The Burning Man, page 34
part #2 of Kingdom of the Serpent Series
5
At the foot of the stairs there was a long stone tunnel that eventually led to a great hall so bright they had to shield their eyes. A reservoir of Blue Fire stretched into the distance. The walls were illuminated with astonishing designs of Fabulous Beasts in jade and gold that appeared to be telling a story. Small silver creatures scurried amongst the coils of their tails.
Church, Ruth, Shavi and Tom’s attention was drawn by a series of terracotta statues lining the burning pool, all different, all incredibly lifelike.
‘Dump him in the flames,’ Tom ordered.
As Shavi lowered Church into the Blue Fire, the pain began to drain from his features. Ruth had to look away, for the relief that flooded her almost brought her to tears. Instead, she examined the scores of terracotta figures. Some resembled men and women, others had the look of hybrid animals and lizards.
‘These are the gods, aren’t they?’ she said.
‘Imprisoned, with just a hint of torture – as you would expect from the King of Foxes,’ Tom replied. ‘Close enough to see the Blue Fire, but not close enough to use it. Pitch them in, too.’
Shavi and Ruth moved along the edges of the pool, pushing the statues into the flames. Within seconds they began to move, the terracotta cracking then falling away to reveal the living beings beneath.
Ruth shied back as one imposing figure rose from the Blue Fire. His black beard trailed down to his ankles, and his robes and tall hat were embroidered with Fabulous Beasts. Blue sparks fizzed from his eyes as he looked at each of them in turn.
‘My name is Yu Huang.’ His voice echoed into the dim distance. ‘I am the August Personage of Jade. Whatever happens on Earth and in heaven is mine to determine.’ His attention fell on Church and he nodded. ‘The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. It was only a matter of time until you found your way to the heavenly palace. You have my gratitude, and that of my Transcendental Administration.’
Other gods rising from the flames gave a clipped bow.
The Jade Emperor raised his head slightly as if sniffing the air. ‘The King of Foxes and his demon-court are no more. Balance has been restored.’
Hesitantly, Ruth stepped forward. ‘Sir …’ She bit off the word, cursing her awkwardness. ‘The Blue Fire has been closed off from its source.’
‘Even in our deep and dreamless sleep, we heard of this tragedy.’
‘The flow was cut by the Extinction Shears. Is there any way to restore it?’
Yu Huang’s expression grew dark at the mention of the Shears. Raising one hand, he summoned a hugely overweight figure with a bald head and glaring eyes. In his left hand he held a chain that led a strange, squat animal resembling a one-horned goat.
‘The question has been asked, Gao Yao,’ the Jade Emperor said to the new arrival, ‘and if our Empire of the Sun and Moon is to prosper still, it is one that must be answered in our favour. What is your judgment on this issue?’
Gao Lao lowered his huge frame to communicate silently with the goat. When he looked up, his eyes were wet with tears.
‘August Personage, my judgment in this matter is clear. Even this transgression can be breached—’
‘Even though the weft and the weave were cut by the Extinction Shears?’
‘August Personage, yes.’ Gao Yao bowed several times until Ruth became concerned he would not stop. ‘However, a sacrifice is needed. The spirit of a heavenly presence burns brightly and only that will break the dam.’
Dark thoughts played across Yu Huang’s face.
From the ranks of the gods, a muscular figure stepped forward. Bald, with a long, black ponytail, he carried a large silver axe marked in red with Chinese characters. A jagged scar ran across his face, and his left eye was covered with a patch. ‘August Personage, I will do this task for you. It is a small thing, and my battle-cry will echo through all eternity.’
‘No, Lei-Gong. The sun is setting on Existence, and I fear we will have need of your thunder before too long.’
One by one the gods stepped forward to offer their service, and one by one Yu Huang rejected them.
Finally he turned to the gods and said, ‘Return to the Palace of Heavenly Purity and make plans. The Transcendental Administration will be needed in the days to come. Let this be your legend: Honour. Fortune. Wisdom. Justice.’
When the gods had trooped by him into the stone tunnel, the Jade Emperor turned to Ruth. ‘Your spirit burns brightly. Believe in yourself, flower of the west, and all will be well.’
