by Лори Девоти
I glanced around again, looking for something to smash through the glass.
That's when I saw the owl perched on the top of the closet door. Its eyes were round and expressionless; its gaze locked on me like I was a fat mouse it planned to have for dinner. I twisted my body, intending to place my feet on the floor.
The owl fluttered his wings and shrieked. The sound was otherworldly. Despite knowing it came from the animal, a shiver shot up my spine.
The bird settled back down, tucking his wings back against his body, and resumed his disturbing observation. I shook off the moment of unrest and lifted my feet again.
The door I'd noticed earlier opened and Thea walked in.
The bone spear-shaped knife she'd given me the night of our first meeting was in her hand.
She motioned for me to put my feet back on the bed.
I stayed where I was.
"Tess, bring the darts," she called.
The hearth-keeper appeared behind her.
I jumped to my feet and lunged forward, intent on head-butting the pair out of my way. The owl shrieked again. . right before a dart hit me in the shoulder.
Then the net was back, dropped from the ceiling. I stumbled and fell and was hit with three more darts. My head began to swim.
"Enough. I need her awake this time."
There was silence, then the sound of footsteps and the door closing behind someone.
When I opened my eyes, Thea was staring into them. Her eyes were gray; I'd noticed that before, but now I could see the color was deceptive. They weren't a solid gray, a shade somewhere between black and white. Instead they were like prisms, many colors, all the colors I had ever seen before broken into such tiny bits that from a distance they appeared gray.
They were mesmerizing. . my head began to sway, my body too.
"There you go. You see it, don't you? Now you need to listen, listen carefully. I'm going to tell you secrets, secrets you need to know, secrets that will make everything all right."
I felt my head nod. Secrets. I wanted to hear Thea's secrets.
I held very still and let her whisper in my ear.
Her words flowed over me like water, warm and reassuring. She knew what I wanted, what I needed. . I just needed to listen.
"Are you with me, Zery? Do you hear me? Raise your hands and let me know that you do."
I raised my hands, or tried to; something was holding them down, keeping me from complying. I jerked with all my strength and they flew up.
Thea laughed. "Good, good. I think we can get rid of this now."
A weight lifted off my body, the net pulling free.
I was sitting on my butt, my legs bent at the knees in front of me. She knelt beside me. The knife was in her hands, but it didn't bother me. I trusted her, wanted to hear her secrets.
"You know Padia's plan, don't you?" she asked.
I nodded. I did.
"And you don't want her to succeed, do you? Would you do anything? Sacrifice anything to stop her?"
I nodded again. She smiled and patted my hand, like a toddler who'd drunk all of her milk. She leaned close and whispered, "That's my secret. I want to stop her too."
Some part of my brain scoffed. I didn't believe her; I knew who she was.
Thea. . Padia. . brushed her thumb over my arm. "What's this?" Her thumb stood out against my skin and the black ink underneath.
"Your artisan friend playing? Thinking she can outdo me with markers?" There was disbelief and disgust in her voice, but my attention was mainly focused on the art she had ridiculed-the praying mantis. . the leopard. . the meerkat. What had Mel said when she'd drawn the meerkat? What was his gift?
The tiny animal's eyes glistened; it swayed, like I had swayed. It barked, yelled at me, in Mel's voice. "Think, Zery. Remember. Be strong."
I blinked and looked at Thea. She wasn't watching me. She was still staring at the art my friend, my best friend, the one person I had always been able to trust, had drawn on me. . to save me.
And suddenly the fog thinned. Thinned but still there, like looking at the world through sheer fabric. The floor was hard beneath my buttocks. The air in the place was stale and smelled of old food, sweat, and septic, but all of it was dulled somehow, ever so slightly surreal.
But Thea, my enemy, I knew was within my reach. That I knew with a certainty. The thought swirled through my mind. She was close. I could loop my arms around her neck and snap it through. Or I could have, should have been able to, but my arms and legs were leaden. Without the priestess's instructions, I seemed unable to do more than breathe and swallow. And even if I could have moved, even if I could have killed her as I so longed to do, I wouldn't have Andres, didn't know who the birders were, where they were. Didn't know anything.
