Blue Dragon (4 page)

I rolled and spun to face them, snapping my staff under my left arm and my right hand out into a guard. They were both on the floor, Leo on his back, Michael on his stomach.

‘Come on, guys, up you get,’ I said. ‘I didn’t hit you that hard.’

‘No,’ Leo said without moving. ‘It’s comfy here. These mats are nice and soft, and your feet are damn hard.’

‘What he said,’ Michael said, gasping.

‘Said it wouldn’t take very long,’ John said.

The students suddenly cheered and clapped as one. Some of them whistled. I could swear a couple of them were jumping up and down with delight.

Michael pulled himself to his feet. ‘Can you reverse the Five Point Push?’

‘Uh, yeah,’ I said. ‘Why?’

‘Five Point Push?’ Roland cried with glee.

‘Oh no! I am
not
a circus act!’

‘Who’d like to feel a Five Point Push?’ Roland called in Cantonese. ‘Step forward!’

Just about every goddamn student in the room stepped forward with a huge grin.

‘Good,’ John said. ‘I’ll time you. Twelve students. See how long it takes.’ He fiddled with his watch. ‘Wait.’ He pressed the buttons. ‘Forgotten how to use the stopwatch on this thing. There. Got it.’

‘Line up,’ Roland said in Cantonese.

The students lined up side by side, and I moved to the end of the line.

‘Ready?’ John said. ‘Go.’

I didn’t bother with all five points on the students. I just hit each of them with a focused band of chi into the central dan tian, one after the other. I had to stop and gather my chi after the fifth student but I made it to the end of the line. ‘Done.’

‘Twelve and a half seconds,’ John said. ‘Pathetic.’

Roland went up to one of the students and studied him closely. ‘And they’re all completely paralysed?’

I picked up one of the students, then laid him carefully on his back on the floor. He was completely rigid.

My mother was astonished. ‘Emma!’

‘What?’

‘How much can you lift?’ my father said. ‘You picked up that kid like he didn’t weigh anything.’

I looked down at the student. His eyes were amused but his face was rigid. ‘I have no idea.’

‘Oh, good idea,’ John said. ‘Lifting from a distance. Must try that later.’

‘PK?’

‘What?’ John said, bewildered.

‘Later.’

I reached down and tapped the student’s stomach, undoing the Push. I held my hand out and helped him up off the floor. He stood and saluted, grinning like an idiot.

‘Take it easy,’ I said. ‘If you feel dizzy then sit.’

I went down the line and undid the rest of the students. A couple of them flopped to sit on the floor, but most of them just shook themselves out.

‘Dismissed,’ Leo said, and the students carefully saluted us and filed out with huge grins on their faces. The minute they were in the hallway they started loudly discussing in Cantonese what they had just seen.

Roland turned off the camera and came to me. ‘Do you think you could come in sometimes and teach?’

‘Oh,
no
, Roland,’ I said, exasperated. ‘It’s bad enough teaching at the Academy as it is. No more. You have Leo and Michael, and that should be enough for you.’

‘Could you teach me?’ Roland said softly.

‘Tell you what, my friend,’ I said, patting him on the shoulder, ‘how about you come over to Wan Chai and learn from the Dark Lord himself? You are welcome to join an occasional class in the Wudang Academy. If you don’t mind being put in with a bunch of young people.’

‘Wudang?’ Roland breathed. ‘Wudangshan? Really?’

‘Yes. His Mountain,’ I said. ‘We moved it down here. It’s in Wan Chai until we repair the damage.’

‘Very good, Emma,’ John said. ‘Anyone got a card?’

‘Gamma can call Roland later and organise it,’ I said.

Roland fell to his knees and saluted me, then John. ‘I can’t tell you what this means to me.’

‘Get up off the floor or the deal is off,’ I growled. ‘And if you do that to me again, the deal is off anyway. I’m starving, John. Let’s have something to eat here before we go to the Valley. The demons can wait.’

John bowed slightly to me. ‘My Lady.’

I went to my parents. ‘You guys okay?’

‘That was amazing, Emma,’ my mother said. ‘You beat both of those huge men with no trouble at all. I was sure you’d get hurt. But you made it look easy. Some of the stuff you did was astonishing.’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Let’s go and eat. Leo, Michael, want to come with us?’

