Titania of Troy

Chapter 24

Riding to the Amazon settlement took too long. Titania's mind subtlety counted down the days as she rode south towards Lycia and the Mediterranean. She had passed her deadline. If Priam had his way he would've attacked the Greeks two days ago. She hoped Hector had waited like she'd asked.

She hadn't been so far south in years. Her brain itched to remember the trails that would lead her to Penthesileia, but her mind was blank. Her thoughts were plagued by the image of Achilles with his arms around that woman. Only she wasn't just a woman.

It was all Titania could think about for days, and finally she had cracked the puzzle. The woman had a necklace around her neck. The necklace was in the shape of a sun.

This was the Apollonian priest that Agamemnon had defiled. He had taken her from Achilles, defiled her, caused a plague, and eventually gave her back when Achilles refused to fight even after they lost so terribly.

Titania felt an acute pain in her chest and a white hot anger flow through her veins. Her relationship with her father was complicated enough, and now there is the fact that his priestess stole something from her. If there was ever a hope in Hector that Titania would ask her father for help, that flame better be extinguished by the time she returned. She refused to ever speak to him again.

At least he was leaving. With Achilles gone, it may give the Trojans the last advantage they needed to beat back the Greeks into their boats and get them to sail home. The war had been long and gruesome. Titania was tired of fighting.

"What's a Princess of Troy doing so far from home?" Titania cursed herself. Her thoughts had led her astray, right into an ambush.

Titania found it difficult to describe common characteristics amongst the amazons. Even during her time with them as a child she always found them to be so uniquely different from each other. Every other place in the world had similarities. Trojans were typically darker skinned, Greeks had large noses, Thracians were fair, and the amazons were...different. Each one appeared to have a different facial structure, skin tone, and bodily shape. It was as if this powerful community of women had come from all over the world.

Around her these women held tightly to their bows and raised them in defiance. Titania had once heard Deiphobos tell Cassandra that the women preferred to cut off one breast to be better at archery – needless to say Titania had hurriedly intervened. These women didn't need to sacrifice any part of their womanhood for warriorship. They were warriors because they were women.

Titania felt proud to be amongst them again, even if it was with an arrow to her heart. Thankfully, Titania recognised the dark skinned warrior, "Helena. Would you please lower your bow?"

The woman grinned from her place on her horse and chuckled heartily. Titania couldn't help but join her, and soon all the girls in the clearing were laughing and giggling. Titania hopped off Atalanta and greeted her old friends. She remembered all of them, from Helena of Lydia to Maia from Egypt. The girls embraced her happily as one of their own, though they glanced distastefully at her travelling clothes that resembled men's attire.

By contrast, the Amazonian women preferred little clothing. Their legs were bare to allow for movement, and their arms and shoulders often held no coverings at all. Many of them wore short leather skirts or loincloth-like material around their hips. Some wore breastplates and armour around their chests, but others had simply wrapped cotton around their breasts and the rest had left them bare.

Titania mounted Atalanta after their greetings and followed Helena through the dense forests. She smiled at her old friend, who looked more than surprised to see her, "We hear of war in Troy. Why have you come here when your people are in danger?"