CHAPTER 5

Dawn Star sensed that something was changing, and she took a step back to observe her childhood friend howling in pain. It had been almost impossible to hurt him so badly, and even harder to pretend not to care about it, but it had been necessary. The demon had to think that it was in mortal danger before it would show itself. She clutched the strange amulet around her neck. You better be right about this thing, Lao Kang.

Ming's eyes rolled up into his head, and when they came down again they were tinged with a deep red. A rumble emanated from his throat, and when he spoke, it was not the voice of Furious Ming.

"You are a meddlesome insect," the low, gravely voice said.

"I want you out of his body, demon," she said firmly, the crescent blades still raised before her.

It laughed, a low, sickening laugh. "You don't remember me, do you?"

Her eyes widened as she recalled the only demon that had truly threatened them in their travels. "Ya Zhen," she spat.

It laughed again. "Yes, although I am so much more than the Ya Zhen you knew. Now, I am free. Free to move about, not constrained to any one body. Free to direct the lives of men, to rule the lives of men…"

Dawn Star's mind spun at the implications of what it was saying. Before, the demon had been confined to the body of a single person, and a small girl at that. But if what it was saying were true, that it could move from body to body…

"Yes, I can see you understand," it said with an amused rasp. "But you don't really know how. Let me show you."

With inhuman speed, it leapt at her, knocking her blades aside like wooden children's toys. She barely managed to grab the amulet around her neck before it knocked her back and landed on top of her. She looked up to find herself pinned under the body of Furious Ming but staring into the eyes of the demon Ya Zhen. Ming's hands were around her neck, crushing her, preventing her from breathing.

"I am more powerful than you can imagine," Ya Zhen spoke again, but the voice came from within her mind. "When Ming helped Chai Ka defeat me, a part of me slipped out. I found myself in a snail. It was insulting. But the snail was poisonous, and it was eaten by a raven, which died. To my great surprise, I found I could inhabit the raven, and animate it. I began to realize the potential."

Dawn Star knew that she was choking to death, and she knew she had to activate Lord Lao's amulet soon. But she also wanted to hear the demon's story, if only because of the terrible implication it contained. Had Furious Ming also died at some point? Tell me more, she thought.

The demon seemed pleased with her submission. Like most demons, Ya Zhen was vain. "As the raven, I killed a poisonous snake, and I became the snake. As the snake, I waited so very patiently and finally killed a tiger with my venom. As a tiger, I could finally achieve my true goal. I killed my first human, an unsuspecting horselord." It laughed its sickening laugh in her mind.

She felt her heart sink. So it was true. Ming had fallen at the hands of the horselords and the demon had animated his corpse. But no one had known it because everyone with him had also died that day.

"Yes, of course your precious Ming was killed. No one man can stand against forty thousand. I found him slain on the battlefield, and I recognized him instantly. Imagine my elation! The greatest fighter of our time free for the taking. And imagine the surprise of the horselords when I did! No matter, as a demon-man, we were unbeatable. We killed thousands until the stupid big man showed up."

Dawn Star felt the life slipping out of her, but still she wanted to know more. Why?

"Why else? To rule the affairs of man. With Ming's body, I figured it would be easy to kill the Empress, and when I took her body, the whole of the Jade Empire would be mine."

I guess your plans didn't work out, Dawn Star thought, mentally smirking at the demon.

"They are delayed, that is all. Ming was difficult to control, not like the others before him. He would fight me, and go crazy for times rather than give me control. Eventually, I managed to get him to the floating palace, only to be thwarted by an imperial decoy. I must admit, you humans are crafty in ways that I am still learning to understand. But no matter, once I kill you, I will take your body and request an audience with the Empress. You will be much easier to control."

Except that we humans are craftier than you imagine, she thought as her mind swooned from lack of oxygen. She pressed a small button on the amulet hidden in the palm of her hand. It began to glow and emit a high-pitched screech. Almost immediately, the hands on her neck let go, and Ming's body fell to the side, twitching convulsively.

"What have you done?" Ya Zhen screamed, this time using Ming's voice.

Dawn Star coughed and gasped for air. She didn't feel at all like explaining. She knew that the heart of the inscrutable power source would draw in supernatural energy like a sponge. That's how the strange device was able to power the enormous flyers and other magical machinery of the Jade Empire. Or at least that's what Lord Lao had told her; he had explicitly given her this one as a demon ward, saying it was a high capacitance model that could induct even greater demons, or something technical to that effect.

"Wait!" Ya Zhen screamed. "Without me, your precious Ming will die!"

The realization that Ming had died on the battlefield that day was hard for her to accept. A part of her feared that Ya Zhen was telling the truth, that without the demon to animate his body, Ming might return to his former state--dead. She hesitated, her finger on the button of the power source. She could still stop the inductance…

"No," she said finally. "Ming would not want to live like this."

"But he does want to live! He wants to live with you. He yearns for you!"

"Now I know you're lying, demon. Ming has no feelings for me." Dawn Star felt a sharp pain in her chest to say it, even though she had admitted it to herself long ago.

"No, you are wrong! He--"

Ya Zhen tried to protest further, but the draining effect of the device rendered its screams incomprehensible.

Dawn Star watched in morbid fascination as Ming's body tossed and turned in impossible contortions, all the while screaming incoherently as the demon was drawn into the power source. It seemed interminable, and she grew increasingly uncomfortable as the seconds turned to minutes.

