The Serpent's Daughter (37 page)

Bennington screamed and the flashlight flew out of his grasp, spinning like a top. With each spin its light cast an eerie bit of illumination on the scene. The effect played tricks on the mind. First Jade’s opponent stood in front of her, then two feet to the left in a herky-jerky motion from one spot to the other like a poorly crafted nickelodeon movie. Her mind wanted to predict the next move, but Jade knew she needed to rely on sound again for those brief flashes of information. Finally the light came to rest in a stand of overgrown weeds.

As Jade’s vision returned to normal, she could see Bennington’s stance more clearly. She took in the long knife, its four-inch blade dark with Mohan’s blood. Something about the knife as it came at her before had looked very familiar.
That’s my knife!
Bennington must have taken it from her when she was first captured.
Be danged if I’m letting him stab me with my own blade.
Bennington shook his injured left arm, trying to regain its use. His face contorted in pain and rage. Then his hand made a jerking movement towards a low jacket pocket. Jade felt her pulse quicken.
It will call to you. So that’s where the amulet is.
It didn’t stay there. Bennington pulled it out and slipped it into a more secure side trouser pocket.

“Hand it over and I’ll let you go,” Jade said.

“You’re a terrible liar,” hissed Bennington. “And I don’t intend to let
you
go.”

Bennington lunged forward, slicing at her side. Jade parried the move, pushing his blade away. Then with a flick of the wrist she exposed her dagger’s sharpened inner curve. She jerked her hand back, slicing at Bennington’s forearm. Unlike her own knife, which she kept well honed, the dagger had a poor edge. She succeeded only in ripping the coat sleeve.

It was time to get serious. So far she’d only defended herself, but Bennington clearly intended to kill her as he had Mohan. Jade didn’t plan to kill Bennington, but she needed to come to grips with killing in self-defense. Still a dead prisoner couldn’t be questioned, couldn’t help her prove her innocence. She ran through her options, her mind flipping through all the fighting advice her father’s chief wrangler, Dody Higgins, ever gave her.

“Hamstringing ’em’ll keep ’em from runnin’ but not from fightin’. If you can’t get their knife, you best take care they can’t see straight. Head wounds bleed something fierce.”
Well, she thought, it had worked with the guard. Why not here?

A stray sound came from the courtyard on the other side of the archway, as a dislodged stone clattered into one of the empty pools.

“Your cavalry arriving, perhaps?” hissed Bennington.

“Only the
jinni,
” Jade replied. “They want their amulet back.”

One of the resident cats, startled by the noise, dashed between them. “There’s one now,” said Jade. She took advantage of the momentary distraction to slice at Bennington’s face.

He screamed again as the blade slashed up from his nose and over his left eye. It was in the high-pitched outcry that Jade found the answer to her dream’s confusing images.

“Give it up, Lilith. You’re not going to get away this time.”

Inez fumbled around Mohan’s corpse, looking for some sort of weapon before she went to Jade’s defense.
Blast it. Didn’t this man at least carry a knife?
Then she remembered. He was a prisoner. They don’t let prisoners carry knives.
A rock. That would be something
. She abandoned her search of Mohan and inched around on her hands and knees, feeling for a decent-sized chunk of stone or wall.

She moved slowly, aware that she could easily tumble into a pit if she wasn’t careful. Her right hand brushed against something cold.
Metal. A gun? A knife?
Her fingers gingerly followed the shape in case it was a knife. No point in slicing her own fingers grabbing for a sharp blade. But this object had no sharp edges. It felt tubular.

A flashlight!
Jade wouldn’t have left it behind on purpose. Maybe Bennington dropped one. Either way, it was something to keep. She could at least find her way around in this desolate place, and it felt heavy enough to serve as a cudgel. Her fingers found the switch and slid it forward. For one brief fraction of a second, the empty courtyard lay exposed before her. Then the light died just as Inez heard a shrieking battle cry.

“So you figured it out, did you? Clever bitch.” Lilith Worthy spat as a trickle of blood ran over her false mustache and lips. Blood flowed freely down over the left eye, but she could still see with her right.

