by Travis Bughi
There was no voice of disagreement. Not even Belen spoke up this time.
“Emily,” Adelpha continued. “You’re closest to them, so you and Chara will run first. Hanna and Iezabel will shoot first. When I say go, sprint back to us and then turn to fire.”
Emily licked her lips and nodded. She would not be paralyzed by fear this time or ever again if she could help it.
“Go!” Adelpha commanded.
Iezabel and Hanna peered out from behind trees and shot arrows at the centaurs. The centaurs leapt to the side, dodging each shot, although Iezabel’s drew blood from one. Emily and Chara dashed back, with Emily lending some small assistance to her grandmother. When they reached the rest of the group, they turned to release their own arrows while the others headed toward the stream.
Emily pulled her arrow, aimed at one of the centaurs who was nocking his own, and loosed her string. The centaur had seen her, though, and leapt to the side, letting the arrow pass by him harmlessly. Nimble, Emily thought. Then she was up and running again, two more arrows shooting past her.
The amazon combative retreat worked well. It worked out so that at least two amazons were always shooting and keeping the enemy pinned down. They took turns running and shooting and kept the enemy ducking and hiding. It was one of the many, many things she’d learned since leaving home.
The centaurs were quick foes, though. With four legs, they leapt to the side and none took a mortal blow. They were even able to fire their own arrows, though they were too far away for any shot to be accurate. Centaurs did not use treantwood for their bows, and thus they were at a disadvantage.
Emily reached the front of the group again and turned back to shoot. The centaurs were pursuing them now, trying to close the distance, but having to take cover while still beyond the range of their bows. Emily nocked her arrow and looked for a target. She saw it: two centaurs that had gotten just a tad too close to each other. She loosed her arrow at one, aiming just slightly to the side. That centaur leapt to the opposite side and crashed into his partner, sending them both to the ground with their legs kicking in the air.
“Well done, Daughter,” Chara said.
“I got that one,” Iezabel called out and shot an arrow at one of the centaurs that had fallen, striking it in the leg.
The centaur screamed in pain and desperately kicked a hoofed foot to try and dislodge the wooden shaft.
“That’ll slow them down,” Iezabel said with a smile.
The amazons took off at a run, crossing the stream without any casualties. The centaurs stopped to help their fallen comrade and chose to stay with the downed bugbear. They would not be chasing the amazons through the forest with a wounded ally. Emily stopped for a moment to watch them. The centaurs were gathered around the one who had been hit with Iezabel’s arrow and was now moaning in pain. They looked worried and fearful, but when they turned and noticed Emily, she saw their faces twist in anger. She turned away from them now and followed the rest of the amazons deeper into the silent forest.
Chara was panting when they finally stopped. She was in amazing physical condition for anyone her age, but as Chara was fond of saying, that was no replacement for youth.
They did an arrow check again. Some amazons were out, but a few had at least one or two left. Needless to say, that was far from enough in this dangerous territory. The first thing they needed to do was make more arrows, and fast. None were given rock or metal tips, but they were sharpened at the end. Harpy feathers were distributed for fletching and tied at the end with thin string. All of this was done on the move, a necessity in which Emily was already well practiced from her travels across the Great Plains.
“No metal or rock tips on these,” Emily said. “Will that affect the arrows much?”
“The lethality?” Chara replied. “Not by much. With enough speed and force, sharp wood is just as dangerous as sharp rock. Treantwood bows do most of the work. How is your knife?”
“Fine as always. I’ve sharpened it considerably.”
In Lucifan, the amazons had suffered three casualties, and Emily, who’d had no knife before then, had been granted one from the dead. She used it now to chip away wood until enough arrows were made to fill her quiver. There was enough wood lying about the forest for each amazon to sweep up a bundle of sticks to be carved over the next couple of days. It’d been the same out on the plains, only then, the few trees that the amazons did pass had been stripped bare so Emily could hone her fletching and archery skills. At first, she’d had to shoot the bad ones, which were terrible and frustrating. The shafts had been jagged and uneven, and therefore prone to vast inaccuracy. However, like all things, she’d learned through practice, and now she fashioned her own near-perfect arrow shafts like any other amazon.
They hiked to the next stream where they drank of the cold water. Emily swallowed it in small gulps and tried to warm her throat afterwards. Without the warm sunlight striking Emily’s skin, the water was only serving to make her colder in this strange, silent forest of immense, wooden columns. As if to add to her suffering, Adelpha led the amazons into the stream and instructed all of them to stop making arrows. Then, rather than exit the water immediately on the other side, they began walking south with the flow of the water. Now, in addition to Emily’s cold throat, her feet were chilled to the bone, too.
“Why are we walking through the water?” she asked Chara.
“It will help throw the centaurs off our trail if they follow us in the night. No tracks to follow, no scent left for their sensitive noses. We’ll get out some place ahead where they won’t be able to notice until first light.”
Emily nodded and, although she didn’t like the cold, accepted the reality of their situation.
“Are we certain they’ll follow us?”
“No, but one can never be too careful. Hopefully they will be too preoccupied with stripping the bugbear corpse and protecting it from the other inhabitants of Angor. Not to mention they’ll have to tend to their wounded.”
