Ephiny and the Battle of the Amazons
by AJ Marks
Part 4
Ephiny waited for Eponin to tell her what happened, as she figured they had won the battle.
“The Romans were already organized for an attack, only waiting for some word to begin. The Conqueror advised us to attack first despite the fact neither the Centarus nor Greek Army had arrived yet. Taking her advice we attacked from the cover of the trees with arrows,” Eponin stated.
Ephiny understood the tactic, the Amazons relied on speed, stealth and tactics rather than brute strength in combat, and the way the Romans wanted to fight would have put them in a awkward position.
“The Princess guard are very good, probably trained by the Conqueror, and without them we’d have had much higher losses,” Eponin said glancing at the Conqueror who remained quiet at this time. “Anyways, we’re fighting when the Centaurs show up with Jana, and well, you know how good they are in combat.”
Eph nodded knowing it was one reason why the Amazons developed the tree tactics to negate their strength.
“The Roman general reorganized his men and I noticed several Amazons heading away from the battle and back to the village, including Koni and Ligeia,” Eponin said. “So I take chase only to be stopped by the Conqueror whose calling me a traitor.”
Ephiny cringed at that encounter knowing her lover well enough how such a statement might cause her to react.
“I don’t like to lose a fight, or see deserters,” the Conqueror replied for an answer. Eph glanced between the two realizing they were a lot alike even if they never admitted it.
“I don’t either, which I had to quickly explain what I saw and who I saw leaving,” Eponin said. “They were from the group ‘Valaska’s Chosen’ and figured they had be headed towards the village.”
“And if they were headed towards the village, it meant Gabrielle would be right in the middle of it,” the Conqueror replied.
“Hey, I’m not that bad,” Gabrielle pouted.
“Yes you are, and we can discuss that later,” the Conqueror said with a smile.
“Anyways, the Conqueror takes off, and I mean takes off, leaves me behind watching her dust,” Eponin said.
“Lots of practice,” the Conqueror said. “Hang around your princess and you’ll get faster, or injured.”
Eph noticed the pout on Gabrielle’s face grow but looked back at Eponin to continue.
“The Roman general made another charge at that moment and we’re left feeling slightly confused, fortunately the Greek army arrived at that moment with Paleamon. He and Valaska took over as Melosa and I came back here to see what was going on and to catch up with the Conqueror.”
“So, the battle’s still going on?” Epjiny asked slightly concerned and confused.
“No, I received information from Paleamon the Roman’s surrendered shortly after they arrived. Seems they had orders not to engage Greek armies yet,” the Conqueror stated.
“I see,” Eph said, things now made more sense to her. “So how many did we lose?”
“Not many surprisingly,” Eponin said. “Thanks to the Conqueror and Centaurs, but we still lost sixteen warriors.”
“All right, everyone out, these wounded need their rest,” the healer said walking over to the group holding a cup.
Ephiny groaned seeing the cup and knowing it was a sleeping herb for her.
“I need to see to my men anyways,” the Conqueror said. “The Amazons have been gracious to allow men on their land for the night while we organize things.”
“And I volunteered for guard duty knowing you’re all right and will be asleep,” Eponin said.
“And I’ll be right here,” another voice said. Eph watched her mother appear slightly frowning at her condition.
“Here, drink,” the healer said handing her the cup.
Ephiny took the cup and drank it with a shudder wondering why it had to taste so bad handing it back to the healer. The Conqueror and Gabrielle shared an embrace before the taller woman left the hut.
The sleepy feeling washed over her in moments and felt her eyes close while watching her mother keep watch over her.
*****
“Hello Ephiny,” a female voice said, causing her to frown slightly. Add in the fact she had no idea where she was and it left her feeling off guard.
“Where am I,” Ephiny asked looking around and seeing a forest but nothing was recognizable to her. A beautiful brunette appeared, dressed in leathers and making her way towards her.
“Oh, neither here or there,” the woman answered vaguely.
“What type of answer is that, its got to be somewhere,” Eph replied back.
“Oh, it is, but it’s not important,” the woman replied.
“Then who are you?” Eph asked.
“I need to get out more if you don’t recognize me,” the woman mumbled, her shoulders slumping slightly before straightening and approaching Eph.
“I’m supposed to know you, and how did I get here,” Eph asked, recalling she should be in the healer’s hut.
“Always with the questions,” the woman said. “You my sister are to be rewarded, as such you’ll need the use of your sword arm.”
With that the woman touched the area of Eph’s wound and a slight stinging sensation ran though her shoulder and arm.
“There.”
Eph opened her mouth to ask something else when everything went dark once more.
*****
The smell of food roused Ephiny, blearily opening her eyes she noticed a tray of food nearby along with her mother who was in whispered conversation with Eponin.
“Should I be worried,” Eph asked causing them both to look at her.
“I see you’re awake,” Eponin said. “You just missed Gabrielle, she brought us something to eat.”
“Ah, that explains the food,” Eph said.
“I could have gone to get us some,” her mother said.
“You wanted to stay until she woke,” Eponin said.
“I see she woke up,” Eph heard Gabrielle’s voice say, watching as she walked over. “Feeling better?”
“Yeah,” Eph said looking at Gabrielle. “You look tired.”
“Well, I had an appointment to keep last night,” Gabrielle replied back to her, leaning down to tell her.
“Apoint-“ Eph stopped at the realization the statement meant and mentally slapped herself. Of course, Gabrielle was also the slave of the Conqueror.
“Oh, haven’t seen that color in a while,” Eponin teased making her realize she was blushing.
