Dark Serpent (32 page)

‘That may not be the case with these new hybrids,’ the Dragon said.

John saluted the Phoenix. ‘Thank you for the assistance; your Red Warriors were invaluable in yesterday’s battle. But all of your armies are better utilised here. The Red Warriors can be a shock force if anywhere is attacked — they seem to be immensely effective. The realms must be defended and I’m relying on you to see it done. I’ll go alone, and if I need backup I’ll let you know.’

‘Just leave your damn phone on,’ the Tiger said, gruff.

John winced. ‘I promised my contact in the serpent people I’d give it to her. I still have it.’

‘Let me give you one of mine,’ the Dragon said. ‘A variation on Gold’s work with Celestial Harmony and artificial stone AI, and linked to us through the Tree. My kids have done some great work with advanced tech.’

‘Can you load it with information and addresses for Kitty Kwok’s biotech labs?’ John said.

‘Done. I’ll load it with everything I have on Europe, and the AI will respond to verbal questions.’ He smiled slightly. ‘Do you speak Japanese?’

‘What, the actual language without Celestial translation?’

‘Yes. Do you speak it like a human does?’ the Dragon said.

‘As a matter of fact I do.’

‘Excellent. Speak to the phone in Japanese rather than English. English is too hard to understand, too many words. It will work like an artificial stone.’

‘Good. I hesitate to take a stone with me; I’ve already lost two.’

‘Emma’s stone is with her?’ the Phoenix said.

‘Emma’s stone is lost. A Western stone is also lost. The stones in Europe have been disappearing, probably to be used in experiments.’

‘Has the Grandmother heard of this?’ the Phoenix said.

‘Yes. I expect her to move soon.’

‘Good. Angering her is a very bad idea.’

‘Don’t tell her about my phone technology, okay?’ the Dragon said. ‘You know how she feels about artificial stone AI.’

‘Don’t worry, Ah Qing, nobody will,’ the Phoenix said.

‘Is there anything else?’ John said. ‘The trail is going cold. I need
to get back to that lake. If I’m quick I may get there before they close it up, it will take them a while to seal something that big.’

‘Just a minute,’ the Dragon said, and dropped his head, his turquoise eyes intense. He shook his head. ‘They are so slow.’ He gestured towards John. ‘The phone will be here in ten minutes. Sit and drink and tell us what’s happened so far.’

John hesitated, then picked up his teacup. He needed that phone.

After ten minutes of him bringing the other three Winds up to date, a young woman raced into the room. She was in her late teens, with brilliant blue hair and wearing skinny jeans and a T-shirt with a design of a cat on it. She stopped when she saw them and quickly fell to one knee, head bowed. ‘My Lords. My Lady.’

‘Don’t worry about that, give me the damn phone,’ the Dragon said, holding one hand out. ‘Is this the latest version?’

‘This has pina colada running on it,’ she said.

‘Is that four or five?’ the Dragon snapped. ‘Just use numbers; these code names for versions are ridiculous. Completely meaningless.’

‘Five point five. Six is still in beta,’ she said.

‘Phone,’ the Dragon said.

‘Please ask me a question,’ the phone said.

‘Where are Penrhos Feilw standing stones?’ He glanced at John. ‘That’s how you pronounce it, right?’

‘Yes.’

The phone replied in a sweet synthetic female voice, sounding almost like a child. It was similar to the vocaloid. ‘The Penrhos Feilw standing stones are fifty metres back from the road at …’ It gave the map coordinates.

The Tiger glared. ‘I prefer the natural way of doing things.’

‘That’s why you’ll always be trailing behind,’ the Dragon said. He handed the phone to John. ‘As you can see, it’s marked the stones on the map for you, and knows where you are in relation to them.’

‘Where is the Glass Citadel, Caer Wydr?’ John said to the phone.

A map appeared on its screen. ‘The Glass Citadel, also known as Caer Wydr or the Glass Fortress, is thought to exist in the Western part of the Western Celestial Plane. It is surrounded by low rolling hills and there is a river nearby.’

‘I programmed that in after the Archivist gave us the information,’ the Dragon’s daughter said with pride.

