Heaven to Wudang (18 page)

‘Liu's on his way,' Meredith said. ‘LK Pak is in the middle of examining a demon and will be along shortly. Ma was on patrol, but likewise will be here soon, and Ming Gui is also on his way.'

I sat at the table. ‘Stone, get Yi Hao to bring me some notepaper.'

‘Ma'am,' the stone said.

Meredith sat next to me. ‘Must be serious if the stone's being polite to you.'

LK and Liu came in, saluted me, then sat at the table.

‘All the temple clergy have gone,' I said.

They were silent for a moment.

‘LK, when was the last sweep of the students?' Liu said.

‘This morning. We're doing them daily and finding nothing. All of them have had blood tests and have been cleared. We have to presume this will be an outside attack.'

Ma came into the room, saluted me, and sat as well. ‘Meredith told me.'

‘Recommendations?' I said.

‘Move all the juniors out,' Ma said.

‘No,' Meredith said. ‘We don't know how long we have yet; I won't stop their training to wait for it. We prepare as much as we can, and continue as usual.'

‘This is an army, defence is what we do,' Liu said. ‘I'm with Meredith.'

Martin came in, saluted around the table, and sat. ‘The stone told me. Can any of the Thirty-Six come in on this?'

Ma considered for a moment. ‘The twenty-eighth and thirty-first battalions are under utilised at the moment. I'll put them on standby and have them patrol the periphery of the Mountain.'

‘Any other suggestions?' I said.

‘Yes,' Ma said. ‘Bring him back now. For good.'

‘How will you do that?' Meredith said.

‘Kill a General and feed him to John,' I said.

‘That is unacceptable,' Liu said.

‘Nevertheless, it's the plan. But we won't sacrifice a useful General to buy a Xuan Wu of indeterminate power and sentience. The price is too high.'

‘What if the Mountain is attacked?' Ma said.

‘We see how we go,' I said. ‘Anything further to add?'

‘Does anybody have any time frame in their vision of the future?' Ma said.

They all looked around the table, then shook their heads.

‘Emma?' Ma said.

‘I have no idea. “Soon” could be anything from a week to a couple of months.'

‘That's the way I see it too,' Martin said.

‘So we stay on alert, patrol our borders, and be ready for the storm that's building,' I said. ‘And come through it with as few deaths as possible.'

‘No deaths at all would be the best option,' Meredith said.

‘And we all know it's an option that isn't available,' I said. ‘Dismissed.'

 

Later that morning I met Ben and Tom and their escort on the western side of the Mountain Palace, on one of the small courts between the mess hall and the residential buildings. The junior students didn't know the situation, but all the seniors and Masters were edgy and the atmosphere on the Mountain was tense.

‘Stone, please call Vincent,' I said.

‘He's on his way.'

Vincent came out of the mess hall and brightened when he saw Ben and Tom. He went to them and shook their hands.

‘How did it go? Can you come here permanently?' he asked them.

‘We're going to a laboratory to be examined and experimented on,' Tom said.

Vincent took a step back. ‘They can't do that to you!' He turned to me, horrified. ‘I'll fight you if you try to experiment on them.'

Ben took Vincent by the arm. ‘It's all right, mate, we're volunteering.'

‘They won't hurt us. Much,' Tom said.

‘Don't do this to yourselves,' Vincent said. ‘You're good men.'

‘Turns out both of us are something strange,' Ben said wryly. ‘We're dangerous, and if they can find out exactly what we are, they may be able to fix us. Right, Emma?'

‘I sincerely hope a cure can be found for both of you,' I said. ‘Because then I can be fully human myself.'

‘What are you doing on my Mountain?' John said sharply behind me.

Vincent, Ben and Tom all blanched and took a step back. I turned to see and took a step back myself. John
was in full Celestial Form, the first time I'd seen it in years. He was nearly three metres tall, dark and ugly, with a thin black beard. He wore black silk Tang-style robes embossed with silver turtles, and his long hair moved around his head as if it was in water.

‘Hello, Emma,' he said. ‘Why are there untamed demons on my Mountain?'

