Switch! (38 page)

“Since my carefully laid plan hinged on taking over Galal without alerting his people, there is no longer any point in having him. I guess my work here is done. You people can go back to your selfish, irresponsible ways. So, I’ll be off then.” He stalked towards the edge of the balcony.

“Is that it?” Praxades shrieked, hands on hips. She turned on Ethan. “Are you going to let him get away? What about the killing? He will surely have to kill someone when his tiger body expires. And what if he comes back as something else? We won’t know him.”

All true, Ethan guessed, but as the tiger had just said, there was nothing he could do about it. Someone really needed to gag that girl.

The tiger leaped back into the room, all sleek, writhing muscles. He pressed his face up to Praxades’ and said in a low growl, “What I do is no worse than having people kill themselves for your entertainment, Praxades.”
 

She pushed away from him frantically, but still with a truculent set to her mouth.

“Yes, I could jump you any time I want, young lady, and not a thing you could do about it. I have a good mind to stay, just to keep you on your toes,” said the tiger.

“And by the way, Kitoko.” He rounded on Kitoko, who made an ineffectual grab for his sword. “Those captives you are holding – if I don’t see them cross the river in, let’s say... three days, I’ll be back.”

He turned to go again, this time dipping his head towards Grandma Wanyika. “Grandma, it has been a pleasure,” he purred. “Hold less ceremonial parties. It will ease the gout.”

“Gogo... humble apologies,” he said to Gogo Maya. “A bit heavy handed in the forest, there. Nothing personal, you understand. Bigger picture and all that.” Gogo Maya gave him a withering look.

“Young witch.” He turned towards Lewa and smiled. “Don’t be disappointed. As impressive as your array of tricks is, there is nothing... nothing at all... I had been around thousands of years before you were even born. Do you think I would be thwarted by a slip of a girl?”

He paused in front of Ethan and patted him gently on the head. “Young man, go and help your friend. And do something about that hair!” He snatched his paw away suddenly as if something had bitten him.
 

Ethan turned towards a soft
whump-whump
sound descending out of the sky. The lower clouds twisted and boiled as if something passed through them and then it came hurtling towards the balcony. The tiger almost collided with a creature, the size of an elephant, which came in to land awkwardly, crushing the stone balcony railing as it went.

“Evening,” the tiger said to it with the arrogance of the all powerful, and, without breaking his stride, slunk off the balcony onto a ledge to make his way down the escarpment into the valley below.

The ugliest dragon imaginable scrabbled for footing on the edge of the balcony as awkward as a grounded albatross. He looked nothing like the sinuous snake like dragon with the flame-shaped, petrified stone horns, and the scalloped medieval-knight-like scales of Darwishi or Amun’s imagination. He had a plump, grey, leathery-looking body like a rhinoceros, a longish neck and a face more like a warthog than a dragon, with one huge tooth poking out of the middle of his mouth, and a blob on the end of his long tail, that flailed wildly from side to side as he tried to regain his balance.

“Consequences!” Salih hissed in a flat voice.

Everyone else stood, frozen in terror.

“Quickly!” Azikiwe said. “You and you, put your hands like this!” He made a stirrup of his hands to demonstrate. “Now you and you!” He nodded at Elymu and Faraji. They lifted Nandi’s limp body and set off at an incredible pace through the bush. Joe ran after as fast as he could, but he could not keep up.

“She stepped in front of me!” he groaned. The buffalo cow had tossed her in the air, slicing her thigh open from knee to groin. That much he had seen before they had whisked her away.

He knew he should be on the lookout for stray buffalo – even that same buffalo – or angry lions, but he didn’t care. He ran blindly after the bearers till he reached the city. They were at the top of the steps by the time he reached the bottom, and they appeared to have put her down. A large crowd gathered around her. He hoped one of them was the healer. He sat down on the step for a moment, his head swimming with shock and fatigue.
 

One young man peeled away from the crowd and ran down the stairs towards him. He was one of the darker ones, with rat’s tails of paraphernalia hanging from his hair and the board-shorts Joe had left behind at the vicious girl’s village. A man, who looked like a relative of that vicious Mesande, came down behind him.

