“Aye, me too.” Jess scrubbed the back of her neck. “You.”
“Come again?” Vic frowned.
“You smacked me butt over beanie, mate. You sure Talos didn’t find a gopher ho—”
“I don’t fall off horses, Jesstin.” Vic shivered hard and shrugged her leathers around her shoulders as she looked around the darkening pasture. “I told you, something hit me. Felt like a bloody elephant.”
Brenna met Jess’s troubled gaze.
“Whatever this force was, it’s disappeared as suddenly as it arrived.” The calm assurance in Shann’s tone soothed Brenna. “We’ll scout the field thoroughly at first light. For now, Blades, let’s get these bruised wanderers to a warm fire.”
“I’m for that, lady,” Vicar grumbled. “It’s colder than Caster’s tit out here.”
“Shann!”
They turned to see two Amazons on the low hill at the edge of the camp carrying a pallet between them. One held a smoking torch over her head, and Brenna realized it was fully dark.
“Stand down, sisters. We’re all right.” Shann’s clear voice carried well in the pure mountain air. She slid her arm through Vicar’s. “Come on. We’ll want a closer look at you both before we ply you with Aria’s excellent stew. Your report can wait until after you’ve eaten.”
Brenna waited, shivering a little while Jess retrieved the reins of the two horses. She put her arm around Brenna’s shoulders as they followed Shann and Vicar up the grassy rise to the camp.
“You’re sure nothing’s bent?”
Jess grinned down at her. Given her penchant for risking life and limb, the greeting had become a joke between them.
“I’m fine, querida.”
“Kind of odd about Vicar.”
“Well, Vic’s odd.”
“Jesstin.” Brenna squeezed her waist. “Seriously. She hit you with a full body tackle. I saw it happen.”
“Aye, I felt it happen.” Jess turned to look back toward the mesa gleaming in the moonlight across the field.
Brenna nodded toward the mesa. “Did you find anything bizarre up there?”
“No.” Jess frowned and brushed Brenna’s upper arm with her rough palm. “But it’s a damn eerie village, Bren.”
“Really?”
“Deserted, as far as we could tell. Very old. And…strange. That’s the best I can do.”
“Lovely. A haunted village. We’ve had so little excitement.” Brenna rested her head on Jess’s shoulder as they entered the camp, craving the bonfire Shann had mentioned. It wasn’t really cold enough to justify her shivering, but she couldn’t seem to stop.
*
It had a terrible patience, born of silent decades craving Amazon blood to slake its thirst. It sensed that the generations of waiting were drawing to an end at last.
The passion uniting these mortals would be rendered poison. That’s how it would conquer them, how it had defeated two other clans, long before these women were born. It would make them spiritual cannibals, preying on their own kind, as their sisters did.
It had turned the light one against the dark one effortlessly, even at this distance. That was its particular genius, corrupting the love between women into a toxic weapon. These Amazons were ripe for it. Its time was coming again.
It settled into its coffin and slept
*
“I can’t restrain myself, lass. It’s yer cute poutin’ lips—”
“Jesstin.” Brenna blew her bangs out of her eyes and glared into Jess’s blue ones, inches above her. “These tents are made of paper!”
“Grrraded canvas.” Jess’s brogue twirled the words. “And it’s a prrrivate tent.” She bent her head again to kiss her.
“Squished up against fifty others.” Brenna put a finger on Jess’s nose to stop her. “And sound carries.”
The journey into the hills had been difficult in more ways than one. Whenever Tristaine settled in one place for more than a few days, they laid camp to provide reasonable privacy. While traveling, however, safety took precedence over comfort, and the entire clan was assembled in one half of the large meadow. Brenna had yet to adjust to anything extremely personal in close quarters.
“Just who do you fear might be listening, lass?”
“Everybody.”
“Who do you think would possibly object? Half the tents in the camp are rocking on their pegs, any given night.”
“I know,” Brenna muttered. “That’s how I know sound carries.”
“Welp, we’ll get drowned out in the roar of the orgy, then.”
Jess timed it well, her lips meeting Brenna’s before she could respond, and after a moment, she began to relax beneath her. Her shoulders eased back against the blankets as Jess tasted her, a soft, sweet exploration of lips and tongue.
