Black Jade (15 page)

He gasped once.

‘We'll work something out,' I said. ‘Whatever it takes to keep them out of his hands. I trust you.'

‘I wished I trusted myself as much. Little Matthew's only three years old.'

‘Is there any way we can take them completely clear of this entire conflict? Wipe their memories, change their faces, anything?'

‘The answer to your question is: no. Whatever we do, the King will find them.'

‘Damn.' I leaned on his shoulder again. He was so distraught that he was freezing through the thick cotton of his Mountain uniform. ‘Cold.'

‘Sorry.' He warmed up and put his arm around my shoulders. ‘I doubt that you can talk our son into giving you back the Murasame, Emma, even if you manage to break into the centre of Hell.'

‘That sword is the only weapon that can destroy the King. It's worth a shot.'

‘I know.'

‘And your opinion?'

‘This King is so ancient and tempered that he can withstand either of the basic forces. Yang or yin, he can resist. So your only chance is the sword. And if it comes to that, the best chance is Seven Stars.'

I stiffened. ‘No.'

‘He would be gone for good, Emma. It is the best option.'

‘If you destroy him, another Demon King will rise to try us again, and without your protection the Celestial will fall. If you sacrifice yourself by using Seven Stars, we might win now, but we will ultimately lose.'

‘I may have to do it if the lives of innocents are threatened.'

‘I won't let you!'

He pulled back to see me and smiled. ‘Is that an order?'

‘Yes!'

‘But you're quite happy to throw me into a jade cage?'

‘I've pulled you out of a cage once already. Doing it again will be easy.'

‘That's a new definition of “easy” that I haven't encountered before.'

The humour in his voice cheered me, and I put my arm around his waist and sighed. Three more days, but at least I could touch him until the end, and give him whatever comfort I could.

‘We're thinking of going after I've located my stone,' I said. ‘It mentioned the Murasame. It may know where it is.'

‘I don't like your chances.'

‘Are they better than zero?'

‘Not much.'

‘Anything better than zero is worth a try.'

‘I cannot come with you. My place is in the Heavens.'

‘We know.'

‘Let's go to bed.' He rose and rubbed his hands over his face, then reached down to help me up. ‘First thing tomorrow morning I will teach you how to suicide with shen energy. Then I will watch you go south with my most talented son and a stone child that is far too young to be involved in this, and worry myself sick about you never coming back.'

‘Deal.'

We topped out over the edge of the volcano's caldera and stepped off the cloud to stand together overlooking the steaming lake. A small new volcanic cone stuck out at one side of it. Lava flowed from a hole in the side of the inner mound, looking like a gaping wound. The sulphur fumes were strong enough to burn my lungs, and I pulled out the mask I'd brought and put it over my face. It didn't do much to filter the awful rotten-egg smell but at least my lungs weren't on fire any more.

BJ took her True Form, and lifted higher to see over the black ash-covered ground.

‘Where's the entrance to the Bastion?' I said, my voice muffled by the mask.

‘The hole there with lava coming out,' Martin said. ‘You need to withstand the lava to enter.'

‘I can't see him,' BJ said, and floated away. ‘I'll have a look further down.'

‘Jade Building Block,' I shouted.

‘Emma, that was a bad idea —' Martin began, then stopped and cocked his head.

I heard it as well. The reply was thin and almost non-existent. ‘Emma?'

‘Grandpa?' BJ said.

Four humanoid guard demons emerged from the hole in the hill, shrugging the lava off themselves.

Martin drew the Silver Serpent and I summoned Dark Heavens.

‘You're using Dad's sword?' Martin said, eyeing me. ‘I would have thought a “strong woman” like you would have demanded her own weapon a long time ago.'

‘I wish everybody would stop giving me grief about this,' I said as we moved into position ready to fight. ‘The forge doesn't have time to make anything for me, and Dark Heavens still resonates.'

‘Not good enough,' he said. ‘Three on the right.'

‘Far left,' I said, and moved left of Martin to give him room to take out the others.

The demons were a challenge: bigger than level fifty but not Mothers. The King must have specially bred them to be powerful guards.

I tried pulling the chi out of my demon and turning it into a bead, but it resisted me. It was too big. I loaded Dark Heavens with shen energy and launched it at the demon instead. It ducked to avoid the energy and I called the shen back in, cursing quietly to myself. I was still too new an Immortal to handle it accurately.

The demon took a swing at me with its nasty-looking halberd; it had a black serrated blade and what appeared to be a carbon-fibre shaft. I used Dark Heavens to push the halberd in the direction it was already going, then quickly released it to cut the demon off at the ankles. It blocked me and threw me back, then grinned to reveal the tusks in the corners of its mouth.

‘You'll have to be faster than that, little girl.'

I parried the next blow it sent at my head.

