Amazon Challenge (6 page)

Not by everyone, not by a long shot. Many of the warriors were grateful for what we were doing. You c
ould almost guess which village a particular warrior was from by how she treated me. I worried that, as the only companion, they would expect me to handle all their duties, but Amazons are well capable of seeing to their own needs, and no one pressured me in that way.

However, if the warriors were going to entice a young girl to become her companion, she also couldn't be too frightening. Warriors who hadn't the comfort of a companion tended to irritability, and irritability is not an attractive attribute.

I spent breaks doing what I could to soothe nerves. But there were twenty warriors in need and one poor queen's companion, and I was not universally loved.

The first village we visited after traveling west of the great prairie was called White Pine. White Pine was secluded, deep in its own forest, and had not been visited by any Amazons in living history. They had neither tithed nor sent us any companions in a very long time, either.

We rode into town on a cloudy day, and I worried there was to be rain again later in the day. We were all tired and muddy, and I was nervous. This would be my first opportunity to demonstrate to these Amazons that my recruiting methods were valuable. Some of them had come with me the previous year, but most were new. I understood I was on trial, as far as they were concerned.

We were greeted not with outright hostility, but there was a great deal of distrust. We didn't look that much di
fferent than a band of marauders. My companions didn't necessarily help to defuse things, glaring at the villagers with as much distrust as the villagers offered us.

We rode as a group to the town square and dismounted. Malora, Nori and I handed off our horses to a couple of warriors from Black Oak, and then we stepped forward to address a small collection of townspeople.

"Do you know who we are?" I asked with a smile.

"Amazons," one of the men said. He spat on the ground. "You're not welcome here."

There was muttering from the women behind us, but Malora gestured, and they drew quiet, more or less.

I moved closer, leaving Malora and Nori behind me.

"Do you know specifically who we are?" I asked. "Do you know our names?"

"No," he said. He spat again, barely missing my feet. I didn't even flinch. My boots were so coated in
mud, a little spit wasn't going to matter anyway. "The best road out is east."

"My name is Maya. Does that mean anything to you?"

"Should it?"

"I don't know." I pointed at Malora. "But her name should. That is Queen Malora." I turned back to him. "I am her companion. I strongly encourage you to consider treating us with a modicum of respect. Now, does this village have a council of elders?"

"Mayor," he said, "and a council, not necessarily made of the elderly."

"Well then, perhaps someone could retrieve the mayor, or if she is unavailable, whoever is."

"He," the man said. "The mayor of White Pine is a man."

"Very well," I said. "Would it be possible to request his presence?"

There were snickers from around the man. He smiled a cold smile and said, "You're talking to him."

"Mr. Mayor," I said, "do you have a name?"

"I reckon I do," he said. He didn't furnish it.

I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? This is the game you want to play?"

"You're not staying long," he said. "So you won't be needing my name."

He gestured, and two of his buddies, two of his very large buddies, stepped
forward, looming over me threateningly.

I heard swords begin to clear scabbards, but I held a hand up.

I raised my voice. "Malora, who is the worst warrior here?"

"You are, Maya," she said.

I moved my hand to my staff and loosened it from the sling across my back. "Mr. Mayor, we can do this the easy way and have a conversation over a pint of beer, or I can kick the asses of your two toughs here and dictate what is going to happen. Which would you prefer?"

"How about my two toughs teach you a little respect," he suggested, "and you head on out, licking your little girl wounds."

"So be it," I said. I pulled my staff and Malora yelled, "No one interfere!"

The men were big and thought they were tough. The fight lasted nearly an entire minute, as I didn't want to actually break their bones. When I
was done, the two men lay in the street, struggling to get up, and I stood over them panting.

They never touched me.

"Nori, watch my back," I said, and immediately Nori and Malora both moved forward. I began stalking towards the mayor, who backed away from me.

"Now, let us try this again. Mr. Mayor, my name is Maya, Queen's Companion. The Amazons are here to address the people of White Pine. You will assemble them this afternoon. We expect everyone over the age of ten to be in attendance. Do NOT make us go door to door to make sure there are no holdouts!"

"You aren't welcome here!" he said.

"Well then, the sooner you listen to what we have to say, the sooner we'll leave."
I shook my head. "You must really be an idiot to try to intimidate an Amazon, especially when I have twenty more of my sisters at my back."

Then I backed away. "Mid-afternoon, Mr. Mayor," I said. "Everyone. We're not here to hurt anyone." I looked at the men slowly climbing to their feet, "unless that's what they want."

I backed to my horse, holding out my hands. Someone slipped my reins into my hands. "We'll set up camp outside town. Do not disappoint us, Mr. Mayor."

One thing about Amazons: they didn't fight amongst themselves in front of strangers. No, they wait until we're alone. The bickering didn't start until after we'd set up camp on a field east of town, although I heard quiet muttering begin long before then.

"I thought we were here to collect companions and tithe!"

I looked up. Tarine stood surrounded by six other women. She had her hands on her hips, glaring at me. Malora and Nori both moved closer. Inside, I smiled. Tarine was bringing this to me, not Malora. I considered that a battle won right there.

"We are," I said. "Tell me, Tarine, how was my form earlier?"

"Your form was terrible," she said. "You overextend your shoulders when you thrust and you have a tell when you're about to do a leg sweep."

