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Chapter Seven

Ididn’t need to see John’s face to know that he wore an expression of amused satisfaction as we entered his office on the top floor of the Hennessy Road Academy building. Chinese New Year had come and gone; there had been no more attacks; and it was time for me to take up my duties as Regent-to-be. But mostly I had to do it because by February I had run out of excuses.

The Generals were already sitting around a conjured conference table, waiting for us. They all rose and saluted formally and carefully. John nodded back and gestured for them to sit.

They turned and saluted me. I hesitated. Then I decided: what the hell.

‘Hi, guys,’ I said with a small wave.

‘Lady Emma,’ they all said, not completely in unison, and waited for John and me to sit before they sat themselves.

Damn. I hated that. It took most Chinese a very long time to loosen up. Australians were usually cheerful and relaxed right from the start; Chinese stayed stiff and formal for ages.

‘Lady Emma’s time is limited, she has a class to teach in an hour, so we will dispense with the formalities,’ John said. ‘Let me introduce everybody —’

‘Don’t bother,’ I said. ‘I’m hopeless with names; I’ll just forget them straightaway. Let me ask you your names when I need them, and I’ll try to remember them. But I’ll probably have to ask you all more than once. If anybody’s offended by that, let me know now.’

Nobody said anything. The Generals all watched me, emotionless.

Great.

I looked around the table. Eight of them, standard-looking Chinese men, all very stern, all middle-aged. A variety of shapes and sizes, all wearing old-fashioned Chinese lacquer armour, some with short hair, some with the more traditional long hair. A couple of them looked really severe and scary, but three had definite twinkles in their eyes.

I stole a glance at John. He was already taking notes. I took a deep breath. Okay.

John slid an agenda across the table to me. I didn’t look at it immediately; I watched the Generals.

‘First item,’ John said. ‘Demons.’

One of the severe-looking Generals leaned forward and put his hand on the table. ‘The Fifth Battalion has had one hundred and fifty demons attain perfection in the last year; the Fourth has had only five or six. The Fifth has no new recruits; the Fourth has had seventy-five. We need to transfer the new recruits to the Fifth.’

‘They will stay where they are,’ John said.

‘The Fifth is undermanned.’

John didn’t move or speak.

‘My Lord,’ the General said, obviously impatient, ‘you need to set up some sort of administrative procedure for the allocation of the demons. We need to ask you every single time, and every time it’s different. We need something down on paper to define the methods you use for allocation.’

‘Lady Emma?’ John said.

I glanced down at the agenda and nearly gasped. He’d read my mind. At the bottom of the first page was a diagram of the table with names where everyone was sitting. He’d even used phonetic spellings, not pinyin, so that I could pronounce the names easily. I shot him a quick, grateful glance. His face didn’t change but his eyes sparkled.

‘General Song,’ I said. The General didn’t move. ‘I thought that all of you had been Raised and were Immortal.’

All of them straightened slightly at that.

‘That is true,’ General Song said.

‘Then why do you want the Dark Lord to write down administrative procedures? You want to make a rod for your own back? You start with the paperwork, it never finishes. You make rules, then you have to make exceptions. Endless exceptions. And the rules give you no flexibility. You can’t take each situation as it comes. If Lord Xuan wants to allocate the demons differently each time, then it’s his prerogative. He knows what he’s doing. He probably doesn’t even have a set of rules; he just does it how he sees fit at the time.’ The General’s face didn’t move at all while I made my little speech. ‘Frankly, I can’t see how you’ve attained Immortality if you want to put everything down on paper.’

All of the Generals heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed. A couple of them even smiled slightly.

John spread his hands over the table. ‘See? What did I tell you.’ He pushed his agenda away. ‘Right. Now let’s have this meeting.’

‘You mean that was a test?’ I said.

‘They didn’t believe me,’ John said.

I glanced around at the Generals. Now all their eyes sparkled at me, even though their faces were still grim.

‘Will all of you stay in the same seats at the table until I have you worked out?’ I said.

All of them nodded without saying a word.

‘There are thirty-six of them altogether, Emma,’ John said without turning to me. ‘Hopefully we’ll be able to rotate everybody through so that you can meet all of them. I’ll give you a diagram each time.’

‘Okay.’ I shrugged. ‘Meeting. Let’s get this over with.’

