Red Phoenix

  ‘Go then,’ I said. ‘And bring back a hard copy as well, if it’s not too big.’

  ‘My Lord?’

  John didn’t look up from the blueprints. ‘Orders from the Lady Emma are to be treated as orders from me.’ Then he glanced sharply at Gold. ‘Make this clear. To all.’

  Gold bowed slightly. ‘My Lord. My Lady.’ He disappeared.

  ‘Sorry, John, I don’t mean to tread on your toes,’ I said. ‘Let me know if I cross the line.’

  He looked at me, expressionless, then his eyes wrinkled up. ‘I think you’re drawing a new one.’

  While we waited for Gold to return, John flipped through the plans. ‘Only about a third of the buildings are useful, and none of them are training or residential.’ His voice softened with pain. ‘Hall of the Purple Sky, East Hall, West Hall, Dragon Tiger Hall, all gone. Some of those buildings were more than a thousand years old.’

  ‘We’ll rebuild it, John. It will be better than it ever was.’

  He dropped into a seat at the table. ‘I don’t know what to do. It will take years to rebuild the training pavilions, and the dorms have been demolished. The White Tiger has been a true friend in looking after the Disciples.’

  ‘How long can they stay at the Western Palace?’

  ‘As long as they need to, he says. He doesn’t mind at all—the Disciples are providing a useful exchange of skills with his Horsemen.’ He sighed and tied his hair back. ‘The training pavilions are gone, and there isn’t any open space suitable for training Disciples because of the steepness. Only the most indestructible Celestial Weapons made it; all of the other weapons are gone. And my Disciples have nowhere to live. The Mountain is effectively out of action and nobody will be learning the true Arts for many, many years.’

  ‘Can the Masters teach at the Western Palace?’

  ‘Not with the Tiger’s women around. The Disciples are confined to barracks.’

  ‘I see.’ I sat next to him, and pulled the plans closer. ‘Monica!’

  Monica poked her head in the door. ‘Ma’am?’

  ‘Tea, tikuanyin, and three cups, please.’

  ‘Ma’am.’ She pulled her head back into the kitchen.

  ‘You’re a mind reader,’ John said.

  ‘Will she ever call me Emma again?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘John.’ I turned to him. ‘Should I tell her about the situation? That I can’t marry you until you come back because you’re a Shen?’

  ‘Monica has made it very clear that she doesn’t want to know anything,’ John said without looking up from the plans. ‘When Michelle hired her she tried to explain that we weren’t a normal household, and Monica said, “Don’t tell me, ma’am, I don’t want to know. Just tell me what to do.” She’s terrified of the strange things that happen, but she loved Michelle, and she loves Simone, so she stays and puts up with us.’

  ‘We have to protect her then, and make sure that nothing scares her.’

  ‘That’s what Michelle said.’

  ‘How long were you and Michelle married, John?’ He hesitated, expressionless.

  I turned away and shuffled the plans. ‘Sorry, don’t bother.’

  ‘We were about to celebrate our fourth anniversary when it happened,’ he said, wistful. ‘Simone was only two.’

  ‘Oh my God, you were hardly married any time at all!’ I lowered my voice. ‘Does Simone remember much?’

  ‘I don’t know. She won’t talk about it.’

  Gold reappeared with a stack of printouts. ‘My Lord. My Lady.’

  John rose and pushed the blueprints aside. ‘Okay, let’s see what we have here.’

  I stood up and riffled through the lists. ‘Hey, many of these names aren’t Chinese.’

  ‘Of course not,’ John said. ‘I take the best, it doesn’t matter where they’re from.’

  A good proportion of the names were Chinese, but there were some recognisably Anglo-Saxon ones, plus Japanese, Korean, and even African names. It was a complete cross-section. I scanned the Anglo names: many of them were women.

  ‘Did you have separate dorms on the Mountain?’ I said.

  ‘For the different nationalities? No, of course not,’ John said, and then, ‘Oh, for men and women, of course. Except for those who are married or bonded to each other.’ He saw my face. ‘No, I’m not slow. I’m just cold-blooded, like you said.’

