again. Lance pulled it straight up so a board would hit her, but she was too quick and leapt back, disappearing and reappearing on the other side, still in motion. She planted the knife square into the rising sun.
'Now, Francis,' Lance ordered as he let go of the rope.
This time the board moved way too fast, and a different angle, and it clipped her right in the shin. Faye screamed as she Traveled, coming at it from another angle, only to catch another board in the arm. The knife fell from limp fingers. She Traveled back, just as she hit the ground at Lance's feet.
'Ow ow ow!' Faye's fingers weren't responding and a big purple bruise was spreading on her leg. 'Thanks a lot, Francis.'
'Hey, you said you wanted to go faster,' he said, as he released his Power and the dummy collapsed in a pile of fabric and wood. 'Sorry.'
'Just imagine if that was an Iron Guard's katana instead of a chunk of hickory.' Lance sighed. He did that a lot when teaching her. 'Jane, would you kindly put our young Traveler back together, please?'
The Healer frowned as she looked up from her book. She was wearing a white bathing suit, enormous black sunglasses, and reclining on a pool chair, enjoying the sun. Healers had the advantage of sunbathing without worrying about getting burned. 'This is the last one for today, Lance. I used up most of my Power fixing up the General this morning.'
'Fine, fine, we'll do something a little less physical next.'
Water was rolling involuntarily from Faye's eyes but she didn't think that fell under her self-prohibition on crying when she'd just got her arm broken. 'Less physical? Can I drive the car again? Can we go fast?'
'It ain't a tractor. Of course we'll go fast.'
'I'd be happy to shoot more of Mr. Browning's machine guns too!' Shooting those off the cliffs had certainly made the little.32 Iver Johnson she'd bought seem inadequate.
Jane padded over daintily. The soles of her feet were soft and there were plenty of hard spots in the ground. It made Faye want to laugh. She hadn't owned her own pair of shoes until she'd arrived in El Nido. Jane's gentle hands rested on her arm, and a moment later, the now familiar hot feeling moved through her body. The swelling began to go down immediately. 'Be more careful next time, hon. I won't always be around to fix you up,' Jane admonished her.
Delilah had wandered up to see what was going on. She was the most standoffish of everyone at the estate, and Faye still hadn't really had a conversation with her. She didn't think that Delilah was a snob at all, just that she had a hard time talking to people. She seemed like she was kind of broken inside. Faye could understand. She'd probably be bitter herself if she hadn't been able to explore the world inside her own head.
'What're you doing?' Delilah asked.
'We're teaching Faye how to use her Power to fight,' Francis said proudly. 'She's improved immensely.'
'That's what you call it…' Delilah scowled at the dummy. 'Can I try?'
'I suppose,' Lance said, taking the slack out of the rope. 'Get ready, Francis.'
She cracked her knuckles and walked over to the dummy, pausing to look at Faye still sitting on the ground. 'Let me show you how it's done, little girl.'
The dummy started to spin. Delilah closed her eyes for just a moment. There was no physical change, but suddenly she just seemed different, her posture shifted, and she hunched low, the visible muscles in her forearms, neck, and ankles seeming to harden. She covered the remaining distance faster than Faye could comprehend. She put her fist right through the rising sun.
Francis's brow furrowed in concentration as he swung the boards at her. Delilah blocked one with her forearm. She caught the other one in her bare hand, wrenched it free, and used it to cleave both the dummy's legs off in one swipe. Next she grabbed it by the face, tore it clean off, snapping the rope in two, spun once and pitched the head clear into the ocean before the body had even hit the ground.
It had taken about two seconds. She stepped back and straightened her dress. Her body seemed to soften and her posture returned to normal. 'There you go.'
Francis and Jane stood there with their mouths agape. Lance just grunted. 'Great. Now we need a new dummy.'
Delilah came over and sat on the grass next to Faye. 'Listen, you're not gonna learn to fight by hitting a canvas sack. How about you work with me? I don't think you could hurt me if you tried, anyway, and it would be a lot more realistic.'
Jane spoke up. 'I can't Mend her if you rip her head off.'
'Shove it, sister,' Delilah called back. 'What do you say?'
It couldn't hurt. Well, actually, it could hurt a whole lot. But this was probably Delilah's idea of being nice. 'Sure. Tearing someone's legs off with their arm could be useful.'
'You'll probably have to work up to that. Come on, stand up.' Delilah arched her back, kicked her legs, and was instantly on her feet. 'Hit me as hard as you can. I'll just give you a little love tap when you screw up.'
'Delilah…' Lance muttered.
'Relax, squirrel boy. I won't hurt her… much.' Her smile was kind of scary.
'You don't have to do this, Faye,' Lance suggested. 'Brutes are the reason I carry a.44 Special stoked with hot wadcutters.' Delilah growled at him. 'I'm just sayin' is all.'
Faye stood up. Her arm and leg were feeling much better already. Delilah was waiting for her in the center of the lawn. Francis and Lance stepped back. Jane picked up her book, but apparently she'd found something more interesting for once, and didn't open it. Lance had shown her how to hit something without breaking her hand, explaining that you always used your hard bits to hit their soft bits, but she wasn't good at it. Surely Delilah would help her get better.
'Okay, what do I do?'
'Hit me, stupid,' Delilah said.
Faye didn't like being called names. She Traveled, landing right behind Delilah, and punched her hard in the back. Faye screamed on impact as the bones in her fist crashed into something that felt like a concrete slab. Momentarily distracted, she didn't see the backhand that rattled her brain and sent her rolling across the lawn.
'See, just a little tap for when you screw up. That's how you learn.'
It was like being run over by a mad cow. Jane started forward, but Faye managed to spit out something that sounded like 'I've got it.' She struggled to her feet.
Delilah seemed impressed that Faye had gotten back up. 'Lesson one. Never hit a Brute with your bare hands. Our Power makes our tissues tougher than normal. When I'm burning full Power, pistol bullets bounce off.'
'You've got skin like a rhinoceros,' Jane suggested. 'I can see that from here.'
'Don't go there, porcelain doll, or I'll show you a rhino.' Delilah snapped. 'Lesson two, only suckers fight fair. Come on, Faye. I heard how you swore you'd kill Madi. That goomba could snap me in half. If you can't hurt me, how do you expect to put a dent in the big man? Let's see what you've got.'
Faye Traveled, appearing just off to Delilah's left side, and this time she used her heavy boot to kick her in the leg. By the time the arm came flying around, she was gone, back on the other side, and kicked her in the back of the other leg. She Traveled back to where she'd started, smiling, proud that she'd tagged the Brute twice and gotten away.
Delilah was wearing a sort of work dress. It actually cut off above the knees, which Mr. Browning surely found scandalous, but it made more sense when she covered half the yard in two steps and kicked Faye in the teeth.
When the fuzzy lights quit spinning around her head, Faye realized that she wasn't dead, this wasn't heaven, and that the white angel looking down at her was Jane. '-way to go, you big bully.' The heat of Jane's Power radiated through her face, but her skull still felt like it had been broken in half.
'She said she wanted to learn. Poor little white-trash Okie wants to run with the big dogs, life is hard. She better get used to it. I even turned my Power off before I hit her that time,' Delilah said. 'My dad was one of the toughest Brutes the Grimnoir had ever seen, and Madi beat him like a rented mule. He'll eat her.'
'Your father was probably drunk at the time too,' Lance spat. 'Back off, Delilah.'
'Look who's talking.'
The Healing was done. The heat died down, and Faye used Jane's shoulder to pull herself up. 'I'm ready.'
