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‘What about the building in Wan Chai? How big is that?’
‘About the same, my Lady,’ Gold said. ‘Twenty-six floors. But most of the lower floors are vacant right now, with the economic downturn.’
‘The one in North Point?’
‘That one’s quite small, only fifteen floors, two flats to a floor. It’s very old,’ John said. ‘I may demolish it eventually, but it’s not worth it right now.’
There had to be some logistical reason why this wouldn’t work, but it was worth a try. ‘People in Hong Kong usually only rent a place for a year at a time, they like the flexibility,’ I said. ‘And most of the building in Wan Chai is already vacant. How about we move the Mountain down here?’
Gold picked it up right away. ‘The students can stay in Happy Valley and go to the Wan Chai building for training. It shouldn’t take much to fix up the Hennessy Road building for training — it’s already offices, I’ll just have to remove some partitions. I could move the administration down here too. And the Bright Mansions apartments in Happy Valley would be perfect as student residences. It won’t cost us anything except the loss of income from the rent, and frankly, my Lord, the way the economy is right now, it won’t be much.’
‘What about language?’ John said.
‘Language?’ I said.
‘Yes, that will be a problem,’ Gold said. ‘Let me think about it.’
‘On the Celestial Plane, language is irrelevant. All can communicate. That will not apply on the Earthly, and could result in problems,’ John said.
‘No, I can fix it,’ Gold said. ‘Leave it with me. I’m very good with Celestial Harmony, I should be able to work something out.’
‘Is the building in Wan Chai zoned for that sort of thing? We don’t want to draw the government’s attention.’ John smiled at me. ‘Have the ICAC breaking down the door.’
‘Give it a rest,’ I said and grinned back.
‘Not an issue,’ Gold said. ‘If it isn’t, I’ll just go into the government system and fix the zoning.’
‘You’re a hacker?’ I said.
‘One of the best,’ Gold said proudly. ‘Don’t do it often, but when I do, I do a damn good job.’
I glared at John. ‘You said you weren’t involved in anything illegal, that you would never risk Simone’s happiness.’
‘And I meant it. I am a creature of my word. I have not committed a single illegal act since I was Raised. The enthusiasm of my Retainers, however,’ he gestured towards Gold, ‘is another matter entirely.’
Gold ignored us. ‘I can’t think of any other reason why this shouldn’t happen as Lady Emma has suggested. It’s a brilliant plan.’
‘Emma, you really are astounding,’ John said. ‘It’s a perfect solution. If the Turtle can’t go to the Mountain, then the Mountain can come to the Turtle.’
I laughed, but Gold was obviously horrified and made weird choking noises.
‘Go and start the arrangements,’ John said to Gold. ‘Tell the Tiger we’ll have those Disciples out of his fur in no time. Come back when you’ve started the process and we’ll commence the rebuilding. It’ll be much easier without any staff or students present, just a skeleton crew of guards. Oh. Emma.’
‘My Lord.’ Gold disappeared.
‘What, John?’
‘I can finally have you teaching. You and Leo. We are fearfully short of junior Masters. You and Leo will be perfect. He can start them on hand-to-hand and weapons, and you can start them on energy work. The senior Masters are wasted teaching the basic stuff. This is excellent.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve been learning less than a year myself, and I have to look after Simone.’
‘No, after Simone goes to school, you’ll have plenty of time, and by September this year you’ll be as good as any junior Master on the Mountain.’ John leapt up, obviously excited.
‘Wait a second!’ I shouted. ‘You didn’t even bother to ask me! Who the hell do you think you are?’
John stopped halfway to the door and didn’t move.
‘Well?’
He spoke softly without turning towards me. ‘For thousands of years others have been obeying my orders without question. I have precedence over nearly everybody in Creation. I’ve developed a bad habit of expecting to be obeyed.’ He dropped his head and shook it, still turned away. ‘I am so sorry, love.’
‘You have precedence over nearly everybody? Don’t you have any friends who are equal to you in precedence?’
He turned back to me. ‘The truth? No. The Jade Emperor is my master, I serve him. Apart from that, nobody.’
‘All your friends have to obey you if you tell them to do something?’
He gazed into my eyes. ‘Yes. Even the other three Winds must obey me. I am their Sovereign. The White Tiger is my friend, but there is still a line there, and both of us are aware of it.’
My heart twisted. ‘It must be very lonely for you.’
He snapped out of it and spoke with forced cheerfulness. ‘My number is one, Emma. It is my nature to be alone.’ He went to the doorway and bellowed, ‘Leo!’
I winced. ‘Can’t you call him silently, John? Do you have to yell like that?’
Leo immediately appeared in the doorway; he must have been in the hall. ‘Keeps me on my toes, my Lady.’ He leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded across his chest. ‘She’s your equal,’ he said to John. ‘She’s more than a match for you.’ He gestured, palm-up, towards me. ‘And she won’t obey you if she chooses not to. Why don’t you just ask her if she wants to teach?’
John turned back to me. ‘Will you join my Academy as Master and teach energy work for me?’
‘I’d be delighted.’
Leo didn’t move from the doorframe. ‘See? That wasn’t hard, was it? Now feel free to ask me.’
‘Leo, when the Academy is up and running, you will teach the juniors weapons and hand-to-hand, and that is an order,’ John said with force.
