by Travis Bughi
Adelpha’s anger yielded a slight tear that concentrated in her right eye before trickling down, giving Emily pause. At first, she thought to persuade Adelpha not to go. Emily considered this her own fight. Not only was Chara her grandmother, but unlike Adelpha, Emily had been brought back to life by an angel.
Adelpha must have sensed these thoughts in Emily, because she headed them off.
“She was my mother first, you know,” Adelpha said, wiping the tear away. “Before you met her, it was Chara who took me in when my mother died and Chara who taught me everything I know. You can come, too, if you like. I was only waiting around until you came to or finally died, and then I was going to get moving. Heliena’s my sister, Emily. I have just as much reason to stop her as you.”
Emily swallowed and straightened her back in an odd mix of embarrassment and relief. One on hand, she felt ignorant for even thinking she could tell Adelpha what to do. On the other, Emily realized her chances of making it back to Lucifan and stopping Heliena would increase tenfold if Adelpha came along.
She was going to need every friend she could get.
“I’m sorry,” Emily said. “I should have known. I hope you don’t mind if I come with you?”
Adelpha smiled and hauled Emily to her feet.
“Why do you think I’m still here?” Adelpha slapped Emily’s shoulder, and Emily winced in pain.
* * *
It took Emily a bit to stretch every tight muscle and regain her range of motion. Her weeks’ long rest had taken quite a toll on her, giving a few bed sores, a shortness of breath, and a thirst and hunger for the ages. The amazons had taken care of her as best they could, but they had not been able to force her to drink water or eat food in her unconscious state. Adelpha recounted the first time they’d tried to pour water down Emily’s throat. She’d breathed it rather than swallowed, coughing up and making a mess. The amazons thought she’d die within a couple days due to thirst if she didn’t wake up.
Thankfully, whatever coma Quartus had induced on her had also suspended her need for sustenance. Emily had survived for weeks, breathing and being turned over from time to time to ease the tension on her skin. Now that she was awake, though, Emily felt like she could drink a river dry and eat a bugbear. She certainly gave both a solid attempt.
As for Emily’s fame (or infamy) amongst the amazons, Adelpha was right. Emily was looked upon with equal parts distrust, awe, and disbelief as she walked from Chara’s hut to Themiscyra’s archery range near sunset. Emily had to know how her skills faired, and she was relieved to find that her body still worked. She sprinted, performed a jump, and shot her bow, all while watched by hundreds of eyes and surrounded by the whispers of inquisitive words. Emily wasn’t fully recovered, but only her muscles had stiffened rather than her abilities. She smiled when she saw she could still peg the center of a target at nearly any range.
Emily had awoken from her slumber in the midafternoon, so Adelpha insisted they wait until morning to get moving. Heliena was already so far ahead of them that traveling through the jungle at night was not worth the risk. That, and Adelpha had used her new position of power to postpone Chara’s funeral pyre until Emily was awake.
Now that Stefani was dead, Adelpha was no longer an amazon princess. She was the amazon queen. The amazons weren’t a dictatorship, though, and Adelpha was only successful in delaying the funeral because Chara was going to be in it and because Emily was Chara’s only surviving daughter in Themiscyra. Stefani’s funeral had already been done, a somber event due to its occasion and also its timing.
A small pyre was made for Chara, being it only needed to be as large as her rotting corpse. The amazons had done what they’d could to preserve the body, but nature was not a force to be reckoned with. The fire was lit quickly to save those downwind from the pyre.
Emily didn’t bother to hold back the tears as the flames licked her grandmother.
Adelpha gave the speech. She’d offered to let Emily do it, but Emily was not prepared. Not only had she never given a speech in her life, she was already spectacle enough without standing in front of everyone and demanding their attention. Emily listened intently as the Queen’s words broke through the crackle of wood burning behind her.
“Chara was my surrogate mother, my mother’s surrogate mother, Mariam’s true mother, Emily’s grandmother, and the guiding hand of every trip to Lucifan over the past twenty years. She will be remembered for her kindness and her strength, but most of all for her forgiveness. There may one day be born a woman as understanding as Chara was, but I would be both surprised and honored to meet her.
