Two Saturdays later I was in my office at the Academy when there was a knock at the door. ‘Come in.’
Leo came in, holding a piece of paper, his face rigid with emotion. He sat down across my desk from me. ‘What’s the matter?’
He dropped the piece of paper in front of me. United States Internal Revenue. I turned it around so that I could read it, then glanced sharply at Leo.
‘Hasn’t Jade been handling this?’
‘Apparently she screwed up,’ Leo said miserably. ‘Look at it, Emma.’
Leo was overdue with his taxes. Seriously overdue. US citizens had to pay taxes to the United States on any overseas earnings.
‘Why are you coming to me?’
‘Jade’s not around anywhere. Mr Chen is teaching.’ Leo sounded desperate. ‘I got a subpoena. They want me back in the States. I am in serious trouble. What am I going to do?’
‘Wait,’ I said, and pressed the intercom button.
‘Yes, my Lady?’
‘Get me the Golden Boy, please, Gamma.’
‘He’s on his way, ma’am.’ Gold came in and sat with us.
‘Look at this,’ I said, and slid the paper across the desk.
Gold picked it up and studied it. ‘Oh, my.’
‘I got a subpoena,’ Leo said.
Gold eyed Leo over the paper. ‘You are in serious trouble, my friend.’
Leo put his head in his hands. ‘Oh my God.’
Gold patted him on the shoulder. ‘I should be able to fix it so you get minimal jail time,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry.’ He smiled. ‘You should have no trouble in a US prison anyway, you can defend yourself.’
Leo’s head shot up. ‘Prison?’ His face went blank when he saw the smile on Gold’s face. He turned to me.
I couldn’t hold it any more. I tittered.
Leo saw the broad grin on Gold’s face. He looked from one of us to the other for a while, speechless. Then he stormed out without saying a word.
Both Gold and I collapsed over the desk laughing.
‘Thanks, Gold,’ I wheezed.
‘Not a problem, my Lady,’ Gold said. ‘But I’m not getting involved in this any more. I’ll end up in two pieces.’
Later that evening John tapped on my bedroom door. ‘Emma.’
It was quite late, and I wondered what he wanted. ‘Come on in.’
John opened the door carefully, leaned around it, smiled and came in.
‘Simone really enjoyed her day at the Academy,’ he said. ‘That was a great idea to bring her down on Saturdays.’
‘It was Meredith’s idea,’ I said. ‘She wanted the chance to teach Simone some energy work, and now all of the Celestials are lining up. They said they don’t usually get the chance to teach someone so young and talented.’
I glanced at the computer screen, and sighed.
‘You need to take a break from that thesis, Emma, and you need to decide that it’s finished. Otherwise you’ll be working on it for the rest of your life.’
I ran my hands through my hair. ‘I’m not happy with the introduction, and the sheets could be better.’
He sat on the sofa across from my desk. ‘Let me have a look at it. I might be able to help you.’
‘No way! I’m doing this myself!’
He raised his hands. ‘Suit yourself.’
I pushed the keyboard to one side and looked at him pointedly. He sat placidly without speaking.
‘Do you want something?’ I said. ‘Or did you just come in here to watch me work?’
‘Do you mind?’ he said serenely. ‘I like to watch others work.’
I pulled the keyboard back to me. ‘Suit yourself.’
He laughed gently and ran his hand over his face, then tied back his wayward hair. ‘Zhu Que would like to drop by with her chicks. Is Monday after school okay?’
I pushed the keyboard away again with delight. ‘That’s wonderful! They hatched? How many did she have?’ I stopped and stared at him with horror. ‘Will they damage the apartment?’
‘I hope not,’ he said. ‘When she brought her last brood they only slightly singed the carpet.’
‘Have a fire extinguisher nearby just in case,’ I said grimly. I brightened; I was looking forward to seeing the babies. ‘Monday will be fine.’
‘Good.’ He pulled himself gracefully off the sofa and went to the door. He opened the door. ‘Oh, nearly forgot.’ He smiled slightly and reached into the pocket of his cotton pants. ‘Here.’ He tossed me a small video camera tape.
He turned to the door, then turned back to me. ‘I didn’t know you could do that,’ he said, his voice full of wonder. Then he flung himself through the door and closed it quietly behind him.
I looked at the tape. It had at least an hour of recording on it. Yes! Time to lock the door of my room and enjoy the company of my man the only way we could.
‘Is Aunty Zhu here yet?’ Simone yelled as we went through the front door and kicked off our shoes.
‘We’re in the training room,’ Leo shouted back.
Simone raced down the hallway and into the training room. She squealed with delight. Michael and I shared an amused look and followed her.