“Hopefully,” Emily repeated.
They got out next to a throng of bushes and made their way deeper into the forest. It had been late afternoon when they’d entered the forest, and so the light had not been good to start. Now, with the trees growing larger and thicker, the setting sun spelled darkness much sooner. As the last bits of light faded, the amazons found a suitable spot to make camp.
“No fires tonight,” Belen announced, saying it quickly before Adelpha could issue the same order.
Emily smiled at Belen’s unintentional announcement of insecurity. Adelpha had done well to lead the group out of danger, and Belen was obviously threatened by it. She was handing out orders now, trying to reassert the authority she felt she’d lost. Or, at least, that’s how it appeared to Emily.
This was of little concern to Emily, though. She’d never had much desire for authority over others, only for control over her own fate. Even when it came to the respect of others, Emily wished for recognition from only those she admired. The masses were fickle, and Emily would waste none of her time on them. She’d spent sixteen years secluded from them, and it would bother her none if that was extended for her entire life.
Emily stretched out on the rough ground and tried to set her mind at ease. Unfortunately, the silence that engulfed her was dreadfully unhelpful. There would be no wind to put her to sleep tonight. She glanced around to see the others settling in. As her eyes scanned the camp, they made brief contact with Belen’s, which quickly averted.
Watch me all you want, Emily thought. We’ll find out if you’re the one when we capture the treant.
Belen shared a joke with one of her friends—or followers, depending on one’s perspective—and they chuckled before lying down. Except for the watch, only Emily remained awake now, holding her weight up with her elbows. Indeed, she did not wish to fall asleep in this silent prison. She worried her dreams would intensify now that Angor had become a nightmare of its own. For comfort, like many times before, she aske
d Quartus to give her just one full night of rest before she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Her dream opened with a thunderbird’s screech.
Chapter 4
The banshee choked her soul again, strangling her life away, and Emily snapped out of her visions. She bolted upright, gasping, sweating, and breathing hard.
“Damn you, Quartus,” she whispered through ragged breaths.
She clenched her teeth and shook her head. Why couldn’t she get it right in her dream? Was just one night of rest so much to ask? Apparently, it was.
Emily put her palm to her forehead and wiped away the beads of sweat that had formed. The night had brought a chill, which was foreign to her, and she wondered how she could sweat at all. She also noticed, all too suddenly, that the forest had somehow gotten even quieter. Angor was altogether not as grand as Emily thought it would be.
“Nightmares again?” Chara whispered.
“Oh, Mother, you’re awake?” Emily said with haste. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Are you referring to this night or every night for the past few weeks?”
Emily blushed with embarrassment. Her red cheeks might have been hidden in the dark, but her silence was revealing enough. Chara reached out a hand and gave Emily a pat on the back. Compared to Mariam’s usual displays of affection, this was a vast statement, and Emily flushed warm at the touch.
“Come,” Chara said. “Let us walk.”
The two rose up from the sleeping bodies and put some distance between them and the camp. It was not enough to be in danger, but enough that their traveling voices would not wake others.
“I have a feeling you do not like the forest,” Chara said.
“Well then, you’d be right,” Emily tried to chuckle. “It’s so silent, and a bit cold. Not to mention all the enemies. We were attacked the moment we entered.”
“That was an unfortunate coincidence, but no harm came of it. Put it out of your mind. Honestly, this trip was already more perilous than all the others I’ve made in the past. This is the first time I’ve ever feared an enemy within our own ranks. I just wish we had more to go on.”
Emily sighed. This was a conversation she’d had with her grandmother more than once. Although their attempt to capture the samurai, Okamoto Karaoshi, had failed, the night had still ended with a few interesting points.
Firstly, Belen had vehemently opposed the raid in the first place, and it’d taken considerable effort—aided by Heliena—to get her to go along. Also, before the raid on Okamoto’s ship, Emily had seen Belen sneak out for a few hours only to return just before the attack. None had noticed her absence, and Gaia claimed the two of them had been together the whole time. The subsequent attack had not gone as planned, and although no direct treachery could be found, Emily suspected that Belen had snuck out to inform Okamoto about the raid.
Secondly, after the samurai had been killed, Count Drowin had tried to kill Adelpha and Emily. Before Quartus intervened and saved them, the vampire had said he’d seen his amazon ally on the docks. Belen had been one of the women on the docks, but then again so had Iezabel, and many others Emily trusted. At least half of the amazons had been there, and Chara was quick to note that Heliena had also been among that group.
Emily listened and tried to absorb it all. She would recollect those suspicions along with Quartus’ warning to be neutral with regards to her feelings. Mostly, though, Emily remembered how useless she’d been that night, watching helplessly as the amazons fought for their lives. She’d been hard at work ever since making herself a capable survivalist. She wanted to be a better shot than Iezabel and a better combatant than Adelpha or Heliena.
“So, how are we to catch this traitor, Mother?”
“To be entirely honest with you, Emily,” Chara hesitated before continuing. “You should know something first. It pains me to tell you, being as how you already have trouble sleeping at night, but the majority of the group is convinced you’re the very traitor we’re after.”
