by Robin Roseau
"I might be," she admitted.
"I found no surprises in my bed."
"As we had warning when you were returning, I made it myself this morning with fresh bedding. I did not expect you to find surprises."
"You mean you did not expect me to find them in the bed."
She didn't say anything. I had my back turned, but when I turned suddenly, she quickly hid a grin.
"Did anyone put you up to it?" I asked her.
"Put me up to what?" she asked.
I stared at her. She began shifting back and forth. "Did you know that your sister knows you miss the banter and teasing?"
"My sister knows quite a lot," I admitted, "so would not be surprised she knows this. Lia, I promised I would never lie to you."
"And I promised I would never lie, either," she said.
"So when I tell you that after our conversation at dinner, I searched the hut very thoroughly, you will know that I am not bluffing."
She smiled, but it was forced, and her eyes flashed briefly to my chest. "Gotcha," I thought.
"Was there anything you would care to confess?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she stepped closer. "I had something else I wished to discuss," she said. "And I should soothe the voices for you. Perhaps we could return to this conversation."
"All right," I agreed.
"I have been told that companions wear their hair long at the request of their warriors."
"That is true. It is very soothing to run our fingers through unbridled hair."
"That is what Badra told me," she said, "some time ago. She wears her short, but Tamma's is long, and they explained at length during one of their visits."
I didn't say anything, but simply waited to see where she was going.
"They also explained that a warrior only asks a companion to keep her hair long; she does not order."
"Yes, that is the custom."
"Do you know when I decided I wished to come here, Chief Beria?"
"Please, we're alone, and you are here to soothe me, are you not?"
She smiled. "Do you, Beria?"
"I imagine after your mother died."
"You imagine incorrectly. I have worn my hair fairly short for many years." Her hair was tied in a knot, the only way I'd seen it. I had guessed it's length at about her shoulders, but I couldn't judge, as it wasn't worn in the Amazon style of a long braid. "I decided I wished to come here when my father died. I would stay with mother, but she did not die as suddenly as everyone believes. She knew she was sick, but she tried to hide it from us. She did not hide it very well from me, but she begged me to tell no one."
"Not even Tamma."
"No. And so, I kept her secret."
She reached to the back of her head and began pulling out pins. It took her some time, and then her blonde hair began to fall. She removed more pins, and then when she was done, she shook her hair out.
I stared.
She didn't have as much hair as Maya or I, but what she had was long.
"I began growing my hair when father died," she said. "Four years ago."
Then she stepped into my arms and laid her head against my shoulder, her face in my neck, soothing the voices with the contact. I lifted my hands to the back of her neck, and I could feel her hair tumbling against the backs of my wrists.
"Go ahead," she whispered. "You may run your fingers through my hair as much as you desire."
She didn't need to offer twice. I buried my fingers in her hair and began to run my fingers through it, combing it out. I sighed.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"You are welcome," she said, and I could hear the warmth in her voice.
We stood there for some time, not talking, and slowly the voices receded, and then receded further as I continued to pass her hair through my hands. I sighed again. I thanked her again. And then, the voices stilled, I pulled away.
She stepped back, just a half step. I was taller than her. She looked up into my face.
"Shall we finish our conversation from earlier?" she asked. "It seemed like you were perhaps fishing for a confession for some misdeed."
"Um."
"Long hair is such a bother," she said. "It has been short for much of my life. To be honest, I was quite smitten with both Queen Malora and the warrior I nearly joined, Gini, and I have spent much of my life with hair as short as theirs."
"You weren't smitten with my sister?"
"No. She scared me, you see. Oh, I figured out years later it was my parents she was handling, not Tamma and me. But at the time, I was not at all pleased with either her or Nori. They tied our hands, and it was the queen who ordered them to untie them again."
"I see."
"Beria, if you ever accuse me of some misdeed, or one of my daughters for that matter, on scant evidence, do you know what I will do?"
"Not let your hair down for me."
"Oh no," she said. "I will cut my hair in the style of Queen Malora. Think about it."
She backed away. "Sleep well, Beria. If the voices are ever more than you can bear, you know where to find me."
She turned and headed for the door. When her hand reached the handle, I said, "Lia."
She turned. "Yes, Beria?"
"That threat will work for now, but when one of your daughters chooses a warrior, you will rescind it. I must be chief."
She thought about it. "It was not a threat, Beria. It was a promise. But I agree. My promise only covers those who report directly to you, having no other warrior of her own." She smiled, and then she was gone.
I stared after her. Oh, she was going to be fun. She was going to be a great deal of fun.
* * * *
The next day was a normal day: breakfast, training, a break, lunch, training, and so on. I hadn't been consistently attending proper training, and I was looking forward to a good run, but I decided I needed to see how things were going especially with our new members. As we had at Queen's Town, training was divided more or less in two with the warriors and most advanced companions in one group and the remaining companions in the next.
