Читать книгу Hell to Heaven - Kylie Chan - Страница 12

The next morning Yi Hao followed me into the office and placed my large desk diary on my desk. She was wearing a smart navy business suit with a white shirt and matching navy pumps. ‘Not many appointments today, ma’am. Things have settled down here very well recently.’

I dropped my tote bag into my desk drawer, sat down and grimaced when I saw my overflowing in-tray. Then I grinned up at her. ‘Looking professional, Yi Hao. You’d pass for a local businesswoman.’

She fidgeted with pride. ‘Some of the younger students have been helping me.’

I leaned on the desk. ‘Do you want to go further than just being my secretary? You can go study if you like.’

She appeared horrified. ‘Ma’am, please do not wish such a thing on me! It is a dream come true for me to be acting in this capacity for you. Now…’ She looked down at the diary, professional again. ‘You should tell me when you give humans my phone number, ma’am. A man called Chang called me and I had no idea what he was talking about. He is being held on the first floor until you decide what to do with him.’

‘Chang?’ I said, confused. ‘I have no idea. What does he look like?’

‘Big!’ Yi Hao exclaimed. She spread her arms. ‘He looks like a … a … big man!’

I searched my memory. ‘No idea. Okay, I’ll go down after we’ve been through the diary. When’s my first appointment?’

‘In half an hour you have a meeting with General Ma.’

‘Good. Did you give us at least an hour?’

‘Yes, ma’am. After that, no more appointments.’ She gestured with her head towards the in-tray. ‘You’ll need some time to deal with this.’

I sagged over the desk. ‘You all hate me.’

She touched my arm. ‘You know we don’t, ma’am. Now go check on this human that you seem to have collected.’

I went down to the first floor, the armoury, the most secure area inside the Academy building. Master Liu, dressed in jeans and a scruffy Batman T-shirt, was waiting there for me with a massive Chinese man, nearly as tall as Leo and heavily muscled. He was sitting morosely in the holding room but jumped to his feet when he saw me. ‘Lady, help me!’

‘This was Demon Prince Six’s driver and general assassin-about-town,’ I said to Liu.

Chang grimaced. ‘Tell your janitor here that I am not a criminal. I was under an oath, but now I am free.’

Liu’s mouth flopped open with delight. ‘Janitor?’

Chang glared at him with derision. ‘I want to speak to you alone, ma’am, without this lackey around.’

‘What word did that come out as in English?’ Liu said.

‘Lackey,’ I said.

‘It was far more obscene and derogatory in Chinese,’ Liu said.

I turned to Chang. ‘Remember when I told you that Liu Cheng Rong hadn’t died six hundred years ago; he’d attained Immortality?’

Chang made the most lightning-fast double-take I had ever seen. He glanced from myself to Liu, then swiftly fell to his knees in front of Liu and touched his head to the floor. ‘This humble, worthless piece of dung profoundly apologises for this insult and prays that you will allow him to assist you with his skills as a Shaolin master.’

Liu’s face went thoughtful as he looked down at Chang. ‘Hmm.’

‘I was a disciple of Shaolin before I lost my way, Master. Please, help me to retake the oaths and return to the Path,’ Chang said, still with his forehead on the floor.

Liu rubbed his bearded chin. ‘Interesting. How long have you been outside the temple?’

‘Six years,’ Chang said with misery. ‘I made some terrible mistakes and I want to atone for them.’ He glanced up at Liu. ‘Master, please help me.’

Liu gestured to him. ‘Get up. Tell me what you have done.’

Chang rose, a swift and elegant movement. ‘I have killed,’ he said, almost a moan of despair. ‘I have broken my vows. I wish to retake them and follow the Path once again.’

Liu rubbed his chin again, studying Chang. ‘What was your reason for straying?’

‘Wealth,’ Chang said. ‘I saw the wealth of the West and wanted it for my own. I have since learned that wealth is an illusion and cannot bring true joy. For the last three years I have lived in misery, serving one who was truly monstrous and evil.’

