Black Jade Page 21

  ‘The Jade Emperor’s completely lost it,’ the King said. ‘This is madness. If you stop it now we can salvage something out of this. I don’t want to kill these poor terrified humans, there is no honour in it. It will be a massacre.’

  ‘I still have no choice.’

  ‘Do the sensible thing: surrender and renounce your allegiance. You won’t have to obey this madman any longer, and every life on the field will be saved.’

  John was silent.

  ‘You’ll kill them anyway,’ I said.

  ‘Not if you turn and take responsibility for them,’ the King said to John. ‘Call it off now, pledge allegiance to me, and I won’t put you in a jade cage. Instead, I will give you your Mountain and your Northern Heavens to rule independently. They will be untouched and they will be yours.’

  John’s head snapped up and he looked into the Demon King’s blood-coloured eyes.

  ‘You will have complete jurisdiction over your North and your Mountain. You can run the places as you see fit. Make them into refuges for the remaining Celestials if you want. We have to do something to avoid this bloodbath. I don’t want to be held responsible for this. My newly conquered subjects will hate me.’ The King pushed the portfolio towards John and placed the pen on top. ‘Please, Ah Wu, do the right thing by your friends, your family and your subjects: surrender the Heavens and swear allegiance to me now. I don’t want to kill every single terrified soldier out there for no good reason.’

  ‘I am sworn to the Jade Emperor,’ John said.

  ‘You’ve changed allegiance before! Do it now, to protect the humans.’

  ‘Changing allegiance would not be protecting them,’ John said. ‘If I swear allegiance to you and join your corrupt administration, I will betray them to demons who relish making humans suffer. The humans come first. They always come first.’

  ‘Throwing them to their deaths is not putting them first!’ the King said, sweeping one hand towards our army. ‘When I defeat you in battle and occupy the Heavens, I’ll be forced to use terror to subdue the population. If you capitulate now, they will follow your lead and the result will be a peaceful change of administration. Please.’ He placed his hand on the portfolio. ‘Save your subjects this suffering, swallow your damn stubborn pride, and admit that I’ve won.’ He rounded on me. ‘Tell him, Emma, for fuck’s sake. Stop this madness now.’

  ‘John,’ I said, without looking away from the Demon King.

  ‘Yes, Emma?’

  ‘Has the Jade Emperor ever made a mistake in his leadership that has led to a Celestial defeat?’

  John hesitated for a long moment, then said, ‘Yes, he has.’

  I tried not to let my shock show. That wasn’t the answer I’d been expecting.

  The Demon King’s face filled with triumph. ‘He made exceptionally bad decisions a dozen times during the Shang/Zhou. And he’s been leading you towards this defeat for more than twenty years. If he’d permitted you to live with Michelle on the Earthly and provided you with the resources to defend her adequately, none of this would have happened. You wouldn’t have been forced to set up such a small, exposed and understaffed residence that put all of you at risk. It’s his fault we’re all here right now.’

  ‘Is that correct?’ I said, remembering how John had used Leo, a mortal human, as guard when all the Celestial Masters were available to him. ‘The Jade Emperor wouldn’t permit you the resources to guard Michelle properly?’

  John hesitated, then nodded without looking at me.

  ‘I’d like to discuss this silently with him,’ I said.

  ‘Go right ahead,’ the King said, obviously relieved. ‘Talk some goddamn sense into him.’

  If you surrender, what will the Jade Emperor do? Can he still force the army to fight? I said.

  No. The army is mine, as First Heavenly General. If I turn, the Jade Emperor will have no choice but to throw open the gates of the Celestial Palace and surrender the Heavens.

  Do you believe what he says about the Mountain and the North? That he’ll let us stay there and look after the refugees?

  You’ve never asked me, Emma, he said, if it was true when he said he was a human child with her feet bound. China has been binding the feet of its women for a thousand years. This King is obviously much, much older than that.

  I assumed it was true, I said, dark realisation blossoming within me. John was right: the King and Yue Gui had been demon lovers in Hell long before the practice started. The Demon King couldn’t possibly have been a human woman with her feet bound. It was a lie?

