Red Phoenix

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Two days before we left for Paris, Leo drove me, Michael and Simone to the school to buy their uniforms. We wouldn’t have time to buy them when we came back. Leo waited outside while I took the kids in. Several domestic helpers already had children there trying on uniforms.

One of the volunteer mothers helped Simone find the right size in her little dress.

Michael slumped, miserable, as I selected a uniform for him. When I held the PE shorts up he backed away and raised his hands. ‘Oh no. No way. This is stupid.’ I pushed the shorts at him. He stood his ground. I moved closer and hissed in his ear. ‘Try these on, and that’s an order.’

He glared at me, snatched the shorts out of my hand, and thundered to the change room.

‘You know I don’t need PE anyway,’ he grumbled as he moved inside the room. ‘You know what I can do.’

‘Shut up and try them on,’ I said loudly. ‘They’re all like that,’ one of the assistants said as she came out of the change booth with Simone.

Simone clapped her hands with delight and twirled in her uniform.

‘You look adorable, darling,’ the assistant said. ‘You and your brother are really cute together.’

Simone scowled and put her hands on her hips. ‘He’s not my brother.’

‘Cousins,’ I said. ‘Large Chinese family.’

Michael came out and shoved the shorts at me. ‘They’re okay.’

The assistant looked from Michael to me, then moved closer to me to speak softly. ‘He won’t be able to dye his hair. He’ll have to dye it back to its natural colour.’

Michael snorted with disdain and stomped away. ‘That is his natural colour,’ I said. ‘He’s a natural blond.’

‘You’d better tell his teacher then, otherwise he’ll be in trouble for dyeing his hair.’

‘Thanks.’

She nodded and returned to the counter.

A Chinese woman entered the shop with a small boy. Simone stiffened and squeaked, then scurried to me and hid behind me. Michael also came swiftly to me, very alert, and I knew what was up.

‘Michael, go to the door, poke your head out and tell Leo to get in here right now,’ I whispered.

The female demon ignored me completely, talking to the little boy about what uniform to buy. The boy behaved like a normal child. They paid no attention to Leo and Michael as they came back in.

‘What do you think they’re up to?’ Leo said softly into my ear.

‘I have no idea. You have more experience than I do,’ I said, just as softly. ‘What should we do?’

‘They can’t do anything with so many people around,’ Leo said. ‘Keep Simone close, buy the rest of the stuff, and let’s get out of here.’ He stationed himself against one of the walls and watched the demons.

I took Simone into the booth to change out of her uniform. Michael posted himself outside and guarded, completely professional.

We went to the counter to pay. Simone stayed very close and quiet. Leo didn’t move or speak as he leaned against the wall and watched.

I paid for the uniforms and nodded to Leo. He opened the door for us and I guided the kids out.

The demons dropped what they were doing and followed.

It was still school holidays and the school was deserted. We passed the school cafeteria next to the uniform shop, then stopped. A large open balcony overlooked the playing field. A deserted play area next to the playing field would be a good place to face them.

‘Emma, take the kids down to the car,’ Leo said. ‘I’ll deal with them.’

‘No, there might be more of them at the car.’

‘No more right now,’ Simone said.

‘But they might appear any time. We should stick together, deal with these first, and then go to the car,’ I said.

‘You’re right, my Lady,’ Leo said.

‘Let’s go down to the play area,’ I said. ‘Nobody around, and room to move.’

We went down the steps to the playground. Simone clutched my hand. Michael was tense and prepared. The demons followed us, talking to each other as if nothing unusual at all was happening.

When we reached the play area we stopped and turned to face them. Leo and I put Simone behind us. Michael stood beside Leo, ready. The demons stopped pretending. They retained the form of a mother and child, but went very still and watched us impassively.

‘What are you waiting for?’ I said.

The mother looked around. There was nobody nearby who could see us. They both fell to their knees and touched their foreheads to the rubber matting covering the ground.

‘Dark Lady, I pledge allegiance,’ the mother said. ‘I plead. Allow me to serve you. Protect me. I am yours.’

