Demon Child (33 page)

‘Of course, I feel wonderful. The Serpent is immensely powerful and I’m somehow one with it. But John …’ I took a deep breath. ‘Why the hell does it feel completely wrong to be female?’ Understanding hit me. ‘Oh dear Lord, that’s what caused everything
in the first place. We are yang and yin, always in motion, one into the other …’

‘… and we cycled. You didn’t need to go off and sulk just because you turned female, Serpent.’

‘It was all right for you — you turned male! I’m feeling the panic of being female, inferior …’ I shook my head, horrified at the Serpent’s attitude inside me. ‘John, you really do have some serious subconscious issues with gender, which is freaking hilarious for someone who’s both sexes at the same time. No wonder the Dark Lord is always male.’

‘The Turtle had no issue at all with the gender change,’ he said, indignant. ‘I thought someone had forcibly split us after it happened. It never occurred to me that you would panic and run away. If you’d just shared your confusion, Serpent, we could have fixed this together.’

‘You changed to male — you had it easy! Changing to female was too awful to think about,’ the Serpent said with misery.

‘I need to spend some serious time female and get myself over this,’ he said.

‘John Chen Wu, don’t you dare!’

‘Emma?’

I hesitated. ‘I’m not sure who I am right now.’

Ah Wu
, the Jade Emperor said.
Stay as you are. Both of you come here right now
.

We stayed as two bodies and teleported to the Celestial Palace, not enjoying the disconnected sensation. We wanted more than anything to rejoin, Turtle and Serpent as one again, but the Emperor knew what he was doing.

‘Majesty,’ we said, kneeling in front of the Jade Emperor. ‘Help me. Help us …’

‘I can see the problem, Ah Wu. Take True Form.’

We hesitated. True Form could force Emma even more deeply inside the Serpent.

The Emperor sighed with exasperation. ‘I know what I’m doing, Ah Wu. Take True Form and let me look at you.’

We dropped our heads and changed into the combined Turtle and Serpent. We enjoyed a blissful moment of completeness before feeling the jarring pain of Emma’s essence within us.

‘Serpent, off. Come here and let me examine you,’ the Jade Emperor said.

The Serpent separated from the Turtle and slithered to the Jade Emperor. I lowered my head before him.

The Jade Emperor put his hands on either side of the Serpent’s head. ‘Let me see what we have here.’

Both Serpent and Turtle felt the Emperor’s regard; it was like liquid gold running through the combined essence.

‘Equal spirits, sharing the same awareness,’ the Emperor said. ‘Three became two, became one.’ He opened his eyes and tweaked a small smile at the Turtle. ‘All this because the Serpent became female and couldn’t cope with it? Ah Wu, I would expect much better from you and I am deeply disappointed.’

‘So am I, Majesty,’ the Turtle said.

‘Let me see. Turtle: separate for many years, so reasonably independent. Serpent …’ The liquid gold feeling intensified around me. ‘Two serpents orbiting each other, so finely matched in intelligence and spirit, with the smaller stubbornly refusing to be eclipsed by the larger. You have a will of iron, Miss Donahoe.’

‘Please help us, Majesty. Emma’s independence is worth more than my life,’ the Turtle said.

‘It is a shame that this is the outcome. I had high hopes that a different future path would be taken.’ The Emperor sighed with feeling. ‘All the portents indicated that you would be safe at the funeral, Emma. Leo’s sister is not of my realm and I could not predict her arrival. She disrupted everything.’

‘What’s done is done,’ I said. ‘Can I be extracted?’

‘Yes,’ the Jade Emperor said, and the Turtle nearly collapsed with relief.

‘What will it involve?’ I said. ‘This can’t be a simple process.’

‘You are still the brains,’ the Jade Emperor said with amusement. ‘I will need to release your spirit and send you through the Courts. You will land in Court One. If you can hold yourself together and remember who you are, he can bring you out from there.’

‘And if she forgets who she is?’ the Turtle said.

‘Then she is gone for a thousand incarnations, just as you were when you Fell.’

The Turtle lowered its head with grief.

I consoled it. ‘Don’t worry, John. We’ve done this before. We can do it again.’

‘No, you haven’t, Emma. That was me.’

I hesitated. ‘Was it? I remember doing it … I’m sure it was me. Which part is me?’

‘We need to do this right now, Majesty!’

‘We cannot,’ the Emperor said. ‘We cannot send Emma through the Courts until we have taken Hell back and you can enter the Courts and Raise her. If you don’t, she will be lost completely.’

‘But if we wait, the Serpent will devour her.’

