Free Amazon Queen by Lori Devoti Page A

stared at me as if expecting something—an explanation, I guessed.
    It was a fair expectation. I didn’t arrive at camp in handcuffs too often. Unfortunately for them I wasn’t feeling driven to be particularly fair at the moment.
    “There were women in the woods earlier,” I said, addressing Areto. “I expect them to come back. Set up some patrols starting now and keep them going until I say to stop.”
    “Through the night?” Thea asked.
    “Go,” I said to Areto. She nodded and trotted off.
    “What kind of women were they?” Thea took a moment; she seemed to be inspecting me. I still looked rough; I hadn’t bothered washing anything except my face with Lao’s rag. I hadn’t even bothered looking in a mirror. So I didn’t know exactly how rough I looked, and I didn’t care.
    “Bird-watchers.” Down by the barn Areto had gathered the warriors. I turned to join them.
    As I walked away, Thea followed.
    “Are you going to tell me what happened?” The question didn’t come across as pushy, more bored curiosity.
    However, I wasn’t much in the mood for sharing.
    The warriors stood in a row. Two were probably my age; two were older. Bern cracked her knuckles as I approached. She was pushing two hundred, in both pounds and years. Her skin was cocoa colored but her eyes were bright green, like new grass. The contrast alone made her stand out. Add her size, how she carried herself, and the fact that she’d chosen to dye her hair bright red, and just looking at her would cause most humans to cross the street. It was why I had assigned her the job of backup when we had gone to steal the baby from the sons.
    “Put Bern on the dusk shift.” I figured the birders were looking for the same owl I’d seen right before I stumbled upon them. Most people thought of owls as being nocturnal and many were, but I’d seen mine not long after dawn, which probably meant he was one of the few who preferred the grayer skies of dawn and dusk.
    I was guessing the birders would know that too, and I hoped seeing Bern come at them even completely unarmed would send them scurrying back home for good.
    Areto didn’t question me, but Thea did.
    “Bird-watchers got you in handcuffs?” Her eyes showed interest and disbelief.
    I slid my jaw to the side. The role of queen had some privileges, like not having to explain anything you did at camp. I answered to the high council and Artemis. That was it.
    I took a step toward the barn.
    I needed to fill Areto in a bit on what had happened, to make sure she knew the real threat wasn’t the birders I’d mentioned, but the son.
    I wasn’t making the announcement publicly, because there was no reason for most of the camp’s occupants to know. It was the warriors’ jobs to protect the rest of the tribe.
    Areto followed, as did Thea.
    Looking at Areto, I said, “I want you to patrol for the birders, but there’s another threat too, a son. One of the sons with the baby. He’s been watching us. I don’t know for how long.”
    Areto answered with only a silent incline of her head; she knew I would tell her all she needed to know and wouldn’t pry further.
    Thea, however, was a different matter. “That explains the handcuffs, eh?” She darted her gaze at Areto. The warrior looked straight ahead, waiting for whatever else I had to say.
    Her reaction reassured me that I was making the right choice regarding the position of lieutenant.
    Still, I had decided I needed to tell Thea what had happened. “On my walk, the son returned.”
    Her brow quirked. “Alone?”
    “Yes.”
    She pursed her lips and looked to the side.
    I tightened my jaw. One son had got me into the cuffs. It was a truth I couldn’t deny.
    “I’m leaving in the morning for Madison, with the hearth-keepers,” I announced.
    “And me?” she asked.
    “Knowing the son is around, we can’t afford to both be away from camp.”
    A muscle in her neck twitched.
    “My council contact hasn’t called back. The sons in Madison