Dark Serpent (33 page)

‘In,’ he said to me. ‘You have your will back.’

A guard demon closed the door and pushed me to stand next to a large steel crusher. I had a moment of panic when I saw the cylinders inside the crusher, full of sharp grinding teeth, then pulled myself together. Even if they did throw me into it, I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of showing them my fear.

The Eastern Demon King, in male human form, stood next to the crusher wearing a black rubber apron and gloves. He put his hands on his hips and glared at me. ‘I told you that if you tried to escape again you’d be punished.’

He gestured with his head towards the guard demon, and it took a wooden fruit box from a shelf and turned back to the King.

‘I have four stone Shen in this box, Emma,’ he said. ‘How many do you want me to kill?’

‘They can’t be stone Shen. They wouldn’t sit quietly like that,’ I said.

The Demon King lifted one of the stones from the box and held it out towards me, then removed a rubber band from around it.

‘What’s your name, stone?’

The stone didn’t reply.

‘Say something and I won’t crush you,’ the King said.

The stone still didn’t say anything.

‘See, not a stone Shen at all,’ I said.

‘Suit yourself,’ the King said, and dropped it into the crusher.

‘You won’t get us all!’ the stone yelled. ‘We will stop you.’

‘Oh my god, it is a stone Shen,’ I said. ‘Don’t do this! Let’s talk about it.’

The King pressed the button and the machine roared into life. The noise was tremendous, vibrating through the floor, and becoming even louder as the stone was carried through its teeth and a fine ribbon of dust fell into the bin at the bottom. The King pressed the button again and the machine ground to a halt.

‘No!’ I said. ‘Tell me what I need to do to stop this!’

He put his hand out and the guard demon picked another stone out of the box and dropped it into his glove. He took the rubber band off it and raised it towards me.

‘Say hello to Ruby.’

‘Ruby?’ I said.

‘Run away,’ the stone said in Ruby’s voice. ‘Get out of here.’ Her voice raised to a shriek. ‘Oh no! No, please!’

The Demon King held her over the crusher, ignoring her screams. ‘We need you to stop running away, Emma.’

He dropped her into the machine and held his gloved hand over the start button.

‘Anything,’ I said. ‘Just tell me what I have to do. Don’t do this to Ruby!’

‘No!’ Ruby screamed.

The King grinned at me and stabbed the button. Ruby fell into the grinding cylinders, her shrieks cut off as she passed through them. I covered my face and turned away.

The King turned the machine off and gestured towards the guard demon. The demon placed another stone in his hand and he dropped it into the machine.

‘I don’t have to crush them, you know,’ he said. ‘These ones are useful whole. But every time you run away, a whole boxful of them is going in here.’

He raised his hand over the button.

‘No!’ I shouted.

His grin grew more malicious and he hit the button. He watched with amusement as the stone was destroyed.

‘Anything!’ I said.

He held his hand out to the demon again. ‘Last one.’

‘Uh, there were only three in that box,’ the demon said.

‘That’s fine, honey, some of the boxes have more, some have less; it’s easy to lose track when we have so many of them,’ the King said. He leaned on the crusher to speak to me. ‘Every time you try to escape, a box of stones will lose their lives. In front of you. So be a good girl and do as you’re told and nobody will get hurt.’ He raised his voice. ‘Francis, love?’

The Western Demon King entered the room. ‘You done here? She killed three of my best.’

‘Oh, she’s paid for it,’ George said. ‘Let me finish up here and then we’ll have some fun with her.’

Francis focused on me. ‘You will lose all individual thought and exist only to obey me when I say “now”. Now.’

His words filled me like a mild sedative and I pretended to go completely dull. It was definitely time to get out of there.

George turned back to the machine, pulled on a transparent eye shield and waved at the demons. ‘Take her back to her room. We’ll get started as soon as I’m done here.’

As I walked out, a tiny stone skidded from behind the door and jumped into my shoe. I nearly hopped with pain as it burrowed around and under my foot, and had to pretend that I’d just lost my balance slightly.