‘If you believe in the concept of evil then you still have a long way to go,’ Liu said.

Chang’s face crumpled and he dropped his head. ‘The temple gave me only empty words and hollow rules. I have yet to see the full truth inside them.’ He looked back up to Liu, full of hope. ‘Help me to see the True Way.’

‘Very well,’ Liu said. ‘But it will not be easy.’

‘Tell me what I need to do, Master.’

Liu concentrated for a moment, and Lok appeared out of the armoury. ‘What?’ he said. ‘I don’t have all day. I have three junior weapons classes this afternoon and half those dipshits don’t return their weapons when they’re done with them.’

Liu gestured towards Chang. ‘I got you a new assistant-cum-janitor. Give him all the worst jobs.’

‘About time,’ Lok said, and raised his snout towards Chang. ‘You look like a nice strong one, you can do the heavy lifting for me. Not having opposable thumbs is a pain in my doggy ass.’

‘I am fully trained in the arts of Shaolin!’ Chang protested. ‘I was in the temple for twenty-three years! I’m better than any human I’ve fought, I was teaching juniors at Shaolin, and you want me to work as a cleaner? Assisting a dirty demon dog?’

‘Forget it,’ Liu said, and turned away. ‘Never mind, Lok.’

‘What an asswipe,’ Lok said, heading back to the armoury. ‘Dirty demon dog indeed. I had a bath last week. Nearly killed me.’

‘I’d be wasted as a janitor,’ Chang said. ‘I can help out with the martial arts training here. Use me! Help me to find the Way!’

‘You are so far from the Way that you do not even see the Path when it is placed before you,’ Liu said.

Chang turned to me. ‘Lady, don’t waste my talents.’

‘Come with me, I’ll see you out,’ I said.

I went to the lifts and pressed the button to go down to the lobby. What a waste — so intelligent and talented, and so damn proud he couldn’t see the redemption being offered him.

‘I need an assistant,’ Lok said, pausing. ‘You should make him stay.’ Then he gave a full-on dog bark of surprise.

I saw the glow reflected off the lift doors and turned to see what was causing it. It was Kwan Yin in Celestial Form, seated on a lotus blossom, a radiant field of shen energy pulsing around her. Chang fell to his knees and prostrated himself, while Liu and I quickly dropped to one knee. Lok bowed his shaggy head.

‘You do not need to bow to me, Emma, we are family,’ Kwan Yin said, her voice sounding the same as it always did. She changed from Celestial Form to her normal human form of a middle-aged Chinese lady, slim and elegant in a white silk pantsuit. She held her hand out to me and raised me, then pulled me into a gentle hug. ‘You are like the promised to my own child.’

‘And you are like another mother to me,’ I whispered into her ear. The fragrance of lotus and jasmine floated around her. I pulled back. ‘Has something happened?’

Ms Kwan gestured towards Chang. ‘This has happened.’

Chang didn’t look up from the floor; he lay there as if frozen.

‘One of the most intelligent prospects we’ve seen here in a long while,’ I said. ‘Gifted with language, very perceptive, and one of Shaolin’s finest practitioners. Shame he never managed to perceive the gist of the Teachings.’

‘He is full of pride,’ Ms Kwan said.

‘That he is,’ Liu said.

‘But he has potential,’ Ms Kwan said.

‘Not while he’s so damn up himself,’ Liu said with amusement. ‘Are you going to fix him, Lady? I don’t think he deserves it.’

‘All deserve what they receive, Liu; you of all people should know that,’ Ms Kwan said. She gestured towards Chang, who still hadn’t moved. ‘Rise, Chang, let me see you.’

Chang pulled himself together and rose.

‘You have been given an opportunity here, little one,’ Kwan Yin said to Chang. ‘You need to learn humility. If you will be guided by these Immortals, you have a chance to become much more than you are. You say that you wish to retake your vows and return your feet to the Path. Are you sincere?’

