by Tiffiny Hall
The water is freezing. In the turbulence, I can’t tell which way is up or down. I spin around and see Lecky tunnelling through the water with her sword pointed at my heart. She slices through the lethal currents as easily as air. Blocking her sword underwater is impossible and a stream of bubbles blasts near my ear where her sword has come too close. I reach down and yank my ninja star out of her leg. Bubbles explode from her mouth as she screams. And still she won’t let go of the sword.
Oxygen rinses out of my body and I become heavy. Elecktra stops thrashing and stills. We drift in the current as we sink to the bottom. Greenness detonates all around us as the silence plunges us deeper into the emerald buzz; it sits on my chest like a universe. The images of Lecky hugging me in her doona and laughing in the pet shop play in my mind. My sister still exists. I clench my fists. I won’t let bad blood steal her.
I open my eyes and see Elecktra in the darkness of the deep. I summon the wind. It blasts Lecky and me out of the water and we hover high above the lethal current. Then in one deafening blast, the wind sucks the waterfall out of the cave. Elecktra and I float back down onto the jade floor. Most of the mats were washed away by the water and the remaining ones have been slashed to pieces by Lecky’s sword.
Hero, Jackson and Cinnamon climb off the wall and start running towards us. Elecktra coughs up water. I kneel beside her and place my hand on her wrist. She turns to me violently, flinging me onto my back and pinning the tip of her blade at my throat.
‘Hands off my sword,’ Lecky says. I feel the burning blade pulsating against my delicate throat. One move and I’m dead.
‘We were born to kill each other,’ she says.
‘No!’ I search her eyes for my sister, but I can’t see any trace of her. ‘We were born to love each other. Despite everything.’
Elecktra shakes her head and applies more pressure to the sword. I feel it bite into the first layer of skin. I’m trapped. I watch the bad blood pumping down the sword towards me. I look up into Elecktra’s face and she’s crying bloody tears.
Loosening her grip, she sobs, ‘I just wanted to be like you and Mum.’
‘You are like me and Mum. We’re family,’ I say.
‘No, we’re not. I have a real family now,’ she sneers, then looks at me with fire in her eyes and raises the sword high above her head.
In a brutal flash of ninja instinct, I see only a samurai about to attack. Adrenalin pollutes my veins, my heart bursts with blood, my senses startle and I can no longer control my impulse to kill samurai. My fingers seize my final ninja star and I summon a stream of fire to spear the star towards Elecktra. I watch the star fireball through the air, splitting air pockets, moisture and breath. The samurai lanterns light the lethal silver blades just before they strike Elecktra in the chest. Her wet hair explodes off her face with the impact. My heart flays open as I realise what I’ve done. Elecktra stumbles with the sword outstretched. Still crying tears of blood, she lowers her arms slowly and her eyes darken. She staggers. The sword slips out of her hands and spears into the ground.
Elecktra collapses into my arms. Immediately her hair transforms from red to blonde, the veins in her head snake away, restoring her pearly complexion, her eyes gloss back to brown.
‘Lecky!’ I cry. ‘I didn’t mean to. Lecky, don’t die!’
Jackson seizes the Serpent Sword, pulling down his sleeve so it won’t burn him. Hero tackles him to the ground. The sword flies out of Jackson’s hand and sizzles against the mossy jade stone. Their fighting fades into the background as I rock my sister in my arms.
‘Lecky,’ I sob. ‘Oh, Lecky.’
‘Cat,’ she whispers, her face again that of the sister I’ve always loved. ‘How’s my hair?’ Then her breath whispers out of her lips and the darkness of the cave cocoons my heart …
GLOSSARY
Axe kick — when a straightened leg descends onto an opponent like the blade of an axe.
Back kick — a kick backwards, like a donkey.
Dojang — traditional place of Taekwondo practice.
Dojo — sacred place of ninja and samurai training.
Flying kick — any kick that involves air, usually accompanied with a running start, then a huge jump.
Front kick — a kick forwards to the groin, stomach or face with the ball of your foot. Keep the toes out of it — they break easily.
Hook kick — a kick that strikes from the side using the heel of the foot. Executed similarly to a side kick, but aimed slightly off target and propelling backwards.
Katana — a type of samurai sword.
Ninja — known for wearing the best uniform in the business, ninjas were members of a feudal Japanese society of mercenary agents, highly trained in martial arts and stealth, for covert purposes ranging from espionage to sabotage and assassination. Also refers to anyone super cool.