‘I pledge allegiance,’ the child said in an adult’s voice. The deep voice coming from the child was a chilling sound. ‘I am yours. I vow to serve you. Do not destroy us, we beg you.’

‘Sweet mother of all the demons, Emma,’ Leo said. ‘You just tamed them.’

‘How could I have tamed them? I didn’t do anything.’

‘You don’t have to do anything. It’s a choice they make themselves. Mr Chen always gives them a chance to plead before he destroys them, if they don’t attack immediately. Like you just did. You waited for them to go for you, and they took the opportunity.’

‘Why did she call you Dark Lady?’ Simone said.

My blood ran cold.

‘Because she is the Lady of the Dark Lord, of course,’ Leo said.

‘Oh.’ Simone moved to lean between us and studied the demons. ‘What are you going to do with them, Emma?’

‘I have absolutely no idea. All suggestions welcome. We can’t even fit them in the car.’ I paused. ‘And I’m not sure I even trust them after what Wong did. This could be a trick.’

‘It could be quite easily,’ Leo said. ‘We could destroy them anyway, you know.’

Simone and Michael stiffened at that. The demons didn’t move.

‘That would be totally wrong, Leo, and you know it,’ I said.

The woman demon exhaled with relief.

‘Mr Chen will know what to do,’ Leo said. ‘Let’s send them to Wan Chai and he can meet us there.’

‘You know the Academy building in Wan Chai?’ I asked the demons.

The woman raised her head and nodded, full of hope.

‘Meet us in the car park,’ I said. ‘We’ll go in the car. You go directly. Wait about half an hour before you go. If you’re there first, somebody will probably come out and take your heads off.’

The demons smiled up at me.

‘Are there any more demons around here besides these two, Simone?’ I said.

‘No,’ Simone said. ‘Just these two.’

‘Wait here,’ I said to the demons. ‘We’ll meet you in Wan Chai in half an hour.’

They rose together. Leo braced himself. They bowed to us, then went to the play equipment. The woman sat to watch the child as he proceeded to play on the equipment like a perfectly normal little boy.

We returned to the car park. ‘That was extremely weird,’ I said.

‘You should be used to it by now, Emma,’ Leo said.

‘Has that ever happened to you, Leo?’ I said.

‘Nope.’ He grinned. ‘I’ve seen Mr Chen do it a few times. I wish I knew how you do it.’

‘I wish I knew how I did it too.’ The whole thing had many unpleasant connotations for me. Particularly being called Dark Lady.

John and Gold were waiting for us in the middle of the Academy car park.

‘Hi, Gold,’ the stone in my ring said as we approached them. ‘Still stuck, eh?’

‘Hi, Dad,’ Gold said cheerfully. ‘Yep, still stuck. ‘Bout time you woke up.’

‘You’ve grown,’ the stone said.

‘Three millimetres in the last hundred years, Dad, and I’ve put on three whole grams.’

John saw my face. ‘Forgot to mention that, Emma. The stone is Gold’s father.’

‘We prefer the term “parent”, my Lord.’ Gold’s smile disappeared. ‘Here they are.’

The demons appeared at the end of the car park and approached carefully.

‘Leo, Michael, take Simone upstairs,’ John said. ‘There is an advanced hand-to-hand class on the sixth floor right now. You should be safe with them. Gold, you too. Let’s see what the Lady Emma has gotten herself into this time.’

Leo and Gold herded the kids towards the lift.

‘Gold,’ John said loudly without turning away from the approaching demons.

Gold stopped. ‘My Lord?’

‘Arrange for the seals to be reset on the school. And have the Master who set the original seals come to my office first thing tomorrow morning.’

‘My Lord,’ Gold said.

‘Sixth floor,’ John said, still watching the demons. They went into the lift lobby.

I tried to control my voice. ‘They called me Dark Lady, John.’

‘That is perfectly natural and nothing to be concerned about.’

‘That’s easy for you to say.’

