“I’ve never been this high up before.” Saratiese said, her eyes never leaving the startling view. “It’s beautiful.”
The colors of sunset were rising, oranges, pinks, and yellows, bathing the entire jungle below in a glow of gold. I edged closer to the waterfall with Saratiese’s arm tucked under my elbow. We both peeked over the edge. The cumbersome waters poured over, tumbling down in a surge of jade and white foam, sending its’ cool spray to sparkle the opening. I peeked around the side, and then took a step back, swallowing.
“What?” Saratiese questioned, most likely feeling the tense in my body.
“We can’t go back.” I backed away, dropping from her arm to sit in the sand. “And this is the only way out.”
“Askca.” Saratiese looked at me as if I‘d just suggested we jump. “There’s no way.”
I shrugged, eyeballing the waterfall again. “We can’t go back. The Cloaks will cook us for certain now. We have to climb down.”
“Is that possible?”
“I noticed a path cut into the side of the mountain. Narrow but-”
“Climbing down that slight edge will take us all night… assuming we live through it.”
“So we’d better get going then.” I stood up, observing the setting sun. “Day is fading as we speak.”
Chapter 40
“Askca!”
“Saratiese!”
The relieved shouts met us as we drudged out from the brush and into the light of a fully risen moon. The girls shared their excitement a stone’s throw away from a flickering campfire, too worn to rise and greet us. All but for Hippolyta that is, who met me with a wrist clasp to the elbow. I returned the gesture, gripping the woman at the forearm to corroborate our fellowship.
“I knew you two would make it.” She said.
“Is Laidea here?” I stared passed the warrior, searching.
“By the fire.”
The Commander sat on the other side of the marigold glow, and the moment I saw her relief escaped me.
“You should have expected as much.” Hippolyta put a hand on my shoulder. “The last to leave and still she manages to get down here before the most of us.”
“Yeah well,” Saratiese shrugged, exhausted, “I think we chose the wrong tunnel.” The girl gave me playful eyes.
“So long as you made it.” Hippolyta smiled. “We were starting to get worried, most of all Laidea. Of course, she said nothing of it.”
“Of course not.” Saratiese palmed Hippolyta’s shoulder as she passed, moved by the thought of resting by the fire.
Once we were alone, Hippolyta’s words dropped low, her eyes drifting back to me. “You see all those bodies in the river?”
“Yeah.” I paused, reminded of the screaming. “A couple moments of bad fortune more, and that’d been us.”
Hippolyta leaned into me, but her attention went to the Commander. “Laidea’s calm is powerful now. Disturbingly so. She’s retreated into herself.”
“Her mind is burdened,” I watched Laidea cinching her gear with rigid, unyielding fingers. Her lips pursed tight like a vice, as if she were refusing her anxious thoughts any exit. “Far heavier than ours, I wager.”
“We’ve been waiting here a long while.” Hippolyta kept to a whisper. “Enough time for her to think too much.”
Turning the conversation, I lightened my tone. “How did the rest of you get down anyway?”
“There was no down. We followed the tunnels through till they opened up under the mountain over there.”
I looked to where she pointed. A tunnel loomed a couple paces back, crowded by a clump of bushes. I rolled my eyes.
“Gods…. We went above and beyond picking the wrong tunnel.”
Hippolyta put her arm around me with a squeeze. “Let’s sit, young warrior. Get some rest.”
I agreed, ambling in slow steps. “I need to thank you, Hippolyta.”
“For what?”
“That first battle with those two horsemen. You saved my life.”
“Warrior.” She stopped, coming round to look me in the eye. Her hands felt firm, yet almost maternal, as she palmed my shoulders. “We are sister Amazons. What I did is to be expected.”
A warmth took my heart, and once again, I didn’t feel so alone. I dipped my head to her in respect.
