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‘Both of us have caught glimpses of him though,’ Yue Gui said, and Martin nodded agreement.
‘You have?’ Simone said, visibly brightening. ‘You’ve seen Daddy?’ She jiggled slightly with excitement. ‘Did he say anything?’
‘We have caught glimpses,’ Yue Gui said with sympathy. ‘His Turtle and his Serpent are at opposite ends of the world. They cry. They seem to be searching for one another — and for you.’
‘And for you,’ I said.
‘We are reptiles,’ Yue Gui said. ‘We lay our eggs and leave them. That is the Way.’
The demons cleared the dishes, and Martin poured more tea all around. I flicked my tongue above it to test the temperature, then carefully lowered my snout into the bowl to drink without tipping it over.
‘See? Told you you’d get there in the end,’ Simone said, waving her own teacup. ‘It just took practice.’
‘And if you used a larger bowl you wouldn’t have any issue with it at all,’ Martin said.
I pulled my dripping snout out of the tea bowl, then wiped it on a napkin laid on the table for me. ‘I’m not drinking out of a dog’s bowl, thank you very much.’
‘Dragon bowl!’ Martin said.
‘You are argumentative today, Ming Gui,’ I said sternly. ‘You need to take some time and meditate on your faults; you are lacking in filial piety towards your senior. You should be more modest and obedient.’
Simone nearly spat out her tea, and Martin’s mouth flopped open with delight.
Yue Gui toasted me with her teacup. ‘I could not have said it better myself, ma’am; you are quite correct in your clarification of Ming Gui’s faults. He should write a ten-page, seven-legged essay outlining his shortcomings and his plan for reparation.’
‘Be careful,’ Martin said with good humour. ‘I may just do that, and make all of you read it.’
Simone shook her hands over the table. ‘No, that’s really not necessary!’ She brightened. ‘But you can write an essay for me on the reproductive variety in different species of annelids.’
‘Worms?’
‘Worms.’
‘Wait, the whole phylum? That’s a hell of a lot of worms! Their reproductive variety is astounding — did you choose this topic yourself?’
Simone nodded. ‘I like worms.’ She sagged slightly. ‘But you’re right, it’s a huge topic.’
‘When’s it due?’ Martin said.
‘Two weeks from tomorrow.’
He put his hand out over the table. ‘Sounds like fun. I’ll help you. Deal?’
She shook his hand. ‘Deal. You like biology too?’
He shrugged. ‘Most interesting field of science there is. Some Celestial biology makes Earthly biology look very tame in comparison.’ He turned to me. ‘Now that we’re finished, I think it’s time to move to general matters at hand. There aren’t many cases for you to hear; I’ll provide you with a list in the morning.’
‘Is Sang Shen still going on about me living in the wrong part of the palace?’ I said.
‘No,’ Yue Gui said. ‘I talked to him and offered him a compromise.’
‘Which is?’
Martin cut in. ‘Emma, if we move the fittings from the Serpent Concubine Pavilion into the Pavilion of Dark Celestial Bliss, will you move there?’
‘That’s what I’ve been asking for! It would solve the whole problem, but they said the fittings couldn’t be moved without disrupting the fung shui of Dark Bliss. The pavilion was designed to be occupied by a human not a snake.’
‘We have a fung shui master who says it can be done with some alterations to the layout to counteract the excessive yang of a snake presence. It will mean making the northern part of the pavilion larger, adding a water feature of some sort and choosing more turtle motifs in the decoration.’
‘Sounds very nice,’ I said. ‘How much will it cost?’
He hesitated. ‘Ten jin of Celestial jade.’
‘Ten jin?’ I said, horrified.
‘That’s, like, ten ounces, isn’t it?’ Simone said. ‘About a million dollars? That’s a bit over the top.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s ten kilos. A hundred and sixty ounces. Ten cattys!’
‘That’s … what … sixteen mill?’ Simone said. ‘To add one room and a water feature? That’s ridiculous.’
‘We could have the whole goddamn pavilion knocked down and rebuilt for that,’ I said.
‘It’s made of aged Celestial teak and ebony from the plantations on the southern shores of the Northern Heavens — the trees from there take five hundred years to grow,’ Martin said. ‘The fittings are Earthly black and white jade trimmed with pure silver. The multicoloured floor tiles are semi-precious stones — topaz, garnet and tourmaline — and it will be hard to find stones that large again.’
I rested my head on the table. ‘I’ll just stay in the concubine quarters. It’s only Sang Shen who’s making a fuss about me moving.’ I raised my head. ‘Look, tell him that I’ll be happy to move into the Empress’s quarters, but he has to pay the ten jin to have it altered.’
