Thanks to all for the encouraging reviews, both for the last
chapter and previous ones! :o)
I can't tell who most of the reviewers were, for my account doesn't
seem to be updating and the
reviewers' names don't appear in the emails - but I will find
out, eventually.
A number of things finally come to light in this chapter, but
there are still a number of chapters
to come after this. I want to put the Chinese note here, because
I like the ending I gave to this
chapter and placing the note at the end might diminish its effect.
Hope you enjoy reading it! ~ Kim :o)
Chinese Note:
If you would like to know more about the Eight Immortals, please
check out
http://encarta.msn.com/index/conciseindex/B2/0B2E5000.htm?z=1&pg=2&br=1
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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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Chapter XXIV
The Eight Immortals
Like as the waves
make towards the pebbled shore
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
~ W. Shakespeare
The Plateau
lay silent and peaceful in the pale moonlight when they arrived.
There was no
sign of Snufflegint. Harry suspected that the old wizard was probably
capable of making
himself invisible, as Professor Dumbledore could. However, he
changed his mind when they
reached the peach orchard. Besides the tortoises and Chester in
his usual peach tree, a
large screech owl had also perched itself in the dying peach tree,
and sat there gazing at its
surroundings with fierce yellow eyes.
They stopped at the foot of the dying tree, and Harry found
himself looking nervously up at
the owl.
"D'you think it's Snufflegint?" hissed Ron.
"Possible," whispered Harry. "Or Dumbledore."
"It must be this Tree, then," whispered Hermione.
"Maybe it has to wither before it can fruit,
and then be reborn again."
The owl suddenly directed its gaze at them, and they fell silent.
Harry felt sure the owl had
heard them. Jeanne had told him, once, how acute an owl's hearing
could be. Harry glanced
down. Perhaps the owl could see the slight depressions their feet
were making in the grass.
They waited for a few minutes, and then Hermione said very
softly, "Do you hear something
else?"
They listened. Harry thought he could hear a soft, gnawing
sound coming from inside the
dying tree.
"The tree's alive!" hissed Ron.
"But, it's dying," whispered Hermione.
"Shh," whispered Harry. Two figures were coming toward
them, from the direction of the
tunnel. Harry recognised Dumbledore, and, to his surprise, Lady
Wen-Li.
The screech owl shifted its position on its branch, and turned its fierce gaze onto Dumbledore.
Harry and the others quietly edged to one side. Dumbledore
came up to the dying tree, and
looked up at the owl, which was still staring at him. He seemed
about to say something,
when the gnawing sound suddenly became louder than ever. Harry
turned to look for its
source. Something was gnawing on wood, trying to burrow its way
out of the dying tree.
Ron gave a muffled exclamation of surprise, as a small black
creature emerged from the
tree.
"Chester!" he whispered. "It's Chester!"
"No, it's just another cricket," whispered Hermione.
"Chester's up in his usual peach
tree, remember?"
Dumbledore and Lady Wen-Li were looking at the cricket in surprise.
The cricket gave
an angry chirp, and with a flutter of wings, flew over to the
peach tree on which Chester
was perched. With a fierce chirp, it launched itself at Chester,
who appeared to have
dozed off, and knocked him right out of the tree and onto the
grass.
Chester got to his feet with an indignant chirp. The second
cricket launched itself at him
again, and the two began fighting, each biting the other viciously
and giving off loud and
angry chirps. After a while Harry couldn't tell which cricket
was which, because the two
looked identical.
"We should stop them," whispered Hermione, sounding
rather distressed. "What if
Chester gets hurt?"
Harry found himself watching, transfixed. "It's Chester's
fight, Hermione. We should let
him have his chance."
"Chester doesn't like fighting!" hissed Hermione.
"That other cricket attacked him. It must
have eaten up the interior of the peach tree - that's why the
tree was dying!"
Dumbledore and Lady Wen-Li were watching the two crickets in
the grass, looking baffled.
The screech owl, too, was gazing intently at them, though it turned
to look in Harry's
direction when it heard them whispering.
One of the crickets seemed to be getting the worst of the fight.
The other was biting it
viciously and relentlessly, but stopped all of a sudden, and let
go.
The weaker cricket crawled slowly away, and then came to a
halt and lay still. The victor
crawled after it, and then gently nudged at it with its antennae,
but it didn't move.
"Oh," said Hermione softly, "It's dead."
