Small Shen Read online

  ‘Please stay,’ Gold said, putting on his best girlish charm. ‘I’d love to show you what I can do. It’s quite remarkable, I assure you.’

  Leo grinned. ‘Sure. I’d love to see some really big ones go down.’

  Xuan Wu opened the jar and there was a hiss of escaping air. He reached in and pulled out one of the beads. ‘Level twenty. Is that too high to start?’

  ‘No, my Lord,’ Gold said, readying himself. ‘And I can gauge their levels myself once you’ve released them, no need to tell me.’

  Xuan Wu tossed the bead onto the floor at the base of the mirrors. It formed into an ordinary-looking Chinese man in his mid-forties. He leapt straight for Gold.

  Gold generated a ball of chi about fifty centimetres across and threw it at the demon, who exploded and dissipated into black feathery streamers.

  ‘Generate the largest ball of chi you can,’ Xuan Wu said.

  ‘Please move back, Leo,’ Gold said. ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’

  Leo shifted so that he stood against the wall.

  Gold generated a ball of chi more than a metre across.

  ‘Is that the best you can do?’ Xuan Wu said.

  Gold concentrated and added another ten centimetres to the diameter of the glowing golden ball.

  ‘Whoa,’ Leo said softly.

  ‘Can you change the colour?’ Xuan Wu said.

  ‘What colour would you like, my Lord?’ Gold said.

  ‘White.’

  Gold nodded and concentrated. The gold chi turned into a shining ball of silver.

  ‘Good. Turn it back, then re-centre it. Well done.’

  Gold inhaled deeply, turned the chi back to its usual golden colour, then reabsorbed it.

  ‘Move back, Leo, I’m going to pull out a really big one.’ Xuan Wu shuffled through the contents of the jar, then held his hand above it and concentrated. A bead flew out of the jar into his outstretched hand. He tossed the bead onto the floor. It formed into a short, wizened elderly woman in a blood-red cheongsam.

  Gold let his breath out in a long hiss. ‘How did you catch this, my Lord?’

  ‘It’s the only one I have, Gold. Leo, watch carefully. If we’re very lucky it will take True Form and you’ll see what one of these looks like.’

  The woman glanced from Gold to Xuan Wu. When she saw the Dark Lord her face filled with loathing. She grew. Her cheongsam turned black and tightened until it fitted her form, then disappeared completely.

  Her skin disappeared as well. Her legs merged together and formed serpentine coils with black scales. She grew and twisted and lengthened until she was nearly two metres long.

  Her front end appeared as a man with the skin taken off. Her back end was a black snake that writhed over the floor, spreading a deadly trail of toxic slime.

  ‘Snake Mother,’ Leo said softly.

  The Mother raced towards Gold.

  He held out his hands and bound it. Its tail writhed on the floor as its front end struggled to reach him.

  Gold’s voice was strained as he laboured to hold the demon. ‘I can’t kill this one with chi, my Lord, it would blow me up.’

  ‘Leo, grab a sword and take its head off,’ Xuan Wu said.

  ‘Quickly!’ Gold said.

  Leo raced to the weapons rack, grabbed a dark sword, pulled it from its scabbard, and sliced the demon’s head off. The head fell to the floor and dissipated quickly. The body and serpentine back end writhed on the floor for some time before they dissipated too.

  Gold dropped his hands and panted. ‘That was too big for me, my Lord. What level was that one?’

  ‘Fifty-five,’ Xuan Wu said. ‘I thought you said you could gauge them?’

  Gold was embarrassed. ‘Not if they’re that big.’

  ‘If that was the best you can do then you require some work. I will spend time with you to build your skills. A stone like you should be able to produce much more than that, particularly one made of a noble metal as you are.’

  Gold sagged. ‘You are quite correct, my Lord. I need to be better if I am to defend your lady.’

  ‘Good.’ Xuan Wu waved to Leo and the guard returned the sword to the rack. ‘Gold, Leo, dismissed. Gold, I will not need you until two tomorrow, same as Jade. The time is your own. If you wish to spend it with Leo, you have my permission, both of you. Leo, same for you. Take the afternoon off.’

  Gold grinned broadly, then pointed the grin at Leo. Wanna take off now?

  ‘Just let me grab a couple of things from my room and we can go,’ Leo said. He bowed slightly to Xuan Wu. ‘Mr Chen? My Lord?’

