Mood Riders Read online

  THE

  MOON

  RIDERS

  THERESA TOMLINSON

  An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

  Dedication

  In memory of my great-grandmother Miriam Beer

  CONTENTS

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  MAPS

  PART ONE: THE LITTLE SNAKE

  1 THE DANCER

  2 A WARRIOR FOR A GRANDMOTHER

  3 THE PLACE OF FLOWING WATERS

  4 THE WINDY CITY

  5 AN INVITATION TO SPARTA

  6 THE NIGHT OF THE OLD WOMAN

  7 DANCING FOR THE MOON

  8 AWAY WITH THE MOON RIDERS

  9 THE TIME FOR WEEPING

  10 BOW TO THE MOON

  11 STONE FROM A FIRE MOUNTAIN

  12 A PRECIOUS SECRET

  13 STING LIKE A SCORPION

  14 THE COMING OF SPRING

  15 BACK TO TROY

  16 A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ON A SHOPPING TRIP

  17 THE TROUBLESOME DAUGHTER

  18 ESCAPE TO THRACE

  19 WHO HAS DONE THIS?

  20 AN EVIL DREAM

  21 TO STEAL A BRIDE

  22 AULIS

  23 THE FULL OF THE MOON

  24 A NEW RECRUIT

  25 THE TOWERS OF TROY

  PART TWO: THE SNAKE LADY

  26 THE RAID

  27 DANCING FOR THE DEAD

  28 BITTER AND WISE

  29 YILDIZ

  30 THE ISLE OF MARBLE

  31 TO FEED AN ARMY

  32 MAZAGARDI HORSES

  33 WHAT MAZAGARDI STEEDS CAN DO

  34 THE STREETS OF TROY

  35 THE MISERY OF TROY

  36 THOSE WHO HOWL AT THE MOON

  37 THE FIREFLY

  38 THE WAR GOD’S DAUGHTER

  39 ATONEMENT

  40 THE RIDE OF THE WAR GOD’S DAUGHTER

  41 THE WARRIOR OF WARRIORS

  42 HONOR AND DIGNITY

  43 SNAKE VENOM

  44 WE HAVE WAITED LONG ENOUGH

  45 SECRET PLANS

  46 THE EARTH SHAKER

  47 APPLES AND FREEDOM

  EPILOGUE

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  CREDITS

  COPYRIGHT

  ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

  Map

  Part One

  THE LITTLE SNAKE

  CHAPTER ONE

  The Dancer

  THE NIGHT WAS cool beside the Lake of Kus. The mother and grandmother sat together outside their round tent, soft woven rugs fastened about their shoulders. They beat a steady rhythm on small drums and sang. Aben leaned close to the fire, the muscles in his cheeks taut, as he strummed a simple melody on his oud, the music thrumming over rocks and grassland.

  Myrina, carefully dressed in bangles, beads, trousers, and layers of smocks, danced barefoot about the edge of the fire. She was warm, the dancing saw to that. Her hands and arms twisted, sinuous as snakes; her hips swung back and forth in time with the ancient music of her tribe. She took her final pose with a flourish.

  Gul’s voice dropped. “Is my daughter ready?” she whispered.

  Grandmother Hati smiled broadly. “Aye. I’m sure of it.” She turned to the young girl, her face suddenly solemn with the importance of her words. “Myrina, my daughter’s daughter! When we go to the Spring Celebrations, I feel sure that Atisha the Old Woman shall take you with her!”

  “Thank you, grandmother.” Myrina spoke with quiet satisfaction.

  Soon the tribes would meet at the place of Flowing Waters; the sacred place at the foot of Mount Ida, not far from the high-walled city of Troy. The joyful Spring Celebrations and shrewd horse dealing that took place there was always exciting, but this year would be better than ever. She, Myrina, who was named after one of the most famous dancers of the past, would leave her family and become one of the honored priestesses of Earth Mother Maa, known as the Moon Riders.

  Myrina could not settle to sleep that night, so she slipped out to the roped horse corral. Isatis, the eight-year-old blue-black mare, picked up her scent and, leaving the other horses, she came at once to her mistress’s side, whinnying gently.

  “I’m to join the Moon Riders,” Myrina whispered, stroking the smooth short hairs on the horse’s neck. “And you will be my steed.”

  Myrina was both terrified and excited at the thought of leaving her parents’ home tent. She would follow in the footsteps of her mother, grandmother, and Reseda, her older sister.

  Reseda was now due to return home after spending seven years traveling from place to place with the Moon Riders, performing sacred dances and songs for those who honored the Great Mother, Maa. Myrina would take her sister’s place.

  She’d learned to ride, as did all the Mazagardi tribe, when she was just a baby, and traveled constantly from camp to camp, with their herd of goats, sheep, and horses. But she’d never before been away from her family and tribe; and that thought brought a touch of fear with it.

  She would have to leave her friend Tomi, who’d ridden at her side since they were children learning to hunt together, sending sharp, light arrows straight and fast toward their prey. In the evenings by the campfire they would lean together for warmth, but now that Tomi had seen fourteen winters he too must leave the tribe for months at a time, buying foals and selling horses with the other young men. Thank goodness at least Isatis would be going with her.