“Oh, no! They’ve found me, even here!” Joe groaned. Then he saw Jimoh... unmistakably Jimoh. Same hat, same walk. But improbably dressed in a skirt of brightly coloured material covered over with animal tails. He had camouflage fatigues poking out from underneath. Joe’s relief at finding his friend was gone in a flash, as the boy did not come towards him, even though he had clearly seen Joe. Instead, he ran away, further up the stairs. Joe felt like crying. Had he imagined it? Had they captured Jimoh too, and he was just following orders?

But then, amazingly, as the other two young men came closer, he recognised the one in the board-shorts as Tariro.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Tariro laughed, launching himself at Joe and holding him tightly. “We thought we were too late!”

Joe disengaged himself to look down at the hyena pelt he still wore and then back up at Tariro’s appalling hairstyle. “You don’t look so normal yourself!” he said.

Catching the eye of the young man behind Tariro who looked like Mesande, Joe backed away.

“It’s okay, this is Fisi,” Tariro said, putting an arm around the young man’s shoulder. “He came to help rescue you. Although the whole thing has gone to pot... the jumper turned out to be the tiger. Ethan’s in there now, with some witches, trying to sort it all out. But I have to say, man, the kid is out of his depth this time!”

“I have to get to Nandi, Tariro, she is badly hurt,” Joe said, starting up the steps. “And wasn’t that Jimoh I saw? What’s with him? He looked me right in the eye and ran off.”

“Oh, don’t mind Jimoh, he has gone to fetch Ethan for the injured girl. He seems to think Ethan can fix that too.” He stared incredulously at Joe. “Man, thank goodness you are alive. Have I got a story for you!”
 

“What do you mean the jumper is the tiger?” Joe said, running up the steps. “What’s a jumper? And how the hell did you guys get here anyway?”
 

~~~

Even the exuberant Tokoloshe stood frozen in terror, staring at the dark shape glowering at everyone from the balcony. Ethan’s eyes darted from Gogo Maya to Lewa and back again. The dumfounded expression on both their faces did not instill him with confidence that anyone was likely to leave the balcony alive. He wondered if they would all be burned to a crisp.

Jimoh appeared suddenly. He did not even look to see what had happened to the tiger. “Ethan, you have to come!” he said, and then stopped dead at the sight of the dragon.

“It’s the Mokele Mbembe,” Ethan said in a hoarse whisper. “He has come for his gemstones!”

The dragon did not move. Jimoh looked at it, then looked at Galal, who had shrunk back ever so slightly behind Gogo Maya. “There is no time for this, Ethan! Go! Go down the stairs. A girl needs you!” he said.

Ethan felt a moment’s relief. Jimoh had said a girl, so it was not Joe, but it was someone! He would have to help. He edged slowly towards the door, hoping the dragon would be sufficiently distracted by Jimoh. The dragon eyed him threateningly... He stopped.

“Ah,
sheet
!” Jimoh strode up to Galal. “Dragon wants jewels,” he said to the man, putting his hand out for them. Every Almohad in the room fumbled to remove their jewellery, except Galal, who clutched his protective amulet closer. “Give!” Jimoh shouted at him. “There is not time. Girl is hurt. I need Ethan!” Galal proffered the amulet reluctantly. Jimoh snatched it from him and ran towards the beast balancing precariously on the edge of the balcony.
 

Mokele Mbembe opened his eyes as wide as anyone else in the room, almost overbalancing as he scrambled to lift one leg and stretch it out for the amulet. Jimoh draped the string of jewels over the proffered talon, bowing low as he did so. Ethan could not believe his eyes. Approaching the creature was amazing in itself, but only Jimoh would have the presence of mind to be polite. Then, before anyone had time to think, Jimoh doffed his hat and grabbed Ethan by the hand, dragging him out of the room.

~~~

At the sight of the girl’s wound, Ethan’s stomach lurched. It was much worse than either Jimoh’s or Tariro’s wounds had been. She had a gash right down her thigh that did not look as if he could close it up even with the magic in his blood. Luckily she had passed out. He took his knife out anyway, and knelt beside her on the steps. Even if he did not have the strength to heal her, surely whatever he could give was better than nothing.
 

Before he cut himself Salih slunk in beside him. “No! You cannot do it here, Ethan,” he said, and then was interrupted by Gogo Maya, who muscled her way in from behind, and took charge of the situation. With the help of Grandma Wanyika and her Tokoloshe, who had their sleeping arrows at the ready, Gogo Maya directed the girl to be transported to a quiet room.
 