Keep quiet, it’s me
, the Jade Building Block said.

I nearly wept with relief as I did my best not to hobble back to the cell.

When they closed the door on me, I did what I’d done every time I was controlled: I sat in the chair next to the wall and didn’t move.

I’m so glad to see you!
I said.

Are you okay?
the stone said.

Yes. They had control over me but I freed myself. I’m waiting for the right moment to try to make a run for it — again.
I hesitated.
I am so sorry about those other stones.

Those stones caused a diversion with their dying screams so I could get away,
it said
. Every stone in existence will hear of their courage.

Nobody should die to get me out,
I said.
That was wrong!

He’s been killing stones non-stop for days,
the stone said.
They knew they were going to die anyway, so they died as loudly as possible to give me the chance to join up with you
.
Now all you have to do is sit tight, because very soon the Grandmother will come to crush these monsters.

I have to get out today!
I said.
They’re planning to inseminate me.

The stone, horrified, was silent for a long moment.
Inseminate you with what?

Probably the Demon King’s semen.

Has he been sexually assaulting you?

No. They’re planning to do it as a lab procedure.

The stone was silent for another long moment.
I don’t think there’s any way we can avoid this. It may be a while before the Grandmother comes. You know how slowly she works and she’s only just waking up. Are you sure they don’t plan to hurt you, just get you pregnant?

They won’t hurt me. They want to use me for breeding experiments.

Then I suggest you let them do what they want, and when the Grandmother comes we’ll get you out and fix everything up.

I shook my head with disbelief.
All my life I’ve been so careful not to have an unwanted pregnancy because I didn’t want to deal with the trauma. And now I’m facing the possibility that a termination will be forced on me.

Don’t think about it. Just wait for the Grandmother to come and we will fix everything once we’ve pulled you out.

That’s easy for you to say. You won’t have that disgusting black stuff forced inside you and growing.
Just describing it made me feel sick.

Black is what you’re used to anyway,
the stone said with amusement.

My expression must have shown my shock.
How the hell do you know about that?

Word gets around.

John will be horrified; he’s very private about these things. Do you know where he is? They moved me because he was close. He can’t be far away.

I was with him a couple of weeks ago, but we separated when we found the stone-processing laboratory on the Earthly. I lost track of him when they carried me up to Heaven in the box. They seem to be moving their entire operation up here. We’re underground here, and I can’t talk to anybody. We need to get out so I can link in and find out what’s happening.

A couple of weeks?
I said, horrified.

You didn’t know?

They’ve been keeping me hypnotised or sedated or something like that. I’ve been unaware of the passage of time. Two weeks? Really?

Yes. But don’t worry, we’ll have you out of this today.

We have to go to Caer Wydr and find Lord Semias. He’ll help us; he’s one of the Shen that was here before. He’s being held captive in the Glass Citadel.

Do you know where that is?

West, apparently. One of the lost Shen was talking to me through the mirrors, but they saw it and took the mirrors away.

Good. They’re helping us.
The stone’s voice became brisk.
All right, you stay here and I’ll have a look around. I’ll check to see if there’s a distraction I can create to keep them busy and stop them from doing these awful things to you; and I’ll hook into the network and let them know where we are.

Thank you.

I wanted to pace the room, but I had to appear as if I was still controlled so I sat, silent and unmoving. I tried not to think about what they were planning for me, but the idea of that black stuff inside me made me want to run as far and as fast as I could.

After half an hour I heard them coming and made a snap decision. I hadn’t tried changing to snake before because of the possibility that I was pregnant. I hadn’t had a period in a long time, and it was probably because I only had one ovary but there
was always the slight chance I was pregnant so I hadn’t risked it. But if they were doing this to me then I couldn’t be pregnant, and I needed to change. My human form couldn’t teleport, but I’d done it a couple of times as a snake, and any chance was better than none.

