She saw the mix of thoughts reflected on Hippolyte’s face as she considered the new information. The brief moments of fear, then question and finally support seemed to show themselves and Styliani watched closely as Hippolyte quickly smiled and turned to the aggressor, “You, and your tribe have crossed a pact made by us, Gargarean,” She growled to him and in response all Amazon and Gargareans lowered their gaze in concern. All except the new Anax. He looked at her jovially.
“I believe nothing was broken. We have not taken any woman against her will or used force in any way, can you say this is untrue Styliani?” He looked directly at her and she felt herself wither under his gaze. He was dangerous in an undefinable way. His voice seemed light but his actions were dark.
Styliani stood forward, afraid that her silence was making her appear uncertain, “You killed my sister, Melina! How can you say, you have not done harm?” She asked with gusto and feeling the queens hand on her shoulder, only mitigated the snarl she felt welling up from the memory.
“We didn’t touch her. She must have been dead beforehand,” he exclaimed in innocence, speading his hands in an appealing gesture.
“Obviously, she randomly went walking on that path and due to a sudden coincidence forgot how to stand, then stabbed herself three times with a spear. Then she fell into the lake, for fun,” Styliani smiled and continued mockingly, “Oh, but wait, you then tried to do the same thing to me, but failed!”
“Sorry, little Amazon, I don’t see that you have been stabbed with a spear?” He spread his hands out, again, and looked to everyone in the crowd.
“I did not say that I was stabbed, but Melina was! We need to address her death from the Gargareans!” Styliani frowned, finding his casual dismissal unnerving and aggrivating.
“I think she tripped!” He looked at her and shrugged. Then looking at the tribe members he said, “she was obviously going for an unsanctioned tryst with a Gargarean and lost her footing along the way and killed herself,” he shrugged and looked to them in mock concern, “I hate that this happened, but cannot condemn myself or my men for the follies of a young girls whims.”
“Do not speak of one of my tribe members in that way!” Hippolyta boomed across the clearing. She looked with razors at the Anax and waited, but he arrogantly refused to drop his gaze.
He smiled his false condescending smile, “Hand over the young Gargareans.”
Styliani watched as the younger Amazonian’s brought out the male children. There were only five babies in total, but the Gargarean’s eyes lit up upon seeing the babies. But the tribe otherwise was quiet. “Amazon’s peace, take the young away. We need to talk with the Gargareans,” Hippolyta raised her chin and unslung her spear from her back. Everyone saw and understood that she was threatening the Anax and the tension felt heavy as both tribes hesitantly started their hands towards their weapons. Hippolyta was taking the power back from his slight of her tribe and they all waited to see what the outcome of their leaders talking would decide.
“You are really refusing to hand over our sons? I think a lot of ansestors and current tribe members would advise you against it, Amazon,” The Anax casually mentioned, while looking at the amazons with false sincerity, “I would think that your women folk would be a bit too tired to fight over a made up story from a child?” He looked directly at Styliani as he said this and then turned his back in supreme confidence, as she was about to draw one of her arrows and skewer his heart. Hippolyta saw her tense her shoulders and quickly shook her head after placing her hand on Styliani’s bow.
“You insinuate we are weak, Gargarean. You have obviously heard the stories of our strength, so I wonder why you are instigating a fight, young Anax, barely out of his swaddles?” Queen Hippolyta mocked as she flicked her braid over her shoulder, looking every inch of an avenging goddess.
“Your ignorance is pitiful,” he sighed and smirked as two of the Amazons stepped forward, appalled at his disrespect, “We require the child named Adelpha. Hand her over and you will not be slaughtered!”
The Queen blinked in shock, but quickly adjusting her features she laughed jovially at the Anax, “You fool, what would make you think we have a child called Adelpha, and even if we did, you are not allowed to take the females. You have no right. You also have no right to buy slave women in the markets and we have overlooked that offense to the traditions and pacts!”