  ‘Go,’ Xuan Wu said, his eyes full of amusement.

  Leo left the training room and Gold followed. ‘Where’s your room?’

  ‘In here,’ Leo said. He turned left and went to the second door along. ‘There’s a couple of spare bedrooms here, but Mr and Mrs Chen are planning to have a family, so —’

  Gold stopped dead. ‘They plan to have children?’

  Leo stopped as well, his hand on the door. ‘Yeah, I suppose so. Is this a big thing for you guys?’

  Gold shook his head. ‘The minute they have any sort of child the demons will be after it. All of them. He is Heaven’s greatest defender, and the demons would give anything to have control of him.’

  Leo opened the door and went in. ‘Terrific.’ He stopped again, just inside the room, and Gold nearly walked into him. ‘What do you mean “any sort” of child?’

  Gold smiled gently. ‘You know what he really is, don’t you?’

  ‘Oh my God.’

  ‘Yep. He’s never had a human wife before, but he has quite a few lovely little reptilian children. His Number One Son for many years was a turtle Shen.’

  Leo shook his head. ‘This is so weird.’

  ‘I’d better not show you me then.’

  Leo turned to Gold. ‘Show me you? That doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘I won’t show you my stone.’

  ‘Your stone?’

  ‘Well, me, actually. I’m a stone. This human form,’ he raised the female form’s arms, ‘is just a shell.’

  ‘A shell?’

  ‘Yep.’ Gold dropped his arms and brushed one hand along Leo’s bare arm. ‘The real me, the stone, is inside this form. You can see it if you like.’

  Leo hesitated, watching Gold, then shook his head. ‘Enough weirdness for one day, I think. Maybe later. You still want me to show you around?’

  ‘Sure.’

  Gold leaned on the railing next to Leo and watched the tug boats pull barges through the steady stream of water-borne traffic on the harbour below them. The sky to the left faded to lilac as the sun set. The packed high-rise apartment blocks on both sides of the harbour began to light up. Across the harbour an enormous neon sign for a Japanese electronics company flared to brilliant life.

  Gold sighed. ‘This is wonderful.’

  Leo leaned his forearms on the railing. ‘I’m glad it’s a clear evening so you could see.’

  Gold shifted sideways to press the female form into Leo and smiled up into his eyes. ‘So many wonderful things to see.’

  Leo smiled back. ‘You can stop coming on to me, my friend. I’m afraid you’re out of luck.’

  Gold turned back to the harbour and thumped the rail. ‘You should have told me you’re spoken for.’

  ‘Oh, I’m not spoken for,’ Leo said. He stood straighter, held the rail, and spoke softly. ‘I’m HIV positive. Mr Chen somehow clears the virus from me, but I don’t want to put anyone at risk.’

  Gold smiled up again, cheeky. ‘You won’t put me at risk. I’m a stone; I can’t catch any sort of virus.’ He shifted closer to Leo and put the female form’s arm around his waist. ‘You don’t need to protect me.’

  Leo wrapped his arm around Gold’s shoulder and squeezed him gently. ‘Then it’s a terrible shame, because I like you and I’ve enjoyed your company. But you were really much cuter as a guy.’

  ‘This just gets better and better,’ Gold said.
‘Is there a place where we can go? I can’t change out in the middle of the viewing platform here.’

  ‘We can go back up to the Peak apartment if you like. I’d love to see you change again. I’d like to see the stone, too.’

  Gold stiffened. ‘The Dark Lord will allow it?’

  Leo chuckled and his arm moved over Gold’s back. ‘Sure. He doesn’t mind at all, he told me himself.’ His voice saddened. ‘Not that I can bring anyone home anyway.’

  ‘Well, you can now,’ Gold said. He laughed quietly. ‘Look at us, arms around each other, perfectly normal boy and girl. Let’s go up to the Peak and be a perfectly normal boy and boy.’

  ‘None of you Shen are normal,’ Leo said, his voice a low rumble. He dropped his arm from Gold’s shoulder and took Gold’s hand. ‘Let’s go.’

  Gold smiled at the view before he turned to follow Leo. It had been a long time.

  ‘You’re too big and this bed’s too small,’ Gold said, muffled by the covers. ‘How tall are you anyway?’

  ‘Six five.’

