Recruits (Keeper of the Water Book 2) (40 page)

“Don’t worry, I know where I’m going,” he says. “Wasn’t so wet the last time I was here, though. What are we going to do when we find them?”

“Whatever we have to in order to save Cassie,” I say. “There!”

Enough moonlight shines ahead for me to spot the airboat, which is slowing down. In the middle of the swamp is a small inlet of water surrounded on three sides by strips of solid land. Even if I didn’t see the airboat heading toward it, I still would’ve
felt
that something was special about that place. The trees on those strips of land are bigger and lusher than any others in the swamp, natural protection for the water that glows just a little brighter than the rest of the surrounding swamp.

“How did Jack know where to find the water?” John asks.

It’s the same question I’ve been wondering. Before finding out that he wanted her dead, maybe Cassie gave him a rough estimation of where she was made an Amazon; or maybe he roughed her up until she told him, though I saw no signs of physical torture on her. Either way, it’s a big swamp and I highly doubt Jack found his way here without her help. He may have drank special water himself but I doubt he feels the same connection to the water source that I do. After all, John probably drank gallons of water in his lifetime but since he was never officially an Amazon, he feels no connection to the water’s location.

All I can keep thinking about is the moment Cassie knocked my hand away from the side of the airboat. There’s only one logical explanation though it makes no sense to me.

“Maybe they’re working together,” I say, which jogs yet another thought in my mind, an overly dramatic idea that Cassie
might
be capable of. “Or maybe she’s
helping
him to kill her – helping to destroy the Amazons and the water.”

John’s brow furrows and he frowns, shaking his head. “Not the Cassie I know, not the
Isabella
I know.”

Jealousy rears its ugly head in my mind yet again. Will there ever come a time I won’t feel this when John mentions her or their past?

“You might know Isabella the queen but obviously not Isabella the Amazon – or Cassie the teenager.
Both
of them would certainly be vindictive enough to do whatever necessary to destroy the Amazons, especially since she still hates
me
for stealing you from her.”

“Maybe she just remembers the way you and the other Amazons tried getting rid of her as the Keeper,” John says.

It’s the final part of my story I’ve yet to remember so it’s strange that John knows.

“How do
you
know about that?” I ask him.

John instinctively reaches for his scarred arm – the arm
I
sliced as he was trying to save me from his soldiers.

“I sent my men back into the jungle after setting you and your granddaughter free,” he says. “But I followed you back to the Amazon camp to see if Isabella’s plan worked. It’s the closest I ever went to the water, which I could do since none of the women were out on patrol. I wasn’t crazy enough to make myself seen but there was so much commotion and yelling that I doubt anyone would’ve noticed.”

I don’t totally recall what happened in those moments, though I have quick memory flashes of fighting among the Amazons, most of the queens backing down again, Isabella screaming that she was the Keeper. My mind tries taking me back to my memories but we’re approaching the small inlet and I need to focus on the present. Jack’s airboat is entering the inlet up ahead but I need to make sure he doesn’t reach the end where the water is brightest, purest.

The swamp buggy continues to slide all around but I stand up in my seat anyway. I can think of only one way to stop the airboat and stall Jack’s plans, whatever those may be. I raise my bow and reach into my quiver, grabbing the lone remaining arrow. I have only one chance to hit a moving target while
I’m
moving, too. As confident a shooter as I am, this shot even seems impossible for me. But familiar words come to my mind, words I’ve told many students over the years that now apply to me.

“You always have to be careful because you never know when your next shot can be your last,” I whisper to myself before taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling.

John still drives like a madman and I’m still the slightest misstep from plunging into the swamp ten feet below. But my nerves calm and I gain tunnel vision, seeing nothing around me except the target I’m aiming for. The bow becomes an extension of my arm and I fire the most important arrow of my life.

The arrows zips above the swamp on a line, smashing through the safety cage of the airboat’s fan, destroying the boat’s power source and slowing it to a crawl before it reaches the end of the inlet. Jack spins around and spots us, hearing our approach now that the deafening airfan stops swirling. He unleashes a guttural roar of anger but jumps down from his seat and begins to row with his hands. But he quickly realizes he won’t make it there before us so he uses the airboat’s waning momentum to turn them around to face us.

We slide to a stop just in front of the airboat, where Jack has pulled Cassie and Celeste to their feet. He stands behind them – using them as human shields – even though my bow is useless without arrows. Cassie allows herself to be detained but Celeste struggles against his grip, even though her hands are still tied and she’s barely conscious.

“You must let her live,” she pleads through swollen lips.

“I don’t have to do
anything!
” he yells and shoves her down roughly.

The thud of her skull colliding with the metal boat echoes across the swamp. I want to cry out for him to leave her alone but that might spur him to worse cruelty. This outburst is even too much for Cassie, who shakes free from his grip and helps the woman who’s been her mother for the last seventeen years. Cassie shows more compassion than I expected and when she bends over to check on Celeste, her eyes glance up and meet mine. Jack pays her no attention, apparently assuming that she’s no threat to him. But I think I see her pick up an arrow when he’s not looking.

