Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (64 page)

Leo rubbed his hands over his face and blinked. ‘Huh?’

‘Take it easy, Leo, you just travelled to the Celestial Plane and the journey can be difficult sometimes.’

Leo put his hands on the armrests of the wheelchair and tried to stand. ‘What’s the matter with me?’

‘Stay, Leo,’ Simone said, pushing him back down. ‘You’re still disoriented from the journey. We’re visiting Michael. Stay in the chair.’

Leo fell back and stared blankly at her.

‘Just take it easy,’ I said.

‘Emma?’ He turned his head to see me and nearly leapt out of the chair. ‘Holy shit!’

‘Maybe I should put him back under,’ Simone said.

‘No, he’s coming around,’ I said. ‘Just sit back and relax, Leo, it’ll come to you. You’re safe.’

Leo looked from me to Simone, then relaxed. ‘Oh, we’re visiting Michael. Are we there?’

‘We’re there,’ Simone said. ‘Just sit back and we’ll take you up to see him.’

Leo nodded. ‘Okay.’

We took the lift up to Michael’s ward and went in. It really did look just like a small private hospital; each bed was a standard hospital bed with an oxygen port and an IV stand. Michael was in a two-bed ward, next to the window, the other bed empty. He was watching the wall-mounted television when we went in, and turned it off when he saw us.

Simone went to him, put her hands on his shoulders and kissed his cheek, then turned. ‘This is Emma in serpent form. She can travel to the Plane as a snake.’

Michael focused on me and his eyebrows creased. ‘Really? Emma, that’s you?’

‘One hundred per cent me,’ I said.

Michael smiled at Leo. ‘Hello, old man. I hear you’re back. Welcome home.’

Leo wheeled himself closer to Michael and took his hand. ‘It’s good to see you, pal.’

Simone sat on the bed next to Michael. ‘So when are they letting you out?’

‘I think that’s mostly up to me,’ Michael said. ‘As soon as I can walk again, they’ll probably let me go.’

‘You can’t walk?’ I said.

‘It’s something to do with the brain damage,’ Michael said, gesturing towards a wheelchair at the side of the room. ‘I can get myself around in that thing, but I usually just change into a tiger and scare the staff. My tiger form seems to be okay, but they say that’s normal, because it was the human form that was damaged.’ Michael tapped Leo’s hand. ‘You should try
turning into a lion, old man. You could probably walk in lion form.’

‘Is that so?’ Leo said. ‘I might give that a try.’

‘How are you generally though, Michael?’ I said. ‘You
will
be able to walk again, right?’

‘Yeah, I just need to get some practice in. They do physical therapy with me twice a day, and I’ll need to continue that once I’m out.’ He grimaced. ‘That means I have to stay here for a while. I need to keep up the therapy, otherwise I may lose the use of some of my muscles. Is that okay?’

‘Don’t worry, man. I can look after the girls while you recuperate,’ Leo said.

‘And as soon as you’re well enough, if you want to come back, you can,’ I said.

He relaxed. ‘That’s good to hear. So what happened after Three smacked me in the head? Obviously you got Leo back, and I heard you rescued Gold’s child. Did you destroy Six?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘We have agents working on it. We know what to look for, but it seems to have gone to ground with its little friends and we haven’t heard anything. We shut down its operation completely though; no more stones are going to be hurt.’

‘You’ll find it,’ Michael said. He raised one hand towards me. ‘Nice snake form. I like it.’

I bobbed my serpent head. ‘I thank you, Mr Tiger.’

‘Are you poisonous?’

I opened my mouth carefully, allowing the fangs to swing down without spitting any poison. Then I closed it again. ‘Cobra.’

‘Nice. Can you do the hood thing?’

‘I don’t know, I’ve never tried.’

He waited silently, watching me.

‘Oh, okay,’ I said, and raised my head. I concentrated, trying to make my neck wider.

‘Nothing,’ he said, disappointed. ‘You need to work on that.’

‘And you need to work on the walking,’ I said. ‘Let’s see who gets there first.’

‘First one there buys the other one—and these two,’ he said, indicating Leo and Simone, ‘dinner.’

‘It’s a deal,’ I said.

‘And now,’ he said, settling back into his pillows, ‘you’re going to tell me, in detail, everything that happened after we entered Hell. The last thing I remember is being driven in the van towards the Pits. Everything after that is a blank. So tell me what we did.’