‘I know. If we are to release Emma, we must resolve this quickly and reclaim Hell.’

‘I don’t want to live without you,’ the Turtle said.

‘Even if the Serpent completely devours me, I will still be a part of you, my love,’ I said. ‘I always will be.’

‘Not good enough,’ the Turtle said. It lowered its voice with grief. ‘Emma waited so long for me. I cannot do this to her.’

‘I’m right here,’ I said.

‘I know. But for how much longer?’

‘The Celestial comes first, John. Now you’re whole, we can go home, round everybody up and retake Hell.’

‘How do we tell them that I’ve absorbed you?’

I was silent at that. My family would be devastated.

‘Don’t tell anyone,’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘Serpent, take Emma’s form. Be Emma. Tell them the male human form is the combined creature.’

‘Can you do that?’ the Turtle said.

‘Only one way to find out,’ I said, and took Emma’s form. It was surprisingly easy, probably because Emma was still halfway independent.

‘Oh, love,’ the Turtle said. ‘You’re still there.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘I can feel it too.’ I looked up at the Jade Emperor. ‘How long do I have?’

‘It depends how hard you fight it. If the Serpent remains still and quiet and allows Emma to be the main personality, she may last weeks. If you spend all your time in True Form as the combined creature, then Emma will be gone in a matter of days.’

‘Damn,’ the Turtle and Serpent said in unison. Finally free and complete, and unable to take a combined True Form.

‘Let’s go home and brainstorm,’ I said. ‘Now that you have me and my intelligence back, the strategy should flow much more easily.’ I knelt and saluted the Jade Emperor. ‘Majesty.’

‘Take care, Emma, you sound like him.’

‘I’ve sounded completely like him for months now. I don’t think anyone will notice.’

‘Dismissed,’ the Emperor said.

Turtle and Serpent teleported back to their Mountain.

Gold
, we said.

My Lord?

Did you find Simone?

I’m sorry, my Lord. Short of going down there myself, there is no way I can communicate. I’ve called her but received no reply. Her phone has disconnected; it appears to be dead
. His voice dropped with misery.
Profoundest apologies, my Lord, I have failed you. Would you like me to go down there myself to try to contact her?

No, never mind. I’ll try. Return to the Mountain; we have important plans to make
.

On my way, my Lord. Is
… His voice trailed off.

What?

Is Lady Emma with you? Is she all right? If Simone is in Court Ten
… His voice in our heads grew desperate.
Oh, Lord, is she all right?

Emma is with me. She is unharmed
.

I heard you rejoin. That was
… extreme.

For me as well. Come to the Mountain, Gold, we have a Hell to retake
.

My Lord
.

The Disciples were picking over the wreckage on the Mountain; mostly broken glass, but a couple of landslides had destroyed smaller buildings as well. We landed on the Great Court and winced at the damage done to the black slate tiles by the Serpent’s coils. The replacement tiles wouldn’t have the same degree of weathering and would be an obvious patch, marring the perfection of the court.

Meredith charged up to us. ‘Is everything okay?’

‘Emma will pass the orders on,’ John said. ‘I want a strategy meeting with the leaders of the armies immediately. We must retake Hell as quickly as we can. I’m heading down to the Grotto and I’ll be out in time to chair the meeting.’

‘You’re not going back into the cage, are you?’ Meredith said, concerned.

‘The cage is in a million pieces on the bottom of the Grotto,’ I said. ‘He’s never going into that awful thing ever again.’

‘I have to make some calls and I don’t want to be interrupted,’ John said. He gestured towards me. ‘Emma is taking over.’

He disappeared into the Grotto.

‘Come with me to my office, we need to arrange this,’ I said. ‘He will be about twenty minutes.’

‘Emma, are you okay? You look …’

I waited for her to finish, but she just stared at me. ‘Yes?’

‘I don’t know. Are you two sure you’re all right? That was intense.’

‘I’m fine.’ I headed towards my office. ‘Contact the Phoenix and Dragon for me; they need to be involved. The Tiger’s Numbers Two and Four. Summon Jade; Gold is already on the way. Both my Number Ones. Er Lang, Guan Yu, Ma, you and Liu.’

Meredith stopped walking and I stopped with her. She was staring at me again.

‘What?’

She pointed behind me. ‘Your office is that way.’

I looked. We were outside John’s office.

I thought quickly. ‘I need some papers from his office, and I need to talk to Zara.’

