Amazon Chief (54 page)

One of the other men chuckled. "You have an intriguing way of putting it," he said.

Balana, one of the women, said, "And is it true your villages have no men?"

"Yes. Men do poorly with the demons, and so we don't allow them in our forest, except for very short visits. My brothers have come once since I became an Amazon, and my father twice."

"You've only seen your father twice in all these years?"

"Oh, no. Mother and Father sometimes come to one of the villages on the plains west of our forest, and we see them there instead. And my sister and I go home as often as we can, maybe every year or two."

"But. How do you get along without any men?" Balana asked.

"We seem to do very well. Why wouldn't we?"

"What do you do? Um. For companionship?"

"We have each other. My sister and I both Amazons, and my warrior and her sister.
"

"That's not what I meant," Balana said. "You know what I mean."

"Oh," I said. "That kind of companionship. Some of us do without. Some of us form attachments with our companions, once they are old enough."

"You don't, um, go visit men somewhere else?"

I shook my head. I found her questions puzzling. "I have never heard of it," I said. "The thought carries little interest to me. To be honest, it sounds kind of, well, gross."

Lenta began laughing. "I suppose it is," she agreed.

"Hey!" said the man she was sitting next to.

"You know I don't mean you, sweetie," she told him, clasping onto his arm and smiling at him.

"Better not," he said gruffly. "You'll give a guy a complex."

"Ooh," she said. Then she pointedly looked into his lap. "Did I offend the little sweetums?"

"It's not little!"

"Maybe that's my cue to leave," I said.

"Oh don't go," she said. "We'll behave." She smiled at me. "I suppose you're not used to dealing with men at all. You have to keep them in their place or they think they're in charge."

"So a lot like children."

"Exactly," the women said at the same time while the men growled at us.

I decided it was time for a safer conversation. "What do all of you do?"

"We," Jaro said, gesturing at himself and the other two men, "work at Parson's Mill. We heard about the lumber you conned Old Man Parson's out of. Way to go! What are you going to do with it?"

"Build huts," I said. "And maybe a stable."

"Huts?" he asked. "You mean houses?"

I shrugged. I describe our homes.

"Wait," he said. "There must not be much more room than needed for a bed and a chair or two."

"And a chest or two for clothes and our other possessions."

"All your clothes fit into two chests?" Balana asked.

"Well, not my boots," I said. "But I have one chest. If I had a companion, she would also have one. I also store spare material for mending in the chest and anything else I want to make sure stays clean and dry."

"Books?" Trent asked, Lenta's husband.

"I have four," I said.

"So you can read?"

"Of course. I attended school until I was thirteen, and my sister-" I pointed at Maya, "-was the schoolteacher. She was old to become an Amazon, twenty-two."

"Wait," said Balana. "I'm still trying to understand this thing about clothes. You fit all of your clothes, even your dresses, into a chest. You have a closet, right?"

"I don't have any dresses. All my clothes are similar to the ones you see me wearing. I do have a long leather coat that I hang up. Everything else goes in the chest."

"But-" she looked frustrated. "Why don't you have more than that?"

"Because everything we have we either have to hunt for or hope the villages will send us. We have a difficult enough time getting them to send us food so we can hunt demons instead of deer. We can't spend days at a time hunting, either, because we must train. Demons are big and strong, and we train very hard.
I think you can understand why."

"Wait," she said. She paused for a moment. "We don't send you enough for a proper wardrobe, much less everything else you need?"

I shrugged. "What is a proper wardrobe? Do you not care for how I am dressed?"

"It's very striking," she said. "But if you keep everything in a chest, then you can't have more than two or three outfits."

"Four," I said. "How many do you have?"

Her husband began laughing. "More than four. This is her third outfit today, and I haven't seen this dress in months. She pulled it out special."

"But I'm a seamstress," she said.

"You made this?" I gestured. "It's lovely."

"Thank you," she said. She eyed my clothing.

"I know," I said. "It isn't fancy. I wouldn't know how to make anything fancy."

"It is well constructed," she said. "And it isn't easy making clothes that fit so well."

I shrugged. "I just make them all the same, but the colors aren't all the same. As you can see, we tend to greens and browns."

"Would it help if we sent clothes?" she asked.

"As you said, it's difficult to make clothes that fit this well, and these clothes are well-suited to our lives. Coats though, and cloaks. And comfortable sleepwear." I shrugged. "As you can imagine, Amazons can be very competitive, and we like to make wagers with each other. The m
ost common wager is a deer skin, although that is also a significant wager."

"So, leather."

"Cotton and wool also have value. You should talk to my sister. She coordinates the tithes." I looked over and waved until I got Maya's attention, then gestured her over. I introduced her then explained the conversation. "I've answered the questions I could, but maybe you should talk to them." I gave her my chair, then stepped behind her, putting my hands on her neck. She covered one of my hands with one of hers.

"I've been explaining this," she said.

The woman looked into her lap. "I'm not sure we were paying attention."

"What changed? Please, what changed?"

Grace stopped by. "I see you met my cousin's daughter." She gestured to Lenta. Maya turned to her and relayed the basic gist of the conversation. "Why are people suddenly understanding?"

"I don't think they are," she said. "We've been sending you vegetables since the year after Tamma went with you."

"It's grown."

"Yes. I have more help. Some of Tamma's friends grew up, and now they're helping. You understand.
But we're now canning as much as my brother is willing to provide, so unless more farms begin to donate to us, we're sending as much as I can send you."

