That, Mira couldn’t help but note, was saying something. She’d never been a yes woman herself, and having her own men turn on her and try their damnedest to kill her had pretty much soured her on the uniform as well. The boy in front of her, however, made her look like a cog in the machine. She settled back on her feet, sliding the blade along his neck and slicing just a bit deeper before withdrawing completely.
There was some satisfaction in seeing him wince—not very much at all, she told herself, but some just the same.
“Fine”—she shrugged casually—“but if I can’t cut you, I’m still going to draw real blood from someone today …”
Mira gave him a moment to consider her words and half turn in her direction before she grinned nastily at him, then twisted and lunged toward Lydia.
Lydia, who’d been watching with disappointment up to that point, was frozen in shock as the gleaming blade sliced the air, heading straight for her head. She flinched back, eyes slamming shut involuntarily, and a clash shook her to her soul.
She opened her eyes slowly, then snapped them wide as she saw Brennan standing between her and Mira with a staff in hand, holding back the Cadrewoman’s blade as fury poured off him.
Brennan angled his staff, letting Mira’s blade slide off it to the ground away from his sister, then reversed and swung for her head. Mira ducked easily under the swing and countered with a slash to his midsection that was caught by the other end of the staff before he snapped another blow at her ribs.
She laughed, dancing back out of reach.
“Do you hear that? The whispers in the back of your skull?” she asked, blocking another shot with the flat of her blade, then lashing out with a kick that sent Brennan toppling back to the ground in a slide. “Listen to them. They’re trying to save your life!”
He rolled out of the way as she leapt at him and landed with a potentially bone-crushing stomp where he had been. Brennan tucked the staff in close to his body, rolling for the edge of the circle, but Mira beat him to it, flipping easily over him and landing squarely on the other side. She swung her blade down, making him throw the staff up to block.
Sparks erupted across him as the weapons met, and he grunted under the force of the impact.
This crazy lady is trying to kill me!
Mira grinned down at him over the two crossed weapons. “Taking it seriously yet?”
Brennan grunted, kicking out at her legs from the ground. She avoided the kick easily, but it forced her to let up on the attack, and he used the time to kip up to his feet.
Brennan whirled the staff experimentally, getting a feel for the weight. He’d been trained on a staff, of course, as had Lydia, but somehow the one in his hand felt lighter and yet more solid than anything he’d previously held. It had substance to it that seemed to contrast how light the weapon felt in his hand, like there was a force pushing against him and steadying his hand.
He casually flipped the Armati around, then let the staff roll in his hand and come to rest along his back as he changed his stance and gestured with his free hand.
“All right,” he said, glaring at Mira, “let’s do this.”
Lydia watched, heart slowing to its normal pace, as her brother sparred with the Cadrewoman. Brennan had always been competent in the martial courses that were required of all of them, but Lydia could see that Mira’s skill was levels of magnitude beyond his. The woman danced around Brennan easily, somehow managing not to inflict any serious injury despite the number of cutting strokes she drove through his defenses.
“They’re really good.”
Lydia turned, just noticing Dusk slightly behind her to her right.
“Brennan doesn’t stand a chance,” she told the other girl simply. “He’s completely outmatched. She’s playing with him.”
“Really?”
Lydia nodded. “She’s Cadre, and Brennan never really did more than he had to in training. If it doesn’t have to do with flying, he’s a lazy bugger.”
Dusk looked out at the fight between the two, a clearly disbelieving look on her face. “I’ve never seen anyone move as fast as he did when she attacked you.”
Lydia sighed, but frankly she’d also been wondering how the hell he’d done that.
“He’s been overprotective in his own way … well, for a while,” she said finally. “Now that we’re the last two of our family left, I guess it’s gotten even worse.”
“Yeah,” Dusk whispered, “I guess I get that.”
Lydia saw Dusk sneak a peek across the hold to where Mikael was also watching the fight.
Lydia nodded. “I imagine you do.”
Metal clashed on metal as blade met staff with ringing reports that echoed off the hold of the Andros. Mira had stepped up her attacks as she hammered Brennan with a flurry of blows he just barely managed to knock back. She was grinning the whole time, the entire affair really nothing more than a light workout for her, as the boy wasn’t capable of really pushing her capacity. She hadn’t even gone enhanced during the whole event, even though she admitted privately that he wasn’t a total loss.
Abruptly, Mira broke contact and leapt back. Her blade whipped around her wrist as she flipped it casually, letting it retract into the sheath form before sliding it smoothly into her gun belt.
“Not bad,” she said, then added, “for a brat.”
Brennan panted as he leaned on his staff, glowering at her.
“You were trying to kill me!”
“Not hardly, kid, though if I’d thought you were slacking, I’d have given you a nice scar to impress the ladies and remind you that a fight is no place to laze about.”
Brennan straightened up and lifted the staff off the ground, letting it hang loose in his hand. He was startled as it suddenly retracted into its own sheath, as hers had, and after a moment of looking at it he slowly slipped the Armati into his belt.
“I could hear it,” he said finally, “the whispers.”
“Good. Then we can really get started,” Mira told him with a smile that sent chills up his spine.
Partly out of genuine interest, but mostly in the vain hope that he’d be able to distract her, Brennan blurted out a question that had been at the back of his mind for a long time.
“Is that how you can track and deflect blast bolts?”
Mira paused, her head cocked slightly to one side. “Your brother, I presume?”
Brennan nodded. “I saw him in training.”
Mira nodded, understanding. “The short answer is no. We can’t track bolts from a lase blaster. That’s physically impossible.”
“But I’ve seen it!”
“No, you saw something else,” Mira said, considering her words. “While a lase blast doesn’t quite travel at the speed of light, it’s close enough so that by the time you saw the bolt flash and your brain recognized the energy, it would be too late.”
Brennan scowled. “Then how?”
“We watch the blaster itself, the eyes of our opponent,” she said. “Just before someone decides to kill another person, you can read their intent in how they stand, how their eyes narrow. From there it’s just math to determine shot vectors. That’s an oversimplified explanation, of course, but that’s the way we do it. If you aren’t already moving to intercept the blast before it’s fired, then you don’t have a chance.”
Brennan blinked, not having expected that. “Oh.”
He looked down at the Armati in his hand. “I thought it was the weapon.”