Zhu Que must have materialised the table and chairs that were set up in one corner of the room, covered in tea things. She and John sat there together. Leo sat cross-legged on the floor with the chicks. Simone was on her knees, looking at them with round-eyed delight.
Each chick was as big as a medium-sized dog. All three had little round furry bodies without visible wings, rust-coloured with darker horizontal stripes across their backs. One of them rose to approach Simone, but the other two hung back near Leo.
‘Hello,’ Simone said softly to the chick.
‘Hello,’ the chick said, its little head bobbing sideways on its long neck. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Simone. What’s yours?’
The chick glanced at Zhu Que. She smiled warmly. It turned back to Simone. ‘I’m the Biggest.’
‘I’m the Littlest,’ one of the other chicks quickly piped up.
‘I’m Middle. We get proper names later,’ the third chick announced proudly. It turned its head on its graceful neck to face Leo. ‘Finish the story, Uncle Leo.’
The Biggest chick that had been talking to Simone returned to sit next to its siblings, bending its long legs underneath it. Simone followed it and sat with them.
‘I don’t remember where I was,’ Leo said with a gentle smile.
‘The Big Bad Wolf had just come up to the two little pigs in the House of Sticks,’ the Middle chick said. ‘What happened next, Uncle Leo?’
I went to the table and sat with John and Zhu Que. John poured some tea for me. Michael hesitated at the doorway, unsure.
‘Go and do your homework if you like, Michael. Or you can stay with us if you want,’ I said.
Michael nodded without saying a word, saluted us carefully, and went out.
Zhu Que nodded respectfully to me. ‘My Lady.’
I waved her down. ‘No need for that, Zhu Que, we’re all family here,’ I said. ‘It was a good idea bringing them in here; they won’t be able to do much damage if one of them goes off.’
Zhu Que smiled affectionately at the babies. ‘This is a particularly good clutch. Not a single one of them has burst into flames at any of the places we have visited.’ Her smile disappeared. ‘Lord Xuan tells me that apart from a single isolated attack at the school, things have been relatively peaceful in the last few weeks.’
I sighed. ‘It’s been absolutely wonderful.’
John nodded agreement. ‘I just wish I knew what was up.’
Zhu Que nodded as well. ‘Why did they attack you twice so far from their centre, and then stop when you returned? Even the King going so far from the Eastern Centre is remarkable. Did you request the Lady?’
John shook his head, his face grim. ‘I can handle it,’ he said, a very fine, fierce edge to his voice.
‘We don’t want to put Kwan Yin in any sort of danger unless we absolutely have to,’ I said with a similar edge. I changed the subject, gesturing towards Simone where she sat with the chicks, listening to Leo with rapt attention. ‘Simone has started weapons. Her energy skills are remarkable. She’s only been doing weapons for a few weeks, and she can already use her little training sword to throw chi.’
‘She can destroy level ten demons with her Inner Eye, and level twenty with her bare hands. She’ll be ready for a real sword very soon,’ John said with satisfaction.
Zhu Que studied Simone. ‘She is your first human child, my Lord, is that correct?’
John nodded silently.
Zhu Que appeared to get the message even though she wasn’t looking at him. She turned back to us. ‘You should have done this a long time ago. Her skills at such a young age rival those of the Third Prince.’
‘They exceed his. I remember. She will be more powerful than Na Zha when she is mature,’ he said.
Zhu Que smiled. ‘Don’t mention his name too much, my Lord. You know how vain he is—he’ll be knocking on your front door demanding a test of skills with her.’
‘I agree,’ I said. ‘You know how I feel about the Third Prince.’
‘I don’t know why everybody has such a problem with him,’ John said mildly, and both Zhu Que and I snorted with derision. ‘He is the best demon-destroyer on the Celestial short of me.’
‘Don’t forget the graffiti he sprayed on the roof of Hennessy Road,’ I said. ‘That took Jade ages to clean off. Has his own tag and everything, the little…’ I swallowed what I was about to say. ‘…Celestial Worthy.’
Both John and the Phoenix laughed softly.
‘Now I know how some of that graffiti gets in such unusual places,’ Zhu Que said. ‘I thought that they would have to fly to spray it there, and now I know: they do.’
‘How old is he anyway?’ I said. ‘He always looks so young.’
‘He was present during the Shang-Zhou, was he not?’ Zhu Que said.
‘Yes,’ John said. ‘Probably about three thousand, give or take a century.’
‘Why does he look like a teenager then?’ I said.
‘His essence is youth,’ John said.
