Emily's Saga

by Travis Bughi

  “The sadness will come tonight,” she explained. “For now, we honor the dead as they would have wanted. We laugh, sing of their lives, and remember how blessed we are to have known them.”

  It seemed Chara was right. The laughter in the tavern was nearly unstoppable, and the spectacles were unpredictable. The women took turns playing musical instruments or singing on a lofty stage in the corner; most of the songs had a common theme of honoring those lost in battle. There were arm wrestling contests, belching contests, and (of course) drinking contests. Often, one or more of these individual contests were combined with other stunts, leading to hilarious outcomes. Adelpha tried her hand at all of them, and Emily smiled as Adelpha dominated both the drinking and the wrestling, but couldn’t for the life of her get a solid burp.

  Emily and her grandmother laughed as Adelpha hunched her shoulders and scrunched her neck, trying to best the others, but only succeeded in breaking wind. Emily dropped to the floor and held her sides as tears fell from her eyes.

  “You think it’s that easy!” Adelpha challenged. “Why don’t you try, Emily?”

  Emily shook her head and tried to say no, but she was assaulted by a round of cheers and grabbed by four women who pushed her into the competitor’s circle. Emily blushed with embarrassment, but felt a twinge of encouragement as Chara laughed and clapped for her. The crowd grew silent as Emily tightened her gut, tilted her chin up, and then loosed a deep, loud burp.

  The women exploded in cheers, and Adelpha hoisted Emily into the air.

  “We have a champion!” Adelpha shouted, then tripped over her own drunken feet, and the two crashed to the ground.

  “Should have known!” someone yelled. “It’s always the little ones!”

  Emily’s wide grin stayed plastered on her face throughout the day. They celebrated, they cheered, and they laughed. Then the sun fell, night came, and a somber mood took over. Queen Stefani appeared, and the funeral began.

  Chapter 21

  The amazons waited until the sun was buried and the sky cast shadows with its light. It was the very end of dusk, just before darkness conquered the world, befitting both the mood and the activity to take place.

  The funeral pyre was a large one. The jungles of Themiscyra held no shortage of wood, and for the many dead on this occasion, the amazons held nothing in reserve. They’d built a pyre as tall and wide as a bugbear, and as Stefani came toward it, warriors from all around poured in to encircle the thing. Emily and Chara had to lend helping arms to Adelpha as she was so inebriated that she tripped on her own feet. She wasn’t the only one, either. Many of the amazons were drunk beyond cognition, indicating for certain those who would not be joining tomorrow’s hunt until late afternoon. Still, Emily had to give them credit. For as drunk as they were, none of the women cried out or made a sound. They stirred and murmured perhaps, but they did not shout. Silence consumed all as the group gathered around and Stefani took center stage.

  She spoke of the dead, of their trials and their legacies. She spoke in long, exaggerated, and yet honest speeches about what it meant to be an amazon and to have sisters and about how their strength would be remembered for ages.

  The crying began. Some wept softly, tears dripping from their eyes, while they stood stoically. Others, like Adelpha, wailed loudly. There was plenty of variation between these two states of mourning, as well. Emily’s eyes stayed dry until the individual speeches began.

  For each fallen amazon, one woman was granted the honor to speak on her behalf. That woman would be invited up to stand alongside Stefani and offer firsthand testament to the virtues of the deceased. It just so happened that Leda was first to go on stage, for Kirke, accepting the duty because her mother was too inconsolable to speak. To Emily’s amazement, Leda was able to choke back tears long enough to give a clear speech for her sister, speaking of the fun they had and the joy of living in a world with her. Emily’s eyes blurred with tears, and her breath caught in her chest. She would remember Kirke, too. She would honor her memory with strength in battle and love in home.

  Others went up after Leda, and Emily got to hear about the women who had once shown her a cold shoulder, due in no small part to Belen’ efforts, but who had fought alongside her nonetheless.

