Attack of the Amazons (10 page)

At once a cry went up from Sarah. “No, Queen Faya, you can't do it! He hasn't done anything.”

“One must die to save the village. That is the way it is,” Queen Faya said heavily. She got to her feet and hobbled off with her crutch. Her husband followed, trying to reason with her. But the queen was stubbornly set on this thing. “We must let her have her way with one, or she will have them all,” she said.

The other Sleepers watched as Wash was taken away to be imprisoned.

“We can't let them do it, Josh,” Dave said.

“I know, but what can we do?”

A silence went over the group until, strangely enough, Jake, the least combative of all—except perhaps for Wash himself—said, “We can kill that tiger.”

“We don't know anything about hunting tigers,” Josh said. Then he nodded. “But I guess we can learn. Come on, let's go tell the queen.”

They could not get in to see the queen immediately. When they finally were admitted, she was resting on her bed, and obviously her leg was paining her. Chava and Merle were at her bedside.

“What do you want?” she asked. “I cannot spare the life of your companion.”

“We do not know your ways well, Your Majesty,” Josh said, “but we have come to offer you our help.”

“Your help? What can you do?”

“We can kill the tiger.”

Faya stared at them, then laughed harshly. “You do not know these tigers.”

“We had tigers in our own world.”

“The tigers of Fedor are not like other animals.” She reached back over her shoulder and pointed to the robe that she wore at ceremonial functions. “Have you ever seen claws like those?”

The Sleepers leaned forward to see, and Reb said with a choked voice,
“I
never saw claws like that!”

They were enormous claws, at least four inches long. Such a beast would weigh seven or eight hundred pounds and be almost impossible to stop.

Then Josh thought of the many times that Goél had spoken of courage and of love for one another. He said slowly, “If we all die saving our friend, so be it, but we claim the right, Your Majesty.”

Princess Merle's eyes grew wide as she heard what Josh had to say, but she said nothing. She turned to her mother to see what the answer would be.

The room was silent, and Queen Faya was silent for so long that everyone grew nervous. She looked at her husband, who nodded slightly, then she turned to the Sleepers. “Courage is what we value most. But you cannot kill the tiger. Our whole village has gone against these beasts before. You see this leg? It was well and strong as the other, but that day the tiger killed seven of our people and ruined my life forever. I can no longer lead my people in battle,” she said. “You are young and inexperienced. It's certain death for you.”

“Nevertheless, we will go.” Dave's eyes locked with Princess Merle's, and he smiled coldly. “We will see what we can do. We owe Goél our lives, and if death comes, why, so it comes.”

“I like that very much,” Faya said surprisingly and smiled at the tall young man. “It might well be said by a warrior queen. You shall go against the tiger. Lay your plans well. You may choose any weapons. For the time being, your friend will be free.” She fell back then and closed her eyes.

The Sleepers bowed, turned, and left. As soon as they were outside, Josh said, “Well, we got permission. Now all we have to do is get that tiger!”

J
osh managed to endure the hardship at the house of Marden and her daughter, Ettore—but only barely. He was usually sore from a caning, and he worked long hours. After the football game, Ettore had turned more vicious than usual, and nothing he could do would stop the torment. Sarah did the best she could to stand between the two, but she had little power.

Once Marden herself expressed surprise at the hardness in her daughter. “If you don't like this Josh, why don't we sell him? You can keep the girl for a handmaid if you like.”

“No, I'm going to break his will. He's going to do what I want him to do sooner or later.”

Marden narrowed her eyes. “I don't think so. I've seen a few like him in my time. This one—even though he's lean and young—has a hard core of determination in him. You may kill him, but I don't think you'll break him.”

The two were alone, and it was late. The slaves and servants were all in bed. Ettore seemed nervous. Finally she said, “Mother, the queen is growing weaker all the time, and everyone knows it.”

“So what of that?” Marden said carefully. “My sister is older than I, and naturally she is weak. It's a wonder she's alive, after being mauled by that tiger.”

“Sooner or later she will die, then
you
will be queen,” Ettore said with a crafty smile. “When you're the queen, I will be the princess.”

“No, if the queen, my sister, died, Merle would be Queen Mother of Fedor. You know that.”

Something crossed Ettore's face, and she remained silent for a while. “But if something happened to Merle also?”

“Then I would be queen. But what could happen?”

“Many things. Warrior maids die all the time. A tiger could take her, or a bear, or a snake. She might be killed or captured in battle. Oh, I wish she—” She broke off suddenly, but her mother read her thought.