One of the Generals raised his index finger slightly. ‘One Two Two. Tell us.’

‘It’s easier to tell everybody like this rather than directly one at a time,’ John said, explaining. ‘Questions can be asked, information can flow, ideas can bounce. One Two Two. Gold has been cultivating a police officer in the investigative squad . . .’

I glanced down at the agenda. A short message was written underneath the diagram in John’s English scrawl. I tried to tell them but they wouldn’t believe me. Can’t wait to see the looks on their faces. Oh, and by the way, give them hell.

I tapped on the door of John’s office. ‘Come in, Emma,’ he said.

I entered and sat across the desk from him with the school calendar in my hand.

‘You know you don’t need to knock. I can feel you coming. When’s spring break?’ he said.

‘April,’ I said. ‘Same time as Easter. About eight weeks from now.’

He didn’t say anything, he just watched me expressionlessly.

‘If you won’t make it that far, then we’ll take Simone out of school for a week and leave Michael here,’ I said. ‘Try not to push yourself too hard, love.’

He glanced down at his hands. His face was still expressionless.

‘Simone’s not ready. She can’t defend herself. If something really big comes after us, there’s nothing we can do. You have to stay longer,’ I said.

He looked directly at me. His eyes blazed.

‘Can you sense it?’

He shook his head.

‘We need you. I knew we should have done it at Chinese New Year.’

‘If I go into a coma before April, call the Lady,’ he said.

‘A coma?’

He shrugged and smiled slightly.

‘If you go into a coma, how long will we have to get her here?’

‘Hours.’

‘What if she’s in retreat, John?’ I said desperately.

He shrugged again, but the smile had disappeared.

‘We should do it before April then,’ I said.

‘I want to leave it as long as I can. I only have two more.’ His face was rigid with control. ‘I will need at least ten days.’

I glanced at the calendar. ‘You’ll get it. The break is two weeks altogether. We’ll have fourteen days, so we can go to London as well. You want me to organise the trip to Europe?’

‘No. I won’t make it to Paris. It’s too far from my Centre now. I’ll arrange something else.’

‘How long will you last afterwards?’ I said, studying the calendar.

He leaned back, grimaced, and retied his hair. ‘December if we’re lucky. Earlier if we’re not. Probably earlier.’

‘December.’ I counted the months. ‘And then August next year . . . the end.’

‘Probably before then, love, if we’re attacked again,’ he said.

‘We’ll be attacked again, I know we will,’ I said grimly. ‘That little bastard won’t sleep until he has your head.’

‘If it comes to a choice between you using that phone and him having my head, give him my head,’ John said. ‘Do it.’

‘His word’s not good, you know that,’ I said. ‘He’ll come straight after Simone if he has your head. And me. And Leo, and Michael, and anybody else he can get his hands on. I won’t have a choice, love.’

John studied his hands.

‘Just make sure you stay with us,’ I said. ‘As long as you’re with us, we’ll be okay. Look after yourself. For Simone.’

‘If I run into the Serpent alone, that will be the end of it,’ he said.

I didn’t say anything.

He looked me straight in the eye. ‘There is a way to hold the Serpent off. We can be imprisoned.’

‘What?’

‘You can bind us. With the right sort of enclosure, it’s possible to bind the Serpent. Stop it from joining.’

‘Could the Turtle be bound as well? With the right sort of enclosure?’

‘Yes.’

‘Even at full strength?’

‘Yes.’

‘Even the combined creature?’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh my God. How many people know of this, John?’

‘Myself. The Lady. The other three Winds — a similar thing may be inflicted upon them. The Celestial. Others, I don’t know.’

‘Does the Demon King know?’

‘I don’t know. He’s never tried me.’

I put my head in my hands. ‘Oh God.’

‘We should try to enclose the Serpent. That way there is no risk of me running into it alone and rejoining.’

‘I couldn’t do that to you,’ I whispered. ‘I love you too much to do that to you. Either of you.’

‘Get out! Quickly!’

I shot out of my seat and ran to the door. I fumbled with the handle, eventually managed to open the door and threw myself out. I leaned against the wall of the hallway and breathed. I had to stop doing this to us. Every time we mentioned our feelings for each other, I had to leave the room before he drained me completely.

We won’t be going to Paris, I will arrange another place. I am calling the Lady now.