Back at the campfire, the exhausted company lay in near slumber at the Commander’s feet. Laidea sat on a rock, still cinching her gear when Hippolyta and I walked up. I eased down next to Saratiese, resting for the first time in days. Hippolyta sat on the stone next to Laidea. The Commander never looked up, but kept at her cinching, pulling with her teeth to tighten the laces. I watched as she mended one of her axe scabbards. The blades themselves had been lost to the dead meadow and the woman could offer the sheath no weapon, but cinched it just the same. The reflection of the fire danced through her auburn hair as she kept to her silence, seeking her comfort in the laces.
In those moments my heart hurt for Laidea. Now she seemed to be the one who was alone. Even though she was able to calm her features, her pain escaped her eyes. I felt like I needed to say something. Comfort her in someway. But I had no idea what would ease her pain just now. The woman looked like she had been split down the middle, and now, sat only as one half. Missing the other side of her heart. Lost.
Hippolyta, Saratiese, and I kept quite, leaving the Commander to her thoughts and the company to their slumber. Long moments stretched out before Laidea spat out her leather binds.
“You two finally made it.” She mumbled without looking up.
“Barely.” I answered.
She grinned, but said nothing.
Hippolyta hunched down to my ear, keeping her voice low. “She made it out as if that cavern were no more than a child‘s puzzle.”
“We’re without weapons now.” Saratiese spoke up. “And boots.”
“We are.” Laidea agreed, her eyes still fixed on her barren scabbard.
Saratiese eyed the Commander, offering jest. “Boorish of those Cloaks not to return our things on the way out.”
Laidea waited long moments before allowing a slight curve to lift her lips. “Boorish.”
“So what have you decided?” I questioned.
“Staffs.” Hippolyta pointed to the one at her side.
“For now.” Laidea clarified. “We’ve no other choice. We’ll barter in the town just beyond those trees.”
“Town?” Saratiese questioned. “How can you be certain there’s a town?”
Laidea cooled the girl with confident eyes. “There’s a town.”
We kept silent, looking to one another as Laidea’s words settled. If she knew of a town, she had reason. The Commander kept many things hidden. We let it be.
“For now we rest. I’ll take first-” Laidea cut her own words in two, slicing the air with a flat palm, commanding our silence. Moments passed, all four of us with an ear to the wind.
“There.” Laidea rushed in a whisper, then shot to her feet, taking hold of the staff at her side. She white knuckled the rod, creeping toward a line of trees.
Snap! This time we all heard it. Saratiese and I grabbed the nearest branch, following Hippolyta. The trees obscuring the noise were out of the firelight, situated in shadow.
The Commander prowled toward the darkness on light feet. Stopping as still as a stone, she stared into the black limbs. Her eyes narrowed. A moment passed… and she bolted. Swinging her staff, she dropped something off its’ feet.
“Agh!” The something responded.
Laidea lunged deeper into the dark. Hippolyta, Saratiese, and I stood guard behind, waiting.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” The Commander threatened, standing in the leaves with her foot plowing down. Her staff stood ready at its’ throat.
“No, no, please!”
Laidea ripped a young man up by the scruff, planting him on his feet. From the looks of the dark haired boy, he faired about seventeen to twenty cycles in age. The Commander drew
out from the trees, pulling the stranger with her. When they cleared the brush, she tossed him to the dirt, whipping her rod to the back of his head before he chanced a move.
“What is it you are called?”
“Maybe he’s one of the prisoners?” Saratiese offered, wide eyed.
“Not this one.” Laidea shook her head. “He doesn’t have the smell of it on him.” She forced her staff harder into the back of his head, taunting him to taste the dirt. “And he was lurking about in the shadows.”
We all stood at the front of the boy, staffs ready. He lifted mysterious blue eyes to me.
“Please. I’m here to help….” His palms begged up from the ground.
“Commander?” Malaia questioned from beside the fire, the rest of the company roused. “Is everything-”
“All is well. Leave us.” Laidea assured, her words solid. The Amazons gave a collective nod, ambling back to the fire, so tired they required little urging. The Commander hissed to the boy under her breath. “I have a few questions for my new friend here.”