  ‘Get out of my head.’

  ‘I’m not in it,’ he shot back. He turned over the lists. ‘Let’s see the Masters.’

  This list was much shorter. There were only about fifteen names.

  ‘So few, John?’

  ‘They gave their lives for the students, Emma. Even the human Masters. They were killed by the demons.’ He put his hand on the list. ‘These are the Immortal Masters that have returned. And a small group of mortal Masters who were too old or frail to take part in the battle.’

  ‘How many students died?’ I said.

  He sighed with pain. ‘Almost half. Nearly three hundred.’

  I flopped to sit. ‘Holy shit. Masters?’

  ‘Nearly all of them. About fifty.’

  ‘How many of the Masters were human?’

  He sat next to me. ‘Of the ones that were killed? About three-quarters, love.’

  ‘How will you tell their families?’ I whispered. ‘Three hundred and fifty people.’

  He put his head in his hands. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Do their families know where they were?’

  John was silent.

  ‘No, my Lady,’ Gold said. ‘Most of their families thought they were learning martial arts on Earthly Wudangshan. This is the greatest loss that the Mountain has seen in centuries. Even the Celestial Ones have become involved in dealing with this issue. A decision is yet to be made, but the consensus is that the Celestial will erase the existence of the students from the Earthly.’

  ‘They’ll never have existed at all?’ I said.

  ‘It’s the kindest way, Emma,’ John said into his hands.

  I was horrified. ‘How often do you Celestials interfere with us like this?’ I said. ‘You just make people not exist?’

  ‘This will be the first time in history, my Lady,’ Gold said with remorse. ‘There has never been a need for it in the past.’

  John dropped his hands, but didn’t look up. ‘There is some argument that the Mountain should not recruit humans if they are in danger from attack like this.’

  ‘If there are no Disciples learning, then the Celestial loses its defence against the demon horde,’ Gold said. ‘It won’t happen, my Lord. All of Heaven needs your Disciples, they are the best.’

  ‘But they died,’ John moaned.

  Gold sat and rested his elbows on the table. ‘I carried out your orders, my Lord. I went to the Western Palace and gathered the remaining Disciples. I told them that you felt they were in danger and that they should return home. I ordered them home.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘I know what they did, John. Not a single one went.’ I gestured towards Gold. ‘I bet they threatened to kill themselves if they were forced to return home.’

  John glanced at Gold.

  Gold smiled slightly.

  John leaned back and put his palms on the table. ‘Not a single one?’

  ‘Not a single one, my Lord. They would rather die than discontinue the training. They love the Arts more than their lives.’

  ‘And that’s why they’re on the Mountain,’ I said. ‘Face it. You’re stuck with them.’

  John sighed with feeling.

  I turned back to the lists. ‘Let’s look at the Masters.’ Most of the names had either an ‘I’ or an ‘S’ next to them. Many more of these were Chinese, but there were still some names from other nationalities there. ‘I?’ I said.

  ‘Immortals,’ Gold said. ‘“S” is for Shen.’ ‘What’s the difference?’

  ‘I thought you did some research,’ John said without looking up from the list.

  ?
??Cut it out, old man,’ I said. ‘What’s the difference between an Immortal and a Shen?’

  Gold snorted with amusement.

  ‘Answer the goddamn question,’ I growled.

  ‘For our purposes, nothing; we just refer to them as the Celestial Masters,’ John said. ‘Immortals are humans who have gained the Tao. We Shen have always been immortal; we are more like spirits than people. Most of the mortal human Masters on the Mountain didn’t make it. There were some tremendous acts of valour witnessed that day.’ He glanced up. ‘Gold.’

  ‘My Lord?’

  ‘Are the records being made?’ Gold nodded. ‘My Lord.’

  ‘Some of them attained the Tao and were Raised. It was a sight to see. But it will take them slightly longer to return.’

  I flipped through the list again. ‘The Energy Master is a European woman?’

