Heaven to Wudang (43 page)

‘I don't want you touching me,' Kitty said. ‘Someone else.'

‘How stupid you are to have forsaken your humanity,' John said. ‘While all the world strives to attain the Tao, you have taken a huge leap backwards. The King will enjoy destroying you.'

‘How about we go see?' Kitty said. ‘But not you; you can kill me with a touch. Have the black one or the stupid one take me.'

‘I'm both,' Leo said.

‘So am I,' Martin said.

‘Then both of you,' Kitty said.

John took my hand and raised it. Leo and Martin went to either side of Kitty and put a hand on her shoulder.

‘Follow,' John said.

We landed in a huge, brightly lit, oval-shaped hall. The walls were faced with tan-coloured stone etched all around with gold filigree. The ceiling appeared to be glass and open to the sky: blue with clouds, which had to be an illusion. The hall was twenty metres long and fifteen wide, and the stone floor was decorated with more gold filigree in the shapes of plants and flowers. The jade cage stood in the middle of the hall, also oval; it looked like a giant barred egg lying on its side, three metres long, two high, and two wide, with a full-sized door that hung open. The bars were each three centimetres wide, spaced at three-centimetre intervals.

‘This can't be Celestial Jade,' John said. ‘There has never been any piece of Celestial Jade that large.'

‘Six was very talented indeed,' the Demon King said, emerging from the other side of the cage and patting its side. ‘He could join pieces of Celestial Jade together using the blood of living stones. Six used quite a few to make this for Simon; it would be a shame if they had died for no purpose.' He gestured towards the door. ‘Put her in.'

Martin and Leo still held Kitty's shoulders. They turned to put her in the cage.

‘No, Emma and I need to do it, as promised,' John said. ‘Stand down.'

John and I took her, one arm each, and guided her into the cage. She didn't fight us. The King closed the door on us.

I quickly tried to open it, but it was locked. The jade latch was brittle, but I couldn't break it.

‘It's Celestial Jade, you can't open it,' John said.

‘You vowed to let us go!' I yelled through the bars at the King.

‘I'm not holding you, honey, you can teleport out,' the King said. ‘Both of you can. Bring her out, Turtle.'

Something blasted me from behind, slamming my head into the jade and stunning me. The floor flew up to meet me, hitting my head hard, and I couldn't breathe. The jade around me turned black and I realised Kitty had hit me in the back with the black energy.

John knelt next to me and held me. ‘Hold on, Emma, I'll take you out.'

‘She's too weak to teleport out, Turtle,' Kitty said from a safe distance. ‘She's dying. What will you do?'

John glared up at the King. ‘Let us out!'

‘I'm not holding you in,' the King said. ‘You can teleport out anytime. I promised I didn't want you, and I meant it. Out you come, you two.'

John lifted my head slightly and I moaned at the movement; my head was throbbing with agony.

‘I can't teleport her out,' John said. ‘You have to open the door and let her out! You vowed you wouldn't hold her.'

‘Just change to Turtle and give her some of your blood,' Kitty said. ‘That'll fix her right up, and you can teleport out.'

John hesitated for a moment, thinking about it.

I clutched his arm. ‘Don't take True Form,' I said, trying to suck the breath in. ‘You'll be trapped.'

‘I don't need True Form,' he said.

Leo and Martin were at the edge of the cage; I could see their faces at the corner of my eye.

‘Get me a blade,' John said to them. ‘Cut open my arm.'

He lowered me gently to the floor and reached out. Martin summoned a dagger and tried to push it through the bars of the cage, but it wouldn't fit.

‘I can't,' he said. ‘The bars are too close together.'

John dropped his head and concentrated, his jaw clenched with effort.

‘You're too weak to be doing this,' I said. ‘Take yourself out.'

‘Not without you,' he said.

A dagger appeared in his hand and he slashed at the stump of his left arm, crying out with pain as he did it. Blood flowed, and he dug the point of the knife into the wound, widening it. I tried to breathe, but he was fading and my ears were full of roaring. Something huge and black and cold appeared behind him, and he turned to see. It was his Serpent.

‘Hello, Emma,' it said in John's female voice. ‘You're very hurt. Can I help?'

