Amazonia

  “The ritual of a knight taking on the services of a squire, dates back to the time of the Prince’s War,” Titan said in his rumbling voice. The Ogri, Lady Alexina, Greywolf, Paulus, and herself, stood upon the weed choked field behind the amphitheater, the plants around them trampled and torn up from the night before. Amazonia stood on one side of Titan while Paulus stood on the other. Greywolf stood beside her as her second, holding the sheathed Rune sword in his hands, while Lady Alexina played the part of the mistress whose household the young man was leaving.

  The sun was barely peeking over the eastern mountains in the distance as Titan laid a large, battle scarred hand on the boy’s shoulder. “This will not be like the ritual your father used. Instead, you will be oath bound to Amazonia’s service by the spirit of Antoninus, who will hold both of you to be faithful to each other until the sword shatters. Knowing that the oath you will swear may bind you to Amazonia for years, are you still willing to go through with this?”

  “I am,” Paulus replied, his voice cracking a bit at the end.

  Titan nodded. “Alexina, have you discussed with him the responsibilities of squire to knight?”

  Dressed in her fighting leathers from the night before, Lady Alexina said, “I woke Paulus well before dawn and we talked. He understands, though you might want to go into greater depth with him.”

  “I will do so. Greywolf, as squire to Asena you understand the responsibilities of knight to squire, even if your knight does not. Have you discussed them with Amazonia?”

  “We talked about them over a mug—” He yawned, holding the long sword’s sheath in one hand while covering his mouth with the other. “Crave pardon, over a mug of Kaffe before dawn.”

  Titan nodded again. Storm clouds hung low in his eyes, which last night’s passion had not blown away, yet his face and voice remained calm as he went on. “Syr Amazonia, draw your sword, then both you and Paulus grasp the hilt.” Greywolf held out the Rune sword and Amazonia drew it, the blade making a ringing sound as it came free. Then she reversed it, and set the tip of the blade point down into the earth. As Greywolf had shown her, Az put one hand on top of the hilt guard and the other on top of the pommel, Paulus grasping the hilt so both his hands were between hers. Titan covered their hands with both of his and began to chant in a strange, guttural language, different than any tongue Amazonia had ever heard. The runes on the black blade began glowing dark red as he continued.

  Then Titan spoke one final sentence and let go. There were no fireworks or flaming sigils this time, only a strange sense of connection between herself and Paulus, different than the bond Amazonia had with her Chaldeans. Instead of being master to her slaves, Az felt like she was the mother and Paulus her son. The boy let go of the hilt with a puzzled expression on his face. “This feels weird, like I’m one of Az’s Wardogs now, or something.”

  “A Chaldean you certainly are not,” Titan rumbled, motioning with his arm towards the rear of the amphitheater. “The life of a squire to a knight, especially a famous one like Amazonia is soon going to be, is much like being on stage. So, we shall sit upon a bench overlooking the stage below and discuss how you can best serve in a supporting role.” He glanced over at Amazonia. “Care to join us?”

  “Troll killed a man last night,” Amazonia replied, pointing at the weathered stone stairs leading down the hill, “and I need to know if anyone’s found the body.” She looked at Greywolf. “I could use your help.”

  “Sure.” Lady Alexina gave them a knowing look and joined Titan, Paulus already peppering the Ogri with questions as they walked towards the amphitheater’s back exit. Greywolf handed her the sword’s sheath and Az slid the blade into its shell of leather and steel. Then she slung its leather strap across her back and started towards the stairway.

  Weeds rustled under their boots as they walked towards the edge of the field. “Heart-felt apology,” Amazonia said, glancing over at Greywolf as they walked. “Troll less trouble if troll for real.”

  Greywolf gave her an amused snort. “Understanding. Acceptance… and reluctant gratitude.” Amazonia gave him a surprised look and he shrugged. “Last night… well, really early this morning in her room, Alexina admitted the original plan was for Eurax to fall madly in love with her, all the while hating himself for doing so as he despises Daemo.”

  “What would’ve happened when the spell wore off?”

  “Eurax would’ve realized he’d been tricked,” Greywolf said with a sigh, “and begun plotting Alexina’s downfall. The funny thing is, Eurax would’ve eventually had her killed, not realizing that death’s what Alexina’s wanted for a really long time… at least, until I came along.”