Ninja claws — spikes worn between toes, fingers or teeth; used to climb, wound horses or slash enemies.
Nunchucks — hand weapons used for frontal assault, consisting of two sticks joined by a chain.
Red Samurai — a super-powerful samurai who is possessed by the Serpent Sword. They are completely red, from hair to toenail.
Roundhouse kick — the hero of all martial arts kicks. The leg swings sideways in a circular motion to kick the enemy in the stomach with the instep of the foot or, if you are more of a street fighter, the shin. You can amp up your martial arts street cred by adding a 360-degree turn or even a 720-degree turn, and if you’re really hardcore, a 1080-degree turn.
Samurai — the ninja’s enemy. They are warriors who fight with swords. Super deadly. Not as cool. Love to wear red.
Serpent Sword — a sword filled with ancient warrior blood that has the power to possess the samurai who captures it and turn them evil.
Shinobi shozoku — the traditional all-black ninja uniform.
Shuriken — a throwing blade or ninja stars.
Side kick — a sideways kick using the blade of your foot. You can show off by performing a double or triple side kick.
Taekwondo — a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means ‘to strike with foot’; kwon ‘to strike with fist’; and do ‘method’, or ‘path’. Taekwondo is ‘the way of the hand and the foot’. It combines combat techniques, self-defence, sport, exercise, board breaking, step-sparring, yelling, patterns, meditation and philosophy.
White Warrior — a ninja who can control the elements, flash invisible and fly.
NINJA MERINGUES
(serves 4)
Meringues
2 egg whites
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1½ tablespoons agave nectar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cornflour
Filling and topping
1 cup reduced-fat, unsweetened yoghurt
1 mango, thinly sliced
1 kiwifruit, thinly sliced
¼ cup slivered almonds, raw
1 tablespoon honey
1. Preheat oven to 110 degrees Celsius.
2. Combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, agave nectar and vanilla extract in a large bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water, ninjas). Let it sit for six minutes or until the mixture is warm to the touch.
3. Remove from the heat and beat with an electric whisk for three to seven minutes, until stiff peaks form. Gently fold through the cornflour.
4. Spoon the meringue mixture onto a lined baking tray and shape into eight circles, about six centimetres in diameter. Bake for thirty minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to cool with the oven door open for a further fifteen minutes.
5. To assemble, dress four of the meringues with a couple of dollops of yoghurt and slices of mango and kiwifruit. Place the remaining meringues on top and garnish with slivered almonds and a drizzle of honey. Serve immediately. Your kitchen Kung Fu is complete. Enjoy your Ninja Meringues!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A ma
ssive thank you to all the Roxy Ran readers for embracing Roxy and her mates!
I would like to give a deep bow of thanks to my book ninjas: the vivacious team at HarperCollins, who approach everything with oomph; my publisher, Lisa Berryman, for being my partner-in-joy at every milestone of the series; Kate Burnitt for your insightful edits and taking us to the next lev; and my awesome literary agent, Clare Forster, for your honesty and encouragement. As always, Halls, your chaos is inspiring and your love binding. And Ed, with love I give you the last word.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fifth Dan Taekwondo black belt, athlete, Logie-nominated television personality and former trainer on The Biggest Loser — there is no doubt Tiffiny Hall has many titles tucked under her black belt. She has a Bachelor of Arts/Media and Communications and a Diploma of Modern Languages in French from the University of Melbourne. Tiffiny worked as a print journalist before writing her first health books Weightloss Warrior, Fatloss for Good: The Secret Weapon and Tiffiny’s Lighten Up Cookbook. Her debut novel, White Ninja, was one of the ‘50 Books You Can’t Put Down’ in 2012. Red Samurai is the second book in the Roxy Ran series.
www.tiffinyhall.com.au
OTHER BOOKS BY TIFFINY HALL
White Ninja
COPYRIGHT
The Ninja Meringues recipe is based on the Meringues with Mango and Kiwifruit recipe in Tiffiny’s Lighten Up Cookbook by Tiffiny Hall (Hardie Grant Books, Richmond VIC, 2012).
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 © Tiffiny Hall 2013
The right of Tiffiny Hall 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.
HarperCollins Publishers
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Hall, Tiffiny.
Red samurai / Tiffiny Hall.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 9454 0 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978 0 7304 9910 7 (epub)
Hall, Tiffiny. Roxy ran ; 2.
For primary school age.
Martial arts—Juvenile fiction.
A823.4
Cover design by Blueboat