‘You don’t remember any of it?’ Simone said.

‘Not a thing,’ Michael said.

‘Damn, I should have brought my notes,’ I said with amusement.

‘I can print them out at the nurses station if you like,’ the stone said.

‘No, Simone can prompt me if I forget any of it,’ I said. I looked around for a chair and sat next to Michael. ‘Here we go.’

F
our weeks later I attended the biggest wedding to be held on the Celestial Plane in a very long time. The Tiger had erected a stage for the ceremony on the desert plain outside the Western Palace, and it was decked with white and gold silk that billowed in the breeze. A stadium-sized LCD screen had been set up above the stage, allowing those further back to see the proceedings in detail. Tiered viewing stands for the guests had been built on either side of the road leading to the stage, and flagpoles lined the road, each of them bearing white and gold flags with the motif of the tiger. An honour guard of Horsemen on horseback lined the road on either side, facing inwards, each of them also bearing a lance topped with a tiger banner.

Simone was in a special box at the side of the stage, with other guests of honour. I was in serpent form, as small as I could make myself without discomfort, curled up under her chair.

The banners over our heads snapped in the strong breeze, and the horses’ bits jingled as they shook their heads and shuffled with excitement.

I nudged Simone’s foot with my nose. ‘You keep moving your feet together—I can’t see!’

‘Sorry,’ she said, and adjusted her position.

There was a fanfare of trumpets and drums, and a flash on the stage. The Jade Emperor had arrived. Everybody rose and, as one, fell to their knees, kowtowing three times to him. They remained kneeling with their heads on the floor until his voice rang out: ‘Rise.’

Everybody rose and sat. The large screen zoomed in on the face of the Jade Emperor, smiling benevolently. Er Lang stood glowering at his right shoulder.

‘Have you spoken to Er Lang recently?’ Simone whispered.

‘I just keep out of his way and he keeps out of mine,’ I said.

‘He should be trying to work with you.’

‘As long as I lack the attributes he requires, I don’t think he will.’

‘And I don’t think Emma will grow a penis just to appease his prejudice,’ the stone said.

Simone, Yue Gui and Martin all laughed quietly above me.

There was another fanfare of trumpets, and a few of the honour guards’ horses danced with excitement but remained in place. The riders quelled them and they stood again.

The Tiger and Rhonda rode up to the stage on horseback, each mounted on what appeared to be a Spanish horse: solid body, fine legs, thick, heavy neck and intelligent, large-eyed face. Rhonda’s was a striking palomino with a bright gold body and shining white mane and tail; the Tiger’s was pure white. Both horses had manes that nearly touched the ground, falling in long ripples from being plaited. The bridles and saddles appeared to be made of gold, and the bride and groom wore the traditional red Chinese wedding robes. The Tiger was in a mandarin jacket and pants of red silk,
and Rhonda rode side-saddle in a traditional wedding dress of red silk jacket and long skirt, the jacket front elaborately embroidered with a phoenix and tiger in gold and silver thread.

Michael and Leo escorted them down the aisle, Michael on the right as a large tawny golden tiger and Leo on the left as a black lion. Each was about twice the size of the natural animal, their shoulders nearly the same height as the horses. Their presence had absolutely no effect on either the horses the couple were riding or on the guards’ mounts—an impressive display of training.

‘Leo nearly couldn’t manage it. He only just got it yesterday,’ Simone said.

‘I’m glad,’ Martin said. ‘It is good to see him able to walk without aid.’

The couple reached the stage and dismounted at the bottom of the stairs, passing the horses to a couple of the Tiger’s sons, who led them away. They walked side by side up the stairs, flanked by Leo and Michael, and kowtowed to the Jade Emperor. Leo and Michael went to one side and bowed as animals. Demon servants came forward to assist them with crutches and a wheelchair, and they changed back to human.

‘Michael says that with hard physical therapy he should be walking in a couple of weeks,’ Simone said.

‘That is also good to hear,’ Martin said.

‘They’re breaking with tradition: her face isn’t covered,’ Yue Gui said.

‘They’re remarrying so it doesn’t really matter,’ Martin said.

‘The big ceremony is more for crowning her as Empress of the West,’ Simone said.

‘Oh, shit,’ I said softly, and Simone giggled. She’d heard me.

