Black Jade (9 page)

I tried to change to snake, but the poison was blocking my ability. I slid down the slick turquoise pavers as the top of the Tree separated from her trunk. The canopy caught on the ground around her base, then tumbled into the water with a splash so huge that the spray stung my wounds. The remains of the trunk pivoted out of the ground, with the insects still gnawing on it.

The tiled surface tilted further until it was nearly vertical and I slid off. I turned onto my back to see John's Turtle hanging in the air above me as the enormous remains of the Tree fell, surrounded by a cloud of wreckage from the shattered buildings.

The people who hadn't made it onto John's back were falling around me, the debris crushing them as they fell. The Serpent swam through the air, trying to catch them, but only managed to grab one man in its mouth and make it back up to the Turtle before we hit the water.

The impact was like hitting concrete and the pain was intense. I was
never
—

* * *

— jumping off a building to commit suicide, it was way too painful. I'd died instantly; a change from the usual drawn-out suffering. Broken neck, from the feel of it.

I looked around and saw the familiar minimal comfort of a cell attached to Court Ten. I rose from the pallet and went to the bars. The other cells were full of dragons in human form, some of them curled up in the corners and weeping.

‘Hey, Three-Fifty,' I called.

The demon guard approached the cell and nodded to me. ‘Dark Lady.'

‘How many mortals did we lose?'

‘One hundred and sixty-seven, Lady.'

‘Thank you.' I turned away to sit on the pallet and put my head in hands.

‘We did our best, Emma,' one of the dragons called from across the corridor.

‘And we have a hundred and sixty-seven reasons for our best not being good enough,' I said. ‘The East has fallen.'

They were all silent at that, except for the quiet sobs of the Immortal dragons who had lost family and friends.

I rolled onto my side on the pallet and closed my eyes, surrounded by softly weeping dragons. I thought of my own little boy, alone with those monsters in the demonic side of Hell.

Frankie. It's your mother. I will always love you.

I sensed a sharp intake of breath, the desperate hope for a better life, and then his rejection of the possibility that anything good could happen to someone as undeserving as him.

You are a wonderful little boy, Frankie, and —

You are not my mother.
He raised the barrier and blocked me.

* * *

I was woken by banging and yelling, and looked around, disoriented. I was still in the cell — not surprising. Judge Pao had a large number of us to work through and I was probably a long way down the list.

The demon guard charged up to the door of my cell and opened it, panting and out of breath. I didn't move, fearing that Judge Pao was trying me out again. It hadn't worked either of the times he'd tried it before though . . .

‘Lady Emma,' the guard said, gasping. She looked back up the hallway, then turned to me and held out a sword, hilt first. ‘We're under attack again — there's an army of them. Hundreds. And those black fuckers.' She pushed the sword towards me. ‘Help us!'

I jumped up, summoned my armour and Dark Heavens, and grew so that I had to duck to fit under the ceiling.

‘Don't mind the sword, I'll use this,' I said. ‘Show me where to go.'

The dragons and Immortals from the Tree were being released, the bamboo doors of the cells echoing as they were thrown open. The demon guard turned and ran back up the corridor, with me following. There was shouting above, but no clash of weapons.

I followed the guard up the stairs that led to the back of Court Ten. We raced out onto the island at the centre of the Celestial side of Hell. The guards were standing at the end of the causeway, facing an army of demons. The demons had filled in the gap in the causeway using the corpses of their own kin that hadn't dissipated when they were destroyed.

John appeared next to me in human form. ‘They said there were black ones? I can't see any.'

Both of us looked around at the group accompanying us: mostly dragons from the Eastern Palace that had been killed by the worms and insects, together with the Celestial's demon guards.

‘Cynic!' John and I yelled together.

I gestured towards John — he did the talking when we were both thinking the same thing. He had more authority.

Cynic floated in human form towards us. ‘My Lord? My Lady?'

‘Go up and see if there's anything more coming,' John said.

She changed to a ten-metre-long green dragon and shot into the air.

The demons moved into position, ready to attack, and the Celestial defenders readied themselves behind us.

There was a commotion and Judge Pao stormed through the group to stand next to us. He was holding his sword, and accompanied by Marshal Meng, the guardian of the City of Hell.

‘You have yet to be judged and should still be in your cell,' Pao said to me.

‘I can go back if you like.'

‘You have special dispensation,' Pao said.

‘Oh, thank you so much.'

Cynic landed lightly on the ground next to us. ‘There's a group of about twenty of those black things on its way.'

She telepathically projected an image of them: the Eastern-Western hybrids that had no difficulty travelling anywhere on the Planes, marching up the causeway a hundred metres behind the army we were facing.

