Slowly, her eyes opened, though the cringe about her eyes stayed determinedly in place. She nodded.
“Good. Now I have you pinned—what do you do now?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice came out in a squeak.
A squeak he didn’t like. He liked it when her voice was strong. Determined.
“What weapons do you have?
“None, you have my arm pinned against the wall.” She lifted her left forearm. “And I can’t move my other arm.”
“You have two knees, Ness. You have heels. All of those work just fine.” He leaned down, his face directly in front of hers, his look intense. “Your first move is to slam a knee up into my ballocks. Your next move is to crash your heel down on my instep. Hobble me. I will drop your arm.”
“But that—that’s underhanded.”
“Underhanded saves lives. There’s no politeness when it comes to your life, you understand?Stay alive.”
“I—I—”
Without another word, she rammed her knee up into his groin and then slammed her heel down onto his boot. Silent and vicious and just what he wanted from her.
He doubled over, spinning away, his hands dropping from her as instant pain swept his body.
He looked up to find her face horrified, her hand over her mouth as she watched him. He shook his head. “Shit, that hurt. But I’m still coming for you—look around, what else do you have?”
She glanced around for less than a second and then shook her head.
“Open your eyes, Ness. The decanter to your right—smash it over my head, hold onto the neck of the glass and then cut me with the raw edge that’s left. Or grab a book, throw it into my face, slam it into my temple. You use anything you can get a hand on.”
“But—but I don’t want to wreck your things.”
His hands on his knees, he grunted as he pushed himself upright enough to look her in the eye. “You’re learning survival, stop worrying about my damn possessions.”
A breath and he charged forward ready to pin her to the wall again. Her leg instantly flew up into his ballocks. Fine reward. A lamp smashed across the side of his head in the next second.
Bent over, he staggered three steps to the left, his brain stunned, not able to catch his balance.
She rushed forward, her right hand grabbing onto his shoulder, trying to steady him. “Oh, Talen—no—I’m sorry, so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
His hand flew up to her. “Don’t be sorry. Good—that was good.” He paused, tilting his head to the left and then to the right as he tried to still his brain in his skull. His left eye squinted closed and he glanced up at her with his right eye. “That would have given you enough time to run. Remember, you’re never going to beat someone my size one-on-one. You fight like hell and then you run. Run and hide or run until you can get help. You understand? You understand now?”
Her hand tightened on his shoulder as though she wasn’t sure if he would fall if she let him go. “I do. I wish I were bigger, stronger than I am, but I’m not. You’re telling me what reality is, and how I can bend it to serve me if only I accept it.”
With a deep heave of air into his lungs, he pushed himself upright. There would be shards of pain in his groin area for a stretch of time, but he’d hobbled through worse. He looked down at her, pleased she’d grasped what he was telling her so quickly. “Exactly.”
Her eyes lifted to him, the gold streaks of her irises sparking, so vivid with pulsing fire that it nearly reached out, consuming him.
No. Eyes like that were dangerous. No good could come of it.
He tore his stare off her, looking at the windows at the end of the room. “You can’t be bigger than you are, but you can be stronger.”
“I can?”
“We can all be stronger.” He stepped gingerly toward the bookcase filling the wall to the left of the fireplace. His eyes searching the shelves, he took his time in plucking an assortment of tomes from the bookcase. “To that end, I’m bringing you back to your room with a nice stack of books.”
She moved next to him and neatly set the books on top of each other in a straight pile. “You’re taking pity on me in that room with nothing to do?”
He gave her a sideways glance. “No, the books are for lifting. You need to get stronger. You’re to balance these along your right arm and lift them, up and down, as many as you can do at a time. Then add another one. Then do the same thing with your legs. Lie down and balance them on your shins, lower and lift them. All of that will strengthen your muscles. If you were one of my men I would have you swinging an ax to chop wood, or pulling a stubborn ox along the road, or hauling carts of coal. But you’re stuck in a room with little to stress your muscles.”