Read Online Attack of the Amazons by Gilbert L. Morris - Free Book Online Page B

he protested.
    Princess Merle strode along in front of the captives. She had been given a sword, which she now wore belted around her trim waist. The glance she gave him was cool and calculating. She did not even answer him but said, “Sarah, you and Abbey come up here. Let the men go last.”
    Abbey shot a quick glance at Sarah as the two were hurried forward. “What does it all mean?” she whispered.
    â€œI think it’s a male-female thing,” Sarah whispered. She had quickly grasped that the women warriors had little respect for the guys, although they did look with speculation at the tall forms of Reb, Josh, and Dave. Since poor Jake and Wash were smaller, they were treated rather roughly, being struck by the flat of the sword several times.
    The procession made its way for half an hour, and the trail grew broader all the time. Finally, it opened up onto a rather attractive village of houses made of upright wooden stakes and having cone-shaped thatchedroofs. A stake stockade was built around the village, its top sharpened to needlelike points.
    The gates swung open on some sort of hinges, and as soon as the troop was inside, they closed at once with a kind of grim finality.
    â€œI don’t like this, Dave,” Josh muttered. “It looks like we’re not going to get a very good reception.”
    Dave was looking at the women with narrowed eyes. “They sure do look like Amazons,” he said, “or at least what I thought Amazons might look like. But where are the men?”
    As the Sleepers looked around, they discovered that some men were there, but all were unarmed and looked harmless. As a matter of fact, they looked almost cowed, and they were generally smaller than the women.
    â€œThese are sure funny people,” Wash said. He’d just been given a blow with the flat of a sword. “I never saw such mean-looking ladies in all my life! They look like they’d be wrestlers if they were back in Oldworld.”
    â€œThey do look pretty bad,” Jake agreed. “And the men—there’s something wrong with them. Look how they kind of sneak around.”
    Josh had no time to examine the crowd further, for they had come into an open space where a platform was built about two feet off the ground.
    On it sat a woman in a chair made of carved, dark wood. She was blonde like the others, with blue eyes, and was obviously tall. She wore a headdress composed of feathers with some sort of green stones on the band. Josh realized at once that she was not young. There were scars on her arms, and her right leg was twisted, as though she’d been injured at one time. He decided this was no one important.
    He thought,
Where’s the chief? What did she say his name was?
    Immediately, however, he was set straight, for Princess Merle went right up onto the platform and bowed to the woman. “Queen Mother,” she said, “these strangers I found on our land.”
    She turned then to the Sleepers. “This is Queen Faya, warrior queen of the daughters of Fedor.”
    Josh had to make an instant reevaluation. Obviously Chava, Merle’s father, was of little influence. Was he the man standing over to the queen’s left? He was short and had reddish hair like Merle’s. He said nothing, but his eyes moved to the queen as though he waited to hear what she would say.
    â€œWhat are you doing on our land?” Queen Faya demanded. She had a strong voice, and Josh got the impression that she hated being bound to her chair. She had obviously been a strong woman in her youth—and would have to be, he thought, to head these fierce women who made up the fighting arm of the Fedor tribe.
    Josh announced his name and said, “We come on behalf of our sire, Goél.”
    â€œI know no one named Goél.”
    â€œHe is the mighty leader who is going to deliver Nuworld from its bondage,” Josh said. “The powers of darkness will spread no