Already suffering from the tightness of unmaintained muscles, I swung into another set of drills. “How about we do a regular duel, and stop at surrender?”
“Aw, come on.” Hydna’s voice came from behind my shoulder, and I jumped. When had she moved? “I’ll fix you up with a spell afterwards. Don’t you like this stuff?” Crimson eyes shone from under the mess of her hair. Her full lips curled in a grin, and I noticed a gap in her too-sharp teeth.
“Not when it’s real!” I felt myself beginning to flush, and pulled my sword to my chest. “I don’t actually like getting hurt.”
“That’s right,” called Merulo, sketching something now in broad sweeps. “He only wants you to say nasty things in pretend. And then you have to fuck him afterward.”
“This is getting incredibly personal,” I said. “And I’m really just . . . practicing with a sword here.”
“Alright.” Hydna held up calloused hands, admitting defeat. “A normal sword fight it is. Give me that for a second.”
With considerable reluctance, I handed over my blade. She wrapped her hands around the hilt, speaking softly. With a flex of her biceps, she tore the blade in two down its center. I made a small noise of anguish, which faded as I realized that each half had re-formed into a complete sword. Taking the blade she extended, I looked it over thoroughly. It was still my sword, down to the familiar nicks and wear.
Preoccupied as I was with this examination, Hydna’s first swing nearly cut my face in two. I leaped backward, my body moving before my thoughts could catch up, and drew myself into a stance.
Hydna bobbed, light on her feet, a terrible smile straining her mouth. She thrust before I could process it. Again, I reacted with muscle memory alone, her blade slamming into mine with a ring. The blow vibrated through my body, and I feared my sword would snap. Hydna followed her next smashing blow with a twist that ripped my hands free of the hilt and sent my sword spinning. It skittered across the pavement and beneath a bench, far out of reach. Thinking this a loss, I allowed my abused muscles to slacken, shoulders dropping.
There was a clatter as Hydna discarded her sword and raised her fists.
“Oh no, you can’t,” I started, ducking away from a blow that would have crushed my skull to powder.
“Hydna!” I skittered back as the dragon woman came for me. She raised a fist, and I plunged backward with enough speed that I lost my balance, meeting the hard pavement. This had to end it.
But the dragon woman followed me to the ground, knees slamming down on either side of my torso. Her massive hands, burning with a fever heat, gripped my wrists to restrain them. I may as well have been pinned by a bear. “I didn’t tell you the penalty for losing,” she growled, her burgundy hair falling about our faces. “You shouldn’t have accepted a fight without knowing the penalty.”
“Normal sword fight,” I yelped. “That was the descriptor!” My legs lay free. I could kick upward, but would that do more than antagonize her?
“Normal for me.” Her triumphant laugh blasted like a trumpet so close to my ears. “See, if I’m fighting someone? They die. But my brother, now, he wouldn’t like that so much. So, how’s about I break every bone in your body instead?”
“Merulo!” I cried shrilly. “Help, please!”
“You think I can’t take on my idiot brother?” Hydna’s hands clutched harder, nails digging into my skin. Her teeth were as sharp as fangs, parted and wet. “I could do whatever I want, to either of you.”
She paused, then—
“Ahh, Merulo, you were right!” Pealing with laughter, she climbed off me.
I crossed my legs hurriedly, covering myself with my hands. “It’s just, it’s confused blood, that’s all.”
“You picked the funniest man to drag down here. Who reacts that way?” The dragon woman slapped her thighs, bent with the force of her mirth, before making her way back to the picnic and dropping with a thud. I supposed there was more fish to eat.
I collected my sword, checking for damage, then sheepishly rejoined them. Merulo occupied himself with long strokes of his pen, pointedly ignoring me.
“It’s not funny,” I said, helping myself to an apple. “Really.” It broke easily under my teeth, crisp and sweet. A few more bites—and then panic struck as I recalled his jealousy at my birthday feast. “And just so you know,” I said, sidling closer to him, “I’m not interested in her, at all.”
“Thanks,” said Hydna. She raised her bushy eyebrows at me. “Then I should never do that again?”
“Uh,” I said, and both dragon siblings snorted. “Whatever. Look, show me what you’re working on.” I leaned in to view Merulo’s journal and frowned, confused by what he’d drawn across the pages.
An arm. Covered in sigils and lines that drew away intoclouds of finely printed text. It looked skinned, the interlock of musculature and tendon evident down to the minutiae of its curling fingers. At the shoulder, instead of meeting a body, the device erupted into straps of the sort that might hook around a chest.
“That’s a nice drawing. Is it for anything in particular? A new type of construct?”
“It will be for me,” Merulo said, scribbling another row of sigils into the elbow joint. He’d drawn it so that some elements appeared lifted off the rest, as if caught mid-explosion.
“You have arms,” I pointed out. “Two of them. Do you need more?”
“Cameron.” The sorcerer lowered his quill. “We’ve had this talk before. I will not allow any interference with my work.”
