‘No,’ Simone said. ‘But we need to talk about Michael later. I honestly think he’s out of his league guarding you; he keeps getting injured.’
Meredith leaned in to study me carefully. ‘That’s right, talk later. Right now, tell me: do you crave Shen blood? Do you want to taste it again?’
I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head. ‘No. Not like I did when I had the demon essence in me. I have to admit that it tasted great, but I don’t feel like an addict.’
‘It tasted great?’ Simone said, incredulous.
‘It doesn’t taste like blood at all,’ I said. ‘Remember that drink at Nu Wa’s palace?’
‘That was awesome.’
‘That’s what Michael’s blood tasted like. Better than that, if possible.’
Simone hesitated. ‘I wonder if it tastes like that to me too.’
I was wearing my pyjamas. ‘How long have I been out?’
‘Only a couple of hours,’ Simone said.
‘So it’s what … 2 am? Why aren’t you in bed?’
‘I wanted to make sure you were okay. I don’t have school tomorrow anyway.’
I found my tatty purple chenille robe in a pile of clothes next to the bed and pulled it around me. ‘Go to bed.’
‘Where are you going?’ Meredith said.
‘I’m going to check on the others.’
‘They’re asleep, leave them,’ Meredith said. ‘Leo’s there watching them. They’re fine.’
‘It’s so cute: Clarissa’s asleep at Michael’s bedside,’ Simone said.
‘I still need to check something out. You two go to bed.’
‘Check what out?’ Simone said suspiciously. ‘It’s the middle of the night.’
‘I want to see if the Murasame came back,’ I said. ‘It won’t come when I call. It only came when I did my strong thing.’
‘You haven’t recovered enough to do any sword work,’ Meredith said. ‘When did you call it?’
‘This evening, when the Mothers cornered us. I just want to pop down to the Armoury and see if it’s there. If it isn’t, then I’ll need to get myself a new one, because it’s probably at the bottom of the sea somewhere, or back in Hell.’
‘Go straight back to bed after you’ve checked it,’ Meredith said, and disappeared.
‘I’m coming too,’ Simone said. ‘I won’t sleep unless I know. That sword is kind of like a bad-tempered guard dog for you.’
‘Careful, you’ll upset the stone,’ I said.
We headed down the hill and around the peaks to the Armoury. Mist had gathered in the gorges and we walked carefully across an arched bridge, the scent of the pine trees filling the air around us. The sky had the clarity of late autumn, and the stars blazed bigger and brighter than any on the Earthly. The seven stars of the Big Dipper shone in the centre of the sky: the symbol of the Dark Lord’s power. I shivered in my robe; the early autumn breeze was chilly. First snow soon.
‘I must have some eucalypts planted here,’ I said. ‘I miss the smell.’
‘Can you see okay?’ Simone said, gesturing towards the ball of light she’d summoned for me.
‘Just fine.’
We wound past the forge to the Armoury building, which dwarfed its much smaller neighbour, its roof soaring twenty metres above the ground. The back of the Armoury was flush with the stone mountainside, and it had black walls and a black-tiled roof, making it more difficult to spot from the air. We went to the front of the building. The black stone doors stood silent, each one fifteen metres high and four wide, carved with images of the combined Xuan Wu, the snake and turtle heads facing each other with their mouths open as if in conflict.
‘Open,’ I said, and the doors slid smoothly apart.
We stepped into its dark interior, the black roof tiles visible high above us. The building didn’t have an internal ceiling, making it bitterly cold in the middle of winter. The huge open space stretched for fifty metres away from us, and a rustling sound came from the high beams above.
An unadorned ebony screen, three metres tall, stood just inside the entrance, and in front of that stood a metre-tall bronze urn, filled with sand, to hold incense.
I moved to the side of the urn and opened the cupboard next to it.
‘Move the light closer, I can’t see,’ I said, and Simone obliged.
The cabinet contained open canisters of incense sticks, their wooden ends protruding so they could be easily removed. I rifled through the canisters, checking the sticks: some were dyed red, others were plain wood. Eventually I found the one I was looking for: it had a tiny dot of black on the very end of the stick. I pulled it out, lit it from the candle burning below the urn, then shook it until the flame went out. Blowing out the flame was an insult to the wind spirits. I stuck the incense into the sand and waited a moment for the fragrance to waft through the hall and into the ceiling.
‘I can smell it, we can go,’ Simone said, and we moved into the main part of the hall.
Racks of weapons stood on either side of us, resembling the shelves in a library. Those closest to the door held the standard training weapons used by students; the Celestial weapons were further back.
The rustling above us changed to flapping, and one of the flying demons that resided in the roof flew down to us. Simone readied herself to destroy it, obviously concerned that I’d chosen the wrong incense. The demon was black and a metre long with four legs and wings; it looked something like a flying lizard but much uglier. It clacked its grotesquely toothed beak at me and strutted up and down, blocking my way, then turned to speak. It sounded like a parrot.
‘Dark Lady.’
‘Hello, little one,’ I said.
‘It’s the middle of the night, Lady, why do you disturb us?’
‘I apologise for disturbing you. I wanted to check my weapon. Is it in there?’
The flyer hissed and took a few steps back, shaking its wings. ‘I don’t want to know anything about that thing.’ It took off again, spiralling up into the rafters.
We walked past the shelves to the back wall of the building, which was the Mountain itself.
‘Open,’ I said, and the wall disappeared, revealing a room full of brass that shone in Simone’s light.
The ceiling in the Celestial Weapons Archive was much lower, and carved with twining snakes and turtles. The walls were smooth polished stone, and the pillars and beams holding up the roof were clad with brass, again embossed with the symbols of snakes and turtles. Soft voices sounded just at the edge of hearing: some of the weapons were talking in their sleep.
The far end of the room, from one side to the other, was partitioned off with iron bars clad in gold. I stopped and took a few deep breaths: this was the hard part. I preferred not to do it, but it was the only way.
‘It’s in there, Emma, don’t worry about it,’ Simone said.
‘That’s beside the point,’ I said. ‘I need to go in there and have a little chat with it about why it’s not coming when I call it.’
‘It’s not worth the risk.’
‘No risk. I can do it.’
‘I’ll bring it out for you.’
‘It’s not talking to me so I can’t tell it not to hurt you. Still want to try?’
Simone