by Robin Roseau
"You're welcome."
"If everyone is finally ready," Malora said. She frowned at me. "Why isn't the fire lit?"
"Um. I didn't know I was supposed to light it. You always light it."
"Well, tonight I want you to do it."
"Um. How."
"With this," Serra said, handing me a brand from the kitchen fire. I got up, walked to the other side of the waiting pyramid of firewood, and thrust the brand into the kindling, blowing on it to bring it to life, then fanning the fire until it grew. When I stood up, I saw everyone was watching me, and there were a few chuckles.
"What?"
"Nothing," said Omie. "Come sit."
"I have soot on my face, don't I?"
"Maybe a little. Don't brush at it; you'll just smear it around."
I sighed. Crappiest. Birthday. Ever. I walked around the fire, now burning nicely, and sat next to my warrior, right up front.
"Finally," Malora said. "Do we have any announcements?"
Maya stood up. "I do."
I thought, 'finally, she's going to tell everyone it's my birthday.'
Instead, she said, "I have to make some adjustments to the duty roster. I'll post them at breakfast in the morning. Everyone should check it tomorrow for the changes."
Then she sat down.
Then Omie stood up. "I have an announcement." She stepped to the front and smiled at me, then said, "Actually, Nori and Vorine should stand up, too. This is an announcement by all of us."
Nori and Vorine moved to the front.
"We'll have a tournament tomorrow," Omie said. "Come prepared to wager."
And then the three of them sat down.
"Anyone else?" Malora asked. "No?" She looked around. "Okay, who wants to tell a story?"
Omie raised her hand.
"All right, Omie," Malora said. Malora sat down next to Maya, the too of them practically cooing at each other, and Omie stood in front of us.
And then she proceeded to tell the story about my ankle. When she was done, she turned to Maya. "So, I need to ask you. Did your sister lie to me?"
"It was really a man-o-war," Maya said. "She cried like a baby, too. But that story about me dangling her in the water as shark bait is patently false."
"I remember you doing it to me, Maya! Don't lie."
Maya smiled. "Honey, it was a tidal pool. I'm pretty sure there were no sharks, but there were a couple of crabs that looked interested. All of you should have seen how angry Mama was when Chandor got bit by the barracuda."
Maya looked around. "As long as I'm standing, is it my turn?"
"Go ahead, Maya," Omie said. "I'm done for now."
"Well," Maya said, "As everyone knows, Beria is my little sister."
I groaned.
"She's the fourth of five children," Maya explained. "I am oldest, and we have three brothers."
"It's not pick on Beria day!" I muttered.
From next to me, Omie squeezed my hand, but then she whispered, "Hush, I want to hear this."
"Beria has always looked up to me," Maya went on to explain, moving to step in front of all of us, and I could tell right away she was going to tell a long, and presumably embarrassing, story about me. I had to hand it to my sister; she knew how to speak in front of an audience. She had gotten a lot of practice as a teacher.
"I'm ten years older than Beria," Maya said. "And this story is from when I was perhaps fourteen or fifteen, and Beria was five. Our schoolteacher was elderly and had been sickly over the previous winter, so this story was from the summer after I first began to assistant teach." She looked at me and smiled. "Do you remember how you used to follow me around, trying to copy me?" Maya paced back and forth. "As you can imagine, I took everything I did very seriously, so I spent the summer working on lesson plans. I would sit at the kitchen table for hours, preparing lesson plans, then grumbling at them and ripping them to pieces."
I buried my head. Now I knew which story.
"Pay attention, Beria," Maya said, stepping over to me and rapping the top of my head with her knuckles. She did it twice more until I uncovered my face.
"That's better." She stepped away. "Unbeknownst to me, Beria was in the loft above, watching me and trying to emulate me. But she didn't have any lesson books like I did, so she used the next best thing she could find." Maya turned to me. "What was it that you used, Beria? I'm not sure I can remember."
I mumbled something at her.
"What? I don't think they heard you in back."
