knew the consequences and believed in the cause.'
'I believe in the cause.' Not his cause, but the cause of the Amazons.
'Really. Tell me what you believe. Tell me what you want for your tribe.'
What did I want? Survival, strength, happiness. . I shifted my hands on the steering wheel. 'I'm not the one who's supposed to be talking; you are. Tell me how you got the baby, what else you know.'
He held up the pen and waved it back and forth like a
I suppressed a growl.
'The condor you saw. He knows the mother.'
I let that compute.
'So she gave him her baby?' I asked. It was possible; not all Amazon mothers were as 'motherly' as Mel. 'Does he have the child now?' I was avoiding stating the baby's sex. I had been told it was a girl, but Mel claimed it was a boy. I'd like to hear this son confirm one or the other before offering it myself.
He smiled. 'He may. Let's talk about you and the Amazons.'
'You can't beat us,' I replied.
He quirked his head. 'Who said we want to beat you?'
'I'm sorry. I misunderstood the bite on my leg-what was that?'
'I didn't start that fight.'
'You did, you-'
'Saved the baby. I know, we've covered that.'
Not really. But maybe it was time we did. 'Why?' I asked. Attacking us like they had, two against two, had been a risk.
A shadow passed behind his eyes. 'Because we know what the Amazons have planned for him.'
Him. He'd said it. 'The baby is a boy? How do I know that?'
He frowned. 'Why would I lie about that? He's a son, Mateo. . the condor's. . son. The mother is on your high council. When she learned some of the council members planned to kill her child, to send some kind of message to the rest of the tribe, she contacted Mateo.'
'What message?' I asked.
The pen stilled. 'That the Amazons are the same baby-killing bitches they've always been?'
I tensed, but didn't react. 'If that were true, you wouldn't be sitting in this car.'
He laughed. 'One short two-hundred-year or so break. What? I'm supposed to give the Amazons an award? I don't think so.'
'I wasn't asked to kill the baby, only to retrieve him.' I didn't mention that I had been told the child was a girl. It would only strengthen the son's case that the council had planned to have the baby killed.
'Would you have?' he asked.
I jerked, startled by his question.
'It's a simple question, Zery. If the council had told you the baby was the son of a son and a high-council member. If they had told you they wanted him dead. Would you have killed him?'
I stared at the road in front of me. . black, straight, and unending. I didn't know how to answer him. I hadn't questioned when I was told to take the child. . what would I have done if I'd been told to kill him?
A chill passed over me. I felt sick.
'What will you do with him?' I asked.
'I don't know. He's Mateo's son. I assume he'll raise him.'
'And the mother?'
'I haven't asked.'
A sort of truce between us, we fell silent for a while. I watched the road disappear beneath the car. Maybe they were wrong. Maybe the council didn't want to kill the child; maybe they just wanted to make sure he wasn't raised by the sons.
The sons were dangerous. They were, if they chose to be, a threat. The child did have the potential to be powerful.
Did we want that power being raised in the hands of our enemy?
But then that would mean Amazons keeping their sons, raising them alongside their daughters. That would mean the end of who and what we were.
More confused than ever, I gripped the wheel and wished I was back at the camp sparring with Areto, not sitting here being forced to face that this baby signified a lot more than just his own tiny life.
Jack tapped the pen against the heel of his hand. 'All babies are important. All life is important. Do you believe that?'
Finally I answered, 'Amazon life.' It was the simple answer, pat.
He sat silent for a second, then he replied, 'I don't believe you.'
'You should.' Amazons lived too long. Saw too much death. It didn't pay for us to value any life besides our own.
'Because humans come and go?' he asked.
I nodded. Came and went. Been there, done that.
'Who?'
The questions were going somewhere I didn't like, somewhere I didn't want to go.
'You ever been in love, Zery?'
I reached for the radio, to turn it on. He grabbed my hand. 'Tell me your secret and I'll tell you mine.'
I glanced at him. 'All of yours?'
His fingers were warm on my skin. I wanted to pull back but didn't let myself.
He tilted his head. 'Most. As long as it doesn't endanger anyone I love.' His eyes flickered.
I swallowed. Why not tell him my story? It had happened a lifetime ago; it wasn't important, not anymore. The girl it happened to didn't even exist anymore. Give him this, make him think I trusted him, and he'd give me more. I pulled my fingers away from the radio knob. He let me.
'Once,' I replied. 'I was young and stupid. . sixteen. A baby in Amazon years. We were living in Arkansas and my friend Mel was in California. I was all alone, or felt that way.
'It was hot that year, really hot, and before most people had air-conditioning. I spent my days swimming in the local springs, and I met a boy. Mother was too busy doing whatever she was doing to pay attention to me, and I was too old for the hearth-keepers to manage-to keep me on track with the warrior training my mother thought I was doing.
'He was young too, and even more stupid. He started gambling-there was a lot of gambling in Hot Springs then, and prostitution and bootlegging. The place had it all. Made for an exciting time.' I wiped sweat off my palms onto the steering wheel. I hadn't told this story in a long time, not since I'd told Mel. . seventy-three years ago.
'What happened?'
I didn't look at him. I felt silly telling the tale; it was so long ago. . didn't matter.
I licked my lips. 'We went out and gambled, even though we knew we'd gone over our limits. When they pushed us to pay, we ran. It was fun, a rush-until they started shooting.'
I looked at him then, could feel the deadness in my own eyes. 'It isn't like they show in the movies; isn't glamorous at all. Bullets hurt, and the noise. . ' I bit the inside of my cheek. 'I got him into the car and got us away. We'd both been hit, but I'm an Amazon. I heal fast. He wasn't and he didn't.'
The son was quiet for a second, then, 'And after seventy-plus years, you still have the scars.'
Surprise and suspicion shook me out of the cloud that had settled around me. 'How'd you know?' I reached across my body and touched the scars hidden under my shirt where the bullets had gone through my side.
His gaze dropped to my hand, then moved back to my face. 'Not those, the other ones, the ones you hide from everyone, even yourself.'
I put my eyes back on the road. 'Tell me about the guns,' I bit out.
'What guns?'
'The ones in your cabin.'
'The cabin you blew up?'
