Amazon Chief (102 page)

Dearest Queen Beria,

I regret to inform you that the love of my life passed away three weeks ago. At your coronation, Ralla was ill, and we knew it was our last trip. She wanted to see everyone one more time.
She was very proud of you.

Ralla always intended these skins to be yours, but I will tell you, they really helped this past winter.
Ralla and I talked about it, and we agreed they should be yours. I hope they will keep you and Lia as warm as they kept Ralla and me.

With all my love,

Jasmine

* * * *

About two years later, Bea began asking to take trips. Sometimes she went to see Malora and Maya. Other times she wouldn't say where she was going, but she would be gone for two or three weeks. When she got back, she sighed a lot.

Then
she worked double and even triple patrols in between, and whenever she felt she'd caught up on her obligation, she'd ask for permission to be gone again.

We missed her terribly while she was gone, especially as she took Joelle with her.

This went on for nearly two years. But then one day when she was due back, there was a knock at the door of the hut.

"Come in," I called.

Bea stepped in, and I screeched in joy. "Come here, you!"

"Queen Beria," she said. "I know my trips have been difficult for you. I have a request."

"No!" I said. "You can't retire. Bea!"

She smiled. "Who wants to retire?" She stepped further in, and I saw she was holding hands with someone. I assumed it was Joelle, and I wondered if they'd been going away so
her Mama and I wouldn't know the relationship had turned romantic.

But then she pulled Jasmine into my hut.

"Queen Beria, I know I have a companion, and I don't want to give her up. I love her. But I love Jasmine. And she loves me."

"Queen Beria," Jasmine said, "If you'll let me be with Bea, I would like to return to the Amazons. I grieved Ralla for two years, but she made me promise to live a full life. I'll always love her and remember her, but she would have wanted this. Malora and Maya agree and have blessed this, but you are queen."

"My daughter knows about this?"

"It's not
like I could hide it from her," Bea said.

"Joelle, get your ass in here!"

She stepped in. "Hello, Mother."

"Do not 'Hello, Mother' me. Are you willing to share your warrior?"

"Please, Mother. They're in love, and Jasmine is teaching me things Bea can't. I won't be a companion forever. Bea will need someone then."

I smiled. "Jasmine, welcome home. Joelle, as far as I am concerned, they are now both your warriors, whether Jasmine is a warrior or not. She has a lot to teach you."

"Yes, Mother," she said.

I turned to the wall of my hut. Ralla's
bearskin hung on the wall, filling the entire space. We used it only on the absolute coldest of nights. Mine was on the bed. I stepped to the wall and took the skin from the wall. I walked to Jasmine and pressed it into her hands. "I think Ralla would like knowing her skin was keeping the two of you warm."

Bea and Jasmine stayed with us in Queen's Town until just three years ago. They're now back at the inn south of
Gallen's Cove. Lia and I see them every day.

Bea still giggles when she wrestles. She even convinces Maya to wrestle from time to time.
Malora is long retired from wrestling, well, outside her bedroom with Maya, anyway.

* * * *

The day Annalise turned thirteen, Haldara showed up in Queen's Town. She'd been finding reasons to pop in, and it was always good to see her. But she arrived for Annalise's birthday, and she brought a present.

We had a bonfire, of course, and then after, Haldara asked to speak with Lia and me. We retreated to our hut, and Lia said, "Haldara, I'm sorry, but no."

Haldara looked crestfallen. "I'd treat her well, Lia. I'd train her well, too."

"I know you would, but I can't stand for her to be so far away."

I smiled. "You two play nice, I'll be back."

I stepped out of the hut and headed to Gaylie's hut. I knocked. "Gaylie, can
you and your companion meet me in Lidi's hut?"

"Yes, Queen Beria."

At Lidi's hut, I knocked and waited for permission to enter. Lidi was surprised to see me. Gaylie arrived a moment later with her companion. The two of them had been handling the head of our local patrol between them, but I had several problems to solve.

"Black Oak needs a village chief," I said. "So does Lake Yara. I do not care for the choices at either location. Both chiefs have been begging me since I became queen for permission to retire, and I have been putting them off. Neither of you are under any obligation, but do either of you wish to be a village chief? If not, I'll keep looking."

"Chief Lidi. That sounds okay to me."

"I don't want to lose either of you. You are loved here. But you'll never be chief here unless you challenge me-"

"Never!" snapped Gaylie.

I smiled.

"You can stay here. Or head to one or the other village. But I sort of would like an answer from at least one of you tonight."

"I'll go,"
Lidi said. "I like it here, but I have friends at Black Oak, too."

"I'll take Lake Yara, then, if you're offering both positions," Gaylie said.

"I am. Thank you. Your duties here will transition to Haldara."

"Haldara?" Gaylie began laughing. "Lia told her 'no', did she?"

"Yep."

"Then I don't mind making room. I'm glad
Annalise can stay here with you and her sister."

"Thank you." I hugged them both.

I returned to my hut with Annalise in tow. The temperature in the room was cold, but Haldara hadn't left.

"Haldara, Queen's Town needs a head of our patrol. Do you want the job?"

She immediately began to grin.

"Lia, I'll be good to her," Haldara said. "I'll need help training her, but we have that here."

"Annalise," Lia said, "Do you want to be Haldara's companion."

"Yes!" she said. She ran and hugged her mother, then her other mother, then Haldara. "I'll be the best companion you've ever had."

"You can start tonight," I said. "Where did my companion put you up, Haldara?"