Abruptly, the high-pitched screech ceased, leaving the room in an eerie silence. She glanced down at the power source in her hand, wondering if she had stopped it herself. But the button was still depressed. The small device was glowing white, and the words of Lord Lao filled her mind: "It will glow, red at first, then orange, yellow, green, etcetera, and you'll know it's full when the light is white."

She nodded and took off the power source, placing it in a pocket. Ming no longer screamed, but lay still on the cold, stone floor. She kneeled next to his motionless body and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Ming," she said tenderly, running her hand along his skin.

There was no response, and his arm felt cold to her touch. She lowered her head, a wave of remorse rushing over her.

Then he twitched.

"Ming!" she said again, this time turning him so that he lay on his back. She leaned over him, searching his face for signs of life. For a long instant, there was nothing.

His eyes flew open.

Dawn Star jumped back, horrified. The eyes were red.

"You meddling insect," the low voice of Ya Zhen croaked. Before she could react, Ming's hand flew up and grabbed her wrist, twisting her arm backwards. She felt the bone snap with a loud pop and a searing rush of pain swept over her. With terrible fury, it grabbed her with its other hand and flung her against the stone wall.

As she crumpled to the floor grabbing at her broken arm, it stood up and glared down at her. "You can drain me, but you can't kill me!" it roared.

She looked up at the demon, then around at the spirit cave. She saw no means of escape. Her only chance had been to capture it, or to kill the body it had inhabited. But now, with the inscrutable power source filled to capacity, without her blades and with a broken arm, that didn't seem very likely.

She contemplated her imminent death as the demon stalked towards her slowly, menacingly, and realized that her only real regret was that she had never actually told Ming that she loved him. Not that it would have changed his own feelings for her, and not that it would have stopped him from leaving, but… could it have? She would never know now.

The demon stopped to pick up one of Dawn Star's fallen crescent blades. "Before I kill you, I think I will show you the true meaning of pain."

Somewhere in the murky recesses of his mind, Ming knew what was going on. He had been forced to watch many times before. He had fought it many times before, always without success. But this time something was different. The Other had been weakened somehow, and perhaps more importantly, he could feel something. Normally he felt nothing. When he had resisted the Other before, he had waded through entire villages, hacking and cutting his way through the madness in a murderous rampage, and had never felt a thing. He had even felt nothing when he had burst into the Imperial Bedroom and supposedly murdered his other lover, Empress Lian the Heavenly Lily. But this time, it was different.

He felt a cold weight in his hand, and forced himself with great effort to look down. The sword looked vaguely familiar. With enormous concentration, he forced his eyes to follow the length of the blade.

A beautiful woman recoiled in front of him, her face a hopeless picture of resignation. He didn't recognize her, and yet he felt something.

The hand with the blade raised, and she turned her face away.

"No," Ming said simply, and commanded his arm to lower.

"What do you mean, no!" Ya Zhen roared.

"I cannot let you harm this woman."

"She is an insect, and you will obey me!"

"I will not harm this woman."

Dawn Star looked up, her eyes wide, daring to hope. Perhaps the demon is toying with me. But what if it isn't?

"Ming!" she cried out.

He raised a hand, slowly.

"I do not know who you are, gentle one. I only know that you are very important to me."

"It's me, Dawn Star!" she pleaded.

"The name is vaguely familiar. I must ask a great favor of you, Dawn Star."

"Anything, Ming," she said.

"You must take this blade and strike me down."

Dawn Star looked back at him in horror. "But you're back! You're in control again."

"Only just barely. It cannot last. Even now, the Other whispers in my head." He let the blade tumble from his limp fingers. It clattered to the ground, piercing the silence of the great cavern.

She knew he was right, but attacking someone in self defense was different than striking down a friend who still had a chance. She reached down to retrieve the blade, then hesitated.

"Do it," he said. "Before it's too late."

"Oh Ming," she said, reaching a hand out to his face. His skin still felt cool to her fingers.

"I know that touch," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "Dawn Star!"

"Yes. It's me," she said, her voice cracking.

"There is something I must tell you, but then you must promise to carry out my wishes."

She nodded, her heart heavy.

"I remember everything. And I died, before this atrocity brought me back."

"I know."

"But before I died, my last thoughts were of you. While I lived, I fought an internal battle between lust and love, and unfortunately lust won out. Lust for adventure, lust for… other things."

She swallowed and looked away, knowing what he meant. Lust for Heavenly delights. What man wouldn't lust after a woman like Sun Lian or her slinky alter ego, Silk Fox?

"But in death," he continued. "In death, only love matters. I couldn't say it in life, so…"

His voice faltered.

"I love you, too!" she cried, her eyes filling with tears. Against her better judgment, she threw her arms around him and kissed him deeply. She half expected the demon to start laughing and then crush her, but the deception never materialized. Ming kissed her back, at least as well as he could in his half-aware state. When she pulled back, she looked into his eyes, which sparkled in the torchlight. "We can beat this, Ming! I'll get another inscrutable power source, or--"

He shook his head. "I know what you only fear to know, that this body is held together by the power of the demon. Without it, my flesh will fall apart and my spirit will float away to rejoin the great wheel, as it should have done years ago. Now, you must finish this."

"But how…" she said weakly, the tears flowing freely now.

"With joy in your heart. How many have died without a chance to tell the ones they love how they really feel?"

She nodded, wiping away her tears.

"Now hurry! I can feel the Other coming again…"

She gripped the cold blade in her hand. It would be the last and most difficult blow she would ever land with it.

I will always love you, Ming. In life and in death.

Her blow was swift and true.