Blue Dragon

given the juniors permission to stay and sent them back to the Folly, we had a meeting with the seniors to work out what to do. We had ten of the most advanced of them: all over thirty, strong, reliable and intelligent. We had lost most of the human Masters in the Mountain Attack; now we had lost all of the Celestial Masters in the latest one. These guys were all we had left. John would not have promoted them because they lacked the talent, but we had no choice.
    I had felt uncomfortable when I learned that I was better than any of them and was made Master after only just over a year. John said that I had more talent than all of them put together. He said the same thing about Leo. Leo was tremendously embarrassed as well. And the worst part was that all of the seniors agreed with him.
    ‘Okay, people, here’s the situation,’ I said over the conference table on the seventh floor. ‘The juniors refuse point blank to go, and they want to learn off you guys.’
    ‘No. None of us are good enough,’ Sakamoto said.
    ‘We don’t have a choice. If we send them home, they’ll be on the next plane back and sneaking into the Academy to learn off you anyway.’
    ‘It will take the Dark Lord years to undo the damage if we teach them,’ Cheung said. ‘We are simply not capable.’
    ‘The Celestials will be back in three to four months,’ John said. ‘Just hold things together until then. Don’t teach them anything new, just revise what they’ve done.’
    The seniors were silent.
    ‘Any questions?’ John said.
    ‘No, sir,’ they chorused, obviously unhappy.
    ‘Emma will do the rosters with you later. Maybe go out now and talk about who’ll do what, to save her time. Dismissed.’
    The seniors saluted and filed silently out. John and I remained.
    ‘You need to see the Lady already,’ I said softly.
    John just looked at his hands.
    ‘Damn. When is good?’
    He glanced up at me. ‘I think I can go another two, three weeks before I need to see her.’
    I had my diary open in front of me. I flipped forward. ‘Mid-August.’ I sighed. ‘Oh well, we knew it anyway.’
    He rubbed his hands over his face. ‘We thought I’d last until August next year.’
    ‘Will Simone be ready?’
    He studied his hands. ‘After I have seen the Lady, I will pay a little visit on One Two Two.’
    I dropped my head onto my arms where they rested on the table. ‘No.’
    ‘Once it is out of the picture you will be fine. You can handle nearly anything thrown at you. Simone is close. When One Two Two is gone, and we have cleaned out its nest, I think you two will be okay.’ He looked back up at me. ‘We’ll go home and have a family meeting and tell everybody the plan.’
    ‘I don’t want to tell Simone. It will devastate her.’
    ‘She’s known the situation for a year now, Emma.’
    ‘It will be completely different when we tell her to her face.’
    ‘I know.’
    Simone, Michael and Leo were already in the dining room when we went in. Leo and Michael saluted. Simone’s eyes were huge.
    John and I sat down together. Neither of us said anything; we didn’t know where to start.
    ‘I think I’d better just show you,’ John eventually said. ‘Simone, come and sit in my lap.’
    Simone hopped off her chair and crawled into her father’s lap. He turned her around so that she faced him.
    ‘Look inside, sweetheart.’
    She put her hand on his forehead and concentrated. Then she dropped her hand, leaned forward to touch her forehead to his, and sobbed quietly. She wrapped her little arms around his neck and held him close, and he buried his face in her hair with his eyes closed.
    ‘He needs to see the Lady in the next three weeks. After that any further energy feeding will be ineffective,’ I said quietly.
    Leo shot to his feet. ‘She’s not ready ! I knew you were in trouble. I’ve been feeling lousy !’
    ‘No,’ Michael said. ‘Oh, geez. No.’
    ‘Go and sit next to Leo, darling,’ John said, and Simone returned to her chair.
    I passed her the box of tissues and she pulled a few out and wiped her eyes, then blew her nose loudly. ‘Sit down, Leo,’ she said. ‘I think there’s more.’
    Leo’s face went rigid and he sat.
    ‘After I have seen the Lady, we will visit a certainDemon Prince,’ John said. ‘A Black Turtle, a Black Lion and a White Tiger, if he is free to come along.’
    ‘No, Daddy,’ Simone whispered. ‘If you change into the Turtle you can’t change back.’
    ‘I want to go too,’