Liv stopped on the last stair, head down, her throat suddenly a pinhole.Erik’s hand was still on her elbow, a steady, anchoring pressure.“It’s all right,” he said, quietly, his breath brushing her ear.“Just breathe, Liv.Everything’s fine.”
Panic attack.She was dismally aware they were a reasonable response to the whole deal, but with her heart hammering and no air in the entire stone pile, sweat tracing down her spine and gathering behind her knees, slicking her underarms despite powdery antiperspirant—oh, no wonder Sara gleamed, the toiletries here were magic as the rest of the deal—there was no escape from the dumb animal her body had become, hiding in a corner and shivering.
“Easy, beautiful.”The murmur in her ear didn’t change.“She’s cycling.Dakshi?”
Another hand laid itself on her opposite shoulder.Liv shuddered—but the panic retreated, draining away down some collection of subconscious pipes.
Maybe there was a mad god crouching down there.Why not?
When she could open her eyes again, Daniel had stopped by a pair of glass double doors, observing a safe distance.His trios stood, stolid and waiting.Even with variations in skin tone and bone structure, the Sons all looked alike.
Family resemblance, maybe.I wonder who they take after?Probably that god of theirs.
“Don’t think about it,” Erik continued.“It’s all right, Liv.We’re here.”
She stiffened, pushed her shoulders back.She hadn’t had panic attacks since the terrible six months or so after Gramma Poe died and the nightmares intensified, replaying with feverish intensity each and every time she closed her eyes.
Don’t think about it.Right.Easier said than done.
“Should we take her back to theliraim?”Dakshi didn’t quite sound nervous, but it might have been close—if he hadn’t been a Son.
She was learning, wasn’t she?Learning alot.
“No,” Liv heard herself say, sharply, decisively.“I don’t want to go back.I’m okay.”She shook their hands away and set off across parquet, heading straight for Daniel.
The young man smiled, a small, pained grin.“Wow,” he said.“You really are determined.”
“What good would I be as a monster hunter if I wasn’t?You promised to train me.”She could feel her chin settling in what her grandmother always calleddecided fashion.
“That I did, and you’ve done wonderfully with the preliminaries.”Daniel’s teeth gleamed white, and she wondered blankly who did his dental work.Were you still afraid of tooth-scrapings when you knew about monsters?“Come on.Today we’re going to have some fun.”
* * *
A giant expanse of polished hardwood held a crowd of Sons, the vastness lit both by snow-dazzled sunshafts falling from skylights and heavy golden electric lights caged in thick white frosted glass braced with wire.Racks along each long wall held a fantastical array of implements—wooden quarterstaffs fit for Robin Hood and Little John to start dueling, polished iron ones to match, honest-to-goshkies swords of every size and description, neatly lined-up knives, chains, things she was sure were flails or maces, and other wicked-looking weapons very capable of puncturing, bludgeoning, slicing, and dicing not just monsters but human beings as well.
A galvanic movement ran through the entire space when Daniel appeared; it was disconcerting to see the place clear out in fast-forward, even the guys boxing or clanging at each other with those clattering iron sticks halting between one movement and the next.No few of them streamed past Liv on their way out, each bowing their heads and making a strange gesture—the left hand touching the heart, then forehead.
“We interrupted them.”Liv tried an apologetic smile, but none of them really looked at her, their gazes sliding away.
“There are other sparring rooms.”Dakshi—the name meantcompetent, he’d told her with a slight smile—was close enough she could feel an edge of body heat.Erik was warm too, but it didn’t make her so uneasy when he crowded close.
“Believe it or not, this is polite.”Erik didn’t touch her again, but the imprint of his hand on her elbow still burned.“If one of you pulsed through everyone here, you’d blow out all the lights and probably the walls too.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing.They talked about how it was instinctive, how the force coming through Dreamers was amplified and channeled by Sons, but it was all so much weird incomprehensible mishmash.
Still, you couldn’t understand some things about, say, driving a car until you actuallydidit.A lot of life was like that, and at least they were finally going to take a whack at training her.
Which was a giant goddamn relief.Maybe sometime soon she’d stop feeling so helpless.
Daniel’s voice echoed, bouncing from hardwood, stone, the mirrors on the short walls of the rectangle.“Liv?If you’d stand right over there, please.Gentlemen, we’ll be practicing flux control today, so no real weapons.Just knives.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Liv said.“Shouldn’t I start out with a punching bag or something?”
“If anything gets close enough for you to punch, we haven’t done our job.”Robert didn’t speak much, but when he did, the dry crisp edges of each word sounded vaguely British.
“But shouldn’t I know how to do some kung fu or something, and then, you know, work up to this?”Liv eyed the rows of swords, and wondered if the thought of swinging one was supposed to be a comfort or fresh terror.“Whatever this is?”
“Relax.”Dakshi stepped away, fading behind her.“It’s instinctive, my lady Liv.”
