“Somehow we’ll find a way.” Sarah smiled. She looked up at Zuriel and said, “Now, tell us more. We need to know everything about the nature of these Amazons.”
Ettore was watching Josh scrub the floor. A knowing smile touched her lips but not her eyes. She had delighted in tormenting Josh ever since she brought him home, and she now ambled over and leaned against the wall, looking down at him silently.
Josh felt her presence but did not look up. His back still ached from the last beating she had administered with the cane she kept especially for that purpose. He had endured the caning without uttering a sound, but this had seemed to anger Ettore rather than please her, and she had redoubled her efforts. Marden,
her mother, finally said, “That’s enough. We don’t want him scarred up in case we want to sell him.”
Now Ettore studied the young man. “Are you afraid to look at me?” she asked.
Josh straightened up. He was kneeling and did not rise to his feet, but his blue eyes met hers without flinching. “No, I’m not afraid to look at you,” he said calmly.
“Watch your tone, or you’ll get another caning,” Ettore warned. “And stand up!” she commanded.
When Josh was standing, she began to prod his arms and chest. Josh’s flesh crawled, and he yearned to strike her hands away. He had seen farmers run their hands over cattle they were considering buying. She had to know that he hated to be touched, and she persisted every day in aggravating him in this way. Somehow her touch was degrading to him, but he tried to let none of this show in his face.
Finally Etttore seemed angered that he did not respond. “I’ve been too easy on you,” she said. “You’re spoiled.”
“If you say so,” Josh said, his lips in a straight line, his eyes still locked onto hers.
“Well, aren’t you the meek one! I can see what’s inside your head, though. You’d like to get at me with a knife, wouldn’t you?”
Josh suddenly asked, “Why do you treat me this way? You treat all your servants badly.” He knew none of the slaves in the household of Marden and Ettore escaped punishment.
“Quiet!”
But Josh did not obey. “Haven’t you looked around?” he asked. “Those people who treat their servants nicely get loyalty out of them. All you get is hatred, because that’s all you ever show. It’s no way to live.”
Ettore cracked him across the cheek with an open hand. The blow made an ugly splat, and her fingers were outlined on his cheek. “I told you to be silent,” she said. “You’re mine, and I’ll do with you as I please. I may even decide to have you as my mate.”
“I’d rather have a snake for a mate,” Josh said. He knew at once that he had made a mistake.
Rage flickered in Ettore’s dark eyes. She whirled and ran through the house yelling, “Where’s my cane?”
She found it, came back, and began to beat Josh about the head. Helplessly he stood there, covering his head with his hands. Then the cane burned like fire as it lashed across his back and sides. He was wearing only a thin shirt, and he heard it tear. He tried to ignore the pain, keeping his lips tightly shut and his eyes closed.
“Stop that!”
Josh opened his eyes to see that Sarah had come into the room and had stepped between him and Ettore.
“Get out of my way, Sarah.”
“I won’t do it. If you have to whip somebody, start in on me.”
“I could do that, you know!”
“Why don’t you?” Sarah said. “But I warn you, I won’t take it like Josh does.” She seized a broom and said, “Go ahead. We’ll see who gives up first—you with your cane or me with my broom.”
Suddenly Ettore laughed. She held the cane in one hand, tapping her other palm with it, and she smiled cruelly. “I like that! You’ve got fire. You may make a warrior maid after all.” She scrutinized the girl and said, “You like him, don’t you?”
Sarah flushed. “We’ve been friends a long time.”
“Friends? A woman doesn’t need a man for a friend—just for a mate and then to take care of the house and the children. A woman has more important things to do.”
“I don’t think so,” Sarah said. “I don’t think there’s anything more important than a husband and children.”
Ettore laughed harshly. “You’ll change your mind, and don’t get your heart set on this one. He’s a little skinny right now, but when we fatten him up he may be just what we need.” She grabbed Josh by the hair and pulled his head back. “He’s not as tough as Dave, but he might do.” She gave Josh’s hair a cruel twist, laughed at the pain in his eyes, then turned and swaggered out of the room.
