The Alyta Trilogy: Handmaids, Heroes, and Hierarchy.

Kyria comes up to her side.  �Shall we show this male what Amazons do for fun nowadays, Alyta?� She asks, and Alyta nods, raising her eyebrows.  They were obviously taught from members of the same clan, and the duel fighting techniques worked like they had practiced them for years.  Alyta grabs Kirya�s wrists and swings her around like a baseball bat.  Her mobile boots meet Ares� backside and he goes flying, but the fun�s not over yet.  Kirya jumps over Ares, and he looks from one to the other.  They charge at the same time, and Ares runs off screaming.  He heads to the door inside, forgetting that he has the power to disappear.  Even if you�re a god, when you have two howling Amazons chasing you, you just run.  Before he gets to the door, it swings open, knocking him out cold.  He vanishes as he hits the ground, and the door opens.  The girls stare at the person in the portal.

�What?  What did I miss?� Jason says, looking from one shocked face to the other.

                                                                       *~*~*

�I grew up with a man and woman who I thought were my parents, in a small village two days from Corinth, on the coast.  I found out that they weren�t my parents when I was seven.  To make matters worse, my �father� told me that he never wanted me in the first place.  They found me on their doorstep and had to take me in. I felt so crummy.  I just wanted to belong, which meant bending to peer pressure: I stole anything I wanted, and was basically a rotten kid.  When I was 11, I found out that my mother was an Amazon queen.  I wanted so much to belong somewhere, even if it meant leaving everything familiar.  So I packed up everything and headed for the forest where I knew Amazons lived.  What I hadn�t packed, I just stole along the way.  Anything.  I didn�t care.  I didn�t have any morals.  When I got to the Amazon camp and told them who my mother was, they gave me these silver armbands, signifying that I was an Amazon princess.  They didn�t tell me what had happened to my mother until last year.  When I found out that she was living in Atlantis, and that the only thing stopping me from becoming their queen was some apprentice that she gave the gold armbands to, the sign of the heir.�  Kirya pauses as Alyta looks down in shock to where the gold wraps around her skin.  She gulps, and Kirya goes on.  �So I was determined to find you.  I made it my Amazon quest: the thing that would get me fame as an Amazon.  I was thirsty for your blood, and that made me easy prey for Ares.  I�m not diminishing what I did, but he did make my long for the title more.  You already had your kingdom in Atlantis, why should you get what was mine by birth too?  I was filled with so much anger.  I don�t know what I could have been capable of.  But there I was, trying to kill you, and the tables turned.  You could have slit my throat, but you showed mercy.  You let me survive.  You are truly more worthy than I to the queenship.  But before I came up here, I had to make myself known to my mother� I had to show her what I had become, that the unwanted one had come back and was going to take her birthright back by force.  But now that I don�t want it, it�s too late.  Her life was pointless.�  She falls back into silent sobs.

Alyta sits up straight as she thinks about Kirya�s last phrases.  �What did you mean when you say it�s too late� that her life *was* pointless??�  Kyria mumbles something quietly, but Alyta takes her by the shoulders and shakes her.  �What did you say?� she demands.  Kirya speaks louder this time, her voice wavering.  �I killed her.  In her chambers.  She�s dead.  Gone.  I never told her I was sorry.�

Jason, who had been listening silently, speaks into Alyta�s ear.  �There�s nothing you can do, sweet.  I�m so sorry.�

Nothing she can do?  She�s got to do something.  Wait?  Who said it was too late?  People have survived wounds for over an hour before.  And Sytifa was � no, don�t use that word � IS strong.  She must be alive.  She has to be, Alyta thinks.  Slowly, she gets up, and Kyria hears the movement and looks up at her, expectantly.  �She�s still alive.  I know it.  Let�s go get her.�  She leaves through to door and races down the stairs to Sytifa�s chamber.  The others follow behind, Kyria knowing she�s dead and Jason hoping that Alyta�s healing powers will be enough to save her.  When they reach the doorway, Alyta stops.