Caster feigned oblivion to any change in her appearance. She rose from the padded bench in the review stand and smiled down at Jess. "Actually, I'm pleased to see you so robust, dear. In truth, I * 147 *

really didn't want your fi ghting prowess in any way compromised today. You know, it's very nearly a s.e.xual experience, Jess, watching you fi ght."

"Voyeurism might be your safest bet, darlin'," Jess agreed, and the warriors behind her emitted another bark of laughter.

"Careful, Jesstin. I only bend so far."

The note of compa.s.sion in Caster's voice made Brenna uneasy.

She hated that sound. It heralded the woman's worst instincts. The immediate threat seemed to fade as the door to the review stand opened, and Shann and Kyla were escorted in.

"Shann's fi ne," Kyla called down to them at once. A frowning mercenary hushed her with a poke of his rifl e. Having delivered her message, Kyla offered him a withering smile.

Shann looked better than she had the previous day, Brenna noted with relief. Her robes were clean and mended, and the few marks on her face were countered by the alertness in her eyes. Her gaze found Jess, who made a subtle twirling motion with her fi ngers.

Shann nodded.

She and Kyla were seated roughly at the other end of the long bench, and Caster regarded them with interest. She waited until Shann looked at her, then smiled brightly, winked, and stood up.

"All right, Miss Dana, cameras rolling!" Caster clapped her hands together, an unnecessary bid for attention in the silent arena.

"Theryn, we're ready for you!"

A sharp command sounded near the main entrance to the stadium, and Brenna saw a cloaked fi gure standing by a large gate. It was Myrine, pulling swiftly on the rigging that opened the entrance to the fi ghting ground. Over the whine of the cameras, she could hear the clopping of a single horse.

Theryn rode into the arena with the kind of solemn grandeur reserved for affairs of state. Swatches of purple silk brought out the intense lavender light in her eyes. The towering bay she rode moved at a regal pace across the hard-pack of the arena.

Behind horse and rider, Theryn's cadre of warriors followed on foot, led by Patana and Myrine. Like Jess's fi ghters, they wore a generic blend of Tristainian attire-furs and skins that were warm * 148 *

and supple, along with the modern denim that somehow never seemed incongruous on Amazons. The cameras pivoted obediently as the procession came to a halt at the base of the review stand.

Brenna heard Vicar's dry brogue. "No slave girls tossing rose petals?"

The warriors around her snickered, but Brenna felt another odd wave of disquiet.

Theryn's Amazons, versus those who follow Shann. Evil sisters against good.

That was how Vicar saw it, and Jesstin, and every other woman who followed Shann. But good and evil were never that simple, and only Shann truly understood that. These women were all Amazons. They were all Clan.

Nothing else followed that rather mundane insight, and Brenna was surprised to feel brief disappointment. Thanks heaps, she thought to the elusive Grandmothers. Plat.i.tudes are a big help.

It was her fi rst spontaneous prayer to her Guides.

Her hands were freezing, which had little to do with the biting cold of the mountain morning. Brenna had won all-City in the Youth Division in kickboxing, but she'd only been in a real fi ght once, and that had been last spring, in the foothills, when she'd thrown herself at Caster and brought her down, just before she fi red the bullet that hit Camryn's leg.

Please don't let me mess up. Her second prayer. Don't let me get anyone hurt. Including me. She kept her eyes pinned on Jess's broad shoulders in front of her, suddenly aware of the warmth of the blue shawl Dorothea had given her, seemingly years ago. Brenna had tied it around her waist as a kind of a belt-a shawl not being ideal battle attire-and now she was glad she had. Its warmth felt protective.

Theryn had a.s.sembled her troops in a half circle in front of the review stand. Sitting the elegant bay as if born to the saddle, she graciously inclined her head. "Whenever you're ready, Caster."

"Close-up on me, Miss Dana. Tight frame and keep it that way until I tell you to pan back." Caster cleared her throat and adjusted the collar of her parka.

* 149 *

Brenna caught Kyla's eye as she jutted her chin at Caster and twirled one fi nger rudely around her ear. Brenna glared at her with an older sister's fi erceness. The soldier guarding Kyla and Shann could have caught that insolence, but beside her, Camryn snickered.

Dana was peering into the eyepiece of one of the cameras, correcting its focus. "Sound check!" she called.

"Good morning." Caster's voice was full and warm, but not especially loud. Brenna saw her adjust a small clip near her collar and realized she was wearing some kind of mike.

Dana lifted a hand. "You're set, Caster."

"Jesstin?" Caster peered down at her. "You and your bloodthirsty horde are to remain absolutely silent while I speak, yes? Or your queen will have cause to regret it."

From her vantage point at the edge of Jess's group, Brenna saw Theryn frown, but she said nothing. Brenna noticed her wife, Grythe, was not in attendance this morning.