“Cassie doesn’t want to live after what you’ve done to her,” Jack yells up at me. “You and her mother have lied to her for years about who she really is, about who she once was and what you took from her in the past. She hates the Amazons as much as I do and wants to help me destroy them. And
she
only found it appropriate to die in the same place where she was made an Amazon.”

I look back to Cassie, who avoids eye contact with me. She doesn’t deny Jack’s claims. I don’t know if she expects to follow through with his plans or not but she’s obviously been working
with
him all along, at least to a certain degree. John stands in his seat and moves closer to the edge, where those on the airboat below can now see him. Cassie senses the movement above and looks away from her mother. Her eyes go wide at the sight of him and I realize that she doesn’t even know he’s still alive.

“Don’t give up on life,” he tells her. “Not after how far we’ve come. I can’t live in this world without you…”

“You’re still alive?” she asks in bewilderment, the dreamy tone of her voice matching the shocked expression she’s worn since the kidnapping. But the look on her face quickly changes to one I’ve seen from her countless times: anger. “But I see
who
you’re with. You obviously made your decision –
again
– and it’s not me.”

Cassie glares at me with murderous intent but I can’t tell whether it’s the
present
-Cassie looking at me or the
past
-Isabella. John apparently can’t tell, either.

“But I made that decision when you didn’t know who you were… who you
really
were,” John says.

Cassie’s expression softens but I don’t look at her long enough to see how much. Instead I turn to John and can feel my
own
face scrunching into a glare. I know he spots my glare out of the corner of his eye but he remains concentrated on Cassie, which only makes me madder.

“I didn’t want to tell you about the past, have you look at me like I was crazy, especially when I was still an old man,” John continues. “I tracked you for years and had my soldiers drink enough water to become young and strong again. I tried to have you kidnapped at the field hockey game until
someone
interrupted that. I followed you across the country yet again but when I found you, I realized I couldn’t
force
you to remember the past. Instead, I drank most of my remaining water supply to be young with you again, hoping you’d remember our past together.”

The ‘jealous girl’ part of me – what I like to call the ‘Cassie’ part of me – wants to push John right over the edge of the swamp buggy. I finally just forgave him and now he’s expressing his undying love for Cassie
right in front of me?
I hope he’s just saying these things to stop her from doing something crazy. But he certainly sounds convincing enough to be telling the truth…

“It’s too late,” Jack intercedes. “She’s already decided to sacrifice herself to help me destroy the Amazons that turned their backs on her.”

“By letting you kill her? That’s
some
help,” John tells Jack before turning back to Cassie. “I came back for
you
, Isabella. I searched years to find
you
– I followed you for years and I never once regretted it. Don’t throw away our plans.”

Every word he pleads sounds utterly believable; I suddenly feel like I have no business overhearing this, like I’m the pathetic third wheel trying to wedge my way between a love that spanned centuries. I expect Cassie to believe every word he says; I couldn’t be more wrong.

“
You
threw our plans away – threw
us
away – by choosing
her
,” Cassie says, pointing to me. “You chose a lowly peasant over me!”

Any doubt about which version of Cassie was talking is suddenly answered. We’re no longer the bickering teenage girls who grew up together – we can never go back to that again. She’s back to being the power-hungry queen who hates that she was passed over for a ‘simple native girl,’ though that girl is the only one risking her life to save the ‘queen.’ Well, except for her
knight in shining armor
, who continues to plead with her.

“Please, Isabella, that all happened before I knew you would ever remember
us
,” he says.

Jack interrupts. “This has all been very sweet but – ”

Isabella turns to her captor and snaps at him, the mirror image of her former queenly self.

“Shut up!” she yells. “You
do not
order me around!”

After controlling Isabella from the moment he saved her from the ‘kidnapping,’ Jack is clearly not used to anyone else being charge but himself. For a moment he looks taken aback by Isabella’s sudden change in demeanor. But his surprise doesn’t last long and he responds in the only way he knows how. Without warning, he pulls her toward him and puts the same chokehold on her that nearly killed me. A blast of tingling rushes through my body but I’m not the only one. Celeste stumbles toward them to help but she’s too hurt to do much good. Jack releases the choke just long enough to smash a backhand against the side of Celeste’s head, knocking her off the airboat in the process. She doesn’t even hit the water before Jack’s arms are squeezed around Isabella’s neck again.

I raise my bow and reach into my quiver before remembering I’m out of arrows. I’m about to leap from the atop the swamp buggy but I’m a step too slow. John throws himself down into the airboat, where he crashes into Jack. Jack grunts and stumbles, knocking Isabella down with him but ultimately losing his death-grip on her. But he doesn’t let her totally escape. Just as John hurls himself at Jack, my father’s son shoves Isabella overboard.

