White Tiger
‘If she goes to classesdown there, she won’t learn anything. Teach her. Teach her the true Arts.’ ‘No.’
‘Why not?’ I moved closer to Mr Chen. ‘Is it because I’m a woman?’
He smiled slightly. ‘No, of course not. Some of my best students have been women.’
‘Well then, why not ?’
His face softened. ‘If they know you are trained, Emma, you become a target.’ I stared at him.
‘If you are not trained, there is no honour in coming after you,’ Mr Chen said. ‘As long as you are unable to defend yourself, they won’t touch you.’
‘And the minute they know I can defend myself, they’ll come after me too?’
He nodded, and I understood. He was keeping me safe by not teaching me.
‘Simone’s safety is more important,’ I said. ‘I want to be able to help defend her. Teach me, and we’ll keep it a secret until I’m up to speed.’
Mr Chen glanced at Leo.
‘You think she’ll let you get away with not teaching her?’ Leo said. ‘Emma’s made up her mind, my Lord, she won’t back down.’
Mr Chen laughed softly and shook his head. His eyes sparkled with humour. Then he sighed. ‘Very well. If you must learn, I’ll teach you. I have to warn you though: if you don’t have the talent then it will be a waste of time.’
‘Let’s see if I have the talent then.’
‘All right, we will,’ Mr Chen said. ‘Come back in about half an hour.’
‘I can’t. Simone will be finished her Chinese lesson then and I have to mind her.’
‘I’ll take her to the playground up the hill from here,’ Leo said. ‘You stay and learn.’
‘Will you and Simone be okay? What if a demon attacks?’
Leo grinned. ‘I can take out just about anything that tries for us. And this time I’ll be fully awake.’
‘You’d better be.’ Mr Chen turned and raised his sword horizontally above his head, the point towards Leo. He held his other hand in front of him, the first two fingers pointed towards the ceiling. ‘Ready?’
‘Move out of the way now, Emma,’ Leo said, and moved into a defensive stance. ‘Ready.’
I made a quick dash for the door before my head could be sliced off.
I returned exactly half an hour later, nervous but determined.
Leo gave me a quick, kind pat on the shoulder as he passed me to go out. ‘You’ll be fine.’
Mr Chen gestured for me to enter. I stood next to him. ‘Have you done any martial arts before?’ he said. ‘No.’
‘Good. Hold out your hand.’
He took my hand and concentrated. His eyes seemed to go right through me, sharp and dark. Something ice-cold went from his hand to mine. It shot up my arm, into my head like a freezing black blade, then back down into my hand. He didn’t release my hand and I shivered.
‘Was that you?’ I whispered.
He nodded, still concentrating. Then he released my hand and the cold thing snapped off. ‘Interesting.’ ‘What?’
He shook his head, then gestured towards my jeans. ‘Those clothes are unsuitable, they’re too tight.’
My face flushed; I could feel the heat.
‘We will see if you have the talent, and if you do, Jade can find you a uniform of suitable size.’
‘Really? A wudang uniform?’ I said with delight. He looked at me piercingly. ‘How do you know it is wudang?’
I shrugged. ‘Research.’
He eyed me silently, then turned to face the mirrors. ‘Watch what I do. Then we will do it together.’
He raised both arms to shoulder height with his elbows bent and his palms face down. Then he slowly dropped them. He turned to me. ‘Try.’
I raised my arms and dropped them. Easy.
He sighed.
I choked back the laugh. ‘That bad?’
He didn’t say anything, but his eyes shone with amusement as he turned back to the mirror. He raised his hands and crossed them in front of his chest with the palms in, then moved his hands out and down.
I tried to follow his movement more closely. He had bent his elbows and relaxed his hands; I tried to do it as well. He watched me silently, then nodded.
He performed the crossed-hands move again, followed by the floating-arm move, then finished it with a kind of gentle push.
I followed, but screwed it up badly. I shook my head, flustered, and dropped my hands.
‘Don’t worry if you don’t have it right,’ he said gently. ‘If you want to move slower, or redo a move, just tell me. You are the one in control. You set the pace.’
I nodded, and relaxed. He wasn’t pushing me. ‘I thought you would just perform the moves and I
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