‘Don’t worry about it, Emma. Kwan Yin will look at you in Paris. Until then, don’t be concerned. It is of minor importance. You are a perfectly normal human being, just very talented. Now let’s have a look at your new pets.’

The demons stopped about two metres away and fell to their knees. ‘All hail the Dark Lord. All hail the Dark Lady.’

Damn. I shrugged it off. He was right. ‘You think it’s a trick?’

‘Could be. Rise.’ The demons didn’t move. ‘Good; first hurdle overcome. If they are truly tamed then at this stage they will obey only you. Tell them, Emma.’

‘Rise,’ I said, and they both pulled themselves to their feet.

‘Take True Form,’ John said. Once again they didn’t move. ‘Good. Tell them, Emma.’

‘Take True Form.’

They were small humanoids in True Form. Nearly two metres tall, red, with smooth skin instead of scales. They had bulging horns and huge bulbous eyes. The one that had appeared as a boy had small tusks.

‘Yuck.’

‘Not too bad, could have been worse.’

‘Yeah, I suppose,’ I said. ‘Could have been worms.’

‘You know worms don’t take human form.’ He straightened and spoke briskly, suddenly the teacher. ‘What level are these?’

‘Three, very low level. I could bind them easily.’

‘Yes. Good. I wonder why they were sent.’

‘Me too.’ He was right. These low-level demons weren’t a danger to any of us. ‘Go back to human form.’

They complied immediately. This time they appeared as a Chinese couple in their mid-thirties.

‘Final test,’ John said quietly. ‘If they can do this then they are truly tamed. If they can’t, they will attack immediately.’ He held his hand out and the demons eyed it suspiciously. ‘Tell them to come and take my hand. One at a time.’

‘What are your names?’ I said.

They didn’t reply, they just watched me.

‘These low-level ones don’t have any names, they never do,’ John said. ‘You can name them later if you like. I ran out of names a long time ago.’

‘Is that why you just give them numbers?’

‘Yes. Much easier anyway.’

‘You.’ I pointed at the woman. ‘Come and take the Dark Lord’s hand.’

She hesitated, watching John’s hand as if it was something highly toxic.

‘Be ready, Emma,’ John said quietly without moving.

The woman sidled towards John. This was obviously very difficult for her. I had seen what Simone could do when she touched a low-level demon; something much worse would probably happen to this one if it touched John.

‘You won’t kill it?’ I whispered.

‘I could quite easily kill it,’ John said, loudly enough for the demon to hear, ‘but it must take my hand anyway.’

The demon inched to John, reached out gingerly and touched his hand, its face completely expressionless. The other demon flinched.

Nothing happened to the demon and its face filled with wonder. It moved forward with more confidence and clasped John’s hand. It dissolved into True Form and stood holding John’s hand with awe.

‘Well done, Emma,’ John said with quiet satisfaction. ‘You have tamed your first demon. Now you need to work out what you will do with it. Order it back, let’s do the other one.’

‘Let go and move back,’ I said. It nodded and complied. ‘Oh, for God’s sake, take human form.’

It changed into a Chinese woman again. She smiled and bowed slightly. ‘My Lady.’

‘You.’ I pointed at the other one. ‘Come and do the same thing. Take the Dark Lord’s hand.’

The other demon moved towards John, its face rigid with terror. John waited calmly with his hand out.

Just as the demon was within touching distance it went for him, swinging its arm around in a vicious slice at John’s neck.

John blocked the attack with his left hand and caught the demon’s hand in his own. The demon dissolved into True Form and its mouth fell open.

‘Duck, Emma,’ John said. The demon exploded, covering both of us with black stuff. ‘Too slow. Damn. We’ll need to take a shower now. Ask the other demon if it knew that its partner wasn’t tamed.’

‘Did you know that it wasn’t tamed?’

‘No, my Lady, on my honour,’ she said. ‘I honestly thought that he had turned. But he was more hesitant about coming, he knew that this might happen.’

‘Good enough,’ John said. ‘We can shower upstairs. Not together.’

