ears alert.
The sound of fifty bodies hitting the floor at once was sharp and clean.
A girl near the front whispered, “No way.”
My mother raised her right hand.
“Down.”
Every dog dropped.
“Hold.”
They became statues.
Not one paw shifted.
Not one tail wagged.
Even Titan beside me lowered himself automatically, though my mother had not looked at him.
I felt a strange heat behind my eyes.
Not because I was proud, though I was.
But because less than ten minutes earlier, two hundred students had laughed at the idea that this woman could belong to the world she had mastered.
Now the whole room was watching that world kneel to her voice.
Lieutenant Carter swallowed.
“It’s impressive,” he said. “But canine handling is not proof of special warfare qualification.”
My mother slowly turned.
A murmur passed through the crowd.
Even some of the students seemed to understand
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