Recruits (Keeper of the Water Book 2) (31 page)

“The queen’s guard continued following me yet I felt increasingly paranoid that the king found out about Isabella and me. No sooner did my soldier reappear when the guard escorted me back to the castle, where I was taken to the secret dungeon room.
I apologize for the rarity of our visits, my love,
she told me. I could see right away that there was no truth to the rumors of her sickness, at least not that I could tell.

“She explained that Ferdinand found out she was cheating on him – that she suspected her guard of telling the king of our affair – and was punishing her by means of poison.
He thinks he’s slowly killing me but little does the fool know that I’ve been spitting out the poison being slipped into my wine. I’ve only been acting sick, a grand performance if I do say so myself. I can be quite the actress when I want to be,
she told me with a grin. That smile made me even more nervous.

“
So if your guard is the one who told your husband and he’s currently outside this room, what is stopping him from telling the king that I’m here now? What’s stopping the king from finding us together?
I asked nervously. She first wanted to hear about the update from my soldier. Her eyes lit up when she heard the news we’d been waiting years for, that the location of the fountain of youth was finally in our hands.
Now that I know where to find the water, this charade no longer needs to continue,
she said.

“Isabella slowly approached me and took my hand in hers, moving it to the top of her fancy dress,” John says.

“Please, I don’t need all of the lascivious details,” I say, though it hasn’t been too hard to fill in the blanks on my own. John shakes his head.

“It’s not what you think,” he says, though he notes my raised eyebrow of suspicion. “At least not
that
time. She proceeded to guide my hand in ripping the top of her dress, and
not
in a sensual way.
What are you doing?
I asked as I pulled away my hand, which held a large piece of ripped cloth. She slowly backed away from me and wore that smile that made the blood in my veins go cold.
Something I should’ve done a
long
time ago,
she whispered. The queen curled her fist into a ball and swung as hard as she could, striking
herself
in the nose. Before I could figure out what the hell she was doing, she raked her nails along the side of her face. She touched the blood streaming down her cheek and nose, grimacing momentarily before the same cruel smile returned.

“And then she screamed for help.”

John stops talking and shakes his head, the hurt still evident in his eyes after all these years. For the first time during his story, a part of me feels bad for him. A
small
part, and for only a brief moment. I mean, what could he have expected when getting involved with someone like
Cassie?

Or should I say Queen Isabella of Castille?

“So?” I finally ask – patience isn’t exactly one of my strong suits, nor is compassion.

“The guard rushed in with his sword drawn. One look toward the queen – bleeding, crying, dress ripped – and then at me – torn piece of cloth still in hand – and the guard had little problem connecting his own dots. I was too shocked to deny attacking her and all the evidence pointed to the contrary anyway.
He forced himself on a sick woman,
Isabella screamed while faking a weak cough. The guard rushed at me and smashed me in the head with the handle of his sword. I collapsed in a heap, stars exploding in front of my eyes as blood began to pour down my forehead. But I didn’t have time to touch my wound before I felt the tip of his sword pressed against my throat.

“
Wait!
Isabella called out just as I felt the blade sliding through the skin on my throat.
I want to do the dirty work,
she said.
I will be the executioner for the crime of betraying me.
I could hardly believe what I was hearing and the guard appeared just as surprised by the queen’s ruthlessness. But he followed orders and handed over his sword. I asked Isabella what I did to deserve such a fate but she just looked down at me and winked. In one quick motion – far quicker than would be possible for a sick woman – she spun around and stabbed her guard through the stomach.

“I don’t know who was more surprised – me or him. But he didn’t have much time to remain surprised before he bled out and died.
That’s for betraying me and telling my husband about the love of my life,
the queen screamed down at the corpse before turning back to me. I crawled back until I hit the stone wall, unsure what she planned to do with me next.
Don’t look so worried, my love. I’ve done this for the two of us,
she said and dropped the sword.

“I didn’t know what to think – didn’t know what she planned to do – and I remained on the ground for a few minutes as she peeled off her fancy dress. I wasn’t sure
what
she wanted to do but I
knew
I couldn’t be romantic with the dead guard lying on the ground a few feet away, his lifeless yet confused eyes still staring in my direction. But the ornate dress merely covered the peasant traveling clothes she wore underneath. She shook out her hair until it was properly tousled and removed a letter addressed to her husband, which she placed on the chest of the dead guard.
What are you doing?
I asked her.

