Battle For Tristaine Part 22

Brenna had seen death. Not a lot of it. She hadn't been working that long, but she'd seen it. She'd even seen violent deaths during her interns.h.i.+ps, and the death of children. This was unlike any other deathwatch she had ever attended.

It was peaceful, for one thing. There were no life-sustaining measures underway, no alarms, no intercoms that screamed protocols. Camryn was dying in a quiet s.p.a.ce, surrounded by women she loved. She wasn't free from pain. Even as Brenna watched, she stiffened for a moment in Kyla's arms. But those moments didn't happen often. Camryn was almost ready to die, and her pain was ebbing along with her strength.

Brenna saw that Vicar, Hakan, and Jesstin all wore similar expressions, a kind of restrained grief. She recognized it as the stoic mask Amazon warriors always wore when their sisters died in battle.

Elodia was the only woman in the circle who cried. Her tears were soundless, but she clasped Camryn's hand and prayed-a soft, subterranean fl ow of musical Spanish.

Kyla's ashen face was a study in control. She held Camryn with gentle strength, stroking her hair and murmuring to her occasionally. Brenna gazed at her, remembering that Kyla had lost her innocence when her blood sister Dyan was murdered. Tonight, she would leave the last of her youth behind.

Finally, Jess cleared her throat. "Anything else, Cam?"

There was a pause before Camryn answered, and the weakness of her voice told Brenna how very close she stood to the doorway.

"I'm sorry to leave." Cam's unfocused eyes found Kyla's brown ones above her. They fi lled her sky now. "Bye, Kyla. You be good."

* 169 *

"I love you." Kyla sobbed once, but only once. She wanted to be able to see and hear Camryn while she still lived.

"Me you back, adonai." Camryn rested for a moment. Then she focused on Brenna and grinned. "Thanks."

"Thanks?" Brenna lifted Camryn's cold hand to her knee.

"For what, Camryn?"

"You can call me Cam. For saving Jess like you did. You were great, Bren."

"Okay," Brenna whispered.

J'heika, rise.

"Give me the Queen's Blessing?" Cam asked Brenna.

"What?" Brenna didn't know who she was asking for information, Cam, or that spectral voice in her head.

Camryn spoke again, with effort. "Give me the Queen's Blessing, j'heika."

Camryn closed her eyes, and Kyla stroked her brow.

"Who is J'heika?" Vicar asked Jess, but Jess shook her head, puzzled.

"None of us can give the Queen's Blessing, mi amiga."

Elodia's callused hand lay on Camryn's blanketed leg. "But you know Shann will send you a Blessing from the new Tristaine.

We'll get our lady out of this, hija, and we'll avenge you. You have Elodia's promise."

"Elodia." Across their circle, Hakan stirred. "Never speak of vengeance at a warrior's deathbed, little sister. You'll be cursed."

"But she should know-"

"The Queen's Blessing on your journey, Camryn," Brenna said softly. Jess and the other Amazons all stared at her. She ignored them and laid the palm of her right hand lightly at the base of Camryn's throat.

"You leave us too early, little sister. The few seasons we had with you were much too brief. Our hearts are breaking, Cam."

All the energy in the stable, possibly all the energy in Tristaine, condensed and spiraled down to illuminate a small s.p.a.ce, occupied only by Brenna, Kyla, and the dying warrior they comforted. No one could see this energy, but Brenna's deepest instinct recognized it as * 170 *

the granting of the Queen's Blessing.

"But along with grieving for you, Camryn, we'll honor you." Brenna smiled, and her eyes overfl owed with tears. "You gave your life in defense of your clan. You're a warrior worthy of Kimba's mantle, and you'll be remembered around our storyfi res for generations. Now, close your eyes, honey. Let your adanin tell you good-bye."

Brenna's spirit glowed with a grat.i.tude that was almost sacred, and she suddenly realized that was how an Amazon queen bid farewell to her fallen warriors. The gaze of the Amazons around her felt like warm beams touching her skin. Gradually, the women focused on Cam again and started saying their own silent and fi nal farewells.

"You'll fi nd our mothers waiting to welcome you," Brenna promised Camryn, "with a warm fi re in the hearth, a platter of venison on the table, a fl agon of cold mead in your hand, and the embrace of lost sisters to warm your heart. Camryn, daughter of Louisa, walk with Kimba. She'll lead you home to the real Tristaine.

We'll see you again there."

"Thanks," Camryn murmured. Her eyes opened wide a last time. "Samantha's alive, Brenna."

Brenna felt as if she were waking from a long nap. She couldn't speak.

Jess leaned forward. "Are you sure, Cam?"

"Yeah. Brenna's sister is alive."

"But how do you know, adanin?" Jess asked gently.

"I'd see Samantha here, if she was dead." Camryn smiled at them and closed her eyes. "Because I can see Lauren now..."

Camryn relaxed in Kyla's arms. Brenna's palm measured the fading of her valiant heart as it faltered and stopped.

O.

Dana stood against the wall and s.h.i.+vered with a weariness that was tinged by nausea. She tried to stifl e the latest in a series of jaw-cracking yawns.

* 171 *

The Amazons had been quiet since they covered the warrior's body with a blanket and carried it to lie in state beneath one of the stable's barred windows. Maybe some of the prisoners slept, because no one had stirred for hours.

Kyla sat beside the blanketed body of her life-mate, her face in her hands. She seemed to be praying, though Dana couldn't hear any words, just soft s.n.a.t.c.hes of song. She had offered to bring the girl some hot tea, but Jesstin had politely turned her down.

Now Jesstin sat in the shadows and watched over Kyla. She got up every hour or so and made a slow circuit of the stable, checked with the Amazon on watch, and made sure the others slept. Then she would fade into the shadows again.

