The Water Queens (Keeper of the Water) (33 page)

I hear a familiar whooshing sound. Before my dazed mind registers what it is, I hear a loud metallic ping as Catherine’s second sword escapes her hand just inches before striking down John. She looks shocked – as we all must – but nothing prepares her for what happens next.

Another blur of movement rushes toward the fountain. Harriet drops her bow just before launching herself toward her greatest foe.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

When Harriet Tubman and Catherine the Great finally collide, I can almost see the air shimmer around them. Harriet smashes into her at great speed but Catherine braces for the strike and barely budges. Though they’ve apparently had minor tussles in the past, both know this will be the
final
clash, a fight that has been building for more than a hundred years.

Catherine and Harriet are both at full strength and their fight shows that. To the normal human eye, their punches and kicks would look like little more than a blur; even
I
have trouble keeping up with the furious ferocity of their strikes. Harriet has the advantage at first, at one point landing more than a dozen punches in a row, unleashing hatred in a way she must’ve dreamed about a long time. But Catherine doesn’t stay down for long and fights back with equal vigor. I consider myself a damn tough warrior but even at my strongest, I would
not
want to put myself anywhere between these two women.

Harriet is the first to land a hard shot that momentarily staggers Catherine. But instead of using this opportunity to jump on her wounded foe, she turns to look at the baby and me.

“Go!” she yells. When I hesitate, she points to the section of palace wall leading out to the crowds. “Get goin’!”

This brief distraction is all Catherine needs to jump all over her. I don’t want to leave without John but he lunges toward Cassie’s legs, trying to hold onto the queen while she twists the sword in his shoulder.

“Take Janey and the water in her necklace and get away from here!” he grunts through the pain. “Now!”

“Don’t you
move!
” Cassie yells. “I’ll kill you
all
!”

Cassie looks toward the water but doesn’t take a step toward us when John lunges for her legs again. I don’t have time to lose. With a final glance at Harriet – where I see her fight has moved through a nearby wall of flames – I take off toward the most destroyed section of palace wall. I hold Janey tightly against my chest and leap through a fiery, busted section of wall. A wave of heat crashes over me but I don’t slow down enough to let it affect me for long.

“Get back here!” Cassie yells maniacally behind me.

But I don’t listen. I slow down long enough to see John being kicked and punched, Cassie attacking him by any means to get him off her. Beyond them, Harriet and Catherine continue to battle, the chaos they cause nearly as destructive as the fire. I want to help my husband and recruit but know there’s only one way I can truly do that. It only takes a few seconds to cross the burning hallway and spot a damaged section of outer wall, which I crash through with ease.

Outside the palace, most of the crowd continues to flee back into Granada. With the fire now behind me, it feels downright chilly out here and I take a few deep gulps of fresh air, causing me to cough harder as I expunge smoke and soot from my lungs. I wouldn’t say I feel like my old self again but certainly better than before. Unfortunately, a group of Generalife guards remains and they sure are shocked to see me suddenly emerge. At first they look concerned but it’s not long before they realize they don’t recognize me.

“She’s got the princess!” one of them yells.

I don’t have time for explanations. I pull the bow off my shoulder and leap into a graceful pirouette, whipping it around until I’ve smashed each of them in the face. The few men that don’t stay down receive a swift kick to the face as incentive to leave me alone. I look toward the city and the fleeing crowd, once again realizing that’s the best place to escape and hide. Instead, I turn and rush in the opposite direction, heading toward the rockier wooded area.

It’s hard for me not to stop and help injured people in the crowd unable to vacate the area. Though safely away from the fire, dozens of people lay on the ground, moaning in pain, suffering from a multitude of injuries. The rampage to get away from Generalife and Alhambra led to many of the weak and old being pushed down and trampled. Several of the massive screens and speakers have been knocked over; it breaks my heart to see bodies sticking out from beneath this huge equipment. I’m just glad to see plenty of emergency vehicles approaching.

My adrenaline is pumping furiously and every breath of fresh air I take brings back a little more of my energy. I actually have to force myself to slow down and eventually stop before I get
too
far away.

“Come on, John, let go of her already,” I whisper.

It’s as if he listens, though I
hope
he merely let her go and nothing worse happened. I look back to see Cassie emerge from Generalife’s fiery outer wall, one of Catherine’s short swords in hand. I try not to think of the last thing she did with that sword before rushing out of the courtyard but there’s no sign of John following her. A few guards rush to protect their queen but when they get in her way, she swings the sword in a sweeping arc, cutting down the men sworn to keep her safe. If she could be so brutal toward complete strangers, there’s no telling
what
she did to John.

Instinct tells me to turn and flee but I mustn’t. I stand still and stare at Cassie as she looks toward the city, undoubtedly trying to locate me among the huge crowd. I want to call out to her so she’ll turn in my direction but I’m afraid that’ll make her suspicious.

What makes
me
suspicious is when she suddenly stands still and seems to stare into nothingness. It doesn’t take long to figure out what she’s up to. I feel a slight tugging at the back of my mind. At first I try to fight it but then I let her in just long enough so she can see me staring at her from the opposite direction. When I expel her from my mind, I see her head turn and look at me. She begins to sprint, which is my cue to get moving, too.

I’ve always been physically superior to Cassie, in this life
and
our last. When I run away from her this time, I only go half-speed so I won’t open up too big a lead on her. But when she cuts the distance between us in half in the matter of seconds, I realize I might be in trouble.

“You can’t outrun me!” she yells, her voice booming across the rocky forest.

Despite the fire and our numerous mind connections, she doesn’t seem as weak as I am. I try to pick up the pace but the terrain is difficult and I can’t risk falling with Janey in my arms. It would be great if I could hide in a tree but Cassie is too smart for that and the point is to get as far from Generalife as possible.