“
We’re leaving here and going after the water together. And I want my husband to know that I’m smarter than him, that I know he tried to poison me, that I will one day become immortal after he is long dead,
Isabella said with a vengeful look in her eye. I was worried that the king would come after us but she shook away my concern. It would be hours before anyone discovered the guard’s body in the remote part of the castle and she planned for us to be long gone by then.
So you think he’ll just let you walk away from him forever without sending legions of soldiers after us?
I asked. But Isabella just laughed at the idea. She was certain that upon reading her letter – upon discovering the depth of her deception – King Ferdinand would be far too proud to admit that his queen got the better of him. Knowing that we would be far away, Isabella figured her husband would cover up her escape by telling the world that the sickly queen finally perished.

“Despite her dingy clothes and messed-up hair, I still thought she was too recognizable to get very far. To prove how serious she was about leaving her royal life forever, Isabella picked up the dead man’s sword, wiped away the blood and proceeded to slice off chunks of her hair. By the time she was finished and put on a hat, she was indistinguishable as royalty. With that, she took the dead guard’s torch and led us through a secret passageway out of the castle.

“Once we stepped foot beyond the castle wall, Isabella held her hands toward the heavens and twirled around, drawing quite a few peculiar glances. At that time, she was over 50 years old but for a brief moment, I saw what she must’ve been like as a child, I saw a glimpse of innocence in her that I never expected. It was the first positive feeling I’d gotten from her in years. But she refrained from making too much of a scene about her newfound freedom before leading me away. She no longer appeared so stately but that didn’t mean she abandoned her authoritative personality in the way she bossed me around.

“I asked her,
How will we get to the New World now?
Again, the smile that appeared on her face made me nervous, though in the end I didn’t need to be. She’d been planning for her husband’s betrayal for years; I didn’t bother pointing out that
she
was the one to betray
him
first. Since I didn’t know how detailed her confession letter to Ferdinand was, I had to assume that she mentioned me by name, meaning she was my only hope for escaping execution – or worse depending how upset she made him. I
hated
that my future was so dependent on her but I was forced to deal with the consequences of my own decisions.

“She led me to the city’s huge port and proceeded directly to an old rundown tavern, which is describing it nicely. I’d spent plenty of time around some of the roughest, toughest sailors and soldiers that Spain had ever known but even
I
would’ve been hesitant to walk into that place alone. Not Isabella. She strolled right in like she owned the place and walked over to the biggest, ugliest, most drunk sailor in there.
It’s time to go,
she told the man. The huge sailor and the rest of his drinking buddies laughed at first but when she told them to mind their tongues, quite a few swords were drawn and pointed at her. I tried to step in to help – not that I could’ve done much against such odds – but Isabella held up a hand to move me out of harm’s way. Instead, she looked all around and when satisfied that no prying eyes were watching us – people minded their own business in a place like that – she removed her hat and brushed out the short hair she had left.

“Their jaws dropped.
I’ve been paying you and your men for years to sit around and drink and find every whore in this port but now I expect you to work for those wages,
she demanded of the sailor, who nodded and agreed to round up the other sailors. Isabella then led me to one of the finest ships in the port, one located far away from the others. Along the way, other men milling about talked about the movement aboard the ship that nobody ever expected to sail away from here. Isabella explained that she’d been planning her escape for years, that she purchased the ship and hired the crew with her own money, unbeknownst to her husband. But with the sudden activity near the ship as the queen’s sailors got ready to leave, we attracted more attention than the queen wanted. It took all of my persuasive abilities to convince her into letting me rush back to my home and retrieve my soldier, who’d be vital in locating the special water.

“I ran all the way home and back with my soldier right behind. No sooner did we step aboard when the queen’s men untied the mooring lines and set sail toward the open ocean. I had every reason to leave with great haste but I wasn’t sure that sailing off toward the sunset was the wisest move. I suggested that we find Christopher Columbus and force him to lead us back to the New World but Isabella had the next best thing: nautical charts she’d forced the Italian to hand over from earlier journeys. I underestimated Isabella’s cunning, a mistake I vowed to never make again. She had the ship’s captain plot a course just north of Columbus’s last New World location. Everything was in place for our escape so I walked to the back of the ship and watched as Spain became nothing more than a tiny dot in the distance.

“It was the last time I ever laid eyes on my home country…” John laments.

