Mark of the Lion (38 page)

THE SCREAM HELD AS ONE LONG shrill shriek before it ripened into a low, quavering moan. By that time, Jade had snatched up her Winchester from the car and covered half the distance up to the ridge. Energy born of fear coursed through her body, and her long legs ate up the ground. Like the wounded rhino, nothing short of a fatal shot could have held her back. Not even the stabbing ache in her knee. If anything, it spurred her on. The sound of many booted feet, including Harry’s larger, heavy ones, pounded the dirt behind her. Who had screamed? Avery? Roger?

“Go!” She recognized Pili’s voice. Jade shouldered her Winchester and slowed to a trot. She trained her line of sight down the barrel and rotated from side to side, wary of the sudden rush of a cornered predator. The shout came again directly ahead, punctuated by the clatter of rocks. A low, menacing growl followed, guaranteed to turn solid leg muscles to a quivering gelatinous mass. Jade hastened forward before her head had time to advise her legs differently.

A flash of dusty white tunic peeped out of a rocky crevice. Pili struggled to press himself farther into the crack and out of the reach of the razor-sharp talons that searched for him. Another rock flew out of the meager sanctuary and hit the lion on the nose. The cat retreated several yards, screwed his face into a snarl, and roared. The noise echoed off the rocky hillside until it sounded like an entire pride of demons. Jade blinked in disbelief. The cat appeared to have something stuck in its thick black mane. A bone bead!

“Don’t move!” cautioned Jade as she edged in closer. “I have him.”

She slid around and aimed for a spot behind the shoulders to penetrate the heart. She squeezed the trigger. A split second before her cartridge exploded from the barrel, someone else fired from above. The second person fired short, and the lion jerked up and back just in time for her bullet to only graze his underbelly. Jade absorbed the recoil and chambered another round to fire again, but the beast had pivoted and retreated rapidly into the thick brush. She fired repeatedly into the dense vegetation, and an enraged scream of pain rewarded the effort.

Harry pulled Pili from his protective crevice and examined him for injuries as Roger scrambled down from the rocks above. Avery, who had held Madeline and Beverly back, released them, and the two ran to Pili. Ruta, who had also followed, stepped back.

“Blast the bad luck. We missed him,” Roger exclaimed.

“I had him, dammit,” Jade snapped, “if you hadn’t spooked him.”

Roger’s face colored under her attack. “Easy to lay blame on another, Miss del Cameron. But so far, I haven’t seen anything to make me trust your aim. You grazed the first lion back at the compound as well. Seems we’re always out tracking a dangerous animal that
you
wounded and made even more dangerous!”

Jade’s eyes flashed. No one accused her of incompetent shooting and got away with it. “See here, Forster. In both cases, your meddling cost the killing shot. The first time, you tripped and fell into Harry. This time, you undershot and hit the dirt.” She stuck out her chin and started to edge closer to his face. Harry grabbed her around the waist and dragged her back while Avery planted himself in front of Roger. She felt the throbbing ache in her knee and wondered if Harry’s proximity constituted serious danger. After all, the lion was gone.

“Easy there, Simba Jike,” Harry said. “Put your temper on safety and cool down.”

Jade wriggled free of his grip and stepped aside. “Sorry, Mr. Forster,” she said. “I was worried about Pili, and I suppose I took it out on you.”

“Apology accepted, Miss del Cameron.”

Jade noticed he didn’t offer one of his own. She turned to her gun bearer, but Madeline and Beverly were tending to Pili’s scratches, most of which came from the sharp volcanic rocks.

“What happened, Pili?” she asked.

He looked up and shook his head. “I heard someone call to me, mistress. I thought it was you so I came to this spot. I didn’t see you, but I heard something breathing.” He passed one slender hand over his face and shuddered. The other hand gripped the gold cross around his neck. Beverly sat down beside him and spoke soothingly till he regained his composure. “I felt something … evil. Then that terrible lion sprang out from the brush. I could not run from it.”

“You did very well, Pili,” said Jade. “It was clever of you to seek shelter in that crevice. I’m only sorry I didn’t kill it.” She shot another angry glance at Roger.

“What I find most curious is why two lions have both taken it into their heads to go after your gun bearer,” said Avery. His eyes looked beseechingly at Jade, begging her to explain this to him.