  Iezabel’s sister spoke for her, as Iezabel’s daughter was too young to work up the courage for such a thing. Midway through Iezabel’s sister’s speech, she mentioned Iezabel’s legendary bow skills and was greeted with a roar of approval, Emily shouting along as well.

  When at last the speeches were done, the pyre was lit, and the amazons watched it burn in silence.

  Chara had told Emily about this part ahead of time so that her curiosity would not cause her to break the quiet. The pyre would likely burn all night, and the amazons were encouraged to stay throughout the burning, but not required to do so. It spoke volumes if you stayed the night through, but never more than a few did. After about an hour, the first few women started to slip away. By midnight, when the moon had fully taken the night, a good third had left. Another hour in and Emily and Chara had to slip away, taking the nearly passed out Adelpha along with them back to Chara’s room.

  All the way back, Emily’s sides hurt from laughing so hard, her chest hurt from crying, and her arms hurt from helping Adelpha. It was a pleasant pain.

  “She’ll stay with us tonight,” Chara explained. “Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes, Mother,” Adelpha smiled and slurred. “I’ll stay with my sister.”

  Adelpha gave Emily a drunken grin, and Emily returned it, smiling even as she went to sleep.

  And then she dreamed, and a thunderbird screeched.

  * * *

  “How are you still having nightmares?” Chara asked as they were walking towards the gate.

  The two were up before the sun and before most of the other amazons. Emily had lurched awake in the middle of the night, waking Chara (they’d shared a cot), but not at all disturbing Adelpha. The amazon princess had been sound asleep, snoring the entire night, and would continue to do so well into the morning.

  Chara hadn’t said anything at first, and Emily hadn’t either. Instead, she’d just buried her head into her palms, sulking in anger at Quartus. She’d gritted her teeth when it was time to collect her gear and leave the hut with Chara. Both of them had remained silent all the way up until this moment.

  “I don’t know,” Emily replied in frustration. “I thought it’d be over by now. It should be anyway. Maybe I’m just stuck like this, and I’ll always have nightmares unless I’m unconscious.”

  Emily kicked the dirt. They passed the funeral pyre, now just a smoldering heap in the center of the city. Surrounding it were those few brave amazons who had stood watch the entire night but had since passed out from exhaustion. The warm jungle air ensured they didn’t need a blanket to be comfortable, and the alcohol consumed ensured they slept well. To Emily’s pleasant surprise, Iezabel’s young daughter had stayed the night and was now curled up in a ball near the pyre. Emily decided that, if she could, she’d get to know that young girl.

  “You’re not stuck like this,” Chara said. “The angel must be trying to tell you something.”

  “I think he wants me to return to Lucifan, honestly,” Emily sighed. “I think his warning to me is that there is still a threat out there, one greater than what we’ve faced. Even so, I don’t know how or why it should involve me. The angels are immortal, control a city, have knights at their command, and three colossi at their disposal. What use could Quartus possibly have for me?”

  As the two exited Themiscyra, the night guard, her eyes drooping from a night spent looking into darkness, gave them a nod and then shut the gates behind them.

  “Well, we’ll have to worry about that later,” Chara said. “Just put it out of your mind for now. We have some hunting to do. It looks like we’re the first ones out, or at least I hope so. I wanted to get a head start, this being your first time and all.”

  At the mention of the hun
t, Emily’s stomach twisted into knots. Her apprehension easily pushed away her anger, and Emily agreed that her dream could wait. She had far more important things to worry about right now, like not getting torn to shreds by three rows of razor-sharp teeth.

  Chara led Emily across the open field and then ducked into the jungle. Emily followed in after her with a dry mouth and watched as Chara’s eyes began sweeping the landscape.

  “Manticores are both surprisingly easy and surprisingly difficult to track,” Chara whispered. “You’d think something so big would leave a wake of devastation through the thick jungle, but it doesn’t. It slips through this landscape with remarkable grace. However only creatures that fly leave no trail, and if you know what to look for, tracking a manticore becomes almost a mundane task.”

  “And killing it?” Emily asked.

  Chara turned back and smiled, “That’s the hard part. Fortunately, we’ll have plenty of help for that.”