After school the next day Simone and I were spread out in the living room doing her homework. She didn’t really need my help, she was exceptionally bright, but we enjoyed the time spent together.

The doorbell rang. ‘It’s Aunty Kwan,’ Simone said, ‘and Qing Long. With Jade.’

‘Wonderful! Jade’s back!’ I cried, shooting to my feet.

I rushed to answer the door, but Leo was ahead of me. He opened the door. ‘My Lord. My Lady.’ He nodded to Jade and she nodded back without smiling.

Qing Long didn’t say anything as he stepped through the door. He was in his normal human form, taller than Leo, slim and elegant as a dancer, with turquoise hair and matching eyes, and wearing a grey silk embossed robe.

Kwan Yin stopped and took Leo’s hands. ‘Hello, Leo. Let me look at you. You look well.’

‘Thank you, my Lady,’ Leo said.

I took Jade’s hands and studied her. ‘Are you okay?’ I said.

Jade nodded without looking up. ‘Just fine, my Lady. Lord Qing cared for me exceptionally well.’

Leo stopped and listened. ‘Lord Xuan says Ms Kwan and Lord Qing are to go to the dining room.’

‘What’s happening?’ I said.

Come in too, Emma, John said into my ear.

‘I have to go too,’ I said to Jade.

‘I have work to do,’ Jade said. ‘The accounts will be backed up for weeks. By your leave, I’ll return to the Academy.’

I nodded to Jade and she disappeared.

‘Leo, I’ve been called in as well,’ I said. ‘Mind Simone for me? Help her with her maths?’

Simone giggled. ‘More like I help him with his maths.’

Leo grinned. ‘That’s right.’

I followed Ms Kwan and the Dragon into the dining room. Qing Long stopped and saluted John before sitting.

John nodded. ‘Qing Long.’

I remained silent, wondering.

‘For your benefit, Emma, I’ll tell you what I’d like to do. Paris is too far; I won’t make it such a distance from my Centre, now. But I do want to be as far from the demons’ Centre as I can manage.’

‘The resort is on the Eastern Rim. It should suffice,’ Qing Long said. ‘I will provide you with suitable accommodation. Do it there.’

‘Where?’ I said.

‘Kota Kinabalu,’ John said. ‘Sabah. Borneo.’

‘I’ve heard about KK,’ I said.

‘It is as far away from the Centre as the Dark Lord can manage in his current state,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘Far enough away from the demons’ Centre, yet still close enough to our own.’

‘Is the water there clean enough for you to swim?’ I said.

‘Dragon?’ John said.

‘Yes,’ the Dragon said. ‘The shoreline is slightly polluted, but if you go through quickly it shouldn’t be a problem. Out on the islands, in the marine park, absolutely. Should be clean enough.’

‘Excellent!’ I said. ‘You can do both!’ I grinned at the Dragon. ‘Lord Qing Long, thank you so very much. You have no idea how much we appreciate this.’

‘Good,’ the Dragon said with a small smile. ‘I’m losing a lot of income giving you the Presidential Suite and providing you with demon staff.’

‘I’ll give you a pile of gold to sit on,’ John said.

‘Ah Wu! That was uncalled for,’ Ms Kwan said.

John and the Dragon flashed each other a quick smile.

‘Will we take everybody?’ I said.

‘Michael is to go to the Western Palace and spend time with his family,’ John said. ‘So are you.’

I shot to my feet, ready to shout. Then I changed my mind and sat down again. ‘I should spend this holiday time with my family,’ I said softly.

‘Exactly,’ John said.

‘So I will spend it with you. And Simone, and Leo. And Ms Kwan. My family.’

He opened his mouth to protest.

‘I don’t have much longer with you. Every second counts.’

He closed his mouth with a snap.

‘Good,’ I said. ‘Can we take the jet to the airport there?’

‘Yes,’ Qing Long said. ‘I will arrange it. Leave it to me. Enjoy. The resort is quite new and very elegant. I think you will like it.’

‘What are the chances of us being attacked while we’re there?’ I said.

‘Minute,’ the Dragon said. ‘I have placed extensive seals on the resort. I will be there. You will be undisturbed.’

‘Dragon, thank you so much,’ I said.

‘You are most welcome, my Lady,’ he said with a small blue smile.