Battle for Tristaine

by Cate Culpepper

  Now Jesstin sat in the shadows and watched over Kyla. She got up every hour or so and made a slow circuit of the stable, checked with the Amazon on watch, and made sure the others slept. Then she would fade into the shadows again.

  Brenna was the only other prisoner who sat apart from the others. She sat on the woodplank floor, in the one meager pool of light offered by their portable generator. She’d written in that spiral notebook nonstop for the past three hours.

  Dana pushed herself off the wall and went over to a stack of Army blankets. She unfolded one, then went to the railing and draped it over Brenna’s shoulders.

  It wasn’t that Brenna didn’t notice Dana’s gesture. She did feel and appreciate the blanket’s sudden warmth, but she hardly glanced up.

  *

  It’s almost dawn.

  I’ve caught up on everything that’s happened since my last entry. From freezing on the ridge—that had to be months ago, but it was only days—to tonight, Camryn’s death.

  I don’t know why Shann wanted me to write all this. If she was hoping I’d vent some pent-up emotion, it’s not happening. I can’t let myself think about Cam right now, or even about helping Kyla survive this loss.

  Jess can’t focus on anything but what comes with morning, either. In a few hours, she’s got to get everyone through this last fight alive.

  Then, somehow, we have to get Shann and the rest of us the hell out of this valley.

  Then—please, Gaia, only then—we have to use the remote detonator to set off the dynamite, destroy the dam, and flood the village.

  And we thought yesterday sucked.

  I’m sorry, whoever is reading this, I’m not being flip. I’m just scared and a little sleep-drunk. I don’t know about Theryn’s fighters, but we haven’t had decent rest in days. Jess isn’t sleeping now, I can tell, and she was already running on a long sleep deficit.

  I’ve got to talk to Shann. Who is this “Jaheeka”? No one here knows. This goes on my list of questions to ask Shann, unless we both drown. It will come right after, “Was Cam’s death my fault?”

  I don’t know why I believe Theryn when she says she didn’t know Patana was going to attack Jess. For that matter, I’m not sure why I believe Theryn never told Caster about the dynamite on the dam. Theryn’s done nothing to earn my trust. Somehow it relates to that all-or-nothing, Good Amazon/Bad Amazon mind-set being wrongheaded…

  But I told Jess I thought Theryn was telling the truth. I just don’t know how we can use that.

  *

  As Brenna closed the notebook she caught a glimpse of unfamiliar handwriting. She opened the journal again and read the lines Shann had written on its last page. She studied the map beneath Shann’s entry, then gasped loudly when Jess touched her hair.

  “Easy, lass.” Jess lowered herself to the straw and winced as her arm draped across Brenna’s blanketed shoulders. “We’re still sneaking up on you, eh? You look cold.”

  “So do you.” Brenna rested her head against Jess’s shoulder. She was aware of Dana and the other City soldiers, but their presence felt immaterial. She slipped the journal into the inner pocket of her jacket and zipped the flap.

  They sat quietly for a while. They couldn’t possibly say everything they both needed to say in these brief moments of privacy, so they chose the more primitive comforts of silence and touch. Jess scratched Brenna’s scalp through her tousled hair, and Brenna snuggled more deeply against her.

  Then she remembered Jess’s painful wince she had seen earlier and sat up again. “Oh, damn. Sorry.”

  Jess blinked at her. “What? I’m okay.”

  “Well, I’ve learned that’s a relative concept. Apparently an Amazon thinks she’s ‘okay’ if no one’s yanked out her liver yet.” Brenna smiled and rested her palm very lightly on Jess’s side, close to the taser’s mark. “How’s this?”

  “Sore.” Jess adjusted her shoulders against the railing behind them.

  “Anything else that I can’t see in this light?”

  “I’m just real stiff.” Jess caught Brenna’s probing fingers gently in her own and held them to her lips. “Rest a while, Bren.”

  Brenna sighed and settled again against her shoulder. “I need to get you someplace I can look you over, Jesstin. Hakan and Vicar too. They both took some pretty bad hits today.”

  “We all did, querida, body and heart.” Jess rested her cheek in Brenna’s hair. “Kyla’s taken the worst strike.”

  Brenna closed her eyes. “How is she?”

