‘I’m right here,’ John said.
‘We are well aware of that,’ I said. ‘Decision time. Drugs, or leave it?’
‘Leave it,’ John said.
‘Try the drugs first,’ Regina said. ‘Watch his energy. When the medication wears off, check again. Compare. I think you will find that the drugs make it easier for him.’
‘No Western pills,’ John said. ‘Only herbs.’
‘Whatever,’ I said.
‘The herbs and the Western medicine have the same effect, but the herbs must be boiled for at least an hour and a half and taste foul,’ Regina said. ‘I’ll give him some analgesics and anti-inflammatories.’ She paused, musing. ‘I wonder if it will become infected, considering his current weakened state.’
‘I’m still right here,’ John growled.
‘Leo?’ I said.
Leo paused, then understood the question. ‘I’m okay.’
‘Don’t worry about antibiotics. I don’t think he’ll need them if Leo’s okay,’ I said.
Regina studied Leo. ‘What?’
Leo didn’t say anything and I slapped my forehead with my palm. ‘
Men
!’
‘Oh, dear Lord,’ Regina said softly. ‘Why didn’t anybody tell me?’ She raced to her desk and scrabbled through the drawers. ‘I’ll need prescriptions right away. It will take
weeks
for me to get the right cocktail of drugs from the States or Australia, and acquiring them without giving anything away about our operation will be incredibly difficult.
Damn
!’ She rounded on Leo. ‘How bad was it? It was before you went to Malaysia, wasn’t it? Tell me
now
.’
Leo slowly and gracefully rose to his feet, towering over all of us. His face was rigid.
He fell to one knee before me and saluted, head bowed. ‘My Lady,’ he said, his voice hoarse. ‘I wish to make a request.’
I didn’t move, watching him. ‘Regina,’ I said softly without turning to her, ‘don’t worry about the AIDS drugs. DNR. I’ll manage the pain for him as much as I can.’ I heaved a deep sigh. ‘Leave it.’
Leo rose with a great deal of dignity and bowed from the waist to me. ‘I thank you, my Lady,’ he said softly. He bowed to John. ‘My Lord.’
John didn’t say anything but his face was tight.
Regina turned away and thumped the desk.
‘Let’s take him home,’ I said with resignation.
‘I don’t need to be taken home,’ John said.
‘No, what you need is to be left in the middle of the street across the tram tracks,’ Leo said with feeling. ‘Let’s get Simone and go.’
We put him in the front of the car. As Leo guided him in, he hissed with pain. ‘I took the drugs,’ he said. ‘They didn’t work.’
‘I think they did, but not completely,’ I said, buckling Simone into the seat in the back. ‘You’ll still be in quite a lot of pain anyway.’
‘I don’t know how you humans live with it,’ he said.
‘Is Emma human?’ Leo said quickly as he pulled himself into the driver’s seat.
John paused, the seatbelt buckle halfway into its slot. He pushed the buckle all the way in and faced the front. ‘Interesting question. Hard to say.’
‘We need an answer. There’s dinner riding on it,’ I said.
John didn’t turn. ‘Let me think about it.’
‘If you need to think about it then she’s not human,’
Leo said. ‘If she’s human, you’d be able to say so right away. If you have to think about it then she’s not.’
‘I think he’s right,’ John said.
‘Emma is human,’ Simone said with conviction. ‘But the snake isn’t human.’
‘Does that mean that I’m not the snake?’ I said.
‘That’s right,’ Simone said, facing the front of the car. ‘Emma’s human, but the snake isn’t.’
‘I think she’s right,’ John said.
‘We can’t both be right,’ Leo said.
‘I am human,’ I said. ‘I can’t do anything that a very talented human can’t do.’
‘Yes, you can,’ John said. ‘Humans cannot work with shen. Humans cannot heal with energy. Humans cannot run one hundred metres in three seconds.’ He gestured at Leo next to him in the front. ‘Absolutely no human could lift him with one arm.’
‘I win, Emma,’ Leo said. ‘Face it. You’re not human.’
‘What am I then?’
Nobody said anything.
We went to the American restaurant in the Peak Tower and Leo ordered the most massive steak that I had ever seen, so rare it was still mooing. I ordered vegetarian pasta.
I took a sip of the beer and winced.
‘What?’ Leo said.
I studied the bottle. ‘Ever since I started working with energy, alcohol tastes strange. Wrong. I don’t like it any more.’ I put the bottle down and glanced around for a waiter. ‘Mineral water.’
After the waiter had brought the mineral water I poked my fork into my pasta with amusement. ‘I might as well shave my head and start wearing brown Taoist nun’s robes,’ I said. ‘No meat, no alcohol, no sex. I’m a freaking nun.’