‘We must ensure that the ceremony to wed and
crown Emma is much larger,’ Yue Gui said with enthusiasm. ‘With martial arts demonstrations. Mass ones. And dancing. An orchestra. A mix of East and West, martial arts, music, dancing—it must be
bigger.
’

‘Oh,
shit
,’ I said, even more softly, and Simone laughed louder, struggling to hold it in.

The Tiger and Rhonda moved to stand in front of the Jade Emperor. He sat on a throne that had been prepared for him on a raised dais at the back of the stage, and they knelt before him. Demon servants brought a tray of teacups, and each of them served the Jade Emperor in turn. Then they rose, and the Tiger sat on a smaller throne to the right of the Jade Emperor.

Oh, look, they’re facing south
, Jade said into my head.

‘Tell Jade thank you very much for reminding me,’ I whispered to the stone.

You are most welcome, ma’am. I hope you can see okay, because in time this will be you.

‘Damn, everybody really hates me today,’ I said softly.

Rhonda knelt before the Tiger and served him tea. He took the teacup, sipped from it, then returned it to the tray. She passed the tray to a demon, and took her seat on a throne to the right of the Tiger’s. They were officially married.

The Tiger gestured to the demon, and the demon handed him the tray of teacups. He rose, carrying the tray, and turned to kneel in front of Rhonda. The crowd gasped.

Rhonda stared at the Tiger, confused. He said something that wasn’t picked up by the microphones and she shook her head. He pushed the tray towards her and she reluctantly took a teacup, sipped from it, and returned it to the tray.

There was a quiet roar of discussion within the crowd.

‘Did he just set her above himself?’ Simone said.

‘More as an equal,’ Martin said. ‘She served him, he served her. Tremendous breach of protocol; people will be talking about this for a very long time.’

The Tiger rose, handed the tray to the waiting demon, then took Rhonda’s hand and kissed it. He pulled her up by the hand, guided her to stand next to him, and raised her hand in triumph. She wiped her eyes with her other hand.

The crowd erupted into a roar of approval, the Horsemen yelling loudest of all. An orchestra at the base of the stage played traditional Chinese marriage music, and the Tiger walked her, hands held high, the length of the front of the stage. They turned as a couple to face the Jade Emperor, still holding hands, and both bowed to him. He stood and bowed back, then sat again.

The Tiger raised one hand and Rhonda’s throne, gold and white carved with a pair of phoenixes as the back, floated to the middle of the stage, slightly to one side from the Jade Emperor’s, which remained at a higher position at the back. The Tiger guided Rhonda to sit on the throne, and bowed to her, and she nodded back. He turned, and a demon came forward with her crown.

From a distance the crown looked like a simple dome, but on the large screen it was much more complex, made of a delicate filigree of gold that was similar to the stone’s setting my snake form now wore. It was embedded with pearls, with a massive pearl in the centre of her forehead, at least three centimetres across. The crown had wings on the sides, like stylised phoenix wings, with strands of pearls hanging down from them to frame her face.

The Tiger took the crown, raised it for the audience to see, and then set it on her head. She used her sleeve to wipe her eyes again as the crowd erupted in more cheering. The Tiger took her hand again, raised her to
stand, and led her to the front of the stage. He raised his other hand for the crowd to hush.

He released her hand and stood to one side as silence fell over the crowd.

‘Kowtow to your Empress,’ he said.

As one, all of the Horsemen thumped their chests with their fists, acknowledging her. The members of the crowd who were residents of the West knelt before her. Simone, Martin and Yue Gui, together with the other dignitaries, rose from their seats and saluted her.

Rhonda stood up and cleared her throat. ‘You may rise,’ she said, her voice choked with emotion. She turned, her wedding dress sweeping around her, and walked to the Jade Emperor. She fell to one knee before him, saluting, and he nodded to her. The Tiger saluted the Jade Emperor, took Rhonda’s hand again and led her to her throne, which had drifted to return to its place next to his. After she had seated herself, he knelt and saluted her, then sat himself.

The Jade Emperor rose and moved to the front of the stage, and the crowd hushed. Simone jiggled in her seat with excitement.

‘Bring me Leo Alexander, the one called the Black Lion,’ the Jade Emperor said.

Leo wheeled himself to the front of the stage to sit before the Jade Emperor, and saluted him. The Tiger clapped his hands in personal applause.