Black Jade (14 page)

‘More efficient to roast them over the coals though.' The King gestured towards John with his glass. ‘See his face?'

I glanced at John. He'd darkened and withdrawn even more. I looked back at the King. He was enjoying watching John's reaction . . . to my reaction.

‘You'll make my family suffer,' I said, ‘purely to break Lord Xuan's heart?'

‘So much fun,' the King said jovially. ‘Torture them, torture you, torture him.'

‘Don't hurt them,' I said, desperate. ‘I'll do anything. Have your babies.
Anything.
'

John shifted uncomfortably but didn't speak.

‘You can't have any more babies, dear,' the King said kindly. ‘I have a better idea. When I win I'll be too busy to spend all my time with Frankie — how about you go back to being a nanny? For me? Care for my darling son, and I'll keep your family unharmed. How about that?'

‘Done,' I said with relief.

John looked away and rubbed his hand over his face, obviously relieved as well.

The King turned to Simone. ‘And you, Princess?'

‘Do I have anything you want?' Simone said. ‘We need to establish a value position before we start any sort of bargaining.'

‘I don't know. It depends what you want to bargain for.'

‘I want you to call it all off, leave the Heavens and the Earthly and go back to Hell,' Simone said. ‘What could I give you in return for that?'

‘Humph.' The Demon King leaned back and took a sip of wine. ‘Once again Simone outshines both of you. You already consider the Heavens lost, and you're negotiating your lives away for the safety of half a dozen. She is focused on the bigger picture and puts both of you to shame.'

‘I completely agree,' I said. ‘But I know my value, and it isn't enough to send you back to Hell.'

‘Is my father enough value?' Simone said. ‘Would you trade your withdrawal from the Heavens and the Earthly for Xuan Wu in the jade cage?'

‘You hear that, Ah Wu?' the Demon King said. ‘They're quite happy to throw you into a cage to be tortured for eternity if it means they'll be free of me.'

‘If it puts you back in Hell, the deal sounds good,' John said, his voice low.

‘You'd make a magnificent Demon Queen,' the King said to Simone. ‘I would relinquish the Heavens if you were to pledge your loyalty and allegiance to me.'

She stiffened and her eyes went wide.

‘You demons don't have queens,' I said.

‘For her I could make an exception. How'd you like it, Simone? Ruling Hell by my side? We'd be a formidable team, matched in power by your father and stepmother in Heaven. Wait,' he raised his hand, ‘don't make that face. I know Hell's a —'

‘Pit,' she finished for him.

He smiled. ‘Yes. But what if you were to rule all the Earthly as well? How about that? Queen of the whole damn world? I'm sure we could do a better job of running things than those idiot humans.'

‘You'd abandon your attempt on the Heavens if I did that?'

He gazed at her over the rim of his glass. ‘I'd seriously consider it.'

‘Is that a genuine offer? I'm not that smart or powerful. You already rule Hell, you've taken the Earthly, and you're close to taking the Heavens. Why would you trade that for me?'

The King gestured towards John with his wine glass. ‘You're his daughter. It would tear his heart out if I possessed all three of you. Having his son calling me “Mummy” every day and both of you unwillingly in my bed every night would drive him insane.'

John bent his head into his hands, then straightened, took a deep breath with his eyes closed, and tied his hair back.

‘Everything you do seems to be aimed at hurting him.' Simone looked from John to the King. ‘Is there something personal between you two that I'm not aware of?'

John didn't move but his expression darkened even more.

The King thumped his wine glass on the table. ‘You didn't have to take her when you ran! She was happy with me. Now she won't even talk to me.'

‘No mother will ever leave her child when she escapes a bad situation, George,' I said.

He rounded on me. ‘You did!'

I winced. He was right.

Who is he talking about?
Simone said, bewildered.

‘Simone just broke the rules, the parley's over,' the King said. ‘Go home and write your offers as contracts, sign them in blood, then send them down to me at my office in Beijing. I probably won't even use them. I'm so close to winning that you don't have anything of value to me.' He dropped his voice. ‘Except, perhaps, Simone.'

He and the rest of the group disappeared.

