Demon Child (35 page)

‘The demon numbers don’t add up,’ I said to the Jade Emperor. ‘There aren’t many there.’ Both John and I turned our heads, studying the layout below us. ‘Where are they all?’

We landed at Court One and John took out the twenty demon guards with shen energy, then yinned the two armoured ones.

The stones took their battle forms, and some scouted the area, looking for more demons, while John opened the Court and destroyed the demons inside. There was no judge in Court One. Yanluo Wang himself was the administrator of this Court, and new arrivals were sent straight to Court Two for their first judgement.

‘Minimal resistance,’ I said. ‘What the hell?’ Both our heads shot up as we understood. ‘They were waiting for us to assault Hell, Majesty, and they’re coming to the Gates!’

The horde appeared at the Gates: front lines of thousands of low-level mindless thralls, with a similar number of larger ones behind them, and a hundred of the black-armoured demons bringing up the rear. There were far more than we’d anticipated. The demons hadn’t had time to hatch a new army in just three days; these demons must have been in reserve. Thousands of them.

‘These are Western demons and they shouldn’t be able enter the Eastern Heavens!’ the Jade Emperor said with frustration. ‘That maniac is making appalling hybrids.’ He turned to me, his eyes unseeing. ‘Tell the Turtle to continue clearing out Hell.’

‘I am, Majesty,’ I said, and changed to silent speech.
Ma, don’t bother with Hell; there’s nobody there. Take the rear of the demon
force here at the Gates, and hold the armoured ones until the cats arrive
.

My Lord … my Lady
.

The Heavenly defenders were pinned against the Gates. They threw themselves against the demon attack.

Marshal Ma’s small force appeared behind the demons, and the rear guard of armoured demons turned and sliced into them.

Martin flew overhead to yin the armoured demons, but they were so huge he could only take out one at a time.

‘Go to Court Ten first, Ah Wu! Release Pao, then secure the rest,’ the Emperor said.

‘On my way there already, Majesty,’ I said.

John and the stones flew as quickly as they could to Court Ten, next to Court One on the island wheel. A couple of black-armoured demons guarded the entrance, and John yinned them.

‘Pull that yin back, Emma,’ the Emperor said.

‘Whoops, sorry,’ I said, and absorbed the yin into me.

‘Good to know you can use it too; we may need it,’ he said under his breath.

‘You know that’s an extremely bad idea.’

‘Sometimes bad ideas are the only ones we have.’

Martin ordered those holding the blood weapons to attack the armoured demons, and directed the rest of the Heavenly army to strike the normal demon warriors. Guan Yu leapt off the wall into the middle of them, swinging his halberd with a rage so furious his skin glowed red.

‘We’re overmatched, and they probably have reinforcements,’ I said.

‘So release Pao now!’ the Emperor said. ‘We need our Immortals from the Pits and those lasers working!’

John strode into Court Ten, yinning a couple more armoured demons as he charged through.

Pao was in his chair on the dais, bedraggled and weary. ‘Ah Wu! Thank the Heavens. You have no idea how glad I am to see you.’

‘The demon garrison at the centre of the island has been alerted and the guards are coming, my Lord,’ Gold said, his voice urgent.

‘Shut the doors,’ John said. ‘Can you barricade the Court?’

‘We’ll stonewall,‘ Gold said.

They’d chained Pao to his chair and John freed him. Pao jumped to his feet, threw his arms around John’s neck and let go into his shoulder with high-pitched wheezing gasps. ‘It was a nightmare. They made me sentence everybody. They’re all in the worst Pits —’

‘You need to release them,’ John said gently, easing Pao off him. ‘We need them. The Gates are under attack and the demons from the garrison in the middle of the island are on their way here. Pao?’ He bent his head to gaze into Pao’s eyes; Pao was beside himself with grief and relief. ‘Pao. Pao!’

Pao visibly pulled himself together, hesitated for a moment, then swept the chains aside and sat back in his chair. He pulled the book of sentencing closer and inked his brush.

‘Free the big cats first, this is most important,’ John said. ‘The Tiger and his biggest sons and daughter.’

‘With a great deal of pleasure,’ Pao growled, sweeping the brush over the sentencing entries with wide strokes.

Loud thumps echoed through the walls. ‘Gold. Is it holding?’ John said.

