Fourteen

Diana knew she and Will were in trouble when they showed up for target practice. It wasn't anything in particular that tipped her off, just a certain hostility in the air and the way Sachi glared and Boeing smirked. There were noises and jostling whenever she or Will tried to take aim, and if they missed their target, Sachi was sure to make a catty remark and Boeing would laugh. Diana bit her lip and prayed for patience, knowing that appealing to Harley or responding in kind would make things worse.

Coyote had no such compunctions and staged a counter-protest, dropping things, making loud remarks and misfiring his gun while Sachi was taking her turn at the target. Dell followed suit, Ikea took Sachi's side and before they had finished their second round, there was so much noise, shoving and name-calling that Harley broke it up.

"You will all be quiet and respectful," he said, looking at each of the perpetrators in turn.

They finished target practice in an uneasy truce and broke for lunch.

That afternoon was riding practice, and Diana thought for sure no one would harass her here, but Sachi deliberately dropped things on the course and Boeing slowed so Will couldn't maintain proper speed for the jumps. Relay practice was a disaster with catcalls and purposefully dropped batons. Will got cut off and nearly lost control of his mount, and Sachi "accidentally" hit Diana's mare with the baton, sending her bolting toward the tree line. Coyote ran his horse up against Boeing's mare and looped his leg around Boeing's in an effort to unseat him.

Harley called a halt to the proceedings. "We are a unit, and you will quit acting like children. What you do in practice, you'll take into enemy territory. If you can't count on each other in the face of the enemy, you might as well go be farmers."

"Diana was doing pretty good at that until Will brought her back," Sachi grumbled.

Harley turned on her. "You can quit instigating some of this." He looked around, daring anyone else to speak. "Put your horses up, go to your tents and stay there. Dinner will be brought to you. No socializing. Tomorrow, if any of you still don't want to act like grownups, take your horse, load up your gear and go. There will be no more of this kind of behavior."