I stood up and attempted to change to snake. Nothing happened. I put everything I had into the effort, thinking hard about my serpent nature, John’s serpent nature, the yang spinning inside me — nothing.

The door opened and I threw myself at them, summoning the Murasame as I ran. They were ready for me with a net similar to the one they’d used on John, and it was heavy enough to knock me to the ground, face down. As I tried to turn over, tangled in the thick rope of the net, someone grabbed my sword off me and yelled with pain as they tossed it away. The net was gathered around me like a cocoon and I was hefted over the big demon’s shoulder.

‘I’ll give you your freedom, your life, a home on the Mountain, anything, if you stop now and let me go,’ I said.

The demon stopped in the hallway, its voice full of amusement. ‘That’s the best you can do?’

‘Money. A life on the Earthly. Anything.’

The demon hefted me again. ‘Sorry, sweetheart, but you killed two of my brothers. I think it’s about time our King showed you who’s the boss.’

I pulled at the rope, trying to break it, but it was stronger than I was.

‘Stone!’ I shouted.

There was no reply.

I filled my hands with energy and pressed them into the demon’s back, but the armour stopped the energy. I gave up with frustration and thumped his back.

‘You’re like a girl from a sixties show, thrown over my shoulder and hitting my back with your cute little hands,’ the demon said. ‘Have a kick too — I wish we had a video camera. All you need is a spanking and you’d be right where you belong. Always nice to see a woman put in her place.’

‘Gah!’ I shouted. ‘Stone!’

‘What stone?’ the guard accompanying us said.

The demon holding me stopped. ‘Yeah, honey, what stone?’

I thought quickly. ‘Ruby!’ I yelled.

‘You saw Ruby die,’ the demon holding me said, walking on. ‘Don’t you remember that?’

I went still and filled my voice with tears that weren’t completely feigned. ‘No, I don’t remember that. Ruby’s dead?’

‘This just gets better and better,’ the demon said. His tone changed to one of deference. ‘My Lord.’

‘Did she just shout “stone”?’ It was the Demon King, but I couldn’t see him.

‘Yes, my Lord,’ the big demon said.

‘You, bring her into the kitchen,’ the King told the demon carrying me. ‘You, gather everybody who isn’t busy relocating people and search this whole building from top to bottom. Use the stone-detection equipment — there’s a rogue stone loose in here. It’s an ancient piece of jade that’s been around the Eastern Heaven forever. It’s her little friend, and when we find it,’ his voice filled with satisfaction, ‘there are some very fun things I want to do with it. Anyone who finds it will be promoted.’

‘Yes, my Lord!’ the other demon said, his voice full of delight, and ran back down the hallway.

‘All right, let’s get started,’ the Demon King said.

‘This one seriously needs her attitude adjusted,’ the demon holding me said. ‘A good hard fuck would sort her out nicely.’

‘Why do men think that raping a woman will somehow tame her?’ I shouted.

‘Feisty,’ the demon said. ‘I like a woman with spark. So much fun when you slap it out of her and show her who’s the boss.’

‘I will talk to you later,’ the King said. ‘Don’t worry, Emma, you won’t feel a thing. I don’t have that sort of medieval attitude.’

I closed my eyes and tried to change to snake as the demon lugged me along the hallway.

The old-fashioned kitchen still had the original wood-f red stove, but everything else had been removed to make way for medical equipment. It looked like the treatment room at the Tiger’s fertility clinic. A gynaecological examination table stood under a large light in the middle of the tiled floor.

The demon dropped me onto my feet and I stood with the net still tight around me.

‘Chains on her wrists and ankles, then remove the net,’ the Demon King said, and three huge demons hurried to comply. ‘I told Francis you’d break his hold eventually.’

As they removed the net, I tried to break the chains. The Demon King watched with amusement. The chains were rated for my strength and I couldn’t shift them, and my hands and feet were too close together to do anything else.

‘Cut off everything below the waist,’ the Demon King said, then turned away.

