At least it wouldn’t be against Alan.
My healing had finished a while earlier, but when I went to push myself up and off the table, Gladys was there with a crooked finger in my face. “You’re not going anywhere, young man, until we can be certain the internal bleeding has stopped.”
“How long will that take?”
“As long as it takes. Now lie your bony ass back down.”
There was no arguing with Gladys when she used that tone of voice.
“I’m not sure pissing off Alan Jackson was the best decision, tactically speaking,” said the med ward’s other patient, flat on his back on the far gurney.
“Yeah, well.” I couldn’t shrug, because they’d taped one arm across my chest, but I rolled my eyes at Paladin. “That was just phase one of my plan.”
“When is phase two?”
“I’m still working on it. But it sure as hell won’t involve Alan—” I scowled. “And when is he going to pick a codename anyway? I’m getting damn tired of saying Alan-fucking-Jackson all the time.”
“I hear he wants to be called The Manimal.”
“Seriously? That’s—”
“Almost as bad as Baron Boner? Yeah.”
I scowled again, but Matthew wasn’t looking my way, his eyes focused on the ceiling as the other Healer rebuilt the bones in his leg.
“What happened to you?” Almost nine months in, and I was no longer convinced Paladin was my arch-nemesis, but part of me was still glad to see he’d gotten his overly pretty ass handed to him.
“Orca happened. I made a mistake and she capitalized.” He shook his blonde head, voice tight with pain and frustration. “It won’t happen again.”
“You sure about that? That’s three in a row.”
“Laugh it up while you can, Skeletor,” he told me. “You’re fighting her next.”
That killed my amusement. One fight left to prove I belonged in Combat, and it was going to be against Nadia, almost as deadly as Alan and twice as fast.
I needed to figure out how to use my power when it actually mattered.
I needed a miracle.
Most of all, I needed help.
CHAPTER 55
“You want me to do what?” Silt folded her arms across her sizable chest and frowned.
“I told you already. I want you to spar with me.” I swung my arms back and forth to get the blood moving. “I know how to fight and I know how to summon my power, but I can’t seem to put the two together. If I’m going to beat Nadia…”
“You’re not going to beat Orca, Boneboy. Not now, not ever.”
I swallowed my protest, knowing she was right. “I need to at least not look totally pathetic against her… and that means using my power in a fight.”
“And me knocking you around is going to help with that?”
“If it doesn’t, I’m kind of fucked.”
Sofia shook her head. “If we take our powers out of the equation, you’re a better fighter than I am. And if you go full-Walker on me, what the fuck am I supposed to do? These legs aren’t made for sprinting.”
“That’s why we’re out here, and not in the Pits.” I’d brought Silt to the clearing behind Bard’s office, the same place where Shane’s memorial service had been held, and where Caleb had smacked me down with a lucky shot. “I want you to use your powers.”
“I’m still not following. I can just have the earth swallow you up to your knees, then go get a tree branch and hit you in the face until you stop moving. What exactly would that accomplish?”
“It would piss off Gladys, if nothing else, but that’s not what I was thinking of either. Did you ever see the vid where Evan Earthquake fought King Rex?”
It took a moment. For all Silt’s mastery of pre-Break pop culture, she was far less knowledgeable when it came to Cape vids, but eventually I saw the light dawn in her eyes.
“Do you think you could manage a smaller version of that?” I asked.
“That’s… a bit advanced for a first-year.”
“It’s that or I ask Jeremiah to help instead.”
“Wouldn’t help,” she muttered. “In his flesh form, you’d kick his ass. In his stone form, he might just kill you.”
That pretty much mirrored my thoughts, which is why I’d sought her out in the first place. “I know, but I don’t have any other options. I don’t want to push you outside your comfort—”
A heavy blow blasted me from behind, picking me up off my feet and tossing me a full five feet past the squat Earthshaker. I spread my arms in front of me as I fell to lessen the impact, and tucked into a roll. When I’d made it back to my feet, I found my attacker standing next to Sofia; a featureless simulacrum of mud and dirt with four roughly hewn limbs.
“It’s okay,” said Silt, her grin wide and wild. “I think I’ve got it figured out.”
•—•—•
Mama Rawlins once described karma as someone doing the shit to you that you did to someone else. Not sure if that’s the official definition. Not sure I even believe in karma, but training with Silt sure felt like some kind of payback for how I’d trained Stonewall.
Only difference was, when Jeremiah and I were training, we’d both gotten tired. We’d both gotten bruised and battered in the process. Silt’s golem didn’t have that problem. It didn’t tire, it didn’t ache, and it sure as fuck didn’t stop.
“I think you almost had something that last time.”
I was bent over with my forearms resting on my thighs, sucking wind, and wondering how I was going to explain to Gladys my latest round of injuries, but I still managed to shoot the Earthshaker a surprised look. “How could you tell?”
“You were moving differently. Less like someone who wanted to puke their balls out.” She spat to the side, and yawned. “Is this really helping?”
“I think so,” I wheezed. “I’m getting the hang of calling my
