by Лори Девоти
Then I twisted my staff and jammed it into the center of her back. In an advantageous position if the need to battle arose, I gestured for Jack to back off.
His lip curled and the ugly growling bark I'd come to recognize followed, but after only one such complaint, he loosened his jaws and shuffled backward.
The air around him grew fuzzy, like someone had rubbed Vaseline over a camera lens. Knowing what was happening, I waited, and just as quickly as it had begun the spot lengthened, the air cleared, and a naked Jack replaced the wolverine.
His lip raised revealing teeth. "She shot at you."
I stepped away from the fallen queen and spun my staff so it was directed at the son. "Dead, she can't tell us anything."
Kale was my only hope of convincing the Amazons that the basic premise of the high council and the trust we had placed in them had been violated.
He growled again, but turned and stalked to where his pants lay in a pile near the edge of the clearing.
Kale didn't move. I watched her with one eye as I walked to the sword shoved halfway to its hilt into the earth. I jerked the weapon out; a boar was engraved on its blade, answering any doubts I might have had as to her identity. I walked back and pushed the Amazon over with my foot, just as I'd pushed the dead birder.
Kale's body moved in the same manner, lifeless, with no fight. She could have been dead, if it weren't for the up and down movement of her chest and the slight humming noise coming from her throat.
I pressed the tip of the sword against the base of her neck until a bead of blood appeared. When I got no reaction, I pressed harder.
"Where is the rest of the council, Kale?"
She blinked, and the fog lifted. I realized then it wasn't a hum I heard, but a chant, a low repetition of words I couldn't make out.
Her lips dry, her voice cracking, she rasped, "What happened? Where is-" She grabbed the sword with her bare hand and pushed it away.
The tip tore at her skin as she did, leaving a long ugly line of blood and ragged tissue. Then she bent her knees, raised her hips, and propelled her body to a stand.
Ready for another attack, I spun.
Except, she didn't. . she staggered, backward then sideways like a drunken middle-aged man surprised to find he couldn't hold his liquor like he had in his youth.
Her hair fell forward over her face. When she looked at me, strands still clung there, half-hiding her features. "What have you done to me?" Then her knees buckled and she fell forward onto the ground.
"Zery. .?" Mel behind me, warning in her voice.
Thinking she was afraid I would skewer the fallen council member where she lay, I lowered the sword to my side. "Don't worry, I won't-"
"No. Someone's coming. And not Mother, Bern, or any Amazon I'd guess."
I listened. There were voices, male, and the sound of bodies thrashing their way through the woods.
I retrieved my staff and tossed it to Mel. Then I bent and levered the fallen warrior's body onto my shoulder.
"What about the birders?" Jack asked.
"Leave them." And I jogged out of the clearing.
Chapter 19
We got maybe twenty feet away from the clearing before the owners of the voices closed in.
"What the hell is that thing?"
I stiffened. The obelisk. I looked at Mel.
She shook her head.
Still holding the sword and with the unconscious, bleeding warrior over my shoulder, I couldn't move closer, not without risking discovery.
But I also couldn't see or hear what I wanted.
Jack held up his hand and pointed for Mel and me to leave, then he shifted.
The air waved, then his pants crumpled, and out of the fallen material the black snout of a wolverine appeared. Without a glance at us, he crept through the underbrush.
It was smart. He could get close, and even if seen there was little risk. They could shoot him, but unless he attacked one of them I doubted they would.
I still didn't want to leave. I still wanted to be there myself. I lifted my foot to edge closer.
Mel dropped the end of my staff in front of me.
I stared at the wooden rod, my emotions saying to shove the barrier aside, but my head saying she was right.
Finally I adjusted Kale's weight on my shoulder and turned back toward Jack's cabin.
I had my spies in place.
I had to trust that Cleo and Jack would bring me any information I needed.
Plus I had a warrior to interrogate. . once I made sure she wasn't dead.