‘I dunno, together sounds like a good idea.’

‘Yes, it does.’ He shrugged. That was enough for both of us; we had more important things to do than brood. ‘Let’s go up and work out what to do with your new little toy.’

I opened my mouth to protest that it was a living thing, not a toy, then closed my mouth again. Low-level demons weren’t really alive. They were more like animated black stuff. Automatons, programmed to take orders, and really only mildly sentient—unless they had a flash of free will, decided to take matters into their own hands, and joined us in an attempt to attain humanity.

‘Come on,’ I said, and the demon followed us to the lift. ‘Why were you following us? Were you ordered to attack us?’

‘My Lady,’ she said, ‘we escaped.’

‘Who was your master?’ John said quickly.

‘One Two Two.’

We shared a look. Simon freaking Wong.

‘Why did you escape?’ John said. ‘Such an act of disobedience is highly unusual. You know what will happen to you if you are caught?’

‘I know,’ she said, miserable. ‘But One Two Two is completely without honour. He treats his thralls worse than he treats his victims. I have already lost fifty nest mates to him. I would be next. Coming to you was my only, slim hope.’

‘Why did your partner change his mind?’ I said.

‘I honestly don’t know. I think he panicked at the idea of touching the Dark Lord.’ She stared at John with awe. ‘Why could I touch you, Highness? It felt…’ She hesitated. ‘I don’t know how it felt.’

‘I will explain that later, after you have truly proved your worth,’ John said.

‘You are a legend, my Lord. I have touched you. I serve your Lady. You have no idea what this feels like, for a small thing such as I.’

‘Why did you call me Dark Lady?’ I said.

‘Because your essence is dark,’ she said. ‘Dark, and pure, and beautiful. Same as his.’

‘You have tamed a poet,’ John said with quiet delight. ‘She has described you in a nutshell. Dark, and pure, and beautiful.’

I suddenly felt a million times better.

We stopped at the ninth floor to shower and change into some training gear we kept at the Academy. The demon waited patiently outside for us.

Back on the sixth floor, one of the Celestial Masters was taking an advanced group through hand-to-hand. Leo and Michael practised the moves at the back of the class. Michael had some trouble, the moves were slightly too complicated for him, but he tried valiantly anyway with Leo’s help. Gold and Simone sat to one side and watched. When we entered everyone stopped, fell to one knee and saluted us, then rose and continued.

Simone ran to her father. He hoisted her to sit on his hip and they watched the class.

I saw my opportunity. I gestured for the demon to stay put, then went to John and cuddled into him, wrapping my arm around his waist. He put his free arm around my shoulders and rubbed me affectionately. The three of us, him holding Simone, watched the students together. It was delightful.

Leo saw us out of the corner of his eye and his face went rigid. He spun and rushed towards us, but stopped halfway. His eyes turned inward as he listened. Then he smiled, nodded, raised his hand in understanding, and returned to Michael.

‘Which one of you told him?’ I said.

‘Me,’ Simone said.

‘I didn’t know you knew, Simone,’ I said. John smiled affectionately down at Simone. ‘I never told her.’

‘You did, Emma,’ Simone said. ‘You said Daddy could never drain me. And that means that while he’s holding me, he can’t hurt you.’

‘You are a very clever little girl, you know that?’ John said, delighted.

We enjoyed the closeness as we watched the students.

‘I think a couple of these are ready to move up, Emma,’ John said. ‘What do you think?’

‘Matthew, definitely. Yong Xin, maybe. I’d give her more time if it was me.’

‘Whatever you say, my Lady. You’re the boss.’

‘Not here. When it comes to the Arts I think you have the tiniest bit of seniority on me. Being God of Martial Arts and all.’

‘Oh, yes, I am too.’ He glanced down at me and squeezed me around the shoulders. ‘I keep forgetting, the way you boss me around all the time.’

‘You need bossing around, Daddy,’ Simone said. ‘You’re hopeless at everything except martial arts.’

‘You think so, Simone?’ he said.

She nodded, her little face serious.