“You wish she hadn't escaped the clutches of Ulla and the Londos. I've thought of that myself. But she did.”

“But there'll be other battles. You're not satisfied with the way your sister rules, are you, Mother?”

“She's too soft and weak. She listens to that husband of hers too much. When your father was alive, he knew his place. You didn't catch me asking
his
opinion on anything,” she snorted.

“You'd make a wonderful queen,” Ettore said. “So firm and strong.”

“I've always felt I could rule Fedor better than Faya, but I've never had the chance.”

The two talked long into the night.

For several days after the discussion with her mother, Ettore thought of little else but the possibility of becoming a part of the ruling family of Fedor. She was a quick-witted young woman with a streak of cruelty in her. She waited until late one night and spoke again to Marden. “I have a plan, Mother.”

“A plan for what?”

“If we're going to rule this country, we can't just wait for it to happen. Merle is young. She'll last a long time after her mother dies. We have to—take steps.”

Marden's eyes clouded. “What do you mean, ‘take steps'?”

Ettore leaned forward. “I know the queen, and you know her even better. What would happen if Ulla and the Londos attack the tribe?”

For a long moment the older woman thought. Her eyes narrowed, and she said, “I see what you mean. Faya is crippled, but she would not be left behind. She would have herself carried into battle.”

“And she would not last long, would she? She would be unable to fight. An arrow or a sword would take her.”

“Of course, that's right, and that daughter of hers would die rather than leave her.”

“Exactly. You see what I'm getting at. Ulla took many losses during the last war, but he would come again if he thought he had a chance. What we have to do,” Ettore whispered, “is to make him come.”

“What would make him do that?”

“We could get word to him that the tribe is weak— that many of the warrior maids are sick.”

“That could bring him all right—” Marden nodded slowly “—but could we win?”

“We are stronger than Ulla thinks. We would be waiting for him. We could have him come into the valley, and we'd put the queen in the forefront, where she will surely want to be. She would be surrounded by Princess Merle and some of her most valiant warrior maids. But we could arrange things so that Ulla knew this. He would throw his full strength against that point. Then—” her eyes glittered in the semidarkness “—after Ulla kills the queen and her daughter, we'll come against him with our full strength and defeat him. Then we can take over all of Ulla's land. You would rule
over two kingdoms, but you would appoint me queen of one. We could rule together as queens.”

Ettore knew that, underneath, her mother was a greedy woman. Marden had resented her sister's preeminence for years. Now Ettore was offering a way to turn things around.

“It would be wicked to do this thing,” her mother said slowly.

“But Queen Faya is an old woman. She must die soon in any case. All we are doing is seeing that Fedor has proper leadership. That brat of a daughter of hers could never lead anything! Underneath all her bluster she's a weak woman. She's romantic—I've seen it. Why, she's half in love with that slave! What's his name? Gaelan! Everybody knows it, though she tries to keep it covered up.”

For a long time Ettore talked earnestly, and finally she felt a surge of triumph as her mother came slowly to her side.

“Very well,” Marden whispered. “I will see that Ulla gets word of our so-called weakness. We will have one of our number pretend to be a betrayer. Lika would be a good one. She's shifty enough to pull it off and is a good actress.”

“Make sure she understands and that we know when Ulla is coming. And make sure she leads them to come through the valley by the river. That way, when Ulla has killed the queen and the princess, we can overwhelm him.” She leaned back and laughed softly. “I'm going to enjoy being queen,” she said. “I think I was born for it!”

Reb and Wash did their best to stay out of Tanisha's way. Wash found that fairly easy, but the chubby young woman seemed to have an unerring ability
to dig out Reb, no matter how well he hid himself.

In desperation the two went on a wood-chopping detail. They volunteered mostly to get away from Tanisha. They were accompanied by a guard, an older woman with a stern face. She carried a bow and said, “If you try to run, you won't get far.”

Reb looked out at the trackless jungle. “Run where?” he asked. “Come on, Wash, let's start cutting wood.”

When it started to grow dark, they loaded their short lengths of wood onto the cart and started back the half mile to the village. The cart trundled along, creaking. Pulling it along, the two young men spoke seldom, for they were tired.

Reb was thinking, with disgust, how Tanisha would greet him. “She doesn't want to be a warrior,” he muttered. “She wants to be cuddled, and that's something I can't set out to do.”

Wash grinned. “She's a pretty big gal to be cuddled.”

