Crown Phoenix: Night Watchman Express Read online

Chapter 6

  The Sad Case of the Cook’s Daughter

  hen Riki and Neil returned to the house, her parents were both on the front veranda. Much to Neil’s surprise, he saw that the tall, serious Weko actually had one arm around Chichilia, and she giggled as she looked up into her husband’s face.

  When they saw the children approach, Weko quickly moved away and schooled his features into his usual serious expression. He pretended to study one fingernail closely. Chichilia, however, got up and came forward. With a smile, she held her arms out to Riki and Neil.

  “Did you have a nice day?” she sang and reached for the empty food basket.

  Riki subjected to her mother’s hug and plopped onto her bottom in the grass, sighing dramatically. “I’m so tired,” she complained.

  “Sorry that we were away so long.” Neil began to feel guilty. “I’m afraid I managed to take a longer route than I should have done.”

  “No, no problem at all! We don’t mind! Not at all!” Chichilia said hurriedly. “I was glad to have – that is, I’m glad that you and Riki had such a pleasant day.”

  “How do you know it was pleasant?” Riki tipped her head back and squinted at Chichilia.

  “I mean, it must have been pleasant, as you look so nice and tired; that is, I mean you look relaxed, my darling.” Riki continued to stare up at her mother after that hurried speech, but her face crumpled and she yawned hugely.

  “Time for a wash, and an hour of sleep before dinner.” Weko put one massive hand on the back of Riki’s head and pushed her towards the steps to the house, ignoring her protests that she wasn’t tired, didn’t need a wash, and she couldn’t possibly sleep. The argument was purely for its own sake, however, and the sound of another huge yawn stifled behind one hand floated back to Neil as she stumbled up to her room.

  “I’m sure you would like to rest as well.” Chichilia brushed at one huge dust stain on Neil’s shirt.

  He realized that she meant he was filthy and sorely needed a scrub. “I’ll go up at once,” he answered, although he was dying to ask about the tunnel they had seen, the guards at the palace, and what lay beyond the tall, unreachable mountains.

  “One moment.” Weko shot out a huge dark hand and gripped Neil’s shoulder.

  “Yes, sir?” Neil asked.

  “I wish to thank you, Mr. Neil, for giving us the first peaceful day we have had together since Riki was born,” Weko said.

  “Oh,” Neil said, embarrassed. “L’right. Ah, she’s not all that bad.”

  “You must think that we are a very strange family.” Chichilia sounded sad. “But what my husband says is no more than the truth. When Riki was an infant, she didn’t stop crying for days. I was never so exhausted in my life. We thought she would get better once she got older, but –”

  “But it got worse.” Weko kept his hand on Neil’s shoulder. “It was as if Riki had a devil in her, once she learned how to walk. My wife had to keep an eye on her all day. If she took her eyes off for a moment, Riki would always get hurt, or hurt someone else or got into more trouble than you can imagine.”

  “Oh,” Neil said again, and he pushed one toe into the sand.

  Weko seemed to recall himself, and he gave Neil’s arm one last painful squeeze before releasing him. “I do not believe in fate, Mr. Neil. Yet it seems that your arrival here in Lampala has brought us much good luck.”

  “May I ask you something, in that case, sir?” Neil said, greatly daring. “Could you please tell me what is going on with this fellow, Atol? He is the ruler, yes? But no one seems to like him –” He stopped. Chichilia flapped one hand in front of her face in a distracted, nervous manner, and Weko’s eyes bulged nearly out of his head.

  “We are very thankful to you, yes,” Weko said. “But we cannot discuss the political matters of the island. I am sorry.”

  “Mr. Neil.” Chichilia waved at the large house and the beautiful, green garden. “Everything we have here is in jeopardy if we discuss such a thing. We could lose our home, or even our – oh, please do not mention it again.”

  “I thought I made that clear to you before,” Weko’s huge black brows twitched.

  “Ah, um, you did,” Neil said, “and I wouldn’t have brought it up again. Honestly I wouldn’t. But, that is – I have a friend, who is lost, and I must find her so she can help me rescue two other friends. Who are also lost.” He realized that the explanation sounded rather thin even to him.

  Weko’s brows knitted more furiously and he shook his head. “If your friend has disappeared, and if Atol is involved, there is nothing you can do about it.”

  Neil accepted that for the moment. “Perhaps you’re right. Maybe I should get return to England at once and do what I can there for Simon and Miriam.”

  “Oh, but you can’t leave yet!” Chichilia expostulated. “Really! Weko, we can’t let Neil leave now! Not when, you know, when he and Riki have become such good friends!”

  Weko’s frown deepened again, and he looked at Neil furiously. “A man works hard in this life,” he expostulated, “and he has to deal with such little problems. Such domestic matters are none of my affair, my dear!”