"Tent," Haldara said.

"We can make room here," I said.

"A tent is better
," Haldara said. "Until there's a hut available."

"Annalise, you begin immediately. We'll do a ceremony in a day or so. Congratulations."

Twenty minutes later, Lia and I were alone in bed.

"Put your hands away, Queen Beria," she said. "You and I have to talk."

"What?"

"What did you do with Lidi and Gaylie?"

"You mean Chief Lidi of Black Oak and Chief Gaylie of Lake Yara?"

* * * *

Two years ago, Vorine and Omie had a falling apart. It was heart wrenching, and neither of them would explain what it was about. Vorine finally came to me and asked to retire. I fell to my knees and begged her to resolve her differences with her sister. She told me it wasn't possible but assured me they still loved each other.

I refused to answer her request to retire until I had talked to Omie.

I then begged Omie to make up with her sister. She had hugged and even briefly kissed me, but told me it wasn't possible. "Let her retire, Beria. She's done her duty."

And that she certainly had.

Vorine and her companion retired to Vorine's village out on the plain. And there they remained...

For about six months.

It was the dead of winter. We didn't get blizzards very often, but there was one blowing down our faces, threatening to leave us buried in snow, when from outside all our huts, I heard someone cry, "Where in the world is everyone? Isn't it afternoon training?"

Omie and Aren w
ere in with Lia and me. We were playing that chess game Joelle and Annalise had taught us, playing with partners: the warriors against the companions. The companions were winning.

They usually did.

Omie's head snapped towards the door. "Vorine? Vorine!"

She was out the door seconds later. "Vorine!"

"Lia, please find some companions to see to their horses and other things, then everyone in here. They'll want to warm up."

"As soon as we've hugged, I'll fetch warm food," Aren offered.

"Where are we putting them?" Lia asked.

"Our hut," Aren said, "Unless you're preempting us, Queen Beria."

"Their hut," I said.

Lia grabbed her coat and stepped outside. Even over the wind, I heard her yelling for companions, and it was a minute or two later before everyone tromped in, beating snow off boots and out of their clothing. We helped them out of their outer clothes, and I chastised them for traveling in this weather.

"We thought we could beat it, and if we were going to be snowed in anywhere, it was here," said Lorith. When Vorine had first taken the girl as companion, I thought it would be like mine with Narsana. And it had been until Lorith turned twenty-one. As she tells it, she'd been in love with the older warrior for years. As Vorine tells it, "She jumped me in a moment of weakness, and someone told her about some very interesting submission holds."

"Queen Beria," Vorine said. "I don't want to be apart from my sister another day. Please, may we come back? Is there any room in Queen's Town?" She didn't wait for my answer. "Omie, I was wrong. I'm so sorry. We'll do it your way."

Aren squealed in delight. She actually squealed. She never squealed. I'd seen her lose a tickle fight, badly, and she didn't squeal. But she did that day. She threw herself on Vorine and began thanking her over and over.

Omie wasn't far behind her, and then the four of them were hugging tightly.

I waited until they were done and said simply, "I don't know. We're sort of full."

They all turned to me. "You will make room," Omie said.

"I will?" I raised an eyebrow. I had finally learned how. "On one condition."

"Oh?"

"What was the dispute?"

Omie and Vorine looked at each other then back at me. "We didn't want to tell you."

"Tell me now, dear friends," I said. "Vorine, of course you can stay. Please, what was the dispute?"

"I wanted to retire," Vorine said. "To the plains."

"I retire when you do, Beria," Omie said. "Please though, before I'm sixty."

I smiled.

"That's it?"

"I wanted to retire to our old village," Vorine said. "You know how they treat Amazons. I wanted to be treated like a queen." She sighed. "It got old. And even if it hadn't, it wasn't worth being away from my sister. And frankly, I missed all of you." She looked at Omie. "You were right. About every last bit. I'm so sorry."

"You had to figure it out for yourself," Omie said.

"And so, when I retire, all of you retire. Again?"

They nodded.

"And where will you go?"

"With you, Beria," Vorine said. She smiled. "I miss Maya and Malora, too."

And so where were Vorine and Lorith that day four of us rode into Maya's home outside
Gallen's Cove? They were already there, getting things ready.

* * * *

I haven't told you about everyone.

My parents are gone. I miss them terribly, but they lived long, full lives. My nephew now runs the fishing boat that was once my father
's. Maya and I see our brothers and their families once or twice a month.

Most of the older warriors have passed on. No one lives forever. There's a settlement of retired Amazons in the orange groves to the south. Serra and Ping died months apart, and Queen's Town was in mourning for a month when we heard the news. But the community is survived by other Amazons and by the many, many boys and girls they adopted over the years.

Eight of them are now Amazons, and I know there will be more.

Aura grew apart from the rest of us. It was sad. I invited her to move back to Queen's Town, but she declined. "You're full, and you'll always be full." She's still an Amazon, now living in Northglen, but she'll retire soon, I'm sure.
She has a lovely companion named Jalar, only a few years younger than Aura herself.

Neela remained in Queen's Town until she retired a year before I did. She and her companion moved to her companion's home in the forests fifty miles south of White Pine.

Narsana, my first companion, is still an Amazon. She is making noises of "retiring someday", and I'm sure she'll be joining us in our extended enclave south of Gallen's Cove. For now, she continues to follow in Rora's footsteps, serving as the carpenter for the Amazons. Over the years, she built a lot of huts and made a great many chairs, tables, benches, and other furniture.