by Travis Bughi
“That’s impossible,” Heliena had replied in a dangerous tone. “I watched her whimper and die with my own eyes.”
“Then this Miss Stout is either a very good actor or a miracle has occurred for I assure you that my source is extremely reliable. I intend to find the answer, personally, if she turns up here in Lucifan, though I only thought it fair to warn you. After all, we are partners, and I hear that amazons are not known for their forgiving nature.”
Count Drowin had ended his sentence with an eloquent smile, which revealed the tips of two pointed, bleach-white teeth. Not a threat, as some might take it, but merely the natural occurrence when a vampire pulled his lips back.
Heliena had screamed then, and she was screaming now as she stood alone in an alley outside a minotaur building on the outer rim of Lucifan.
“Hire a minotaur to kill the girl,” Ichiro Katsu had instructed her. “They will fare much better than an ogre.”
Heliena had cringed at the command, though if Katsu noticed, he made no mention of it. He would certainly be unconcerned if he had, because if ever there was a concept of love, it did not exist between him and his wife. He’d married her for her beauty; she’d married him for his power. Neither of them held any illusions about that.
In the end, Heliena had agreed to most of her husband’s wishes. She hated having to resort to hiring beasts, but her husband had been most persistent. He had wanted to send a servant out to do the hiring as well, but Heliena would trust no other to do the deed. She’d set out alone in search of a minotaur.
Minotaurs preferred to live in small tribes out on the Great Plains, but with only so much work for them there, they gathered together in Lucifan under whatever ramshackle buildings they could afford to rent. From there they could branch out to look for work, and it provided a common place for work to find them.
Now, outside one such building, Heliena swallowed enough of her anger and fury to control herself. She patted her hair, shook her curved body, and straightened her tightly fitted clothes. She still wore the amazon trademarked leather skirt and vest, covered with metal studs to offer maximum movement without sacrificing too much armor. The outfit, more revealing than the royal robes Katsu had offered her, allowed her to continue using her most treasured weapon: her beauty.
Heliena closed her eyes, breathed out, and then opened them. Like so many years ago, her anger plummeted into her soul and began to fester there. Her exterior cooled, and a tight hand of control suppressed the murderous desires she normally embraced. With an aura of confidence bolstered by an overbearing ego, she strode into the minotaur building and crinkled her nose.
Minotaurs, by nature of their thick fur, always had a musk about them. Anyone else would have been kind enough to ignore it, but Heliena was anything but kind. She nearly gagged and didn’t bother to hide this fact. Fortunately for her, the minotaurs had manners enough, and those that saw the rude gesture chose to look away. They turned their great shabby heads back to their own business, wishing to avoid unprofitable conflict.
After wiping her nostrils, Heliena began to concentrate on the task at hand. She needed a killer, someone willing to perform the dark deed at hand. There could be no mistakes. She wanted someone desperate for the job.
The minotaurs, all almost twice Heliena’s height, were scattered about the building in small groups of three to five. They were all seated on the floor, not because there was no furniture, but because minotaurs always sat on the floor. Even with them seated, Heliena was shorter than them. This had no effect on her poise, though. She was a deadly amazon warrior and the wife of a shogun. As this slipped through her mind, she decided to be bold in her quest.
“Does anyone know a girl named Emily Stout?” Heliena asked aloud.
No mistakes this time, she thought. The last time Heliena had hired others to capture her enemies, they’d brought back the wrong one. If she could help it, she’d avoid that now by hiring a minotaur who already knew the girl on sight. Surely one of these brutes knew the Stout family. The Stouts were farmers, after all, and farmers were known to hire minotaurs.
“I do,” one minotaur said, rising slowly from amidst a trio.
Heliena looked him over. He was youthful and strong, obviously the youngest of his group. Like all minotaurs, he slouched even while standing, but Heliena was convinced he’d be half the height of a treant or twice as tall as herself if he stood up straight. In all aspects, he looked like any other minotaur, with thick, muscled arms and a bulky body covered in fur. He didn’t appear as ruthless or as brutal as Heliena would have liked, but if he knew Emily, then he would do.