Dumbledore suddenly gave an exclamation, and he and Lady Wen-Li
hurried over to the
dead cricket. The victorious cricket managed to look guilty, and
crawled to one side with
a subdued chirp. The screech owl, too, gave a cry, and spreading
its wings, flew over and
landed on the grass a few feet from Dumbledore.
Ron gave a small gasp, and Harry felt Hermione grab his shoulder.
He looked at the dead
cricket, and saw that it was swelling in size. Larger and larger
it grew, and its form was
changing. An old wizard in white silk robes lay there, his eyes
open and unseeing; it was
Professor Snufflegint.
The owl gave another cry, and began transforming as well. It
swelled upward, and disappeared.
Jeanne was standing there instead, looking down at Snufflegint's
body, a distressed expression
on her face.
Harry and the others began edging forward, holding the Cloak
tightly around them. When they
were several feet from Dumbledore, Harry thought he saw Snufflegint
stir - no, something else
was rising out of Snufflegint's body - his ghost. It rose up,
straight and tall, and then stepped
away from the body, and stood next to it, looking down at it.
Jeanne looked sadly at the ghost.
"I'm sorry, Septimus," she said.
The ghost glanced at her, then turned and looked at Dumbledore and Lady Wen-Li.
"Brother Li-Kai," said Lady Wen-Li, looking rather startled, "What are you doing here?"
Snufflegint's ghost fixed his fierce and intense stare on her, but said nothing.
Dumbledore was also looking bemused.
"Enlighten us, Septimus," he said. "How did you find out about this place?"
The ghost let his gaze fall on the remaining cricket on the ground.
"It began with my assistant's cricket," he said.
"I noticed one day that it wasn't around, so I
asked him where it was, and he let slip that this place existed."
"Ah," said Dumbledore, glancing around. "That
probably means that Harry Potter and his
friends know about this place, as well."
Harry and the others retreated a few paces. Jeanne, however, was looking in their direction.
"Take the Cloak off, Harry," she said, rather impatiently. "We know you're there."
Harry felt his face going red. He pulled the Cloak off, and
glancing back, saw Robert apparently
transfiguring Shan back to human form.
Lady Wen-Li raised her eyebrows when she saw Shan and Robert
there, but Dumbledore's eyes
were twinkling.
"I believe we should let them stay for the moment, Wen-Li,"
he said, "since they have been
ingenious enough to find this place."
He turned, and looked at Jeanne.
"Septimus told me," she said, in answer to the unasked question.
Snufflegint was still looking at the cricket in the grass.
"I suppose I should have found an alternative way to disguise
myself," he said. "But the cricket
was convenient. There aren't many other creatures living on this
mountain, and my calculations
indicated the Tree could have fruited any time between Christmas
Eve till the end of January. It was
the easiest disguise, considering how often the young adventurers
kept coming to the mountain."
Harry and the others looked rather guilty, as Dumbledore turned to look at them.
"Maybe I should have killed it," added Snufflegint,
still looking at Chester, "But it has been my policy
never to take a life unnecessarily. I didn't expect him to eat
his way out so soon, though."
"Perhaps it is better this way, Brother Li," said
Lady Wen-Li gently. "The Peaches do not always
bring blessing."
Dumbledore had now turned to look at Snufflegint.
"How did you know the time of the Fruiting?" he asked.
"It started with the Potions Master, Liu Pei," answered
Snufflegint. "He used to be in the Tomb
Sect, together with me. He boasted that he had found the key to
immortality, and that it lay in the
stars. It was not hard to guess what he meant; I heard that several
important articles had been
stolen from the Imperial Archives. Chinese astronomers have long
known that Wu-Hsien created
a star-map containing information as to when the Tree would fruit
again. The story was dismissed
as a myth, for the scroll was lost over the years and people ceased
to believe it existed. I do not
know how Liu Pei discovered it was in the Archives, especially
as it was in such poor condition
that no one knew what it contained; but I suspected that he must
have stolen it, together with the
bronze vessel from which it originated.
"He must have been eavesdropping around the palace as
well, for he knew that the Tree was in
your keeping, Wen-Li, and I believe he must have boasted about
his knowledge to others, which
is why word eventually spread and all the Pugilists and Imperial
Envoys came bearing down upon
Tian-Long."
"Ah," said Lady Wen-Li, "but how would they have known that the Tree was about to fruit?"