‘Can’t watch?’ I said.

‘Wrap her in a sheet when you’re done and put her on the table,’ he said.

The demons carefully ran their knives down the side of my pants, taking the underwear with them. The whole lot fell away
and I was naked from the waist down. I didn’t let them see my fear and made no attempt to cover myself. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

The demon who’d been holding me stood back and leered. ‘Can’t we take the top off too?’

‘Wrap a sheet around her,’ the King said, still turned away. ‘That’s an order.’

As the demons pulled the sheet around my waist, the big one leaned forward, grinned right into my eyes and shoved his hand between my legs. I slapped down with my chained hands but it was too late. I felt more violated than I had when I was naked. I bent over, trying to protect myself, then raised my hands and shoved the chain under his chin to push him away.

‘Doesn’t matter, copped a feel,’ he said, triumphant.

The Demon King turned back. ‘You said you wanted to be a Mother, One Five One.’

‘More than anything, my Lord,’ the big demon said, still grinning. ‘I hope my assistance here is satisfactory.’

‘Take yourself outside, stand in the middle of the front lawn, shout “I am a worthless piece of scum” and die. Slowly. Take a good half-hour about it.
And that’s an order.
’

‘What?’ the demon said, but its feet were already moving. ‘No, my Lord, I apologise. Majesty, no! I have served you well!’

‘I suggest the rest of you check my history,’ the Demon King said mildly. ‘Put her up on the table and lock her in.’ He looked around. ‘Where’s the little doctor?’

‘Your history? Were you originally female, Kitty?’ I asked as the demons lifted me onto the table.

He leaned on the cabinet behind him and crossed his arms, watching as they fastened my chains to the table. ‘My feet were bound when I was four. They cut the soles open and broke all the bones to bend them double. They gave me so much opium to dull the pain that I was addicted before I was five, and I never shook the habit. They sold me to a rich old man when I was ten. He got sick of waiting until I was old enough to do my job and raped me when I was eleven. He fucked me so hard he broke my pelvis, and it wasn’t completely healed when I gave birth. The baby was a girl. He made me hobble out of the house, still covered in blood,
and leave my naked crying daughter in the gutter to die. He said I could keep the girls after I’d had a boy.’ He made a soft sound in his throat. ‘After I’d turned in Hell, I went back and made him suffer for nearly a year. It wasn’t long enough. People still think that house is haunted.’

‘After all that happened to you, you’ll do this to me?’ I said. ‘Use my ovary instead. The one you took from me. You don’t need to do this.’

‘I would, my love, I really would,’ the Demon King said, ‘but the idiot gweiloh Francis let it die. I wouldn’t be risking everything by having you here if I had a choice, believe me. I survived, and you will too. We won’t cause you any physical pain, and you never know, you may like what comes out the other side.’ He smiled slightly. ‘You’re a demon, after all, and your little demon spawn —
our
little demon spawn — may just steal your heart. All the spawn of Hell are my own lovely children. I’m making sure that even if some of them die in the fight, others will see the light of the sun, live on the surface and never die in the gutter.’

I lay back and closed my eyes, feeling horribly exposed. They could put anything inside me and I couldn’t stop them.

The Western Demon King came in, smiling and excited. The small doctor demon was behind him.

‘You will never believe what this little idiot discovered,’ Francis said.

‘Sounds like someone heard some good news,’ George said.

‘Oh, the very best.’ Francis pushed the small demon forward. ‘Tell him.’

The small doctor wore a pair of reading glasses, incongruous on its demon features. It pushed them up on its nose and held up some documents on a clipboard. ‘My profoundest apologies, my Lord, but I’ve made a terrible mistake. I was expecting her chemistry to be normal human, and I’ve been watching her menstrual cycle carefully to see when the best time would be to inseminate her.’

‘I know that. You said you couldn’t tell because it’s all messed up, probably because she only has one ovary, and to just try anyway.’

