Ping screamed for a moment, then she lay in Balorie's arms, clutching at her for a moment.
"What?" I asked.
"They had to set it," Varda explained. "See? Malora is wrapping it in a splint to hold it still."
"Should I do anything?"
"Wait for us to get yelled at," Varda said. "We should have run. What was with your horse?"
"I don't know. I couldn't get him to move."
Chalena turned her head for a moment, then resumed her scan. "You two, watch for the demon. It might come back."
So we began watching, although I glanced at Ping from time to time. It took some time, but soon they had her bundled up, and Balorie was feeding her some leaves. I knew they were for calming the pain. Malora spoke briefly with Balorie, then stood up and turned to Varda and me, stalking towards us.
"You should be long gone," she said. "Tell me why I shouldn't pronounce immediate judgment?"
"My fault," I said. "Varda told me to go, that she would be right behind me. I got on my horse, but then she spun around and wouldn't budge." I lowered my eyes. "Is this my fault?"
"No," she said. "But you were in danger."
"I can vouch for the trouble she had with her horse. He had the bit in his mouth, and she couldn't pull it free. I was right about to stick a dagger in his backside to get him moving, but I was afraid he would run straight at the demon."
"Sometimes the horses freeze," Malora said. "Sometimes they panic and run. If that happens again, move between the horse and the demon, and that is often enough for the rider to assert control."
"I'm sorry," I said.
"Not your fault. All right. I'm glad you're here, I guess."
Balorie walked over and put a hand on Malora's shoulder. "Your orders, Balorie?" Malora asked.
"This just became your responsibility, Queen Malora," Balorie said. "I manage a team, but we've got a runner."
"Right. Send someone home to spread the word. Can Ping be moved?"
"Not in haste," Balorie said.
"All right," Malora said. "Varda, can you find home?"
"Yes, Queen Malora."
"It's a half day if you ride hard," she said. "Take a horse and water and a little food. Food for your horse. Get off the plains and deep into the woods before turning for home. Can you find it?"
"Yes."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes, if I may cut to the river first."
We had passed a shallow river an hour past.
"Ride an hour into the woods first, then turn south to the river."
"I can find it from there," Varda said. She didn't wait. She grabbed a single water skin and an emergency pack of food, and she was gone a half minute later, riding hard for the trees.
Malora turned to me. "Set up camp. Settle the horses, then set up everyone's tents, then set a fire with what you can find within fifty steps of camp, no further. Not one step further. I don't care if you find a downed tree at fifty and one half steps. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Malora."
* * * *
It was very late that night when the Amazons began to arrive. They came first from our village, and early in the morning, the entire contingent from the two nearest villages to ours. Malora stayed up the night, and I stayed with her.
She was brilliant to watch, completely in command, cool and calm and very crisp. She directed everyone, breaking the camps into groups of six Amazons, arranging them spread out in a line across the prairie, parallel to the forest. In the morning, the leaders of each group collected with us, and I was surrounded by fierce Amazons.
Malora looked around, spotting Omie, her sister with her.
"Omie," she said. "I need you to stay here. Guard the camp. Guard Ping and my companion. Keep watch." Omie nodded. She looked at me. "You will tend to Ping and do whatever you are told by either warrior." I nodded. "If Ping is strong enough, they will have you watch with them. Be vigilant."
"I'll be strong enough," Ping said. "Sit me up somewhere and I can watch. Damned demon. I can't believe I broke my leg."
"You stopped it, Ping. You did your duty. You protected the companions, and you turned it. Thank you. Your leg will heal, but you'll be out of commission for a while."
"I'm due a vacation, I think. Perhaps Serra and I could visit family."
"Of course," said Malora. After that, she gave the rest of the orders. The goal was to find and exterminate the demon. Balorie would track it from its last known location, with Malora, Ree and Vorine to help. She turned to Vorine. "You will not engage."
Vorine nodded with a glance at her sister.