"I know," I said. "Nori has been trying to break both of those habits of mine for some time. Would you say every warrior here fights better than I do?"

"With a staff?" She frowned. "I don't know about every warrior.
Most of them, yes. What's your point?"

"I kicked the
asses of their two toughest men," I said. "I did it with enough control I didn't dramatically hurt them, taking no damage myself in the process. And I'm not even an Amazon warrior; I'm only a companion. I think letting word get around for a couple of hours will be useful."

I turned to Malora. "They may respond badly later."

"They may," she agreed. "We are never complacent."

"Tarine, it takes time for messages to sink in. I don't like having to deliver messages that way, but I hate bullies, and that mayor and the two toughs I beat up are bullies. I bet the entire village knows it. They are very likely going to be far more willing to talk to us once word gets around. So we wait a bit and let it."

"Waste of time," she said. "We should round up the girls and take every fifth."

I narrowed my eyes. "That's one way to do it," I agreed. "What are the risks?"

"Excuse me? It's not like they can stop us."

"We could take a little ruffian with us," I said, "someone with a knife in her boot and a willingness to use it. I don't want to share a tent with her. Do you?"

"She wouldn't dare!"

"Nori," I asked, "would I have dared, if you hadn't bound me?"

"Absolutely. There was no doubt in my mind."

"Tarine, I was a schoolteacher.
A gentle schoolteacher. And I was willing to knife Nori for taking me from my home against my will, regardless of the consequences."

"You would have been whipped to death after we caught you."

"I know. So that's what you want? Take some companions. Understand a few will knife some of us in our sleep. Whip those to death. That's what you want?"

She didn't have an answer, but she wasn't happy with me.

"You need to think through your entire plan, Tarine. If you don't, then I will, and don't get mad at me if I poke holes in it you should have seen."

"We should take the companions we need," she said.

"Perhaps," I replied. "But then we would find ourselves with a very large number of completely untrained companions all at once."

"I am tired of waiting!"

"I don't blame you," I told her. "And I will do what I can to see that your wait comes to an end in the next few weeks."

Malora stepped up beside me. "Tarine, my companion has given you things to think about. The issue of companions has been building for two decades, and it is going to take more than two years to entirely resolve it. But I am convinced we are on a path that solves it. Over the last two years, we've acquired more new companions than we have since long before I became queen, and the quality of those companions has been very high."

Tarine wasn't convinced, but she and her friends stepped away, muttering, and I moved underneath Malora's arm.

"I'm tired, Malora," I told her. "It's always the same thing, over and over. They all see me as the impediment. I'm tired of arguing and arguing with them."

"I know," she said, kissing the top of my head. "But you're so good at it."

I sighed.

* * * *

We waited until mid-afternoon to return to the village. There were people standing around, watching us, but there wasn't anything resembling an assembly.

"Do they never learn?" I asked.

"Nope," said Nori.

Tarine rode closer on her horse. "So, where's this big meeting you scheduled?"

I turned to her then shook my head, not bothering to answer her. I couldn't fight two battles at once.

"I need some muscle," I said to Malora. "I don't want it to be you."

"Nori, Badra," Malora said. Badra was from Northglen. She was easy going, but I assumed there was a reason Malora picked her.

We all climbed from our horses. I stepped forward, Nori and Badra flanking me. "Nori, bring some rope."

She smiled at me. We'd done this before. "Covered."

"Badra, trust me."

"Of course, Queen's Companion."

I stepped forward to the nearest group of villagers. "Who wants to show us where the mayor lives?"

The villagers were women, all older than I was. They looked at me nervously.

"We didn't come to make trouble," I said. "We came to talk. Now, we have expectations, but when we're done talking, everyone here will understand why. The mayor, however, wants to play this the hard way. We tried to do it the easy way. Now, I need to know where he lives."

The women consulted each other with their eyes, then
one stepped forward a half step. "You're the one who beat up Bando and Grigon, aren't you?"

"Two big, big men, follow the mayor around like large, stupid dogs?" I asked. "Sporting new bruises after this morning?" They nodded. "Yep, that was
I."

She stepped closer. She was taller than I was and, well, she had a figure suitable for brawling. I didn't, although I'd grown muscular over the last three years. Nori had seen to that.

"You're not very big," she said. She eyed me. "There's not a mark on you."

"None recent," I said. "This one bruises me from time to time." I nodded my head towards Nori.

"She beats you?"

"Only on the training grounds. We train twice daily."

The woman nodded in understanding. She looked between the three of us. Then she pointed. "That house."

I followed her gesture.

The houses in White Pine were not fancy or large. In fact, other than the location, this could have been Gallow's Cove. But the mayor's house was bigger than the rest.

"Is the mayor popular?" I asked.

The woman didn't answer, which was plenty of answer for me.

I turned back to all the women. "We came to talk. Please spread the word for everyone to meet here in the square, unless there's a better place that will hold everyone."

"No. The square is where we meet. When we meet. Which isn't often."

I nodded.

"Twenty minutes," I said.

They nodded, and I turned my back on them, heading for the mayor's house. I unlimbered my staff and used it to knock on the door. Loudly.

"Kick it open, please," I said.

It probably wasn't locked, but Nori stepped forward and, with one solid kick, knock
ed the door inward, surprising a woman who was about to open it.