by P J Tierney
‘The Art of War?’ Jamie asked.
‘No,’ Master Wu said, ‘the Tao Te Ching. This is why we study two texts. Sometimes it is better to strive for greatness than for victory. We can’t all be Sun Tzu.’ He smiled. ‘That one is mine, Jamie — you can quote it if you like.’
Jamie nodded. He knew he was being forgiven, but he couldn’t forgive himself, not when Wing was still suffering.
A great screeching noise startled him. He took a fighting stance before he realised he knew that sound.
Jet charged across the training ground and leaped at Jamie. Jet’s little arms wrapped around Jamie’s neck and he clung to him.
Jamie patted him and made soothing noises, all the while looking for Wing, Lucy and Mr Fan.
Where are they? he wondered, his eyes peeled for the heat haze. He was getting more worried every minute.
Finally Jamie saw a bright light forming in the distance. He ran towards it. It got brighter and brighter, then faded to reveal Mr Fan, Wing and Lucy. Wing was still unconscious, his head drooping. Mr Fan ran with him towards the Western Pavilions, with Master Wu, Lucy and Jamie right behind him.
At the door to Mr Fan’s office, Jade and Mrs Choo were already waiting. Mrs Choo was wringing her hands.
Mr Fan burst through the door and placed Wing on the narrow bed. He called for combinations of herbs and powders from the canisters and drawers that crowded the room. Master Wu measured and mixed according to Mr Fan’s hurried instructions and handed him the resulting paste.
Mr Fan removed the bloody cloth from Wing’s shoulder, smeared the paste over the wound with one deft movement, then covered it with a clean cloth. All the time, Mrs Choo held Wing’s hand and cried big, silent tears.
Mr Fan took a deep breath, exhaled very slowly and held his palms over Wing’s shoulder. A faint, sparkling light shone over the wound. Wing blinked, slowly at first, then opened his eyes.
A sob caught in Mrs Choo’s throat.
Wing saw his mother and a smile started to form on his lips, but then the pain registered. His face contorted and he screamed and grabbed at his shoulder.
‘Hold him,’ Mr Fan commanded. ‘Don’t let him knock my hands away.’
Mrs Choo leaned across her son, pinning his arms and torso, while Master Wu stopped his legs from thrashing. Wing lost consciousness again.
Jamie sensed they were losing him. ‘Help him!’ he screamed. ‘Do something!’
Lucy dragged him from the room. ‘They are doing something, they’re doing everything they can,’ she said.
‘But it’s not working!’ Jamie yelled.
Lucy grabbed him by both shoulders and shook him. ‘You’re the Spirit Warrior — you do something.’
Jamie was taken aback. He blinked, straightened up and went back to Wing’s side. The light from Mr Fan’s hands burned brightly and perspiration beaded on his brow. Mrs Choo called Wing’s name, but Jamie could feel him fading.
A soft lilting voice said, ‘Hold your hands over the wound.’
Jamie turned to see who had spoken. There was no-one there.
‘Over the wound,’ he heard again, and realised that the voice was coming from his guide.
Jamie stepped up to the bed and put his hands beside Mr Fan’s.
‘Gently,’ Mr Fan said.
Jamie closed his eyes and drew on the energy inside him. He felt his hands grow hot, and when he opened his eyes, a shimmery light was emanating from them into Wing’s shoulder.
The healing drained Jamie of every last drop of energy. After only a few seconds, he felt woozy and thought he might collapse. But it was enough. Wing moved his head and opened his eyes again. He coughed, then said in a raw and raspy voice, ‘Hi, Mum.’
Mrs Choo swept him up in a great big hug and almost drowned him with her tears.
Wing’s muffled voice could be heard through her embrace. ‘I’m okay, Mum.’ When she finally let him go, he added, ‘Is there any breakfast?’
Everyone laughed.
Mrs Choo’s cracked voice reminded everyone that it wasn’t really a time for jokes. ‘Wing, what if I had lost you too?’ she said.
‘You’ll never lose me, Mum,’ Wing said softly. ‘Even if I died, I’d still be right here with you — just like Dad and my brother.’
Mrs Choo’s eyes brimmed and overflowed again. She scooped Wing up in her arms and held him tightly. Jamie understood, finally, just how much Mrs Choo had already lost and why Wing hated Zheng so much.
Jamie sat on the grass outside the pavilion and buried his face in his hands, overwhelmed by everything that had happened. He was too spent for tears, but his breath came in deep, uncontrollable gasps.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. It was Jade.
‘Come with me,’ she whispered.