Yue Gui nodded. ‘Good idea. I will tell him.’ She smiled slightly.
‘You really love tormenting him, don’t you, Jie Jie,’ Simone said.
Yue Gui shrugged. ‘He is in my custody to serve a sentence. And serve a sentence he will.’
‘Speaking of living quarters, there is one other matter, and then we have nothing else until tomorrow,’ Martin said. He pulled himself upright and spoke more formally. ‘Lady Emma, now that the Northern Heavens have been restored and are no longer a frigid wasteland, it would be most fitting to harmonious Celestial alignment if your family — your parents — were to be living in these Heavens rather than those in the West. This is where they belong as your family, and it is your filial duty to serve them closely. This is best achieved by them moving here.’
I stared at him, shocked. My parents had been living in the West for ten years and now he wanted them to move to a completely new — and strange — place?
‘I can’t see Nanna and Pop wanting to do that,’ Simone said mildly. ‘They’ve made a lot of friends in the West over the last ten years, Martin. I really think they’re more comfortable in the West.’
Martin opened his mouth to argue but I cut him off. ‘I will take the matter under advisement and discuss it with my parents.’
He nodded. ‘Very good, ma’am.’
CHAPTER 4
That evening Simone and I spread out on some beanbags in the Serpent Concubine Pavilion and watched a DVD together, she in her pyjamas and me stretched out next to her in serpent form. When the movie finished, she switched off the DVD and spread her arms. ‘Hug, Emma.’
I slithered next her and she held me close, my head resting on her shoulder.
‘I worry I’m gonna squeeze you and hurt you,’ she said. ‘You’re kinda soft and squishy under the scales.’
‘I think my ribs are pretty springy, and you’ve never hurt me yet,’ I said. I wished I could smile, but opening my mouth made my fangs slide down, which wasn’t a good look.
She kissed the end of my nose. ‘I’m going to bed. See you at breakfast.’
‘Night, Simone.’
She disappeared; she would travel invisible to the apartment she’d commandeered so that nobody would see her in her pyjamas. There were no human-suitable beds in my quarters.
I slithered into my own bedroom, which had a recessed floor area filled with beanbags, and a couple of infra-red heat lamps above to provide heat without light. My quarters were generally kept at a warmer temperature than was comfortable for humans but very pleasant by reptile standards. I put my head next to the edge of the sleeping recess and the stone from my ring, now in the filigree crown on my head, reached out a long green tendril and lifted itself and the crown onto the recess ledge. It grabbed a paper seal from the stack there, reached towards me and stuck the seal onto the top of my head between my eyes.
I stretched out under the ray lamps and performed a mild meditation cycle, moving my serpent chi through the length of my body. The serpent’s chi was different from both human and demon essence; darker and brighter at the same time, and colder because of my cold-bloodedness.
The stone moved around the edge of the recess so it was closer to my head.
‘You’ll be asleep yourself; you won’t know if the seal slips,’ I said drowsily.
‘You’re too casual about the consequences of losing that seal,’ the stone said.
I began to drift off, my vision blurring. ‘I’m more comfortable as a snake anyway; I doubt I’ll lose the form.’
‘I’ll make sure you don’t,’ the stone said, but I barely heard it.
The next morning I joined Simone in her apartment while she ate breakfast. She was already in her school uniform, and she checked the art deco mantle clock on the rosewood side table as she scooped up her cereal.
‘You still have time,’ I said.
She nodded, but finished quickly and bounced up. ‘I have swimming training after school so I’ll be late back.’
‘Stay down there. Monica and Leo can look after you,’ I said.
She hesitated, then shrugged. ‘Okay. I’ll come back on the weekend.’
‘How’s the swimming going?’
‘I’m second best on the team,’ she said proudly. ‘We have a meet in two weeks.’
‘Book me in,’ I said.
‘Already did.’ She came around the table, put her hand on the back of my neck and kissed the top of my head. ‘See you on the weekend, Emma.’
‘I’ll call you later,’ I said.
After she’d gone, I took myself over to the palace’s administrative centre. The Serpent Concubine Pavilion was on the western side of the palace complex, with only the servants’ quarters and the support areas — the laundry and kitchens — further north of it. There had only ever been one Serpent Concubine in the entire history of the palace, and nobody would say much about her. John had never bothered to have the Serpent Pavilion returned to a human-style dwelling, and nobody had spoken much about his reasons for that either. The servants wouldn’t even tell me whether the Serpent Concubine had died or had left him; they all suggested that I contact the Archivist for the full story.