‘Calling me “little girl” isn't an insult, stupid. I've seen a “little girl” take out the whole throne room full of demons.'

The demon opened its mouth to argue with me and its expression filled with shock, then it exploded into black streamers. Martin had taken it out from behind after destroying the other three.

‘You should have had no trouble at all dispatching that,' Martin said, putting the Silver Serpent away. ‘What's the matter, Emma?'

‘I was experimenting on it,' I said as I dismissed Dark Heavens. ‘I wanted to see if I could turn it into a black bead, and when that didn't work I tried to shen it.'

‘You were
playing
with it?'

I shrugged. ‘Well, yeah.'

‘We don't have long before they send more, and the next wave will probably be much larger,' Martin said, looking around. ‘I suggest you hurry, Black Jade.'

There was no reply.

‘BJ?' I called.

Again no reply.

‘BJ!' I shouted, becoming concerned.

‘Wonderful, now we've lost both of them,' Martin said. ‘Gold will skin us alive.'

‘Worse. The demons have kidnapped her before, and if they have her again it would destroy both of them. We must find her.'

I scrabbled down the glassy scree towards the lake. The edges of the stones were sharp and I cut my hands on them as I tried to slow my momentum.

‘Stone?' I said. ‘BJ?'

Martin lowered his head and closed his eyes, then his eyebrows creased. ‘I can't sense anything.'

‘Say something, stone,' I said.

There was no reply.

‘BJ!' I shouted at the top of my voice.

Again there was no reply. They were lost. Both of them were lost, and the demons were probably holding poor BJ again. She still had nightmares about the first time it had happened, and she wouldn't cope if they had her again. I hated to think what she was going through.

‘We have to find her,' I said, my voice shaking.

I looked around at the stone-covered ground. Any of the pebbles in the scree could be either of them.

‘Bring another stone in,' Martin said. ‘Supervise it carefully and make sure it doesn't wander off.' He raised his head. ‘More guards are on their way. At least twenty of them.' He glanced down at me. ‘Can you take out ten level fifty-fives?'

‘I can take about five,' I said. ‘Can you take down fifteen?'

He resummoned the Silver Serpent. ‘I can try. I'm glad Father's taught you shen suicide.'

‘Uh . . .' I summoned Dark Heavens. ‘He really didn't have time. He started to teach me and Er Lang called him away.'

‘Wonderful,' he said softly. ‘Stay in my line of vision. I do not want what happened to the stones happening to you as well.' He hefted the Silver Serpent. ‘Here they come. Nice and big.'

The demons came out of the hole, ignoring the lava, and I wheezed with dismay. Martin lowered the Silver Serpent and raised it again. They were the black-armoured demons that had been transported on the
Liaoning
: more than two metres tall, and with disturbingly small faces on mounds that jutted from their shoulders instead of heads.

‘BJ!' I shouted, then dropped my voice to speak to Martin. ‘How many can you yin?'

‘About half of them. Emma, we need to retreat. Dying to them will serve no purpose.'

‘Stone, talk to me, for god's sake. Stone or BJ, say something!' I shouted as the demons headed up the hill towards us. They weren't carrying weapons, but their huge hands had long nail-like claws that would tear us to pieces.

‘We need to leave,' Martin said.
Come back when they've gone inside again.

‘All
right
!' I shouted with frustration, and I turned and ran up the slope.

Martin summoned a cloud, lifted me onto it, and we took off over the edge of the large caldera and quickly gained altitude.

I collapsed onto my hands and knees on the cloud. Not only had we not found my stone, we'd lost BJ. I fell to sit and ran my hand over my face. The demons had her. Gold would be destroyed when I told him, and I wouldn't blame him. I was close to the edge myself. She wasn't yet fifteen and we'd handed her over to them. They would use her for their vile experiments. I turned around and looked back, but the demons were already too small to see.

‘We'll return when they've gone back inside,' Martin said. He leaned down and put his hand on my shoulder. ‘I'll make us invisible and we can slowly and carefully check all the stones there.'

‘I'll ask Gold to come and help.'

‘No, you're right, it would break him. We'll quietly go back and find your stone. It can help us find BJ.'

‘I don't know what I'll do if the demons have her,' I said, my voice hoarse. ‘The last time she was held by the demons, we rescued her just as Six was about to cut her up with a buzz-saw.'

He released my shoulder. ‘I know.'

We hovered two kilometres away from the volcano, sitting cross-legged on the cloud for twenty minutes as we waited for the demons to leave. They patrolled the area a few times, then went back inside to report.

‘They know it was us,' I said.

‘I can hide us, but the stones won't be able to see us if I do. Do you know the Jade Building Block's chi signature, its spiritual essence?'

‘It's difficult with a stone, their nature is so different,' I said. ‘I can try.'

