by Лори Девоти
I weighed whether being put in the same class as an endangered animal pissed me off or not. Deciding there were plenty of other things to piss me off, I let it lie.
"Close enough." I stated and stood. Neither of them had missions that would get in the way of what I wanted. . the tribe together, strong and not operating out of a place of ignorant fear.
Jack flipped through the papers again. The sheets made a rippling noise and I caught snippets of pictures of various goddesses as he did-one regal, crowned, and holding a scepter; one fanciful, with a rainbow arching from one palm to the other; and even one I might have mistaken for a human's angel, with wings. There were others, but as I watched the pages flip past, they blurred into one.
Then I saw Artemis and something clicked into place.
My contact on the high council. I hadn't spoken with her since before Thea arrived and we got the order to steal Andres.
I looked at Mel. "If I have a name, can Bubbe find her?"
Mel jutted out her jaw, thinking. "It's easier with her telios and givnomai. Do you know them?"
"Not her givnomai, but her telios. Is that enough?"
There were twelve members of the council, a representative of each clan. There were also currently four warriors on the council; I knew each of them by name and which clan they were from.
Looking uncertain, she replied, "We can talk to Bubbe. I never know what the old reprobate can do for sure."
With that uncertain offer, I headed up the hill toward the school. I guessed my contact's disappearance meant she was on the losing side, my side now. She could help identify the rest of the council. And with that knowledge we'd be able to learn who was behind the split.
I stared down at my foot, hidden in the long grass. The same grass that earlier had been cool and reassuring now seemed to grasp at my legs, to let go with an unwilling whisper as I pulled my shoe free. Tamping the disturbing feeling down, I swallowed and kept walking.
We would figure this out. We would stop whoever was trying to split the Amazons in two.
If I could find my contact, that is.
And if she was alive.
We left Jack at the sidewalk that connected the school to the gym. He raised his hand holding the papers. "I'll read up."
With the basement stairwell closed, we went in the front and then down the main steps. Bubbe's space, where she ran her business, was off the main room, near the outside door that was now inoperable.
The priestess was inside and she was alone. She was sitting on the floor, her legs crossed and her red skirt pulled up almost to her waist. Her legs were bare and pale with firm muscles that didn't match the age of her face. It made me wonder if she did something to make herself look older to others.
Humans tended to underestimate the elderly. Bubbe wasn't beyond taking advantage of that.
As Mel often pointed out, Bubbe wasn't above taking advantage of much.
The old priestess spread a pile of dirt over the floor in a circle in front of her and without looking up, asked, "What did your Internet tell you?"
Mel growled, and I guessed this was yet another sticking point between them. But then she answered, "Too much. Jack is looking it over."
Bubbe snorted, then picked up the stone image of a panther and placed it on the edge of the dirt. There was a pile of similar stones, each carved into the shape of one of the Amazon telioses sitting beside her. One by one, she placed each into the shape of a crescent moon. When she was done, she looked up. "You have a job for me? One you cannot do yourself?"
Annoyance flickered over Mel's face, making it obvious her grandmother was prodding her in a way I couldn't see.
"Zery has a name. She wondered if you could locate someone based on that."
"She wondered? And you could not tell her?"
Mel's jaw hardened. Afraid the two of them would let their personal issues get them off track, I stepped in.
"She's a past queen and on the high council. Until a few weeks ago she was my contact."
Bubbe's gaze stayed on her granddaughter for a few breaths, then with a sigh she turned it on to me. "You are not to reveal the name of your contact. You know that."
I had the unexplainable urge to squirm, not all that differently than I had when I was six and was caught playing with Mel in her grandmother's workroom. But I was too old to allow her to intimidate me now, or at least to let her see she intimidated me.
I lowered my chin, stayed strong. "The council is broken. The rules don't hold."
"If you respect the tribe, the rules must hold."
"Like the rule to kill Andres?" I asked. "You can't pick and choose."
She rubbed the pads of her middle finger and thumb together. Again I had the feeling she could reach out with some power I couldn't see and swat me to my knees.
I braced my legs and stared her down.
She smiled. "Come. Whisper in my ear."
Beside me, Mel murmured with strained patience in her voice, "You passed the test. Artemis knows what it was, but you passed."
Pretending not to have heard, I knelt beside Bubbe and did as she had asked.
"The telios?" she said.
I opened my mouth, but she shook her head. "Touch. Move into the center."
Feeling completely out of my element, I plucked a boar from the line and carefully placed him in the middle. I started to pull back then, to stand and give the priestess room, but she grabbed my hand and held it tightly in her own.
Then she started to chant, low, fast, and in Russian. I didn't understand a word of what she was saying.
The dirt rose from the ground, darted back and forth, thickening in spots, then thinning-fleeting images, or what almost was an image before flattening out into nothing but dust. It swirled and boiled, rose up and spread out. . then with no warning, it fell.
The boar was still sitting in the middle. All the fetishes were sitting where Bubbe had placed them, but the dirt had formed a shape, one that looked familiar but that I couldn't quite place.
Bubbe held her hand out over the crescent and muttered. When she looked up, her eyes were worried.