‘Who was he talking about?' Simone said.

‘Yue Gui,' John said. ‘I'll tell you the whole story when we're home.'

‘You don't need to,' she said. ‘It's obvious what happened. Let's go.'

I waved to attract the attention of one of the wait staff. ‘Cheque, please.'

Simone leaned her chin on her hand. ‘That's a ridiculously expensive bottle of wine and he left us to pay for it.'

‘Don't do it, Simone,' John said. ‘Promise me you won't even think about it.'

‘You want my word?'

‘I would appreciate it, yes.'

‘Then promise me you'll never enter a jade cage in True Form.' John was silent.

‘We're going to lose, Dad,' she said, her voice very soft. ‘I can see it.'

‘Can you see past that?'

‘No. There's no clear future after the Heavens fall. There's a huge crossroads right there. A point where a vital decision is made. And I have no idea who makes the decision or what the result will be.'

‘Is that what you see too?' I asked John.

He nodded. ‘We must keep fighting and not surrender, Emma. The future is never fixed.'

The waiter brought the folder with the bill and I flipped it open, then slipped my credit card in to pay for it. ‘They ate before we came. Five thousand, four hundred dollars. Assholes.'

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out to check the caller ID. It was Gold, so I answered it as I handed the folder to the waiter. ‘Emma.' The phone shrieked in my ear and I flinched and jerked it away. ‘Dammit! That's the third time today.'

I checked it: the phone's screen had turned to static. Some garbled words came out, then it shut down completely.

‘You keep dropping it, I'm not surprised you've broken it,' Simone said.

‘I have never cracked the screen,' I said. I rested my elbows on the table as I restarted the phone, and everything came back up looking normal. ‘Gold says there may be a glitch in the network.'

‘My phone doesn't have a problem,' she said. ‘Daddy?'

John shook his head.

The waiter returned with the folder. ‘Sorry, the card doesn't work.'

‘Oh, okay,' I said, and pulled out another card. ‘Try this.'

Once the Heavens fall there's nowhere safe for anyone
, Simone said to me.
Do you think the King will trade everybody's safety for both of us?

‘Simone, how many times do you have to be told to talk out loud?' John said.

‘Sorry.'

‘All three of us may be sufficient, but I doubt it,' John said; he'd heard her anyway. ‘Making us suffer is a minor benefit compared to setting up your little brother as Jade Emperor to rule everything.'

The waiter returned and stared at John when he heard what he'd said, then snapped out of it and handed me the folder again. ‘Sorry, this one doesn't work either. Do you have cash?'

My phone rang and shrieked again, vibrating so hard it jumped off the table. I caught it before it hit the floor. It produced loud garbled speech, then shut down.

John pulled his wallet out of the back pocket of his black jeans and gave the waiter one of his credit cards. ‘This should work.'

The waiter nodded to John and took the card away.

I glared at my phone as I restarted it. ‘I am throwing this away and buying a new one in the mall downstairs right now.'

‘Isn't it one of Gold's specials?' Simone said.

‘I'll go back to something mundane.'

The waiter came back with John's card. ‘Sorry, this one doesn't work either. Do you have cash? Please pay with cash.'

‘I can go down to the ATM,' Simone said.

‘I have a horrible feeling that your ATM card won't work either,' I said.

She dropped her voice. ‘Oh, no.'

John concentrated, summoning Gold.

The phone spoke, sounding gravelly and rough. ‘Information. Destroy. Gunung Rinjani. Can kill. You must come. The Demon King.' It fell out to static, then came back. ‘We can win. Anak. Emma. Murasame. Lombok.'

‘What?' John said.

‘EMMA, COME!' the phone shrieked, and shut down.

Gold entered the restaurant and sat with us. He pulled out his wallet and handed the waiter a wad of five-hundred-dollar bills. ‘Sorry about that.'

The waiter nodded to him and went back to the wait station.

John took my phone off the table and gave it to Gold. ‘It just called Emma's name and said Gunung Rinjani Lombok. It's been screaming at Emma.'

‘Really?' Gold said. ‘Let me see.' His eyes unfocused as he studied it.