  “How Shann was, I imagine, right after we lost Dyan. How either of us would be.”

  Brenna shivered. She squeezed Jess’s waist a little.

  “You did save my life, lass. I thank you for it.”

  Brenna nodded. “Cam forgave me, didn’t she?”

  “Aye, she did.”

  “All right, Amazons, everyone up.” Dana’s voice was low, but still jarring in the dawn stillness of the stable. “You’ll be given a chance to wash, then you’ll be fed. You need to be ready for the arena in two hours. Move sharp, please.”

  *

  Time started to telescope.

  In the middle of the fighting field, Shann’s warriors, led by Jess, waited in a rough semicircle, just as they had the day before. Theryn’s Amazons, led by Myrine and Patana, faced them from their position below the review stand.

  Caster, Theryn, and Grythe sat in the stand with Shann and Kyla and two armed guards.

  The cameras were all manned and ready.

  Dana was watching her soldiers, and, judging from her expression, she shared Brenna’s fears about them. The City mercs looked wired, as if their nerves were drawn tight as bowstrings.

  The one difference between yesterday and today only increased Brenna’s anxiety. The lower level of the stadium was filled with Amazons. Caster had ordered that every woman loyal to Shann’s rule be brought in to witness this final war game.

  Brenna saw Constance, Kas, Opal, and Teresias, four members of Tristaine’s high council, clustered at one end of the risers. DeLorea and the thirty other Amazons who had been imprisoned in the warrior’s barracks were spaced along the other side of the stadium.

  More Amazons required more soldiers so, in effect, every human being in the village was in the arena or guarding its perimeter. If tension could be made visible, Brenna knew she would see sheets of it shimmer in the air around her.

  Then Caster stood up, and time lurched sickeningly back into place.

  “All right, Miss Dana, I’m ready for my close-up!”

  The camera lenses whirred as they zoomed in.

  “Roll film,” Dana called tonelessly.

  “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.” Caster placed both hands lightly on the stand’s railing. “I reference, once again, Clinic Study T-714 and introduce this filmed record of the final, climactic battle for Tristaine!”

  She paused. “Cut! Patana, distribute the weapons, please!”

  Dana saw the bald Amazon trot quickly behind the wall of the stadium. She emerged carrying an armful of swords and crossbows.

  “Come on, you lot,” Patana called. “Myrine, Perry! Pass these out. I’ll get the rest.”

  Dana’s stomach clenched again. Obviously, Jesstin and her warriors were still expected to fight barehanded, only this time, against weapons that could kill. She looked up and saw that Caster was deep in conversation with Theryn, and their talk was growing heated.

  Shann’s warriors were watching Jesstin.

  Jesstin was watching Shann.

  Tristaine’s queen looked like she had slept as little as Jess and Brenna. Shann sat erect on the cushioned bench in the review stand and held Kyla’s hand. Kyla’s eyes worried Brenna. They were unfocused and distant.

  Theryn’s Amazons all held weapons now. Most held crossbows, swords, and daggers, but two of the slightest fighters carried what looked like pistols.

  Suddenly Theryn bellowed, “Caster, I forbid it!”

  Brenna watched, dumbfounded, as Thery
n vaulted from the review stand. She landed awkwardly, but apparently with ankles intact. The uneasy rumbling that had started to move through the watching Amazons in the risers subsided as she stalked toward Patana.

  Wake up, daughtera. J’heika, rise!

  “Tell me what to do,” Brenna whispered. Yesterday, Camryn had been standing so close to her she would have heard the prayer.

  “I said stand down, Amazon!” Theryn clenched the bunched fabric at Patana’s throat. “I ordered all battles be fought without harm!”

  “Caster changed that order, and she was right, Theryn.” Patana gripped her mentor’s arms. “Be honest, adanin, you knew this was coming! How else could it end?”

  “What?”

  “Let us fight, Theryn! Let’s finish this at last, and give Tristaine the queen and the high council she deserves!”

  Theryn shook off Patana’s grip and wheeled on Myrine. “Has Caster poisoned you with this bloody swill, too?”

  “No.” Myrine looked as dazed as Brenna felt. “I mean, no, I didn’t know anything about all—Patana, what—”

  Theryn pushed Myrine aside and strode back beneath the review stand.

