disappeared.
âIâm coming too,â Simone said. âI wonât sleep unless I know. That sword is kind of like a bad-tempered guard dog for you.â
âCareful, youâll upset the stone,â 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 Lordâs power. I shivered in my robe; the early autumn breeze was chilly. First snow soon.
âI must have some eucalypts planted here,â I said. âI miss the smell.â
âCan you see okay?â Simone said, gesturing towards the ball of light sheâd summoned for me.
âJust fine.â
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.
âOpen,â I said, and the doors slid smoothly apart.
We stepped into its dark interior, the black roof tiles visible high above us. The building didnât 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.
âMove the light closer, I canât see,â 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.
âI can smell it, we can go,â 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 Iâd 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.
âDark Lady.â
âHello, little one,â I said.
âItâs the middle of the night, Lady, why do you disturb us?â
âI apologise for disturbing you. I wanted to check my weapon. Is it in there?â
The flyer hissed and took a few steps back, shaking its wings. âI donât want to know anything about that thing.â It took off again, spiralling up into the rafters.
We walked past the shelves to the back wall of the building,
âIâm coming too,â Simone said. âI wonât sleep unless I know. That sword is kind of like a bad-tempered guard dog for you.â
âCareful, youâll upset the stone,â 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 Lordâs power. I shivered in my robe; the early autumn breeze was chilly. First snow soon.
âI must have some eucalypts planted here,â I said. âI miss the smell.â
âCan you see okay?â Simone said, gesturing towards the ball of light sheâd summoned for me.
âJust fine.â
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.
âOpen,â I said, and the doors slid smoothly apart.
We stepped into its dark interior, the black roof tiles visible high above us. The building didnât 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.
âMove the light closer, I canât see,â 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.
âI can smell it, we can go,â 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 Iâd 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.
âDark Lady.â
âHello, little one,â I said.
âItâs the middle of the night, Lady, why do you disturb us?â
âI apologise for disturbing you. I wanted to check my weapon. Is it in there?â
The flyer hissed and took a few steps back, shaking its wings. âI donât want to know anything about that thing.â It took off again, spiralling up into the rafters.
We walked past the shelves to the back wall of the building,
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