‘I miscalculated. She’s already pregnant.’

I felt a jolt of joy and a stab of desperation at the same time.

The Eastern Demon King’s mouth fell open and he stared at Francis. He looked back at the small demon. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Positive, my Lord. Her chemistry is so different — probably because of the snake essence — that it took a while to show, but she’s definitely with child.’ He glanced at me. ‘We should do an ultrasound to see how far —’

He didn’t finish, because George whooped and threw his arms up, then he and Francis embraced, laughing together. They stood like that for a moment, sharing the embrace, then kissed and pulled back, grinning like idiots.

‘We need to work out what we’ll do with it!’ Francis said, excited. ‘Ransom? Hostage?’

‘I like the sound of hostage, we have both of them,’ George said. He embraced Francis again. ‘This is the best news ever!’

Francis turned to look at me. ‘Now what do we do with her until she’s had the child?’

‘Let’s start by putting some pants on her and work it out as we go along,’ George said. He slapped Francis on the back. ‘Did I tell you today how much I love you?’

‘Leave the chains on her until you have her safely locked up in her room,’ Francis told the demons. He turned back to George. ‘I can’t believe she broke my control so quickly, what a will of iron. This kid will be exceptional, and then we
must
make some demon babies with her. You are so right, my darling.’

George and Francis put their arms around each other’s shoulders.

‘Let’s go celebrate,’ George said. ‘All of this has made me incredibly horny. Nothing like a bit of bondage to whet the appetite.’ He turned to the demons who were unlocking me from the table. ‘Keep a very close eye on her, kids. She’s smart and fast, and if she gets loose it’s your collective guts for my dinner.’

‘Don’t worry, my Lord, we know how to deal with ones like her,’ one of the demons said.

‘No sexual assault! Particularly now that she’s pregnant. That woman remains untouched, you hear?’ George said from the doorway.

‘Unlike some idiots, my Lord, I know your history and would never treat any female with disrespect,’ the demon said, bowing.

‘About time someone understood,’ the Demon King said, and he and Francis left the kitchen wrapped around each other.

When they returned me to my room, I checked outside the door with my Inner Eye. The guards had learned their lesson: they weren’t standing right on the other side where I could get to them. The hole in the door had disappeared as if it had never been there, suggesting that this building was alive in a similar way to the Celestial Palace.

I went straight into the bathroom and jumped under the shower; I smelled like gym socks after so long without bathing. The water pressure was terrible, and the water squirted in all directions from the large steel shower head over the claw-footed bath. I quietly mourned my regular toiletries and fresh-smelling shampoo as I used the basic toiletries they’d provided for me. I’d heard of women scrubbing themselves raw after being sexually assaulted, and I understood the feeling, but I had to save the emotional backlash for later. I couldn’t help quivering every time I thought about the demon’s face as he’d touched me, but I was carrying our child and I had to get us safely out of there. I wondered where the stone was and how long it would take the Grandmother to arrive.

The whole building shook, hard enough to nearly knock me off my feet.

Another tremor shook the floor, and I wondered if it was an earthquake, until the explosion outside my bedroom window made me instinctively duck. The shock was so great that I was surprised the building was still standing. Another explosion went off and the building rocked again.

I charged out of the shower, dried myself quickly and pulled on some clothes. The window high on the wall was cracked. Another shockwave hit the building and the heavy central light fitting rocked. I was nearly thrown off my feet again. The window went black as something slammed into the side of the building. A writhing tentacle of stone plunged through the glass and thrashed around inside my room, nearly hitting me, then withdrew just as quickly.

The door flew open to show three terrified demons in the doorway. Two of them carried guns and the third held handcuffs. As I readied to defend myself, long green spikes shot out through their faces and they crumpled. The stone stood behind them in human form.

It pulled back the long, sharp fingers it had used to stab the demons, then bent and grabbed the handcuffs. It took my arm and dragged me into the room. ‘Come on, Emma, not like you to be so slow,’ it said, pulling my wrists out.