And then he turned to Church, Shavi and Tom. Church had recovered enough to stand unaided, but he was still pale and weak. ‘One of you must accompany me to the source of the Blue Fire.’
It took a second for them to realise what Yu Huang was saying. ‘One of us has to be the sacrifice?’ Shavi asked.
‘Why?’ There was force in Church’s question despite his physical weakness. ‘Because we’re not gods? Because we’re lesser?’
‘You would set yourself alongside the gods?’ Yu Huang’s tone and expression gave no hint of his thoughts.
‘We’re not lesser. Everything we’ve done shows that we deserve recognition.’
The Jade Emperor nodded thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps, then, it is time.’ He turned to Ruth. ‘You will accompany me?’
‘No,’ Church said. ‘I’ll go.’
‘You don’t have to keep protecting me,’ Ruth said sharply. ‘The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are equals. I have as much right as you to be sacrificed.’
‘Typical,’ Tom said. ‘Fighting over who should be the first to die.’
‘You’re the leader,’ Ruth said to Church. ‘You’re the one who’s most needed. Not me.’ Ruth tried to stop her voice from breaking.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Church pitch forward. As she turned to see what had happened, a hard blow struck the back of her head. The last thing she heard was Shavi’s voice: ‘I will do it.’
6
Shavi felt as if he was flying through a brilliant blue sky. Hanging on to the Jade Emperor’s sleeve, they hurtled through hall and tunnel and cavern in immeasurable number, all of them lit by the brilliant glow of the Blue Fire.
Eventually they came to a halt in a cavern that Shavi guessed was the one Church had accessed in Vietnam in the sixties. He centred himself, trying not to consider what lay ahead.
‘Where does the Blue Fire come from?’ he said.
‘The source of everything under Existence.’
Something in the face his mind had chosen for the Jade Emperor reminded him of his grandfather. ‘And you and your kind stand with Existence?’
‘We stand for balance. The yin and the yang in eternal harmony. One cannot exist without the other: day needs night; love needs hate; peace needs war. Each defines the other.’
‘But the Void has been in control of the world for so long—’
‘In your terms.’
‘For the sake of balance, Existence should get its turn.’
A ghost of a smile. ‘Yes.’
Shavi imagined for a moment. ‘A golden age. Mankind in harmony with nature, not driven by the urge for money and power.’
‘A golden age indeed,’ Yu Huang repeated.
‘Then I am ready,’ Shavi said. ‘If my sacrifice could help bring that about, it is worth it.’
‘Why did you choose to put yourself before the one I had chosen, and the one who sought to take her place?’
‘They are my friends.’ It didn’t feel like enough of an explanation, so he added, ‘They love each other. They deserve a chance to be together.’
‘More than you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you fear death?’
Shavi smiled. ‘I do not welcome it. There is much more I feel I need to do before I leave this life. But no, I do not fear it. I believe it is not an ending in itself, rather that it leads on to something great and mysterious.’
Yu Huang nodded. ‘A wise answer. Your Brother spoke of his desire for Fragile Creatures to be considered equal to gods. He gives voice to a timeless prophecy of an age when the chi of Fragile Creatures will rise and advance. And in that time the age of gods will pass. This may well be that time.’
He approached a place in the cavern wall that was seared black, and for a second he appeared to be made of nothing more than blue light. ‘Tell me, little Brother of Dragons, if you could keep only five memories, which would you choose?’
The question felt like a request for a valediction. Shavi closed his eyes and thought. ‘My father and mother, hugging me on my tenth birthday. Before my father realised I was not going to walk his road and his heart hardened towards me.’
Shavi opened his eyes and was surprised to see that the thin pool of Blue Fire had licked up into a column three feet above the ground. Yu Huang watched it intently.
Closing his eyes again, Shavi searched his memories. If he was going to die, it would be good to do so with his best thoughts in his head. Was it an act of compassion from Yu Huang?
‘A kiss in the dark on Clapham Common.’ He saw Lee’s face, sweet and mysterious, and accepted how much he had loved him. ‘Lying on the Downs, looking over Stonehenge as the sun came up, listening to music on my iPod and feeling a part of something wonderful.’ His emotions surged and he thought he might cry. ‘Holding my grandmother’s hand while she died, and seeing her smile one last time, hearing her tell me everything would be all right.’