Emily’s throat tightened, but she wasn’t overcome with surprise. Her head hung in muted acceptance, and she slowly nodded her understanding.
“I know. I’m the outsider,” she said. “It’s difficult enough to make friends as it is. Why do they suspect me? Isn’t it obvious I’m innocent?”
I wish these amazons would lend an ear to Quartus’ warning, she huffed. They need it more than me.
“You look as suspicious as any, Daughter,” Chara said, frowning and running a hand through Emily’s hair. “More so, if you think about it. These women have grown up together, all of them, and they know each other as intimately as family. Think about it. None of us have heard of this traitor save for you. It also just so happened that you saw Okamoto’s face but not the traitor’s, making it seem more likely you made it up. The vampire was seen by Adelpha only, so was the angel. Worse yet, Okamoto died by your own hand! If you truly were making it all up, that’d be the best way to hide it. Also, keeping your last name didn’t help. Really, Daughter, the only thing going for you are those ogres that attacked us in the streets and the leprechaun the knights captured. Were it not for those, even I might question you.”
Emily took a deep breath and held it in. These were all things she’d thought of before, tragically, but she could do nothing about them. The past may hold lessons, but only the present can be changed to yield a desired future.
“Revealing the traitor is only half the battle,” Emily nodded. “We’ll need solid evidence to sway the others.”
“Hence why we must watch the treant,” Chara whispered. “The traitor will be forced to reveal herself, being as she’ll have to take enough treantwood to capture a basilisk. It will be more than needed for a bow.”
“What can I do?”
Chara glanced over her shoulder, back towards the sleeping group, and then leaned in to whisper in Emily’s ears.
“I want you to watch Heliena.”
“And why me?” Emily whispered back.
“Listen, you know I share your suspicions about Belen,” Chara replied. “However, it won’t do if you’re the one watching her. If you go through her pack and find something, the others will think you put it there. Instead, I want you to stay close to Heliena and watch her. For some strange, unknown reason, the girl seems to have taken a liking to you. Use it.”
Emily’s stomach churned a tad at what Chara was implying. She didn’t like the notion of getting close to Heliena just to watch her for signs of betrayal. It seemed a betrayal in and of itself. Still, necessity dictated.
“I can do that,” Emily sighed. “First, though, can you tell me why Heliena is so distant with everyone else?”
“Heliena has never been very fond of anyone, least of all with those close to me. Like her aunt, our dear Queen Stefani, she holds me responsible for her mother’s death. Although she never got the chance to meet her, Heliena worships the memory of her mother like an angel. You’ve seen the old pack she carries and protects?”
Emily nodded.
“Anyway, she’s always been a strange one—not that you or I are much different—but the hatred I’ve earned is unjust. By the way some treat me, you would think I placed the basilisk in Hippolytha’s path on purpose.”
“I don’t know how anyone could capture one of those things,” Emily said, changing the subject.
Capturing a basilisk was no easy feat. As far as Emily had been told, no one had ever done it before or dared try. Basilisks were small, no longer than one’s arm, and slithered on their bellies because they had no legs or arms. A basilisk could kill someone just by making eye contact with them, and they had a deadly, poisonous venom in their bite that was strong enough to kill an immortal.
That poison was sought by Count Drowin, though she hoped never to know for what purpose.
“I’m not sure either,” Chara said. “I do wonder what this traitor’s plans are, if she were to succeed.”
“Back to Lucifan,” Emily smiled, seeing h
er grandmother had been thinking along similar lines, “to give the vampire his basilisk and then join her husband.”
“You’re certain she’s married?” Chara asked after a pause.
Emily thought back to that day and nodded in the affirmative. Amazons were forbidden to marry, just as they never took last names. The only two women Emily knew to have broken that oath were her own mother and the traitor.
“Then,” Chara continued, “she will attempt to reunite with her husband, whomever that may be.”
“I think I know whom it is,” Emily said after making a quick connection. “It’s obvious, really. Do you remember whom Okamoto Karaoshi served?”
“It is vague, Daughter.”
“He told me he served the shogun, Ichiro Katsu,” Emily said. “That night I was accidentally captured, the traitor had commanded Okamoto to kill me. He almost did it, but decided not to when Count Drowin threatened to kill him in return.”
“That samurai made a wise decision.”
“Yes,” Emily agreed, “but afterwards, the traitor was very upset and said her husband would hear of the insubordination.”
“So, you think Ichiro Katsu is the traitor’s husband?”
Emily nodded. Chara mulled it over in her mind and nodded slowly to herself.
“And since Katsu was not in Lucifan this trip,” Chara pieced together. “Our traitor is someone who has been to Lucifan before.”
Chara looked over at the sleeping group and then back to Emily.
“Unfortunately, that only rules out you, Daughter,” Chara sighed.
Emily exhaled in frustration. Chara smiled and put a hand on Emily’s shoulder. Emily tried to return the smile and placed her own hand on Chara’s. They stayed like that for a few seconds until Chara broke the silence.
“Don’t worry, Emily. We’ll get her. Now let’s go back and try to get some sleep.”
Emily nodded, and they rejoined the group. They laid their heads down and let their tired bodies take them away.
