Blue Dragon

she appeared. As Master of Weapons she was matched in skill only by John himself. The chain whip was one of the most difficult weapons of all to master.
    Chen swung the whip at head height and John ducked easily underneath it. She snapped it back immediately, again at head height, and he back-flipped. The chain spun between his head and his feet, missing both completely. He landed on his feet facing her, spread into a standard defensive position.
    She snapped the whip back and paused.
    Neither of them moved.
    She performed a magnificent handless cartwheel and snapped out the whip just as her head brushed the floor. The whip snaked across the floor and wrapped around John’s ankle. As soon as her feet hit the floor she snapped the whip back, but it was too late. He back-flipped again, using his bound ankle to jerk her off her feet. She fell onto her belly and slid across the floor, eventually conceding and releasing the whip.
    The whip spun in the air as John flipped, and he somehow snapped his ankle so that the whip was released and coiled into his hand. He landed on his feet, once again in a defensive position, holding the coiled whip in his left hand.
    ‘Damn,’ she said loudly. ‘You do that every single time.’
    ‘What, win?’ he said, relaxing out of the stance.
    ‘Yeah,’ she said, pulling herself to her feet and accepting the whip from him.
    ‘Overconfident?’ John said.
    ‘Are you injured?’ I said.
    ‘It’s nothing.’
    ‘ What ?’ Miss Chen said fiercely. ‘What do you mean, nothing ?’
    ‘I knew it!’ I shouted, racing as close as I could to John. I pointed at the ankle that had taken the whip. His black pants were shredded and dark with blood. ‘Look. Bleeding. You stupid goddamn Turtle, I will kill you! Quick, look at it, Leo.’
    Leo knelt and John tried to pull away. Miss Chen grabbed him and held his wrist. ‘You stand right there, Dark Lord,’ she said grimly. ‘Don’t you dare move.’
    Leo pulled the bottom of John’s track pants up and hissed. I knelt beside him and watched. ‘Some of these are nearly two centimetres deep. He’ll need stitches,’ Leo said.
    ‘Get Meredith,’ I said.
    ‘You can’t, my Lady,’ Miss Chen said. ‘Nobody can heal him with energy—it would destroy anybody who tried it. And he can’t heal this himself, he’s too drained. This will have to heal normally, and it will take a long time in his current state.’ She glared at John. ‘You said it would be okay .’
    ‘It is,’ John said.
    We took him down to the infirmary where the Academy doctor saw to him. She used local anaesthetic to numb the wounds before she would stitch them, despite John’s protests. Normally an energy worker would numb any injury sites using the meridians, but nobody could do it for John without putting themselves in major peril. And we couldn’t find a set of acupuncture needles; we never needed them.
    ‘You should never have done that!’ I said.
    ‘You cannot stop me from being what I am,’ John said calmly as Regina worked with the needle on his lacerated ankle.
    ‘The pain will wear you out and use your energy,’ I said fiercely. ‘We’ll all suffer for this. Being in constant pain is exhausting.’
    ‘Is it?’ John said, sitting straighter. ‘I didn’t know that.’
    ‘We have a choice,’ Leo said. ‘Either feed you pain-relieving drugs or let you suffer. Either way, you will burn energy. This is a no-win situation.’
    John was silent, his face rigid.
    ‘You didn’t know, did you?’ I said softly. ‘You’ve never been in real pain for any length of time before. You’ve always been able to heal yourself.’
    ‘He was in pain after the Mountain,’ Leo said. ‘In the hospital.’
    ‘They fed him some heavyweight stuff there,’ I said.‘Nearly pushed him over the edge, I think. And then Ms Kwan fixed him up.’
    ‘I’m right here,’ John said.
    ‘We are well aware of that,’ I said. ‘Decision time. Drugs, or leave it?’
    ‘Leave it,’ John said.
    ‘Try the drugs first,’ Regina said. ‘Watch his energy. When the medication wears off, check again. Compare. I think you will find that the drugs make it easier for him.’
    ‘No Western pills,’ John said. ‘Only herbs.’
    ‘Whatever,’ I said.
    ‘The herbs and the Western medicine have the same effect, but the herbs must be boiled for at least an hour and a half and taste foul,’ Regina said. ‘I’ll give him some analgesics and anti-inflammatories.’ She