Amazon Moon (10 page)

"Slowly an awareness grew in me. The priests said all the money was for the gods, but the deities didn't spend it. Only the priests did, living like kings on the profits from our bodies. I began to see them as bordello operators. We consecrated women were little more than their whores. I came to think that gods had nothing to do with the temple.

"Occasionally we were ordered to join an orgy with priests, who gave us jewels and called us their pets. By then I saw religion as a scheme for money, sex and power over others.

"From other temple prostitutes, I learned of the two vines that guide runaway women to the Amazons. With another young consecrate, my best friend, I fled one rainy night, carrying bags of food. We reached a riverbank and thought we had succeeded in escaping. But we heard slave-hunters pursuing with dogs. My friend was cornered by the tracking dogs. She was shoved down into the dirt, bound hand and foot, and carried away. But I jumped into the stream, swam across, hid under foliage, and eluded detection.

"At night I followed the secret route of the two vines, and today I am a proud Amazon."

RACHA

"As the only black-skinned Amazon, I am unique in the group. The War Queen always chooses me to slip up behind caravan guards in the night, nearly invisible. It is a mission I have performed often.

"I am a Nubian from the upper Nile Valley. As a child I was happy in our village—until armed slave traders raided one day when I was eleven. They killed everyone who resisted capture. I saw my father felled by arrows as he fought back with a spear. My mother, brothers, sisters and I, along with many other villagers, were bound together and herded into a barge that floated down the Nile. At a port near the delta, we were separated and stowed in the cargo holds of ships heading for slave markets.

"I was brought to Greece and sent to a camp of slaves digging iron ore at a pit north of Delphi. Many of us wore yokes on our shoulders, carrying wooden buckets of ore from the pit to waiting wagons. Years of the gruelling work made me stronger, tougher, harder—and determined to break free. From older slave women, I heard of the two vines that mark the secret pathway.

"We women bathed each evening in a creek by the camp. Male guards gathered to view our nakedness. Repeatedly they seized a dripping woman, held her down on the grass, and raped her. I was the object of such treatment several times.

"One evening at dusk, a lone guard with a drawn dagger accosted me behind bushes. He commanded me to lie down and spread my legs. I pretended to submit. He removed his clothing and climbed atop me. In the blink of an eye, I seized the knife and plunged it into his heart, holding my hand over his mouth to stifle his outcry. I pulled his naked body into the bushes and donned his clothing, strapping on his weapons. From the corral I took one of the horses that pulled ore wagons, and rode off into the twilight.

"I rode all night, hid in woods during daylight, and joined the horse in drinking from creeks. Eventually I found a house with two vines. Although the matron of the home had never seen a black person, she sheltered and fed me for several days, then told me how to reach the next sanctuary on the northbound escape route.

"The long journey to the Thermodon Valley required three months and many stays at two-vine homes. Finally I found freedom in the secret village of the Amazons."

THEBA

"My mother was a concubine to the prince of Thebes, and she named me for the city. I grew up in the palace among the prince's many other children. He often coddled me on his lap and told me I was a little beauty.

"But when I was fourteen, the prince died abruptly—poisoned, it was said, by a rival cousin who subsequently gained his throne. The new ruler purged the palace of the old prince's favorites. Mother and I were sent into slavery along with others. We found ourselves on a galley laden with people in bondage, heading north to the slave market at Philippi. From women in the steamy hold of the vessel, I learned of the covert escape route, the homes with two vines.

"As our ship passed a protruding peninsula, another girl and I decided to swim for freedom. When no guards were in sight, we dived overboard and paddled with all our strength. Behind us on the boat, I heard shouts as archers shot at us. My companion shrieked as an arrow pierced her. I dived underwater and stroked until my lungs nearly burst. When I surfaced, the other girl had disappeared and the galley was moving into the distance.

"I reached shore, hid in the forest, and found the safety of the two-vine pathway like others before me."

