Blue Dragon Part 2

'Stone.'

'My Lord,' the stone in my ring said.

'Record this.'

'Very good, my Lord.'

'Emma, I'm just having the stone record this so that you don't need to remember all of it. You and the stone can pa.s.s the instructions on to the Masters. Here goes.' He leaned his elbows on the desk. 'After I'm gone, I want Simone to learn travel, advanced energy weapons, summoning, and yin.'

'Yin?' the stone said.

'Record. Do not comment,' John said. 'I want her to learn level three binding. Up to level ninety taming. Shen; all aspects of shen work. If I have not returned by the time she is twenty years old, then ching as well. I want her to have Dark Heavens immediately both myself and Leo are gone. And when she is fourteen years old, Gold is to bring down Seven Stars for her.'

'When she's only fourteen?' I said softly.

'Yes. Unfortunately, n.o.body else besides me knows how to make it s.h.i.+ne, so I'll tell you now, just in case.'

'I've never seen it s.h.i.+ne,' I said.

'I wish you could,' John said, looking me straight in the eye. 'Right now I can't do it; I need to be near full strength and in Celestial Form. It is a sight to see. Hopefully you can pa.s.s the information on to Simone, and she will be able to make the sword resonate.' He glanced at the stone. 'Record this carefully.'

'I really am most profoundly honoured, my Lord,' the stone said softly. 'Are you sure you want to tell me this?'

'I think when Simone is about fourteen she will take some sort of Celestial Form,' John said. 'Based on what she did this morning, it is quite possible.' He dropped his head and grimaced. 'I won't see it.'

'What about a True Form?' I said.

He smiled and shrugged. 'No idea. I like to think she will be a Serpent, as you are.' He obviously had a sudden thought. 'Stop recording, stone.'

'My Lord,' the stone said.

'Emma,' he said, studying me intensely, 'you never named your own sword. Why not?'

'I just felt it was too pretentious.'

'It's easier to refer to the weapon by name, you know. Immortals can call weapons to them when the weapons have names.'

I sighed. 'I know. I just didn't feel right about it. It's just my weapon, nothing special. Same as me, nothing special.'

He made a soft sound of amus.e.m.e.nt but didn't rise to it. 'Did it occur to you that the blade may already have a name?'

'No, not at all,' I said. 'I never really thought about it too much, it was just my weapon. But I think I should give it to Simone now. It sings much more sweetly for her.'

'It is the Silver Serpent.'

'You're joking. The sword's name is the Serpent Serpent?'

'That is the Serpent?' the stone said.

'Yes,' he said to both of us. 'Begin recording again.'

'My Lord,' the stone said.

John looked down at his hands. 'To make Seven Stars resonate, Simone must be able to take a Celestial Form. Then she needs to light all the cauldrons and open all the gates. Do you know what a chakra is, Emma?'

'I know. But that's an Indian thing, not Chinese at all. You have dan tian, cauldrons and gates, not chakras.'

'Same thing,' John said. 'Three cauldrons, the three dan tian. Three gates. One Inner Eye. Each corresponds to a chakra, there are seven altogether. There are seven cavities on the sword. One for each star, one for each chakra. She will need to load the sword with her own chakras for it to s.h.i.+ne.'

'That will be an incredibly difficult process to master,' the stone said with awe. 'One wrong step and she could destroy herself.'

'I am well aware of that,' John said. 'I think she will be able to do it.'

'She'll be projecting her own dan tian into the sword?' I said softly.

'Yes. The sword will become perfectly aligned with her. She and the sword will protect each other. Part of her consciousness will enter the sword.' His eyes turned inwards and he smiled. 'The experience is incredibly euphoric when you do it right. The destructive power of the loaded weapon is immeasurable.'

'Under what circ.u.mstances would she need to use it, though? There probably won't be any demons that she'll need to fear anyway, once she's all the way there.'

'You are quite right, Emma,' John said. 'She will only need to use it if faced by an overwhelming force.' He leaned back. 'Now, go and talk to your parents.'

'How long do we have, Xuan Wu?'

His face went rigid. 'Not long.'

CHAPTER TWO.

Iwent back with my tea and sat at the kitchen table. Simone was amusing my parents with stories of Zhu Que's chicks.

'The birds talk?' my mother said.

'They're not really birds-' I began.

'Yes, they are, silly Emma,' Simone said. 'They're really birds birds. Not really children at all.'

'They look like baby emus,' I said.

'What's an emu?' Simone said.

'I should take you to Australia again.'

