“Which they should have done today, the moment the captives were secured.” Jess’s eyes glinted, cat-like, and Brenna realized she was starting to enjoy herself. She nodded slightly toward their lounging sentries. “This is a City squad, adanin. If Brenna’s right, Theryn reserved an escape route. I don’t know why, and tonight I don’t care. Just remember it’s possible the explosives are securely in place.”
“Jesstin?” Elodia’s tone was respectful as she approached the group. “What’s our strategy here? We need a plan.”
“We do,” Jess agreed, sitting up with effort, “and I’d like to hear ideas before the morning’s council.”
“Well, we can’t know what Shann and the council would order.” Hakan spun a wisp of straw across her smooth cheek. “But our guild’s priority is always the safety of our queen, our council, and the vulnerable among us. I say our goal is to get our adanin out of here whole, Jess.”
“Aye, and then blow the dam.” Vicar’s eyes were as cold as her voice.
There was a bleak silence in their circle that Brenna recognized as agreement.
“What about Theryn’s followers?” Jess’s tone was neutral.
Another moment of silence, this one ticking with tension.
“Take as many as will come,” Camryn said, finally. “We’ll sort it out with them later.”
“But we won’t let them stop us,” Vicar added, and agreement murmured again through the circle of Amazons.
“Great! We have a plan.” Jess smiled like a rogue, which heartened Brenna. “And no bloody idea how to carry it out. We’re going to have to play it very much by ear tomorrow. Therefore, it’s important that you barbarian ladies follow my lead, yes?”
It was a perfect pitch imitation of Caster’s affected speech, and it earned the laughter Jess obviously wanted.
“Brenna.” Jess pressed her hand. “It’s happening more often now, these flashes of yours.”
“I guess. Yeah.” Brenna closed her eyes for a moment. “But please, Jess, please don’t act blindly on anything I spout off like that. We still don’t have any idea where this stuff comes from. For all we know, I’m a raving psychotic.”
“Given,” Jess agreed, which coaxed another smile out of her. “But you’re proving a damn accurate lunatic, lass.”
“No kidding, Brenna, absolutely.” Kyla, avidly eavesdropping as usual, chimed in. “You told Shann that Tristaine only had a week of safety, when Theryn claimed Caster would hold off for months.”
“And you knew when the attack came today.” Camryn was looking at Brenna as if she were a fascinating new breed of horse. “And when it hits you, Brenna, you should see yourself. You do this butch thing, you become this uber blonde.”
“Oh, please,” Brenna sputtered.
“That’s true.” Vicar’s eyes measured Brenna.
“So, can you tell us anything, Brenna?” Hakan’s rich voice was friendly. “I think you’ll find our minds open.”
Brenna looked around their circle and found attentive faces, but she saw Jess eyeing Vicar as they waited for her reply.
“You guys, I don’t have a clue.” Brenna slumped her shoulders. “Right now, I don’t know any more about what’s going on than any of you.”
“Good enough for tonight.” Jess’s voice was still rough from the taser effects. “Get some sleep, adanin. The sun rises early. Keep your eyes on me and Cam tomorrow. Never forget, our primary goal is to find a way to get Shann and the council out of here alive. And as many of the rest of us as we can manage.”
A sigh of agreement moved through them, a settling in that signaled an end to this surreal and harrowing day. Only one day, Brenna thought. Yesterday they were free, and tonight Tristaine’s daughters chased sleep as captives on their own land.
Brenna nestled into Jess, feeling her long arm wrap around her waist. She felt them both relax almost at once, which surprised her a little. Well, she reasoned, prophecy, betrayal, mortal terror, rabid rage. All of it was tiring stuff.
“Hey, Jesstin?” Kyla’s stage whisper roused them, and Camryn groaned. “Which one of those hairy creeps tasered you?”
“The young hairy creep. The girl.” Brenna felt Jess wince as she adjusted her weight. “Her name’s Dana.”
“I thought so. She’s the one who brought me back here. Sweet Gaia,” Kyla grumbled, burrowing closer to Camryn under the straw. “I hate butch women who don’t even know what side they should be on. I think her bringing me down here was her apology for zapping you, Jess.”
