Before he or his toadies had any idea she already knew what he was up to, she intercepted his hand, got a firm grasp on the little finger, and twisted her hand quickly to the side and down. Feeling the bone snap, she released his finger before anyone else had any idea that he’d reached for her, much less that she had retaliated against his assault—released it before even his nerves has registered pain. In fact, she wasn’t even sure his toadies understood she’d made a move at all before her part in the little dance was over.

But his high-pitched scream of pain a moment later alerted everyone to the fact that something had just happened.

He staggered backward into the wall, holding his injured hand by the wrist, uttering girlish, inarticulate shrieks at the top of his lungs. Abi saw with a feeling of deep satisfaction that the little finger of his right hand was now bent backward at a right-angle to the rest of his hand. While some of the others paused to gape, she just made her way out of the door and down the hall to the next class as if nothing had happened. By this time, of course, the screaming attracted attention from the hall as well, and more people crowded around the door behind her. By virtue of all the attention her would-be tormentor had attracted, the room she ducked into was virtually empty, and she found a good seat at the front and to the farthest right.

The instructor for this class was already there, and he raised an interrogative eyebrow at her. “I assume you’re Abidela. Aren’t you curious what all the caterwauling is about?” he asked.

“Not really,” she replied with studied indifference, as she willed her heart to slow and her emotions to cool down. “I believe some fool was engaged in horseplay, doing something stupid, and got himself hurt. I’m not a Healer, so it’s none of my business.”

The other eyebrow joined the first as the instructor pondered what she had just said—and the very careful wording. She had not lied. Some fool had done something very stupid, and the result was he’d gotten himself hurt.

Outside in the hall, the screaming faded to a whimper, then to nothing; the other students filed into the classroom. Abi noted that as far as she could tell, the makeup of this class was the same as the last, and as the last of them took his seat, the instructor got down to the business of teaching them geometry.