‘No, you said
both your Number Ones
, Emma. Or should I say Lord Xuan? You’re the Serpent, aren’t you? Not Emma at all.’
She turned away from me. ‘How could you do that to her, John? We loved her.’ She wiped her hand over her eyes. ‘She was like a
daughter
to me. What you did to her is worse than death, and you’re
lying
about it.’ She turned back and fell to one knee. ‘Lord Xuan, I resign my commission —’

I cut her off. ‘There’s no need for that, Meredith, I’m still here. It’s me. I’m Emma.’ She didn’t move. ‘Meredith.’ I took her arm and pulled her to her feet. ‘Really. Emma and the Serpent are equal and sharing right now. My personality is still intact. I can be extracted; ask the Jade Emperor if you don’t believe me. I’m not gone.’

She studied me, and I felt more than her eyes on me, then she sagged with relief. ‘I see. We must hurry and extract you.’

‘We will, but we need to take Hell back first. Don’t tell anyone what’s happened. They’ll react the same way you just did. In the meantime, help me out; let me know if I slip up.’

‘I will. So what’s it like being Emma and Xuan Wu Serpent at the same time?’

I was silent as I tried to describe what it was like, and shook my head as words failed me. ‘Let’s just call it multiple personality disorder, except the personalities aren’t taking turns, they’re all here at once.’

‘That must be very uncomfortable.’

‘It’s extremely distracting. The Turtle is on its way to the bottom of the Grotto to try to contact Simone, and I’m there with it. Now let’s bring these people together and prepare to retake Hell. All of my closest friends and both my children are down there, and we need to get them out.’

‘
Both
your children?’

‘Damn. I’ll explain on the way.’

‘My Lord.’

‘No. Treat me as Emma.’

‘Ma’am?’

‘Better. Let’s go.’

John drifted to the bottom of the Grotto and squatted in Turtle form among the shards of the shattered cage.
Simone. Simone. It’s me, your father. It’s Daddy. Simone, speak to me
. He put more into it.
Simone, it’s Daddy. Talk to me, sweetheart
.

Her voice was small, like a child’s coming from far away.
Daddy!

Are you … Are they hurting you?

No! I’m in one of the villas on the Celestial island, one of the holding cells for Court Ten. I’m being cared for, but I can’t leave the villa. All of Hell is sealed and nobody can teleport out
.

I understand. Stay open to my call; you can be my eyes in Hell while we prepare our attack. We will attempt to retake the Celestial side soon
.

You need to retake the demonic side! Everybody’s in the Pits!

I know that. I rejoined: I am the Serpent as well now. I saw them
.

‘Emma, you said that out loud. Take care,’ Meredith said.

‘Shit,’ I said under my breath, and clamped my mouth shut.

Oh, Daddy, you rejoined — that’s wonderful. Is Emma okay? She was there when I … when it happened. I haven’t seen her here in Hell, she is all right, isn’t she? I was so worried
…

Emma’s fine. Please stay open for my calls and watch everything that happens around you
.

I’ll spy for you
.

Thank you. I’ll be in touch to let you know how you can help
.

Love you, Daddy
.

Love you too, sweetheart. Oh, and congratulations
.

Why? Oh. Raised and stuff. I don’t feel any different
.

I think you were already there
.

Why do you sound like Emma? You didn’t merge with her or anything did you?

Emma is fine
.

He turned his attention to his other child.
Frankie. Frankie?

No reply. Blankness.

Frankie, this is your real father. Your real mother is here as well. We love you, Frankie, and we have a beautiful home for you in Heaven. We are your real parents who will never hurt you. Just say the word and I will free you from the cruelty of those awful people
.

A minuscule shift, a breath, then a barrier was raised.

Time for the meeting. He headed out of the Grotto and up to the War Room.

‘Opinions,’ John said. ‘Here’s the plan. We send a small force — all Immortals — against Hell and lose. We are routed. We run back to the Gates of Heaven and hope to the Heavens that they follow us, believing that our last defences are gone and Heaven is theirs. We lead them to the Gates where our main force is waiting for them — and at the same time we send a small group to take back the Celestial side of Hell while it is vacant. Secure the Celestial side of Hell, free our Immortals held there and head to the Gates with them to attack the demons from the rear, engage them from both sides and defeat them. The question is: will they fall for it?’

‘What happens if we lose and they open the Gates?’ the Tiger’s Number Two said. ‘They will overrun Heaven.’

‘Their next target will be the West, if they stick to their plans,’ John said. ‘They’ll take down the four Bastions, then the Mountain, then the Celestial Palace itself.’

The Tiger’s Number Two grunted agreement.

‘The West is evacuated, isn’t it? Jade?’ John said.

‘People have been moving back, convinced that Heaven is safe,’ Jade said.