While I carried Kale inside, Lao laid towels on one of the beds to protect the linens from blood. Once the mattress was protected, I heaved my burden off my shoulder and laid her as gently as I could on the bed.
Lao went to work cleaning the wound where the sword tip had torn at her neck.
I left her alone, choosing to sit outside on the back porch and wait for Jack or Cleo to arrive. The dog wandered up. Someone had made a bed out of a cardboard box and set it on the porch. The smallest pup, the one that had barely been alive when I'd found him in the woods, whined.
I picked him up, mindlessly stroking him as I waited. By the time the chug of the stolen car's engine announced Cleo's arrival, I was completely calm and for whatever reason feeling under control. . like we were making progress.
The older warrior got out of the car and walked toward me.
Before I could ask her what she had learned, Jack's wolverine head poked out of the woods. His body soon followed. He stood at the edge of the forest, sniffing until I raised my hand giving the sign that all was fine here. Then he shifted.
While he pulled on his pants, which Mel had brought back and left lying on the ground, Cleo went to get Mel, Bern, and Lao, if she was able to leave Kale.
Soon Cleo, Bern, and Mel had appeared. Lao, Cleo said, wasn't yet willing to leave our houseguest alone. The five of us sat cross-legged in a circle on the grass. Tess sat on the porch fussing over the puppies.
The whole thing would have had a picnic feel if it wasn't for the lack of food and our topic of discussion.
"Who were they?" I asked, directing the question at Jack.
"Sheriff's department, I think. Someone called them."
We glanced at Cleo. She shook her head. "Could have been someone at the camp. The deputies arrived not long after I did. They seemed to be expecting them. The priestess, at least. . " Her eyes wandered over Bern and me.
"How were things there?" I asked.
"Strange. Quiet." Cleo frowned. "As I said, they seemed to be waiting for something."
"Did anyone mention Kale?" I assumed since we'd found the high council member by the obelisk, she had come from the camp.
"No. No one really talked to me at all. I drove up, and they all just stared at the car. When I got out, the high priestess. . Thea?" — she looked at me for confirmation-"came to talk to me. Asked where I was from, the last camp I'd visited, things like that. But it didn't feel like idle chitchat."
"You think she suspected something?" I asked.
"Maybe. . or she just wasn't sure she wanted me there."
Not wanting an Amazon at a safe camp was unheard of. Being a stopping point for wandering Amazons was our entire purpose, and I knew the camp wasn't overfull. Four sleeping spaces had recently been vacated.
"But then the sheriff arrived."
I considered this: perhaps that was it. If Thea knew the sheriff was arriving, I'd understand how a new unknown warrior being thrown in the mix might not excite her, but how would she have known the sheriff was arriving-unless she had called them? And Amazons didn't call in human authorities. . ever.
Jack jumped back into the conversation. "They found the bodies. It shook them up. I heard one of them say they'd been shot. I don't think they went there expecting to find anyone dead."
Which made me wonder what they had expected, why Thea had directed them toward the woods.
"Did any of the Amazons come with them, or show
up?" I asked. If human authorities had wanted to investigate in Artemis's woods while I was at the safe house, I would have done everything I could to stop them. As it was, I'd had a hard time not challenging their right to be there. Point being, if I'd been forced to pretend I was cooperating, I still would have tagged along after.
"No," replied Jack.
I glanced at Cleo. She shook her head. "They came to the camp and Thea talked to them. Then she directed them to the path."
"She directed them to the path? To the obelisk?"
Cleo nodded. Her jaw jutted out to one side.
"Did no one object?"
"No one."
I looked back at Jack. "What about the sheriffs? Did they say who they thought shot the women?"
"They thought they shot each other. They found two guns."
I'd only looked at one of the bodies, but whoever had shot her had either known what she was doing or made one hell of a lucky shot.
Jack continued, "After they talked a bit, they broke up and started searching the woods. One of the guns wasn't where they expected to find it, not if one of the dead women dropped it. I was afraid they'd find you."
