by Lori Devoti
I was guessing the birders would know that too, and I hoped seeing Bern come at them even completely unarmed would send them scurrying back home for good.
Areto didn’t question me, but Thea did.
“Bird-watchers got you in handcuffs?” Her eyes showed interest and disbelief.
I slid my jaw to the side. The role of queen had some privileges, like not having to explain anything you did at camp. I answered to the high council and Artemis. That was it.
I took a step toward the barn.
I needed to fill Areto in a bit on what had happened, to make sure she knew the real threat wasn’t the birders I’d mentioned, but the son.
I wasn’t making the announcement publicly, because there was no reason for most of the camp’s occupants to know. It was the warriors’ jobs to protect the rest of the tribe.
Areto followed, as did Thea.
Looking at Areto, I said, “I want you to patrol for the birders, but there’s another threat too, a son. One of the sons with the baby. He’s been watching us. I don’t know for how long.”
Areto answered with only a silent incline of her head; she knew I would tell her all she needed to know and wouldn’t pry further.
Thea, however, was a different matter. “That explains the handcuffs, eh?” She darted her gaze at Areto. The warrior looked straight ahead, waiting for whatever else I had to say.
Her reaction reassured me that I was making the right choice regarding the position of lieutenant.
Still, I had decided I needed to tell Thea what had happened. “On my walk, the son returned.”
Her brow quirked. “Alone?”
“Yes.”
She pursed her lips and looked to the side.
I tightened my jaw. One son had got me into the cuffs. It was a truth I couldn’t deny.
“I’m leaving in the morning for Madison, with the hearth-keepers,” I announced.
“And me?” she asked.
“Knowing the son is around, we can’t afford to both be away from camp.”
A muscle in her neck twitched.
“My council contact hasn’t called back. The sons in Madison are our best hope.”
“The sons who are out of town? Who won’t be back for some time?” She watched me from the corner of her eyes.
“They may not be. I don’t know, but Mel is coming back early. We spoke last night.” We hadn’t and it wouldn’t be that hard for Thea to find out I was lying, but I felt no need to be completely honest with her. Basic need to know facts . . . I was going to Madison to get information on the sons or the baby. She was staying here to help Areto protect the camp.
I turned my attention back to the warrior. “You will be in charge until I get back.”
Areto’s eyes flicked to the side toward Thea, but if the high priestess was annoyed by my decision, she didn’t show it.
“Your friend left the tribe. What makes you think she will help us?”
I smiled. “I don’t . . . or at least she won’t do anything because it helps us, but if I can convince her a child is at risk . . . ” I shook my head. “Goddess bless the son who gets in her way.”
* * *
I was asleep, or as asleep as I get, when two soft taps of someone’s knuckles on my door awakened me. I was on my feet, my staff in my hand, before a third could sound.
Dressed only in an oversized T-shirt, I padded to the door and waited. Two more raps, silence, and then another. Code to let me know a warrior was waiting on the other side.
Keeping the staff ready, I opened the door.
Areto, her mouth grim, greeted me. “Bern. She found a body. One of the birders, we think.”
I jerked on a pair of shorts and followed her.
It was maybe one in the morning. The full moon was past, but the night was still bright enough to make out the two people in the yard. Bern stood with her arms hanging stiffly at her side. Thea stood beside her looking authoritative and in control.
When I stepped onto the sidewalk, she strode toward me. “One of your bird-watchers?” She motioned to where a human-sized hump lay under the oak that dominated our yard.
I glanced at Bern, but even with the moon’s light her expression was unreadable. As if sensing my thoughts, Thea flipped on a flashlight. “Bern says she found her next to the obelisk.”
I cut my gaze to the silent warrior. “Dead?”
She inclined her head slightly.
I returned her nod and looked back at the body. “Were there others? Any sign more had been there?”
A shake this time.
Processing this, I walked to the body. I recognized her instantly—the woman who had challenged me, the leader of the group. She was dressed as I’d seen her earlier, same cheery yellow T-shirt with suns and daisies, same khaki shorts.
“Heart attack?” I asked, this time of Thea.
“No. It looks like she was strangled with these.” In her hand was a pair of nunchakus. The pair I’d lost in the woods while fighting with the son.
“Are they . . . ?” She twisted them over. A crescent moon was carved on the end of one stick. I didn’t need to answer; that told her they were mine.
“Of course, Bern . . . Areto tells me she’s an expert with these.” Thea paused as if waiting for me to say something . . . to jump on the story, to lay blame on Bern?
I looked at the warrior who still stood silently watching. “Did you kill her?”
“No.” Her first word, and I believed her.
I looked back at Thea. “She didn’t do it.”
“But if she didn’t, then who . . . ” She glanced at the crescent, then pressed her lips shut.
“The son?” I offered, although I didn’t believe that either. The son had no gripe with the birders. Why would he kill one? Unless it was to make trouble for us.
