Лори Девоти - Amazon Queen

Placing my hand on top of the receiver, I stopped him. "What are you doing?"

"Calling to check on my son."

Realizing we did need to let Tess and Dana know what had happened or not happened here, I removed my hand.

Dana must have answered. He asked about Andres, then cursed in Spanish.

"How long?" His complexion darkened. " Si, find them." He glared at me.

I jerked the phone from his hand.

Dana was on the other end blathering something about a diaper change and going to the bathroom now. Then she whispered, "They aren't here. I know this is where she said she was going, but they aren't here."

It took five minutes to figure out what had happened.

They'd left Mel's and driven to a truck stop between here and Illinois. They'd been there the entire time. At first they had stayed together, Dana following Tess when she took Andres for a diaper change or even once to buy a can of formula, but as the time went on and there was no sign anyone had followed them, they'd relaxed some too.

When Tess had said she was going to buy diapers and then change Andres, Dana, busy feeding her own son, had let her go alone.

That had been ten minutes earlier.

While we waited, Dana searched the truck stop and came up empty. Then she checked the lot and saw the car was gone too.

I slammed down the receiver.

Mateo was already moving; by the time I got into the front yard he'd already shifted and was flying toward the truck stop.

Yelling for Bern and Mel to follow me, I ran toward the truck.

Mateo beat us to the truck stop; I could see him circling overhead. A few locals saw him too.

Binoculars and rifles with scopes were out and pointed at the sky. A fight almost broke out when someone, thinking he was an endangered species, threatened to call Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

I stood in the open, in clear view, hoping Mateo would see we had arrived and back off.

He did, but not before plummeting toward the building, shrieking as he fell. Ten feet from the ground he pulled back abruptly and soared back into the sky.

As I watched, he flew south. He'd be waiting for us, and he was pissed.

And I couldn't blame him.

I went looking for Dana.

She was sitting in a stained faded-blue booth with two baby carriers and one baby: Pisto. And she was crying. Not horrible gulping sobs, worse-steady slow drips.

And that was before she knew I was there. She was looking down, holding a pacifier to her son's mouth when I walked in. Her chin and the hand holding the pacifier were both shaking.

Mel stopped me from going further, cutting me off and approaching the distraught hearth-keeper herself. Dana fell against her.

"I know you told us to stay together, but it had been so long and we had all this stuff. . and it's hard, but that's not an excuse-"

Mel shoved the girl's face against her chest, cutting off whatever other blubbering admittance she had to make.

I turned on my heel and left the building.

When I got outside, the rest of our group was waiting. They were in a four-door domestic that looked like it got about five miles to the gallon.

Mel stepped into the parking lot, loaded down with a baby bag and empty carrier. Dana trailed behind her, with the other carrier and her son.

"Makis's," Mel commented, looking at the car. "He doesn't drive it much. Left it with us to watch while he was gone. I didn't realize anyone knew where I kept the keys." She glared at Bubbe, who was barely visible behind the wheel.

She looked like every old lady you curse when trying to make it across town in a hurry. Except as Mel marched forward, she gunned the engine in warning.

Mel rapped on the window.

While she and her grandmother argued, I addressed Dana. Her tears were gone, or at least they weren't flowing down her cheeks now. I took the baby carrier and led her to a park bench that sat in the grass a few feet from the parking lot.

"What happened?"

She told me pretty much what I'd heard on the phone. "Th-they must have followed us, b-been waiting for us to separate," she stuttered.

Jack walked up behind me. I glanced at him over my shoulder. His gaze flitted to mine and I saw my thoughts mirrored there. Maybe, but why wait? It wasn't like a priestess of Padia's rank would fear taking on two run-of-the-mill hearth-keepers.

We, I suspected, had been had. What I didn't know was by whom.

It was a long drive back to Illinois. Felt long anyway.

There had been some discussion of returning to Mel's, but none of us thought that attack was going to happen, not with Tess and Andres already missing.

No, the battle was in Illinois, probably had been all along.

It was time to return to my camp.

We left Dana and Pisto at Jack's neighbor's house.

The rest of us split into two groups.

Lao, Kale, and I would approach the camp directly, walk in like we had every right to be there. . which we did. We would try talking first, see if Kale's story convinced the Amazons that Padia had misled them, and that the high council they were following wasn't the high council at all but a rogue portion of it.

While we talked, the rest would come through the woods. They would search the outdoor areas, including the barn, for Cleo, Tess, and the baby. They would also be there to jump in if a battle broke out.

I couldn't imagine words would fix this, though, couldn't imagine a battle wouldn't break out.

I packed the truck and my body accordingly.

Lao drove. Kale and I rode in the back, ready to jump out and fight without doors slowing us down.

It was a silent trip down the bumpy drive, a drive I'd traveled too many times to count, but only one other time as an outsider.

An outsider among Amazons.

There was a time I'd have chosen death over that.

Things were quiet outside the safe house, but not normal, not completely.

The horses were in the paddock, looking as if they hadn't been ridden or groomed since we left. The gardens looked unkempt too. Nothing horribly noticeable, we hadn't been gone that long, just small things. . a watering can left turned over on its side in the middle of a row of beans, mud caked in a few of the mares' tails, and no smells of cooking coming from the kitchens. It was after one on a Monday, bread baking day; the yard should have smelled of baking yeast and wheat.

As we climbed out of the truck, I glanced at Lao. She was frowning. She'd noticed too.

There were signs of life, however. Someone had set up a loom on the front porch, and there was a stack of spears fifty or so feet from the house plus a target hanging on a tree.

And then there were the two men in cable uniforms walking out the front door.

Thea was behind them. One man held a clipboard out for her signature. She signed it and watched them get into a white truck before turning to me.

"Zery, you came back."

She seemed unconcerned. She was studying Kale, who had walked a few feet away, and had her back to the priestess.

"Where is the tribe?" I asked.

Thea's eyes jumped, her focus shifting from Kale to me. "Inside. We've been doing some upgrades. There is a lot to learn." With a frown, she looked back at Kale.

I bristled at her disregard and the idea that she was bringing technology into my safe camp without my permission, but knew stating that now would get us nowhere.

Instead, I stepped forward. "You've met Kale." I stated it as fact. We'd found Kale at Artemis's obelisk. Whether she remembered it or not, she had to have come from camp. I hoped her intense scrutiny of the place now meant the visit was coming back to her.

I glanced at the council member who was staring at the house.

"Kale. . " Thea glanced around.