  Even though the desire to live blazed inside Amazonia like a smith’s forge, in battle she worried less about her own life than taking the lives of her enemies, and could understand how knowing for certain she’d be born anew if she died, could make that worry wither and blow away like dust. But she said none of this as she raised her eyebrows. “Death’s so common among the Daemo that it’s only a crime to kill a female, and even then you only have to pay a fine unless she’s got special status, like Lady Jhadra. I’d think Lady Alexina wouldn’t have any problem if she was serious about it.”

  Greywolf gave her a sour smile. “Try coming at Alexina with a knife and see what happens. She told me that, near the end of the war, one of the Daemo Princes developed a way to craft an incredibly strong will to live in Daemo he thought worth the effort, along with a personality like an automaton’s that takes her over if she’s ever attacked.”

  “Have you ever seen Lady Alexina defend herself?”

  He nodded. “After one of our… performances, a really drunk patron tried to rape her, and before Bron or the other guards could intervene, she knocked him out cold with a kick to the side of his temple.”

  “Now that I would’ve liked to have seen.” As they neared the stairway, Amazonia said, “It’s hard to believe someone has lived for what, thousands of years?”

  Greywolf snorted. “Welcome to my life. Alexina and my mother bump along like a pair of old sisters, but then one of them will casually tell a story about something that happened in ancient Babylonia, for instance. When she wrote the drama, Alexina told me all about the Chaos Dragon and how beautiful she was… at least, until she went insane.” They stopped at the edge of the hill and Greywolf flung his arm out towards the city below. “She remembers when Konstanopolis was just a fishing village.” Amazonia looked out to where he was pointing.

  Amazonia’s breath caught in her throat. One of the rich men who’d paid Lord Paulus gold to have her dominate him, had loved mosaics, with his best ones on the western wall of his courtyard where the rising sun would bring out their colors. She felt as if she’d just stepped into the most beautifully crafted mosaic of all. White buildings with red roof tiles, separated into neighborhoods by dark grey roads, the deep blue of the Great Sea to the west, and the greenish-blue water of the Inner Sea to the east. Near the blade of land dividing the waters, Amazonia could see the Hippodrome, where chariots raced, the golden roof of the emperor’s palace, and the great statue of Jupiter set atop his temple on a hill nearby. The Colosseum and the compounds where gladiators lived and trained.

  Beyond the massive walls guarding Konstanopolis, fat merchant vessels under sail lumbered through the water as a sleek warship, powered by oar-slaves, sliced through the waves as it passed them by. On the other side of the narrow strait sat another set of walls and the Imperial fort, housing the massive iron chain that could close off the inlet from any sea-going invader. Beyond the fort were the provinces south of the Inner Sea, extending to the borders of the Sasnayam Empire to the southeast and Aegyptus, many leagues to the south along the shores of the Great Sea.

  Shielding her eyes from the sun, Amazonia could see the road leading northward along the Inner Sea’s shore, which they would follow until it turned east toward distant lands. She shook her head. “That’s quite a view.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “It is,” Greywolf said, both of them turning so the sun wasn’t in their eyes. “I like to come up here before Asena wakes up, just to have a little time to myself and watch the city come alive.” He sighed. “It would’ve been nice to explore Konstanopolis before we leave, but Asena won’t let me go anywhere without her, and she says she’s seen enough cities to last a lifetime.” He looked at Amazonia. “Have you ever explored it?”

  “Just the markets. Lady Paulus enjoyed cooking and always insisted on being the one who bought the ingredients from the food sellers, so Lord Paulus would send me along with the household guards to keep her safe.” Amazonia chuckled. “Little Paulus would ride my shoulders, chattering away like one of those little monkeys the fortune tellers always seem to have as we escorted his mother on her errands.”

  “And now he’s your squire.”

  Amazonia blew out her breath in a rush. “And now he is. So, how long have you been your mother’s squire?”

  Greywolf shrugged. “Pretty much all my life. Papa explained the details and performed a ritual from the days of the old Xian empire, before Lady Sword-son led her rebellion and started a new dynasty. But without a spirit to enforce the rules, it’s kind of a jest.” Amazonia raised her eyebrows and Greywolf said, “For instance, a squire’s never supposed to keep things from his knight, but Asena would beat me bloody if I told her everything.”

