Amazon Chief (5 page)

"You take these little boats out onto the ocean?"

"Sometimes," she said, "but we have bigger fishing boats. They are anchored." I pointed. "It's a dark night, but maybe you can see them."

She looked out across the water.

"I see them," she said. She turned to me. "Why aren't there any waves? I thought the ocean always had waves."

"It does," I explained. Then I told her about the cove. "If you listen, you can hear the waves breaking against the rocks, but it's a mile and a half away from here." I pointed towards the mouth of the cove, and we could see the line of white breakers.

Omie looked for a while. "You go out there?"

"My father and brothers do. Sometimes they take Mama and I, on nice days, but the men think it's bad luck to take a woman fishing. I think the bad luck is they're afraid we'll catch bigger fish."

Omie laughed. "Your sister fishes in the river. She calls our fish small, but they taste good." She looked out over the water. "I think I would be terrified out there."

"Can't you swim?"

"I can," she said. "But that's a lot of water, and it smells funny."

I took a sniff. It smelled normal to me. I didn't say anything. Instead I asked, "Do you know how to skip rocks?"

"As a matter of fact," she said, "I do. My father taught both my sister and me a long time ago."

We both turned to the rocks, looking for small, flat ones we could skip. I found a good one and was pleased when I got two big skips followed by a bunch of little ones before the rock sank.

"Good one," Omie said. She threw her rock, but she did it wrong, and it just made a big splash. "Oops. I thought I knew how."

I found a rock for her and explained why it was a good skipping rock. Then I showed her how to hold it.

"I think mine was too round," she said. She threw it and got a couple of skips. We each found a few more rocks, laughing together as we skipped our rocks. I was a lot better than she was.

"I guess tonight you are the trainer," she admitted.

"There's a bench at the end of the pier," I said.

"Let's go," she replied. I led the way. Once we were on the smooth planks of the pier, she stepped to my side, not quite touching, but I put my hand on the back of her neck, and a moment later, I felt her hand on mine.

It wasn't a long pier. Sometimes there were ships tied along the side, but today there were just a couple of the fishing boats. They had probably arrived late in the afternoon and hadn't had time to anchor before all the excitement from the Amazons. We walked to the end, and I pulled Omie down onto the bench next to me.

"Did you need to hold me?"

"I don't need to hold you," she replied. "But I would like to, if that's okay."

"Sure," I said.

She turned partway to me and pulled me into her arms. We leaned together, our heads touching. She found one of my hands and laced her fingers in it, and then I felt her other hand at the back of my neck again.

"This is what a companion does?"

"Yes," she said. "This is your most important duty, followed closely by training."

We sat and talked; we talked for a long time. Omie answered all my questions, and I felt she was being honest with me. After a time, I ran out of questions, and we grew silent.

"Beria," she said after a while, "I have some of my own questions."

"All right."

"You understand you would have to obey me."

"And Maya, Queen Malora, and Nori."

"Yes," she said. "And the punishments for misbehavior may be much worse than you've experienced before."

"Would you beat me?"

"I wouldn't want to," she said, "but depending upon what you did, I might not have a choice."

"Father once beat Dannick with a belt," I said. "Like that?"

"What did Dannick do to earn a beating?" Omie asked.

"He took Chandor out in a skiff. That would have been okay, but they left the cove. A squall came up."

"Who is Chandor?"

"My little brother. He was six at the time."

"It was dangerous?"

"The boat swamped from the waves, and the only reason they didn't both die is because Nathano told Mama where they had gone, and Mama and Maya had to go out in the storm and save them."

"Where was your father?"

"Out at sea, riding out the storm. It wasn't a big storm."

"Your big brother foolishly risked your little brother's life. Did you think the beating was unfair?"

I thought about it. "I don't know," I admitted eventually. "I've never seen Father so angry. Dannick was screaming he was sorry. But when it was over, Father and Mother both pulled both of them into hugs, and I saw they were both crying."

"It isn't usually good to administer punishment when you're that angry," Omie said. "Anger clouds the judgment. But if you ever did something as dangerous, the punishment would be about as severe, maybe worse."

"What if it's an accident?"

"Like what?"

"Spilling a glass of milk."

"We don't have milk," she replied. "No cows. But if it were truly an accident, then you would be expected to clean it up. If you damaged anything, you would be expected to either fix it or in some other way make up for it. That's not punishment; that is taking responsibility for your own mistake. Do you want to know the things you're most likely to be punished for? Or perhaps the things I have been punished for?"

"Sure," I said. I smiled. "Were you naughty?"

"Sometimes," she admitted. "Offenses are of three basic types. The first is just not doing your best, especially during training. For those, there isn't punishment so much as more training. It's all designed to make you a better warrior."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"Don't get me wrong," she explained. "I love training. Most Amazons do. But sometimes it's really hard, and we do a lot of things we do because we know it's necessary, not because we like it."

"Like math problems."

"Yes," she said. "Like math problems. The second type of offense comes from being disrespectful."

"Talking back?"

"Yes."

"Would you hit me?"

"No, although if you are sufficiently disrespectful to Queen Malora, her punishments can be severe. No, I wouldn't hit you. I would volunteer you for particularly unpleasant chores. If the behavior continued, the chores would become even more unpleasant. If you were disrespectful to Nori, she would punish you on the training ground. If you were disrespectful to your sister, she would load you with duties you wouldn't like."