The other teams would move forward as well, watching for signs the demon had doubled back. Malora gave her commands, and ten minutes later, all the Amazons began moving forward, tracking the demon.
Omie and I made Ping comfortable, then Ping and Omie watched. I saw to both their needs, then Omie told me I could help watch.
The warriors disappeared into the hills before us, and other than the occasional sound of a horse reaching for a little bite to eat, the world was quiet.
That lasted for two hours. We'd heard no word from the warriors, and I wondered if the demon had fled to its own home. Then the horses began to mutter, stomping around and blowing air.
"Omie," Ping said very quietly.
Omie moved closer. "The horses," Omie said.
"Stay alert," Ping said. "Maya, be prepared to get out of here."
"I'm not leaving you."
"You will do what you are told," she said. "Do not argue with me."
"Yes, Ping," I said.
We didn't see anything. We didn't hear anything. But the horses continued to display signs of nervousness.
I tended to Ping and Omie, and I watched for movement.
Omie saw it first, and then she was running, right to left, screaming in defiance. And the demon, from less than two hundred yards away, stood up and screamed back.
"Maya get out of here!" Ping yelled.
I obey orders for shit.
Omie screamed again, and then her sword flashed in the sunlight, angling for a demon leg. She slashed, but then the demon swung at her, and she ducked under the blow, rolling past the demon.
I hadn't seen the tail before. The demon swung around, the tail catching Omie across the back, sending her flying further. She sprawled, rolled, and began to climb to her feet, but she was shaken.
"Maya! Go!" Ping yelled. "Demon! Hai! Demon!"
The demon turned from Omie, its eyes settling on Ping. Ping, sitting on the ground with a sword in her hands.
Omie wasn't moving fast. Omie, my friend, my trainer. Omie, with a voice in her head, who had cried in my arms, and who was teaching me to be an Amazon.
Ping, whose companion cooked our food. Ping, who was quiet, but when she spoke, it was from kindness, or sometimes humor. Ping, who had gotten hurt protecting me yesterday.
And I was whole.
I grabbed my staff and screamed at the demon.
"You! Demon!" I yelled. "Yes, you!"
It turned to me, and it smiled, looking straight at me. I began moving away from Ping, out onto the plains in front of our camp, hoping to keep its attention long enough for Omie to attack. I hoped Omie understood what I was doing.
I swung my staff in a circle in front of me.
"You want a fight?" I screamed. "I'm right here. I am Maya, Queen's Companion, slayer of bandits, champion water wrestler of the Amazons. And I'm not afraid of you!"
The demon watched me, then began moving towards me, stalking me, herding me out further from Omie and Ping. And that was just fine with me. I knew Omie would help when she pulled herself together.
But then I heard the voice, the voice in my head. "Maya," the voice purred. "What a beautiful name for such a fierce little companion." And I froze as the voice spread through my mind.
The demon came closer.
"So fierce you are," she said, and I knew the demon was female. "But I see you are untrained, and you fe
ar me. You swing your small stick, but inside you tremble. I shall soon make you tremble for far better reasons."
She stepped closer, and then she loomed over me. I couldn't take my eyes from her face. She hadn't attacked, not yet, and her voice continued to caress my mind.
From so close, I could see that her skin was not skin, but scales like a snake. On her legs, her four arms, and her body, the scales were large, becoming fine on her hands, her fingers tipped with long, gleaming claws.
Her face was also covered in scales, fine scales of iridescent gold. Her eyes were slitted, like a cat's, and red, and I wondered if they glowed in the dark.
"They do," she whispered in my mind. "Am I beautiful?"
"Yes," I whispered to her. And she was.
And then I thrust at her with my staff.
She took the blow on the chest, a solid blow, and it didn't faze her. I swung again, trying to sweep away her legs, and in her mind she laughed.
Where was Omie?
"It is just you and me," she whispered in my mind. "Look at me and tell me I am beautiful."