The palace was divided into two rectangular areas: the residential section took up the northern half; the administrative section, the southern half. A four-metre internal wall with a single gate separated them, entirely blocking off one side from the other. Tradition called for the Emperor and his most senior advisors — and consorts — to be carried around the complex in sedan chairs, but John had never bothered with that, preferring to walk through the complex so he could check the status of the different areas as he passed. He was a very early — by a few hundred years — practitioner of ‘management by walking around’. In more recent times, apparently, he’d taken to riding a motorbike around the complex, occasionally doing outrageous jumps over some of the decorative semicircular bridges in the gardens. The resulting skid marks on the pristine white marble had caused the domestic demons much grief.
John’s welcome in the various sections of the palace would have been very different from mine. As my three-metre-long snake form slithered through the gardens, the demons either froze with terror or skittered away. I’d gone through all the support sections the first time I’d visited the palace, greeting the demons and trying to allay their fears, but to no avail. Maybe their reaction had something to do with the Serpent Concubine; they might have had bad experiences with snakes in the past. Or maybe it was just that I brought back nasty memories of the Snake Mothers in Hell. Then again, maybe it was just because I was a snake.
I reached the wall that divided the residential and administrative areas. The gate building was set on top of three terraces, each bordered with black marble balustrades. The building itself was around ten metres to a side, built of gunmetal-coloured stone with a traditional upward-curving, black-tiled roof. It had thick hardwood doors on both sides reinforced with metre-wide black metal studs. I slithered up the three flights of stairs and found the reception area empty, except for four humanoid demon guards at the gate’s two doors. They stood to attention as I passed and thumped their chests with their fists, but their expressions weren’t happy.
The administrative section of the palace was much more open and formal. The main buildings sat on three-tiered terraces in the centre of the rectangular area, while smaller buildings — for the support staff — flanked the sides. At the far end of the dividing wall was another gatehouse: the main entry into the palace. The long avenue up to the palace was visible through the gate’s open doors.
A group of officials were waiting for me with a sedan chair, all of them on one knee. I nodded to them and swiftly slithered around them to avoid the chair. They jumped up and followed me, then stopped and saluted again when Martin appeared on the top balcony of the central administrative building. He waved to me and came down the steps.
‘Rise,’ he said to the officials as he came closer, and they all rose and bowed again. He waved them away. ‘I will guide Lady Emma to the hearings.’
I accompanied him up the stairs.
‘The petitions should only take a couple of days,’ he said. ‘Since the energy has returned to the North, the residents have had much less to complain about and the petitions have dried up.’
‘That’s wonderful news,’ I said.
We entered the Pavilion of Dark Justice together, and all those present fell to one knee. The pavilion was rectangular and made of gunmetal-coloured polished stone with a black roof, same as the other buildings. The doors to the hearing room opened in front of us; inside, officials sat behind desks and gathered the information required for the day’s proceedings. The petitioners would wait their turn in luxuriously appointed waiting rooms along the sides of the pavilion, with demon servants shuttling backwards and forwards to tend to their needs.
Lily, one of the court administrators, rose from her desk and walked to the doorway. ‘All salute Regent General Da Na Huo and Tai Zi Ming Gui, the Bright One.’
The staff fell to one knee and saluted us.
‘Rise,’ I said. ‘Return to your duties.’
They returned to what they’d been doing without any fuss.
‘They finally got it,’ I said with relief.
‘Well, some of them have worked for more traditional Shen,’ Martin said as we entered the hearing room and climbed the dais to the throne. ‘An order like that could be a trick to see if they were truly showing respect.’
‘Sounds stupid to me,’ I grumbled under my breath as I pulled myself up onto the black silk cushions. ‘Okay, what have we got?’
Lily approached with a document printed from one of the computers in the office. ‘Not many changes to the list I emailed you last week. Three disputes on the ownership of demon servants, as in the email. One new case, not previously mentioned: about the parentage of a particularly fine colt that was born over at the House of Ling only yesterday —’
‘The mare dropped?’ I cut in. ‘I must go have a look.’
‘It’s palomino, Emma,’ Martin said.
I hissed with amusement. ‘Somebody’s stallion’s been sneaking around! No way could that mating produce a palomino.’
Lily winced. ‘There is some suggestion that the colt was fathered by a horse demon.’
‘Do we have horse demons here?’ I said.
Both of them nodded.
‘You have a list, right?’ I said.
Lily nodded again. ‘On my desk, ma’am. There are three or four possible fathers.’
‘The owner of the mare is petitioning … for what?’ I said. ‘We just do a DNA test, establish the father, slap a fine on the owner of the demon stallion for failing to control the animal, end of story.’