“She's all right—not mean like Ettore or some of these other women—but it's just not for me. What do you think—”

Suddenly their guard let out a sharp cry.

Reb had time only to turn. He saw a huge animal covering the ground in what seemed to be impossible leaps.

“It's a tiger!” Reb yelled. “Run, Wash!” He broke into a sprint, and the small black boy was right beside him.

“We can't outrun that thing. I never saw such a tiger—did you see the teeth on him!” Wash gasped.

Reb risked a glance backward. The tiger was at least twice as large as any tiger he had ever seen in a zoo. Beside that, he had two enormous tusks in his
upper jaw. “A saber-toothed tiger, that's what he is! I didn't think there was any of them left!”

Then he had no time to talk. The two of them ran with all their strength.

Reb was sure the tiger would get them. He risked one more look.

He saw that the warrior maid had stood her ground. She had notched an arrow to her bow and got off one shot. It struck the tiger in the haunch but did not seriously hurt him. He uttered a mighty roar, and then while the poor warrior maid was trying to notch another arrow, he was upon her.

She uttered a shrill scream that stopped abruptly, and Reb saw with horror that the tiger had probably killed her instantly. He picked her up in his powerful jaws and dragged her off into the trees.

They raced back to the village gate and yelled. It opened immediately. When the gatekeeper demanded to know where their guard was, Reb gasped, “The tiger, he got her! He's out there!”

“I know what this means,” Wash said. “That old witch is gonna want to kill somebody.”

“I reckon that's right,” Reb said. “And that means tomorrow we go huntin' tigers!”

T
he death of the warrior maid brought the matter of a sacrifice into fine focus. Naturally, Mita and several of her close companions petitioned the queen.

“You promised we would have the sacrifice. And now we have lost one of our own. It's time to give Maug a sacrifice.”

Sadness was on Faya's face. She looked over to the Sleepers and said, “You must now fulfill your word. Either you kill the tiger, or one of your people dies.”

Mita said instantly, “Give us the young girl. She will please Maug better than the small male.”

Abbey turned pale, for Mita's long bony finger was pointed directly at her. She could not say a word, but she looked plaintively at Dave.

He spoke up at once. “We will kill this tiger for you, my Queen, and we will do it tomorrow.”

Faya looked at him with admiration. “It shall be as you say, but I do not think that you will succeed.”

The Sleepers filed out, and as soon as they were outside they saw that a sizable crowd of men had gathered.

“What will you do?” Gaelan asked.

“We will go do battle with the tiger,” Josh said.

“Take me with you,” Gaelan begged. “I can pull a bow as well as most.”

“No, this is something that we must do for ourselves, although I thank you for your offer.”

Gaelan looked disappointed but said no more.

Then Rolf walked up. “I will go with you, although I am no warrior.”

Josh said warmly, “That is a wonderful thing—that you would be willing to risk your life for strangers.”

“I think we are more than that,” Rolf said. “We are friends, aren't we?”

“I'd like to think so,” Josh said, and he took the prince's hand. “But you know your mother would never permit it. It's almost certain death the way they tell it, but we have faith in Goél.”

These were brave words, and a hum of admiration went around the men of the village. The Sleepers heard more than one man say, “These are bold young people, indeed! They are warriors themselves.”

However, when the boys were inside the hut where they were to sleep before the tiger hunt in the morning, Josh was not so confident.

“Tell us about that tiger,” he said to Reb and Wash.

Reb was usually not afraid of anything, but he was respectful as he said, “He's a big varmint, Josh. He runs faster than a race horse, and if we miss, we're dead. That woman got off one arrow. Why, he killed her before you could bat an eye! She never had a chance.”

“But there'll be five of us,” Josh said. “Surely one of us can get an arrow in him.”

“We better,” Wash said slowly. “He's a mighty big old tiger—and what's more, I got an idea there's more than one of him.”

“What do you mean by that?” Josh demanded.

“I mean he's got a mate, ain't he? I don't know whether that was a male or a female, since he wasn't wearing skirts or pants, but where there's a male there's a female, and where there's a female there's a male. Ain't that so, Reb?”

“I think Wash may be right, which makes it twice as bad.”

“Well, we've got to do it, no matter what it is. So we ask for our weapons, we sharpen our arrows, we make sure our bowstrings aren't frayed, we get our swords in shape, and then we sleep.”

Dave nodded slowly. “That's right, Josh. We'll do all we can do. That's all Goél's ever asked of us.”

At the name of Goél, the room seemed to grow warmer, and Josh felt his presence in a strange way.

