Blue Dragon Part 12

'Two hundred and ninety-five pounds,' Leo said, still hovering above me.

'Holy s.h.i.t s.h.i.t,' my father said again.

'Down,' John said.

Leo effortlessly lowered himself. He hesitated, watching me. There was complete silence as everybody stared at me with awe. Then Leo fell to one knee and saluted me, bowing his head.

'What are you, Emma?' my father whispered.

'I wish the h.e.l.l I knew, Dad,' I said. I ran my hands through my hair and went out. The silence followed me down the hall.

After breakfast the next morning the entire Donahoe clan was sitting around the dining table when John poked his head in the door. 'They're here.'

I sighed and rose, the rest of the family following me. We went into the living room. The Dragon, the Phoenix and the Tiger were there, as well as a couple of the Academy dragons, and Gold. The Celestial Masters Meredith and Liu had also come to help out.

'Step forward,' the Dragon ordered brusquely. 'I want to re-evaluate you, to see who would be the best to carry you.'

My family stepped forward without saying a word.

'Okay, say goodbye now,' the Dragon said, gesturing impatiently.

I hugged my father and kissed my mother. 'Goodbye,' I choked. 'I'll see you soon. I'll come and visit you in the Western Palace.'

My mother held me close and stroked my hair. 'Come and see us soon, love.'

I went to Amanda and Alan. 'I am so sorry about this, guys.'

'We'll live,' Alan said. 'As long as the boys are safe.'

We hugged and kissed goodbye. Simone raced to Mark and David and kissed them both on the cheek, embarra.s.sing them horribly.

I went to Jennifer and stood in front of her, silently, for a while.

'I'm sorry, Jen,' I whispered without looking up.

'Emma,' she said, and I looked at her. She held her arms out and I fell into them and held her tight.

'You know I can't stay mad at you,' she said.

'I don't deserve a family as wonderful as you,' I said into her shoulder.

John came into the living room. He paused in the doorway, looked down and put his hands behind his back.

'You don't need to say anything, John,' my father said. He gestured with his head. 'Come on.'

John looked up at my father, his face rigid, then strode to stand in front of him.

My father put his hand out. 'Will we see you again?'

John shook his hand. 'I don't know. If you come down from the palace I can see you, but I can't travel there. And it might be best if you stayed in the palace until the demon is destroyed. Destroying it will probably kill me as well.'

'But you'll come back?' my mother said. 'Emma said you'll come back.'

John released my father's hand. 'Yes. I've promised Emma that I'll come back.'

'How long will it take?' Alan said.

John was silent.

'Anything from ten to a hundred years,' I said without looking up. 'Probably something in the region of twenty to twenty-five years is the best bet.'

'Oh G.o.d, Emma,' Jennifer said.

'A hundred years? So it's possible that you could already be dead when he comes back?' Amanda said.

'More than possible,' I said. 'But he's promised.'

'What if you're very old?' Amanda said. 'What if it takes a very long time?'

I just shrugged.

My mother went to John and embraced him. He seemed surprised for a moment, then put his arms around her and held her.

'Look after her,' my mother said into his chest.

He pulled away to smile down at her. 'You know I will. I love her more than anything in the world. She and Simone-the two most precious things in the world to me.'

'He's given up everything for us,' I whispered.

'This is all very delightful and pleasant,' the Dragon said loudly, 'but I have places I need to be.'

John didn't look at the Dragon; he remained holding my mother. 'Wait.'

The Dragon shifted his feet and sighed loudly.

'If you need anything at the palace, tell the staff,' John said. 'You will be allocated servants. If they are insufficient, then just tell the Tiger.'

'Don't worry, Ah Wu, you know I'll look after them,' the Tiger said gruffly. 'I'll bring Michael back with me when I return.'

John dropped his head and released my mother. 'Goodbye.'

'I wish circ.u.mstances could have been different,' Alan said.

'So do I,' John said. 'Now, each of you has been a.s.signed a carrier. Go to them. Goodbye.'

'Bye, all,' I said.

Simone ran to my parents. 'Bye, Mr Donahoe, Mrs Donahoe,' she said, reaching up to hug both of them. 'I love you.'

My mother crouched to hold her close. 'Bye, darling Simone. I didn't have a granddaughter until now, and I always hoped Emma would give me one. And she already did.'

'When Daddy's killed One Two Two you can come and stay for a long time,' Simone said. 'Promise you'll come back.'

'I promise,' my mother said. 'And you must come to Australia.'

'Okay,' Simone said, pulling away. 'I think you should go now, otherwise Emma's going to cry.'

My family moved to the Shen and Immortals. The carriers lowered their heads and everybody disappeared.

None of us said a word. I turned and went down the hallway to the student room to collect my stuff and return it to my bedroom. John went to his office. Simone went into her room. We were all very quiet for a long time.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Ididn't need to see John's face to know that he wore an expression of amused satisfaction as we entered his office on the top floor of the Hennessy Road Academy building. Chinese New Year had come and gone; there had been no more attacks; and it was time for me to take up my duties as Regent-to-be. But mostly I had to do it because by February I had run out of excuses.