The gun Kale had held, the one I'd kicked. "We left," I replied.
"And they haven't been by here?" he asked.
I shook my head. But he had a point. Eventually someone would realize there were houses close to the obelisk that weren't the safe house. Even if they did think the two women killed each other, we needed to be prepared for the authorities to come calling.
"So how'd they know to come to the safe camp?" I asked, going back to my original question.
"I think someone from the camp called them, reported hearing two trespassers arguing. Whoever called said the pair had acted strangely and they were afraid to approach them to run them off."
"Do you think Kale shot them?" Mel asked, directing the question at me.
"She says she doesn't remember." Lao stepped onto the porch. "Doesn't seem to remember much. Aside from that I'd say she's hale and hearty, or should be." The hearth-keeper stared at me.
I only registered the first of Lao's words. I looked at Jack. "Any of the goddesses have the power to steal someone's memory?"
"You think someone at the camp is on the other side?" Mel dropped her hand from the head of the puppy I held.
I raked my fingers over the tiny dog's fur.
"I don't think we can discount the idea. . We can't discount anything."
Not long after Cleo had returned to the safe camp, Tess came to find me. I was still sitting out back in a rocker, this time waiting for Kale.
Tess wandered out looking shy and insecure. For the first time I noticed her chin-length hair was uncombed and her clothes were rumpled.
She walked to the end of the porch and wrapped her arms around the rough wood pillar.
I waited.
"I. . I was thinking. . Cleo, Mel's mother. . she said no one would talk to her at camp." The young hearth-keeper slid one foot over the wooden porch floor. Her thick-soled sandal hit a rock and knocked it down into the long grass. "When I was there, people talked to me. I think they would again."
I frowned. "You want to go back?"
She straightened her arm, pushing her body away from the pillar. The position showed she was thin but muscular. Her arms had almost as much definition as mine.
The benefit of youth, or maybe the hearth-keepers' household tasks gave them more of a workout than I gave them credit for.
She continued, "Not want. I mean I understand what you are doing, how important it is. The fact that they wanted to kill that baby. . " She shook her head, her mouth pulling down at the corners. "But I think I could go back. I think they would trust me. I could find out things Cleo can't. And you don't need me here. I sat with Kale for a while, but she's well now."
"You want to be a spy?" It was hard to imagine the soft-spoken hearth-keeper as an undercover agent.
She nodded, eager now. "I could tell them I didn't agree with you, that I missed being part of the tribe and hitched a ride back to camp. I don't think they'd suspect anything. They wouldn't think I'd be up to anything."
Her eyes were wide and innocent and her voice held a tremor. She was right, they wouldn't. I wouldn't.
"You could tell them we forced you to come," I added.
She smiled. "Yeah, kidnapped. That would be cool."
"By Bern?"
The silent warrior had just stepped onto the porch.
Tess laughed. "They'd believe that."
"Maybe in your escape you could have taken her down."
"Poisoned her eggs." The girl was grinning now.
"I like that."
She laughed and I even managed a smile. Bern grimaced.
Kale, led by an annoyed-looking Lao, appeared in the doorway. There were circles under the warrior's eyes and a long white strip of bandage taped to her throat. She looked like something you'd see on a slasher movie poster.
I gave Tess my blessing and asked Bern to walk her as far as the highway. The girl would send any information she learned back to us through Cleo. If for some reason we decided to pull Cleo or something happened where she needed to contact us directly, she would come through the woods.
Her arms crossed over her chest and her brows pulled together, Lao watched Tess and Bern disappear down the drive.
"You okay with that?" I asked her.
"Don't see the sense in it."
"She wants to do something."
"There's plenty of doing here-toilets to clean and Amazons to feed."
"You don't need her, though, do you?"
She snorted. "No. But I still don't like it." She shoved her hands into her pockets and whirled back toward the house.
Leaving Kale and me alone. Considering that the last time the council member had faced me with her eyes open she'd tried to kill me. . and to be fair I had pierced her in the neck with a sword. . it was natural we could only stare at each other with distrust at first.
