by Lori Devoti
“No, I mean here…your house. Alcippe is trying to get me to go back to the camp and I’d like to go…for a while, for Pisto’s-” She blew her nose on a length of tissue, placed a new piece against her eyes. “But I don’t want to stay. I know Pisto wanted me to, but…”
I pulled off another length of toilet paper and handed it to her. “Of course you can stay. I told you that already.”
“But with you here.” She glanced at the warriors. “I didn’t know how your family would feel about me. Pisto was my sister and you were the one who invited me.”
I waved the strip of paper in the air, cutting her short. “Nothing has changed-not as far as my offer. And besides, with me”-I searched for a term-“out of commission, they’re going to need someone to take care of them. You can do that, right?”
She nodded, the first spark of life I’d seen lighting her face since she’d walked through the door. “And I can stay here too, for a while.” She picked up the snarl of clothes I’d tossed onto the floor and nodded to the washing machine. “Harmony was looking for some of her things this morning. Your grandmother…she was…”
“Incredibly sympathetic?” I chimed in.
Her confusion obvious, Dana frowned. Sarcasm doesn’t work with her. I waved my hand in a never mind gesture and slid the tray off the washer. With Harmony at school and Mother and Bubbe busy-trying to get the Amazons to see sense, I hoped-Dana had to be feeling alone.
I glanced at the warriors. Obviously they weren’t going to do much to make her feel better. Besides, once she got the wash going and left, I’d be free to work my spell with the added camouflage of my third-hand washer clanking away, covering my chant.
With no objections from the warrior twins, I settled down to eat my lunch while Dana sorted and pretreated the wash, in general giving our clothing more care than it had seen since being shoved in a bag and brought home from the store.
While she loaded the first pile into the washer, I palmed the leather bag Bubbe had hidden under the cloth and slipped it behind a stack of socks so ripe I didn’t think even Dana would brave moving them.
Twenty minutes or so later, Dana had everything laid out in neat color-coordinated piles and had thoroughly instructed me on their proper bleach/no bleach/detergent mix. She looked a little sad when she took my tray and left. I liked thinking it was caused by leaving me, but I suspected it was more about not getting the joy of folding and fluffing all to herself.
After she left, the warrior twins showed me some teeth. It was not in the form of a smile, at least not one seen anywhere except on the face of a hyena before it lunged at your throat. I returned the gesture with a full peep at my own impressively healthy set of choppers. They growled and grunted, but left.
Alone, I pulled out the leather bag and worked the tie open with my teeth. Two totems, some twigs, a handful of acorns and a lighter fell onto the floor. I glanced at the door, afraid the twins might have heard, but after a few seconds turned back to my task.
I swept up a pile of dirt with my hand, then used it to outline a circle. That done, I placed the two totems in the center-a horse for Pisto’s givnomai and a lion for her telios. I paused, my fingers still touching the stone representation of the lion-the same family group as Zery. The groups had developed over the first few hundred years of the Amazons’ existence. It didn’t mean Zery and Pisto were closely related, but it did mean they probably felt some kinship, some loyalty based solely on sharing a telios.
Perhaps I could use that loyalty to make things easier on Dana. A vote from a queen would go a long way toward easing her life if she did choose to mingle with Amazons aside from outcast me and my family. And maybe that tie would make Zery more willing to stand by Dana than our lifetime of friendship had. I swallowed the bubble of hurt and went back to my work, added the twigs and an acorn to the circle’s center.
It took a few tries, but soon I had the twigs smoldering. A tiny wisp of smoke snaked upward. I leaned forward, closed my eyes, and called on Artemis.
