Battle For Tristaine Part 26

While the blast of the dynamite was faint, the death of the dam, and the release of Ziwa herself, were not. The riotous clamor of that initial fi rst wave faded at fi rst, but it did not disappear. It would grow deafening soon, as the fl ood reached Tristaine.

Behind Brenna, Myrine barked, "Jesstin, get out of here!" She slipped off her horse. "Seeing Caster dead is worth drowning for."

Brenna felt Jess's shoulders slump in pain. "Myrine-"

"Remember what I said, please, young Brenna." Theryn smiled grimly at Myrine as she joined her and took her hand. "If you ever write about the death of this village, little sister, be sure * 194 *

you record the truth. Shann and Jesstin and their followers were not the only Amazons who loved and honored their clan."

Brenna's eyes were fi lling, so it was hard to see them, but she nodded.

Jess still couldn't move, and fi nally Myrine sighed harshly.

"Give my adanin my love, Jesstin. Now get your adonai out of here.

Go!" She slapped Valkyrie's rump, hard.

Brenna felt the warhorse lunge for the exit, and Jess didn't stop her. The crashing of the fl ood grew closer. She gave her physical survival entirely over to Jess and did what she could not to throw off their balance.

Terme Cay was still calm as they clattered back over the footbridge, but Brenna's worst nightmares told her this was just the prelude. She heard cries of terror rising behind them, and more gunfi re.

Jess wove the horse through the private lodges of the Amazons at a quick trot. "We're almost out of rifl e range, Brenna. It's time to run. Can you hold on?"

Brenna rested her face against Jess's dark, wet hair.

"Absolutely."

She remembered enough of that wild ride to record a chilling account in her next journal, and she didn't have to exaggerate a word.

Brenna and Jess rode the warhorse out of the darkening valley at a dead run, chased by impending doom in the form of a ravenous wall of water. Valkyrie leaped over a shallow but wide ravine, and Brenna almost lost her seat. Jess snaked one arm back to brace her, and she steadied herself. She buried her face again in Jess's hair and squeezed her eyes shut. That ravine marked the boundary of the valley.

They were out of danger now, but she could still see it happening. And not just see it...

Brenna smelled it fi rst. A fl ood through a mountainous forest washed a gust of air before it, a cold wind fi lled with the stench of the dying. She smelled that wind fi rst, and then she felt it, a foul buffet of air in her face.

* 195 *

She was standing on the arched footbridge that spanned the village's river. She'd heard the fl ood for several minutes now, and at any moment, the fi rst crashing waves would course down Tristaine's peaceful stretch of Terme Cay. Brenna couldn't believe the growing roar could grow louder before the fl ood fi nally appeared, but it did.

Terme Cay was a river, and then she was a rushing wall of water, forty feet high. Anyone standing on Tristaine's footbridge would see a shadow, and then they'd see their death coming. The screams were everywhere by then, and Brenna heard them.

She shut down. Really, she prayed, please, that's all I can take. And to her vast relief, the images and sounds and smells all stopped. Brenna didn't have to watch the village drown.

They met Shann and the other survivors of Tristaine in the southern glade before the moon rose.

* 196 *

CHAPTER TEN.

Dana sat cross-legged on a blanket in the gra.s.s, close to one of the campfi res. Several such small blazes dotted the glade around her, in areas cleared for that purpose. She had been fed and left alone for the most part, which is what she fervently wanted at this point.

She thought about thirty Amazons had escaped the fl ood, counting Jesstin and Brenna. Those two had ridden in an hour ago, on the biggest animal she had ever seen. A circle of Amazons had surrounded them at once. They appeared to be all right, thank G.o.d.

So far, no one seemed inclined to take Dana on for tasering Jesstin. Dana remembered watching Brenna tend Jess after it happened. She remembered thinking no one had ever touched her with such love.

She was the only City soldier among the Amazons. She wasn't the only mercenary to escape the fl ood, but all the others had insisted on their own stubborn course, down into the foothills. She had almost gone with them.

