Recruits (Keeper of the Water Book 2) (39 page)

As he tires, I grow stronger, fueled by the rage that this
man
played such a key role in taking away my connection with the water. It’s taking all of his strength to remain standing, his armor
clattering
while he stumbles back. I could slit his throat whenever I want but he must suffer first. I smash his armor time and time again, jarring every part of him, every grunt like music to my ears. He finally trips over a protruding tree root and stumbles to the ground. Through the slit in his helmet, he stares up at me, eyes wide yet still burning with hatred. This is
not
a good man, nor has he ever been.

It’s depressing to know that I’m no longer part of the Amazons but our morals still flow through me. We must defend the water at all costs – meaning I’ve killed plenty of men to protect it in the past – but we must also show mercy when we can. This man is no immediate threat though I’m angry enough to convince myself otherwise.

“Do it, bitch,” he growls at me. “Kill me.”

I raise the sword to grant his request when I spot a change in his eyes. It’s not the presence of fear as I expect. Instead his eyes move, looking up and beyond me. I sense movement nearby and hear the faint rustle of leaves. There’s the slightest
thud
of landing feet behind me so I spin around and swing the sword.

Blood splatters as the blade slices into the unprotected arm of yet another man. He’s even older than the other two and while just as tall as the soldiers, he’s not nearly as big and bulky. His hair is long like theirs but not scraggly or greasy. His hair is fanned out, covering most of his face, but I still see his eyes, dark and rich and smoldering when they stare into mine. For a moment I’m transfixed and wonder if I’ve made a huge mistake by hurting him.

He takes a step toward me and I instinctively back up. But I don’t have time to raise the sword again before my legs are swept out from under me. The sword drops from my hand as I crash to the ground. I hurry to retrieve the weapon but the fallen soldier holds my legs and the other man snatches the sword before I even know what’s happening.

“Kill her!” yells the soldier on the ground. He continues to hang onto my feet, even as I kick him in the helmet over and over.

“No, release her feet,” the man says, his voice the deep, smooth one I heard earlier.

“You heard what the queen said, we have our orders,” the soldier argues.

“And now
I’m
giving
you
an order,” the man says. “We’ve done as Isabella wanted; our mission is done. Now release the girl.”

The soldier grumbles incoherently but lets go of me. I scramble to my feet, ready to defend myself if needed. The fallen soldier clumsily stands and they’re soon joined by the other soldier, who groggily grabs his sword from the third man’s hand. The man clutches his bleeding arm as he turns and heads off into the jungle. His soldiers glare at me but follow his order and leave. I could track them to see where they go – or attack them with their backs turned – but I have much bigger problems.

I barely run two steps toward camp when a tiny voice brings me to a halt.

“Wait!” my granddaughter says, stepping out from behind a tree. I gave up so much and nearly died to save her but forgot about her in my rush to stop Isabella. “You can’t leave me here all alone.”

“Can you run?” I ask.

The young woman’s face is scratched and bruised and she still coughs from Isabella’s punch. But otherwise she doesn’t look seriously injured and nods.

“Then follow me,” I say.

I turn and run, making a concerted effort to slow my legs. It takes more effort for me to go slow than fast. It doesn’t take long to realize my granddaughter is
not
the outdoors type. I feel like I’m moving at a crawl but it takes only seconds for her to lag behind. She’s already out of breath and soon trips, even though there’s nothing to trip over. At this pace, it might be time for Isabella to choose
her
replacement for Keeper by the time we reach the Amazon camp.

“It’s okay, I’m okay,” she says as she pulls herself up.

I wish I could leave her here and come back later but she’s already been through such a trauma that abandoning her might be more than she can handle. Besides, the jungle might not be such a dangerous place for me but that obviously isn’t the case for her. I can’t keep losing precious time, though.

“Whoa!” she says as I easily scoop her up and sling her over my shoulder.