OLANDRA

"As you can see, I am the most battle-scarred warrior, having lost my left hand and right ear in a clash with Greek soldiers. Because of my impairments, I am excused from combat training and raids. Instead I usually am assigned to dress as a man and serve as horseback lookout on high ground along the Black Sea, watching for caravans or military brigades. While posted there, I try to avoid contact with outside people, especially residents of Balaris, the small port city at the mouth of the Thermodon. But at night I often visit the house of two vines at the outskirts of the community to learn of happenings that I may relate to our colony.

"Unlike most of our group, I was born in this Amazon village. My mother was Alize, a master archer who could shoot from horseback at full gallop. As I grew, she trained me until I was as skilled as she. After I became a warrior, we were inseparable, riding and fighting side by side.

"We met tragedy one night when I was seventeen years old. In a small troop of eight, we attacked a camped caravan of wagons, expecting only a few ill-trained guards. But to our surprise, twenty burly Greek soldiers were sleeping fully dressed under the wagons. As we charged in on horseback, we saw them scramble into the light of campfires, seize weapons and fan out to fight. We were outnumbered and driven back.

"The largest soldier, a giant as big as Hercules, hurled a javelin that plunged through my mother riding beside me. She looked at me imploringly as she fell from the saddle. I went mad and galloped wildly at the giant, flailing my axe. He deflected my chop with his shield and swung upward with his sword, clipping off my ear. I didn't even feel it. Then he struck again and I saw my left hand fly away, still clutching the reins.

"In shock, I galloped a short distance, then fell off my horse into deep grass in the dark. Lying on my back, I frantically gripped my wrist to stop the bleeding. I heard the giant tell a young foot-soldier to take a flaming torch from a campfire, go to where I lay and finish me with a spear.

"In a daze, I saw the approaching flame and the face of the youth. He stood over me with the torch in one hand and his raised spear in the other. I held my breath and awaited death. The young man, about my own age, stared intently into my face. I'll never forget his look of distress. Then, with a flourish, he plunged the spear into the sod beside me, pulled it out, wiped it on his tunic tail as though removing blood, and rejoined his companions.

"I lay deathly still in the dark, hidden in the tall grass. I was so blood-covered that I could have passed for a corpse if another soldier had come to check on me, but none did. The Greeks had driven off the Amazons. I heard the men shouting commands to hitch up horses and get the caravan moving, without waiting for daybreak. After a while the noises faded.

"At dawn the small Amazon troop returned to the scene of our failed raid. I heard mournful calls as they found my mother's body and the corpse of a young Amazon killed by a Greek arrow. The latter had fallen face-down into a campfire and had been left to char as the soldiers marched away. I shouted and the women came to help me. They tied a strap around my wrist, found my strayed horse, and lifted me into my saddle. The bodies of my mother and the charred young Amazon were put into a shallow grave and covered with flat stones.

"Our trip back to this hidden valley was bitter, full of grief and agonizing over our failure to perceive the danger before attacking. In subsequent days, the Amazon council debated ways to obtain more accurate information before raids.

"As I slowly healed in my maimed form, I grieved for my mother and hated her killers. Yet I couldn't forget that some Greek soldiers have enough compassion to spare the life of a wounded girl."

* * *

After I transcribed these tales onto parchment, I pinned the sheets to my classroom walls for my pupils to read. To show off their new skills, some students carried the sheets to the evening bonfires and read them aloud to the gathered Amazons, drawing applause and cheers. I was proud of my trainees.

Privately, unknown to the village, I also began writing my own personal story, the saga of Melos of Aegolus, hiding finished sheets in a box of supplies.

13

During a break from her duty at the shepherd cottage, Litha returned to my reading class. Seeing her again stirred warmth in me, and she felt the same. She lingered after class, inventing excuses to ask about written letters and their sounds in spoken words. When we were alone, she touched my arm, looked into my eyes and gave me a stealthy kiss. We both knew that we belonged together.

The next day, Litha went to the Home Queen and asked if she could have me in bed. The queen smiled indulgently and approved. Further, Hella freed us both from a day's work so we might share a brief honeymoon in Litha's room in the novice building. It was at ground level, making it easy for me to reach as I limped on my cane.

