“You mean before we’re banished with the rest of the crones.” Sarah snorted into her cider. “Like the useless relics we are.”
“Self-pity, adanin. Not attractive.” Jocelyn plucked a corner of the other woman’s shawl, but there was affection in her voice. “The migration is voluntary, and you know it. With that asthma, you can’t take another winter up here. You wheeze like a bellows at night. Lady, you’ve told Brenna about our annual tradition?”
Shann nodded. “She knows Tristaine sends her infirm down to the southern meadows each fall to escape the mountain blizzards. A cadre of warriors goes with them for protection and hunting through the winter.”
Jocelyn resettled her ample weight on the bench and directed her question to Brenna. “And you know that this year our queen will order the entire village emptied?”
“Yes. I guess that’s necessary because Caster’s getting ready to attack.” Brenna eyed the pitcher of cider as it made its rounds. The focused attention of the three elders was a little unnerving. Even Shann was watching her with an odd intensity. “Everyone will leave except for a squad of Jesstin’s handpicked warriors to make sure no one follows the clan.” She sought out Jess, who stood in respectful silence behind Shann’s bench.
Dorothea nodded. “It’s a sad time for us, young Brenna. It’s difficult to sever the bonds holding us to this land.”
“Sever. As in forever?” Brenna looked at Shann, troubled. “You mean this migration is permanent? Everyone’s leaving and never coming back?”
“I’m afraid so, Blades.” Shann smoothed her hand over her arm as if to comfort herself. “We’ve always known that we can’t match the firepower of the City’s Military, not under full assault. If Amazons are to survive, we must move on.”
“The high council who sat thirty years ago proposed this plan, Brenna, long before our lady’s reign.” Jocelyn’s tone was gentle. “We’ve always known we would have to leave eventually. Shann and Dyan had the vision to prepare us for it.”
Brenna didn’t understand why her throat ached with tears. She had walked into Tristaine for the first time only an hour ago.
“The heart of Tristaine will endure.” Shann looked up at Jess, who avoided her gaze. “Amazons are long accustomed to exile, Bren. We carry our heritage with us. And our culture. The City’s grenade launchers can destroy our lodges, but as long as some of our sisters live to rebuild them, they can’t touch the soul of our clan.”
“But.” Sarah leaned forward. “This Caster puta won’t have grenade launchers, praise Anath.” Her voice was low and firm in the quiet. “If we have to lose our village, lady, we should at least take out that craven bitch and her mercenaries first.”
“Mercenaries?” Jess looked inquiringly at Shann.
“Yes, adanin.” Shann quirked one eyebrow at her second. “Our elders bring us interesting tidings from Theryn’s source in the City. Apparently, Caster has fallen badly out of favor with her superiors since your escape from the Clinic. She lost her Government funding and much of her reputation.”
“But now the old hag has suckered money out of some private outfit down there.” Sarah waved a gnarled hand. “Enough to hire a company of militia, anyway.”
“How many? Do we know?” Jess’s voice held new tension.
“Theryn’s contact could only learn the size of Caster’s private grant.” Shann looked at Jocelyn, who nodded. “She has enough funding to pay and arm a small platoon at least.”
“One platoon? Shann.” Jesstin knelt next to her queen. “We can handle one scientist and a squad of thirty City soldiers.”
“Soldiers far better armed than our warriors, Jess.”
“But it’s our terrain.” Jess lifted Shann’s hand. “We have the advantage there, lady, and we’re better trained. We can drive Caster out.”
“Perhaps.” Shann brushed her fingers through Jess’s hair. “But only perhaps. And if we did win that battle, Jesstin, what then? One small defeat would hardly stop the City.”
“We could stop Caster.” Jess pressed Shann’s fingers. “Her vendetta against us is personal, lady. You’ve seen the venom that runs through her veins. The City’s Military isn’t going to bother to track down Amazons who’ve moved deeper into the mountains. That banshee might. We can end that threat.”
“But at what price, adanin?” Shann’s elegant features were pensive. “After tomorrow’s migration, less than fifty warriors will remain to defend our village. We would risk shedding such dear blood—”
“Shanendra.” Jocelyn’s voice was compassionate. “You know as well as I that a queen of warrior women must find the courage to order her sisters to fight.”