Just as I thought the tension wouldn't pass, the mother dog tromped onto the porch. She shoved her nose into the box with her puppies. They kicked their feet and moved their snouts, vying for her attention. She pulled her head back out and stared at me-with what I interpreted as strained patience.
The stuffed cow that had been in Andres's baby seat was lying on the porch's wooden deck. It must have made its way in with our things and someone had put it in with the puppies.
I threw it out into yard; the mother gave one last glance at her puppies, then sailed off the porch after it.
Kale laughed. "She's recovered quickly. The pups can't be what? A week or so old?"
I let my hand fall toward the pile of puppies, enjoying the feel of their pin sharp teeth on my skin. "Less than that. I found her in Artemis's woods; maybe she's part Amazon."
Kale nodded. "Must be." Then she collapsed into one of the porch's redwood chairs.
"What happened?" I asked. "Why'd you quit calling?"
When she looked up, there was confusion in her eyes. For a moment I thought she didn't remember our conversations, but then her emotions cleared. Still, she only stared back at me, seemed to be composing her thoughts.
Lao reappeared with a glass of cloudy green liquid and shoved it into her hand. Kale lifted it, the drink inside sloshing back and forth as she did. As she drank, a bit dripped onto her leather wristband. She wiped it off with her thumb.
"Lao said your mother is dead."
I inclined my head slightly.
"A waste." Her gaze was steady, assessing and unnerving.
Taking her comment as a form of condolence, I nodded. "What happened?" I asked.
She hesitated. "I'm not supposed to tell you anything, you know. High council business. . what happens at the circle. . we don't discuss it."
"The council is dead," I said it as bluntly as I could. I was past wasting my time honoring tradition for tradition's sake. Or letting someone take advantage of my regard for those traditions by not questi
oning something that needed to be questioned. "Ex-high priestess Saka"-I didn't use Bubbe's first name because I didn't know it, and it felt strange to call her Bubbe to a council member-"tried to find them. You know what she said?"
Kale took a drink. Her eyes quiet, her body quiet, she looked at me over the top of her glass. "And she shouldn't have done that."
A growl loomed inside me, misplaced loyalty was not going to save the tribe, but before my annoyance grew too big to be contained, she sighed. "Yes, Tess told me. I don't know if I can believe it. . another goddess. We never suspected that." She ran her thumb over her wristband, then looked up. "What can I tell you? What did your mother tell you?"
The growl evaporated. Finally I was going to get the answers I needed. I asked her to start wherever she thought the story started, didn't explain how little I'd learned from my mother, how little time we'd had for her to tell me anything.
She seemed hesitant, but finally she spoke. "I didn't suspect anything, not like you are saying. We disagreed on what to do about the sons, but that was nothing new. The council doesn't tend to agree on anything; unwilling compromise is about the best we can hope for."
She took another drink.
"But this time it went past that, got more intense, quickly. Valasca brought up the idea of going back to the old ways first. I was surprised, her being a hearth-keeper, but then I figured she was older and probably hadn't really agreed with the shift when it happened. For a while she seemed to be the only person who really felt that way, and it seemed like there was no rush on deciding. We did our normal thing, what feels like arguing for argument's sake. Until your mother got pregnant. Then things changed. Padia spoke up; she was for going back to the killing too. Soon Fariba joined her, and one by one they all seemed to follow-everyone but your mother and me."
Padia, the priestess who had called back when I'd tried to contact Kale, who had told Thea I was no longer queen. Things were beginning to fall into place.
"Mother said there were two groups, with the majority in the middle."
Kale swallowed. "She didn't know. They quit talking about it in front of her and I didn't want to tell her. The more determined they became, the more determined she became, and I knew she wasn't going to hand over that baby-no matter the ruling. I should have, though. They tricked her or tried to. Your mother took the baby and ran. She told me she was giving him to his father."
