Chapter 38 Weapons

Flash of sword, clash of metal on metal. Smoke in the air. Gun goes off. Drop and roll as Giacomo sidesteps. Jump up behind him, dagger against his throat while holding his arms down. He does a reverse grip trick so that he s holding my arms and spins around, away from my dagger, to try to trap me, but I slide out of his grip like an eel. It gets easier every time. "I didn t know we could do that," Giacomo mutters as we return to hand-to-hand combat. Dmitri is somewhere else in the room; smoke obscures most of it. His job is to simulate a real battle environment. Why we re doing hand-to-hand sword fighting, when now most warfare is done with guns and other explosive things, I don t know, but my all-knowing tutor made it clear that I am not to question his methods. I really just think he s reluctant to give me a gun, either because I ve excelled beyond his expectations in everything he s had me try thus far, or because I m not spectacular at aiming water orbs yet and he