Green Eyes

Selene was dimly aware of the world around her, but it was like she was blindfolded and her ears were stopped up. Then suddenly she smelled something strong and sweet and that was like getting doused with ice water. Immediately her eyes flew open while she took several deep, sharp breaths to clear her head.

Her eyes quickly scanned her surroundings while her mind raced to process everything her senses took in. She was kneeling, hands bound behind her, on a large wooden platform built around a tree roughly fifteen feet or so in the air. To Selene’s left knelt Deborah and Mara who seemed to be undergoing the same reaction as her. Jared was conspicuously absent.

Standing in front of her, arms crossed, was a woman clad in the same gray cloak as the person she had seen in the woods. This woman was much shorter, standing 5-foot at the most. Underneath the cloak she wore a tight shirt and pants mottled black, gray, and white, showing off her exquisite figure. Around the woman’s neck was a jet black scarf that could be pulled up as a mask. Her hood was drawn back revealing platinum white hair pulled up in an economic ponytail and she appraised her captives with piercing violet eyes.

This woman radiated the same commanding aura that Jared and Mara had. Her posture was straight, but not stiff. Her facial features were elegant, not sultry or seductive yet unmistakably beautiful, giving her a noble air. Most noticeably though, her striking eyes seemed to see everything and reveal nothing. Just like Jared and Mara.

No, that wasn’t quite right. The power was similar, but not quite the same. This one didn’t bother hiding it like the twins did. But neither was it as strong as theirs, at least as strong as what Selene had seen the few times they had been unmasked.

“Who had the gall to ambush us like a bunch of spineless cowards?” Mara demanded, her brain starting to work a little faster than Selene’s.

The woman in front of them bristled slightly. “We did,” she declared.

Mara raised both eyebrows in a bemused expression. “And just who are you?”

“I am Sarah, Queen of the Amazons,” introduced the woman.

“Ah,” Mara nodded. “And I’m supposed to believe that you took down us?”

“Yes,” answered back their captor a little more forcefully. “What, you don’t think that a group of women could take out your protector?”

“Women, sure,” Mara sneered back. “But all I see are a bunch of little girls.” Clearly Mara was unaffected by this woman’s presence. Selene fervently hoped that the former slave’s arrogance didn’t get them killed. They weren’t exactly in a position to taunt.

“Little girls?” hissed the violet-eyed woman. “Is that what you think we are? Tell who are the real little girls? Us, who survive on our own without a man to hold our hands or you, who rely on that son of a bitch for protection?”

“Excuse me,” Selene much more diplomatically interjected. “Where is our friend?”

“Friend?” Sarah retorted as if the idea was revolting. “He is not your friend. Men are not your friends.”

“That may be,” she tried again, “but I would still like to know what is happening with him.”

“He is being held in one of our cells,” Sarah supplied dismissively as if Jared were nothing more than an animal. “As soon as we can, we will sell him off as a slave, preferably to someone in Anory. Don’t worry about him; you’re better off without the fucker.”

“Don’t like men, do you?” Mara guessed in a mocking tone.

“Men are the scourge of the earth,” Sarah vituperatively answered. “Men are violent and oppressive. They go around fucking and killing whoever and whatever they want and yet expect us to wait at home like good little bitches, ready to serve their every goddamned whim. And then they have the gall to drop us with nothing whenever it’s convenient or trade us for something better as if we’re cattle.”

Selene blinked hard, taken aback by both the abrasive language and the venomous rant. She had always been taught that men and women were equals; anything a man could do so could a woman. That’s why they served side-by-side in the army. This kind of discrimination was alien to her.

“I don’t know about that,” Selene cautiously replied. “I’ve met plenty of good men in my life, Jared’s one of them. I owe him my life several times over.”

“You owe him nothing!” snapped their captor angrily. “You owe no man anything! You don’t need a man for anything. You are perfectly capable without him.”

“I didn’t say he—” Selene repressed the sense of annoyance building in her. She did not like her friends being insulted and this was going too far.

“Don’t even bother trying to reason with her, Selene,” Mara cut off. “We’re with the Amazons and when it comes to men, they abandoned reason long ago.”

“We embraced reason,” countered Sarah. “We realized that not only do we not need men, we are superior to them and we are going to put them in their proper place.”

“Oh, right of course,” Mara sarcastically retorted. “That’s of course why you ambushed him instead of taking him on outright.”

Selene found it odd that Mara was talking like Jared would be the only one fighting. Wouldn’t she have joined in?

“What are you saying? That I couldn’t have beaten your man in a fair fight?” Sarah demanded, amethyst eyes virtually glowing with rage.

“I know you couldn’t,” replied Mara forcefully.

“I can defeat any man in battle,” shot back Sarah.

“Prove it.”

“How? A duel? That would hardly be fair,” Sarah snapped back.

“I thought you said that women were superior to men,” Mara taunted.

“It would be unfair for him,” Sarah corrected.

“Then you have nothing to lose,” Mara pointed out, continuing to goad the Amazon. “Win and you get to kill the man yourself and you will get us as slaves.”

“And if by some miracle he wins?” inquired Sarah.

“Then you give all of us, including Jared, your hospitality as we continue across the Harosheth,” Mara suggested.

“I will never keep sisters as slaves,” declared the Amazonian leader.

“Then we will join you,” Mara amended. “Prove to me that women really are superior to men. Unless, of course, you are too scared to face him.”

That was the last straw. Sarah narrowed her eyes and glared daggers at Mara. “If you are so eager to watch your ‘friend’ die, so be it. Emmanuelle!” she shouted and a woman with ebony skin and honey-blond hair suddenly materialized on the platform.

“Yes, my lady?” she asked.

“Have the sparring ring ready for a duel in twenty minutes,” Sarah ordered. “It would seem that our prisoners are eager to watch their man die.”

Emmanuelle comprehended the message immediately. “Is that wise, my lady?” she questioned.

“Are you saying that a man could defeat me?” demanded Sarah angrily.

“No, my lady, of course not,” Emmanuelle shook her head vigorously.

“Neither do I,” Sarah agreed. “So there is no risk. Gather the rest and set up the ring. Quickly.”

“I hope you aren’t too attached to him,” she commented coolly to Mara and Selene as her lieutenant vanished over the edge. “He won’t be around for much longer.”

“We’ll see,” Mara returned a cold, hard smile on her face. “We shall see.”

*******