DeLorea made a rude noise. "You proposed this same truce the last three times this council met, Theryn. I can only thank Gaia that Shann and our sisters are back. Lady, this Amazon hoped to force her pact down our gullets before our messenger falcon even found you!"

"Lorea," Opal reproved.

"It's all right, little sister. DeLorea speaks truly." Theryn looked both grave and serene, if such a combination were possible.

"We all know I had no luck in persuading Dyan to hear me in this matter last year. We all know our queen is opposed to negotiation with the City, as are Jesstin and Camryn. Yes, I hoped to sway the rest of you to consider it before they returned, for one simple reason."

Theryn strode into the fi relight and turned quickly, so her cloak swirled around her. "I'm trying to force Tristaine's survival down your gullets, sisters! I am desperate to avoid bloodshed! And frankly, it appalls me that none of you-"

"You're desperate for a power base, Theryn," DeLorea spat.

"Peace, adanin." Shann touched DeLorea's arm, and the uneasy murmuring that started to rise in the group faded.

Brenna tried to catch every nuance of expression in those seated around the fi re. Various shades of emotion were refl ected in the faces there, ranging from worry to foreboding to banked anger.

"Higher education and personal prosperity do not make me a villain, DeLorea." Theryn looked at Brenna again, as if for support.

"Amazons, hear me! This can be done. I've worked with City contacts for years. I can deal with one Government scientist!"

"But to what end, Theryn?" Shann asked. "The concessions required for any pact with the City are unthinkable."

* 114 *

"With all respect, lady, the destruction of our home should be as well." Theryn's eyes fl ashed in the fi relight. "Washing Tristaine from the face of the mountain can hardly be a suitable alternative to compromise!"

Jess shook her head. "Death is preferable to enslavement, Theryn."

"Enslavement? Jesstin..." Theryn fi lled her lungs slowly.

"The City wants to incorporate our village. Period. Yes, our goods would be taxed. We would be subject to some Government laws.

But our clan would survive, adanin. We could even thrive!"

Theryn knelt beside Constance. "Sister, the garments turned out by your weavers are st.u.r.dy and warm, but think of the glorious tapestries your women could produce if we had access to City textiles! Kas, imagine the creative output of Tristaine's artisans, stocked with real oil paint supplies and decent-"

"The City couldn't possibly offer lovelier colors than our painters mix themselves, Theryn, from plants nurtured in Opal's gardens." Kas threw Brenna a friendly look. "Tell me, little sister, is Theryn correct? Do the fi ner arts fl ourish in the City?"

"Well, there's the Federal Youth Symphony..." Brenna bit her lip, thinking.

"You miss the point, Kas."

"No, Theryn, our gentle artist is right on target." Jess stood.

Brenna's nerves stretched another notch. "The City has nothing Tristaine truly needs. And under its law, if they chose to enforce it, we would have no queen. We could be forcibly segregated by race and cla.s.s, as the City's Boroughs are."

"That's ridiculous, Jesstin. Of course they won't expect us to emulate-"

"We'd be denied free worship." Constance folded her arms.

"That alone leaves nothing to discuss."

"I'm afraid I agree, Theryn." Opal's tone was compa.s.sionate.

"I still can't see any mix of Amazons and a Federal Government ever working."

"Shann..." Theryn turned to her. "I appeal to you, lady.

Reconsider, for all our sakes! I am confi dent that if I'm allowed to * 115 *

negotiate with Caster, I'll be able to secure an agreement we can all live with."

"You have outstanding skills in diplomacy and commerce, sister." Shann rose, forming a triangle with Jess and Theryn that spanned the storyfi re. "But I fear your personal ambitions might be shading your judgment."

Theryn's face fl ushed, and for a moment she couldn't speak.

"Lady...Tristaine needs a queen with vision now, capable of seeing beyond the immediate crisis. Please, be that queen!"

"I've looked into Caster's eyes, Theryn. I must guide Tristaine by what I saw there," Shann answered.