"Mother's ledgers," I said. "Okay? I used Mother's ledgers."
"Business records, Beria?"
"Yes," I said. "Business records."
"And you wrote all over them, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"With ink."
"Yes."
"And then, whenever I grew frustrated with how my planning was going, and I tore a page out, she would do the same thing with the ledgers, then tear the pages up besides."
"Mother and Father were so angry," I said.
"Don't get ahead of my story," Maya said. "I had also been making new clothes for myself. School marm clothes." She smiled. "None of you have seen my school marm clothes, as I was dressed in fishing clothes the day Nori kidnapped me from Gallen's Cove."
"I didn't kidnap you!" Nori said.
"Beat me with a stick, viciously tied me hand and foot, threw me over your horse, and sold me into slavery," Maya said. "But that's a story already told. Don't interrupt."
She looked around. "Where was I?"
"School marm clothes!" Bea said from somewhere behind me.
"Oh, right. I had made myself school marm clothes. Mother helped me. Beria, not to be outdone, made some clothes of her own. What did you use for material, Beria?"
I mumbled again.
"Really, Beria," Maya said, "No one can understand you when you mumble."
"The curtains from Mama's room," I said loudly. "I pulled down the curtains and wrapped them around me like a dress."
"And that was what you were wearing when you spilled the ink all over yourself, wasn't it?"
I sighed. "Yes."
The other Amazons laughed as Maya finished the story, telling what a mess I was when Mama found me.
"Who got in trouble?" Maya asked me.
I looked up at her and grinned. "You did. You were supposed to be watching me."
"Yes. I got in trouble. I was busy trying to learn how to teach you to read, and I got in trouble because you admired me sooooo much, you had to do everything I did and follow me everywhere." She sighed dramatically. "She's still doing it, following me everywhere. I go all the way to the other side of Morehama, and a year later, here she is."
The Amazons enjoyed that.
Maya stepped over to stand in front of me. "Beria, do you remember what I did to get even with you for the trouble I was in?"
I looked up at her, confused. "You didn't do anything to me," I said after a moment.
"Ha!" she said dramatically. "Until now. Wait until you see the duty roster in the morning. Finally, ten years later, justice is served!"
And then, with a bow, she took her seat next to Malora. Malora hugged her for a moment. I popped to my feet and said, "I have a story."
"Sit down, Beria, it's not your turn," Malora said.
I sat down, but I asked, "When is it my turn?"
"When I call on you," Malora said. "Now, who else has a story?" I was waving my hand in the air. Malora made a point of looking around. "No one has a story?"
"I have a story, Queen Malora," said Careen.
"Oh, Careen has a story," the queen said. "Excellent. Come on up here and tell it."
"Why does she get to tell a story, but I don't?" I asked Omie.
"Because Queen Malora called on her," Omie said. "Hush now and listen."
Careen moved to the front, warming her hands at the fire for a moment, then turned to face us. "I'm not sure if you all know, but like Maya and Beria, I'm from Gallen's Cove." She looked around and pointe
d. "So is Jasmine. Most of you haven't been there. It's a village right on the ocean, much bigger than Queen's Town, but still only a village. We have a two-room schoolhouse instead of the no-room schoolhouse of Queen's Town." Then she looked at me, and I just knew this was going to be another Beria story.
"I'm a couple years older than Beria," Careen said. "And when she was younger, I used to pick on her, at least until the day Maya caught me."
"No one messes with my sister," Maya said.
"Except you!" I said.
"Well, yeah, of course," she replied.
"But this was before Maya caught me. Beria had been making a pest of herself, so I asked her, 'if I teach you a magic trick, will you leave us alone?' "
"Oh god," I said, earning some chuckles.
"So tonight, I'm going to teach you all this magic trick." And darned if she didn't pull a short pussy willow stick from inside her tunic. "I told Beria that I could inhale a pussy willow into my nose and make it disappear." Careen broke off one of the pussy willows and mimed sticking it up her nose, making a big inhale noise, but we all saw that she palmed it instead.
