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"Your Web page inforested that you were ‘unrated in swordplay’ Today we shall rate you"

That sounded ominous I said, "I’ sword at all Only short swords, fourteen-inch vampire-killers So can we skip this?"

"No"

That was short and sweet

"This is the proper way to hold a long sword," Gee DiMercy said "Feet thus, spine thus, knees and sword thusly"

I walked closer, out of sword range, but close enough to study his weight distribution and the exact position of his feet I copied his posture And felt like an idiot The sas too long, too unwieldy AndI held up a hand like a traffic cop to tell him to stop and kicked off the boots, pulled off the jacket and the pants, trying not to notice the reactions of the others as I did so The sudden silence The sound of a slow breath taken nearby It ht have been Leo but I didn’t look to see I didn’t even look at Eli when he appeared at ht to have hi there in bare feet, a long length of tight black spandex, and a sword I rolled ave ed, but shorter, with a groove on the back of the blade for hooking an opponent’s weapon and pulling it away This s the heft and balance of a vae, his scent acrid and harsh, like rose thorns, but I didn’t look at hi to find the balance of the weapons Though they were of differing lengths, they were of sihts, so the balance that my mind insisted was not there, was actually present

"You will begin lessons in La Destreza, also known as the Spanish Circle," Gee said He spun his sword in a slow circle around hiht, always in an arc, the blade sketching and encoe of death anywhere his weapon reached And then he sped it up The blade ht all around hiht by the Obi-Wan of steel blades Despite onna hate it or love it

"The books of history and books of teaching were incorrect," he said, his body not tensing or pausing "There is nothing stiff or static about La Destreza It is fluid, smooth, like the floater or oil across an object I will teach you the forms You will practice Many,by the Enforcers of our visitors You will be expected to comport yourself well on the field of battle"

"Okay So I’ve got, like, three months to learn what the rest of them will have studied for centuries" I handed the short blade back to Leo I figured one at a time was smart, and the unfamiliar one first was smarter "What are the rules?"

"Other than proper etiquette, there are few rules," Gee said, his blade slowing "One h two is es are to first blood, though some few are to true-death Deception and duplicity are looked upon with approval, as La Destreza--as the Mithrans practice it--is as ht as I watched hih the circling blade "Cheating is acceptable"

"Indeed Oneknife and flipped it at hi at The steel blade ehtly left of where a human’s heart would be If he had a heart

Just like the last tiht sparkled out, downy blue ht and texture A blast of heat followed, stinking of cauterized blood and burned evergreen Charred jasmine Unlike the last time I stabbed his unfurled I didn’t get a glimpse of a dark-sapphire-feathered beast with cri at wing tips and feet His blood, trapped by the cloth of his gi, didn’t splatter like liquid flowers, perfuround No sparks shot up where the blossoms landed There was none of that But the air around his body flashed a faint shade of blue for a splinteredso closely, I would have missed it

The mist retreated, fast as a flinch, and the punch of power snapped at h I was farther away this ti the reaction I felt/heard a sharp, sizzling hiss If he’d been hu else entirely Whatever he was, the layers of glaatively to steel He had been expecting otten

"First blood Cheating With two blades," I said "Like that?"

"First blood to the Enforcer," Leo said, his voice co from the side, where the spectators sat, ay fit within the parameters of the rules of etiquette?"

Gee pulled the weapon from his flesh and his padded suit With a flick of his wrist, he sent it back to otten stuck Instead, I batted the flying claw out of the air and down to the ground With the new blade Gee chortled, delighted "Excellent You will learn quickly, onna learn how to fight with swords And I didn’t knohether Gee’s or not oddess or not Either way, I was so in trouble

Behind , I said, "I’ll kick your butt for that one, Eli"

"You can try," lad I’onna be sore"

• • •

I was taught the positions for e I was not taught how to parry, which I guessed was a move for wusses And once I halfway had the basic moves in my mind, if not in my muscle memory, I was slapped half to death with the flat, beat with the dulled edge, and stuck with the point of Gee’s sword I was disarmed, tripped, elbowed, tapped nuut froht blows and shallow cuts that would have killed me had they been delivered with any intent Gee made me pay for first blood with a host of bruises and a little blood when I turned wrong and his short sword caught my arm Skinwalker blood added to the vamp stench of the room Once upon a time that had bothered me A lot Now I had no reaction at all to the smell of my blood in a room full of vamps