“It can be said—and often is—that we amazons are a fiery people. We hold passion in high regard and do not lack bravery. If we are weapons, and Themiscyra is our forge, then Chara was the quench that made our metal strong. She took our young and old and instilled in them the ability to wield their anger, rather than succumb to it. Her advice was given only when asked or needed and never lacked of worth. She encouraged all of us to be true to ourselves, to treasure honesty, integrity, and value. She was slow to anger—a rare virtue among us—but she was quick to forgive. When she left this world, she held no grudges, only wisdom and knowledge. It is a knowledge that will surely be missed and sorely felt. Age, to her, was neither excuse nor problem, but a challenge to be overcome and conquered. In that, she succeeded, as any will attest who made the trip to Lucifan with me this season.
“Chara’s favorite fruit was mango, the manticore her favorite hunt, and the people of Themiscyra her pride and joy. When her daughter, Mariam, left us to pursue a destiny of her choosing, Chara was the first among us to forgive her and quick to take up the training of another in need. She neither shied from duty nor turned her nose up at any who walked by her. She believed a mother was a teacher and always put action to her words. When Chara set her mind to a task, not even a basilisk stood in her way.
“It will not be easy to follow in Chara’s footsteps. She walked a path that few have the courage to undertake, that of love and understanding built upon relentless self-accountability. She will be remembered for these things, and she who took her from us will be brought to justice.”
Adelpha paused and turned to the pyre, now burning hot and bright, and said, “I love you, Chara, my mother, my teacher. You will always hold a special place in our hearts and minds.”
Emily and Adelpha stayed the awake the whole night. Emily thought she had the easier time, having had weeks of rest, but Adelpha was molded with purpose and seemed not to struggle.
In the morning, when only white ashes remained, the two made a slow trip back to their hut for a few hours of sleep before they would pack and leave.
“You know,” Adelpha said as her words slurred with exhaustion, “I’m glad Chara found you. Or you found us, I should say.”
“I am, too,” Emily agreed. “Though you sure didn’t seem that way when we first met.”
“Well,” Adelpha shrugged and yawned, “I was afraid you would steal Chara away from me. Like I said, she was my mother first.”
“Yeah,” Emily nodded. “At least you changed your mind. What prompted that sudden change anyway? I’ve always been curious.”
Adelpha yawned again and took in a deep breath. They reached the hut, and Adelpha pulled the curtain aside.
“When you saved me from the ogre,” she said. “I thought maybe you weren’t so bad. And Chara had a private word with me after we tried to track the ogres through Lucifan. She told me that she wasn’t going to be around forever, and that if I truly respected and loved her, I’d give you a chance. And then I saw you bash that ogre’s head with a chair leg! That was clever. And then hearing you threatening the vampire was the final straw. I started to think like Chara. I thought to myself, ‘Hey, maybe this farmer isn’t so bad. She might even be tough.’ Over the course of our trip, that statement proved true.”
Adelpha smiled and gave Emily a nudge onto the cot. Emily blushed and took a seat, her weary body relaxing.
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“Hey now,” Emily tried say before sleep overtook them, “I’m nowhere near the fighter you are.”
“Well, that goes without saying,” Adelpha smiled and laughed when Emily rolled her eyes.
They tucked themselves in for the sleep that would be quick to come. Neither of them stirred, and Emily didn’t ask why Adelpha slept in Chara’s hut instead of her new Queenly quarters. Emily was just glad that, on her final night in Themiscyra, Adelpha did not argue that Emily should sleep in Chara’s bed. As she lay down and closed her eyes, Emily imagined coming back to Themiscyra one day and lying here again. The thought of continuing Chara’s legacy and raising her own daughters here seemed a pleasant thought, but somehow, deep down, Emily knew that her life would take a different path. She couldn’t stay grounded like her parents or her grandmother.