Chang bowed his head. ‘I am sincere, Lady. I am weak.’

‘You are not weak,’ she said, ‘you are too strong. You are rigid and unyielding. You will break before you bend. You need to learn to become weak. If you let them teach you, you will learn.’ She raised one hand towards him, palm up. ‘Will you retake your vows and serve with humility?’

He opened his mouth to reply but she turned her hand around so the palm faced him. ‘Before you answer, Chang, be aware that if you say yes, you will not be living with dignity or esteem. You will be performing menial, dirty tasks in the service of a dog, living without luxury for many years. Are you willing to debase yourself to learn?’

Chang hesitated, his expression full of conflict.

‘You like your comfort,’ she said with amusement.

‘That I do, my Lady,’ he said, looking miserable. ‘I have experienced poverty and hardship and I do not wish to relive them.’

‘Very well. Yes or no?’

‘What will happen to me if I say no?’ he said.

‘Nothing,’ Liu said. ‘We will take you downstairs and let you go.’

‘What will become of me then?’

‘You will live a life of ease and comfort. You will be employed as a bodyguard by wealthy humans, and return to the life you knew while you were serving Six. You will have wealth and women and luxury, as you did then,’ Kwan Yin said.

Chang’s expression cleared. ‘That life was meaningless! Yes, my Lady, I will retake the vows and serve the dog.’

‘Serve well,’ Kwan Yin said, and disappeared.

‘General Ma is here, Emma,’ the stone said.

‘I have to get going,’ I said.

‘We can handle the rest,’ Liu said. ‘I know you just agreed to work for the dog, Chang, but are you sure?’

Chang didn’t hesitate. He strode to Lok and fell to one knee before him. ‘Master.’

Lok made a small barking sound deep in his throat. ‘Good.’ He turned to head back to the armoury. ‘Come with me; you can help me find out who didn’t return their weapons.’

‘Send him up to me later. We’ll have a small ceremony for him to retake the vows,’ Liu said. ‘Remember the precepts as well, Lok: he won’t be eating after noon, no alcohol, no girls …’

‘You don’t need to remind me, I know the whole deal,’ Lok said.

I pushed the up button on the lift. ‘I’ll see you guys later.’

‘Oh, and if you happen to be in the markets anytime soon,’ Lok began, but the lift doors closed on me. Cow’s heart! he finished inside my head.

General Ma and I went down to the coffee shop on the ground floor of the Academy building for our meeting; he’d developed a taste for hazelnut lattes and couldn’t get enough of them.

‘Now, you have to understand that there is minimal discourse between the Platforms,’ Ma said, waving his latte. ‘Just as the Earthly Plane is the World of Ruin to the Celestial, so the Celestial is considered Ruin to the higher Platforms.’

‘But you move between worlds without difficulty,’ I said. ‘So the residents of the higher Platforms must come down to the Celestial now and then.’

‘That they do. But we never announce ourselves as Immortals when visiting this Plane,’ he said. ‘And most of the Bodhisattvas do the same when they come down to the Celestial.’

‘But it’s different — you aren’t allowed to tell people on the Earthly that you exist,’ I said. ‘Everybody on the Celestial knows that Bodhisattvas exist, and people like Kwan Yin visit you all the time.’

‘There is nothing to stop us from revealing our Immortal nature to those on the Earthly,’ he said. ‘But you tell someone you’re a Taoist Immortal and watch them make your life a complete misery for the next hundred years or so, wanting you to share the secret. Totally not worth it.’

‘I thought you weren’t allowed to tell people anything?’

‘There are topics we’re not permitted to discuss. Our existence is well-known, however, so that’s not off limits.’

‘I see,’ I said. ‘You’re not allowed to talk about death, the afterlife, stuff like that.’

‘Maybe,’ he said, smiling knowingly.

‘So Nu Wa is on a higher Platform, for Bodhisattvas? Can I even go that far?’