  ‘Meredith was a missionary’s daughter,’ John said. ‘She lived in Hubei Province about three hundred years ago. She was incredibly talented at tai chi, so I took her to the Celestial Mountain to teach her. She is one of the most talented human energy workers I have ever seen. She married one of the Immortal Masters, Master Liu, and they’ve been happy together for hundreds of years.’

  ‘I’d really like to meet her.’

  ‘You already have. She was at the ceremony where everybody swore allegiance. I didn’t introduce you; you seemed slightly overwhelmed to have gods bowing down before you and swearing allegiance and obedience.’

  ‘I wasn’t overwhelmed, I was drowning.’

  ‘You were magnificent,’ Gold said. ‘They are all extremely impressed with you.’

  ‘They are looking forward to working with you as new Regent and Lady of the Mountain after I have gone,’ John said.

  The shock hit me when he said that. I wasn’t accustomed to it; it was still very new. I was to be their Master.

  ‘Are they very unhappy about an ordinary human woman taking over?’ I said.

  ‘Every single one of them is absolutely delighted that they won’t have to do the job. Most of them have offered to come to the Earthly and continue your training after I’m gone. But by that time you will probably be teaching them a thing or two—you are exceptionally talented. A year with me is worth a lifetime with any other Master. Look at Leo.’

  ‘They must miss your hand, without you there to teach for them,’ I said.

  ‘They were horrified when I married Michelle and decided to stay on the Earthly with her. Every time I went up there to rebuild my energy, they were waiting with a packed schedule. Eventually I told them to let me rest, so they sent students down here to learn instead. Remember, before the Attack? Young students would come down and stay in the two spare rooms here.’

  I nodded as he continued. ‘Sometimes I’d have so many that I’d put them in the flat below us, which is always kept vacant. But I may rent it out now, until we can organise something. You can’t leave a flat empty in Hong Kong for long, it becomes very musty.’

  A brilliant idea suddenly hit me out of the blue. ‘John, how big is the block of flats in Happy Valley?’

  ‘Bright Mansions? About twenty-five floors, eight flats to a floor, quite large for that area. Why?’

  ‘What about the building in Wan Chai? How big is that?’

  ‘About the same, my Lady,’ Gold said. ‘Twenty-six floors. But most of the lower floors are vacant right now, with the economic downturn.’

  ‘The one in North Point?’

  ‘That one’s quite small, only fifteen floors, two flats to a floor. It’s very old,’ John said. ‘I may demolish it eventually, but it’s not worth it right now.’

  There had to be some logistical reason why this wouldn’t work, but it was worth a try. ‘People in Hong Kong usually only rent a place for a year at a time, they like the flexibility,’ I said. ‘And most of the building in Wan Chai is already vacant. How about we move the Mountain down here?’

  Gold picked it up right away. ‘The students can stay in Happy Valley and go to the Wan Chai building for training. It shouldn’t take much to fix up the Hennessy Road building for training—it’s already offices, I’ll just have to remove some partitions. I could move the administration down here too. And the Bright Mansions apartments in Happy Valley would be perfect as student residences. It won’t cost us anything except the loss of income from the rent, and frankly, my Lord, the way the economy is right now, it won’t be much.’

  ‘What about language?’ John said.

  ‘Language?’ I said.

  ‘Yes, that will be a problem,’ Gold said. ‘Let me think about it.’

  ‘On the Celestial Plane, language is irrelevant. All can communicate. That will not apply on the Earthly, and could result in problems,’ John said.

  ‘No, I can fix it,’ Gold said. ‘Leave it with me. I’m very good with Celestial Harmony, I should be able to work something out.’

  ‘Is the building in Wan Chai zoned for that sort of thing? We don’t want to draw the government’s attention.’ John smiled at me. ‘Have the ICAC breaking down the door.’

  ‘Give it a rest,’ I said and grinned back.

  ‘Not an issue,’ Gold said. ‘If it isn’t, I’ll just go into the government system and fix the zoning.’

  ‘You’re a hacker?’ I said.

  ‘One of the best,’ Gold said proudly. ‘Don’t do it often, but when I do, I do a damn good job.’

  I glared at John. ‘You said you weren’t involved in anything illegal, that you would never risk Simone’s happiness.’

