by Robin Roseau
I turned my head, and my sister was standing there, watching us. She looked worried, but she nodded, twice.
"Who else knows?"
"Nori, of course. She and I talked about it while you were still a companion."
"Who else did you consider?"
"Your warrior. Bea. Aura. A few that didn't pan out after even a few years."
"Of the warriors here today?"
"Tenda, but she can't hold the position. I should have retired five years ago, but you weren't ready. I don't think you would have won this tournament, and your first years would have been plagued with challenges. And frankly, you weren't ready for the position. You are now. You're ready. I have spent twenty years making sure you would be ready on this day, Beria."
I stared at her.
"I don't want it."
"I didn't, either."
"Malora, I'd have to kill you. How can you ask me to do that?"
"Oh honey, no. We fight until one of us yields. I can't hand it to you. I will give you the best fight I can, but it's been years since I could have beaten you, as good as you are now, and you probably could have beaten me five years ago."
"You killed Parlomith."
"Yes. I decide the terms. With Parlomith, I decided it was to the death. With you, it is until one of us yields. Try not to hurt me too badly. I don't heal as quickly as I used to."
"I don't want to do this, Malora. You can't make me, can you?"
"No. But I'm begging, Beria. I'm tired. You're so young. You don't understand. I hurt. I'm tired of training every day. I'm tired of the bruises and the aching joints afterwards. I haven't gone on a demon patrol in two years, and a queen shouldn't lead from Queen's Town. The Amazons need their next queen, and that has to be you. There is no one else."
"Nori."
"She's almost as old as I am, and honestly, she can't beat me. I'd have to throw the fight, and that would be dishonest."
"Omie then."
"You, Beria. You."
"I don't want to do this, Malora."
"I know. Now, we're going to go step out there, and you are going to say in a firm voice to carry to everyone that you are challenging me for leadership of the Amazons. Do you need a rest before we fight?"
"No. Everyone is going to hate me!"
"Everyone out there knows I'm talking to you about this. All right, there may be a few who think we're planning something special, maybe an exhibition match between you and me, but when you go out there and challenge me, especially after so loudly denying my first request, they'll know I begged to retire."
"Does Lia know?"
"Your sister is telling her right now."
I looked over, and Lia looked stricken. Maya was whispering to her.
"The chiefs?"
"Some of them will have figured it out. I haven't tried to be subtle."
"Will they support me?"
"Yes. There are a few who won't, but the vast majority, yes. You are my hand-chosen successor."
"Why this way?"
"So everyone absolutely knew who the best was."
"Tenda was better."
"Only because you didn't want to beat her with a staff. And I think Tenda figured it out. And I know Haldara did, as she came to me last night and pledged to support you. And if I'm not mistaken, Lilith will also be a staunch supporter. You know everyone at Lake Juna and Queen's town will be fully behind you."
"All right," I said. "Do I have to?"
"Yes. Please, Beria. I need to know the next queen is someone like you, and there isn't anyone else. Maya would be a fabulous queen, but-"
"Yeah. We'd have to change the rules of succession."
"Right, and they won't accept it. I tried, years ago. And I wasn't the first queen who tried."
"I don't want to hurt you, Malora."
"My last fight, Beria, and I can't imagine anyone else I would rather face. Go on now. We'll walk out, separate a little, and then in a loud, clear voice, challenge me for leadership of the Amazons."
I nodded.
She hugged me again, and then we stepped away. We moved forward, stopping perhaps five paces from the front edge of the training circle. Facing the waiting Amazons, I was on the left, Malora to my right. I turned to her. She was watching me, beaming at me.
I was stricken, sick to my stomach.
"I'm going to be sick," I told her.
"No, you're not. But if you need a break, we can do this in a little while, but you have to challenge me now, while they're waiting."
I'm sure some people heard her, but no one expressed surprise.
I raised my voice. "Queen Malora, we can never decide if you are a mother to me or an older sister, a much, much older sister. Moments ago, I learned you have known all along. You are my second mother, and I love you from the bottom of my heart."
"Chief Beria, Champion of the Amazons, I am both older sister and second mother, and I am very proud to be both."
"Queen Malora, I challenge you in combat for leadership of the Amazons."
They were waiting for it, but still there was a hush, and then loud conversation broke out. I glanced at Maya. She looked scared, but she nodded to me again. I searched for Omie and found her, and Nori, and there was Ralla and so many others, and I could tell Ralla had known, too. Jasmine looked shocked, but Ralla was talking to her.
Malora held up a hand. "Chief Beria, I accept your challenge, our fight to commence immediately if you are prepared."
I took a breath and nodded. "I am. What weapons will you choose?"
Nori stepped into the ring, and she handed Malora her swords. Her real swords. I stared at them. She withdrew them from their sheaths.
"Beria," she said softly, "it's a real fight."
Then Omie and Vorine were beside me. Vorine took my practice swords from me, still clasped in my hands. I had forgotten they were even there. And Omie handed me my real swords, pulling first one from the sheath and pressing it into my hand, then the other.
"You both knew?"
"Yes, for a very, very long time," Omie said.