New warriors with new companions always helped to train their companions. This meant those warriors weren't necessarily receiving the advantage of training with the other warriors, but training someone else is a good way to better learn a skill yourself. Once a girl has been a companion for several months, she is able to train with other companions, and so the warrior is able to train some days with the other warriors, and some days with her companion. But new warriors are not necessarily the best trainers for companions, either, and so we typically had one of the more experienced warriors involved as well.
At Queen's Town, I had never had to really worry about this. Nori and Malora switched back and forth between the warriors and the companions, and Omie and Vorine trained the companions and still did.
Lake Juna wasn't quite so rich in trainers. Whereas Queen's Town had both Nori and Malora, Lake Juna only had me. Some of the other warriors, such as Ree and Badra, were solid and dependable. But Glorana and Frida, for instance, were not our best trainers; they had other skills. We had two younger companions, but immediately prior to Lia's arrival at Lake Juna, our youngest companion was sixteen and had been with us for three years.
In other words, we didn't have anyone remotely near a beginner, and while our younger companions weren't advanced, they trained with the warriors most days. In effect, we were now training three new companions, which meant someone had to train them. With new companions, their warriors typically oversaw their training. I decided I was going to need to do so.
We had taught Lia, Joelle and Annalise the stretches, but as soon as we started, I saw they weren't doing them properly.
"Nora and Lena," I said, "please work with Joelle and Annalise." Lin was leading the stretching, so I told her, "We're going to take our time this morning and give Nora and Lena opportunity to correct the girls." Neither of the companions had helped guide anyone else, and I was just as interested in s
eeing how they did than helping the girls learn the stretches.
I moved to sit next to Lia, offering her a small correction.
"It hurts," I heard Annalise complain.
"You find where it hurts, and that's where you stop," Nora told her. "But you do that every day, and over a few weeks you will be able to do more and more."
With more direct oversight, I thought all three of our new charges were doing satisfactorily. Lia leaned over to me. "Did you get a bad report on us?"
"I wouldn't put it that way," I said. "You represent a new challenge for us. You and I will discuss it after I watch a day or two."
"I don't mean to be a problem. Should we skip training?"
"No!" She leaned away a little. "Training is critical."
"Annalise is eight."
"You are my age. You must learn enough to defend yourself."
"From a demon?"
"No. A bandit."
"I couldn't."
"Oh yes, you could. We'll talk more later."
Lin led us through the exercise, letting them take longer than we normally do. I wasn't satisfied with our new charges, but I was going to give them an opportunity. Then it was time to run. I asked Aura to run with the girls, and I ran with Lia. Everyone else ran together, although they broke into two groups eventually, one group somewhat faster than the second.
"Normally I run with my daughters," Lia said.
"You are capable of running further and faster," I said. "You will not improve if you run at an eight-year-old's pace."
"But-"
"Go."
She ran, although she did what every new companion does; she quit far sooner than we would normally let her quit.
"I can't run anymore," she gasped.
"Yes you can," I said. "Keep going."
"I can't."
"Lia," I said, leaning down with my mouth near her ear, "we will train you gently, but I need you to give me everything you have. You have more in you. Show it to me."
She gave me a dirty look, but I got another half circle around the field before she refused to give me more. I wasn't pleased, as she could have run further, but I wasn't ready for that fight yet.
The girls had been worse. They ran with poor form and quit after two circles. Aura let them. I circled around to her and told her to merge with the other warriors. I would handle it. I let our newcomers catch their breaths, then asked, "Have you been introduced to the equipment shed?"
"Yes," Lia said.
"Go collect staffs and bring one for me," I said. And so they walked to the shed, were inside for a minute or two, far more time than necessary, then walked back to me. Lia handed me a staff. I saw someone had made staffs for the girls that were more appropriate for their sizes. I asked them to stand side by side in a line and show me they knew how to hold the staff. The girls giggled but showed me. Lia was somewhat more serious, but she didn't have the intent look I would have preferred; she clearly thought she would never need to use the staff in a fight.
I decided letting the girls stand next to each other was a mistake, so I rearranged them with Lia in the middle and a little more distance between them. That didn't really help, because they kept leaning forward or backward to see around their mother and make faces at each other. But they were eight and ten, and I knew I couldn't treat them like they were fourteen.
And Lia was distracted trying to convince the girls to pay attention. At one point I frowned, and she said, "They're only children."
"They're children," I agreed.
I worked them through a few more exercises, but it was clear the girls weren't really going to take it seriously, and Lia was too busy worried about them that she wasn't really focusing, either.
Finally I decided this wasn't going to work. "Go put your staffs away," I told them. They turned to the equipment shed, none of them taking my staff from me. "Lia." She turned to me and I held it out. She walked over and took it and said quietly, "Don't be angry."
"I'm not."
I wasn't angry; I was frustrated.
When they got back, I said, "Five times around the field. I'll give the fastest of you three circles head start. And then I'm coming after you, and anyone I catch up to isn't going to enjoy what happens to her. Go!"
They ran, but they didn't work very hard at it. They should have conserved their strength for the first three circles. Instead, Lia ran with Annalise, but Joelle ran as fast as she could, getting well ahead of her mother and little sister. I walked over to the Amazons and waited for a lull.
