Amazon Moon by James A. Haught Read Free Book Online Page B

fire.
    Soon afterward, they dragged a wounded soldier and dumped him on the ground beside me. He was a junior officer named Dalien, a proud son of a rich family. Speared in the thigh, he panted from the pain. The women likewise tied his hands behind him.
    As daylight came, we saw a ghastly scene of death. Greek warriors lay sprawled everywhere, covered with gore. Amazons collected the soldiers' armor and weapons, and even stripped off their clothes. One Greek, still alive, was speared. Their naked bodies were dragged to the riverbank and shoved into the water, where the men had been happily swimming a few hours before. I saw the corpses of the two sentries, who had been killed silently just before the nighttime attack. I felt a sick pang for all my comrades.
    One Amazon had been killed by sword thrust during the doomed Greek resistance. Another had been stabbed in the side. Both the dead and wounded women were brought to the campfire where Dalien and I lay. Amazons bandaged their wounded comrade and told her she soon would heal.
    "You're tough as an ox," one teased her. "You'll be fighting again in a month."
    The women brought the brigade's supply wagon and all the unit's horses, which had been tethered in nearby grass. They loaded the wagon with spoils from the raid: weapons, tents, food, and even the bloody garments of the dead warriors. The booty hung down all sides of the supply vehicle. Then they heaved Dalien and me inside, and carefully lifted in the dead Amazon and the wounded one.
    The procession moved out, heading up the Thermodon Valley. Looking back, we could barely detect where the Greek brigade had perished, except for scorched spots of the campfires.
    Dalien and I, both in pain, clenched our teeth as the lurching wagon jolted along the terrain. The Amazon's corpse occasionally jostled against us. One hard bounce flung her face against mine, and I pushed her away quickly. Her dead eyes, half open, seemed to look at me. It was disturbing, so I reached cautiously and closed her eyelids. At the opposite side of the wagon, the wounded Amazon breathed tensely in pain, groaning at sharp jolts.
    After a while, our entourage came to a side-valley overgrown densely with thorns. It looked like an impenetrable jungle, desolate of human life. We stopped and the lead Amazons walked to the edge of a cliff, pulling back branches to reveal a lane along the face of the rocks. They waved to a sentry standing on a ledge above the cliff. After we entered the hidden pathway, two young Amazons stayed behind and swept the ground with leafy branches, removing tracks that might show where the troop had entered.
    We passed through the thorn thicket and came to an amazing sight: an Amazon village with women everywhere. Some bathed naked in a dammed creek. Others worked at fields and buildings, overseeing male slaves. Small girls scampered around. As we approached, women came running from every direction. The warrior leader announced to them:
    "We destroyed the Greek troop in the night. We killed them all, except two wounded ones we will add to our slaves. We took all their armor and equipment and food."
    Cheers arose. Then the leader added: "Sylene was killed and Celeste was wounded." Silence fell. Women came to the supply wagon, lifted Celeste out, tended her wounds and carried her to her quarters. They carried Sylene's body to a burial place on a knoll.
    "Send three slaves to dig her grave," the warrior chief commanded.
    Dalien and I couldn't walk, so we were pulled by our arms to a squat mud-straw building that we later learned was the slave quarters. We were taken to a room and dumped onto sheepskin pallets filled with straw. With our hands still bound behind us, we sank into exhausted sleep.
    Next morning, two girls about ten years old brought us bread and goat milk. They untied our hands and left us to eat. Later two older girls pulled us outside the doorway and washed our wounds with water from a pot. As we sat there, helpless, a