by Robin Roseau
"What do you want to do?" Lia asked. "Confront or prank back?"
I smiled. "What do you think?"
She grinned. "I think it's time to make absolutely sure my sister isn't involved."
"Go get her, and her warrior," I said. "Make it subtle."
She nodded, hugged me for a moment, then slipped out of the hut. She was back five minutes later and pulled me to the bed, offering comfort for me. Ten minutes later, Tamma slipped into the hut. She smile when she saw us but only pulled up a chair. "Badra will be another minute. Is my sister a good companion, Chief Beria?"
"She is," I said.
We talked quietly until Badra slipped in.
"No one saw Tamma or I enter," Badra said.
"Grab a chair." I sat up, dislodging Lia. "I am going to ask a very direct question, and I need the truth."
"We're not involved," Tamma said. "We stayed out of it."
I turned to Lia. "I didn't say a word."
"I need you to tell me exactly what you haven't done."
"Neither Badra nor I have pulled anything resembling a prank on either of you since the two of you started your little war," Tamma said.
"I need to be clear. I am offering complete immunity to both of you, one time only. If you have been involved in the pranks in any way, then I forgive you if I receive a full confession. I even forgive Tamma lying to me, if she just did."
"She wouldn't lie, Chief Beria," Badra said. "You know that. We stayed out of it. It was far too much fun watching the two of you going after each other."
"How did you know that's what this conversation was about?"
"I didn't," Tamma said, "until I saw her in here with you. You two are way too comfortable to be frustrated with each other and are working together. How long has that been going on?"
"About a month," Lia said. "We've been warning each other about the pranks and letting ourselves get caught."
"Someone else is playing with you," Badra said. "Who?"
"I need vows of silence from both of you."
"Are you kidding?" asked Tamma. "I want in! They messed with my sister."
I looked at Badra. "Hey," she said, "three of my favorite five people in the world are in this hut, and the other two are in Lia's hut. What do you want us to do?"
I turned to Lia. "For someone who never pranked anyone before meeting me, you've become amazingly adept."
She smiled. "I had a good teacher. I think it's time to turn the tables."
"We could be wrong," I said. "Our evidence isn't rock solid."
"Then we'll turn the tables and get confessions at the same time," she said. And then she said what she wanted to do. She talked for a long time.
"We need to keep the girls out of it," I said at the end.
"Would Maya help?" Lia asked.
"Oh yes."
"So maybe Queen Malora wants to demand they spend a day or two at Queen's Town."
"We've got the patrol in the morning," Badra said. "We can get a note to her."
We spent another hour planning.
* * * *
Malora and Maya didn't send for the girls; they came themselves. They arrived shortly after lunch, trained with us, and then Maya offered swimming lessons to the girls while Malora chatted with me. Malora and I retired to my hut and immediately asked me, "What's going on?"
I told her the entire plan, speaking very quietly.
"How sure are you?"
"Pretty sure, but I'm not positive. If I were positive, then we'd act more directly against them. If it turns out we're wrong, I'm pretty sure whoever we should have been targeting will confess."
"All right," she said. "At dinner, Maya is going to ask me to demand you let us take the girls to Queen's Town. How long do you want them out of your way?"
"You don't mind? We could just ask them."
"Oh no. Maya would be vexed with me if we didn't help, and the girls are darlings."
"Then if you could bring them back the morning three days from today, we'll do all this the evening before. If that isn't too long."
"No, that will be lovely."
* * * *
The next day, I got Lia with a particularly terrible prank. It was her idea. Three hours later, she caught me in one that was even worse. That one had been Tamma's idea. We escalated, and the next day, she caught me with three more. I hadn't been expecting the second one, not exactly; she had just asked permission to do something I wouldn't expect.
But the third one was set up in my hut, and I got "caught" near dusk. I stormed out of my hut screaming, "Lia! Get your ass out here."
She appeared from her own hut. "What's that in your hair, Chief Beria?"
"You know exactly what it is. Get your ass over here." I pointed to the ground in front of me.
She closed the distance and smiled at me. "It's blue," she said. "Did you get caught in a blueberry bush?"
"I've had it!" I said. "When you confined your pranks to innocent fun and controlled their delivery, I enjoyed sparring with you. But you've been going too far!"
"Maybe you shouldn't have made Annalise cry last week," she replied. "Don't talk to me about going too far."
We proceeded to have a major fight there in the middle of the village. The idea was to collect an audience. Finally I said, "Wait right here!"
One of the pranks I'd pretended to not find hadn't been hers, it had been one of the four miscreants, and they had ruined an old, tattered tunic of mine. I didn't care; it was already largely beyond repair, and I had long stopped wearing it, but Amazons don't throw anything away. There was material I could harvest from it. Maybe. If I were to be careful.
I stormed to my hut and returned with the tunic. "Do you know what this is?"
"It looks like a ruined tunic," she said. "So?"
"You may not recognize the significance of this, but this is the first Amazon tunic I ever owned."
"Oh shit," I heard Frida say. Oh shit, indeed.
"Omie made it for me. I have almost nothing she made for me, and the reason this is so worn is because I kept wearing it long after it was ratty. Do you think maybe it has a little extra significance to me? You know how I feel about her! Now look at it!"
