Page 39 of Vistaria Has Fallen

She knew what to do now. She squeezed the leather above the buckle around Duardo’s wrist. Imitating Nick’s controlled movements, she transferred her weight from her left hand in Nick’s to the leather belt. Nick released her hand. She let herself down, hooked her arm over Duardo’sshoulder, then let go of the leather. With mental apologies to Duardo, she hooked her right hand into the band of his jeans and let herself down. She wrapped her left arm around one thigh and let herself slither down until she had her arms about Duardo’s calf.

She looked up. Nick’s face was marred by fierce concentration. On the branch where she had been clinging like a burr, Pietro sat straddled.Another man...Jose, she thought, sat right behind him. A third sat on the main branch and a fourth behind him.

“Okay!” she called. “Quickly!”

Nick had both hands around the leather now. Straining, he pushed with his arms. The tiny movement traveled down to her and translated into a miniscule sideways motion. Nick kept up the effort, pushing and releasing, pushing and releasing, until the arcof her swing grew wider and wider. Gravity added its effect.

“Watch the ground,” Nick said.

She twisted her head around. With each inward swing of the arc she moved closer and closer to the ground. A few more inches and she would be able to put her foot on the ground.

“Find something you can grab!” Nick called.

She looked and saw one of the emerging tree roots had formed a big loop. Therewas nothing else but raw earth and rocks. “I see it!” she called back.

“When you’re ready, grab it and keep hold of Duardo!”

She swung outward, swooping across the valley. She didn’t look down. Instead, she watched the loop of tree root come rushing toward her. She imagined grabbing it.

Now. She reached out, snagged the root with her hands. It was cool and grubby. It held.

She thrust out herfoot and dug for a foothold as the pendulum motion tried to take her backward. The strain transferred to her shoulder, although it was minimal compared to the pull from holding Duardo’s full weight. She still hugged Duardo’s leg to her, only now she stood anchored to the ground, a bare six feet from the top of the cliff. Those six feet were vertical, unstable earth.

Distantly she heard the menon the trunk clapping and cheering. She hooked her leg through the root.

Nick hung patiently, his arms outstretched. “Ready?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“As Duardo is lowered, take a better hold of him, so he doesn’t roll down the valley.”

“Okay.”

Nick rolled his head up. “Listo?” he asked Pietro.

“Sí!”

“Ahora!”Nick shouted. He let go of the leather with his left hand and flexed, rolling up. Hethrust his hand toward Pietro, who clamped both hands around Nick’s wrist.

The tug on Duardo’s leg came. Calli, forewarned, hung on.

“Obtuvolo!”Pietro declared triumphantly.

Got you, Calli guessed.

Nick and Pietro adjusted their grip, so that each had their fingers gripped around the other’s wrist. Pietro reached over to grip the man next to him in the same way. In turn, the man reached tothe one next to him and so on along the tree.

Nick looked down at her. “I’m going to drop and Duardo will too.” He unhooked one leg and pushed with his boot against the branch to release the other. Only he didn’t drop like a stone. He rolled. Duardo’s body sank toward the ground. Calli hauled on him, bringing him to the ground close by her, again gripping the band of his jeans and hanging ongrimly.

Pietro did the same as Nick, letting himself fall off the branch in a controlled motion and now the two of them hung in the air, a human chain. The third man, Jose, slipped off the tree and Nick dangled closer to her. Duardo had reached the ground. She pulled him up and thrust her leg in front of him so he would not roll. That left her hands free. She reached up and caught Nick’s legand hauled him sideways, toward the high ground. A fourth man slipped off the tree. Nick stepped beside her.

He gave a shout. The chain of men on the trunk moved back to the base of the tree, toward the cliff and the broken tiles. As they moved, Nick reeled Pietro in so he could stand. Then Jose.

Finally, a chain of men stood along the cliff, up onto the tree base. The men on the tree climbedoff and lay down on their stomachs on the edges. They reached down with their hands.

Nick hooked his own leg around the same root Calli used as an anchor. He bent down and with another flex of muscles, picked Duardo up in a fireman’s lift. He looked up above him. “Listo?”

“Sí.”