‘Will he ever grow up?’ I said. ‘He hasn’t pointlessly killed anything recently, he’s mostly stuck to demons. Why did he kill that Dragon Prince anyway?’
‘He was young. It was there. He could do it. Usually that’s enough for him,’ John said.
We all paused to watch Leo finish telling the story. Simone and the chicks sat wide-eyed and rapt. Zhu Que sighed with contentment.
‘Can they take human form yet, Phoenix?’ I said.
Zhu Que nodded. ‘For short periods. Biggest and Littlest are boys. Middle is a girl.’
‘I’ll go and find some Lego for them to play with when Leo finishes his story,’ I said. ‘If they can take human form, it will be easy for them to handle.’
‘Good idea,’ John said.
I went into Simone’s room and selected some Lego pieces, then returned to the training room. The chicks had never seen Lego before and they studied it curiously. Simone showed them how to put the bricks together. Leo sat to one side, the fire extinguisher at hand just in case.
The chicks transformed into little round Chinese children of about three years old, wearing old-fashioned cotton jackets and pants. They dug their chubby hands into the Lego and talked cheerfully with Simone as they made things together.
I rose and returned to the table. ‘Are they housetrained, Phoenix? They’re very advanced for chicks of only a couple of months old.’
‘They should ask, but we still occasionally have accidents. I’ll take them out soon anyway.’ Her smile became wry. ‘Don’t know how to use human toilets yet.’
I laughed softly. ‘They’re adorable.’
Simone shot to her feet and came to us. ‘Can the chicks have a sleepover with me?’
We all shook our heads. ‘They’re not big enough yet, Simone,’ I said gently. ‘They’re still only tiny babies.’
‘When they’re bigger and they won’t burn things, they can come and sleep over if you like,’ Zhu Que said. ‘Middle is a girl, like you. I’m sure the two of you would have a lot of fun.’
Simone looked at the chicks then turned back to us. ‘That would be nice,’ she said cheerfully. She returned to the chicks and flopped down with them.
‘How is she at school?’ Zhu Que said. ‘No problems?’
‘The school staff don’t know anything, and it’s working out really well,’ John said, then gestured towards me. ‘Emma arranges everything—she’s even volunteered to do some work at the school—’
‘Anything to escape those blasted budgeting sheets,’ I muttered under my breath.
‘—and Simone and Michael have settled in and made friends. Michael goes to a shopping mall near the school with a group of friends now and then, and Simone has even brought little friends home.’
‘She knows exactly what to do,’ I said. ‘She keeps them out of the training room, and talks out loud all the time. She’s better at it than I am; I keep asking her to call John for me.’
‘None of us thought you’d pull it off,’ Zhu Que said with wonder.
We watched the children play in silence. One of the chicks reverted to True Form and its Lego fell. Simone picked the Lego up and held it out for him. He changed back into human form, took the Lego with a smile, and finished building a little car. Simone clapped her hands with delight when he showed it to her. She was being a big sister to them.
‘Have you heard of any movements?’ John said softly without looking away from the children. ‘It is very quiet. Disturbingly quiet.’
‘They are planning something,’ Zhu Que said, also without shifting her gaze. ‘I have sent in agents, but they do not return.’ She shrugged. ‘I would dearly like to know what they are doing.’
‘The King has promised to stay away from us,’ John said mildly. ‘One Two Two was too cowardly to face me in London.’
‘But they’re building special demons just for us,’ I said. ‘They may be planning something big with their new toys.’
Both John and the Phoenix glanced at me, then nodded and turned back to the children.
‘The only thing we can do is stay aware, stay ready, and have Emma and Simone up to speed as quickly as possible,’ John said.
‘I’d like to know where they’re making those things,’ I said. ‘Is it possible that they were made in Europe?’
‘Quite possible,’ John said.
Zhu Que shook her head. ‘If they were, then that raises a very large number of unpleasant implications.’ She moved to rise. ‘I need to take these chicks outside before they embarrass themselves.’ She studied them carefully. ‘No, I think I’ll take them home. They’re tired. Look at Middle.’
She was right. Middle had reverted to True Form and the edges of her feathers smouldered.
Zhu Que turned and saluted us. ‘By your leave.’
‘Bring them back soon to play,’ I said. ‘Simone loves them.’
‘Let me know if you hear anything,’ John said.
Zhu Que nodded and went to the chicks to gather them up. They all disappeared in a flurry of red. Simone and Leo packed up the Lego.
‘She forgot her table,’ I said.
‘The minute we stand it will be gone,’ John said without moving.
I poured some more tea. Leo took Simone out to put her toys away. We sat for a while, pondering.