I still have my Amazonian strength – plus the young woman is quite petite – so carrying her is like nothing. I take off at full speed toward camp, ignoring her groans of fear and the way she clutches onto me for dear life. The run back to camp takes only a fraction of the time it took me to leave. I stop a few hundred feet before reaching camp and put my granddaughter down. Someone usually patrols this area but it’s only empty jungle now. Whatever is happening at camp apparently requires
all
the women to be in attendance. My granddaughter’s hair is blown all over the place and she wears a look of shock.

“Please tell me what’s going on,” she pleads. “Is it true that you and I are related? And how can you run so fast? And fight so well?”

“There’s no time to explain right now,” I tell her. “You need to wait here for me and don’t move.”

“Here? By myself? Can’t I come with you?” she asks, clearly frightened.

I shake my head. “I don’t know what kind of hell has broken loose up ahead. And my fellow tribeswomen don’t take kindly to strangers. There’s a history of trouble when a woman just strolls into our camp.”

I rush forward, my granddaughter’s pleas drowned out by the sound of chaos and fighting up ahead.

“Everyone stay back from the water!” Isabella yells over the sound of several clashing weapons.

“Where is Sacajawea?” I hear Jane call out. Like always, she seems to be the voice of calmness and reason among all the yelling. “Why did the water suddenly lose its brightness? Did you kill her?”

The very thought of my demise causes a collective gasp to echo throughout the jungle.

“Of course not, I would never kill the Keeper,” Isabella says. “But she
did
willingly abandon her post and is no longer our leader.”

“She wouldn’t do that!” Amelia calls out.

“I
did
,” I say, emerging into camp, all eyes suddenly turning to me.

Isabella stands just within the dull water, her Queen Clan standing guard. Not surprisingly, a few of my recruits clash with the queens, most notably – yet
not
most surprisingly – Harriet and Catherine. But my recruit backs away when she sees me and looks just as shocked as the others.

“But why?” Mary Bowser asks.

“Isabella forced me,” I say.

The head queen glares at me and shakes her head.

“I did no such thing,” she declares. “A Keeper
can’t
be forced away from her duty – everyone knows that. A Keeper can only sever that bond by willingly leaving.”

“She had
men
kidnap my great-granddaughter and threaten to kill her if I didn’t walk away,” I tell them all.

The entire tribe – even a few of the queens – looks angrily toward Isabella. Her jaw clenches and she stares daggers at me, as if it’s
my
fault for telling the truth about what she did. But embarrassed or not, she crosses her arms in defiance, not caring
who
is upset with her.

“I gave you a choice,” she says smugly. “I don’t know how you can blame
me
for your decision.”

“You used
men
to help with this awful plan?” Harriet yells.

“
And
she’s been stealing water over the years to give to them,” I add.

Even Catherine the Great – Isabella’s most ardent supporter – cringes at this news.

“I did what I had to do to make certain a simple
peasant
didn’t remain in charge of the world’s greatest resource,” she says.

I’m so angry I could rip her limb from limb. For the first time since stepping foot back at camp, I take my eyes off of Isabella. I glance toward a nearby tree, against which leans my trusty bow. I haven’t held it since becoming Keeper but I’ve never wanted to fire it more than I do at this very moment.

“If there’s no longer a Keeper to choose her replacement, who
will
take over?” Catherine asks.

“The only other Amazon who learned the proper incantation for transferring the Keeper power,” Isabella says, stepping farther into the spring.

With that, she begins to swirl the water and whisper ancient words she must’ve learned from Cleopatra. She’s only seconds away from making my worst nightmare a reality.

“Stop her!” I yell.

My recruits are the first to jump into action, rushing toward Isabella as she continues to focus on the water. Some of the other Amazons soon follow and it seems like the Queen Clan might let them through. But Catherine is the first to fight back and the others follow her lead. I’m sure they know Isabella is wrong for how she’s handled the Keeper takeover and now I regret more than ever not reaching out to the queens earlier.

I run for my bow before joining the action. A part of my soul feels ripped out having given up the Keeper role but holding the bow in my hands feels right, feels like another missing part of me is suddenly back. Not that I have long to enjoy the reunion…

Only the handful of queens remain protecting Isabella while the rest of the Amazons – even those who never took sides during the internal strife – have joined the fray to stop her. It’s not long before the Queen Clan is overwhelmed. Catherine continues to battle with Harriet but the rest of her allies know they’re defeated and step aside to let us through. Besides, they’re too busy looking at the water, which is glowing brighter by the second.