We have it, my Lord. They can’t get in. It seems all the biggest armoured demons are at the Gates; these are just small unarmoured ones
. His voice changed to dismay.
They’ve thrown everything they have at the Gates
.

The Tiger appeared in the middle of Court Ten and collapsed. Michael fell to lie unconscious next to him, and John ran down the stairs to them.

Simone has appeared on the other side of our wall and is taking down the demons
, Gold said.
She is quite magnificent
.

The Tiger’s Number Three landed next to Michael and collapsed as well. John went to the Tiger first and put his hands on either side of his face.

‘About time I had the chance to pay you back for Guangzhou,’ he said, feeding the Tiger shen.

The Tiger woke, saw John and grabbed his arm. ‘Ah Wu. Ah Wu. Ah Wu!’ He pulled himself up, put his hands on either side of John’s face and kissed him hard, then pulled back to stare at him as if he could disappear any moment. ‘Holy fuck, am I glad to see you.’

Simone appeared next to them and lowered her weapons. ‘Goodness, that felt strange.’ She raised her voice. ‘Close it up again, Gold!’

Already
.

My attention returned to the Heavenly Gates as the Jade Emperor spoke. ‘We need those cats up here now!’

A blood-weapon wielder emptied his reservoir onto an armoured demon and it screamed and dissolved where the blood hit it. The reservoir was empty and the soldier tried to back off, but was torn to pieces by the armoured demons following.

Our forces were dwindling and more demons appeared on other side of the Gates, sandwiching Ma and his small elite force and tearing them to pieces.

Martin had stopped calling yin — probably too exhausted to control it — and had moved so that his back was to the wood of the Gates, the Silver Serpent singing as he swung it with focused ferocity. The Heavenly soldiers fell around him, their screams filling the air and their blood soaking the grass.

‘We need reinforcements, Ah Wu,’ the Emperor said. ‘If we don’t have the cats up here soon, the Gates will fall.’

‘We’re waking the cats now,’ I said.

‘Simone, are you able to give Number Three some shen energy? We need these cats up and fighting,’ John said as he put his hands on Michael’s face and brought him around. ‘Tiger, head straight to the top of the Gates of Heaven. Go to your Number Four — he has a laser weapon for you. Hurry! They’re at the Gates and we don’t have many left.’

The armoured demons at the Gates ran over the top of the blood-weapon wielders, safe now that their reservoirs were exhausted. Martin fell, and there was nothing between the demons and the Gates. The remaining Heavenly army were surrounded by the demons, fighting with desperation.

‘You should retreat, Majesty. They’re ready to breach the Gates,’ I said.

The Emperor concentrated and raised his arms and a wall of rock appeared behind the wood of the Gates, reinforcing them so they would be impossible to open. ‘Not until this falls as well.’

There are no demons left here, they’re all at the Gates
, Gold said.

More demon reinforcements appeared down the hill from the Gates: hundreds of armoured demons, human-shaped and four metres tall.

The Tiger landed next to us on top of the Gates, grabbed one of the laser weapons from the Horseman holding it and connected it to his wrist. He shared a word and a nod with Number Four, then he roared and jumped into the air, shooting the armoured demons from above. He focused the laser to a tight beam on an armoured demon until he’d bored a hole through its shell, bringing it down in clouds of filthy-smelling smoke.

Number Three woke on the floor in Court Ten and Simone spoke urgently into her face. ‘You’re needed up at the Gates to use one of the laser weapons, Katie. Are you up to it?’

‘Fuck yeah,’ Number Three said, and disappeared.

‘Simone!’ John shouted. ‘Secure this area. Revive the Celestials as they’re returned and station them around the Courts. Hold as much of the Celestial island as you can; we need One and Ten as an absolute minimum. Then send everybody else up to the Gates to help defend. Minimal numbers down here. Got that?’

‘I understand. Go!’

‘Gold, bring your war-trained stones with us and leave the rest here as barricades,’ John said. ‘Simone, Martin just fell and he’ll arrive here soon. Keep him here to help. Okay?’

‘I have it. I’ll send Martin to you to help defend the Gates.’

‘Let me know if you need him then. Gold, with me.’

‘My Lord.’

