Red Phoenix

CHAPTER FORTY

Later that evening somebody tapped on my bedroom door.

‘I’ll never finish this if you keep interrupting me!’ I shouted at the door. ‘Emma, it’s me.’

‘Come on in, Rhonda,’ I said. ‘Sorry about that. They keep banging on the door. Everything okay with Michael?’

Rhonda came in and sat on my couch, across from where I was sitting at the desk. ‘Tell me about this kid. Na Zha.’

I sighed. ‘You don’t know about him? There was a TV series on the Cantonese channel about him not long ago.’

‘He’s an Immortal?’

‘Yes. One of the biggest,’ I said.

‘But he looks like a teenager.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘John says his essence is that of a youth.’

‘I’m not sure I want Michael hanging around with him,’ Rhonda said, concerned. ‘What’s his history?’

‘Very long. Very old. He’s really powerful. When he was only seven years old he killed a Dragon Prince, one of the sons of the Dragon King himself, for no better reason than he could do it. He’s always been a chronic troublemaker. He’s supposed to have grown up, but I don’t think he ever will.’

‘Is Michael safe with him?’ Rhonda said. ‘There are demons after him all the time. And the other guys, the triads.’

‘That’s the problem,’ I said. ‘Na Zha is the best demon killer on the Celestial short of Xuan Wu himself, and that’s saying a lot. Michael is actually safer with him than he is with John right now, as John is so weak.’

‘They haven’t been up to anything together, have they?’

‘Not as far as I know,’ I said. ‘Na Zha promises to behave when he’s with Michael. They get on really well, they’ve become very good friends. Surprisingly enough, they seem to have a lot in common. John has absolutely no problem with him. It drives me nuts. I personally don’t like him very much, he’s very insolent to me.’

‘Okay. I suppose I’ll just let you guys keep an eye on him then.’

Rhonda didn’t move off the couch.

‘Something else?’ I said.

She put her head in her hands.

I went to the couch and sat next to her. I put my arm around her.

‘I don’t know what to do, Emma, I’m so torn,’ she said.

‘What?’

She glanced desperately at me. ‘I really do love that stupid man.’

‘Oh God, Rhonda,’ I said. ‘You know we saw you in Paris.’

‘He just whisked me away. He gave me the excuse it was to see Michael, but we never did. He’s so romantic, you know? He’s so warm, and considerate, and wonderful…’

‘And has a hundred wives.’

‘I know,’ she moaned. ‘That’s what makes his offer so damn hard.’

‘Offer?’

‘He says he wants to Raise me and take me as Empress of the West.’

‘Holy shit,’ I said softly. ‘He’ll give up the others for you?’

‘No. I’ll be Empress in the old-fashioned sense. The traditional sense. You know?’

‘Yeah. I know. You’d be in charge of the palace and the women. That’s the traditional role of the Empress.’

‘Will you be like that?’ she said.

‘No. We’ve talked about that. Xuan Wu’s not like that. His nature is different.’

‘That’s the problem,’ she said. ‘It’s his nature. How can I stop him from being what he is?’

‘Oh God, Rhonda, he’d Raise you. And you are so worthy.’

‘What would you do?’ she whispered.

‘For a while I thought that might be my role,’ I said, ‘until I asked John about it. He said no, for him there was just one. Always, just one. If it hadn’t been that way I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t share him.’

We sat together silently for a while.

‘Talk to Kwan Yin,’ I said. ‘She won’t tell you what to do. But she will help out.’

‘You can call her for me?’

‘I’ll ask John to call her for you.’

‘Thanks, Emma.’

‘Come on.’ I rose and held out my hand to her. ‘I know exactly where you need to go.’

John was in his office. We both sat across the desk from him, miserable.

‘You need to tidy up in here, Emma,’ Rhonda said.

‘Rhonda’s right. What’s the problem, ladies?’ John said.

‘The Tiger has asked me to be Empress of the West,’ Rhonda said.

John leaned back and didn’t say anything.

‘He’s offered to Raise her and make her his consort,’ I said.

‘He’s never done anything like that before,’ John said. ‘He’s never accepted a woman as his equal, and that’s what he’s doing with you. Remarkable.’

‘Give her a gold coin,’ I said.

Rhonda glanced at me.

I shrugged. ‘Private joke.’

‘I’m the first one?’ Rhonda said softly.

‘Yes.’ John leaned forward over the desk and retied his hair. ‘What are you going to do? Will you take him up on it?’