I load my bow and jump in, ready to protect the water from the worst enemy it’s ever faced. But before I can shoot, Isabella dives beneath the surface of the water, now sparkling brilliantly. I’m about to reach into the water and yank her out by the hair but she breaks the surface on her own. I pull back an arrow in my bowstring, ready to fire it through Isabella’s black heart, when an unexpected voice yells loudly.

“Stop!” Jane calls out.

My heart pounds, every beat urging me to release the arrow and destroy Isabella forever. But the sudden silence around me is deafening, as the rest of the fighting and arguing has come to a halt. I slowly look away from Isabella and around the rest of the camp, where all of the Amazons – including Jane and my recruits – have aimed their weapons directly at me. At first I’m confused but that’s only because I don’t want to accept the truth.

Isabella
is
the Keeper now. But her expression doesn’t reveal the wonder or awe I experienced in my first moments after emerging from the water of life. Instead, her cruel smile only grows wider and when she speaks to me, her voice is stronger than ever.

“There’s
nothing
you can do to stop me now.”

“You
can’t
hurt Cassie, please. Do you understand what would happen if the Keeper was killed?” I plead with Jack.

His expression is still one of rage but at least he’s stopped jerking the airboat controls back and forth. Now if only I could get him to slow down and listen to me…

“The
other
one already explained the consequences,” he says, gesturing to Celeste. “
Poor Mother Earth will be destroyed.
Ha! Seems a bit of a stretch but who cares if it’s true? It would be a price worth paying if it means destroying the water and your band of devil women. My family and best friend will finally be avenged.”

He’s obviously beyond the point of reasoning, beyond the point of caring that he’s going to cause a slow death for the world, to unleash chaos as all of life is destroyed. Jack is so full of hatred but there is
one
thing he seems to care about: violence.

“And once you destroy us
powerful
women, you’ll return to fighting
normal
men in the combat cage?” I ask.

Jack smiles. “I’ll be the most famous fighter in the world, a champion.”

“You think people will care about that when the world is dying around them? You think they’ll care about watching a
sport
?”

He shrugs. Either he doesn’t care that his logic is flawed or he doesn’t quite understand it.

“Then you must be afraid of a
real
fight,” I say.

Jack points to the other two Amazons in the boat, one beaten physically and the other mentally. “I seem to have done well against
them
.”

“You’re bragging about beating a middle-aged woman who hasn’t had water in years and a girl who barely remembers what she’s capable of?” I ask. “That’s pretty pathetic if you ask me.”

I was trying to calm Jack a few minutes earlier but now I realize that goading him into a fight is the only way to stop him. But my attempts to lure him down from his raised platform are too obvious and he doesn’t take the bait. In fairness, it was a pretty weak attempt to incite him. I don’t like being mean – don’t like stooping to Cassie’s level – but I
have
to protect her now that I know she’s the Keeper, even if it means saying the cruelest thing possible to Jack.

“You must fight like that friend of yours,” I call out to him.

At first he gives me no reaction. But he suddenly stops swerving and looks down at me, his face twisted in rage.

“What did you say?”

“Your friend,” I repeat. “What was his name? Russell? Riley?”

“Raleigh!” he snaps.

Now it’s my turn to shrug. “Should’ve been named
Girly
considering the way he acted when he entered the Man-Eaters’ ring of skulls. Do you think they added
his
skull to that ring later on? Either way, I had a great laugh watching him beg for his life against the native warrior. I guess I could’ve stepped in to help but does someone like that – someone who won’t even fight for his life – deserve to live?
I
don’t think so, which was why I only bothered to save
one
weakling that day instead of two.”

Jack yanks the gas level back and the airboat slows so suddenly that I almost lose my balance and crash backward. With the boat’s airfan off, the swamp’s silence is overwhelming. Jack is the only one prepared for the sudden halt. I try to raise my bow and grab an arrow to shoot but he’s too fast. He leaps off his raised seat and tackles me, knocking my bow over the side. The few arrows remaining in my quiver
clatter
against the bottom of the boat.

