Kylie Chan - Red Phoenix

John dropped his hands, but didn’t look up. ‘There is some argument that the Mountain should not recruit humans if they are in danger from attack like this.’

‘If there are no Disciples learning, then the Celestial loses its defence against the demon horde,’ Gold said. ‘It won’t happen, my Lord. All of Heaven needs your Disciples, they are the best.’

‘But they died ,’ John moaned.

Gold sat and rested his elbows on the table. ‘I carried out your orders, my Lord. I went to the Western Palace and gathered the remaining Disciples. I told them that you felt they were in danger and that they should return home. I ordered them home.’

‘Good.’

‘I know what they did, John. Not a single one went.’ I gestured towards Gold. ‘I bet they threatened to kill themselves if they were forced to return home.’

John glanced at Gold.

Gold smiled slightly.

John leaned back and put his palms on the table. ‘Not a single one?’

‘Not a single one, my Lord. They would rather die than discontinue the training. They love the Arts more than their lives.’

‘And that’s why they’re on the Mountain,’ I said. ‘Face it. You’re stuck with them.’

John sighed with feeling.

I turned back to the lists. ‘Let’s look at the Masters.’ Most of the names had either an ‘I’ or an ‘S’ next to them. Many more of these were Chinese, but there were still some names from other nationalities there. ‘I?’ I said.

‘Immortals,’ Gold said. ‘“S” is for Shen.’

‘What’s the difference?’

‘I thought you did some research,’ John said without looking up from the list.

‘Cut it out, old man,’ I said. ‘What’s the difference between an Immortal and a Shen?’

Gold snorted with amusement.

‘Answer the goddamn question,’ I growled.

‘For our purposes, nothing; we just refer to them as the Celestial Masters,’ John said. ‘Immortals are humans who have gained the Tao. We Shen have always been immortal; we are more like spirits than people. Most of the mortal human Masters on the Mountain didn’t make it. There were some tremendous acts of valour witnessed that day.’ He glanced up. ‘Gold.’

‘My Lord?’

‘Are the records being made?’ Gold nodded. ‘My Lord.’

‘Some of them attained the Tao and were Raised. It was a sight to see. But it will take them slightly longer to return.’

I flipped through the list again. ‘The Energy Master is a European woman?’

‘Meredith was a missionary’s daughter,’ John said. ‘She lived in Hubei Province about three hundred years ago. She was incredibly talented at tai chi, so I took her to the Celestial Mountain to teach her. She is one of the most talented human energy workers I have ever seen. She married one of the Immortal Masters, Master Liu, and they’ve been happy together for hundreds of years.’

‘I’d really like to meet her.’

‘You already have. She was at the ceremony where everybody swore allegiance. I didn’t introduce you; you seemed slightly overwhelmed to have gods bowing down before you and swearing allegiance and obedience.’

‘I wasn’t overwhelmed, I was drowning.’

‘You were magnificent,’ Gold said. ‘They are all extremely impressed with you.’

‘They are looking forward to working with you as new Regent and Lady of the Mountain after I have gone,’ John said.

The shock hit me when he said that. I wasn’t accustomed to it; it was still very new. I was to be their Master.

‘Are they very unhappy about an ordinary human woman taking over?’ I said.

‘Every single one of them is absolutely delighted that they won’t have to do the job. Most of them have offered to come to the Earthly and continue your training after I’m gone. But by that time you will probably be teaching them a thing or two—you are exceptionally talented. A year with me is worth a lifetime with any other Master. Look at Leo.’

‘They must miss your hand, without you there to teach for them,’ I said.

‘They were horrified when I married Michelle and decided to stay on the Earthly with her. Every time I went up there to rebuild my energy, they were waiting with a packed schedule. Eventually I told them to let me rest, so they sent students down here to learn instead. Remember, before the Attack? Young students would come down and stay in the two spare rooms here.’

I nodded as he continued. ‘Sometimes I’d have so many that I’d put them in the flat below us, which is always kept vacant. But I may rent it out now, until we can organise something. You can’t leave a flat empty in Hong Kong for long, it becomes very musty.’

A brilliant idea suddenly hit me out of the blue. ‘John, how big is the block of flats in Happy Valley?’

‘Bright Mansions? About twenty-five floors, eight flats to a floor, quite large for that area. Why?’

‘What about the building in Wan Chai? How big is that?’

‘About the same, my Lady,’ Gold said. ‘Twenty-six floors. But most of the lower floors are vacant right now, with the economic downturn.’

‘The one in North Point?’

‘That one’s quite small, only fifteen floors, two flats to a floor. It’s very old,’ John said. ‘I may demolish it eventually, but it’s not worth it right now.’

There had to be some logistical reason why this wouldn’t work, but it was worth a try. ‘People in Hong Kong usually only rent a place for a year at a time, they like the flexibility,’ I said. ‘And most of the building in Wan Chai is already vacant. How about we move the Mountain down here?’

Gold picked it up right away. ‘The students can stay in Happy Valley and go to the Wan Chai building for training. It shouldn’t take much to fix up the Hennessy Road building for training—it’s already offices, I’ll just have to remove some partitions. I could move the administration down here too. And the Bright Mansions apartments in Happy Valley would be perfect as student residences. It won’t cost us anything except the loss of income from the rent, and frankly, my Lord, the way the economy is right now, it won’t be much.’

‘What about language?’ John said.

‘Language?’ I said.

‘Yes, that will be a problem,’ Gold said. ‘Let me think about it.’

‘On the Celestial Plane, language is irrelevant. All can communicate. That will not apply on the Earthly, and could result in problems,’ John said.

‘No, I can fix it,’ Gold said. ‘Leave it with me. I’m very good with Celestial Harmony, I should be able to work something out.’

‘Is the building in Wan Chai zoned for that sort of thing? We don’t want to draw the government’s attention.’ John smiled at me. ‘Have the ICAC breaking down the door.’

‘Give it a rest,’ I said and grinned back.

‘Not an issue,’ Gold said. ‘If it isn’t, I’ll just go into the government system and fix the zoning.’

‘You’re a hacker ?’ I said.

‘One of the best,’ Gold said proudly. ‘Don’t do it often, but when I do, I do a damn good job.’

I glared at John. ‘You said you weren’t involved in anything illegal, that you would never risk Simone’s happiness.’

‘And I meant it. I am a creature of my word. I have not committed a single illegal act since I was Raised. The enthusiasm of my Retainers, however,’ he gestured towards Gold, ‘is another matter entirely.’

Gold ignored us. ‘I can’t think of any other reason why this shouldn’t happen as Lady Emma has suggested. It’s a brilliant plan.’

‘Emma, you really are astounding,’ John said. ‘It’s a perfect solution. If the Turtle can’t go to the Mountain, then the Mountain can come to the Turtle.’