  Neil watched them both, and he decided to press his advantage. “No,” he said mournfully, “I really must do what I can for Simon. If you can tell me where to rent a boat, sir, I’ll be off in the morning.”

  “Weko!” Chichilia put one hand on her husband’s arm and looked up at him pleadingly. “Please, my dear.”

  He looked down at her, and sighed. “Very well, my love,” he said, touching her hair briefly. “I’ll see what I can do. Tell me the name of your friend, the one who has disappeared here, Mr. Neil.”

  Neil felt a bolt of excitement shoot through him. At last, at last he was starting to get somewhere! “Her name is Manapalata,” he replied.

  Weko’s eyes bulged and he gasped, seizing Neil’s arm again painfully with both hands. “Do – not – mention – that – name – ever – again!” he hissed.

  Neil, staring at him with horror, could only gasp, “What, why, what is the matter?!”

  “Weko!” Chichilia said. “Be quiet, please! Look, someone is at the garden gate!”

  The huge man released Neil and raised one massive finger. He shook it in Neil’s face. “We will discuss this no further,” he decreed. “And you will stay with us until we say you may leave. We rescued you, and you owe us that much. And that is all I have to say.” Releasing Neil suddenly, he strode to the gate. Neil was about to argue, when a terrible odor assailed his nostrils.

  Grabbing his nose, he gasped, “What is that smell?” If he had been as uninhibited as Riki, he would have added a loud, ‘Pee-yooo!’ Weko was already shouting and waving his arms at the person, whoever it was.

  The figure was that of a woman with long, matted hair and torn clothes, and the stink emanated from her. She was, Neil suddenly realized, the first person on the island to actually appear poor. At first, it was impossible to tell her age but as she grew near, she lifted her hair off her face and raised her arms to the sky. She smiled with closed eyes, as though she was lost in a wonderful place that no one else could see.

  She was actually very young. Probably at one time she had been beautiful. Now her features were blotted and streaked with dirt, and they were obscured by the idiotic expression on her face.

  Weko caught up with her and grabbed one of her arms. Neil felt someone push him to one side.

  It was Odjo, the large cook. For once he wasn’t smiling; in fact, as Neil quickly stepped back, he realized that tears were pouring down the man’s face. “Tache!” he sobbed, and he tried to catch her, to hold her in his arms. “Tache!”

  “Odjo,” Weko said in a low, insistent voice. “Tache, la katiye ife mistere. Teche wumikum setiwe.”

  “Ife katiye!” Odjo smeared his tears with one massive hand. “Ife Tache!”

  “Neil,” a low voice said in his ear. Riki had reappeared.

  “What’s going on?” Neil was horrified.
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  “Shhh –.” Riki propelled him inside the door and shamelessly applied her eye to the keyhole. Just as shamelessly, Neil squatted beside her and tried to spy through the window.

  “What is going on?” he said, nudging her fiercely. “And I thought you were asleep.”

  Ignoring the shove, she whispered back, “Heard the row. Had to come down and see for myself. Tache is Odjo’s daughter. Something happened to her – a while ago. She went somewhere for a job, and she came back – like that. Dirty, and stinking, and empty all the time. Like you saw. She’s been that way ever since.”

  “Riki, what is your father telling Odjo?”

  “He’s saying that she can’t stay here. He’s afraid of what Atol might do if he finds out that she’s here.”

  Neil frowned. The more he heard about this Atol, the less he liked the sound of him. “Why would the king of Lampala give a damn about it? And why wouldn’t he want anyone to help the poor thing?”

  Weko and Odjo were still deep in argument. The girl, Tache, ignored them. As Neil and Riki watched, she lifted her arms to the sky and begun to twirl, tilting her head back and humming tunelessly.

  “Weko!” Chichilia must have decided that enough was enough. She wedged herself between her husband and the cook. “Weko, my dear – we had better -” She began to speak in the island language.

  “What’s your mother telling Weko?” Neil shifted so he could get a better look.

  “Owww, you’re pushing,” Riki complained. “She’s offering to take Tache into the house, again.”

  “Again? This has happened before?”

  “I told you, she’s been like this since she came back from the mainland. She comes here, and Chichilia gives her a room and helps her, and father is angry, and Tache gets better, and she leaves again. And she returns, only each time its worse.”

  “What do you mean by worse?”

  “Look at her, Neil!” Riki said, slapping one hand at the screen. The girl was now flinging her wild hair from side to side, and her humming had escalated to moans.

  Neil turned away. He had no stomach for watching such a pitiful sight.

  “Come on.” Riki pulled him back into the passage. “Let’s go to the back garden and let them fight it out. We can’t hear anything there.”

  Neil allowed himself to be towed through the long passage. “But,” he added, “What makes her do that?”

  “Don’t know,” Riki replied. “But whatever it is, I hate it.”