Jack has me fully mounted and I try to wiggle free from his grasp, difficult to do while he’s throwing punches at my head. I’m able to dodge a few of the shots and his fists dent the metal boat floor. He finally lands a punch to the side of my head but he’s off balance just enough so I can push him off. I stagger to my feet, dazed from the blow but ready to defend myself. Jack goes back on the attack, his fists zipping at me like a blur. But I’m just as fast and our fighting skills and speed cancel each other out, as neither of us can really hurt the other. The biggest obstacle isn’t my opponent but the lack of space aboard the boat, which rocks wildly as we move even though Jack and I are both light on our feet.

I spin out of the way of another attack and throw a sidekick, which connects to his stomach and slams him back against the pilot’s seat. I glance toward Cassie, who must’ve been snapped out of her haze by the fight, which she watches intently. One of my spilled arrows rests right by my foot so I kick it toward her with the hope that she’ll use it to cut herself free. Jack launches himself back toward me before I can see if Cassie grabbed hold of it.

I miss with a punch and lose my balance for only a split second; it’s all the time Jack needs. He circles behind me and wraps his muscular arms around me neck, putting me in the same chokehold as when he ‘practiced’ fighting a few days ago. I try to fight back – to wriggle my way free and pull at his arms – but that only allows him to cinch in the choke tighter. Stars explode in front of my eyes as my brain begins to shut down. I might be faster and stronger than a normal person but breathing is just as important for me as anyone else.

My legs go limp and I collapse to my knees but Jack still holds on tightly. With only seconds before I lose consciousness, he pushes my head toward the edge of the airboat. My face is now less than a foot above the murky swamp water. The sound of my slowing heartbeat pounds within my ears but I still manage to hear the light
sloshing
of water, to see the approaching ripple across the water’s surface.

The alligator emerges just a few feet from the airboat, its mouth slowly opening as it heads straight for me. The sight of its dagger-sharp teeth provides me with just the burst of adrenaline I need. The gator snaps toward my face just as I summon the energy to throw my head back and smash into Jack’s nose. I follow that with an elbow to his ribs and his grip loosens just enough for me to escape.

Jack’s nose gushes blood. He looks stunned by the turn of events and I try to capitalize by attacking. But I don’t realize how woozy I am from a lack of oxygen to the brain. By the time I take a few deep breaths and feel my legs strengthen beneath me, I’ve lost the element of surprise. We continue to fight, both of us taking lumps, but Jack gets the better of it. I can understand why Celeste is so beat up and stood no chance against him. He finally lands a punch to my temple that drops me to the floor. Time seems to slow down and while I hear the distant sound of his voice – calling me names I shall not repeat – I’m more focused on the sight of Cassie’s hands, which have just used the arrow’s sharp tip to slice through her binds. But she makes no move to free Celeste or help me; in fact, she doesn’t move at all.

An intense burning seems to attack the back of my head and my view of Cassie disappears. Jack drags me up by my hair. It’s degrading and painful and I
want
to make him pay but he’s a lot stronger than me at the moment despite the blood that flows from his face. I see his next punch coming but can’t move out of the way in time. The inside of my skull is jarred and the darkness of night turns to complete blackness in front of my eyes. I fight to remain conscious. My groggy mind doesn’t even register the pain of hitting the boat’s metal floor. Instead I feel weightlessness, like I’m floating, rising higher and higher…

Then I’m dropping, my stomach experiencing the sensation of freefall. I hear the
splash
of water before realizing my entire body is submerged. The swamp water is colder than I would’ve expected but this ends up being my savior, snapping me back to consciousness. I swim to the surface and tread water just beside the airboat. I’m still woozy and my arms and legs get tangled in long weeds, making it strenuous to stay afloat. Jack stands on the edge of the airboat, smiling down at me.

“You let my friend die a horrible death, eaten alive by those savages,” he says. “I’m glad I can finally return the favor.”