Sarah turned to Josh. “I’m sorry. She’s an awful person.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” Josh flexed his arm carefully, and a grimace crossed his lips.
“Let me see your back,” Sarah said.
“No.”
“Don’t be foolish, Josh. Let me see. Take off your shirt.”
Sarah drew a sharp breath at the welts that crisscrossed his back and sides. “Let me put some ointment on that. It’ll take some of the soreness out.”
She ran quickly and got her kit. She had some medical supplies—they had allowed her to keep everything except her weapons—and with a hand that trembled slightly she began to anoint the ugly welts.
Josh stood perfectly still. The ointment brought coolness to the burning wounds, and her hands were soft and gentle. When she had finished, he slipped his shirt on, saying with a faint smile, “Thanks, Sarah.”
“We’ve got to do something, Josh,” she said almost desperately.
“Do what? We’re guarded night and day—even you. They pretend they’re going to make a warrior maid out of you, but just try to get away and see what happens.”
Sarah bit her lip. “I know. I’ve been able to talk to Dave. He’s talking about escape.”
“No, we can’t do that! They’d hunt whoever got away like dogs. We don’t know our way in this jungle, and they do.”
“That’s what I told him. Whatever we do, we have to do it together. He did tell me, though, about the queen’s son—Rolf. I met him a couple of times. He’s a nice boy.”
“Boy? He’s nearly twenty, isn’t he?”
“I know, but he seems so…well…vulnerable. Dave’s been working on him some. And then there’s a young man called Gaelan. There are others, I am sure. If we could get enough men together—”
Josh stared at her. “You mean to take over from these Amazons? That would take some doing.”
“I know. It’s just that we need to be doing something. I’m going to talk to Rolf now. At least he has the queen’s ear.”
“From what I hear, Queen Faya doesn’t listen to anybody.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Sarah said slowly. “I’ve watched them quite a bit, and I’ve talked to Abbey about it. She listens to her husband. I think she trusts him more than anybody.”
“He’s still just a husband—she’s the queen.”
“That’s true. Well, that’s the culture here, and that’s what’s got to be broken before they can understand anything about love.”
Sarah found Rolf working in the garden in the sun-light. He had removed his shirt, and she was surprised to see that he was not feeble-looking but wiry. And as he dug with the hoe, the muscles of his sides and shoulders sprang into instant relief.
“Hello, Rolf,” she said.
“Oh, hello, Sarah.” Rolf smiled at her. He had a pleasant smile. “How are things going over at Marden’s?”
“Well, they’re pretty strict, especially with Josh.”
“Yes, everybody knows that. They beat their servants all the time.” He shook his head. “That’s a bad idea. Why make life hard for people?”
There was a gentle streak in this young man that Sarah warmed to. She watched as he hoed, noting that he did it effortlessly and quickly. “You do that so well,” she said.
“I ought to. I’ve been doing it all my life.”
“Something else?” He raised one eyebrow. “What else would I do?”
“Well, I mean, have you ever wanted to go hunting?”
“I suppose I did when I was younger.” A memory seemed to come to him, and his eyes grew dreamy. “When I was a boy, I used to pretend I was hunting. The women would go out and bring the game back, and I thought, I’d like to do that. But, of course, I never did. Merle, she’s a good hunter.”
“I think you’d be a good hunter yourself. You’re strong and quick, and you probably have good eyes.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that—”
Sarah had recognized earlier that Rolf had a very low self-image. It had been ground into him since he was born that he was inferior, and Sarah knew that was hard to work against. She had had a poor view of herself when she was a child. She had felt herself to be homely and thought no one would ever like her.