“That’s when the history books said that Queen Isabella died but not you,” I say.

John nods. “Isabella was right, like always. King Ferdinand declared his wife dead; history was much easier to manipulate back then. The ship of mercenaries followed our course and after several long weeks, we spotted what is known today as Florida. I expected Isabella to be more nervous around the men than she really was. But she could be just as cruel as the rest of them and quickly garnered their respect. They were more than ready to fight for her, more than ready to destroy the warrior women that got in their way.

“But first, we had to find them. While Isabella and her hired troops waited aboard the ship, my soldier and I headed inland in search for our third companion. The terrain and general conditions were as difficult as my soldier described: hot, humid, wet, the swamps teeming with alligators, beasts that I’d never seen before and hope to never see again. We moved slowly to avoid detection from the women, not that traveling within the swampy lands could be done quickly at that time anyway.

“My soldier and I tripped over each other trying to rush up a tree after we heard a rustling in some nearby brush. We stumbled over each other and hit the ground, easy prey for what we expected to be one of the swamp’s massive gators. But what emerged looked like an even
wilder
animal, one that stood upright. With long scraggly hair on his head and face and torn rags for clothing, my other soldier – Javier – barely looked human anymore. His eyes were cruel and animalistic and for a moment, I thought he might attack us. But then tears began to well in his eyes and when he spoke, his voice was as much a croak as a whisper, obviously used very little in the months he spent alone.
I thought you two were the women but they don’t normally come out this far
. Then he giggled like a small child for nearly a minute – Javier was never completely sane but there was something about those months spent in isolation that his mind never quite recovered from.

“The three of us returned to the ship, where Javier was shocked to see the Queen of Spain –
former
queen – waiting to hear what he had to say. He told them everything; the location of the water, how many warrior women he’d seen over the months, the best paths to their camp, where they hid while keeping a lookout. Javier gathered plenty of information over the months. Considering his crumbling mental state, it was probably a miracle that the Amazons never caught him.

“The mercenaries were ready to attack and my two soldiers were ready to lead them into battle. But Javier was in no condition to fight and Isabella insisted that my two troops stay behind with me and her.
I paid these savages to do the fighting for me and I intend upon placing them in the utmost danger; don’t worry, they know not what they’re fighting for, only that the warrior women must
all
be destroyed,
Isabella explained to us. My two soldiers were used to being part of the action and did not like staying behind but they followed her orders.

“The four of us accompanied the mercenaries into the swamp but stayed far away from the action. The men were bigger and tougher than any soldier I ever had at my command but were also very tactical in their combat strategy. The big ugly ship captain had once held a high post in the Spanish Army and assured the queen and I that the warrior women would prove no match for him and his soldiers. His over-confidence concerned me and rightly so.

“A few hours later, the captain came stumbling out of the thick swamp, an arrow lodged deep in his shoulder, blood flowing from a gash in his forehead. He was struggling to breathe and looked far more terrified than a man of his size should.
They killed them all,
the man muttered. Isabella snapped back at him,
Who? Your men killed the women?
But he shook his head and I knew the worst had happened
again
. The only good news from the captain was that his men had succeeded in killing a woman –
only
one.”

“That’s good news?” I snap at John. I still feel defensive
any
time I hear of an Amazon life being lost, even though I didn’t join the tribe for another 350 years.

“It was back then,” John admits, his voice laden with shame. “I was starting to worry that the women were gods that were impossible to defeat but this proved they
could
be killed… not that we had the resources to launch another attack. I could tell that Isabella was furious despite her calm façade. We were stuck in a faraway land with no resources and couldn’t very well return to Spain and find a new Army – not that having more men would even help. Possessing the fountain of youth had been my obsession for years and I was starting to realize that maybe it wouldn’t happen, that maybe I shouldn’t keep risking my life trying to defeat an enemy too strong for me.

“The wounded ship’s captain spoke those same words of defeat that I was thinking. He wanted to go home to Spain but Isabella stressed that going back wasn’t an option. The captain was in no mood to take orders from her anymore and turned to leave – he didn’t make it very far. Before my troops or I could stop her, Isabella ran her sword through the captain’s back and he fell dead without ever knowing the identity of his murderer. Dying in battle was one thing but this was the
second
man I’d seen her kill in cold blood.
Nobody can know the truth about my whereabouts; those men were all dead the moment we set sail from Spain,
Isabella said.