Kylie Chan - Red Phoenix

‘Now you know why she called her little donkey Eeyore.’

He grinned. ‘I didn’t realise Taoism had penetrated Western society at such an early date. Certainly when I was in England in the twenties, nobody had heard of the Tao.’

‘I don’t think the Taoist references are deliberate, the author was just a very wise man.’ I pulled my copy of The Tao of Pooh from the shelf above my desk and tossed it to him.

He caught it easily, then opened the book and held it away to read it.

‘Holy shit,’ I whispered. I worked it out. It was May now; only four months since Kwan Yin had last fed him energy, but he’d been severely drained when the demons attacked us in Guangzhou a few weeks ago.

‘John, could you call Leo silently for me, please?’ I asked.

He glanced up from the book, concentrating. Leo appeared in the doorway behind him. ‘Yes, my Lady?’

‘Do you have your reading glasses, Leo?’

Leo pulled his small round reading spectacles out of his breast pocket. ‘Yeah, why?’

‘Give them to Mr Chen.’

‘No,’ John said.

I rose and leaned on my desk. ‘John, you look mid-forties. Is your human form mid-forties?’

‘I am four and a half thousand years old.’

‘No, John. Does your human form have the characteristics of a man in his mid-forties?’

John glanced at the glasses in Leo’s hand, then down at the book. He took the glasses from Leo and slipped them on, then looked at the book in his hand. His eyes widened. He removed the glasses, looked at the book, then put the glasses back on. ‘No.’ He sagged, took the glasses off again and handed them back to Leo.

‘It’s only four months since you saw the Lady,’ I said.

‘Oh my God,’ Leo said softly.

‘Do we need to take you back now?’

‘No,’ John said. ‘This is just the human form slipping from my control. I am becoming more human as I lose energy and my characteristics as a Shen fall away.’

‘Don’t risk it, John. If you’re running low on energy we’ll go to Paris.’

‘I’ll last a couple more months,’ he said quietly. ‘We’ll go in July or August, just before Simone starts school.’

I pushed away from the desk. ‘Okay. Thanks, Leo. Now let’s go check on the work at Hennessy Road.’

‘Am I all right to drive?’ John said. ‘I don’t want to risk you.’

‘I don’t wear the glasses to drive,’ Leo said. ‘It’s only things close up you need them for.’

‘Damn,’ John said softly.

‘I’m surprised you haven’t complained of headaches from the eye strain,’ I said. John’s face was miserable.

‘Healing himself.’ Leo sighed with exasperation. ‘Take him down to Central tomorrow to buy some reading glasses before he wastes all of his energy.’

‘We’re going to Hennessy Road right now. Can you guard Simone for us?’ I said.

‘Sure.’

I stopped in the doorway. ‘How come you wear reading glasses, Leo? You’re too young to need them yet, aren’t you?’

‘It’s ‘cause I’m such a brainiac,’ Leo said.

John drove in silence along Magazine Gap Road towards Admiralty. The city lights glittered between the trees. He carefully negotiated the winding turns as we went down the steep hill.

‘It’s not that big a deal,’ I said.

He didn’t reply.

We meandered through the highrises and took the overpass into Garden Road. Old Government House sat on the left, empty now that there was no Governor. The Chief Executive chose not to live there because of the poor fung shui. The towers of Admiralty loomed above us, still bright with office lights.

‘John.’

He ignored me.

‘John, you just need to guard your energy. Be careful. If you want to go to Paris sooner, tell us.’ I turned in my seat to see his face. It was rigid with control.

He turned into Queens Road, four lanes both ways and still full of buses and taxis. He pushed his way through the stop-start traffic onto Hennessy Road, then eased into one of the dark, narrow side streets to enter the building’s car park. One of the demon guards smiled, opened the door and waved us in. A large sign next to the entrance warned that it was private parking only.

The Hennessy Road building was perfect for our purposes. It had been built in the mid-seventies, and the external walls were covered with tan tiles. Each floor was about two hundred square metres, and there was a floor of shops on the ground level, with two basement car park levels. We’d kept the shops; they provided the building with camouflage. A fashion boutique and a stationery shop leased the ground floor units, both run by friendly Shen who lived as humans.

There was only one van left in the car park; all the other human workmen had gone home. John didn’t even bother parking in a space; he just left the car in the middle.

After we’d climbed out of the car I stopped him with my hand on his sleeve. ‘Are you embarrassed about needing glasses?’

He sighed with feeling. ‘It was one thing having clothing bought and made. It was another dealing with human weaknesses and needs. But this…’ He pulled his arm away, turned and looked into my eyes. ‘This is my effectiveness as a warrior. If I can’t see well, how can I defend you and Simone?’

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Easy. If you closed your eyes and worked blind, what’s the highest level of demon you could take down?’

‘I could take down the King himself without needing to see.’

‘How many Snake Mothers could you take down blind?’

He smiled sadly. ‘You’re right, Emma. You’re always right. I don’t need my eyes.’

‘See? It’s not that big a deal. And when we’re in Central tomorrow, you are not going to give me a hard time. Instead, you are going to sit quietly and let them test your eyes.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Now let’s see Gold about your Academy.’ He turned and gestured for me to lead. ‘ Our Academy, Emma.’

‘Do you have any idea how good that sounds?’ He grinned. ‘Yes.’

Gold met us at the lift lobby, smiling and jolly as ever. He wore a tan polo shirt and a pair of tan slacks, setting off his golden-brown hair. ‘Come up to the fifth floor. We’re nearly finished there.’

Like most Hong Kong buildings, the Hennessy Road tower didn’t have a fourth floor. ‘Is there a fourth floor at all?’

‘Nope, fourth is skipped,’ Gold said. ‘Do you want to renumber the floors? We can have the lifts altered.’

‘Not worth the effort,’ I said. ‘And when we have Western kids coming in, they’ll learn that “four” sounds like “death” in Cantonese, so it’s bad luck.’

We exited the lift at the fifth floor. The lobby was plain brown tiles, with a single door leading directly ahead.

‘This will be a training floor,’ Gold said. ‘Two training rooms, ten by twelve metres each. For large classes of juniors.’

We went through the door to a small hallway with two more doors. Gold opened the one on the left and guided us in. There were several workmen still there.

‘And I said to that fucker, you watch your shit, because if you don’t, you’ll find it shoved up your ass—’ The workman speaking saw us and fell silent.

‘They’ve nearly finished painting the ceiling,’ Gold said. ‘After that we can put the mats in, and the lowest ten floors will be ready for the juniors to commence training.’

John dropped to one knee and inspected the mats piled in the corner. How many Immortal Masters have returned?

All but three, my Lord, Gold said. They are in the Western Palace, ready to assist in moving the students down here when Bright Mansions is ready.

‘Are the workmen human?’ I whispered.