Crown Phoenix: Night Watchman Express

by Alison DeLuca

Chapter 13

  Hiding the Prisoner

  y tacit consent, the family as well as Neil followed Odjo to another of the rooms on the second floor. The huge man chose one of the smaller bedrooms that faced the back of the house, since it was less conspicuous and did not face the huge front garden or the sea.

  Odjo put Mana on a small bed, moving her as tenderly as he had with his own daughter. She never moved, and the whites of her eyes showed beneath her lids in an unsettling way.

  “Is she really alive?” Riki whispered.

  “Of course she is!” Neil snapped. “Look, she’s breathing, isn’t she?”

  “She must not have eaten since you brought her food,” Weko said.

  Chichilia knelt by the bed and took one of Mana’s hands in both of her own. “Even though the princess is sleeping,” she breathed, “there’s something overwhelming about her. I can feel it.”

  “She really is royalty?” Neil asked.

  “She is not a princess anymore,” Weko reminded his wife. “Now she is a queen.”

  Jirili snorted. “It has nothing to do with her family or her background. She’s just beautiful!”

  Kakujife laughed and poked his brother. “In love already, Jiri? It usually takes you a few more hours than this!”

  Jirili moved away, smiling broadly. “Do strive to be less of an idiot, Jife. You won’t stand out as much that way.”

  Neil stared at the brothers, his mouth open. He had never heard them laugh or make jokes at each other’s expense.

  Mana moved and whispered something, and he forgot all about them. “Is she saying something?”

  “No,” Chichilia replied, “Although it’s a good sign. That means she is close to consciousness, and not lost to us in the lands of dreams. Which means, Neil, that yes, she’s going to recover.”

  “Thank heavens,” Neil said. There was something about Mana all right, if she could make those two brothers laugh and their mother wax poetic all of a sudden.

  Odjo, who had shimmered out of the room once he had laid Mana on the couch, returned with the usual tray of delicious-smelling food. He said something in a low voice to Chichilia, who nodded and replied, “Edo. Vadugo. All right, everyone,” she ordered, turning to her sons and making a shooing motion with both hands, “all of you out while we try to give her some broth. She looks like she’s been half-starved.” Jirili and Kakujife moved reluctantly to the door, followed by Weko. “You too, Riki and Neil,” Chichilia added.

  “What!” Riki was outraged. “We found her. We should be able to stay. We helped to nurse Tache, remember?”

  “No, you didn’t.” Neil manipulated her to the door. “Besides, we can keep out a watch for guards. There’ll be a huge search, won’t there, Weko?” He addressed this to the large man once they had left the room in a lower voice.

  Weko pondered and nodded. “You are completely right. I had almost forgotten that in our first flush of success. I had better get my wits about me; today will certainly be a long day.”

  Neil stifled a yawn. “Where can we keep watch, do you think?”

  Riki forgot all about nursing Mana instantly and turned to him with a light in her eye. “Maybe up in one of the trees? Naah, they’ll see us there. On the roof?”

  “How about from your rooms,” Jirili suggested with one eye on Neil. “You both need to get some sleep.”

  “How dull!” Riki exploded. She caught her father’s eye, remembered her promise to be good, and nodded. “Oh, very well,” she groaned. “But who’s going to watch for the guards while we nap?”

  “Jirili and I will,” Kakujife said. “We are used to going for long periods without sleep when we are working on Mixiamani.”

  Riki rubbed her eyes suddenly, and Neil felt the desire to sleep descend on him like a huge, heavy blanket. “’Very well,” she mumbled, and they headed for their rooms.

  Neil grabbed the bars of the cage and felt the wind blow it back and forth. The storm seemed to work itself into a fury, and its force smashed the wooden box into the heavy rocks of the cliff behind him. All he could do was to hang on in fright and hope that the chain didn’t break – and at that moment, another huge gust smashed at his prison. With an awful metallic, grinding noise, the heavy cable broke and the cage plunged downwards to the spiked fangs of stone waiting below.

  With a huge jerk, Neil awoke suddenly and sat up. He was in the round bed in his sumptuous room, the sheets twisted around his legs. Despite the cool tiled floor and the darkened shutters, the heat was fierce.

  Neil sat and panted for a moment, waiting for his heart rate to return to normal. He quickly got out of bed, splashed himself with tepid water, and dressed.

  He went looking for Riki’s brothers, and found Jirili in a small sitting room in the middle of the house, lounging in a long settee. His pose was negligent, but something about his tensed, powerful shoulders gave the impression that he would spring into action if necessary.

