Лори Девоти - Amazon Queen

After that I didn't fight her. I just sat quietly as she put a piece of gauze over the wound and wrapped a bandage crosswise over my palm-not that different from how a pugilist wraps her hands before a fight.

She opened and closed my fingers, in and out of a fist. "Fine, won't even slow you down." She thumped on the table with her open palm, stood, and gathered up her supplies. She looked at the cuffs for a second before holding them out to me. "You probably have more use for these than I do."

Chuckling, she shook her head and dropped them in my lap. Despite her humor, the gesture reminded me of Thea dropping the fetish in the artisan's lap. I stared at them for a second. When I looked up, Lao was watching me; her eyes were serious.

"Best get out there."

I waited, thinking she would say more, but apparently she was done. First aid kit in hand, she walked from the room.

Best get out there . Four simple words. She could have said them any day, but for some reason I didn't think she'd said them casually today.

I pushed back my chair and headed out into the yard.

Thea was sitting beside Areto. I'd say she was whispering in her ear, but that was more a feeling than fact. As I stepped off the porch, both stared at me as if expecting something-an explanation, I guessed.

It was a fair expectation. I didn't arrive at camp in handcuffs too often. Unfortunately for them I wasn't feeling driven to be particularly fair at the moment.

"There were women in the woods earlier," I said, addressing Areto. "I expect them to come back. Set up some patrols starting now and keep them going until I say to stop."

"Through the night?" Thea asked.

"Go," I said to Areto. She nodded and trotted off.

"What kind of women were they?" Thea took a moment; she seemed to be inspecting me. I still looked rough; I hadn't bothered washing anything except my face with Lao's rag. I hadn't even bothered looking in a mirror. So I didn't know exactly how rough I looked, and I didn't care.

"Bird-watchers." Down by the barn Areto had gathered the warriors. I turned to join them.

As I walked away, Thea followed.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" The question didn't come across as pushy, more bored curiosity.

However, I wasn't much in the mood for sharing.

The warriors stood in a row. Two were probably my age; two were older. Bern cracked her knuckles as I approached. She was pushing two hundred, in both pounds and years. Her skin was cocoa colored but her eyes were bright green, like new grass. The contrast alone made her stand out. Add her size, how she carried herself, and the fact that she'd chosen to dye her hair bright red, and just looking at her would cause most humans to cross the street. It was why I had assigned her the job of backup when we had gone to steal the baby from the sons.

"Put Bern on the dusk shift." I figured the birders were looking for the same owl I'd seen right before I stumbled upon them. Most people thought of owls as being nocturnal and many were, but I'd seen mine not long after dawn, which probably meant he was one of the few who preferred the grayer skies of dawn and dusk.

I was guessing the birders would know that too, and I hoped seeing Bern come at them even completely unarmed would send them scurrying back home for good.

Areto didn't question me, but Thea did.

"Bird-watchers got you in handcuffs?" Her eyes showed interest and disbelief.

I slid my jaw to the side. The role of queen had some privileges, like not having to explain anything you did at camp. I answered to the high council and Artemis. That was it.

I took a step toward the barn.

I needed to fill Areto in a bit on what had happened, to make sure she knew the real threat wasn't the birders I'd mentioned, but the son.

I wasn't making the announcement publicly, because there was no reason for most of the camp's occupants to know. It was the warriors' jobs to protect the rest of the tribe.

Areto followed, as did Thea.

Looking at Areto, I said, "I want you to patrol for the birders, but there's another threat too, a son. One of the sons with the baby. He's been watching us. I don't know for how long."

Areto answered with only a silent incline of her head; she knew I would tell her all she needed to know and wouldn't pry further.

Thea, however, was a different matter. "That explains the handcuffs, eh?" She darted her gaze at Areto. The warrior looked straight ahead, waiting for whatever else I had to say.

Her reaction reassured me that I was making the right choice regarding the position of lieutenant.

Still, I had decided I needed to tell Thea what had happened. "On my walk, the son returned."

Her brow quirked. "Alone?"

"Yes."

She pursed her lips and looked to the side.

I tightened my jaw. One son had got me into the cuffs. It was a truth I couldn't deny.

"I'm leaving in the morning for Madison, with the hearth-keepers," I announced.

"And me?" she asked.

"Knowing the son is around, we can't afford to both be away from camp."

A muscle in her neck twitched.

"My council contact hasn't called back. The sons in Madison are our best hope."

"The sons who are out of town? Who won't be back for some time?" She watched me from the corner of her eyes.

"They may not be. I don't know, but Mel is coming back early. We spoke last night." We hadn't and it wouldn't be that hard for Thea to find out I was lying, but I felt no need to be completely honest with her. Basic need to know facts. . I was going to Madison to get information on the sons or the baby. She was staying here to help Areto protect the camp.

I turned my attention back to the warrior. "You will be in charge until I get back."

Areto's eyes flicked to the side toward Thea, but if the high priestess was annoyed by my decision, she didn't show it.

"Your friend left the tribe. What makes you think she will help us?"

I smiled. "I don't. . or at least she won't do anything because it helps us, but if I can convince her a child is at risk. . " I shook my head. "Goddess bless the son who gets in her way."

I was asleep, or as asleep as I get, when two soft taps of someone's knuckles on my door awakened me. I was on my feet, my staff in my hand, before a third could sound.

Dressed only in an oversized T-shirt, I padded to the door and waited. Two more raps, silence, and then another. Code to let me know a warrior was waiting on the other side.

Keeping the staff ready, I opened the door.

Areto, her mouth grim, greeted me. "Bern. She found a body. One of the birders, we think."

I jerked on a pair of shorts and followed her.

It was maybe one in the morning. The full moon was past, but the night was still bright enough to make out the two people in the yard. Bern stood with her arms hanging stiffly at her side. Thea stood beside her looking authoritative and in control.

When I stepped onto the sidewalk, she strode toward me. "One of your bird-watchers?" She motioned to where a human-sized hump lay under the oak that dominated our yard.

I glanced at Bern, but even with the moon's light her expression was unreadable. As if sensing my thoughts, Thea flipped on a flashlight. "Bern says she found her next to the obelisk."

I cut my gaze to the silent warrior. "Dead?"

She inclined her head slightly.

I returned her nod and looked back at the body. "Were there others? Any sign more had been there?"

A shake this time.

Processing this, I walked to the body. I recognized her instantly-the woman who had challenged me, the leader of the group. She was dressed as I'd seen her earlier, same cheery yellow T-shirt with suns and daisies, same khaki shorts.

"Heart attack?" I asked, this time of Thea.

"No. It looks like she was strangled with these." In her hand was a pair of nunchakus. The pair I'd lost in the woods while fighting with the son.