Jade stabbed the air with her forefinger. “No! Not
two
lions!” She looked around at their confused faces and open mouths and explained. “Don’t you see? It was the
same
lion each time. Remember? I said the one in the compound had a thick mane. You didn’t believe me.” She pointed with her rifle in the general direction in which the lion had escaped. “Now I
know
you saw the mane on that one, or at least Pili and Roger did. You also said the Tsavo lions rarely sport those big manes. So just how many big, hairy beasts can there be out here?”

“You’ve got to admit, she makes a good argument,” said Avery. “We may well have killed the wrong lion the first time.”

“But I thought Memba Sasa tracked it from the blood,” said Madeline. “Didn’t he?”

“He did,” said Roger, his voice defensive.

“By the way, Rog, where is your tracker?” asked Harry. “I haven’t seen him since we first climbed up to the cave.”

“I sent him off to scout for game while we ate lunch. He should have been back by now.”

“You don’t suppose the lion got to him first?” suggested Beverly. Her voice cracked as she tried to control her fear.

“Not a chance,” said Roger. “Memba Sasa outthinks lions.”

Ruta snorted, and Roger glared at him. Jade again observed that Ruta could follow their conversations. He not only understood Swahili but English as well. He just refused to admit it.

“Well, we can’t wait for him,” said Harry. “We need to bag this bloke before he turns back on us.” He shouldered his rifle and saw Jade’s distant stare. “What is it?”

“There’s something very wrong about this lion,” she said softly. “I saw a big bone bead in its mane.” A chorus of exclamations ranging from a questioning “What?” to a despairing “Oh no” went up from the group. Harry spat out a ripe “Damnation.” Roger’s eyes narrowed.

“Now see here,” Roger said. “I believe your imagination is running away with you, Miss del Cameron. A combination of the heat, the stress of these attacks, and your yet recent personal trials have taken their toll on you.”

Jade faced him coolly. “You don’t know a blessed thing about my recent personal trials, Forster. But whatever they may have been, I am
not
a hysterical female, as you imply.” She started to edge closer again and winced.
Blasted knee.
“I do not imagine things, and if you—”

Pili sprang up from his seat by Beverly and Madeline. “I saw it, too.”

Roger coughed in deprecation, but Avery interrupted before another accusatory outburst followed. “The debate is moot at best and can only be settled by bagging the blasted lion. If it is following us, then I say we finish it first.” He nodded in the direction of Ruta, who leaned against the rocks, arms folded on his powerful chest. “I daresay your man is more than capable of tracking that lion.” He looked at the Maasai for confirmation. Ruta nodded once slowly.

“Well then, it’s settled as far as I’m concerned,” Avery said. “Perhaps we four chaps can have a go at the brute.” He nodded at Harry, Roger, and Ruta. Before Jade could reply he added quickly, “Mr. Pili is injured, and while I can’t speak for Mrs. Thompson, I’d rather Beverly stay behind to look after him. I’d feel much better, Jade, if
you
remained to protect
them
. You’re a better shot than my wife, I know.” When he saw Jade hesitate, he leaned in closer and met her eyes with a pleading look. “Please!” he begged. Jade nodded.

“Please be careful, love,” said Beverly. Her voice quavered again as she made an outward pretense of calm. “If you get hurt, I shall express my unhappiness by burning that dreadful rhinoceros head in front of you.” Avery blew her a kiss in reply.

Harry leaned towards Jade. “Any such tender words of caution for me, Jade?” he asked.

“Yes. If you get killed, you don’t get paid.”

Harry chuckled. “Careful now. Such sentimental talk might inflame my heart.” He pointed to the brush with his rifle. “Come along, gentlemen.
Simba
awaits.”

Roger held back. “No offense to Ruta,” he protested, “but I’d really rather wait for Memba Sasa. He’s more experienced at tracking.”

“Nonsense, man,” snorted Harry. “Ruta comes with us because he’s Maasai and an experienced lion killer, not to help us find the beast.” He pointed to the fresh blood on the rocks. “A child could read that trail.”

Ruta stood a little taller and straighter, if that were possible, before he led the way down the rocks and into the thorny grassland beyond. Avery and Harry fell in behind him immediately. After a moment’s hesitation, Roger joined them. Jade reloaded her rifle.