‘Maybe next time,’ Leo said.

‘Say hello to Rob for me,’ I said, and Leo grinned.

‘I’m meeting somebody,’ Michael said.

‘Cynthia?’

Michael’s grin matched Leo’s. ‘Maybe.’

‘Okay, see you guys later.’ I turned to Roland. ‘Want to join us?’

‘Yes! Sure!’ Roland said, delighted. ‘But only if you let me buy.’

John opened his mouth to do the polite Chinese thing of arguing backwards and forwards about who would pay but I was too hungry to mess around. ‘Shut up. Roland can pay. Let’s go.’

Roland stiffened, then grinned broadly.

John slapped Roland on the back and guided him out. ‘You see what I have to put up with? Typical barbarian Foreign Devil. Manners of a peasant.’

‘At least I’ll get fed some time today,’ I said loudly as I linked my arm in my mother’s and held my hand out for Simone. ‘Come on, guys, let’s go find something to eat.’

We went to a noodle bar not far from Roland’s building. It was a typical small Hong Kong restaurant, about five metres wide, with a glassed-in area at the front where the noodles were prepared and a small kitchen at the back for the rest of the dishes. It was nearly full; usual lunchtime crowd, mostly people sitting in the booths at the side, but some larger groups at the round tables in the middle.

A waiter guided us to a large round table that seated six, its plain green laminate top worn through with use. A few menus and cards with daily specials were jammed into a plastic stand next to the bottles of soy and chilli sauce and the big steel chopstick holder.

The walls on both sides were covered with cracked and tarnished mirrors, an attempt to make the restaurant appear larger. Large sheets of cardboard with specials were stuck to the mirrors, the dishes written vertically in black marker with the prices underneath. The floor was well-worn green mosaic tiles, slippery with oil; the walls were matching pale green bathroom tiles. The ceiling was black with grease and a huge, ancient air conditioner throbbed painfully in the centre.

The owner of the restaurant greeted Roland in Cantonese, and plonked glasses of black tea in front of each of us.

‘Are you sure this place is healthy? It’s awfully…’ My mother searched for the right word.

‘Don’t worry, you can’t get sick while you’re with him,’ I said, gesturing towards John. ‘Besides, being old and tatty doesn’t mean anything. The food is still good.’

‘Old and tatty?’ John said, eyeing me with amusement.

‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘But still good.’

Roland was speechless.

‘Can I have some beef brisket
ho fan
?’ Simone said.

‘Do you want tendon in it?’ I said.

‘Tendon?’ my mother said.

‘Yes, please,’ Simone said. ‘Tendon’s good.’

‘Tendon?’ my mother said. ‘Like, gristle tendon?’

‘When it’s been boiled for a few hours it turns to jelly,’ I said. ‘It’s actually very good. You should try some.’

‘Could you choose something suitable for us, Emma?’ my father said. ‘You know what we like. Something…something
normal
.’

‘Beef stir fry
ho fan
,’ John said. ‘
Gwang chau ngau ho
.’

‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘Vegetarian for us?’

‘Of course. Roland?’

‘Fishing boat congee,’ Roland said. He pulled out the video camera and turned it on with a musical ping. ‘I have to see this again.’

‘Don’t show it to anybody, please, Roland,’ I said.

He nodded as he flipped open the LCD screen to view the video. The sound of us talking came through the speakers on the camera as he played it back. Then he went completely rigid and his mouth dropped open. ‘
Wah!
’

I bent around to see, then quickly put my hand over the screen to hide it from the people at the next table. ‘Turn it off! For God’s sake, Roland, turn it off!’ I grabbed the camera and pressed the button to turn off the playback. ‘
Really
don’t let anybody see that!’

Roland stared at John with his mouth still open.

I placed the camera on the table.

‘Was it me?’ John said.

I nodded silently.

‘What?’ my father said.

‘It was him,’ I said. ‘Really him. What he really looks like. I thought you were taping
us
, Roland.’

‘You should show your parents,’ John said. ‘I think they should see.’

I leaned over the table to speak softly to him. ‘Yeah, let’s just rub it in for the poor people that their daughter is engaged to a goddamn
animal
.’

‘Shen,’ John said.

‘I want to see. Can I see?’ Simone said. ‘I want to see, Daddy.’

