Amazon Chief (53 page)

"It's fine," she said. "Go talk to people."

"What do I say?"

"Hmm. 'Hello.' I start with 'hello'. Then maybe share my name, if they don't bark at me. Ask them what they do. Answer their questions. Really, Beria, you've been talking since you were five."

"I was younger than five!"

"Not according to your sister." She smirked at me. "Seriously, you've been talking since you were five-"

"Two! Maybe one."

"Whatever. I think you know how by now." She gave me a little push. Behind me, Nori chuckled.

I looked around, then decided to roam around the room a little and say 'hello'. Just to see what happened. I considered it an experiment.

The room had a mix of long tables, such as the one we had all sat at, and a few tables for four. I felt eyes following me, both at my back and of the villagers. I stepped past one of the smaller tables, occupied by four men, and the occupants watched me. "Hi," I said.

"Hello, Amazon," said one of the guys.

I smiled and stopped. "Will you be staying for the music? My sister brought her fiddle."

"I believe we will," the man said. "Will you dance with me?"

"I. Um."

"Amazons don't dance with men," one of the other guys said, and his lipped curled a little. "They only dance with other women."

"Be nice, Sandar," the first man said. "Ignore my friend. He's got a case of terminal idiot."

Sandar hit his friend, a glancing blow across the top of his head. The first one barely noticed.

"So?" he asked. "Will you dance with me?"

"You know, the last man I danced with was my father. I was thirteen. I'm not sure I know how."

"We don't do anything fancy here," the man said. "Think about it."

A third man at the table asked, "Do you know how to use that sword?"

"Yes."

"Perhaps you'd like it if a man showed you how to use his sword. I bet you've never seen that."

The first man said, "God, you're a bigger idiot than he is." He gestured to Sandar. Then he looked at me. "Ignore him, too. He's being an ass."

I smiled. "I've seen men try to use a sword. They don't usually know where to point them."

All four men laughed, which I didn't understand.

"What's your name?" the fourth man asked.

"Beria. You should call me Chief Beria. I am the village chief at a village called Lake Juna."

"Ah, Chief Beria," the fourth speaker said, the one with his back to me, looking over his shoulder. "This idiot," and he gestured to the third speaker, "is Gardo. And this smooth talker is Mandy. I am Chardon."

"Pleased to meet you," I said.

"I still say she won't dance with you, Mandy," Sandar said. "She's already making moves on Lia."

I'd been ignoring the voices, but suddenly they all began tormenting me. One said, "He wasn't talking about a sword, you naïve woman." Another said, "He carries his sword
between his legs, not on his hip." I began to color as I realized what the man had meant to imply. I realized I could beat a hasty retreat, but I decided to go on the offensive. Diplomatically.

I looked around, saw an empty chair, and grabbed it, dragging it back to the table. I sat at the corner between the two who hadn't proven to be rude idiots yet.

"Do you men know what Amazons do?" I asked.

"We know what you say you do," Sandar said. "Some claptrap about demons."

"Claptrap?"

"I did tell you to ignore the idiot," Mandy said. "I was only a kid, but I saw the demon head."

"Well, the demons are real," I said. "They typically are about nine feet tall, not counting the horns, which seem to be between two and three feet long and razor sharp. They are big and fast. They're bigger than the biggest black bear I've ever seen and bigger than most brown bears. They run on two legs almost as fast as a horse in a gallop and have four arms with claws between four and six inches long, also razor sharp. When we first engage a demon, they pick one of us and begin to talk in our heads. And even after we kill their bodies, they continue to talk in our heads."

"Bullshit," Sandar said.

"I currently have nine demons in my head. I didn't understand the reference to a man's sword and took it literally, but the demons are having a great amount of fun telling me what a naïve girl I am and suggesting I invite all four of you out back. One of them told me I should then use my sword on the lot of you. Two more are describing what you would do to me, starting with holding me down on the ground. One continues to insist that's how I was conceived." I looked around. "You get the idea."

They all shut up. Even Sandar looked embarrassed.

"When you make comments like that, you give the demons ideas. We don't really appreciate it. Not that they have any trouble tormenting us anyway, but why help them out?"

"I didn't mean nuthin'," Gardo said.

"As for Lia, she was helping to still the voices. It was just touch. The demons don't like companions, and they shut up for a while, but it doesn't last. I wasn't making a move on her. I was letting her tell the demons to shut up."

"Gardo is sorry," Mandy said. "Aren't you, Gardo?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said. "Real sorry."

"Thank you. You are forgiven. But just to be clear, I have trained twice a day, every day of my life for the last seventeen years
, to use my sword. I am very, very good with it. We also train with the staff and in unarmed combat. None of us would ever, ever hurt an innocent. But there's not a one of us that is helpless. Now, you're lucky you made those comments to me, because I can laugh them off. But if you said that to one of the companions, her warrior would be honor bound to invite you out to the village green and exact a very, very vigorous apology. That would be horrible diplomacy, and I'm sure no one wants that to happen."

Then I smiled. "Mandy, Chardon, if I am asked to dance, I will happily give it a go, but I don't promise to know how."

"Ma'am."

"Chief Beria," I said.

"Chief Beria," said Gardo, "I really am sorry."

I smiled. "Then think no more of it. Gentlemen." I climbed to my feet and returned the borrowed chair where I had gotten it. Then I turned around and returned to the other Amazons. I was going to ask Maya to help, but she was deep in conversation and had one hand on Malora, another on Nori.