He climbs back aboard the airboat’s raised pilot seat and powers up the fan. Within seconds, it begins to float away. I don’t want to be stuck out here alone so I swim desperately to the front of the small boat. I try to grab hold over the edge but I’m coming up just short, my fingertips barely able to grab hold as the airboat picks up speed. Cassie sits on this side of the boat and slowly turns her head to watch me struggle.

“Help me, Cassie!” I yell. “Pull me in so I can help you. You heard Jack – he plans to kill you!”

Her eyes are still blank but she finally reaches her hand out toward mine. I think she’s going to grab my hand but nothing is
ever
as it seems with Cassie. Despite the danger she’s in, she smacks away my fingertips to ensure I don’t hold on. Seconds later the airboat disappears into the night.

Buzzing insects and sloshing water are the only sounds left – unless you count the pounding in my head. I look around for any sight of solid ground but it’s dark and I see little. I don’t know which way to go. At least I can feel the silty bottom of the swamp with my toes, though I become more tangled in weeds with every movement I make.

And I’m not the
only
one moving in these waters. A ripple along the surface speeds in my direction,
again
. Apparently the gator that almost got me earlier is back for a second attempt at a midnight snack. Right before the beast reaches me, I allow myself to sink to the bottom, where my feet plant firmly on the swamp floor. I push up with all my might, snapping free of the weeds and catapulting myself over the gator’s snapping jaws.

I evade its teeth and end up on the gator’s rough scaly back, wrapping my arms around its body. It thrashes wildly beneath my grip and I’m not sure what I want to accomplish except avoiding its mouth. Our wrestling match does not last very long, as the gator bucks me off its back within seconds. I tumble back underwater again and the beast makes a wide turn, readying for another pass. While underwater, my hand hits something on the bottom that seems out of place and my hand instinctively wraps around it.
This fight just got a bit more even!

I pop out from the water with my bow in hand. The alligator is already slithering across the surface, speeding toward me with its mouth open. I reach back into the quiver still slung on my shoulder and find that not
all
of my arrows have fallen out. Moving barely faster than the gator, I pull back the bowstring as far as it will go and fire the arrow into the beasts mouth. The arrow’s tip explodes through the top of the great beast’s head and it thrashes wildly once again. It snaps its jaws shut and breaks the arrow in half just before sinking beneath the water’s surface, dead.

My sigh of relief is short-lived. The airboat is long gone and I notice another gator – and then another and another – all converging on where I’m at. I try to run and swim but I’ll never be able to move faster than the gators in this tangle of weeds. Shooting all three before they reach me would require skill that even
I
don’t possess but I have to try something. I reach into my quiver and search for ammunition but find only a single remaining arrow.

I’m not one to give up but I also know when I’m defeated. I really wanted to save Cassie – and thus the water and Mother Earth – but in my waning moments of life, that’s not what I think about, that’s not what’s most important to me. It’s John who I think of, flashes of moments about
this
life and the time we spent together, especially the way he looked into my eyes that first time in the woods when he told me how he felt about me. Facing death, it’s now crystal clear in my mind that I still
do
love him, that I
do
forgive him for the horrible things he’s done in the past. My biggest regret is that I’ll never have a chance to tell him this…

A
roar
suddenly echoes across the swamp but it’s not the sound of a beastly creature. A massive vehicle bursts through the swampy marsh and drives straight toward me, running over two of the gators and sending the third one swimming for its life. The vehicle looks like one of those huge monster trucks except with an open top and tires that look like oversized balloons, which have no problem cutting through the watery terrain. I stare up in shock at the driver, whose worry turns into a wide grin.

“I was just thinking about you,” I say.

“I bet I wasn’t driving this thing in your thoughts. Glad I checked the garage and found it,” John says, tossing down a rope ladder that I hurriedly climb. “It’s about time I can help
you
for once.”

I no sooner climb aboard when I plant a long kiss on his lips even though we’re short on time. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few minutes but if I don’t survive, I don’t want to die without having done that again. He looks surprised – happily so – but I cut him off before he can ask questions.

“Drive!” I tell him.

The vehicle shoots forward like it’s supercharged, sliding across the swamp with reckless abandon. I still feel the pull of the water source and point the way for John.