The six of them spent the next several minutes arranging the stolen flags on the clothesline so that they blended in with the other towels, sheets and clothing. After that, they huddled around their own violet banner to discuss the plan for the rest of the day.
“I think we should be done with hunting for more banners,” Pahrdh said with a hint of resignation.
“Agreed,” said Rhudedth. “We should stay here and spread out, shooting anyone who comes within a hundred yards of our base camp.”
Jahrra thought this was a good idea as well, but she feared Eydeth had something more sinister up his sleeve.
In the end, they went with Rhudedth’s plan and for the next hour, they managed to scare off the other teams as they shot at them from the cover of the redwood trees and the height of the hill. When Eydeth and Ellysian failed to show up, Jahrra’s nerves started to prickle. She called her teammates back down to talk it through.
“I know they are planning something,” she said, her eyes scanning the shadows.
“Well, what do you propose we do?” Gieaun asked, crossing her arms and arching a brow. “Do you want us all to go out and spy?”
Jahrra opened her mouth to make a retort, but then she thought about Gieaun’s words. “Not to spy,” she said slowly, “but to lure.”
“Huh?” Kihna asked.
“To lure!” Jahrra smiled mischievously and crossed her arms. “I have an idea.”
Jahrra was almost shot five more times as she crept back through the city, searching for any sign of Eydeth’s team. Curse them, where are they?! Dread pooled in her stomach and sweat trickled down her back once again as she imagined that perhaps this had been their plan all along; to make her think they were plotting only to sneak into her camp while she went out looking for them. Jahrra was just about to turn back when an arrow whizzed by her head, a flash of yellow catching her attention as it disappeared into a pile of hay.
Mission accomplished! she thought as she sent a violet arrow towards one of Eydeth’s teammates before turning and running directly back towards camp.
She was winded by the time she reached the top of their hill. She took a few moments to catch her breath before shouting, “Gieaun, Scede! Where are you guys?! Eydeth shot at me and I think he saw me come this way!”
She waited a few moments but was met with nothing but silence. She released a few curses then called out again, trudging back and forth between the redwoods, “Rhudedth, Pahrdh? Kihna? Where are you guys, you were supposed to stay and guard the flag!”
Jahrra turned to face the street below, one hand placed on her hip, the other letting her crossbow hang loosely at her side, as she donned a bewildered look. “Maybe they just left to scout the boundaries,” she mused in a not-so-quiet voice.
In the next moment something hard smacked Jahrra on the side of the face, causing her head to whip to the side and her vision to become clouded with stars. What the . . . ?
She quickly held her hand up to her temple and pulled it away to see if she was bleeding, but the moisture on her fingers wasn’t red, it was yellow.
Hot anger welled up in her stomach as she snapped her head upwards. She scanned the bottom of the hill and was nearly hit again with another bolt. This one managed to graze her hair.
“What are you getting at, Eydeth!?” she shouted angrily. “Head shots don’t count you idiot!”
She moved herself more securely behind the redwood, willing the pounding in her head and the ache in her temple to go away. Her eye was watering and she was livid, but she had to control her temper or Eydeth would get what he wanted.
He casually stepped out from behind the building he was using as cover. Unfortunately, it would still be hard to get a clean shot at him.
He held his crossbow loosely, another yellow-tipped arrow resting and ready to be fired.
“There’s something nasty on your face and I was trying to kill it,” he sniffed.
A torrent of chuckles answered him, all of them coming from the edges of Jahrra’s territory.
She seethed in anger. There would most definitely be a bruise on her face tomorrow. No Jahrra, she thought as she ran the plan through her mind once more, just have patience. Just get him and his cronies to move in a little closer . . .
“Where are your worthless friends?” Eydeth asked. “I heard you calling out for them, but you got no answer. That was pretty stupid. Now do I not only know the location of your base camp, but I know that you have no backup either.”
Despite his assurance that she was alone, Eydeth stepped carefully up the hillside, his head swiveling in every direction as he checked for an ambush.
Jahrra held her breath when he tried to peer into the redwood trees’ branches, but when his gaze returned to her, she let it out slowly. He hadn’t seen them.
“They didn’t leave me here!” she answered haughtily, hoping that her irritation would lead his thoughts in another direction.
“Oh really? Then why were you so angry just a second ago when no one answered? Ha!”
Eydeth relaxed a fraction and Jahrra took advantage of his claim.
“No! They’re hiding just a few feet away, waiting to attack you!”
Sometimes it was good to go with the truth, and this time it paid off. Eydeth threw his head back and laughed, lowering his weapon. “How could they be hiding? You can’t blend in with a wooded hillside when you’re wearing white with bright colors splattered all over it! We would have seen them by now!”
He turned his head and whistled. “You guys can come out, she’s here by herself.”
He turned back to face her, his eyes gleaming with malice as his sister and four of their friends stepped out from behind the buildings and climbed down from farther up the hill.
“You’re dead, Nesnan,” Eydeth breathed as he lifted his crossbow and took aim once again. His teammates followed suit.
“Oh, I don’t think so . . .” Jahrra muttered under her breath. “NOW!” she shouted as she quickly threaded her crossbow through her arm and threw herself into a back handspring.
All of a sudden, the hillside was alive with arrows, their purple and yellow dyed tips marking the ground, the trees and anything else that got in the way. Jahrra managed to get to an oak tree just up the slope with only a few shots to the leg, but Eydeth and his team were faring far worse.
“Where are the arrows coming from?!” he screeched as he searched the trees once again, backing up to take refuge behind the buildings.
Jahrra managed to make it ten feet up into the tree before she stopped and pulled her crossbow off of her arm. She quickly readied an arrow and scanned the forest floor for possible targets, her grin growing wide when she noticed Ellysian retreating back up the hill. She was moving slowly, her eyes searching the redwood trees, so she didn’t see Jahrra following her progress with her own weapon.
Ellysian’s back was to Jahrra, so she took a breath, aimed for a spot between her shoulder blades and . . . lowered her aim to the middle of her back, her lower back . . . When the arrow was lined up with a spot just below Ellysian’s tailbone, Jahrra released the arrow and relished the screech that ensued as the Resai girl went scrambling up the hillside, her backside splattered with dark purple paint. Two more purple smudges decorated her back before she found cover.
Remembering that they had a flag to defend, Jahrra whipped her head around and breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted the purple banner, standing proudly between the two redwoods. She had guessed correctly; their territory was too well defended for anyone to just run in and grab the flag. It wasn’t worth the risk when six people were shooting at them from the trees.