‘We also need you to check our bank accounts because none of our credit cards work,' Simone said.

Gold snapped back from the phone and concentrated for a moment. His daughter BJ came into the restaurant and sat next to Simone. Gold passed the phone to BJ and both their eyes unfocused.

Gold hissed under his breath. ‘All your bank accounts are gone.'

‘All of them?' I said.

He nodded.

‘Have we lost ownership of the properties? What about the Peak?' Simone said, distraught. ‘Leo and Ge Ge are living there!'

‘Accessing.' Gold went silent.

‘Why is it taking you longer and longer to access information?' I said.

‘The information on the network's growing exponentially as the humans add to the internet,' Gold said without moving his mouth. ‘We're indexing it as fast as we can, but it'll take a while with most of us gone.'

‘There are gaps in the phone's log. Interesting. How long has this been happening?' BJ asked me.

‘On and off for a couple of weeks. It's been happening more and more often every day. It's yelled at me four times today, played music I don't own, and then it started saying things.'

Gold snapped back. ‘It looks like you've been financially wiped out, my Lord. Lord Leo and Prince Ming will probably be evicted very soon.'

BJ shot to her feet with jubilation. ‘It's Grandpa!'

‘My stone? Where is it?' I said.

‘Dad? Dad!' Gold said with delight.

‘That's the southern Bastion. It's a trap,' John said.

‘Gunung Rinjani is the name of the volcano on Lombok,' Gold said. ‘It's the entrance to the southern Bastion.'

‘It's a trap,' John repeated. ‘The King needs Emma. That's why the message came to her phone.'

‘The message is fake?' Simone said.

‘It's genuine. It has Grandpa's digital signature on it. It's definitely from him,' BJ said.

‘We must go and see,' Simone said. ‘It says it has a way to defeat the Demon King.'

‘It's still a trap,' John said. ‘Don't go.'

‘The stone's my Retainer and I have a duty as its Lady,' I said.

John opened his mouth, then closed it again and smiled wryly. ‘Tomorrow. It's already dark.'

‘First thing.'

‘One of us has to go with you,' BJ said. ‘You'll need a stone to find Grandpa if he's taken a small form.'

‘You stay. I'll go,' Gold said. ‘It's too dangerous.'

‘You're the only one who can reinstate their bank accounts and property ownership, Dad,' BJ said. ‘All the documents are encrypted in
your
lattice.'

‘Damn,' Gold said.

‘Take Zara,' John said.

Gold and BJ shared a look. He raised his eyebrows, and she shook her head.

He nodded and turned back to us. ‘Best if it's a member of the family. Zara may not be able to identify Dad if he's really small.'

‘I can do it,' BJ said. ‘I'll be fine with Lady Emma.'

‘I'll go too,' Simone said.

‘No,' John and I said in unison.

‘The King wants you,' I said. ‘If we need you, we'll call you. I'll take Martin; he's close to you in power.'

‘Just be careful, little guy,' Gold said to BJ.

‘Girl,' BJ said.

The waiter returned with the folder and hovered over us. We took the hint, rose and left the restaurant together.

* * *

It was very late when I finally found him. He had conjured a bench and put it on top of the western wall, and was sitting with his feet up on the battlement, looking out over the peaks that surrounded the Mountain and the full moon high in the sky. I stopped when I saw him. His eyes were glittering with tears in the moonlight.

He wiped his hand over them and turned away. ‘I'd prefer nobody saw me like this,' he said, his voice hoarse.

I sat next to him and leaned into him. ‘I can't see you.'

‘I haven't visited your sister, I can't face her,' he said. ‘How is she?'

‘Recovering. I haven't visited her either; my parents suggested that we stay away from her right now. She doesn't want to see either of us.'

He took a deep shuddering breath. ‘I understand.'

‘My parents want me to kill them if they're held hostage,' I said.

‘I'm not surprised. You were nobility long before you met me.' He wiped one hand over his face again. ‘They're helpless humans and completely innocent. All they did was make the mistake of . . .' He didn't finish.

‘Being my family,' I said. ‘And I made the mistake of falling in love with you.'