The men had trekked only a few hundred yards when a shrill trumpeting blasted the afternoon stillness. A throaty roar vied for supremacy with the elephant’s angry call. Suddenly, a hideous, snarling, agonized scream, such as the ones demons must have howled when the angel Michael cast them into the pits of hell, ripped the air and resonated in their ears.

“Merciful heavens!” shouted Beverly. Her hands trembled. “What is that?” She ran to the edge of the ridge and stared out into the grasslands. A bulky form thrashed about in the distance and raised clouds of reddish dust.

“Elephant,” answered Madeline. “And something else.”

The throaty screams died to a quavering whimper, but the angry trumpeting continued.

“Whatever it is, the elephant is getting the better of the fight,” said Jade.

“It is the lion,” announced Pili. “The elephant hates the lion and has killed it.”

“How convenient for us,” suggested Jade.

“Avery won’t be happy,” commented Beverly, relief that the killer lion was dead evident in her voice. “He had his heart set on a full-maned lion. I shall have to have a wig made for that one we shot by mistake.”

True to Beverly’s word, Avery appeared shortly after with a very dour-looking face. Harry and Ruta followed, laughing and joking together in Maasai. Roger tailed them, ashen-faced.

“We followed the trail, and I think you might guess where it leads,” said Harry. “Straight to that matriarch out there. The old girl must have been charged by a lion as a calf, because she certainly took it into her head to eliminate this one.”

“Did you see the lion itself?” asked Beverly. “Did it have a bone bead?”

Harry seated himself on a rock and wiped his brow with his sleeve. “I don’t know that we’ll ever resolve that issue, Lady Dunbury. I wasn’t about to get any closer to an angry elephant, and the remains are probably, let us say, indistinguishable from mud at this point.”

Roger’s face went a bit whiter, and his hand went over his mouth.

“Are you all right, Mr. Forster?” asked Beverly. Roger ran behind a rock and threw up.

Harry watched him run off and frowned. Ruta said something in Maasai and laughed, but Harry shushed him with a stern look.

“Did you speak to him yet about the car?” asked Jade.

Harry shook his head and checked the sun’s position. “We should leave soon if we’re going to get back to base camp before dark. This place is too dangerous to dawdle in, and I’ll feel safer once I have you all out of here.”

In the distance, a pack of hyenas began calling to each other in their high-pitched, rolling laugh. “Sounds like they’ve discovered the remains of the lion,” Harry added as Roger reappeared looking shaken and worn.

Jade listened to the babbling calls and shuddered visibly. The sounds of that shrill, disembodied laughter rippled up and down. It transported her back to the war and that terrible day when her shell-shocked, wounded patients woke and turned the rear of the ambulance into bedlam. The shudder turned into a cold shiver. Jade hugged herself and closed her eyes to fight the memory. It didn’t help. All she saw in her head was the endless, shell-blasted road before her and all she heard was the incessant, raving laughter chasing her.

“Jade,
Jade
!” Beverly’s voice broke into the waking nightmare. She gripped Jade by her shoulders and shook her gently. “Don’t make me slap you.”

“What?” Jade muttered as reality slowly dawned on her. She pushed her friend away from her. “Try it and see what happens.”

“That’s my girl,” replied Beverly with a strained smile. Then she led Jade to a rock and seated her. “It was that laughing, wasn’t it?”

Jade nodded and looked around at the concerned faces with growing embarrassment. “Stop staring, please. I’m fine.” She took a drink of water from a nearby canteen and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Just a bad memory, that’s all.”

Harry continued to stare at her, his lips tightly pressed together through the growing stubble of facial hair. Finally, he looked away and repeated his suggestion that they leave.

“We can’t leave yet,” protested Roger. “We still haven’t discovered what the etchings on this ring mean.”

“To hell with the ring, Roger,” answered Harry. “You’ve lived this long without knowing anything about it. You can wait and come back later. Besides, the answer’s probably tucked in a box in London.” He turned to go down the ridge.

Roger reddened. “Easy for you to say wait, Harry. You haven’t lost everything you ever wanted.” His voice rose in pitch and volume. Harry stopped but kept his back to Roger while the tirade continued. “Are you trying to make me leave because
you
want to come back first? You aren’t begging for more time from the bankers all because of some sniveling maggot till you have to resort to—” He broke off his angry flow and looked up the path to the caves.