This time the vision came hard and fast, almost knocked me back against the wall. Pisto-trapped and angry. I could feel her energy as clearly as if she stood in the room next to me. I sat lost for a while, caught up in the power, forgot that Pisto was dead-that the energy I felt so clearly couldn’t be hers. I had hoped to somehow tap into where her givnomai was now, get some feeling or guidance from Artemis, but this direct link…it was impossible. Pisto was dead, and her givnomai was no longer attached to her body. The emotion radiating from the combined totems could only exist if the combination were still attached to a live form-but they weren’t. Couldn’t be. Before an Amazon was allowed to choose her givnomai, a priestess checked to see if the pairing existed already. If it did, it couldn’t be used-not until that Amazon died, freeing the givnomai for another in her clan. Perhaps there was some slim possibility a priestess had screwed up, reused Pisto’s pair, but…I closed my eyes, let the energy flow through me, red-hot boiling anger…outrage…Pisto. There was no mistaking it.
Somehow the power in Pisto’s givnomai still lived.
But if it wasn’t attached to Pisto, if she didn’t have control over it-who did?
I smothered the remnants of the fire with my hand and sat there staring at the two totems-almost afraid to pick them up. What I suspected wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be.
I don’t know how long I sat there. Long enough that I’d rolled everything around in my mind multiple times, come back to the same well-worn possibility over and over.
The teens being delivered to me-to throw suspicion my way? To force me to face the Amazons?
Zery being staked out in a clear show of priestess and artisan skill. Skills I had, although none had known it, but skills others in the tribe, Alcippe, for example, possessed too.
Alcippe trying to force Dana to abort her baby. Alcippe angry when I got in her way. Alcippe appearing moments after we found Pisto-when she should have been miles away, back at the safe camp.
But why? Why kill the first girls-because they didn’t obey? Had they shown ideas of wanting to be free of the Amazon rules? To leave the safe camp, not just for a night, but forever? But then, why not kill Dana too? Because she knew the girl was pregnant, hoped in the beginning the child would be a girl, would pull Dana back closer to the tribe?
And then, when the baby had been a boy and Dana had come running to me…had the priestess snapped so thoroughly she’d gone so far as killing Pisto, knowing I would be yet again the obvious target of the Amazons’ wrath?
Was staking out Zery also because of me-punishment for her believing me?
Was all of this because Alcippe had lost control of the tribe, saw that mixing with humans was coming, and blamed me? Hated me?
I jumped to my feet and began banging on the door.
I’d started to wonder if the twins had left me when finally the doorknob began to twist. I stepped back, breathless from my whole-bodied attack to get their attention.
Bubbe stepped into the room. In her hands were my favorite hiking boots and the keys to my truck. Behind her the basement was dark and empty-no twins.
“What’s happened?” Bubbe’s face and the missing twins told me it was something bad.
“Zery. The police have her.” She shoved the boots into my hands.
The news set me back, but I took the hikers and put them on. “The police?” I asked.
“She was taking Pisto’s body to the safe camp. They were almost to the beltline. Alcippe was following her in another car. That detective pulled Zery over.”
Boots on and keys in hand, I stood and stared her in the eyes. “He pulled her over?” Could he do that? A Milwaukee detective pull over a car in Madison for no reason?
“There were other cars too. A group of Amazons were driving down. But only Zery was pulled over. Alcippe tried to stop, but Zery waved her on.”
“So, where’s Zery now?”
“They found Pisto’s body in Zery’s car. They took her away in shackles.”
Handcuffs. The police had hauled an Amazon queen off to human jail in handcuffs. This was very bad.
“The warriors?”
“In the gym. Without Zery or Pisto…” Bubbe shook her head. “Cleo is trying to settle them, stop them from their stupidity.”
“They want to attack the jail, don’t they?” Of course they did. Most of them had spent their entire lives dreaming of fighting a real battle with a real cause. Freeing their queen from human clutches? What could be more noble?
“That is the talk now, but there have been other mentions.” Her gaze was sharp.
Me. They wanted me-dead, I was sure. Nothing like facing a mob of Amazon warriors to liven up a dull imprisonment.
“Harmony will be safe.” Bubbe shoved open the door. “We will bring her to you when things have settled.”