Childhood had been a hard time for her, and now, looking at the sinewy young man working in the garden, she thought, He could be a strong man if he just had some encouragement. I’ve got to be careful though —he’d be easy to shock. If I told him I would like to see the men take over from the women warriors, he’d probably run like a rabbit.
She spent a pleasant half hour with Rolf, then made her way over to the house where Reb and Wash stayed with Tanisha and her parents.
She saw Wash almost at once and asked, “Where’s Reb?”
“He’s hiding,” Wash said, rolling his eyes upward.
“Hiding? Hiding from whom?”
“From that girl who chases him everywhere. That Tanisha.”
Sarah could not help smiling. “Well, I guess he’s flattered that she likes him.”
“No, he isn’t.” Wash shook his head definitively. “She’s about to drive him crazy. Every time he turns around, she’s right there picking at him. I think she’s already proposed to him.”
“You mean she wants to marry him?”
“She don’t talk about marrying. She just wants him to be her ‘mate.’ That’s the way she put it.” Wash shook his head grimly. “That ain’t no way for folks to behave. I’m plumb worried about Reb.”
“Have you seen Jake?”
“Yeah, he’s right next door over there. I guess he’s no worse off than the rest of us. The folks that took him in are pretty easygoing. They’re a little bit older than most. I expect we’ll get to talk to him a lot. All he talks about is getting some gunpowder and blowing up this whole village!”
“I don’t guess that’ll do. I need to talk to Reb.”
Wash leaned closer, “Well, you have to find him. He’s over there behind them buildings. That’s where they do the tanning. Don’t tell Tanisha, though. I think Reb’s about ready to jump the wall if she don’t leave him alone.”
“I won’t tell her.” Sarah made her way to the tanning sheds, where she found Reb sitting behind them, looking miserable.
“Reb,” she said. Then, when he jumped up, she said quickly, “No, I didn’t bring Tanisha.”
“Good! That female is going to drive me crazy. You know what she wants to do?”
“I heard.”
“Ain’t that an awful thing to think about?” Reb groaned. “What am I going to do, Sarah?”
“I take it you’re not contemplating marriage?”
“Are you crazy? That female would drive me absolutely up a tree! I got to get out of here, that’s all there is to it.”
“I know—it’s bad over where we are too. Some-thing’s got to happen and happen quick.”
Reb looked at her hopefully. “Why don’t we try to bust out of here? I talked to Dave, and he’s about ready to make a break.”
“We can’t do that,” Sarah said. “They’d run us down in no time in the jungle. You know that. We’ll just have to wait.”
“I reckon that’s right, but something better happen quick.”
10
The Game
As the days stretched on, life became more and more miserable for the Sleepers. The girls had it better in many respects, for they were treated with some consideration. None of the young men, though, had anything good happen to them.
In desperation, and to break the monotony, it was Dave who suggested on one of their afternoons off, “Why don’t we play a little touch football?”
His suggestion caught on, and Jake fashioned a sort of football out of leather and stuffed it with moss. It did not look a great deal like a football, but when he tossed it to Dave, Dave put his fingers on the seam and threw a long, spiraling pass to Reb, who caught it easily.
“Too bad we don’t have enough people for a real game,” Dave said.
But soon they were lined up, playing and forgetting their troubles. It was a fairly even match, for Dave could throw a pass better than anyone else, and Reb could catch anything that came into his area.
There was a lot of laughter, and since there was little to do at that time of the afternoon, quite a few village men gathered around to watch. The game intrigued them.
“Some of you guys want to play?”
“Yes.” Gaelan stepped up, and Rolf was right behind him. Soon they gathered enough players for two teams.
It became obvious that Rolf was a natural-born athlete. He had quicker reflexes than anyone the Sleepers had ever seen.
“Boy, you’d be great at any sport,” Josh said with admiration after Rolf caught a pass and, dodging and weaving, outran everybody to score.
“Sport? What is that?”
“This is sport. Playing games.”
“It is fun,” Rolf said. “Let’s play some more.”