I bent down to study the body. The skin on her neck was waxy, almost transparent in places, but her face was a dark angry red. I picked up her hand; her fingers were limp. I motioned for Thea to direct the flashlight beam closer. As she did, I pressed my fingers against the flesh of the bird-watcher’s underarm. The white imprint where my fingers had touched shone white. I checked her eyes next. They were open and flat looking. I touched her skin there too, checking for stiffness. There was none; rigor mortis hadn’t set in. She hadn’t been dead long.
I glanced at Bern. “How was she when you found her?” It was a test; I did believe her, but it didn’t hurt to run a check or two.
She motioned at the body with her hand. “Like that, mainly. I think she may have been dragged a bit.”
She must have seen the question on my face.
“Look at her heels. When I picked her up, dirt fell onto me.”
I checked the woman’s shoes, Bern was right. Clumps of moist earth were caked on the heels of her practical white walking shoes.
“Someone bigger than her, then,” I murmured. Which narrowed down the possibilities by about zero.
I checked her neck then. From what Areto had told me—and the state of the birder’s face—I knew she had been strangled, but I wanted to see for myself. There was a line of bruises that ran from the front of her neck to the sides, where it angled up slightly. It was thinner in the front too, just like you’d expect from the nunchakus—the chain cutting into the front of her throat and the rods pressing against the sides.
“What should we do?” Thea asked.
I’d been asking myself the same question. A woman was dead. I knew she had friends, and chances were she had family too. Someone would notice at some point that she had gone missing. When they did, I couldn’t have them coming here.
The question, however, was: should we destroy the body or leave it somewhere with hopes of directing the investigation away from us? I sure as hell wasn’t calling the human police to my camp.
I flipped off the flashlight and stood. With Thea in my sight, I asked. “Can you clean her up? Make it look like she died somewhere else?” I didn’t understand magic, couldn’t work
it myself, but I knew with wards almost anything was possible.
The priestess stared down at the body. “The evidence will still be there, but I can make it so no human will notice it. Deflect their attention away from anything that would lead back to us.”
I nodded; it was what I wanted to hear.
“It won’t change what other people know, though. If anyone knew she was coming here, and they saw you yesterday, they can still report to the police.”
Bern stepped forward. “Not if they already have the killer.”
Thea nodded. “That would be for the best, and simple enough to set up.”
Shocked that Thea would agree with what Bern was suggesting, I twisted my head to look from one to the other. “No. Bern didn’t kill her; I won’t pretend she did.”
“Not”—Thea glanced at Areto—“even to save the tribe?”
My grip on the flashlight grew slippery. My grip on reality too, but I shook my head. “We’ve survived worse.” I snorted. “It isn’t like humans haven’t noticed us before, been suspicious of us before. It isn’t even like I haven’t been arrested before.”
“All the more reason Bern should stand in for you. We can move the body, make it look like Bern robbed her.” She glanced around our tiny circle. “Did she have a car? Do we know where it is parked? Bern could take it, get caught with the body in the trunk. They’ll think it was robbery, clean and simple. Then you and the tribe are off the hook.” She held out one hand to Bern. “Give me your totem. Besides your tattoos, it’s the only thing tying you to us. And the humans won’t understand their power, or . . . ” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Sare might have time to change your givnomai. The telios will pass. Lots of human females have tattoos there.”
I grabbed her phone. She blinked at me, but didn’t object.
“Lots of humans have tattoos on their breasts too. No one is messing with Bern’s tattoos.” The very thought of stripping an Amazon of her tattoos, taking away her personal power or her tie to her clan . . . it sent a chill through me like a frost-covered spear. “And Bern isn’t throwing herself on the sword—not for this. It isn’t her place; it isn’t her responsibility.”
Something flickered in Thea’s eyes. She lifted her head. “Then whose is it?”
Mine. Of course it was mine.
But because of my past arrest and what Mel had told the detective who had arrested me, turning myself over wasn’t so simple. The police in Wisconsin already knew a closed group of women, all women, lived somewhere in northern Illinois, and also knew my friend Mel had left us. They hadn’t wanted to let me go the last time, but with the true criminal, the murderous son, handed to them all but gift wrapped, they’d had no choice.
If I got arrested again, they wouldn’t miss the opportunity to look a lot more deeply into exactly what kind of group I ran.
I looked at Areto. “Wake the others and find the woman’s car. Take Lao with you in case you can’t find the keys.”
My attention back on Thea, I continued, “Do whatever you can to cover up where she’s been. Make it look like a robbery or, better yet, an accident.”
I smiled. “An accident.” Binoculars. I reached down and shuffled inside the birder’s jacket; sure enough her binoculars were hidden inside. “Make it look like these got caught on something and she fell.”
“So where should we do this?” Areto asked.
I paused, then smiled. “I have an address for you. A cabin just burned down. There’s some old machinery lying around. See if Lao can figure out a way to make it look like the cord got caught on something, and leave the body there.”
With that, Areto ran off to wake Lao and the warriors, leaving me with Thea and Bern. The warrior made a move to leave too, but I stopped her.
“I’m heading to Madison in twenty minutes and you’re coming with me. Tell Areto and do whatever else you need to do. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.”