  Emily tried to smile back, but faintly. Her apprehension was too strong. She remembered the three rows of sharp teeth, the agility, and the incredible leaps the manticore had made. Chara had said their tactic would be to sneak up on the beast while it was sleeping, and Emily could only hope she was stealthy enough not to awaken the thing.

  In that regard, Emily did have one advantage. The jungle was full of vines, weeds, bushes, shrubs, trees, leaves, roots, and dirt that snapped, crackled, and popped at the slightest pressure. Any unpracticed adventurer would be as loud as a behemoth if they tried to walk through it. However, Adelpha had made sure to train Emily on how to walk quietly, along with how to shoot and fight. Also, Emily had grown up on the Great Plains with two brothers who liked to play games.

  Some of those games were about hiding and seeking, and when the entire landscape was hill after hill of thick weeds and grass, every move made the grass rustle. The first time they had played, Emily had been found the moment she tried to move, but game after game had taught her the importance of light, steady feet. Now, years down the road, she found those old tricks coming back to her and stepped with light feet through the jungle. A noise or two still slipped out from a couple of false steps, but all-in-all, Emily was feeling rather positive about her progress thus far.

  “We’ll head back to where we last saw the manticore, then follow its tracks and find it,” Chara explained. “Some might think that’s cheating, but we’ll still have to track it. This might take us the whole day, depending on where it went after those gremlins ran.”

  Emily nodded and followed, keeping her eyes steady, her feet light, and her head down. They kept going like this until Chara was convinced there were no signs of the manticore in their path, and then they dropped their cautious approach in favor of increased speed.

  “Looks like the gremlins didn’t lead the manticore down this way,” Chara noted. “Come, let’s go.”

  They walked casually, and Chara’s relaxed stature eased Emily’s tense muscles.

  “I brought something for you,” Chara smiled.

  She reached into her small pack and pulled out a round, organic object. It looked like a ball of bread, only it had a shine to it, and its colors started with red on one end and then faded into green on the other. It was one of the most peculiar things Emily had ever seen.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s a type of fruit we call a mango,” Chara explained. “I know you don’t have anything like this on the Great Plains, so I thought I’d give you a treat.”

  Chara pulled out her hunting knife and ran it along the mango, peeling off the top layer to reveal a deep yellow color underneath. Chara continued until half of it was peeled and then tossed the fruit to Emily, and when Emily caught it, she was surprised by how heavy it was for its size and how moist the yellow part was.

  “Go ahead,” Chara nodded. “Take a bite. Not out of the skin, of course.”

  Emily hesitated and tried to smell the mango first, but it didn’t have much of a smell, at least not compared to fresh bread. She tossed a worried eye at Chara, but then realized that she could trust her grandmother. Emily took a deep breath and then lunged down onto the fruit, taking a huge bite out of the yellow part.

  It was delicious. It was sweet with a bit of sour and, when compared to the bread and water Emily had consumed her entire life, it packed an astonishing amount of flavor that shocked and awed. Her mouth exploded, and her eyes snapped open. She looked at Chara, smiling, and tried not to laugh with a mouth full of juice.

  “It’s wonderful!” Emily said, chewing and swallowing. “This is amazing!”

  “I knew you’d like it,” Chara laughed.

  Emily shared the fruit with her grandmother, and the two laughed as they consumed it vigorously. Chara tossed the remainder aside and laughed more as Emily licked her fingers. The smiles stayed plastered on their faces until they approached the spot where Hanna had been hit by the manticore spike.

  “Okay,” Chara sighed. “Let’s be serious now.”

  They walked among the trees and bushes where the amazons had hidden. Chara put her hands on her hips, stood in the middle of the area, and looked down to the ground. Emily, just behind her, mimicked the action.

  “You’re looking for footprints, mostly,” Chara explained. “You see, in this jungle, that’s the one thing a manticore can’t hide, the tracks of its large feet.”

  Emily nodded as she realized what Chara was referring to. The prints in the moist jungle dirt weren’t completely obvious, but the moment her grandmother pointed them out, they stuck out like a candle on a moonless night.