At least, not yet. There was still a traitor, a killer, a villain to catch and slay. Out there, Heliena was traversing the Great Plains, and Emily and Adelpha were woefully behind. They would catch up, though. They would catch Heliena and stop her from completing her plans.
Emily promised herself this, and prayed to anyone and everything that was listening that she could fulfill it. As she closed her eyes with that thought in mind, she drifted to sleep and her consciousness faded.
For the first night in too long, she went to sleep and didn’t hear a thunderbird’s screech.
Her dream was gone forever.
Epilogue
Of all the things that Emily and Adelpha expected to run into while traveling through Angor, Belen was not one of them. However, lo and behold, when the pair entered the forest, they were tracked, followed, and approached by werewolves in human form. They said there was a woman among them, an ex-amazon named Belen, who knew of and needed to speak with them. Emily and Adelpha were asked, while surrounded by spears, to come back to their camp.
They promised a short encounter.
“You know, it’s not so bad being a werewolf,” Belen said. The three of them were sitting around a campfire in the middle of the werewolf camp.
The first thing Belen did was explain what had happened to her. As fate would have it, the night following Belen and Iezabel’s exchange to the centaurs had been disastrous for Lok’har. The group should have been far enough north to avoid another attack, but the previous night’s activity had drawn a large number of werewolves, and the centaurs were tracked down by a party of the beasts. Belen and Iezabel had been confined to the middle of the centaurs, but the werewolves had torn the centaurs and Iezabel to shreds. Morning arrived just as one werewolf sank its teeth into Belen’s leg.
As a result, Belen had survived, but was now a werewolf like the others.
“They tell me that the werewolf part of me stores the anger,” Belen explained, “which should soften my attitude when I’m human.”
It was daylight in a week with no full moon, but still Emily and Adelpha couldn’t curb their feelings of nervousness. They had remained almost completely silent as Belen continued to speak, though she made long pauses between each sentence, her eyes locked onto the small fire between them.
“You know,” Belen said, “I should be furious with the both of you.”
“Well,” Emily said, her shame pushing her to speak up. “I want you to know how sorry I am about what happened. I wish I could take it all back, and I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
“Next week will be my first change,” Belen said, ignoring Emily’s apology. “I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
The other people in the camp kept to themselves, though Emily noted how many of them were keeping a close watch and careful ear turned towards the amazons. The werewolves all looked just as normal as any other human during the day. They wore simple clothes, washed, cooked, and went about their day so calmly that Emily couldn’t believe these were the same people who would warp into furious beasts and rip flesh apart.
“I’m sure you could come back,” Adelpha tried to sound hopeful. “We could build some kind of cage, maybe, to hold you for the nights when you change.”
Emily heard a couple of scoffs and snorts of disdain from around the camp. Belen just shook her head as she looked down to the ground.
“No,” Belen mumbled. “That won’t work. And besides, to be honest, I’m not very upset about leaving the amazons anyway.”
Adelpha’s jaw dropped, and Emily’s eyes opened wide.
“Why do you think I married?” Belen offered in response. “I was honest with you when I said he was a knight. That’s why I didn’t want to invade Okamoto’s ship. I didn’t want to become an outlaw and ruin my chances of staying with my husband in Lucifan.”
“That night before the raid,” Emily said. “I saw you sneak out of The Kraken’s Eye. Was it to go see him?”
Belen nodded. She was still looking down into the dirt. Through the whole conversation, she had yet to lift her head and meet Emily and Adelpha’s gaze.
“Belen, I’m so sorry,” Adelpha reached out a hand to touch Belen’s knee.
“I don’t need your sympathy,” Belen said sharply and slapped Adelpha’s hand away. “I’ll be fine.”
Adelpha retracted her hand quickly, and Emily noted the number of glares around the camp that were aimed at them. One man in particular just couldn’t seem to take it anymore and walked up to the trio, eyes ablaze.