‘I think I must be the happiest old Turtle in the whole wide world,’ he said with a sigh and a huge grin. ‘But I’m afraid a couple of these students could use my hand, so I’ll have to let both of you wonderful ladies go.’

‘Let me move away first before you put Simone down,’ I said, and he released me.

‘Go and talk to Gold,’ he said. ‘I saw that look on your face.’

‘What look?’

He gently lowered Simone. ‘The look that says you have to find something out right now or somebody will be in big trouble. Go and ask him.’

He was right. I told the demon to stay at the back of the class, then went to Gold.

‘How can the stone in my ring be your father, Gold?’

He smiled cheerfully and it made him seem very young. ‘Come with me, out of the room, and I’ll show you.’

John moved through the class to give the students individual attention. Simone sat down cross-legged against the back wall and the demon stood next to her. The demon nodded and smiled, and I nodded back. Looked like she would be a good one.

‘This way, ma’am,’ Gold said, and led me out.

He stopped in the lift lobby and grinned at me. ‘Don’t worry, this doesn’t hurt a bit.’

He held his hand out and flicked his wrist like a magician. Then he plunged his hand straight into his chest. He pulled out a stone about the size of his fist and held it out to me.

I took it gingerly, expecting it to be wet and disgusting, but it was warm and dry. It was a gorgeous piece of clear quartz shot through with shining veins of gold.

‘That’s me,’ he said, his eyes sparkling.

I nearly dropped the stone. ‘You’re a rock?’

‘Yes. Gold isn’t my name, it’s what I am.’

‘Pretentious,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘You are less than twenty per cent pure gold. Your correct name is Quartz.’

‘Give it a rest, Dad,’ Gold said, still smiling. ‘Go back to sleep, old rock.’

‘Humph,’ the stone said, and went silent.

I studied the stone in my hand. ‘You are very beautiful, Gold.’ I turned it over and ran one finger over the veins of gold. It was smooth and warm, quite delightful to touch.

Gold shivered and inhaled sharply. His eyes went wide and dark.

I rubbed my palm over the stone, enjoying the smooth texture.

Gold breathed heavily and became very flushed. ‘Uh, my Lady…’

I stopped and felt my face redden. ‘Sorry,’ I mumbled, embarrassed. ‘I didn’t know.’

He pulled himself together. ‘Not a problem. I should have told you. Better give me back, my Lady, I can’t hold human form well unless I am inside it.’

‘Oh, wonderful,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘You know she rubs me sometimes when she’s thinking. Now she knows, she won’t do it any more.’

Gold’s grin didn’t shift. ‘You are a dirty old man.’

‘And I won’t be rubbing you any more,’ I said.

‘Damn,’ the stone said softly.

‘Your father said you were stuck, Gold.’ I handed the stone back to him. ‘What did he mean?’

‘Not my father, my parent.’ Gold shoved the stone back into his chest. ‘Like Jade, I displeased Heaven, and I am stuck in human form, serving, until I have atoned.’

‘What did you do?’

He looked sheepish. ‘I would prefer not to say, my Lady. If you order me, I will tell you. But I would prefer not to.’

I changed the subject to spare his feelings. ‘If the stone in my ring is your parent, I really don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be wearing it around. Do you want to take it?’

‘It is honoured to be an item of jewellery. It is the highest honour a stone can attain, to be treated as something truly precious. And the fact that it symbolises the bond you share with the Dark Lord gives my parent a great deal of distinction.’

‘Oh. I never thought of it that way. You are pretty enough…’ I stopped. ‘I mean your stone is pretty enough…’ I was lost for words. I didn’t know how to say it.

‘I think I understand what you mean, and I am sincerely flattered. When I am freed, I would be honoured to become an item of jewellery for you. I could shrink myself to any suitable size.’ Gold grinned broadly. ‘What a truly gracious lady you are.’

‘Let’s go back to class,’ I said. ‘Sounds like they’re finishing.’

‘Very good, my Lady,’ Gold said cheerfully.