Free Salene's Secrets by Laura Jo Phillips

everything she had to keep him from getting close enough to stab me with one of his metal legs.  He got me once, but it was a glancing blow thanks to Rayne.”  She fell silent again and Aisling waited patiently.  “I looked around for something to use as a weapon, but there wasn’t anything except the hibernation tanks, which I couldn’t lift, and the small container of gel that I’d collected, which was useless.  I couldn’t join the fight because if I got close enough for him to touch me, he’d transport away with me.  The worst part is that she kept Weeble from stabbing me, but he stabbed her bearenca right through the thigh.  I didn’t realize it was a bad wound at the time, but it was.
    “After a few moments he must have decided to settle for taking Rayne because he activated his transport device and vanished.  Rayne, thank the Creators, was protected from being transported, so instead of taking her with him, she remained in the lab with his arm still in her bearenca’s mouth.”
    Salene fell silent again, then shook her head and looked up, meeting Aisling’s gaze.  “I know there has to have been something I could have done, Aunt Ash.  But I just can’t see it.”
    “You can’t see it because there wasn’t anything you could do, Salene,” Aisling said.  “Attacking this Weeble creature without a weapon, or some way to escape serious injury, death or, in this case, kidnapping and torture, would have been an enormous mistake and on some level you know that.  I don’t think you froze so much as you analyzed the situation, as you just explained, and came to the inescapable conclusion that there was nothing you could do.” 
    Salene shook her head again.  “I left it to Rayne to save me, and it’s not supposed to be that way.  I’m supposed to protect her , not the other way around.”
    “Not in this case,” Aisling insisted.  “Rayne could shift, you couldn’t.  She could self-heal, you can’t.  She had protection against being transported, you didn’t.  If you’d had a weapon, things might have been different, but the fact of the matter is that you didn’t have a weapon.  If you’d jumped in, all you’d have done was get yourself transported, which was the very thing Rayne was fighting to prevent.”
    Salene understood what Aisling was saying, and was forced to admit there was truth and logic in it.  But she still felt as though she should have done something .  Anything.  She raised her head, took a deep breath, and met Aisling’s eyes steadily.  “If I’d had a weapon, if I’d known anything about fighting, I could have at least helped my sister,” she said.  “This is why I want you to train me, Aunt Ash.  Once you do, I will never again go unarmed, but I need more than weapons.  I need to learn how to fight.  Unfortunately, as you know, I have none of Tani’s agility, or Rayne’s grace.  But there has to be a way for me to defend myself and protect others without having to fold myself into a pretzel or do a triple flip six feet into the air.”
    “It’s true that the only person you’ll hurt while trying to do tiketa is yourself,” Aisling said with a wry smile.  “But you’ve got excellent reflexes, natural accuracy, and a lot of strength for your size.  You’re also a quick study, so I’ve no doubt at all that I can teach you what you need to know.  But, as far as I’m aware, you haven’t touched a weapon since before going to college, and even then it wasn’t for self-defense.  That means you’re going to have to work awfully hard for the next few weeks.”
    “That’s fine with me,” Salene said.  “In fact, the harder, the better.”
    “Good girl,” Aisling said.  “Let’s get busy.”
    ***
    Self-defense training with Aisling Gryphon was the most physically demanding thing Salene had ever done.  Fortunately for her, she’d expected as much.  She pushed herself to the limit in a single minded attempt to learn everything