"I don't like Nori," I said.

"I didn't realize you knew her," Omie said.

"We sort of met last year." My tone was frosty.

"Last year?" Omie said. "Oh. We were desperate. Malora and Nori had admitted to your sister that was done poorly and have both apologized. You should ask Maya about it, but she has forgiven both of them. And you can see, she is now running recruitment. Maya and Nori have become very close.

I thought about it but didn't answer immediately.

"You should talk to your sister," Omie said. "You got a skewed view of Nori. She's tough, but she's fair and deeply respected."

I thought about
the other things Omie had said. "Sometimes I fight with Maya."

"There is fighting with her as a sister and there is fighting with her as the senior companion. Did you fight with her at school?"

"No!" I said. "I don't want to think what she would have done to me if I had."

"So you understand the difference?"

"I guess."

I thought about it some more. It didn't sound any different than at home. There was always some adult telling the kids what to do, and if we didn't do it, we got into trouble.

"There's one more type of offense, Beria," Omie said. "There is willful disobedience."

"What does that mean?"

"Deciding to be naughty."

"Oh."

"But you wouldn't be intentionally naughty, would you?"

It was a serious question. It was tempting to just say, "No," but I realized that probably wasn't entirely true. Instead, I said, "Not very often."

Omie laughed. "Yeah, me too," she said. "Beria, you will get caught, and you will get punished. You won't like it."

"I suppose not," I said after a moment. But I decided that wasn't very different than here, either. I admitted that.

"Would you obey me?" she asked.

"Yes, Omie."

She turned to me and smiled. "I would train you very hard. You wouldn't always like it."

"But it's important."

"Very important, and I'd try to make it as fun as I could. Maya hates it though."

"If she could learn it from a book, she would like it more."

"And you? Do you like learning from books?"

"It's okay," I said. "I think I'd like to learn to fight." I grinned. "I'm taller than Maya."

"Yes, and taller than me. Don't get too cocky about it."

Just then, I yawned, immediately covering it up.

"It's late," she said. "I should take you home."

"I thought you were going to show me what it's like to be an Amazon."

She cocked her head. "Your parents are going to worry about you."

"Maya said she would talk to them."

"Well then, did you want to camp out with us tonight?"

"Yes!" I said. Jumping to my feet. "Will there be a bonfire?"

"I don't know," she replied. "Maybe a small fire, but everyone was at the dance, so they may all go straight to their beds. And I suspect you'd be ready to sleep, too." She stood up, and together we turned back to shore. We walked to the square, and we could see the dance was winding down, but there were still a number of Amazons around as well as a few of the townspeople. I didn't see anyone of my family. Omie led me to the paddock next to the stable. She turned to me. "Can you ride in your dress?"

"I've never been on a horse."

"We'll go slowly, and I'll set my cloak across the horse for you, to protect your clothing."

I smiled and nodded.

"Wait here," she said. "In the future, this would be one of your duties, but perhaps not while wearing your best clothing." She turned away from me and entered the stable, then a moment later I saw her enter the paddock carrying a saddle and blanket. She sorted through the horses, finding the one she wanted. I watched as she prepared the horse then led him to the gate. Making sure the other horses didn't get loose, she pulled her horse through the gate and over to me. She handed me the reins then slipped out of her cloak and spread it across the back of the horse so it hung down one side.

"You'll need to ride side-saddle," she said. "It's not going to be very comfortable, but it's not a long ride. I'll climb up first then pull you up."

I nodded. She climbed onto the horse and took the reins from me, laying them over the horse's neck. I stepped to the side of the horse, and Omie leaned over, hooking me with an arm. She lifted, and I realized she was a lot stronger than I would have expected someone of her size, as she set me right in the saddle in front of her, sitting with both my legs hanging off the left side of the horse. She wrapped her arms around me and said, "Get as comfortable as you can."

I squirmed around and leaned against her, wrapping an arm around her neck to hang on.

"Ready."

She clucked to the horse then pulled him in a circle. A moment later, we were walking down the road heading east, out of town.

* * * *

Omie had been right. There weren't any fires, but I heard women talking quietly from inside their tents. Omie let me down, then she climbed from her horse and saw to his needs before turning to me. We hooked arms, and she pulled me through the camp, arriving at one of the tents.

"This is mine," she said. "I share this with my sister. There is room for up to four, if they're a little friendly."

"All the tents look alike," I said, "except that one." I pointed to one tent, much bigger than the others."

"That's Queen Malora's," she said.

"And Maya's?"

"Yes, and your sister's. Did you want to see if they're awake?"

I shook my head.

"Vorine?" Omie said. "Are you here?"

From inside the tent, someone said, "Yes."

"Are you alone?"

"No, but come on in. We were talking."

Omie stepped to the front of the tent and opened the door. "Climb in and sit down," she said. "Take your shoes off and leave them near the door. It will be very dark inside. Vorine, can Beria borrow one of your shifts to sleep in? Mine are too small for her."

Vorine chuckled. "Maya has been by. There's a change of clothes for her sister in here, including some sort of pajamas and a pair of boots."

Omie gestured. It was awkward, but I slipped into the tent, being careful of my clothes, then turned around. The tent had a floor, and it felt clean, so I sat down and took my shoes off, searching around with my hands until I found other pairs. I set mine with the others.