by Robin Roseau
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Two years ago, Vorine and Omie had a falling apart. It was heart wrenching, and neither of them would explain what it was about. Vorine finally came to me and asked to retire. I fell to my knees and begged her to resolve her differences with her sister. She told me it wasn't possible but assured me they still loved each other.
I refused to answer her request to retire until I had talked to Omie.
I then begged Omie to make up with her sister. She had hugged and even briefly kissed me, but told me it wasn't possible. "Let her retire, Beria. She's done her duty."
And that she certainly had.
Vorine and her companion retired to Vorine's village out on the plain. And there they remained...
For about six months.
It was the dead of winter. We didn't get blizzards very often, but there was one blowing down our faces, threatening to leave us buried in snow, when from outside all our huts, I heard someone cry, "Where in the world is everyone? Isn't it afternoon training?"
Omie and Aren were in with Lia and me. We were playing that chess game Joelle and Annalise had taught us, playing with partners: the warriors against the companions. The companions were winning.
They usually did.
Omie's head snapped towards the door. "Vorine? Vorine!"
She was out the door seconds later. "Vorine!"
"Lia, please find some companions to see to their horses and other things, then everyone in here. They'll want to warm up."
"As soon as we've hugged, I'll fetch warm food," Aren offered.
"Where are we putting them?" Lia asked.
"Our hut," Aren said, "Unless you're preempting us, Queen Beria."
"Their hut," I said.
Lia grabbed her coat and stepped outside. Even over the wind, I heard her yelling for companions, and it was a minute or two later before everyone tromped in, beating snow off boots and out of their clothing. We helped them out of their outer clothes, and I chastised them for traveling in this weather.
"We thought we could beat it, and if we were going to be snowed in anywhere, it was here," said Lorith. When Vorine had first taken the girl as companion, I thought it would be like mine with Narsana. And it had been until Lorith turned twenty-one. As she tells it, she'd been in love with the older warrior for years. As Vorine tells it, "She jumped me in a moment of weakness, and someone told her about some very interesting submission holds."
"Queen Beria," Vorine said. "I don't want to be apart from my sister another day. Please, may we come back? Is there any room in Queen's Town?" She didn't wait for my answer. "Omie, I was wrong. I'm so sorry. We'll do it your way."
Aren squealed in delight. She actually squealed. She never squealed. I'd seen her lose a tickle fight, badly, and she didn't squeal. But she did that day. She threw herself on Vorine and began thanking her over and over.
Omie wasn't far behind her, and then the four of them were hugging tightly.
I waited until they were done and said simply, "I don't know. We're sort of full."
They all turned to me. "You will make room," Omie said.
"I will?" I raised an eyebrow. I had finally learned how. "On one condition."
"Oh?"
"What was the dispute?"
Omie and Vorine looked at each other then back at me. "We didn't want to tell you."
"Tell me now, dear friends," I said. "Vorine, of course you can stay. Please, what was the dispute?"
"I wanted to retire," Vorine said. "To the plains."
"I retire when you do, Beria," Omie said. "Please though, before I'm sixty."
I smiled.
"That's it?"
"I wanted to retire to our old village," Vorine said. "You know how they treat Amazons. I wanted to be treated like a queen." She sighed. "It got old. And even if it hadn't, it wasn't worth being away from my sister. And frankly, I missed all of you." She looked at Omie. "You were right. About every last bit. I'm so sorry."
"You had to figure it out for yourself," Omie said.
"And so, when I retire, all of you retire. Again?"
They nodded.
"And where will you go?"
"With you, Beria," Vorine said. She smiled. "I miss Maya and Malora, too."
And so where were Vorine and Lorith that day four of us rode into Maya's home outside Gallen's Cove? They were already there, getting things ready.
* * * *
I haven't told you about everyone.
My parents are gone. I miss them terribly, but they lived long, full lives. My nephew now runs the fishing boat that was once my father's. Maya and I see our brothers and their families once or twice a month.
Most of the older warriors have passed on. No one lives forever. There's a settlement of retired Amazons in the orange groves to the south. Serra and Ping died months apart, and Queen's Town was in mourning for a month when we heard the news. But the community is survived by other Amazons and by the many, many boys and girls they adopted over the years.
Eight of them are now Amazons, and I know there will be more.
Aura grew apart from the rest of us. It was sad. I invited her to move back to Queen's Town, but she declined. "You're full, and you'll always be full." She's still an Amazon, now living in Northglen, but she'll retire soon, I'm sure. She has a lovely companion named Jalar, only a few years younger than Aura herself.
Neela remained in Queen's Town until she retired a year before I did. She and her companion moved to her companion's home in the forests fifty miles south of White Pine.
Narsana, my first companion, is still an Amazon. She is making noises of "retiring someday", and I'm sure she'll be joining us in our extended enclave south of Gallen's Cove. For now, she continues to follow in Rora's footsteps, serving as the carpenter for the Amazons. Over the years, she built a lot of huts and made a great many chairs, tables, benches, and other furniture.
She did all that while also serving the other duties of an Amazon warrior.
* * * *
Well, I think that's everyone.
As for the rest...