  ‘Wah, that’s huge. Can’t you get a bigger goddamn bed?’

  Leo turned over and threw his arm across Gold’s chest. ‘No. Deal with it.’ He pulled himself up to sit. ‘Hey. Can I see the stone?’

  Gold sat up as well and leaned his back on Leo, relishing the soft dark skin. Leo was rock-hard muscle beneath Gold’s back. ‘Sure. You really want to see?’

  ‘It’s not gross or anything, is it?’

  ‘Nope.’ Gold reached into his human form’s chest and pulled the stone out. He unwound the chain holding the black turtle and handed the stone to Leo.

  Leo turned it over in his hands. ‘And this is you.’

  ‘Yep. Like I said, what’s sitting next to you is just a shell.’

  ‘What was that around it?’ Leo said, holding the stone as if it was very fragile.

  ‘Oh, this?’ Gold raised the turtle pendant. ‘The Dark Lord gave this to me about a hundred and fifty years ago so that we could communicate.’

  Leo’s body tensed behind Gold.

  Gold laughed. ‘No, no, nothing like that. I was working as an agent for him. Here in Hong Kong, actually. It was a long time ago.’

  ‘Oh, all right.’ Leo ran his hand over the surface of the stone. ‘It’s smooth and soft. I really like touching it.’

  Gold shivered. ‘Don’t stop.’

  Leo traced his finger over one of the veins of gold in the stone and Gold threw his head back into Leo’s shoulder.

  ‘Oh, now this is interesting,’ Leo said. He rubbed his palm over the stone and Gold went completely rigid. When Leo stopped rubbing, Gold collapsed with a sigh.

  ‘Very interesting.’ Leo traced his fingers across the stone, turning it over in his hands. He rubbed it between both palms and Gold squeaked.

  ‘Bad?’ Leo said.

  Gold panted. ‘No. No. Good.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Very, very good.’

  Leo flopped back against the bedhead and held the stone. ‘You promised dinner.’ He rubbed the stone and Gold moaned. ‘You gonna buy us dinner?’

  ‘After,’ Gold said, and pulled himself on top.

  ‘Leo.’

  ‘Hn?’

  ‘Thanks for dinner, I had a great time. But I have to go, and there’s something I need to tell you.’

  ‘Wha’?’

  ‘When you see me tomorrow afternoon, I’ll look at least twenty years younger.’

  That woke him. Leo rolled over and screwed up his face. ‘What?’

  ‘You remember Lord Xuan said I could take True Form for a while? It’s because I look so old. My normal human form is about twenty, twenty-one years old in appearance. I don’t normally look this old.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Gold sighed. ‘It’s a long story. But when you see me tomorrow, I’ll look at least fifteen years younger than you.’ He dropped his voice. ‘I hope that isn’t a problem for you.’

  Leo wrapped his arms around Gold. ‘Will you still be a guy?’

  Gold smiled slightly. ‘For you I will.’

  Leo’s hands drifted lower. ‘Then it’s not a problem at all.’ He pulled Gold closer. ‘It’s late, must be past midnight. Stay the night.’

  ‘No, I have to go back to my apartment and sort stuff out. And since I can take True Form for a while, it’ll be much easier as a stone.’

  ‘Your choice.’ Leo brightened. ‘Wanna come out on the town with me Saturday night? Meet some of my friends?’

  Gold moved back slightly to grin with delight. ‘You want to show me off?’

  ‘Hell, yeah,’ Leo said.

  Gold moved his face closer to Leo’s so that their mouths nearly touched. ‘Do you always fall into bed with guys you’ve just met like this?’

  ‘When they’re as cute as you I do,’ Leo breathed, and closed the gap.

  Two days later Gold reported for work at the apartment at 8 a.m. sharp. Leo was waiting for him. They sat at the small four-seat kitchen table together as Monica busily washed the breakfast dishes.

  ‘The Dark Lord is practising martial arts in the training room right now,’ Leo said. ‘He gets up real early. Michelle, on the other hand, usually sleeps until at least 10 a.m., later if she’s performing. She’s a real night owl.’

  ‘So what do you do in the mornings?’ Gold said.

  ‘After the Dark Lord’s done warming up, he’ll give me a lesson for an hour or so; he’ll probably want to teach you as well…’

  Yes. Present yourself for training with Leo in forty-five minutes, the Dark Lord said into their heads.