With my chest tight, I spoke up. “Commander?”
Laidea kept her staff firm at the young man’s skull. “Leave me with him.”
Without question, the three of us retreated, leaving the woman to her task.
Laidea made certain the entire company was sitting around the fire, out of earshot, before she put her focus back on the young man.
“Why were you sneaking about the bushes?” She bullied, bruising her rod into the boy’s hair. “Trying to spy, I wager.”
“No….” He squirmed, palms still splayed in the dirt. “Please, let me up. I’ll explain.”
“You will explain with your face in the dirt.” Laidea bore the heel of her foot in between his shoulder blades, leaning all her weight in, driving her staff in at the base of his neck. “I know your kind and I know where you come from. Did you think you would kill us in our sleep? Take back an Amazon trophy for your master?”
“No. Please. Listen.” The boy stuttered. “I have no intention of harming you or your women.”
“Such an intention would be laughable coming from a twig as easily snapped as yourself. Do you think me a fool, young soldier?”
“I’m not a soldier, I give you my word!”
“You expect me to believe a liar’s tongue? You may not wear his garb or bare the sun’s wrath on your skin, but you’ve something that boasts much louder.” At her words his fist doubled, trying to hide.
“It’s… it’s not what you think.” He rambled.
“You can’t hide it from me.” Laidea kicked his hand, her rod prying at his palm. “Stretch out your hand. Show me what kind of man you seek to become.”
“No please…” The soldier begged, stifling tears, “please.”
“Open it!”
Defeated, the boy loosened his fingers, revealing his palm. Laidea eyed the crescent burn just below his thumb. The young man brought his arm around, burying his face in his elbow, his body shaking from muffled tears. The Commander drew back, confused, but kept her tone dark.
“You bare his mark. That means you belong to him. Like the half moon belongs to the night. He rules where there is no light. He rules you as well, doesn‘t he?” The young solider kept quite, his head still cradled in his forearm. “Isn’t that the way of it? Gragore’s claim?”
“Yes,” he snorted, wiping his nose on his sleeve as he turned to look up at her, “but I do not wish to serve him!”
Laidea’s eyes narrowed and she lifted her foot from him. She kept her staff aimed and ready. The young man squirmed onto his side, staring up with glassy eyes.
“Gragore and his men stormed my village. They raped our women… my mother.” Tears welled in his voice, and he waited a beat before going on. “He captured our young men. Burned the village. The fires killed everyone he no longer had use for. The elders, women, children… even the infants.”
Laidea eyed the young man as he lay crying in the dust. She let him sob for a moment more, then squared her jaw, putting her rod at his throat. Wary.
“Why should I believe you?”
“You know what I tell you of the warlord is truth. You know of Gragore and you should know why I am here.”
Laidea swallowed, uncertain of what to think of the boy’s claim. She kept her staff at his face. “What is it you mean?”
“The Amazon Queen,” he whispered. “She sent me.”
The mere mention of Perseathea brought warmth pressing at the back of Laidea’s eyes. Her throat. She swallowed it.
“I’ve come with word for you, Laidea of GarTaynia. Please, let me prove myself.”
He knew her name. Laidea thought on this, spinning it over in her mind. Weighing it. The boy’s dark curls dangled in his wide, blue eyes as he looked up at her, and in that moment, he came across as a child to her. A frightened child hungry for approval.
“What is your name?”
“Sae-mond.”
Laidea pressed a methodical foot back over his chest, sinking him onto his back in the dirt. “You armed, Sae-mond?”
“No.” The young man raised his palms again, the crescent burn blaring back up at her.
Laidea gave a suspicious sigh. “Show me this proof of yours.”
Sae-mond nodded, adolescent excitement lighting up his face. “It’s in here.”
He motioned cautiously to the purse at his side, then reaching under the flap, slipped a talisman out. He lifted it to her. Laidea stared at the stone as it dangled from his fingers, urging the tears back down her throat. She slid the amulet from his hand, cupping it in her palm.
