Kitabı oku: «Hell to Heaven», sayfa 2
CHAPTER 2
I took the escalators from the enormous open area under the bank building up two storeys to the general banking hall. Leo was parked in his wheelchair next to one of the flat, square leather waiting seats, holding a stack of papers in his lap.
I sat on the chair facing him. ‘What’s it all about?’
‘They say I can’t open an account without proof of residence.’ He waved his documents. ‘These are all in your name. I have nothing that shows that I live here.’
‘Stone, can you do something about this?’ I said.
‘Let me talk to Lok about it,’ the stone said.
‘I forgot how annoying the racism here can be,’ Leo said irritably. ‘The teller took one look at me and frowned. Then, when I started talking to her, she actually turned away.’
‘It might be the speech impediment too, mate, it makes you a bit hard to understand the first time.’
‘Bah. Do you have any idea how much concentration it takes to get rid of that?’
‘Enough that it’s not worth it and people will have to learn to deal.’
‘Pain in the ass.’
‘I have some documents for you; I’ve put them into Emma’s bag,’ the stone said.
I opened my tote and pulled out some freshly printed and folded papers: electricity, gas and phone bills for one of the apartments at the Old Folly, all in Leo’s name and backdated six months. I scrunched the documents a few times to make them appear older, then handed them to Leo. ‘Here you go.’
He flipped through them and nodded. ‘Okay, let’s try this.’
He turned in the wheelchair and rejoined the queue to speak to the tellers. I stood beside him. A few people openly stared at him as we waited, but we ignored them. Finally we reached the end of the queue and a light indicated a free teller. Leo wheeled himself to the window, which was too high for him to comfortably see over. He raised himself on his arms to speak to the teller.
‘Can we talk to someone about opening an account?’
She stared at him, uncomprehending, then glanced at me.
‘You do speak English?’ he said.
She continued to look blank.
‘I want to open an account,’ Leo said more slowly and clearly, trying to work around his speech impediment.
The teller spoke to me, ignoring Leo. ‘What account type you want to open?’
‘My friend wants to open a savings account,’ I said.
The teller pushed some forms across the counter to me. ‘Ask friend to fill in forms.’ She leaned back and waited for us to leave.
Leo raised the documents he was holding and put them on the counter. ‘I’ve already filled them in. The account is for me.’
The teller took the forms and skimmed through them, then looked at me. ‘He needs proof of Hong Kong residence.’
‘I’m right here,’ Leo growled, frustrated.
I gestured towards Leo. ‘Talk to him then. Like he said, he’s right here.’
The teller stared at me.
‘This is for me,’ Leo repeated. ‘I have all the documents and I want to open an account.’
The teller jumped up from her chair and quickly walked away.
‘What the hell!’ Leo said.
‘No, it’s fine. She’s rushed off to get help.’
‘Why didn’t she say something?’
‘It’s considered politer to rush off and do it for you, rather than dither around telling you that they’re going to do it,’ I said. ‘They’re used to being chastised for wasting time.’
Leo rested his hands on the arms of the chair. ‘Well, that’s stupid.’
The teller came back with a young man in a suit. He leaned over the counter to speak to me. ‘You want to open a new account?’
‘No, I do,’ Leo said.
The young man appeared to see Leo for the first time. ‘Wait here, please,’ he said and walked away.
Leo thumped the arm of his wheelchair.
The teller retook her seat and pressed the button to indicate that she was free. A local man came over and leaned around us to talk to her in Cantonese, so we were forced to move to one side.
‘Let’s just go to the other bank next door,’ Leo said, and wheeled himself around to leave.
The young man opened a door near us and nodded. ‘Please, come this way.’
Leo hesitated, then shrugged and wheeled himself through the door, with me following. The young man led us to a small, glass-walled meeting room with a tiny round table. He sat and pulled out a pen, then gestured for us to sit.
