Blue Dragon. Kylie Chan

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СКАЧАТЬ wish you could,’ John said, looking me straight in the eye. ‘Right now I can’t do it; I need to be near full strength and in Celestial Form. It is a sight to see. Hopefully you can pass the information on to Simone, and she will be able to make the sword resonate.’ He glanced at the stone. ‘Record this carefully.’

      ‘I really am most profoundly honoured, my Lord,’ the stone said softly. ‘Are you sure you want to tell me this?’

      ‘I think when Simone is about fourteen she will take some sort of Celestial Form,’ John said. ‘Based on what she did this morning, it is quite possible.’ He dropped his head and grimaced. ‘I won’t see it.’

      ‘What about a True Form?’ I said.

      He smiled and shrugged. ‘No idea. I like to think she will be a Serpent, as you are.’ He obviously had a sudden thought. ‘Stop recording, stone.’

      ‘My Lord,’ the stone said.

      ‘Emma,’ he said, studying me intensely, ‘you never named your own sword. Why not?’

      ‘I just felt it was too pretentious.’

      ‘It’s easier to refer to the weapon by name, you know. Immortals can call weapons to them when the weapons have names.’

      I sighed. ‘I know. I just didn’t feel right about it. It’s just my weapon, nothing special. Same as me, nothing special.’

      He made a soft sound of amusement but didn’t rise to it. ‘Did it occur to you that the blade may already have a name?’

      ‘No, not at all,’ I said. ‘I never really thought about it too much, it was just my weapon. But I think I should give it to Simone now. It sings much more sweetly for her.’

      ‘It is the Silver Serpent.’

      ‘You’re joking. The sword’s name is the Serpent?’

      ‘That is the Serpent?’ the stone said.

      ‘Yes,’ he said to both of us. ‘Begin recording again.’

      ‘My Lord,’ the stone said.

      John looked down at his hands. ‘To make Seven Stars resonate, Simone must be able to take a Celestial Form. Then she needs to light all the cauldrons and open all the gates. Do you know what a chakra is, Emma?’

      ‘I know. But that’s an Indian thing, not Chinese at all. You have dan tian, cauldrons and gates, not chakras.’

      ‘Same thing,’ John said. ‘Three cauldrons, the three dan tian. Three gates. One Inner Eye. Each corresponds to a chakra, there are seven altogether. There are seven cavities on the sword. One for each star, one for each chakra. She will need to load the sword with her own chakras for it to shine.’

      ‘That will be an incredibly difficult process to master,’ the stone said with awe. ‘One wrong step and she could destroy herself.’

      ‘I am well aware of that,’ John said. ‘I think she will be able to do it.’

      ‘She’ll be projecting her own dan tian into the sword?’ I said softly.

      ‘Yes. The sword will become perfectly aligned with her. She and the sword will protect each other. Part of her consciousness will enter the sword.’ His eyes turned inwards and he smiled. ‘The experience is incredibly euphoric when you do it right. The destructive power of the loaded weapon is immeasurable.’

      ‘Under what circumstances would she need to use it, though? There probably won’t be any demons that she’ll need to fear anyway, once she’s all the way there.’

      ‘You are quite right, Emma,’ John said. ‘She will only need to use it if faced by an overwhelming force.’ He leaned back. ‘Now, go and talk to your parents.’

      ‘How long do we have, Xuan Wu?’

      His face went rigid. ‘Not long.’

       Chapter Two

      Iwent back with my tea and sat at the kitchen table. Simone was amusing my parents with stories of Zhu Que’s chicks.

      ‘The birds talk?’ my mother said.

      ‘They’re not really birds —’ I began.

      ‘Yes, they are, silly Emma,’ Simone said.

      ‘They’re really birds. Not really children at all.’

      ‘They look like baby emus,’ I said.

      ‘What’s an emu?’ Simone said.

      ‘I should take you to Australia again.’

      ‘That would be fun,’ Simone said. ‘Maybe after Daddy has gone, and we don’t have to worry about the demons so much. After he’s killed One Two Two.’

      My mother made a small sound and I glanced at her. Her face was unreadable.

      I turned back to Simone. ‘It’s a deal. Maybe next Christmas. Even if he’s still here, we’ll go and take him for a swim in the sea.’

      ‘What would you like to do today, Mrs Donahoe?’ Simone said. ‘Where would you like us to take you?’

      ‘Any suggestions, Emma?’ my father said through his cornflakes.

      ‘It’s difficult on a Sunday,’ I said.

      ‘Why, nothing open?’ my mother said.

      Simone giggled at that. My mother looked at her with bewilderment.

      ‘Everything’ll be open, Mum, that’s not the problem,’ I said. ‘Hong Kong is very densely populated, and for many people Sunday is the only day off. So the shopping centres, the streets, everywhere, will be packed.’

      ‘You can’t move in the middle of Causeway Bay,’ Simone said, still delighted. ‘The ground floor of Sogo is packed. You can’t even get in.’

      ‘Sogo is a big Japanese department store in Causeway Bay,’ I said. ‘I don’t know why, but everyone agrees to meet at the entrance on a Sunday. It’s absolutely packed to the rafters with people.’

      ‘Want to go yum cha?’ Simone said. ‘There’s a couple of places that know Daddy, and we don’t have to take a number.’

      ‘Oh no, please, Simone,’ I moaned, ‘you know I can’t eat anything there. Hardly any of it’s vegetarian.’

      ‘What?’ my father said, still through the cornflakes.

      I ran my hands through my hair. ‘I’m mostly vegetarian now, guys. Sorry.’

      ‘It’s because Emma’s becoming Immortal,’ Simone said with relish. ‘Human Immortals are vegetarian. Like Kwan Yin.’

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