Jamie followed her along the path through the banana grove. It was quiet and no-one else was around. She stopped at a small clearing. ‘A big night for you?’
Jamie nodded.
‘You okay?’
Jamie nodded again.
‘You sure?’
‘Yeah,’ he said, touched by her concern.
‘Good,’ she said and jumped into a high front kick, wedged her foot under his chin and pinned him against a tree.
‘What?’
Jet screeched and Jade silenced him with a glare. She leaned in, increasing the pressure on Jamie’s throat. She looked him in the eye and spoke slowly. ‘If you ever, ever give up in a fight again, I will finish you off myself.’
Jamie swatted at her leg, but was too drained to have any effect.
‘Do you understand?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ he rasped.
‘Good.’
She let Jamie push her leg away.
‘Are you insane?’ he said as soon as he could breathe again. ‘What was that for?’
Jade shrugged. ‘My life intersects with the Spirit Warrior’s. Give up your life and you screw up my life plan as well.’ She looked at him. ‘You know, it took me a long time to figure out why I ran from that wave.’
‘You were scared,’ Jamie said, knowing how much that would sting.
She shrugged again. ‘I usually know what’s coming, but I didn’t see that. I didn’t recognise you either, and now I know why. Your mother changed her life plan. When she ripped her silk banner from the hall, she changed everything that was supposed to be.’
‘So it’s her fault you’re mental?’
She ignored him. ‘If you’re the Spirit Warrior, our purposes are entwined,’ she said. Then her expression changed and she looked at him with softness in her eyes.
She leaned in close and Jamie didn’t know if she was going to kiss him or knee him in the groin. He braced himself for either.
Jade brought her cheek very close to his, then said vehemently, ‘Don’t screw it up.’
She stepped back, looked him up and down, then ruffled his hair. ‘You did well out there. You’re really going to be something when you grow up.’
When I grow up? Jamie opened his mouth to say, I just fought Zheng! But nothing came out.
It was then that he heard his spirit guide’s soft, lilting voice inside his head again. It was very quiet, but it was definitely there and it was laughing at him. He realised that whatever assistance he’d get from his new guide, it didn’t include help with girls.
There was rapturous applause when Jamie and Wing arrived in the dining pavilion for breakfast that morning. There was one noticeable exception to the general good mood, however, and that was Cheng. He glared at Jamie and at Wing too.
‘You can’t blame him, I suppose,’ Wing said between mouthfuls of congee. ‘He really did think he was the one.’
Cheng’s top lip curled and his eyes narrowed.
‘He’s going to cause us some trouble, isn’t he?’ Jamie said.
Wing smiled and in a voice full of false innocence said, ‘What do you mean trouble? I’m funny …’ He let the phrase hang in the air.
Jamie finishe
d for him, ‘And I’m the Spirit Warrior.’
Acknowledgments
To Kathryn Heyman, Catherine Drayton and Lisa Berryman for holding my feet to the flames. With thanks to Catherine for the phrase, and chagrin for making it necessary. My particular gratitude to Kathryn for her brilliance, some of which I was hoping would have rubbed off onto me by now, and to Lisa for being Jamie’s advocate, and mine too.
Thanks also to Joseph Nigg for the Ki-Lin quote from The Book of Dragons & Other Mythical Beasts.
About the Author
P.J. Tierney obtained a bachelor’s degree in creative writing, then headed backstage, working on shows for Madonna and U2, and was on set for The Matrix. Invited to Hong Kong to work on the Handover Celebrations, it was there, among the history and mystery of the city, on the barges and tugs of Victoria Harbour, that the Jamie Reign series took form. P.J. lives and works in Sydney, surrounded by Chinese food and kung fu films — all for research purposes of course.
Books by P.J. Tierney
Jamie Reign: The Last Spirit Warrior
Jamie Reign: The Hidden Dragon (forthcoming)
Jamie Reign: The Lost Soul (forthcoming)
Copyright
Extract here from The Book of Dragons & Other Mythical Beasts by Joseph Nigg, published by Quarto, 2002, reproduced by kind permission of Quarto.
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2013
This edition published in 2013
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Paula Tierney 2013
The right of Paula Tierney to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Tierney, P. J.
The last spirit warrior / P. J. Tierney.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 9519 6 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978 1 7430 9564 5 (epub.)
Jamie reign; 1.
For children.
A823.4
Cover design by Darren Holt, HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover photography by Stuart Scott; models: Nelson Clifton, Yasmine Tong, Samuel Xu from Bambini Talent Group Australia; background images by shutterstock.com