John concentrated, calling reinforcements, and Simone and Martin appeared next to us.

John and I had the same thought at the same time. He spoke to Simone and Martin; I turned to speak to the rest of the group.

‘The Dark Lord, the Crown Prince and the Princess will handle the black-armoured demons,' I shouted, boosted by telepathy so all could hear. ‘We will handle the ordinary demons on the causeway. Keep well away from the armoured ones, they'll use yin —'

I was cut off by the demons on the causeway running over the corpses of their brothers to attack us.

John, Simone and Martin shot into the air, heading out to fight the armoured demons. I moved back to stand with the vanguard of the defenders.

Hold,
I said as the demons ran towards us. When they were right on top of us, I yelled and we engaged.

We stood shoulder to shoulder and fought them. Pao wasn't as skilled as any of my trained Disciples, but he fought valiantly, his black face full of determination.

My vision was full of a mass of weapons heading towards us, and in the heat of battle all style was forgotten. We slashed at each other and I defended, sometimes clumsily, and often missed my attacking strikes. I worked in a team with Pao on one side and a dragon on the other, helping them as they watched my flanks, and we pushed forward over the ground that was slippery with demon essence, destroying the demons in front of us.

I blocked a strike to my head, and it bounced off my blade into the dragon next to me. She fell, and someone moved up to take her place. I ignored a couple of lucky hits to my shoulders, but one particularly strong blow nearly took my left arm off. I blocked the pain and continued to fight, but the attackers were thinning.

Then there was nothing in front of us; we'd broken through their lines.

I took a deep breath and threw energy at some of the remaining stragglers, blowing them up. The energy backlash from destroying them sizzled through me and my arm was healed; an advantage of being in Court Ten where our bodies were energy-based extensions of our spirits.

There was an explosion on the causeway fifty metres in front of us, and the unmistakable whistle of a rocket-propelled grenade going overhead. I felt the shockwave more than heard it.

The demon guard came to the door of my cell. ‘Your turn, ma'am.'

‘How long have I been here?' I said.

‘Only forty-eight hours.'

‘I thought I would have a shorter sentence for helping to defend Court Ten.'

She opened the door of the cell. ‘You did. You're one of the first out.'

‘Why? What happened?' I said as I followed her up the stairs and into the two-storey Court Ten building.

I stopped when I reached the top of the stairs. Court Ten was gone. Two of the four walls were left, and only reached a couple of metres above the ground before they became splintered remnants. Five craters where the bombs had hit dotted the ground where the building used to be, and the stone floor of the courtroom was rubble.

‘He was right,' I said.

‘Who?'

‘The Jade Emperor. So where has the Court moved while we rebuild?'

‘We don't have the resources to rebuild; we'll have to win this war first,' the demon guard said. She gestured with her halberd. ‘Pao's conducting his hearings in Court Nine. No mortals are being sent to the Pits anyway, so we might as well make use of it.'

We picked our way through the destruction and went through the doors of Court Nine, two hundred metres away at the end of its own causeway. The courtroom was unadorned except for Judge Pao at his desk on the raised dais and the small group of spectators sitting on benches to one side. Relief rushed through me when I saw John. Although they'd told me we'd won, it had still been lonely without him.

I missed you too,
John said, and we shared a sad smile. His face was gaunt with stress — he hadn't been eating or sleeping well — but the special smile that showed he was glad to see me always lifted my spirits.

I knelt in front of Judge Pao in my white prisoner's garb and lowered my head. I needed to be out of there and back into action as quickly as possible, and aggravating him would only be counterproductive.

‘Lady Emma Donahoe,' Judge Pao said from the dais above me.

‘This small Shen is present and honoured,' I said, my head still bowed.

‘You are to attend me in my office immediately. Escort the prisoner,' Judge Pao said, and he rose, walked down off the dais and through the door behind him.

I was stunned, and the guard had to take me by the arm to pull me to my feet. She pushed me to follow Judge Pao out of the courtroom, and we went up the external stairs to his private office in his quarters on the floor above. The guard guided me into the office, and I fell to my knees on the rug in front of the empty desk. This was new.

Judge Pao came in holding a teapot and some cups. He gestured towards me with them. ‘Up. Sit. Lord Xuan, you too.'

I rose and sat on one of the visitors' chairs. John appeared next to me.

Pao sat behind his desk, put the cups out, and poured. I tapped the surface of the desk next to my cup in thanks.

‘So what do we do?' Pao said. ‘The East has fallen. It's only a matter of time before they move on the North. Can you hold them?'

John lifted his teacup and studied it. ‘We will make our last stand on the field outside the capital of the Northern Heavens.'

