Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (57 page)

I sat down to my tea and toast and opened the peanut butter jar. ‘What?’ I said.

‘Leo still wants to die,’ Simone said.

‘I’m HIV positive. I have AIDS. I’m a danger to all of you. I don’t want to live. How about letting me go?’ Leo said. ‘I want to go back to Chicago, see my family one last time, and then disappear for good.’

‘After all the trouble these two went through to get you out, you want to die,’ the stone said. ‘Fine way to thank them.’

‘Stone, he has a point. If I was in his situation I’d probably want the same thing,’ Simone said.

‘As far as your family is concerned, you’re dead,’ I said.

Leo’s face went grim. ‘I’ll be dead in a year anyway.’

‘If you take the Elixir of Immortality you will be cleared of the AIDS,’ I said.

‘You want to commit me to an eternity of pining…’ Leo didn’t finish.

‘For something you can’t have. Yes,’ I said.

‘Emma, you said something to the Leo copy in Hell that changed his mind. What was it?’ Simone said.

‘Something extremely personal that you probably don’t want to hear.’

Simone stared at me, silent for a moment. She hesitated, then said, ‘I thought Daddy was straight.’

‘Are you
sure
you want to explore this, Simone?’ Leo said.

‘No, no, I’m fine with it,’ Simone said. ‘Did you offer him the chance of sharing Daddy with him? ‘Cause Leo’s like a father to me, and having two dads is okay.’ She shrugged. ‘Two dads, two moms, a sister who’s a turtle, a gay emo brother—I’ll fit right in with most of the kids at school.’

‘I think I need to give
you
a gold coin,’ I said.

‘Your father is the straightest man I have ever met,’ Leo said. ‘It’s probably why I fell for him so hard.’

‘Leo has no chance whatsoever in that direction,’ I said. ‘What I offered was for your dad to drain him when he returns.’

‘Oh,’ Leo said softly. ‘That makes it different.’ He stared at the table, thinking. ‘That makes it all different.’

‘Don’t you even consider it!’ Simone said.

‘I’m sorry, sweetheart, but it sounds too good to be true,’ Leo said.

She rose and leaned on the table with one hand. ‘Oh, thank you very much. So when I get one father back, I’ll lose the other?’

‘You won’t lose Leo, he’ll merge with your dad. They’ll be one,’ I said.

‘I’ll lose him!’ She rounded on Leo. ‘Haven’t I lost enough people I love already?’ She swept the air with her hand. ‘Am I such a bad daughter that you want to
die
to be away from me?’ She glared at him. ‘All right. When Daddy comes back, he can drain you, and good riddance.’ She stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

‘She has no trouble with the idea of us being in a threesome, but when she hears about this she panics,’ I said.

‘He wouldn’t do it,’ Leo said.

‘He would if I asked him to.’

‘God, Emma, that would be a dream come true.’

‘I know. I want it too.’ I smiled wryly. ‘Déjà vu. I said that to your demon copy in Hell.’

‘You’re
absolutely certain
I’m not a copy?’ Leo held up his wrist with the number four tattooed on it. ‘That’s the death number.’

‘That’s why I’m sure you’re the real one,’ I said. ‘You’re the one we were supposed to kill.’ I pointed at his wrist. ‘You’re marked for death.’

‘But a
demon
told you where I was.’

‘If we find a stone in Yue Gui’s neck, then I know who that demon was,’ I said. ‘I think it was Six himself. He gave us Yue Gui to put into the lake at the Northern Heavens and spy for him. He cleared out his nest in Sham Shui Po and left you there ready for us to collect. We were supposed to think you were a demon copy and bring you back here for examination. Then you’d kill me with the strength of a demon from that stone inside you. Then Simone or someone would kill you, and she’d be left with nobody. Six would do the hands-off-our-gangsters deal with a heartbroken Simone and give her one of the other Leo copies, telling her that it was the real Leo—which would be another spy controlled by them.’

‘But I didn’t try to kill you,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t controlled until Six turned up at the front door.’

‘You had your hands around my throat, then you said you couldn’t hurt me and changed it into a kiss,’ I said. ‘You were confused, but you still wouldn’t hurt me—your will was stronger than they expected. Six needed to get you back to make sure that you did the
job right, so he made the desperate move of kidnapping me and pretending to make the deal—just to get you back.’

‘And when you found me in Hell…’

‘They were putting the stone in the back of your neck—and into the back of the neck of the Leo they were going to give us after we destroyed you. You tried to kill me last night. But they didn’t know I’m a snake. My human form wouldn’t have been able to stand against you with that stone in you—you were way too strong—but my snake form could do it.’