Mel and Jack had told me to think, to plan, to quit just reacting. This was my chance.
"I'll tell you another secret," she murmured. I gritted my teeth to keep myself from replying.
She ran the edge of the stone knife down my throat. "Padia isn't as strong as she thinks she is. Isn't as smart as she thinks she is. I know how she got on the council; it wasn't because she was the best. Not by a long shot." The blade paused, poised over my artery. "She's bossy too. I hate bossy. Do you hate bossy? Wait, you are bossy, aren't you?"
I didn't reply. None seemed required.
"But bossy won't work for her this time. Do you want to know why?"
I did.
"Because I have the knife." She held it up; twisted it so light seemed to pulse off of it. "She may have the child." Thea's hand stilled. "But I have the knife she wants and needs for the ceremony and now I have you. . a queen! That's as good as a baby, don't you think? If you were a goddess, which would you rather have? A baby who has barely lived a life, or a queen with almost one hundred years behind her?"
Her brow furrowed. She pressed the knife against my arm. "Answer me, which?"
"A queen," I croaked.
She smiled and leaned in again. "You want to hear another secret?"
This time I didn't think I did, but I nodded anyway.
"Tess suggested you. It was sweet of her, wasn't it? Thinking of you. You should thank her, you really should."
I intended to, I really did.
"It's perfect, actually. You are the person who stopped me from ending this a week ago. Because of you, I lost the child. It's only fair you take his place. . for now."
I realized then what she meant to do. . to sacrifice me and then, later, Andres.
I curled my fingers into my palms, fought to keep from reacting.
She brushed her spider ring against my arm. I could feel the tiny hairs on the spider's legs as if he were real, could feel him crawling off of her ring and onto my arm.
I shivered.
She smiled and lowered her blade.
The spider climbed higher, until he was covering my heart.
"He's poisonous. One bite and you won't be able to move, you'll fall paralyzed to the ground. Your breathing will stop too, but that will take a while. . " Her voice changed to a hiss. "That would ruin my plan a second time."
"What plan?" I asked, hoping my words wouldn't make her question if I was under her spell.
"My plans to be queen, of course. Not"-she stroked my arm-"a small-time queen like you. . Padia thought she could buy me off with that." She blew air out her nose in disgust. "I want what Padia wants, to rule a tribe, my tribe, a tribe I created, who follows me and only me. A tribe of logical females, who appreciate the value of keeping up, not hiding their heads in the millennia-old sand."
Padia. She kept saying the name as if she and Thea weren't one and the same.
The spider shuffled to the left; I could feel its eyes on me. I lowered my gaze, stared down at the monster. It was bigger now, huge. It covered my entire chest. Its fangs hung down, brushed my shirt. I couldn't take my focus off of it, was afraid if I did, the fangs would puncture not only my skin but my chest, sink into the cavity and pierce my heart and lungs.
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"You see him, don't you? He's beautiful, isn't he? I could have called something else, but for you. . this seemed perfect." She leaned close and whispered, "One of my secrets. Padia can't do this, not like I can. The goddess hasn't blessed her like she has me. I am stronger. I deserve to rule."
She sighed and patted my arm. "Enough talking. I can see you're ready now. You weren't before." The spider's eyes, eight of them. . I counted. . winked at me, or seemed to. It had no eyelids. . my mind grappled with that, blinking with no eyelids. It was impossible, as was the gigantic arachnid on my chest. But the creature was there; I could see him and feel him.
Panic shot through me. I wanted to pull away, but I couldn't. . knew if I did, I'd feel those fangs, hear them as they popped through my chest, then sank in toward my heart and lungs.
Somewhere Thea was still talking. I could barely hear her now; the spider was my entire focus, keeping it calm and happy my only concern.
