Читать книгу Earth to Hell - Kylie Chan - Страница 16

‘I feel like Persephone,’ Rhonda said over her salad.

The years had been kind to her and she radiated intelligence and confidence. ‘Kidnapped by Hades, and having to spend half her life in Hell because she ate six pomegranate seeds.’

‘He won’t keep you there, don’t worry,’ I said. ‘He’s trustworthy.’ I rested my chin in my hand. ‘Actually I trust him more than some Celestials. He won’t try anything.’

‘He won’t expect me to sleep with him or anything?’

‘No. Absolutely not. Nothing like that. He just wants to talk to you.’

‘I know. He wants to talk me out of remarrying Ah Bai.’

‘Congratulations, by the way. The ring is gorgeous.’

She held the engagement ring up for me to see. The central diamond must have been at least two carats and it was surrounded by more large diamonds in a glittering circle. ‘It’s way too big and a pain most of the time, but it’s the thought that counts, I suppose. And you’re right, these stones can be extremely useful.’

‘I am honoured to be able to serve the Lady Rhonda and to act as the symbol of her troth,’ the stone in her ring said, sounding like a young Chinese woman with a soft Putonghua accent. ‘As a stone that will never decay, I represent the Emperor of the West’s unfailing adoration of her.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ I said. ‘Do you have a name?’

‘I was not graced with a name until the Lady Rhonda took possession of me. She has chosen the name of Zara for me, and I am honoured.’

Rhonda shrugged. ‘She’s a sweetie.’

‘I am proud to serve, my Lady,’ the stone said.

Rhonda leaned on the table, serious, her salad forgotten. ‘What will it be like down there?’

‘On the demonic side? I have no idea.’

‘But Simon Wong kept you imprisoned there for a few weeks. What was that like?’

I leaned back. ‘It was exactly like a posh apartment on top of Harbour City. I could even see the cars parking on the roof of Ocean Terminal. The windows were an illusion, and they were sealed, but it was just like an apartment.’

‘All indoors?’

‘The Celestial side of Hell appeared to be outdoors, even though there was no sun. I couldn’t tell you, Rhonda, but my guess is that it’ll be pretty nice.’

‘Hell. Nice.’ She shook her head. ‘Lovely.’

‘It’s good of you to consider doing this for Leo, Rhonda. I really appreciate it.’

She shrugged. ‘The Tiger said I should be fine, and it will prove to everybody on the Celestial that I’m serious about marrying him, so he supports me a hundred per cent.’

‘All the best for both of you then. It’ll be a tough job for you, being Empress of the West. You’ll have a lot to manage.’

She picked up her fork and moved her salad around. ‘You have no idea. He’s putting me in charge of a massive palace and a hundred women who are all baying for my blood.’

‘They’re not. They wouldn’t.’

She smiled up at me. ‘Well, you know — we all like to think that we’re his special wife, the one he’ll leave all the others for. Now I’ve stepped up and I am the one he nearly left the others for — they hate me. Your friend Louise is probably going to come down as soon as she can and ask you to do something about me.’

‘She knows you’re my friend. She wouldn’t ask me to do that.’

‘The others are pushing her. I’ve already been attacked a couple of times.’ She nodded over her shoulder to where two burly sons of the Tiger stood near the door of the restaurant. ‘The Tiger’s had to give me a personal guard.’

‘To protect you from his other wives?’

She nodded, amused. ‘He’s said I should start disciplining them the minute we’re married. Apparently during Imperial times it was quite common for the Empress to order misbehaving concubines beaten or executed.’ Her smile became wry. ‘Sometimes he really needs to be dragged tail-first into the twenty-first century.’

‘Good luck managing that,’ I said with disbelief. ‘I’m glad all I have is a Heavenly realm falling to bits and about four hundred young and unruly Disciples skilled in Arts that give them the ability to maim and kill without even thinking. What you have is much worse.’

‘Hey, Zara,’ Rhonda said.

‘Hmm?’ her stone replied.

‘Who has it worse, me or Lady Emma?’

‘Oh, definitely Lady Emma,’ the stone said. ‘She has to deal with that ugly piece of worn-out jade on her finger on top of all her other trials.’

‘It was me that wore you out, baby,’ the stone in my ring said slyly.

‘Pig-dog,’ said Rhonda’s stone.

‘Look, if the cheating works both ways then it’s still cheating and the win isn’t valid,’ Marshal Meng said, looking and sounding more like an exasperated grandfather than a Heavenly General.

‘I cancelled out the cheats they used. I wasn’t cheating myself, just making it fair,’ Marshal Liang said, his huge whiskers bristling.

‘You are all contributing to the wealth of the casino lords, you know that,’ I said as I entered the conference room.

‘What do you think, Emma?’ Marshal Meng said, gracefully indicating his heavy-set companion. ‘Liang here uses his abilities to cancel out the cheat on the roulette wheel. That’s still cheating and invalidates any wins he makes.’

