Page 34 of The Lost Art of Revealing Hidden Truths (The Lost Arts #3)
Chapter Fifteen
B rannal didn’t even let him get the thought out there.
“Training exercise first,” he said sternly.
“There is no chance that we’re going to pack up and lose track of the time, go off on a nature walk and lose track of the time, or swim one more time and lose track of the time.
Training exercise, and then I will turn you all loose until it’s time to leave. That is my final offer.”
Molun let out a heartfelt sigh, but the rest of them laughed.
“What are we doing?” Nisal asked.
Brannal gestured. “Out in the forest, there are two ribbons, one hidden by Perian, and one hidden by me. It will be the job of our two teams to try to find the opposing team’s ribbon first and bring it back here.”
“Wait, wait,” Molun said, flinging up his hand. “Hold on. Do you mean to tell me you were hiding ribbons yesterday?”
“Isn’t he sneaky?” Perian said proudly.
Molun blew out a breath. “Or crazy. I would have been having sex with you.”
Thankfully, the whole group seemed to know how to take that, and they laughed .
“Thank you,” Perian said, grinning. “But we can have sex back at the castle, right? When do we get to chase through the forest looking for ribbons?”
Molun seemed to be struck by this, and after a moment, he nodded. “Yes, all right, I concede your point. As long as the day ends in sex.”
“ After the training,” Brannal reminded them, looking a bit like he couldn’t quite believe this was something he had to repeat so often. He continued, “Perian and I will obviously be on separate teams, since we each know where our ribbon is.”
“I want Perian,” Molun announced immediately.
Perian looked at him with a bit of surprise, because strategically, this wasn’t a very good bet. If you were picking between Summus and the person with no elemental ability at all, Perian knew who you were supposed to choose. But Molun looked staunchly determined.
“Summus,” Delana said immediately, because she was sensible like that.
Arvus and Nisal exchanged looks and shrugged.
Arvus said, “We seem to be splitting up the couples?”
They nodded, and so Arvus went with Delana and Brannal, and Nisal was with Molun and Perian.
Molun looked genuinely excited about the whole thing, and that made Perian smile.
“I realize our teams are not precisely even when it comes to elemental abilities,” Brannal said, “so I will restrict myself to air only.”
Perian nodded. That was probably the closest they could get under the circumstances. His team doubled up on air, but Molun could wield water too, while the other team would have earth, air, and water.
“The goal,” Brannal continued, “is to find the other team’s ribbon and get it back here to the fire first. It’s up to you as a team to decide if you wish to defend your ribbon, find the other ribbon, or attempt to do both. Each ribbon is tied to a tree at about eye height. We didn’t obscure it.”
“And what can we do with the elements?” Delana asked.
“Nothing that will cause irreparable harm to the forest, and, needless to say, nothing that would injure your opponents, but you can work to block or slow down your opponents as you see fit—with one exception.”
They all looked at him.
“Since Perian can’t wield any elements of his own, none can be used against him. You use an element on Perian, and you’re out of the game.”
Delana opened her mouth, and Perian thought she was going to object, but after a moment, she just closed it again and nodded.
Perian was pretty sure this was back to Brannal being protective of him. And maybe remembering when everything had gone wrong during the training exercise where Cormal had injured him.
Molun flung an arm over him. “See, I knew you were the right pick for our team. You’re our secret weapon!”
“That’s a really nice sentiment,” Perian said, “but I would like to point out that you’re all Mage Warriors, and I’m definitely not.”
Still, it was a nice way to keep Perian from feeling totally useless. Brannal’s original plan, Perian remembered, had been for him to sit out. But Perian had wanted to be involved, and Brannal had decided how that could be done while minimizing the risk to him.
Molun was practically bouncing with glee, and Perian had to admit that he was feeling much the same way. Nisal looked a lot more contained, but remembering the way they’d quietly won yesterday, Perian was not discounting them by any means.
He looked at his opponents. They were fierce, too.
He’d thought before that he wouldn’t want to be up against Delana.
Arvus was that quiet one you wouldn’t suspect, and then he’d pull the ground out from under your feet—and this whole idea had been Brannal’s.
Even limiting himself to one element, he was still a formidable opponent.
This really was an adventure.
“If neither team has won by noon, then we’re declaring a draw,” Brannal said.
“You can’t move your ribbon unless it’s first been found by the opposing team.
