ I said.
He made a loud sound of frustration and stood next to me, trembling.
‘Please,’ I said. ‘Trade me for her.’
‘If you go home now, nobody else will be hurt,’ the demon said. It shook Amanda, making her scream again. ‘Just stop trying to take your family out, okay? When we win, we’ll need them to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.’
It pushed Amanda towards us and she fell into Alan’s arms. Mark and David loudly protested behind me; Greg was stopping them from running to their mother.
‘The next time you try to run away, we’ll do this to one of the children,’ the demon said. ‘Dad’s waiting for you to meet him and discuss terms. He won’t wait much longer. Now go home.’
* * *
That afternoon I was sitting alone in the living room of the Imperial Residence in the Dark Palace of the Northern Heavens, staring at the contact list on my phone while I waited for John to be returned from Court Ten. The phone started to play music without me touching it: smooth jazz with a velvet-voiced woman singing about smoke and whisky. It was the sort of music that my stone adored. I checked it, but there was no call to answer. It was just playing music that I’d never put into it.
My parents came in and I quickly turned the phone off, then rose to hug them.
‘Are you okay?’ I said, sitting them on the other sofa. ‘Is Mandy all right?’
‘She’s resting comfortably,’ my mother said. ‘Meredith gave her energy he
aling and her shoulder should be okay in a couple of weeks.’
‘Will she see me now? I need to apologise.’
‘No, you don’t,’ my mother said. ‘But you should stay away for a while anyway.’ She smiled without humour. ‘That was quite a scare, wasn’t it?’
‘What happened to Guan Yu?’ my father said. ‘The guy that guards the Gates?’
‘They killed him. He’s in Court Ten as well. They’ve taken the Gates.’
‘How did they know we were there?’ my mother said. ‘Both times we tried to go through and they were waiting for us.’
‘They didn’t know,’ I said. ‘Now they have control of the Gates, they’ve been watching them. Big Shen like John can go down directly, but smaller Shen like me and Greg, and humans like you, have to use the Gates.’
‘Humans like us,’ my mother said.
‘Emma . . .’ my father said, and trailed off.
‘I know. This is all my fault,’ I said, looking down at my hands.
‘We want you to be brave, sweetheart,’ my mother said. ‘And if it comes to us or the rest of the Heavens, choose the Heavens.’ I glanced up at her. ‘What?’
‘If they’re blackmailing you with our safety, and they threaten to torture us, just take us out of the picture,’ my father said. ‘You mustn’t let anything stop you from doing what you have to.’
‘I can’t do that!’
‘If you have to, you have to,’ my mother said. She took my hand. ‘If we are the only thing stopping you from fighting these monsters, then we want you to remove us so you can concentrate.’
‘I will never do that in a million years,’ I said. ‘If I did that, I would be as bad as them.’
‘We won’t make you promise,’ my mother said. ‘But if you need to make the hard decision, we are right behind you.’
‘God.’ I ran my hands through my hair. ‘We think this might be what the Jade Emperor is doing to everybody. Killing you all because the alternative — being toys for the demons — is worse than death.’
‘If that’s the case, then I agree with him,’ my father said. He rose. ‘We’ll leave you to it. We just wanted you to know how we feel.’
‘Thank you, but it will never come to that,’ I said. ‘And it’s beside the point, because if they threaten the children then I will have to do anything they say. I may, in a fit of madness, be able to remove you from the equation, but I could never do it to a helpless child.’