  ‘And I meant it. I am a creature of my word. I have not committed a single illegal act since I was Raised. The enthusiasm of my Retainers, however,’ he gestured towards Gold, ‘is another matter entirely.’

  Gold ignored us. ‘I can’t think of any other reason why this shouldn’t happen as Lady Emma has suggested. It’s a brilliant plan.’

  ‘Emma, you really are astounding,’ John said. ‘It’s a perfect solution. If the Turtle can’t go to the Mountain, then the Mountain can come to the Turtle.’

  I laughed, but Gold was obviously horrified and made weird choking noises.

  ‘Go and start the arrangements,’ John said to Gold. ‘Tell the Tiger we’ll have those Disciples out of his fur in no time. Come back when you’ve started the process and we’ll commence the rebuilding. It’ll be much easier without any staff or students present, just a skeleton crew of guards. Oh. Emma.’

  ‘My Lord.’ Gold disappeared. ‘What, John?’

  ‘I can finally have you teaching. You and Leo. We are fearfully short of junior Masters. You and Leo will be perfect. He can start them on hand-to-hand and weapons, and you can start them on energy work. The senior Masters are wasted teaching the basic stuff. This is excellent.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve been learning less than a year myself, and I have to look after Simone.’

  ‘No, after Simone goes to school, you’ll have plenty of time, and by September this year you’ll be as good as any junior Master on the Mountain.’ John leapt up, obviously excited.

  ‘Wait a second!’ I shouted. ‘You didn’t even bother to ask me! Who the hell do you think you are?’

  John stopped halfway to the door and didn’t move.

  ‘Well?’

  He spoke softly without turning towards me. ‘For thousands of years others have been obeying my orders without question. I have precedence over nearly everybody in Creation. I’ve developed a bad habit of expecting to be obeyed.’ He dropped his head and shook it, still turned away. ‘I am so sorry, love.’

  ‘You have precedence over nearly everybody? Don’t you have any friends who are equal to you in precedence?’

  He turned back to me. ‘The truth? No. The Jade Emperor is my master, I serve him. Apart from that, nobody.’

  ‘All your friends have to obey you if you tell them to do something?’

  He gazed into my eyes. ‘Yes. Even the other three Winds must obey me. I am their Sovereign. The White Tiger is my
friend, but there is still a line there, and both of us are aware of it.’

  My heart twisted. ‘It must be very lonely for you.’

  He snapped out of it and spoke with forced cheerfulness. ‘My number is one, Emma. It is my nature to be alone.’ He went to the doorway and bellowed, ‘Leo!’

  I winced. ‘Can’t you call him silently, John? Do you have to yell like that?’

  Leo immediately appeared in the doorway; he must have been in the hall. ‘Keeps me on my toes, my Lady.’ He leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded across his chest. ‘She’s your equal,’ he said to John. ‘She’s more than a match for you.’ He gestured, palm-up, towards me. ‘And she won’t obey you if she chooses not to. Why don’t you just ask her if she wants to teach?’

  John turned back to me. ‘Will you join my Academy as Master and teach energy work for me?’

  ‘I’d be delighted.’

  Leo didn’t move from the doorframe. ‘See? That wasn’t hard, was it? Now feel free to ask me.’

  ‘Leo, when the Academy is up and running, you will teach the juniors weapons and hand-to-hand, and that is an order,’ John said with force.

  Leo saluted with a huge grin. ‘My Lord. I’ve been teaching on my days off for a while already. It would be great to teach students who are good enough for the Mountain.’

  ‘I didn’t know that, Leo,’ I said, impressed.

  ‘I didn’t either. Well done, Leo, true initiative. Come and sit, and I’ll tell you all about it.’ John returned to the table.

  Leo sat and leaned his arms on the table, listening attentively. ‘My Lord? My Lady?’

  ‘Oh, will you cut that out, Leo?’ I said. ‘We’ve been friends far too long for this.’

  ‘Keeps you on your toes as well, my Lady,’ he said with a grin.

  ‘Leo, if I promise never to give you a direct order, will you promise to stop using the honorific?’