  “Caster! I forbid the use of weapons! If we had to sacrifice Camryn, so be it. But I’ll not allow one more drop of Amazon blood—”

  “Your bosom heaves once again, Theryn.” From the railing, Caster lifted a placating hand. “Now, think back. We have already filmed you on a horse in front of your triumphant warriors, yes?”

  Theryn folded her arms, every line of her body defiant.

  “Remember our story?” Caster coached. “A converted Jesstin tries to convince Tristaine to incorporate under the City. But Tristaine resists! Your warriors defeat Jesstin, Theryn! Then my protocol converts your warriors! Amazons become Citizens! City gets silver! You get throne!”

  The mockery in Caster’s tone registered with Grythe, who cast a blistering glare at her. Brenna realized Shann was studying Theryn with intense interest.

  “Yes, we defeat Jesstin’s warriors, Caster,” Theryn retorted, “but then, according to our truce, Shann and her Amazons are to be exiled. Not murdered! We risk more deaths if any warriors carry weap—”

  “Oh, please, you’ll have plenty of Amazons to spawn our New Tristaine, Theryn.” Caster seemed nettled by the delay. “Remember, all the villagers who escaped us, or migrated, as you quaintly put it, will come back. You’ll have your own followers down there. And you’ll even have those Amazons in the stands, the less competent of Shann’s warriors. That’s practically all of old Tristaine to rule!”

  “Everyone lives.” Theryn’s voice was strained. “Caster, there will be no more bloodshed.”

  “Just a little bloodshed,” Caster corrected. “Just those ten little warriors down there, give or take a few. We did get Camryn’s death on film yesterday, but that’s hardly enough, Theryn. The film must have some carnage if it’s to be authentic!”

  Caster turned a glowing smile on Shann. “And Tristaine’s barbarian queen must see it, if she’s to be humbled.”

  Brenna had never wanted to do anything but heal others, but now she realized she was capable of killing even if she wasn’t physically threatened. She would think about that unpleasant revelation later.

  “All right, get ready to fight, you people!” Caster snapped her fingers. “Roll ‘em, Miss Dana!”

  “Wait!” Theryn’s cape swirled as she spun and walked toward Jess. “Dana, stand down!”

  “At ease!” Dana yelled to her troops. Her mouth was dry. The damn stadium seemed to be teeming with hostile Amazons and spooked soldiers with rifles. “Lower your weapons, I said!”

  “Theryn, get back up here!” Now Caster’s voice was ominously shrill. “Dana, I am paying your commission, not that ridiculous Amazon queen wannabe!”

  Brenna moved to Jess’s side as Theryn reached her, and she felt that strange spiraling down of energy again.

  Theryn hesitated, and her struggle for self-control aged her face a decade. Brenna sensed waves of outrage radiating from her, and something heavier, more like defeat or despair. Jess’s own dark energy broadcast her grief and wariness.

  Brenna realized with a jolt that she was, for god’s sake, reading energy waves, and she looked up at Shann. Tristaine’s queen stood at the railing now, just as she had yesterday, but try as she might, Brenna could read nothing in her pale features.

  “All right, Jesstin.” Theryn won her struggle for restraint, and her eyes on Jess were cold as slate. She spoke quietly, so only Jess and Brenna heard her. “I’m going to order my warriors to break ranks. We’ll try to keep Caster’s mercenaries off you. You and your Amazons, get Shann and her council out of the village. Then blow the dam and send that bitch up there to hell!” She smiled without mirth. “I don’t care how many Amazons either of us have to lose to achieve that.”

  “Theryn!” Caster’s fury was rising. “Get your pagan ass up here! I will order your warriors to attack right now. Don’t you dare test me!”

  “Theryn, slow down.” Jess’s gaze was locked on Shann. “Things got real hot, real fast. Just watch me and follow my direction.”

  Theryn stepped forward into Jess’s space, and Brenna knew that was not a wise move. “Do you imagine that you and your cohorts are the only Amazons in this stadium who love Tristaine, Jesstin? Sweet Gaia, the gall of the young and righteous! We have no time to plan, so spare me your indignation. Caster knows nothing of the dam, Jess.”

