She wondered if she could have avoided him without her cloak.
She had not added any workings to the clothing she wore during her sparring. She wanted to be seen as competent but not outstanding. She wanted to rely on her own abilities.
She hadn’t realized how well Carila had taught her until she’d won almost every session she’d fought.
More than half of the Venyatux in the column were volunteers; learning to fight in daily training.
They were farmers, herders, tradespeople.
Whereas she had been taught by a weapons master, and had practiced what she’d learned every day, even when she’d been imprisoned.
Sybyl had started pairing her with more experienced opponents, some the size of the man attacking her now, and she had lost a few times, but she’d enjoyed the test to her skill.
Since joining the Venyatux, she had never had to work so hard, and in the last two weeks, she knew she was fighting better than she ever had before.
Even without her cloak, she had confidence in her abilities. But with it?
She didn’t think she would go down easily, even against the giant of a man coming after her with deadly intent.
She had layered protection after protection into the heavy brown fabric that swirled around her. Even though she still didn’t know what her attacker had thrown at her, it didn’t seem to matter she hadn’t specifically warded against it—she hadn’t been touched by it.
If she could manage to stay unharmed for long enough to convince these people she was no threat, she might walk away from this.
She hoped.
They were Luc’s family, after all.
“Revek!” The woman who’d drawn the knife on her turned to the man who was picking himself off the ground. “What are you doing?”
He was still on his knees and he blinked at the woman for a moment, as if he didn’t know where he was.
“You try to kill all of Luc’s visitors?” Ava asked in the moment of silence.
The woman turned her attention back to her.
Ava saw her take note that she still had no weapons in her hands.
“While I appreciate you want to protect Luc, you might find it a little difficult to explain how you came to kill his . . . friend . . . when she came looking for him.” She opened her hands for emphasis and held them out, palms up.
The berserker who had attacked her finally found his feet again, and he lunged at her, quiet now. No more shouting, just deadly focus.
He must have drawn a sword while the woman and Ava sized each other up, and he swung it at her head.
She slid down, right leg extended, left knee bent so she sat on her left heel. She shifted her weight to her right foot, propelled herself with her left leg, spinning, so her left foot swept behind her attacker’s knee and he fell. Again.
Silence forgotten, he roared in frustration, and flipped up to his feet, more agile and fit than he looked.
“Avasu!” The shout from behind her made her turn a full rotation to check what was happening around her.
People stood in a circle, and the person who had shouted her name was Venyatux. She vaguely recalled him. One of the soldiers she’d sparred with when she’d first joined the column.
He was grinning, not understanding that this was deadly—not a sparring match at all.
“I’ll take bets, if you’re brave enough,” she heard him taunt the Rising Wave soldiers as she turned back to her attacker. She thought she saw a flash of hesitation in Revek’s expression as he, too, saw she had no weapons, and she took her opportunity.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized she had made a mistake. It was as if a lever had been pulled. There was no other word for the sudden fury that came over him.
He threw his sword to the side and came at her with his bare hands, like a battering ram, but whatever working she’d embedded in her cloak helped her not be there when he grabbed at her.
He would have had her without it. No question.
It made her feel exposed. As if she was giving away clues to her darkest secrets.
Perhaps she should simply run away.
That was the least dangerous for everyone involved.
She could find Luc later, have him introduce her to his lieutenants. There would be some embarrassment, perhaps, but no one would be hurt.
“Revek! Stop!”
She had completely forgotten about the woman, but now she noticed her circling the two of them. The woman looked over her shoulder, hailing someone in the crowd, and Ava heard her tell them to get Luc.
The crowd had grown, she noticed. To run would look weak to everyone here. And she needed to look strong. And for the Venyatux to look strong.
She sighed.
Revek had stumbled when she’d dodged him, but he was facing her again.
“We don’t need to do this. It’s not going to end well, no matter who wins.”
Like before, her words seemed to snap something in him, and he charged again. But this time, when she ducked to the side, her cloak swirling, he managed to get hold of the fabric in a bunched fist and rip it off her.
It seemed to burn him, because he let it go with a cry, and Ava watched as it fluttered to the ground.
Now, she was in trouble.
Talking had so far done nothing but further enrage him, so she kept quiet as the fight became life and death for her.
She began to strike out. There was only so far she could go to not hurt him, while he was trying to kill her, and she had reached that point.
She went for the places Carila had taught her. The throat, the back of the knee, the pressure points; getting in lightning strikes when she could, keeping out of reach when she couldn’t.
She felt the air stir past her sweat-slicked skin as he got better and better at judging her dodges, and then the blinding, white hot pain as he clipped her shoulder when she didn’t dodge fast enough.
She would not last much longer. This man wanted her dead and he hadn’t held back.
She was leaping back from a massive roundhouse swing when Luc stepped between them.
It was so sudden, she almost attacked him, her next move already clear in her mind. One moment she was facing her opponent, the next, Luc stood in front of her, facing Revek.
Revek reared back, as confused as her, and then went still.
“What are you doing, Rev?” Luc asked.
Revek shuddered, a full body vibration, and then rubbed a hand over his eyes. “She said . . .” He looked over Luc’s shoulder at Ava. “She said she didn’t want to hurt me.”
Luc swore softly. “And that was enough to attack her?”
She wondered what was on his face, because the look on Revek’s slowly changed from the red fury of the fight, to the drained gray of defeat.
He turned on his heel and walked away.
Luc turned slowly to face her, his gaze on her face. “Those words are a trigger for him. I’m sorry he attacked you after you said them but—”
“He had just tried to take my head off with a sword when I said it.” Ava was in no mood to hear excuses for his friends. “He was already attacking me.” She turned away, found a wall of people in front of her.
For a moment she just stared blankly at them, chest heaving. Sweat had stuck her short, shorn hair to her forehead and cheeks, and she pushed it back with her arm.
She remembered her cloak and turned back, found Luc had picked it up and was holding it out to her.