Caster folded her hands on the railing and looked into the camera on her left.

"Good morning." Caster smiled as if addressing old friends, then became somber. "I reference Clinic Study T-714, ladies and gentlemen. Contracted to the Clinic's Military Research Unit, the so-called Tristaine Project involved developing techniques for nonchemical, noncoercive behavioral control. At fi rst, we feared that our efforts had failed." She paused, then smiled again. "They have not."

Caster turned to address the other camera. "The gentle layfolk on our distinguished panel must forgive me for my deceit. I realize you were all told that our Clinic study ended in disaster. That our Amazon subject, Jesstin of Tristaine, miraculously pulled off a daring escape from our top-secret, heavily guarded Clinic facility."

Caster's ebony eyes fl ickered to Brenna, then returned to the camera.

"As you can see in Attachment 1-C of our prospectus, this so-called escape was very much part of my original protocol! Jesstin 'escaped' at my direction. She was always under the direct monitoring of my a.s.sistant, a Government-certifi ed Medical Technician. Jesstin * 150 *

and my a.s.sistant returned to Tristaine in order to lead City forces against these so-called Amazons-per my programming."

There was an angry stirring among Jess's warriors, and Dana shifted uneasily as rifl es rose around the arena. Jess lifted a hand, and the rustling immediately subsided.

"The fi lm you are about to see records the battles that occurred just as I arrived in this remote mountain village." Caster turned to the last camera, and her expression grew solemn. "The conquest of Tristaine is a harrowing and, in many ways, tragic story. Both our test subject, Jesstin, and my a.s.sistant were lost in the gruesome fi ghting. But, in the name of decency, I have edited out the sordid scene containing their deaths, and I'm pleased to tell you that our doc.u.mentary will offer a happy ending."

Caster raised her voice. "Pan back cameras, please."

Dana scowled, watching the soldier next to her jerkily widen the image appearing in his viewfi nder. Theryn appeared in the frame, along with the semicircle of Amazons surrounding her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new high council of Tristaine!" Caster's voice rang with pride. She paused as if to accommodate the imagined gasps of surprise in her audience. "All eager to sign Citizenship papers! All willing to abide by City laws!

Now...would you like to hear more?" Her voice was almost girlish in its coyness. "Then sit back. I have quite a story to tell!" Caster smiled sweetly at the camera, then nodded at Dana. "All right, cut!

Lord, Theryn!" She fanned her face. "How do you stand the horrid stink wafting from that beast you're riding?"

Jess's shoulders were stiff. Brenna looked up at Shann, whose features were an eloquent expression of sorrow.

"I believe we're about ready to begin the fi lming of the fi rst battle." Caster glanced down at Brenna. "Oh, stop glaring at me like that, my ex-colleague. No one's really going to die! But my Military funders will be none the wiser, and you needn't worry about your younger sister Samantha learning of your supposed death, Miss Brenna!"

Brenna felt her body tremble. She kept her gaze on Caster, trying to emulate Jess's calm.

* 151 *

"Fortunately, little Samantha won't have to grieve for you, as she was killed six weeks ago in quite a horrifi c traffi c accident.

She burned, I believe, along with her husband and the baby she was carrying. I'm terribly sorry, Brenna. I meant to tell you earlier."

Caster smiled down at her. "Cameras ready? Remember, this is supposed to be a spontaneous battle! Oh dear, we did forget to talk about those darn rules, but ah, well. Theryn?"

Theryn wheeled her mount. "Amazons, attack!"

The fourteen women led by Patana and Myrine unleashed a chilling war cry and fl ew straight at Jess's warriors. Brenna was stunned, both by Caster's statement and the abruptness of the attack, and she almost let the small Amazon who raced toward her knock her fl at.

Jess shoved Brenna aside, then kicked her attacker away with one powerful sideswipe of her booted foot. "Brenna!" She gripped her upper arms, hard. "Samantha is not dead! Now fi ght!"

Then Jess spun, her hair lashing Brenna's face as two of Theryn's best jumped her.

Hand-to-hand combat, Brenna learned long ago, meant different things in the City than in Tristaine. In the City it was a game; among Amazons it could be deadly. But when her opponent picked herself up out of the dirt and lunged for her again, Brenna still wasn't prepared for the ferocity of the attack, and a knee punched into her stomach.

After that she had no rational thought; she just fought.

War cries fi lled the air from both sides, chilling Brenna's blood. This was no drill, no tournament. She didn't know the young Amazon she faced. While the girl wasn't a warrior, she still had the fi ghting prowess expected of every able-bodied woman in Tristaine.

Her second blow was a fast slice with the side of her hand.

But Brenna had learned much in a summer of tutelage by Dyan's best. She dodged the strike with a deft twist, and it whickered past her. Then she countered with a neat back kick. Breath exploded out of her opponent as she bent double.

