Read Heaven to Wudang for Free Online

throat out if we don’t get married within the next two weeks,’ he said.
    â€˜But she doesn’t know what we are, and that dragons and stones don’t do that sort of thing.’
    â€˜Actually she does. She knew all along your father was a dragon. He told her I’m a stone, and that stones don’t marry, and apparently it’s made her even more determined to see it happen.’
    â€˜I’m done,’ Edwin said.
    Meredith took my hand and our consciousnesses touched; she still had Amy held down hard into human form. She studied the meridians alongside me and indicated the top point on the core meridian. ‘Start here.’
    â€˜Don’t let her intimidate you. We don’t have to do it if it doesn’t feel right,’ Amy said.
    I concentrated, and with Meredith’s assistance pinned the energy into the meridians so that they stayed lit. I released them one at a time, moving slowly down the core to the area where they’d opened Amy up. Her body was shrieking with distress at what had been done to it, and I spread the energy from the meridians to soothe its panic and ease the nervous reactions. The energy flowed through the area, giving it a healing boost, and I carefully withdrew completely.
    â€˜It’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while anyway,’ Gold said. ‘Will you marry me, Amy?’
    Amy shivered and her teeth rattled; a normal feeling of extreme cold that came when an energy worker withdrew after a major energy healing.
    â€˜Are you in any pain?’ Meredith said.
    Amy shook her head, her teeth stopping her from speaking.
    â€˜Is that a no?’ Gold said.
    Amy shook her head again, still unable to talk.
    â€˜I’m going to release you now, you can change back,’ Meredith said.
    Amy transformed into dragon, raised her head, then dropped it again with a huge sigh and closed her eyes.
    â€˜Natural sleep, no pain, leave her to recover,’ Meredith said. ‘In a couple of hours wake her up and see if she can change back to human.’ She turned to me. ‘Magnificent job, madam. You can take it easy now.’
    I stood up and toppled sideways.
    Meredith caught me. ‘Oh, and congratulations, Master Gold. I think you just got engaged.’
    â€˜My father will kill me,’ Gold said, his hand on Amy’s back.
    â€˜Who is scarier: your father or her mother?’ Meredith said.
    â€˜Oh, definitely her mother.’
    â€˜Then you made the right decision.’ She hefted me in her arms. ‘Come on, missy, you’ve been overdoing it lately and need some serious rest.’
    Â 
    I woke, and had a moment of confusion as I saw the ceiling above the bed. Where was I? I looked left and nearly panicked: I was on the Celestial Plane, in the Imperial Residence of Wudang Mountain. Then I remembered that I didn’t need to be a snake, and I settled further under the silk. I was here. I had made it. But something was wrong; something bad had happened. Something terrible had happened and I couldn’t remember what it was; only the dark feelings of misery and despair that it brought me.
    I sighed deeply and remembered.
    Nothing bad had happened. I was feeling the grief for something that was yet to come. I often woke like this, feeling the loss. Something awful was going to happen to us in the near future and I had no idea what it was, only that it hung over all of Wudang.
    I centred my chi and put the feeling aside. I was living in the present, enjoying the peace of now, and ready for the future when it crashed over us.
    The four-poster was made of ebony, black with the deep sheen of many years of care. The dark grey curtains were embroidered with silver depictions of turtles and bats — symbols of longevity and good luck. The bed was flush against the wall, with a raised twenty-centimetre barrier around three sides to hold the covers in place, the fourth side left open. The room around me