Earth to Hell. Kylie Chan

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      Simone came out of her change room. She wore a robe of dark shining indigo silk with twining golden flowers over a gold under robe and closed with a wide elaborately embroidered gold belt. The gold brought out the hues of her tawny hair. Wide silk ribbons of a brighter shade of blue, embroidered with golden chrysanthemums, decorated the neckline either side of her throat and fell as panels down the front of the robe; similar ribbons edged the enormously full sleeves.

      She looked spectacular. She sighed when she saw me. ‘Oh dear, Emma.’

      Mr Li raised one hand and my robe changed to the same dark blue as Simone’s. Jade winced. The robe changed to red and Simone said, ‘Ick.’

      The robe rotated through a variety of colours and patterns.

      ‘Doesn’t work,’ Jade said with resignation.

      ‘Well, that’s the last acceptable style,’ Mr Li said. ‘We have to choose one of them. I think the Qing may have worked slightly better than this but it still made her look fat. She is approaching middle age now, and even though she is fit her figure reflects this. Her breasts are too large —’

      I snorted with derision and opened my mouth to say something about late thirties not being middle-aged, but he continued unfazed.

      ‘Nothing seems to suit her and I don’t have time to adapt a style for her. We should have tried this earlier, I would never have expected this problem.’

      I turned away. ‘Forget it then. I’m wearing my jeans and a shirt and the Jade Emperor can deal with it. Or better yet,’ I turned back and grinned at them, ‘I’ll wear my armour and carry my sword and let him deal with that.’

      Jade and Mr Li both lit up.

      ‘Can she do that?’ Simone said quickly.

      ‘Even more appropriate,’ Jade said. ‘Much more suitable than a Tang robe. Lady Emma is a warrior.’

      Mr Li eyed the bolts of silk on the wall appraisingly. ‘Take that one off. We’ll make a lighter under robe for the armour. It’ll still need to be Tang style, but I think we can get away …’ He wandered off, talking to himself.

      ‘Brilliant, Emma, you’ll look magnificent,’ Simone said.

      ‘I’ll put your hair up in a simple spike, same as the Dark Lord would wear into battle,’ Jade said. ‘Not —’

      ‘Tortoiseshell,’ I finished for her.

      ‘No, ebony, I think,’ she said, and we shared a smile. ‘When the Dark Lord returns, you two will be a matched set. Dark Lord and Dark Lady, both warriors together.’

      I felt a shot of pain and sighed.

      ‘Don’t worry, Emma, he’ll come back,’ Simone said.

      ‘Any sign of him?’ I asked.

      She unfocused, snapped back and shook her head.

      ‘I’ll fetch your armour, ma’am,’ Jade said, then called to the baby dragons, ‘You kids behave.’ She nodded to me. ‘Be right back.’ She disappeared.

      Simone and I sat on the cushioned benches and waited for them to return.

      ‘He visited me in a dream last night,’ I said.

      Simone sighed and put her chin on her hand without replying.

      ‘What’s the matter, Simone?’ I said. ‘You’ve been quiet ever since we found out we were going to see the Jade Emperor.’

      Simone didn’t move or look at me, her chin still in her hand. Her eyes turned inward, remembering. ‘When I was very little, Daddy took me and Mummy to Heaven. He thought I’d enjoy seeing him at “work”. Mummy stayed in our apartment in the Palace, she hated it. Daddy changed …’ She ran her hand over her face. ‘Daddy changed into his Celestial Form, and picked me up and carried me to the Grand Audience Hall. You have no idea what it was like, Emma.’ She turned to gaze into my eyes. ‘You’ve seen it, you know how big his Celestial Form is. He carried me so far from the ground, and I didn’t know him as Daddy. He was so huge! And black, and he didn’t look like Daddy, he was just a giant carrying me so high up that I was afraid, and he walked with these huge strides — it was incredibly scary. I cried, and he did something to me to make me quiet, but I was still …’ She took a deep breath. ‘I was still terrified. Then he took me into the Grand Audience Hall and it was full of dragons and other Shen — animals and nature spirits, all sorts were there to see me, staring at me — and then we went up to the Jade Emperor, and he was in Celestial Form too, and Daddy handed me over to him.’ She smiled wryly. ‘Apparently, the Jade Emperor thought I was adorable. I was bound by Daddy, so I couldn’t move or speak, or cry. I just looked at the Jade Emperor as he held me. He was bigger than Daddy and way scarier.’ She shook her head. ‘It took me a long time to get over that. Even now, I think if I saw Daddy’s Celestial Form, I wouldn’t see it as him, just as this monster that bound me and carried me away.’

      ‘I wondered about that,’ I said. ‘I remember how scared you were of his Celestial Form.’

      ‘When he took me back to the apartment, he unbound me and I let loose,’ Simone said. ‘In seven different directions — I wet myself, threw up, everything. I was only about a year and a half old. I can remember Mummy screaming abuse at him. He changed back and tried to console me, but apparently, I would have nothing to do with him for a few weeks afterwards.’

      ‘I can understand completely,’ I said. ‘If it was me, I would have sent him down to Hell for a few days to “meditate upon his faults”. What a rotten thing to do to a little child.’

      Simone made a soft sound of amusement. ‘Mummy did. Shot him right between the eyes, from what I’ve heard.’

      ‘You are the equal of any Shen in Heaven, Simone. You don’t need to be scared.’

      ‘I just can’t help feeling that way right now. I’ll be fine once we get there and I can see the Jade Emperor’s not a hundred metres tall.’

      ‘Would you like to talk to the Lady about it before we go?’

      She waved me down. ‘I’ll be fine. Oh, Jade’s on her way back with your armour.’

      Jade reappeared and held the armour out for me. ‘Ma’am.’

      I rose to take it.

      On the morning of 16 November, Marcus dropped me and Simone outside Harbour Centre in Wan Chai. Harbour Centre and Great Eagle Centre were two matched towers, that stood side by side right on the waterfront. They each had large neon signs for Japanese electronics companies on the first-floor level and featured in many Hong Kong postcards.

      Simone and I took the escalators up to the first floor to use the walkways across to the China Resources Building, then walked along the covered open-air podium that overlooked the water. The adjacent building, the Convention Centre, jutted into the harbour, its flowing finlike shape making it look like a giant sea creature. I remembered another time I had stood watching the water and felt a twinge of pain. But we had seen him. He was searching for me. He would return.

      We СКАЧАТЬ