Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (37 page)

I sat on the massage table and took a thorough look at myself. I had absorbed some more demon essence, but not a whole demon’s worth—I’d been lucky.

‘Yes, the serpent training could not have come at a more opportune time,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘I think your snake has, in its own way, rescued your humanity.’

The demon handed me a thick white robe and gestured to the left. ‘There is a screen there, ma’am.’

‘Is this place real, Ms Kwan?’ I said as I moved behind the screen to change into the robe. ‘And is everybody okay?’

‘No, and yes,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘You are still in my Garden, but this is a very special place that I think is exactly what you need right now.’

‘You have no idea,’ I said as I pulled the robe around me. The demon helped me onto the table and used the towels to cover me as I eased the robe off again. ‘It’s been so full-on the last couple of weeks I haven’t been able to take a breath.’

‘I understand,’ she said. She sat next to the edge of the bure and a white fan appeared in her hand. She waved it lazily in front of her face. ‘The Tiger requested
some breathing time for you. You can always ask for my help yourself, remember, Emma.’

‘There is one thing I would like to ask you,’ I said.

‘Hmm?’

‘Tell me about the Xuan Wu’s true nature.’

Her fan stopped.

‘Mixed heritage of Heaven and Hell. Is he a demon that changed sides, Ms Kwan?’

‘Have you read
Journey to the North
, Emma?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘I gave up about halfway through
Journey to the West.
The classics are just so damn
hard
, and I have so many other things happening right now that I don’t have the time they deserve to study them properly.’

‘And no crib notes on them either,’ she said wryly.

‘I wish.’

The stone in my ring piped up. ‘It is my understanding that the Dark Lord forbade his Retainers from giving Miss Emma any sort of education in the classics.’

Both I and Ms Kwan made disgusted sounds of derision.

‘But of course you women would ignore such an edict,’ the stone said.

‘Read
Journey to the North
, then ask to see me again. We will talk,’ Ms Kwan said.

The demon worked her smooth hands over my shoulders and I collapsed into the relaxation with a small gasp of pleasure.

‘Good,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘Enjoy the massage. Lie in the deckchairs on the beach. The demons can provide you with anything you need. Swim in the ocean; I have made it warm and calm for you. I will return later.’

I glanced up from the table. ‘Ms Kwan?’

‘Hmm?’

‘Why don’t you do this for people who are really in need—the poor, the abused, the disadvantaged? Why for me and not for them?’

‘Who says I do not provide this for them?’ she said. She smiled gently. ‘But for those who are truly suffering, coming here would not be a gift. Nobody can stay here forever. All must return.’

‘I see,’ I said. I dropped my head onto the silky soft towel. ‘And thank you.’

‘You are most welcome,’ she said.

‘Is this Potakala Island?’ I said, but she had gone.

‘I have some messages from home for you,’ the stone said.

‘I don’t want to hear anything except that Simone and everyone at the Academy are okay.’

‘They are. Louise is planning to come down and visit you this afternoon and bring her kids to say hello, and wants to know if that’s all right with you.’

‘No, thanks,’ I said. ‘She wants to bitch about Rhonda before Rhonda gets back tomorrow. Tell her I’ll have lunch with her later in the week, when things have settled down.’

‘You mean never,’ the stone said. ‘Things never settle down.’

I shook my head into the towel. ‘No, I really do want to see her, I haven’t seen her in ages. I just don’t want to get stuck in the middle of this Rhonda thing right now.’

‘Perfectly understandable, ma’am,’ the stone said.

‘Anything else?’

The stone made a soft snoring noise.

The masseuse raised the towel covering one of my legs and began to work the tension out. A large bird flew overhead. The water rippled in front of me. I sighed and closed my eyes.

T
he next morning, I waited with the Tiger, Michael and Simone in the Chinese restaurant of one of the hotels in Causeway Bay. We’d filled in the order sheet and the dim sum were arriving steamer by steamer at the table, but nobody had the appetite to eat much.

The Demon King walked in accompanied by Rhonda and Martin. Rhonda raced to where Michael had risen to greet her and was engulfed by his huge hug. She then embraced the Tiger, who kissed her loudly on the cheek and grinned at her, his tawny eyes sparkling with delight. She smiled around the table, and Michael quickly moved so that she could sit between him and the Tiger.

The Demon King sat at the table, waved for Martin to follow suit, and examined the dim sum baskets with interest. ‘Any fish cheeks?’

