Jalia Prevails (Book 5) (24 page)

“I promised not to kill him and you let five of them get away,” Jalia said. She stooped to wipe her knife clean on Talid’s shoulder and walked away from the man and his agonized screams.

Daniel shrugged at the crowd. Those standing in front of Jalia found a sudden reason to be somewhere else and scattered.

“It’s absolutely typical that Daniel ignores it when they call me a whore, but reaches for his sword the minute they insult one of his precious donkeys,” Jalia told Cara cheerfully. “I hope this Greenhouse place is going to be worth all the bother.”

13.
      
The Greenhouse

As Jalia entered the Greenhouse proper, she was stunned at how hot and humid it was inside. The Greenhouse was reputed to be filled with the plants that once were part of the rain forests where the Atribar el Dou desert was today. Jalia was familiar with that part of the world and though it was hot there, it was also dry. She had expected the Greenhouse to be just as dry and the humidity surprised her.

“This is like nowhere in Jalon,” she told Daniel, who nodded in agreement.

“My shirt is soaked and I’ve only just walked in. Look at the butterflies! I’ve never seen any that big before,” Daniel replied.

Daniel pointed at a swarm of butterflies with wingspans of five or six inches flying past. If the Greenhouse’s purpose was to be an orchard, it was not laid out like any that Daniel had seen. It was a dense dark forest with a few narrow winding paths running through it. The road they were on ended within forty yards of the inner door in a large semicircular paved area filled with people and tables laden with strange fruit. People were arriving from the small paths with basketfuls of fruit, while others with empty basket were setting out into the forest.

The contents of the baskets were tipped onto the tables where some of the fruit was rejected by women sorting through them. Those they deemed acceptable they put into wicker baskets designed to be stacked on top of each other. When a basket was full, it was taken by one of the men loading the carts. There were dozens of sorting tables and as a result, the carts were filled rapidly. The noise of people shouting was overwhelming.

Cara walked to one of the tables and persuaded one of the girls to give her a sample. She returned to the group and cut the fruit with her knife.

“Only eat the inner flesh and discard the pips as well,” she advised as she handed them slices.

Jalia bit into the fruit cautiously and smiled at the taste.

“If all the fruits are as good as this I can see why the King of Slarn built this place.”

Daniel nodded and juice dripped down his chin.

“Do you think we should go and talk to Hala?” he asked. Jalia spun around, looking for Hala as she realized that hadn’t seen her since they dispatched the assassins. Daniel had to point her in the right direction.

Hala stood with Nin, half in and out of the forest. Nin had his back to them and Hala was bent over behind him.

“I think she’s being sick,” Daniel remarked. He moved closer to Jalia.

“She killed one of the men,” Jalia said. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but it was the first time she has ever killed up close.”

“I didn’t know she had killed anyone,” Daniel admitted. “We should go to her. She is bound to be in shock.”

Jalia put her arm out to hold Daniel where he was.

“Leave her with Nin for now. She has a decision to make as to whether to come with us or stay with him and this will help her decide.”

“By making us out to be unfeeling bastards?” Daniel enquired, more than a little annoyed at Jalia’s attitude.

“Neither of us even gave a thought about her after the fight, Daniel. We are what we are.”

“But I want to go to her now.”

“Give them another ten minutes and then we will go to them.”

Nin had held Hala up as they walked into the Greenhouse. She was crying and shaking like a leaf. They were a long way behind the others and he edged them over to the side as they went through the massive inner doors; knowing she wouldn’t want Jalia or Daniel to see her in this state.

Hala clung tight to him and he had to suppress a scream as her fingers dug into the wound on his back. Daniel’s ointment had helped the healing process but it was still less than a week old and Hala’s fingernails tore the scab. Nin said nothing though as he helped her move into the Greenhouse.

They ended up at the edge of the forest. Hala let go to Nin’s enormous relief and then she vomited into the undergrowth.

“Are you all right?” Nin asked with some concern. He had no real understanding of what was wrong with her.

“When I stabbed him, his guts poured out over my hand,” Hala explained. “It was so warm and it steamed, Nin, it steamed.” At this point Hala bent over and was sick again.

“Didn’t you kill a guard for Jalia at Boathaven?” Nin asked. Hala had told him she had killed a guard, so he had assumed she was used to that sort of thing.

“It isn’t the same. He was a long way away and I never really saw him after I threw the knife.” Hala’s voice shook along with her body. Her face was white and she felt she was going to faint.

“Why not?”

“It was dark,” Hala improvised. She was not about to tell Nin that a crossbow bolt through her guts had put an end to her watching. If she did that, she would have to explain to him why she wasn’t dead.

“But isn’t it the same in any case? Both of them ended up dead.”

“It is not the same,” Hala said and vomited violently. “I saw his eyes cloud over and I saw I’d taken his life. I knew it in my guts.”

“Well, you’ll soon have forgotten it the way your guts are being emptied,” Nin said. Hala tried to smile and vomited again.

“That man was going to kill Daniel wasn’t he?” Nin asked. He had deduced this as nobody had bothered to explain to him what had been going on.

“Yes,” Hala admitted and paused for a moment in thought. “If I hadn’t killed him he might well have succeeded. Jalia was busy dealing with one of the other assassins. We knew they were going to try it while Daniel was busy fighting, so our job was to get them before they got him.”

“How did you and Jalia know any of this? You never said anything to me,” Nin asked in an aggrieved voice. He had felt left out when Hala disappeared without warning. It was as if she was part of a team with Jalia and Daniel that he wasn’t allowed to join.