‘At least if you dressed like that you’d be tidy,’ Leo said. ‘You wouldn’t always look like you fell out of bed in the clothes you wore the night before.’
I reached across the table and gave him a push. ‘Oh, thank you
very much
.’
‘Not no sex,’ he said, grinning.
I stiffened. ‘How the hell do you know about that?’
The grin didn’t shift. ‘Obvious. I heard you two sneak out. Gone all night.’
I dropped my head. ‘That was the last time, Leo.’
He leaned across the table and took my hand. ‘You can’t be sure of that, sweetheart. You two might have another chance. Remember what the Tiger said.’
‘No,’ I said, looking up into his eyes. ‘That was the last time. I know. You know those kids—Scott and Tymen? They’ll be like brothers one day. I
know
.’
‘How do you know?’ Leo said, his face becoming sterner. ‘What do you mean, you
know
?’
‘I just know,’ I moaned, leaning my chin on my hand. ‘I know absolutely for a fact. Scott and Tymen will be like brothers, and John and I will not have another chance before he goes.’ Suddenly I knew something else, and I was so sure of the feeling it took my breath away. ‘And we will accept the girl from New Zealand and she will do remarkable things.’
‘You had that look on your face again,’ Leo said, studying me.
‘I had that feeling again,’ I said. ‘I
know
.’
Leo dropped my hand and pulled his own away. ‘You really
are
becoming an Immortal.’
I ran my hands through my hair. ‘I hope so, Leo, and I hope you do too.’
‘Eat your dinner,’ he said, picking up his steak knife and slicing into the enormous slab of bleeding meat. ‘I can’t become an Immortal. If I had to go vegetarian it would kill me.’
M
y parents insisted on coming down from the palace to attend Simone’s end-of-school concert. Simone was delighted, and my parents were too. She really was becoming like a granddaughter to them.
I drove my parents and Michael in my car, and Leo drove John and Simone. Before we left, Leo jokingly told me that we needed to buy a van to carry our growing family. I glared at him.
We parked at a nearby shopping centre; our special parking treatment wasn’t valid on a night where everybody would be attending. A couple of the Tiger’s Horsemen met us at the car park—my parents’ guards.
We were all alert as we walked over to the school, even my parents. They’d been attacked by demons before while out with us. John was doing his best not to limp, but it was obvious that the ankle was still giving him trouble, even after a week. Regina had taken the stitches out that morning.
Simone was entirely unaffected by the danger. She held my hand and skipped beside me, prattling excitedly about her part in the performance. Her class was reciting a poem in Putonghua about tigers, complete with tiger masks and costumes.
When we reached the school, the White Tiger was waiting for us at the door with a satisfied grin. He wanted to see Simone’s class recitation too. Simone was thrilled and ran to him. He hoisted and spun her, making her squeal.
We went inside and sat without incident. The Tiger made himself invisible and stood near the stage, guarding. The Horsemen guarded the doors, and Leo leaned against the wall at one side of the auditorium, dark and unmoving.
Michael was doing something behind the scenes with the lighting for the production so we didn’t see him, but Simone’s little class doing their tiger poem were delightful. John had a proud smile a mile wide as he watched his daughter perform. I glanced at him questioningly a few times and he silently shook his head. About halfway through I began to relax; obviously they weren’t willing to try us with so many people around.
When the show was finished we all met outside the auditorium.
‘Do you want to come back to the West now, or go up to the Peak for a while?’ the Tiger asked my parents.
‘Is it safe for us to stay?’ my father said.
‘Should be okay if you’re with me,’ the Tiger said.
‘Ah Bai,’ John said, ‘it would be better if you take Simone directly to the Peak. I will take Emma. Leo and Michael can take Brendan and Barbara. We know who they’re after.’
The Tiger gestured and the Horsemen approached from where they’d been guarding the perimeter of our little group. ‘One in each car.’
‘My Lord,’ the Horsemen said.
‘I’ll see you at the Peak,’ the Tiger said. He glanced down at Simone. ‘Come on, little tiger. I’ll take you home and you can play with the big tiger.’
‘She’s really getting far too old for this,’ I said as they disappeared together, Simone wearing a cheeky grin.
All of us were tense and alert as we walked back to the car park. John concentrated, and Gold appeared in the middle of the group.
‘Can you sense anything?’ my father said, his voice low.
‘No,’ John said. He concentrated again and his eyes turned inward as he walked. ‘Ah Bai and Simone are back at the Peak, and they are fine.’ He shrugged. ‘Maybe they won’t try for us with so many guards.’
‘I hope not,’ I said as we paid the parking tickets.
We reached the cars without incident.
‘Anything?’ I whispered.
John and Gold shook their heads.
‘I’ll take Emma. Gold, Two Sixty, with us,’ John said, gesturing towards the smaller car. ‘Leo, Michael, Two Seven Three with Emma’s parents in the big car.’
