a hearth-keeper could be just as determined and dangerous as a warrior.
Bern stood to one side, not far from my half brother who was asleep in his seat. The warrior was as silent as always. She hadn't said a word to me since I'd asked her to leave earlier, but she watched all of us with the patience and intensity of a guard dog awaiting an order to attack.
I appreciated her coiled aggression. I felt the same. I couldn't wait to get on with facing the high council, and after that, my mother's killers.
Bubbe moved toward the stairs, a disposable wand-type lighter in her hand. 'I build the fire to find the council,' she murmured. She scowled at Mel as she passed.
Mel shook her head and stared at the wall.
Content their disagreement wasn't going to get in the way of finding the council, I pulled out a chair at the table and sat down. Tess poured a cup of coffee and slid it toward me.
I sipped and I waited, as did everyone else. Silence fell around us; even Dana quit her cooing; only the sound of her son sucking on a pacifier offered any disturbance.
In an hour Bubbe was back. And I could tell by the expression on her face, what she had to say wasn't going to be good.
'The high council is no more.' Bubbe punctuated her words by slamming the end of a short staff onto the wood floor. Then she turned and stalked from the room.
Not knowing what else to do, the rest of us followed her, babies in tow. No one felt safe leaving them behind.
She walked down the front stairs and down the hill that led to Mel's front lawn.
The schoolhouse was set on an acre of land, most of it in the front of the building. While the area around the school was crowded with the main building, the old gym/cafeteria, and a number of large trees, this area was flat and open with a clear view of Monroe Street.
At four in the morning the street was quiet, but Bubbe went about setting a ward to hide us anyway. Once we had sat in the traditional crescent-moon shape, she circled us, chanting. Back at the moon's tip, she stopped and took a seat herself.
I glanced around the group, realizing this was most likely the first Amazon circle a male had ever attended. Yes, they were infants and didn't understand a word that was being said, but it was still huge.
Bubbe held her staff to the side, one hand wrapped around it. 'I reached out to the council, felt for their energy.' She dug the end of the staff into the earth. 'It was broken. . fractured.'
I frowned. 'Perhaps because my mother-'
'No.' She slammed the staff down. 'It is more than that. Their power. It is broken.' She held the staff in front of her. There was a crack, and the thing split into two pieces.
Mel's eyes found mine. Resolve was there. She'd already known this.
I curled my fingers into the grass beneath my thighs and repeated what my mother had told me, how the council had been divided on what to do about the sons, how the other group had managed to pull those in the middle to their side for the vote.
Still holding the two halves of the staff, Bubbe nodded. 'It is more than that. I sensed. . ' She looked up at the moon and murmured something low that I couldn't hear.
We waited for her to finish her murmuring and go on.
Finally she looked back. 'Another goddess. It is not just the sons over which they argue. It is the goddess herself.'
The goddess? 'But. . ' But the goddess was Artemis. I looked up too. The moon was still in the sky and only five days past being full.
'Some have deserted Artemis.' Bubbe dropped the pieces of the staff. They rolled across the ground.
The others stared at them, afraid and uncertain.
While I wouldn't admit it out loud, I was afraid and uncertain too.
I'd never imagined any of this could happen. The sons, my mother's death, the council taking my position as queen, but to learn some had left Artemis?
Artemis was everything to us. Our safe camps were built on her places of power. Our ceremonies were held at night under the moon. I bore her crescent on the back of my neck. Everything we held dear, everything that made us Amazons, involved Artemis in some way. How could any desert her?
But as much as I wanted to, I couldn't doubt Bubbe. I trusted her, as a person and a priestess. She had no reason to lie, and she wouldn't, couldn't, make a mistake like this.
But what did it mean-to the tribe and me?
I scrambled for a question that would make the answer clear.
'What goddess?' Maybe if I knew this I would understand, but I doubted it. There were many goddesses, but none I could think of who matched the essence of the Amazons like Artemis.
Bubbe pressed her lips together, making her look, despite the difference in years, like her granddaughter Mel. 'I don't know. My tie is to Artemis. I cannot see the other.'
'How. . ' I struggled, trying to think how this would affect us. 'Our talents, they come from the goddess. . Artemis.' It was a statement, one I thought was true, but I'd thought so many other things were true too. Now I couldn't take anything for granted.
Bubbe sighed. The corners of her mouth edged down, pulled by disapproval. 'We are the daughters of Ares and Otrera, a god and our first queen. Our long life, your strength, they come from them.'
Long life and strength. That wasn't much, not when compared to all the other talents the Amazons held.
'All of our talents are part of who we are,' she added.
I relaxed, then stiffened. While I found comfort in the idea that our talents were part of us, that no matter what happened we would retain them, it also meant the other Amazons, the ones who had deserted Artemis, would hold those skills too.
'However. . ' Bubbe ran her fingers down the leather thong that hung from her neck and grasped the tiny stone wolf that dangled from it. 'While we are born with our talents, our worship of the goddess enhances them- especially our magical talents.'
I smiled. 'So these Amazons who have deserted Artemis, they will have lost some of their skills.' It was good news, the best news.
Bubbe's hand closed more tightly over the wolf. She held her breath and for a moment I thought she wasn't going to answer. Then she placed the stone against her lips and kissed it. With it still held in front of her, she replied, 'But their new goddess will bring them more.'
'More? More than the Amazons?'
Bubbe's lips lifted on the sides, a shade of a smile, but still the wire that had started to weave around my heart loosened a tad. She opened her fingers and the wolf thumped into place over her heart. 'More, perhaps is wrong. . different, like the goddess they choose. Each goddess, she has different skills from the next. Artemis strengthens our magic, our use of the wild forces of nature. She looks down on us during childbirth, and helps us to hunt. She attracts us to the woods, and gives us the strength and skills of her chosen animals.' Bubbe's fingers flitted over the stone wolf. 'But another goddess, she would have skills too. If she accepts the worship of these Amazons, she could bestow her skills, like Artemis has bestowed hers upon us.'
'What kind of skills. . stronger skills?'
Bubbe lifted one shoulder. 'I tell you what I know. It depends on the goddess and how she receives these Amazons.'
I clenched my jaw, uncertain again. 'What about Artemis? Could they have her talents too?'
Bubbe smiled, a full smile this time. 'Artemis, she is a jealous goddess. She would not like to share.'
I sat quiet for a moment, letting this new information sink in. Finally I looked up. 'What now? How do we know who is following Artemis?'
How do you identify your enemy when she looks just like you, is you?
