Dark Empathy by Archibald Bradford (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

himself to his feet, she had tears of mirth streaming down her face.

“Truly your ancestors are ashamed of you, but not for the reasons I had thought! You are so weak! Beaten by the mere memory of a child! I don’t know why anyone holds any fear of you, Jonathan Pym!”

He ground his teeth together as he glared at her.

“This is just the beginning, we will-”

But his shaky words were cut off when she lunged forwards as far as her chains would allow, letting loose with the war-cry of a fully-grown Amazon.

He flinched away, stumbling over his own feet as she laughed at him again.

With cheeks burning with embarrassment, he fled, her taunting words chasing him.

“Come back any time, little Yana will be sharpening her spear for you!”

Her humour was short-lived without his presence though, the chains binding her were strong and the vigilance of the Tenebrae was unflinching.

She looked them each over, her heart heavy at the sight of them, some bore minor injuries from their brief struggle with her, and she wasn’t soon to forget the one she had killed.

Dropping her head she spoke in a fervent whisper.

“I’m sorry for what has happened to you, sisters. I swear to you, I will be free of this and do everything I can to save you.”

But the dark-eyed girls remained unmoving.

__________

“Get up.” Nina said coldly.

Flat on her face before her, Escrya didn’t move.

“M-mercy.” She begged.

“No such thing, not when you might be all that stands between my master and death. Now get up.”

Escrya had barely returned to the Amazons’ camp before Nina surprised them all by showing up and immediately challenging her to a fight.

Both Myrina and Tiana had tried to intervene, but one glare from the mountain had them backing off immediately.

Tiana especially knew what Nina could be like if angry, having once felt the tiny giant’s wrath nipping at her heels as she chased her up a tree after she had inadvertently interrupted a tender moment between her and Milly.

But the contest between Nina and Escrya couldn’t rightly be called a fight: it was really more of a never-ending beating.

The Gigas held back her true strength of course, she wanted to test the Amazon, not kill her.

With blood and sweat streaming off her brow and stinging her eyes, Escrya managed to push herself up on to one knee, but Nina immediately swept her arms out from underneath her with one tiny yet implacable foot, causing her face to land back in the dirt.

She was relentless, pacing around the downed Amazon as she once more struggled to rise.

“You think because I let you fuck my master that makes you worthy of him? Quit wallowing in the dirt and get up.”

“I... I never said I was w-worthy.”

Nina’s response was to kick her in the ribs, sending her tumbling into the air only to land heavily, the wind gone from her lungs.

“Then what the fuck am I doing here?”

“Stop this! Please!” Kaylee begged from the circle of grim-faced Amazons around them.

Nina’s answer came as the low rumble that warned of an impending avalanche.

“I’ve told you already not to interfere.” Without looking away from Escrya’s prone form she leveled her hammer at Kaylee; “Next one who interrupts me can join her in the dirt.”

But the other Amazon wasn’t deterred, not with Escrya in such evident peril.

“You’re killing her!”

This time Nina did look up, her glare causing Kaylee and those around her to pull back warily before the giant shifted her focus back to the battered Amazon.

“Is that true Escrya? Is this all it takes to kill you? Are you this weak?”

Her words were as much a challenge as they were a taunt, and in either case they had the desired effect, galvanising the wounded girl to plant her fists in the dirt again as she struggled once more to her knees.

With a final sharp cry she got all the way to her feet, one hand gripping her ribs as she spat blood to the side and matched the mountain’s placid stare.

“What this? Th-this is nothing.” She panted out.

Nina waited, it was clear that the Amazon had more to say.

Rising as tall as her injuries would allow, Escrya drew in a breath before speaking in a clear and steady voice for all to hear.

“I am Escrya, daughter of Alcaia. And I swear upon the stories that we cherish, the ones that bind us together, the ones that my grandmother entrusted to me before her death-” Her intonation rose as the teller spoke the most important oath she had ever made; “On the lives of my people, both our mothers and our daughters yet to be!”

Her eyes narrowed as she brought her oath full circle back to Nina.

“On the life of he who is most beloved, our Valkyrja-datta... I swear to you, giant: I AM worthy!”

The corner of Nina’s lip twitched; the barest hint of a smile showing at her opponent’s resolve.

“Then show me.”

And she did.

For another hour Escrya repeatedly rose time and again only for Nina to mercilessly knock her down.

There were no further interruptions from the others, the Saenga and the Brael having come to accept that, despite how difficult it was to witness, their sister had accepted this trial.

To interfere would disgrace her.

It therefore did not end until Escrya was finally unable to rise again, having fallen into unconsciousness from the countless injuries the Gigas had inflicted on her.

Silence reigned in the impromptu arena as Nina loomed over the fallen warrior, staring down at her with an inscrutable expression on her face.

For a long time she stared, until finally she gave a single nod of satisfaction.

“Gracious in victory, proud in defeat.” She murmured before turning to face the