Simone silently slid one of the steamers over to him. He looked at the small dish of steamed fish heads sliced in half and dotted with black beans, then pulled out a piece with relish.

‘Love this place,’ he said through the fish. ‘Great fish heads, and they do excellent frog’s legs.’ He grinned at me, his blood-coloured eyes full of amusement. ‘Emma knows just how much I love those.’

‘I’ve seen you watch the frogs being killed,’ I said. ‘I have never seen you eat them, and frankly I’d be happy if I never did.’

His amused expression didn’t shift, and he spat the fish’s skull onto the saucer below his rice bowl. ‘Excellent.’ He put down his chopsticks. ‘To business.’

He waved one hand at Martin, who pulled out a Chinese street map from the pocket of his tan slacks. ‘I’ve marked the location of Six’s nest on the map. The real Leo is there. Be aware when you go in that there are at least five and probably more fake Leos.’ He turned his maroon eyes on me again. ‘I think you ran into one of them yesterday. Some of the fakes are very easy to pick, others will be harder. If you’re not sure just bring all of them out and let me look at them, I can tell you which is the real one.’

Martin silently passed the map to me. I studied it; it wasn’t a map of Shantou as we had expected, but a map of Guilin region. I glanced up at the King. He was watching me, his eyes full of humour.

I passed the map to Simone, who glanced at it, gasped, and then shot a look at the Demon King. ‘
Seven Stars Cave
?’

The King nodded, then pulled another dim sum basket towards him. ‘Any fung jao—phoenix claws?’

‘You’re sure the demon’s nest is under the cave?’ I said.

‘Only about an hour by plane from Hong Kong—a good central location if you’re going to be based in Guangzhou. Pretty too.’ The King pulled a chicken foot out of the steamer and sucked at one of the toes. ‘Good fung jao. Calling them “chicken feet” doesn’t capture the delicate essence of this dish—trust you Westerners to give them a name that is so much less glamorous.’ He spat some toe bones onto his saucer. ‘Probably chose Seven Stars Cave because of the irony of the name. That’s it.’

‘Like we can trust you,’ the Tiger said gruffly.

The King shrugged and spat out the last of the chicken foot bones. ‘Suit yourself. You can check them out yourself in your labs or whatever you have in the West, up to you.’ He rose, went to Rhonda, knelt and kissed her hand. ‘My Lady. You are welcome to visit again, any time. I will treat you with the respect that you deserve. Please, do yourself and your son a favour and do not marry this ugly cat.’

Rhonda hesitated, watching the King, then shook her head, smiling slightly.

The King rose again. He saluted us around the table. ‘Celestials. It’s been fun.’ He and Martin disappeared.

‘You okay, Rhonda?’ I said.

Rhonda shrugged. ‘Just fine. It was easy.’ She ruffled Michael’s hair, then turned and took the Tiger’s hand. ‘I’m glad to be home though.’

‘And we’re glad to have you back,’ the Tiger said gruffly. ‘I missed you.’

Michael made a show of studying the steamers in front of him.

‘I wonder who we can round up to take to Guilin this afternoon,’ I said. ‘Stone, ask around.’

‘How will you get there, Emma?’ Simone said.

‘Check flights as well, stone.’

‘No need, I’ll take you on a cloud,’ the Tiger said.

‘Oh, no, I
hate
riding on clouds,’ I moaned.

‘Scary?’ the Tiger said, grinning.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Ridiculous.’

‘Humph.’ The Tiger pulled a steamer of siu mai closer, dug one out with his chopsticks, then dunked it into a bowl of chilli sauce he had appropriated from the wait staff. ‘Travel by cloud is the traditional, classical and most respectable form of transportation for all Celestials.’

‘I am finding people who are willing to accompany you, ma’am,’ the stone said. ‘We are working on a meet-up place.’

Michael rose. ‘Let’s go.’

The Tiger waved him down. ‘Let the ladies eat, son. The nest will still be there in an hour or two.’

‘What if the Demon King tips them off?’ Simone said. ‘I think Michael’s right and we should head out now.’

‘I agree,’ I said.

‘Humph,’ the Tiger said. ‘Both of you need to spend some time reading the Tao. Okay, we’ll go. Do you need to get anything before I take you, Emma?’

Michael saluted me. ‘Lady Emma, if you don’t mind, in my role as driver I have the capability to take you to your destination on a cloud, hidden from view. Please permit me to fulfil my duties and do this for you.’

‘Oh will you
cut it out
with the formal Retainer bullshit,’ the Tiger said, exasperated.

