My throat filled. ‘Oh, Colin.’
‘Don’t you dare say no,’ he said softly. ‘I know exactly how talented I am — I could end up like you. There’s a chance I can change to snake as well. I love the training more than anything I’ve ever done before — I feel like I was made for it. I want to protect our family and I’m an asset that you can’t refuse.’
I wiped my eyes. ‘Damn, Colin, I am so proud of you.’
He smiled shyly. ‘Really?’
‘Your mother and grandmother will kill me.’ I looked up at Greg. ‘Jennifer will divorce you.’
‘She’s too attached to being a Celestial Princess to ever divorce me,’ Greg said without looking away from Colin, his expression full of pride. ‘It’s been an honour to train this young man, but he’s already learnt all I can teach him . . .’
‘What? You used to be the Tiger’s Number One. No way.’
‘Seriously. He needs to move up to training with the Dark Lord.’
‘Please ask him to train me,’ Colin said.
‘Up you get, lad,’ I said. I linked my hands behind my back. ‘Do Andrew and David want to learn from us as well?’
‘Who’s “us”?’ Colin said. ‘If you mean Uncle John, absolutely! All of us do.’
You didn’t tell them? Greg said.
I shook my head without looking away from Colin. I’d prefer they never know. It’s done and finished and I’m separate. No need to torture my family with what might have been.
How much of his knowledge of the Arts did you gain? Greg said.
I will never be one with the Arts as he is, and my human brain doesn’t seem capable of holding all of his knowledge, but the answer to your question is: a great deal. Don’t tell my family.
Wait . . . do the family know you’re Immortal?
I sighed and my shoulders slumped. That will be hard. It’s tempting to hide it completely from them — to age myself as the years pass and then pretend to die when I’m old enough — but I cannot live a lie. I hope I don’t lose them when they discover that I’ve attained Immortality, something they probably never will.
Now you know why so many of us disappear for a hundred years after we’re Raised, he said.
I nodded. But I don’t regret coming back. I am needed.
‘You’re talking silently — I didn’t know you could do that,’ Colin said. ‘Who are you talking to? Uncle John? Can he train us?’ He lunged towards the door, then stopped. ‘Can I bring the other guys to learn off him?’
‘None of you are of age yet,’ I said. ‘You need your parents’ permission.’
‘And don’t look at me, I don’t count,’ Greg said.
‘Dammit,’ Colin said under his breath.
‘Let’s go and talk to your mother now,’ I said. ‘Then you can come back to the training room tomorrow morning, all three of you. I will teach you, not John; that will be much less scary for your families. Tell them that you’ll learn from me for fitness and therapy, and don’t mention that you wish to fight just yet. We’ll deal with that when you’re of age and can make that decision for yourself.’
Colin screwed up his face and opened his mouth to protest that he wanted to learn from the Dark Lord.
‘Before you say anything,’ Greg said, his voice full of warning, ‘I think there’s something you should know. Lady Emma, may I tell him?’
‘Share the information with the boys only,’ I said. ‘I’ll follow to Persimmon Tree in about ten minutes and we can talk to their parents over dinner. If they accept me training the lads, I’ll see them back here first thing tomorrow morning.’
‘Wah, Emma,’ Greg said.
‘It will pass with time.’ I hesitated. ‘I think.’
‘Does it worry you?’
I shrugged. ‘I’m still me. There’s some of me in him too. Sometimes he loses his temper and sounds Australian.’
‘Now that’s something I’d really like to hear,’ Greg said with humour. ‘Come on, Colin, I have a story to tell you.’
‘Don’t tell my parents or sisters!’ I said. ‘They really don’t need to know.’
He waved back at me without turning around.
‘And thanks, Greg,’ I added more softly.
He nodded and guided Colin out.
More students like you. Excellent, John said with relish. I wonder which other youngsters we can round up to teach. How old is Greg and Jen’s little boy? Fathered by a powerful son of the Tiger, mothered by one of you Western Serpents . . .
Only three years old!