“Leave us alone!” I yell back.

As the forested area grows thicker with trees, I no longer have a clear view of Cassie behind me. My only clue that she’s getting closer is when Janey begins to squirm and whimper, a sign that she senses evil approaching.

“Never!” she screams, the sound of her voice echoing from all directions at once.

Cassie still sounds strong and I’m worried she’s going to catch me at any moment, thus ruining our plans and wasting the sacrifices of so many people important to me.

“Stop now and I may let you live!” she calls out though we both know it’s a lie. Janey’s whimper turns into crying; if Cassie had trouble tracking our movements before, she’s certainly not now.

“Why should I stop?” I call back. “The farther Janey and I take this necklace of special water from you, the weaker you’ll become!”

“I’ll kill you both!” she screams like a wild banshee, though I could swear her voice sounds a
bit
weaker, not quite so all encompassing.

“Not if you can’t catch us,” I yell, tempting fate. “I’ll hide Janey for years and teach her nothing else but how to destroy you!”

“I’ll find you!” she yells back. “I’m more powerful now than ever before, I’m a
real
queen again! I’ll build an army of Amazons to do nothing but search for you and destroy you both!”

“Like your queens have been able to accomplish?”

“My new girls won’t be tarnished by the ramblings of former Keepers!”

In my arms, Janey cries even harder. When I risk a peek behind, I see Cassie as a blur of movement not far away. I’ve sufficiently kept her attention and don’t waste my waning breath keeping up the banter. My energy fades quickly and now that Cassie sees us, I expect her to catch up at any second. I try to dig deep and tap into a reserve of strength but I don’t feel that helps me run any faster. But Janey’s cries gradually become softer and when I look back again, Cassie is no longer catching up. In fact,
now
I need to slow down before I pull too far ahead. I smile to myself but don’t let her see it; this isn’t over by any means.

“It’ll be hard to form that army when the water is no longer so powerful,” I call back. “You’ve seen the way Janey controls of it. Maybe I’ll have
her
build an army to
oppose
you!”

Cassie unleashes a guttural roar I haven’t heard since she used to argue with Celeste. Anger must give her a burst of adrenaline because she speeds up for several seconds and is nearly upon me. But it’s not long before she stumbles and barely stays on her feet as she continues chasing.

“Looks like my daughter is already becoming more powerful than you!” I taunt. “It won’t be long before the water in the fountain is no more special than what’s in a toilet!”

I feign laughter and move just quickly enough for Cassie to keep pace. With every step we run, she becomes less and less graceful, her movements painful and plodding. Her arm holding the sword begins to sag. It’s not long before the piece of sharpened steel shoots up sparks from the rocks it hits while dragging across the ground. The only part of Cassie that doesn’t appear to be tiring is the sneer of contempt etched across her face. She appears so focused on hatred that she barely acknowledges the way she’s slowing down.

Cassie finally trips over some rocks and collapses to the ground, grunting as her weakened body smashes against rocks scattered about. She’s slow to get up so I pretend to trip as well, giving her enough time to stand up and come closer. But Cassie hesitates to continue and I’m worried she’s figured out my plan. Though she’s clearly grown weaker, I don’t see the change in her that I hoped, I don’t recognize the metamorphosis that
I
once suffered.

“You’ve grown weaker already, I can tell. Pathetic,” I provoke. “No wonder John chose me instead of you; he couldn’t deal with someone being so much punier than him.”

I hope to anger her into moving but Cassie merely smiles. When she talks, her voice isn’t much louder than a whisper.

“He loved me
long
before he ever heard of you,” she says with satisfaction. “Besides, I wasn’t too weak to kill him.”

She slowly raises Catherine’s short sword and I see blood glistening on the sharpened tip. After having thought John dead so many times only to watch him resurrect, I refuse to count him out until I see his body with my own two eyes. Still, Cassie’s words cut me worse than that sword possibly could, though I try not to let her see that.

“John
never
loved you!” I spit back at her. “He was only
using you
all those years as a means to an end. You were a joke to him – he tried avoiding you whenever he could. He was
looking
for a reason to find another love and I was
more
than happy to take him from you.”

“Then I’ll be happy to send you where I sent him!” she growls.

I back up slowly as she hobbles forward, moving so pathetically slow that I almost feel sorry for her.
I
know what she’s experiencing even if
she
doesn’t, even if she’s so distracted by rage and hatred to understand. She struggles to raise the sword high above her head but I remain alert, ready for her to conjure a burst of speed or throw it at me. I’ve gotten in trouble underestimating her in the past; I won’t do that again.

But then it happens. Cassie takes a big step forward and suddenly stops, her body shivering. The anger and hatred on her face vanish, replaced by confusion and then panic. She looks around in a daze and begins to shake her head. She’s lost a part of herself, a feeling I know all too well.

“It’s amazing how much duller the colors become, how much darker the world appears,” I say with the slightest bit of sympathy. “Now do you understand what you did to me?”

Cassie doesn’t seem to hear my question or maybe she just doesn’t care.

“How?” she finally mutters, though her voice – and presumably her entire body – is actually stronger than it was moments earlier.

Janey’s cries have completely stopped, another sign that Cassie has lost all Keeper abilities. I unwrap my baby from her blanket. Cassie finally turns away from the surrounding forest and looks in our direction. It doesn’t take long for her to notice that Janey no longer wears the beaded necklace, which now rests at the bottom of the fountain.

“She doesn’t have any
water
on her,” Cassie whispers in shock. “You
tricked
me into following you. That shouldn’t count; I should still be Keeper.”

“You willingly walked away from it; you weren’t forcibly moved like when you were an infant,” I say, finally allowing satisfaction to creep into my voice. “It’s no different than what you did to me all those years ago.”