“This is not about our tribes traditions or pacts. It is high time we updated them to reflect our new era,” He looked around at the Amazons and Gargareans trying to coerce them into agreeing, “We have had a message from a soothsayer, who is said to speak directly to the Gods on Mount Olympus. She told us, that Adelpha was the one who would instigate the change for our tribes. So, it is our right to take her and mould her to become the leader. You would teach her weakness, we will teach her strength!”
“Are you insane? You were just saying we were not abiding the traditions, by not handing over the males then dare to say that they need to change!” Hippolyta laughed so loudly and the Anax’s face turning scarlet in rage seemed to fuel it into a full belly laugh.
“Do not dismiss our prophecy!” He yelled, looking like a child about to have a hissy fit. The Queen regained her composure and she looked intensely at him. If Styliani was ever the recipient of that gaze, she would begin running in the opposite direction.
“We have humoured you Anax, but we will not tolerate your aggression shown in a fools errand. You have until the sunsets to leave our forests, after that we will hunt everyone of you down and introduce you to Hades ourselves,” she turned and yelled, “Bring the boys!” She waited as each baby was handed to them and then tilted her head to make them leave the clearing. The Anax looked at her with a blank expression, not following as the men left the clearing.
“I will enjoy slicing your throat, Hippolyta. The prophecy was not just about Adelpha, if you had been patient, you might have heard about how your end comes due to her.” He said the words with such venom into Hippolyta’s unfazed face that Styliani felt herself get a shiver. He then turned to Styliani and oddly smiled, “Until our path next cross Styliani.” He left the clearing and Styliani felt very worried by the words he had spoken.
“What did he mean?” She asked Hippolyta and she looked down frowning in concern, shaking her head.
“I don’t know,” She turned to the tribe, “I do not trust them. We need to prepare for war. Start preparing the weapons and we will wait. The archers in the trees and the spear maidens on the ground. We will wait and catch them. Bring the Anax alive if you can and I will personally deal with him.”
…
Styliani waited in the tree, just outside the perimeter of the camp with her bow ready to start shooting. The night seemed unnaturally quiet. The anticipation of an attack felt almost unbearable as they waited. She had questioned, why they did not hunt them down instead, as for them to try get out of the forests by the sunset was a highly unreasonable command. The queen cautioned haste and said that the aggressor always was weaker than the defender in unknown territory. They would have better chance to catch them by surprise if the Gargareans were the ones to think they were a surprise. Hence, why Styliani was sitting in a tree during three quarters of the night had past based on the position of the moon. She was bored and her backside felt aches from where the tree branch was digging in. She had begun to hang every few minutes to try relieve the bruising she was sure that was happening. Just as she was about to hang from the branch again, she heard the telling sound of a branch snapping below. She peered into the darkness, as she had been startled during the earlier times into almost shooting boars and rabbits wandering the forest paths in the darkness. This snap however was followed by another and then the unmistakeable crunch of forest leaves being stepped upon by a humans. A light suddenly illuminated a few trees east, then another west and a third south. She worried, as it meant their entire tribe was advancing. She drew an arrow and waited as a Gargarean became visible. She took a deep breath and waited as a whistle was sounded through the trees. The men on the ground had no idea what was happening as the first of the arrows were released. She took a single breath to prey to Artemis and followed her sisters first wave of attack. She heard the cries of the men as the arrows pierced them, then they started calling to each other, warning about the Amazon’s in the trees and to get to them and drag them down. Styliani shook her head as a man tried to climb her tree and she immediately drew another arrow and shot him through the eye, as he came closer. After four or five arrows she became worried about her supply and made her way closer to the bottom of the tree to surprise any others trying to climb. From the small pile of bodies, she assumed they would realise her tree was a hot spot. She clambered down from the bottom branches and hearing the tell tale crunch of leaves, quickly dropped onto the bodies and smearing a hand with blood wiped it over her torso to pretend she had been killed. She closed her eyes and