Leo saluted with a huge grin. ‘My Lord. I’ve been teaching on my days off for a while already. It would be great to teach students who are good enough for the Mountain.’
‘I didn’t know that, Leo,’ I said, impressed.
‘I didn’t either. Well done, Leo, true initiative. Come and sit, and I’ll tell you all about it.’ John returned to the table.
Leo sat and leaned his arms on the table, listening attentively. ‘My Lord? My Lady?’
‘Oh, will you cut that out, Leo?’ I said. ‘We’ve been friends far too long for this.’
‘Keeps you on your toes as well, my Lady,’ he said with a grin.
‘Leo, if I promise never to give you a direct order, will you promise to stop using the honorific?’
Leo’s grin widened. ‘Nope.’
‘Bastard,’ I hissed under my breath.
‘I heard that, my Lady,’ Leo said loudly with relish.
‘You two can have this out later in the training room with weapons of choice,’ John said. ‘But no chi. One hole in the wall is quite enough.’
He saw my reaction and waved me down. ‘And that is an order, as Master to student, Emma. Take it into the training room. Leo.’
‘My Lord?’
‘I don’t know how much you heard while you were eavesdropping in the hallway . . .’
Leo opened his mouth to protest, and John continued, ignoring him.
‘. . . but we are moving the Celestial Wudangshan Academy here to Hong Kong while we rebuild. The Disciples will live in my building in Happy Valley, and training will take place in the building on Hennessy Road.’
‘That’s a brilliant solution, sir,’ Leo said with admiration.
‘It was Emma’s idea.’
Leo glanced sharply at me. I shrugged.
‘How old are the students you’ve been teaching?’ John said.
‘Kids,’ Leo said. ‘Some of them don’t have much of a home life. I teach them the Arts, it gives them some direction and discipline. I feel I’m giving something back, I’ve gained so much here.’
‘Are any of your students suitable to replace you?’ John said. ‘A young man or woman with strength and integrity, who has the talent to go far? I could take them as a student here and bring them on, and they could be ready to help guard Simone after both you and I are dead.’
‘Geez,’ I said softly.
‘The students on the Mountain are quite old, Emma,’ John said. ‘They must be at least sixteen, and I prefer them to be either eighteen or twenty-one, whatever the majority is in their home state, when I take them. Having a younger student come here to learn directly from me would be ideal.’
‘I’ve had a young man in mind for a while,’ Leo said. ‘Very young, very talented. American like me, half-Chinese, but his Chinese father took off and left him and his mother alone. Been drifting, a bit lost, if you know what I mean. I think he’d be perfect.’
‘Is he free to take up duties with us and live-in?’ John said. ‘Would his mother mind?’
‘I think his mother would be thrilled to have him off the streets.’
‘Straight?’ I said.
Both of them stiffened. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ Leo said sharply.
‘Nothing at all. I’d just like to know.’
‘Straight,’ Leo said suspiciously.
‘How old is he?’ I said pointedly, and now they could see where I was going. John glanced at Leo.
‘Fifteen,’ Leo said. ‘I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe I should ask around my other friends instead.’
‘No, bring him in,’ John said. ‘Let me see him anyway. First impressions are important. If he’s your first choice, then he is worth looking at.’
The ceiling was very low in the dim bathroom. I wiped my hands on the towel and turned around.
An enormous black snake, at least half a metre across, writhed across the shower cubicle and down the wall towards me. I couldn’t see the head, but I didn’t bother looking for it. I didn’t scream. I just ran.
I threw the door open, charged out, and slammed it shut again. There was a jade bolt on the door and I pushed it into the frame. But jade was really brittle, and if the snake wanted to come out it could.
I ran out of my room and tore down the dark hallway.
I woke up gasping.
Chapter Three (#ulink_adf9debd-ff67-5317-9a7d-485d8aef163d)
John poked his head around my bedroom door. ‘Simone’s asleep. Want to come with me to check the work at Hennessy Road?’
I pulled away from my computer. ‘Sure.’ I gestured towards the book in his hand. ‘How far did you get?’
He opened the book and held it at arm’s length to read it. ‘Eeyore losing his tail.’
‘Now you know why she called her little donkey Eeyore.’
He grinned. ‘I didn’t realise Taoism had penetrated Western society at such an early date. Certainly when I was in England in the twenties, nobody had heard of the Tao.’
‘I don’t think the Taoist references are deliberate, the author was just a very wise man.’ I pulled my copy of The Tao of Pooh from the shelf above my desk and tossed it to him.
He caught it easily, then opened the book and held it away to read it.
‘Holy shit,’ I whispered. I worked it out. It was May now; only four months since Kwan Yin had last fed him energy, but he’d been severely drained when the demons attacked us in Guangzhou a few weeks ago.
‘John, could you call Leo silently for me, please?’ I asked.
He glanced up from the book, concentrating. Leo appeared in the doorway behind him. ‘Yes, my Lady?’
‘Do you have your reading glasses, Leo?’
Leo pulled his small round reading spectacles out of his breast pocket. ‘Yeah, why?’
‘Give them to Mr Chen.’
‘No,’ John said.
I rose and leaned on my desk. ‘John, you look mid-forties. Is your human form mid-forties?’
‘I am four and a half thousand years old.’
‘No, John. Does your human form have the characteristics of a man in his mid-forties?’
