Blue Dragon

fence, each side and up. ‘How are you going to get out?’
    I went closer to him and checked carefully around. ‘Move away, I’ll just come over.’ I decided against jumping; I’d use the energy centres. I took three steps back, then ran to the top of the fence. At the top I carefully placed my feet between the knots in the barbed wire, and floated down the other side. I touched down lightly. My knees buckled; I couldn’t hold myself up. I fell to my knees.
    Leo pulled off his jacket and quickly wrapped it around me. He scooped me up and laid me on the back seat of the car. His huge dark face was right in mine, his voice gentle. ‘Do you need to go to the hospital, Emma? Are you injured? You have blood on you.’
    ‘She’s okay,’ the stone said. ‘Just exhausted. Take her home.’
    The door slammed far away. I wasn’t aware of Leo climbing into the car, but I did feel it moving.
    I didn’t know he carried me up to the apartment on the Peak.
    I broke through the clouds and hovered about thirty metres above the ground.
    The houses were scattered over the top of the mountain, some of them still swathed in the edges of the clouds. The ground was covered in soft, short grass; there were manicured shrubs and hedges, but no trees.
    I swooped over the houses and landed on a narrow cobbled road next to a hedge. Nobody was around. I slithered along the road to see, but there wasn’t much. I climbed up the hill, towards a beautiful house with a garden surrounded by a low red brick wall. I could smell the flowers in the garden; I could taste them.
    Home? No. But something close.
    I threw myself up into the air again and flew over the houses. The entire mountain top was deserted. Why? Everything seemed perfectly normal. Something told me that there should have been damage, but I didn’t know why. Something also told me that the houses shouldn’t have looked like standard Western thatched cottages; they should have been more Chinese. What a strange idea.
    I tasted blood and looked around, distracted. A bird flew past.
    Dinner.
    I raced to follow it. I could smell its blood from thirty metres away, the hunger driving through me.
    Both of my hands were held and I jerked them away and threw myself upright with a gasp. I cast around desperately.
    I fell back. I was in my room at home, in my own bed, clean and warm and in my pyjamas. John was on one side of me, Simone in his lap. Leo was on the other.
    ‘Simone, are you okay?’ I said.
    ‘I’m fine, Emma. The stone told us what happened,’ Simone said, taking my hand back and holding it. ‘How do you feel? You’ve been asleep for a long time.’
    ‘I’m okay.’ I rubbed my free hand over my face and pulled myself up to sit again. ‘Could someone get me a drink of water?’
    Leo turned to my bedside, then turned back and handed me a cup. I took a huge drink and gasped, then handed the cup back with a nod of appreciation.
    John gently slid Simone off his lap, but she didn’t release my hand. He moved to sit next to me on the bed and put his arm around my shoulders, studying my face.
    ‘I’m okay,’ I said.
    ‘Leo, take Simone out,’ John said gently.
    ‘I want to stay with Emma,’ Simone said.
    ‘I need to talk to her,’ John said, moving away again. ‘You can come back later. Okay?’
    Simone hopped off her chair, grumbling about ‘bad Daddy’. Leo took her hand and gently led her out.
    ‘I was in the kindergarten in Kowloon Tong,’ I said. ‘I thought she had to give all that up, that they’d been closed down.’
    ‘She sold them,’ he said. ‘But to another company that was a subsidiary of Tautech.’
    ‘How many students and Masters did we lose?’
    He returned to the chair and leaned his elbows on his knees. He studied his hands. ‘Two junior Disciples, and about ten seniors.’ He hesitated, still studying his hands. ‘And all but three of the Celestial Masters. Three Celestials remain: Liu, Au and Chow. Meredith is gone.’
    ‘Shit. How many demons were there?’
    He glanced up at me, his face grim. ‘About fifty.’
    ‘Holy shit. How big were they?’
    ‘Between forty and seventy.’
    ‘ Seventy ? Good God.’
    ‘If they had managed a surprise attack, I hate to think what we could have lost. I am very glad you caught that one.’
    ‘Geez. Me too. Was it Wong or the King?’
    ‘Of course One Two Two. They were hybrids.’
    ‘Wong went for me rather than Simone,’ I said.
    ‘He probably felt you would be easier to