‘I don’t know,’ Rhonda whispered.

‘I think she should talk to Kwan Yin,’ I said.

‘Good idea,’ John said. ‘Wait.’ He stopped and concentrated. His eyes unfocused.

Kwan Yin appeared behind him. She smiled sadly. She came around the desk to us and held out her hand. ‘Come with me.’

Rhonda took Kwan Yin’s hand and they disappeared.

‘What do you think, Emma?’ John said. ‘You think she’ll do it?’

‘I think she will, love,’ I said.

‘Did you tell her what you would do in the same situation?’ he said.

I folded my arms on the desk and dropped my head onto them. ‘I lied.’

His voice was full of quiet humour. ‘You said you wouldn’t share me.’

I nodded into my arms.

I heard a soft sound and looked up. He watched me with amusement. In front of me on the desk was a gold coin.

I took the coin, rose without saying anything, and went out.

My viva was in late November. The office of the university was only two blocks away from the Hennessy Road building, which was a convenient stroke of luck for me—until I remembered that there is no such thing as coincidence.

I took the lift to the second-floor offices. The university was an English one that ran distance MBA programs in Hong Kong. They occupied half of the second floor with offices and some teaching areas. Most of the study I had done had been by correspondence, but I had occasionally met with other students doing the program or talked to staff in the meeting rooms.

Just remember, John said into my ear, making me jump, the piece of paper is the least important thing about this. You have already gained the knowledge. Unless you are planning to resign as Lady Regent of the House of the North in the near future and take a job outside, the piece of paper is unnecessary.

I smiled. That’s what he thought. The piece of paper would give me some closure; and I’d know for sure that the work I did was good enough.

I smiled at the receptionist and she nodded. No words passed between us; she knew what I was there for. I sat down to wait, uncomfortable in my new suit and clutching the slim leather briefcase that John had presented to me that morning.

Kitty Kwok would be thrilled: I finally had that suit. I wondered where she was. She had been released on bail and had promptly disappeared. John had suggested that she may have gone to Hell. It was where she belonged.

I felt a flash of concern as I thought about April. She hadn’t reappeared. Her mother in Australia didn’t know where she was, but wasn’t at all worried. Apparently Andy said that April was fine, and that was enough for everybody. Andy was a Triad member too—April had told me that herself. He had been in on it from the start. I quietly wondered if he was a demon. I hadn’t seen him since I’d been able to pick demons, but I’d always had a bad feeling about him. And if Andy was a demon in league with Simon Wong, then April’s baby would be half demon too.

I’d asked John about it and he’d said it was possible. Half demon, half Shen, the results would be similar. The child could be pure human, pure demon, or something in between.

And there was absolutely nothing I could do about

it.

I snapped back when the door to the meeting room opened. The director, Jan, poked her head around the doorframe, smiled, and jerked her head to indicate that I could go in. I rose and approached the room, my stomach fluttering with a million worries.

The three examiners sat around a low coffee table, surrounded by papers. Jan indicated an empty chair for me.

Jan had my thesis in her hand and smiled at me. She was very tall and muscular, almost Amazonian, with short ginger hair, a wide kind smile and bright blue eyes that twinkled at me. She ran marathons in her spare time and could bore everybody to tears with tales of her two young children.

I didn’t know the other two. One was a severe-looking Chinese woman with impeccable hair, wearing a very smart tailored suit, and the other was a kindly black-haired European man in his mid-sixties with a friendly smile and reassuring dark eyes behind his large glasses.

I relaxed slightly. They didn’t seem so bad.

‘This is Miss Lo, Emma, and Mr Knight. They’ll be helping me do your viva today,’ Jan said, gesturing towards the other two inquisitors.

I nodded to each of them without speaking. My throat was too dry.

‘I’ll go first,’ Jan said firmly, eyeing my papers appraisingly. My stomach flip-flopped. I immediately decided that I should have formatted the thesis better.

‘Emma,’ Jan said severely, ‘why on earth did you choose this topic? You’ve always said that you’re a nanny. How did you get involved in this?’

The other two professors leaned forward, eager to hear the answer. But I was ready for them.

‘My employer is a martial arts instructor,’ I explained, trying my best to remain calm. ‘It was the easiest way to find a business that I could use as a model. He encouraged me, in fact,’ rubbing it in, ‘he says that I helped him make the whole place run much better.’

Jan nodded, still studying the thesis. She glanced up at me without smiling. ‘What was the most obvious and pressing problem that you think they were experiencing when you started?’

