Moon Child (Vampire for Hire #4) (20 page)

Through my tent opening came the sounds of
money being exchanged for any number of items. At the opening,
swirling dust still hovered in the air from when she had entered.
The dust caught some of the harsh sunlight, forming
phantasmagorical shapes that looked vaguely familiar.

“And why would my lady need to hire a lazy
wretch like me?” I asked. As I spoke I lifted my sandaled foot off
the chest and sat back with my elbows on my knees.

“Emir Farid said some satisfactory things
about you. In particular, that you have proven to be somewhat
reliable.”

“Emir Farid has always greatly admired
me.”

She studied me closely. Her almond-shaped
eyes didn’t miss much. Her long fingers, I saw, were heavy with
jewels.

“Aren’t you going to offer me a seat?” she
asked.

I motioned to the area in front of the chest.
The area was covered in sand and didn’t look much different than
the desert outside my tent.

I really ought to clean this place, I
thought.

“Never mind,” she said. “I’ll stand.”

I shrugged and grinned. She fanned her face
and looked around my tent some more. She didn’t seem pleased, but
she also looked desperate. Desperate usually won out.

She said, “Despite your many flaws, according
to Emir Farid, he says that you are particularly adept at...finding
things.”

“I’m also adept at losing things, my lady,
but funny how no one seems to want to hire me for that.”

Outside, a few tents down, an animal
shrieked, followed by sounds of splashing, and I knew a goat had
been slaughtered. A dry, hot wind found its way into my tent,
swirling the dirt at her feet, and lifting her robe around her
ankles.

Nice ankles.

She caught me looking at them and leveled a
withering stare at me. I grinned some more.

“You make a lot of jokes,” she said. “This
could be a problem.”

I moved to sit back in the position she had
found me in. “Then I wish you luck in your quest to find whatever
it is that’s missing. May I suggest you take a look around our
grand market place. Perhaps this thing of which you seek is under
your very nose.” I closed my eyes and folded my hands over my
chest.

“Are you always like this?” she demanded.

“Lying down? Often.”

She made a small, frustrated noise. “Is there
anyone else in this godforsaken outpost who can help me?”

“There’s a shepherd who’s been known to be
fairly adept at finding lost goats—although, come to think of it,
he did lose one last week—”

“Enough,” she snapped. “I don’t have much
time and you will have to do, although you are older than I had
hoped.”

“My lady is full of compliments. I am not
sure if I should blush or sleep.”

“Neither, old man. Come, there’s much to
do.”

I heard her step towards the open flap of my
tent. I still hadn’t opened my eyes. I lifted my hand and rested it
on the corner of the chest. I hunkered deeper on the padding that
doubled as my bed. She stopped at the entrance.

“Well?” she asked impatiently.

“Well what?”

“Aren’t you coming?”

I turned my head and looked at her. She was
standing with her hands on her hips, silhouetted in the streaming
sunlight. God, she was beautiful. And irritating.

I said, “Not until I know what you want me
for and we have discussed my price.”

She turned and faced the bustling marketplace
just outside my tent. She wanted to leave. She wanted to run. But
she needed my help, that much was obvious. I waited, smiling
contentedly to myself.

She said, “If I tell you on the trail, I will
double your asking price.”

Double was good. I jumped to my feet and
grabbed a satchel and my chest. The rest could stay.

At the tent entrance, I nodded at her. “You
have yourself a deal.”

Chapter Two

I followed her out, blinking in the bright
sunlight. Even my brief pause put her ahead of me, as she was
already moving purposefully down the street. I refused to be seen
scrambling after her like a hungry mongrel, so I lengthened my
stride and slowly caught up.

“Some details remain,” I said as I drew
within range.

“They can wait.”

“Such as my fee. I want half in advance.”

She didn’t hesitate. She simply flipped
something at me. I caught it. It was a gold piece. That would
do.

“Such as your name.”

“I am Enees-el-Jenees, of a prominent family,
but I prefer to be incognito for now.”