‘So sorry. Yes, we have all the documents here. Do you have your ID and proof of residence? Rent notice, electricity, phone bill …’
‘Here,’ Leo said, and passed his passport, Hong Kong ID card and the new documents across the table.
The young man flipped through the documents, checking them against the forms that Leo had filled in, and nodded. ‘Thank you, sir, this is all in order. How much were you looking to deposit to start the account?’
Leo opened his mouth to answer but I tapped his hand. Tell him to say a million dollars, I said to the stone.
‘Uh … one point three million dollars,’ Leo said. Geez, let’s make it something more believable than just a round mill, he added silently to me. Besides, if you’re gonna foot the bill, I’d better make it worthwhile, eh?
‘One point three million Hong Kong dollars?’ the young man said, his eyebrows raised.
Leo grinned evilly. ‘No, American dollars. Will I have to convert it?’
The young man looked down at the papers, then up at Leo. ‘We can provide you with a Premier account for that, sir. With a platinum credit card, priority service and special offers. If you have two million, we can provide you with private banking, which has a range of extended services.’
‘No, Premier is fine,’ Leo said.
‘Normally I would move you to the Premier Banking office floor,’ the young man said, ‘but in this case it would probably suit you better to do it here, and I can show you through when we’re done. Is that suitable?’
Leo relaxed. ‘Quite suitable.’
The young man nodded. ‘We will give you a multiple currency account, but you will need to deposit one million Hong Kong. The rest you can keep as US.’
Leo waved one hand airily. ‘No, convert it all to Hong Kong dollars, I live here now. Let’s go ahead.’
The young man nodded, took a business card holder out of his breast pocket, rose and held out a card to Leo with both hands. ‘Leave it with me for a moment, sir, and I will return shortly with the account information for you, and show you where your Premier Banking service centre is.’
‘Fine,’ Leo said, and the young man went out.
‘Money talks,’ I said.
‘He’s googling you,’ the stone said with humour. ‘He couldn’t find “Leo Alexander” so he’s now looking for … oh, this is funny.’
‘What?’ Leo said.
‘He thinks you’re Mike Tyson,’ the stone said. ‘He’s looking up photos of Mike Tyson.’
‘Humph,’ Leo said. ‘I am ten times uglier than that mother.’
‘Hear, hear,’ I said.
‘Emma didn’t do Ugly Gweipoh, she did Rich Bitch instead,’ the stone said, disappointed. ‘I like Ugly Gweipoh better.’
‘Ugly Gweipoh tends to involve burning bridges,’ I said, ‘and Leo did the Rich Bitch, not me! If we did Ugly Gweipoh we would be branded as trouble, and Leo would have problems getting his money out to buy his expensive loafers.’
‘You fill my shoes with sand again and I’ll never forgive you!’ Leo said. ‘Those were Armani!’
‘You filled my shoes with sand first,’ I said.
‘Shoes from K-Mart in Australia do not count,’ Leo said.
I raised one foot. ‘Yes, they do.’
He buried his face in his hand. ‘I give up.’
‘I thought you liked to avoid stereotyping,’ I said.
‘Stereotyping is one thing. Dressing like a street sleeper when you have a fund of several hundred million dollars —’ He stopped as the young man returned.
The bank employee looked from Leo to me, then sat at the table with a glossy folder containing all of Leo’s account information. He passed me a business card. ‘Maybe I could interest you in some private banking as well, ma’am? If you have several hundred million dollars, we can help you to manage those funds and ensure that they grow for you.’
I took his card with a nod. ‘Thank you, but I already have a private banking advisor here.’
The young man shook his head and flipped open the folder to explain the account details to Leo.
Michael stood on my right in Training Room Four, watching as I raised my left hand and summoned demon essence to fill it. ‘That’s it. Demon essence.’
Michael raised his left hand and chi glowed around it. He grimaced and the chi disappeared. He dropped his head in concentration and the chi reappeared around his hand, this time a deep purple, almost black.
‘That’s interesting. Can you do black?’ I said.