“Great,” Eph mumbled.
“Don’t worry, the Conqueror left early and I had to have Paleamon explain to me what the appointment was,” Eponin said smiling causing Eph to laugh. “Guess we forget she’s human after what I saw on the battlefield, that wasn’t human.”
“She is the daughter of Area,” Gabrielle stated. “She has to occasionally remind people of that.”
“I think she single-handedly won the battle yesterday,” Eponin said.
“Saw her take out Tanis with ease,” Eph said recalling the battle had been shorter than she expected before the battle. “I’m not sure anyone understood her skills.”
“Or they were watching the training field and were not impressed,” Eponin said. “She held back during practice.”
“She didn’t want to harm anyone, and against Tanis, I was in danger,” Gabrielle replied honestly. “It brings out the war god side of her no one normally sees.”
Ephiny thought about that for a few seconds. If Eponin was right it might explain why Ligeia challenged Gabrielle and why Tanis didn’t seem impressed with the Conqueror. Or maybe she was thinking too much into it.
“Maybe the Conqueror set them up,” Eph said recalling something Gabrielle said to her. “After all, you did say you could beat the Conqueror with a staff.”
Gabrielle snorted, stifling a chuckle. “I can only beat her because one, she won’t go full out with me, and two, I can easily distract her.”
Eph opened her mouth and closed it not trusting herself to speak but understood how the Conqueror could be distracted and tried not to look over at Gabrielle.
“I see our patient is awake,” the healer said sitting down at the side of the bed. “Let’s check the swelling and see if its gone down, then we might be able to check the damage done.”
Ephiny winced at the thought, something she had purposefully avoided thinking about, what damage the sword strike had done. She knew the damage could cause her to lose the ability to even use her arm, it was that thought which scared her the most and felt a hand cover hers as Eponin sat down on the other side offering her support.
She felt the bandages unwrapped and was relieved to feel no pain and assumed the medicine had yet to wear off as the healer finished removing the bandages. A gasp caused her to look over expecting to see the worse, not expecting to see nothing. Some dried blood but aside from that everything appeared fine and she saw no wound at all.
“I think I’m going crazy,” the healer finally stated. “I know I stitched that up last night and wrapped it.”
Ephiny flexed her shoulder a few times feeling no pain before sitting up in confusion before recalling last night. “The dream.”
“Dream?” Eponin asked.
“Yeah, I had a strange dream,” Ephiny said. “Talked to a woman, said she knew me, Artemis!”
She looked over at Eponin and then the healer before looking back at her shoulder. It was the only thing which made any sense to her.
“Then you’ve been touched,” the healer said as Eph looked over at Gabrielle who didn’t appeared surprised.
“Um, actually I have a confession,” Gabrielle said. “I talked to Aphrodite last night, and well, asked for her to heal your shoulder, she must have talked to Artemis.”
Ephiny sat a bit stunned as Melosa and Valaska walked up.
“So, how is she?” Melosa asked.
“Um, quite healed my queen,” the healer said, still getting used to what happened but neither Melosa or Valaska seemed surprised by this news.
“Then she can leave the hut?” Melosa asked.
“Yes my queen,” the healer said.
“Does someone want to fill me in?” Ephiny asked feeling left out on how Artemis would have done this.
“Don’t worry about it, Artemis said what she was doing last night after visiting us,” Valaska said, making it sound as if Artemis came by to visit every night.
“All right,” Eph finally said, getting dressed before heading outside with Eponin and her mother. Making her way outside she noticed a Centaur and Jana standing close by.
“Jana?” Eph said, heading over to where they stood seeing a slight blush on Jana’s face.
“Oh, um, hey,” Jana said. “Ephiny, Eponin, this is Marcus.”
“A pleasure,” the Centaur said to them.
“You and your warriors were a welcomed sight yesterday,” Eponin said. “The romans attacked before we were fully ready.”
“Yes, the Conqueror’s army showed up at the right time as well,” Marcus stated. “We were lucky.”
“Didn’t go exactly according to plan, did it,” Eph said knowing how it was supposed to go and how it actually went.
“No, I’m surprised we lasted with only our warriors and the Royal guard,” Eponin said.
“The Conqueror does count as ten soldiers at least,” Marcus said causing everyone to smile at that bit of truth.
“The Romans had almost made it to our position when you arrived, I’m glad so many of you survived,” Jana said, and Eph thought the eye contact between the two was interesting.
“Not all Centaurs hate Amazons, mostly the older ones who remember the wars between the two nations,” Marcus stated. “In fact, some of us actually like Amazons.”
“Why do I get the feeling there is more to the story than we’ve been told,” Eph said looking at Jana who blushed a bit.
“Well, um, Marcus and I have been seeing each other for a few moons now,” Jana stated.
“Some even longer,” Marcus said. “There are others as well.”
“We have a meeting place in the middle where we can meet and talk, and more than a few have become romantically involved,” Jana said.
“And how long has this been going on?” Valaska’s voice said causing them to turn and see her walk up.
“A season or so,” Jana replied taking a defiant stand.
“Anyone pregnant that we need to know about?” Valaska said.
“Un, one, we were trying to figure out what to do about that,” Jana said as she and Marcus closed ranks in a physical effort to protect something.
“I think the queen will be pleased to hear this,” Valaska said surprising them all. “We had a meeting last night, and I think you two should attend this afternoon’s meeting as well.”
“I wasn’t aware Centaurs were allowed in Amazon meetings,” Marcus stated.
“Times change, and we need to adapt with those changes,” Valaska said seeing everyone else nod.
End part 4