‘Thank you, Michael,’ I said. ‘If you can bring a cloud here to Causeway Bay without being seen, go right ahead, and we’ll head out immediately.’

‘That I think nobody can do,’ Michael said wryly. ‘Far too many heads to mess with.’

‘I can do it,’ the Tiger growled.

Michael ignored him. ‘How about I drive you to the top of Braemar Hill and we head out from there?’

‘Let’s go.’

‘I’ll come too,’ Simone said. ‘Top of Braemar Hill is a good spot to start out from.’

‘I’ll bring the car around, you wait for me downstairs,’ Michael said. He kissed Rhonda on the cheek. ‘It’s good to have you back, Mom. Dinner tonight at the flat? We have some catching up to do.’

Rhonda hesitated, then said, ‘I’m sorry, Michael, but while I was away we re-leased the apartment and I moved out. I’m staying at the Palace now.’

Michael shot a swift glare of contempt at the Tiger, then smiled again at Rhonda. ‘Whatever you’re happy with. Maybe I can drop by the Palace later?’

‘You are more than welcome, son,’ the Tiger said.

Michael ignored him, smiling only at Rhonda.

‘I would love that,’ she said. ‘I have a lot to tell you about what happened after you left Hell and came back up to the Earthly.’ She looked around the table. ‘You are all most welcome to drop by after…’ Her voice trailed off, as she realised that I couldn’t travel to the Plane. She turned to the Tiger. ‘Maybe we can organise something at the Sheung Wan or Shatin hotels?’

The Tiger bowed his head slightly to her. ‘Your wish is my command, my Empress.’ He swept his tawny gaze around the table. ‘I’ll fix this up—you guys head out. Meet you on top of Braemar Hill. Let’s see who we can find to help.’

Michael effortlessly guided the Mercedes through the packed streets of Causeway Bay near the entrance to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, then north towards North Point and Tin Hau. He slipped through the underpass to Tin Hau Temple Road and headed up the hill above North Point and Quarry Bay. The only other vehicles on the road were red Island taxis, dropping people to the exclusive apartment blocks clinging to the hillside.

‘Who do we have?’ I said.

‘Just us so far,’ Simone said. ‘We can’t take any human students, it’s too far for them. There’s no Celestials free at the moment, and the Demon King went straight from lunch to the Southern Palace to try out some real phoenix claws instead of the mundane ones you find in yum cha.’

‘Are the phoenixes okay?’

She shrugged. ‘Sure. They don’t need my help; it’s just the King and a lot of lower-level stuff.’

‘Na Zha wants to come along,’ Michael said.

‘He’s welcome,’ I said. ‘We haven’t seen him in a while. What’s he been up to?’

‘No idea,’ Michael said. ‘I haven’t seen him for a while either.’

‘You, me, the Tiger, Michael, Na Zha—I hope it’s enough,’ Simone said.

‘If it’s too much we just leave,’ I said. ‘And return with reinforcements.’

‘You underestimate yourself, Simone,’ Michael said. ‘The combined force of you and your elementals is more than enough to take down anything we face.’

‘Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about them,’ Simone said. ‘And every time I do, they come and spray me with water. I’ll bring a few of them.’

We climbed to the top of the hill, passing the highest high-rise housing estate and then parking near the three schools on top of the hill: a Chinese International School, a small English Schools Foundation school, and one of the campuses for the Japanese International School.

‘You have an appointment with the people at the Chinese School later in the week, Simone,’ I said. ‘They may be able to find a place for you.’

‘They should be able to,’ she said with scorn. ‘That school is freaking enormous.’

‘Are those the only types of school you can find, Emma?’ Michael said. ‘The kids who go to those are all rich and spoilt.’

‘I’ll fit right in then,’ Simone said cheerfully.

‘You know how hard it is to find a space if you don’t start at grade one,’ I said.

Just be careful
, Michael said into my head.
Some of these schools have drug problems—the kids are given way too much cash for their own good. I’ve heard of bullying as well.

‘That is
so rude
!’ Simone exclaimed. ‘If you have something to say, say it
out loud
!’

We climbed out of the Mercedes and walked the couple of hundred metres up the hill to the end of the road. School was in and the sounds of children in the classrooms was a background murmur. We stopped a little into the scrub on top of the hill where we couldn’t be seen. From this high vantage point all that was visible were the roofs of the buildings below us, covered with washing lines and air-conditioning towers, and stained with damp. The busy harbour traffic caused white trails across the water far below.