That was in the thesis. The real answer was ‘a recent attack by demons’, but I didn’t think that would go down too well. ‘Managing the finances,’ I said confidently. ‘The business owner, my employer, is an expert at martial arts, but when it comes to budgeting he is completely hopeless.’

All three of them nodded in agreement. They had obviously read the paper right through.

Miss Lo took over. Right, two questions each, I could handle this. ‘Are you sure that you’ve budgeted for everything here? What if some unexpected expenses turn up? How will you handle that?’

‘Unexpected expenses always turn up,’ I said. ‘The essence here wasn’t managing for the expected, it was managing for the unexpected. So I had to put that in. Do you want me to go into detail about budgeting for the unexpected?’

Miss Lo shook her head. ‘I think that’s enough of an answer for me.’ She nodded towards the third professor, Mr Knight. I sighed inwardly with relief.

I turned to Mr Knight and was shocked right down to the soles of my feet. He was at least a level fifty demon. Huge. As big as a Snake Mother. I’d been so nervous that I’d completely missed him.

Holy shit, what was he doing here, and what had happened to the real professor? I hoped the real professor wasn’t found in a Kowloon City dumpster in a million pieces, the same way that pizza delivery guy was.

The demon smiled kindly at me, exactly like a sympathetic university professor helping a talented student along. ‘Tell me, Miss Donahoe, on page thirty-five of the thesis you mention “demon staff”. Is this a particular term used in martial arts?’

I looked blankly at him, then smiled. No way, he wasn’t getting away with that. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Knight? Isn’t it?’ He nodded confirmation. ‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Is there a typo in there? Because I don’t remember putting anything in the thesis about “demon staff”. And the term doesn’t mean anything in martial arts, as far as I know. But I really don’t know much about it.’

The other two professors flipped to the page he’d mentioned and scanned it. Jan shook her head. ‘Not here, Jim. You sure you have the same paper we have?’

The demon passed his copy to me. ‘Look, Miss Donahoe, right in the middle of the page.’

I scanned down. It was my writing until about the third paragraph. Then there was a message for me.

I have offended One Two Two. I am desperate. Help. I am willing to pledge. I have information. Nod if you are willing to protect me. I will raise my hand in oath that I will not attack. I will meet you downstairs. Please take me to the Dark Lord, I am willing to pledge to both of you.

I glanced up from my thesis. ‘This is a copy. Where is the original…’ I hesitated, ‘Mr Knight?’ I carefully chose the inflection so that the real question would be obvious to him.

‘The original is quite safe and unharmed,’ the demon said. ‘Nearby. I can get it for you later, if you like.’

I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Thanks. Just making sure.’ I nodded. I was willing to take the risk for the information.

He raised his hand in confirmation. I hoped it meant that he had sworn to lay off me.

Both Jan and the Chinese professor looked in bewilderment at their papers. The demon shrugged. It was up to me to gloss this over. Think quickly, Emma.

‘I think you have the wrong version of the paper, Mr Knight. The page numbers don’t seem to be right in this one, and the words “demon staff” are actually a typo; it should be “demonstrate”.’

I handed the paper back to him and he eyed it appraisingly. He flipped it so that he could see the front page. ‘Oh, you’re quite right, Miss Donahoe, I have an earlier draft that you handed in. The original is in my office; quite unaware of how this happened—I seem to be having periods of memory loss lately, don’t know what’s wrong with me. So sorry.’ He smiled broadly at Jan. ‘I don’t have any other problems with it.’

Whew, he had the real professor bound and unaware in his office somehow. Must ask how they did that, if that was the case.

‘Your graduation ceremony will be in December. Will you be in Hong Kong? It’ll be a big occasion,’ Jan said, her blue eyes sparkling with amusement.

I nearly let out a whoop of triumph but managed to hold it in. I swallowed my emotions instead. ‘Thanks, Jan,’ I said sincerely. ‘I couldn’t have done it without your help.’

Jan waved her hand over the paper. ‘Not a problem, Emma, it’s been a really enjoyable experience. Most unusual paper I’ve ever seen, the topic was fascinating. I must come up there one day and have a look, it sounds incredible. Does your employer really have three hundred students learning martial arts?’

I nodded a reply.

‘What do they all do when they graduate?’ she said.