Perfect. Are they planning to have a second one? If we could use modern medical technology to overcome the obvious problem you and your sisters have with carrying girls to term —
A breeding program? I said with fierce distaste.
He was silent for a moment, then, And all it entails, I know. It’s just that you’re so damn powerful, Emma. The females of your line are much more gifted.
And dangerous. Let’s work carefully with these boys as we bring out their talents, because their demon nature will emerge and they’ll need to control it.
This will be great fun, he said with satisfaction. I hope I’m free to join you tomorrow morning.
I shook my head and walked over to Persimmon Tree Pavilion.
* * *
Thirty-Eight had made a modern Western meal for the family and we all ate in the Pavilion’s dining room, crammed around the ten-seater round table. Persimmon Tree only had three small bedrooms, so it was a crush with all the family. Two of the boys slept in the living room on futons that were rolled up during the day.
Jen and Greg sat with Colin and Andrew, her boys, and the little one they’d had together, Matthew, who stubbornly refused a high chair. Alan and Amanda’s boys, Mark and David, were constantly needling each other. The boys had grown so much: Colin was close on eighteen, Andrew and Mark were both sixteen, and David had just turned fifteen and would probably have another growth spurt in the near future. My parents were glowing with good health and appeared younger than when they’d arrived in the Heavens; a side effect of living in the Celestial purity.
I relished the feeling of having everybody back with me; I’d missed them terribly while they’d been in hiding. Luckily they hadn’t found it difficult to move to the Mountain while the Earthly was being overrun by demons; and they appreciated that they were safe with us. Knowledge that their friends on the Earthly were being replaced and that they themselves were a huge target was deeply distressing for them, but they kept a brave face in front of the children.
My father raised his pasta-laden fork and waved it at me. ‘What’s this about training the boys?’
‘We want to learn!’ Colin said, and Andrew nodded fierce agreement.
‘I’ll teach them myself, for exercise and health and energy,’ I said.
‘Rubbish,’ Jennifer said. ‘Colin wants to fight demons. He’s been asking Greg forever to teach him.’
‘It’s your choice whether I fight demons, Mum,’ Colin said. He lowered his voice. ‘But when I’m eighteen and an adult, it’s my choice.’
‘There’s too much of this violent snake thing in all of them,’ my mother said. ‘If I’d had the opportunity when I was a girl, I would have jumped at it as well. I think it’s part of how we’re made.’
‘Don’t try to stop me, Mum,’ Colin said into his food.
‘We’ll talk about it later,’ Jennifer said with quiet menace.
‘And, Emma,’ my father waved his fork again, ‘you’re Immortal and didn’t tell us.’
I choked on my pasta.
‘Does this mean that when you go out to fight, we won’t have to worry about you any more?’ my mother said. ‘If you’re killed by those horrible things, you’ll just come back?’
‘Uh . . . yes,’ I said.
‘Good,’ she said, and returned to cutting up little Matthew’s chicken. ‘About time. That’s a huge relief. I swear, worrying about you has made my hair go completely grey.’
 
; ‘Exactly,’ my father said. ‘And, Emma . . .?’
‘Yes?’ I said, still pleasantly stunned at their reaction.
‘When we found out you’d become Immortal, John offered to show us the methods you people use to gain Immortality.’
‘You people?’ Greg said with mock horror.
‘Shut up, Greg,’ Jen said without looking at him. ‘You’re one of them too.’
Greg buried his embarrassment in a deep drink of tea and filled their cups again.
‘Anyway, John said that he’d be glad to teach us the physical alchemy or whatever-it-is techniques that you’ve used,’ my father said.
‘Uh . . . good?’ I said, not sure where this was going.
‘How long can you hold horse stance?’ my father said.
‘Indefinitely,’ I said, thoroughly confused. ‘I meditate in horse stance sometimes.’
‘Whoa,’ Colin said quietly.
‘Before you were Immortal too?’
‘Uh . . . yes. I mean, it was a complete bit— pain to learn. In more ways than one. It’s unbelievably hard to gain that sort of strength. The training John put me through was non-stop suffering sometimes. But it was worth it in the end.’