‘What are our chances?'

John put the cup down, rubbed one hand over his face and looked away. ‘Not good.'

‘If they win the North, they'll go straight to the Celestial Palace.' Judge Pao poured more tea into our already-full cups. ‘The Celestial will fall.'

‘I will fight to my last breath —' John began.

‘We all will. All civilian staff must be evacuated from Hell now, Lord Xuan. They are at desperate risk of being thrown into the Pits if the Heavens fall.'

‘As soon as I can find Jade I'll send her to make the arrangements,' John said.

‘Jade's missing?' I said.

John nodded. ‘Did she come through the Court, Honourable?'

‘She is in my cells now,' Pao said. ‘I suggest you relieve her of duty. Two of her youngest daughters — Princesses Frangipani and Bauhinia — died in the fall of the East. It has broken her.'

‘No,' I said, and leaned my head in my hand.

‘Before you ask, no, they weren't Worthy, but even if they were — I am no longer Raising Celestial Worthies. They are better served by being reattached to the Wheel rather than living with the possibility of an eternity in the Pits.' He tapped his teacup on his desk blotter. ‘We may as well close the Courts. I will sign a blanket Edict that all Immortals are immediately released, and all mortals are returned to the Wheel.'

‘Will the Edict still apply if Hell falls?' I said.

‘Of course not,' Pao said. ‘Lord Xuan . . .' He hesitated, turning his cup in his hands. ‘How will we minimise the suffering of the innocent when everything falls apart?'

‘I don't know,' John said, almost a moan of pain.

‘What does the Celestial say? He does not answer my calls.'

‘He says nothing,' John said. ‘He meditates. He ponders. He wanders his Palace, which is full of innocents who are at risk, and he remains silent. No orders, no suggestions, no plans.'

‘He sees the worst.'

‘He sees something that fills his visage with so much grief that it breaks my hearts to look upon him,' John said. He straightened. ‘We will. Still. Fight.'

‘Go and fight, Celestial Highness,' Pao said. ‘Fight with your Lady and your children by your side. Fight with your black-garbed Disciples. Fight with the host of Heaven. All of us are behind you.'

John put his hand out to me and I took it. He teleported us to the Mountain. We landed in the administrative section and headed straight to John's office. I changed my white convict's robe to a black Mountain uniform on the way, and John nodded appreciation. Three weeks before I hadn't been able to do that.

‘Welcome back, Lady Emma,' Zara said as we went through her anteroom.

‘Thanks, Zara. Call Yi Hao for me, will you?'

John sat behind his desk and checked his email. I stood on the other side and flipped through the documents on his desk, reviewing what had happened while I was in Hell. He finished and put his hand out, and I took it. We linked up and he gave me a quick update on the three days I'd been away. I was the fifth one back. The Dragon had been held for forty-eight hours for losing his Bastion, had been released first and hadn't been seen since.

John gave me a quick summary of his trip to the remains of the Western Heavens with the Tiger, to look for the laser weapon. They'd found a huge prefabricated steel building over where the Tiger's lab had been.

We went invisible and attempted to infiltrate,
he said.
They could sense us. The minute we were close, alarms went off and they tried to destroy us with a spray of bullets. I don't know how they managed to detect us — we were both invisible and silent!

Infra-red sensors detecting your body heat
, I said.

Oh,
he said, understanding.
So I should have gone in as a reptile with cold blood?

Warm enough to move is warm enough to be detected. Did you see what's inside?

The Tiger says metal. A great deal of metal. He melted it to slag. All of it, the building as well.

Good.

On his return, John had met with the Generals and they were gathering every remaining warrior the Celestial had in the Northern Heavens to make a final stand on the field outside the
city, next to the lake. The Generals had demanded that John move his centre of operations there.

I agree with them,
I said.
Why are you still here on the Mountain?

He ignored me, and continued to bring me up to date. The dragons were doubling up in the refugee camps, but the accommodation was full. The latrines were overflowing, and even in the Celestial purity the sanitary facilities were struggling. We needed Jade back as soon as possible.

I interrupted him.
We need to find someone else to do the refugee housing. We're taking Jade off duty.

Right. Yes.
Food was running low, rationing had been introduced. And now John and I had to pack and move everything to the Northern Heavens for the last stand.

I released his hand and nodded.

Yi Hao came in and I turned to speak to her. ‘Pack up my office, we're moving to the Northern Heavens. Tell Smally to pack my private things as well.'

Yi Hao nearly ran into Jade as she went out. Jade fell to one knee in front of us, her face fierce with grief. I knelt in front of her and took her hands, and she embraced me, sobbing into my shoulder. She wept for a while, then pushed me away and rose.