“What?” Camryn yawned into Kyla’s luxuriant red curls. “Show me the City merc that has that much heart, Ky.”
Jess was quiet, and Brenna rubbed her forearm gently. “Hey. Hurting a lot?”
“Not too much.” Jess’s breath warmed her ear. “Brenna, I want you to be on your guard tomorrow, lass. You heard what Caster said.”
Brenna’s mind filtered through Caster’s file of venomous statements of the day and remembered she had her own souvenir coming. “Caster doesn’t scare me anymore, Jess. Try to rest, okay? And you wake me up if you need anything.”
“Yes’m,” Jess mumbled.
Brenna heard the breathing of the Amazons around them grow slow and deep. She had lied about having no fear of Caster, and doubtless Jess knew it. The City scientist held a wickedly sharp blade to her throat and would as long as she loved the woman warming her back.
Brenna turned her head on the scratchy straw. Wrapped in Camryn’s arms, Kyla smiled and blinked at her sleepily. She slid her hand across the space separating them and clasped Brenna’s hand.
“I miss Max,” Brenna whispered. “I wish he were here.”
“I do, too,” Kyla answered. “Go to sleep, adanin. We’ll all be here when you wake up. That’s what Shann says, when she wishes the little ones good night.”
Brenna slept.
Chapter Seven
A glowering shiner capped Caster’s high cheek the next morning. It would soon be as glorious as a sunset. The Amazons brayed with laughter when they saw it.
Rodriguez frowned and nudged Dana. “What are they cackling about?”
“How should I know?” She rubbed her face. She hadn’t slept well. “Just stay alert.”
Dana examined the two portable camcorders mounted on tripods at opposite ends of the arena, and a third, braced on the railing of the review stand. They were inexpertly operated by three soldiers who were too clumsy to be trusted to carry carbines.
“How did last night’s seduction go, Caster?”
It was Jesstin’s voice, and Dana gaped at her. She stood at the head of her small troop of warriors regarding Caster with a brazen smile. Except for the pallor beneath her tan, she looked like a taser had never touched her in her life.
The Amazons were snickering again, and Dana finally got the joke. Caster had made some stupid parting shot yesterday about bedding Tristaine’s queen. The woman named Shann hadn’t looked like a warrior on the review stand, but apparently Caster’s attempt to seduce her had been forcefully rebuffed. Dana smiled sourly at the toe of her boot.
“My, you look fit, Jesstin.” Caster’s tone was ominously mild. Dana figured she too must have noticed her souvenir from the City had little lasting effect on its intended target.
Caster feigned oblivion to any change in her appearance. She rose from the padded bench in the review stand and smiled down at Jess. “Actually, I’m pleased to see you so robust, dear. In truth, I really didn’t want your fighting prowess in any way compromised today. You know, it’s very nearly a sexual experience, Jess, watching you fight.”
“Voyeurism might be your safest bet, darlin’,” Jess agreed, and the warriors behind her emitted another bark of laughter.
“Careful, Jesstin. I only bend so far.”
The note of compassion in Caster’s voice made Brenna uneasy. She hated that sound. It heralded the woman’s worst instincts. The immediate threat seemed to fade as the door to the review stand opened, and Shann and Kyla were escorted in.<
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“Shann’s fine,” Kyla called down to them at once. A frowning mercenary hushed her with a poke of his rifle. Having delivered her message, Kyla offered him a withering smile.
Shann looked better than she had the previous day, Brenna noted with relief. Her robes were clean and mended, and the few marks on her face were countered by the alertness in her eyes. Her gaze found Jess, who made a subtle twirling motion with her fingers. Shann nodded.
She and Kyla were seated roughly at the other end of the long bench, and Caster regarded them with interest. She waited until Shann looked at her, then smiled brightly, winked, and stood up.
“All right, Miss Dana, cameras rolling!” Caster clapped her hands together, an unnecessary bid for attention in the silent arena. “Theryn, we’re ready for you!”
A sharp command sounded near the main entrance to the stadium, and Brenna saw a cloaked figure standing by a large gate. It was Myrine, pulling swiftly on the rigging that opened the entrance to the fighting ground. Over the whine of the cameras, she could hear the clopping of a single horse.