Brenna saw a ripple of unease move through the others as Theryn pressed on.

"Shann, all my sisters, you must listen to simple reason!

Amazons have always demonized anyone outside our all-holy clan, isn't that true? Just as today, Tristaine's old guard demonizes the City." Theryn lifted her hands again. "We're not waging war with ancient barbarians anymore, adanin! Citizens are not monsters or enemies! We're dealing with an educated, advanced people who can offer Tristaine endless bounty. Technologies undreamed of in our-"

"The City imprisons its rebels, Theryn." Jess's voice was dangerously mild. "It outlaws free expression. It restricts travel, marriage, reproduction. Citizens are arrested for owning the wrong books, for violating midnight curfew-"

"Jesstin," Theryn snapped. "Tristaine would hardly be subject to cur-"

"Their Government executes hundreds of political prisoners every year." Jess stepped closer to Theryn. Brenna saw the set of her wide shoulders, and her internal alarm rose higher. "They fi ll slave camps with dissidents. They a.s.sa.s.sinated our queen's adonai and my best friend."

"Jesstin," Brenna whispered. She'd seen that odd light in Jess's eyes only once, in the Clinic, before she attacked Caster. She felt Camryn's hand brush her leg.

* 116 *

"I still stink of the City's Prison," Jess continued, "and its Clinic. I would shed my blood, and that of every warrior left to us, to keep Tristaine free of that stench. And at our lady's bidding, this council will raze our village to the ground, Theryn, before letting Caster set one foot on Amazon land."

"Enough, sisters. I've reached my decision." Shann waited until Theryn and Jess returned to the risers and sat down.

"There will be no truce with the City. We will defend Tristaine against Caster's attack, whether it comes in one week or three. Then, before we rejoin our clan, we'll burn the village, to keep its spiritual legacy intact." Shann spoke with quiet strength.

She smiled at the silent circle of Amazons. "Our council is closed, adanin. Sleep well."

O.

Brenna stared at the pitched ceiling of the dark lodge and played with Jess's fi ngers. Her head rested on her muscular arm. She found batting Jess's fi ngers around helped her think. She knew Jess was awake, because her breathing hadn't deepened yet to the slow rhythm that usually lulled Brenna as well.

But sleep was far from her mind at the moment. She was fi lled with an energy that hummed with anxiety and something else as well-remnants of the muted exaltation fi rst inspired by Shann's address to the village. It would be a while before Brenna recognized this feeling as a sense of belonging.

"Hey," she whispered.

"Yes'm."

"Why did both you and Shann say we'd burn Tristaine down before letting Caster have it? I thought we're all doomed to die horribly in a big fl ood."

Jess yawned. "Not everyone needs to know about that dynamite, la.s.s."

"Ah." Brenna played with Jess's fi ngers some more.

"Camryn's really young, Jesstin."

* 117 *

"She's seventeen." Jess stretched her stiff back, following Brenna's thinking without effort. "Older than I was when Dyan named me her second."

"Yeah? Dyan saw your potential way back when you were a stoned toddler?"

The moonlight fi lling the small cabin glinted off Jess's teeth when she smiled. "If I named Hakan or Vicar my second, it would be like choosing myself, Bren. Cam has the grit to make a great warrior, but she's of a different weave than us. Not as strong as Vic, but faster. She's smarter than any warrior I've known, save Dyan.

And her courage...the kid's got the heart of a d.a.m.n lion."

"She does. You're right." Brenna smiled too, remembering the fi rst time she ever saw Camryn and Kyla in the City. They stood behind a barred window in the Prison, defi antly hailing Jess with a shimmying dance, risking blows from the guards if they were caught. "You look after her, Jesstin, if it comes to a fi ght."

"When it comes. I will, la.s.s." Jess's fi ngers drifted lazily up and down Brenna's arm. "And how much of a fi ght would you give me, querida, if I ordered you to sit out Caster's attack?"

"Sit out?"

"Stay in the main lodge with Shann and Kyla and the council instead of fi ghting."

