The Heartstone Saga Archibald Bradford (english novels to improve english TXT) 📖

pounced forwards to deliver a brutal kick with both feet that connected with Kaylee’s breasts and launched her to the ground.

“You cowards! Stop attacking my sisters!” Escrya snarled as she wrenched her bound hands, causing the tough snake-leather bindings to cut into her wrist before they broke; “It was I that lead them here! Strike at me if you dare!”

In response she got a fist to the gut, but she was expecting it and absorbed the blow with a heavy grunt, doubling over afterwards to catch her breath.

A moment later she was laughing.

Finally one of the Amazons spoke.

“You have courage to mock us so, trekdotter. Or is it stupidity?”

Trekdotter: daughter of traitors in the old tongue.

“I’ve been hit harder.” Escrya boasted with a smirk, ignoring the ancient insult; “One of my bond-sisters is a Gigas.”

She shrugged her shoulders and raised her chin in invitation.

In response to her challenge, one by one the Amazons in the circle stepped forwards and struck her a mighty blow, but after each of them had a chance she was still able to stand, if unsteadily.

Having regained her footing from the latest punch from the circle of attackers, the beleaguered young Amazon spat blood to one side then regained her breath in order to shout at the surrounding warriors.

“I am Escrya who Weathered the Mountain! She whose mother is Alcaia, Warleader and Chieftess of the Saenga! As teller for my people my voice WILL be heard this day! Even if I must fight every one of your number that it may be so!”

Kaylee and Helena both let out fierce ululations at her sides, their cuts and bruises forgotten as they stood proudly in support of their teller.

Once their warcry ended there was a long silence as the rabid Amazons considered the brash young women breathing heavily before them.

A moment later the Matriarch leaned forwards and nodded her head, gesturing for the two kneeling Amazons to move to the sides as she spoke for the first time.

“Tell us your story then girl. You have earned a few words at least before I give your deaths to my sister-daughters.” Her voice was deep and feminine, while her words could not be mistaken for anything but a command.

Escrya wiped the blood from her face and her expression turned grim.

“Matriarch, forgive me, but I must call your people to war.”

Gasps of shock sounded from the wild Amazons, and more than a few harsh insults, but their leader silenced them with a sharply raised fist so that the interloper could continue.

“And by what right do you call upon us?” The Matriarch demanded with eyes narrowed dangerously; “Of what importance is the one who sent you that we should not kill you now?”

This one Escrya had a pretty good answer for.

“I come at the behest of Dominar Volka Gundresdotter, she who flew with the Fourth Heavenly Host so many years ago.” The teller straightened with pride as she remembered her golden bond-sister; “And I come for the sake of my beloved, William Nameless Armstrong, our Valkyrja-datta, who returned her to this world! I stand before you as a warrior yet blooded and bring dire tidings. The dark Empath Jonathan Pym has created an army of Tenebrae, girls stolen from their families and forced into shadow by his twisted heart! Dominar Volka and the Aegis intend to stand against him, as do my people and many others besides. If the Matriarch and her kin are not willing to stand with us knowing all of this, then I will proclaim you to be the trekdotters! And say that the world would be better off if you stayed here clinging to your crumbling traditions and cowering in your blackened trees!”

There was a long silence from the gathered crowd.

Then the massive Amazon leapt down from her stone throne, her feet striking the ground with a heavy thump as her muscular legs bent to absorb the impact.

With all of the gravity of the Matriarchy she strode forwards and loomed over the bold young warrior, more than a full head taller than her as she glared down at her with piercing eyes that almost perfectly matched the colour of Escrya’s.

Abruptly she brought her fist up and seized the smaller woman by the jaw, gripping tight as she measured the resolve in her face.

“Trekdotters? Courageous or stupid indeed. I would crush you now, but I have heard whispers of this... Valkyrja-datta, and of course we all have heard also of the return of the golden one. But we have heard whispers before. What proof have you that this isn’t some human deception?”

Escrya didn’t blink, a tear tracing down her cheek as she brought forth Volka’s flight feather from the hem of her skirt, again drawing a gasp from the Amazons.

Valkyrie feathers were rare and priceless treasures to the Amazons, reverentially handed down through the generations.

But none of those came from a living Valkyrie, and so none of those possessed the golden sheen of Volka’s feather.

“If the feathers in our hair are not enough to convince you, than perhaps this one will.” Escrya challenged.

The fist holding her jaw released her and the Matriarch took a half-step back to get a closer look at what she was presenting.

At first she was scowling, but then it was like someone had punched her in the stomach.

“How can this be?” She asked, her words thick as for the first time she showed some emotion beyond disinterest and contempt; “Tell me truly, young warrior, or I will strike you dead here and now: have the Valkyrie returned to us?”

Escrya’s eyes locked with hers once more, ice blue meeting ice blue, and her gaze was unyielding as she spoke only the truth.

“One, at least, has. And she faces war. Will she stand alone?”

The shaken matriarch brought her hand up and