Amazon Challenge (18 page)

Parlomith
slowly coiled the whip. "Leave them," she ordered, the Amazons pressed against my back climbed off me, and then I watched as they all walked away towards the village.

I lay in the dirt, my hands still bound, sobbing, but then I slowly climbed to my feet and hurried to my sister. When I arrived, she was sobbing. At least she was alive. They hadn't untied her, either.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry. Oh Beria, I never should have let you come!"

She turned to face me, her face a rictus of pain. "Help me, Maya. It hurts, Maya. It hurts."

"I know. I know." I moved around to the other side of the post. It took several minutes, working behind my back, but eventually I freed her hands. She collapsed to the ground, and I moved back around the pillar and offered my hands to her. It took her a while to untie them, but as soon as I was free, I turned around and pulled her into my arms, careful of the gaping cuts in her back.

I rocked her for a while, both of us sobbing, and then she looked up at me and said clearly, "You have to wash them. They'll get infected if you don't wash them, Maya. I could die."

She was right. I lowered her gently to her stomach, right there on the ground, and I ran to the village. There would be soap and ointment for her.

At first I thought no one was around, and I headed for the storeroom, but when I got there,
Undara, one of the companions was there.

She pressed something into my hands. "Soap and ointments," She said. "Don't tell
Parlomith. Clean her up and leave tonight. Parlomith is busy getting drunk, and I don't think she's done with you."

I took the small bundle and ran back to Beria. She hadn't moved from where I left her, but she looked up
as I approached. I helped her stand, and together we moved to the river. When we got there, she clutched me and said, "Maya, I'm going to scream and beg you to stop. You must not stop. If they infect, I'll die. You have to hurt me to save my life."

My heart was breaking. We didn't disrobe any further except for our boots. Then we climbed into the river, and as soon as the water touched the cuts, Beria hissed.

"I'm so sorry, Beria."

"Do it, Maya."

I began to wash her back.

It was slow traveling at night, and we risked getting lost. Beria passed out shortly after we got moving, and I held her in my arms, trying to avoid letting her bump against her back, but there was little I could do. I had to get her away from Parlomith.

"No one is going to ever hurt you again," I promised her over and over, and "this is all my fault. I never should have let you come here."

We arrived at Broken Knife shortly after sunrise the next day. We weren't expected, of course, and the village was largely deserted with only the younger companions and one older companion to watch over the younger ones.

But they all kne
w me and were startled to see us.

I turned to Viera, the eldest companion. "We need supplies for traveling," I said. "Food and more ointment."

"What happened?" She asked.

"
Parlomith whipped my sister. I need to get her to safety."

"You should stay here while she heals," Viera said.

"I'm not staying this close to Parlomith with no warriors here to protect us from her. Give me what I asked for."

They prepared a meal first and helped me tend to Beria's back. They had gauze and ointment, and we used both generously.
Beria wanted to sleep, but we switched horses and with help, I got her back on top of one, climbing up behind her. Viera offered to send two companions with me to help, but I turned her down.

"Neither of us have that kind of authority," I said, "and when your warriors return, they will need their companions. If you see Queen Malora, please tell her we headed home."

And then I turned the horses to the north, soon leaving the village behind. We traveled north along the trail for an hour before arriving at a braided river heading west. I stopped at it.

"Beria?" I asked, but she had fallen asleep.

"Beria," I said. "No one is going to hurt you again. I promise, no one is hurting you again."

I sent the horse down the shallow bank of the river, into the shallow water, and then I
turned us west. West to home. West to Gallen's Cove.

Nori

Malora and I led a group of nine warriors, and not a single companion, from Green Arrow. She left Maya and Beria behind, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it.
She showed me the note she was leaving, and I scoffed. "You don't really believe she's going to pay attention to that, do you?" And so Malora gave orders to the companions remaining behind in the village. I was wondering what I could do to be scarce when we got back; I didn't want to be anywhere within ten miles of Malora when Maya got a hold of her.

But we didn't have time to think about that. We hadn't had a major demon incursion in year
s. We'd had minor ones, up to three or four at a time, but nothing like what we were facing. However, information was sparse, making it difficult to form concrete plans.

It took two hours to reach the
edge of the forest and another hour before we knew much more.

The demons liked to play games with us; we've known that for centuries, and Maya's demon confirmed that for us.
Subterfuge is nearly unknown to them, Maya's demon being the exception. But they come to play their deadly games, and their imagination seems limited.

The most common incursion is a single demon
that appears to be hunting for an Amazon patrol. This is convenient for the Amazons, because if the demons are hunting for us, they aren't sneaking past us to attack the villages instead.

