Лори Девоти - Amazon Queen

At her name, the warrior turned. As her eyes passed over Thea, her lips moved slightly. She spoke, but I couldn't make out her words.

Lines formed on Thea's forehead; she pressed fingers to them. "Why are you here, Zery? I don't know anyone named Kale."

After closing her eyes briefly, she took a breath and looked back at me. "Are you here to say you've decided to follow the high council's directive, to beg for a place back in the tribe?"

My hand lowered to my belt. I'd placed one of Jack's knives in a sheath there earlier. It was in clear view. I wasn't trying to hide that I was prepared to fight. "I wasn't aware I had left the tribe, only this house."

"Hmmm. Is that how you see it?" Thea shifted her eyes over the three of us and seemed to miss Kale's presence entirely. "How about you, Lao? You'd really choose one weak queen over the tribe you've helped to birth and raise?"

Tired of Thea's passive-aggressive insults, I touched the knife's handle. "Where are Tess and Andres?"

The priestess sighed. "Tess I know, but Andres?" Her voice was bored, almost condescending.

"The baby, the one you want to kill."

Her eyes flashed, but her body posture remained nonthreatening. "You mean the one the Amazons want to kill, the one the high council ordered us to kill?"

"That would be the one. Have you seen him and Tess?"

"If I had, the job would have been done."

Kale stepped forward. "We know Padia's here."

Thea looked at her as if she'd forgotten the council member was standing next to me. "Padia here?" There was surprise in her voice.

Tense, I responded. "The visiting priestess. We know she was here. Does she have Tess and Andres?"

Thea growled. "I know who Padia is. She isn't here. You would know if she was. I would-"

I cut her off. "We have a new enemy, Thea, and it isn't the sons."

She laughed. "Not the sons? Don't tell me, you've been seduced like your friend? Have you been visiting her? Associating with sons?" Her voice rose, incredulous. "I knew you'd fallen, that you were too weak to carry out the council's orders, but I wouldn't have thought that of you."

I jerked Jack's knife from its sheath and held it under her chin. "We are here to get Tess, Andres, and Cleo. Turn them over."

Her eyes sparked. "I already told you Tess and the baby aren't here. Maybe she took the little mutant. Maybe she has the strength to do what you didn't."

This barb took, sank into my subconscious and ate away at it. Could Tess have taken Andres? Could she have been lying to us, deceiving us all along?

"And Cleo?"

"Cleo, the new warrior? Why would you want her?" Bored, polite, and well-mannered.

Her manner gnawed at me, worse than any direct insult.

The porch had filled with Amazons. I leaned closer to the priestess. Hissed in her ear, "Padia lied to you, Thea."

Louder, I repeated, "She's lied to all of you. Padia may be a member of the high council, but she isn't the only member. She's told you the high council is in agreement, but they aren't. I've brought a council member here, to tell you the other side." I nodded at Kale but kept my eyes focused on Thea.

I waited, expecting Kale to step forward and declare who she was, to force the deluded Amazons to listen, to out Padia and the Amazons who followed her for their worship of another goddess.

Thea's voice rose. "Why would you come here with such stories? Are you that desperate to regain the role you lost?"

The priestess was still talking. "I told you we would accept you back as a warrior, but that isn't good enough, is it? You failed as queen, failed the council, and thus failed the tribe. Time to face that, Zery. Time to face you will never regain the role again."

Her voice was strong, with a shade of sympathy, but her eyes were cold, like the metal blade posed inches from her artery. You've cracked, Zery. Cracked.

The thought sprang from nowhere.

Startled, I glanced at Thea's eyes. They were steady and still cold. Admit you aren't strong. Don't embarrass yourself and your tribe.

My hand began to shake. A pain, concentrated and sharp, like a knitting needle being thrust through my brain, cut off my breath. Sweat broke out on my upper lip. I wanted to drop the knife, to cradle my head in my hands.

What was happening?

As the pain probed deeper, the priestess's eyes seemed to bore into me. Doubt sprang up from somewhere so deep inside me I hadn't known it existed.

The knife in my hand wavered, down. . sideways. At first I thought it was nerves, my indecision showing. I tightened my muscles and ordered my body to obey my will. My bicep throbbed with a new pain, one I recognized from hard workouts and long battles, but I continued my struggle to stop the knife from its erratic jumping. I stared at it, unable to comprehend what was happening. The weapon was moving, but unguided by me, despite me.

Thea smiled, a calm, sweet smile, nothing menacing at all. . I doubled my effort, the blade stilled for a second, then jerked again.

Thea's smile widened. Her eyes were laughing as she glanced down at the weapon. She found my predicament amusing, found me amusing. If the knife had been free, I would have pierced her through the heart without a flicker of hesitation.

There was a swirl of movement beside me. Caught up in what was happening, I'd forgotten I wasn't alone. So, it appeared, had Thea.

Lao, the hearth-keeper who before this adventure I'd thought of as someone to fold laundry, fix a broken washer, or order weeds to be pulled in the garden, curled her hand into a fist and slugged the high priestess with a short uppercut to the chin.

Thea's head shot up and her mouth dropped open. Her eyes wide and shocked, she fell back a step.

Feeling the release as clearly as if a rope had held me in place and been cut, I staggered.

Thea lowered her chin and opened her mouth to say. . something. The words never came. The hearth-keeper balled up her fist and struck her again.

Blood leaked from the corner of Thea's mouth. The passive amusement disappeared. Her face drawn and angry, she circled her arm behind her head. The earth under my feet shifted. I knew immediately what was coming.

I shoved Lao back and covered her with my body. Rocks sprang from the ground. Thea moved again, this time making a throwing motion. Stones, sticks, and dirt pummeled into the truck behind us.

Another raise of her hand and the Amazons who had remained standing on the porch, watching, rushed forward. They dove at us, hearth-keepers, warriors, and artisans. The group seemed to have doubled since we had left.

I didn't know where they had come from or why, but it didn't matter. Innocent or fully knowledgeable of what was happening, they were all at this moment my enemy. And there were four of them for each of us.

Victory gleamed from Thea's eyes.

For all of five seconds.

Then arrows pierced the ground around us.

Thea whirled and cursed.

Bubbe stood in the front of the paddock, her red dress swirling and billowing. She dropped her bow and raised her arms, wind growing around her as she did.

Bern and Mel, astride horses, held bows too. Nocking new arrows, they kneed the animals forward into a gallop and leapt over the fence. They slid to the side, hung hidden behind their horse's necks, only the tops of their legs and the length of Mel's hair, dangling below, visible from this angle.

Jack and Mateo jumped from the roof to the ground on our side of the fence. Jack was the first to reach the Amazons, the first to strike. He jerked a knife from his belt and threw it as he ran.

A warrior, a female I didn't know but an Amazon all the same, crumpled, struck through the heart.

For an instant my world froze. . instinct and logic warring inside me. One of my own had fallen, been killed by a son. A lifetime of loyalty said that was wrong. I stared at the knife in my hand, not sure what to do, who to attack.