Snufflegint shrugged.
"Astrologers all around the country have been foretelling
that some Great Event is going to occur,"
he said. "When the scroll was stolen, the Court Astronomers
probably realised that the scroll was
Wu-Hsien's. They must have put two and two together."
"Ah," said Lady Wen-Li again. "And I observe,
Brother Li, that you did not bother to inform me
of all this."
Snufflegint fixed his cold stare on her.
"I thought it unnecessary," he said. "I saw
you had removed the peach orchard, and that the Tree
was safe."
"And you did not think that you would come to Britain
and find that Albus had agreed to hide it in
his storeroom for me," said Lady Wen-Li. "And I am assuming,
since you appear to have calculated
the time of the Fruiting, that you managed to take possession
of the scroll?"
Snufflegint nodded.
"I knew Liu Pei well enough, from our days in the Tomb
Sect," he said. "I had no intention of
allowing him to achieve immortality. I kept my eyes open for an
opportunity. When one night I
was woken up by the sounds of fighting, I had only to see a Silverwing
fleeing from the window
below mine to know that the chance had come."
So he was the one, thought Harry. And I thought it was a Dementor.
There was a slight pause, and then Dumbledore turned to Snufflegint.
"What will you do now, Septimus?" he asked. "You
know you are welcome to stay at Hogwarts,
for as long as you wish."
Snufflegint did not reply at once. He looked at Dumbledore,
then shifted his gaze to the mountains
in the distance, a faraway expression in his eyes.
"I will stay here in China," he said at last, "because my heart is here, and always will be."
Lady Wen-Li said swiftly, "Brother Li, I will be hard
put to find another Western Magic Master
as capable. You know you are always welcome at Tian-Long, whether
you wish to continue
teaching, or not."
Snufflegint looked at her, then shook his head slightly, as if undecided.
A strong wind suddenly blew, and peach blossoms began falling
to the ground. The singing from
the distant voices became louder, then suddenly fell to a murmur,
and ceased altogether.
"The time is approaching," said Lady Wen-Li, "We should step back a bit; they will be coming soon."
"Who?" whispered Shan, as all of them started retreating
some distance from the peach trees. Chester
came hopping after them, and took refuge on Hermione's shoulder.
"Who's coming, Jeanne?" asked Ron, as Jeanne came
over to stand with them. She did not reply, but
lifted a hand, and pointed at something up in the sky.
Harry turned to look. Eight shooting stars seemed to be falling
out of the heavens. After a few moments,
he saw that they were not stars, but people. As they came down
to earth, he saw that they were tall,
as tall as Hagrid, and glowed with an unearthly light.
Shan gave a soft cry, and turned to look at Robert.
"Pa-Hsien!" she said, tugging at his sleeve.
"What?" said Ron, looking blank.
"Pa-Hsien!" said Shan again, and then remembered
that Ron and the others didn't understand Chinese.
"The Eight Immortals!"
Harry, who had suspected he would hear a lot of Chinese being
spoken that night, took the Translator
out of his pocket and put it on. He found himself watching the
eight heavenly beings in fascination. Each
had his or her own distinctive appearance. As far as he could
see, there was only one woman. Another
looked like a young boy, with a flower-basket tied at his waist.
A third carried a crutch, with a gourd
attached to his belt. Still another was shorter and stouter than
the rest, and was holding a fan. The fifth
carried a flute, the sixth a bamboo tube-drum, and the seventh
some castanets. The eighth, slightly taller
than the rest, had a shining sword in a scabbard at his belt;
he reminded Harry vaguely of Chen-Kang.
"Who are they, Jeanne?" asked Hermione, looking slightly awed.
Lady Wen-Li heard her, and turned to look in their direction, smiling slightly.
"These are the Eight Immortals," she said, "who
live in Peng-Lai, east of our country. They have come
to receive the Peaches of the Tree of Immortality, which used
to grow in my mother's garden, until the
Celestial War broke out and my mother entrusted the Tree to me.
You would not have been able to
partake of the fruit, anyway, Brother Li," - turning to look
at Snufflegint's ghost, who was standing
next to her, watching - "The Pa-Hsien will destroy
them, the minute they appear."
Harry and the others turned to look at Lady Wen-Li in surprise.
She was looking at the Eight Immortals,
who had arranged themselves in a semicircle around one of the
peach trees, and seemed to be waiting
for something.