‘I'm returning to duty,' she said.

I opened my mouth to argue with her, but she raised her hand, her face still swollen and wet with tears.

‘I need something to do. Something to keep me occupied. I need to keep —' She lost it again, gasping and unable to speak, then found her voice. ‘I need to keep busy! I need to help. We have . . . we have . . . by the Heavens, how many dragons do we have that need homes?'

‘Jade,' I said, guiding her to sit in the other visitors' chair, ‘you just lost two of your daughters. You need to spend time with . . .' I struggled to remember which ones had died, furious at myself for not knowing.

‘Jackie,' Jade said, unsurprised. ‘I know that everybody saw them as a little clump of troublemakers, but to me they were unique and special and they were my darling little girls.'

‘We taught them martial arts a few weeks ago,' John said. ‘Frannie had a great deal of potential for energy.'

‘Hinnie was very forthright, and although she wasn't the most talented, she was obviously willing to put the work in,' I said.

Jade was nodding, and John passed her a box of tissues.

‘Both of them are gone, and Jackie's left,' I said. ‘Her heart must be broken to have lost two sisters who were like a part of her. You need to be with her, because both of you have lost more than we can possibly understand.'

‘I need to keep occupied, my Lady,' Jade said. ‘If I sit around at home I will drift into depression. That has happened before when I lost family. I need to keep
busy
!' The last word was a cry of anguish.

‘Meredith is outside,' John said. ‘If she gives you the all clear, you may continue.'

‘The Blue Dragon is also outside,' I said. ‘Maybe you should spend some time with him and Jackie together?'

‘If I had never agreed to the custody arrangements, they would still be alive!' Jade cried, hoarse with grief. ‘It's his fault they're dead. He didn't protect them.' She gestured angrily with one hand. ‘Send him away, I beg you, my Lord. I have no desire to see his selfish face.'

‘If you want to resume your duties, you must work with him to arrange refuge for his subjects from the East,' John said. ‘If you can't work with him, then it would be best if you didn't do it at all.'

She stared at him for a while, tears still running down her face. She mopped them with a tissue and nodded. ‘I will overlook his failure for now, because our fellow dragons are in greater need. This is too important for my personal feelings to be in the way.'

‘As I said, Meredith must give you the all clear,' John said. ‘Now go and speak to her, and tell the Dragon to come in.'

‘My Lord,' she said. She rose and saluted him, then me. ‘My Lady.'

She turned to go, her green robes flowing around her. She stopped at the door and glared at the Dragon. He opened his mouth to say something to her, but she made a loud sound of disgust and stormed past him and out of the office.

The Dragon hesitated, looking after her, then came in. He was holding something like a baby, wrapped in the folds of his robe. As
he neared us, it became apparent it was a fifty-centimetre-high tree sapling with a slender stem, bare roots, and a bushy gathering of leaves at its top.

‘It took me nearly a full day, but I found one,' he said.

‘You managed to salvage some of the Tree?' I said, relieved.

‘No,' the Dragon said. ‘She's gone. This is one of her children.' He bent with grief for a moment, then straightened. ‘This is the only one that survived; I fished it out of the ocean. Can you help it?'

The leaves shifted and seemed to form a face, then they drifted apart again and were just a random pattern. The tree spoke with a voice like a child's whispering: ‘I have been doused in salt water for days. I cannot be saved.' ‘Ah Wu?' the Dragon said.

John generated a bubble of water and placed it over the plant, washing it clean. The sapling shivered within the water, then shook itself. John released the water and the tree faded again. John changed to Serpent, so big that the transformation knocked me off my feet and slammed me into the wall. The desk toppled over, scattering its contents.

‘Are you okay?' John said in the Serpent's female voice.

‘Yeah, no damage,' I said, wriggling out from under its coils. ‘I think you broke your desk.'

‘I know, Zara will kill me.'

It touched its nose to the sapling and the tree changed from yellow to green, a subtle transformation.

‘Stop,' the Dragon said, his voice full of urgency. ‘Enough.'

John changed back to human and turned his desk right way up. He concentrated and the papers that had been on it flew back to land haphazardly on its surface. He bent to pick up the Ninja Turtle figure and carefully placed it next to the monitor.

‘Thank you, Dark Lord,' the tree said. ‘But three days in salt water . . .'

‘I know,' the Dragon said. ‘You need nourishment. Take it.' He held his arm out so the robes pulled away from his forearm.

‘Highness,' the little tree said, ‘you are one with us and we will not harm you.'

The Dragon put the tree on top of his arm. ‘Do it. You are the only one left.'

‘I cannot.'