Amazon Queen

soft. 'The damage isn't bad, puncture wounds only. I expected much worse.'

'Because it was a wolverine?'

Her eyes unreadable, she replied, 'Because it stopped you from doing your job.' Then she strolled from the clearing.

With a growl, I followed.

Amazons had owned the safe camp since the area was settled. We-not me, being in my nineties, I wasn't born yet-built the farmhouse not long after.

When Thea and I arrived at the house, the yard was empty. Thinking everything was under control, not knowing we had lost the child yet, the Amazons had gone about their normal tasks. It was approaching time for dinner. The hearth-keepers would be in the kitchen. The warriors were exercising the horses in one of the lower fields, and the one artisan staying with us was off doing whatever artisans did. . drawing or carving or something.

'Do you have a plan for retrieving the baby?' Thea asked.

Her voice startled me. I wasn't used to being questioned, not even by the high priestess. But Thea wasn't Alcippe, our old priestess; she was younger, probably used to being bolder and sharing more responsibility in how a camp was run.

That, of course, didn't mean I had to answer. Especially since the answer was no. I had no idea how to find the sons now. And even if I did, I was fairly certain getting the baby back this time was going to be a lot harder.

And I wasn't sure how much time we had. But after talking to the son in the woods, I had an idea why they wanted the child. . revenge, pure and simple.

Payback for every son an Amazon had killed or maimed in the past.

Chapter 3

I stayed up most of the night, pacing outside. I had gathered the tribe as soon as they had returned to camp from their various tasks. It had been awkward telling them we had lost the child, that the two sons had stolen her back, but they deserved to know.

There had been a few dark looks darted from face to face, but that was it. No one questioned us. It wasn't their place. They knew if their assistance was needed, Thea or I would tell them. Until then they were to just go about their regular lives.

After the circle broke up, I'd stayed outside. . thinking, wishing I could go back in time and stop what had happened.

I tilted my face up to the sky.

The moon was full. Artemis was strongest at the crescent, on the sixth day of the new moon. That was when I could count on being filled with her fierce energy, but any night the moon was in the sky, I felt her. And tonight I needed her.

The baby was back in the hands of the sons. I didn't know how long they'd had her before we rescued her the first time or exactly what they had planned for her, but knowing they had her, could put in place whatever scheme they had at any moment, ate at me.

I wanted to rally the tribe and race out to defeat them. Problem was, I had no idea where the sons might have gone. The council had given Thea the address in Beloit. I had put in a call to my contact, Kale, when we got home, asking for more assistance, but calls to council members went to voice mail, and mine had yet to be returned.

I stared up at the moon for a moment longer, praying Artemis would look down on me and gift me with some skill to find the sons and save the child.

But I knew it didn't work like that, knew Artemis had already gifted me with all the skills I could expect to have. New ones didn't just drop down from the trees.

So if I wanted to find this baby, I would have to find the talent to do so inside myself.

I just hoped for the child's sake that wouldn't take too long.

After only a few hours of sleep I awoke later than normal, but still early. I checked my wounds before leaving bed.

I'd discovered a second injury on arriving home last night-a bloody slit in my thumb. It throbbed a bit this morning, but was obviously nothing to be disturbed by. I spared a glance at it before moving on to the bigger concern-the bite on my leg.

As I pulled off Thea's makeshift bandage, I saw she had been right. There were four distinct puncture wounds, two seriously deeper than the others, but none dangerous to me or my leg.

And none nasty enough to explain the pain I had felt when I stepped into the clearing. The incident was already fading from memory, though. . perhaps it hadn't been as bad as I recalled. I was tense at the time. That amount of anger and frustration could easily have amplified my reaction. I was calm now, though, and ready to find the sons.

I left the wound open to the air. It would heal quickly. I could already put weight on my leg with no pain, and I didn't need a bandage as a reminder of what had happened.

I left my room and stepped into the hall. There were sounds coming from the kitchen-the hearth-keepers fixing breakfast and preparing goods for the farmer's market in Madison, Wisconsin, in three days. It was a weekly event during the summer for us. Technically everything sold at the farmer's market was supposed to be a Wisconsin product, but we weren't big on technicalities, and a small piece of land the tribe owned in northern Wisconsin provided a convenient address for the paperwork. Marketgoers knew us as Amazon Farms, and they loved us. Who wouldn't?

I personally didn't frequent the market; Lao handled it and handled it well. I seldom went to Madison at all.

But Thea had said the bird last night was heading north. Madison was north, as were the only two sons I knew how to find. I'd met both of them in the fall, or seen them at least. We hadn't exactly sat around the fire and exchanged war stories.

One worked for my friend Mel in her tattoo shop as an artist. The other, his mentor, was an older man confined to a wheelchair. His handicap was the result of the old Amazon ways, when we still killed or maimed our sons to keep them from becoming threats.

If the council didn't call this morning with a new direction, searching out whatever sons I could seemed a sensible step. So a trip to Madison would clearly be in order.

First, though, I needed to track down my new high priestess. I walked through the living room. Except for the two threadbare couches and a few dirty coffee mugs and plates, the room was empty. The front door, however, stood open.

Thea stood in the yard with her hands raised above her head. Her hair was wet and her dark curls glistened in the early-morning sun, but it was the expression on her upturned face that stopped me. Her eyes were closed, as you would expect with the sun streaming down on her, but she still looked rapt, like she was soaking in the rays, recharging, growing stronger before my eyes.

For some reason, I found the idea disturbing. I stepped onto the porch.

Most of the other occupants of the house had formed a half circle around the new priestess. When I walked out the door, they turned faces filled with curiosity and a bit of wariness toward me.

I suddenly felt out of place-as if I'd stumbled into something uninvited, but that was impossible. This was my camp. I was queen here and had been for over a decade. Despite the fact that many of the Amazons present were newcomers to this house, I was the one steady factor. Their expressions were unfathomable.

Unless someone had told them something to make them doubt me, to question my reliability. I scanned their faces, looking for any sign of censure.

Thea dropped her arms and turned. 'The queen joins us.'

The words were innocent enough, but there was something about Thea's tone that caused my body to stiffen.