NIGHT FELL. THE MOON ROSE. AMAZONS AND GREEKS BEGAN pairing off, walking farther down the pale, shining shore, or turning inland, to lie down in the sweet-scented grasses.  Melanippe and Herakles rose to go back into that blackness beneath his ship, but first Melanippe said to Antiope: "Go home now, little sister.  And the Goddess be with you."

"And with you." Antiope rose.

"I will go with you as far as the horses."  The Redhead rose too.

He had no plan; he only wanted to be with her a little longer.  But as they walked inland, smelling the sweet live smells of growing things in the darkness, he thought of what those other couples must be doing, and warmth rose in him.  He caught her hand.  "Princess, must you go so soon?"

Antiope knew then that she had been wanting him to touch her.  Knew too the unwisdom of that, now that her girdle was gone.  She wondered whether to pull her hand away or to try merely saying no and shaking her head.  Then suddenly something made her look back over her shoulder at the curving beach that stretched, weird and silvery, toward the southern mountains.  Like the coils of a white, waiting snake....

"I must go."  She pulled her hand away.  "Molpadia has been searching the mountains for foes of whom a dream warned her.  If she came home to find both Melanippe and me gone she might think your people those foes.  For you do have three ships, and she dreamed of three birds."

"Molpadia?  Her you called the War-Queen?"

"Yes.  My mother's sister, who reared me.  She does not like men, but if I am there to tell her that Melanippe's pledged word protects you strangers, she will do you no harm."

But she will not be there.  She is not likely to come back for two or three more nights.  Folly, folly, to be afraid!  And yet - what might happen if Molpadia and her war band were to come riding furiously down that white beach....

The Redhead said no more.  They had nearly reached the horses when suddenly a shadow blackened the moonlight.  Telamon sprang out of the darkness, breathing hard, blood dripping from his knife.

"Boy, has Herakles already gone to bed with that-?"  He called Melanippe a foul name.

Antiope saw the blood, heard his rage, although she could not understand his words.  She leaped away, but not fast enough.  Telamon caught her by the arm, "Be still, girl - if you would live!"

Lightning-swift, her free hand became a fist that drove into his belly.  One knee drove as hard for his groin; it did not hit its mark squarely, but Telamon doubled up, gasping.  Then she was gone; the night had swallowed her up.

The Redhead sprang after her, but Telamon's hand grasped him.  "Back! Back to the ships!  The Gods curse that bitch pup - now she will warn her pack."

"Of course she will, you fool!  You have made her think us all traitors!"  The Redhead cried out again, now in the royal tongue of Kanesh, trying to reassure Antiope, begging her to come back.  But there was no answer; the night was as still as death.

But not for long.  Bewildered Greeks and Amazons came running.  Melanippe, doe-swift, was ahead of even Herakles.