John rose. ‘Thank you. I’ve wasted enough time; I need to find Emma and find out what they’re doing over there.’

He clasped hands with each of the Winds in turn and headed directly out towards the West.

‘Now tell me what you really think,’ Francis said.

I had to answer him, but I managed to hesitate before I did. ‘I’m home.’

‘That’s more like it.’

We were standing on a forest trail, among trees that had trunks three metres across and canopies so high they were almost invisible. The ground was covered in fallen leaves and moss, and sunlight rippled through the trees above, green and comforting. Birds called from a distance and answered closer, and an impossibly huge bright blue butterfly meandered through the tree trunks. The air was fresh with the scent of the trees and the earth and I breathed it in deeply.

Francis started to walk and gestured for me to follow him. I looked around, ready to make a break for it.

‘Don’t try to escape,’ he said.

As I followed him along the trail, I resisted his control by mentally visualising Kitty Kwok filling me with demon essence.

‘Where is this?’ I said. ‘I can’t see the Citadel anywhere.’

‘We had to move. You told him where our main base was, and he was being a pain.’

I felt a little thrill of satisfaction. John was looking for me and must have been close.

Francis linked his hands behind his back as he walked, looking for all the world like an English gentleman in his slacks and hound’s-tooth jacket.

‘You said you feel that this is your home?’

‘I’ve been dreaming about this place forever,’ I said. ‘I belong here.’

He stopped and turned to me, his pale blue eyes full of amusement. ‘We own it now. If you want to live here, you have to talk to me.’

‘What happened to the gods?’

He turned back to the path and raised his head slightly into the sunshine. ‘Wonderful, isn’t it? Why would anyone throw this away?’ He dropped his head again. ‘Sometimes, if you have a good heart and you make too many mistakes, you can’t live with yourself any more.’ He shook his head. ‘Something new came along. They thought it was a better option than themselves, so they moved aside to let it take their place.’ He grunted a short laugh. ‘If only they could have seen where it would lead.’

‘They’re gone completely?’

‘Yes.’

‘He’ll find me, you know.’

‘He already did; he found you in level six of your Hell. As long as we’re one step ahead of him, we can keep you as long as we like.’ He studied me. ‘You’re so tiny. If you’d never met him, you’d be nothing.’

‘No. If I’d never met him I’d still be me, and that’s not nothing.’

‘Compared to us you are. The world will be ours. Kitty has her hand in so many schemes that not even I can keep up with them all. She really is very impressive, but it wouldn’t hurt to have another lady around when she’s off doing her stuff.’

‘You and George …?’ I said.

‘Match made in Heaven.’

‘He’ll betray you.’

‘I’ve never met anyone like him before. Friend, lover, sister, brother — he’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner. And you know what else? He feels the same way. We share something very special.’ He turned to walk on. ‘But you and I could have something very special too. If you were to turn and join us, you could have
this.’ He raised his hands slightly to indicate the magnificent forest. ‘Pledge allegiance to us and you’ll be free to join the winning side.’

‘Oh, so that’s what this is about,’ I said. ‘You want me to renounce my oath to the Jade Emperor so I can teach your army.’

‘Fuck, yeah,’ he said with quiet amusement.

‘No.’

He shrugged. ‘Worth a try. George is ready to inseminate you; I just wanted to see if I could get you to turn on your own before we do it. He’s right about crossing you with demons — that kid he made in Wales really was exceptional. With a female DDOMA, the demon spawn will be magnificent.’

‘Inseminate me?’ I said weakly.

‘As soon as he’s back, we’ll make some lovely little demon babies. He couldn’t infuse you with demon essence directly while your arm’s so damaged, so he’ll get you pregnant instead. Don’t worry, it’ll be a clinical procedure, and you’ll be under my control and unaware. George isn’t into rape. One of the things I really like about him.’

‘It is rape.’

‘Well, you don’t have to screw him. You’d probably break my control if he tried to fuck you.’

I filed that away for future reference.

‘One last chance to accept my offer,’ he said. ‘Join us and we won’t do this to you.’

‘No.’