Michael concentrated again and the chi became a light blue. He shook his head. ‘Nope.’
‘Okay,’ I said. I released the Murasame from my right hand and it floated above the floor; the sword was fussy about being dropped. ‘Take my hand.’
Michael took my right hand in his left and used the connection to observe my demon essence. He gasped. ‘Damn, Emma.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘I need to spend some time on the Celestial Plane.’
‘Soon!’ Michael said. ‘How do you control that?’
‘I have no idea. Seen enough?’
Michael nodded and released my hand, then raised his own again and dropped his head, concentrating. The dark blue chi reappeared and he shook his head. ‘I don’t think I can do it.’
‘Of course you can’t. You’re my son, and I’m too yang to produce anything like that,’ the Tiger said from where he’d appeared on the other side of the room.
‘Tell Lok to freaking inform me before letting this bastard into the Academy,’ I said to the stone in my ring.
‘That is no way to greet an old friend,’ the Tiger said. He approached us, hands out. ‘Peace. Michael, I need to talk to you.’
Michael turned away. ‘I have nothing to say to you.’ He bowed slightly to me. ‘It’s kind of a relief that I can’t do it, Emma. I’ll see you later — I’m having dinner at your place tonight.’
I nodded to him. ‘I just wish I wasn’t able to do it either.’
‘Look, it’s about your mother,’ the Tiger said. ‘Can we put this aside? We both loved her, and I need your help to find out why she died.’
Michael rounded on the Tiger. ‘It’s obvious why she died. You killed her!’ He swept one hand through the air. ‘Or one of the other wives killed her in a fit of jealousy. Either way, she’s gone and you’re responsible.’ He spun to leave.
‘I know I’m responsible,’ the Tiger said. ‘And Emma is a clue as to what happened. I need you to help me find out what made your mother different.’
Michael ignored him, opening the door to exit.
‘Emma, I need you too,’ the Tiger said. ‘Come to the lab and donate some DNA. We need to find out what killed Rhonda so it doesn’t happen to anyone again.’
‘I’m a demon,’ I said. ‘That’s what would kill me.’
‘You’re not listening to me, either of you!’ the Tiger shouted, and Michael stopped halfway through the door. ‘Michael, what killed her could kill you!’ He pointed at me. ‘And you! I want to save your fucking lives here, humans. For fuck’s sake, let me!’ He dropped his voice. ‘I want to ensure that no Celestial Worthy is ever destroyed again by taking the Elixir. They should gain Immortality, not die! Hell, boy, you’ll probably achieve Immortality by yourself. But if you ever want that fucking Elixir, you’d better be damn sure that it won’t blow you up.’
Michael dropped his head. ‘Like it did my mother.’
‘I loved her,’ the Tiger said, his voice full of anguish. ‘She was my world. And now she’s gone, nothing means anything to me. The only thing keeping me going is the thought that I can stop this from happening to you.’
‘Let me think about it,’ Michael said without looking up. He walked out, softly closing the door behind him.
‘Emma?’ the Tiger said.
‘I’ll think about it too,’ I said. ‘I can only travel to the Celestial Plane as a serpent. I’m contaminated by the demon essence …’
‘We might be able to remove the demon from you if we study your DNA,’ the Tiger said.
‘Maybe. Either way, let me think about it. I’m scheduled to spend some time on the Plane next week, visiting the Northern Heavens for an update on how things are going and some hearings. I might stop in at the West to help you out.’
‘I can always send some scientists down here to take some samples if you don’t want to come to the West,’ he said. ‘Your choice. I just want to make sure that when Ah Wu comes back, he can fulfil his promise to you.’ He waved a hand after Michael. ‘This kid will be my Number One one day, and the finest I’ve ever had. But to get there, he’s gonna need Immortality, and we need to be sure that the Elixir won’t kill him.’ He disappeared.
