Amazon Challenge (37 page)

It took her a minute or two before she began to panic. "Ralla. Ralla!"

"What?"

"I can't find her! She went down and I can't find her."

I put my hand over my mouth, trying not to laugh. A moment later, Ralla swam out to Nori, and the two of them dived under the water, searching for me.

"You won't find me," I said quietly, watching and trying very hard not to giggle.

I watched for several minutes as Ralla and Nori surfaced and dived, surfaced and dived, growing more frantic.

"I knew this was a bad idea," Ralla said to Nori. "Oh god. Maya!" she yelled.

"What's wrong?" Beria asked. "My sister hiding from you?"

"How much have you all had to drink?" Nori asked her.

"Me? I nursed one glass for hours and had another half glass wrestling." She looked around. "We all did. Maya's drunk off her ass though."

I looked over at her. They had fooled me. They had all fooled me?

"No way," Nori said. "You're all drunk."

"We've only opened four bottles," Serra said, "and Maya had more than one of them herself. That's just two and a half bottles for the rest of us together."

"Get out here and help u
s!" Nori said. "We can't find her."

I was going to show them! But hiding from all of them was going to be a lot harder, even if I was purple. I bet I was real hard to see.
Well, the pink hair was awfully bright.

I watched carefully as all the companions swam out and began looking for me. As soon as the path was clear, I ducked under and headed for the shallow end. I had to come up twice for directions, but no one noticed me, and I arrived in the lee of the rocks without anyone noticing. I watched them search for me frantically then, when no one was watching, crawled carefully out of the water, staying low. I crawled across the rocks and found the towels someone had brought. I ducked behind some of the rocks and slowly dried off and got dressed. Then I crawled around the rocks and watched.

"She's not here," Ralla eventually said. "Oh god. She's not here!"

"She wouldn't have gone out in the current," Nori said. "Would she?"

"Of course she would! The woman has no sense of self-preservation," Ralla said to her. "I love her to pieces, but sometimes she's as thick as a rock."

Thick as a rock, huh?
It had been fun watching them search for me, but if they were going to insult me, I wasn't going to stand for it.

"I might be thick!" I yelled out. "But I'm not stupid enough to swim in the current when I've been drinking. And who are you calling thick?"

I climbed to my feet, unsteady, and ignored the uproar behind me.

I made it back to my hut and looked around. All the bedding was on the floor. I stared at it for a while and decided it was too much work to make the bed. I collapsed amongst the pillows, pulling a blanket over me, and didn't remember anything after that.

I groaned. Someone was pushing daggers through my eye sockets and into my brain.

"Wakey, wakey," said a voice, a far too cheerful voice.

"Go away!" I said firmly.

"It's a beautiful day," said the voice. "Time to get up and face your warrior."

"Go away!" I repeated. A moment later, hands touched my face and one eyelid was pulled back. I got a blurry view of Beria. I slapped out at her ineffectively. "Stop it."

"Get up," she said. "We didn't make you drink that much."

"Lot more than your two glasses," I said. "You little shit."

"Oh, you heard that, did you? That was a nasty trick, Maya. We were scared. Everyone wants revenge."

"You're getting it. My head hurts."

"It should, after the way you drank."

"I seem to remember a lot of help with that," I said. "Go away."

"Come on," she said. "Sit up. If you didn't have enough to get sick, your head can't be that bad."

I tried pushing her away, but she wouldn't leave me alone, and a few minutes later, I found myself sitting up, hunched over with my head in my hands. Beria shoved a mug into my hands and ordered me to drink it.

"Go away!"

"You made me a promise, Maya," she said. "You promised to behave until noon. It's not noon. Drink it."

"Bitch. Go away."

"Drink it."

She shoved it at me and began tipping it up, and I had no choice. I took it from her.

It was just water. I drank a few sips, but when I tried to set it down, she said, "All of it."

I finished it then opened my eyes and looked at her. "You're mean."

"Yeah, yeah. We're going to get some food in you then help you work off the headache."

"Best cure is a nice long nap," I said. "Go away."

"I'll give you a choice. You can walk to breakfast, and I'll even let you use the latrine on the way, or we can carry you. If we carry you, we're
going via the river."