'That would be fun,' Simone said. 'Maybe after Daddy has gone, and we don't have to worry about the demons so much. After he's killed One Two Two.'

My mother made a small sound and I glanced at her. Her face was unreadable.

I turned back to Simone. 'It's a deal. Maybe next Christmas. Even if he's still here, we'll go and take him for a swim in the sea.'

'What would you like to do today, Mrs Donahoe?' Simone said. 'Where would you like us to take you?'

'Any suggestions, Emma?' my father said through his cornflakes.

'It's difficult on a Sunday,' I said.

'Why, nothing open?' my mother said.

Simone giggled at that. My mother looked at her with bewilderment.

'Everything'll be open, Mum, that's not the problem,' I said. 'Hong Kong is very densely populated, and for many people Sunday is the only day off. So the shopping centres, the streets, everywhere, will be packed.'

'You can't move in the middle of Causeway Bay,' Simone said, still delighted. 'The ground floor of Sogo is packed. You can't even get in.'

'Sogo is a big j.a.panese department store in Causeway Bay,' I said. 'I don't know why, but everyone agrees to meet at the entrance on a Sunday. It's absolutely packed to the rafters with people.'

'Want to go yum cha yum cha?' Simone said. 'There's a couple of places that know Daddy, and we don't have to take a number.'

'Oh no, please please, Simone,' I moaned, 'you know I can't eat anything there. Hardly any of it's vegetarian.'

'What?' my father said, still through the cornflakes.

I ran my hands through my hair. 'I'm mostly vegetarian now, guys. Sorry.'

'It's because Emma's becoming Immortal,' Simone said with relish. 'Human Immortals are vegetarian. Like Kwan Yin.'

The phone rang. I rose to get it, but John answered it in the study.

'Tell us about this Immortal stuff, Emma,' my mother said as I sat back down.

I was silent. I didn't want to go into detail about it.

'If a human being attains the Tao, then they become Immortal,' Simone said, her eyes sparkling. 'That's what Emma's doing.'

'Tao?' my father said.

'The Way,' I said. 'It's complicated. I'd prefer not to talk about it.'

'You are no fun at all sometimes, Emma,' Simone said, sounding much more mature than her six years.

John appeared in the doorway and leaned in to speak to us, one hand on either side of the frame. 'Emma, we have problems.'

My heart sank. 'Already?'

'Leo called from the dojo he teaches at on Sundays. It's in Causeway Bay. Michael's there. About fifty low-level demons have turned up at the front door seeking sanctuary.'

He stopped and went rigid, his eyes unfocused. Then he snapped back and smiled gently. 'More have turned up at Turtle's Folly. And about a hundred appeared outside the car park of Hennessy Road. Altogether, about two hundred demons, all over Hong Kong, all pleading for protection.'

The intercom next to the front door buzzed.

'Oh my G.o.d, no,' I said.

John answered it.

'Yes, Barnabas?' he said. 'How many? Okay. I'll be right down.'

He came back to the doorway, leaned in and smiled. 'About twenty downstairs. We have a busy day ahead of us.'

'What's going on, Emma?' my mother said weakly.

'What are we going to do?' I said. 'I wanted to show my parents around.'

'We can do that at the same time,' he said. 'You finish your breakfast; I'll go downstairs and sort out the demons here. Then we'll go to the Folly, then the dojo, then to Hennessy Road.'

'Do the dojo first,' I said. 'It doesn't belong to us. The owner will be upset if the demons don't disappear in a hurry. Does he know who you are?'

'No, you're quite right. He has no idea who I am, only that I'm one of the best there is. He knows I taught Li. I'll do downstairs first, and then we can go to Causeway Bay.'

'd.a.m.n,' I said. 'What the h.e.l.l will we do with two hundred demons?'

'I have no idea,' John said. 'All suggestions welcome.'

'What is this all about, Emma?' my father demanded.

'Explain while I go downstairs and sort them out,' John said.

'Can't a Master do this?' I wailed.

'Nope. Only a Celestial, and I'm the only one around today. Oh,' his face cleared, 'what a good idea. Simone.'

'Yes, Daddy?' Simone said through her noodles without turning around.

'Want to come and have a lesson in demon taming?'

'Cool!' Simone squealed. She jumped up and threw her chopsticks onto the table.

'I wonder if you can do it too,' John said, eyeing me appraisingly. 'Considering what you are. Stone.'

The stone didn't reply and I tapped it.

'Yes, my Lady?'

'Have a look at Emma. Do you think she can tame demons directly now?'

The stone was silent for a moment. 'Not right now. On the inside she appears to be a perfectly normal human being.'