Red Phoenix

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The interior of the Science Museum was dark and deserted. The airplane exhibit loomed around me. The propellers on the huge engines to one side looked like grinning teeth against the dimly glowing windows.

‘I don’t like you,’ Simone said in the darkness. I moved to follow her voice.

‘I don’t care,’ he said, and my blood went cold. ‘I’m coming,’ I said loudly. ‘Emma?’ Her sweet voice was full of hope. ‘Oh good,’ he said. ‘Now I have you all.’

‘Touch one hair on her head and I will make you suffer horribly for the rest of your short existence,’ I said loudly.

‘Oh, do come, Miss Emma,’ he said, his voice full of encouragement. ‘I guarantee there’s enough of me for both of you.’

‘What are you doing?’ Simone said. ‘I don’t like that.’ Her voice raised in pitch. ‘Stop it!’

‘You get your filthy hands off her!’ I roared, running towards her voice.

‘Help! Emma!’ she shrieked. ‘Stop it!’

‘Shut up,’ he said grimly. ‘Keep still.’

I couldn’t move fast enough on legs. I changed.

I slithered forward on my black coils. Good. I could see better this way. The ground felt absolutely wonderful beneath my belly. I’d missed that so much. I could see them in the dark. I could taste them. Yuck. I could taste him. He tasted like shit.

There they were. A large group of low-level demons stood between me and them. He stopped when he saw me. She saw me too. She screamed.

I didn’t have time to reassure her. I took out the demons around me. They were easy. I bit some heads off, then took one in my mouth and shook it wildly, using it as a club to destroy the others. Great fun. They were much too slow for me.

No more. I raised myself on my coils and carefully approached One Two Two and Simone. Good; it looked like he hadn’t gone very far with her. If he’d done anything to hurt her I would not make this quick.

Simone stopped shrieking and sobbed.

‘Holy shit,’ he said, staring at me, stunned.

I didn’t give him a chance to say anything more. I opened my mouth and my fangs sprang out with a spray of venom. The venom hit him in the face and he screamed. Good.

I struck him right in the middle of the chest. My fangs went through the skin and into his chest cavity. Damn, it felt good. But he really did taste like shit.

He fell. He convulsed under my head, making weird choking noises. Dead. Easy. I pulled my mouth free of him and checked Simone. I lowered my head to reassure her, but she had fainted. I nudged her with my nose.

I shot up to sit upright in bed. I looked around. I was back in my room in Hong Kong.

I was drenched in sweat. I checked my hands in the glow of the lights from the city coming through the crack in the curtains. Completely normal.

I rose and quietly went through the door into Simone’s room. She was sleeping, her little face angelic. I sat on the bed and touched her face. She grimaced slightly but didn’t wake. She turned over. I stroked her hair.

I went back into my own room and sat on the bed. I put my head in my hands.

I heard them arguing as I approached the training room. They went silent when I entered.

‘Sifu,’ they all said, and saluted.

‘What’s up, guys? Why the big argument?’

Alvin, the local kid from Guangdong Province, and Julie, a young American, shared an exasperated look.

Finally it was Lai who broke the silence. ‘Alvin and Julie are arguing about how Master Leo was injured. We finally gathered enough nerve to ask him in the lesson we just finished, and he wouldn’t talk about it.’

‘I heard a Snake Mother did it,’ Julie said. ‘One of the fifth years told me that.’

‘Not possible,’ Alvin said. ‘Snake Mothers never leave Hell.’

‘Okay, guys, sit.’ I sat on the mats as well. ‘It took you two weeks to ask him? Most of the other students have already been ignored by him. Revision: Snake Mothers. Lai, you’re a Shen, you start.’

Lai grimaced. ‘I’m a very small Shen, you know that, ma’am. And my mother won’t talk about Snake Mothers. It’s really strange. The minute I turned sixteen she’s telling me what to look for in a mate—’

Julie swallowed a huge gulping laugh.

