Amazon Companion (25 page)

"Very well," I said. "Come and get me."

The moment she began moving towards me, I splashed water into her eyes, knowing she would close them, and then I slipped under the water. I found her legs thrashing madly around, and I knew I could easily tire her out. I tugged her under then swam away, surfacing a ways away.

She spun to face me, swimming madly, inefficiently after me. I swam her in circles, letting her tire herself out.

"Stop and fight!" she snarled.

"You fight your way. I fight mine."

But I let her get closer, and when she was slightly outside lunging distance, I splashed in her face again. She was ready this time and shielded her eyes, then lowered her hand, not expecting the second splash. I caught her straight in the eyes then ducked under her, swam behind her, then came up silently behind her, shoving her down with hands on her shoulders, then further down with my feet, pushing myself away from her before she could react. In case she tried to come after me before surfacing, I swam away, keeping at least a half breath of air at all times, but she came up where she went down, sputtering.

I moved closer while she was still sputtering, before she had fully recovered, and I pushed her under again. She tried to grab me, but I squirmed away, avoiding her fingers. She came up sputtering again. I immediately ducked under myself, dropping deep, then grabbed her legs and pulled. She came down into the water, and I climbed up her body, pushing away as I pushed her deep, then I waited, watching to be sure she was okay.

She struggled, but then she came back to the surface, and I swam away a little, surfacing at the same time, watching her. She coughed out water and turned to face me.

"Stay and fight," she said, but she was panting at me.

"I would, but I don't know what moves you can do,
Omie."

"Stay and find out."

"I'm right here," I said. "Catch me."

"This isn't wrestling! Stay and fight."

I smiled. "In a fight, are there no times you retreat to maintain the best ground?"

She began swimming after me, and I let her swim around a little. Her inefficient swimming was tiring her out, although I thought it would take far longer than I wanted if I hoped to win through her exhaustion.

I splashed her, and she buried her face in the water to watch me, but instead of ducking under, I launched myself at her, pressing down on her head, and began climbing on top of her. It may have been a mistake, but she hadn't taken a large breath, and I thought I could handle whatever she did longer than she could stay under water.

I climbed all the way over her back, pushing her down with my legs, and when she tried to surface, I wrapped my legs around her, directly under her arms, and my arms around her neck, and I held her under, my own weight too much for her to break the surface.

She grabbed me, of course, but her first attempt required her to have leverage she didn't have.

Fifteen heartbeats had elapsed.

She took a different hold, grabbing one of my feet and twisting, but all that happened is we thrashed around in the water.

Twenty heartbeats.

Then she found something that hurt, and she began applying pressure.

Twenty-five
.

I gasped from the pain.

Thirty.

She tightened her hold, and it was
excruciating.

Thirty-five
.

That was a long time to be down without air, and she hadn't been prepared. I was impressed she wasn't in a panic.

She pulsed her grip, each pulse hurting, and I screamed into the water.

But I didn't release her, and then she released the pressure on my foot and was tapping.

I pulled her to the surface, rolled her onto her back as she gasped, sputtering, and held her there, both of us breathing hard.

"Didn't it hurt?" she asked.

"It hurt a great deal," I replied. "But you promised not to damage me. You were against a time limit. Good match?"

"Yeah," she said. "Good match."

"Need a tow to shore?"

"No, but thank you."

I released her, and she paddled slowly to shore.

"Do you need a break, Maya?" Nori called.

"Who is next?"

"Bea."

"Bea, can you swim?"

"Yes."

"Any time, I'll wait here." I floated gently, my arms away from my sides, but I watched Bea. She dived in, making a splash, and as she approached, I could see she swam at least as well as Nori. But with Bea, I wasn't worried about any fancy holds.

I watched her approach, and she tried my own trick, splashing water at me and ducking under. I put my face in the water, and she appeared out of the murk, heading for my feet. I pulled them up, scissored my feet into the air, and dived down into the water, straight for Bea, but she didn't see me, and I latched onto her back, wrapping legs around her middle and grabbing her arms, pulling them above her head and backwards.

She began looking around frantically and tried to pull her arms from my grasp, but I latched my legs tightly and held on. We bobbed to the surface from our own buoyancy, and I took a breath of air.

I held onto her like that, waiting for Nori to call time, ignoring Bea's fingers snapping in the air.

"She's tapping out!" Nori yelled. "She's tapping out, Maya!"

I pulled her to the surface and held her steady while she sucked in air.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I didn't recognize you were tapping out. Nori had to tell me."

"It's okay," she said. "Poor match. I'm sorry."

"You weren't expecting that."

"No, not at all. You can really swim."

She turned to face me. "You should know that Omie is coaching her sister, and Benala is listening intently."

"What did I win from you?"

"Kitchen duty, but the better hunters are offering skins."

I smiled. "I guess everyone knows what I need."

"Varda is also suckering the companions into wagers for how long they think they can last against you. I lost."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she said. "The wager is for two minutes. It starts from first contact of any sort. Use that however you want."

"Anyone you think is a threat?"

"Ralla is being very quiet and I think the wager she made is small. That's either because she doesn't think she can win or because she doesn't want to take too much from you when she wins. And Karena is insanely confident, but she always is."

"Thanks, Bea."