  “Like the ‘performances’ Eurax was going on about last night?”

  To Amazonia’s surprise, Greywolf shook his head. “That’s an open secret Asena pretends she doesn’t know about. Alexina originally thought that when Asena did find out, she’d fly into a rage and kill her, but instead, Asena would get blind drunk on the nights we performed and never say a word.”

  “Did anyone try to tell her?”

  “No one working for Alexina would dare. Asena overheard one of the female Daemo trying to get me to dance the sacred dances with her like I did with Alexina, grabbed the Daemo by the throat, and crushed the life out of her. Everyone of them steered clear of me after that… well, except for Fox, of course.”

  “Fox won’t be a problem now that she belongs to me,” Amazonia said in a rock solid voice. “I’m curious, though. If your mother knew, why didn’t she do something about it?”

  “I’ve wondered the same thing. Bron thinks it’s because Alexina’s the closest thing to a friend Asena’s got. They’re close in age and they’re both warriors, even though they fought on opposite sides of the Prince’s war, and Alexina’s a mage while—”

  “Hold on,” Amazonia said in disbelief. “Are you telling me your mother’s the same age as Lady Alexina?”

  “I think Asena’s older, though I’d never ask her unless I wanted to be cuffed into next week. Alexina told me they first fought together in the last battle against the Chaos Dragon, when Asena managed to climb up on the monster’s neck and distract it long enough for the others to fatally wound it.”

  Amazonia gave him a hard stare. “Greywolf, are you having a jest with me?”

  Greywolf shook his head again. “Papa’s told me stories about those times, the same stories Alexina has, though from a different viewpoint. Those were Asena’s glory days, when she stood nine feet tall and weighed more than the Daemo monsters she fought. Now, the only reason she’s still alive is because papa crafted me in the womb to be a living mana node, so much so that I can charge stones and devices just by holding them for a while. Even that’s not enough anymore, which is why Asena agreed to let Alexina feed off me in exchange for Pook, Asena’s Daemo familiar, letting her absorb enough mana for her needs.”

  “But you’re both leaving.”

  “Asena’s restless. She was born to fight, and even though we spar daily, as she does with Bron and the other guards, she needs to start killing things again. Preferably Daemo, but monsters with mana nodes around their hearts that she can eat are perfectly acceptable substitutes.”

  “I see.” Amazonia hesitated, needing to know the answer to a question but unsure if it was a wise thing to do. “Greywolf, last night after Eurax got stung by the butterfly, he began babbling about you being a demigod—”

  “Shite, don’t remind me. Alexina warned me not to tell Asena and I won’t, because if she finds out, she’ll have me on a shorter leash than I’m on now.”

  “Last night, Fox told me the venom’s effect might last for years if the person was someone the victim already loved. Yet from everything I’ve heard, Eurax doesn’t like men, except for boys turned into females.”

  Greywolf put his palm over his face. “Shite,” he said as he lowered his hand, “this just gets better and better. No, the problem is that Eurax’s obsessed with honoring the gods in his own twisted way, according to Alexina, and the butterfly’s venom has made him delusional. I thought the venom wore off after a month or two, but if it’s years… Shite!” He exhaled sharply. “I asked Alexina if explaining the truth of what I am to Eurax would help, but she told me it wouldn’t matter. He’s got it fixed in his head that I’m part divine and nothing anyone says is going to sway him.”

  Amazonia took a deep breath. “So, what is the truth?”

  Greywolf leaned against the amphitheater wall as he regarded her. “Papa says everyone has their own truth, their own way of understanding what they’ve gone through. I can tell you my truth, which is partly what I’ve been told and partly what I’ve seen, but if you’re a firm believer in the gods, you might not want to hear it.”

  Anger bubbled to the surface of Amazonia’s soul. “You want to know what I think of the gods? Here’s my sacrifice to Jupiter.” She spat over the side of the hill. “That’s as much of an offering as he’s ever going to get from me. They only help those rich enough to give their temples marvelous gifts,” she said, stabbing her finger at the great statue of Jupiter, sparkling in the sunlight. “I’ve seen women pray to Minerva for an easy childbirth, gladiators to Mars for victory in the arena, everyone to Venus for love, Jupiter for justice, to foreign gods no one’s ever heard of, and on and on and for what? None of their prayers were ever answered. Not a single one.”