  Of course it was a lie. He pinpoints your greatest weaknesses and tells you what you want to hear, confirming your existing beliefs. One of your weaknesses is your need to fight the oppression of women. He played on that.

  It was all a lie? He was never a child with her feet bound?

  It’s possible that it is the truth — foot binding has been around for a very long time — but the chance is vanishingly small. He’s been female in the past, all of the biggest ones have, but lying is like breathing for demons. They must be cunning and deceitful simply to survive.

  And now he’s offering you the thing you want most in the world, I said, your Mountain and Heavens safe, and your subjects protected. Is that a lie too?

  Are we willing to risk finding out? If I turn and pledge allegiance to him, I will be compelled to obey every cruel order he gives me.

  But if we fight, we’ll lose.

  Unless the Jade Emperor has, as you said, something up his sleeve.

  My spirit crashed like a great rock. This all comes down to whether or not you trust the Jade Emperor. His silence could be a test of your trust.

  No. He would not do that to me. If he had a secret weapon, he would share it with me. My guess is that he has some wildly improbable solution that will no longer exist if he as much as whispers it to any of us.

  Tears filled my eyes and I wiped them away. ‘This is impossible.’

  ‘I know,’ the Demon King said, his voice full of pain. ‘How many soldiers are lined up there?’

  ‘Five thousand, one hundred and three,’ John said.

  ‘How many are mortal?’

  ‘Four thousand, eight hundred and sixty-five,’ John said. ‘Two thousand, two hundred and thirty-four have families: spouses and children. Three thousand, eight hundred and sixty-nine have living parents or siblings. More than twelve thousand people will have their lives destroyed when these last remaining fighters are lost.’

  ‘They’ll hate you,’ the King said. ‘They’ll hate me. We can stop this. The daylight’s fading. Decide.’

  ‘History will judge us,’ I said.

  ‘So make the right fucking decision,’ the King said, his voice a low growl.

  John rose and bowed to the Demon King. ‘I will see you on the field. Remember our agreement. I will enter a cage in True Form if you will keep my family safe.’

  He put his hand on my shoulder and teleported me back to Persimmon Tree, left me there and returned to the platform.

  He drew his sword and raised it. ‘Prepare for attack!’

  ‘What happened? What did you say? What did they say?’ my family asked me all at once.

  ‘Turn the television off,’ I said. ‘You don’t want to see what happens next.’

  ‘No,’ my mother said. ‘We trust John. He and the Jade Emperor will protect us. Everything will be fine.’

  ‘You can’t see the future, Mum,’ I said, moving to turn the television off. ‘It’s all bad.’

  My father took my wrist to stop me. ‘She’s right. We have to trust the Jade Emperor. John beat the demons before. They can do it.’

  ‘Oh god,’ Jennifer said, and I turned to see.

  The demons were approaching at a run and thundered through the barricades. The vanguard were trapped on the razor wire, and the rest of the demons climbed over their bodies to reach our forces.

  The Celestial army charged to meet them.

  I was glad for the lack of sound.
The clash of metal from the initial contact, and the ensuing screams from the soldiers in the front lines who died in the first minutes of battle, always broke my heart.

  The ground shook and I staggered, then looked around, bewildered.

  ‘What was that?’ my mother said.

  ‘Earthquake?’ Greg said.

  ‘What’s that?’ Amanda shouted, pointing at the screen.

  The platform that John and Er Lang had been standing on was gone, crushed under a massive scaled . . . thing. It looked like a grey snake’s coils but must have been ten metres across. The camera showed nothing but the wide body of the reptile; the head wasn’t in view.

  ‘They created a giant Snake Mother,’ Greg said with dismay. ‘I cannot believe this.’

  A roar shook the earth again, and we all held onto the couch as the ground shifted beneath us.

  ‘That thing is huge,’ my mother said. ‘We can hear it all the way from here? It must be fifty kilometres away!’

  ‘Demons,’ said a voice as big as the Earth itself, and the remaining pockets of fighting stopped. Soldiers from both sides ran from the Snake Mother in panic.

  John, is that a huge Snake Mother? I said.