It was the most wonderful time of my life, and of Litha's. As she disrobed and reclined on her pallet, shamelessly displaying her slender body with tipped-up breasts, I was transfixed. Kissing, touching, caressing gave us fever. When I penetrated her, enchantment engulfed us. Our bodies fit wonderfully. When we were too exhausted for more lovemaking, we clutched each other and talked, sharing inner thoughts.

Thereafter we were inseparable. I still was summoned to Amazon beds on nearly half of nights, but all the rest I spent in Litha's room. Fatigue from field labor vanished when I took her in my arms. When we embraced, it felt as though mysterious current flowed between our bodies. As she grew accustomed to me as her lover, her body responded naturally. When I touched her intimately, she sucked in her breath and murmured, almost in pain. As passion grew, she became silent and tense, then shuddered in a release that left her quivering with small spasms. Afterward, we lay limp in each other's arms.

* * *

Like her older sister, Litha spoke Greek with an accent. As we lay together at night, naked in the lamplight, she told me her life story:

"In the land of the Slavs, my family was unusual. Of course we were not nobles, but neither were we serfs like most people. My grandfather had cleared a small valley and the local prince let him keep it, as long as he gave the prince a yearly share of his crops. Eventually the valley was divided into separate farms for my father and his brothers. I had eleven brothers and sisters. My mother was forever pregnant, producing baby after baby, even as she worked from daylight to dark.

"We all worked intensely. Father often said that being masters of our own farm, instead of being serfs to a noble, made us labor harder. Father made us feel a spirit of freedom.

"I was ten years old when Macedonian Greeks invaded Slav lands. We first heard about the war as the prince rode through our valley with his guards, taking all the young men to be soldiers. My three eldest brothers were eager to fight. They said they would be heroes in a mighty adventure. My father needed them as farm hands, but said nothing because he dared not oppose the prince. We never saw my brothers again.

"Later, visitors to our valley told of Macedonians massacring Slav defenders. Fear hung over us. We worried for my older brothers. As a precaution, Father stocked an urn of grain and another of water in a hillside cave behind our farm, preparing a possible hideout.

"One afternoon my uncle galloped on his horse to warn that Macedonians were approaching. Our whole family—Father, Mother, Mitha, me and six smaller children—ran to the cave. But hiding was futile. The soldiers found our ox still hitched to the plow and the cooking fire still smoking. They knew we had fled only moments before. Scouts searched the countryside and found us. We were dragged out into the sunlight and held at swordpoint.

"I was small, with no breasts, so the soldiers ignored me. But Mitha, the oldest, was less lucky. Her body had bloomed. One soldier held her hair as others ripped off her clothing. While the rest of us cringed and sobbed, they shoved her to the ground and raped her repeatedly.

"The tall Macedonian commander arrived and began sorting the spoils of conquest. He wore an extra-long sword, which he stood against a tree. We children were placed beside it. Those taller than the sword—Mitha, me, and two younger brothers—were led aside to be slaves. Those shorter were pushed back to my parents. The commander could not speak our language, but his meaning was clear: my parents could keep four tots too small to work, but we tall children were now booty. The commander was like a fisherman keeping big fish and throwing back small ones. The soldiers also took our cows, pigs and grain to feed their brigade and its prisoners.

"The four of us were tied together with leather straps and led away. We could hear Mother crying behind us as we were marched down the valley. That was the last we saw of my parents and little brothers and sisters.

"Soon we met other soldiers leading my cousins from other farms. Since young Slavic men had left the valley, the Macedonians seized taller children and young women. When we cousins cried out to each other, soldiers pointed swords at us and we fell silent. We were marched downstream to a larger valley, where we were put into a stockade with many other captives. It was the first time I had left my home valley.

"The Macedonians gave us food—produce stolen from our own farms—then marched us further downstream to the Great River. There we were forced to help build large rafts of logs tied together with vines, our transport into slavery. The task took two days, and we slept at night on the riverbank. When the rafts were ready, we were loaded aboard with bags of food.