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realized Nori was fighting left-handed as well.
    "If you can, push," I said quietly, "let me get a sword and I'll help guard Nori's flank." With my left hand out of commission, I was better with a sword in my right hand than trying to use a staff one-handed.
    Malora fended off an attack and blocked an attack meant for Nori, then she yelled, "Push!" and our opponents fell back even before she and Nori could move forward. They filled the ground, and I bent down to grab a discarded sword, dropping my staff, then rolled behind Malora and Nori to come up on Nori's right side.
    "I'll do what I can," I whispered, "but don't count on me for too much."
    "Defensive only," Nori said. "Fall back from any concerted attacks."
    Thirty seconds later, the fight was over.
    I stared around at the "b odies", my heart still pounding, and then Malora was behind me, lowering me to the ground, my back against the whipping post.
    "You've got to stop doing this," she said.
    I turned my head to face her, feeling numb, unable to think clearly. A moment later, Bea was there with a mug of water. Malora held it for me and I drank when she ordered me to.
    "Did I faint again?" I asked.
    "You went white and your knees started to buckle," Malora explained. "Feeling better?"
    I nodded.
    "Help me stand her up, Bea," Malora said. Together, one on either side of me, they helped me to my feet. I wavered a bit, but then I was fine.
    "We're going to go dissect what happened," Malora said. "But no one wants to sit in the dirt."
    They led me over to the grass, the other Amazons watching me closely. Then they lowered me to a seat next to Lidi. I turned to her.
    "How's your ankle?"
    "Stiff. I'm going to soak it in the river as soon as we're done."
    I looked over at Malora, who was sitting next to me. "Swim."
    She smiled. "Absolutely."
    Nori herded the remaining Amazons over and soon we were all sitting in a circle.
    "What went right? What went wrong?"
    "I'd say my sister fainting went wrong," Beria said. She looked at me with concern.
    "It happens," Clara said in my defense. "I still get sick after a demon fight."
    "What's important is she waits until the fight is over," said Nori. But then she looked at me firmly. "However, if there were more enemies waiting, or another emergency, it would be nice to count on you afterwards."
    "I'm not doing it on purpose!"
    "Consider going to one knee for a few seconds after the fight until your heart calms down," she suggested.
    I nodded understanding.
    "Maya doesn't know how to use a whip," Clara said, looking at my fiercely.
    "I'd say she made good use of a weapon she doesn't know how to use," Nori replied. "Why is that?"
    "Because she psyched us out," Aura said. "Much to my chagrin. We should have known better. There's no way Maya has ever practiced with a whip before. We'd have seen it. But she looked like she knew what she was doing."
    "And she did get it to crack," Lidi said. "Poorly, but the crack of a whip is intimidating, and when you couple it with Nori, it can be disheartening."
    "She didn't actually do anything with the whip," Jasmine said, "but startle us."
    "If she managed to startle highly-trained Amazons," said Malora, "that says a lot."
    "It was Nori that did the real damage," Beria said. "But Maya served as a distraction."
    "That was the idea," I said. "Nori called the targets. I wasn't even trying to hit any of you because I don't know how, but I was pretty sure I could shake you up."
    "Were we supposed to ignore her?" Beria asked.
    "Probably not," Nori said. "But advancing slowly gave us opportunity we wouldn't have had if you had come at us more quickly. There is no reason to hold back and let longer weapons disrupt you like that. You should have waited outside whip range and then moved quickly through it and engaged."
    "Yes, because I want to run into Malora's swords," said Vorine. "Our only chance is if we work together. We don't practice this enough. Demon fights aren't like this."
    "Bandit fights are. Today we