  No, he said, his voice full of wonder. It is Nu Wa.

  ‘Oh lord, it’s Nu Wa,’ I said.

  ‘She’s enormous!’ Greg said.

  Nu Wa lowered her head to speak and it became visible on the screen. She had the face of a beautiful woman, but no other human features.

  ‘Demons,’ she said again, and we heard it from the Mountain. ‘These are my children and you will not hurt them. Be gone!’

  The demon soldiers stood frozen, watching her. Then they must have been given the order because they attacked the Celestial army again. Some of our soldiers were still staring at Nu Wa and were taken by surprise, killed before they knew what was happening.

  ‘You will not touch my children!’ Nu Wa roared.

  She slammed the length of her snake body onto the ground, her face hitting the grass, and the earth shook so violently that the remote controls in front of us bounced off the coffee table. The Celestial soldiers were untouched, but the demons exploded as one, turning into black dust that quickly disappeared.

  We sat stunned for a long moment.

  ‘Holy shit,’ Greg whispered. ‘She destroyed them all.’

  ‘What happened?’ my mother said.

  Greg was shaking his head with wonder.

  ‘Emma?’ my father said.

  Nu Wa raised her coils again, and the Celestial army stood and looked around, bewildered.

  John, what happened? I said.

  Nu Wa destroyed the entire demon army. Every demon on the field is gone.

  I jumped up. ‘Yi Hao, are you okay?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Yi Hao said from the doorway. ‘Has it started?’

  ‘I think we just won,’ I said with wonder.

  18

  ‘We won!’ Jennifer yelled, throwing her arms into the air. She embraced Greg and kissed him hard, then leapt up and ran into the boys’ room. ‘We won! We’re safe!’

  My parents hugged each other, and Amanda and Alan touched foreheads. Greg had a huge grin on his face.

  I watched the screen: the Celestial army were celebrating, jumping with joy and embracing each other. Nu Wa had changed to her small matronly human form and John was holding her hands and speaking earnestly to her, with Er Lang on one knee next to them.

  I fell to sit on the couch, feeling as if a huge weight had lifted off me. My premonitions had been wrong, because Nu Wa was too primal and ancient to be predicted. It was over and we could start living our lives without the threat of the demons. My dream of sharing a peaceful family life with John on the Mountain had come true.

  Greg came to me and put his hand out, and I took it. He teleported me to the battlefield, and I knelt in front of Nu Wa.

  The army had broken ranks and were yelling, some of them still jumping up and down. Many were on their phones talking to loved ones with tears streaming down their faces. The noise was immense.

  ‘The destruction of the platform was a small price to pay,’ John was saying to Nu Wa. ‘Immensely preferable to the destruction of the Heavens.’

  ‘I suppose you’re right,’ Nu Wa said. ‘And here she is, the Turtle’s Folly. So young and small to be so wise.’

  ‘We serpent women are exceptional, my Lady,’ I said.

  ‘That we are,’ she said with amusement, tapping my head. ‘Up you get, dear, and you too, Er Lang. Now where’s that old fool who likes to think he runs things?’

  The Jade Emperor appeared next to us, and everybody except Nu Wa fell to one knee again.

  ‘Thank you for coming,’ he said. ‘I knew you couldn’t sit by and let the Heavens fall.’

  ‘You shouldn’t have relied on me,’ she said. ‘It was a terrible decision. There was a good chance that you’d all be at their mercy right now. But I suppose I should thank you for giving me the opportunity to atone.’

  ‘All the Heavens are in your debt, Goddess,’ he said. ‘Rise, everyone, and thank the Mother.’

  ‘The Demon King and his most senior lieutenants escaped before I destroyed them,’ she said as we all stood. ‘Don’t waste any time meeting with them to negotiate a new treaty with Hell. They’ll be plotting again straight away.’

  ‘Xuan Tian,’ the Jade Emperor said.

  ‘Majesty,’ John said. ‘And we need to clear the demons from the Earthly. We still have a great deal of work to do.’