He nodded and stood. ‘Let's go have a look.'

We returned to the crater and he made us invisible.

This is where we took off
, he said.

I stepped off the cloud and put my hands out, feeling for the stone and finding nothing.

Stone?
I said.
Jade Building Block?
I raised my mental voice and put all I had into it.
Jade Building Block!

AUNTY EMMA!
BJ shouted, sounding the way she had when she was a baby stone.
Where are you? I can't see you!

I nearly collapsed with relief.
We're right here — Martin made us invisible. I'll knock two stones together, listen for the sound.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry
, she said.
Is everything okay? I thought you'd gone without me! Where are you? Are you here?
Her voice became desperate.
I can't see you! I can't hear anything!

I bent down, picked up a stone and tapped it against another stone.

I heard that!
she said, sounding thrilled.
I'm so glad you're here, I thought I'd lost you! I'm sorry I was gone, I wasn't expecting that to happen.

What happened to you?

She sounded sheepish.
Dad told me lava was good, but he didn't tell me how good. It's bubbly and warm and soft and feels so delish . . . knock the stones again?

I tapped the stones.
You fell asleep in the lava?

No. But I was kind of out of it. It felt so good that . . . what's the word? Euphoria. I was high!
Her voice changed to regret again.
I'm so sorry, Aunty Emma, I didn't know that would happen.

Not your fault, sweetheart, but I will have a stern talk with your father.

Me too, he should have warned me
, she said.
There you are, I can see your heat signatures.
She appeared in front of us in tiny True Form, floating in the air.
Wow, Uncle Martin is really good at hiding people. I had no idea you were there until I was right on top of you. Did you find Grandpa?

Not yet. Can you sense where he is?

Give me a minute.

Emma?
Martin said.

I brought him up to date.

Good
, he said.
Now find your stone and let's get out of here.

Did you know about lava making them high?

First time I've heard of it
, he said with amusement.

Grandpa? Call it, Aunty Emma,
BJ said.

Jade Building Block?

Help,
the stone said.

Did you hear that, BJ?

Yes. Again, Grandpa!

BJ?

BJ zoomed through the air and stopped, then took human form. She crouched and picked up a tiny pebble. ‘Grandpa?'

‘Black Jade,' the stone said with relief. ‘You're in danger here. Run.'

‘They saw you — they're coming back,' Martin said.

‘BJ, run!' the stone shouted.

Martin summoned a cloud and we jumped onto it. Twenty-five demon guards charged out of the hole as we topped over the edge of the crater and flew away.

‘Is it him?' I said.

‘I'm checking,' BJ said, holding the stone in her hand. ‘Speak to me, Grandpa.'

‘I want,' the stone said, then was silent.

‘What do you want?' I said. ‘To go home?'

‘Flyers incoming. Hold on,' Martin said, and the cloud increased in speed until the air blew past us.

‘Where am I?' the stone said.

‘You're with Emma, me and Prince Ming, Grandpa,' BJ said. ‘We're taking you home to the Northern Heavens.'

‘Who?'

BJ dropped her head and concentrated. ‘What did they do to you?'

‘Who?'

‘Grandpa's lattice has been damaged,' she said. ‘Some of the personality centres and the memory storage have been destroyed. It's fused, like it's melted. He may not remember anything.'

‘I remember,' the stone said.

‘What?' I said.

‘There's something really important I have to tell you.'

We waited.

‘He probably doesn't remember what it is,' BJ said.

‘Let's take him home,' I said.

‘No,' BJ said. ‘Isolate him. It's definitely Grandpa, no other stone looks like this, but I have no idea what they did to him and he could be . . .'

‘A plant,' I said.

‘They've done sickening things with us before. I hate to think what they've done to him. He may not be himself.'

‘How did he escape?' Martin said, without looking away from the direction we were going. ‘There were plenty of guards. He was in a jade cage. Now he's free and doesn't remember what happened.'

‘Too convenient,' I said grimly.

‘I know,' BJ said.

‘Where do we put him?' Martin said.

‘Dad will know what to do with him,' BJ said, and she shoved the stone into her chest. She turned to face the direction we were going and sat cross-legged on the cloud. ‘Might be best to give him to Grandma.'

‘The Murasame,' the stone said from inside her, making her body vibrate.

‘That feels weird,' she said.

‘What about it?' I said.

‘It can . . .'

‘What?' BJ said.

I sat cross-legged as well. ‘It can destroy the Demon King.'

‘I know where he is. How to break in,' the stone said. ‘The child knows you. He'd give it to you. You can destroy the King with it.'

‘You could destroy the Demon King with it?' BJ asked me.

‘Yes.'

‘Wow,' she said softly. ‘If you could destroy the King, it would all be over. We'd all be safe.'

‘Safe?' the stone said.