"And you're doing as much as you should have to."

"We have the biggest kitchen in the village," she said. "If we had more produce, and another hand or two, then we would find a way to send it to you. If you send my jars back."

Maya laughed. "I will, I promise. But the jars are coveted for other things."

"You use the jars?"

"We waste nothing."

"So they aren't just sitting in some warehouse somewhere?"

"What's a warehouse?" I asked. "Is it like a storage room?"

Seven pairs of eyes turned to me, then Grace slowly asked Maya, "Do you believe your queen would allow some of us to come visit for a week or two this summer?"

"You won't see a demon," Maya said immediately.

"You showed us a demon all those years ago. I am not coming to see demons. I am coming to see what else we can do for you."

"You do so much," Maya said.

"I don't," Bandara said. "I throw a few coins in a jar Grace keeps."

Maya looked up at me. "Go get Malora." I nodded and stepped away. I moved across Malora's field of vision, and she turned to me. I gestured with my nose towards Maya, and Malora nodded once. A moment later, she was moving in that direction. I retrieved a chair
for her, and the occupants at the table made more room for her next to Maya. I stood behind both of them.

So I listened to the basic conversation a third time as Maya brought Malora up to speed, finally saying, "Grace thinks perhaps a tour by some of the villages would be enlightening."

"You won't see a demon," Malora said immediately. "If you want proof they exist, you have our word and the demon we once showed the village. We can show you our scars. We can show you how we learn to fight. You can watch some of us leave on patrol and come back. You can see our warriors relax under the touch of our companions."

"That's not it," Grace said. "We want to know how we can better help. There seems to be a
certain incredulity in the sparseness of your lives."

"We make do," Malora said.

"And so, you would prefer we not visit?" Grace asked. "I wouldn't want to impose."

"Of course you may visit," Malora said. "You may coordinate with Maya and Beria." She looked up at me. "You will need to organize an escort to retrieve them and then return them home." She looked over at Maya. "I do not know how you send and receive letters."

"I've been giving them to Ralla, and she delivers them to one of the plains villages. I suppose now that will be Beria instead." She looked at Balara. "For the northern villages, we send through Howard's Den. If you send a letter to Amazon Maya in care of Chester at Howard's Den, it gets to me. You wouldn't need to say Amazon, as Chester knows me, but he doesn't know the names of every Amazon and may not know what to do with a letter to someone else."

"So you'll want us escorted while in your forest?" Balara asked.

"Hmm?" Malora replied. "Oh, no. The escort is to make sure you arrive safely to the forest. There are dangers along the way."

"Not lately," Maya said. She looked around the room. "We clean them out."

"Clean what out?" Jaro asked.

"Bandit camps," Malora explained. "We have little patience
for those who prey on the weak. I don't know why bandits continue to collect in the plains near our forest. Every few years, we have to deal with a group." She turned back to Maya. "We will provide an escort."

"Of course, Queen Malora."

"Well," said Grace. "Everyone has eaten who came to eat. Perhaps it is time to move the tables and hear some music."

It took only moments to move the tables to the perimeter of the room with the chairs just inside the tables. This provided seating for those who wanted it and an open area in the middle for dancing. I found myself standing next to Lia along one side. Her daughters weren't with her.

"Zora collected them?" I asked.

She gestured across the room, and I saw Zora sitting with the girls
. "The girls wanted to hear some of the music, and Zora decided to stay for a while."

"That's nice of her," I commented.

"Last night, I told her and Arden I was leaving with you in the morning to spend time with Tamma. Zora isn't stupid. She probably knows I'm not coming back. She probably balances having to learn to cook against never having to again deal with Tamma, the children, or me, and decides it's a good deal."

"I'm sorry. Family should support each other."

Maya produced her fiddle, spending a few moments tuning it. She didn't bother attempting to acquire attention. She simply took a place to the side of the fireplace and began playing. She played a song she frequently used as a warm-up, a simple, happy tune she's been playing for as long as I could remember. It brought back memories of my childhood, and I smiled.

She transitioned into a jig, and moments later Mandy was at my side. "Chief Beria, would you care to dance?"

"I have warned you I may not know the steps you do."

"We'll make our own steps," he said.

And so I accepted. I even let him lead. As we moved around the room, I saw others dancing. Badra danced with Tamma and Ralla with Jasmine, but I also saw the villagers dancing. Lia danced with a man I hadn't yet met.

Maya continued to play more songs, and I accepted several more dances. Finally I found myself without a partner, and so I approached Queen Malora. "Would you dance with me?"

She smiled. As soon as Maya saw her warrior and I together, she changed the song. All the Amazons recognized it. It started out relatively slow, but over time she would grow faster and faster. Malora turned and gave her a dirty look, but Maya continued to play. Malora and I, along with a number of other dancers, danced, faster and faster until finally, laughing, Malora pulled me from the floor. She gave Maya another dirty look, but she only grinned at her warrior. A few more dancers lasted longer than we had, but the room dissolved into laughter as the last dancers gave up before Maya did.

She finished, laughing herself, and lowered her fiddle. "I'm sorry. That's my queen's favorite song."

"And you will now play something slower," Malora said. She turned to me. "Ask Lia to dance," gesturing beside me. I hadn't even seen her.

I turned to her. She had heard Malora. "We have been commanded," she said. She took my hand and pulled me out to the floor. Several other partners waited for Maya to begin, unsure what she might play. Maya smiled once more, then lifted her bow and began to play a happy song, slow and sweet.