From time to time, a demon doesn't find a patrol but makes it into the forest; they seem to dislike the
woods, and we've come across them doing their own patrol along the edge of the border. An Amazon who finds herself outmatched can frequently find safety by disappearing into the trees. Once in the forest, the demons sometimes retreat back to the plains, sometimes find an Amazon village to attack. That was how Ping became a warrior, defending her village from a demon.

Rarely, a demon will find a way to the other side
of the forest. This is very rare, especially as all the paths through the forest from east to west go through one of our villages, but there are a few rivers the demons sometimes follow. Malora would love to place more villages along those rivers, but we haven't had the forces required to do so.

Most of the time, nearly always, the demons seem content to fight us. In the past, attempts to capture a human, and in the distant past, groups of
humans, were common. Over the centuries, it had grown decreasingly common, but wasn't unheard of. Maya was the first Amazon I'd ever seen picked up by a demon to later remain unscathed.

It is not uncommon to encounter small groups of demons, although frequently we find them fighting themselves.

Large incursions are exceedingly rare; a decade ago we had twelve come through, and the last time we had more than that was before I became an Amazon.

We've never determined the goal of the large incursions. If the demons tended to fight amongst themselves in small groups, we would expect large group incursions to be a bloodbath amongst
themselves. Instead, the large incursions, as rare as they are, seem to be organized. Perhaps one of the demons has temporarily been able to force the others to cooperate together, but if so, we'd never found proof.

I'd never heard of an incursion like the one facing us, except in the furthest annals of history.

Upon entering the plains, we turned north, riding hard. Queen's Town is located closest to the demon's mountains, and that appeared to be the center of the incursion. There were reasons Queen's Town was situated where it was.

We'd been on the plains
an hour before we encountered a small group led by Ralla. They were riding south to find us. We were barely off our horses before she was giving us an updated status.

"There are reports of a few solo demons to the north," Ralla said.

"One sighting to the south," said Harda, one of the warriors from Green Arrow. "A patrol from Tall Pines dispatched it."

"The main incursion is east of Queen's Town," Ralla added. "The numbers seem to be growing. They had a large patrol out looking for us, but as soon as Balorie's patrol made contact, they retreated to their main group."

"Wait," Malora said. "A large patrol retreated to the main group? How many of them are there?"

"
We're not sure, Queen Malora. Twenty, perhaps twenty-five. We have scouts watching them, but getting an exact count is proving troublesome."

"What game are they playing now?" Malora asked.

"We don't know," said Ralla, "but they're acting like they are massing for battle, or perhaps waiting for us to show up. They've never shown much logic."

"Does anyone else have anything to add?" Malora asked. No one did. "All right, please shoot this down if I'm wrong. We should send runners north and south. Half the Amazons
will patrol very, very carefully in their areas, hopefully two overlapping patrols per village, if possible. The remaining Amazons will converge east of Queen's Town. How far from the forest?"

"The demons are staying near their mountains," Ralla said. "We've set up a base camp near the forest and a line of communication to the scouts."

"Comments, anyone?"

There was little discussion, and five minutes later, Malora asked Harda to see to the southern messengers. Ralla sent Clara and Bea north. "Tell Valan our plans and have her send someone
further north. All patrols will communicate on a schedule. All patrols to retreat from anything extreme. All patrols will be especially cautious of traps. Rejoin us after you see Valan."

Clara and Bea did
n't wait, riding hard. Leaving half of the warriors from Green Arrow to patrol their section, the rest of us headed north, following Clara's dust.

Traveling through the plains was faster than through the forest. We
could ride faster and the path was straighter. Traveling through the forest hastily, it took six days to ride from the southern tip of the forest to the northern tip. The trails running north and south went through the villages, and the villages weren't located in a straight line, so one took zigzag paths from the woods on a larger route that was zigzag as well.

On the plains, it
could be done in half that.

We moved quickly but conserved the horses; we d
idn't know how much we would need them. If we needed to chase down bands of demons, we wanted the horses to be as fresh as possible.

I was on Maya's horse; she was sweet and gentle, but she wasn't going to be good for a protracted battle, and in the past, she hadn't performed well near the demons. I was going to miss Stout, my filly, for this.

It was mid-afternoon when we reached the Queen's Town main encampment on the plains. It was immediately clear that Queen's Town itself would be empty. Every warrior was either at the encampment or out on patrol, and all the companions were there as well.

"Maya's going to be angry when she finds out she and Beria were excluded, Malora," I said quietly to her.

"She's safe; that's what matters," Malora responded. "I can't think about that now."

I wasn't sure what was going to be worse: the demons, or Maya. I redoubled my plans to be nowhere near that confrontation. Malora could have
her hide verbally stripped without me.

We dismounted and asked for a status update; there was little to add we didn't already know. We had scouts out. The demons did not; they were clustered in their camp, and we still didn't have an accurate count. "More than twenty, fewer than thirty," was the closest we were going to get.