Then she stepped over to me and gave me the rest of the stick of pussy willows.
"Of course," Careen said, "Beria had to try it herself. Do you want to show us what you did?"
"No," I said. "I do not."
Careen turned to Queen Malora. "I think you should make her demonstrate."
Queen Malora laughed. "I think we can all figure out what she did."
"So she came back to me, talking sort of funny, and said, 'It didn't disappear, Careen.' And she lifted her head, and buried deep inside one nostril, I could see the pussy willow."
Careen looked around. "So I told her, that's because you put it up the wrong side. Try the other side."
The Amazons broke out in laughter.
"So, of course, she did." Careen plugged her nose and said, "Careen, it's not working!" Then she unplugged her nose and waited for the laughter to die down. "So I told her, it's because you didn't inhale hard enough."
"I still owe you," I told her. "You're going to wake up some morning with pussy willows buried up your nose!"
"What happened next, Beria?"
"They got stuck! And then I started to cry, and that just made it all worse."
"What did you have to do?" Careen asked.
"I went home to Mama, crying like crazy, and it took a half hour before I could explain about the pussy willows. Then when she dug them out, I cried a whole lot more."
Careen walked over to stand in front of me. She waited until the laughter had died down a little. I glared up at her. "Beria," she said. "I'm sorry. It was a mean trick, and I shouldn't have done it."
There was a collective, "Aww," from the Amazons, and then Careen sat back down next to her warrior.
Malora stood up, thanked Careen for the amusing tale, then looked around. "Anyone else?" I raised my hand. Malora ignored me. "No one?" She looked around once more. "Then I suppose it's time for an Amazon tradition."
I stood up.
"Sit down, Beria," she said without even looking at me. "Unless you were standing up to demonstrate what you're going to do with those pussy willows."
I sat back down.
"As I said, it's time for an Amazon tradition." Malora paced back and forth for a moment, coming to a stop in front of me. "Who knows what that tradition is?"
"Me!" said Maya. "Me, Queen Malora. Pick me!"
"Hush, you," Malora told her. "Now is the time when everyone whose birthday is today closes her eyes so we can bring out her surprise."
I spun my head to look at Maya, who was grinning at me. Then I looked up at Malora.
"This can't have been the first birthday since I arrived."
"We stop celebrating after sixteen," she said. "You get two more. Now close your eyes or we'll let Maya celebrate your birthday her way. I think you'll prefer mine."
I immediately shut my eyes.
From all around me, there was rustling. Then I felt Omie stand up. She grabbed my hands then bent down next to my ear. "Keep your eyes closed until Malora tells you to open." I nodded. Omie pulled me to my feet, drew me closer to the fire, then turned me around.
I felt someone move closer, then Maya said, "This is from Malora and me." She stepped behind me, and then she was pulling a coat over my arms and around me. It was heavy and smelled of fresh leather.
Then I felt something soft thrown over my shoulder. "This is from the warriors." I recognized Ping's voice, and from around me, I heard several voices say, "Oooh."
"I should go last," Omie said, "but tonight we're going to let the other companions go last. Beria, my companion, this is from me." She took my hand and then wrapped it around a leather-wrapped handle of some sort.
"And this," said Serra, "is from the companions."
"Open your eyes," Queen Malora ordered. When I did, I saw several of the companions holding a cake, and there was a single candle burning on it. "Blow it out," she said. So I leaned forward and blew the candle out.
"You baked me a cake?" I said.
"Yes," said Serra. "Your sister got us the supplies."
I looked at everything I'd been given. In my hand I was holding a wooden staff, just like Maya's. I turned to Omie. "Thank you." She nodded. "You're ready for that." Over my shoulder was a bear hide. I ran my fingers through the fur.
"Bear hides are uncommon," Malora said. "This is a fine gift. Your warrior can help you decide how to use it."
"And if you make something," said Bea, "I'm happy to help you."
I looked around. "Thank you."
