However, it overextended Aello's reach and unbalanced her. With one sharp cry, she slipped from the back of the bird and went tumbling toward the ground.
Sam jerked her bird around and headed for her. Tucking its wings to its body, the bird looked like a black torpedo moving through the sky. They cut though the air, trying to catch Aello before she hit the ground. Just as Dev was sure Aello was a stain in the dirt, Sam caught her by the wrist and pulled the Amazon on to the back of the bird, draped on her stomach, in front of her. Sam guided the bird to the shore, then set Aello down in a safe area before she headed back to the pedestal.
At first Dev thought Aello would summon another bird and go after her.
She didn't.
They watched as Sam guided the bird to the pedestal and knocked the glass case from over the girdle. It landed on the sand and shattered, then dissolved. The cobras hissed and reared in protest of being disturbed. Sam diligently hovered above them, out of striking range. Using the tip of her spear, she very carefully hooked, then pulled the girdle up, taking care to shake off the cobras that tried to cling to it. Several of the snakes launched themselves at her and the bird from the pedestal. Sam had the bird pull back so that the cobras missed and fell to the ground. They were quickly devoured by the sand.
A minute later, it spewed out their bones which were quickly dissolved into a red puddle.
Dev grimaced at the gory mess.
Sam ignored it as she draped the girdle over her lap, then turned the bird back toward them. She flew over Aello's head to land just in front of him.
Her smile was wide as she dismounted and held her grandmother's girdle high. Dev couldn't have been prouder for her win.
Aello came running at her back.
Before he could warn her, Sam turned around, prepared to fight.
But that wasn't the intent. Aello skidded to a halt, then dropped to one knee in front of Sam. Clapping her right fist to her left shoulder, she bowed her head reverently. "My queen."
Sam froze at a title she hadn't answered to in so many centuries that it seemed odd to hear it now. And it along with the contest she'd just won awoke vivid memories, good and bad, of a time and place she'd never have again. A past that burned inside her.
At one time, she'd lived for competitions such as this one. They had invigorated her. Had proven her honor and her skills as a warrior. How important all of that had been to her then.
Now she knew that things like that, while they were nothing to shirk at, were not the most critical things in life.
Family. Friends.
Love.
Those were what people needed to battle for. To hold tight to until their knuckles blanched. Everything else was just an icing and while it tasted good, it wasn't filling and it couldn't sustain a person.
A life alone was hell itself.
Dev came up behind her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She trembled as foreign emotions swept through her. He was her present, and right now she needed him to ground her to reality. All she wanted was to feel him there, against her forever.
This was what mattered to her.
He nuzzled her hair before he laid a chaste kiss on her cheek that set her on fire. "You were amazing."
Funny, she didn't feel that way. She'd done what she had to. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Aello looked up at her. "Why did you save me?"
How could she not? How could she have allowed a woman like Aello to perish so horribly over something so petty? "We are sisters. Why would I allow my family to die over a difference of opinion?"
Even though her own sister had killed her for something that in the end amounted to nothing more than table scraps.
Aello took her hand and kissed it. "You do honor to Queen Hippolyte and it is with honor that you take her girdle. May you live a long, happy life."
If the poor woman only knew....
Not wanting to taint her heartfelt wishes, Sam inclined her head to Aello before she turned to look up at Dev. "Anyone know how we get out of here?"
Aello rose to her feet. "You must fly the birds as far south as possible. Once there, when the ground breaks, let it take you home. But you must keep your thoughts focused on where you want to go or it will take you where they drift."
Ethon scoffed. "Who says that's a bad thing? I hear the south of France is incredible this time of year."
Fang gave him an arch stare. "It's also daylight there. Can you say Krispy Kritter?"
"Well there is that." Ethon shrugged. "Fine. Take all the fun out of my dreams. You bastard."
Sam summoned enough birds for all of them. Once they were mounted, she took flight. Something that wasn't that intuitive to the men. Fang was the first to slide off. Then Scorpio.
Dev kept his seat....
Barely.
Ethon held on, but only because he was low and had his legs locked like he was a terrified toddler.
Laughing, Sam circled back.
"Do these things have training wheels?" Fang asked.
"Unfortunately not. Just do what Ethon's doing. Wrap yourself around them and they'll fly on their own."