Leo pulled himself into the driver’s seat of the big car. The Horseman sat in the middle of the back seat, with one of my parents on either side of him. As my parents entered the car the Horseman pulled a short sword out of a scabbard he’d had hiding on his back under his shirt and rested it across his knees. Michael retrieved his white katana from the trunk of the big car and sat in the front passenger side with it across his knees.
‘In, Emma,’ John said, having a last look around before he entered the smaller car.
I moved to sit in the front passenger side.
‘No, in the back, between Gold and the Horseman.’
I shrugged and sat between them; I knew why.
‘What are the chances?’ the Horseman said softly.
‘No idea,’ Gold said. ‘Last time they attacked before we made it to the car park.’ He hesitated. ‘Emma, please wake my parent, it may be useful.’
I tapped the stone.
‘Hm?’ it said.
‘We’re driving home from the concert, Dad,’ Gold said, looking around as John eased the car towards the exit. Leo followed us. ‘Help keep a lookout, will you?’
‘Not a problem,’ the stone said. Its voice became petulant. ‘I missed Simone’s poem? I was looking forward to seeing that.’
‘Gold,’ John said, ‘pull down Seven Stars. Lay it on the passenger seat.’
Gold lowered his head and concentrated. The sword appeared, leaning on the seat next to John. I peered around to see it; I’d never had a good look at it before.
Gold hadn’t worried about the scabbard: the blade was bare. The sword was jet black, with seven large circular indentations running down its length. Each indentation centred on a hole, about two centimetres across, right through the sword. The guard was a traditional Chinese style, silver and elaborately carved, but I couldn’t see the details of the carving. The handle appeared to be white stone. The sword must have been nearly two metres long. No wonder he needed to be in Celestial Form to wield it fully.
‘Whoa,’ the Horseman said. ‘Seven Stars. Wish I had a camera.’
‘It’s exquisite,’ I said over the back of the seat.
‘One day you’ll see it shine,’ John said.
‘Is it usable even if you can’t load it?’ I whispered.
‘It’s a blade. It’s big. It’s sharp. It will do the job,’ he said. ‘Lean back between your guards. Provide less of a target. We cannot use firearms against them, but they can certainly use them against us.’
I huddled back between Gold and the Horseman. Gold concentrated and took battle form: his human shape made of quartz with gleaming veins of gold. The suspension of the car shifted underneath his weight.
‘You sense something?’ I said.
‘No,’ Gold said, his mouth not moving. ‘Just being careful.’
We travelled up Waterloo Road, long and straight with high rises on either side. The ground-floor levels of the apartment blocks weren’t gardens, they were paved car parks. We travelled through three or four sets of traffic lights.
‘Shit,’ John said softly, checking the rear-view mirror. He concentrated, then raised his voice. ‘He can’t hear me, Gold, and he’s getting out of the car. Get back there
now
!’
Gold lowered his head and disappeared.
I didn’t say anything. John was concentrating on driving, and besides, I had a good idea what had happened. John couldn’t do a U-turn—there was a large concrete divider between the traffic lanes.
‘Damn,’ John said. His voice became fierce. ‘I don’t care, stop him!’
He cut through three lanes of traffic from the right lane to the left, causing cars to screech their brakes behind us. He drove like a maniac for three hundred metres, then exited to the left so quickly that the tyres on the Mercedes squealed.
‘This is a direct order, Michael, Gold. Kill him now,’ John said. ‘Take his head immediately. Do it.’
When he was on the exit road he raced at a dangerous speed up the right lane, looking for a place to perform a U-turn, but once again the road was separated by concrete dividers.
‘Kill him! I know he’s controlled. Kill him anyway!’ John shouted.
We came to a place where the dividers were removable metal gates rather than concrete, to allow access by emergency services. John put the hazard lights on, stopped the Mercedes next to the dividers, and concentrated.
The dividers collapsed inward. Every weld on the metal disintegrated, turning the gates into useless pieces of metal pipe. John eased the Mercedes through into the oncoming traffic, ignoring the horns from other drivers. The underside of the car grated painfully on the pipes, then we were clear.
John took off again, going the other way. ‘Kill Leo
now!
He’s far too dangerous to let live. Just take his head!’
We raced for about five hundred metres, then took an overpass to go back on Waterloo Road, in the opposite direction from before.
John’s eyes unfocused and he relaxed. ‘Michael stopped him. Your parents are okay, Emma.’
‘Michael killed Leo?’ I whispered.
John slowed the car as we merged with the Waterloo Road traffic. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Michael and Gold both disobeyed a direct order and are in serious trouble. Leo is still alive.’
‘Were they hit from behind?’
