Chapter 28
She wore a leather vest covered in rows of bronze pieces shaped like half coins. She wore thick cloth pants tucked inside long leather boots. At her left hip she wore a sword—without touching it she knew it was the one from the white house—and at her side lay a long iron-tipped spear. She was older again, just as she appeared in the white house. Bradamante raised her head. There was no one around, including her companion from the hot room.
Bradamante bowed her head again and asked out loud, “Why am I here?”
A slight breeze began to blow. Bradamante turned her face into it to dry the sweat on her face and neck. Beneath her armor her shirt was wet with perspiration. Her plaited hair soon unraveled in the wind and fanned against her back.
The wind strengthened. It swirled aroun
