Kylie Chan - Heaven to Wudang

She panted again and turned her head to see me. ‘What did you do?’

‘Magic,’ I said, but the buzz was leaving me and I was beginning to feel weak. I could barely hold myself upright where I sat.

I turned to Simone. ‘Are they close?’

Meredith and Liu appeared behind her.

‘Do you want us to drop them at a human hospital or take them with us?’ Meredith said.

‘Take them with us,’ I said. ‘David knows all about it; Bridget doesn’t. But they were shot by demons so we’ll have to check the wounds and make sure they weren’t contaminated with essence.’

Meredith pulled Michael’s shirt open and examined him. ‘Let’s get all of these people to the infirmary.’ She leaned towards me. ‘Are you all right? You look terribly drained.’

‘I changed, went bigger,’ I said. ‘I’m coming down off it now.’

‘I see,’ Meredith said. She looked up at Liu. ‘Let’s get them home.’

‘Leo, human male; Meredith, human female,’ Liu said. ‘I’ll take Michael; Simone take Emma.’

The car park disappeared.

We arrived at the infirmary and the staff rushed to help us. I leaned against the nearest wall, but it was moving behind me.

‘Something’s wrong with Emma,’ Simone said loudly as Michael, Bridget and David were put onto gurneys. ‘She changed down there — she did her powerful thing — and now she’s white as a ghost.’

I completely lost my balance and Simone caught me. ‘Someone help Emma!’

‘Bring her in,’ Edwin called from inside, and Simone picked me up and carried me into the ward. I didn’t really understand what was happening as Simone placed me onto one of the four beds. People were rushing from bed to bed, but it was all a blur.

‘Is everybody all right?’ I said, but Simone had gone. I moved my head with difficulty to see where she was and relaxed. She was at Michael’s bedside.

The noise and light faded in and out, and I hoped with detachment that it was just exhaustion and nothing more serious.

Meredith’s face swam into view above me and she put her hands on either side of my face. Her exploratory energy moved through me. ‘Emma’s fine, just exhaustion,’ she said.

I grabbed her hand to stop her before she left me. ‘Is everybody okay?’ I said. ‘They shot David and Bridget because they were with us. Are they all right?’

She smiled and squeezed my hand to reassure me. ‘They’re fine; everybody will be okay. Close your eyes and rest.’

‘Do you need my snake?’

‘Not while you’re half-dead like this,’ she said. ‘So close your eyes, go down deep, rebuild your energy, and when you’re back you can help. Either way they’ll be fine; the injuries aren’t life-threatening.’

‘Good,’ I said, and let go.

I came around in my own bed in the servants’ quarters. As soon as I sat up, Meredith and Simone appeared next to me.

‘How do you feel?’ Simone said.

‘Great. Full of energy. How are the others?’

‘They’re in the infirmary, they’re fine,’ Meredith said. ‘We’ve done some energy healing. With a few hours’ rest they’ll be up and around again.’

‘Any permanent damage?’

‘No,’ Simone said. ‘But we need to talk about Michael later. I honestly think he’s out of his league guarding you; he keeps getting injured.’

Meredith leaned in to study me carefully. ‘That’s right, talk later. Right now, tell me: do you crave Shen blood? Do you want to taste it again?’

I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head. ‘No. Not like I did when I had the demon essence in me. I have to admit that it tasted great, but I don’t feel like an addict.’

‘It tasted great?’ Simone said, incredulous.

‘It doesn’t taste like blood at all,’ I said. ‘Remember that drink at Nu Wa’s palace?’

‘That was awesome.’

‘That’s what Michael’s blood tasted like. Better than that, if possible.’

Simone hesitated. ‘I wonder if it tastes like that to me too.’

I was wearing my pyjamas. ‘How long have I been out?’

‘Only a couple of hours,’ Simone said.

‘So it’s what … 2 am? Why aren’t you in bed?’

‘I wanted to make sure you were okay. I don’t have school tomorrow anyway.’

I found my tatty purple chenille robe in a pile of clothes next to the bed and pulled it around me. ‘Go to bed.’

‘Where are you going?’ Meredith said.

‘I’m going to check on the others.’

‘They’re asleep, leave them,’ Meredith said. ‘Leo’s there watching them. They’re fine.’

‘It’s so cute: Clarissa’s asleep at Michael’s bedside,’ Simone said.

‘I still need to check something out. You two go to bed.’

‘Check what out?’ Simone said suspiciously. ‘It’s the middle of the night.’

‘I want to see if the Murasame came back,’ I said. ‘It won’t come when I call. It only came when I did my strong thing.’

‘You haven’t recovered enough to do any sword work,’ Meredith said. ‘When did you call it?’

‘This evening, when the Mothers cornered us. I just want to pop down to the Armoury and see if it’s there. If it isn’t, then I’ll need to get myself a new one, because it’s probably at the bottom of the sea somewhere, or back in Hell.’

‘Go straight back to bed after you’ve checked it,’ Meredith said, and disappeared.

‘I’m coming too,’ Simone said. ‘I won’t sleep unless I know. That sword is kind of like a bad-tempered guard dog for you.’

‘Careful, you’ll upset the stone,’ I said.

We headed down the hill and around the peaks to the Armoury. Mist had gathered in the gorges and we walked carefully across an arched bridge, the scent of the pine trees filling the air around us. The sky had the clarity of late autumn, and the stars blazed bigger and brighter than any on the Earthly. The seven stars of the Big Dipper shone in the centre of the sky: the symbol of the Dark Lord’s power. I shivered in my robe; the early autumn breeze was chilly. First snow soon.

‘I must have some eucalypts planted here,’ I said. ‘I miss the smell.’

‘Can you see okay?’ Simone said, gesturing towards the ball of light she’d summoned for me.

‘Just fine.’

We wound past the forge to the Armoury building, which dwarfed its much smaller neighbour, its roof soaring twenty metres above the ground. The back of the Armoury was flush with the stone mountainside, and it had black walls and a black-tiled roof, making it more difficult to spot from the air. We went to the front of the building. The black stone doors stood silent, each one fifteen metres high and four wide, carved with images of the combined Xuan Wu, the snake and turtle heads facing each other with their mouths open as if in conflict.

‘Open,’ I said, and the doors slid smoothly apart.

We stepped into its dark interior, the black roof tiles visible high above us. The building didn’t have an internal ceiling, making it bitterly cold in the middle of winter. The huge open space stretched for fifty metres away from us, and a rustling sound came from the high beams above.

An unadorned ebony screen, three metres tall, stood just inside the entrance, and in front of that stood a metre-tall bronze urn, filled with sand, to hold incense.

I moved to the side of the urn and opened the cupboard next to it.

‘Move the light closer, I can’t see,’ I said, and Simone obliged.

The cabinet contained open canisters of incense sticks, their wooden ends protruding so they could be easily removed. I rifled through the canisters, checking the sticks: some were dyed red, others were plain wood. Eventually I found the one I was looking for: it had a tiny dot of black on the very end of the stick. I pulled it out, lit it from the candle burning below the urn, then shook it until the flame went out. Blowing out the flame was an insult to the wind spirits. I stuck the incense into the sand and waited a moment for the fragrance to waft through the hall and into the ceiling.