John's eyes went black and he held his arm out towards it.

I grabbed the dagger from John's hand, but my right arm was too weak and wasted to use it. I quickly passed it to my left hand and plunged it with all my remaining strength into John's right eye.

‘No!' Kitty and the Demon King yelled at the same time.

John looked at me, shocked, for a long horrible moment with the dagger handle jutting from his eye socket, then he collapsed on top of me and disappeared.

‘Shit!' Kitty yelled. ‘So close!'

She stormed up to me, her appearance changing from female to male. My vision turned into a dark tunnel with her outline at the end of it. She kicked me in the abdomen a few times, then the Serpent grabbed her in its mouth and tossed her aside.

The Serpent turned back to me. ‘What have they done to you?'

I tried to reach up to touch it, but I couldn't move my arms. I wanted to speak, but the words didn't come out.

The stone spoke for me. ‘Radiation poisoning, AIDS, and just generally being thrown around. You should not be in here, Serpent, this cage isn't for you.'

‘I'm trapped,' it said. It touched its nose to me. ‘But you need healing.'

Its ice-cold fire shot through me and I screamed.

‘Sorry,' it whispered. ‘You are close to death.'

‘Shit shit shit shit shit,' the Demon King said, hitting the jade and making it ring with each word. I couldn't see him, but I could hear that his voice was coming from the other side of the cage where Kitty was. ‘So close, and she had to go and do that.'

‘It was you!' Leo yelled, his voice deep with fury. ‘All along, it was you!'

The Serpent's healing eased and I panted, trying to suck in air.

‘That's the second time you've come when I needed you,' I said to it.

‘And she thinks the test run was an accident!' the King yelled.

The Serpent touched its nose to me again. ‘I'll always come when you need me.' It raised its head and looked around. ‘Or not. I appear to be stuck now; this is not good.' It spoke to the Demon King, who I now saw was pacing the interior of the cage. ‘You did this.'

The King lowered his head and disappeared, reappearing on the outside of the cage. Too weak to move, I watched him walk to where Martin and Leo were staring at him with horror. Before he reached them, he passed an exact copy of himself also standing outside the cage.

‘Leave my dominion immediately,' he said to Martin and Leo.

They disappeared.

The demon that had represented the Demon King while he was Kitty Kwok changed its form. It was the blond horse-head from the restaurant in China.

‘Well,' the King said, pacing around the outside of the cage. ‘What do I do with you? I've achieved half of what I wanted, so I suppose it was worth the effort.'

The Serpent raised its head to see him. ‘You vowed that you had nothing to do with these demons.'

‘I vowed that I as Demon King had nothing to do with them. I didn't say anything about me as Kitty Kwok.' The King shrugged. ‘Having my word unconditionally trusted is an asset I've built over many years, Ah Wu.' He leaned towards the cage. ‘Seeing you in there now, it was an asset well worth the cost.'

I pulled myself to sit upright, and the Serpent coiled protectively around me.

‘You vowed to let me out,' I said. ‘Will you go back on that as well?'

‘I'll still let you out,' the King said. ‘I have half the prize. Well, less than half, actually. Babies from you and young Mr O'Breen would have been a nice bonus, but that didn't work out either. You keep as many suits in your hand as you can, but eventually you draw one tile that forces you to decide which suit you'll go for.' He slammed one fist on the jade, making it ring. ‘Number One, go in and teleport her out.'

The blond demon shifted his feet and moved back. ‘That snake thing will eat me.'

‘I will not eat you,' the Serpent said. ‘If you take her out and return her to the Celestial side, I will not hurt you.' Its voice dropped to silky menace. ‘But beware, because you are the very last demon that I will not hurt. I have vowed to destroy you all.' It raised its head to speak to the King. ‘Did you do this to me? Did you split me into two pieces?'

The King raised his hands. ‘Nothing at all to do with me, I swear.'

‘Your word is worth nothing,' I said.

‘I vowed as Demon King. I made no such vow as Kitty Kwok,' he said. ‘As King of the Demons, I have never gone back on my word.'