Lai rounded on Julie. ‘It’s all very well for you to laugh, but do you have any idea how embarrassing it is? She’s such an old-fashioned old hen.’ She made her voice thin and wheezy. ‘Make sure he has a fine tail, and a good comb, a good comb is important in a cock—’

Every English speaker in the class collapsed in laughter. Lai appeared bewildered. ‘What did I say?’

‘It’s the language charm,’ I said. ‘Cock. Cock. Two different meanings, depending on the way you say it. You heard the two meanings?’

Lai thought about it, then she collapsed laughing as well.

I spoke again when they’d regained a semblance of control. ‘Why won’t your mother talk about Snake Mothers? Everybody needs to be aware of them; they’re so dangerous.’

Lai dropped her head. ‘I think one broke into my mother’s nest once and ate all the chicks. That’s why she won’t talk about them.’

The class went wide-eyed and silent at that.

‘That’s awful,’ Julie whispered.

‘Snake Mothers,’ I said, bringing them back to the point. ‘Anybody know what level they are?’

‘Anything from fifty up,’ Alvin said. ‘The biggest ones are as big as the King himself.’

‘Good,’ I said. ‘They occupy the nests, and they bear all the demon spawn. The smaller ones mate with…? Anyone?’

‘The smaller ones can produce spawn with any male demon,’ Julie said. ‘But the biggest ones will spawn only with the King—they produce the Demon Princes.’

‘Good,’ I said. ‘Do they leave the nests?’

‘No,’ Alvin said with certainty. ‘They stay in Hell.’

‘No, that’s not right,’ Lai said patiently. ‘Lady Emma herself faced a Mother when the Mountain was attacked.’

‘That’s right, Alvin.’

‘But if they leave the nests…’ Alvin began, his face filling with horror. ‘Then they could come out and attack any of us.’

‘They come shopping here all the time,’ I said. ‘Watch for groups of gorgeous young women, all wearing clothes the colour of dried blood.’

Bunny, a young local girl from Sha Tin, gasped. ‘I don’t believe it, I’ve seen them in Pacific Place!’

‘They won’t go for you if you don’t go for them,’ I said.

‘But what about Leo?’ Alvin said. ‘What happened to him?’

I dropped my head and ran my hands through my hair. ‘They kidnapped him and took him to the nests to play. The King wouldn’t let them kill him because I’m so fond of him.’

‘Dear God,’ Julie said softly. ‘Play?’

I grinned at her without humour. ‘Yep. They like to amuse themselves with a variety of games in the nests. The victims are usually low-level demons, but sometimes the King will give them a human or Shen to play with, and they regard that as a special treat. They try to make the toy last as long as possible.’

They remained silent for a while, digesting this.

‘They cut Leo’s tongue in half. Master Liu was able to heal it, but he’ll never speak properly again.’ I checked my watch and snapped out of it. ‘Lunchtime. Off you go. Don’t worry, this building is thoroughly sealed, nothing can get in. You’re safe here and in the surrounding district. Anywhere the language charm works, you’re safe.’

‘Come with us, ma’am,’ Julie said. ‘I want to hear about this pact you made.’

‘How do you know about that?’

‘The fifth year has a big mouth.’

I opened my mouth to say I had to work on my thesis and then closed it again. To hell with it; the students needed reassuring. I pulled myself to my feet. ‘Sure. Let’s go to the Seven Brand downstairs, I feel like some ho fan.’

The students grinned and saluted.

As we passed the display rack of the Eighteen Weapons in the lobby, Alvin and Julie had another whispered argument.

I stopped to speak to them. ‘What now?’

Julie gestured towards the weapons. ‘Alvin says they’re wrong, that the mace should be replaced by a spade. I say the trident should be replaced by a spade.’

I laughed softly. ‘Guys, Lord Xuan himself selected that set. I think they’re the right ones, even though every single student that comes through the door seems to think that they’re wrong.’

‘Oh,’ Alvin and Julie said together.