"Not me," Vorine said. "This one figured it out years ago. I found out this week. I feel so stupid."
Then they stepped away, moving out of the circle.
I looked over. Maya and Lia were standing side-by-side, just slightly left of the center. I didn't see our daughters.
"Where are they?" I asked.
"With Yalta and Rahna," Lia said.
I nodded then turned to face Malora. Nori was out of the circle, and Malora had moved a little further away.
"If you are ready, Chief Beria, we may begin. Once we begin, we do not stop until one of us yields."
I stared at her swords. I had fought a few bandits over the years, but I had never fought naked steel that would be wielded as well as Malora did.
And I looked at my swords. I had never raised steel against someone I was unwilling to kill or even hurt.
"Sister!" I yelled.
"Beria?"
"I find myself loath to raise naked steel against my queen. Would you allow me to trade my steel for the staff across your back?"
Malora smiled, a ghost of a smile.
"Yes, Sister," Maya said. "I will happily loan my staff to you."
I stepped over to her. Omie appeared and took my swords from me, and by the time she had, Maya held her staff to me.
"Treat it well," she said. "It has saved my life a time or three."
I took the staff then stepped fully back into the circle. I took several breaths to calm myself, but my heart was pounding in my chest. I wondered how Malora had done this: facing people who she absolutely knew wished to kill her.
I was good enough, more than good enough. Malora was the best two swords fighter I have ever fought, but she was slow now, and I was stronger than her with a longer reach.
I needed to be more than good enough. I needed to beat her without hurting her.
I stepped forward.
"Beria," the queen said quietly, "I do not b
elieve you have ever been cut by a sword."
"Just once, sharpening Omie's."
She smiled.
"It stings. You must ignore it and keep fighting no matter how deep it is. Beria, you must win. You must."
I nodded.
"And we do not pause after a strike. This is like a bandit fight, but hopefully a bandit you do not intend to kill." She smiled again.
"I understand, Queen Malora. I wish I didn't have to do this."
"Oh honey, so do I. Fight your best. Beat me. I am not going to make it easy for you."
I nodded once more, and then said in a firm voice, "Queen Malora, I am ready."
"As am I. Ready. Fight."
She paused just a tiny moment, then she came after me, and she was fast! Her left sword lashed out, and the temptation was to move towards my left, into the path of her right sword, but I knew that trick, and so I beat her sword aside with my staff, then swung the other end of my staff towards her.
She shifted at the last moment, taking the strike against her hip, and then she was spinning, her sword coming around, and I stepped backwards rapidly.
We traded blows and slashes, and then she got me with her off hand, a slash across my forearm. It stung! She had drawn first blood. I stepped back rapidly, putting distance between us, but she pressed me, and I barely avoided two more strikes before another landed, almost in the same place.
I bashed her swords aside hard enough to disrupt her flow and backed away, lashing out twice with the staff to put some distance between us. I glanced for a moment at my arm. The cuts were shallow, but they were bleeding, and eventually it would wet my hand and make my hold on Maya's staff slippery.
Malora waited for me, and she was breathing hard. I was barely winded. Oh, my heart was pounding in my chest, but I was barely breathing, and she was panting.
I went after her.
This time she was the one to retreat, and I knew she was leading me to the whipping post. I let her. Just as she got to it, I swung at her, and she did exactly what I thought she would; she stepped around behind it, expecting me to slam my staff into the side of the post. But I reversed, and when she came around the other side, she ran right into the end of my staff. It thudded firmly into her chest, knocking her back. She flailed in surprise. I rapped the other end of the staff against her right arm, hard enough to make it go numb for a moment, then stepped in, grabbing her left wrist. I pulled, sending her over my hip, and she slammed into the ground at my feet.
I then applied an arm bar on her hand, wrapping my leg around her arm, bending her elbow against the side of my hip, her left sword pointed harmlessly into the air, and my staff resting heavily on her right wrist. I applied pressure to her arm and froze.
As did she.
"Who in the hell taught you that?" She asked loudly.
"Nori. Omie. Ralla. You. I don't know." I responded as loudly.
"I yield," she said.
"You can free your right hand." I said it more quietly.
"You can break my left arm and be away before I have leverage. I yield."
I untangled us and pulled her to her feet. She was panting heavily, and when I looked into her face, I didn't like the color.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," she said. "I told you, I'm getting old. Hug me now."
And I did.
Everyone else was silent. I felt both our hearts pounding in our chests, and Malora continued to pant heavily. Nori was there, taking her swords from her, and Omie took the staff, and still I continued to hold my queen.
"Thank you, Beria," she said. "You have made an old woman very, very proud."
"How much of what you did was for this day?"
"Oh honey. Everything."
"Our fight about a companion?"
"I was queen without one. I didn't want you to try the same. You're going to need her. And I needed to know she loved you."
"She does."
"I know."
"I'm sorry about that first fight with Jalad. I didn't know. Why was Nori so angry when she thought I had come to challenge you a year ago."
"It would have looked like betrayal. This is retirement."
"I wouldn't have."
"I know."