At least Theryn's women aren't armed, Brenna thought, catching her breath. If the Amazons commanded by Patana and * 152 *

Myrine had the advantages of numbers and surprise, at least they weren't allowed weapons.

It was to be a long battle. Small groups of fi ghters, in twos and threes, had s.p.a.ced themselves around the fi eld. The strongest warriors in Jess's group, like Vicar and Hakan, fought one-on-one with the best fi ghters in Theryn's. Here and there two pairs of smaller warriors squared off against each other.

Dana was more unnerved by the war cries and the viciousness of the fi ghting than she allowed her face to reveal. The mercenaries under her command paced the perimeter of the fi eld tensely, their rifl es ready. She frowned. This was not the time for men with guns to get dicey nerves.

Dana was distracted by the sight of Theryn's bay horse, loping riderless through the stadium gates toward the stables. Through the unbelievable racket of the battle, she watched Theryn emerge from the door to the review stand and seat herself next to Caster. The beautiful Amazon with the strange eyes named Grythe was with her.

Watching the expressions of the other two women in the stand, Tristaine's queen and that profane young redhead, Kyla, Dana felt an unexpected twinge of sympathy through her chest.

Brenna fi nished off her opponent with a well-placed punch that left her gasping in the dirt, then looked around wildly for Jess.

She found her grappling skillfully with Patana. To her great relief, despite the lingering effects of the taser, Jess was holding her own.

Brenna scanned the chaotic fi eld. Myrine fought Vicar, and Hakan battled Perry, the big Amazon who had clashed with Elodia.

Hakan executed a dazzling fl ip, kicking the other warrior off her feet. A scattering of lesser-skilled women from Theryn's group ran from pairing to pairing.

Up in the review stand, Caster was watching the action avidly, her chin resting on her folded hands. The bruise beneath her eye was more evident against the excitement that tinged her cheeks.

Brenna gasped as two more of Theryn's fi ghters headed for Jess. She knew her lover was fully engaged countering Patana's brutal strikes and couldn't possibly see them. Hitting low and hard * 153 *

in a fl ying tackle, Camryn cut one of Jess's attackers short. With effort, Brenna took out the other.

The battle seemed to go on for hours. Brenna fought carefully, helping Camryn keep a series of random a.s.sailants off Jess. Ordinarily a miracle of stamina, Jess was tiring, her body running with sweat despite the morning chill. Brenna reacted instantly to Cam's every shouted instruction, and, fi nally, bouts began to stumble to a halt across the arena.

"And that's a cut!" Caster gave the railing an exuberant slap.

"Ladies, that was utterly magnifi cent!"

Patana straightened, glaring at Jess with muddy hate. "Stand down," she gasped to her warriors.

"S-stand down," Myrine echoed her. Vicar eased out of her fi ghting stance and stepped back.

Brenna went immediately to Jess. When Camryn joined them, Jess put a hand on Cam's shoulder and leaned hard.

"Check," Jess ordered, panting.

"No serious injuries, Jesstin." Cam steadied her.

"Tell Shann."

Camryn lifted a hand toward the review stand and twirled her fi ngers in a complex motion Brenna couldn't follow.

Theryn's voice rang commandingly from the review stand.

"Amazons, rest!"

"What she said," Jess managed, and then her legs folded abruptly. They guided her to the ground.

"Hey! Cam, is she all right?"

Brenna saw Myrine across the fi eld. The long scar on her face was livid, and she was still breathing hard.

Vicar intercepted Myrine as she started to walk toward Jess and jammed her muscular forearm against her chest. "Go back to your new queen, Amazon." The venom in her old friend's voice froze Myrine where she stood. She turned and went back to join Theryn's warriors.

Jess was fully conscious, but more spent than Brenna had ever seen her. She sat with her head lowered, her soaked sides heaving as she pulled in breath. Brenna knelt beside her and went through the * 154 *

motions of checking her pulse and respiration.

"There will be a two-hour truce between battles!" Theryn raised her voice to be heard over the harsh breathing of the Amazons below. "Jesstin, your warriors will all be fed. Sisters, if any among you are injured, just signal Dana and you'll receive aid!"

"I stopped listening after she mentioned food," Jess muttered, her eyes still closed.

"It's all right. I'll catch you up when you've rested." Brenna didn't like how long it was taking Jess to catch her breath. "Just sit still for a while, Jesstin. Camryn's getting everyone sorted out."

"Yes'm."

Dana felt as tired as the Amazons looked. Just watching such acrobatic fi ghting had exhausted her. She ducked quickly into the small stable beneath the arena and brought out as many Army blankets as she could carry.

She tossed a few to one of the soldiers who had been fi lming the fi ght, and he frowned. "What am I supposed to do with these?"

"They've been sweating for hours in this cold, you cretin,"