Shann, the Amazon queen, and dozens of her followers, had run past Dana on their way out of Tristaine. Shann stopped and called to her. Dana had hesitated, and in the kind of split-second decision that changes lives, she ran to her.

She still wasn't sure why.

Soft laughter fi ltered through the circle of women around Jesstin and Brenna; then they began to get up and drift back toward their blankets. Dana could see the queen kneeling beside Jess, her palm on her breast to monitor her heartbeat. Shann straightened and smiled at Jess, then looked straight at Dana, as if her gaze called to her.

* 197 *

"Dana, come join us, please."

s.h.i.t fi re. She felt a jolt of unease, certain the Amazons had decided to kick her out. She put on a neutral expression and shuffl ed over to the group.

Dana recognized the two big Amazon warriors, Vicar and Hakan. They both looked like war G.o.ddesses this close up, one black and one white. They sat protectively on either side of young Kyla, and Dana noticed neither of them looked at her as she joined them.

She settled stiffl y beside Jesstin and avoided her appraising eyes.

"I'm glad to see you." Brenna leaned across her reclined lover to touch Dana's knee. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Dana cleared her throat and fi nally met Brenna's friendly eyes. "How about you two?"

"I wish we had some b.l.o.o.d.y proof, Jesstin," Vicar broke in.

She had her long arms coiled around one raised knee. "None of us will sleep a full night until we see that witch's corpse."

"Vicar? Courtesy, please." Shann nodded at Dana. "Yes, little sister. Given rest and warmth and decent food, Brenna and Jesstin will both heal and be well."

Little sister? Dana's brows rose.

"I know you have to be exhausted, Dana. We all are, so I won't keep you long." Shann curled her legs gracefully beneath her before continuing. "We're a.s.suming Caster is dead and her vendetta is over. The silver the City wanted is gone. We feel the Military won't bother to pursue our clan if we establish our new holdings deeper in the mountains. Do you agree?"

"Me?" Dana was puzzled. "I'm not in on any Military plans, Shann. I'm not a Government soldier. Uh, I mean Queen Shann."

Hakan and Vicar and Jess all snickered, and Shann raised an eyebrow at them.

"Shann will suffi ce. I know you can't give us inside information, Dana. We're just asking your opinion. You've lived in the City more recently than any of us, so you know the atmosphere down there even better than Brenna."

"Oh." Dana wished mightily that everyone would fi nd something to look at besides her face. "Well, let me think. The City * 198 *

paper did mention the closing of Caster's program at the Clinic this last summer. But it sure didn't mention any escaped prisoners or Amazons. Tristaine is hot gossip, but that's nothing new. So there won't be any public pressure, or even public knowledge, that you guys still exist. I guess I really don't see any big advantage for the Military in coming after you."

"After us," Shann corrected. "Good, Dana, thank you. Those are our thoughts, too."

"Ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"How high, exactly, into the mountains will we be going?"

Dana asked.

She saw Shann smile at Brenna, for some reason, the lines around her eyes crinkling.

"Our fi rst stop will be the southern meadows, where we'll join the sisters who migrated a few days ago from our mountain village. We'll pa.s.s the winter there, then begin the search for our new home in the spring."

A low, chanting music fi ltered through the chilly air, and Dana peered over her shoulder into the glade. She saw the other Amazons gather into a circle around the largest of the campfi res. They were humming something, a melodic, lonely sound.

"Sisters, join the storyfi re," Shann urged them. "Give me a moment, please, with Kyla, Jesstin, and Brenna."

"Lady." Hakan got smoothly to her feet. She clamped one broad hand on Dana's shoulder and pulled her up, too. "Come on, youngster, and stop looking like a skittish hare. Vic and I will keep the others from spitting you on a mesquite branch and roasting you for dinner."

Dana smiled weakly and stumbled after Hakan toward the storyfi re.

"So..." Vicar unwound to her full height and put her hands on her hips. She nudged Jesstin's foot with her own. "You need anything, Stumpy?"

"Shorter, more humble cousins," Jess grumbled. She was nestled against Brenna. "Nice work tonight, mate."