‘I just make it fair,’ Liang said, indignant.

‘Do you lose then?’ I said. ‘As if the wheel wasn’t weighted?’

Liang nodded. ‘Perfectly fair if I win.’

‘Then when you lose you’re still adding to the wealth of the casino lords and you doubly lose,’ I said, to a chorus of chuckles from the other Generals. ‘Some of that wealth is siphoned into the Triads, some of the Triads are controlled by demons, so if you lose at the table you’re helping the enemy. If you win at the table you’re cheating. Give it up.’

Liang opened and closed his mouth, then smiled wryly. ‘You have a point, Lady Emma.’ He looked around at the other Generals. ‘I suppose we should have this meeting now.’

The Generals sat down good-naturedly at the conference table and waited for me. In the past they had kept their forms reasonably standard, but as they’d come to realise that I didn’t really care what they looked like, they’d taken a variety of interesting — and sometimes nondescript — forms.

The highest-ranking General present was Marshal Ma, who was a slim, elegant gentleman in his mid-thirties, his hair cut short in the modern style, wearing a pair of slacks and a polo shirt. He seemed too refined to be involved in killing demons but was a fierce and talented fighter.

Next to him sat Marshal Gao, wearing traditional silvery Tang-style robes and armour, his long hair bound in a topknot. He was concentrating and so, for a change, wasn’t glowing gently, but as the discussion became heated and he forgot, the glow was guaranteed to return, much to his embarrassment.

Marshal Liang sat next to him, a fierce, heavy-set man with huge sideburns, wearing a short yellow robe and large cloth boots in the Mongolian style. He still looked put out at having his gambling habits called into question.

Marshal Meng was on the other side of the table, looking more like a fifty-year-old bureaucrat than anything else in his black robe and old-fashioned plain cloth cap. He smiled serenely, still appearing like a kindly grandfather.

Closest to me was Marshal Zhu, who, although seeming a pretty, fresh-faced young woman of about sixteen, was much tougher and wiser than her appearance suggested.

As the one with highest precedence, I spoke first. ‘Four main things,’ I said. ‘Leo’s kidnapping. Northern Heavens.’ There was a chorus of groans around the table. ‘Me getting called out by Er Lang —’

‘Er Lang called you out?’ Ma said, shocked.

I nodded. ‘Simone and elementals. Anything major from you guys?’

‘Nothing as bad as that,’ Ma said. ‘Leo first, this is important. We heard about the stone left in his cell in Hell — this is disturbing.’

I leaned on the table. ‘Why are Simon Wong’s little friends who could manipulate stones becoming more active now? You’d think they’d have tried us right after Lord Xuan left. But they’ve waited eight years, and all they’ve done is take Leo.’

‘Of course it’s a trap,’ Marshal Liang said. ‘The Demon King will probably tell you where they are so you can walk right into it.’

‘Do you think he’s helping them?’ I asked. ‘He vowed that he wasn’t, but I don’t know if I can trust him any more. With Lord Xuan gone, he’s making more and more attempts at us. And he’s used Leo’s disappearance as a way of getting Rhonda into Hell for a week. It almost seems too convenient.’

‘I strongly doubt he’s in league with them,’ Ma said. ‘Given half a chance these stone-controlling demons would probably put a knife in the King’s back. He’s hoping you can destroy them without him having to do anything, same as when Simone destroyed One Two Two for him.’

‘God, he’s always manipulating me into doing his dirty work for him,’ I said, frustrated. ‘Recommendations?’

‘Do we have any ideas on his location?’ Marshal Zhu asked, her firm voice counterpointing her sweet façade.

‘We have demons in Hell, and stones all over the place with their ears to the ground looking for something unusual or a new nest,’ I said.

‘So far nothing has come up,’ the stone in my ring said.

‘Well, then, there’s nothing we can do until we obtain some intelligence,’ Ma said, sounding like a corporate CEO in a board meeting. ‘As soon as you have news, call us in for an emergency session and we’ll work out what to do then. In the meantime, they can’t hurt your Retainer, they’ll just hold him as a bargaining piece and bait for their trap. We need to find out where he is.’

‘I hope the stones get something soon,’ I said.

‘We should be able to spare some agents as well,’ Meng said. ‘Many of our foot soldiers are demons.’

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘What’s next?’

‘Er Lang,’ Liang said, his voice loud and deep. ‘Do this one quickly, my Lady, he could injure you. You’ll need to get all your current challenges out of the way in the next week so that you can be ready when the Demon King gives you the information about Leo.’

‘Are any of you close enough to Er Lang to ask him why he’s doing this?’ I said.

The Generals looked at each other around the table, then they all shook their heads.

‘Let me ask Ah Yu,’ Ma said. ‘Give me a second.’

