Blue Dragon Part 5

'You certainly look like one to me, Lady,' Roland said with a huge grin. 'If you were Chinese I would swear that you were the Lady Yim Wing Chun herself. Or more likely her teacher Ng Mui.'

'Oh, thank you very much very much,' I said. 'What next?'

'Me,' Leo said, coming through the door with two staves. He threw the smaller one to me.

'Now this is more like it,' I said. 'I haven't beaten Leo up in quite a while.'

'I've been learning, Emma,' Leo said, readying himself. 'Bet you a day's guard duty I can take you.'

'You are on on!' I said with delight. 'I haven't had a proper day off since I finished my thesis.'

'Whoa, whoa, wait a minute there,' my father said loudly. 'Leo's much taller than Emma and must weigh three times what she does. This is hardly fair!'

'You are quite right, Brendan,' John said. 'Not a fair match at all.' He concentrated.

Michael appeared in the doorway, holding a staff.

'This is more like it,' John said with satisfaction.

'All bets are off if I'm facing both of them,' I said. 'Michael's half Shen.'

'Double or nothing,' Leo said.

'Come on, Emma, give it a try,' John said. 'We might even be able to bring the snake out.'

I gestured towards Michael. 'He's half G.o.dd.a.m.n Shen!'

Michael grinned and saluted me, holding the staff.

'She'll fight both both of them?' my mother said softly. of them?' my mother said softly.

'Yes!' Roland said. 'I have a video camera in my office. Wait! Please!'

'There are a hundred and fifty demons out there waiting for you,' I said.

'Let them wait,' he said. 'I don't think this will take long.'

Roland came back with a video camera. 'Move into the big room.'

'But there are students in there!' I protested.

'Tell them you taught her,' John said to Roland.

'They wouldn't believe me, Your Highness,' Roland said. 'I'd have to tell them that she she taught taught me me.'

'That would work,' John said. He pulled himself up off the floor and took Simone's hand. 'Let's go.'

'You know Emma's only been learning off the Dark Lord for less than a year and a half?' Leo said to Roland as we went out.

'Wah!' Roland said. 'Amazing! Such talent!'

'd.a.m.n,' I said softly.

'She turns into a snake, you said. Why is that? Is she a Shen?'

'n.o.body's quite sure what she is,' John said amiably. 'She's not a demon, that's for sure. We'll just have to wait and see.'

'Maybe she's the White Snake,' Roland said.

John stopped and his face froze. 'Not possible.'

'I'm black in Serpent form,' I said.

'If the PaG.o.da has fallen then she may be the White Snake,' Roland said.

'If I'm the White Snake then where's the Red Snake?' I said.

'Ah. You know the legend,' Roland said.

'Of course I do,' I said as I entered the larger room. 'I've been doing an enormous amount of research on the nature of Serpent Shen, for obvious reasons.'

'She is not the White Snake,' John said, moving to catch up with us. 'Not possible.'

The students lounged against the long wall, waiting quietly for Leo to return. Roland directed them loudly in Cantonese. 'All of you, back to the far short wall, stand still, stand quiet. You are about to be extremely privileged. Silence!'

The students moved back, quiet and cowed.

Roland gestured. 'Whenever you are ready, my Lady.'

'Mum, Dad, you okay?' I said. My parents nodded. 'Go stand with John.'

My parents moved over to John and Simone in front of the mirrors. This room was larger, about six by four metres. Simone took my mother's hand and smiled up at her.

'Wait,' Roland said. He pulled the video camera out and turned it on. 'Okay, go.'

I nodded to both Leo and Michael. They saluted back. We moved into position. Both of them faced me, side by side.

I held my staff out in front, guarding. Leo I could take easily, but Michael was an unknown quant.i.ty: not just half Shen, but half tiger as well. He had been learning from John for months now, and had probably come a long way since I had easily bested him when I trialled him for the job as trainee bodyguard to replace Leo.

Leo came at me first. He swung at my head. I blocked it with my own staff, swung it down, twisted it, and tried to take his feet out from under him with the other end.

Michael came at me at the same time. As Leo's staff went down, Michael went for my head. I flipped my staff under Leo's and guided it into Michael's. Their staves clashed together hard and both of them winced.

Leo dropped one hand from his staff and shook it, grimacing.

I jumped back and waited for them.

'Don't hurt them too much, Emma,' John said with delight.

Michael went for my feet, trying to sweep them out from under me.