You can’t carry your own ribbon with you.
Once it’s been taken by the opposing team, one person from the team has to carry it in their hand.
That ribbon can be stolen back, and if it is, you have five minutes to retie it elsewhere in the forest. If you do find your opponent’s ribbon, the entire team together must get it back to the fire pit before noon to be declared the winner. ”
“And what do they win?” Molun asked.
“Eternal glory?” Brannal suggested.
Molun made a scoffing noise. “Not good enough. The winning team…”
“Does not get to watch the losing team put on a show,” Brannal said promptly .
Molun and Perian burst into laughter, with Molun trying to protest, “I wasn’t going to say that. I wasn’t.”
“Good thing,” Delana said. “You’re saving yourself a lot of pain.”
Still laughing, Perian said, “What if the winners don’t have to do the packing up?”
“Yes!” Molun gleefully seized on this. “The losers have to pack everything!”
Brannal, still looking amused, conceded, “Fine. The winners don’t have to do any packing.”
“And get eternal glory,” Molun added.
“And that,” Brannal agreed. “Is everyone ready?”
“Nope,” Perian said. “Hold on.”
He ducked into his tent, scrambled through his bag and made sure that it was packed with salve and tonics. He reemerged and showed everyone what he was bringing.
“We aren’t going to need those,” Molun protested. “We’re not going to get hurt.”
“Then it won’t matter if I bring them or not,” Perian said.
“I’m the one without any ability to control the elements, but I can do this, all right?
This is my way of helping.” He looked at the other team.
“If you get hurt, you just yell for me, and I’ll come help you, too, all right?
But if you ambush me, I’m going to shove the bottle down your throat. ”
They all laughed, thankfully.
“No cheating,” Brannal agreed, before smiling at Perian. “And you’re useful whether you bring medicine with you or not.”
He sounded very sincere when he said it, and Perian smiled fondly at him and slung his bag over his shoulder.
He felt more useful this way, even if he knew it was unlikely anything would happen.
Brannal had already told them they couldn’t hurt one another.
They were competitive, but hurting your friends in the middle of the forest was just a dumb idea.
Still, it was the middle of the forest, and it was possible, even if unlikely, that someone was going to turn an ankle or something.
Things happened in training all the time, and if Perian were on an outing like this for real (was he practicing for the winter inspection, trying to show that he did have added value?), then this was exactly the sort of thing he would do.
“On your mark,” Brannal said. “Get set. Go.”
They all jogged off into the forest, Molun calling taunts at the others because of course he did, and Delana calling back, because she wasn’t the type to let that sort of thing slide.
Perian and Brannal were in the lead, and they soon led their teams in opposite directions, because each group needed to strategize.
They crouched down and huddled to make extra sure they wouldn’t be overheard.
Perian explained as best he could where he’d put their ribbon and the parameters around it, sure that Brannal was doing the same with the other team.
“So we can both guess the direction that the other person went, but we can’t be sure if the other one doubled back or tried to do a fake out by placing the ribbon closer and hoping we would pass it.
We could go straight to it with a goal of protecting it, but it’s possible that would just lead the other team to it. How is everyone at tracking?”
Molun pointed at Nisal, “They’re very quiet.”
Nisal smiled. “I won’t be able to find the ribbon based on where Brannal walked yesterday, if that’s what you mean. I could probably follow the team today, but they might well suspect that, and with earth, water, and air, they could probably catch me.”
“Better to keep our distance, then?” Perian wanted to know. “Try to defend our ribbon from all comers?”
“Well,” Molun said, “with Brannal restricting himself, I can create the strongest shield. They could still get through it, but less quickly. And we’ve still got Nisal, who could be blowing them away, too.
Arvus is restricted in that he can’t do any real harm, so he’s probably not just going to make a gaping hole in the earth below us. ”
Perian’s eyes went wide. “He can do that?”
Molun smiled proudly, seeming to forget for a moment that he was on the opposing team. “He sure can. But he probably won’t, for this. So we could probably defend it pretty well, but although that would keep the other team from winning, it doesn’t get us any closer to winning, either.”
“Oh,” Perian said, realizing. “That would just be a draw, and then all the losers have to pack everything up.”
“Right,” Molun said with a pout. “What would be the fun of that?”
“You want to go after their ribbon,” Perian said.