‘No, Nu Wa exists on the Celestial, in the Kunlun Mountains in the West, same Plane as the rest of us Immortals,’ Ma said. ‘You won’t have to travel to a higher Platform to see her.’

‘So I can go see her without too much difficulty. I can just ride a cloud with Simone.’

‘She’s up too high. No cloud can carry you that far. You have to walk the last two hundred li or so.’

I shrugged. ‘Okay, I’ll walk.’

‘In the snow.’

I shrugged again.

‘As a snake, Emma.’

‘Oh.’

‘No other serpent has been that far. I suggest you start working now on a way to keep you warm while you make the trek.’

‘Something all-over and padded maybe,’ I said. ‘And Simone can carry me.’

‘I doubt if even someone as powerful as the Princess can carry you all the way,’ he said. ‘Ever seen a documentary about climbing Everest?’

‘No way. It’s that high?’

‘It’s twice as high,’ he said.

‘But that would mean it’s in the lower part of the stratosphere! There wouldn’t be enough oxygen to breathe!’

‘Exactly.’

I dropped my head. ‘Geez, this is crazy.’ I remembered what John had said. ‘What about the Three Pure Ones? He said to see them first.’

‘They are on the First; you do not visit the higher Platform first. You should see Nu Wa on the Third — the Celestial Plane — before even thinking about visiting the First.’

‘The Second is the Heaven of Perfection and Enlightenment?’

‘Where the Buddhas exist, yes. The Three Pure Ones are on a higher Plane again. They are not living beings; they are more like concepts that occasionally choose to take human form and annoy the hell out of the rest of us.’

‘What’s the highest Platform like, Ma?’

‘The First Platform is so far removed from reality — from space–time as we know it — that it is difficult to describe it as even existing.’

‘Have you been there?’

‘Once or twice, when Ah Wu was in serious trouble and we needed some really high-end help. It’s not a place I’d recommend to anyone; the experience of being there twists your mind and can affect your sanity.’ He finished his latte. ‘Before you run off to do this stupid thing, I have made an appointment for you to see the Archivist. He may be able to help you.’

‘Thank you,’ I said with feeling. ‘I’ve been trying to see him since just after John died, and he’s ignored me completely. I even pulled rank and he still ignored me.’

He opened and closed his mouth, then smiled. ‘“John died”. That’s a strange way of putting it for those of us in the know. Ah Wu is not dead, he still shows up now and then.’

‘On the Earthly, you cut someone’s head off, they’re dead. I’ve made a habit of saying that John died so people on the Earthly don’t try to have me committed; and people on the Celestial see it as a joke in extremely poor taste.’

‘So you win either way,’ he said, understanding.

‘I’m getting old and forgetful,’ I said with a grin. ‘It’s easier to tell everybody that he died, but sometimes I talk to the office staff of Chencorp about him coming back and they think I’m crazy.’

‘You’re not getting old. You look younger every day. You need to find a mountain with a nice spring and some —’

‘I don’t have time for pine nuts and springwater. Go away,’ I said. We rose and shook hands. ‘Thanks, Ah Guang, I appreciate your time. And props for getting the Archivist to talk to me.’

‘No problem at all,’ he said.

When I reached the door, I found it was stuck closed. The clatter of cups and the murmur of conversation ceased and the room became eerily silent; everybody in the coffee shop except Ma and myself had disappeared.

I didn’t mess around: I summoned the Murasame and it appeared in my hand. Ma took Celestial Form: a red-garbed warrior with flames on his robes and bright red hair down to his waist. A pyramid-shaped gold brick appeared in his left hand and a sword in his right.

‘Do you know what’s caused this?’ I said.

‘Wong Mo,’ he said, and gestured towards the door. ‘Incoming.’

Life continued as usual outside the shop windows; nobody noticed that I was holding a long black sword and standing next to a ten-foot-tall, red-robed god.

