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Pete grabbed her shoulder.
Liliana twirled, freeing herself from his half-hearted grip, and punched him in the face, hard enough to rock him back on his heels. He would not fight until she made him take her seriously.
Doctor Nudd tried to grab her while she faced Pete.
She sheathed one arm blade so she wouldn’t accidentally stab the goblin, stepped back between his legs, hooked his ankle, and elbowed him hard in the belly, just below the ribs. At the same time, she threw her weight back. Her second mother, Ixchel, taught her that when people grabbed you, they expected you to try evasion, not to attack them.
The goblin’s breath whooshed out, and he fell backward, but one of his long arms hooked Liliana’s belly as he fell, pulling her over with him.
She flipped her legs up and over her head as she went backward, landing her full body weight hard on the goblin’s chest just as his back hit the ground. He wheezed, coughed, and his grip loosened.
Her roll continued into a back somersault onto her feet. While the goblin made choking sounds, she leapt over him toward the red wolf, one blade out front as if she intended to decapitate him. She swung backhanded at Pete. On her blades, the sharp edge was outward. If she hit him, it would be with the blunt inner edge.
Pete ducked. His reaction had been lightning quick. If she had struck in earnest, Pete would still have his head.
Very good, she thought, but it wasn’t enough. He didn’t follow up the defense with an attack. He still held back.
She spun, snapped out her other blade, and struck him hard with the blunt edge in the back, about shoulder-blade level.
Pete grunted in pain. “Damn it, Lilly. This isn’t funny.”
“No one is laughing. Fight, or you will bleed.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I am not hurt. You are.” She considered for a moment, head tilted sideways. The red wolf refused to fight her. He didn’t fear her, nor would he hurt her, even to save himself pain, as long as he believed she intended him no real harm. She swung a few backhanded blows at him while she wracked her brain for a way to motivate the compassionate wolf-kin. He dodged her attacks but didn’t follow with any of his own. This would not do.
The way he practiced with Doctor Nudd was more like the rough play of boys. Pete needed to bring his skills to a higher level to survive. But with her, he refused to strike. He would only defend.
A solution was as simple as understanding Pete. He had to see blood—and not his own. Pete defended those he cared about far more fiercely than he defended himself.
Liliana leapt straight up into the tree sheltering Siobhan. The spider-kin caught a branch and swung. With a half-hearted kick to the wolf’s face to keep him at a distance, she flipped up onto the branch.
She came nose to barrel with Siobhan’s miniaturized pistol.
“Don’t even think about it,” the flower sprite said. “I’m not part of your little game.”
Liliana nodded respect to the tiny warrior, still wearing her fuchsia pink petal-winged, demi-plant form that stood less than two feet even on tiptoe. Of all the people in the red wolf’s sphere of influence, Siobhan had the best chance of survival.
Doctor Nudd would have to be the target then. Liliana leapt off the branch and landed next to Doctor Nudd.
The goblin had just gotten his breath back and was climbing to his feet, dusting leaves off his clothes.
Liliana cut his forearm, drawing blood, but not doing serious damage to more than his sweater.
“Hey! That hurt!”
“Fight me! Or I’ll cut you again deeper. And again, and again.” She swung her blade at Doctor Nudd in a serious slash, not a feint.
He leapt backward, farther than a human would have been able to, and snarled. “You will not.”
Liliana grinned. Doctor Nudd would fight her now. He wasn’t about to let her shed his blood again without a fight.
And neither would Pete.
On the day he would die, Liliana had foreseen Doctor Nudd with a shield in his hand. The goblin hadn’t known how to use the shield properly. She’d brought two of her father’s old shields, so they should be big enough even for the goblin.
She drove Doctor Nudd back with fast slashes toward the tree where the shields leaned, partially hidden by brush.