"You will be dead soon," I said, swinging again. I swung again and again, each blow landing, but she laughed in my head.
Then I swung at her arm, and she caught my staff in one mighty hand, yanking on it, and I was slow to release it. She yanked me right into her arms. I dropped the staff, but it was too late. One massive claw clasped my arm, then she dropped the staff, and another claw settled on my other arm, and I was sure she was about to pull me limb from limb.
"Oh no," she said. "I have far better plans for you."
Then, as I screamed for Omie, she picked me up in her arms. I kicked at her, but she used her lower limbs to grasp my legs. And then she ran, east, away from Ping, away from Omie.
"You should be proud, little companion," she whispered to me. "You saved your friends, the tiny warrior, and the one whose leg I broke yesterday. You saved them, a bold sacrifice. The Amazons will mourn you, but they will honor you as well."
And she ran with me, a jarring, ground-eating run, although at the same time she was gentle.
"If you're going to kill me, kill me!" I screamed at her.
"Oh," she whispered, "I am not going to kill you. I am taking you home, and you will learn to worship me. Oh, you will worship me, little companion. You are quite the prize, a queen's companion, taken home to worship me. Quite the prize."
And then she told me all the ways I would worship her, beautiful ways, horrible ways, and I screamed at her and twisted and turned, but she was so strong, and I was so pathetic, taken prisoner by a demon, a demon who was so unafraid of me she had stood and accepted the worst I could give her, and then calmly picked me up and ran away with me.
"You should thank me," she said. "I see in your mind how they first took you. Am I not treating you far better than they did? I have not hurt you, not at all. I could, you know. I could rend your flesh with my claws, or crush your bones without a thought, but am I not gentle?"
"What do you want with me?" I screamed.
"I told you. I want you to worship me. And you will, or I will trade you to someone who is not so gentle."
Then she moved my feet together, clasping both feet in one massive claw, freeing a hand. She pulled me closer and caressed my face. "You humans are so soft, so fierce, but so soft. I love touching your skin, and this hair of yours." She ran a claw through my hair. "It is this hair that drew me. I saw it yesterday, and I knew I had to have you."
From behind us, faintly, I heard an Amazon horn.
"Ah, finally they call to each other," she said.
I heard the horn, first the pattern that said, "Amazon in need", and then the other pattern, over and over.
Amazon taken.
Amazon taken.
Amazon taken.
But then I couldn't hear the horn anymore, and I wondered if they had stopped.
"No," she said, "we are too far away. Shall we slow down? Shall we slow down and let them catch sight of us? It will madden them, chasing after us, watching as we step across the portal together. And perhaps I will let you see them, let you experience hope they will rescue you."
And she did. She slowed.
But she talked to me, and she talked to me. I tried to push the voice from mine, but she laughed in my head, and it was like bells.
And her voice, it was sweet and seductive.
"Yes," she said. "Surrender your thoughts to me. It will be so much easier for you, little companion."
"Never!" I spat. "My queen will kill you."
"Your queen has never killed one of us," she said. "She only thinks she has. They kill our bodies, but they do not kill us. They only banish us from this realm. But we come back. Do you know why?"
"No."
"Sport. You are fun to hunt."
"Fun? This is not fun for us!"
"That is not our concern. Your Amazons are so fierce, and we send such large bodies against them. The fights are magnificent. But it is not your bodies we fight, it is your minds, and those fights last for years and years." She purred at me. "You have a beautiful mind, a teacher of children. I have never felt a teacher of children before. I find you very intriguing. I am going to enjoy fighting your mind, little teacher."
From behind, I heard the horns.
"Ah, they grow closer," she said. "Shall we leave them some blood to find? Yes, I think we shall."
She hadn't stopped caressing my face, but then she lowered a claw to my neck, and I wondered how much blood she intended to leave.
"But you are fragile," she said. "And it is so much more fun to fight your mind when your body is whole." And instead of cutting me, she drew her claw down her own chest, leaving a long cut. What fell from the wound was not blood, but something else, I couldn't have told you what. It was green and fell in glops.
