Blue Dragon

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
    I didn’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 hell.
    ‘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.
    Damn. I 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.
    ‘Lady Emma’s time is limited, she has a class to teachin 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.’
    Nobody 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 , so that I could pronounce 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