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Doctor Nudd shifted to his tougher, stronger form and snarled at her through pointed teeth like sharp wooden stakes. He retreated steadily from her attacks, but his dark eyes looked for an opening to strike back.
Liliana smiled and opened her second eyes, so she could see in all directions. Now, things were getting interesting.
Doctor Nudd spared a quick glance for Siobhan, still sitting comfortably in her tree, while he braced his hands on his knees and gulped in air. Sweat dripped from his twiggy hair and ran along the bark of his cheek. “Are you just planning to sit there and watch?”
“My mother didn’t raise any idiots. I am not getting in the middle of that.” She waved her pistol negligently, clearly enjoying the show. “You boys have fun with your lesson.”
Pete sprang at Liliana’s back while she was distracted, no doubt intending to tackle her.
Liliana saw him coming with her second eyes. She jumped high and backflipped, tucked in tight, right over Pete’s head. When she landed, she shoved him so his forward momentum continued until he ran into Doctor Nudd.
Nudd’s bark-covered arms grabbed onto Pete so he didn’t fall, then shoved him to one side as Liliana struck with her blade at the wolf’s unprotected back.
Liliana nodded approval. Now, they were taking her seriously.
The back of Nudd’s heel bumped against one of the shields Liliana left leaning against a tree.
For a moment, she backed off to give the wolf and the goblin a chance to pick up the shields.
Both men panted with exertion. They were tired before she began.
“Why are you doing this?” Pete asked while he strapped the shield to his arm. His voice was gentle, even as he prepared himself for her attack.
“You both must learn to fight better, or you will both die.” The words came out flat, as her words always did, but she felt her throat close a little on the last word. She risked a single peek into the future with her fourth eyes, hoping to see something changed. Images of their deaths flashed in her mind again. She flinched.
Once seen, she could never unsee. Even if she changed their paths, even if they survived, the vision of their deaths would still haunt her nightmares.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. The visions she had seen would not happen. The nightmares would not become real. She would not let them. She had to make Pete and Doctor Nudd understand why this was important.
Pete approached her slowly, not as if he intended to attack, more like she was a frightened wild animal he didn’t want to scare away.
Her watery human eyes watched a blurred image of his feet. Her domed green chrome second eyes on her temples saw everything in their oddly distorted, color-shifted way.
A hand came up and pushed her thick black hair gently from her face.
She wasn’t sure why, but she let Pete do it.
“What did you see, Lilly?” Pete asked her gently.
It was rude not to answer when someone asked a question, but she couldn’t form words. She met his gaze for just a moment. Her human eyes were hot and swimming with tears she refused to shed. She would not weep for her friends. These two men that she valued were not dead. And she would not let them be.
When she dropped her gaze back to Pete’s boot toes in the grass, he nodded as if she had answered the question. “Okay. What do we need to know?”
Liliana’s shoulders loosened tension she hadn’t realized was there. Pete would listen. He would learn. Maybe he would live.
“Hold your shields high like this.” She mimicked the proper position. “If I aim a blow low, drop your elbow only, keep your fist up. And don’t just defend. Each defense of a blow should flow into an attack of your own.”
“Attack with what?” Doctor Nudd asked. “The weapons are over there.” He pointed a fair distance away, where they had been practicing before she pounced on them.
“Fight with what you have. A shield can be a weapon for offense as well as defense. You also have fists, claws, feet, sticks, trees. Everything is a weapon. When you can, find a way to move the fight to where more effective weapons wait.”
Liliana fought them hard, both at once, so they learned to fight as a team, to protect each other’s backs. She struck, jumped back, circled, and struck again. She jumped into the trees, leapt down, and struck again, using jaguar-kin tactics. She let them guide her toward Pete’s weapons, and practically cheered when Doctor Nudd picked up a mace and swung it full force at her head.
Both men dripped with sweat and panted like overheated dogs.
For just a moment, she let them breathe. She needed a moment to catch her breath as well. But only a moment. “Doctor Nudd, fight as my ally now.”
“You must be joking.”