"You won't order me to do that." Brenna yawned too. She was fi nally getting sleepy.

"I could," Jess countered. "I've both the clout to do it and the reason."

"You might have clout, but no good reason," Brenna snorted, "not unless everything you and everyone else around here ever said about Tristaine is a fl at-out lie."

Jess was silent long enough that Brenna lifted her head and looked down at her. "You still insist on seeing me as fragile, don't you? Is it because I froze on the ridge?"

"No. That was a simple phobia, Bren, and you're working on that.You're able enough in drills, adanin, but you've not trained long in the Amazon way of fi ghting. And Shann's going to need your help with the wounded-"

* 118 *

"Whoa." Brenna kicked off the heavy furs covering them and in one lithe movement, swung her leg over Jess's waist and straddled her. She let her weight drop abruptly. Jess whoofed.

"I plan to help Shann with our injured after the battle. But when Caster attacks, Jess, I'm going to fi ght as well as I can. I'll follow your orders to the letter, and I'll be fi ne, because I'm a lot stronger than you think."

Brenna clasped Jess's wrists and lunged forward, pinning them to the quilt on either side of her head. "Which I will prove to you now."

"Fierce Artemis," Jess entreated the ceiling, "look down on yer poor sufferin' servant, in this her time of true tree-vai-"

"Funny, warrior." Brenna dropped full-length on the tall body beneath her to make Jess whoof again. She sought Jess's mouth and drew her into an intense, sucking kiss.

The kiss went on for quite some time.

Jess's bare left foot rose off the bed, hovered for a moment, then dropped back with a thud.

"Sheesh!" Jess gasped, when Brenna fi nally let her breathe.

Brenna knew Jess could have fl ipped her easily to the fl oor, and she found it interesting that she chose not to. From her grin, it seemed Jess thought it was interesting too.

"All right, I'll explain," Brenna said. "You're going to let me fi ght with the rest of your warriors, Jesstin, because Caster is my enemy as much as anyone's. And also because Amazons are allowed to make their own choices."

Jess scowled.

"So. You'll let me watch your back in battle." Brenna still had Jess's wrists pinned on either side of her head. "Just like you're going to let me love you tonight. Because I need it and so do you.

Keep your hands there. Please," she added.

Brenna lowered herself again and touched her lips to Jess's taut throat. She released her lover's wrists and let her hands roam hungrily down the lean body. Her palms found Jess's fi rm b.r.e.a.s.t.s beneath her tunic.

"You have to start letting me be a part of this clan, Jess, if * 119 *

I'm ever going to be." Brenna's low voice matched the rhythmic kneading of her fi ngers. "I'm only taking on the risk faced by any Amazon who's capable of fi ghting, right?"

Jess seemed uninterested in answering, much less debating.

Her long body was beginning to move beneath Brenna's hands, arching to answer her touch. Her breathing deepened.

"Brenna," she whispered, "I can't lose you."

"Hush, Jesstin. Let me love you."

And Brenna did, for the fi rst time, in that most intimate of ways women cherish each other. She had often been the sated recipient of the warm caress of Jess's tongue and lips, but her lover had never before allowed her to reciprocate.

Outside their lodge, Selene's moon bathed the silent valley in blue light, and the cold waters of Ziwa lapped gently against the dam. In Tristaine's private cabins, women made love with the same blend of intensity and tenderness that swept Brenna and Jesstin.

Brenna lay on her side, curled against Jess, who was starting to breathe evenly again. She stroked one of her arms lightly with a feather-soft brush of her fi ngers.

"Hoo," Jess whispered.

Brenna grinned.

"Th-thanks," Jess added.

"Thank you." Brenna lifted Jess's hand to her lips and kissed it. "Go to sleep, Jesstin. It's been a rough day. Tomorrow's got to be better."

O.

Brenna knelt on the walkway formed by the top of the dam and focused on Jess's form below. Her task didn't call for much strength, as the lines the climbers used were separately anch.o.r.ed by ground ties.