Amazon Queen

Two pair of eyes, two guns, both pointed at me.

I froze, determined to drop at the first twitch of their fingers, determined to outmaneuver not one but two bullets.

Behind me my mother screamed, a war cry—anger, hate, and determination flying from her lungs.

The guns moved and then exploded. I turned, moving as if through water, slow and surreal. My mother stood on top of the stairwell, her arms out and her mouth open.

I’d never seen her look so fierce, so full of strength and power. I realized in that split second how much I loved her, how much I needed her now that I’d lost everything else.

Then the bullets hit . . .

Praise for
Amazon Ink
by Lori Devoti

“Fast paced . . . with a fabulous late twist . . . .”

—Alternative Worlds

“A fast read with enough twists and turns to hold your attention . . . . A good book for anyone who enjoys powerful characterization and high magic in their urban fantasy novels.”

—Flames Rising

“An intriguing tale with a legend brought to life in a modern-day world . . . . Murder, mystery, and magic . . . will keep readers engrossed.”

—Darque Reviews

“Original and intriguing.”

—
Corpus Christi Book Examiner

Also by Lori Devoti

Amazon Ink

LORI DEVOTI

Pocket Books
New York  London  Toronto  Sydney

The sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as “unsold and destroyed.” Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for the sale of this “stripped book.”

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2010 by Lori Devoti

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Juno Books/Pocket Books paperback edition May 2010

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Design by Lisa Litwack. Illustration by Steve Stone.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 978-1-4391-6772-4

ISBN 978-1-4391-6775-5 (ebook)

For my children. I would walk through fire for you.

Thanks for making this book a reality go to my agent, Holly Root, editors Paula Guran and Jennifer Heddle, and many others at Pocket Books whose names I do not know.

Special thanks to Pat Rice and Sasha White for their input on an early version of the first few chapters of this book. I’m afraid little of the original survived rewrites—thank you for that! Also to Ann Voss Peterson for reminding me of things I really shouldn’t need reminding of.

I’d also like to thank Rob Francis for answering my fire questions and the Castle Coalition for answering questions on eminent domain, even though eminent domain did not make it into the final book.

Descendants of the god Ares and nymph Otrera, the Amazons were blessed with strength, longevity, and mystical powers. As their divine bloodline was weakened by mating with humans, they learned to focus and maintain their powers through the use of body decoration, mainly tattoos.

Despite their descent from Ares, the Amazons worshipped Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, forests, and hills, and the womanly concerns of virginity, fertility, and childbirth. As the world outside of their community moved to worship gods over goddesses, their desire to stay separate—and exclusively female—grew.

Dividing eventually into twelve tribes each identified with a protector animal, the Amazons lived in the area around what we now call the Black Sea for centuries. Then the ancient Greeks encountered a few of their settlements. Their stories of a tribe of woman warriors began to draw the interest of the outside world. To survive, the Amazons became increasingly nomadic. Although they dispersed in all directions, most moved to the steppes of Russia.

The animals that had identified their settlements became family totems, a reminder of their past greatness. These totems were tattooed on each member of the tribe, tying them together magically when the Amazons weren’t together physically. The tattoos became known as
telioses.

Amazons fall into four basic talent groups: warriors, priestesses, artisans, and hearth-keepers. Amazons may have aspects of power from all of the groups, but there is usually one that is obviously dominant. Their personal power tattoo (the
givnomai
) is chosen to enhance those powers, helping to lock them into their role for the tribe. It is rare for an Amazon to have significant powers from more than one group.

Warriors possess superhuman strength and flexibility. Priestesses can harness elemental powers—fire, wind, water, earth—without use of objects. Priestesses also call upon the goddess Artemis for guidance for the tribe. Artisans create objects that store power: tattoos, fetishes, and jewelry. The power these objects have is based on what they represent: a bear fetish would provide strength, a coyote stealth, a fox cunning. Some artisans can put the power into the object; others can only create the object and must have assistance from a priestess to embed the power. Home, food, and child care are provided by the hearth-keepers. Their powers are protective and medicinal.

Although not immortal, Amazons do live for hundreds of years and retain a youthful appearance for several centuries.

Even in the New World, the Amazons kept their nomadic ways. The twelve tribes continued to keep a low profile by traveling around the country, much like modern-day gypsies, settling for short periods of time in one of six “safe camps.”

Camps are located on enough land to provide a buffer between them and the human world. Each has a hearth-keeper, priestess, and queen (from the warrior talent group) assigned to them by the high council. These queens maintain order within the camp and work to protect it from human detection through both magical and mundane ways. They stay longer than the other Amazons, but still shift to a new camp every few years. Individual Amazons move freely between these camps, never settling for too long in one place.

Amazons mingle with the human population on a limited basis. Just like their ancestors, they take human lovers but do not marry. Since most Amazons believe themselves superior to humans, most have no issues with stealing from humans or conning them out of money. Their seminomadic lifestyle aids them in evading confrontations that might come from such an existence. A few do offer legitimate—or semi-legitimate—services at area fairs and bazaars such as selling craft items, such as fetishes and jewelry, telling fortunes, or offering self-defense classes. They do not, however, take jobs that require them to work day-to-day in one place or get to know any humans in depth. If anyone begins to get too close, they move on.

The Amazons have never trusted men, nor brought them into their camps. They even feared their own male offspring might rise up and try to control them, as Greek males had tried in the past. Because of this fear, their male children were put to death. Over time they stopped the killing and instead maimed the infants by breaking an arm or leg, then leaving the boys where humans could find and raise them.

Some of these offspring survived; many didn’t.

Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Bubbe Saka, a priestess, was instrumental in stopping all of this. Male children thereafter were left unmaimed at human churches and hospitals.

Although the Amazons were unaware of it, even before the maiming stopped, these sons had begun gathering together. Also unknown to the Amazons, their sons possessed similar powers to their own.

Through an encounter (told in
Amazon Ink
) with Melinappe (Mel) Saka—Bubbe Saka’s granddaughter and an Amazon who had left the tribe—the Amazons discovered both the sons’ existence and their powers.