Blue Dragon

sides as if to help her balance. Her hair writhed around her head with the static. Her eyes were blinding white orbs, shining with shen energy.
    ‘Hello, Emma,’ she said, her little voice the same as it always was. ‘I came to get you.’
    ‘Hi, Simone,’ I said. ‘I’m perfectly okay and happy here. Please go back home.’
    Wong rose to his feet. ‘Good,’ he said viciously. ‘You are mine. Both of you.’
    ‘You want to come home with me, Emma?’ Simone said, the brilliance of the shen energy causing shadows around her.
    ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart,’ I said, trying to keep the desperation from my voice, ‘but I promised the King that I’d stay here until your daddy comes back. So you don’t have to worry about me. You can go home.’
    ‘Oh, okay,’ Simone said, her eyes still blinding. ‘Let’s get the King and talk to him. He might let you go.’
    ‘The King is my prisoner,’ Wong said. ‘I am King.’
    Simone seemed to notice Wong for the first time. ‘I don’t like you.’
    ‘That doesn’t really matter, sweetheart,’ Wong said,walking down the stairs. ‘Because the way you feel about me makes absolutely no difference at all.’
    ‘Go home right now !’ I shouted.
    Simone raised her hands slightly and hit Wong with a blast of shen, knocking him backwards off his feet.
    He clambered to his feet, shook himself, and advanced towards Simone again. ‘Not good enough, little girl. I am going to take your head off and put it next to your father’s.’
    Simone’s face went rigid and she inhaled sharply. ‘You killed my daddy.’
    Wong smiled with malice. ‘That’s right, sweetheart. I took his head off.’
    The white light in Simone’s eyes went out. They returned to normal and widened. She dropped to stand on the floor, the aura disappeared, and her hair fell around her face. ‘You killed my daddy !’
    ‘That’s right,’ Wong said. ‘I killed your daddy. I killed your mummy too.’
    Simone stiffened, eyes still wide.
    ‘I killed your mummy’s brother, and your mummy’s mother and father,’ Wong said without emotion. ‘I killed Charlie. I nearly killed Leo, but I didn’t get the chance to finish him. And now I’m going to kill you.’
    He concentrated, and the blue light grew around him. He smiled.
    ‘NO!’ I yelled and moved to jump between them. ‘Simone, RUN!’
    I hit a wall halfway down and slid onto the stairs. It was like an invisible barrier. I couldn’t approach them.
    The Snake came out and struck helplessly at the barrier.
    The blue aura grew around Wong, crackling with lightning. His smile broadened, he raised his hands and a huge blast of the black stuff engulfed Simone with a roar like an airplane engine. She disappeared inside the dark energy beam.
    The Snake struck again at the barrier, with absolutely no effect. I changed back, grabbed the Murasame and ripped it from its scabbard. I slashed at the barrier with it. I filled it with chi and tried to burn a hole through.
    The energy was all around Simone; I couldn’t see her. She didn’t make a sound. Wong’s face was twisted into an ugly grimace of satisfaction.
    I put the black stuff into the sword and tried to use it to blast my way through the barrier. Nothing. I threw the sword to one side and pounded my fists on the invisible wall, crying out. Simone. No. ‘ No !’ I sagged down the wall and pounded it helplessly. Simone. I wiped the tears out of my eyes; I couldn’t see. I rested my forehead on the barrier. No.
    Wong snapped his wrists and the beam of energy stopped. There was complete silence.
    Simone stood there completely unharmed, a sweet smile on her little face.
    Wong took a step back, unsure now, then raised his hands and began to gather the blue energy again.
    ‘It’s okay, Emma, this is my fight,’ Simone said with a smile. Her eyes went black. Wong hesitated.
    ‘You killed my daddy,’ Simone said absently. ‘You killed my mummy.’
    She raised her hands.
    Something formed above her head. It was difficult to see, because it was so dark. It was a whirlpool of nothingness. Black, empty, cold nothing. The creeping cold coming from it was colder and darker and emptier than anything I had ever felt.
    Simone snapped her wrists above her head without looking up. Some of the blackness shot out of the whirlpool and gathered like writhing tendrils around her hands. She watched Wong with her black eyes.
    Wong took a step back. ‘No.’
    ‘You killed my daddy. You killed my mummy.’