  “I see them,” Emily smiled and looked up at Chara.

  Amongst the rustle of the jungle and the sounds of an early morning breeze, a thack from a bow string slit the air. An arrow shot out from a nearby bush and struck Chara in the chest, just missing the metal studs of her vest and piercing her heart with enough force to knock her off her feet.

  Emily watched, paralyzed and horrorstruck, as her grandmother’s last breath escaped her lungs and she fell. Her body smacked the wet dirt, stirring leaves into the air. Chara’s eyes rolled back as her body went limp, though she shuddered once before going completely still. Her life faded before the last leaf settled back to the ground.

  “No,” Emily whispered. “No, no, please no.”

  Her heart seized, and Emily fell to her knees. She looked down at her grandmother through blurry eyes. She reached out a hand, hesitated, and then leaned forward and put her hands to Chara’s face and body.

  “Chara?” Emily whispered. “Mother? Please, no, Mother.”

  The arrow wound in Chara’s chest began to leak blood, sending a trail spilling out of her vest and trickling down towards her neck. Emily realized she wasn’t breathing, neither she nor her grandmother, and took in a sharp breath for the both of them.

  “Mother?” Emily said, voice strained beyond recognition. “Mother, please no! No!”

  Chara’s eyes stared vacantly up to the sky. Emily couldn’t breathe; she couldn’t think. Her mind refused to accept what her sight told her, and then her hand went up to the arrow and she touched it lightly. In that moment, steel poured into her veins, and she reached around for her bow.

  “Ah!” a voice shouted. “Stop. Pull that and you die.”

  The voice came from Emily’s right, and a burning hatred ignited within her. She wiped her eyes, and the tears stopped. Her jaw clenched tight enough to hurt, and her heart raced so fast she could feel the pump echo through her body.

  “I’m going to kill you for this,” Emily said.

  “Oh, I doubt that,” the voice laughed.

  The bushes rustled and split aside maybe three paces away, and the beautiful figure of Heliena stepped forward with bow drawn and an arrow pointed at Emily. Her eyes were wild, full of passion, and her grin was so malicious that it could have been formed from acid.

  Emily, for all her surprise, was too furious to show it. Amongst her feelings of betrayal, she could only stutter.

&nb
sp; “You,” Emily said through gritted teeth. “Why?”

  “Shut your trap,” Heliena said. “Now, drop your bow and knife. Do it slowly, or I’ll put an arrow through your neck and find someone else to test this basilisk poison on.”

  Emily, hatred seething from every motion, withdrew her bow and knife and dropped them. Not that the bow mattered much. It wasn’t even strung.

  “Almost,” Heliena tisked. “Throw the knife away.”

  Emily picked up the knife. She considered hurling it at Heliena, but the amazon drew her bow tighter, and Emily stopped. She tossed it into the jungle.

  “That’s a good girl.”

  Heliena lowered her bow and relaxed the drawn arrow. She looked down to draw her knife, and Emily immediately lurched from the ground and charged her. She almost made it, too, but Heliena drew fast and thrust the knife out. Emily came to a stop, hands clenched, with the tip of the blade pressed against her throat.

  “Stupid girl,” Heliena laughed.

  “You,” Emily said. “You were the traitor all along.”

  “Don’t call me that!” Heliena’s humor flashed to rage. “The only traitor here is Chara! She’s the one who killed my mother!”

  “And Adelpha?” Emily pressed. “Why did you want her dead? She’s your own sister!”

  “Don’t lecture me, filthy farmer!” Heliena snarled, distorting her beautiful face. “She deserved death, too, for following Chara. Even my aunt Stefani needed to go for failing to bring Chara to justice. Not that you’d ever know. NO! Perfect little Emily has never lost anyone in her life. Well, I’ve fixed that now, haven’t I?”

  Heliena cackled, and Emily clenched her teeth hard to fight the tears that were threatening to overwhelm her again. Heliena’s knife pressed closer to her neck.