“Jalia told me just before we entered the Greenhouse, while Daniel was spouting all that nonsense about that midget. The step ladder bit I can believe, but three times in a row? Yours gets as limp as a worm if I do it to you twice.”

“Keep your voice down,” Nin urged as he looked around to check that no one was listening. There are some things you don’t want broadcast to the world and his personal capacity in that particular area was one of them.

“Anyway,” Hala continued, oblivious to his concerns. “Jalia said we were walking into a trap and to look for people with their hands in their jackets or at their belts, anywhere they might keep a knife. I knew this man was one of them as soon as I saw him; he had this shifty mean look about him. So I sidled up to him and when I saw the flash of his blade, I stuck my knife into him. I thought that I would have to push hard but the knife went into him as though cutting through butter. Then there was blood and other sticky stuff over my hands and it stank, Nin. It stank something awful.”

Hala looked as though she was going to throw up again, but she managed to prevent herself. She attempted to calm her breathing, and concentrating on that made her feel a little better.

“You did what you had to do,” Nin said calmly. “I’m not sure that I could do it. I admire you, Hala. You are much stronger than me.”

Hala smiled at the unexpected compliment and put her hand out. Nin reached over and held her hand tightly.

“Well, I can see that Daniel was quite wrong to worry about you,” Jalia said, startling the children as she and Daniel had approached so quietly.

“It’s a terrible thing, the first time you have to kill someone up close,” Daniel said, looking deep into Hala’s eyes. “The point to remember is, you saved my life doing it, and the world is undoubtedly a better place without him.”

Hala smiled wanly at Daniel, who smiled back reassuringly.

“I see that now, Daniel. It was just the closeness of it that bothered me.”

“Killing someone should never be a remote thing. It is not a thing to be taken lightly.”

“I still think you should have killed at least some of those bastards you were fighting,” Jalia said indignantly, “Especially the one that called me a whore.”

“You did sell your body when you were twelve,” Daniel pointed out, a grin on his face.

“Not for money though,” Jalia pointed out. “I swapped sex for information,” she told him, a little too firmly. “And I got the better of the deal, because Marco was quite good at it, which is more than I can say for some young traders I know.”

“You’ve had sex with traders?” Daniel asked in outrage. “I bet it was that Tonas or maybe it was the Denger brothers…” Daniel paused and then his mouth formed a big O, “It wasn’t all three of them at once, was it?”

He turned and ran into the forest as Jalia drew her sword and then gave chase. Both of them disappeared up one of the paths. Daniel laughed loudly as he ran.

“What was all that about?” Don asked as he and Cara joined them.

“I think Daniel wanted to lighten the mood by teasing Jalia,” Hala said with a broad smile on her face.

“I just hope he survives it,” Cara said. “An angry Jalia is pretty dangerous.”

“I think he has more to worry about with the forest,” Nin said, looking worried as he tried to see through the dense foliage. “I’ve never seen one like this. Who knows what they might run into?”

“Just so long as it isn’t Jalia’s sword,” Cara opined. “They call the forest in the Greenhouse a jungle. Fruit ripens all year round because there aren’t any seasons in here; it’s always as warm as it is now.”

“Jalia in the jungle,” Don said rolling the words around his tongue with evident satisfaction. “Shall we go and join them before they have all the fun without us?”

“Why not,” Hala agreed. She led the way confidently along the path Daniel and Jalia had taken, with the others following closely behind her.

Hala caught up with them a few hundred yards into the jungle. Daniel had used a vine to climb up a dozen feet into a tree and found a branch strong enough to stand on. Jalia was jumping up at him swinging her sword, just failing to reach him.

Jalia could have thrown one of her knives and skewered Daniel, but that was not the point of the game they were playing.

“Come down here and fight like the skulking rat you are!” Jalia called.

“Rats don’t climb trees, Jalia,” Daniel shouted down to her.

“That just proves you’re a pervert, even for a rat.”

“Can you even remember why you chased me up here?”

Daniel gave Hala a cheerful wave when he saw her approach.

“I don’t need a reason,” Jalia said. She was gasping for breath from her exertions, “Because you are always guilty of something.”

“We have guests,” Daniel pointed out. “Put the sword away and I’ll come down”

Jalia looked and saw Hala, Cara, Don and Nin staring at her while trying not to laugh.

“All right.” Jalia slid her sword back into its scabbard. “I can always kill you later.”

“Fair enough.”

Daniel used the vine he had climbed the tree with to swing down to the ground.

“Those things could be really useful if they grew in ordinary forests,” Don remarked.

“Then we’d get thieves swinging down on us, no doubt shouting out something silly as they came,” Cara replied. “I think we are better off without them.”

“Some of the fruit grows on these vines,” Daniel said as he brushed dust off his trousers. “And there are bridges made of vines up near the top of the trees. There must be ladders where the locals can get to them so they can pick the fruit.”

“They must have bought in the animals and birds when they created this place. How could they have done that?” Don asked, looking upwards at the vast steel framed dome above them.

“By using magic of staggering power, I would imagine,” Daniel said. “I don’t think they brought this forest in tree by tree, I think they moved a section of it with all its animals and insects to the Greenhouse in one go. The Greenhouse is alive with wildlife. I saw a black snake up in the trees; it must have been at least twelve feet long.”

Hala and Cara surreptitiously stepped to the middle of the path.

“So there’s bound to be dangerous creatures of all shapes and sizes in here,” Jalia stated.