"I don't know why you're screaming at me. You're the one who wore it to death."
"I may have worn it to death, but you added this damage." I flipped it over and showed the large stain.
"I did no such thing."
We fought for a minute while I accused her of lying, and she denied it. I actually thought the real miscreants would confess, but so far they hadn't said a thing. I wanted to look at them to check for body language, but that would have been two obvious.
"But the worst part, beyond your lying, is that you involved your daughters in these pranks."
"That is another lie!" Lia said.
"I absolutely know you didn't do all of them, because some happened while I was watching you. I would accuse your sister-" I looked around and pointed at Tamma, "-but she was on patrol for some of them. That leaves your daughters. And I've had it. The three of you will share a punishment tomorrow."
"Chief Beria!" she yelled back. "You are making baseless accusations. I told you what would happen if you ever accused me or my daughters without real proof. Give me your knife. I have hair to cut."
"Oh, don't worry," I said. "You'll get your hair cut. Tomorrow, when the queen returns with your daughters, I am shaving all three of you bald and tattooing something amusing on your scalps."
"Chief Beria!" screamed Tamma, "No!"
"Shut up!" I told her. "You assured me I could trust them, but she's lying through her teeth to me." I turned back to Lia. "That is a flogging offense."
"You. Wouldn't. Dare."
"Oh, wouldn't I? Confess your misdeeds, and I'll only banish you after I tattoo your scalps."
"I haven't lied!" she screamed at me.
I reached out a hand and grabbed her by her hair, yanking her forward. It would have looked a lot crueler than it was. "Frida, get
my whip. Glorana, I need rope."
"Stop!" Tamma yelled. "You can't do this!"
"Interfere, Tamma, and you'll share her fate."
"Chief Beria!" Tamma yelled. "Stop this!" I started pulling Lia to the training field. We didn't have a whipping post, but I could have tied her to a tree, I suppose. Tamma interposed herself. "Stop this!"
"Get out of my way, Tamma. Or, I suppose, you could challenge me." I said it coldly.
"Fine!" she spat. "I challenge you!"
"Frida," I yelled. "I won't need the whip for a few minutes. Get my sword instead."
"Chief Beria," Frida said. "Perhaps we should all calm down."
Badra stepped forward. "Chief Beria, you cannot accept challenge from a companion. I challenge you."
I stared at her. "Fine. Frida, I need my sword. Now."
"She didn't do it," Frida said.
I turned to her. She was standing ten paces away. Glorana and their companions were behind her several more paces. "What?"
"She didn't ruin your tunic. I did. I thought it was just an old, ratty tunic. I've seen you wear it for some of the dirtiest jobs. I'm very sorry. She didn't do it. She hasn't been lying."
I hadn't released Lia. I turned to her and named two more pranks she hadn't done. She denied both of them.
I turned back to Frida. "You and your sister were on patrol when those happened. Just how many other miscreants do you expect to step forward?"
"Three more," Glorana said. She and the two companions joined Frida.
I released Lia and stood to face them.
"Full confession. Right now."
And they gave one.
I felt Lia step up behind me. She slipped an arm around my waist and laid her head on my shoulder. Tamma stepped up to Lia's other side and wrapped an arm around her sister's shoulder, and then Badra stood next to me, an arm around my shoulders.
"Thank you for confessing," Lia said sweetly. "We knew."
"What?" said Glorana. "You knew?"
"We figured it out weeks ago," Lia said. "We caught you."
"You didn't!" Frida said. "We were careful."
"Rahna stepped in the tree sap we painted on the floor of my hut," I said. "You three were on patrol. I was rather surprised a brand new companion was involved. We've spent the weeks since gathering more evidence."
"You noticed we played out this drama after Queen Malora demanded we send the girls home with them, didn't you?" Lia asked.
"You were getting them out of the way," Frida said.
"I didn't want them to see me yelling at their mother," I explained.
Badra smiled at them. "I had great fun forwarding a letter through the Queen's Town patrol, summoning the queen."
The four of them looked between us then hung their heads. "I'm sorry about your tunic," Frida said. "And anything else that got out of hand."
"This thing?" I asked. "I've had it forever. I'm currently wearing the tunic Omie first gave me. I only wear it for special occasions."
They continued to hang their heads for a moment, then Glorana looked up. "What are you going to do to us?"
"Not a thing," I said. "Good match."
"I, however..." Lia said. "The pranks were funny. But you did them in a way it was reasonable for us to blame the other, and what would have happened if we'd had this conversation in private? Neither of us would ever have trusted the other one again, and I would have ended up cutting my hair. That's the promise if Beria ever accuses me without proof. If you're going to prank, keep them under control."
Then I spoke up. "These four are fair game for the next month. Have fun, everyone." I turned to them. "You will not offer retribution, either."
"No, Chief Beria."
Lia looked over at me. "How are the voices?"
* * * *
They waited until Lia left. Seconds later, there was a knock.
"Come in, Frida."
The four of them stepped in and came to a stop in front of me.
"How angry are you?" Glorana asked.