“Listen well to the counsel Jesstin offers, lady,” Dorothea added. “Your own Dyan taught her, and she has your adonai’s courage.”
“Yes, Grandmother. She does.” Shann kissed the back of Jess’s hand. “All right, Jesstin. Instruct your cadre leaders to prepare for battle.”
“Done, Shann.”
“And this is where you come in, little sister.” Jocelyn smiled at Brenna.
Brenna started. “Me?”
“Tell us about these dreams, Brenna.” Dorothea patted her hand, her small eyes brightly studying her face.
“Oh, no.” Brenna drew a breath. “Shann—”
“Brenna,” Shann said quietly, “I’m sorry, adanin. I know this is hard for you. But things are moving quickly now. Even if you don’t trust your own abilities, I’m asking you to trust me. These elders are leaving with the first party tomorrow. They need to hear this in your own words.”
“Okay. I’ll try.” Brenna met Jess’s gaze again and cleared her throat. “I dream about horses. Horses aren’t allowed within City limits, and I don’t have a travel permit, so I’ve never seen a horse, except on film. But I started dreaming about them when I met Jess, after she was transferred to the Clinic…”
Brenna recounted the series of nightmares that had plagued her for months. The night she first tended Jess, she had dreamed of riding a black stallion and falling with it when its heart was pierced by a spear. Then there was a milling herd of horses, trumpeting panic as two stallions fought to the death. And the most recent, a foal shrilling in terror, trying to escape a blazing fire hungrily consuming the forest.
Her throat was dry when she finished, and she gulped the cooling cider, feeling oddly depleted.
“Thank you, youngster.” Dorothea patted Brenna’s hand again. “You’ve done well. I’m sorry I won’t get to know you better, Brenna.”
“Maybe she could cough up something more specific tonight if we drugged her good?”
“Sarah.” Jocelyn sighed and looked at Shann, her weathered face unreadable. “I agree, lady. Brenna follows Julia’s star. But I don’t know that she’s helped us.”
“We’ll hold private council, Grandmother.” Shann knelt beside Brenna and smiled into her dazed eyes. “Thank you, Blades. I’ll see you and Jesstin later, after the Challenge.” One blunt fingernail tapped the mug she held, and Shann whispered, “Slow down on these, little sister.”
Brenna’s face flushed with heat. She stood and found herself enveloped in Jocelyn’s soft robes.
“Welcome to Tristaine, young Brenna.” Jocelyn cupped her face in her hands. “Remember, we are an Amazon clan—not cabins in a mountain valley. Tristaine will rise again. We promise you that.”
She released Brenna and winked at Jess. “Now go, widget, and show your adanin our Festival. We need to mutter wisely with our queen for a while.”
Jess ushered Brenna out from under the canopy, and the happy chaos of the Festival descended again. Brenna filled her lungs with cold, pine-spiced air, overloaded with enough questions to keep Jess awake till dawn.
A laughing pack of children raced by, and she squeaked and dodged with relative deftness, she thought, given the amount of cider she’d imbibed. The Festival had transformed, with the return of Tristaine’s queen, from a rather somber affair into the joyous celebration Kyla had describ
ed so lovingly. Everywhere Brenna looked, swarms of colorfully dressed Amazons gravitated to different gatherings.
Several circles of dancers had formed near the log meeting house, and the music was far more lilting and energized than the lonely woodwind notes they had heard outside the village.
Dozens of warriors decked in leather finery that weakened Brenna’s knees were clapping and hooting around pairs of Amazons wrestling in an enclosed ring near the arena. The night was heady with music and noise and scented smoke.
“Brenna, I think it best you and Kyla leave with the first wave tomorrow.”
“What? Say again?” Brenna straightened and blinked at Jess. “Are you drunk, too, widget?” She snorted laughter.
“I’m serious, Bren.” There was a sadness in Jess’s voice that aged her. “This battle will be bloody. Even when it’s over, our last task here might prove just as dangerous.”
“Wait a minute.” Brenna tried not to slur her words. “What task, and what kind of dangerous?”
“We have to defeat Caster’s soldiers, Bren, and then we must destroy the village.”
“What?”