The games went on at free time for a couple of days, and even the women gathered to watch. Ettore made rude remarks concerning the abilities of the men, and on the third day, Josh said, “Why don’t you ladies get a team together, and we’ll show you how good we are.”
“It would be no contest,” Ettore sniffed. “You could not beat the women.”
“Why don’t you try, Ettore?” Rolf asked. “It would be fun.”
Ettore glared at him, then she laughed. “All right, we will show you a thing or two.” She saw Princess Merle and said, “Come, Princess. You and I, we will lead.”
Merle laughed. She loved games of every sort and quickly chose the fastest and the most agile of the maids for their team. “Now, how do you play this stupid game?” she asked.
“It’s real simple,” Dave said. He explained the rules, then said, “We’ll just try a few plays to show you how it goes.”
The warrior maids were all excellent athletes. They were fast and learned rapidly.
Finally Dave said innocently, “All right, you take the ball, and we’ll let you have the first chance to score.”
The women had already found out that Ettore had the strongest arm and that she could throw fairly accurately. She had practiced for some time on the sidelines. Now she laughed and said, “Let’s show these weakling men what it is to play against warrior maids.”
She called a huddle as she had seen the men do. “Princess, you run over to the right. I will throw you the ball. The rest of you go before her. If anyone gets in your way, smash them down.” A happy laugh went up, and the maidens ran back.
“This is called the line of scrimmage,” Dave said. “Remember, no tackling—this is touch. You just touch the one with the ball, and that’s where the ball is dead.”
Ettore paid him no attention. She called for the ball, and it came back to her from the center.
Only Dave and Reb stayed back to guard against the pass. The rest of the boys rushed forward. Jake was knocked instantly on his back after taking an elbow in the throat. Wash had his feet kicked out from under him and fell to the ground with a shrill cry. All down the line, the warrior maids used every tactic they could to slow down the men. Only Rolf got through the line by slipping quickly past the maid who tried to stop him. He was almost to Ettore when she let the ba
ll go. Then she turned and slashed him across the forehead with an arm.
“That’s wasn’t necessary,” Rolf explained. “When you throw the ball, there’s no danger.”
“Go on, Rolf. Get back with the weaklings.”
Ettore was watching the ball. She had thrown a fine pass to Merle, and two of the maids were out in front of the princess. They saw Dave and Reb rushing to touch her, and they screamed, “Kill them!” Instantly the two of them took Reb down, one high and one low. He rolled in the dust but yelled, “You got her, Dave!”
Dave rushed forward, and, since there was no one in front of him, he simply tagged Merle. She ignored this, struck him in the stomach, and kicked his feet out from under him. Then she ran on and triumphantly hollered, “We win!”
The women were all laughing, for the men were lying in various stages of injury.
“Now it’s your turn. See what you can do,” Princess Merle said mockingly, tossing the ball to Dave, who had gotten slowly to his feet.
“I take it you don’t want to play touch football,” he said.
“We warrior maids take any advantage we can.”
“Fine,” Dave said. “Just wanted to be sure about the rules.”
He called his team back into a huddle and said, “Those are pretty rough ladies, and they want to call off the easy stuff.”
“What does that mean?” Rolf said, a puzzled light in his eyes.
“It means we hit them hard. Go right over them if you can.”
This troubled Rolf, but Gaelan laughed aloud. “Let me do a little of that.”
Dave grinned at him. “Fine, Gaelan. When I get the ball, I’m going to run with it. You and Reb stay right in front of me. Anybody that gets in my way, knock them down.”
“Even if it’s the Princess?” Rolf said, shocked.
“She made up the rules.” Dave grinned and winked at Reb. “You got it?”
“I reckon so. We’ll take ’em like Stonewall Jackson took Grant.”
“I don’t remember that bit of history—” Dave smiled “—but let’s show these gals what it’s like.”
Attack of the Amazons Page 8