Free Impossible Things by Kate Johnson

idea.’
    Ishtaer breathed in.
    ‘Ah,’ said Kael. ‘Yes, that’s the other thing.’
    ‘She can’t,’ said Killen.
    Madam Julia’s hand went under Ishtaer’s chin and forced it up. Ishtaer opened her eyes fully; there was no point hiding now.
    Scipius swore. Ishtaer felt the breeze of the Healer’s hand waving back and forth. ‘You’re blind,’ Madam Julia said sharply.
    ‘No,’ Ishtaer said, surprising herself. ‘I just can’t see.’
    ‘Isn’t that what blindness is, girl?’ Sir Flavius asked.
    ‘There’s nothing wrong with her eyes,’ Kael explained as Madam Julia poked at her eyelids. ‘Karnos has examined them over and over. No injury, no cataract, she wasn’t born this way. We were rather hoping someone here might be able to shed light on it.’
    Madam Julia sounded thoughtful. ‘It’s not my field,’ she said. ‘I’m sure I can find someone who specialises. It will make it harder to teach you, Ishtaer,’ she added, as if Ishtaer had done it on purpose.
    ‘And impossible for me,’ said Sir Scipius. ‘Even if that mark is real.’
    ‘It is,’ said Killen, but Sir Scipius came striding over to take her arm in his hands. She felt his breath on her skin as he peered close, and fought revulsion.
    Kael muttered something under his breath, then said aloud, ‘We’re wasting time here. Your sword, sir.’
    Sir Scipius dropped her arm. ‘You can’t mean—’
    ‘A demonstration, yes. And if she’s hurt, well then. What better way to demonstrate her healing abilities?’
    Killen laughed softly. After a moment, she heard the silken glide of a sword being withdrawn from its scabbard, and then the hilt of it was pressed into her right hand.
    It was a serviceable weapon, she decided, not fancy with crystals and carvings, like Lord Krull’s. This one was shorter than the practice swords she’d used on the ship, it had leather binding the handle and no cross guard, but it was light and felt secure in her hand.
    She unfastened her cloak and laid it over her chair.
    ‘You’ve given her a gladius against your longsword?’ Sir Flavius said doubtfully. ‘Is that fair?’
    ‘No,’ the warlord said, and swung at Ishtaer.
    Her arm flew up across her body and the short sword pushed him back, steel sliding against steel. He whirled the longsword in an arc above his head and came at her again, from the left this time, the sword slicing upwards. Ishtaer chopped down and was rewarded with the clash of steel on steel again.
    ‘But—’ Sir Scipius murmured.
    Krull’s sword slid up along hers, up and to the right, and she pushed back in the same direction until he’d swung away, and this time he chopped down at her.
    Use the momentum
, she thought, and drove the point of his sword to the ground. Then she lifted her weapon and jabbed sharply forward, the blade an extension of her arm.
    Someone sucked in a sharp breath, and she remembered too late that this was a real sword, not a practice wooden dummy, and that Kael hadn’t dressed in padded practice armour as he had on the ship. She faltered, halted her thrust, and the warlord let out a short, harsh laugh as he swept the flat of his sword against her arm, slicing through her sleeve and the skin of her inner arm.
    The gladius clattered to the ground and Ishtaer clutched at her arm, feeling hot blood seep through.
    For a moment no one moved, no one spoke, and then Kael said, ‘Now would be a prime time to demonstrate your healing abilities, lass.’
    Madam Julia
tsked
and pushed Ishtaer to her seat. ‘A small cut would suffice.’
    ‘That is a small cut.’ Kael sounded disinterested.
    ‘I meant a little slice of the finger! Not a – oh dear, that’s bleeding quite a lot, Ishtaer. Do you know how to slow the blood?’
    She nodded, covering the wound and willing the flow of blood to cease. That was what Karnos had told her on the ship. ‘You just have to tell it what to do, kid. That’s the only way I can describe it.’
    ‘And knit the