‘Er Lang’s a bit of a loner,’ Yang said, as General Ma unfocused, talking to Guan Yu. ‘Wasn’t so antisocial before the Monkey King defeated him. After that, he spent a lot of time off doing stuff by himself.’

‘That really happened, just like in the legend?’ I said. ‘The Monkey King beat him?’

‘Thoroughly spanked his ass,’ Zhu said, amusement lighting up her face. ‘We weren’t called in, the Dark Lord wasn’t called in, but the Monkey King caused chaos in the Celestial Palace for some time. The legend is quite accurate; it was only the Lady in the end who could subdue him.’

‘Big blow to Er Lang’s massive ego,’ Liang said with similar amusement. ‘Spanked by a monkey.’

The other Generals laughed.

‘And spent a lot of time by himself since,’ Meng finished. ‘Dunno whether he has issues about women in positions of power, but this might be the problem he has with you, and the reason he’s called you out.’

‘He called me out too,’ General Zhu said, the silver pins in her hair glittering as she moved her head. ‘When I received my investiture, he was onto me almost immediately to test my Celestial Worthiness. He does seem to have issues with women in power.’

‘Oh, wonderful,’ I said, and rested my chin in my hand. ‘He’s gonna take out his humiliation on me and give me a lesson at the same time. Is he honourable enough to hold to the ground rules?’

‘Yes, it’ll be fine,’ Meng said. ‘You have Celestial backing on that. He’s a Shen of honour, he’ll respect the limits that are in place.’

‘True,’ Zhu said, and the other Generals nodded agreement. ‘He was completely controlled when I faced him, and in the end he admitted that both me and my sister Bo Niang are more than qualified to hold our rank.’

‘I’ll arrange to face him right after I’ve talked to Simone’s teacher,’ I said. ‘I don’t know which one I dread more.’

Ma snapped back. ‘Ah Yu says that he hasn’t spoken to Er Lang in about seventy-five years, except on formal Celestial business to do with the administration of the City of Hell.’ He smiled wryly. ‘I think he has issues with our …’ His voice trailed off and the other Generals glared at him. ‘Well, he has no issues with Guan Yu, but he doesn’t like the company that Ah Yu is keeping, so to speak.’

‘He has that much of a problem with me?’ I said. ‘The fact that I’m a lowly human and he has to report to me?’

The Generals all quickly shook their heads. ‘No, no, not you, ma’am,’ Marshal Ma said. ‘Er Lang has issues with the nature of some of the Dark Lord’s officers.’

General Zhu snorted delicately with derision. ‘It’s been a thousand years already, he should get over it!’

‘Get over what?’ I said. ‘More information!’

The Generals shared a look over the table, then General Ma deliberately changed the subject.

‘Simone and elementals,’ he said. ‘She must learn to control them, Lady Emma, this is becoming very difficult. They appear out of nowhere, sometimes damaging property, other times threatening any Shen who they feel have slighted Simone. It’s only a matter of time before they either hurt a Shen or appear before a non-Celestial.’

‘Simone’s agreed to have lessons with one of the Wudang Masters to learn how to control them,’ I said, to a concert of relieved sighs. ‘Problem solved.’

‘How about bringing down a couple of teachers from Celestial High to talk to her while we have the door open?’ Meng said, and the other Generals nodded. ‘She could learn so much more at CH; her current school really doesn’t cater for her special abilities. She could make friends with other Shen —’

‘She refuses point-blank to discuss this possibility,’ I said. ‘Look at it her way. She’s one of the most powerful creatures on the Celestial Plane. People are either scared of her or try to cultivate her because of who she is. At the International School she’s just another kid.’

‘But she’s not learning to use her full capabilities,’ Zhu said. ‘There is probably so much more that she could do. She is such a valuable asset in the battle against the forces of Hell. Allow us to call her into battle more often. The more of us women kicking demon ass, the better.’

‘She’s growing up as an ordinary teenager — as far as I can make it anyway,’ I said. ‘She uses her abilities when she has to, but she’s in a reasonably normal Earthly household, and I think this is what the Dark Lord wanted for her. She’s not a child soldier fighting demons; she’s as much as possible just a fourteen-year-old girl.’

There was silence around the table for a moment, then Zhu said softly, ‘You are very wise sometimes, my Lady.’

‘True serpent,’ Meng said. ‘Impressive, ma’am.’

‘Northern Heavens,’ I said. ‘Tell me how bad it is.’

They shifted the papers to bring up the Celestial budget.

‘And you will tell me what the issue is with Er Lang.’

They ignored me.

The next morning Marcus dropped me outside the Pedder Building so that I could go to the Celestial Combat Arena to face my first challenge. The street was close to the middle of Central District and always packed with pedestrians and cars. The Pedder Building was one of Hong Kong’s few remaining old colonial buildings: a multistoreyed mall with a delightful old-fashioned lift and a vintage-themed tea house on the first floor among the clothing factory outlets.

