Earth to Hell. Kylie Chan

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СКАЧАТЬ I hate the way everybody bows to me, and is scared of me, and some of them freaking want to be my friend just because of who my father is. I hate it.’

      ‘I can have one of the Masters come here, if you like. You won’t even have to go down to the Academy. Just learn to control them so they don’t hurt anybody.’

      She sighed and turned back to her book. ‘Okay, Emma, I s’pose you’re right. But please, talk to the school. I don’t want to repeat Year Nine. I’ve made some great friends there and they treat me like an ordinary kid.’

      ‘I’ll talk to them for you.’

      ‘Thanks.’ She tapped the book with her pen. ‘This biology homework is due soon. I need to finish it.’

      I rose to go. ‘Okay, sweetheart. Let me know if you need anything.’

      ‘Do me a favour?’ she said without looking up from her book.

      ‘Hm?’

      ‘Don’t call me sweetheart, Emma, I’m not a little kid.’

      I bowed slightly. ‘Princess.’

      She spun and threw the pen to hit me right between the eyes. I caught it easily and returned it to her desk.

      ‘Leo’s gonna call you sweetheart,’ I said. ‘He called me that all the time.’

      ‘Leo can get away with itr’cause he’s gay.’

      ‘Nothing to do with it.’

      ‘Out, Emma.’

      ‘Ma’am.’

      ‘Humph.’

      I went into John’s office, where Gold was waiting, his baby cradled in his hands. The stone drifted out of my ring across the desk, then took human form and sat in the chair opposite me. It was a slim European gentleman in his mid-sixties with a shock of white hair, wearing a smart dark green suit and tie. He leaned his elbows on the desk and rubbed his hands over his face.

      Neither he nor Gold looked at each other but both appeared concerned.

      ‘Well?’ I said.

      Gold glanced at his parent and shrugged.

      ‘Normally we stones stand aside from the …’ the stone from my ring searched for the word, ‘… the organic community. We keep ourselves to ourselves, serve the Celestial as we should, and have our own network. But things have been happening.’

      Gold touched his child thoughtfully and it made a soft squeak of sleepy contentment. My stone’s face softened as it watched.

      ‘We have problems,’ Gold said. ‘And although we would like to solve them ourselves, I think this time we need help.’

      ‘We’re disappearing,’ the stone from my ring said. ‘Without a trace.’

      ‘Show her, Dad,’ Gold said.

      A haphazard web of glowing white lines, about sixty centimetres across, appeared floating above the desk. The lines connected hundreds of tiny black dots. It was like looking at a virtual map of the internet.

      ‘The black dots are Eastern stone Shen — there are about a thousand of us altogether,’ Gold said. ‘The lines are our network.’

      ‘This is what the network looked like six months ago,’ the stone from my ring said.

      About fifty of the dots blinked out, taking the glowing lines with them.

      ‘Five months ago,’ Gold said.

      Another twenty dots blinked out and the lines representing the network thinned.

      ‘Three months ago,’ the stone said.

      Another fifty dots blinked out. About a tenth of the lines had disappeared.

      ‘Last month,’ Gold said.

      ‘We lost another twenty in the last two weeks,’ the stone said.

      ‘About a fifth of the stone Shen have disappeared in the last six months?’ I said, incredulous.

      ‘Slightly less, about fourteen per cent,’ Gold said. He placed his hand over his child. ‘Most of them were our younger progeny, less than a thousand years old.’

      ‘And now the Demon Prince Six has reappeared,’ the stone said. ‘And this was the one that was messing with stones before.’

      Gold held his child closer. ‘Six is once again stealing our children.’

      ‘Please tell me the Celestial knows about this,’ I said. ‘I’m not the first person you’ve made aware of this, am I?’

      They didn’t reply.

      ‘The Jade Emperor has to know,’ I said.

      ‘He probably does, but unless we ask for Celestial intervention, this is an internal stone matter, as we have an agreement with the Celestial to …’ The stone from my ring smiled slightly. ‘Butt out of our business.’

      ‘Then get onto the JE and tell him about this, because something is obviously going on,’ I said. ‘What’s happening to them anyway?’

      ‘That’s the thing, Emma,’ the stone from my ring said, his voice gravelly with stress. ‘We have no idea.’

      ‘We were hoping that, as Dad’s owner, you could bring this up with him on our behalf,’ Gold said.

      ‘Why don’t you go to him yourselves?’ I said, then nodded as I understood. ‘Of course, lose too much face asking him to come in and give you a hand when you’ve already told him to butt out.’

      ‘Face has nothing to do with it,’ Gold said indignantly.

      ‘You know she’s right,’ the stone from my ring said with resignation. He glanced up at me. ‘So will you talk to him?’

      ‘Prepare a memorial. I’ll look at it and sign it and chop it and send it on as FHG,’ I said.

      ‘FHG?’ Gold said, confused.

      ‘First Heavenly General,’ the stone said.

      ‘Oh.’ Gold shook his head. ‘You don’t show the same amount of respect for Celestial matters that others do, Emma. Sometimes it’s … strange.’

      ‘Try spending all your time with her,’ the stone said dryly. ‘I thought my attitude was perverse.’

      ‘I’ve written the memorial for you; it’s on your hard disk in the Celestial Matters folder,’ Gold said.

      ‘I’ll take a look,’ I said.

      Gold saluted me. ‘Ma’am. By your leave.’

      ‘Go home. If I need you I’ll СКАЧАТЬ