Theryn rode into the arena with the kind of solemn grandeur reserved for affairs of state. Swatches of purple silk brought out the intense lavender light in her eyes. The towering bay she rode moved at a regal pace across the hard-pack of the arena.
Behind horse and rider, Theryn’s cadre of warriors followed on foot, led by Patana and Myrine. Like Jess’s fighters, they wore a generic blend of Tristainian attire—furs and skins that were warm and supple, along with the modern denim that somehow never seemed incongruous on Amazons. The cameras pivoted obediently as the procession came to a halt at the base of the review stand.
Brenna heard Vicar’s dry brogue. “No slave girls tossing rose petals?”
The warriors around her snickered, but Brenna felt another odd wave of disquiet.
Theryn’s Amazons, versus those who follow Shann. Evil sisters against good.
That was how Vicar saw it, and Jesstin, and every other woman who followed Shann. But good and evil were never that simple, and only Shann truly understood that. These women were all Amazons. They were all Clan.
Nothing else followed that rather mundane insight, and Brenna was surprised to feel brief disappointment. Thanks heaps, she thought to the elusive Grandmothers. Platitudes are a big help. It was her first spontaneous prayer to her Guides.
Her hands were freezing, which had little to do with the biting cold of the mountain morning. Brenna had won all-City in the Youth Division in kickboxing, but she’d only been in a real fight once, and that had been last spring, in the foothills, when she’d thrown herself at Caster and brought her down, just before she fired the bullet that hit Camryn’s leg.
Please don’t let me mess up. Her second prayer. Don’t let me get anyone hurt. Including me. She kept her eyes pinned on Jess’s broad shoulders in front of her, suddenly aware of the warmth of the blue shawl Dorothea had given her, seemingly years ago. Brenna had tied it around her waist as a kind of a belt—a shawl not being ideal battle attire—and now she was glad she had. Its warmth felt protective.
Theryn had assembled her troops in a half circle in front of the review stand. Sitting the elegant bay as if born to the saddle, she graciously inclined her head. “Whenever you’re ready, Caster.”
“Close-up on me, Miss Dana. Tight frame and keep it that way until I tell you to pan back.” Caster cleared her throat and adjusted the collar of her parka.
Brenna caught Kyla’s eye as she jutted her chin at Caster and twirled one finger rudely around her ear. Brenna glared at her with an older sister’s fierceness. The soldier guarding Kyla and Shann could have caught that insolence, but beside her, Camryn snickered.
Dana was peering into the eyepiece of one of the cameras, correcting its focus. “Sound check!” she called.
“Good morning.” Caster’s voice was full and warm, but not especially loud. Brenna saw her adjust a small clip near her collar and realized she was wearing some kind of mike.
Dana lifted a hand. “You’re set, Caster.”
“Jesstin?” Caster peered down at her. “You and your bloodthirsty horde are to remain absolutely silent while I speak, yes? Or your queen will have cause to regret it.”
From her vantage point at the edge of Jess’s group, Brenna saw Theryn frown, but she said nothing. Brenna noticed her wife, Grythe, was not in attendance this morning.
Caster folded her hands on the railing and looked into the camera on her left.
“Good morning.” Caster smiled as if addressing old friends, then became somber. “I reference Clinic Study T-714, ladies and gentlemen. Contracted to the Clinic’s Military Research Unit, the so-called Tristaine Project involved developing techniques for nonchemical, noncoercive behavioral control. At first, we feared that our efforts had failed.” She paused, then smiled again. “They have not.”
Caster turned to address the other camera. “The gentle layfolk on our distinguished panel must forgive me for my deceit. I realize you were all told that our Clinic study ended in disaster. That our Amazon subject, Jesstin of Tristaine, miraculously pulled off a daring escape from our top-secret, heavily guarded Clinic facility.”
Caster’s ebony eyes flickered to Brenna, then returned to the camera.
“As you can see in Attachment 1-C of our prospectus, this so-called escape was very much part of my original protocol! Jesstin ‘escaped’ at my direction. She was always under the direct monitoring of my assistant, a Government-certified Medical Technician. Jesstin and my assistant returned to Tristaine in order to lead City forces against these so-called Amazons—per my programming.”