"Later, we will go to the obelisk. My tribe is gathering now. Padia will be there too, with the baby. I haven't met her yet in person. Tess heard her plans before she escaped. I should thank you for that I suppose, eh? See, until you came to camp and told me Tess and the baby were missing, I didn't know. Didn't know Padia had already arrived here either. It's what put me on alert, stopped your feeble effort to kidnap me." She laughed. "So Padia will be at the obelisk with the baby, but we will get there first. You, unfortunately, won't be able to greet her when she does arrive. . won't technically be there then."
She tapped the blade against my cheek. "Smile. It's a happy day. We both get what we want. You save the child from Padia and I become queen."
Chapter 27
They walked me through the woods, Thea telling me when to move my feet. Like a puppet or a zombie, I complied. My cooperation wasn't an act. My legs moved whether my head wanted them to or not.
The sun was high and hot, even through the trees. Sweat beaded in my bra, like it had that day so long ago when I'd gone into the woods and found Andres there with Thea.
Tess was with us, but there had been no sign of Andres yet, or the birders.
The hearth-keeper had shot me twice more while I had lain on the bed. The darts had left marks and still stung, but I didn't rub at them or flinch when she lifted the pipe yet again. Thea told me it would help, make everything easier, and I believed her. . or thought I did. . but somewhere deep inside I felt a scream building.
I nurtured that scream, concentrated on it while my feet followed the high priestess's directions.
Our pace was slow and the RV they'd had hidden beneath a pile of brush was far away from Artemis's clearing, barely on Amazon property.
After what felt like hours of drudgery, we arrived.
The obelisk stood tall, proud and regal as always. The sun shone off its glossy sides. I wanted to press my face to it, soak in that heat, use it to feed my secret scream.
But Thea told me to stop while I was still fifteen feet away, still standing in the trees and, damn my obedient feet, they complied.
She held up the knife. "Give me your hands."
My arms rose, steady and sure, as if pulled by a string. She slipped the blade beneath my bonds. The bone was cool and smooth against my skin. There was a slight tug and the rope fell to the ground.
I waited, the scream wasn't ready yet, wasn't strong yet. It flitted away, then came back, unsteady, untrustworthy.
Thea murmured something. My head nodded. She smiled and motioned for Tess to follow her.
From where I was standing I could see the entire clearing, the obelisk, the packed dirt beneath it, and the birders who slowly filed into the space. They wore their usual uniforms of Bermuda shorts and pastel tees. They looked like every grandmother you see at the mall.
Thea held up the knife for them to see. "Today all promises become real."
The brush to my left rippled. I shifted my eyes, the only part of my body I seemed to have control over, to the side. Jack in his wolverine form poked his head out of the underbrush. He sniffed, then watched me standing there doing nothing. He lifted his lip in a silent snarl. I thought for a second he was going to attack me or rush the circle, I wasn't sure which.
How I was standing. . cooperating. . He knew I had failed, or worse, thought I had been turned.
I stared at him, trying to put words into my eyes, to tell him I wasn't there willingly, but he only pulled his head back and disappeared.
"Zery?" Thea called from the circle.
My legs pulled my feet through the bed of dead leaves and weeds that covered the ground. The tip of my shoe caught on a root. My leg jerked, pulling it free. I staggered forward and into the clearing.
Thea held up her hands. "Our gift! Who could ask for more?"
Gray, grandmotherly heads nodded. They slipped their hands into each other's until they formed a tight circle around us.
Tess stood behind them. She glanced over her shoulder and licked her lips.
Thea gestured and Tess hurried forward, a bowl of oil in her hands. The priestess dipped her fingers into the liquid and drew an arrow. . a spear. . on my forehead. Then she began to chant.
Her head bowed, she murmured over the blade, speaking words of wisdom and sacrifice, knowledge and power. She asked for things I didn't think possible, channeling my power, the power of my ancestors into the women gathered around us.
Then she raised the blade.
"This gift I give in the name of the greatest of goddesses, in the name of Athena."
I tried to fight then, tried to remember what Mel had told me, how the art on my arms combined with my own will would protect me. But as I stared down at her work, all I saw were marker lines. . no magic, no faith. . failure.