I stared at the open door, unable to do much more. She wanted me to run, to leave my daughter. She knew me better than that-surely. My gaze traveled back to my grandmother. She raised her hands, started to mumble.
I strode forward, stepped into her space. “Don’t even think it. I don’t care how strong your powers are. They won’t get me to leave Harmony.”
Her eyes narrowed. Her lips drew together in a pucker. “You will both be safer if you aren’t here.”
“Not if the killer is still out there. I know who it is-who it has to be.”
Bubbe relaxed her lips, moving from a purse to a twist.
“It’s Alcippe. And all of this is about her losing control of the Amazons and her hatred of me. If I leave and she can’t get to me and I leave Harmony behind, she’ll go after her, because Alcippe knows that would hurt me more than anything. Would kill me.”
Bubbe shook her head. “Alcippe lives for the tribe.”
“And that’s why she hates me.” I ran through everything I’d worked out in the last few hours. When I was done, Bubbe looked no more convinced, but she didn’t start chanting either. She moved to the side and stared at the wall-let me walk past her into the basement, her gaze never wandering from whatever spot she’d focused on.
I jogged through the basement to the outside door. Once past that, I crept up the stairs. I could hear voices arguing-or at least one voice, male. I peered over the stairwell.
Peter stood at the corner of my shop, his back to the gym. In front of him were the twins, fully armed with swords, staffs, grenades…maybe not grenades, but they were loaded down with weapons and even wearing some kind of padded Kevlar type vest.
I could only imagine what Peter was thinking.
As I watched, they pointed toward the parking lot. I crouched down a little lower. They didn’t turn to look, but Peter did. He saw me. I could feel his gaze, but before I could think what to do, he turned back to the twins and began to argue louder.
“The shop is open. I just left for lunch.” He stepped to the side, to his left, forcing the twins to turn too, move so their backs were to me. “I have appointments.”
The twins seemed to broaden from behind, but didn’t say much, at least not much I could hear. Peter looked past them, at me. His eyes said run.
I didn’t stop to think why he wasn’t questioning what was going on or how he seemed to know I needed to escape without the twins’ noticing. I just vaulted up the stairs and sprinted to my truck.
I had to get to my daughter. I had to make sure she was safe.
After I pulled up at West High, I sat in my truck for a few minutes, let it idle-technically against the law in Madison, but far from my biggest worry at the moment.
I wanted-no, needed-to know Harmony was safe, but I also knew I couldn’t just drag her out of geometry or whatever and race away.
The killing had gone on too long, and it was tied to me. I had a responsibility to stop Alcippe, especially since no one else believed the killer was Alcippe.
Then there was Zery. I couldn’t traipse off and leave her in jail. I was the only Amazon equipped to talk with the police, to maybe get Reynolds to bend. I had to go back, had to face Alcippe and the Amazons.
I drove to a nearby neighborhood street, where I deserted the truck and took off on foot. I would check on my daughter, reassure myself she was safe, then I’d do whatever I had to do to stop this disaster.
I checked my watch. It was almost two-right before sixth period. Harmony should be on her way to English. Luckily the classroom was on the ground floor. I didn’t want to worry my girl by interrupting her class. I just wanted to see her. It took three tries before I found the right class.
The period had already started by this time, but the kids were still milling around. Harmony was facing the window. A slender boy stood in front of her, his back to me. Her eyes did some angle thing I’d never seen before, and she flicked her hair over her shoulder. My girl was flirting.
Seeing the obvious display of interest from my daughter shot fear of a new kind through me, but the relief at seeing her at all-happy and healthy, if focused on some boy whose face I couldn’t see-quickly knocked that aside.
My fingers gripping the concrete sills that topped the brick, I soaked up the sight.
Rachel appeared, shot the boy and then Harmony a sidelong glance. She saw the attraction too, seemed to approve of it more than I did.
I tapped my fingers against the sill. I’d wanted a normal human daughter. Guess that’s what Artemis was giving me.
