‘Nobody’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 Pagoda 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 quantity: 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 damn 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 a circus act!’
‘Who’d like to feel a Five Point Push?’ Roland called in Cantonese. ‘Step forward!’
Just about every goddamn 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 buttons. ‘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, 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 class 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