‘Suit yourself. You will lose all original thought —’

‘No, wait —’

‘— and obey me without question when I say “now”. Now.’

I followed the two guards into the new place. It looked like the manor that had belonged to the Marquess of Anglesey; it must have been the Celestial equivalent. It was three storeys tall, with high windows and mock battlements along its faux towers. It overlooked the Heavenly analogue of the strait between the island of Anglesey and the Welsh mainland, but instead of houses and fields there were rolling grasslands and a forest of immensely tall trees.

The guards took me through an elegant entrance lobby decorated with Renaissance-style paintings, through the massive two-storey dining room, then downstairs to the servants’ quarters in the basement. One of them pushed me through the door of a small room, and they both stood in the doorway and grinned at me.

‘Completely controlled,’ one of them said.

‘I wonder,’ the other one said, and moved closer and squeezed my breast.

I grabbed his hand in my left and viciously chopped down with my right on his forearm. On a human this would have been a crippling break, but the demon was wearing bracers and they protected him, but he still howled. I took advantage of his pain to lift his hand from my breast, unlock his elbow with my right hand and smash the back of his hand into his face. Then I yanked his hand back, slipped my foot between his to unbalance him and toppled him face up onto the floor. I loaded the first two fingers of my stronger left hand with energy and rammed them into the front of his exposed neck. He disintegrated without a sound.

The other demon raised his weapon, then changed his mind when he saw my expression. He slammed the door in my face and I heard his footsteps as he ran away.

I sighed and sat on the bed. The room had beige carpet and white walls, and held a simple dresser and a metal-framed double bed. There was an ensuite bathroom, with basic fittings, visible through another door. The windows were high in the walls and barred. This was much more secure and less luxurious than the Citadel; but it was possible I was in a cell rather than a guest room.

I saw movement in the mirror on the wall and went closer. It was the same small woman from the Citadel, against the same background. She put her hand against the glass and I put mine up to it.

I do not need to strengthen your will,
she said.
You are breaking their control by yourself. When you are free, you must find Semias. He will help you.

She glanced towards the door and I heard it too: they were coming.

She looked back at me, urgent.
You are in Heavenly Plas Newydd. You must go West and return to Caer Wydr; they are holding Semias there. You must free him!

The door opened and she disappeared.

It was a couple of demons with rifles. One pointed his gun at my feet while the other went to the mirror and pulled it off the wall.

‘We saw that. What was in there?’

‘My reflection,’ I said. ‘I feel like I’m losing my identity and the person in the mirror isn’t me at all.’

‘Damn, Dad will be pleased when he hears that,’ the demon pointing the gun said.

‘Hell, yeah,’ the other said. ‘Won’t be long before she’s completely his.’

After they’d gone, I searched the room thoroughly, looking for any way out. I could jump up to the window, but it was only fifteen centimetres high and I couldn’t squeeze myself through that, even if I did manage to bend the thick steel bars on the other side. I shimmied down again and checked the bathroom; the window in there was even smaller. My only chance would be to wait until the middle of the night when everything was quiet and make a break for it using the Murasame’s particular gifts.

I flopped onto the bed, exhausted. Whatever they’d been doing to me was wearing me out and I had trouble staying awake. As everything faded away, it occurred to me that my food or drink had been drugged.

I was dimly aware of the movement as they wheeled me into the operating theatre. Kitty was there in her human form, grinning with menace, George was next to her, and Francis was behind them. No, hold on, that was wrong. Weren’t Kitty and George the same person?

I decided I didn’t care. Whatever. I was awake and aware and I was out of there.

I ripped my arms free of the bindings and jumped off the trolley into a long defensive stance.

Everything shattered around me and I was in the room in the manor house, panting with effort. I’d had a dream so vivid that I’d leapt out of bed.

Whatever they’d given me must have worn off because I was feeling
mean
. I was still wearing the clothes I passed out in; obviously nobody had ordered me to shower and change in the past twenty-four hours. I felt filthy, but I had much more important things to think about. I had to head to Caer Wydr and find Semias.