I looked around. Nobody else in the restaurant had noticed, and if Simone was next to me I could hide the screen. Roland picked up the camera and handed it back to me. ‘Show her.’

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Just don’t say anything too loud, okay?’ I gestured. ‘Next to me.’

Simone moved next to me, leaning over my shoulder. My mother bent around to see as well. I turned on the video camera and pressed the playback button.

There we were. Leo and Michael readied themselves. I had my back to the camera, preparing as well. The camera panned to the side wall and my parents appeared. Next to them was the Turtle. It appeared about a metre and a half long, with a massive, gleaming black shell. Its face had the wise expression of a natural turtle, but its eyes were John’s and full of amusement as it watched us. John’s human form was there as well, a transparent image over the top of the Turtle, holding Simone in his lap.

I froze the image so that Simone could look properly.

‘I look really weird like that,’ she said.

‘What do you see?’ John said.

‘Both of you,’ I said. ‘Haven’t you seen it before?’

‘Nope,’ John said. ‘Never played it back to watch it.’

We shared a look. He’d made tapes for me, and I’d done the same for him, but we never looked at ourselves, we only watched each other.

His eyes crinkled up when he saw my face. ‘Often wondered what I’d look like. In still photos you only see the human form, and I thought it’d be the same in videos as well. I was wrong.’

‘It depends how drained you are,’ I said. ‘You must be running on empty right now. Usually it’s just a very faint shadow, almost invisible. This is the clearest I’ve ever seen it.’ He didn’t make tapes for me when he was very drained, as well, but neither of us mentioned it. ‘How long before you need to see the Lady again?’

‘I still have a while. Let me see,’ he said.

I passed the video camera to him and he studied it with the same amusement that was visible in the Turtle’s eyes. ‘Damn, but I’m ugly.’ He passed the camera to my father who viewed the image, his face rigid with control.

‘The Turtle’s not pretty either,’ I said, and Simone giggled.

‘You really are a turtle,’ Roland said with awe.

My father passed the camera to my mother. She stared at it with her eyes wide. She glanced up at John, then back at the image. She didn’t say anything.

I took the camera from her and passed it back to Roland. ‘Could you do me a favour, Roland?’

‘Of course, anything, Lady Emma,’ he said, without looking away from the image on the camera.

‘Could you make a copy of this for me, my friend?’

Roland glanced up at me, then at John. ‘Of course.’

O
h, good, you’re out. After breakfast, come into my office.

I didn’t wait; I made myself a cup of tea and went straight into the study. Gold and John sat on either side of the desk.

‘Your parents are still asleep,’ John said.

‘Probably the time difference screwing them up,’ I said. ‘They’ve never been overseas before.’

‘It’s only two hours,’ Gold said.

‘They’re worn out,’ John said. ‘You’ve been dragging them around too much. Take them for a drive today, rest their feet.’

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I’ll take them out to the New Territories, away from the concrete and pollution for a day. We might go to the riding stables—the Country Club’s gardens would probably be a nice change for them.’

‘Good idea,’ John said. ‘I thought you should know about this—Gold just told me. He’s been cultivating a senior police officer and heard some interesting information about the investigation into Kitty Kwok.’

‘That’s not a very honourable thing to do,’ I said. ‘I’m surprised at both of you.’

‘I didn’t know he was involved in the investigation until we’d been going out for a while,’ Gold said. ‘Purely a happy coincidence.’

‘Yeah, right, a coincidence,’ I said. ‘Wait a second,
he
? Oh for God’s sake, John, are
any
of your staff straight?’

Gold chuckled. ‘I thought you knew.’

‘Gold’s a stone,’ John said. ‘Gender neutral.’

‘I think the term is bi, but it doesn’t really apply to us,’ Gold said. ‘We can take either gender, but in essence we are neutral. If we like someone, we mould ourselves to fit their preference.’

‘And you’re my staff too, technically, Emma,’ John said. He grinned broadly. ‘I
thought
you and Louise were very close.’

‘Oh my God, you are such a
guy
sometimes,’ I said. ‘Louise and I were
friends
.’ I leaned over the desk and looked him right in the eye. ‘Is the Turtle female? It’s yin.’

He avoided the question and gestured towards Gold, his grin not shifting. ‘Kitty Kwok investigation.’

