Thinking of Pisto, I reached out a hand.
"Don't touch him." Mel's voice rang out from across the basement.
I curled my fingers into my palm. My friend hadn't changed much, not that in nine months I expected her to. She was dressed much like I'd seen her last, with a few minor tweaks-wearing shorts instead of jeans and a sleeveless instead of long-sleeved tee. On her head was her favorite Badgers cap and in her hand was a staff.
That was different-not only that she held a staff but that she held it with such ease. I'd always known she had the talent in her, but she'd denied it for so long. .
"Looks like Harmony isn't the only one who's been working with your mother," I remarked.
She paced forward, the staff in front of her. "Why are you here, Zery?"
"We are friends, remember?" I motioned at Bern to set the basket on the ground. She complied, then stood with her hands shoved into her pockets and her body looking deceptively relaxed.
Mel, however, wasn't fooled. She shot a glance at the warrior, then laughed. "Which am I supposed to be swayed by? The gifts or the intimidation?"
"Neither. I just want to talk to Peter. Is that wrong?"
She tossed the staff from one hand to the other, then leaned it against the wall. "No, not at all. Let me ask you a question. What do you love, Zery? Really truly love?"
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I hadn't expected the question, wasn't sure I had an answer. Then I realized I did. "The Amazons." The tribe was my life.
"Really? The Amazons? Or the tribe? Do you want to help and protect each individual or some myth that exists only in your mind?"
I held up a hand to stop her. "We've had this argument before. You don't like the tribe, don't want to rejoin, fine. I accept that. I'm not here to bring you back."
She took a step toward me. Her hands were at her sides, empty. For any other artisan it would be an innocent stance, but Mel wasn't any other artisan. Her father had been a son, and as I'd learned during our last time together, she had not only artisan but warrior and priestess talents too.
She was, I realized, a prime example of why mixing with the sons was dangerous. There was no predicting how strong a baby from a son and an Amazon would be. Which reminded me of someone else. Mel's daughter had a son for a father too.
"How's Harmony?" I asked
Mel tensed, every inch of her except her fingers; they wiggled.
I hadn't said it to tweak her, but I quickly recognized that I had.
"Is Harmony why you're here?" Her body was so taut now I could almost feel the magic strumming off her.
A few feet away Bubbe murmured something I couldn't hear. The tension flowing through Mel lessened but only slightly.
"It's just a question, Mel." The words came out soft and sad. Since Mel had left the tribe, there had been a gap between us, but now it seemed to have widened to a chasm. Standing there next to women I'd loved, who had supported me through some of the worst times in my life, I felt very alone.
Mel closed her eyes and balled her hands into fists. When she opened her lids, I could see some of my sadness reflected back at me in her gaze.
"We know. We know why you're here." Then she opened her mouth and expelled a gale-force wind. For the second time in days I flew backward-this time smashing into a wall.
Bern thumped into the wall beside me.
My second collision with something solid and ungiving in a week did my back no good. I grunted and closed my eyes.
If Mel was using her energy to hold me to the wall, at least she wasn't doing something else-like drawing a knife to cut out my heart. Which didn't mean someone else couldn't do that part, but I didn't think either of the females in the room would, at least not without a bit more provocation on my part. Plus with Mel's wind blowing as strongly as it was, they couldn't get close enough to me to even try.
So I didn't struggle; I waited.
After only seconds the wind ceased and I landed hard on my feet. Bern did too, but she didn't stop. She hurtled herself across the room toward my loving best friend.
This time Bubbe stepped in. She made a motion with her arm, like she was throwing a bowling ball into the warrior's path. Bern tripped and fell face forward onto her hands and knees. Bubbe, mumbling, made another motion with her hands, this time creating an arch.
Bern leapt to her feet, but I knew no aid would come from her now. It took her a second to realize it, though. Over and over she pummeled her body against the invisible barrier the priestess had created around her.
Bubbe sighed in my direction. "You wish her to damage herself so?"
I turned to the trapped warrior. "Bern. Leave."
She had staggered backward and was preparing to charge Bubbe's invisible wall again. When I spoke, she stopped and stared at me, looking, I knew, for some sign I wanted her to do something other than what I had said.
I shook my head. "Go outside."
Exhaling a breath big enough to make her chest and shoulders visibly move, she folded her arms over her body and waited.
Bubbe waved her hands and she was free.
"The babies too. Sunshine would be good for them." The priestess gestured to the carriers.
"No, leave them. That is why Zery is here after all." Mel walked over and took Dana's child from her arms. "Isn't that right, Zery? You're here looking for a baby."
"How. .?" My eyes narrowed. "You're working with the sons. . " Thea had reminded me that Mel had left the tribe, and I'd known she had been traveling with Peter. But I hadn't thought she would have so completely slipped to the other side that she would know even before I arrived why I was here.
"Dana told you his name, right?" She bounced the infant and tapped a finger on his nose. "Pisto. Do you think your lieutenant would approve?" She looked at me then, her eyes filled with mockery.
We both knew the answer. Pisto had wanted no part of her sister's son. Naming him for her would have only angered my volatile lieutenant, but I knew Dana had chosen the name with only the best intentions.
"Mel," Bubbe barked, apparently thinking the same thing I had and not wanting it to be said in front of Dana.
Her eyes misty, the young hearth-keeper waved her hand. "Don't worry. I know Pisto wouldn't have approved of me giving him her name, but I loved her and want to remember her. And I want him to know about her, too."
Looking horrified, Mel darted a glance at me.
I tilted my head to the side. Mel had always been a little brash. It wasn't a trait she'd had to worry about too much when just living with her tough-skinned family, but Dana was different. She was one of the few Amazons I would honestly term sensitive-a trait that had enraged Pisto more than once.
Dana held out her arms, and a shamefaced Mel slipped baby Pisto into them. Looking humbled, Mel jerked her head toward her mother's workout room. "We can talk in there."
I followed her, my head high.
She waited for me by the door. Once we were both inside, she closed it behind us. It was a good-sized room filled with workout benches and weights. There was a plastic half barrel filled with medicine balls and a couple of staffs too.
The staffs were the only weapons in sight, but I knew if Mel planned to attack me it would be with magic anyway-if she intended to hurt me, at least. Her talents might be growing as a warrior, but I could still beat her. . I hoped.