Amazon Chief (63 page)

"Go look," I sai
d, "and then we'll put it away. Look closely."

"No."

"Nori," I said.

Nori picked up the hand again and began reaching for Lia.

"All right!" she screamed. "I'll look."

She climbed from her chair and approached the head cautiously, stopping five feet away.

"Oh no, not like that," I said. "Get a real good look." I stepped up beside her. "We won't let it hurt you, Lia." I took her hand. She flinched, but then she squeezed tightly and clutched at my arm with her other hand. I drew her closer.

"Do you see the scales?" I asked.

"Yes," she whispered.

"And the horns. They are so sharp. Can you see?" The tips were well above her head, but she should be able to see how sharp they were. "The demons come in different colors. This one is actually quite beautiful, in a horrible sort of way. Some of them are not so attractive, but they are all fearsome and all very, very big."

She stared for a moment, then said, "There. I looked at it. Please put it away."

"Nori and Omie," I said, "would you put it away please?"

Wordlessly, they took care of it. Maya packed the hands, and then Nori added those to the chest. They carried it away, and I moved Lia back to the bench at the table.

"Why did you show me that?" she asked again.

"Lia, you will never have to fight one of those. You will probably never see one. I don't believe Jasmine has."

"She hasn't," Malora said. "Ralla doesn't take her on patrol."

"Why are you trying to give me nightmares?"

"Because, Lia, we have a problem and I am going to need your help solving it. You will never face one of those, but if your daughters remain with us, they both probably will."

"They're just little girls," she said, barely a whisper. "They have years."

"I know," I said. "I am not worried about them now. But I do not want to teach bad habits that we suddenly must change when they are twelve or thirteen."

"They're doing the best you can expect."

"No," Nori said from the doorway. "They are not."

Lia looked up at her. "You haven't even seen them since we arrived."

"I don't have to. I have never had a new companion do the best she could without more incentive than I bet Beria is applying. Never."

"Maya," I said, "will you tell Lia about your first trip home from Howard's Den?"

Maya nodded. "I'd only been a companion for a few months." She smiled. "Do you remember, Malora? That was the first time you dyed my hair."

"I remember it well," Malora said. "She was a beacon in the night."

Maya told the story. She had told it so many times that she could wrap her audience in the palm of her hand. She took her time and had Lia enrapt long before the story was complete.

When Maya finished, I reached over and turned Lia's chin back to face me. "That is how good I need you. I don't need you good enough to fight demons, but I insist you be good enough to handle bandits. And I need to know you'll be steady in a fight."

"I still train," Maya said. "Twice a day. But they have grown easier on me. A little easier."

"I train!" Lia said. "I don't know why you're angry with me, Beria."

"I'm not angry," I said. "I am trying to impress upon you why for this afternoon's training, we are going to treat you like any brand new companion."

"You haven't been?"

"No," Nori said. "She has not."

"Why do you keep talking as if you've been there, Nori?"

"Beria, am I wrong?"

"No, Nori."

"But-"

"Lia, you're going to be very angry with me later. I have a point, and I am only going to make it once. You do not have to worry this will ever happen again."

"What are you going to do to me?"

"The same things that every Amazon has gone through," I said. "I have one lesson to teach you."

"So teach me."

I nodded. I looked at Nori. "You're still better than I am, but it's my responsibility."

"I am not only the chief trainer for Queen's Town," Nori said, "but for all the Amazons. I believe you should ask me to do this."

Maya whispered something to Malora. I didn't hear what, but then Malora said, "Actually, Chief Beria, I believe I am going to insist it be either Nori or me. I'm sorry."

I inclined my head. "Of course," I said. "I shall urge her in one way, and you in another."

Lia didn't look remotely happy about the conversation.

I turned to Omie and Vorine, sitting quietly together.
"I will be her warrior today. Would it disrupt your training schedule to include her?"

"No," Vorine said. "We're happy to have you." She glanced at the doorway. "People are waiting to come in for lunch."

"Invite them in," Malora said. "If you have questions, Lia, we can answer them later."

Lia turned to me. "Do you expect me to serve you?"

"No," I said.

* * * *

Lia was fine when we began stretching, although her nervousness was evident. Twice I'd caught her chewing her nails, and a third time she had a section of her hair in her mouth.

"How does someone who historically kept her hair so short develop that habit?"

"I am reverting to my pre-teens," she said, pushing her hair away.

Margie, Clara's companion, was leading stretches. "Hush, you two," she said. "Pay attention."

"Sorry, Margie," I said. When Margie asked for another exercise, I looked at Lia then said quietly, "Good. It should feel good."

Lia nodded.

Finally Margie said, "Now we run."

"Bea," Nori said, "Set a pace for the warriors and advanced companions. Omie, will you set the pace for the younger companions?"

Lia turned to me.

"Omie, I wish to offer Lia a wager. Please give me a moment."

"Of course, Beria."

"I'm not wagering with you.
"

"You have said you are trying as hard as you can. If I can prove you are not remotely trying as hard as you can, then I win. I absolutely promise you'll know."

"Fine. What do I get?"

"I will allow Omie to tell you stories about me."

Omie chuckled.

"And if you win?"

