Blue Dragon

CHAPTER TWO

I went 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. 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 Japanese 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?’ Simone said. ‘There’s a couple of places that know Daddy, and we don’t have to take a number.’

‘Oh no, 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 God, 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.’

‘Damn,’ I said. ‘What the hell 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.’

‘What about the Serpent?’

‘Damn,’ I said softly.

‘Probably,’ the stone said. ‘But right now it’s not there.’

‘Okay,’ John said. ‘Just me and Simone then. Emma, you stay up here and keep your parents company. This will take about half an hour, then we’ll all go down to Causeway Bay. Come on, Simone.’

Simone bounced to her father and grabbed his hand. ‘I want a demon servant for myself!’

‘No way!’ I shouted at their backs. ‘You do your own cleaning up!’

I heard the door open. ‘You are no fun at all, Emma,’ Simone said faintly just as the door closed.

‘I do not appreciate being ignored like this,’ my father growled.

‘Sorry. We just had to organise what to do,’ I said.

‘What’s the big problem?’ my mother said.

‘Demons have turned up on our doorstep looking for sanctuary—hundreds of them.’ I ran my hands through my hair. ‘There are different levels of demons, and the low-level ones are usually servants—except more like possessions—of the larger ones. When a really big demon gets annoyed, it usually takes it out on the small ones. The demon we saw last night is a really big one, a Prince, and he’s particularly cruel to his thralls. Looks like just about every single one of them has tried to escape him and turned to us.’

‘What is John going to do?’ my mother said.

‘First he has to check that they’ve really turned. Then he’ll send them somewhere to work for him—although God knows what we’ll do with two hundred demons. We really don’t have the room for them.’

‘I’m really beginning to wish that I’d never come to this awful place, Emma,’ my mother said softly. ‘And that you’d never come here either.’

‘You’ll be fine.’ I tried to reassure her. ‘When John and Simone come back up, we’ll all go down to Causeway Bay and have a look at the shops while he sorts out the demons at the dojo. Don’t worry, we’ll be safe.’

‘I don’t know how you can live like this,’ my father said. ‘You act as if you’re totally unafraid. As if it’s the most natural thing in the world.’

‘I hardly recognise you,’ my mother whispered. ‘You aren’t the girl that left Queensland six years ago to work in Hong Kong for a couple of years.’

‘I’m still the same person.’

‘You’re a bloody snake!’ my father cried. ‘If that lady hadn’t shown us inside you, I would swear you were a different person. That you aren’t Emma at all.’

I didn’t know what to say.

‘Are you sure we’ll be safe?’ my mother said.

‘Absolutely positive.’ I tried to smile. ‘Come on, you might enjoy yourselves. The shops around Causeway Bay are great fun.’

‘Simone said something about Leo’s mother hurting his mouth and that’s why he has a speech impediment,’ my father said from the front of the car as John drove us all down to the dojo. ‘What happened?’

‘Not Leo’s mother, a Snake Mother,’ Simone said patiently. She was sitting between my mother and me in the back seat. ‘Snake Mothers are big demons.’

My parents glanced at me, questioning. I looked out the car window and didn’t say anything.

‘What did the demons do to him, Emma?’ my mother said.

‘They cut his tongue in half,’ John said, without looking away from the road. ‘Right down the middle. We were able to heal it, but he’ll never speak clearly again.’

My parents were silent. I could picture their faces, but I still didn’t look.

John made himself appear very old as we neared the Causeway Bay dojo.

‘Have you been here before, Emma?’ he said.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘A couple of times, to pick up Leo.’

John eased the car up into the car park and parked it not far from the smaller Mercedes.

‘Do you need a cover story?’ I said before we stepped out of the car.

‘No. I’ll just be me, John Chen Wu. The owner of the dojo just knows my name and that I’m Leo’s employer.’ He grinned at me. ‘Do I look about ninety?’

‘At least.’ I grinned back. ‘Very cute.’

‘He doesn’t look cute, he looks stupid,’ Simone said.

‘Respect your elders,’ John said sharply in a thin elderly voice.

Simone screamed with laughter.

‘You okay to get around like that?’ I said. ‘You don’t need help?’

‘Nope,’ he said in his usual voice, his dark eyes sparkling under his bushy white eyebrows. ‘It’s only the outside. The Dark Lord is inside, still as drained as ever.’ He glanced at the car park lift. ‘I hope Roland has a spare room where we can do this.’

‘Come on, guys,’ I said to my parents, who were watching us like frightened deer. ‘Everything’ll be fine. Let’s sort out these demons, then we’ll go to the shops.’

The dojo was on the eighth floor of a nondescript commercial building in the least glamorous part of Causeway Bay. The lift was tiny, old and filthy. My parents were not impressed.

The eighth-floor lobby was tiled with ghastly dark green tiles, and the walls were bare concrete stained black with smoke from the incense in the altars to the door gods.

Mr Pak had the whole floor of the building, his family had owned it for many years. The dojo’s single door had a red demon-warding light above it, a small altar to the door god next to it, and a number of good-luck calligraphy papers stuck all around it. There was a huge metal gate in front of it, but that was left open during the day.

John banged on the door. Nothing happened. He stopped and concentrated.