‘Yes. Somehow the demons in the car that hit them gained control of Leo. Leo killed the Horseman and was about to grab your parents when Gold and Michael subdued him together. They are both in extremely serious trouble. They should have taken his head when they had the chance.’
The Horseman next to me hissed under his breath.
We reached the scene of the accident. John checked them carefully as he drove past the other way, then turned left. We travelled through the quiet backstreets of Kowloon Tong until we found a place where we could turn right to return to Waterloo Road. We passed Kitty Kwok’s kindergarten on the way; it was only about five blocks from the school.
‘Were Gold or Michael injured?’ I said.
‘Michael,’ John said. ‘Your parents are okay. Gold is uninjured. Apparently Leo received the worst of it.
Gold and Michael had to use a great deal of force to subdue him, and the demons tried to kill him after he went down.’
‘How did they gain control of him?’ I said as John turned on the hazard lights and pulled in behind the ambulance attending the two cars.
‘I don’t know. And we may never have the chance to find out, love,’ John said, gesturing towards the gurney being lifted into the ambulance.
Michael was taken in the ambulance as well, Gold accompanying him. John drove me and my parents directly back to the Peak with the remaining Horseman. The Tiger and Simone waited for us in the living room, quiet and subdued. When we came through the door Simone ran straight to her father. He lifted her and held her close.
‘Is Leo okay, Daddy?’ she said into his shoulder.
‘Michael says they don’t know yet,’ John said, holding her tight. ‘But Meredith is there, looking after him. We’ll just have to wait and see.’
She pulled back so that she could see his face. ‘I want to go to the hospital and see Leo.’
‘If you don’t mind, Brendan, Barbara, could you care for Simone for a short time while we discuss this?’ John said.
My parents didn’t say anything, they just nodded grimly. John lowered Simone, and my mother came forward to take her hand and lead her into her bedroom.
My father turned to speak over his shoulder to me. ‘Don’t worry, Emma, we’re fine. Go and talk to John.’
John, the Tiger and I went into the dining room. Ah Yat brought us a pot of tea without being asked.
‘Is Leo still controlled?’ I said.
‘It’s hard to say,’ John said. ‘He hasn’t come around yet. Right now, though, he isn’t capable of
hurting anything. Gold and Michael did an extremely good job on him. They came very close to following my orders. Then the demons tried to kill him outright.’
Gold appeared beside John, still in his battle form, all of stone. He held his hand out. ‘We stones have been arrogant for years about our ability to transcend normal animal energies. We have thought ourselves aloof and superior. And boy, have we been wrong.’
Gold placed a small jet-black pebble, about two centimetres across, onto the table. ‘This was in the Lion’s pocket,’ he said. ‘Somebody probably slipped it onto him while we were at the concert.’
We all leaned forward to study the stone.
‘Let me see, Emma,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘Put me on the table next to it.’
I took the ring off my hand and moved it near the black stone. ‘Not too close!’ it squawked, and I placed it about ten centimetres away.
‘Damn,’ the stone said. ‘I’m speechless. How the hell did he manage to do this?’
Gold changed back to his normal human form, wearing a pair of tan slacks and a tan polo shirt. His face was very grim. ‘This was once one of us, my Lord. Now, it is less than nothing.’
I inhaled sharply with shock. ‘This was a stone Shen?’
Gold nodded. ‘I knew this one too. She was a wonderful person. There is nothing left of her that can be salvaged.’ He looked away, his face full of pain.
‘My Lord Bai Hu, Exalted Emperor of the Western Heavens,’ the stone in my ring said very formally.
‘Jade Building Block of the World,’ the Tiger said.
‘My Lord,’ the stone said, not quite as formal, ‘I’d like your permission to bring the opal in on this. The opal can take this…’ It hesitated, as if taking a deep
breath. ‘This
thing
and show it to the Grandmother. It is vitally important that she sees this.’
‘The Grandmother speaks to us all,’ Gold said, turning back so that he could see the black stone. ‘If she is aware of this…
thing
, then we are all aware. We will have the knowledge to avoid such a thing happening in the future.’
‘Granted,’ the Tiger said, just as grim. ‘Gold can come with me to the palace to talk to Amanda, then the opal can go and report.’
I glanced at Gold. ‘Does Leo know that he was controlled and that it wasn’t his fault?’
‘He hasn’t come around yet, but he’ll still think it’s his fault anyway, ma’am,’ Gold said sadly. ‘He’ll be full of guilt that they managed to place this thing on him in the first place.’
‘Come on, Gold, let’s go and talk to this opal,’ the Tiger said, and both he and Gold disappeared, taking the black stone with them. I put the jade ring back onto my finger.
‘What’s your name, Two Sixty?’ I asked the Horseman.
‘Derek,’ he said with a sad smile. ‘I hope my dad remembers to come back for me. This is the second time this year he’s left me stranded on the Earthly.’