She took some, and smeared it across my face, painting my lips with it.
"Stop it!" I screamed.
"I am only marking you," she said. "You should be honored. My people will know you are mine. Yes, I believe I shall paint your lips like this every day. It is not pink though, but your lips are now a brilliant green. Your queen might find it attractive as they glisten so wonderfully."
She lowered her head towards mine, and her tongue snaked out at me, a long tongue, much like a snake's, forked like a snake's.
"Yes," she said. "Exactly like a snake's," she said. "I can taste you with it." And she did, the tongue darting against my face. It was dry, not wet. She tasted my face and my neck, and I struggled, but she held me firmly.
The horns grew louder, and she increased her pace, but then she came to the top of a rise, and she paused, turning around. I craned my head, and in my mind, she laughed.
"They are chasing us," she said. "So many. Would you like to see?" And she turned me so I could look.
Behind us, perhaps a mile away, I saw the Amazons, so many Amazons, and in front of them, running faster than I had ever seen, was Malora, Ralla and Vorine and Omie and so many of my friends right behind her. I didn't see Nori, and I wondered where she was.
"Ah, they run so fast for us," she said to me. And she lifted me high in the air, displaying me to them.
And even at this distance, I heard Malora's scream.
Then she lowered me and turned, running again.
"She'll kill you!"
"She would try, if I let her catch us, but I shall not allow that."
"I thought you wanted the fight."
She smiled to me, her teeth sharp, not like a snake's.
"You call us demons, and you do not know how apt a term that is," she said. "We send bodies for you, but they are slow because we manipulate them from across the void. But I wanted you, and I came myself. If they catch me, I will truly die. So have no hope, for I will not allow that."
She ran with me, carrying me into the mountains, and I fell limp, exhausted from my struggles. All the while she talked to me in her low voice, her seductive voice.
"Your mind is cru
mbling for me," she said. "When we touch you across the void, the control is weak, but you cannot stand against me, and I will have you for ages of your time, ages and ages you shall belong to me, you shall worship me."
"No," I said, but it was a whisper, only a whisper.
And her voice caressed me, calming me.
"Your fear is amusing," she said, "but your love. Oh, I have never felt love. You will love me, and this will be a new experience for me."
"No."
"You grew to love her, but I will take your love and make it mine," she said. "You will offer yourself to me. I am beautiful, am I not?"
"Is this your real body?" I asked her.
"It is now," she said. She drew me closer. "Feel my skin." And I did, reaching out with a hand, pressing it against her chest. The scales felt odd, and the body beneath muscular. I brushed my hand over her scales, then lifted a hand to her face.
She felt odd, not at all slimy, and I didn't know what to make of it.
We came to the top of another rise, and again she brandished me, turning me to face the Amazons, but they were falling behind.
"Shall we continue to taunt them?" she asked. "They cannot catch me unless I allow it, although your queen's heart might burst trying."
I knew Malora could run hard and long, but we had traveled miles, and it was uphill besides.
The demon stood there, holding me up so the Amazons could see me, her hands wrapped around my arms, my ankles caught in one massive hand. I struggled, but she held me easily, and in my mind, she laughed at my struggles.
She turned and loped away, moving slower now, running only as fast as the Amazons pursuing us. And then she stopped on the next ridge and she turned me to see the way we were going. "Do you see?" she said. "The portal, it gleams with its own light."
And, across the valley before us, a purple gleaming glow.
"Yes," she said. "We will pass through, you and I, and we shall travel between worlds. And like you fear of your home far to the west, you will never see this world again."
"I'll die there," I said. "You may as well kill me here."
"You shall not die, not for a very long time. You are not the first we have taken, and we know how to keep your bodies alive. We have the sustenance you require, and your cage will have everything you need. And, as often as pleases me, I shall release you from your cage to play with me, and to worship me."
Amazon Companion Page 39