  Leo jumped. ‘I’m still trying to get used to that.’

  Gold grinned wryly. ‘I had a human wife once who never got used to it. In the end she just asked me to stop.’

  Leo stared at him.

  Gold shrugged. ‘I’m not human. I’m not even really organic. I’m a stone, my friend. Gender doesn’t really apply to us.’

  ‘You gonna fool around with chicks while you’re with me?’ Leo growled. ‘’Cause if you are, we can stop now. I’m not letting you put anybody in danger.’

  ‘I’m not going to fool around with anybody.’

  Leo studied Gold for a moment, then relaxed.

  ‘You trust me?’ Gold said with delight.

  ‘The Dark Lord trusts you. That’s good enough for me,’ Leo said. ‘It’s not the whole “be faithful to me” trash. It’s the virus. I don’t want to put anybody at risk.’

  ‘You won’t be.’

  Leo nodded, confident. ‘Good.’ Monica gave him a mug of black coffee, and he nodded to her in thanks. ‘After we train, we’ll take Michelle to the gym. Then back here, or out to meet someone for lunch, and then after lunch down to the academy.’

  ‘Wudang?’

  ‘Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts! She spends a lot of time there, they’ve only been running degree-level programs in music for a few years, she’s been helping them to develop the programmes. She’ll practise for an hour or so, then —’

  ‘Practise what?’ Gold interrupted.

  ‘Singing, dumbass. It’s what she does. After she’s done practising, she’ll spend some time there, maybe doing a master class, or mentoring some students, course development, something like that. She usually doesn’t finish down there until at least five.’

  ‘She’s a busy lady.’

  ‘When she’s performing the schedule will be a lot more packed, she’ll spend a lot of time rehearsing. She’s extremely hands-on.’

  ‘You mean she drives everybody nuts.’

  Leo sighed. ‘Before, she travelled the world. She toured the US. She was sought after by different opera companies. Now she’s married, she’s become very old-fashioned and refuses to leave her husband.’

  ‘That is safer for her.’

  ‘It may be, but she misses the contact with the other players.’

  ‘So she is driving everybody nuts.’

  About two weeks later, Gold and Leo waited for Michelle in the academy’s te
aroom, part of their daily routine.

  ‘Gin,’ Gold said.

  ‘Dammit!’ Leo said. ‘You sure you’ve never played this before?’

  ‘It works very much like mah jongg,’ Gold said. ‘Only simpler.’

  Michelle entered the tearoom. ‘Good, you are both here. I have a break for about an hour. Will you accompany me to the open space across the road? It would be good to be out of this stifling atmosphere.’

  Gold and Leo rose.

  ‘Our pleasure, ma’am,’ Leo said. ‘If Gold and I play any more gin, he’s gonna clean me out.’

  Michelle patted Gold’s shoulder as they went out. ‘Do not take all of Leo’s money, little Shen, he needs it to buy drinks for all his friends in those bars.’

  ‘It’s okay, Michelle,’ Leo said gruffly. ‘Most of the drinks are for Gold anyway.’

  ‘I’m learning a variety of alcoholic drinks that I never knew existed,’ Gold said. ‘Bourbon is awesome!’

  ‘Champagne is better, especially after a successful show,’ Michelle said. They crossed the busy Wan Chai street, hurrying between the slow-moving vehicles, to the park. The park was an open concreted area with benches beneath tired-looking trees in brick planter boxes. Michelle sighed and looked around. ‘This is not a park.’

  ‘The gentlemen over there playing chess would disagree with you,’ Gold said.

  Three elderly Chinese men sat on stools around a Chinese chessboard on a concrete table, loudly discussing their moves. The board was a piece of card marked out in a grid, some of the squares had crosses through them. The pieces were simple wooden discs with printed characters indicating the piece.

  Curious, Michelle approached them. ‘I have never seen a game like that before.’

  As they neared the demons, Gold grabbed her arm. ‘They’re demons waiting for us,’ he said. ‘Turn around and walk away now, ma’am.’

  Michelle stopped. ‘Are you sure? They look so harmless.’

  ‘Yeah, you sure?’ Leo said.

  Before Gold could answer, the old men all rose, studying Michelle carefully. They moved slowly towards her, crouched as if ready to spring.