"I am taking Lia down to Queen's Town. Someone is going to need to take care of lunch, and I'm leaving the girls here. We'll be back late this afternoon in time for Lia to handle dinner."
"We'll handle it," Glorana said.
Joelle made it three times around the field, but she was lagging. I ran back to the starting point and said to her as I passed her, "Here I come, but if you walk, I'll catch up to you. You will not like it." I said the same thing to Lia and Annalise when I passed them about when they finished their third lap.
I caught up to Joelle during my second lap about halfway around her fourth. "Joelle, this is my second lap, your fourth. Run." She picked it up a little, but she didn't stick to it. Then I caught up to Lia and Annalise as I was on my third lap. "Right now, I have one more lap, and then I can catch you. Lia, when I come up behind you on that last lap, I am a demon. Do you want your daughter caught by the demon?"
They actually began running again, and I continued running.
Joelle began her fifth lap as I began my fourth. I had to lap her once more before I could catch her. I could do it if I really tried, but all I was trying to do was give them some incentive.
Lia was trying to hurry Annalise. "Next time I catch you, I am the demon, Lia!"
I began my fifth lap. Lia and Annalise were only a third of the way around on their fifth lap. I came up behind them, snarling. "If I catch you, I can eat you!" I yelled. Lia glanced back, saw me coming, then picked up Annalise and began running as fast as she could while carrying the girl. I thought that was a mistake, but perhaps the girl was really that tired. I caught up to them easily and snatched Annalise from her mother's arms. "The finish line is a doorway to another world, Lia. If I get there first, you'll never see your daughter again!"
"No!" she screamed, and she really began running.
Joelle made it across the finish line a quarter lap in front of me. "I won!" she said, then she collapsed, panting.
Lia was chasing after me. Annalise was laughing and telling me to run faster. She didn't understand the game. I finished the race, still carrying Annalise, and Lia screamed, "No," as I turned around and came to a stop, waiting for her. She finished a few seconds behind me, and from her expression, she understood. She came to a stop and stared at me. I didn't relinquish her daughter.
"I won," Joelle said again.
"Did you?" I asked. "Do you love your little sister?"
"Yeah, I guess," the girl said.
"Well, I am the demon, and I caught her, and now I have taken her away."
"Beria-" said Lia.
I turned to her. "Right now I am Demon! Now, what should I do with my new captive?"
"Please, Beria."
"Demon!"
"You're scaring Annalise."
I glanced at the girl, and she wasn't laughing anymore. She had her hand in her mouth and was trembling. I walked over and gave her to Lia, who pulled her into her arms.
"Calm her down," I said gently, "then we're going to talk for a few minutes. You and I are taking a ride to Queen's Town. Someone will watch the girls."
Lia stepped away with her daughter, bouncing her around a little, then setting her down and talking to her. I got a few dirty looks from both of them, but then Annalise hugged her mom.
"We're fine," Lia said, but the look she gave me wasn't friendly.
"Sit," I said, pointing. She sat down next to Joelle, Annalise in her lap. I sat down opposite them.
"Joelle," I said
, "the game we just played had me playing a demon, catching you. And when I caught your sister, I took her away to my world. If I had been a real demon, you would never have seen her again. Of course, I am an Amazon, not a demon, and it was just a game. Do you understand?"
She looked over at her sister then back at me. "I guess."
"You made it to safety, but you abandoned your sister to do it. You left your mother to help your sister. I don't want you to ever do that again."
I didn't think she understood, but maybe in time.
I looked at Lia. "Given the nature of the game, the three of you should have run together at a pace you could maintain, then begun to run faster during your last two laps. If you conserved yourselves at the beginning, you may have had enough left to beat me. You could certainly run two laps in the time I would have to run five."
She glanced at Joelle and then nodded.
"All right. Wait here."
I jumped to my feet and grabbed Aura and Lin. "Watch the girls. I'll be back late this afternoon."
* * * *
"Please don't be angry, Chief Beria."
"I'm not, Lia. You may ride alone or with me. It's about an hour and a half each way."
"Alone," she said tersely.
"Don't be angry, Lia."
"You're going to make us leave, aren't you?"
"No."
"You're going to drive us away. Coming here was a mistake."
I didn't answer that. It may have been a mistake to let them come. I wasn't sure.
"Wait here, please," I told her. Then I stepped through the door from the stable to the paddock. I collected my horse, leading her into the stable. I saddled her then picked one of the gentler spares from the paddock. I got her saddled as well.
I turned to Lia. "Have you learned enough to ride without help?"
"If we don't go too fast."
I pulled both horses out of the stable then helped Lia on top of hers before climbing into my own saddle. I turned towards the path then watched to see if she could follow. She struggled a little with the horse, but the horse wanted to follow me, anyway, so there wasn't much Lia needed to do.
We rode quietly for several minutes before she called from behind me, "Chief Beria, we're doing the best we can."
I looked over my shoulder.
