Red Phoenix

‘They’ll never have existed at all?’ I said.

‘It’s the kindest way, Emma,’ John said into his hands.

I was horrified. ‘How often do you Celestials interfere with us like this?’ I said. ‘You just make people not exist?’

‘This will be the first time in history, my Lady,’ Gold said with remorse. ‘There has never been a need for it in the past.’

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.’

I laughed, but Gold was obviously horrified and made weird choking noises.

‘Go and start the arrangements,’ John said to Gold. ‘Tell the Tiger we’ll have those Disciples out of his fur in no time. Come back when you’ve started the process and we’ll commence the rebuilding. It’ll be much easier without any staff or students present, just a skeleton crew of guards. Oh. Emma.’

‘My Lord.’ Gold disappeared.

‘What, John?’

‘I can finally have you teaching. You and Leo. We are fearfully short of junior Masters. You and Leo will be perfect. He can start them on hand-to-hand and weapons, and you can start them on energy work. The senior Masters are wasted teaching the basic stuff. This is excellent.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve been learning less than a year myself, and I have to look after Simone.’

‘No, after Simone goes to school, you’ll have plenty of time, and by September this year you’ll be as good as any junior Master on the Mountain.’ John leapt up, obviously excited.

‘Wait a second!’ I shouted. ‘You didn’t even bother to ask me! Who the hell do you think you are?’

John stopped halfway to the door and didn’t move.

‘Well?’

He spoke softly without turning towards me. ‘For thousands of years others have been obeying my orders without question. I have precedence over nearly everybody in Creation. I’ve developed a bad habit of expecting to be obeyed.’ He dropped his head and shook it, still turned away. ‘I am so sorry, love.’

‘You have precedence over nearly everybody? Don’t you have any friends who are equal to you in precedence?’

He turned back to me. ‘The truth? No. The Jade Emperor is my master, I serve him. Apart from that, nobody.’

‘All your friends have to obey you if you tell them to do something?’

He gazed into my eyes. ‘Yes. Even the other three Winds must obey me. I am their Sovereign. The White Tiger is my friend, but there is still a line there, and both of us are aware of it.’

My heart twisted. ‘It must be very lonely for you.’

He snapped out of it and spoke with forced cheerfulness. ‘My number is one, Emma. It is my nature to be alone.’ He went to the doorway and bellowed, ‘Leo!’

I winced. ‘Can’t you call him silently, John? Do you have to yell like that?’

Leo immediately appeared in the doorway; he must have been in the hall. ‘Keeps me on my toes, my Lady.’ He leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded across his chest. ‘She’s your equal,’ he said to John. ‘She’s more than a match for you.’ He gestured, palm-up, towards me. ‘And she won’t obey you if she chooses not to. Why don’t you just ask her if she wants to teach?’

John turned back to me. ‘Will you join my Academy as Master and teach energy work for me?’

‘I’d be delighted.’

Leo didn’t move from the doorframe. ‘See? That wasn’t hard, was it? Now feel free to ask me.’

‘Leo, when the Academy is up and running, you will teach the juniors weapons and hand-to-hand, and that is an order,’ John said with force.

Leo saluted with a huge grin. ‘My Lord. I’ve been teaching on my days off for a while already. It would be great to teach students who are good enough for the Mountain.’

‘I didn’t know that, Leo,’ I said, impressed.

‘I didn’t either. Well done, Leo, true initiative. Come and sit, and I’ll tell you all about it.’ John returned to the table.

Leo sat and leaned his arms on the table, listening attentively. ‘My Lord? My Lady?’

‘Oh, will you cut that out, Leo?’ I said. ‘We’ve been friends far too long for this.’

‘Keeps you on your toes as well, my Lady,’ he said with a grin.

‘Leo, if I promise never to give you a direct order, will you promise to stop using the honorific?’

Leo’s grin widened. ‘Nope.’

‘Bastard,’ I hissed under my breath.

‘I heard that, my Lady,’ Leo said loudly with relish.