"There is a war raging in another Realm, between the Celestials,
even now," said Lady Wen-Li. "It has
been raging for centuries, for many of those who ate the Peaches
lived long enough to discover the secret
of making themselves invincible. Because of that, the war may
never end, for the combatants cannot be
killed. When my mother learned of this, she realised that the
gift of Immortality can sometimes be a curse,
and she wanted to destroy the Tree, but it cannot be destroyed,
only hidden. And so I brought it to
Tian-Long, and there it will stay, unless I see fit to move it
to another place, and every three thousand years,
when it bears its Peaches, the Pa-Hsien will come, and
destroy the fruit."
It had become darker now, and Harry, looking up at the sky,
saw that the moon and the stars appeared to
have dimmed. The only source of light came from the Immortals,
who were glowing brightly, and the Tree
they were surrounding, which had now shed all its blooms, and
was beginning to glow as well.
An exclamation from Hermione made him turn, and he saw another
figure striding toward them, from the
direction of the tunnel : it was the Monkey King. But he looked
different now; he was dressed in blue
robes, and seemed more human in behaviour. He was holding a long,
wooden staff.
Lady Wen-Li's eyes twinkled as the monkey came up to them.
"Master S'un, are you here as well?" she said. "Have you not had enough of the Peaches?"
The Monkey King made no reply, but merely smiled in response,
and stood quietly, watching the Eight
Immortals. Ron and Hermione were looking blank; Lady Wen-Li must
have been speaking Chinese.
Shan, noticing this, began to translate for them.
They stood, watching the Eight Immortals and the Tree, which
was growing brighter and brighter.
After a while, it began to fruit before their eyes. Out came the
Peaches, small at first, then growing
to become round, plump delectable-looking fruit, golden in colour.
The Eight Immortals waited till the fruit had ceased to appear,
and the tree was covered with
luscious-looking Peaches. They then lifted their arms, and pointed
at the Tree. Bright beams of
light shot out from their fingers, hitting the fruit and vapourising
them immediately.
"Oh," said Shan, rather sadly, and glanced at Robert,
who just shook his head slightly and said
softly, "You can't imagine what it means, Shan."
The Eight Immortals lowered their hands; the Peaches had all
been destroyed. One of the Immortals,
the woman, turned and looked at them, and then began making her
way over to them.
"That is H'e Hsien-Ku," whispered Shan, to Harry, Ron and Hermione.
H'e Hsien-Ku stopped in front of them, towering over them,
ghostly and beautiful; Harry saw that
she wore a lotus blossom in her hair. She was looking at Professor
Snufflegint.
"I have come to have words with you, Brother Li,"
she said. "You sought the Peaches, but your
motives were not untrue. You may still have what you desire. Come
to Peng-Lai Shan, and abide
there for a while, and you will realise that you do not need to
be immortal to find your goal."
Snufflegint was silent for a moment, returning the witch's gaze, then gave a small nod of assent.
H'e Hsien-Ku reached a hand out, and pointed at his physical
body, which they had brought with
them and was lying several feet away. The body shimmered, and
then vanished. She then passed
a hand through his ghostly form, and it glowed, and seemed to
transform slightly, so that he looked
younger, as he might have appeared about a hundred years ago.
H'e Hsien-Ku now turned to Lady Wen-Li.
"It is done," she said, "I will bring Li-Kai
back to Peng-Lai now, and my brothers will bring your
orchard back to Long-Shan."
Lady Wen-Li smiled and gave a slight nod. H'e Hsien-Ku looked
at the Monkey King. "Are you
coming too?"
S'un Wu-Kung smiled, and bowed slightly to her.
"Come, then," she said, looking at him, and then
at Snufflegint, and turned and made her way to
the edge of the mountain.
Lady Wen-Li said, "It is time for me to return to Tian-Long."
She bowed to Dumbledore, and
smiled at the rest of them, and then turned and made her way over
to where the other Immortals
were waiting.
Professor Snufflegint's ghost turned and looked at Jeanne.
"Good luck, Jeanne," he said quietly.
Jeanne looked soberly at him, and her eyes were sad.
"And to you, Septimus," she replied.
Snufflegint stood there, gazing at her for a moment, then turned
and followed H'e Hsien-Ku. The
Monkey King, too, made to follow, but then turned and smiled at
Hermione.