Jade watched Lilith’s shadowy form circle her, looking for an opening. She kept one eye on the woman’s blade, the other on the rest of her. So far, Lilith had shown some skill with a knife, not at all what one would expect from a proper, upper-class English widow. At least it might have surprised someone else, but Jade had long known that Lilith’s sedate role as Olivia L. Worthy was a facade.

“You won’t live to tell anyone, though,” the woman said in a husky growl. “You’ve harried me too long. You don’t deserve to live.” She lunged again towards Jade, but with her vision rendered two-dimensional, she misgauged the distance.

“That’s right, Lilith,” said Jade as she dodged the attack, letting her opponent wear herself down. “Your little empire is in ruins. So is all this because I’ve broken up your drug trade? Or is it because I foiled your plans to be Empress of Abyssinia?”

“You witch!” Lilith spat, another spray of blood arcing out. “You think you hurt me then? My
empire,
as you call it, is hardly destroyed.” Her voice rose in pitch and quivered with more than rage. An edge of despair crept in. “You took my son from me. My
son!
First you killed him, then you destroyed his good name by finding that bastard half brother.” She punctuated the last word with another stabbing charge.

Jade sidestepped again, but this time she took a slice at Lilith’s leg, cutting the edge of the pocket along with some skin. A bit of silver chain dangled out. “I didn’t kill David, and you did more to destroy the family honor by having your husband murdered.” As she spoke, she tested Lilith’s skill by feinting with her dagger. Lilith responded by swiping at Jade’s quickly retracted hand rather than moving towards her more exposed side.

Jade’s move wasn’t perfect, unfortunately. With only starlight and the faint glow of Lilith’s fallen light to see by, she also misjudged her distance. She sliced into air rather than flesh, but it confirmed her growing suspicions about Lilith’s training. The woman knew a little about how to fight with a knife. But she
only
fought with the knife. She didn’t see beyond it. Jade, on the other hand, had learned from the ranch hands back home and knew a few more tricks involving elbows, knees, and a fist.
Time to take care of that other eye
.

“Think you have me now, do you? Think again.” Lilith continued circling Jade, looking for an opening. “Still trying for that amulet?”

Jade took a few steps back till she heard something grit-tier than weeds under her boots. She kicked out at Lilith with her left leg, then quickly dropped low as Lilith jumped to Jade’s right, avoiding the kick. Jade was ready for the move. She sliced at Lilith’s left thigh, this time penetrating the bottom of the pocket and deeper into the leg. In the meantime she grabbed a handful of pebbles and dirt with her left hand.

Lilith didn’t even cry out as Jade’s dagger made this fresh gash. Her rage seemed to make her inured to pain. “You’ll have to do better than that, lovey,” she hissed. She caught the amulet with her left hand as it spilled out of the pocket.

“Give me the amulet, Lilith. It can’t mean anything to you.”

“It’s mine. It has power. I can feel it.” She gripped the knife more tightly and waved it around, making pretenses at another strike. “Does it give protection? You want it to protect yourself from me? Is that it?” She stabbed at the air in front of her, making certain Jade couldn’t get in too close.

“I already know the magic phrase for protection against vermin like you, Lilith.” She tossed the handful of gravel at the woman’s face with an open hand. “Here’s five in your eye.”

Inez waited for a moment after the light went out, committing everything she’d seen to memory. If she followed the inner wall, she would avoid most of the sunken spots.
Most
of them. There seemed to be another, smaller pit at each corner. But she needed to hurry. She could hear Jade and Bennington fighting on the other side of the archway. With any luck, they would be so intent on each other that they wouldn’t hear her approaching. If she could get in close, she could hit Bennington from behind with the flashlight. She shook the flashlight in irritation and was rewarded when the beam reappeared. Fearing it wouldn’t last much longer, she turned off the switch and proceeded in the dark as before.

She stumbled on a pile of debris, sending a stone clattering to the ground. It scared one of the feral cats, which tore off through the archway with a parting hiss. “Aya, sons of biscuits,” Inez muttered under her breath as she grabbed for her stubbed toe. Just then she heard a scream of pain from the other side of the archway.
Jade?
Inez forgot about her foot and made double time for the arch and her daughter.