“I will abbreviate it to Jewel,” I agreed.
“And I of course am Niddala, as you surely know.” It was my name
spelled backwards. No one seemed to have caught on, which probably
indicated disinterest rather than stupidity. I had fallen far since
my heyday.

“Niddala the Thief,” she agreed.

“Niddala the specialist in locating hidden
objects.”

“Have it your way.”

“Now tell me the nature of the mission. What,
precisely, am I expected to find?”

“My young son.”

This set me back. “Normally mothers know the
whereabouts of their offspring.”

“He was stolen from me. It’s a devious
story.”

“Have it your way,” I agreed.

She shot me a wrathful glance. “I will tell
it when we are more private.” She approached a small parked
carriage. It was closed, with a buckboard for the driver, and two
fine horses were hitched to it. “Get in.”

“This is an intercity transport,” I
protested. “Where are we going?”

“I hired it for the occasion. Get in.”

“Where are we going?” I repeated, putting my
two feet down with audible impacts, signaling my refusal to go
further on faith.

“Samarkand.” She stepped impatiently to the
coach herself, evidently tired of my dawdling.

Oh, camel dung! I hated that city, and not
just because of its reputation for killing innocent travelers. But
it would not be expedient to go into that with her at the moment.
“You didn’t say we were going so far away.”

“You didn’t ask. Now help me in, making a
pretense of masculinity, and join me inside. Time is brief.”

I made an interior sigh and put a firm hand
to her elbow to steady her as she took the steep step up. Her
ascent showed one ankle right up to the calf, putting me in mind of
certain luscious slave girls I had known in my better days. But did
I really want to do this?

I paused outside. I rubbed my brass ring in a
certain way. Immediately there was an invisible presence beside me.
“I am here, master.” This was El Fadl, the ifrit of the ring, not
one of the top tier of the djinn, but a serviceable aide and
companion. He was especially useful when a target object was highly
guarded. In fact I owed much of my reputation as a location
specialist—okay, thief—to his dexterous supernatural touch.

“Faddy,” I murmured. “She wants me to go to
Samarkand.”

“Samarkand! Don’t you know better, master?
Give her back her gold piece.”

“I need the money. But you had better do due
diligence on her, and let me know soon, just in case I do need to
give it back.”

“I hear and obey, Nid,” he agreed, and
faded.

“Well?” Jewel called imperiously from
within.

“On my way,” I called back, and climbed
reluctantly into the coach.

It was tight within, with barely room for two
facing each other if our knees interspliced. Actually that aspect
was interesting; her knees felt firm and smooth. Who knew what
divine flesh they attached to? I had barely gotten seated when the
coach jerked into motion. We were on our way.

“This is the situation,” Jewel said briskly.
“I was wrongly accused of conspiracy by my wicked ex-husband, and
imprisoned for two years until I was released.”

“Released?” I asked dubiously.

“I finally seduced my captors and killed them
when they were distracted. I recovered some of my assets my husband
hadn’t known about, rendering them into these rings, as only what
is on my person is safe. Now I am anonymous, but mean to recover my
innocent son. I will do what it takes to accomplish my
purpose.”

Hence her interest in hiring a nonentity. Had
she gone about her mission openly, her husband’s spies would have
been alerted, and killed her, or at least imprisoned her again.

“You seduced and killed them,” I
repeated.

“A man isn’t expecting a knife in the gut
when he is in the throes of fulfillment. That is when he is most
vulnerable.”

“Is that a warning to me not to get
ideas?”

“No. Your reputation is for thieving, not
raping. If you have a problem about going to Samarkand, would a
seduction alleviate it?”

“It might,” I agreed.

“You were supposed to angrily deny it!”

“I am a thief and a liar,” I said seriously.
“But I do not steal from or lie to those who hire me. You have
bought my loyalty for the mission. But I do have reason to avoid
Samarkand, and your favors might indeed mitigate my aversion. I am
not demanding them, merely answering your question.”

She gazed intently at me a moment. “You may
be more of a man than I took you for.”

“And you may be more of a woman.”

She was silent, perhaps digesting that.

“Master,” Fadl’s voice came in my ear.

I cocked my head slightly, indicating that I
was listening.