  Isatis had been hers from the day that she was born. Myrina was only five when she’d wandered away from the tents and found her father crouched with concern over his favorite horse, Midnight. The pregnant mare had moved away from the rest of the herd to the far edge of the camp. She lay very still beneath an olive tree, her lolling tongue turned gray and her swollen stomach drenched with cold sweat.

  Myrina’s father had turned to his little daughter in desperation, for all the adults were out of calling distance. He made her help him with the difficult birth and at last a small, stick-legged creature was born into Myrina’s arms, half covered in wet membrane.

  “If this foal lives, she shall be yours,” her father had promised.

  Both Isatis and Midnight had lived and Myrina had loved the young blue-black mare ever since.

  Seven days before they were to move on for the Spring Celebrations, Myrina sat outside the tent, trying to keep still while her grandmother pricked her skin with a sharp bone needle.

  “Do not scratch!” Gul spoke sharply, slapping her daughter’s hand away from the nose ring that had also been snapped, red hot and searing, into place.

  “It itches like a scorpion’s sting,” Myrina complained, “and so does this.”

  “Keep still! Eyes shut!” Hati warned. “The more you wriggle the more it will hurt! Shut your eyes . . . think creature!”

  Myrina squeezed her eyelids together, then slowly lowered her shoulders, trying to ease the clenched muscles and think creature. She must make herself believe that she was moving steadily through the grass on her belly, swaying from side to side, a warm wind blowing into her face. It was just possible, if she really relaxed, to lift her thoughts and send them far away from the sharp pricking of the needle.

  Hati was skilled at making body pictures and she worked fast, rubbing soot mixed with herb juices and honey into the punctured skin, creating her marks. All young girls destined to become Moon Riders were decorated with body pictures; the work began on their eighth birthday. For the last five years, Hati had added a new picture each spring to Myrina’s fast-growing collection. A leaping deer with curling antlers stood out clear blue-black on each foot, bestowing on her the suppleness and grace of the animal. Leaves and flowers rained down from her shoulders, sprinklin
g the tops of her arms, symbolizing the energy of plant growth. A sharp arrowhead was etched on each cheekbone, warning anyone who came close of hidden strength. Hati herself had scorpions patterning her cheeks and arm, though the dyes were faded now and hidden away between wrinkles. Gul bore the rose flowers of her name—a gentler symbol for a gentle nature.

  Now on this special day, Myrina was being decorated with the last and most important body picture of all, her own chosen symbol, covering her right forearm.

  “Almost done,” Gul soothed, looking over her mother’s shoulder. “I will fetch the milk. The picture is so right; it’s you, Myrina.”

  At last Hati put down her needle and picked up the bowl of precious mare’s milk mixed with honey that Gul had brought. She reverently poured a little of it onto the earth as an offering to Maa, then gave the rest to Myrina.

  Eyes still closed, Myrina sipped the warm strong-tasting milk with relief. The sharp pains were over and her body picture had taken shape.

  They took the bowl away from her, and both Gul and Hati one after the other took Myrina’s small hand, kissed it gently and pressed it to their cheeks. “May your picture-magic give you the strength and grace of its images,” they whispered. Then Hati sat back and stretched her spine. “Open your eyes,” she ordered.

  Myrina opened them nervously, glancing down. The skin was red and swollen, but she could see the picture clearly. An undulating snake rippled down her forearm, resting its patterned head on her thumb. Its curling tail just touched her elbow.

  “Thank you, Grandmother,” she said quietly. “I think it is me!”

  Gul suddenly caught her breath and pointed beyond them to a pile of rocks.

  “What is it?” Hati asked.

  Gul still couldn’t speak, but only point.

  Myrina turned to look toward the rocks, then she saw it, too. A golden brown viper was weaving its snaky way out into the sunshine, heading toward her feet.

  All three women froze for a moment, then in a flash Hati snatched up her stick, raising it above her head.

  “Do not strike!” Myrina whispered. “It will not harm me.”

  The snake stopped and reared up, looking directly at Myrina, then it dipped its head gracefully and turned away. Hati laughed and lowered her stick. “No, I’m sure you are right, though it may not recognize us as friends of the young snake lady!”

  The creature slunk smoothly away into the rock shadows once more.

  Gul breathed freely again. “Is it a sign? It must be! What can it mean?”

  “I don’t know.” Hati smiled with determination. “But it can only be good. I’m sure of that.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  A Warrior for a Grandmother

  OVER THE NEXT few days the swelling and soreness vanished from Myrina’s arm, so that her snake-symbol looked very lifelike. Among the Mazagardi there was much talk of the coming Celebrations at the Place of Flowing Waters. All the nomadic tribes who honored Earth Mother, Maa, would gather to rejoice in the coming of Spring; also, they would be presenting their daughters to Atisha, the leader of the Moon Riders, and hoping that she would accept them as priestesses. The Mazagardi tribe had a reputation for providing the best dancers and the best warrior women, too.