  “Anything?” Neil asked, crossing to the window and looking out. The view afforded by the large window showed the entire front garden and the path that wound down to the beach and back towards Three-Finger Rock and the village.

  Jirili widened his eyes as if trying to force them to stay open and replied, “Nothing.”

  “Look, why don’t you rest for a bit?” Neil asked. “I’ll keep watch here, and Riki can take the back room as a look-out when she wakes up.”

  “She’s already there,” Jirili grunted.

  Neil dragged the corners of his mouth down. “Is she really? Oops, I didn’t mean to sleep so long. Go on, Jirili, go and sleep for a bit. You won’t do us any good if you’re exhausted.”

  Jirili nodded slightly as if acknowledging the truth of this, and got up, stretching his arms over his head. “There’s some fruit and cheese on that table there.” He put his hand on Neil’s shoulder for one moment before leaving the room.

  Well, how about that, Neil mused. Feeling the pangs of hunger, he went to a large gold platter on a low table in one corner and selected some small sandwiches. He ate quickly, and, feeling much better, sat down on the edge of the long settee. Nothing moved outside; it was as if he were looking at a painting entitled, ‘Island Scene Before a Storm’. Dark clouds bunched ominously in the east, and they hunched over the ocean like a group of hungry tigers.

  Despite the dark weather and the increasing heat, Neil felt incredibly cheerful. He had accomplished something that he had set out to do, and his flight wasn’t a terrible waste after all. He found himself humming a verse of a song about a big haul of fish, a song that his mother used to sing to him before he went to sleep.

  Now that he had a moment, he reflected on how strange it was that he had seen Mana’s cage in his dreams and had known where to go to look for her. Another of her mind tricks, he supposed.

  And now what? The next step was almost too huge to contemplate – that of deposing Atol and making her the queen of Lampala. Once that happened, they would have all the resources they would need in order to find Simon and Miriam, and to end the terrible drug trade between Lampala and the Company on the mainland.

  “Jirili!” Riki shouted, coming into the room. “Oh, Neil, it’s you. Neil, there are guards coming from the Palace – I just saw them head into Mandayala’s house!”

  Neil sprang up and grabbed her arm. “Come on,” he said, “we’ve got to tell Weko.” He pounded down the hall, shouting for Weko and Chichilia.

  A door opened quickly, and Weko peered at Neil. “What is all the noise for?” he asked, frowning.

  “The guards are next door!” Riki interrupted. “They must have found that Mana and the cage are gone.”

  Chichilia appeared in one of her gorgeous robes, blinking sleep out of her eyes. She put one hand over her heart and asked, “What are we going to do, Weko?”

  “If only we had been able to take her somewhere else,” he mused. “No time for that now. We’ll have to hide her somehow.”

  “In the gallery downstairs?” Chichili
a suggested. “No, they’d find her right away. In one of the smaller bedrooms? Oh dear, what are we going to do? We are so unprepared! I must say I didn’t expect them so -”

  “Hurry!” Riki shouted. “They’ll be here any minute!”

  “How about in the little hut where Tache was?” Neil asked. “Mandayala knew that you were taking care of Odjo’s daughter, no? Why couldn’t you say that Mana is Tache?”

  “Mandayala knows everything about everyone,” Chichilia said. “Yes, you’re right, Neil, it could work. But what will we do with Tache herself?”

  “We’ll just have to get her up and dress her as a maid.” Weko answered. “Prop her in one corner, stirring a pot or some such thing, and no one will notice her. Yes, I think that is the best answer. Riki, wake Jirili and Kakujife. Have them carry Mana downstairs. My dear, tell Odjo to wake his daughter and dress her in something inconspicuous, and put her to work in a dark corner of the kitchen.”

  “And what about me and Neil?” Riki demanded.

  Weko smiled and patted her cheek. “You two will have the important job of pretending to be normal – playing a game, or feeding the parrot, or some such. Now, let’s go.”

  Chichilia and Weko hurried past them, and Riki put her hands on her hips, outraged. “Isn’t that typical?” she said. “You come up with the idea, and they steal all the best bits. Bwah!”

  “Bwah,” Neil agreed, thinking that the word exactly fitted the situation. “Still, let’s do what we can. We can’t lose now that we’ve come this far.”

  Riki nodded, and darted off to her brothers’ rooms.

  A short time later, Riki and Neil sat in the front veranda, poking crusts of yesterday’s rolls at an unenthusiastic parrot. Perhaps the bird sensed the oncoming storm, as it turned its back on Riki and began to nibble under one wing. Giving it up, Riki threw the bread into the cage, sat back, and folded her arms. “That bird will ignore us and go to sleep now,” she complained.