I gestured towards Ben and Tom. ‘They're all right; we're about to take them to the West to be studied.'

‘I don't mean this one,' John said. ‘It is very interesting, though. Stand still, let me look at you.'

Tom quailed as John strode to him and put his hands on either side of Tom's face, concentrating. Tom jumped and screamed, a long drawn-out sound of agony that abruptly stopped. He stood panting, hanging from John's hands and staring into his eyes.

‘John, let him go,' I said. ‘He's not a threat.'

‘Are you sure?' John said. He dropped his head and concentrated on Tom, and Tom screamed again.

Vincent grabbed John's arm but John ignored him completely, his attention fixed on Tom.

‘Yes, I'm sure!' I said.

‘Stop hurting him!' Ben said, putting his hand on John's arm as well. He dropped his voice. ‘Please don't hurt him.' He turned back to me. ‘He's hurting him! Is he from the West?'

John released Tom and the boy crumpled to sit on the ground, gasping. Ben knelt next to him and pulled him into a rough embrace.

John spun and took me by the upper arms, speaking urgently. ‘There are untamed demons on my Mountain. They are close to undetectable. What are they doing here?'

‘These two won't hurt anybody, John; they're heading to the West to be studied.'

He shook his head with impatience. ‘I don't mean these! There are close on a hundred extremely well-
hidden demons among the students. What are they doing here?' His expression cleared. ‘You don't know they're there.'

‘Oh dear Lord, this is it,' I said. ‘You're right, we can't detect them.'

John released me and stepped back. ‘I see. This is very bad.'

‘What's going on?' Ben said.

‘I will not tolerate untamed demons on my Mountain.' John held out one robed arm and Seven Stars appeared in his hand. He raised it towards Ben and Tom.

Vincent and I moved in front of them, protecting them.

‘I don't know who you are, but I won't let you hurt them,' Vincent said.

John raised his free hand towards Vincent and hit him with the full force of his dark Celestial gaze. ‘No child of mine stands in my way.' He turned his hand over and waved Vincent away.

Vincent's expression went blank and he stepped aside.

‘They aren't a threat,' I said, standing my ground between John and the two men. ‘We know what they are. We need you to identify the ones we don't know about.'

‘Out of the way, Emma.'

‘No. Let these two go somewhere safe. It's more important to identify the hidden ones.'

He lowered his head and his dark eyes burned into me.

‘We're wasting time!' I said. ‘We need to give the unidentified threat priority. We've been compromised, and these two are the least of our problems!'

John spoke to Ben and Tom without looking away from me. ‘Go into the mess hall and stay quiet about this, or I will remove your heads myself.'

They appeared frozen, staring up at him.

I didn't look away from John. ‘Ben and Tom, go to the mess hall with Vincent right now. Don't ask questions, don't talk to anyone, just go.'

‘Go!' John said, and they raced towards the mess hall.

‘John, summon the Lius and LK,' I said. ‘We need to get these demons away from the rest of the students.'

The Immortals appeared next to us and fell to one knee to John. John nodded back to them and shrank to normal human size.

‘There are about a hundred untamed demons out there, very high level, well hidden,' he said. ‘They are all disguised as humans.'

‘Oh, shit,' Liu said softly. ‘My Lord, you must point them out and quickly. We've been infiltrated.'

‘Come over to the offices,' I said. ‘I have some spray paint you can use to identify them. The Masters can follow you and take them out.'

‘No,' John said. ‘At this stage, it would be best if you quietly withdraw them from what they're doing. If they realise they've been exposed, they'll probably attack, and they're all through the Mountain.'

‘Stone, you awake?' I said.

‘I'm here.'

‘John, tell us what and where they are, and we'll take it from there.'

He nodded, and we headed towards his office, the Lius following.

‘I'm weaker than I expected,' John said. ‘What's wrong with me?' He raised his hand. ‘Never mind. Let's get these demons identified and neutralised. First: large training room, east of Purple Mist; the demon has taken the form of a young human female. In a meditation room beside the deity hall next to Dragon Tiger: one in the form of a young black male.' He took a deep breath.