  “All right, Dana! Get those cameras rolling!” Caster was snapping her fingers, rapidly. “And you, you, bald Amazon! Attack! All of you, attack!”

  Pulsing silence filled the arena.

  “I’ll get the women I love to safety, Jesstin. You do the same.” Theryn’s eyes flicked to Brenna. “Once they’re safe, Shann can send Tristaine to a cold but righteous sleep. If you have a better strategy, I’m listening.”

  Jess looked at Brenna.

  Brenna nodded. “We can trust her, Jess. She means it.”

  Then Grythe screamed. It was a raw, ugly sound that ripped the air and triggered the destruction that followed.

  Brenna didn’t remember Elodia’s promise to Camryn until she saw the dagger in her hand. Elodia was racing across the arena toward them, targeted on Theryn. Brenna knew no Spanish and so didn’t understand exactly what she was shouting, but one thing was clear. From the names Elodia screamed, she believed killing Theryn would avenge Camryn and free Tristaine’s queen.

  Time telescoped again.

  “Elodia, stand down!” It was Shann’s voice, but Elodia was too deep in her thirst for revenge to hear her.

  Grythe leapt from the review stand and landed behind her wife like a frightened spider crazed to protect her egg sac. She emitted that soul-shriveling scream again and dashed toward Elodia.

  Jess bolted after Grythe, and Vicar and Hakan were on a dead run to intercept them both.

  Brenna didn’t see which of Dana’s mercenaries fired, but the first bullet hit Grythe in the back. Astonishment crossed her beautiful face as she crumpled into the dirt.

  Elodia fell a bare second later, shot by at least two different rifles.

  Dana was screaming hoarsely, racing from soldier to soldier, yelling orders into white faces. She saved the Amazons from an immediate bloodbath, but it was harrowingly close.

  Vicar crouched beside Elodia’s body and felt for a pulse at her throat. Brenna recognized the gesture as the formality it was. The girl was dead.

  The Amazons on the risers, stunned by the sudden violence, began to step down onto the fighting field.

  Caster still screamed orders, but she was largely ignored.

  Theryn dropped to her knees beside her wife. Grythe still lived. Brenna could see the erratic lift and fall of her breast, but a small pool of blood was forming beneath her, soaking into the earth.

  A surreal silence fell.

  “Jesstin!”

  Every eye flew to the review stand. Shann was staring down at Theryn, her hand po
ised over the railing, waiting. Her graceful fingers trembled.

  Gently, Theryn let her unconscious wife come to rest on the ground. She got to her feet. She looked at Jess and at Brenna, and then she turned to address the Amazons who followed her.

  “Hear me, sisters!” Theryn’s voice rang through the stadium. “Caster seeks to violate the truce that would have preserved our clan!”

  “Theryn!” Caster screamed. “My right hand to God, Theryn, I will order you shot where you stand!”

  “We fight for Tristaine!” Theryn didn’t even glance at Caster. She raised one hand to her Amazons. “We fight for Shann!”

  Shann’s fingers twirled, signaling Jess.

  “Amazons, attack!” Jess shouted, and the battle for Tristaine began.

  Chapter Nine

  Several soldiers fired blindly when the war cries erupted, galvanized by Caster’s screamed commands. Four Amazons were hit immediately: three from Theryn’s band, who lived, and Ayla, a warrior from Jess’s side, who did not.

  When Brenna dared throw a look at the review stand, it was empty.

  Jess and Theryn led their separate cadres of warriors well, like warhorses pulling Shann’s chariot in tandem. After the first outbreak of gunfire, the smoky fighting field was cleared fairly quickly and the wounded Amazons carried to the stadium’s inner chambers.

  Within minutes, Brenna was with the injured, kneeling between Perry and two other bleeding women she didn’t know. She was coated with gore to the elbows for the second time in two days. The part of her that was calm also appreciated the efficiency of the Amazons, who kept her supplied with field dressings and fresh water, even in the full throes of battle.

  “They’re stable.” Brenna turned to Amber, another of Jess’s Amazons who had healing skills. She pulled her shoulder down to make sure Amber would hear her over the chaos of war cries and rifles. “Keep them here. This hallway’s pretty safe!”