Red Phoenix

know I was a registered nurse, Emma?’
    ‘What, you are ?’ I cried softly with disbelief. ‘I just made that up.’ I stopped and studied him appraisingly. He smiled gently. ‘How have you managed to do everything you’ve done in your life, Leo? You are the most remarkable man I have ever met.’
    ‘I think the Dark Lord accumulates remarkable people around him,’ Leo said as he closed the car door.
    Leo removed the stitches as Meredith healed me. They worked together closely and with care. I didn’t feel a thing. John didn’t want to watch. When they were finished, Meredith went home with the other Master, Liu, helping her. She wasn’t completely drained but needed to rest for a long time. She was the only true very high-level energy worker left in the Academy and we needed her skills.
    John came in and sat by me when they’d finished. Leo collected his instruments and went out. He came back with my jewellery in a brown paper envelope.
    I sat up on the bed and shook my head: no stars. I was still weak and woozy, but I felt much better. I tipped the contents of the envelope onto the blanket and picked up the ring.
    ‘What happened to you? You left me just when I needed you.’
    ‘I didn’t leave you, Emma,’ the stone said as I put the ring back on. ‘I was trying to talk to you, but you didn’t hear me.’
    ‘Oh my God.’ I sagged back against my bedhead. ‘She didn’t disable you, she disabled me .’ ‘Tell me,’ John said.
    ‘I saw her in the lobby of the office building. No, wait, she was in the lift, and went down with me. I saw her in the lift. I tried to call you, but my mobile was dead. Then I tried the guard’s phone, but it was dead too. Then I tried to talk to the stone, but it didn’t answer.’
    ‘Emma,’ the stone said patiently, ‘the phones were working just fine. I could hear the dial tone.’
    ‘She did something to me,’ I said.
    John leaned back in his chair next to my bed. ‘Quite possible. One of the disadvantages of being a perfectly ordinary human.’ He smiled briefly. ‘What happened after you saw her? Did she speak to you?’
    ‘No. She ignored me. She pretended to be waiting for someone. So I lost my temper and shouted at her, and went out of the building. I said something like “I hope you’re more honourable than that bastard Wong and don’t try to stab me in the back”, or something like that.’
    Leo made a soft sound of amusement. ‘Then?’ John said.
    ‘Then she met me in the car park, next to my car.’ I winced. ‘Sorry, Leo, our car.’
    ‘Your car, my Lady,’ Leo said gently.
    ‘Oh, cut it out. That’s all I need. Okay, so I met her next to the car. She took me over to the side, no cars there. She went for me. Then Gold…’ I hesitated. That was the way it seemed to have happened. ‘Then Gold was talking to me, I was on the ground, and my arm and head hurt like hell.’
    ‘It was a level fifty?’ John said.
    ‘Probably. At least.’ I suddenly remembered. ‘She said that if she took me back in one piece she’d be promoted to Mother.’
    Neither of them said anything.
    ‘I called Gold,’ the stone said. ‘But he was a long way away and it took him a while to get there. By thetime he made it to the building, Emma was gone. And then she was underground, so I couldn’t call anybody.’ ‘Why not?’ I said.
    ‘The stone was buried,’ John said. ‘Underground. Silenced.’
    ‘I didn’t know that happened,’ I said. ‘Sorry,’ John whispered.
    ‘Not your fault, my Lord. It’s difficult to remember what the Lady knows and what she doesn’t. I should have been the one to tell her,’ the stone said.
    ‘The stone is right,’ I said. ‘Not your fault.’
    All of them were quiet at that.
    ‘So Emma can ask the ring to call for help if she needs it?’ Leo said.
    ‘I spend most of my time asleep, Leo,’ the stone said. ‘Please don’t any of you rely on me. I am very old and starting to fade. I will wake if the Lady hits me, but she may not have the chance. I can only call my children, like Gold. And if she is underground, I am silenced.’
    ‘Damn,’ John said quietly. Then he shook himself out of it. ‘So you don’t remember what happened?’
    ‘No,’ I said. ‘She faced me, she hit me, Gold was there. I don’t remember anything in between.’
    ‘Stone?’ John said.
    The stone hesitated. I heard it hesitate.
    ‘Don’t you dare start this with me again,’ I threatened softly.
    ‘All right.’ The