‘Move them out again.’ John’s voice went hoarse with emotion and I shared his anguish. ‘If they take the West, Number Two, yang it to bedrock with all of them in it.’

‘With all due respect, if you order that, my father will rip your scales off, my Lord,’ the Tiger’s Number Two said.

‘Good.’

They were all silent, considering.

After a couple of minutes, John drew their attention back. ‘I’m still waiting for opinions on whether they’ll fall for it and run to take Heaven after routing us. Are they that lacking in self-control? My gut says yes, but it’s been wrong before. Many times.’

‘Put the right Shen in front of them and they won’t be able to help themselves,’ the Phoenix said. ‘If they see you running scared, Ah Wu, they will chase you to the ends of the Earth.’

‘Good idea. Use their intense loathing of you to draw them out,’ the Dragon said.

‘I wanted to be at the front of the main force waiting for them at the Gates, but that is definitely a better option,’ John said. He dropped his voice. ‘Simone is in Court Ten.’

He waited for someone to point out that we were risking the Heavens for selfish reasons, purely so we could pull our own daughter out. Nobody did.

‘Congratulations,’ Ma said, and everyone nodded agreement.

‘So the plan?’ John said.

‘It’s a good plan,’ Er Lang said. ‘The risk is worth it.’

‘Very well,’ John said, still feeling as if he was throwing the rest of Heaven under a bus to save his daughter. Under a bus? John glanced at me with concern; it was an expression he’d never heard before. It was from me. We brushed it off and he continued. ‘I want volunteers for the feint attack on Hell. If the plan fails, these people will be stuck in the Pits, so volunteers only. About two hundred if we can round them up. They must be Immortal: it’s effectively a suicide mission. Let me know by this time tomorrow who has agreed to it. We have a total of just less than two thousand troops left. I will give you the assignments for the rest of them as soon as we have these deployed. Anything else?’

Everybody shook their heads.

‘Dismissed. Crown Prince Ming Gui, remain.’

They filed out, discussing the plan. The general atmosphere was positive; they liked it.

You always seemed so confident
, I said.
You doubt your ability to that degree?

Without the Serpent’s intelligence, frequently
.

You have me back now
.

I don’t want you back if it means losing Emma
.

We will free me. Do not doubt
.

Ming moved closer and sat. ‘My Lord?’

‘Leo was shot. Did he survive?’ John said.

Martin ran one hand down his face. ‘Leo is brain dead. The doctors wanted to turn off the life support, but neither Elise nor I would let them. Elise because she doesn’t believe he’s dead; me because I don’t want to send him to Hell. As his partner but not his husband, I have no rights. Elise is the next of kin and has power of attorney over him and custody of Buffy. If we could marry as we wished, my rights would be clear. As it is now, I have no control at all over the fate of my husband or my child.’ He dropped his head. ‘Elise took both Leo and Buffy to the United States to care for
them there.’ His voice became a low moan of pain. ‘The first family I ever had, the first real happiness, and it’s gone forever. Our family is destroyed. Buffy’s cries as Elise took her away will echo in my ears for the rest of my life.’

‘When we retake Hell, you can release Leo’s spirit and send it to Court Ten,’ I said.

‘Then Leo will be dead and Elise will retain custody of Buffy,’ he said.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Release him, then take his place. Have a miraculous recovery in Leo’s form and bring Buffy home.’

‘That’s brilliant,’ he said with awe. ‘Intelligence worthy of Father’s —’ He looked from me to John. ‘Oh.’

‘Don’t tell anyone. For now, I’m Emma and he is the combined Xuan Wu,’ I said.

‘And who are you really?’ he said.

‘Close enough to Emma for it not to matter,’ I said.

I felt his ice-cold gaze and the Serpent within me leapt to meet him. Parent and child regarded each other with cool affection and quiet delight to be together again.

‘I see,’ he said. ‘You will need to be quick if Emma is to be removed, Father.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘As soon as we have taken Hell, we will release me.’

‘Is that all?’

‘If I lead the feint, I would like you to lead the main force guarding the Gates,’ John said.

‘I am honoured by your confidence. I will serve to the best of my ability.’

‘Dismissed.’

He saluted John. ‘Mother.’ He saluted me. ‘Father.’ He smiled slightly, rose and went out.

John and I shared an astonished look; Martin was right.

We went out of the war room to find a large number of students standing in the courtyard of the administrative section. There were so many that they overflowed onto the breezeway and out towards
the barracks; there were even about fifty of them sitting on the roofs of the administrative buildings. It was all of them.