The Generals were already sitting around a conjured conference table, waiting for us. They all rose and saluted formally and carefully. John nodded back and gestured for them to sit.

They turned and saluted me. I hesitated. Then I decided: what the h.e.l.l.

'Hi, guys,' I said with a small wave.

'Lady Emma,' they all said, not completely in unison, and waited for John and me to sit before they sat themselves.

d.a.m.n. I hated hated that. It took most Chinese a very long time to loosen up. Australians were usually cheerful and relaxed right from the start; Chinese stayed stiff and formal for ages. that. It took most Chinese a very long time to loosen up. Australians were usually cheerful and relaxed right from the start; Chinese stayed stiff and formal for ages.

'Lady Emma's time is limited, she has a cla.s.s to teach in an hour, so we will dispense with the formalities,' John said. 'Let me introduce everybody-'

'Don't bother,' I said. 'I'm hopeless with names; I'll just forget them straightaway. Let me ask you your names when I need them, and I'll try to remember them. But I'll probably have to ask you all more than once. If anybody's offended by that, let me know now.'

n.o.body said anything. The Generals all watched me, emotionless.

Great.

I looked around the table. Eight of them, standardlooking Chinese men, all very stern, all middle-aged. A variety of shapes and sizes, all wearing old-fashioned Chinese lacquer armour, some with short hair, some with the more traditional long hair. A couple of them looked really severe and scary, but three had definite twinkles in their eyes.

I stole a glance at John. He was already taking notes. I took a deep breath. Okay.

John slid an agenda across the table to me. I didn't look at it immediately; I watched the Generals.

'First item,' John said. 'Demons.'

One of the severe-looking Generals leaned forward and put his hand on the table. 'The Fifth Battalion has had one hundred and fifty demons attain perfection in the last year; the Fourth has had only five or six. The Fifth has no new recruits; the Fourth has had seventy-five. We need to transfer the new recruits to the Fifth.'

'They will stay where they are,' John said.

'The Fifth is undermanned.'

John didn't move or speak.

'My Lord,' the General said, obviously impatient, 'you need to set up some sort of administrative procedure for the allocation of the demons. We need to ask you every single time, and every time it's different. We need something down on paper to define the methods you use for allocation.'

'Lady Emma?' John said.

I glanced down at the agenda and nearly gasped. He'd read my mind. At the bottom of the first page was a diagram of the table with names where everyone was sitting. He'd even used phonetic spellings, not pinyin pinyin, so that I could p.r.o.nounce the names easily. I shot him a quick, grateful glance. His face didn't change but his eyes sparkled.

'General Song,' I said. The General didn't move. 'I thought that all of you had been Raised and were Immortal.'

All of them straightened slightly at that.

'That is true,' General Song said.

'Then why do you want the Dark Lord to write down administrative procedures? You want to make a rod for your own back? You start with the paperwork, it never finishes. You make rules, then you have to make exceptions. Endless exceptions. And the rules give you no flexibility. You can't take each situation as it comes. If Lord Xuan wants to allocate the demons differently each time, then it's his prerogative. He knows what he's doing. He probably doesn't even have a set of rules; he just does it how he sees fit at the time.' The General's face didn't move at all while I made my little speech. 'Frankly, I can't see how you've attained Immortality if you want to put everything down on paper.'

All of the Generals heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed. A couple of them even smiled slightly.

John spread his hands over the table. 'See? What did I tell you.' He pushed his agenda away. 'Right. Now let's have this meeting.'

'You mean that was a test test?' I said.

'They didn't believe me,' John said.

I glanced around at the Generals. Now all all their eyes sparkled at me, even though their faces were still grim. their eyes sparkled at me, even though their faces were still grim.

'Will all of you stay in the same seats at the table until I have you worked out?' I said.

All of them nodded without saying a word.

'There are thirty-six of them altogether, Emma,' John said without turning to me. 'Hopefully we'll be able to rotate everybody through so that you can meet all of them. I'll give you a diagram each time.'

'Okay.' I shrugged. 'Meeting. Let's get this over with.'

One of the Generals raised his index finger slightly. 'One Two Two. Tell us.'

'It's easier to tell everybody like this rather than directly one at a time,' John said, explaining. 'Questions can be asked, information can flow, ideas can bounce. One Two Two. Gold has been cultivating a police officer in the investigative squad...'

I glanced down at the agenda. A short message was written underneath the diagram in John's English scrawl. I tried to tell them but they wouldn't believe me. Can't wait to see the looks on their faces. Oh, and by the way, give them h.e.l.l. I tried to tell them but they wouldn't believe me. Can't wait to see the looks on their faces. Oh, and by the way, give them h.e.l.l.

I tapped on the door of John's office. 'Come in, Emma,' he said.

I entered and sat across the desk from him with the school calendar in my hand.

'You know you don't need to knock. I can feel you coming. When's spring break?' he said.