I couldn’t kill Alcippe. Not like this. I had to discredit her-show the rest of them the old ways weren’t the only ways. And there was only one way to do that.
I closed my eyes and found the switch, or faucet, whatever it was that controlled the power I held but didn’t understand. The rain stopped suddenly, as if we’d just stepped under an overhang-no gradual lessening or softening, just gone.
The Amazons scrambled in the mud, sliding and gripping each other to help themselves stand. I crossed my arms over my chest and waited. They’d remember me soon enough.
Alcippe recovered first, of course. She slogged forward, her dress sagging, revealing withered cleavage. Her sleeves clung to her arms, and her skirt wrapped around her ankles. Finally, she gave up trying to get to me and shoved her hands out, ready to call on a little magic of her own.
A wolf, translucent but deadly, appeared from nowhere. His feet splayed, his head lowered, and his ears back, he snarled at Alcippe. I blinked, not sure what I was seeing was real-but it was. When I opened my eyes, the wolf still stood there, his lips raised, revealing his gums and teeth, the ruff on his neck standing at attention.
Alcippe’s gaze shot to me, then just as quickly behind me.
Bubbe and Mother, both surprisingly dry, stepped forward, one on each side of me.
“You can’t protect her.” Alcippe flicked her attention from the wolf to my grandmother and back.
“That was not my plan.” Bubbe twitched two fingers and the wolf sat. “Melanippe can care for herself. Better than I knew.”
The sky was clear now, but the air cold. Goose bumps formed on my flesh, but by sheer force of will I stopped myself from shivering. I glanced at my grandmother, tried to read what she was thinking, but everything about her looked relaxed, unworried.
“She attacked us. Me, a high priestess.” Alcippe’s voice was strong, but her gaze darted to the wolf again and again.
I’d never seen this particular piece of magic held this long and visible to all. I’d seen the serpent, but only after immersing myself in the spell. I glanced at the other Amazons. All of them stood rigid, their stares locked on the wolf.
They all saw him. He was real.
“Call off your telios,” Alcippe ordered.
Bubbe tilted her head back and forth, studying the animal. “He’s causing no harm.” She raised her chin, her voice grew stronger. “Yet.”
Alcippe’s eyes drew together; her hands balled at her sides. “What do you want?”
“Melanippe?” Bubbe turned to me, her voice back to her normal tone, but sweeter-much sweeter. “What is it you want?”
I licked my lips, weighed my options. What did I want?
“The truth. I want the truth.”
Surprise flitted across my grandmother’s face, but was quickly gone-replaced by a smile. She looked back at Alcippe. “Not too much to ask.”
“The rite of truth,” I added.
Every eye turned to me.
It was bold, but the only choice I had-and I had nothing to hide, nothing to fear. Not anymore. Beside me, Mother stiffened. My grandmother was more subtle, but I could feel a shift in the energy surrounding her.
But when she spoke, she was calm, resolved. “The rite of truth.”
Alcippe hesitated, as I knew she would. By agreeing, she risked her life. Whoever won the battle also won the right to demand one truth of their choice. If the loser spoke a lie or refused to answer, Artemis would forfeit her life-and worse, to Alcippe anyway, that Amazon would die an outcast.
It was the worst fate she could face-and everything I wanted. The smile on my lips came from deep inside.
Alcippe saw it, recognized it. Her eyes narrowed, and her fingers straightened. She’d made the choice. She was going to accept. I widened my smile, concentrated on her lips, waited for them to open.
“I accept the challenge.” The right words, but from the wrong direction. I spun, stared at my grandmother.
“You can’t,” I responded.
“I did. I asked what you wanted. You said, and I accepted.” She held up her hand, waved, and the wolf was gone. “But inside.” She moved forward, her steps even, almost floating.
Alcippe stepped in front of her. “She challenged me.”
Bubbe shrugged. “Perhaps, but the truth she wants is mine to tell.” Then she kept moving, enigmatic and frustrating as ever.
I followed Bubbe into the gym, the other Amazons, Mother, and Alcippe filed in too. Bubbe had already taken position at the far end, near the stage. Leaving me the space by the door. Alcippe took center court. Mother and the other Amazons formed two lines flanking us. Normally there would have been a circle of Amazons surrounding us, but in the rectangular space available, the lines made more sense. Plus, the rite normally would have been performed outside-the walls of the gym more than made up for the lack of Amazons completing the customary circle.
Alcippe waved her hand. The doors slammed shut behind us. I sensed they wouldn’t open until we were through.
My grandmother stood the full length of the basketball court away. Her arms at her sides, she looked completely at peace-like she hadn’t just twisted my challenge, forced herself into the position I’d meant for Alcippe.
Why had she done it? Frustrated, I stalked forward, got to the center before hitting an invisible wall of power. I cursed and turned to face Alcippe. “This isn’t what I asked for. I didn’t challenge Bubbe. I challenged you.”
“I didn’t hear a name, only a request. A request I answered.” Bubbe didn’t even bother to look at me as she spoke, concentrated instead on folding the arms of her sleeves up past her wrists.
I wanted to scream, could feel it growing inside me. I did not want to fight Bubbe, but her cold indifference to what she had done was infuriating me, and she knew it. Damn her. She was pushing my buttons, trying to get me to forget myself.
I took a deep breath and adjusted my own sleeves, pulling them down until they brushed the top knuckle of my thumb.
The Amazons stood like stone statues beside us. No one except me seemed concerned that Bubbe had twisted the rite as she had. Fine. I’d fight my grandmother. And I’d try to beat her. Get whatever truth I could from her, even if it was just why she had stepped in to protect Alcippe.
That was certainly a question that was burning inside me.
Alcippe raised her arms, lifted the wall, and I faced my grandmother in a way I never had before. I waited, thinking the entire thing might be a put-on show, a way to make me see the light-or the light as my grandmother saw it.
As I stared at her, she looked different, old, frail. Bubbe never looked old, not really. I frowned. I couldn’t do this. I started to turn, to tell Alcippe it was over, I’d admit defeat and give up whatever truth they wanted. As I moved, color flashed from the end of the room-Bubbe moving her arms. Suddenly I was surrounded by eleven of the twelve Amazon telioses: bull, lion, stag, fish, dog, hawk, serpent, hare, leopard, boar, and bear. Each as real as the wolf outside had been, and each just as deadly.
I looked at Bubbe, surprised. I’d been the one to issue the challenge, meaning she got to choose the battle, but I hadn’t expected this.
“Never underestimate, devochka moya.” She slid her gaze to the first telios-a bull. Hereford by the looks of him. You never could tell with Bubbe; she liked to mix old with new. For whatever reason, I got a bull known more for burgers than fighting.
Might have been some kind of insult. The thought had barely formed before he started trotting forward, horns high and ears erect.
At three thousand pounds it didn’t matter what he was bred for, he was damn intimidating.