Amazon Queen

'His father will take him.' Jack watched us, his eyes moving back and forth in his face.

His father. . I looked at Jack. 'The man helping. . with the concrete.' Jack had told me the bird was the baby's father, but somehow once I'd put my mother into the picture, I'd forgotten him.

He nodded. 'He met Scy a few years ago. She didn't know he was a son at first.'

'But she did before she got pregnant.' No one had said it, but I knew it was true. My mother had wanted her children to be strong. . the strongest. She had wanted it for me and she would want it for this child too. What better way than to give him a son as a father?

Jack's gaze dropped for a second, but then rose. 'I don't know when she found out. Mateo hasn't told me.'

Mateo. He didn't like me; it was obvious from how he looked at me. It made me wonder what my mother had told him about me. . Then I remembered he knew me not as my mother's daughter but as the queen who had hunted and, he thought, tried to kill his child.

I stared at Jack, unsure how I felt about turning the baby my mother had been so determined to save over to a son who hated me. I shouldn't care. If asked, it's what I would have said was the best solution. . give our male children to the sons who wanted them. . but now faced with it. . it felt wrong.

I pressed the pads of my fingers into the heels of my hands. I couldn't afford to quibble about it now. Even if I knew word one about caring for an infant, I couldn't do what I had to do with a baby strapped to my back. Maybe my mother could have, but I wasn't her.

I accepted Jack's proposal with silence and looked back at Mel.

'My mother's position on the high council is open. She couldn't convince them that things need to change, but maybe someone else can.'

'You would try to get on the council?' There was reservation in Mel's voice. I knew what she was thinking-the council was the enemy-but according to what my mother had told me, they weren't.

But I wasn't a queen. I wasn't sure where I stood with the Amazons right now. To think of joining the council was ludicrous.

That didn't mean, however, that I couldn't try to open their eyes to the fact that the sons weren't their only enemy. It might be enough to convince them killing infants wouldn't keep them safe from attack.

I returned my focus to Jack. 'Will you help me find the birders?'

Confusion flitted across Mel's face. 'I thought-'

But Jack held my gaze. 'I will.'

He knew what I was asking. I didn't know how he knew when Mel didn't, but that didn't matter right now, what did is that he'd agreed to be my ally. He'd agreed to fight my enemy.

The Amazons, some at least, would respect that. Another plus in my case to not demonize the sons.

I shifted my attention back to Mel. 'I need Bubbe to tell me where the council meets.' Years ago, years before Mel had left the tribe, Bubbe had been on the high council, and even if they didn't meet in the same place, I'd never met a priestess more powerful than my friend's grandmother. She could find the council; if she had to ask Artemis herself, she could find them.

Mel's face was grim. It was obvious she didn't agree with what I planned to do. I wasn't sure why-if it was her general hatred of the council or her lack of faith in me. It didn't matter. I had already made my decision.

'You won't get ten feet from where you stand. You move out of this circle and Bubbe's ward will be broken. It's anchored to you, but it won't move with you. The police will remember who you are and why they wanted to talk to you, and they won't look kindly on you leaving without doing it.'

Behind Jack, two men lifted my mother's body and placed it in a dark zippered bag. My throat tightened.

'Get Bubbe. She can hurry them on their way.'

Mel's lips were pressed into such a flat line now that I could barely see them. Finally she spat out, 'They tried to kill her, Mel. Your mother didn't tell you everything. She didn't want you to know, she wanted you to keep your love of the damned tribe, but the council tried to kill her. She had to leave, they were going to kill her son and her if she didn't.'

Mel's revelation should have surprised me, but it didn't. I'd already accepted that I didn't know the tribe like I thought I did. .

But the tribe was still the tribe, and I still loved them enough I was willing to die to protect them, even from themselves.

* * *

The police continued to measure and photograph. Then the media showed up. Shootings weren't common in Madison. It was a blessing, though. It drew the police's attention and made it easy for me to step away-even without Bubbe's help.

Back inside Mel's shop, we gathered and discussed our plan.

Jack called the bird son, my half brother's father and my mother's lover. He was at an art shop owned by Makis, the son confined to a wheelchair, but immediately agreed to return to take charge of the baby. Jack went to get him so he could arrive in his human form, clothed. He left the baby with us. I insisted. I was willing for the bird man to watch him, but I wasn't handing him over totally. Not yet.

When I made this clear, Mel shook her head.

'He's his father,' she said. 'He would give his life to protect him.'

'And a son,' I replied. This new partnership was too unfamiliar. Besides, my mother had given her life, but that hadn't been enough to save her son. He'd have been lost if Jack, Mateo, and I hadn't been there.

'Makis is a son,' she countered. 'And I trust him.' She didn't, I noticed, mention Peter.

'You may. I don't.' In fact, I trusted Makis least of all.

He was higher ranking and older than the other men. He was also Harmony's, Mel's daughter, grandfather- just another of the little surprises we'd discovered last fall. Based on his handicap alone, Makis had more reason than anyone to hate us.

Makis, however, wasn't in town. He was with Harmony and Peter in Michigan. When Mel returned, she had returned alone.

'You let her stay with just them?' Mel was the definition of protective. I was shocked she would trust anyone, much less two sons, alone with her child.

At my question Bubbe, rummaging through a drawer in the kitchen, grunted.

Mel placed a heavy stare on her grandmother, then answered. 'Makis is her grandfather.' Despite the strong look she'd shot Bubbe, I could see uncertainty in her eyes. She glanced to the side. 'She has relatives.'

'Relatives? Sons?' Amazons didn't recognize family outside their direct line. We didn't keep track of things like cousins or aunts. They had no more importance in our lives than any other member of our family clan. I knew there were Amazons in the lion clan who shared a grandmother with me, but I didn't give them any thought. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to visit them.

'Harmony's father had other children-two, both boys. They live in Michigan with an uncle.'

'And you let her stay there with them.' My mind was reeling. 'What if they don't bring her back?'

Bubbe jerked a phone book out of the drawer and slammed it down onto the countertop.

Mel's eyes flashed. 'They will.' Then she relaxed a bit. 'She called last night. They went to Mackinac and rented horses. She's having fun.'

A snort from Bubbe interrupted my response. As Mel narrowed her eyes and glared at her grandmother, I stepped away from the conversation. Harmony was out of the picture, which was good. One less child of a son to worry about.

As much as I didn't understand Mel's reasoning for letting her go off with the men, at least we didn't have to worry about the Amazons deciding Harmony was a threat.

A tiny snort of my own escaped. How things had changed. I was actually glad an Amazon teen was with the sons and afraid my tribe might decide she was a threat that needed to be destroyed.

While I waited for the tension between Mel and her grandmother to settle, I approached the members of my camp, or the few who had thrown their loyalty to me over Thea and the high council.

Lao and Tess sat next to Dana, who was cooing and stroking tiny Pisto's back. She hadn't put him down since she and Lao had returned and she'd learned the birders had tried to steal not only my mother's baby, but her own. Even now Dana's voice cracked and her eyes when they met mine appeared manic, reconfirming my suspicion that