After they'd gone to bed, he heard Wash whisper to Jake, “You know, I just sort of feel like Goél is right here with us.”

“Yeah, I know. I feel the same thing. I'm scared a little bit, but not as scared as if I didn't feel like Goél was going with us somehow. I wonder how he does that?”

“I guess he's just Goél. He helps them what believes in him, and I sure think we better believe in him tomorrow.”

At daybreak Gaelan saw that the entire village was up to see the Sleepers as they prepared to leave. The seven all carried weapons. Their swords were sharp as knives after being treated all night. Each shouldered a quiverful of arrows with razor-sharp tips, and they all had put on new bowstrings.

As they started to march out, Gaelan noticed Princess Merle, standing near the gate beside her father. He moved closer to her and said, “They look pretty good, don't they, Princess?”

Merle stared at him. She swallowed hard and said, “Yes, they do.”

“I offered to go with them, but they said this was something they had to do for themselves.”

“Why—why did you offer to do that? They're all going to be killed.”

“They are my friends. And the small woman, I feel sorry for her.”

“You really would be willing to risk your life for Abbey?”

“Why wouldn't I risk it for a fellow human being? You'd do the same, wouldn't you?”

Merle stared at him for a moment longer, then shook her head slightly. “I never risk anything for anybody,” she said bitterly.

“That's too bad,” Gaelan said, surprised that he had seen emotion in this girl he'd thought to be so hard. “Maybe they'll make it back. I hope so.”

“So do I,” Merle murmured.

He saw that she was tremendously moved. “I'm surprised to see you take it so hard. I didn't know you felt like that about things.”

“I guess I have feelings like everybody else.”

“I see that now. You never showed them to me before.”

Merle whispered, “I didn't know I had them myself.”

She walked away.

Gaelan thought,
She's got a heart behind all that armor. I'm surprised to see it.

“Spread out now,” Reb said. He was leading the group as they approached the timber where the tiger had disappeared. “Don't get close together. If we're in a clump, he might get us all. But if we're spread out, he can only run at one at a time. Everybody watch him, and don't shoot too soon. As a matter of fact, you remember what that soldier said on Bunker Hill during the American Revolution?”

“He said, ‘Don't give up the ship,' didn't he?” Jake grinned.

“No, he didn't! He said, ‘Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.'“

“That wouldn't make any sense,” Jake argued. “Some people could see better than others. They could see the whites of their eyes half a mile away, some couldn't see 'em ten feet, and some of the eyes wasn't as white as others either. Why, they'd have been shooting all over the place. That's dumb!”

“Well, that tiger doesn't have anything but meanness in
his
eyes, and he'll be on you before you know it. So don't get in a hurry. Better one arrow well shot than two that miss.”

“What if two tigers come at the same time?”

“Then everybody to the right of Jake there, you take the one on the right. Those of us over here will take the one on the left.”

“Do we shoot for the head?” Josh asked.

“No,” Reb said quickly, “that's too hard a shot. I'm telling you that thing moves like a freight train! He's almost as big too. Try to hit him right in the chest. That won't kill him, but it'll slow him down. And when he slows down, we can drive some more arrows home. It would take a pretty good shot to hit him in the heart, which is the only thing that'll stop him. All right, let's go.”

Then he halted and said, “By the way, in case this doesn't turn out too good for old Reb—” he grinned broadly “—I want to tell you, you been a good bunch of cowboys. I'm right proud to have been one of you.”

“That goes for me too,” Josh said.

And all of them bashfully spoke their last farewells —or what might be their last words.

The grass was waist high, and they knew that the tiger could be hidden until they were very close.

“Watch for any grass moving,” Josh said.

Even as he spoke, Wash said, “Look. Over there. To the right. I think I saw something.”

Sure enough, though there was no wind, and most of the grass was standing still, off to the right a small section of it was moving.

“Heads up,” Reb said. “I think—” He broke off and yelled, “Here he comes!” He gave his Rebel yell, then drew back his bow to a full pull.

Every eye was on the tiger charging the right side of their line. But then, almost immediately, another tiger sprang up and charged the left.

“Remember,” Reb yelled, “we'll take this one—you guys on the right take the first one.”

The tigers seemed to double in size with every leap. It was impossible to get a steady bead as they bounded forward, but Reb managed to cry, “Hold on, now. Let him get closer!” And then he yelled,
“Now!”

The tiger to the left was no more than thirty feet away, charging straight at Reb.