Leo opened the door and poked his head around. ‘My Lord. My Lady. Come on in, we have a lot of explaining to do.’

The whole dojo was a hubbub of voices. There must have been dozens of demons in the training rooms, but the hallway was deserted.

John stilled. The noise hushed immediately. There was complete silence.

‘John, your hair’s going black,’ I whispered urgently. ‘Try to hold the shape.’

John concentrated again and gained a few years.

‘I do not believe this,’ my father growled quietly.

‘Maybe take your parents shopping while I sort this out,’ John said to me.

‘How many are there?’

‘About seventy-five, but more are turning up all the time.’

Roland Pak charged down the hall towards us and shouldered Leo aside. ‘What the hell is going on?’ he shouted in Cantonese. ‘Are these refugees from the mainland or something? Illegals? If you don’t give me a good reason why I shouldn’t call the police, I’ll be hitting the phone soon and hitting it hard.’

‘So sorry about this, Roland,’ John said calmly in English. ‘New students from the Mainland, came to the wrong address. Should have come to me.’

‘Like I said, I gave the bus driver the wrong address, Roland,’ Leo said, taking the blame. ‘I should have given the bus driver the address of Mr Chen’s place in Wan Chai, but I gave him the wrong card.’

‘Hair, John,’ I whispered under my breath.

‘Just let me round them up and get them fixed,’ John said amiably. ‘I’ll check their IDs and then send them over to my building.’

Roland studied John carefully.

I shot a glance at John. He was losing it.

John concentrated on Leo.

‘Come with me, Roland,’ Leo said, taking Roland’s shoulder and turning him away. ‘Let’s go and have some coffee or tea or something while Mr Chen makes these students disappear.’

Roland shrugged Leo off and faced John. He studied him intensely.

I’m very drained, Emma, John said into my ear. The last couple of days have taken a lot out of me. I don’t think I can hold it.

‘Come on, Roland,’ Leo said, trying to turn him around.

‘Get your hands off me before I hit you,’ Roland hissed. ‘What the hell is going on here?’

He stared at John, who had reverted. He didn’t look ninety any more, he looked about fifty, and his hair was almost completely black.

Roland’s face became a mask of horror. ‘Demon!’ he shouted and moved into a guard stance. ‘What are you?’

John completely lost it. He roared with laughter, then straightened and changed back to his normal middle-aged self. He grinned at Roland with delight. ‘You think I’m a demon? You have seventy-five of them in here already and you think I’m a demon?’

Roland didn’t shift.

‘Sorry about this, Leo,’ John said. ‘Couldn’t be helped.’

‘Not your fault, my Lord,’ Leo said. ‘It’ll be fun to tell him anyway. Can’t wait to see the look on his face.’

‘I want to be there too.’ Michael came down the hallway and stopped behind Leo. ‘I want to see his face when he finds out. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.’

‘You three go and tell him everything,’ I said. ‘I’m taking Mum and Dad shopping.’

‘I want to come too,’ Simone said. ‘I brought my wallet.’

‘Go,’ John said. ‘If any demons approach you, send them up here.’

Roland stiffened when John said ‘demons’ but didn’t move otherwise.

‘Hi, Roland,’ I said.

Roland didn’t move or shift his gaze from John.

‘Look behind you, at the end of the hallway.’

Roland still didn’t move.

‘See the altar at the end of the hallway there?’

‘I know it’s there,’ Roland said.

‘Who put it there?’

‘Leo.’

‘Yeah,’ I said with a broad grin. ‘Which god is it for?’

‘Pak Tai.’

‘Yeah, Pak Tai. Chen Wu,’ I said. ‘Leo put it there ’cause Leo works for Chen Wu.’ I gestured towards John. ‘This guy.’

Roland dropped his arms and his face went slack. ‘No.’

‘Come on, guys,’ I said to my parents. ‘Let the boys have their fun.’

‘I think you spoiled their fun already, Emma,’ Simone said with delight. ‘That was great.’

‘Call me when you have them all tamed,’ I said as we left.

My parents’ faces were white as we took the lift down to street level. I didn’t know what to say.

‘Can we go to Toys R Us, Emma?’ Simone said. ‘I have some money to spend.’

‘How about we show my mum and dad some grown-up stuff?’ I said. ‘You can go to Toys R Us any day.’

‘Oh, okay,’ she said. ‘Of course.’ She looked up at my mother. ‘What sort of things would you like to buy?’

My mother stared at Simone as if she were a creature from another planet.

‘She’s just a little girl, Mum,’ I said.

‘Yeah,’ Simone said with a grin. ‘Emma’s the one that’s the snake.’

Both my parents stiffened.

‘Damn,’ I said softly. I raised my voice and tried to sound cheerful. ‘Let’s go to the China Products store. There’s a lot of great stuff there from the Mainland—Chinese handicrafts. You said you wanted to see that, right, Mum?’

My mother watched me, silent.

‘Are you okay?’ Simone said.

Neither of my parents spoke.

What’s the matter with them, Emma? Simone said into my ear.

‘Come on, guys,’ I said. ‘Let’s go and be tourists. Perfectly ordinary, normal tourists.’