"Farewell, Hermione," he said, winking at her, and
then he turned and joined the other two at the
cliff's edge. H'e Hsien-Ku raised her arms, and began rising up
into the sky, together with Snufflegint
and S'un Wu-Kung. Higher and higher they flew, until they were
but small specks in the sky, and
then they shimmered, and vanished.
Harry turned to look at the orchard. Lady Wen-Li was standing
next to the Tree. The remaining
Immortals raised their arms, and the orchard began to shimmer.
For a brief moment, Harry thought
he saw an image of the lake in Tian-Long superimposed on the orchard.
The Emperor's envoys,
together with the Pugilists, were visible as well, camping by
the lakeside; some of them looked
quite disgruntled. Then the orchard glowed more brightly, and
pulsated a bit, and then faded,
and disappeared.
"We have to go," said Dumbledore swiftly, "The
Immortals are going to remove the Enchantment
from this place, and seal up the tunnel; it's time we went back
to Hogwarts."
He began leading the way back. Hermione was still looking at
the spot where the Monkey King
had vanished.
"I didn't know he could talk," she said.
Jeanne smiled at her. "Master Wu-Kung is always full of surprises."
"What did the witch mean, Jeanne," said Ron, "about Snufflegint's motives being true?"
Jeanne gave a small sigh.
"He didn't desire power or anything," she said. "He
just wasn't tired of living yet. He wanted to
see more of China; of late he had become too old to travel, so
his time was spent in Tian-Long,
teaching, but his yearning to roam far and wide still remained.
He thought that he could borrow
some time, till he'd had his fill, and then find a place where
he could rest."
"How come the Immortals seem to know him?" asked Harry curiously.
"I don't know, but it doesn't surprise me," said
Jeanne, smiling slightly. "He has been around, has
Septimus. I hope he can achieve what he desires - he can still
travel as much as he wants, in his
present form, and see all those places that he hasn't seen."
She looked at Harry, and saw what he was thinking.
"Yes, Harry," she said, putting an arm around him,
even while looking reprovingly at him, "I know
Septimus quite well. And now, since he's gone, please stop spying
on me."
Harry went red. Jeanne smiled, and removed her arm from his shoulders.
They had reached the edge of the cliff leading down to the
tunnel, and turned back to look. The
Immortals had removed the Enchantment from the Plateau, and the
feeling of timelessness had
disappeared. It was now no more than an ordinary mountaintop.
Winter was setting in rapidly;
snow was starting to fall, covering the meadow and the forest
of conifers.
Shan looked rather sad as they climbed down to the tunnel.
Dumbledore was looking at Harry
in amusement.
"I won't ask you how you managed to discover this place,
Harry," he said. "I presume you are
wondering if you are going to be punished. As far as I know, there
is no rule in Hogwarts that
says you can't come to Mount Khun-Lun on the night the Tree of
the Peaches of Immortality is
going to fruit, so it seems I am going to have to let you off."
Harry found himself grinning in relief.
"So that's why the Envoys and the Pugilists were hanging
around Tian-Long," said Ron. "They
were looking for the Tree."
Dumbledore chuckled.
"Yes, and they refused to stay in the palace, even though
Lady Wen-Li invited them to do so," he
said. "I imagine she must have informed them that the Peaches
are gone, by now there is going
to be a crowd of very disappointed people, over at Tian-Long."
They climbed back into the storeroom, and then Dumbledore took
his wand out and pointed it at
the wooden chest. There was a flash of light, and then the ladder
was gone. The chest reverted to
what it must have originally looked like, with a normal bottom,
and filled with various odds and ends,
pieces of old parchment, an old cauldron, and a bale of cloth.
Dumbledore closed the lid of the chest, and they left the room.
Hermione was looking thoughtful.
"So, Lady Wen-Li's mother is the Queen Mother of the West,"
she said. "She must be one of the
Immortals, herself no wonder she looks the way she does
- ageless."
Shan nodded, still looking rather sad that the Plateau was
gone. Robert, noticing, slipped his hand
into hers, and gave it a comforting squeeze.
Over the next few days, although he knew it was pointless,
Harry found himself coming back to
the storeroom every now and then, and checking the chest in the
hope that he might find the ladder
extending downward into pitch blackness again; but of course,
he didn't. The chest remained as it
was, an ordinary chest. The gateway to the Plateau had been sealed
up forever, and the Timeless
Land had become a thing of the past, remaining alive only in their
memories.
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