"She is here." Her finger jabbed toward the center of the shape, shoving away dirt to reveal the concrete floor beneath it.
I stared, trying to see what she was telling me.
"Here." She jabbed again.
I frowned, then I saw it. The dirt had formed the shape of the North American continent and her finger was right of the center, where I guessed Wisconsin, perhaps the northern part of Illinois would lie.
I gasped.
"She's here."
Chapter 18
I wasn't sure what my high council contact being in the area meant, if it meant anything. Like any Amazon, she could be traveling through for the upcoming fair, visiting relatives. . lost.
Or she could have come looking for my mother, or me.
If she was looking for my mother, she would be at Mel's. If she was looking for me. .?
The safe camp.
I went to wake Bern.
I slept on the way down, as did Mel. There were two cars' worth of us. Everyone except Dana, Mateo, and Bubbe came, and the babies. . we left them at Mel's.
Leaving Bubbe behind was a tough decision, but we couldn't trust the babies with just a son and a hearth-keeper, even if that hearth-keeper had a mother lion's ferociousness when it came to protecting her child. And, to be honest, I had no idea what, besides shifting into a massive bird, Mateo's skills were.
Weighing everything, it made sense to leave Bubbe with them. Heading back to Illinois, we had three warriors, two hearth-keepers, a son, and Mel, who while classified as an artisan I knew had strong warrior and priestess skills too. It was a strange group, but one I trusted for the job-even Jack.
Oh, and we also brought the dogs. Bubbe had insisted.
We pulled into Jack's driveway around nine thirty.
There was nothing left of the cabin, at least nothing that could be used as shelter, but with access to the s
afe camp through the woods, it seemed like a good place to set as our base of operation.
We did, however, need some shelter besides our cars if we were going to stay here for long. And, since we had to assume no one at the safe camp was on our side, we needed a place we could stay hidden as much as possible.
Jack suggested we check his neighbors. Apparently one of the reasons he liked the location was that his closest neighbor, the man we'd seen getting his mail, spent most of the summer in northern Wisconsin and most of the winter in Texas. Remembering the camping trailer I'd seen parked in the drive during my last visit, I sent Lao and Tess to check out the house.
They were back in under ten minutes with good news.
"Looks like they've cleared out. Water and electricity are on, but the fridge is empty." Lao placed her hands on her hips and rocked back on her heels. "There's phone service too, if we want to use it. Long distance would show on their bill."
"Is there a computer?" Mel asked.
Lao nodded. "Don't know much about 'em, but one's there."
Happy with the news, we hid our vehicles inside the neighbor's detached three-car garage and moved ourselves into their house.
It was small, two bedrooms and two baths with a wide back porch that looked out over the woods. The furnishings were nice. There were redwood lawn chairs and two rockers on the back porch-a hot tub too. Seemed like a place you would go on vacation to, not from.
But we weren't on vacation.
There was a fence also, a partial one that shielded most of the property from anyone who casually approached from the main road and a deep freeze filled with what appeared to be venison in the garage.
After we'd walked around the house and the property one more time to make sure no one was home and there was no sign that anyone had been hired to watch the place, we met in the small living room.
We quickly decided our best course of action. We would send Mel's mother Cleo to the camp. Between her and Mel, Cleo was less likely to be known to anyone at the house. Also, she would blend in more easily. Besides, I could tell the idea of trying to blend gave my friend twitches, and I didn't need Mel's true personality and thoughts on all things Amazon coming out.
So Cleo would arrive in the stolen car, claiming to be arriving early for the fair. Bern, Lao, and Tess would stay hidden for now at the house.
Mel, Jack, and I would approach through the woods.
We had no set goal at the moment, except to see what was going on and to check for some sign my high council contact had been near.
We agreed to meet in three hours at the obelisk. It would be afternoon by then, not a time any Amazons should be worshipping the goddess.
Assuming they still worshipped Artemis.
If they didn't? Well, I had no idea when, where, or how they might choose to worship. We might be walking into a crowd of goddess worshipers I had no chance of recognizing.
I didn't dwell on the possibility too much.
I took another nap instead. Bern was on watch, and I needed to be at my best. I knew whatever happened, I wasn't going to be welcomed back at camp with open arms.
I had to be prepared to fight.
As we walked through the woods, my body tensed. I felt like a stranger here, walking a path I'd traveled daily for over a decade.
I resented the high council and whomever the Amazons were who had drifted for making me an outsider. I even, if I was honest, resented the safe camp members who hadn't questioned this false high council's orders. But that was unfair. I had followed their orders blindly too. . or tried to. . would have if Jack and Mateo hadn't jumped in to stop me.
How could I be angry at others for doing what I had done myself?
My place here, however, my goal, was to prove I wasn't an outsider, that my view of what the Amazons were and should be was the best one. If I had a high-council member by my side who knew the council had split and that some had even left Artemis, I could convince the others at the camp that the high council who had ordered my dismissal wasn't valid.
From there we could tell others, expose the false Amazons among us and keep them from burrowing deeper into our hearts.