  “That’s because they’re asking for a miracle, and the god’s High Priest’s the only one who can give it to them… if they want to, that is.”

  “Why? Is Jupiter’s High Priest the only one who can talk to Jupiter?”

  “No. It’s because the High Priest is Jupiter, in a manner of speaking.” Amazonia drew back with her suspicion echoing on her face, and Greywolf said, “Shite, I’m making a dog’s dinner of this. Okay, has Ghost taken you into the Shadowlands yet?”

  “Her name is Fox now, and yes, she did take me there.” Amazonia suppressed a shudder. “That was the strangest experience I’ve ever known.”

  “The deeper you go into the Grey, the stranger it gets. Most of the time we only use it to get from one part of Terra to another part quickly. However, the Grey connects all possible worlds with each other, and if you know how to read the signs, anyone powerful enough can travel the Shadowlands from one world to the next. You just have to watch out for the Shadow creatures.”

  “When Fox took me through the Shadowlands, we didn’t see anything like the flying nightmare that tore her up in the arena.”

  Greywolf gave a start. “Tore her up? I hope she’s alright?”

  “She’s fine, now. Do you know anything about Reaver Knights and their Chaldeans?”

  “Alexina’s told me stories from when she served on the court of Babylonia. Fox… you call her that because she’s got a tattoo of a Fox spirit, right?” Amazonia nodded and Greywolf’s expression became that of someone finding the missing piece of a puzzle. “That explains it. Anyway, since Shadow creatures hate touching the shadow of a living thing worse than a cat hates water, they tend to avoid areas where there’s a lot of people.” Greywolf shrugged. “But every once in a while you get one that heard a gateway being opened and comes to investigate.”

  “Why are there creatures in the Shadowlands in the first place? Are they guards?”

  “I asked papa that same question, and he told me the Shadowlands are their home, which we invade every time someone creates a gateway and walks the Grey. Beyond that…” Greywolf made an ‘I have no idea’ gesture with his arms.

  Amazonia chuckled despite herself. “I imagine it would be a rather boring place without something chasing you. Alright, I’m with you so far, but what in Hades’ name has this to do with the gods?”

  “I’m getting to that. Okay, there are several weak spots on Terra which are very close to weak spots in the Underworld, which are the places the Daemo usually travel to get here.”

  “Because it’s a short trip.”

  Greywolf nodded. “Exactly. Now, beyond the Khitian wastes there’s a mountain range with an enormous plateau where the Ogri live, called the ‘Roof of the World’. There’s a weak spot there which is close to a different world, which humans named ‘The Heavens’, though the Celestials call it something else.”

  Amazonia frowned. “Celestials?”

  Greywolf gave her a sardonic smile. “You know them better as the gods. Celestials are a wildly powerful race of magic users who need mana the same way we need food to survive. Fortunately for them, their world’s one big mana node, which is also why they’re so long lived, and why they’re able to do things impossible for humans, like shift into greater and lesser forms or evolve into gigantic ones like the great Wyrms.”

  “You’ve seen these… Wyrms?”

  Greywolf shook his head. “Asena’s told me stories. Anyway, they’re also intensely curious and strong enough to survive the Shadowlands, so when by chance they discovered Terra, they began exploring.”

  “But you said they need mana to survive.”

  “They brought mana stones with them when they traveled here. Asena told me the Roof of the World has a large, natural mana spring, so it was easy for them to set up a colony and craft the tribe of large ogres living there into Ogri, who became their servants. Then they began civilizing the nearby tribes.”

  “So… the play we saw last night was telling the truth?”

  “More or less. Once the war was over with Terra radiating mana, some of the Celestials decided to stay here and set themselves up as gods over the humans, while the rest returned to their own world.” Greywolf’s face became troubled. “For some reason, the Celestials here and those back on their world have fallen out with each other. Asena won’t say anything about it, but when Wotan kicked us out of Germania for having me, he told her that if she agreed to have me killed, he would find a way to get her back home. Asena spat in his face and told him she’d rather sicken and die here than beg for scraps off their table.”

  Amazonia gave him a puzzled look. “Hades’ hairy eyeballs, why would anyone want you dead?”

  “Because Wotan is afraid.”