Blue Dragon Part 55

My left hand hurt like h.e.l.l and I checked it. It was covered in a network of cuts. I remembered, concentrated, and healed it.

'Thanks for that,' I said. 'I didn't know what you were doing.' I looked around. 'Could you call Gold for me?'

The stone was silent.

'Oh my G.o.d, they got him, didn't they?'

'I am afraid he is not answering my calls,' the stone said.

I felt a stab of pain and dropped my head. Gold was gone. Then I pulled myself together. 'Well,' I said, 'I need to contact somebody to come and take me home. I can't go anywhere like this. Any suggestions?'

The block was covered with construction debris, trash and tall gra.s.s, and surrounded by a chain-link fence. I'd chosen a good place to hide. The fence was nearly three metres high; it would take a good jump to get out, and I'd have to do it carefully so that n.o.body saw me.

'I'll see if I can contact any of my other children,' the stone said. 'They may be able to relay a message for you.'

I looked down. A snake's trail wound across the dirt next to me. I was concerned there may be snakes in the long gra.s.s of the lot. Then I relaxed: the snake's trail was from me me. I curled up to sit with my knees in my chest behind the gra.s.s. It was high enough to hide me from anybody pa.s.sing. I'd chosen a good spot.

Mid-July was always blistering hot, day and night, and the evening was very humid. The fact that I didn't have any clothes didn't make me any more comfortable; the dust clung to the sheen of sweat on my skin. I brushed at the dirt on my arm, then stopped to study it. The dust had stuck to my arm in a scale pattern, obviously left over from when I'd changed. I ran my finger over the edge of the scales, not completely sure how I felt about that.

'Agate in Shantou. No,' the stone said. 'Amber, Xian. No. Hold on, Amethyst's answering. d.a.m.n, he's under the ice of the South Pole, having a holiday. Can't contact anybody for us.'

'You going through your address book?' I said, amused.

'Bauxite isn't answering, that's strange. He has a human family in Russia, Siberia. Should be there, I wonder what happened to him? Anyway...' The stone fell silent again.

I waited patiently. I dozed off over my knees; I was exhausted. The lights above the train tracks blinked on. Crickets chirped. I hoped that everybody was okay: the students in the Academy and the Follies. And Simone. I sighed. Simone, more than anything. A train rolled past and I curled up in the gra.s.s and sat very still. I felt the vibration through the ground. n.o.body in the train noticed me; they were moving too fast.

It occurred to me that John might be gone. I searched for him with my consciousness; I hoped that when he left I would be aware of it. I smiled slightly into my knees. Yeah, right. Not likely.

'Found one,' the stone said. 'This is most unusual, Emma, a great many of my children are not answering my calls. To tell you the truth, I am concerned about them. Anyway, I managed to contact Fred in Lingnan-he's calling the Dark Lord on his mobile. May take a while, the phones there are a bit dodgy.'

'Fred?'

The stone didn't reply.

'Are you Chinese?' I said. 'Most of your children are in China, but you take European human form.'

'Of course I'm Chinese,' the stone said impatiently. 'I took the European form to honour the present company.'

'You were just stirring.'

The stone was silent.

'You really like to watch?' I said softly.

It stayed silent.

'How does that work? You're a rock rock.'

'The Dark Lord made me promise to behave after I woke, and I have been extremely good,' the stone said. 'I meant it when I said that I was asleep, and he does me the honour of taking my word for it.'

'Geez,' I said into my knees. 'I'm going to kill him.'

'I have been extremely useful, you have to admit, Emma.'

'Yeah, you just chopped up my G.o.dd.a.m.n hand,' I said.

'And it got you out of there.'

I sighed. I wanted to curl up and cry my eyes out. What I really needed was a hug from my man.

'We will have you home soon, and you can have a long hot shower and sleep,' the stone said.

'Holy s.h.i.+t, I wear you in the G.o.dd.a.m.n shower shower!' I said fiercely, curling up tighter.

'Makes no difference to me whatsoever,' the stone said.

'Yeah. I really believe you.'

'Really. You can ask the Dark Lord for confirmation. In that respect, I truly am a genderless piece of rock.'

'You are extremely weird,' I said.

I could picture the stone's human form shrugging with a wry smile. 'Aren't we all? Leo is the only really normal normal member of the Chen household, Emma.' member of the Chen household, Emma.'

I sighed into my knees again.

'He's onto them. They're okay,' the stone said.

'All of them?'

'All of them, Emma. They are all fine.'

I heaved a huge gasping sob of relief into my knees and went still.

'Leo is on his way to collect you. Lord Xuan has remained at the Peak with Simone, because the apartment has no door.'

'How many students did we lose?'

'You will be home soon, Emma.'

I buried my face in my knees and waited.

'That's him, dear,' the stone said, waking me. 'He's looking for you.'

The dark Mercedes rolled slowly past the block, its headlights bright.

'There's n.o.body around to see you,' the stone said. 'It's okay.'

I rose and staggered towards the fence. The car stopped, then reversed slightly.

I raised my hand. Leo came out of the car and hurried to the fence. 'What happened to you?' He looked at the 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 gra.s.s; 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. n.o.body 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.'

's.h.i.+t. How many demons were there?'

He glanced up at me, his face grim. 'About fifty.'

'Holy s.h.i.+t. How big were they?'

'Between forty and seventy.'

'Seventy? Good G.o.d.'

'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 carry. Simone is very large inside, much bigger than you. He is also a shocking coward, and you are the weakest of the three of us. Besides, if he holds you, then of course I must do what he wants.'

'If you let him blackmail you by holding me I will be very, very cross with you.'

'Of course you will.'

I sighed. 'And I'm cross with you anyway. You didn't tell me about the stone.'

'Nothing to tell,' John said mildly. 'It has promised to behave, and it is a Building Block, so it will keep its word.'

'I wear it in the shower shower, John. Doesn't that bother you?'

'Your state of undress means nothing to it; it is a stone.'

'Really?' I said.

'Really.' He sounded amused. 'Absolutely. Its little predilections are in a slightly different direction.'

'You should have told told me,' I said fiercely. me,' I said fiercely.