‘I knew it,’ my father said triumphantly, and stabbed his vegetarian pasta. ‘John said that horse stance is one of the most basic martial arts stances, and if we could learn to hold it indefinitely, then he could teach us the techniques to learn Immortality. But we have to learn horse stance first.’
‘That makes sense,’ I said.
‘We tried it. Too hard,’ my mother said. ‘So painful!’
‘It hurt too much, not worth it,’ my father said.
My mother nodded and turned back to her own food.
‘Oh,’ I said, and sent a silent flow of information and gratitude to John.
Don’t mention it, but it’s completely true, he said. You were willing to put up with the agony to learn the Arts. If someone wants to gain Immortality, they have to learn that it’s not just a matter of sitting comfortably on a tatami mat looking stoned.
I sent him a mental image of himself on a tatami mat looking stoned; it was how he looked when he meditated. He returned the image with me added next to him, my mouth hanging open. We exchanged a short burst of transferred images, each adding more and more vacancy to the other’s expression, until I realised that my parents were staring at me.
‘Sorry, I know, very rude, I’ll stop.’ I returned to my pasta. ‘I’m glad you’re all happy and safe.’
* * *
The next morning my entire family arrived outside the front door of the Imperial Residence.
‘Our parents want to see what you do with us,’ Colin said.
‘I don’t want to learn, but I’d like to watch,’ Mark said.
‘I want to learn!’ Matthew said, his tiny face fierce.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Let’s go inside and you can watch for a while to make sure that everybody’s happy.’
I guided them into the training room, with its gymnastic mats on the floor. Its third wall was the stone spine of the Mountain. My family sat to one side to watch, and I placed the three boys — Colin, his brother Andrew, and their younger cousin David — standing in front of me.
‘David, can you do energy like Colin and Andrew?’ I said.
‘Wait, what?’ Jennifer said loudly.
‘They can do energy?’ my mother said.
Thanks a LOT, Emma, Greg said into my head.
‘I want to see them do energy!’ Matthew shouted.
‘Uh, I’ve been teaching them,’ Greg said, rubbing the back of his neck. Jen was looking daggers at him.
‘We asked him, Mum,’ Colin said. ‘It was my idea, and we all enjoyed doing it together, and he says we’re some of the most talented students he’s —’
‘He’s ever had — yes, I know,’ Jennifer said.
She sighed with feeling, and opened her mouth to say something, but Colin interrupted her by loading his sword with chi and raising the glowing weapon. She stared silently at him, her mouth half-open.
‘I will learn from the Dark Lord to be the strongest defender I can,’ he said, his voice echoing with the energy, ‘so that what happened to Andrew and Mark never happens to any member of our family ever again.’
Matthew cheered and clapped his hands.
Jennifer watched her glowing son, eyes wide, and when she spoke her voice was soft with awe. ‘Okay.’
Colin nodded and released the energy, then turned back to me with his sword still raised in a ready position.
My phone rang in the pocket of my black Mountain uniform.
I took it out; another call with no caller ID. I answered it. ‘Hello?’ Nothing but static. I shrugged and put it away, with a mental note to talk to Gold about it.
‘You can do energy as well?’ I asked Andrew.
‘I can, but Greg says I need more training to control it,’ Andrew said.
David shook his head. ‘I can’t.’
‘I want to learn!’ Matthew shouted, and Jen hushed him.
John’s Serpent walked into the room in female human form. She was taller than the Turtle’s human form, nearly two metres, and lither and more athletic, but with the same dark eyes and sculpted face.
‘How about I take the older boys, and Emma can teach little Matthew the beginnings of the modified energy set?’ she said to my family.
They stared at her, confused.
‘This is . . .’ I dropped my voice. ‘Geez. Will it always be this hard to explain? This is the Serpent part of John. Where’s the Turtle, John?’ I asked her.
‘Back at the office signing the orders for the supplies from the Earthly,’ John said. ‘Our guests are eating more than the Celestial can provide for them.’ She smiled around at the family. ‘But I want to see what the kids can do.’
