The Burning Man

2

The sounds of battle echoed as Shavi and Tom moved quickly away from the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

‘I do not like leaving Church behind,’ Shavi said.

‘We’re not fighting men. Our job is to find something we can use to convince them to tell us what we need to know.’

Shavi scanned the expansive precincts of the Forbidden City, now bathed in shafts of sunlight breaking through the silvery clouds. ‘What are we to look for?’

‘If you had half a brain, you’d already know.’ Tom polished the lenses of his spectacles superciliously. ‘You saw the reflection over the throne. Those things are demons … usurpers. The true rulers of this Great Dominion are too powerful to have been eradicated by such as them.’

‘So they will be imprisoned somewhere.’

‘I’m sure they will be very grateful if we can free them. Now enough of your stupid mutterings and put that monstrous eye to good use.’

A moment later Shavi and Tom were running north, past the smaller Hall of Preserving Harmony, leaving the ceremonial Outer Court behind, with its discreet symbolism designed to represent heaven. Ahead lay the Inner Court with its more complex arrangement of halls and avenues, designed in the shape of the Kun trigram to represent Earth.

The Guei were everywhere, heads down in their grey spirit-existence, tramping their meaningless paths. But as Tom and Shavi approached the entrance to the Inner Court, a change came over the shadowless ghosts. Across the sweep of the Forbidden City, as one the Guei turned their pointing hands towards Shavi and Tom.

Tom cursed under his breath. ‘I could have put money on that happening.’

The Guei nearest said in a high-pitched screech, ‘I see shadows!’

‘Why aren’t you speaking Chinese?’ Tom shouted back.

‘I think you would be better off putting your energy into running.’ Before Shavi could move, the Guei lunged. It reached him in the blink of an eye, talons tearing through his shirt and drawing blood.

‘I thought ghosts were supposed to be insubstantial,’ Tom snarled.

The Guei ran silently towards them from all corners of the city. As each one saw Tom and Shavi, it shouted, ‘I see shadows!’

Shavi threw off the Guei thrashing viciously for his throat and ran with Tom towards the Palace of Heavenly Purity. The Guei swarmed, not even a single footstep echoing in the eerie silence.

‘Bloody stupid idea,’ Tom gasped. ‘He’s gone and got us all killed.’

Shavi and Tom ducked and leaped through the attacking ghosts, feeling fingers tear through their hair and scrape their cheeks, each blow coming a fraction closer. Ahead, the Guei swept to close off their path.

‘See?’ Tom shouted. ‘I’m right. I’m always bloody right! Dead as a doornail in a foreign city, and I can’t even pay my debts!’

Burning blue energy flared across the court.

Tom and Shavi were thrown to the flags and the Guei were driven back, hands in front of their dead eyes, shrieking silently. From the shelter of the Palace of Heavenly Purity darted Ruth, wielding the Spear of Lugh from which bolts of sapphire energy still discharged. She helped a beaming Shavi to his feet.

‘You escaped Veitch!’ he said.

‘No time for talk. I’m tapping into some huge reservoir of power here, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last.’ Her features were defiant, her eyes constantly watching the circling Guei. Shavi thought how much she had grown in stature since she had thrown off the Void’s fake persona.

‘You don’t have to leave it to the last moment to rescue me,’ Tom said. ‘Earlier will do.’

With the Guei close at their backs, Ruth led them at a run into the shade of the Palace of Heavenly Virtue.

‘They aren’t going to give us the time to do what we need to do,’ Tom said.

Yet barely had the words left his mouth when the Guei came to a halt and turned as one to look back towards the Hall of Supreme Harmony, their heads bowed deferentially.

‘Are they worshipping?’ Shavi said.

In the distance, a figure moved quickly through the ghosts.