“Good,” Heliena replied. “Follow me.”
The minotaur’s tail swished at Heliena’s lack of manners, but he lumbered forward anyway, and the two stepped outside into Lucifan’s cool air. When Heliena continued down the same alleyway from which she'd come, the minotaur hesitated a moment before following.
“What . . . do you . . . need?” the minotaur asked.
“I need Emily Stout dead,” Heliena demanded. “I want you to crush her body until it’s a bloody stain on the ground and bring me her head. No questions either, understood?”
Heliena’s request was delivered as swiftly as it was cruelly. The minotaur cocked one eyebrow high in surprise. His head shifted, but otherwise he didn’t move. His breathing slowed, and there was a long pause before he responded.
“The angels don’t—”
Heliena sneered and cut the minotaur off. “Don’t you worry about the angels. Just kill the girl and bring me her head. I expect she’ll be here in a couple weeks. Got it? You’ll be paid twenty crowns if you do it.”
The minotaur’s muscles twitched when Heliena mentioned the payment. His snout curled back in anger at Heliena’s rudeness, but dangling the standard bounty for slaying a behemoth in front of him had stifled his fury. That was more money than he’d be offered in a year, and Heliena knew it. Her lips pulled back in a wicked smile, knowing she’d struck a nerve.
“I will . . . do it,” the minotaur said with defeat in his voice.
“Good,” Heliena smiled. “Now, what’s your name so I know how to find you again?”
“Bloodhoof,” the minotaur said. “Talvorn Bloodhoof.”
Heliena gave a curt nod, which the minotaur did not return. He kept his eyes averted, and she took that as a sign of submission. She turned and left the creature in the alleyway without another sound between them.
On her way back to the streets of Lucifan, she smiled to herself triumphantly. Emily would have her work cut out for her this time. If the minotaur caught her alone, or even with another, the fight would be over quickly. Heliena hated to admit it, but it seemed that her husband had been right this time. Sometimes it was best to just hire a mercenary.
Chapter 1
Emily Stout was beyond excited.
Her heart leapt up to her throat, and her stomach twisted in knots. Only a little over six months had passed since she’d been home, yet it seemed like a lifetime. She’d spent her whole life out on the Great Plains, on a plot of farmland just big enough to feed those who worked it, and somehow she barely remembered a thing about it. More than once, she thought she’d never see it again, but now it was a speck of brown in the distance. Emily could once again see the wooden house where she’d spent the first sixteen years of her life, and she was surprised to find that it thrilled her.
“Are you going to wipe that grin off your face anytime soon?” Adelpha asked.
“Nope.” Emily smiled wider.
Adelpha sighed and shook her head to clear the straight, black hair off her face. The constant wind of the Great Plains was picking up and blowing at their backs, whipping Emily and Adelpha’s short hair into their faces. Emily was used to it though, and her wavy brown hair sliding along her cheeks didn’t bother her as it did the amazon queen.
“I thought you hated the Great Plains?” Adelpha inquired, spitting out a strand that had flown into her mouth.
“
I do,” Emily hesitated, “but I miss my family.”
Emily had left her family and the Great Plains—a vast spread of yellow grass and rolling hills—in a heartbeat when the opportunity arose to join up with the amazons, warrior women from the South, and these past few months with them had been the longest of Emily’s entire life. In that time, she’d become an amazon, learned to shoot a bow, trained with elves, run from werewolves, fought with ogres, hunted a manticore, hid from gremlins, made new friends, lost a loved one, and developed a mortal enemy.
It was that mortal enemy who’d brought Emily and Adelpha back to the plains earlier than expected. They travelled towards Lucifan, the grand city ruled by angels, to kill Adelpha’s sister, Heliena, who had tried and failed to kill Emily, but had succeeded in killing Emily’s grandmother, Chara.