I went around the corner and crossed Queen’s Road at the busiest pedestrian crossing in the Territory. It was at least fifteen metres wide and always packed with people jostling to get across the road. The government had made a pedestrian overpass part of the conditions for the developers who’d built on either side of the road, but they’d never bothered to put it up and had never been penalised for it. People were regularly struck by cars as they dashed across the road against the lights.

I walked up D’Aguilar Street, also packed with pedestrians, past the Wellington Street intersection, and turned right onto Wo On Lane. This was a narrow, near-deserted street, only wide enough for one car, and a tiny oasis from the crush of people. I walked to the end of the lane, passing some closed-up restaurants, a laundry and the back of the buildings facing Wellington Street. The lane was a dead end, with a small altar to a local god at the end, and a gate opening onto a park with a circular arena-shaped paved area — the Earthly analogue for the Celestial Combat Arena. Stairs ran up the side of the park to the streets of Central high above, showing exactly how steep the mountainside could be in some parts of Hong Kong.

I nodded to the local god and turned right at the end. An alley, only about a metre wide, ran from the lane to Wellington Street. At its end, on the corner with Wo On Lane, there was a simple metal door with a single blank deadlock.

I touched the door and its voice chimed in my head, sounding like high-pitched bells. Name and authorisation?

Lady Emma Donahoe, First Heavenly General, the stone said.

Right on time, the door said. Good luck, ma’am.

The door disappeared and a dark corridor was visible in its place. I took a deep breath and walked through.

The corridor was completely silent as I trudged along it. The floor was plain grey and the walls around me red brick. Closed doors appeared on my left and right, about three metres apart. A young man in full traditional armour appeared in the corridor in front of me and saluted. ‘Madam General. This way.’

I saluted back and followed him. He led me further down the corridor and stopped to open a door on the left. ‘Ma’am.’

I nodded to him and went into the preparation room. It had a large wooden screen on one side, gorgeously decorated with a scene of cranes and pines made from semi-precious stones. A couple of traditional rosewood chairs sat against the wall with a rosewood side table between them holding a pot of tea and four upside-down cups. A small rosewood altar stood against the wall, a burning stick of incense in front of its statue of Xuan Wu.

My armour was ready for me, fitted onto a mannequin made of rosewood that looked very similar to a dressmaker’s dummy. A demon servant, appearing as a young woman, stood silent and attentive next to the armour. The weapons rack was empty; nobody but myself could call the Murasame.

I dropped my handbag onto one of the chairs and shook my shoulders out. Then I nodded to the demon and she peeled the armour off the dummy and helped me to place it over my plain jeans and shirt. She carefully checked the buckles and straps, ensuring that the armour was secure.

‘Good luck, ma’am,’ she said, bobbed her head and disappeared.

I turned to the altar and studied it for a while. Then I said, ‘Wish me luck as well, John,’ and exited the room.

The same young man in armour waited for me on the other side of the door. He bowed slightly and held his right arm out to indicate the way.

‘No weapon, ma’am?’ he said as he led me down the corridor. ‘Your opponent is armed.’

‘Only if needed,’ I said.

‘A shame,’ he said, smiling over his shoulder at me. ‘I have never seen the Destroyer.’

‘The blade must be fed if it is released,’ I said.

He stopped for a second, hesitating, then continued walking along the corridor. ‘I apologise, ma’am, I was unaware. Usually only demonic blades require feeding.’

‘It is yin,’ I said.

He nodded understanding. ‘Ah, the Dark Lord’s blade, of course. It is a wonder you are able to wield it at all, ma’am, such a blade must be a very difficult to control.’

‘We have reached an understanding,’ I said.

‘It is sentient?’

‘Not as such. It is not intelligent but it does have a will.’

‘Fascinating.’ He stopped and gestured; the corridor ended and a moon gate led to a wider corridor to the left. ‘Ma’am.’

I nodded to him and went down the corridor, leaving him behind. The corridor brightened at the end and opened out into the Arena.

It appeared as an open area in a glade of bauhinia trees, the dirt floor covered with their pink and white blossoms. Sunshine sparkled through the leaves of the trees, rippling over the ground in bands of light and shade. A sweet breeze heavy with the scents of plant life and damp earth brushed my face.

My opponent stood on the other side of the clearing next to the officiator for the match. He had the nut-brown skin of a Chinese who had spent a great deal of time in the sun, and the square, heavy-set features shared by those from the North. He was at least half a metre taller than me, large and strong. He wore traditional lacquer armour similar to mine — square plates held together with wires — but his armour was as brown as his features. He held a spear that was at least two metres long with a slender, sharp tip surrounded by a red horsehair fringe and decorated with a piece of green silk.