"I'm not. We had fun catching you. It was Lia that figured out someone else was involved, but it didn't occur to us for a while there were so many involved. You covered yourselves really well."
"We spent hours planning everything we did," Frida said.
"I suspected Tamma first," I said.
"We considered framing her," Glorana said. "And we made sure she was home every time we did anything, but then Rahna pointed out that might be going too far."
"So we did a few when she was on patrol," Yalta added. "We thought we were careful to only do them when you could blame each other."
"Well, we were impressed, but I am calling a truce on pranks against the village chief for a while. Lia and I may start our game again. If we do, I recommend you quietly make sure everyone stays out of it."
"We saw how much fun you were having," Frida said. "And we know you prank people at Queen's Town."
"I'm not angry. Honestly, it was all in fun." I grinned. "Anyone pranking you yet?"
"Someone got back to our hut before we did," Yalta said. "They stole all our bedding."
"Find it yet?"
"Did you notice my hair is wet?" Rahna said. "It was in your boat out in the middle of the lake."
"So if you find someone with wet hair, you'll know who did it. She would have to swim back."
"Everyone's hair is dry," Rahna said. "We checked everyone."
"While we were getting the bedding back, someone suspended our beds from the ceiling of the hut," Glorana said.
I grinned. "Well, I will say this: it wasn't Lia or me. Beyond that, I have no clues for you. Enjoy the next month."
"You said we're not allowed retribution," Frida said.
"That is correct."
"Even if we have rock solid evidence?" Glorana clarified.
"If they are blatant about it," I said "I'll add them to the list of open targets. But don't tell anyone that. Anything else?"
"Are the voices quiet?" Yalta asked.
"Lia took care of them. Thank you for asking."
* * * *
Malora and Maya returned with the girls during training the next morning. It was some time later that Yalta came back out of her hut, covered in chicken feathers. Maya grinned at me.
"Good one," I whispered to her.
"Thanks," she said. "I was saving those feathers for you, you know."
"I had a supply for you, but I used them on Lia."
"I wish I'd seen it." She grinned. "I wouldn't suppose you were thinking of stealing some more rabbits again?"
I grinned.
Compassion
Lia stepped into my hut. Her hair was already down, and she smiled, but then she hesitated just inside the threshold.
I looked up at her then cocked my head. "Is something wrong?"
"No," she said. "I want to ask you something, but I suddenly find myself somewhat nervous."
"Oh?" I rose from my chair and then saw she had a bottle of wine with her. "Were you going to ask if I had an opener?"
"What?" I gestured at the bottle. "Oh, no," she said. "It's already open." Then she held up two glasses.
"Oh, serious conversation," I said with a smile. "Come on in."
She stepped forward, then held out the glasses. I took them from her and held them upright while she poured. She set the bottle on my table and took one of the glasses from me.
She held her glass up and cocked her head, then said, "To taking chances."
"All right," I said. "To taking chances." We tapped glasses before sipping. I watched her, but she looked away, then began roaming around my hut, looking at the few decorations I had. She came to my net of fishing flies and studied them carefully. I stepped up next to her.
"You haven't taught me to fish."
"You haven't asked. Is that what you came to talk about?"
"No." But she turned away from me slightly, giving me a shoulder to look at.
"Hey," I said, setting my hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?
"
She stepped away from me, and I let my hand fall to my side.
"I was thinking about the permanency of my situation."
I heart plummeted. She was going to ask to leave.
"Lia," I said softly.
"I know having the children has been difficult at times."
"Everyone likes them. Lia, you know you're welcome to stay."
"I know. You've all been very kind."
"Aren't you happy?"
"Not entirely."
I closed my eyes. I'd gotten used to her. I'd gotten used to the girls, too. She had brightened my life here, and now she was leaving.
She stepped away from me, past me, but I stared at my fishing flies, my heart in my throat. I heard her set her wine glass on my table. A moment later, it was her hand on my shoulder. She reached past me and took my glass from me, and then I heard that glass set down as well. Then she was at my shoulder again.
"Beria," she said softly. "I had a question."
I turned to her, and I found her hands waiting for me, one coming to a rest on my cheek, the other cupping the back of my head. She stepped closer to me then pulled my mouth to hers.
I was so shocked; I stood there as she kissed me.
Then she ended the kiss.
She turned away. "I'm sorry. Can you arrange an escort for my children and me?"
She took three steps before I caught up to her and spun her to face me, my hands on her arms.
"You asked me a question," I said. "Aren't you going to wait for my answer?"
And then I pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her, and when I lowered my lips, I found hers waiting.
She tasted like... I don't know what she tasted like. I couldn't think. Or I thought about everything all at once.
I released her, and we stared into each other's eyes.
My mouth remembered the last mouth I'd tasted, all those years ago. I still loved Omie, all these years later.
But I could never have this with Omie again.
"Lia," I whispered.
She lifted a hand to my cheek. She looked as confused as I felt. I didn't have words to answer her confusion, and so I pulled her against me, wrapping my arms around her, nearly crushing her against me, burying my face in her hair. She responded with her arms around me, holding me as I held her.
She kissed my shoulder, and I kissed her hair.