‘So Martin betrayed you again by leading you to me,’ Leo said.

‘I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘He really is genuinely trying to help. And you were still on the operating table when we broke in. Six’s nest is destroyed, and he’s on the run.’ I rested my chin in my hand. ‘The only one who hasn’t been any assistance whatsoever here is the Demon King. All he did was lead us into Six’s nest in Guilin to clear it out for him.’

‘It’s all way too complicated for me,’ Leo said, and took a sip of his coffee. ‘I’m just glad that their plans didn’t work out. And that you’re smart enough to know what’s going on.’

‘Most of the time I have no idea what’s happening until it’s happened,’ I said. ‘This is all speculation. I’ll only know I’m right if Yue Gui has a stone embedded in her as well.’

He smiled wryly. ‘You sound like him. What’s that expression he used? Played like a pipa.’

‘That’s the way I feel,’ I said. ‘They’ve played me. I’m really not up to this job.’

‘If he thought you were up to it, you’re up to it,’ Leo said. ‘Let me think about this draining thing. I need some time.’

‘Take as long as you need. But if you do go for it,
then it would be best to take the Elixir of Immortality. It will clear you of the disease and give you abilities beyond the norm as well as the Immortality thing. You’ll be able to wait for as long as it takes.’

‘I don’t care about any of that, but I would be willing to do it for the chance to be one with him,’ Leo said.

I buttered my toast. ‘So would I.’

‘Simone needs to eat her breakfast,’ the stone said.

‘Send it to her room, she can eat in there,’ I said.

Her scrambled eggs disappeared.

‘You forgot the coffee,’ I said.

‘She took it, I didn’t,’ the stone said.

‘You forgot your coffee,’ I said loudly, but the coffee had already disappeared.

Martin met us at the grassy lawn next to the lake. It was 9 am but it was still dark, the stars in the sky blazing brighter than any I had seen.

‘Let me see if I can call her,’ he said. He went to the edge of the water, raised his head, and concentrated.

She emerged from the water, pulled herself onto the dark sand at the edge of the lake, then waited patiently.

‘Take care, she isn’t sentient,’ Martin said. ‘Don’t frighten her.’

‘What if we find a stone and have to cut her open?’

Martin hesitated. ‘I suppose one of us will have to hold her.’

I carefully approached her and could see that she was watching me. I curled up next to her, Martin and Simone with me, and touched the back of her neck with my serpent snout.

‘She has one,’ I said. ‘There’s a stone here, where her neck meets her shell. It’s almost invisible under the front of her shell.’

Simone grabbed the front and rear of her shell, lifted her, and sat with Yue Gui in her lap. ‘Okay, I have her.’

‘I can’t do it in serpent form,’ I said. ‘Martin, you’ll have to do it.’

Martin nodded. He summoned the Silver Serpent and knelt next to Yue Gui. He felt the back of her neck and she struggled, her flippers striking Simone on either side of her body.

‘Do you have her?’ Martin said, his focus not moving from the back of Yue Gui’s neck.

‘Yes. Do it,’ Simone said.

Martin placed the sword on the back of Yue Gui’s neck and sliced it. Yue Gui struggled harder, and Simone grunted with the effort of holding her. Martin pulled out a black stone identical to what had been in Leo’s neck, quickly rose, and took it about five metres away, dropping it on the grass as if it was toxic.

‘That is nasty!’ he said, brushing his hands on his slacks. He dismissed the sword. ‘Can you heal her, Emma?’

Yue Gui changed form, becoming thinner and larger and longer and freeing herself from Simone’s grip. She changed into a young Chinese woman in a silvery Tang robe, lying across Simone’s knees. She rolled off onto her back on the grass, her eyes glazed.

‘Roll her over,’ I said, and Martin turned her over.

I touched my snout to the back of her neck. Martin had done well; the cut was shallow and hadn’t even broken any large blood vessels. I sealed the wound. ‘Fixed.’

Martin gently put her on her back, took her hand and gazed into her eyes. ‘Jie Jie. Do you hear me? Yue Gui.’

She gasped and her eyes went wide. She shuddered and her body went stiff, then she relaxed. She cast around, confused. ‘What happened?’

Martin pulled her up to sit on the grass and she saw me. ‘Father?’

I bobbed my serpent head. ‘Hello, Yue Gui, I’m pleased to meet you. My name is Emma Donahoe.’

Her face filled with understanding. ‘You’re Father’s promised. I remember.’ She saw Simone. ‘Are you See Mun?’

‘My English name is Simone.’