‘Go home and teach,’ I said, which was almost true. Very few of the Dark Disciples ever returned to the Earthly Plane. If they were good enough, they would be promoted to Master, but only about one in fifty was that talented. Between fifty and a hundred a year were lost to other parts of the Celestial Plane, as elite guards for high-ranking Immortals or Shen; or as training Masters for just about everybody. If they wanted to, they could stay and learn all their lives, moving up through the ranks to teach the younger ones if they had the talent; helping with the management of the Academy if they didn’t. Many of them stayed on and cultivated the Tao, attempting to find the Way and become Raised to Immortality. The very best were sometimes chosen to join the Elite Guard of the Jade Emperor, a very great honour for all of us.

A few of them did return to their home countries on the Earthly Plane to teach, and John encouraged them, welcoming them back if they decided to return. He constantly complained that more of them wouldn’t go out into the world and spread the true Arts.

I continued to explain for Jan. ‘It’s a world centre for martial arts training. They come from all over the world to learn here, then return to their home countries and teach there. The martial arts community is quite small and very well connected, but people who aren’t involved generally don’t know anything about it.’ I had a brilliant idea. ‘How about the three of you come up now and have a look? You’ve seen the paper, why not come and see the Academy? I’m sure they’ll be glad to meet you,’ I said, looking straight into the demon’s eyes.

‘I’d love to, but we have one more viva to do, Emma,’ Jan said. ‘Maybe some other time.’

‘I’ll wait,’ I said. ‘I’ll call them and arrange it while you do the viva. I don’t mind at all. There should still be some people there, it’s only four o’clock. I’d love to show you around.’

I willed her to come. If she did, then I would be slightly safer with this enormous demon.

‘Sounds like great fun, Jan,’ the demon said. ‘The viva will only take about twenty minutes, let’s go after that and have a look. I’m dying to see all of this kung fu stuff; we don’t have anything like that at all back in the UK.’

Now I knew for sure that the demon was sincere. If it wanted my head, it wouldn’t invite Jan along.

‘Oh, all right,’ Jan said. ‘Go and wait outside, Emma. When we finish with the next student we’ll meet you in the waiting room. Want to come, Connie?’

‘I’m not really interested in wushu,’ the Chinese examiner said. ‘You go without me. I see enough of that on the television; I find it tremendously boring.’

‘Well,’ Jan said, rising to her feet and towering over me, ‘that’s that then. Congratulations, Emma, you really are exceptional, and there’s a place in the PhD program any time you want to take it.’

‘Oh come on, Jan,’ I wheezed, ‘I only just survived this and you want to throw me in again? Give me some time to recover!’

The other two professors rose as well and I shook hands all round. Even the demon. He just smiled, perfectly innocent.

Back in the waiting area, I dragged out my mobile phone and turned away from the receptionist with my hand over my mouth.

‘Office.’ It was John’s assistant.

‘This is a major emergency. It’s Emma, I need the Dark Lord right now,’ I hissed into the phone. ‘Wei?’

‘Oh, John, thank God, this is really big.’

‘What? Did you get it?’

‘One of the professors for my viva,’ I said softly, ‘was a level fifty-five looking for sanctuary.’

‘What did you arrange?’

‘I’m taking them on a tour of the Academy. Jan, the head, asked to see the facilities after hearing so much about them, and he wants to come too. I’ll be bringing both of them over in about twenty minutes.’

He was quiet for a moment. Then he spoke. ‘I’m sending Liu over there now to escort the three of you back. I’ll be on the ground floor here waiting. I’ll let it in past the seals. We’ll do a low-level tour, show them some of the basic hand-to-hand students, only up to the third floor. Emma, listen. This is very important. When I greet them on the ground floor, I will shake their hands. Understood?’

‘Got it,’ I whispered. ‘I’ll be ready for it.’ I hesitated. ‘This is a big one, John. Can Liu take it?’

‘Easily,’ he said. ‘Not a problem at all.’ He paused. ‘I’m assuming you made it anyway?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘but getting this…person is twenty times better. He says he offended One Two Two and has information for us.’

‘Yes!’ John said. ‘Did you find out where the original professor is?’

‘Apparently in his office, bound, with his memory wiped, from what I gathered.’

John was silent. Then he spoke with obvious satisfaction. ‘That is extremely good. This is a really big one.’ His voice was full of admiration. ‘Well done, Emma, what a coup. This is the biggest demon tamed in a very, very long time. I hope it lives up to its word; it will be extremely useful. Damn, but I’m impressed.’

‘I just hope it really is tamed,’ I said. ‘If it isn’t, we’re in big trouble letting it in past the seals.’

‘Oh, and congratulations on the MBA as well,’ he said.