I sighed. "Help me up."

It took time, but I eventually sat down at the dining hall. Everyone else was there, and they grew quiet as I approached. It looked like they had already eaten.

"Shouldn't they be at training?" I asked.

"Waiting for you."

She pulled me to the tables and sat me down. A moment later, Serra appeared holding another mug. She set it in front of me and said, "My sure-fire cure. It will help."

I pushed it away.

"Drink it," Beria ordered.

I drank it. It was hot tea and tasted of mint and other flavors I didn't recognize. Serra watched carefully until I finished the entire mug, then she set another one in front of me.

"This one is water. Drink it." She turned away, and in another minute
she set a plate of food down in front of me.

"Not hungry."

"Eat some of it," Beria said. "As much as you can. We'll bring the rest to training."

"You can't be serious."

"Totally serious," she said. "We'll go easy on you."

I looked around and found Nori watching me. "Is this revenge for last night?"

"No," she said gently. "We'll go easy on you."

"By whose definition?"

"Actually?" she asked. "Yours."

I ate a little and drank the water. Serra packed the plate up in a little travel basket, grabbed more water, and then they dragged me to the training grounds.

Malora was keeping her distance from me, but I saw her watching me warily. I didn't try talking to anyone and didn't mutter when we began stretching.

Someone stayed next to me, basically pouring water into me and periodically pushing a bite of food into my mouth. I would have complained, but that would have taken more energy than I had.

"A light run," Nori said. "Maya, you will set the pace for all of us."

I sighed, climbed to my feet, and set off.

It actually felt good to run. I started slowly, and no one complained, but after a couple of circles, I stepped it up a notch, and then another notch. Nori moved next to me and handed me water, and I drank it on the run. After a few more times around, she said, "slow it down, keep walking." So we walked around the field one more circle, and they kept pouring water into me.

"Staffs or wrestling?" Nori asked me.

I turned to her. "You don't need to baby me."

"Yes," she said. "We do. We're swimming this afternoon, but it's cool this morning and no one wants to get wet yet. And we think you'd rather be at your best. You're not there yet."

"Why do you bother?" I ask. "Training me. I'm worthless. Worse than worthless. Not worth your time."

She looked at me sadly. "Maya, that's not true. If you hadn't tried fighting staff against Vorine's sword, no one would even have thought about training Malora in that combination, and Parlomith would have beaten her, and beaten her badly."

"No," I said, "as soon as Malora saw Parlomith's staff, she would have switched weapons."

"Ralla is better with a staff than Malora is, and Parlomith
was at least as good as Ralla. Maya, you saved your warrior's life. And if that was the only time you ever helped in a fight, then it was worth however much time we've put into you. But that's not the only time. We know you'll be steady. We know you're qualified against bandits, and we know you're qualified when we go to the villages." She smiled. "And you help train the younger companions, and you're going to do so for years."

"Vorine and Omie don't need my help."

"No," Vorine said. "But we sure do like having it."

"So. Staffs or wrestling?" Nori asked.

"I don't care. You pick."

"Staffs then," Nori said.

* * * *

They were gentle on me. They were gentle with each other, too. Everyone had been training extra hard for weeks, and a few days of lighter activity wouldn't hurt.

It took me until we were done training that I realized everyone from the village was still there. "What happened to our patrol duties?"

"The surrounding villages are covering us for another couple of days," Ralla replied.

My headache slowly receded, but it wasn't until dinner that I felt fully back to normal. I served Malora but ate separately from her and was quiet. Before cleaning up, I stood and said, "Queen Malora, I would request a favor."

I thought she was perhaps nervous about what I was going to request, but she inclined her head.

"We had a bonfire last night, and we are not due for one tonight, but would it be possible to have one anyone? If no one else is interested in one tonight, I understand."

"A fire would be nice. Will you play your fiddle?"

"If you like," I said.

We cleaned up, and then I began assembling the bonfire. Moments later, I had help. Once it was ready, the warriors joined us. Malora lit the fire for us, and then everyone sat quietly and watched the fire burn for a few minutes.

I heart was in my throat as I watched it. I wasn't sitting next to Malora but had taken a bench by myself. Finally I stood up.

"Queen Malora," I said. Everyone immediately drew quiet.