Chara had also been Adelpha’s mother in a way. Although not blood related, Chara had raised Adelpha when Adelpha and Heliena’s mother had been killed by a basilisk. Heliena had secretly blamed Chara for the death and so took the old woman’s life before fleeing with a captured basilisk to join her husband in Lucifan. Heliena had also tried to kill Emily with basilisk poison, a deadly substance that could kill immortals, and Emily would have died were it not for the divine intervention of an angel named Quartus.
So now she was traveling on borrowed time and was out to avenge Chara. Adelpha, too, felt the same burning, festering desire for justice.
At first, Emily had been shocked, even unnerved, at Adelpha’s willingness to hunt her own sister. Emily didn’t have a sister, but she did have two brothers, and she could not imagine a world in which she could kill them, even in mercy. However, Heliena and Adelpha were really only sisters in the fact that they shared the same mother. Beyond that, they were starkly different, both physically as well as mentally. Adelpha’s body was as large as her presence, and she commanded a room with a personality bolstered by authority. Heliena, on the other hand, was slim and short like Emily and was the complete embodiment of human beauty. Despite this, she was wicked, manipulative, and, Emily was convinced, not entirely sane.
Adelpha was the older one and had bullied Heliena some when they were younger, but as far as Emily could tell, she had tried to make amends. The two were destined for conflict, though, and they’d never connected. Their differences were too great for either stubborn woman to relinquish pride and accept the other. So, they diverged early and grew further apart until Adelpha became a leader and Heliena a killer. They were sisters only in blood.
Now Adelpha was traveling with Emily, and on their way to Lucifan, Emily had less insisted and more demanded that they stop by her home first. She’d made a promise to see her family again once she’d returned, and Adelpha had quickly given up any opposition. That didn’t stop her from nagging about it, though.
“How long do you intend on staying?” Adelpha asked. “You know that the longer we stay, the further away Heliena gets.”
“I know that,” Emily replied. “We’ll just stay for the night. Don’t you want a bed to sleep in finally? Not to mention a hot meal.”
“Hm,” Adelpha put a hand to her stomach. “I hate it when people change my mind so easily. Alright, you’ve made your case.”
Emily’s smile widened even more, and she picked up her pace. They finished climbing a small rolling hill and began to trek back down it. As they descended, Emily’s home was temporarily hidden from view.
“You think your father will have any tobacco for this pipe?” Adelpha asked.
Adelpha tapped her backpack where she kept her new pipe, a gift from the gnome, Fred Hoggins. They’d run into him on their way through the Great Plains, and Fred had been more than hospitable, giving them both food and water for their journey. He’d even offered to let them sleep in his hovel for the night, but considering that the hovel and beds were built for gnomes, Emily and Adelpha had graciously declined. He’d given Adelpha his smoking pipe before they’d left, though, followed by a few overzealous winks. Adelpha had ignored the gestures, but accepted the pipe. As much as the tiny gnome’s attraction to large women surprised Emily, she’d decided not to tease her friend about it.
Emily also hadn’t told Adelpha that Fred kept a case of those exact same pipes somewhere in his hovel. She hadn’t mentioned a lot of things. Actually, Emily was surprised by Fred’s hospitality. The last time they’d met, Emily’s father had promised to bring back behemoth meat if they found any, but had failed to do so. The behemoth had destroyed the Stout barn, so all the meat had to be sold in Lucifan.
But neither he nor she said anything about it, and they’d parted ways as old friends rather than one-time acquaintances. Now, a day of walking later, night was approaching, and Emily was about to be home once more.
“Why do you ask?” Emily smirked. “It’s not like you’re going to smoke it anyway.”
“Urg, I guess you’re right about that one, too. I never was one for inhaling smoke. I cannot win with you today, can I? I’ll give it to one of the other women in Themiscyra.”
As they climbed the next hill, the Stout farm sprung back into view. Emily smiled at the familiar sight of the old house, a newly constructed barn, and their plot of land with tall-standing wheat fields nearly ready for harvest. It wasn’t nostalgia that filled her, but rather the knowledge that everything was okay.