‘That's one of mine. I never picked him,' I said with wonder.

‘Third … Let me see.' John stopped and rubbed his hand over his forehead. ‘This is hard.' He started walking again, but slower. ‘Third: there's a human teaching … Get Gold here immediately. I thought we'd fixed this issue of disguised demons being promoted to teaching here … Obviously a junior Master, teaching a basic energy-work class.'

‘That's Roderick,' I said. ‘He's a demon? No way. He generates chi like a pro.'

‘The nature of these demons is extremely complex and disturbing. I've never seen anything like them before. They seem to be not of this region.' John stopped to put his head in his hands, then brushed his hands through his long tangle of hair, mirroring one of Simone's gestures. ‘Fourth: extremely junior student in the form of a small human girl, in a very basic hand-to-hand class over near True Way. I like what you've done with the buildings, Emma, the fung shui is even more auspicious, if that is possible.' He sat on a low wall and bent forward. ‘This is very hard.'

Meredith crouched in front of him. ‘Let me feed you some energy. We need to know them all.'

He nodded, and took some deep breaths. They linked hands and both of them glowed with shen energy, a luminous silver halo that shimmered around them. Meredith's face filled with horror, and Liu took a few long strides to them, grabbed Meredith and pulled her away from John. John disappeared.

Liu stroked Meredith's hair. ‘Nearly did it.'

‘He nearly drained you?' I said. ‘I thought he'd stopped doing that.'

‘He was right,' Meredith said. ‘Identifying those demons was draining the life out of him. He's still very weak, and it will take him a while to fully return. I'm
actually surprised he can manage human form for such a long duration.'

‘We need to withdraw and hold those students, and move them away from the rest of the Academy without attracting attention,' I said.

‘One of them is a Master, as well,' Meredith said.

‘If any of the copies realises we know about them, they'll probably all explode,' I said. ‘We have to keep things as normal as possible until we can deal with them.'

‘Taoist meditation retreat. I'll identify them as candidates and take them to one of the distant mountaintops,' Liu said.

‘Take some non-demons as well, so they're not singled out,' I said. ‘While you have them, we'll have to get all the Celestials to try to identify what makes them different. Stone, quietly summon Gold, please.'

Gold appeared in front of me wearing red silk boxers with white hearts on them and a matching red silk robe, his sandy hair sticking straight up. He quickly changed to his normal tan polo shirt and slacks, and ran his hands through his hair. ‘Babies gave us a bad night, but Dad says something's up.' His face went blank, then grim as the stone filled him in. ‘I'll go through the records and identify all students who've never been vetted by the Dark Lord. Unfortunately, that's a good three-quarters of them. I'll have the list for you in ten minutes.' He disappeared.

‘The very junior student sounds like Emily,' I said. ‘Emily Fang from Malaysia. Let's do something special with her; let's send her home, put a tail on her and see where she goes. If she's a demon, she'll head to the nest.'

‘Good idea,' Liu said. ‘I'll drop Meredith off in our quarters and meet you in the office in ten minutes.'

 

Before going to my office, I went to my quarters to find the pearl to summon Kwan Yin, but she was already
there. I fell to one knee and saluted her, and she pulled me up into a hug.

She released me and smiled her sad smile. ‘Yes. You may use my Garden to talk to the Winds.' She handed me three sets of Buddhist prayer beads. ‘Give these to each of them and tell them to recite the Lotus Sutra, and they will be in the Garden. When they are there, I will take you and yours there too.'

‘Can you identify the demons for me, Lady?'

‘They may be demons, but they have within them the potential to be divine. I cannot betray my nature and identify them for you to destroy.'

‘Is that why you walk the Halls assisting the Snake Mothers to produce more like themselves?'

‘Such an accusation is beneath you, Emma. You have seen the Second and know of our nature. All demons have within them the power to be divine, no matter what they are. If I do not aid the lowest of the low and the cruellest of the cruel to find the right path, then who will? All you practise on the Third is destruction.'

I knelt before her again. ‘Truly your nature is Mercy, Lady.'