She stood up, turning to me.

"I asked you three years ago to call me Malora," she said gently.

"For this you are queen first, my warrior second, and..." I paused, trying not to cry. I moved closer. "Do you hate me?"

"Oh Maya, of course I don't hate you. How could you ask that?"

"I've been a pain in the ass."

"Yes, you have."

I stopped a few feet in front of her, then looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry," I muttered.

"If you're apologizing to her," Beria said from her seat, "do it with conviction, Maya."

I turned to her, nodded, and looked back at Malora. "I'm sorry," I said firmly. "You are the queen, and I know that, and for that, and that alone, I should have obeyed you, even when I thought you were wrong. But you are queen for a reason, for many reasons, and I should have remembered that. I am sorry, Queen Malora."

"Oh Maya," she said, and she took a step forward, but I held up my hand.

"I can't promise I will never disobey again. You are not just my queen. If you will still have me, you are my warrior, and my lover, and you once told me that two women living in one hut sometimes fight. But I will not disobey you on the battleground again, and if you send me away, I may be hurt, and I may be angry, and I will almost certainly be ashamed I am so poor I cannot fight beside you, but I promise I will obey. I am sorry it has taken me so long to understand."

"Oh Maya," she said again, and this time when she stepped for me, I let her pull me into her arms. She hugged me tightly, and she whispered over and over into my ear, "Thank you, thank you. Thank you for not leaving me."

"Are you still my warrior?" I asked her.

"Oh Maya, forever."

The other Amazons were cheering, which turned into hoots and hollers when Malora began kissing me passionately. I let her kiss me for a while then pulled away.

"Don't go," she said. "I need you."

"I need to speak with Queen Malora a little further," I said.

She nodded, and I then turned to everyone and told
her to quiet down.

"You sit, too," I told Malora, pushing her back to her bench. I raised my voice. "I want to talk about the tithe and about recruiting."

"Serious topics," Malora said.

"Queen Malora, do you wish me to continue to run both of them."

"I can imagine no one better, Maya," she replied.

"The villages of Morehama still do not tithe properly. The plains villages tithe heavily. Of the villages we have visited personally, some still have not tithed voluntarily. Some tithe, but I do not believe they are tithing their fair share. I do not have a solution. I do not know if more words will solve this problem. I believe this is a problem for Nori to solve more than me."

"I agree with what you have said," Malora replied. "However, what we're doing is working, even if we feel it could work better. To be honest, I do not believe we can make dramatic changes without complicating recruitment of companions, and I am unwilling to damage our efforts in that direction."

"I did not expect to solve
it tonight, but I wanted to express my concerns and open ongoing discussions."

"Very good," she said. "And recruitment?"

"There is room for improvement there. Perhaps... quotas?"

Malora frowned but it was Ralla who spoke up.

"Why are you suggesting quotas?" she asked. "I thought you were opposed to them."

"I am, but the rest of you want them."

"That's not entirely accurate," Ralla said. "If I were running the recruitment, there would be quotas for each village. However, I am not convinced that is the right choice, and I am happy you are the one making it, not me."

I stared at her.

"Recruiting could be more fruitful," Ralla said, "but I would counsel you to listen to your instincts. It may be there are other changes you could make that do not violate your sense of right and wrong."

"All right," I said slowly. "So more ongoing discussions?"

Ralla nodded, and Malora said, "That would be good. Thank you for handling these for us, Maya. You're doing as well as can be reasonably expected."

"And better than I did," Nori threw out.

"Oh?" I said. "You recruited me, didn't you? Oh, I see your point." I played with my pink hair to drive my point home.

I smiled
at Malora. "May I sit with you?"

"I thought you would never ask."

* * * *

Later in our hut, Malora couldn't keep her hands off me. I didn't mind. We made love together, and then I lay in her arms, spent.

"Are you still mad about the purple?" she asked me.

"I wasn't ever mad about the purple, Malora," I replied.
"I was mad because I thought you were treating me like property."

She pulled me tightly to her, caressing my bare skin under the covers.
I sighed happily.

My body was purple, my hair was pink, but
I was in love, and I was loved, and at least for now, we were at peace.

All was as it should be.