played dead. She could hear the crunch as the footsteps came closer. “They got this one, now to get the rest of those harlots! Move forward!” The Gargarean said, kicking her and the deceased man beside her. She waited for the crunching leaf noise to become fainter and no more were coming up the same way. She had been instructed to wait till the men made their way to the beginning of the camp, so they could attack from both sides. The Gargareans wouldn’t expect the spear maidens at the front and the archers stopping their retreat. Styliani knew that the Gargareans outnumbered them, but with the advantage of their sneak attack, they held better than average odds. She heard the second bird whistle, which was the next instruction to advance from the rear. Styliani got up and collected her sword and extra arrows from a spot she had hidden them at the bottom of the tree. She advanced slowly, avoiding the scattered leaves, which had been placed earlier to detect their advance. The Gargareans had stopped before the third check point, waiting for something. She saw the amount of men who had gotten through their archers and was slightly worried, as it meant her sisters did not do as well as she had with stopping them before they could get passed. She silently followed as the Gargareans seemed to inch forward. They got to the third checkpoint and looked around as the bird whistle sounded. Styliani saw that they realised the Amazon warning signal and nodded to each other. Suddenly a horn blew and they all began to run forwards toward the camp. She heard as they met the Spear maidens and the impact the first clash held. Then heard as they rallied and began to do the same damage to their female counters. The first short screams of her tribes causality’s made Styliani grit her teeth with helplessness. Finally, she couldn’t fight the urge to protect her sisters any longer and ran toward, rather away from the melee. She swung her sword from side to side. Recognising nothing except the need to stop the madness, with dropping all the infiltrators. She screamed as she drove her sword into a Gargareans gut and he fell on top of her, she turned her head to ty catch a breath and looked despairingly at the dead eyes of a sister, who had already been slain. Using her adrenaline, she pushed the dead weight off of her and stood to see the fighting all around. She moved forward and randomly slashed at attackers who were fighting others and felt oddly a sense of aloneness as she watched them fighting. Most didn’t appear to attack her, they fought another sister and seemed surprised when Styliani attacked and killed them before they could harm her family. She didn’t keep count and felt an odd detachment as she resolutely made her way forward. She wondered whether she would get to the edge of the camp and need to turn around and begin again. She saw sisters falling and others taking glee in slaying the men. She heard a recognised roar and made her way towards it, feeling her soul prompt her into action. She opened the tent flap and saw her Queen straddled by the Anax holding her captive by his knees on her arms. Effectively pinning her as she kicked her legs and using her strength to try move him. He held a knife mockingly over her face and looked to be taking perverse delight in making the proud women helpless. Styliani saw that Hippolyta’s belt had been torn from her and picked it up as she felt a renewal of energy flood through her. She felt an anger she had never experienced before. If felt like chaos and also retribution combined. The power flooded through her veins and she immediately crumbled with the weight of the conflicting thoughts. She wanted blood, but not any blood. She wanted only the guilty. She wanted the unjust and dangerous blood. Her eyes became a deepening hue to turn blood red, her scream which pierced the clouds grew loud enough for the two tribes fighting to hear it and stop fighting. as they all wondered at the sound.
The Anax turned to her with glee on his face, as Styliani fought against the mix of violence and justice flooding through her. “Good girl, thought you’d never arrive! Let me show you the first stage of the prophesy!” He said with an insane almost fanatical gleam. Before she could stop him or move from the power of the belt flooding through her, he took the knife and plunged it into Hippolyta’s chest and twisted. Styliani screamed as she watched the light fade from her eyes and felt the belt responding as she gathered all the power and let it loose with a cry to the heavens.
…
On Mount Olympus three of the gods stood. Ares shook his head in sorrow at his daughters death. Athena gritted her teeth at the injustice and Artemis smiled, looking at them both she said succinctly, “You’ve made a good choice in her. She’ll do well.”
To Be continued in Story Time Part 6 TBA.
Maxine the Magnificent 