I had brought my staff with me. Shifting it a bit in my hands calmed me. I longed to stretch and run through a few exercises to relieve even more of the built-up tension, but there hadn't been time. The nap had felt more important.
Jack walked directly behind me wearing only pants-no shirt or shoes. I assumed he wanted to be free to shift without having to worry about escaping his clothes, but I hadn't asked. Mel was behind him, no weapons, but armed with her magic.
As we approached the obelisk, I heard a voice. It was female and familiar but I couldn't place it. She seemed to be singing.
Motioning for Jack and Mel to stay hidden, I stepped into the clearing.
A woman stood in front of the obelisk. Her back was to me, but based on her height and impressive physique, it was easy to guess she was an Amazon. The sword shoved into the ground not far away added weight to my guess.
The sun shone down brightly, glistened off her shoulder-length hair. She wore no adornment that I could see except a wide leather wristband. It was only a few shades darker than her skin, which visible in athletic shorts and tank, was tanned. She looked like someone who worked outside during the day. . like a hearth-keeper. . or a warrior.
The sword made me guess the latter.
My missing high-council contact was a warrior.
"Kale?" I offered, my voice low so I wouldn't startle her.
Her shoulders pulled back and her head tilted. She turned slowly. As she did, she dropped something. . a metal flask. The lid had been off, and clear liquid spilled onto the ground.
She was facing me now. I'd never met Kale, but she was much as I'd imagined her. Fierce, strong, and in control.
She stared at me for a moment, her eyes narrowing. Then she glanced down at her hand and I saw what she held. . a gun, black, square and ugly, just like the ones the birders had held.
The gun began to rise.
A hand hit me square in the back and I flew forward, just as the bullet zipped through the space where I had stood.
"Shit." Mel leaped toward me, pulling in a breath as she did.
My staff perpendicular to my body, I log-rolled across the ground out of her reach.
Kale had seen me, shot at me.
I wouldn't let Mel take a bullet meant for me.
I'd lost my mother. I would not lose Mel.
Three feet and I ran out of cleared space. I folded my body forward and somersaulted to a stand. As my feet hit the ground, I broke into a run. My staff dug into the earth and I vaulted, my feet aimed at Kale's head.
She turned again and my gaze locked onto the gun-once again pointed at me. Better me than Mel.
A battle cry split from my lungs. I kicked, the sole of my foot jamming into her forehead. The gun fired again.
My mind searched for the pain but came back empty. I landed four feet past where she had stood and spun.
She was lying prone on the ground. Jack in his wolverine form was over her, his jaws around her neck. Her fingers twitched; her lips moved.
"Wait," I yelled.
Both Kale and Jack froze.
I could see the craziness in Jack's eyes, the lust for her blood. I didn't know what happened to the sons when they shifted-how much of the animal they truly became, but I knew as I stared into Jack's wolverine eyes that he want to kill, wanted to taste blood more than he wanted anything at that moment in time.
I lifted my staff so it was angled across my body and took a step forward.
Mel stood where I'd left her. She blew the breath she'd held into her closed fist. "I'm not sure he can, Zery." She shook her hand as if something alive was concealed in those closed fingers. And I suspected it was, or close enough. . a tiny tornado buzzing with whatever energy Mel had blown into it.
"Zery," Kale muttered. Her eyes shifted in her face. She blinked. "Zery," she repeated, softer. Th
en she glanced to the side, toward the woods.
Dread, thick like tar, settled over me. My staff still held ready, I sidestepped across the clearing.
At first, with my eyes not yet adjusted from the bright light of the clearing, I saw nothing, then hidden in the shadows I saw a hump, like a fallen log. . or. . I moved closer, close enough I could see the lump wasn't a tree or anything else that had grown naturally here in Artemis's woods.
It was a body.
My jaw tight, I started to kneel, then I saw the second one.
* * *
"Don't kill her," I yelled-an order, one I hoped Jack would respect. I placed my foot on the closest body and pushed. It flopped over. The face of the birder who'd pushed the button and blown up the stairwell stared up at me.
The glassiness of her eyes told me she was dead, almost as much as the round bullet hole in her forehead.
"What is it?" Mel, close behind me now.
I held one hand to the side, blocking her from coming closer.
"The birders. The women who tried to take the babies. They're dead. Shot." Mel paused. It was a tangible pause, one I felt as much as saw. She opened her hand and the tiny tornado spun down into the ground. Dead leaves rustled up from the floor of the forest, broke into tiny pieces, and scattered over the dead woman's face.
Moving past me, Mel pulled the second birder over and onto her back. She was shot too, in the chest. It was bloody and gory and everything I'd dreamed it would be. . except I'd planned on delivering the blow.
"She shot them," Mel said.
"Looks that way." I turned and trudged to the clearing.
Jack still had Kale pinned. Neither had moved. Which was strange. An Amazon warrior didn't lie in place and wait to be killed. . and a warrior on the high council? I would expect her to do what I'd never been able to do myself. . defeat the wolverine son so thoroughly that there would be no denying Amazons were the stronger sex. . had no need of a fairy godfather.
Disgusted, I kicked the pistol that lay less than a foot away from the fallen high-council member deep into the woods, in the direction of the bodies.