Then Brenna let her head fall back, and the kiss ended with an audible, wet pop.
“Look, remember, I lived alone in a single unit for five years, okay?” She tapped Jess’s chin sternly. “I’m still not convinced that civilized people engage in wanton carnality in communal settings.”
“Ach, City girls.” Jess groaned and toppled sideways, sprawling on her back. “May Gaia grant the deprived wenches more carnality, please.”
Brenna rolled on top of her long, lean form, and Jess whoofed in protest. “Maybe we should keep looking, Jess.”
“You’re still fretting over this mesa, Bren? I doubt we can justify that, not with snows coming.” Jess blinked at her. “Are you picking up anything clear about the village?”
“You make me sound like a metal detector.” Brenna sighed. “No, nothing clear. Just a vague uneasiness. Like I’ve tried to tell Shann, I’m not sure when I’m sensing something or just having a fit of the creeps.”
“It was your senses that helped us escape the valley with our lives, adanin.” Jess’s long fingers brushed through Brenna’s hair. “You saw the flood before it wiped out our village. You saw Caster’s attack before her soldiers found us. You saw a crossbow bolt headed for my chest and saved my life before it struck.”
“I didn’t see it in time to save Camryn,” Brenna murmured. She laid her fingertip on Jess’s lips. “I know. I just get nervous with Shann basing all her plans for Tristaine on what I think I see. I dreamed about this mesa, and we found it right where I thought it would be, but…what if it turns out to be a dormant volcano that goes undormant or something?”
“We’ll pitch Vic in. A sacrifice to appease the gods.” Jess’s hands coasted over the planes of Brenna’s back, then moved beneath the thick quilt to cup the swells of her hips.
“It would just be nice if Tristaine could stay put for awhile.” Brenna rested her chin on Jess’s sternum, shifting slightly as strong fingers began to knead her shoulders. “We don’t want to go through all this again next winter.”
“Tristaine has always been a wandering tribe, Bren.” Jess tickled the backs of her thighs, and she tittered. “Amazons have always moved deeper into the wilderness as the Cities spread and grew. On this continent and others.”
“You know, almost everyone in the City still believes Amazons are a myth.” Brenna smiled, and Jess lowered her head to nuzzle her throat. “Lord knows I didn’t believe in you guys until a certain criminally insane Amazon warrior was assigned to my ward.”
“Better watch out for us psycho-butch Amazons.” Jess lipped the smooth skin between Brenna’s neck and shoulder, warming it with her breath. “We can be bloody irresistible.”
“Jesssssss…” Brenna felt her nipples rise, two volcanoes nowhere near dormant. She listened to the quiet night around them, biting her lip. Maybe the women and children in the surrounding tents really were asleep, but they might just be eavesdropping in courteous silence. “You know how…enthusiastic we get. And loud.”
Jess rolled again, carrying Brenna with her, and resumed her neck nuzzling from above. “I promise, lass, I’ll restrain meself.”
“It’s not—hoo—it’s not you I’m worried about…”
&nb
sp; “I’ll restrain you too.” Jess laid a wet line of kisses along the taut skin of Brenna’s throat, then moved lower.
“Jesstin. Jesstin. Honey? You know I’ll…oh…Hoo! You know I’ll do that. Jess, come on, everyone will hear.”
“Brenna.” Jess lifted her head and peered down at her. “You’re really telling me I can’t make love to you because you’re afraid you’ll make too much noise?”
“Will you lower your voice, please? I have been trying to tell you that for—”
“Ah, sweet goddess, yes!” Jess yelled. “Brenna, yes, more, you wild banshee.”
“Jesstin!” Mortified, Brenna struggled beneath her, trying to clamp a hand over her mouth.
“Yes, there, again!” Jess pinned Brenna’s flailing arms and bayed, “Yes, again, there. Ah, Brenna, you hot-blooded demoness o’ loove…”
“Mmrf onna ill oo!” Brenna bucked like an outraged dowager, then heard a swift footstep outside their tent. She froze in horror.