"I need to see for myself," Malora declared immediately. "Small patrol. Nori, Ralla." She looked around. "Harda, did you want to come?"

"Yes, Queen Malora," the woman said.

Malora looked around. "Can someone loan Nori a faster horse?"

"I was going to ask," said Ralla. "Why is she on Maya's horse?"

"Mine is lame. We left her at Green Arrow."

"You can have mine, Nori," Omie offered.

"Is there a fresher horse?" Malora asked.

"Mine," Ping said. "I've been saving her."

"Thanks, Ping," Malora said. She raised her voice. "Aura! I need Ping's horse saddled for Nori. Take the saddle from Maya's horse."

We collected fresh provisions and five minutes
later, four of us were heading east. It was a two-hour ride until we climbed a hill. At the top, Ralla pointed.

Five miles away, atop another hill, was the biggest collection of demons I'd ever seen. I'd heard of larger groups, but I'd never seen one. We all stared at them.

"Shit," said Harda. That pretty much summed it up. "Queen Malora, is now a bad time to request a favor?"

"Yes," Malora responded. "But ask."

"I want a transfer. Anywhere." She paused. "If anything happens to me, please get my companion out of Green Arrow."

"Do you get along with Chief Loren?"

"I don't know her well," Harda said. "Two Bends would be lovely."

"Have you discussed this with
Parlomith?" Malora asked.

"No. I'm afraid to, and I would prefer she not know until Undara and I are well away from her. That's why I'm asking you with almost no one else around."

"Request granted," Malora said. "No one to mention this. Please wait until this is over though."

"Thank you, Queen Malora."

Malora hadn't even turned to look at her. All of us had been watching the demons. But she turned to face Harda. "I am heartened to know not everyone in Green Arrow is like Parlomith."

"Most are,"
Harda said. "Margot had a way of attracting a certain element, and Parlomith more so." Margot was the previous chief. Parlomith had "accidentally" killed her during the match for leadership of the village. Margot hadn't been especially liked, and none of the warriors present for the duel accused Parlomith of intentionally killing her, so she had gotten away with it.

In spite of the influx of companions, largely engineered by Malora's companion, the Amazons were under severe stress
, and it showed. For the tenth time, I wished Loren had actually talked to Maya before dyeing her purple. The humor could have healed. Instead, while there was humor, Maya's sullen response to it served to highlight the stress most of the Amazons were under.

I didn't blame Maya. Anyone else would have reacted far worse than she had.

What had Loren been thinking? Had she been thinking?

Malora hadn't said much to me about it and Maya even less. I could tell Malora had tried to jolly her into being gracious, which perhaps took the edge off however Maya would have otherwise reacted, but it hadn't been enough.

She looked damned funny though.

"Can we get closer?" Malora asked, gesturing with her nose back to the demons. "Or a better angle?"

"They've let us watch all we want from here," Ralla said. "If they see us any closer, they've been chasing us. So yes, we can get closer, if you want to run away."

"Do they all follow?"

"No, only eight or ten," Ralla said. "More than I'd want to fight with the forces we've had up here so far."

We watched them. They weren't doing much.

"Theories on what they're waiting for?" Malora asked.

"Two choices," Ralla replied. "They either are waiting for more reinforcements or they're waiting for us to attack."

"Let's hope it's the latter and not the former."

"Can we set up an ambush?"
Harda asked.

"We can probably put a significant force on the back side of this hill and try to lure some here," Ralla suggested. "But if the main force follows after, it will be a bloodbath. We won't be able to disengage and flee, and we don't have the numbers available for that many."

"Then we wait," Malora said. "Keep patrols out, and order everyone, including the scouts, to be conservative. An exact count isn't worth losing lives. There might be more."

We studied the demons for a while. One or two seemed to be moving amongst them, but the rest didn't move; I would have called them statues if Ralla hadn't assured us they weren't.

"I don't understand it," Malora replied. "But unless they have a significant force we can't see, or there are more packs like this one, this isn't an overwhelming threat to Morehama."

"No," Ralla said. "Only to the Amazons."

"Quite," Malora agreed, her features grim.

"If I were the demon leader,"
Harda said, "this would be a diversion."

"Which is why we only have half our sisters converging on this point," Malora said. "If they give us the time, we attack the morning after tomorrow. "We'll lure them to the flat ground behind us. Maybe they'll come in waves instead of all at once. An organized charge by that man
y demons is going to leave a lot of dead Amazons."

"We've see them come in groups before," I pointed out. "They may travel together, but there is no history of them remaining organized enough to hold a charge."

"A disorganized charge by that many demons won't be much better for us than an organized charge," Harda pointed out.