"Are you two done out there?" Nori yelled. "I have your next match waiting, Maya."

Bea began swimming in, and Nori said, "Ree is up. She claims to be a poor swimmer."

"How poor?" I asked.

"Poor enough I won't swim way out there," Ree called to me.

I began moving closer to shore, but something about the way Nori said it made me leery. I stopped ten strokes in the deep water. Ree climbed into the water delicately and waded out until the water was to her chest. She stopped and waited for me.

"Nori, what is the rule if they don't come after me?"

"You can't stay out there all night," Nori replied, earning chuckles.

"So the big strong Amazon warrior is going to stand there and wait out the scared little school teacher?" I asked.

This time Ree laughed. "Yes."

"All right." I moved closer, but still remained in deeper water. I watched her carefully. She stood there, not looking confident, but I wasn't sure it wasn't a ruse.

I stopped about three lunge distances from her, still in deep water, and we watched each other carefully.

"Come get me," I told her.

"I can wait here all day," she replied. "You'll get tired before I will. And probably cold. You've been in the water a long time already."

"You're not really afraid of me, are you?"

"Not in the slightest," she said. "I'll wait right here."

And she did. She made no effort to come after me.

So I ducked under the water, and she waited. She didn't even bury her face in the water. I came back up, and she hadn't moved. I floated for a few seconds, took a deep breath, then let it out and sank. I moved under water to her quickly, then braced my feet on the bottom and grabbed her legs, pulling.

She exploded into action. I had expected her to. I lifted, pulling her feet from the bottom, but she wrapped her arms around my neck, trying to hold me under, and then she added her own legs around my middle. I stood up in the water, lifting her halfway out of the water. I took a few breaths, shimmering under her, and she tried to push down, but she didn't have as much leverage as I did. I bent over, lowering her into the water, and then I got my arms up and began pushing against her chest with my elbows. I tipped and tipped, and she began to
fight to keep her face out of the water. I couldn't quite submerge her without submerging myself, so I pressed both of us into the water, my face buried in her chest, her arms around my neck, my arms around her body, her legs around mine. I stood on the rocky river bottom, holding us both underwater.

I counted. I could have stayed like this a long time, but I wasn't sure who Nori would claim was the winner if we reached fifty, so at thirty I raised us up enough for several gulps of air, listening to her, and I timed it so when we went back down again, she got a big gulp of water instead of air.

She immediately released me and tried to pull away. I grabbed her legs, wrapped them around my waist, and pushed away from shore, towing her along behind me.

"No!" she screamed.

She tried doubling forward to reach me, but I lifted her feet in the air, tumbling her backwards into the water, holding onto her feet tightly. Then I turned her so I was standing on the bottom of the river and she was faced out into the pool.

She had no leverage, and her struggles to free her legs were only causing her to dunk under the water.

I lifted her legs, dunking her, then I wrapped them around my waist again, pulling her closer, and when she tried to scramble up me, I tipped her into the water.

She tapped out shortly before Nori called it, but when I pulled her up, she took a clumsy swing at me.

"Hold!" yelled Nori.

I could see the panic in her eyes. Nori was about to yell at her, but I held my hand up.

"Peace, Ree," I said quietly. I pulled her to where she could stand more easily, then held her steady, and slowly the panic left her face.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Hug?"

And she hugged me before slowly climbing out of the water.

"I would like to warm up a few minutes," I said.

"Then Vorine is next," Nori reported.

I climbed up to the rocks, and Malora wrapped me in a sun-warmed towel and led me to a warm spot on the rocks. I sat down, and she sat next to me, her arm wrapped around me.

"Is anyone angry?" I asked her.

"Omie was amazingly frustrated."

"Whatever she did to my ankle still hurts."

"Honey, why are you okay with this but not wrestling normally?"

"You may have your wrestling match tomorrow."

"Really?"

"It's only going to last three seconds anyway."

She laughed. "I could decide to toy with you. You won't learn anything if I finish it right away. Would you be willing to wrestle with the other companions?"

"I'm afraid of
Omie and Vorine. I'm afraid of Vorine right now. I think she is going to do something crippling."

"She is not a bad sport. She knows you have more matches after her, and she knows if she damages you too much, Nori will call off the rest of the matches. That won't make her popular."

"Was she asking to go last?"

Malora didn't respond
to that. "Will you wrestle the other companions?"

"I don't want to."

"Will you?"

"Will you stop whipping me if I promise to run hard?"

"Is that the agreement you're asking for?"

"Yes."

"And you will also wrestle me and Nori."

"All right. I trust both of you."

"We will be working you hard."

I leaned against her. "Take me somewhere?"

"Now?"

"Soon?"

"All right. You'll have to disable your snares before we leave."

I nodded. I glanced over at Vorine. She was watching me avidly. "Malora?"

"Yes?"

"What happens if Vorine cripples me?"

"She wouldn't. She knows you can't tell the difference between a hold that hurts and one that you have to stop before something breaks. She wouldn't use one."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Because I'm not pulling river rocks from the bottom and beaning people over the head. I'm not pulling them to the bottom and tangling them in the seaweed. I didn't stash rope, and I'm not tying their legs to rocks and letting them sink. There are rules, right? There are rules?"