There was an angry stirring among Jess’s warriors, and Dana shifted uneasily as rifles rose around the arena. Jess lifted a hand, and the rustling immediately subsided.
“The film you are about to see records the battles that occurred just as I arrived in this remote mountain village.” Caster turned to the last camera, and her expression grew solemn. “The conquest of Tristaine is a harrowing and, in many ways, tragic story. Both our test subject, Jesstin, and my assistant were lost in the gruesome fighting. But, in the name of decency, I have edited out the sordid scene containing their deaths, and I’m pleased to tell you that our documentary will offer a happy ending.”
Caster raised her voice. “Pan back cameras, please.”
Dana scowled, watching the soldier next to her jerkily widen the image appearing in his viewfinder. Theryn appeared in the frame, along with the semicircle of Amazons surrounding her.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new high council of Tristaine!” Caster’s voice rang with pride. She paused as if to accommodate the imagined gasps of surprise in her audience. “All eager to sign Citizenship papers! All willing to abide by City laws! Now…would you like to hear more?” Her voice was almost girlish in its coyness. “Then sit back. I have quite a story to tell!” Caster smiled sweetly at the camera, then nodded at Dana. “All right, cut! Lord, Theryn!” She fanned her face. “How do you stand the horrid stink wafting from that beast you’re riding?”
Jess’s shoulders were stiff. Brenna looked up at Shann, whose features were an eloquent expression of sorrow.
“I believe we’re about ready to begin the filming of the first battle.” Caster glanced down at Brenna. “Oh, stop glaring at me like that, my ex-colleague. No one’s really going to die! But my Military funders will be none the wiser, and you needn’t worry about your younger sister Samantha learning of your supposed death, Miss Brenna!”
Brenna felt her body tremble. She kept her gaze on Caster, trying to emulate Jess’s calm.
“Fortunately, little Samantha won’t have to grieve for you, as she was killed six weeks ago in quite a horrific traffic accident. She burned, I believe, along with her husband and the baby she was carrying. I’m terribly sorry, Brenna. I meant to tell you earlier.” Caster smiled down at her. “Cameras ready? Remember, this is supposed to be a spontaneous battle! Oh dear, we did forget to talk about those
darn rules, but ah, well. Theryn?”
Theryn wheeled her mount. “Amazons, attack!”
The fourteen women led by Patana and Myrine unleashed a chilling war cry and flew straight at Jess’s warriors. Brenna was stunned, both by Caster’s statement and the abruptness of the attack, and she almost let the small Amazon who raced toward her knock her flat.
Jess shoved Brenna aside, then kicked her attacker away with one powerful sideswipe of her booted foot. “Brenna!” She gripped her upper arms, hard. “Samantha is not dead! Now fight!”
Then Jess spun, her hair lashing Brenna’s face as two of Theryn’s best jumped her.
Hand-to-hand combat, Brenna learned long ago, meant different things in the City than in Tristaine. In the City it was a game; among Amazons it could be deadly. But when her opponent picked herself up out of the dirt and lunged for her again, Brenna still wasn’t prepared for the ferocity of the attack, and a knee punched into her stomach.
After that she had no rational thought; she just fought.
War cries filled the air from both sides, chilling Brenna’s blood. This was no drill, no tournament. She didn’t know the young Amazon she faced. While the girl wasn’t a warrior, she still had the fighting prowess expected of every able-bodied woman in Tristaine. Her second blow was a fast slice with the side of her hand.
But Brenna had learned much in a summer of tutelage by Dyan’s best. She dodged the strike with a deft twist, and it whickered past her. Then she countered with a neat back kick. Breath exploded out of her opponent as she bent double.
At least Theryn’s women aren’t armed, Brenna thought, catching her breath. If the Amazons commanded by Patana and Myrine had the advantages of numbers and surprise, at least they weren’t allowed weapons.
It was to be a long battle. Small groups of fighters, in twos and threes, had spaced themselves around the field. The strongest warriors in Jess’s group, like Vicar and Hakan, fought one-on-one with the best fighters in Theryn’s. Here and there two pairs of smaller warriors squared off against each other.
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