A slight shift of Bern’s eyebrows told me she heard me before she too jogged into the house.
“You’re leaving?” Thea asked.
I ignored the incredulity of her tone. “The high council hasn’t called with information?”
“No.”
“Then we still have a baby to find.” I dropped her phone on the grass, my heel grazing it as I went to make sure the warriors understood what they were to do.
Chapter 7
It wasn’t even four in the morning when we arrived in Madison. The trip had been quiet. Bern wasn’t much of a talker, but then, neither was I.
I took the John Nolan exit off the Beltline, going toward the capitol. I knew stopping at Mel’s this early would do me no good. In fact, it would just increase the suspicion I was sure would be waiting for me. I knew Mel and she knew me. She would know I hadn’t come to Madison for a simple reunion.
The farmer’s market was a horribly thin cover, but hopefully enough of one my friend wouldn’t be on alert immediately. I just needed her mind open long enough for me to explain that I was here to save a child, not just seek revenge on the sons.
This route took us over Lake Monona. The water was still, blue, and if you looked in the right direction, endless. Just like I’d always believed the Amazons would be.
“Thank you.”
Bern’s sudden burst of conversation startled me. I glanced at her.
“For not asking me to give up my givnomai.” She touched her breast where her personal power tattoo was located. I didn’t know what Bern’s givnomai was; if nothing else the first run-in with the sons had taught us keeping that secret was important. But based on her personality and the strengths she bore, I would guess she chose a bull or perhaps a bear, something strong or solitary.
“I couldn’t do that,” I replied.
She looked at me, her green eyes piercing. “You could. You didn’t.”
She was right; I could have. Thea would . . . did argue I should have taken it to protect the tribe. But what was the tribe? Not a faceless group, but individuals. Wasn’t my duty as much to each of them as to the whole?
“Lao will be a while.” I wasn’t sure how long. It depended on what she had to do to make the birder’s death look like an accident. The other hearth-keepers were following us with most of their market goods. Lao would drive up alone when she could. “We’ll take her place and help direct the setup.”
The warrior turned to stare at the lake.
I knew she was wondering why I had brought her. But I hadn’t wanted to leave her behind, hadn’t wanted to tempt Thea to push her to take the fall for the birder’s murder.
“Then later, when things are going well, we will go see a friend of mine.”
She glanced at me then, but went back to her silence. Maybe she had nothing to say, or maybe she was thinking of something Thea had said right before we left how Mel had left the tribe and not to trust her.
I didn’t bother probing the warrior to see. It didn’t matter. Mel was the only lead I had.
The market was set up in a giant circle around the capitol building. It took us a while to find our spot, squished in between a local dairy and a nursery selling what looked like grass they had pulled from some field.
By the time we found it, the hearth-keepers had arrived too. I put Bern to work lugging tables while I taped hand-lettered signs to boxes of tomatoes and herbs. When I was done, Bern and I helped pull the tarp into place over our booth. The weather looked fine, but you never knew, and having shade from the sun was good too. As I tied the tarp’s cord around one of the poles we’d brought for that purpose, I saw two hearth-keepers who weren’t from our camp whispering to Tess.
She glanced up, but when she saw me watching, she dropped her gaze. I looked at Bern. She shrugged. “They’re impressed you’re helping. Most queens wouldn’t.”
I frowned. I didn’t work with the hearth-keepers much, but it wasn’t because I thought I was too good for their work. It was just, well, their work, and if I were to be honest with myself, I wa
sn’t good at it.
But then maybe that was because I did shy away from it.
With that in mind, I took a little more care with the rest of my duties and when the market opened at six, we were completely set up and ready for business. I was bagging a bunch of radishes for an elderly lady when Lao arrived.
As I handed the woman her change, I noticed a light of approval in the older hearth-keeper’s eyes. When a mother with two toddlers in tow asked for a dozen tomatoes, I helped her too. This time when I glanced at Lao there was a smile on her lips.
“Business is good,” she said.
I nodded, feeling awkward. I shoved a bag I hadn’t realized I’d held back into the cardboard box where the hearth-keepers stored them.
“So things went smoothly?” I asked.
Her face turned somber. “Yes. Although . . . ”
“What?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
I could feel there was something she wasn’t saying, something she wanted to say but perhaps felt she couldn’t . . . or shouldn’t.
Suddenly I wanted the older Amazon to talk to me like she would anyone else. I was tired of being queen twenty-four/seven, of having everything I did and said analyzed because of my position.
“You can tell me, you know,” I said as casually as I could. I didn’t want her to think my comment was an order. I wanted to know what she was thinking, but I also wanted her to want to tell me. In the middle of rolling radishes over in their box, so they showed at their best, I paused.
I hadn’t felt like this in a long time . . . didn’t let myself feel like this.
Lao, unaware of my moment of sudden insight, placed her hands on her hips and stared toward the domed capitol building that dominated the square. “I’m not sure about that high priestess. She’s got ideas . . . ” She dropped her attention to some basil and muttered under her breath.
“What?” I prompted.