Blue Dragon

yourself,’ John said. ‘It’ll take all day if you keep talking like this.’
    ‘Yeah, Emma, you can talk underwater,’ Simone said cheekily.
    John and I shared a look.
    ‘Leo, take Simone out,’ John said, releasing my hand. ‘I’ll stay here and supervise Emma.’
    Neither of them said a word as they left the room.
    ‘Concentrate, Emma, you can do this,’ John said. ‘Do you want me to put on some music?’
    ‘Some of your music?’ I said with derision. ‘That would make it take ten times longer.’
    ‘Suit yourself.’
    ‘I checked some of that German stuff you play. I found translations to the lyrics. Some of it’s really dark, John.’
    ‘I only play clean disks,’ John said. ‘Hard as they are to find. And since those ones are in German it doesn’t really matter.’
    ‘Some of the music you like is very dark.’
    ‘Dark is my first name.’ He pulled himself up, went out, and quickly returned with a cushion from the couch in the television room. He fell to one knee and passed it to me. ‘Put this under your head.’
    I pushed the pillow under my head and made myself comfortable on the floor. I moved the energy from my ribs to my liver. A lot of the soft tissue had been crushed and it would take some time to bring it back. I worked carefully; soft tissue was much more fiddly to heal than simple cuts or breaks.
    ‘Good,’ John said. ‘You’re doing very well.’
    ‘Have you ever killed a human, John?’
    He looked me in the eyes and didn’t say anything.
    ‘How many?’
    He remained silent.
    ‘When was the last time?’
    He flopped onto the floor to sit cross-legged next to me. ‘Nanjing. A long time ago.’
    ‘Tell me,’ I said softly as I moved the energy through my liver.
    ‘I’m very old, Emma. I’ve been around for a long time. I am the Arts of War. I am yin incarnate: cold, darkness, death. And times change.’
    ‘Tell me. Nanjing.’
    ‘They were mad.’ He looked away. ‘Berserk. Crazed. They killed everything in their path. Some of them did it in cold blood as well.’ He turned back to me. ‘Humans are astonishing sometimes.’
    I didn’t say anything.
    ‘They were killing children,’ he said softly. ‘The children of my people; my children.’
    ‘How many?’
    ‘Them or us?’
    ‘Them.’
    He dropped his head. ‘I have no idea.’ He raised his head and gazed at me. ‘A lot.’
    ‘You protected your children.’
    He dropped his head and was silent again.
    I concentrated on the energy in my liver. Some of the damage was very deep. I would be sore for a while.
    ‘They were your children as well,’ I said. ‘They are all subjects of the Eastern Centre.’
    ‘I know,’ he said softly, almost a moan of pain. ‘And they are all human, regardless of the Centre. They are the ones who seem to ignore that fact the most.’
    ‘Have you ever killed anyone in cold blood?’
    He wiped his hand over his face. ‘Everything I kill, I kill in cold blood, Emma. I am cold-blooded.’
    ‘Have you ever killed anyone without honour?’
    ‘Nearly everybody I killed was without honour.’
    ‘No,’ I said, ‘I meant, have you killed anybody in a dishonourable way? Have you ever stabbed anybody in the back?’
    He pulled his knees into his chest with his ankles crossed and wrapped his arms around them. ‘Of course not. But I can’t really see how that makes a difference. Dead is dead.’
    ‘You know I love you anyway, and I always will,’ I said. ‘I know you. I know you have only killed when there was no other alternative. And I know that times have changed. What was acceptable even a hundred years ago is completely unthinkable now.’
    He dropped his arms from his knees and moved away. ‘You are much wiser than your years, little Emma Donahoe.’
    I sighed and finished healing my liver. I rounded up the energy and put it back. I sat up and the room spun around me. ‘I need to sleep now.’
    Leo opened the door and entered. He didn’t say anything, he just came to me and put one massive hand under my arm to help me up. He lifted me as if I didn’t weigh anything.
    I leaned on him as he led me back to my room. He scooped me up and put me on the bed, pulled off my slippers, and tucked me in like a parent. He kissed me on the cheek and brushed his hand over my forehead.
    ‘He hasn’t played that guitar since Michelle died. He’d only play it when she wasn’t around, before.’
    ‘He’s very good,’ I said.
    ‘One of the best. You brought it back