He took a deep breath, lost in the vast Otherworld inside his head, Yu Huang, the cavern, his impending death all forgotten.
‘The final one … sitting around a campfire at night, with Church, Laura, Ruth, Ryan, all of us laughing, and realising in such a powerful way that it shook me to the core that these were the best friends I could ever want. That they had enriched my existence just by being there, that they had changed my life, like the philosopher’s stone changed lead into gold.’ He let the image settle into his thoughts. ‘I will miss them.’
When he opened his eyes he was shocked to see that the column of Blue Fire now soared to the very roof of the cavern. Yu Huang studied it carefully before turning to Shavi with an almost reverential expression. ‘You have built a monument of wonder. A beacon in the deep dark of the Void.’
With a gesture, he raised another column from the Blue Fire, half the height of the one Shavi had created. ‘I bestride the heavens. I have seen all, done all, yet that is the height of my own monument.’ He looked from one column to the other and smiled. ‘These are strange times, great times.’
‘I am ready,’ Shavi said.
After a long moment of silence, the Jade Emperor said, ‘The season has turned, Brother of Dragons. It is your time now.’ He reached out to the scar on the cavern wall and there was an explosion of Blue Fire that knocked Shavi from his feet.
When he regained his equilibrium, Yu Huang was gone. Blue Fire gushed through an opening, filling the reservoir in the cavern, and rushing out across Vietnam, across China and the Far East, across the world.
Shavi was stunned. As he struggled to comprehend why he was still alive, Hal’s voice rang out warmly. ‘Looks like the king has returned to the land, just as he did in the Age of Misrule. Congratulations, Shavi. The Fiery Network is back. And commiserations – you’ve just ushered in the most difficult time of all. It’s going to be war, hard and brutal.’
Through the gap leading to the source of the Blue Fire, Shavi could make out movement. They came through with the flow, writhing sinuously as they struggled to adapt their nascent bodies to the new environment. The newborn Fabulous Beasts slipped into the stream one by one and made their way into the world. Shavi was overwhelmed by euphoria as their essence touched him in passing.
‘Come on,’ Hal said. ‘Let’s get you back to the others.’
7
Church came round to find Tom shaking him roughly.
‘Bloody hell, Tom. I was dying a few minutes ago.’
‘Shut up. You’re alive now, aren’t you? Stop being a little girl.’
Tom hauled Church into a sitting position. Rubbing the back of his head, Church recalled what had happened. ‘Shavi?’
‘Gone. He reached his potential – I always knew he would. The man’s as quiet as a mouse, but he’s got the heart of a lion. You probably didn’t realise, bickering with your girly like a lovesick teen.’
Ruth came over, choking back sobs. ‘He went in my place—’
‘Your sword,’ Tom interjected. ‘Look at your sword.’
The blade had been cold since Church had left Veitch, but now tiny blue flames flickered around the edge. They grew stronger until, with a whoosh, they roared out like a torch. Tom pointed across the cavernous hall to where a tidal wave of Blue Fire rushed towards them.
‘Dammit, he did it,’ Tom said in awe.
The flames crashed against the stone lip of the pool, but didn’t wash over the companions. A second later, Shavi stepped out of the cold inferno, grinning broadly. Ruth threw her arms around him, no longer holding back her tears.
‘Yu Huang sacrificed himself in my place,’ Shavi said.
Tom reeled. ‘The Jade Emperor sacrificed himself in your place?’
‘Yes.’
‘The ruler of the Chinese pantheon – the highest of the high in this Great Dominion?’
‘He said “yes”, you old fool,’ Ruth said sharply.
The flaming outline of Hal appeared in the Blue Fire, this time sharp and clear. Church had an impression of a shy young man overcome with the optimism that was spreading through them all.
‘All right, team, you’re on the last leg,’ he said. ‘Get the two Keys together, and then it’s backs to the wall for the fight to end them all.’
‘But we are still trapped in the Forbidden City with the spiders outside the walls,’ Shavi said.
