Partisan - Book II

Tie Up the Loose Ends

Tara and Allayria stumble between them, shunting both men back onto the grass, but Hiran is laughing, which only seems to make the splotchy-red on Lei's face darken.

"You idiot," he spits, shoulders shoving against Allayria's weight.

"No, no, it's okay," Hiran is saying, holding his hands up to Tara. "I deserved it. You can let me up, Tar, it's fine."

She looks doubtful, and Allayria throws her weight against Lei, sending him sprawling back on the ground.

"Get off me," he snaps, struggling. "Get off me right now, Allayria, I swear to the Gods—"

"Calm down, it's fine," she pants, already feeling the bruises form on her side. He's inadvertently hitting them as he struggles beneath her and she's considering a well-placed head butt to get him to knock it off. "Everyone's fine."

"He could have killed you—"

"And he didn't, thanks to your quick thinking," she says, and then she drops her voice and adds: "You haven't failed your 'direct imperative' yet, so cool it, Captain. Tara's not throwing punches because Hiran almost died."

The prod seems to bring him to his senses; he stops fighting her, though he's still taut like a bow. Allayria rolls off him and he sits up, still glaring over at the other Nature-caller.

"Mea culpa," Hiran says with an incline of his head. "My deepest apologies, Allayria."

"Don't worry about it," she says briskly, climbing to her feet with a grimace. "We knew there was a chance that would happen. And we all got out okay."

"Round two, then?" Tara asks, her gaze still locked on Lei.

"Certainly," Allayria answers. "Maybe we should rethink our approach though. I don't fancy a second jungle swing."

"Oh, that's not going to happen," Hiran interjects and he gestures for them to follow him. "You did all the heavy lifting; it's only fair that I take on the retrieval work for the next one. I wouldn't want this to be an unequal partnership."

You mean you wouldn't want Lei and I to have possession of both items, Allayria thinks shrewdly, sparing a half glance at the statue held firmly in Lei's hand. Any worries she had that he might nobly, stupidly hand it over before their statue was retrieved are long gone now.

Hiran leads them to the next outcrop and out in the center Allayria spies their periwinkle-colored haunting pillar, in all its miniature glory. Feeling that she will be happy if this is the last time she ever sees one of these things again, she plops down on the ground and stretches her legs out.

"So, what are our brilliant ideas this time?" she asks.

She hears a thud next to her and turns to see that Tara has followed her lead.

"That vine trick did the job pretty well," the Beast-caller says, pulling her right foot close so she can massage the arch of it. "Maybe we don't need to get the person in the range of fire—if we can get close enough but still outside of the firing range we can trip the system and then pull it out with the vine."

"Can't we just knock the thing off?" Lei asks pointedly, but Hiran shakes his head.

"Already tried that," he informs them. "The distance between here and the pillar is too great: a boulder shoots up on the opposite side and contains it."

"What if the bird got it?" Allayria asks. "We three will send in attacks from three directions, feint like we're going to grab it, and your bird swoops in from the top, snatching it while the boulders are busy with us."