I leaped over his staff, somersaulted, and planted both feet into Leo's chest, hard enough to knock him over without hurting him. I bounced off him and somersaulted backwards. I jammed the end of my staff into the floor before my feet hit, spun around it and hit Michael in the chest with my left foot. He staggered back but didn't fall.

I landed lightly on my feet in front of Michael, jumped right over the top of his head, and spun my staff behind me to take his feet out from under him before he had a chance to turn around.

I rolled and spun to face them, snapping my staff under my left arm and my right hand out into a guard. They were both on the floor, Leo on his back, Michael on his stomach.

'Come on, guys, up you get,' I said. 'I didn't hit you that hard.'

'No,' Leo said without moving. 'It's comfy here. These mats are nice and soft, and your feet are d.a.m.n hard.'

'What he said,' Michael said, gasping.

'Said it wouldn't take very long,' John said.

The students suddenly cheered and clapped as one. Some of them whistled. I could swear a couple of them were jumping up and down with delight.

Michael pulled himself to his feet. 'Can you reverse the Five Point Push?'

'Uh, yeah,' I said. 'Why?'

'Five Point Push?' Roland cried with glee.

'Oh no! I am not not a circus act!' a circus act!'

'Who'd like to feel a Five Point Push?' Roland called in Cantonese. 'Step forward!'

Just about every G.o.dd.a.m.n student in the room stepped forward with a huge grin.

'Good,' John said. 'I'll time you. Twelve students. See how long it takes.' He fiddled with his watch. 'Wait.' He pressed the b.u.t.tons. 'Forgotten how to use the stopwatch on this thing. There. Got it.'

'Line up,' Roland said in Cantonese.

The students lined up side by side, and I moved to the end of the line.

'Ready?' John said. 'Go.'

I didn't bother with all five points on the students. I just hit each of them with a focused band of chi into the central dan tian, one after the other. I had to stop and gather my chi after the fifth student but I made it to the end of the line. 'Done.'

'Twelve and a half seconds,' John said. 'Pathetic.'

Roland went up to one of the students and studied him closely. 'And they're all completely paralysed?'

I picked up one of the students, then laid him carefully on his back on the floor. He was completely rigid.

My mother was astonished. 'Emma!'

'What?'

'How much can you lift?' my father said. 'You picked up that kid like he didn't weigh anything.'

I looked down at the student. His eyes were amused but his face was rigid. 'I have no idea.'

'Oh, good idea,' John said. 'Lifting from a distance. Must try that later.'

'PK?'

'What?' John said, bewildered.

'Later.'

I reached down and tapped the student's stomach, undoing the Push. I held my hand out and helped him up off the floor. He stood and saluted, grinning like an idiot.

'Take it easy,' I said. 'If you feel dizzy then sit.'

I went down the line and undid the rest of the students. A couple of them flopped to sit on the floor, but most of them just shook themselves out.

'Dismissed,' Leo said, and the students carefully saluted us and filed out with huge grins on their faces. The minute they were in the hallway they started loudly discussing in Cantonese what they had just seen.

Roland turned off the camera and came to me. 'Do you think you could come in sometimes and teach?'

'Oh, no no, Roland,' I said, exasperated. 'It's bad enough teaching at the Academy as it is. No more. You have Leo and Michael, and that should be enough for you.'

'Could you teach me?' Roland said softly.

'Tell you what, my friend,' I said, patting him on the shoulder, 'how about you come over to Wan Chai and learn from the Dark Lord himself? You are welcome to join an occasional cla.s.s in the Wudang Academy. If you don't mind being put in with a bunch of young people.'

'Wudang?' Roland breathed. 'Wudangshan? Really?'

'Yes. His Mountain,' I said. 'We moved it down here. It's in Wan Chai until we repair the damage.'

'Very good, Emma,' John said. 'Anyone got a card?'

'Gamma can call Roland later and organise it,' I said.

Roland fell to his knees and saluted me, then John. 'I can't tell you what this means to me.'

'Get up off the floor or the deal is off,' I growled. 'And if you do that to me again, the deal is off anyway. I'm starving, John. Let's have something to eat here before we go to the Valley. The demons can wait.'

John bowed slightly to me. 'My Lady.'

I went to my parents. 'You guys okay?'

'That was amazing, Emma,' my mother said. 'You beat both of those huge men with no trouble at all. I was sure you'd get hurt. But you made it look easy. Some of the stuff you did was astonis.h.i.+ng.'

'Thanks,' I said. 'Let's go and eat. Leo, Michael, want to come with us?'

'Maybe next time,' Leo said.