What the Demon Kings didn’t know was that the Murasame was close to unstoppable by any solid object short of a shield of Celestial Jade. I checked with my Inner Eye: one alert guard on the other side of the locked door. I carefully positioned myself on the other side of the door from the guard, then slid the Murasame straight through the door and into its throat. It collapsed without a sound.

I slipped the sword around the edge of the door and unsealed it. I opened it a crack and checked around. Nobody. I checked further with my Inner Eye: the basement only held captive demons.

I crept out of the cell and went left, remembering the way the demons had brought me in. The hall turned left at the end and stairs led up from the corner. I checked around me again: nobody. I crept up the stairs in the dim light to the entrance hall, where the huge Renaissance paintings showed grim scenes of hunts and death.

Two guard demons stood on the other side of the front door. I shoved the blade of my sword through the door into the one on the left. As he crumpled, the other one crouched to check him and I pulled the Murasame back and shoved it through the door again into his head. Both of them were down.

I opened the door and, hugging the wall, examined the clearing around the house. The Western Celestial sky blazed as brightly with stars as the Eastern one did, and I felt a twinge of loss for the beauty of the Mountain and the man who was one with it. All I needed now was to find him.

I quickly checked the demons for mobile phones; no such luck. I continued along the side of the house and edged around the corner, looking for cover to make a run for the trees. The scent of the sea a hundred metres below the house wafted up the damp lawn, full of the sound of the small waves on the shore.

Something grabbed me around the throat and lifted me so that my feet cleared the floor. An enormous demon jammed his face into mine. I swung the Murasame at his head, but he grabbed both my hands in his free one and held my wrists. I was still holding the sword to one side and helpless.

‘Can’t have any of that now, can we?’ he said, then added with delight, ‘I’ve been trying to get a promotion. I think you just got me one.’

I kicked him in the abdomen, but it was like hitting a rock; he didn’t even seem to notice. He must have been level eighty equivalent; way too big for me to handle even with a weapon. If I ever got away from these demons, I was taking that damn Elixir as soon as I could and gaining the strength to take down anything. I wanted to fight them on equal terms.

‘Breathing okay?’ he said, but didn’t wait for me to reply. ‘Yeah, you are. Let’s show you off.’

I dangled like a doll as he carried me back into the house and up the stairs.

‘Wake the master,’ he said to the demons guarding the upstairs hallway. ‘I found a little wanderer.’

The Demon King, in his Kitty Kwok form, came out of the first door on the left, wearing nothing but a pair of old-fashioned striped cotton pyjama pants. King Francis followed, wearing the matching shirt. Both of them stopped when they saw me.

‘Found her wandering around outside,’ the huge demon said.

‘Emma, drop the sword,’ Francis said.

‘I can’t, the demon’s holding my hand around it,’ I said.

‘Release the sword when he lets go of your hands,’ Francis said.

I realised with a jolt of joy that I was no longer under his control. I was free of them. But when the demon released my hands I dropped the sword anyway. Fighting both of them at that moment would be pointless.

‘Good. You will lose all free will and exist only to obey me when I say “now”. Now.’

It was like being drugged. My consciousness became slower and sluggish, and I was only dimly aware of being carried back to my room and placed onto the bed.

I woke and stared at the ceiling, unable to move. Sleep paralysis — I knew this. My body was asleep, but my mind was awake. There was something I could do to break it … I looked towards my right arm. It was withered and weak from where Kitty had infused me with demon essence. That was not happening again. I jumped out of the bed into a long defensive stance.

Okay, now I was definitely free.

I didn’t have long to plan some way of getting out of there before morning came; the sun was already shining through the window high on the wall.

Someone tapped on the door and I froze.

‘Get dressed and get ready,’ the demon on the other side said. ‘We’ll be back for you in two minutes.’

Francis opened the door while I was still pulling on a clean T-shirt. ‘Hurry up, we’re waiting for you.’ He looked me up and down. ‘We haven’t been running you around enough. You’re getting fat.’

I meekly followed him, hoping for a chance at freedom when we got up to ground level, but he led me further along the basement hallway to a rough brick wall with a metal door in it. He rapped on the door and it swung open.