Brenna was the only other prisoner who sat apart from the others. She sat on the woodplank fl oor, in the one meager pool of light offered by their portable generator. She'd written in that spiral notebook nonstop for the past three hours.

Dana pushed herself off the wall and went over to a stack of Army blankets. She unfolded one, then went to the railing and draped it over Brenna's shoulders.

It wasn't that Brenna didn't notice Dana's gesture. She did feel and appreciate the blanket's sudden warmth, but she hardly glanced up.

O.

It's almost dawn.

I've caught up on everything that's happened since my last entry. From freezing on the ridge-that had to be months ago, but it was only days-to tonight, Camryn's death.

I don't know why Shann wanted me to write all this. If she was hoping I'd vent some pent-up emotion, it's not happening. I can't let myself think about Cam right now, or even about helping Kyla survive this loss.

Jess can't focus on anything but what comes with morning, either. In a few hours, she's got to get everyone through this last fi ght alive.

* 172 *

Then, somehow, we have to get Shann and the rest of us the h.e.l.l out of this valley.

Then-please, Gaia, only then-we have to use the remote detonator to set off the dynamite, destroy the dam, and fl ood the village.

And we thought yesterday sucked.

I'm sorry, whoever is reading this, I'm not being fl ip. I'm just scared and a little sleep-drunk. I don't know about Theryn's fi ghters, but we haven't had decent rest in days. Jess isn't sleeping now, I can tell, and she was already running on a long sleep defi cit.

I've got to talk to Shann. Who is this "Jaheeka"? No one here knows. This goes on my list of questions to ask Shann, unless we both drown. It will come right after, "Was Cam's death my fault?"

I don't know why I believe Theryn when she says she didn't know Patana was going to attack Jess. For that matter, I'm not sure why I believe Theryn never told Caster about the dynamite on the dam. Theryn's done nothing to earn my trust. Somehow it relates to that all-or-nothing, Good Amazon/Bad Amazon mind-set being wrongheaded...

But I told Jess I thought Theryn was telling the truth. I just don't know how we can use that.

O.

As Brenna closed the notebook she caught a glimpse of unfamiliar handwriting. She opened the journal again and read the lines Shann had written on its last page. She studied the map beneath Shann's entry, then gasped loudly when Jess touched her hair.

"Easy, la.s.s." Jess lowered herself to the straw and winced as her arm draped across Brenna's blanketed shoulders. "We're still sneaking up on you, eh? You look cold."

"So do you." Brenna rested her head against Jess's shoulder.

She was aware of Dana and the other City soldiers, but their presence felt immaterial. She slipped the journal into the inner pocket of her jacket and zipped the fl ap.

* 173 *

They sat quietly for a while. They couldn't possibly say everything they both needed to say in these brief moments of privacy, so they chose the more primitive comforts of silence and touch. Jess scratched Brenna's scalp through her tousled hair, and Brenna snuggled more deeply against her.

Then she remembered Jess's painful wince she had seen earlier and sat up again. "Oh, d.a.m.n. Sorry."

Jess blinked at her. "What? I'm okay."

"Well, I've learned that's a relative concept. Apparently an Amazon thinks she's 'okay' if no one's yanked out her liver yet."

Brenna smiled and rested her palm very lightly on Jess's side, close to the taser's mark. "How's this?"

"Sore." Jess adjusted her shoulders against the railing behind them.

"Anything else that I can't see in this light?"

"I'm just real stiff." Jess caught Brenna's probing fi ngers gently in her own and held them to her lips. "Rest a while, Bren."

Brenna sighed and settled again against her shoulder. "I need to get you someplace I can look you over, Jesstin. Hakan and Vicar too. They both took some pretty bad hits today."

"We all did, querida, body and heart." Jess rested her cheek in Brenna's hair. "Kyla's taken the worst strike."

Brenna closed her eyes. "How is she?"

"How Shann was, I imagine, right after we lost Dyan. How either of us would be."

Brenna s.h.i.+vered. She squeezed Jess's waist a little.

"You did save my life, la.s.s. I thank you for it."

Brenna nodded. "Cam forgave me, didn't she?"

"Aye, she did."

"All right, Amazons, everyone up." Dana's voice was low, but still jarring in the dawn stillness of the stable. "You'll be given a chance to wash, then you'll be fed. You need to be ready for the arena in two hours. Move sharp, please."

O.

* 174 *

Time started to telescope.

In the middle of the fi ghting fi eld, Shann's warriors, led by Jess, waited in a rough semicircle, just as they had the day before.

Theryn's Amazons, led by Myrine and Patana, faced them from their position below the review stand.

Caster, Theryn, and Grythe sat in the stand with Shann and Kyla and two armed guards.

The cameras were all manned and ready.

Dana was watching her soldiers, and, judging from her expression, she shared Brenna's fears about them. The City mercs looked wired, as if their nerves were drawn tight as bowstrings.

The one difference between yesterday and today only increased Brenna's anxiety. The lower level of the stadium was fi lled with Amazons. Caster had ordered that every woman loyal to Shann's rule be brought in to witness this fi nal war game.

Brenna saw Constance, Kas, Opal, and Teresias, four members of Tristaine's high council, cl.u.s.tered at one end of the risers.

DeLorea and the thirty other Amazons who had been imprisoned in the warrior's barracks were s.p.a.ced along the other side of the stadium.

More Amazons required more soldiers so, in effect, every human being in the village was in the arena or guarding its perimeter.

If tension could be made visible, Brenna knew she would see sheets of it s.h.i.+mmer in the air around her.

Then Caster stood up, and time lurched sickeningly back into place.