“Everything all right in there?” Hakan’s deep voice projected clearly as she rapped one knuckle on the tent’s support pole. “Jesstin, you need help?”
Brenna could picture the master of Tristaine’s stables waiting outside—grinning, her white teeth flashing against the beautiful ebony of her skin—then ducking neatly when Jess’s boot flew out through the opening in the canvas and sailed over her head.
They heard Hakan snort laughter as she strolled on through the sleeping camp, continuing night watch. There were some faint claps and one sleepy whistle from the adjoining tents. Jess was chuckling, too, until Brenna clamped her fingers around her throat.
“I am so close to widowhood,” Brenna snarled, her heart pounding hard between her still actively volcanic nipples.
“I’ll comfort you, ye bereaved bairn.” Jess kissed her again, smothering her squealing protests.
Brenna thrashed for a while, almost sincerely. No was no, after all, and Jesstin had just subjected her to public mortification, but, oh sweet lord, now she drew her tongue into her mouth and possessed it, sucking gently.
The strong length of Jess’s body eased down onto Brenna, pinning her to the thick quilt. The hands that gripped her wrists slid them to either side of her head and held them there. Her thrashing slowed and became a sensual twisting so subtle Brenna was barely aware she was doing it.
Jess obviously felt the change, however. She could be a tender lover, and often was. She could also be aggressive and was then, blending power with gentleness, her hands moving thoroughly over Brenna’s languid body. Winter clothing impeded her progress somewhat, but mountain Amazons were accustomed to undoing laces with cold fingers.
And after all that fuss, Brenna uttered hardly a sound beneath her lover’s practiced touch. She crested in near silence, so robbed of breath that crying out was never an option. Her sighs merged with the natural rustlings of the sleeping camp, and Brenna fell asleep with Jess’s breath warming her hair.
By the time Brenna watched Selene coast in full glory across the skies three nights later, the women of Tristaine were settled for the winter on the forested mesa.
Chapter Two
Hakan, get your broad black butt out of my face!”
Similar cheerful taunts rang through the closely packed forest as two hundred Amazons ran the perimeter of the mesa. Vicar and Jesstin were hardly alone in their penchant for competition. The daily training of Tristaine’s warriors often ended in a mad two-mile race around the boundaries of their new home.
Small round leaves nicked at Brenna’s face as she darted through a copse of aspen. She raced up to another dense shrub, lengthened her stride, and cleared it easily.
“Karaki, stepped right in pendeja moose shit again,” someone yelled off to her left, and Brenna heard raucous laughter. She mentally added attack by moose to her list of certain calamities.
The pace was brutal and she was tiring, but it was one of those glorious late-fall mountain days that still dazzled her after twenty-odd years of breathing City smog. She wouldn’t have thought it possible to sip pure oxygen like wine, but on days like this Brenna felt drunk on it. Now her lungs pulled in great cold gusts of air, and vapor plumed between her lips.
The first time Brenna saw leaves turn with such star-tling beauty was last fall when she had entered the village of Tristaine with Jesstin for the first time. That lush valley now lay at the bottom of a vast mountain lake, and its Amazon daughters were exiled to the high hills. But even if the Amazons of Tristaine were as cursed as legends claimed, they seemed an inordinately fortunate clan now.
Brenna’s foreboding about their new home still lingered, but she seemed to be alone in her misgivings. Even Jess shared the clan’s general sense of relief and weary celebration now. Tristaine was starting to claim this land as her own. Forests were sacred to Amazons, and the rings of trees encircling their village were seen as a protective blessing.
The greenery Brenna ran through was thick with fragrant conifers and held a diverse and flourishing population of small game. She heard the rustle of escaping vermin all around her. Chipmunks and rabbits, she hoped, rather than some species of rabid mountain rat.
She slapped through the last few hanging willow branches and emerged, gasping for breath, into the village square.
“You bested half the guild, Bren!” Jesstin slapped her on the back, nearly toppling her to the thick grass. Brenna knew Jess kept her pride in her growing physical prowess low-key most of the time. As Shann’s second and leader of the guild of warriors, Jess had to appear impartial.
Brenna perched her hands on her knees and panted like a spent hound as the rest of the field came jogging in from the forest behind her.