I retrieved the Murasame from where it was floating in the air and put it back into its black scabbard. What the Tiger didn’t know was my memories of being imprisoned in a hospital-type lab being infused with demon essence had affected me; I’d suffered nightmares ever since. The idea of being the willing subject of lab experiments was something I found hard even to consider.
When I got back to my office there was an email waiting for me that made me sigh.
To: Emma Donahoe
<emmad@newwudang.com.hk>
From: Evarocks <eva95@zqphoenix.com.id>
Hi Emma,
I haven’t heard from Simone in ages, is she okay? Me and Sylvie kinda miss going around with her. I emailed her a couple of days ago and she didn’t reply.
If she doesn’t want to be friends any more, could you tell her it’s okay, I understand, but just to tell me and I’ll stop contacting her to do stuff?
Thanx
Eva
I stared at the screen for a moment, then replied.
To: Evarocks <eva95@zqphoenix.com.id>
From: Emma Donahoe
<emmad@newwudang.com.hk>
Bcc: Simone Chen
<darkchaos4682@gmail.com>
Hi Eva,
I think it’s mainly that she’s so busy with school at the moment — because of the change of schools mid-year she’s flat out catching up with the rest of her class. I’m sure that when things settle down she’ll be back in contact with you.
Emma
I quickly composed another email:
To: Simone Chen darkchaos4682@gmail.com
From: Emma Donahoe
<emmad@newwudang.com.hk>
I bcc’d the message to you so you could see, but she doesn’t know I sent it on to you.
I remember when you were five years old and didn’t have a single friend in the world. How things have changed.
E
I would get the Silent Treatment when she got home from the shops later, but it would be worth it.
CHAPTER 3
About four that afternoon, Simone contacted me telepathically. Emma, I’m going to call you on your mobile. Can you play along, please?
My mobile rang and I answered it. ‘Yes?’
Simone sounded incredibly giggly and silly. ‘Emma, can you come pick me up at Festie? I’m here with my friends and we’re done.’
‘What? Why?’
I wanna be normal for a change, Emma, can you just do this for me? I want them to see me getting picked up like a normal kid.
‘Just come and get me, please, Emma,’ she whined.
‘I suppose. I’ll meet you at the lay-by.’
‘You’ll have to come to the car park, the lay-by’s closed for some stupid roadworks or something.’ I heard her friends giggling in the background, and one of them said something. ‘Can you meet us under the P and S?’ Simone added. ‘Right down the bottom, close to the doors, please, we have a lot of stuff. Oh, and can you give Sarah a lift home too?’
I sighed with feeling. ‘I suppose.’
‘Thanks, Emma!’ she said, and hung up. Thanks, really, Emma, she added silently. I wouldn’t ask if you had a class, and I won’t ask again, okay?
‘Tell her she can ask as much as she likes if it makes her feel good about being normal,’ I said to the stone.
Simone’s voice was giddy in my head. You’re the GREATEST, Emma!
‘You won’t be the greatest when she gets your email,’ the stone said.
I rose and collected my bag.
‘Not sending Leo?’ the stone said.
‘Nah, he’s with Meredith. It’ll do me good to get out of the office, even if it is to go through the tunnel.’
It took half an hour to wend my way through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel traffic and reach the top of Kowloon City and the massive shopping mall of Festival Walk. The mall didn’t look much from the outside, a regular two-storey rectangular monolith, but inside it plunged to six storeys below ground level. I entered the spiralling ramp down to the car park, travelling a long time before I reached the boom gate. I pushed my credit card into the slot and wound my way to the bottom floor, another three levels down. The car park was deserted this far down during the day, and I pulled up next to the lobby at the bottom of the escalators below the supermarket.
Simone wasn’t there so I pulled out my phone to call her. There was no signal so I left the car and went towards the escalator lobby. As I opened the door to enter, my hand was grabbed from behind and I was swung away from the door. I didn’t really register who had attacked me; I just knew they were human not demon: three Chinese men, all of them menacingly close. The one holding my wrist was grinning at me.