And then Emily saw something different.
From out of her house, a tall figure in a wide-brimmed hat and leather overcoat stepped onto the porch. The door slammed shut behind him, and although it was inaudible due to the wind’s direction, Emily heard the noise in her head just as well. She recognized the trademarked figure of a gunslinger and tilted her head in curiosity. Emily’s family couldn’t afford a gunslinger. What was one doing at their home? Maybe he was just staying for the night, Emily thought. Perhaps renting a room? Emily’s parents always needed the extra money and never denied a wayward traveler who could pay. They were even hospitable enough to allow some to stay a short time for free.
The gunslinger walked casually off the porch and out into the setting sunlight. Emily tried to discern his features, but the gunslinger’s wide-brimmed hat cast a dark shadow over his face so that such endeavors were worthless. It didn’t much matter at this distance, though. Without the hat, Emily would still have trouble seeing anything distinct.
Something about the man did seem familiar though. Emily just had no idea what.
Then the gunslinger looked out and saw the two approaching women. He froze in place as if stunned. His overcoat swayed in the wind, and sunlight flashed on the handles of two six-shooters, one holstered on each side, before they were once again hidden from view by the coat.
With youthful speed, the gunslinger darted towards the newly constructed barn on the Stout farm and slipped between the cracked-open doors. He disappeared from view with an urgency that made Emily and Adelpha slow their pace.
“What was that?” Adelpha asked.
“I don’t know,” Emily replied.
The barn doors were kicked open just then, and the gunslinger burst back into view, this time mounted on a unicorn. So great was his haste that he had neglected the use of a saddle. This didn’t impede him though, and with a quick kick and a skillful tug on the unicorn’s mane, he pressed the unicorn into a full gallop towards the amazons that flung up mounds of grass-filled dirt.
“Emily?” Adelpha said with apprehension. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Emily replied, equally tense.
The gunslinger continued his rapid flight, closing the distance between them with frightful speed. His coat flapped behind him, revealing his holstered guns as they bounced and shined in the daylight. Adelpha reached a hand up to her bow instinctively, but Emily stopped her and whispered a warning.
“Don’t,” Emily said. “You won’t be fast enough. We’ll both be dead before your arrow clears the quiver.”
“What are we to do then?” she asked in anger.
“He hasn’t reached for his
guns yet, so just stay calm.”
Adelpha swallowed and slowly pulled her hand away empty. The two women huddled close together as the unicorn stopped only twenty paces away. Its full speed gallop was brought to an end by its remarkably talented rider. The beast snorted and breathed hard after exerting so much effort so quickly, but the gunslinger paid it no mind. Emily recognized the unicorn as one belonging to her family, and she began to fear the worst. She looked up at the gunslinger, yet shadows continued to hide his features, leaving him nothing but a dark figure with no face to gaze upon.
“What do you want?” Emily asked. “Who are you?”
The gunslinger shook his head as if surprised. Then, as realization struck him, he dismounted and started walking towards the women, leaving the unicorn unattended behind him. He threw open his arms, and Emily barely resisted the urge to step back. She kept her face stained with defiance, however. Who was this gunslinger to think he could threaten a Stout on her own property?
“You don’t remember me?” the gunslinger asked in a youthful voice.
The sound struck Emily like a bucket of cool water, and it splashed over as she blinked in unwilling recognition. She knew that voice. Then, she looked past the gunslinger’s clothes to his walk, height, hands, figure, feet and everything else. She knew all of these things, for she’d seen them all her life on her older brother who was now hiding under a long overcoat and wide-brimmed hat.
Abraham Stout lifted his head up and let light pour over his face. Then he laughed.
“Abe!” Emily shouted.
She felt all tension leave her body and then cleared the remaining distance between them, leaping into her older brother’s arms. Abe laughed as he hugged her back, but winced when Emily leapt back and punched him hard in the shoulder.
“Ow!” he said.
“What were you thinking?” she demanded. “You’re lucky I stopped Adelpha from putting an arrow in your head!”