I’ve seen John handle himself well in fights before but I doubt he’s ever tangled against someone with Jack’s skill set. The two of us together might have a better chance to stop him but my warning tingles aren’t for protecting John. I don’t have time to watch the two of them. I jump into the swamp as Isabella struggles in the tangle of weeds. I dive beneath the surface and pull her feet free from the foliage. I keep a sharp eye out for gators but encounter the first bit of luck I’ve had so far tonight – no ripples of movement along the surface, at least not yet.

“Now you want to help me?” Isabella asks, her tone full of contempt.

“You’re the Keeper,” I say. “I might not be an Amazon anymore but I still swore an oath to keep you safe by all means.”

I’m afraid she might attack me here and now but I guess her desire to live has suddenly returned. She lets me help her over to the swamp buggy’s rope ladder, which she climbs with surprising ease. I guess remembering her strength has actually made her stronger.

“Don’t pretend like you care about me!” she yells down as she climbs. “Not after what you and your recruits did to me!”

I also don’t like that Isabella’s memory is stronger than mine, that everything about the past has come back to her while I still have one big gap. I barely climb two rungs on the rope ladder when another flash comes to me.

I’m calling out orders to the Amazons… My recruits spring to action while the queens are restrained… Isabella tries to thrash her way free from our grip as we hold her near the water…

“Nothing better happen to John since he’s come back to me,” Isabella calls out from atop the swamp buggy, snapping me out of my reverie as I continue to climb.

“You were the one who brought him here and put us all in danger,” I snap back.

“And
you
kept my past a secret. A complete
stranger
had to confirm who I really am!” she yells.

“We were trying to protect you from – ”

“You were
trying
to stop me from remembering that I’m the Keeper,” she yells. I’m about to deny this but I know she’s right, that this must’ve been Celeste’s reason for keeping the secret even though
I
never knew either. There’s not really a point trying to explain that to Isabella now, though. “But if anything happens to John, I swear I’ll let Jack finish the job he started on me.”

Considering her drastic change in attitude, I highly doubt she’d willingly let Jack kill her now. But that’s not a scenario I can risk. Besides, I don’t want anything bad to happen to John either.

Below us, I’m relieved to find Celeste has made her way to the buggy, though she struggles with the ladder. I wish I could help but Jack starts to get the better of John in their fight on the airboat. John takes punch after punch, his blood splattering from several gashes on his face, but he continues to fight back. He lands a few shots in return but Jack doesn’t shrink away in the face of solid competition as I’d hoped.

“Help him!” Isabella orders me.

I look away from the fight long enough to see her pull something from inside the leg of her pants, something I thought I’d noticed her grabbing earlier: an arrow.

“Give that to me!” I tell her, unhooking the bow from my shoulder. “Maybe I can get a clear shot at him.”

John gets knocked down at that moment and I have no doubt I could pierce Jack’s heart with the sharp tip of the arrow. But when I reach out my hand to take it from Isabella, she turns away from me and shakes her head.

“What happens if you miss?” she asks. “I don’t want to lose this and be empty-handed when I need a weapon. As far as I’m concerned, you should fight with your hands like every other peasant.”

There’s no point arguing with her, no point explaining that I
won’t
miss. I’m afraid of what I might say to Isabella if I open my mouth anyway. Despite my anger with her, she
is
the Keeper and I feel it’s my responsibility to stay near her – to keep her protected – even though I desperately want to help John.

“Those two men can kill each other for all I care,” Celeste mutters as she pulls herself over the edge of the swamp buggy. “But if you’re going to help, then help. I’ll stay here with Cassie.”

“My name is
Isabella
,” she snaps, worried more about being called the right name than the man that she supposedly loves is being beaten to death below. “And how is
she
supposed to protect me when she can barely stand?”

Celeste
doesn’t
look like she could protect anyone right now but it’s a chance I have to take. Unless John and I can stop Jack together,
nobody
will be able to stop him from destroying Isabella and thus the water. The airboat has drifted too far from the swamp buggy for me to make the leap atop Jack. Instead, I plunge into the water and swim the short distance, though not before noticing that I’ve been joined for a swim by yet another gator.

I pull myself into the boat before the beast reaches me, only to come face to face with a more dangerous monster.

“You should’ve joined forces with me when you had the chance!” Jack yells at John as he continues to pound on him.

Jack sees me from the corner of his eye and throws a kick at me before I even stand. But I’ve learned his techniques from fighting him earlier and avoid being hit. Jack is half a second slower than before and that’s more than enough time for me to strike. He’s finally tiring and my punches begin to affect him, knocking him down in the boat. My brain tells me not to let up but my heart says differently – Jack still looks like the younger version of my father and it pains me that I feel the need to destroy him.

“Please, Jack, it doesn’t need to be like this,” I say, though he continues to crawl toward me, bleeding profusely. It seems he won’t be satisfied until one of us destroys the other. “Our father wouldn’t want it to come to this.”