We filed into the noodle shop and took a table. The owner of the shop thought that we were an English school and was pleased at the business we brought him. We knew him quite well, and he always made sure we had preferential treatment. We had preferential treatment at a few of the eating places around the area, and never had to take a number for the yum cha across the road.

‘Shame I have to be vegetarian,’ Alvin said. ‘Now the cooler weather’s coming, the snake shop will be open. I used to like a bit of snake soup in the winter.’

‘You eat snakes?’ Julie said with disbelief.

‘If its back faces Heaven you can eat it,’ Alvin said with a grin. ‘Snake is yang. Heats up your blood. Makes you warm in winter.’

‘Alvin,’ I said grimly, ‘remember the nature of your Grand Master.’

They all went silent at that. They knew about John’s true nature.

‘Sorry, ma’am,’ Alvin said.

‘I still don’t believe that you eat snakes,’ Julie said. She turned to me, concerned. ‘Do you mind me asking about it, ma’am?’

I sighed with resignation. ‘Share your cultures, guys. Just don’t mention this in front of the Dark Lord, or you’ll be sharpening every single weapon on the first floor.’

The first floor was the armoury. There were well in excess of eight hundred bladed weapons stacked in there, neatly arranged. John could keep his weapons tidy, but his office was always a disaster area.

‘The snake soup shop down the street will open soon,’ Alvin said. ‘They close over the summer and open during the winter. They only need to open for a few months of the year, they make enough money.’

‘How do you eat it?’ Julie said.

‘Usually we eat snake in soup,’ Alvin said, enjoying his rapt audience. ‘Sometimes…’ he began, then changed his mind about what he was going to say. ‘Usually in soup. They shred the snake, and add other stuff to it, like fungi, or chicken, or pig’s ear, and boil it up. It’s actually quite…’ He didn’t finish. He tilted his head and smiled. ‘I won’t go into too much detail in front of the Sifu.’ He froze when he saw my face. ‘I apologise, ma’am, I’ve offended you,’ he said, alarmed.

‘No, Alvin, I’m not offended,’ I said absently. ‘I just remembered something.’ I snapped out of it. ‘I just remembered, I have something I need to do. I need to go back to the Academy. I’ll see you later.’

I rose without checking to see if they’d heard me and went out. I walked into someone coming in, but ignored them. I went straight back to the Academy, went into my office, closed the door and fell into my chair.

I sat quietly for a long time.

There was a tap at the door.

‘Come in,’ I said without thinking.

John walked over to the chair across from my desk. I didn’t really see him. He sat without speaking for a while, but I didn’t notice.

‘Emma,’ he said brusquely, and I snapped out of it. He smiled slightly. ‘You just walked right into Meredith at the door of the Seven Brand Noodle Shop and didn’t even see her. What’s the matter?’

‘Shredded snake broth with sliced pig’s ear,’ I said.

His face went expressionless. He leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. ‘Took you a while. You seemed to block that one out.’

‘You’ve known all along?’

He stretched his long legs in front of him. ‘You were upset enough as it was after what the stone said.’

‘He said he wanted to eat all three of us. You, turtle hotpot. Bai Hu, braised tiger. And me, shredded snake soup.’

‘Are you concerned?’ John said, his arms still crossed over his chest and his eyes burning. ‘Yes,’ I choked quietly. ‘Then he has won.’

‘He said I was a snake, John.’ My throat was thick. ‘He said I was a snake.’

‘He wants to eat you, same as he wants to eat me and Ah Bai,’ he said evenly. ‘And besides, he may be saying that you’re a pig’s ear, anyway.’

I turned away. ‘You are no help at all.’

He rose gracefully. ‘Come and let me buy you lunch downstairs. If you don’t have anything to eat, your blood sugar will be so low that the next class you take, you’ll pass out.’

‘Don’t go near my second years,’ I said. ‘You don’t want to hear what they’re talking about.’

‘They’re talking about eating you,’ he said mildly. ‘Pig’s ear soup.’