He released his arrow and reached over his shoulder to get another. He knew he would never have time to beat the speed of the tiger, but he vowed to die trying. He saw his first arrow strike the tiger low in the chest. The beast faltered and missed a step. Then another arrow took him, this time low in the flank, and Josh yelled, “I got him!”

But Reb was not listening. He fitted another arrow.

The tiger was no more than ten feet away and still charging when Reb released his second arrow. He did not have time to see where it went, for he was bowled over. He smelled rank cat smell and ducked his head as
the animal swerved. He expected to feel the gigantic teeth crunching on him at any time and thought himself no better than dead.

A mighty blow struck his shoulder. He went rolling in the dirt, but he held onto his bow despite the pain. When he came to his feet, the tiger was clawing vainly at an arrow that had struck him in the throat. Quickly Reb notched an arrow and, ignoring the pain in his shoulder, drew a careful bead. This arrow struck the beast in the left side, right behind the foreleg. The tiger turned to snap it but then fell, clawing at the ground.

“We got him!” Jake yelled. “We got him!”

Reb turned then to the right and saw the other tiger mauling one of the Sleepers, and his heart lurched. He saw also that several arrows had penetrated the animal's hide. “Come on,” he yelled, “let's put that one down!”

Jake and Wash were quickly fitting arrows. And then Reb realized that it was Josh who was being mauled. He uttered another Rebel yell as he notched an arrow and ran in close.

The tiger saw him and released the limp form of Josh, which flopped like a rag and fell to the ground.

Coolly Reb drew his bowstring back, and when the huge beast opened his mouth, he let the arrow fly. His heart gave a leap as the arrow struck the tiger directly in the open mouth. Other arrows penetrated him, and soon he lay still.

Reb threw down his bow and ran to Josh. He saw that his friend's shirt was bloodied, and he pulled him up to a sitting position. Jerking the shirt back, he saw four bleeding furrows across the boy's chest.

“Are you all right, Josh? You're not going to die on me, are you?”

Josh made a face and looked down at his bloody chest. “No, but I was ready to quit before he was.”

Reb laughed and hugged him. “You son of a gun,” he said, “let's get that bleeding stopped. We gotta wash that out. Them tiger claws is bound to have poison in them.”

“You got clawed yourself. Look at your shoulder there,” Dave said, running up. “Here, let's get both of you cleaned up.”

He opened their small kit of medical supplies and carefully dressed the wounds of the two boys, while Wash stood over one of the dead tigers.

“I wish we had us a camera. I'd like to cut his old head off and mount it on the wall,” Wash cried.

“I imagine we'll get the skins. I never saw such beasts,” Jake said. “Let's go back and tell 'em that the Sleepers have done produced.”

Dave pulled out the knife that Josh had given him for his birthday and opened it. It caught the sun as he marched over and proceeded to cut the tails off the two dead animals. “And here's proof,” he said. “Can you fellows make it?”

“Sure,” Josh and Reb said at once. They were on their feet now, although both of them were pale. “Let's go back and show those women what men can do.”

The victory of the Sleepers over the tigers shook the village as nothing short of an earthquake could have shaken it.

When they came back carrying their trophies, the village men ignored the cries of the women and rushed out to where the tigers lay. They skinned the beasts, and now the pelts were posted on the walls of the stockade. The heads were mounted on sharpened stakes. And the village hummed with talk.

Ettore and her mother, Marden, viewed all this with distaste. “It looks like Mita's not going to get her sacrifice,” Ettore said bitterly. “I wouldn't have cared if the whole bunch of them had gotten killed. They're going to be nothing but trouble.”

“Don't worry. We'll see that they don't survive the battle that's coming. We'll instruct some of our best archers to make sure they don't survive.”

After the victory celebration and feast, Josh and Dave quietly passed the word so that a number of the men came to meet with the Sleepers secretly. Among them, to everyone's surprise, was Rolf.

Josh turned to him when all the men were gathered. “Rolf, I don't want to be unkind, but maybe you don't need to be at this meeting.”

“Why not, Josh?”

“Because things are going to happen, and you may not like some of them.”

Rolf was a quick-thinking young man. “I know what you're planning,” he said calmly. “You think it's wrong for the women to rule the village the way they do.”

“That's right,” Dave answered before Josh could speak. “And I have nothing against your mother. She's been a good queen, but she's sick, and she's not able to lead anymore. And your sister is not able either. And there are some power-hungry people out there. That means that sooner or later someone will kill her to get the throne.”