‘Yeah, you said that,' I said, and coughed. The Serpent pulled its coils more protectively around me. ‘Always masking your meaning with words.'

‘I got what I wanted, Emma,' the King said kindly. ‘The Turtle isn't trapped; Number One will take you out; everything I vowed to do, I've done.'

‘You were a lousy boss when you were Kitty, you know that?'

‘He still is,' Number One said.

‘Was there ever a real Kitty Kwok?' I said, running my hands over the Serpent's smooth scales.

‘I killed her and her husband at the same time,' the King said. ‘A very long time ago. That little group of
demons were so useful, doing all that research for me.' He gestured towards the cage. ‘And now I have this. It nearly wasn't ready in time; Ah Wu was back and it wasn't complete. I had to keep you occupied until it was ready.' He patted the cage. ‘But we got there.'

Number One sidled up to the bars, obviously terrified of the Serpent, then teleported into the cage as far from the Serpent as he could get. His expression was a mixture of fear and loathing.

‘Come on then,' he said to me.

The Serpent dropped its huge head next to my face and spoke silently.
Go and find the Turtle. Both of you may be able to find a way to get me out. And my daughter needs you.

Can it use a phone from down here?
I asked the stone.

No
, the stone said.
This room is the same stone stuff.

Can you stay with it and relay for us?

No, not underground.

I wrapped my arms around the Serpent's coils and held it. ‘I don't want to leave you, John.'

‘Go to the Turtle,' the Serpent said. ‘Find my other half. You did the right thing to kill him before he could merge with me.'

‘Didn't think she had it in her,' the Demon King said, close to us on the other side of the bars. ‘They say you kill the one you love, eh?'

‘Go, Emma,' the Serpent said. It squeezed me gently with its coils. ‘I love you.'

I threw my arms around its neck and put my forehead against its snout. ‘I love you too, John.'

‘Look after my Turtle. It's not nearly as smart as I am.'

I brushed my hands over its head. ‘I know.'

It gently butted me with its nose. ‘Now go.'

I rose, a little unsteady but okay. I went to Number One and held my hand out. He took it, and we were outside the cage.

‘Okay, take her to the Celestial side,' the King said.

‘One more thing,' I said.

‘Don't tell me.' He raised his hands with delight. ‘You want me to tell you what you are. You mean you still don't know?'

‘I'm a Western Shen mix of some sort.'

‘See? You do know. A child of the Shen of the West, the Serpent people. As long as they mixed their blood with humans, it didn't come out. You're a descendant of two very stupid people who combined their heritage.' He raised one hand, palm up, towards me. ‘The first one to show the Serpent nature in a thousand years. I've been watching you for a very long time, Miss O'Breen-Donahoe. I thought the Xuan Wu would like you, and here you are.'

‘That's not ironic.'

He laughed out loud. ‘But you're that as well!' he said with delight, pointing at the Serpent. ‘One day, it'll take you over and you'll be gone. Won't that be a day to mark on the calendar? Imagine your most powerful adversary kneeling before you, asking what it is.' He spread his hands. ‘That was one of the finest days of my life, and here we have another one. The Xuan Wu is cut in half, and I own the smart bit of it. Bring the Turtle down here and try to get it out, Emma: the cage is plenty big enough for the combined creature. And then we'll have some real fun.' He turned away. ‘Take her out. I'm done here.' He put his hands on his hips, studying the Serpent. ‘I have some things I want to do with you.'

‘Do your worst,' the Serpent said. ‘Go ahead and kill me, then I'll be free.'

‘Don't worry, Ah Wu, I have every intention of keeping you alive,' the King said.

I moved between the King and the cage. ‘Take me instead. Change me to demon, fill me with essence — I'm clear of the AIDS now. Make babies with me. I'll do whatever you like, I'll even be your Queen, just let the Serpent go.'

‘Oh, well said, my Lady.' He bowed slightly. ‘And here you are in a suit and everything — an image that gave me a shocking hard-on every time I pictured it. I pushed you so hard when I was Kitty to wear one for me, and you're finally in one and I don't even get to take it off you.' He looked away. ‘Go home.'

‘You've always wanted me; you said you would forsake your kingdom for me. Here's your chance.'