‘I told you, for people like … people like us – there’s always an exit. Right, Tom?’
‘Your magic disappearing act,’ Church said. ‘That’s right. You know how to jump along the lines of earth energy, move between the nodes—’
‘No,’ Shavi cautioned, ‘it is too dangerous. I have heard tell that once you immerse yourself in the Blue it is so wondrous, so magical, you could lose yourself in there for ever.’
‘That’s right,’ Hal said. ‘The Blue is very seductive. It’s the place we all want to go home to after a hard day’s work, where we can finally rest. But you have to know there will be time enough for that later. You can free yourself from the pull of the Blue if you stay focused on your mission.’
‘It can take us straight to New York?’ Church said.
‘It can take you anywhere.’
‘Then let’s do it.’ Church turned to Tom. ‘You know how to get this thing going?’
Tom nodded, crouching next to the pool, his head bowed.
‘Church …’ Ruth began hesitantly.
‘Don’t worry. We’re going to be all right.’
‘We need to talk.’
‘When we get to New York.’
There was a whoosh as the Blue Fire swirled in a vortex. ‘Come on,’ Tom said. ‘It’s not going to stay open for ever.’
‘Good luck,’ Hal said. ‘I’ll be with you all the way. And beyond. The real journey starts here.’
Hal faded into the flames as Tom stepped into the vortex and was gone. Shavi followed.
‘Church,’ Ruth said forcefully, ‘I’m not going with you.’
In her face, he saw a glimpse of the earlier betrayal and knew the truth. ‘You’re staying with Veitch.’
‘I have to. I can’t explain now.’
‘You don’t need to.’
‘You’re right there.’ Veitch stepped from the shadows in the tunnel. Behind him, Miller cowered. ‘Bad pennies and all that.’ The black flames sucked hungrily at the Blue Fire in Caledfwlch.
‘You’re not going to take her,’ Church said.
‘She’s making the choice, mate. That’s always how I wanted it. I never wanted to force her to do anything.’
Ruth wouldn’t meet Church’s eyes.
‘See, you’re all better, just like I said.’
‘So you can try to kill me again?’
‘Nah, I just wanted to teach you a lesson. Make you feel some of the pain I felt. You see, now I’ve won. You’ve lost. Game over.’
‘It’s not over,’ Church said coldly.
‘Ooh, scary talk.’
‘Church, leave it,’ Ruth pleaded.
Veitch entered the hall and stood next to Ruth. When she didn’t move away from him, Church felt as if Veitch had stabbed him all over again.
‘I just needed you to do the dirty work, open up the path into the Blue,’ Veitch said. ‘It’s the smart way to travel.’
Church raised his sword, ready to fight until one of them died. And then Ruth did come over to him, but just as he convinced himself that she had changed her mind, she whispered, ‘Go,’ and thrust him into the vortex.
As he was whisked away into a soothing sapphire world, he saw Veitch take Ruth’s hand and prepare to follow. Still reeling from the revelation that he and the Libertarian were one and the same, this was the final blow. He wondered if disappearing into the peace of that blue world for ever might be the only way to soothe the pain.
Chapter Twelve
THE BURNING MAN
1
The prison stood in the shadow of the great watchtowers that flanked the entrance gate to the Court of the Soaring Spirit. In a grim city, it was the grimmest building of all, built of gargantuan blocks of stone with only a smattering of windows, each barely bigger than a hand. Even in the dark, no light escaped from it, and no sound, but a reek of damp, blood and excrement hung over all.
In an alleyway that offered some respite from the driving rain, Mallory watched. There was only one way in and out, and it was blocked by iron gates with armed guards beyond. But Jerzy was in there somewhere, and if what Mallory had heard about the Hall of Bright Beyond was true, the Mocker needed to be rescued sooner rather than later.
Nearby, an old mare whinnied and stumbled slowly through the thick mud of a roughly built pen next to a smoky shack. Picking up a coil of rope, Mallory also took a thick woollen cloak that hung in an adjoining shed and wrapped it around himself before leading the mare out of the pen. He rode the animal towards the prison, hunched low over its neck with the hood of the cloak pulled forwards to obscure his features. Anyone seeing him would have thought him wounded or dead.