I didn’t mess around; I moved as quickly as I could and took them down. I pushed just above the heart of the man holding my wrist and his knees buckled, his eyes went blank and he collapsed. I used a simple throat block to make the second feel unable to breathe for a few seconds, and used that time to hit the third under the ear on a pressure point that put him straight to sleep. I returned to the second and shoved him in the solar plexus, knocking him unconscious as well.
I was bending to check their unmoving bodies for ID when I heard panting and running. I looked up, preparing to defend myself again, and saw the Nemesis, Peter Tong. He was wearing a designer polo shirt and a pair of slacks hitched under his bulging stomach. His face was swollen with exertion and one flailing arm held a small pistol. I moved into a long defensive stance, ready to take him down before he could shoot me.
He stopped, bent over his knees to pant for a while, then stood again. ‘What happened?’
‘Put the gun down,’ I said.
He waved the gun again and I ducked as he pointed it at my head. ‘No! I’m here to defend you!’
I moved close to him, put my foot between his feet, bent my knee into him and pushed him onto his back, taking the gun at the same time. He smelt of cooking oil and expensive aftershave.
‘You idiot, you could have killed me,’ I said. I checked the magazine; it was empty. ‘You run around with an empty gun? What are you doing?’
Simone and her friend Sarah came down the escalators and hurried to us.
‘Oh, Emma, were you attacked?’ Sarah said, waving her arms theatrically. ‘What a stroke of luck that Peter was here to save you!’
‘Wait a minute,’ I said, and looked from the Nemesis, still gasping on the ground, to Sarah. ‘How much did he pay you to do this, Sarah?’
‘Oh, you know about it? Three thousand dollars,’ Sarah said. She went to Peter and held out her hand. ‘Come on, pay up.’
‘What happened?’ Simone said. She studied the goons on the ground. ‘These aren’t … These are ordinary …’ She was silent for a moment, thinking. ‘You were mugged by three men, Emma?’
‘Yeah, and Peter came rushing with his dinky cowboy gun to rescue me,’ I said.
‘Wait, he paid Sarah?’ Simone took her friend by the shoulder. ‘He paid you to set Emma up?’
‘Nobody was going to get hurt. It was just a little demonstration to show Emma how much she needs a man in her life to defend her,’ Peter said. He clumsily pulled himself to his feet. ‘What if these men had attacked you and I hadn’t been here to scare them off?’
‘You scared them off?’ Simone said with scorn.
‘Look! They all fainted with fear when they saw me!’ Peter said.
I passed the gun to Simone and she held it as if it were something contaminated. I moved into a serpent-style stance: legs spread, and palms flat and facing down like the head of a snake. I jabbed a few times at the Nemesis’s eyes, making him reel back with shock, then lightly hit him with the tips of my fingers, not enough to hurt him but enough to make him feel it. I struck his chin, throat, shoulders, chest, and then made a flurry of strikes at his stomach, not hard enough to do damage. I changed to monkey style and swept low, taking his feet out from under him, and catching him just as he was about to hit the ground. I lowered him to the floor so that he didn’t hurt himself, and stepped back.
‘I took them down myself,’ I said. ‘I’m a master of seventeen different styles of Kung Fu.’
Sarah stared at me, then turned to Simone. ‘Do you do martial arts too?’
Simone hesitated, then raised her chin. ‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s fun,’ Simone said.
Sarah turned back to Peter. ‘I did what you asked me to. Where’s my money?’
Peter pulled himself back to his feet, then hunched over, grimacing with pain. ‘I’m horribly injured! You beat me! I need an ambulance — and a lawyer!’
‘You’re a good thirty centimetres taller than me,’ I said. ‘Nobody’s going to believe that I hurt you, particularly when there isn’t a mark on you.’
He raised his shirt, revealing his white, glutinous abdomen. ‘I’m covered in bruises!’