Then I looked at the coat Maya and Malora had given me. It was very much like the one Maya wore, although in a different shade of green, and a slightly different cut. But it was long, and I knew it would be warm. I fingered it then turned to my sister. I stepped forward, collecting her and Malora in a hug. "Thank you," I whispered to both of them.
"You're welcome," Malora told me. Then she whispered into my ear. "Thank you so much for becoming an Amazon, Beria. Omie really needed you, and your sister did too. I am so pleased you have joined us."
"Beria," said Maya. "Mom and Dad and our brothers sent gifts, too. They're in your hut waiting for you. There's a letter, too."
By then, Serra had cut the cake. She and the other companions handed out pieces. And together, deep in the Amazon forest, we celebrated my fourteenth birthday.
* * * *
The next morning, with a certain amount of dread, I checked the changes to the duty roster. I saw that I was back to normal duties for the next two days, then suddenly my name disappeared from the duty roster. I couldn't figure out why, so I went looking for my sister.
"Is that part of my birthday present?"
"What?"
"I'm not on the duty roster after tomorrow."
"Not exactly a present," she said. "Perhaps you should talk to your warrior. She reserved you for other duties."
"What duties?"
"It's not my place to say."
I collected breakfast for Omie and me then sat down next to her. She was talking to her sister. I interrupted their conversation.
"Maya said I should talk to you about some duty thing."
Omie turned to me. "My co-training leader and I were talking, Beria," she said.
"I'm sorry," I said.
She turned back to Vorine. "So I said to the man, if that's the best you can do, it's just not good enough."
"I know!" said Vorine. "Some people are just so rude."
"Yes. Butting into conversations, interrupting a person."
"Hey!" I complained. They both turned to me and grinned.
"Checked the duty roster, did you?" Omie asked.
"I'm not on it after tomorrow."
"Yes, you are," she said. "Maybe you should go check all the duty rosters."
"You could just tell me."
"I could, but seeing it in writing makes it seem more real, don't you think?"
"Fine,"
I said. "But I could be here silencing the voices or over there, trying to figure out what's going on. Have it your way." I grabbed one of the biscuits and got back up. From behind me, I heard Omie and Vorine muttering about uppity companions turning fourteen and thinking they owned the world.
I checked the duty roster again. I had duties today and tomorrow, then nothing to the end of the schedule. Maya hadn't posted the next schedule yet. Omie had told me to check all the rosters, however, and it was on the patrol roster that I saw her name, leaving the morning after tomorrow, and underneath her name was mine.
I was going on patrol!
I stared at it for a few minutes, checking the entire patrol roster. Omie was now scheduled for her share of the patrol, which meant about every third patrol, there was her name in the last column on the right. It wasn't quite every third, a little less, and it wasn't a steady schedule, either, and I realized each time her name appeared, the names of the other warriors might be a little different. I saw that Balorie, who kept this portion of the duty roster, put her name down far more often than her share, going at least every other patrol and sometimes leading two patrols in a row. That explained why I rarely saw her.
My name didn't accompany Omie's every time. It looked like I was signed up for patrol about every third time that Omie went. And then I realized I only went the times that either Balorie or Nori was the patrol leader, and then still not every time.
This is what we trained for, but I knew I wasn't ready to fight a demon, not even close to ready. In a daze, I moved back into the dining area and sat down next to Omie.
"I'm not ready," I said quietly.
"Not to fight," Omie said. "And if there are any engagements, you will not be in them. But you sit a horse well enough, and you're steady. We know you'll follow orders. Those are the three criteria. Beria, you will follow orders from anyone who gives you one: me, Balorie, or any of the other warriors."
"Yes, Omie," I said. I was nervous, but excited at the same time.
Going on patrol was the entire reasons the Amazons existed. And I was going in two days.
* * * *
My first patrol was uneventful. I was nervous the entire time, and I had a million questions. Omie or the other warriors patiently answered each and every one. I slept poorly and was very tense, and all I wanted to do when we got home was collapse. I didn't know how Balorie did it trip after trip.