"You promise to forgive me by the time we get back to Lake Juna."

"All right," she agreed.

I helped her to her feet, and as soon as Omie saw Lia look at her, she turned and began running, setting an easy pace at first. "Keep up with Omie," I said.

* * * *

"You let them whip me!" she screeched in the stable later. "And now I have to sit a saddle besides."

"Worse, you have to forgive me, too."

Lia glared at me.

"Tell me why."

"The lesson I had to teach you. You thought you were giving me everything. You weren't. You had more in you long after you thought you would collapse if you ran another step. You made it around the field four more times, and then you caught your breath and trained hard with the staff besides. I am very proud of you."

She didn't respond.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes," she spat. "If I had known this was how you intended to treat me, we wouldn't have come."

"I know. And it's not how we're going to treat you. I told you, this was just the once. Everyone else here was treated to Nori's whip for the first few weeks."

"And are you bringing my daughters here tomorrow?"

"No. And I am trying very hard to make sure they have the right habits before they become companions, so they never need Nori chasing them with a whip."

"I don't know what you want from me."

"Two things," I said. "I want you to forgive me. And I want you to help me think of games that will challenge your daughters, so they will apply themselves. I cannot treat their lack of attention like I would four years from now, so we have to head it off other ways."

"Why not wait until they're fourteen?"

"That may be the solution," I said. "But that is as much as admitting I don't believe they will stay."

"Why?"

"If I believe they are going to stay, then I absolutely must do everything in my power to make sure when they see their first demon, they are ready. Lia, do you understand that? Do you want them undertrained? I would think you would want them trained the best we can."

"Of course I do!" she said. "Oh hell."

I smiled.

"Am I forgiven?"

"Yes. Damn it." But she smiled.

"Good," I said. "Will you ride with me?"

"On one condition."

"Oh?"

"Tell me an embarrassing story."

I laughed. "Of course."

"Embarrassing to you, not your sister!"

* * * *

We didn't have all the answers, but we spent the ride thinking about both games the girls could play as well as rewards and punishments. We arrived back at Lake Juna, and I helped Lia down from the horse. She walked oddly for a moment and rubbed her bottom. "It still hurts."

"We have ointment," I said. "Tell any of the companions the demon chased you with a whip and they'll know what to do."

"Does that happen to every companion?"

"In my experience, yes. It may be that other villages have other ways of providing incentive."

* * * *

After that, we made training into a game for the girls, coming up with different games, complete with rewards for doing well. We continued to chase them around the field, and if I caught any of them, they all shared some unpleasant punishment that Lia and I worked out together. I wouldn't have admitted it to her, but it amused me to no end that she was taking punishments she had devised herself.

I grew proud of all three of them.

* * * *

Spring fully arrived. The trees grew green; the birds returned. And it became time to recruit companions.

I had planned to go with Maya this year, but I sent Glorana, Frida and Yalta instead, remaining behind to keep an eye on everything at Lake Juna.

White Pine sent the materials they had promised. Several large wagons arrived at Howard's End. Maya arranged for delivery, and we received enough supplies for two new huts and a note from Rora that she would come build them after the recruitment drive.

In the mean time, I did my job. I went on patrol. I made a trip every few weeks, checking on the villages and making sure the villages were coordinating with each other. Of course, they were. From time to time, this village chief or that village chief's companion would mention something to me, something I knew was really for Malora's ear, and so at least until the spring recruitment drive, I returned to Queen's Town periodically to talk to Malora.

A few chiefs were at odds with their neighbors, and those I soothed, trying to prevent uncomfortable relationships from becoming increasingly sour. It was sometimes a difficult line to walk. Usually, both village chiefs had valid complaints about the other. Occasionally, one chief was being unreasonable, and the other had grown tired of being the one to give way.

I did the best I could, and Malora expressed pleasure in how I did.

Glorana, Frida and Yalta returned with a woman of twenty-two or twenty-three. Rahna was sweet and kind but hopelessly clumsy.

"We know she'll never be a warrior," Glorana said. "We'll have to leave her here when we go on patrol. But she caught my eye, and these two-" she gestured to Frida and Yalta, "like her too." And so I found myself gently training four young companions.

I made Glorana take her to Queen's Town a week later. Rahna refused to talk to Glorana for two days afterwards, but she applied herself to her training, and I learned later Rahna had forgiven Glorana.

Lia
and I pranked each other. I wouldn't say it was incessant, but it was steady. Some stunts were definitely new to me, but I knew she'd been talking to others for some of them. She dyed my horse's mane pink long after I had returned my hair to black. Nori had once dyed Malora's horse, and when I asked if she'd heard that story, she admitted she had. But she didn't confess to having dyed mine. She never admitted to any of her pranks, but I knew it was she doing them.

I woke one morning and found the door to my hut wouldn't open. The door was made to open inward, and she had run a practice staff through the handle and tied it so it stayed in place, spanning across the frame of the door from the outside so I couldn't pull the door open. I had go to out the window in back, and when I dropped to the ground, I found she had spread brambles all around the back of my hut.

That one actually made me a little angry, and I had to calm down before deciding what I would do in return.

One day she stole my bedding. Another day she left my horse in my hut. I don't know how she managed that.