“Land is sacred to us.” The tears glittering in Jess’s eyes made them no less fierce. “Leaving this valley to the City would be the desecration of a shrine. We’ll not allow whoever follows Caster to profit from Amazon lives, Brenna.”
“Jesstin, slow down.” Brenna frowned and waited for a wave of dizziness to pass. “First, with the Amazons gone, there’s nothing here the City could want, and second, to repeat, what kind of dangerous?”
“Bren, it’s nothing you can help with. There’s no need for you to stay.”
“Jesstin!” A cheerful voice hailed them from the small, sloping rise that led to the wrestling matches. “The ring awaits us, sister!”
Jess glanced over her shoulder. “A moment, Patana.”
“Hey.” Brenna’s tone was ominously low. “You’re awfully quick to dump me, Jess.”
“You don’t have much time to decide, lass. I’ll abide by your wishes, but—”
“Damn straight you’ll abide my wishes!” She slurred that time, but she didn’t care. She was mad. “Damn it, Jesstin, you don’t just stroll up to a person and suggest she leave you, possibly forever, because—”
“Ah, Jessie, come on!” Patana’s merry shout turned several heads. “You can bring your City girl!”
Brenna saw the muscles in Jess’s jaw clench. She fought off her fogginess and touched her arm. “Look, this isn’t the time for a wrestling match, even if we weren’t having our first fight. You’re coming off a week-long hike with no sleep, and excuse me, but that Patana woman looks mean as a snake.”
“She is. Don’t worry about Patana.” Jess’s brogue was clipped, and she took Brenna’s shoulders. “Adanin, no one expects you to risk yourself for a clan you’ve just seen. My warriors will join the rest of the clan in the southern meadows when it’s over. It’ll just be a few weeks.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Brenna stepped back, and Jess’s hands fell from her shoulders. “You’d let me go, just like that.”
“Bren—”
“Jess, you surprise me!” Patana taunted. “Dyan’s finest, her right hand, surrenders without a fight?”
“I’ll talk to you later, Jesstin. You better go. One of your warriors is calling you.”
The crowd swallowed Brenna as she slipped between dancing Amazons and headed toward the river. The twisting figures moved around her in dizzying patterns. A few moments later, she heard a raucous cheer rise behind her as Patana’s challenge was accepted.
*
Brenna wandered aimlessly from one cheerful bonfire to the next.
She felt curious stares as she moved through Tristaine’s village square, but she was long accustomed to shutting out appraising looks, and no one bothered her. The numbing warmth of the hard cider in her blood helped.
Cheers rose periodically from the direction of the stadium, and she heard one woman yell to two others that the wrestling matches had moved to the arena. Dozens were thronging toward it, but there were still seas of milling, laughing women to be lost in.
Brenna reached a smooth wooden bench at the base of a huge oak tree and lowered herself to it gratefully. She pressed the tight muscles at the base of her neck, whispering invectives against tall blue-eyed Amazon warriors. A cold nose poked her thigh, and she yelped. Max yelped back.
Never having held a dog, Brenna found the furry white creature with pointed ears and quizzical brown eyes as exotic as a miniature unicorn. After a few moments, the little dog’s questing black nose and inquisitive sniffs convinced her that Max wasn’t going to rip out her throat.
“You’re Max?” Brenna smiled, a bit sentimentally. “Kyla’s doggie.”
She scratched the mutt under the chin, and his eyes closed blissfully. Max extended his neck and tipped his furry head to direct her fingers to the best itchy spots. The campfire glowed pink through his tufted ears. He growled softly in pleasure and Brenna laughed, delight breaking through her mild buzz.
“I’m glad to see you’re making friends, Brenna.” Myrine stood smiling at her from across the fire, and the little mutt yapped happily and trotted over to greet her.
An imposing woman with silver-streaked black hair followed Myrine. When Max saw her, he changed course and bounded cheerfully toward another gathering. Brenna watched him go, a little wistfully.
“I trust we’re making you welcome, adanin.” The second woman smiled, and the firelight glinted whitely off her sharp teeth. She wore a cloak of charisma not unlike the aura surrounding Shann, Brenna thought, but hers was bolder, more vibrant. “Introductions, please, Myrine?”