“Look at you two,” he said to Adelpha and Emily. “Treating Belen like she has some sort of disease. She’s fine! In fact, she’s better off than both of you. The whole human population would be better off if we were all werewolves. Then no one would bother us. You two should just leave right now!”
Belen raised a hand and put it on the man’s leg. He calmed down and looked at Belen with sympathy.
“Thank you, Ralph,” Belen said, “truly, but I need them.”
The man called Ralph was still angry, but he nodded and left anyway. Belen waited until he was far enough away before she spoke.
“Ralph means well,” Belen tried to explain. “He just doesn’t like the fact that we’re exiled out here. He thinks we should be able to join the rest of the humans in Lucifan. Most of the werewolves do actually.”
“Um,” Emily started, “I couldn’t help but notice you said that you needed us?”
“Oh, yes,” Belen said, apparently having forgotten.
Belen reached into her clothing and pulled out a piece of paper. It was folded, and Belen carefully wrapped it into a protective leather pouch.
“Paper is rare out here,” Belen said, “so take good care of this.”
“What is it? Who’s it for?” Emily asked.
“When our scouts caught sight of you, they informed me, knowing that I was once an amazon,” Belen said. “I wrote this while they went to fetch you. It’s a letter for my husband, and if you want to repay me, then do me this favor. When you get to Lucifan, deliver this message to him. He’ll come for me. I know he will.”
Belen handed the envelope over, and Emily took it.
“I promise I’ll deliver it, Belen,” Emily said. “You have my word.”
As Emily turned the envelope over and placed it in her pack, she saw the name written on the cover.
To my darling, Sir Mark O’Conner.
World of Myth III
The Fall of Lucifan
Prologue
Heliena screamed, and screamed again.
She wailed, she kicked, and she pulled her hair like a fiend. Her body shook with anger, and at the end of her demented shrieks, she slapped a slender hand against the cold, stone wall hard enough to send waves of pain coursing through her arm.
“How can this be?” she snarled. “This is impossible!”
She screamed again, wailing like a banshee that had just crawled free from a corpse. Those citizens of Lucifan who were brave or foolish enough to glance down the dark alleyway quickly turned around and vacated the area. Even with Heliena’s striking beauty, the insanity that exuded from her now was overbearing enough to prevent a
ny person, even a young male, from making a poor choice.
But Heliena didn’t care about or even acknowledge any of this; the citizens of Lucifan could look on in shock and wonderment for all eternity. Heliena had just spent months and months, years even, suppressing her emotions among the amazons and acting like the drab, weak, yet beautiful little woman she appeared to be. She was finished with that facade. Heliena wanted to yell in rage and did so with the full-fledged enthusiasm of a werewolf under the full moon.
“Emily,” Heliena spat. “How can you be alive?”
She screamed again and pounded a fist against stone. Pain shot up through her arm again, but it blended so well with her fury that Heliena took no notice. She was far too busy agonizing over the impossible.
Emily Stout should be dead. Heliena had watched for herself as the basilisk’s poison seeped into Emily’s veins, burning and rotting the little farmer from the inside out. Heliena had been there when Emily had choked out her last words, and that is where the girl’s story should have ended.
With basilisk poison delivered straight to the blood, no one, not even an immortal, could survive. Yet she was alive, as the vampire, Count Drowin, had so graciously informed her and her husband less than an hour ago.
“The deed is done,” Count Drowin had said, emerging from darkness. “One escaped, but it’s of no consequence. We can move forward with our plans and deal with him if he returns. The rumors are being spread as we speak.”
“Excellent,” Ichiro Katsu, Heliena’s husband, had replied. “Perhaps I can leave this wretched city sooner than expected. I miss Juatwa.”
“Before we get to that, I have just learned of something very interesting.” Count Drowin had snaked a cold finger across his own chin. “Emily Stout, the girl you claimed to have tested the basilisk poison on, is still alive.”
Drowin had spoken calmly and smoothly, as if referring to the weather, yet his words had made the room go silent. Despite the chill generated by the vampire’s presence, Heliena had felt her blood begin to boil.