‘I do not understand the animal preoccupation with gender,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘It’s more of a nuisance than anything else. And Gold, I am extremely disappointed that you would become involved with one of these…’ It hesitated, then said with emphasis, ‘
Fleshies
.’

Gold’s eyes widened.

‘Ignore it,’ John said. ‘It is being offensive because it craves attention.’

‘Yeah, it’s a troll,’ I said.

Gold’s mouth flopped open. John grinned broadly. The stone made a weird squeaking sound, like someone rubbing glass with a damp cloth, but didn’t say anything.

Gold shook himself out of it. ‘The police are bewildered by the nature of the laboratories producing the hybrids. Police in Europe, Australia and the US are
investigating the other business interests, but at this stage it’s just the kindergartens that seem to be involved in the underworld activity. Tautech, the biotech company, hasn’t been doing anything that they can nail it on. Only the kindergartens have been used to generate funds and launder money for One Two Two’s network.’

‘So they won’t stop the biotech labs,’ I said.

‘No,’ John said. ‘And it appears that the Demon King is letting it go too.’

‘Damn,’ I said. ‘What about the thefts from the stone circles in Europe? Have they put that together?’

‘No,’ Gold said, his face rigid. ‘But every single stone Shen, both Eastern and Western, is out for demon blood on this.’

‘The Grandmother of All the Rocks herself has put a price on One Two Two’s head,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘That demon will pay.’

‘Do you think Wong has more stone elementals than those he threw at us the other night?’ I said.

‘Hard to tell, my Lady,’ Gold said.

‘He probably threw everything he had at us,’ John said. ‘That was his big final thrust. And he failed.’

‘One thing I forgot to mention,’ Gold said. ‘The police are keeping this very quiet—if it gets out there will be mass panic.’

‘What?’ I said.

‘They found large refrigerators full of blood and tissue samples,’ Gold said. ‘In the kindergartens.’

‘Oh my God,’ I whispered. ‘She was harvesting from the
kids
.’

‘I cannot conceive of the sort of creature that would carry out such atrocities,’ John said.

‘You sure she’s not a demon?’ I said.

‘Only a human would be capable of something like this, Emma,’ John said. ‘Demons do not possess that sort of depth.’

‘Wouldn’t the kids go home and tell their parents or the domestic helpers?’ I said.

‘Not if they’ve had their memories wiped,’ John said grimly. ‘Quite common for children to come home from kindergarten with a small wound, plastered over, treated with disinfectant, and say that they fell in the playground. The staff apologise and claim that it is a minor scrape. Perfectly normal.’

‘You’re right,’ I whispered. ‘I cannot believe this.’ I had a sudden horrible thought. ‘You knew Kitty well, John. Did Simone ever go to the kindergarten here on the Peak?’

‘Yes, for a while,’ John said. ‘Leo posted himself inside, guarding. I had to make a special arrangement with Kitty, but provided I paid her extra she would let me do anything. Simone didn’t like the regimentation and Leo was a nervous wreck, so after two weeks I gave up and took her out. That was about six months before you arrived.’

‘So Leo was guarding her,’ I said. ‘She never sustained any minor injuries. They never took a sample off her.’

John’s face said it all.

I put my head in my hands. ‘No.’ I looked back up at John. ‘Did she remember?’

‘No,’ he said, his face rigid. His eyes unfocused. ‘Your parents are outside the door. They’ve gone into the kitchen.’

‘Anything else?’ I said.

‘We need to discuss the new Disciples,’ Gold said.

‘Let me go and say good morning and I’ll be right back.’

‘I can handle it. Go with your parents,’ John said.

‘No. I need to know what’s happening. Don’t do anything without me.’ I rose to leave.

‘You know?’ Gold said.

I stopped dead, halfway out of my chair. I sat back down. They saw my face.

‘Sorry, my Lord,’ Gold said.

‘For a creature with no mouth, Gold, you have an extremely big one,’ John said, then he sighed and his shoulders sagged. ‘While you were out with your parents yesterday, I had a visit from the Lady. She confirmed what I already knew.’

‘What?’

‘Two more.’

‘The Dark Lord is rather like a rechargeable battery,’ Gold said.

‘Winding down,’ I said. ‘Won’t hold the charge.’

Neither of them said anything.