The demons had destroyed the wood of the Gates and were scrabbling at the Jade Emperor’s stone barrier. The Heavenly force continued to whittle at the rear of the demons, but the armoured ones far outnumbered the laser carriers. The demons struck a heavy blow on the stone barrier and the Jade Emperor bent double, his face weak with pain.

Er Lang and I rushed to assist him and held him up.

‘You should go, Majesty,’ I said.

‘No, I can hold this indefinitely. They can’t get in,’ the Emperor said.

‘You’ll need to rest eventually, Majesty,’ Er Lang said.

The Eastern Demon King appeared on the blood-soaked ground next to the Gates and crossed his arms over his chest. He watched with satisfaction as the demons threw themselves at the Jade Emperor’s wall, destroying themselves in their frenzied assault. The stones cracked and the Jade Emperor staggered, his face ashen.

John appeared in the middle of the demons and swung Seven Stars, destroying them around him. The tall armoured demons strode through the middle of the demon force, crushing their fellows underfoot, until they reached John. John guided the stones to battle them. The demons couldn’t injure the stones, but the stones couldn’t hurt the demons either. Instead, they kept them occupied while the Tiger and his three children picked them off slowly with the laser weapons.

John jumped into the air and floated next to the Tiger, helping him destroy the demons with concentrated shafts of yin; but controlling it soon became too much and he landed again to strike at the non-armoured demons with Seven Stars.

I hurriedly closed the link between us as he was overrun by them and decapitated, landing in Court Ten with the rest of the downed Immortals. Pao scribbled furiously in his book, trying to keep pace with the bodies piling up in front of him.

John went outside the Court and found Simone; she and Marshal Ma were working together to direct the stones to hold Hell.

‘We’ve destroyed the bridges the demons built over the ends of the causeways, and the stones are enlarging the holes so they can’t come back,’ Simone said. ‘You said the Tiger has laser weapons that will destroy the armoured demons?’

‘They do,’ John said. ‘But we’re close to losing the Gates. We must hold this island.’

‘If we can station the laser weapons around the Courts, we should be able to hold the island without difficulty,’ Ma said. ‘Your daughter has done a most meritorious job in securing the island.’

‘Thank you,’ Simone said.

‘Pao just released me,’ John said, and headed up to the Gates, joining us on top.

The Celestial army was defeated. The remaining soldiers joined us on top of the Gates and the demons stopped attacking the stone
barrier. The demon army pulled three metres back from the Jade Emperor’s barrier and there was complete silence as they stared at the stone wall.

The Demon King smiled up at us from his position next to the Gates and five glowing fluorescent slime demons appeared. They flew onto the stone and stuck to it, and the Jade Emperor screamed. His eyes went wide with horror as his robes and the skin of his hands dissolved as if they were bathed in acid. The fabric of the robe disintegrated to reveal his naked body, thin and pale. It was a distressing blow to his dignity for us to see him so exposed. The skin of his abdomen dissolved in front of our horrified eyes.

‘Is Hell secure?’ he shouted.

Simone?

Yes?

Is Hell secure?

Yes
.

‘It is, Majesty.’

I can’t hold this much longer
, the Emperor said in broadcast mode.
When it falls, follow them to the West and let them take it
. He quivered with agony as the slimes dissolved the wall and him with it.

‘No! You can’t have my Western Palace!’ the Tiger roared. ‘It took me two thousand fucking years to build that beauty! You are
not
having it!’

He jumped off the top of the wall and ran his laser weapon over the slime demons. The beam burnt them, producing acidic, foul-smelling smoke, then the burn holes closed over and the demons continued to eat at the wall.

‘Tiger, come back, you’re wasting your time,’ the Emperor said. ‘Be ready. You’ll be needed in Hell soon.’

‘Fuck, I don’t believe this,’ the Tiger said as he returned to us. ‘They cannot fucking win.’

The slime demons shrank; melting the wall was a destructive process for them. The Jade Emperor collapsed, leaning heavily into me and moaning with pain. The slime demons shrank to nothing, their work complete, and the Emperor panted with relief.

The rest of the demon army hit the stone wall and the Gates shook. The wall crumbled and a hole appeared through its middle,
mirrored in the Jade Emperor’s abdomen. The demons hit the wall again, and the hole grew to thirty centimetres across.