I stiffened, ready to feel the blade ram through my chest, ready to lose my life, only praying that somehow doing so would save Andres's.
"A gift? For Athena? I don't think so." Kale stepped into the clearing. In her hand was a sword, and behind her was an army of Amazons-or what appeared to be an army in my defeated state-all the Amazons from the safe camp, the ones I knew and the ones who had arrived since my exile.
I closed my eyes and prayed my thanks. Artemis hadn't deserted me. She hadn't released the power of Mel's magic because I didn't need it. I had my tribe.
One of the birders reached for her pocket. Kale raised her hand, and a knife, previously tucked into another Amazon's belt, flew at the woman's throat. A millimeter from piercing it, the blade froze and quivered, hung in midair.
"Unless you are willing to give your life for her, I wouldn't move."
The birder didn't and I didn't either, and not only because of Thea's power over me.
Kale was a priestess, and her magic was just like Thea's. The realization stunned me.
She smiled. "Good job, Zery. You figured me out." Then she swung the sword overhead. It tumbled end over end, heading toward me.
The birders gasped and ran. The bone knife grasped tight in her hand and her eyes wild, Thea spun.
I gritted my teeth, willed my feet to move, but I was still frozen, trapped under Thea's web.
Her eyes glittering, Thea stepped in front of me. She raised her arm. Words ordering the sword to fall flew from her mouth, but the sword kept coming. She yelled again.
The while her lips were still open, her body arched and a grunt replaced her commands. Skewered by the sword, she stumbled to the side.
Released from whatever spell she'd put on me, I grabbed the weapon and jerked it from her corpse.
I was armed, but so were the Amazons surrounding me. Knives, swords, staffs, nunchakus. . an arsenal of weaponry. . all directed at me.
Kale sighed and strolled forward. At Thea's body, she stopped. "She really was a pain in the ass. I don't know how you put up with her as long as you did. Of course, your mother might have said the same thing about me."
"Who are you?" I asked. Inside I knew, but with everything that had happened, with my mind still fuzzy from Thea's control, I needed to
hear the words.
"She tried to steal my sacrifice, offer it as her own-before Panathenaea. What a waste that would have been! I was already on my way here when I talked to the two of you on the phone. I could tell she was lying to me, thought she could outsmart me.
"I sneaked into camp to watch her. Saw her kill Kale and two of them." She nodded toward the birders. "Then you came along. At first I thought to just kill you too, but then I realized it was a chance for me to learn more, to get the baby and the knife." She glanced at Thea. "She had found it, through her network. I should have taken it from her as soon as I knew she had it, but she'd seemed trustworthy, seemed to understand who was in charge. I never dreamed she would try to keep the knife from me or be stupid enough to think sacrificing the baby early would help her overpower me."
The baby. Andres. I still didn't know where he was, how he was. I held up the sword. "Where is he?"
She squinted her eyes and glanced up at the sun. "He'll be here soon."
I wanted to shove the bloody tip of that sword through her heart more than I had ever wanted anything, but twenty armed Amazons surrounded me. I might succeed in killing Kale. . Padia. . but then what? The others would kill me and Andres would arrive with no one here to protect him.
She tilted her head and studied me. "That sword must be getting heavy. . "
And suddenly it was; suddenly it weighed more than fifty swords. My bicep burned; I gritted my teeth.
"So, all of you are part of this-you, Thea, Tess?" I spit out the question, hoping she couldn't keep up a conversation and toy with my mind at the same time.
"Don't forget Areto. You didn't really think she was on your side, did you?"
My arm quivered. Areto. . I'd trusted her and she'd betrayed me, again.
"Thea, Tess, Areto. . " Padia shook her head. "Who can you trust?"
The weight of the sword increased again. It felt as if an army was hanging from my bicep. A groan escaped my gritted teeth.
She laughed and waved her empty hand in the air. "Enough. I'm tired of this. Kill-" She bit off her own words and stared at me again. The blade moved back to her chin, tapped once, twice, a third time. "Tess gave Thea the idea to sacrifice you, did you know that?"