Lilith threw her hands up to block the sand and grit, but in doing so she left herself wide open to attack. Jade switched her dagger to her left hand and charged in, swinging the blade to distract Lilith’s attention. Then she drove a hard right fist at Lilith’s diaphragm. The blow should have disabled her opponent, doubling the woman over in a gripping pain as she gasped for breath. But Lilith had also retreated several steps from the flying debris. Jade’s punch merely grazed the woman’s midsection.

Still blinking madly in an effort to clear her right eye of grit, Lilith swung her blade down towards Jade’s neck. Jade anticipated the attack, having discovered that Mrs. Worthy still saw her knife as her only weapon. She grabbed Lilith’s wrist and pushed her arm back, twisting as she held on. Slowly she drove the arm up, then Jade suddenly reversed herself and pulled, using Lilith’s forward push to bring the arm all the way down and around to Lilith’s back.

“Drop the knife,” Jade ordered. She jabbed Lilith’s right elbow with her dagger. “Drop it now.” The knife fell at Jade’s feet. She heard someone else coming from the arch and hoped it was Sam. “Now give me the amulet.”

With her right arm pinned behind her and Jade’s blade pressed to her back, there was little Lilith could do.

She did it, anyway. Jade had to give the woman credit. She was a fast learner. Perhaps she felt Jade’s grip relax slightly. Perhaps she heard the approaching footsteps and, knowing it wasn’t de Portillo, decided this was her last chance to escape. Whatever gave her the impetus, Lilith took the chance. She rammed her head back against Jade’s, spun around, and pulled her wrist free when Jade stumbled. For a fleeting moment, Lilith hesitated, as if trying to decide whether to grapple for Jade’s dagger and stab her or flee. Someone to the side shone a flashlight on her face. The appearance of reinforcements made the decision for her.

Jade made one desperate grab for Lilith, but it was too late. The woman ran from her and the light towards a distant enclosure. Jade gripped the dagger in her right hand, pulled back, and threw with all the force she could muster. Lilith had too much of a head start, and the blade clattered to the pavement behind her.

CHAPTER 27

—The Traveler

“COME ON, SAM,” yelled Jade as she started running after Lilith.

“I’m not … Sam.” Short panting breaths broke the words, as though the speaker were unused to sprinting.

Jade spun around. “Mother! What in blue blazes are you doing here?”

“There is no time for that,” Inez said. She tugged on Jade’s sleeve, trying to slow her down. “Are you all right? We should get out of here before he comes back.”

Jade shook her head. “Bennington isn’t a he. That’s Olivia Lilith Worthy, David’s mother. Give me the flashlight. I have to find her.”

Inez stumbled and Jade slowed for a moment. “Forget the … amulet.”

“It’s not
just
the amulet, Mother. Lilith cannot get away. You have no idea what that woman has done. Now, either wait here or find Sam.” Jade stooped and picked up her own knife, the one Lilith had dropped, and took off running, not waiting for an answer or the light.

Sam followed Bachir through the short maze of side alleys to the main street, then south as quickly as Sam could manage with a false leg. His right hand kept straying to his Colt as though he couldn’t wait to shoot someone. In the back of his mind he wondered if it would ever be possible to spend time with Jade without her running headlong into danger. Possible, but highly unlikely given her temperament, he supposed. If that was the case, would he ever get used to it? Probably not. Could he accept it? Maybe. After all, that spirit was what had attracted him in the first place.

They met no one on the streets, and very few lights burned through the upper screened windows. The faint cry of a restless child was shushed by a woman’s voice cooing an Arabic lullaby. The most active life as the time neared midnight was a dozing, swaybacked mule, swishing its tail and stamping a hoof as the flies irritated him. Even the cats seemed to have vacated the area, or else Sam and Bachir’s hurried steps chased them away.

“El Badi,” said Bachir, pointing to a distant shadowy ruin ahead of them.

“I see someone,” said Sam. “It’s not Jade.”

“It is her mother.”

Where was Jade? Had Bennington gone someplace else? Had he taken Jade? The thought that he’d lost her again made Sam’s guts twist.