Black Jade by Kylie Chan Page A

will emerge and they’ll need to control it.
    This will be great fun, he said with satisfaction. I hope I’m free to join you tomorrow morning.
    I shook my head and walked over to Persimmon Tree Pavilion.
    * * *
    Thirty-Eight had made a modern Western meal for the family and we all ate in the Pavilion’s dining room, crammed around the ten-seater round table. Persimmon Tree only had three small bedrooms, so it was a crush with all the family. Two of the boys slept in the living room on futons that were rolled up during the day.
    Jen and Greg sat with Colin and Andrew, her boys, and the little one they’d had together, Matthew, who stubbornly refused a high chair. Alan and Amanda’s boys, Mark and David, were constantly needling each other. The boys had grown so much: Colin was close on eighteen, Andrew and Mark were both sixteen, and David had just turned fifteen and would probably have another growth spurt in the near future. My parents were glowing with good health and appeared younger than when they’d arrived in the Heavens; a side effect of living in the Celestial purity.
    I relished the feeling of having everybody back with me; I’d missed them terribly while they’d been in hiding. Luckily they hadn’t found it difficult to move to the Mountain while the Earthly was being overrun by demons; and they appreciated that they were safe with us. Knowledge that their friends on the Earthly were being replaced and that they themselves were a huge target was deeply distressing for them, but they kept a brave face in front of the children.
    My father raised his pasta-laden fork and waved it at me. ‘What’s this about training the boys?’
    â€˜We want to learn!’ Colin said, and Andrew nodded fierce agreement.
    â€˜I’ll teach them myself, for exercise and health and energy,’ I said.
    â€˜Rubbish,’ Jennifer said. ‘Colin wants to fight demons. He’s been asking Greg forever to teach him.’
    â€˜It’s your choice whether I fight demons, Mum,’ Colin said. He lowered his voice. ‘But when I’m eighteen and an adult, it’s my choice.’
    â€˜There’s too much of this violent snake thing in all of them,’ my mother said. ‘If I’d had the opportunity when I was a girl, I would have jumped at it as well. I think it’s part of how we’re made.’
    â€˜Don’t try to stop me, Mum,’ Colin said into his food.
    â€˜We’ll talk about it later,’ Jennifer said with quiet menace.
    â€˜And, Emma,’ my father waved his fork again, ‘you’re Immortal and didn’t tell us.’
    I choked on my pasta.
    â€˜Does this mean that when you go out to fight, we won’t have to worry about you any more?’ my mother said. ‘If you’re killed by those horrible things, you’ll just come back?’
    â€˜Uh . . . yes,’ I said.
    â€˜Good,’ she said, and returned to cutting up little Matthew’s chicken. ‘About time. That’s a huge relief. I swear, worrying about you has made my hair go completely grey.’
    â€˜Exactly,’ my father said. ‘And, Emma . . .?’
    â€˜Yes?’ I said, still pleasantly stunned at their reaction.
    â€˜When we found out you’d become Immortal, John offered to show us the methods you people use to gain Immortality.’
    â€˜ You people? ’ Greg said with mock horror.
    â€˜Shut up, Greg,’ Jen said without looking at him. ‘You’re one of them too.’
    Greg buried his embarrassment in a deep drink of tea and filled their cups again.
    â€˜Anyway, John said that he’d be glad to teach us the physical alchemy or whatever-it-is techniques that you’ve used,’ my father said.
    â€˜Uh . . . good?’ I said, not sure where this was going.
    â€˜How long can you hold horse stance?’ my father said.
    â€˜Indefinitely,’ I said, thoroughly