  “I hear that King Priam wants to buy horses,” Gul told Aben. “They say he’s richer than ever, now that he’s taxing the trading boats that pass through the Hellespont. He makes Achaeans pay twice what he charges our tribes and his Hittite allies.”

  Aben smiled. “This wealth may help in our dealings with him, but I swear the man’s hoarding trouble for himself!”

  “What sort of trouble?” Myrina was curious.

  Her father was thoughtful. “The Achaean kingdoms need tin to make their bronze weapons and this new metal they call iron. Their ships bring it from the north, passing through the Hellespont; there’s no other way. I’m sure Agamemnon of Mycenae and Menelaus of Sparta will not tolerate Priam’s soaring charges forever, and I fear for us all if those two brothers run out of patience.”

  Myrina nodded. They all feared the fierce Achaean raiding gangs that came north from time to time, plundering gold, murdering the men, and taking women as slaves. She came from many generations of brave warrior women who were always ready to take up arms to defend those they loved. “I’ll fight Achaeans if they come raiding,” she insisted.

  Both parents smiled at her fierceness.

  “Well . . . Grandmother turned warrior! She rode with the Moon Riders through Thrace to challenge Theseus, didn’t she?”

  Gul nodded. “Yes. Hippolyta led them to Athens to rescue Antiope whom Theseus had stolen away.”

  “So brave of them.” Myrina sighed.

  Gul’s face was full of doubt. “Brave but maybe foolish. The fight cost Hippolyta her life, along with many others. And as Hati will tell you, when it came to it Antiope didn’t wish to return home.”

  Myrina frowned. “She wanted to stay with the Achaeans?”

  “Not wanted, exactly, but that was what she chose. She’d just given birth to Theseus’s son.”

  “I can’t believe it!” Myrina argued. “He forced her to be his slave! She can’t have wanted to stay with him!”

  Gul shrugged her shoulders.

  “War brings strange situations.” Aben spoke with his usual tolerance. “We can’t know the terrible misery there must be for such as Antiope.”

  But Myrina was enthralled by the boldness of the adventure. “When the Moon Riders rode to Athens, the Achaeans feared them and called them Amazons!” she recalled, her voice shaking with pride.

  Gul could only whisper her doubts. “So many died.”

  “If Grandmother turned warrior, then so can I!” Myrina insisted.

  “What’s that?” Hati demanded, dipping her head as she came in through the open tent flaps.

  “We are just remembering some of your wilder adventures, Mother,” Gul said, smiling again.

  As the moon waned, the tribe began to pack up their goods, ready to move on to Mount Ida and the Place of Flowing Waters. Myrina’s sister would return to the Mazagardi there and choose herself a husband.

  The night before their move, Myrina sat on a cushion in the tent, fingering her new traveling goods. Tomi came to sit with her.

  “I can’t wait to use them,” Myrina whispered.

  There was a carved-horn drinking cup in a felt holder and a strong leather bag containing a flat round of polished wood with three separate wooden legs that would screw into place to make a small camp table. Supple deerskin riding boots stood side by side next to her lightweight bow made of horn and horse sinews, its quiver full of sharp new arrows.

  Tomi stroked the polished leather quiver. “Think of me when you hunt with the magical Moon-maidens,” he whispered.

  Myrina looked up at him, feeling very sad that they would not hunt together again. “When I return you’ll maybe have a wife,” she said.

  “Maybe not.” Tomi stared down at the arrows.

  “If you wait,” she told him, suddenly shy, “if you wait and refuse all offers, then I’ll choose you for my husband when I return in seven years’ time.”

  He smiled at that and bent close so that their lips touched gently. They both laughed nervously as they heard Tomi’s father calling him to feed and water the horses.

  He got up obediently. “Father always had good timing.” He raised his eyebrows. “But I think I can manage to wait for seven years to marry an honored and magical Moon Rider.”

  He bowed formally and went outside.

  Myrina smiled to herself and reached for the delicately wrought silver mirror, patterned about the edges with twisting snakes, two fork-tongued heads crossing at the top. The mirror was the most precious symbol of those who rode with the Old Woman; so Aben had worked long and hard to produce a fine, magical mirror for his youngest daughter. She’d carry it always, swinging from her belt. When her years as a Moon-maiden were over, the mirror would be melted down and shaped into a marriage bangle.
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  “It’s beautiful,” she murmured. “But I’ve never been one for sitting admiring myself!”

  Gul came in through the tent flaps, overhearing her daughter’s words. “There’s more to a Moon Rider’s mirror than pouting your lips at it,” she said. “Isn’t that right, Mother?”

  “Oh yes.” Hati followed her daughter into the tent, smiling at her words.

  “What more?” Myrina demanded.

  Hati and Gul chuckled secretively, but they wouldn’t reply.

  “Atisha will tell, when the time is right,” said Gul.

  And though Myrina begged again, they clamped their lips tight and would say no more. She watched her mother rolling up the felt flooring, knowing somewhere deep down that a time would come for weeping, but the moment was not here yet: this moment contained nothing but burning eagerness.

  “I wish I could see Reseda for longer,” she said, a touch of regret creeping into her voice.

  “Seven days will have to be enough.”