At that moment a line of cars pulled up to the four-way stop near the school. I dropped to my knees in the dirt to avoid being seen. Being arrested for spying on students, or even just being outed as a crazy stalker mom, was not part of my plan.
By the time the cars had pulled off, the class had settled into their seats and I didn’t dare risk peering at my daughter again.
She was safe.
As long as I found Alcippe and stopped her, Harmony would stay that way.
Chapter Twenty-two
Back in my truck, I realized I didn’t know where Alcippe was. Bubbe had said Zery waved her on, but had she continued to the safe camp or returned to the gym?
Zery was jailed somewhere in Wisconsin, and Alcippe thought I was locked in my basement.
I bet she didn’t go far. I drove home.
From the outside things looked pretty normal, in other words, quiet. The twins were nowhere to be seen. I stood on the sidewalk between my shop and the gym, undecided on what to do first.
Someone grabbing me from behind made the decision for me. An arm snapped across my chest, pinning my arms to my side, and my attacker began walking backward, dragging me with each step.
I reached out, gathering power without thought. The process was becoming easier, second nature. A spell was on my lips, wind building in my lungs, when a rough voice whispered in my ear. “Too damn stubborn. You were supposed to leave.”
Mother.
“I’m taking you to your truck and you’re going to get in it and drive. Head north,” she ordered.
I let out my breath and released most of the power. “Where’s Alcippe?” I asked.
She squeezed me, mumbled something under her breath that I didn’t think was exactly an endearment and kept dragging.
I relaxed against her. Fighting would have just wasted energy. Besides, she obviously didn’t intend to hog-tie me and drive me somewhere herself, so this whole exercise could only have one conclusion: her letting me go and me heading right back.
You’d think she’d have known me better by now. Ten feet from my truck, she took a hard left. “My truck’s over there,” I said, letting my impatience to end the farce show.
She kept dragging. That’s when I got suspicious. I twisted, or tried to. Her arms held-as surely as titanium bars.
Another of her long-legged paces, even moving backward she could eat up ground at twice the pace I could, and we were beside a battered van-the windowless kind serial killers use to troll parking lots. Bubbe and one of the hearth-keepers I’d seen working in the cafeteria stood beside it.
I dug in my heels. Mother didn’t
even slow her pace. The ground tugged on my boots as I jammed them into the earth. I pulled in a breath, my brain spinning through spells like cards on a Rolodex, searching for something I could use that would force her to release me without killing either of us.
“Melanippe.” Bubbe held up a hand, her face calm…understanding.
Hell no. I sucked in instead of blowing out and went limp, fell. The trick worked. It caught Mother, who was prepared for my fight, off guard. I slipped through her arms. She’d moved two giant steps backward before she realized the loss. By then I was jogging to the front.
I got as far as the corner, paused, again weighing shop or gym. And again, I didn’t have to make the choice. Someone made it for me-actually, a mob made it for me.
Amazons began pouring out the front, Alcippe in their lead. She took one look at me and yelled. Twenty pairs of angry feet pounded toward me. Instinctively I spun. Mother and Bubbe were a few feet behind me, both waving for me to come toward them, to run to the van and disappear. I leaned in their direction, my body automatically moving to safety. Then I remembered why I was here, that someone needed to face Alcippe, and that someone was me.
I turned back to the crowd and began mumbling the first spell that sprang to my brain. It started to rain-hard. Drops fell from the sky like lead balls, big, too big to be natural, and hard, edged with ice. My shirt and pants clung to me. The Amazons racing toward me slipped on the instantly saturated ground. They piled one on top of the other in an almost comical display. I might have laughed if I’d known what I was doing, if I’d felt like I could stop the deluge I’d beckoned. Instead, I listened to my teeth chatter and watched, wild-eyed, wondering what to do next.
Alcippe clung to the corner of the gym, her long dress hindering her movement. She started to raise her arms and, again without thought, I blasted out a breath. The rain changed direction-moved almost diagonally, right in her face. She had no choice; she raised her arm to block the onslaught, to keep from drowning while standing up…