Lia and Tamma were talking with a third woman, much younger than both of them. I looked around and saw Rora and Badra had the girls in an intent conversation. I walked over to the group of sisters and sort of moved in between Tamma and Lia.

"Oh, Chief Beria," Tamma said. "This is my little sister, Challi. Challi, this is my village chief, Beria."

"I'm pleased to meet you," I told her.

"Tamma was telling me about Lake Juna," Challi said. "It sounds lovely."

"It is," I agreed. "I may take no credit for the beauty of nature, and I didn't even pick where we built. But I am proud of it anyway. You should come to visit, although it is nicer in the summer."

"I'll have to think about that," she said.

Lia and Tamma were both looking at me.

"Are you all right?" Tamma asked.

"I'm fine," I said.

"I saw you talking to Gardo," Lia said. "Was he an ass?"

"He's always an ass," Challi said. "Do you have to ask?"

"He apologized," I said.

All three of them stared at me. "You got Gardo to apologize?"

"I told him what the demons were suggesting I do in response to his question. He may have been a little intimidated."

Lia turned me to face her. "I thought I put them to sleep."

I shrugged. "You quieted them. I can usually ignore them."

"Lia," said Tamma, "she needs a companion. Right now."

"I'm fine," I said.

"Yeah, right. You tried to go to Maya, but she's busy, so you came to me. But you need more than Badra likes to see me give anyone else."

Tamma had never said that before. "She doesn't like you soothing me?"

"She doesn't like watching it," Tamma said.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I didn't know. Um. I'll go talk to Maya."

I turned to step away, but Lia moved in front of me, then stepped directly into me and wrapped her arms around me. She pressed her face into my neck and pulled my head down so I was leaning against her. I automatically moved my hands to her neck.

It took a few minutes, but the voices quieted, then went still. I sighed and slumped in relief. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said. "Better?"

"All the way quiet.
Thank you."

"You're welcome." She pulled away and smiled at me. "Easy job if you can get it." She moved to my side but kept one hand on my neck. Then Tamma moved to the other side, also touching me.

I looked over at her questioningly. "Badra doesn't mind this," she explained. Then she leaned closer to whisper into my ear, "I'll explain more later."

I nodded.

"I love your hair," Challi said.

"Thank you, Challi."

"You let it out of its braid," Lia observed. "Why?"

"Rora said it would make me look softer and less threatening."

"She's right. I like it this way."

"It gets in the way," I said. "It's better braided."

"There are no demons to fight here," Lia said.

"Malora wants us to mingle," I said. "I don't seem to be very diplomatic, though."

"Hmm. You got Zora to apologize to me," Tamma said. "You got Gardo to apologize to you. You must be doing something right."

I laughed. "Maya will play music later, and there will be dancing. Will we make anyone uncomfortable if we dance together?"

"Probably," Challi said.

"Are you going to let that stop you from dancing with me?" Tamma asked. "Does Nori dance?"

"I've never seen it. Maybe you should ask her."

"Maybe I will," Lia said.

"I'll let you three catch up, but save a dance for me."

I stepped away, taking a different path through the room, avoiding the table I'd already dealt with. A few people nodded to me, but then a group invited me to sit with them. This was a mixed group of three men and three women, and two of them moved apart while someone fetched me a chair. I sat, and one of the men asked me what I was drinking.

"Just cider," I said. "I am Chief Beria."

They introduced themselves, and one of the women got up and took my mug from me. "Anyone else?" She ended up with four mugs total
and went off somewhere to fill them.

They had questions. They started slowly with simple questions like what are our homes like and what was I chief of. Lenta returned with our mugs, and I thanked her. I answered questions about how long I've been an Amazon and what our life
was like. Finally one of the women asked, "Are there really demons? Are they really twelve feet tall and breathe fire?"

"Twelve feet? If you count the horns, I guess. We figure nine, about the size of a large brown bear."

"And you've seen one?"

"More than one. At last count, hmm. Twenty-two, I believe. Or maybe twenty-three. I wasn't at the fight, but there was once a large incursion of twenty-four. That was about fifteen years ago or so. That fight required about a third of all our warriors."

They were silent for a moment.

"You say it all so matter-of-
factly," one of the men said. I tried to remember his name. Jaro, something like that.

I shrugged. "It is part of our life. The demons come. The Amazons kill them. Believe me, I was plenty scared the first time, and even now it makes my heart pound when we spot one. I'm glad it's rare."

"Rare?" Jaro asked. "I guess, if there are only a few a year."

"Oh, you misunderstand. I have seen twenty-one or twenty-two. We go on patrol, four warriors at a time out of about twelve in a village. But we have forty-nine villages. I see one or two a year. My village sees four or so. Some of the villages see six or eight a year, if you count all their warriors."

"Times forty-nine villages? There are nearly three hundred demons incursions a year?"

"Well, no, because sometimes there's more than one. So perhaps two hundred
incursions and three hundred demons. I'm guessing, you understand. Queen Malora may have more accurate numbers than those. It may be that some villages see far less than the average. Queen's Town used to see more than that, but my village is new, and we patrol some of the territory they used to patrol, so some of the demons they used to handle, and that Black Rock to our north used to handle, we now handle."

"But you call them rare, then tell us there are three hundred a year?"

"Well, consider this. If I see a demon every nine months, then that means I patrolled for perhaps one hundred days out of that nine months. If I were hunting and killed only one deer every hundred days, I would long have starved to death."