“Do you need to throw up?” Jess asked politely.
“Stay c-close. I might.” Brenna hooked a finger in Jess’s belt so she’d be sure to hit her boots if she did. All of this escaping from the oppressive City to live among free Amazons was nice, but it seemed to involve nausea-inducing adventures on a regular basis: getting gassed by City soldiers, dangling from a torn sash over a gaping chasm. Stuff like that.
Still bending, she saw two beaded doeskin slippers step into her field of vision. “Hello, Hakan.”
“Young Brenna.” A large hand patted the back of her head. “Drop something?”
“Ha and ha,” Brenna gasped. “I like your slippers.”
“A birthday gift from Kas,” Hakan said. “I came to tell you the storyfire’s lit, adanin, and Kyla’s calling the tale tonight.”
“Aye, sister, thanks.” Jess smiled. “We’ve missed Ky’s voice.”
“That we have.”
They moved toward the throng of Amazons gathering in the center of the square. The sun was just touching the timbered horizon to the west, throwing warm, golden light over the village.
Shann had said they were taking root again, drawing sustenance from the beauty and peace of the mountains. Brenna tried to share that optimism. For the life of her, she couldn’t put a finger on her own nebulous worry about their new home. She kept sifting through her journal each evening, returning to the sketch she’d made of Shann cradling a dying girl in her arms. But sad memories aside, Brenna could find no new cause for alarm.
Vicar seemed none the worse for wear. She still maintained some phantom power had pitched her off her horse, and Brenna had no problem believing that. Vic had no earthly reason to attack Jess. Their bond was rock solid. And lord knows Brenna had learned to be a little more receptive to the whole arena of phantom powers. But perhaps now she could stop chasing demons that weren’t there and relax a little.
“...and next time I will, you City sewage.”
The venom in the voice made them turn. Brenna recognized Sirius, one of Jess’s best archers, surrounded by a circle of warriors. An immensely powerful Amazon the color of burnished mahogany, Sirius looked rigid with anger.
Jess walked toward them, her step unhurried, and the warriors parted at once to let her in. Brenna followed, noting the palpable a
nd growing tension in the group.
“Sirius, I ran nowhere near you.”
Brenna lifted herself on her toes to see over Jess’s shoulder, and her heart sank. Dana, the City mercenary new to their clan, faced down Sirius’s angry glare with a look of sullen weariness. Both women still panted from the training run, and their breath shot bursts of steam in the chill air. There was a sudden flurry of motion, and Brenna saw Dana stagger, propelled by an abrupt shove.
“Kimba’s bile,” Jess grumbled, and moved so quickly Brenna almost fell. Jess darted between her two warriors and strong-armed them apart.
“Cool off, Amazon!” Hakan shouldered her way into the circle and swept one long arm across Sirius’s chest, keeping her clear of the silent City soldier.
“Keep Caster’s lapdog out of my path when we train, Jesstin!” Sirius shook Hakan off and spat into the dirt between Dana’s booted feet. “Or I’ll kick her into a ditch myself.”
“You’ll stand down, Sirius.” Jess jutted her chin toward Dana. “What’s this about?”
Dana returned Jess’s appraising gaze without comment.
“This little girl almost kicked Sirius’s legs out from under her, Jesstin,” a warrior called from the back of the group.
“Oh, demon’s bile, Lucia. She did not,” another voice called. “Jess, if anything, Sirius lunged into Dana. I was right behind—”
“I’ve no interest in hearing children take sides in a playground spat.” Jess’s tone was calm but withering, and the circle quieted again at once. She turned to Sirius and regarded her silently for a moment.
“This is unlike you, sister.” Jess rested her hand on the back of her powerful neck. “Dyan was always able to look to you for a cool head. I count on that now. We all do.”
Sirius dropped her eyes, and the rigid lines of her body relaxed. “I hear you, Jesstin.”
Brenna sighed softly, but kept her gaze on Dana. She had been a soldier under Caster’s command when Tristaine’s mountain village was taken. Her last-minute defense of the Amazons had earned her a home among them.
Tristaine Rises Page 2