“The woman is being shadowed by armed men.
She is not as anonymous as she may choose to believe. My guess is
that if she goes to Samarkand, she will be killed. There are
horsemen lurking nearby, maybe awaiting their chance to catch the
coach out of sight of the authorities. You have only a few minutes
to avoid them.”

I nodded. “Slow the carriage,” I
murmured.

“I hear and obey.” Fadl faded.

“What did you say?” Jewel asked.

“I was muttering,” I said. “Jewel, you are in
danger. We must get out of this coach in a hurry.”

“I paid a valuable jewel for this ride!” she
protested. “I am not going to walk to Samarkand!”

“Trust me.”

She stared at me, obviously not trusting
me.

The coach swerved and slowed as Fadl made his
distraction, perhaps spooking the horses with a ghostly smell.

“What is happening?” Jewel asked,
alarmed.

I leaned forward and grabbed the driver’s
shoulder. He looked back, startled. He was an older Arab, with
sharp eyes.

“There’s danger ahead, friend. We must
abandon this carriage.”

His eyes narrowed, but before he could
answer, Jewel screeched behind me, “What the devil are you talking
about?”

I ignored her. “Come,” I said to him, “we
don’t have much time!”

He shook his head. “I see no danger—”

Faddy whispered in my ear, “Go now!”

The carriage had slowed enough. I tossed my
special lockbox out the side of the wagon. It landed in the sand
and rolled. Next, I grabbed Jewel’s arm. “Jump out with me. Now!” I
plunged out, hauling her along with me.

We landed and rolled in the sand. At another
time I would really have noticed the way her soft body jammed
against mine, but at the moment I was trying to see that she
suffered no injury.

The driver got control of the horses, who
seemed no longer distracted, and the coach accelerated. The driver
looked back, no doubt wondering where his passengers had
disappeared to.

“Of all the ridiculous stunts!” she
expostulated as we got back on our feet. She remained beautiful
even when disheveled, maybe even more so, as more of her body
showed. “You didn’t need to do this to get me alone! We were alone
in the coach.”

“Get under cover,” I said tersely, hauling
her to a nearby copse. “And be silent.”

She obeyed with ill grace. We settled in the
copse, looking out at the coach that was now leaving us well
behind.

Nearby, I saw my valuable travel chest,
resting in some scraggly brush. For now, I let it be.

Four horsemen converged on the vehicle. In
moments they cut the coachman down and left him bleeding in the
sand. Then they ripped open the coach doorway. Even from the
distance their curses were audible as they discovered it was
empty.

“Now I trust you,” Jewel said.

Chapter Three

“What do we do?” asked Jewel.

I brought my fingers to my lips, shushing
her. The soldiers were examining the coach carefully. They ignored
the bleeding driver, heedless of his misery. Thus far, we had not
been spotted, but it would only be a matter of time. After all,
there was a nice deep trail leading through the sand and directly
towards us. The copse itself was small and offered little
opportunity for concealment.

One of the men shouted at the moaning driver,
no doubt demanding to know where we had gone. The driver, to his
credit, appeared not to answer, although it was hard to tell from
this distance. Or perhaps he was dead. The guard shouted again and
drew his sword. He pointed it down at the driver’s neck.

“You there, Faddy?” I asked, subvocalizing my
words.

“Always, master.”

“You can quit calling me master.”

“Do you really want to get into this now,
master?”

“No,” I said. “Cause a distraction. Quick. I
do not want to see this driver perish.”

“But the driver did not heed your
warning.”

“Just do it.”

“As you wish,” said Faddy, followed a moment
later by a barley audible, “Master.”

“Did you say something?” asked Jewel.

“No,” I said. “Did you?”

“No, but I thought I heard something—never
mind. They’re going to kill Jabeer. I can’t look.”

“Hurry!” I whispered to Faddy.

As the guard raised his curved scimitar, its
polished steel catching some of the intense afternoon sun, there
came a loud shout from the distant mountains. The shout, amazingly,
sounded much like me. Faddy never ceased to amaze. Another shout
followed, one that sounded much like Jewel. Both voices echoed over
the desert.