Attack of the Amazons by Gilbert L. Morris Page A

away and see what happens.”
    Sarah bit her lip. “I know. I’ve been able to talk to Dave. He’s talking about escape.”
    â€œNo, we can’t do that! They’d hunt whoever got away like dogs. We don’t know our way in this jungle, and they do.”
    â€œThat’s what I told him. Whatever we do, we have to do it together. He did tell me, though, about the queen’s son—Rolf. I met him a couple of times. He’s a nice boy.”
    â€œBoy? He’s nearly twenty, isn’t he?”
    â€œI know, but he seems so…well…vulnerable. Dave’s been working on him some. And then there’s a young man called Gaelan. There are others, I am sure. If we could get enough men together—”
    Josh stared at her. “You mean to take over from these Amazons?
That
would take some doing.”
    â€œI know. It’s just that we need to be doing
something.
I’m going to talk to Rolf now. At least he has the queen’s ear.”
    â€œFrom what I hear, Queen Faya doesn’t listen to anybody.”
    â€œI don’t think that’s true,” Sarah said slowly. “I’ve watched them quite a bit, and I’ve talked to Abbey about it. She listens to her husband. I think she trusts him more than anybody.”
    â€œHe’s still just a husband—she’s the queen.”
    â€œThat’s true. Well, that’s the culture here, and that’s what’s got to be broken before they can understand anything about love.”
    Sarah found Rolf working in the garden in the sun-light.He had removed his shirt, and she was surprised to see that he was not feeble-looking but wiry. And as he dug with the hoe, the muscles of his sides and shoulders sprang into instant relief.
    â€œHello, Rolf,” she said.
    â€œOh, hello, Sarah.” Rolf smiled at her. He had a pleasant smile. “How are things going over at Marden’s?”
    â€œWell, they’re pretty strict, especially with Josh.”
    â€œYes, everybody knows that. They beat their servants all the time.” He shook his head. “That’s a bad idea. Why make life hard for people?”
    There was a gentle streak in this young man that Sarah warmed to. She watched as he hoed, noting that he did it effortlessly and quickly. “You do that so well,” she said.
    â€œI ought to. I’ve been doing it all my life.”
    â€œDo you ever wish, Rolf, that you could do something else?”
    â€œSomething else?” He raised one eyebrow. “What else would I do?”
    â€œWell, I mean, have you ever wanted to go hunting?”
    â€œI suppose I did when I was younger.” A memory seemed to come to him, and his eyes grew dreamy. “When I was a boy, I used to pretend I was hunting. The women would go out and bring the game back, and I thought,
I’d like to do that.
But, of course, I never did. Merle, she’s a good hunter.”
    â€œI think you’d be a good hunter yourself. You’re strong and quick, and you probably have good eyes.”
    â€œOh, I don’t know about that—”
    Sarah had recognized earlier that Rolf had a very low self-image. It had been ground into him since he was born that he was inferior, and Sarah knew that washard to work against. She had had a poor view of herself when she was a child. She had felt herself to be homely and thought no one would ever like her.
    Childhood had been a hard time for her, and now, looking at the sinewy young man working in the garden, she thought,
He could be a strong man if he just had some encouragement. I’ve got to be careful though —he’d be easy to shock. If I told him I would like to see the men take over from the women warriors, he’d probably run like a rabbit
.
    She spent a pleasant half hour with Rolf, then made her way over to the house where Reb and Wash stayed with Tanisha and her parents.
    She saw Wash almost at once and asked,