  ‘Will you stay, Lady?’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘I’m sure the citizens of the Heavens would like to show their gratitude.’ He nodded to John. ‘Ah Wu, if you don’t mind hosting the banquet for the families who have not been made homeless? The ones who have lost everything should be shown the greatest support, and I will provide them with a celebration at the Celestial Palace.’

  ‘We would be honoured, Majesty,’ John said.

  Jade, did you get that? I said.

  How many demons can I take food shopping on the Earthly? she said.

  Take as many as you need.

  Budget?

  If you don’t go completely overboard with the spending I will be very disappointed.

  She was silent for a moment, then said, I need to work out what to save for the wedding. Some dancers at this one, but we won’t use martial arts demonstrations —

  Jade, I said, I have things to do.

  Red and gold for the colour scheme of course, but — She stopped talking mid-sentence.

  ‘I need to contact the Demon King and start the treaty negotiations now,’ John said.

  ‘Go,’ the Jade Emperor said.

  John took my hands. I’ll be back directly. Wait for me. I fell into his dark eyes, full of quiet joy at our victory. No displays of affection in front of the Mother. We will have to celebrate privately later.

  I raised his hands to my face and kissed them anyway. We have all the time in the world.

  ‘You two must marry immediately,’ Nu Wa said.

  ‘I agree,’ the Jade Emperor said.

  ‘We can marry now?’ I said, and looked back to see the Jade Emperor beaming at us. I turned back to John. He was gazing down at me with the same intensity that I felt.

  ‘Of course,’ the Emperor said. ‘But do not hurry to wed; take your time to organise it. We want this to be the grandest and most lavish wedding the Heavens have ever seen.’

  ‘No,’ John and I moaned quietly, and touched foreheads.

  Nu Wa chuckled.

  ‘It will happen, so deal with it,’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘Ah Wu, chase down the Demon King and begin negotiations immediately.’

  ‘Majesty.’ John kissed the top of my head and disappeared.

  The Jade Emperor smiled down at Nu Wa. ‘Lady? My wife awaits us at the Celestial Palace. She has come down from the Peach Garden to see you and says it has been far too long since you last talked. Tea?’

  ‘I would be delighted,’ she said.r />
  ‘Lady Emma, dismissed. Call upon Er Lang and the Four Winds to assist you in re-establishing our administration.’

  ‘Majesty,’ I said.

  The Jade Emperor’s head shot up and his expression went blank. ‘What is that? That should not be there.’

  He turned to look. The Demon King and a few of his most senior commanders stood at the other end of the field.

  Nu Wa studied them as well. ‘They have returned,’ she said.

  John reappeared. ‘The Demon King is here.’

  ‘Good. We can use his marquee to negotiate his surrender,’ I said.

  A hammering roar became audible at the edge of hearing, from the other side of the field where the Demon King stood.

  ‘Helicopters?’ I said. ‘Who brought helicopters?’

  Five helicopter gunships appeared over the horizon. A convoy of armoured personnel carriers, at least twenty of them, drove beneath them, lifting a cloud of dust. They stopped on the far side of the field, three hundred metres away, and the helicopters landed behind them, blowing more dust into the air. A battalion of European human mercenaries, fully equipped in modern battledress, some armed with automatic rifles and some with handheld rocket launchers, scrambled out of the personnel carriers. A couple of big trucks drove up and disgorged more soldiers.

  ‘Reform the lines!’ Er Lang shouted, running down to the army. ‘Reform! We will be attacked!’

  Our soldiers quickly ran to retake their positions. Some scrabbled around on the ground, looking for their weapons.

  ‘Humans,’ John said with dismay. ‘He has humans fighting for him.’

  Nu Wa’s expression was infinitely sad. ‘I cannot help you with this. I will not harm my children. Any of my children. All humans are sacred,’ she said, and disappeared.

  More soldiers appeared through the dust. The Demon King had thousands of them.

  ‘The Heavens have never fought modern Earthly forces before,’ John said.

  ‘And we never will,’ the Jade Emperor said. ‘Disable them without harming them. We protect humans, we do not kill them.’

  ‘Celestials kill humans all the time,’ I said. ‘This is no different. They’re attacking us. We have the right to defend ourselves.’