‘I’ll get the school calendar and we’ll work something out,’ I said.

‘Not now,’ John said. ‘We need to discuss the new Disciples, and you need to spend time with your parents. We’ll organise something later.’

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘But I need to be involved in every single meeting from now on.’

‘Especially the ones with the Generals,’ John said.

‘Oh,
damn
.’

‘Can’t avoid them any longer, my Lady,’ Gold said with grim humour. ‘You don’t have any excuses left. Your thesis is finished, you attained your degree. Time to start taking part in the running of the Northern Heavens.’

I ran my hands through my hair. ‘
Damn
!’

‘Go and have something to eat,’ John said. ‘Then come back and we’ll talk about the Disciples. We won’t get very far without you anyway.’

I threw myself out of my chair and left the office without saying a word. Halfway down the hallway I stopped still. Then I turned and went back into the office without knocking.

John and Gold watched silently as I sat down.

They waited for me. I didn’t say anything.

Eventually Gold said, ‘You too?’

I nodded.

‘Do you remember how many times they took samples from you?’ John said.

‘I worked at her kindergarten for about a year. I must have used two boxes of Band-Aids,’ I said. ‘At the time I never remembered using a single one of them. I wasn’t even worried about not remembering using them.’

‘Sore arms?’ John said.

I nodded. ‘I went to the doctor for iron tablets because I was slightly anaemic. I wondered why he looked at my arms so strangely, but he didn’t say anything. Probably thought I was an addict.’ I ran my hands through my hair again. ‘I had
needle tracks
! I
saw
them! But I just didn’t worry about it. That bitch messed with my head!’

‘You noticed very few of the unusual things here for the first few months you worked full-time,’ John said. ‘While you were here part-time you didn’t seem to notice anything. You had an astonishing lack of curiosity.’

‘I never even saw your sword on the wall. It took me months to notice Dark Heavens in its clips, and even then only when Simone pointed it out to me,’ I said. ‘Oh
God
. How much did I miss when I was working at the kindergarten?’

‘The samples are in the hands of the police now,’ Gold said.

‘It’s too late to be concerned,’ John said. ‘Go and talk to your parents.’

‘What if they used me the other way around?’ I said. ‘Put the demon stuff into me, instead of just taking the samples out?’

‘Then they failed, because they have given me a powerful ally,’ John said. ‘Go and talk to your parents.’

‘If the demons know about this then the odds on me being a hybrid have just become much shorter,’ I said.

‘Probably not worth putting money on,’ Gold said.

‘Go,’ John said.

‘And talk to my parents. Yes, I know.’ I rose and went.

The scrabbling of one of the eggs woke me and I pulled myself up on my black coils. Yep; one of the eggs had cracked. It was the oldest nestling, the first one I’d laid.

I put my skinless hands on the shell and felt the vibration, a tingle of anticipation moving through me.

I had a sudden horrible thought. I wouldn’t eat it when it hatched, would I?

No. Of course not.

The egg cracked open and I pulled the pieces of shell away, but the nestling would have to climb out itself. Its little hands appeared at the edge of the opening, then it pulled itself up and tumbled out onto the floor of the nest. It lay panting, its little pale sides heaving.

I lifted it carefully and put it into the centre of my coils. It was exhausted, poor little thing. Its tawny hair was plastered to its head with the liquid from the egg, but it would dry quickly. I held it as it rested, a little human child of about four years old.

A while later it stirred and touched my face. ‘Hello, Mummy.’

‘Hello, my beautiful,’ I whispered. ‘You feel okay?’

‘I’m fine.’ The nestling pulled itself upright in the centre of my black coils and stroked my scales. I shivered with pleasure.

The nestling looked around, its little blue eyes focusing for the first time. It saw the other two eggs. ‘What are they?’

‘They are your little friends. Their names are Simone and Michael. They will be hatching soon too, and then the three of you can play.’

But only
good
games. Not grown-up games.

‘Oh, okay.’ The nestling curled up in the centre of my coils and nuzzled into me. ‘I love you, Mummy.’

I held it close. ‘I love you too, Emma.’

I shot upright, gasping. The air conditioner whispered high on the wall. The lights of the city glowed through my curtains.

Just a dream. Just a dream. I banged my head on the pillow and rolled over.
Just
a
dream
!