Heaven to Wudang. Kylie Chan
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Daddy,’ Simone said.
‘We will not talk, we are going to concentrate,’ John said, his hand still on mine holding the quivering sword. ‘If Emma messes this up, the Murasame could eat her alive. Everybody stay quiet.’
Simone squeaked softly with distress.
John guided my left hand so that the palm was up, and released it. ‘Lower it gently onto the blade. Don’t stop breathing.’
I did as he said and lowered my wrist carefully onto the blade. If I dropped my hand even slightly too hard, the sword would take it off with relish. I felt the sting and quickly raised my hand again as the blood spiralled into the sword.
‘I’m letting it go. Talk to it,’ John said, and released my hands.
The contact burned again and I touched consciousness with the sword.
I am your master.
The sword laughed, a ringing sound of steel.
I strengthened my will and made my internal voice stronger.
Acknowledge me, Destroyer, I am your master! We have shared blood and death and destroyed together, and you are mine!
The sword was silent and the pain lessened.
I healed the wound, stopping the feed, and the sword made a metallic squeal inside my head at the withdrawal of the blood. The pain didn’t ease further.
I. Am. Your. Master. Obey me!
The sword seemed to think about it for a moment, then the pain ceased. The sword saluted me, the scabbard flew back onto its blade, and it drifted out of my hand and returned to its rack.
‘The sword is tamed,’ John said. He leaned over my shoulder to smile into my eyes. ‘Well done.’
I slipped my hand around the back of his head and kissed him, and he pulled me closer, side-on to me.
‘Oh come on, you two! Do you have to be so yucky all the time?’ Simone said. ‘I want to talk to you about my horse, Daddy, and what’s been happening, and my grades at school, and everything!’
He released me to gaze into my eyes, then shrugged and grinned. He turned to Simone. ‘Let’s walk around the gardens and you can tell me. I want to see the rebuilt Mountain.’
‘Come on, Emma,’ Simone said, gesturing with her head as I hesitated. ‘Come and have a walk and talk Daddy’s ears off.’ She linked her arm in his. ‘Are you here for good? Please say you are.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Not yet. I remember being nearby though?’
‘You’ve been at the bottom of the lake for nearly a whole day now,’ I said.
‘No wonder I feel so good, that’s like plugging me into a battery charger.’ He walked without difficulty through the bars, then closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment. ‘My Serpent is here!’ He turned back to us, grinning broadly, then his face fell. ‘I’m sure I sensed it right here.’
‘Can you rejoin now? If we find it?’ Simone said.
He waved the others through the bars. ‘Come on, Lucy, Meredith, you can talk to me too, I’m sure you all have a lot to share.’ He turned back to Simone. ‘If we find the Serpent, I can rejoin with it and be more powerful than either of you have ever seen me.’ He shook out his shoulders. ‘Looking forward to that. The demon horde won’t know what hit it. Now.’ He put one arm around each of our shoulders. ‘Come and show me my Mountain. Why aren’t you at the Peak any more? I went there looking for you and the flat was empty. It ripped my heart out.’
‘We still use the flat,’ I said, ‘but we had to move out for a while because Simone’s horse piddled on the carpet in her room and we had to take all the carpet out.’
He glared at her. ‘Simone! You should know better.’
She hung her head. ‘Sorry, Daddy.’
He pulled her in and squeezed her. ‘Are you based here now?’
‘We use the Peak as an Earthly base, but spend most of our time here,’ she said.
He stopped and turned to face us, holding one of our hands in each of his. ‘Do you like being here? Living here? We don’t have to live here if you don’t want it.’
‘I love it,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to live anywhere else.’
‘Let me decide when I’ve graduated,’ Simone said, thoughtful. ‘I may choose the Palace in the Northern Heavens. I don’t think I want to go back to the Earthly — humans can be a real pain to deal with sometimes. Right now though, I want to be here with you and Emma and Leo.’
We went out of the Armoury. John held our hands as we walked through the breezeway towards the central plaza. We passed a small courtyard where a group of students were sitting under the pavilion beneath the trees, working on some academic notes. They stared at us, and a few of them asked each other if that was really John.
‘Salute your Master!’ Miss Chen barked, and they all dropped to one knee.
John turned and grinned at her. ‘Don’t scare them like that. It will take them a while to become accustomed to having me back.’
After we’d passed, the students rose and took off running, obviously to tell their friends and bring them to see.
‘We’ll be mobbed,’ Miss Chen said.
‘If we are, I’ll demote you,’ John said.
‘If we are, I’ll deserve it.’
We’d arrived at the central area, and the path widened to lead the fifty-metre distance to the terrace in front of True Way. John’s face was alight with joy and he released our hands and turned on the spot, taking it all in.
‘Go up and take a look from above,’ Simone said.
He took her hand and raised it. ‘Can you come up with me?’
She nodded.
He turned to me. ‘Can you?’
‘I can’t fly, John, I’m just an ordinary human.’
He touched me on the cheek with his free hand. ‘Absolutely nothing ordinary about you.’ He took my hand as well and we shot fifty metres straight up, then hovered above the complex.
Simone released his hand and turned in the air, her hair floating in the Celestial breeze. ‘That way’s the Northern Heavens; Emma’s knocked down the Serpent Concubine Pavilion and built a new Hall of Serene Meditation. The barracks are over there, and the training halls are on this side, there.’ She turned towards the higher peaks and pointed. ‘Golden Temple’s all fixed up.’
John released my hand to turn and see, and I concentrated to slow my fall, but I didn’t move. He was still holding me up.
‘It looks wonderful,’ he said.
He took my hand and kissed it, and we drifted back down to land on the forecourt at the bottom of the stairs up to Purple Mist.
He raised my hand and we walked up the stairs to the hall together, Simone on his other side. We went in, and he released my hand, took three sticks of incense from the stand, lit them, and placed them in the urn in front of the Buddha statue. He knelt on a black cushion in front of the statue, bowed three times with his hands clasped in supplication, then rose and studied the statue.
I joined him and did the same thing on the cushion next to him, and we stood contemplating the Buddha together. Simone took some incense and added it, and joined us in studying the serene visage of the Buddha.
John turned back towards the door and sat on the cushion. His hair tie fell out and his hair spread over his shoulders. ‘I’m losing it already. I don’t think I’ll make it to the Three Purities.’