* 199 *

"You too. Both of you." Vicar winked at Brenna and followed Hakan and Dana.

"Kyla?" Shann held out a hand, and Kyla obediently shifted closer to her. Shann put an arm around her shoulders and looked down at Jess. "I think you'll be fi ne to travel in the morning, Jesstin, if we make it a light day. Are you in much pain?"

"Yes," Jess growled. "My back hurts, my belly hurts. Also my left shoulder, and my entire right arm. Also my left knee."

"I've been talking to Jess a lot about being a little less stoic about her injuries," Brenna explained. She ruffl ed Jess's hair.

"Unfortunately, I don't think she's exaggerating."

"A plant called talwin grows between here and the southern meadows." Shann pursed her lips. "We may need to dose all our warriors with it. Your women fought well, Jesstin, and you all have the bruises to prove it. Why would I want to be careful, Blades, with a tea boiled with talwin leaves?"

"Because talwin has a mild narcotic effect, so it can be addictive," Brenna answered, and then she and Jess both blinked.

"How did I know that?"

"How did you know Patana would try to a.s.sa.s.sinate Jesstin yesterday?" Shann asked. "Or that Caster's soldiers had ambushed Tristaine? Or all the sacred promises made in a Queen's Blessing?

Really, honey, how much more proof of your sight do you think you're going to require?"

"You did tell me about the Blessing yourself, Shann." Brenna had also known when Camryn began to die, but she couldn't say it aloud.

And my voices...Brenna was afraid she was starting to sound psychotic, even in her own mind. The voices didn't warn me before Elodia snapped or before Patana got off that fi rst shot on the dam.

"Bren..." Jess ventured, watching her. "You in there?"

"I'm right here." Brenna smiled and brushed Jess's tumbling hair off her brow.

"And what about you, little sister?" Shann's arm was light around Kyla's slender shoulders. "How are you?"

* 200 *

Kyla smiled, but it hurt Brenna's heart to see the effort it took. "I'm broken up inside. But I'm alive. And I'm real glad we got almost everyone out." Her eyes closed for a moment. "So many faces are gone, Shann."

"Yes..." Shann rested her lips on Kyla's pale forehead for a moment. "We have mourning to do. And a new Tristaine to build come spring."

"What's next for us, lady?" Jess stared up at the dazzling canopy of stars overhead. "Our clan has been diminished, and there'll be no more new Amazons from the City. They wouldn't know how to fi nd us."

Shann glanced at Brenna and smiled before she answered.

"Well, if our line is meant to die out at last, Jess, then it will. I have a feeling Gaia has other plans for us."

"Yeah?" Kyla looked almost hopeful. "You do?"

"I do. For one thing," Shann said, "I have a feeling Gaia might want us to fi nally learn the lesson She set before all Amazons a thousand years ago. Not a single generation of Tristaine has learned it, under any queen. Including me, it seems, at least not yet."

"I'm sorry?" Brenna asked. "What lesson was that?"

"'Amazons must be unifi ed, if the Clan is to survive,'" Shann recited to them. "That's one of the challenges our Seven Adanin left us, Blades. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?"

"Aye, but another challenge was, ' All women must live free, '" Jess responded from her relaxed position against Brenna.

"Remember what Dyan always said, Shann. It's never simple for a clan to live with both unity and freedom."

"You still quote Dyan at Shann all the time, Jess." Kyla's smile wasn't as forced this time. "Except when it suits you. Dyan also yelled at you to take less risks when you fi ght."

Jess winked at her, but her eyes on Shann were grave. "Lady, Theryn's betrayal wasn't your fault. You worked yourself to death in high council last spring trying to bring her faction around."

"I'm not blaming myself, Jesstin." Shann patted Jess's shoulder. "My own particular challenge has always been Jocelyn's * 201 *

favorite, ' Don't push the river,' so that's what I intend to practice.

Now, let's listen to the dirge for a while. They're singing for Camryn and the other sisters we've lost."

They fell silent, and the low, musical chant of the larger circle reached them. Brenna felt her heart fi ll with a deep, pure sadness.