Guarding the Princess - By Loreth Anne White Page 0,36
offered nothing more. Dalilah figured it was as much as she was going to get right now.
* * *
The early-morning sun had turned the raging floodwaters of the Tsholo River a burnished, seething chocolate color.
“There’s nothing here!” Amal snapped at his tracker. He could feel time bleeding through his fingers and he was not prepared to lose the Al Arif princess’s trail. Not when he’d gotten so close, had almost tasted his revenge.
Sweat beaded along his tracker’s brow as the man once more tried to cut for sign along the riverbank. But there was no trace of them at all along this stretch of the Tsholo. Horses whinnied and his other men shifted on their feet.
“Mbogo,” Amal yelled. “Fetch Jacob!”
Mbogo went to get the old man and pushed him in front of Amal.
“Why do you think they went north from the plane and not down here?”
“If they came by the sky,” said the old man, “then they probably have a long way to go. And now they have no more transport. If they are to go this long way on foot, they’ll need water, food, some shoes for the lady. Maybe they’ll want some more transport. From the sky the pilot would have seen a safari bush camp that lies north of here. A smart man would go to the camp first for supplies, and then try to cross the river before the flood. I think they’re on the other side already.”
Amal’s body vibrated with rage.
“Get my tracker,” he growled quietly to Mbogo through his teeth, then he turned back to Jacob. “Are you certain?”
“No, boss, but a hunter must track with his eyes and his head and his heart. This is what things are telling me.”
Amal inhaled deeply as Mbogo brought forward the tracker he’d enlisted in Zambia.
“Get on your knees,” Amal commanded as he unholstered his pistol. The man looked shocked.
“Now!”
He knelt before Amal, who pressed the nose of his gun to the man’s forehead and looked at Jacob. “This is what’ll happen to you if you mislead me.” Amal curled his finger round the trigger.
Jacob closed his eyes, turned his head away.
“Watch!” Amal yelled.
Slowly, Jacob met the Arab man’s eyes. In their depths he saw the Devil. Amal fired.
His tracker slumped forward to the ground.
“We try it your way now, Jacob. Find that pilot and the princess for me, and you’ll live.”
Not for one moment did Jacob believe this Devil would allow him to live once he’d found his prey. From the bottom of his soul, Jacob understood he had to kill this man before the man killed him. But first he would have to lead him close, very close, to what he was seeking. Then it would be Jacob’s chance.
Quietly the old man clicked his tongue for Jock to follow him and started back across the grassland toward Tautona’s airplane.
* * *
They passed through an area of tall trees where baboons swung, limb to limb in the canopy above them. The animals stopped and stared as they drove under the branches.
When they left the trees, all the birds seemed to fall mysteriously silent apart from one. Ha! Ha! HaaHaa!
Dalilah swatted at a cloud of insects, tension coiling tight inside her.
HaHa-di-Daaaa!
Brandt flicked open the glove compartment, took out a plastic tube and tossed it to her.
“Bug repellent.”
Silently Dalilah opened the tube and patted the white cream around her neck, the chemical scent making her feel queasy.
Hah hah haaaa! Di daaaaaaa...Ha! She willed the bird to shut up as she scanned the trees for sight of it. But she couldn’t locate it.
HahaHaHaaaa!
Again, that ominous feeling of being observed by unseen eyes came over her. As if their progress was being communicated and telegraphed ahead of them as they went, as if the bush was a whole sentient thing, merely allowing them passage. But always watching.
“Do you think they’ve found our tracks on the Zimbabwe side yet?” she said.
“Yup. But they’ll be held up by the river for a day or so. Once they cross and find our camp, however, they’ll come fast.”
Dalilah’s thoughts turned to their campsite the previous night. The leopard. The baobab. Him.
“What did you mean, Brandt, about a vow never to kill again?”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s not noth—”
“It’s not your business, okay. Don’t worry about it.” His words were clipped.
“I was just wonder—”
“Forget it, Dalilah. I just said it to drive home a point, to get your mind back on track. It’s got zip to do with you.”
Irritation spiked through her. Every now and then it was