Last of the Amazons: A Novel by Steven Pressfield

Author:Steven Pressfield
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-03-24T05:00:00+00:00

215

AST OF THE AMAZONS

and simultaneously shielded me from hazard and called forth by their placement and power further glory. I had crafted none, as was tal Kyrte's law, but each had either been won as a trophy or made for me (as I had for others) by lovers and friends. Quiver and bow case hung at Daybreak's right shoulder, both of doeskin with flaps of fox fur, quill-embroidered and trailing bands of ermine and mink. I packed twenty-seven primary shafts, straight and true, which had taken me two years to fashion, and another two score with Knothole in the spare kit. My bow was a four-footer of ash and horn with a grip of boar skin trimmed with amber and jet. In my right hand I bore the death lance of my “stick,” or fighting unit; six feathers of hawk and osprey, for comrades gone to the life beyond, pended from its tip. A buckskin trophy-fall hung at my back, with more glyphic annals, and seven scalps woven to tassels, which whipped and snapped in the wind. My boots were fireproofs of ox-hide lined with sable and fox; atop these, wolf-skin trousers with the fur on the inside, overmantled by leggings of buckskin. Twenty charms of electrum and silver were woven into a stripe down each leg, talismans of the gods and heroines into whose care I had surrendered my soul during the Gatherings of my youth. Around my waist I wore a star belt of seven windings, gift of Eleuthera. My breast was mantled with a vest of fox fur and fleece, thick as a hand, with an overcloak of bearskin, tightest against the wet, and a hood lined with the fur of white marten. Over my right shoulder rode a black panther skin, with the head still on, draping my back to form a pouch in which I carried my moon bundle. On my head I wore a Phrygian cap of doeskin lined with otter; its flaps shielded my ears, while through its forestall of horsehair, bound across my mouth and eyes, I could see into the sternest glare. My battle-axe I wore not as others in a scabbard between my shoulder blades but loose, across the tops of my thighs, in an antelope case lined with fleece. Daybreak's coat STEVEN PRESSFIELD

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was shaggy with winter, a pile so thick it swallowed both fists to the wrist. You could hang by it at the gallop. On all sides warriors advanced in such pride, numbers, and brilliance as surely heaven had never looked upon before.

Hippolyta and Eleuthera had meant to leave a third of the nation behind, to safeguard our lands and herds. In the event, half of these could not be contained, but veterans and novices in thousands swept upon the column, leaguing with its squadrons and refusing to be driven off. I was there when the clans of the Titaneia marshaled before the strait. Uncommanded they set fire to their tents and waggons. Everything they owned beyond what eouid be borne to battle, they torched and good riddance.

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