Yue Gui moved to rise and Martin helped her. She looked around. ‘I don’t remember what happened. How I came to be here.’

‘A demon planted a stone in your neck. It forced you to stay in turtle form and locked out your sentience.’

‘How long have I been like this?’ she said.

Martin held her hands. ‘We don’t know, Jie Jie.’

She smiled at him. ‘Di Di. It is good to have you back in the Northern Heavens.’ She turned to Simone, who had risen to stand next to them. ‘And you are my new Mei Mei, my new little sister.’ She smiled at both of them. ‘Our family has grown. I am glad.’

Simone reached for Yue Gui’s hand and Martin released it so that she could hold it. The three of them stood in a ring, holding hands, and immediately the sky changed from black to the pure dark intense blue of the Celestial Plane. The air warmed and filled with the scent of living things. Martin, Simone and Yue Gui raised their heads, apparently revelling in the feeling of bringing the energy to the Heavens.

I spread out on the grass, opening my ribcage to make myself flatter to absorb the warmth. An orange glow appeared on the horizon—the sun was about to rise.

‘The sun has not risen in the Northern Heavens in six years,’ Martin said with wonder. ‘See if we two can do it; Simone needs to go to school—when we find one for her.’ He released Simone’s hand and gestured for Yue Gui to give her other hand to him. The rising sun’s glow disappeared, but the sky didn’t go dark again.

‘I need to come back in,’ Simone said, and they took her hands again. The warmth and feeling of growing things filled the air and the sun peeped over the horizon. ‘Needs all three of us.’

‘Three of us to build the energy for a few hours, then the two of us can keep it going, Mei Mei,’ Martin said. ‘You don’t need to be here all the time.’

‘You can restore the life to the Northern Heavens?’ I said.

They nodded.

‘The trees won’t die?’

‘No,’ Martin said. ‘Life will return to the Heavens. No more trees will die.’

‘Can you stay and do this, Yue Gui?’

‘Of course. I have always been part of the administration here.’

‘Yue Gui is a member of the Council,’ Martin said.

‘That’s a relief,’ I said. Suddenly I remembered. ‘We need to go see Sang Shen! See if he will change his plea now that we can assure them the trees won’t die!’

‘The judgement has been recorded, Emma. It cannot be changed.’

‘I have to try,’ I said.

‘Is this the one that cannot resist a challenge?’ Yue Gui said.

‘That she is,’ Martin said.

‘Sang Shen has a sentence recorded against him?’

‘He tried to kill Emma,’ Martin said.

‘Why?’

Martin raised one hand to indicate the sky, which was fading again without their energy. ‘Revenge for the death of his father.’

‘Sang Da Ren died?’

‘Not six months ago.’

Yue Gui dropped her head. ‘That is sad news. I knew
Sang Da Ren for a very long time.’ She raised her head. ‘Let us save Sang Shen.’

We found Sang Shen standing under his tree with the guards, one of whom carried a petrol-powered chainsaw and another a large axe. He was still in the white of a convict with his hands chained behind him and his expression defiant.

He was a mulberry tree, and enormous, at least fifteen metres high and a similar amount around, spreading like a huge umbrella. His branches were bare, with yellow serrated leaves covering the ground beneath them.

‘Mulberry trees are practically indestructible once established,’ Yue Gui said sadly. ‘Conditions must have been extremely bad to kill him.’ She glanced at Martin. ‘How many more plants have died?’

‘Not many. Most of them are like Sang Shen, however, with only a year or so to live before the darkness and cold kills them.’

Sang Shen saw Yue Gui. ‘Mother!’ He struggled with his bonds for a moment, then gave up and ran to us, falling to his knees in front of her. ‘Mother, I thought you were dead.’

Yue Gui touched Sang Shen’s head and the chains fell away.

Simone raised her hands. ‘Wait, wait, wait. You’re his
mother
?’

Sang Shen pulled himself to his feet and took Yue Gui’s hands, gazing down at her with adoration. ‘It is a long story.’

‘That is his way of avoiding embarrassing me,’ Yue Gui said with amusement.

The guards approached us and Yue Gui raised her hand to stop them. ‘Hold until we are finished talking to him, then you may have him.’

The guards saluted and moved back.

Yue Gui nodded to them and turned back to Sang Shen. ‘I was walking through the Palace grounds one autumn day and one of the mulberry trees was heavy with dark fruit. They looked so delicious that I ate some. Later that evening, the spirit of that tree came to me and asked me if it was as good for me as it was for him.’ She dropped her head, coy. ‘I could not lie to him.’