My father pointed at John, then dropped his hand when he remembered. ‘This is John? Half of John? How does that work?’
‘Jonathina,’ my mother said with amusement.
‘I can only do it when the two halves of me aren’t doing anything terribly complicated,’ John said, coming to me and putting her arm around my shoulder. She kissed the top of my head to my nephews’ fascinated horror. ‘The Turtle’s just signing Imperial Orders so I should be able to concentrate.’ She smiled down at me. ‘Start teaching Matthew the modified set. The Turtle’s bringing Jade’s and Gold’s children to learn it as well.’ She concentrated for a moment. ‘Only five more requisitions to do, then I’ll be right over.’
‘You wanted the God of Martial Arts to teach you. You have her,’ I said to the boys.
I turned to my sisters. ‘Does Matthew have your permission to learn a modified tai chi set, Jen?’
‘Out of the way, Emma,’ John said, and I moved closer to the rest of my family. She summoned some training swords for the boys and handed them out.
‘Modified in what way?’ Jennifer said.
‘It’s simpler, which makes it easier for littlies to learn, and it takes advantage of the fact that small kids are so flexible. It’s a way for them to keep that flexibility and gain strength without stressing their growing bodies too much, and at the same time gives them a good basis for energy work.’
‘I want to learn!’ Matthew shouted. ‘I can do energy too!’
‘Greg?’ Jen said, obviously confused.
‘It’s not fighting, it’s more like gymnastics. Really good for him,’ Greg said. He put his hands under Matthew’s arms and lifted him to his feet. ‘Go and learn some kung fu.’
‘Yay!’ Matthew said, and ran to stand in front of me. He took a basic horse stance, thumping his feet on the mats, and put his little fists at his waist. ‘I’m ready to learn!’
‘Oh, he’s so adorable,’ my mother said.
‘Don’t start yet, Emma, I’m just outside,’ the Serpent called from the other side of the room. ‘Centre line, Colin! Tidy that up.’
The Turtle entered in male human form, with
Gold and Amy’s twins and Jade’s three dragon daughters, also all in human form. The dragons were young teens, and Little Jade and Richie were both four, slightly older than Matthew.
The sight of Gold and Amy’s kids coming to learn from us hit a memory inside me like a bell and my heart leapt.
The Turtle smiled into my eyes. ‘I thought you’d react that way.’
He put his hands on the shoulders of the two smaller children. ‘Jade and Richie, stand with Aunty Emma and Matthew; and, dragons, go to the other me.’
The Serpent saw their confusion. ‘I mean me,’ she said.
The three dragon sisters moved in front of the Serpent, and the boys made way for them. The girls were very similar in appearance to each other: slim, and taller than the boys, with oval faces from their mother and elegant grace from their father, the Blue Dragon.
The Serpent pointed at each kid in front of her in turn. ‘Colin, Andrew, David, Emma’s nephews. This is Frannie —’
‘Princess Frangipani,’ Frannie said, and straightened the collar of her black Mountain uniform.
John nodded. ‘Princess Frangipani, Princess Jacaranda and Princess Bauhinia.’
‘I’m Jackie and this is Hinnie,’ Jacaranda said. ‘Don’t mind Frannie, she’s stuck on the princess thing.’ She shook hands with each of the boys in turn. ‘Pleased to meet you.’
‘Likewise,’ Colin said. ‘You don’t look human . . . I mean, you look more powerful . . .’ His voice trailed off. ‘Sorry.’
‘We’re dragons,’ Frannie said. ‘Our mother is Princess Jade and our father is the Emperor of the East.’ She lifted her chin. ‘You don’t need to bow.’
‘Cut it out, Frannie,’ Hinnie said. ‘Yeah, we’re dragons, and the Dark Lord and Lady Emma kindly invited us along for training.’ She nodded to the Serpent. ‘We’re honoured by your attention, my Lady.’ She spoke out of the corner of her mouth. ‘And we line up now and behave, Frannie.’
‘Boys in front, you’re shorter,’ John said, and the six of them made two lines. ‘Now stay put, I’m merging. You’ll like this.’