‘You two can have this out later in the training room with weapons of choice,’ John said. ‘But no chi. One hole in the wall is quite enough.’

He saw my reaction and waved me down. ‘And that is an order, as Master to student, Emma. Take it into the training room. Leo.’

‘My Lord?’

‘I don’t know how much you heard while you were eavesdropping in the hallway . . .’

Leo opened his mouth to protest, and John continued, ignoring him.

‘. . . but we are moving the Celestial Wudangshan Academy here to Hong Kong while we rebuild. The Disciples will live in my building in Happy Valley, and training will take place in the building on Hennessy Road.’

‘That’s a brilliant solution, sir,’ Leo said with admiration.

‘It was Emma’s idea.’

Leo glanced sharply at me. I shrugged.

‘How old are the students you’ve been teaching?’ John said.

‘Kids,’ Leo said. ‘Some of them don’t have much of a home life. I teach them the Arts, it gives them some direction and discipline. I feel I’m giving something back, I’ve gained so much here.’

‘Are any of your students suitable to replace you?’ John said. ‘A young man or woman with strength and integrity, who has the talent to go far? I could take them as a student here and bring them on, and they could be ready to help guard Simone after both you and I are dead.’

‘Geez,’ I said softly.

‘The students on the Mountain are quite old, Emma,’ John said. ‘They must be at least sixteen, and I prefer them to be either eighteen or twenty-one, whatever the majority is in their home state, when I take them. Having a younger student come here to learn directly from me would be ideal.’

‘I’ve had a young man in mind for a while,’ Leo said. ‘Very young, very talented. American like me, half-Chinese, but his Chinese father took off and left him and his mother alone. Been drifting, a bit lost, if you know what I mean. I think he’d be perfect.’

‘Is he free to take up duties with us and live-in?’ John said. ‘Would his mother mind?’

‘I think his mother would be thrilled to have him off the streets.’

‘Straight?’ I said.

Both of them stiffened. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ Leo said sharply.

‘Nothing at all. I’d just like to know.’

‘Straight,’ Leo said suspiciously.

‘How old is he?’ I said pointedly, and now they could see where I was going. John glanced at Leo.

‘Fifteen,’ Leo said. ‘I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe I should ask around my other friends instead.’

‘No, bring him in,’ John said. ‘Let me see him anyway. First impressions are important. If he’s your first choice, then he is worth looking at.’

The ceiling was very low in the dim bathroom. I wiped my hands on the towel and turned around.

An enormous black snake, at least half a metre across, writhed across the shower cubicle and down the wall towards me. I couldn’t see the head, but I didn’t bother looking for it. I didn’t scream. I just ran.

I threw the door open, charged out, and slammed it shut again. There was a jade bolt on the door and I pushed it into the frame. But jade was really brittle, and if the snake wanted to come out it could.

I ran out of my room and tore down the dark hallway.

I woke up gasping.

Chapter Three

John poked his head around my bedroom door. ‘Simone’s asleep. Want to come with me to check the work at Hennessy Road?’

I pulled away from my computer. ‘Sure.’ I gestured towards the book in his hand. ‘How far did you get?’

He opened the book and held it at arm’s length to read it. ‘Eeyore losing his tail.’

‘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.

Yes, Gold said. Can you understand them?

‘What? You mean they’re speaking Cantonese and I can understand them?’

Gold grinned. ‘Good. It’s working. And it’s Fukien, not Cantonese.’

I had a sudden evil idea, and called out to the workmen. ‘How long before you’ll finish painting the ceiling?’

They stared at me with their mouths open. One of them snapped out of it. ‘About an hour, miss.’

‘Thanks.’ I turned to Gold. ‘What’s next?’

‘We’ll meet with Jade in the sixth-floor common room and talk about the budget.’

‘Oh, damn. Budgets.’

‘Miss?’ one of the workmen called.

I turned back to them. They grinned at me. ‘How come you can understand our dialect?’

‘Magic.’ I grinned back. ‘Come on, let’s talk to Jade and have this over with. I hate dealing with accountants.’