“It belongs to-”
“I know who it belongs to. Who sent you?” She questioned again, her eyes still captured by Perseathea’s amulet.
“Your Queen and Bartamius.”
The name pricked at Laidea, like a blade waking her from deep sleep. She slid the amulet around her neck.
“Get up.” She watched him amble to his feet, her staff never slipping. Taking a crude hold of his chin, she forced him to look on her. “Where did you hear that name?”
“Which name?”
She tightened her fingers at his jaw. "Bartamius."
"He's the one who sent me."
“How do I know Gragore didn’t tell you these things to trick me?” Sae-mond squirmed in her grasp as she maneuvered him backward, thudding the back of his head into a tree. “How do I know that you didn’t concoct this heart bleeding tale of your family just to get close to me? To my company. Just so you could lead us into an ambush.”
“That’s why she gave Bartamius the talisman-”
“That doesn’t prove a thing.” Laidea threatened.
“Bartamius sent me. Please believe me. He loves his sisters. His only desire is to save Perseathea and her daughters. He knows of Gragore’s plan. He wishes to help.”
“You know Bartamius is her brother….” The words slipped out under Laidea’s breath, sounding almost foreign to her ears. Bartamius and brother were secrets left near unspoken by the two.
“Yes.” Sae-mond shook his head. “Her twin. Please, bid me speak the message he sent.”
Still skeptical, Laidea let loose of the boy, stepping a pace back.
“How old are you?” She asked, her staff hovering ready.
Sae-mond soothed a hand over his sore jaw. “Eighteen in winters.”
“Are you his soldier?”
“I’m in training for the ranks, but not a Gragorian soldier as of yet.”
“So slow to learn, are you? Or just a coward?” Laidea dropped her staff tip to the dirt, resting. “Gragore would not be wise to send someone so inexperienced to trail me. He knows well that an Amazon would break a yearling like you. Especially an Amazon of my rank.”
“Gragore doesn’t even know my name.” Sae-mond stared at her with anxious eyes, dark curls sweeping his forehead in the breeze. “I’m merely one of his many faceless.”
“You look delicate.” Laidea paused. “Are you certain your
capture was to add to his ranks rather than say, to become his cook?”
“He took me at the age of nine.” The boy shrugged. “Maybe he thought there was growth left in me. I will explain it all in Pahll-sus. Lodging and food waits for us there.”
The Commander snapped her staff back up, crushing it against his chest, forcing him back into the tree. “Understand my words, boy. I will let you along with us. For now. You’re young and frail and I can keep you under just one thumb you’re so slight.” She pushed into her rod, cracking against his birdlike bones. “But do not mistake, it would not be wise to feel at ease with me or my company.”
“No.” Sae-mond shrunk back. “You have my word.”
“Good.” Laidea dropped her staff. “Now, come and tell us of this message.”
Chapter 41
We sat in a semi circle. Sae-mond perched on a lonely rock at its head, night’s chirping crickets and buzzing cicadas rising up in his silence, making the boy seem even smaller. He wrung his hands, keeping his palms busy but hidden. Firelight lit up his young features, exposing anxious eyes and scarlet ears. He reminded me of a brave awaiting Allegiance Ceremony, nervousness emanating him like incense.
I wondered why, but only in fleeting moments. My thoughts could scarcely stray my own rigid nerves, the burning in my stomach a constant. Did he know who I was? If so, was he about to reveal me? Laidea and Queen Perseathea had dedicated themselves to these secrets, up unto the point of keeping them from even me. And Palius.
I knew it wouldn’t mean my harm if my fellowship knew. I’d grown closer to these girls than I’d ever expected that night we left GarTaynia. But still, I didn’t know how they’d take it. It meant that for the last sixteen cycles, things were far different than we had believed them to be. Our Queen, one of the heads of the Nation, believed Palius and I to be such a dangerous secret that she had not dared even share it with the sisterhood. Nothing in GarTaynia had been as it seemed.
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