I made my mark on the Amazons. We'd already started going down this path, but one of the earliest decisions I made was to begin actively recruiting older companions to serve the older warriors. Until then, it happened almost accidentally starting with Maya, then Rora and Lia. We ask every warrior to train at least one new, young companion, but after that, it is her choice whether she wishes to train companions into warriors or to find a companion for life.
Maya and Malora have become quite the matchmakers, and I've had a hand involved a time or two. Or maybe a few more than that.
We still require all companions to learn to fight and to train with us twice daily. We even chase them with a demon the first few weeks. None of them like that. But after that, we train some of them more lightly, in keeping with their aspirations.
To be companions, friends, lovers. To warm our beds and soothe our souls.
We have two village chiefs who are companions. The first time I did that, there was an uproar, but I said simply, "I put the best woman into the job." I let my allies fight the battle behind the scenes.
* * * *
The demons are still there. They come. We kill them. And then we fight the voices, but our companions make that fight bearable.
* * * *
As I said, Maya told me to write this story. "I wrote the beginning," she told me, "But you need to write the rest. What else are you going to do now that you're old and retired, Beria?" I'll answer that shortly. I'm sorry if I've rambled in places. I'm an old woman now, or practically so, and the mind does wander at times.
What about retirement?
It suits me. It suits us. We just saw the girls, and the first thing Annalise said when she stepped into the house was, "If I hear the word 'Queen' even once, just once, I am going to scream."
Malora and I had agreed to that stipulation if she rescinded the one calling each of us 'Queen'. She refused, so we quietly told everyone to call her 'Queen Annalise'
at every opportunity.
She got even. We each ended up with pink hair.
She did it behind our backs, ordering everyone to the preparations and then drumming up some charge for each of us. She ordered us seized, and our companions led the fray. And when she ordered us to cooperate...
We did. We might be retired from active duty, but we were still Amazons, and we obeyed our queen.
After retiring, Maya had asked Malora to grow her hair out, and she had. It was all grey, but it came in surprisingly full. Her head became a shocking color.
My hair is perhaps half grey. Annalise was going to strip the remaining black, but her Mama begged her not to, and so they dyed the grey, and the results were, well, quite ridiculous.
Afterwards, we called her 'Queen Annalise' even more often.
I've had love in my life: my parents and brothers, and now their children and even a few grandchildren. They're tickled pink to have not just one, but two retired Amazon queens living nearby. They call me 'Auntie Queen'. Malora is 'Aunt Queenie'. We both love it.
Maya. She made me into what I am far more than my parents. I love her to pieces, and now I see her for hours every day.
She still tells me what to do. And I do it.
Malora, my second mother, my second big sister. She's old now, and she uses Juna's cane, but she's still got a few years left in her. It gets her goat, but we continue to call her Queen.
Maya tells her what to do. And she does it.
Nori, my third big sister. Or aunt. I never could decide that, either. The land we all hold has grown with each newly retired Amazon, but we've built our homes at the junction of the land. Maya and Malora have the middle. Nori and Rora are on one side; Lia and I have the other. Omie and Vorine with their companions are next to us. We grow grapes and make a passable wine. The cases we send are coveted by the Amazons.
Omie, who I love now as much as I ever did. We still kiss, now and then, frequently at Lia and Aren's instigation. I was able to have two great loves of my life and, in a way, have kept them both.
The girls, one of whom is the new queen now. I asked Joelle, "Whose idea was it to start calling me 'Mother'?"
She grinned. "Aunt Tamma's. We asked Mama if she would mind, and she cried. Then we asked Maya if you would mind, and she cried."
"It took me years to get used to it. It still gives me a shiver of delight every time you do it."
She grinned. "You know we figured out calling you 'Mother' meant it was more likely we'd get our way."
My friends, especially Bea, Vorine and Jasmine. We're all together.
And Lia, my companion now for over twenty years. My lover, my keeper. She opened her heart and her arms to me. She shared her daughters with me, a precious gift I forever treasure. We still make love whenever we can. Maya caught us one day, and all Lia said was, "Like you and Malora aren't a couple of horny weasels yourselves."
As for retirement? It suits us. Lia asked me to teach her to sail. I asked my brothers to help. Dannick knew of an old ketch. "It's in bad shape, but the bones are good." Maya bought it for me for a song -- literally. She played fiddle at a daughter's wedding, and they gave me the ketch. Over the winter, my nephews tore it apart and rebuilt it.
With lumber from White Pine. Sent by Zora. Go figure.
I taught Lia to sail. Maya and Malora let us have the first sail alone, but then demanded to go along. So if you see a ketch bobbing at anchor in the harbor of Gallen's Cove, check the name. I wanted to name it after Lia, but she and Maya disappeared one day, and when next I visited my nephews to see the boat, I saw a name painted on the stern: Queensride. Malora chortled when she saw it.
And then we both threatened to dye their hair pink.
About the Author
A writer by avocation, Robin has a renaissance interest in many areas. A bit of a gypsy, Robin has called a few places home and has traveled widely. A love of the outdoors, animals in general and experimenting with world cuisines, Robin and partner share their home with a menagerie of pets and guests, although sometimes it is difficult to discern who is whom.
Robin can be reached via email as [email protected]. Robin's web site is http://www.robin-roseau.com.
Amazon Chief
Copyright 2014 by Robin Roseau
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
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