“Brenna, this is Theryn, Tristaine’s liaison with the City.” Myrine turned to Theryn with something like deference. “She’s the reason we have any modern technology at all up here. Theryn makes an effort to welcome all new arrivals, and she especially wanted to meet you.”
Brenna nodded. She could handle this. She was fine. Part of her registered the faint rumble of cheering coming from the stadium, but then she forced Jess out of her thoughts. She recognized this attractive woman’s name. “You’re on Tristaine’s high council, is that right?”
“I have that honor.” Theryn’s shining cloak swirled as she sat on the bench close beside Brenna. “Myrine? Please go and find out who claims victory in the ring—Patana or young Jesstin.” She winked at Brenna. “I have a fine jade dagger riding on the outcome of the match.”
“Of course, Theryn.” Myrine handed Brenna the cup of cider she held, winked at her, and moved off into the crowd.
“No offense, my new friend, but I bet against your beloved.” Theryn’s padded shoulder brushed Brenna’s as she leaned into her confidingly. “Patana is one of Tristaine’s best in hand-to-hand. Jesstin is good, but accepting Patana’s challenge might have been a wee bit rash.”
“Maybe.” Brenna warmed her fingers around the mug. “But so is betting against Jess, so maybe you’re a little rash, too, Theryn.”
Theryn laughed softly, a melodic sound. “Your loyalty becomes you, Brenna! Please know I have nothing but affection for your brave warrior. I have great respect for Dyan’s right hand. But Patana has become my own prodigy, and I have trained her well. I’m rather skilled in the martial arts.”
“I see.”
Theryn pursed her full lips. “But in all candor and truth, I can’t claim to know either Patana or Jesstin well. Dyan and Shann were more my contemporaries, really, than Jess and her peers.”
“Well, I guess Shann’s still your contemporary then.” Brenna drank deeply and shuddered. “She told me some Amazons here, mostly newer women from the City, believe Tristaine can make a deal with its Government.”
“Loyal and direct.” Theryn appraised Brenna. “Which is fortunate, because the migration begins tomorrow, and there’s precious little time to prepare for a truce. I’m convinced we can negotiate with the City, Brenna, but I’ll need your h
elp.”
Brenna blinked. Theryn’s handsome face was blurring around the edges. “My help?”
“I know, from what little Myrine has told me, that Jesstin suffered a great deal in the City.” Theryn’s shoulder brushed hers again, a slower and more intimate caress. “Shann has always given Jesstin’s counsel more…credence than mine. And Jess was stubborn before her arrest when it came to holding Dyan’s word as gospel. Now I imagine she’ll prove quite inflexible.”
“Quite.” Brenna concentrated on focusing on Theryn’s intense gaze and speaking clearly. “Theryn, you’ve never met Caster. She’s the Clinic’s top scientist in Military Research. I know her really well. I worked with her. You have no chance of negotiating with her, I promise you.”
“Ah, but you’ve just met me.” Theryn lifted one of Brenna’s cold hands and warmed it in her own. “Don’t underestimate my persuasiveness, young Brenna. I’m no stranger to halls of power, and I carry considerable influence in Tristaine’s council. With luck, I might find a workable alternative to the apocalypse Dyan had in mind for our village.”
“Apoca? Lips?”
“If you’ll trust me, Brenna, together we might be able to save Amazon lives. Perhaps even that stubborn warrior of yours.” Theryn lifted one gloved hand and caressed Brenna’s face. “You’re truly not interested in hearing more?”
Brenna frowned again, flipping through her mental filing cabinet in search of Theryn’s chart. This was one of the few Amazons Jess had spoken of without warmth, but her initial argument sounded pretty damn compelling. Besides, Brenna was ticked at Jess and didn’t give her opinion much weight at the moment.
“But what could Tristaine offer Caster, Theryn? When she can just take anything she wants?”
“This Caster must be highly educated, of course, as am I. She’s a woman of science, and I believe we can approach her on a purely logical basis.”
“But spe…specifically—”
“Ah, Brenna. There is such beauty in this valley.” Theryn’s gaze moved from Brenna’s eyes to her lips and back. She lifted her hand and pressed it to her breast earnestly. “Help me fight for our village, sister! Let your first contribution to Tristaine, to your new home, be its salvation!”
Battle for Tristaine Page 7
