Black Jade Read Online Free

voice a low rumble that echoed in the air. ‘You’ll divorce me before we’re married?’
    A Palace fairy appeared in front of us and we stopped so that John could speak to it.
    â€˜We wish to refresh ourselves before presenting to the Celestial,’ he said. ‘Is he in his quarters or his hearing room?’
    The fairy silently told us to go to Er Lang.
    â€˜Doesn’t the Jade Emperor want to discuss what happened at the Gates?’ I said, incredulous.
    The fairy quivered and rang like a bell.
    â€˜Okay, okay,’ I said. ‘Do we have to walk all the way over to Er Lang’s?’
    By the time I finished speaking, the Palace had already transferred us directly to outside Er Lang’s office in the Elite residential quarters. A school class was audible nearby, with the children chanting a memory rhyme. All but five of the Elites were dead, and young families were occupying their rooms.
    We went into Er Lang’s office to find him sitting behind his desk, studying his computer monitor and looking grim. We sat across from him.
    â€˜Do they have the Gates?’ John said.
    â€˜From all accounts the answer is yes. Everyone present was killed, and nobody can approach the area without being killed as well.’
    â€˜Guan Yu?’ I said. ‘He should know the details —’
    â€˜I will fucking murder that motherfucker, rip out his fucking entrails and fucking shove them up his —’ Guan Yu roared as he entered, stopping dead when he saw us. He fell to one knee before me. ‘My profoundest apologies, my Lady Emma. I did not realise you were present, and I sincerely regret burdening your ears with my filthy outburst.’
    John’s eyes were full of amusement. He shot a look at me, then leaned his chin in his hand and waited for it.
    â€˜Get the fuck off the floor,’ I said to Guan Yu. ‘We have much more important things to worry about than my delicate shell-like ears. For fuck’s sake, man, we’re all soldiers here and we need to know the status of the Gates.’
    Guan Yu looked from John to me, then smiled with grim satisfaction as he rose and conjured a chair for himself. ‘Very well. The King left about twenty of those stone fuckers in front of the Gates, with another twenty humanoid snipers on top, and anyone who tries to take them down is destroyed immediately. What the hell were you two . . . three reptiles doing that my people can’t? You took them apart easily.’
    â€˜Eating them,’ I said. ‘But they made me sick after a while. Lord Xuan could eat more of them.’
    â€˜They tasted awful,’ John said. ‘What about the rest of the stone demons?’
    â€˜Yeah, they were sinking into the ground. What happened?’ I said.
    â€˜They did sink into the ground,’ Er Lang said. ‘We couldn’t follow their passage through the earth, but it’s obvious they were travelling to reinforce the Southern and Western Bastions.’
    â€˜Shit,’ John said.
    â€˜Can your children do what we did?’ I asked John.
    â€˜They might.’
    â€˜I should round them up then. We can take them down together.’
    Er Lang’s expression filled with shock as he looked from me to John. Guan Yu’s face was rigid with control.
    â€˜I know exactly what you are thinking and it is thoroughly beneath both of you,’ I said. ‘Look at me. I’m pure European. I know my genealogy back for two hundred years, and there isn’t a single drop of Chinese blood there. Go further back than that and we run into the common-sense decree about ten generations.’
    â€˜Then why can you do it too?’ Er Lang said.
    â€˜Because she used to be a demon snake, just like me,’ John said.
    Er Lang opened his mouth, but I said it first. ‘I still am.’
    â€˜Conceded,’ John said.
    â€˜So let me bring your children in,’ I said. ‘They might be able