  “He probably wants to be moved inside the house since the rain is coming,” Neil said.

  “Rain! What are you talking about? It’s not going to rain.”

  Neil stared at her for a moment and gestured to the black sky with one out flung arm. “What do you think those are up in the sky, flying fish? Those, my dear girl, are rain clouds.”

  “They are not. What do you know of it anyway? You don’t come from around here.”

  Neil stood up and pointed one finger in her face. “It doesn’t matter where I come from, you idiot! My father was a sailor and a fisherman, and I know a rain cloud when I see one.”

  “Why’d you get caught in that storm and end up on the island, then, if you’re so clever?” Riki drawled.

  Maddened, he grasped both her arms and pulled her onto her feet. “I got caught in that storm because I wanted to save my friends and didn’t pay attention to the weather! What do you know of it, anyway? You don’t know me – the real me, anyway! Not in the least little bit!”

  Riki looked up at him for a moment and whispered, “Yes, I do.”

  He stared back at her with his mouth open. They stayed frozen like that for a moment.

  A sudden shout from the front garden brought him to his senses. Neil looked up and saw a line of five or six guards, headed by a large fellow he had never seen before. It was not Kyoge, who, despite his huge knife, at least had seemed to be somewhat humane. This guard looked much nastier. His lips split in an unpleasant grin as he marched up to Riki and Neil.

  “Ipa!” He pointed at Riki. A volley of Lampalan followed, as the guard pointed at the front door, obviously demanding to enter. Riki merely stood aside and motioned the troop in. As they passed, the leader stopped and smiled at her. Saying something in a low, oily voice, he put out one hand and caressed Riki’s shoulder. Neil felt hot anger spurt inside him suddenly. How dare he? How dare that man touch her?

  The men disappeared inside, and Riki and Neil were left alone. “What did he say to you?” Neil felt he would choke with rage.

  Riki turned away. “Oh, nothing. Machi is just an idiot.”

  “Machi? You know his name?”

  “It’s a small island,” Riki said. “Come on, don’t get all overheated and huffy.”

  Neil frowned and walked over to the parrot’s cage and back again. “Do you think they hid her in time?” He tried to peer into the dark hallway.

  “Well, how should I know?”

  “I just wanted to know what you think, if you don’t mind,” Neil said to her through his teeth. A sudden gust of wind blew the crusts of bread off the saucer by the parrot, and large raindrops pattered into the fishpond. Immediately, it began to rain in earnest. The water descended from the sky as if it had been poured out of a jug. The parrot awoke with a screech as a bolt of lightning momentarily lit the garden, followed by a loud shout of thunder.

  “See? Rain, just like I said,” Neil pointed out.

  “Aren’t you clever. Ipa, we’d better get that bird inside,” Riki said. She went to pick up the huge cage, but Neil stopped her.

  “Here, let me,” he said. “That cage is enormous. You get the door.”

  Riki wrenched at the door handle as the wind increased. “Hurry!” she said.

  They scuttled into the hall, where they were met by the same troop of guards and Riki’s parents. Machi, if that was the fellow’s name, barked something to the other guards and they all trooped upstairs.

  Weko followed them, and Chichilia went and put her arms around Riki. “Shhh,” she said pointing to the second floor, which rang with loud footsteps as the guards tramped into the various rooms upstairs. There were thumps as doors were flung open, followed by the crashes of furniture overturning.

  Neil tried to signal to Chichilia with his eyebrows, to ask if the men had found Mana. He gestured towards the kitchen and the back garden, and she shook her head slightly.

  The lightning illuminated the hall, and one of the men upstairs shouted something. Machi shouted back, and the other guards all began yelling at once.

  Riki put one hand over her mouth. “They’re arguing,” she whispered to Neil. “They say there’s nothing here, and they want to go home before the road is flooded.”

  They all looked at each other, hope dawning in their eyes. A moment later, the group of guards pounded back downstairs, still followed by a silent Weko.

  Machi pointed and shouted, “Lunewe!” and headed for the door. As he passed Riki, he reached for her, but she shrank towards her mother. The guard laughed in his oily way and motioned for the others to leave.

  As their footsteps died away, Chichilia sank onto the bottom step. “Did we really do it?” she asked Weko.

  “They found nothing.” He plopped down beside her.

  “What a bunch of complete goons,” Riki remarked.

  “That guard had better not come near you again,” Neil muttered, and he bunched his hands into fists.