‘No, you’re not. Get over yourself.’ I turned away from him. ‘I think you need to find a lift home, Sarah. Or was this loser going to drive you as well as pay you blood money?’
‘My driver’s on the way to pick me up anyway,’ Sarah said with a toss of her head. ‘I don’t need to call my stepmother for a lift. My real mother can’t drive, she doesn’t need to. We have a driver; we don’t drive ourselves around like domestic helpers.’ She turned to Simone. ‘Next time I think I’ll go shopping with someone interesting, not some freak who does martial arts.’
She swung her bags as she turned to go up the escalators, then turned back to Peter. ‘I know who you are, loser, and you owe me. If you don’t pay up soon, I’ll get my boyfriend and some of his friends to spray-paint your store in Central. The inside.’ She swept away.
‘Well, thank you very much,’ Simone said, grabbing her bags and storming towards the car. She turned back to yell at me. ‘Just go and ruin my life one friend at a time, Emma, why don’t you!’
I pointed at the unconscious goons on the ground. ‘How much did you pay them?’ I asked Peter.
He pulled down his polo shirt to cover his stomach, his face red. ‘I never paid anybody! I protected you from these … these … thugs!’
I moved into a serpent stance again. ‘How about protecting yourself from me?’
He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then ran away into the escalator lobby, his arms flailing.
I returned to the car. Simone was sitting in the back, leaning against the door and weeping. I reached into my bag, pulled out a packet of tissues and handed it to her. She took it without looking at me.
I switched on the ignition and drove up towards the surface.
Do you want me to recall that email? the stone said.
No.
Your call, I suppose.
Yes.
We drove home in silence.
Later, at home, Simone came into the office and sat across the desk from me. ‘You are such a cow,’ she said.
I didn’t look away from the screen. ‘Thank you.’
She sighed and put her head in her hands. ‘Sarah is the least snotty of the snotty bitches in my grade.’
‘No, she isn’t, Simone, you are.’
She was silent for a moment, then swept back her honey-coloured hair and sat back in her chair. ‘I just want to be a normal kid. Is that so hard?’
‘I desperately want to be a normal human. Not a demon. Not a snake. Just a woman. Sometimes we have to deal with what we’re given.’
‘Thanks for pointing out all the horrible things that have happened to you because of me.’
‘I think it’s more because of your father,’ I said mildly. ‘Particularly the snake thing.’
‘When he comes back, our lives are gonna be twenty times weirder again, aren’t they?’
‘Probably.’
‘I really don’t want a weird life, Emma. Sometimes, I don’t want him back; I just want to have a normal life here without him.’
I turned to face her. ‘When he was living with your mother, she wouldn’t let him do anything Celestial in front of her. That’s one of the reasons we’re in this predicament in the first place —’
‘You can’t blame Mummy for this!’ she protested.
‘I’m not blaming her. I’ve heard a lot about your mother, Simone, and she was a wonderful, strong, smart woman who put up with an awful lot of bullshit from your dad and his assorted cronies before she put her foot down and told him she’d had enough. She wanted a normal life too. He did his best to give her that, and he did incredibly well. Jade’s told me stories about how your mother sacrificed so much — her career, her travel, everything — and he made the sacrifice too of not taking True Form, of not travelling to the Plane nearly as much, and of staying here with you.’
‘They should have known it would end in disaster,’ Simone said, her voice small. ‘Daddy should have known. Celestials can see the future. He should never have promised Mummy not to take True Form, that was so stupid.’
‘He can’t see the future when those he loves are involved. He’s said that.’
She glanced at me. ‘Really? He didn’t know whether we’d live or die?’
‘He said he could see the possibilities, and they were all nasty. The other Celestials wouldn’t tell him. The minute your mother was murdered, he knew things were heading downhill fast and did the best he could to salvage the situation.’
‘I wonder how things would be if Mummy was still alive,’ she said. ‘She could have taken me to the Plane … Daddy would be at full strength … we would be a family.’
‘I’ve said that myself more than once.’