‘I’m pregnant with John’s baby,’ I said.

It paused in fastening the cuffs over my wrists, then grinned ruefully and shook its head. ‘Splendid.’

It carefully pushed the cuffs closed without snapping the locking mechanism into place, then concentrated and took the form of a Western demon.

‘I was about to say walk in front of me and look blank, but you’re one of two already.’ It raised its demon head and unfocused for a moment. ‘The Grandmother says to move your shit, she’s trying to bring the whole place down. Let’s go.’

As we passed the dead demons, the stone bent and grabbed one of the rifles. ‘Interesting how some of the Western ones don’t explode, eh? Wonder what they’re made of.’ It gently pushed me in front of it. ‘Left and up the stairs. We’re going out the back door, then we’ll try to find a boat to carry us around the island.’

We climbed the stairs, largely ignored by the terrified demons. The shocks through the building worsened; the Grandmother really did seem to be trying to knock it down. I broke into a run, worried the whole thing would collapse on top of us.

The stone stopped in the ground-floor hallway that led towards the back of the house. ‘Not this way.’ It turned back and pulled me towards the front door. ‘Grandmother’s helping us.’

In the entrance lobby, the chandelier had crashed to the floor. One of the huge paintings had fallen off the wall and was leaning across the room, blocking the stairs to the higher floors. The demons were all heading towards the back of the house to escape that way.

The double front doors were made of solid hardwood. They had holes caused by the Grandmother’s attacks but were still largely sound.

The stone pushed my head down with inhuman strength. ‘Duck.’

It covered me while the Grandmother plunged a couple of her stone tentacles through the doors, knocking them off their hinges with a shower of wooden splinters. The tentacles receded, but there was only darkness in the doorway. The Grandmother was leaning against the side of the house, preventing any daylight from entering.

The stone pulled me upright, led me to the doorway, and dropped the gun. ‘Stop hesitating, I know what I’m doing,’ it said as it pulled me into the stone mass.

We entered a cave made of morphing, almost liquid mud. We were inside the Grandmother herself. As we neared the far wall, it receded and the opening behind us closed.

‘Gah,’ the stone said, pulling me along faster. ‘She’ll suffocate us.’

‘I understand how you feel,’ I said as he led me through a tiny air pocket that opened and closed around us. ‘This is horrible.’

Thank you very much,
the Grandmother said.

‘I appreciate this,’ I said.

You’re welcome.

We emerged from the Grandmother onto the grass. The stone looked left and right, then pulled me next to the side wall of the building. I dropped the cuffs from my wrists and looked up. The Grandmother was bigger than the house, towering over it, a shapeless mass of mud that grew stone tentacles to plunge into the building’s windows and walls to destroy it. Now that we were free of her, she pulled her full weight back and slammed into the manor’s front wall, making the ground shake and tiles fall from the roof.

More than twenty stones, each a metre tall and twenty centimetres across, were pursuing the demons across the grass, leaving deep grooves in their wake. When they reached the demons, they leaped into the air and crushed them.

One of the stones slid across to us and spoke with a young woman’s voice. ‘There’s a boat hidden in the trees to the left about three hundred metres away behind the stables. I’ll escort you but I suggest you run.’

A regular hammering noise grew louder above us and the wind picked up.

‘How the hell did they get a fucking
helicopter
onto the Celestial Plane?’ the female stone shouted.

‘Worry about that later. Let’s use it as a distraction to get to the boat,’ my stone said.

We ran together for the trees, the other stones crushing any demons that tried to follow us.

The Grandmother flailed her tentacles at the helicopter, but it dodged her and landed on the grass near the water. She broke off her attack on the house and ponderously turned to pursue the chopper, the stones gathering to assist her. The two Demon Kings raced to the chopper, jumped in and closed the doors. It rose into the air. The Grandmother tossed the metre-tall stones at it, but couldn’t get sufficient distance to damage it.