Then we separated, but she held my hand. We stepped forward, and I saw Maya, her hand in her mouth, but she saw we were both okay, and she dropped her hand. She and Lia were leaning against each other.
Malora looked out over the assembled Amazons.
"I have a few things to say," she said. "And I hope you will allow me to stay them all."
She turned to me. "First, there is this." Then she raised her voice to its full volume. "All hail Queen Beria of the Amazons!"
She dropped to one knee and bowed her head to me.
"Get up!" I yelled.
But instead, Nori stepped forward. "She said, All hail Queen Beria of the Amazons!" And then she knelt to me as well. And a half moment later the assembled Amazons yelled out, "Hail, Queen Beria!"
Even Lia was kneeling to me, and my own sister.
I looked out over all of them. They were kneeling to me.
"Queen Malora, get up! This is wrong."
"I am no longer Queen Malora," she said. "You are queen. I am simply Malora. But if you order it again, and lend a hand, I will rise."
"Get up," I said, and I stepped forward, lifting her by her elbows. She rose and let me steady her. Everyone else continued to kneel.
"All of you. Get up!"
Nori chuckled and climbed to her feet, and I had to steady her for a moment, too. When had Nori grown unsteady?
Then everyone else stood up and cheered for a moment until Malora held up her hand. They quieted, and she said, "I told you, I have several things to say. Queen Beria, may I say them?"
"In a moment," I said. "Is there a ceremony, or am I now queen?"
"That fight was the ceremony. You are now queen."
"And everyone here has to do what I order?"
"Or challenge you. Yes."
"Well then, as my first official act, and before you say anything else you wish to say, I say this: Queen Malora has been my queen for as long as I have been an Amazon, and she will always carry the title queen. What she invites each of you to call her is between you and her, but in public, I better hear her called by her proper title. She is now and will forever be called Queen Malora of the Amazons."
"Queen Beria-"
"Do not 'Queen Beria' me!" I told her. "You are Queen Malora and you remain Queen Malora." I smiled and said sweetly. "Do you hear me?"
She laughed. "Yes, Queen Beria. Did you have more to say?"
"Oh, I am sure I will. Will your speech be lengthy?"
"Perhaps."
"Then may I hug my companion and my sister and my warrior first?"
"By all means."
And the three of them closed the distance to me. I hugged and kissed Lia, squeezing her tightly. And then Maya was in my arms, whispering into my ear, "I am so proud of you, little sister. Thank you."
I accepted a shorter hug from Omie, and I thanked her.
Then Nori was there. "Let me see your arm, Queen Beria."
"Yes, Nori," I said holding out the arm. She looked at it, then took a clean, damp cloth and cleaned it quickly. She wrapped a dry cloth around it and then made me hold it. "It won't need stitching. I'll give it more attention in a while, or your companion can see to it."
"Thank you, Nori."
She stepped away, but Lia moved to my other side and leaned against me. Maya was next to Malora. Malora hugged her, then said loudly enough for me to hear, "You know I like to pace when I talk."
And so Maya stepped to stand next to me, a hand on my shoulder, flanking me on the side opposite Lia.
Malora looked over the crowd. "This woman, our new queen, is my choice to succeed me. I have trained her for twenty years, identifying her talent from her first days with us. Oh, I didn't put my eggs all in one basket, and there were others, but it was Beria who showe
d true talent even as a young companion."
She looked around. "Everyone here has supported me for so, so long. And now I ask you to please accept my choice. She is young, but she is wise for her years, and she will be surrounded by good advisors. She is wise enough to listen to them."
She paced around a little. "She'll make mistakes. We all make mistakes, after all. She'll make decisions you won't always like. But I know this. She will be a fine queen. Tell her when she's wrong, but remember to also see what she does right. There are always too many people who see only the things they would do differently, and not the things a leader does well."
She turned to me. "Queen Beria, you do not inherit the challenges I faced. The Amazons are far stronger than we were twenty years ago. That is due in an exceedingly large part to your sister. I forever bless the day she arrived in my camp, bound hand and foot, gagged, and ready to kill anyone who got near her."
The Amazons laughed.
"I could not have led remotely as well as I have without Maya at my side. I could not have solved the problems remotely as well as Maya solved them for me. It took time, but we are now strong against the demons."
She got a cheer for that.
"You have a good companion at your side, one who would have been an Amazon many years ago, but she honored her mother's wish and remained behind. But she is here now, and she brings two young daughters, the future of the Amazons, with her." She looked around. "Please someone tell me that someone brought the girls back."
"We're here!" said Yalta. "Let us through! Small children in back here."
The crowd parted, and Yalta and Rahna stepped forward, pressing a pair of stunned-looking girls along in front of them.
Joelle stopped and stared. "You fought with Queen Malora?" she asked. "You told me Amazons don't fight when they're mad at each other!"
The assembled Amazons laughed, but I held my hand up. "Joelle," I said, "it is very, very complicated. Your Mama will explain later."
"Oh no she won't," Lia said. "Maya explained it to me, and she can explain it to her nieces, too!"
I smiled. "Maya!"
"Sister."
"That's Queen Sister to you."
She laughed. "Queen Sister."