Galal, having escaped from the hovering dragon once he’d given up his jewels, looked genuinely concerned for the girl, Nandi. Rather than stand in Gogo Maya’s way, he deferred to the healing power of the witch. Not that she had any power at all, Ethan realised. If anyone was going to help the girl, it was going to have to be him.
 

Gogo Maya should not have given him time to think about it. The more he thought about it now the more queasy his stomach felt and the more he worried that the Almohad might turn on him if he did not succeed. They might not be able to beguile him as they had done Joe because of the amulet he wore, but a simple whack to the head would put paid to that defense.

At first they’d been unable to pry Joe off the girl once he’d caught up with her, but Rafiki dealt with the problem by deftly stabbing Joe in the leg with a sleeping arrow, and a group of Tokoloshe carted him off, all efficiency once they had a proper job to do. Joe looked to Ethan in almost as bad shape as the girl.

“Don’t worry, Ethan,” Jelani told him in his gravelly voice. “We will guard cousin Joe.” He took the spare amulet from Jimoh and slipped it around Joe’s neck as they went.

“You don’t have to do this, Ethan,” Gogo Maya told him once they had laid the girl out on a pallet. Her brow drew down in concentration and her jaw tightened. “It is not as if they didn’t have it coming to them, and it is not your problem.” She glanced anxiously at the door. “We will wait till Lewa has chased the dragon. She can help this girl.”

Jimoh took Nandi’s wrist gently and felt for a pulse. Ethan wondered who on earth could have taught the boy to do that and if he knew what he was doing, but Jimoh turned pleading eyes towards him. He knew exactly how bad it was.
 

“Blood is very weak, Ethan,” he said. “Is going to die.”

“It is a terrible risk, Ethan,” Gogo Maya protested, but not very enthusiastically. “Salih says it will be the third time in too few days. You can’t do it again so soon. You risk losing everything.”
 

“Maybe Galal deserves this, but not the girl,” Grandma Wanyika clucked sadly.

Ethan took a firm hold of himself. It was not as if he were being asked to donate a kidney. “What exactly am I risking?” he asked.

“Everything!” Gogo Maya said. “The power to heal, the power to make those around you feel all schizophrenic the way you do. The power to talk to Salih...!” She made it sound as if that was the worst loss of all. It would be kind of distressing, he realised. He could hardly imagine what it would be like, not hearing Salih in his head anymore, and he would probably get his asthma back, but if he did not help this girl soon it would be too late for her.

“Is very brave girl, Ethan,” Jimoh whispered. He brushed a hair back from her forehead. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. “Almohad say she jump in front of buffalo to save Joe.”

That, and a glance at the stricken look on the face of the Almohad healer made up Ethan’s mind. The Almohad obviously weren’t all bad.
 

“Will I die?” he said to Gogo Maya.

She regarded him solemnly from under her frown, “You might… If you lose too much blood.”
 

“Okay, then I am counting on you to find the balance between giving her enough blood to recover and taking out less than it takes to kill me,” Ethan said, wincing as he made a small incision on the inside of his wrist and allowed his blood to trickle slowly into the scrap of gourd Grandma Wanyika held under his hand.

Ethan wiped the back of his other hand across his forehead, fighting desperately not to faint at the sight. Well, he had always wanted to be a hero and this was the sort of thing heroes were supposed to do. He wondered where Tariro, the proper hero, had got to. He was probably gallantly protecting Lewa while he, Ethan, quietly bled to death. Well, not death, exactly... only, he wished he were not so afraid.

Joe woke up on a comfortable pallet under a cool awning on the balcony overlooking the valley. His head felt a bit fuzzy, but he was alive. He could not believe he had fallen asleep just when Nandi needed him. Asleep of all things!

“Nandi!” he cried, trying to leap up in his sudden panic, but his head spun and he flopped down again. Jimoh’s smiling face hovered above him.

“’Sokay, Joe. Tokoloshe, by mistake, he cut you with spear for sleeping,” he said. “The girl, Nandi, she is okay also. The witches, they fix her. Buffalo tear will only leave small mark.” He gestured towards a pallet, about six metres to Joe’s right, where a young girl in black pyjamas and a surprised-looking hairstyle sat patting Nandi’s arm and talking to the sleeping girl in a low voice. The beautiful healer kneeled on the other side of Nandi’s pallet, staring at Nandi with an expression Joe could only describe as awe.