She dropped her head. ‘Oh, sorry, Emma.’
‘Nothing to be sorry about. But when your father comes back — and he will come back, Simone — you’ll have your family again.’
‘And the weirdness will get twenty times worse.’
‘You missed my point. He’s quite capable of being normal and having a mundane family life if that’s what’s required of him. He did it for your mother, he can do it for you. Well, as normal as is possible in this crazy town.’
She brightened but didn’t reply.
‘There won’t be the low-energy issue, and you won’t be a tiny child who can’t travel to the Plane,’ I went on. ‘It’ll all work out.’
‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘But in the meantime, I have to go back to school tomorrow and be labelled a martial arts freak because I told Sarah the truth.’
‘You know what, Simone? I think every other girl — and boy — there will think you’re the coolest kid ever ’cause you can do the arts, and they’ll ask you for demonstrations. Then, by the end of the week, they’ll have forgotten all about it.’
‘I will not give demonstrations.’
‘I don’t either.’
She smiled. ‘That was a pretty convincing demonstration you gave the Nemesis.’
‘Did you see his tummy?’
She laughed, and it was wonderful to hear. ‘It was like vanilla pudding, oh my God, so flabby!’
I dropped my voice to a low purr. ‘Sexy.’
She laughed even harder.
‘Don’t cut off your friendship with Eva and Sylvie just because they’re Shen, Simone. If you do that, you’re no better than Sarah. They can be ordinary kids, just like you, and you can go shopping with them just like ordinary girls. They like you.’
She paused, thoughtful. ‘I guess you’re right.’
The entrance to the Palace of the Dark Heavens was a huge gate at the end of a long, tree-lined avenue. The road widened there to form a circle so people could be dropped off; and in the circle’s centre was a round pavilion, about four metres across, for those who arrived directly.
When Simone and I landed there was a sedan chair waiting for us next to the pavilion, a couple of tame demons standing unmoving and patient between the carry bars. Two officials in black robes were there too, and two black, heavy-set Chinese horses stood behind the sedan chair, saddled and bridled but not tethered to anything.
The officials bowed low, saluting at the same time. One stepped forward and spoke. ‘Regent of the Dark Northern Heavens, Lady Emma, Dark Lady, First Heavenly General, Serpent Who Wears the Stone of the World. Princess Simone, Only Human Child of the Xuan Wu, Wielder of the Seven Stars. We welcome you to your palace and trust you will be comfortable during your stay. It is our desire to fulfil your every wish. The hearths are warm and the servants ready to do your bidding. Please allow us to guide you to your home in the Northern Heavens.’
I bowed my serpent head to them both individually. ‘True Lord Xu, Religious Master of Ten Thousand Magical Arts and Giver of Supernatural Aid; True Lord Yu, Religious Master of Meritorious Magnificence, Original Lord of the Transmission of the Salvific Miracle, I am honoured by your welcome and greet you most cordially.’
‘I honour your welcome, my Lords,’ Simone said, and saluted. ‘All appears to be in good order, in alignment with the forces of the Celestial and pleasing to the spirit.’
Lord Xu gestured towards the sedan chair. ‘My Ladies, if it pleases you, I have arranged this transportation to your abode in the Heavens, guarded and guided by ourselves to ensure that you reach your destination in safety and comfort.’
We nodded again and I replied, ‘This transportation is most suitable for our needs and we are pleased to take it to our palace.’
The officials bowed to us again, and we walked — or in my case slithered with as much dignity as I could muster — to the sedan chair. I coiled up in my ‘senior’ place on the seat facing forward and Simone sat facing the back. The curtains over the windows closed by themselves and there was a lurch upwards as the demons lifted the chair. There was barely room for Simone’s knees to clear the seat on my side. She leaned back and closed her eyes. The jingling bits and creaking of leather indicated that the officials had mounted their horses. The sedan chair lurched again and began its horrible swaying progression towards the palace entrance.