The doorbell rang. Ma was right: it was the King of the Demons, in normal human form, wearing a maroon silk shirt and black jeans, his blood-coloured hair held back in a ponytail. He spread his arms. ‘Emma, sweetheart, you don’t need that thing with me. I’m here to help.’ He saluted Ma. ‘Magistrate Ma of the Only True Power.’

Ma nodded back. ‘Wong Mo.’

I dismissed the sword. ‘Now I know why Simone hates being called “sweetheart”.’

The Demon King gestured towards the table where Ma and I had been sitting. ‘May I speak to you alone, Lady Emma?’

‘Anything you have to say, you can say in front of my most trusted lieutenant,’ I said.

‘Bah, she should be your lieutenant,’ the Demon King said to Ma. ‘You’re a heavenly general, one of the leaders of the Heavenly Host, right hand to the Dark Lord himself, and here you are babysitting a young female mortal.’

‘Just goes to show how far apart we are,’ Ma said. He moved to stand behind me as a Retainer.

I sat at the table. ‘Now, what did you want to talk to me about?’

‘You’re searching for ways to clear the demon essence from you. Just let me do it, dear Emma, and you can be ready for him when he returns.’

I rose again. ‘If that’s all you’re here for, you’re wasting your time.’

He spread his hands without rising. ‘Maybe we can negotiate something.’

‘As long as it involves me prostituting myself to you, we have nothing to talk about.’

He didn’t move, hands still spread. ‘As I said, maybe we can negotiate something.’

‘What do I have that you want, except for demon spawn?’ I said.

‘Oh, many things,’ he said, jolly. ‘Safe passage Above, certain Celestials who have been a complete pain in the ass to me, some homely women … There are any number of things I could name.’

‘I do not negotiate with demons,’ I said stiffly.

He leaned over the table and grinned at me. ‘You’re doing it again.’

‘Good,’ I said. ‘That means I know exactly how to deal with you.’

‘Whatever,’ he said, and rose.

Noise clashed around us and the people in the coffee shop reappeared. Ma quickly changed back to his usual human form.

‘Let me send you some suggestions of what would be a suitable trade for your humanity,’ the King said. ‘Have a look through, and if you see something you like, let me know. You still have my phone, don’t you?’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Neat trick how it always changes to the latest model.’

‘Only the best for my Emma,’ he said, and disappeared.

‘Doing what again?’ Ma said.

‘Sounding like John,’ I said.

He nodded. ‘That you do sometimes.’

‘Do you think I’m his Serpent, Ma?’

‘You’ve been in the same room as his Serpent, ma’am, and not even he can be in three places at the same time.’ His face changed to thoughtful. ‘No, I take that back. I don’t think there’s much that he can’t do.’

‘Thanks for that, that was just what I needed to hear,’ I said. I nodded to him, more serious. ‘And thanks for hanging around.’

‘I would have been more comfortable leaving and letting you face him alone as a display of my faith in you,’ he said. ‘But protocol demanded that I remain in my capacity as Retainer.’

‘I know, and I appreciate it. Either way.’

‘I’ve given your secretary the details of your appointment with the Archivist,’ Ma said. ‘Talk to him before you go traipsing off to see Nu Wa; you may be able to avoid seeing her altogether. The Heavens know, last time someone visited her it caused a war.’

‘Nobody’s been to see her since the Shang/Zhou?’ I said.

He shook his head. ‘Nobody’s been brave enough.’

‘Would a visit annoy her? I really don’t want to walk into the home of one of the most powerful Shen in creation if she’s pissed.’

‘Impossible to tell. Nobody’s spoken to her in thousands of years. Even before that, she was a recluse. You know the stories: she is as ancient as time and as powerful as nature. Approach her cautiously.’

‘If the Archivist can help me, I won’t have to approach her at all.’

‘That would be the ideal situation.’

He saluted me quickly and we went out together. I took the lift back up to the Academy; he disappeared.