Assassin's Curse (26 page)

“That is one hell of a sister you have there.”

“She’s quite a bitch, isn’t she?”

Keisha came running toward them with a look of relief on her face.
 
She stopped short when she saw Jeda begin to turn to his wagon with the twins in his arms.
 
“Wait!” she cried.
 
“What are you doing?
 
You can’t leave now; this was not your fault.
 
Everyone here heard you repeatedly ask Bruno to stop.”

“I think it would be for the best.
 
I don’t want to cause any more trouble for the family.”

“No,” she cried again, whirling around to face the rest of the family.
 
“This is not fair.
 
You are all witnesses to what happened here.
 
All of you know how stubborn Bruno was.
 
I am truly sorry for his death, but this man and his babies are not to blame.”

Jeda looked over the crowd and saw most of the heads were nodding in agreement.
 
A few--a very few--turned their backs and walked away, but the majority nodded and began clapping their hands in a gesture of welcome.

Keisha laid her hand on Jeda’s arm.
 
“You see
,
you are not as unwelcome as you seem to think.
 
You must stay, at least for the night.”

Jeda smiled at the young woman.
 
“Well, like I said before, how could I refuse such an invitation?”

Jeda sat on a patch of grass and leaned back against a rock, contemplating the scene before him.
 
The sun had long set, the stars were out, and the girls were resting comfortably beside him cocooned in their warm blankets.
 
The camp was quiet, and most of the gypsies had turned in for the night, but the dying embers of the cook fires still caught the occasional shadow moving about on a late-night errand.
 
Looking up, he marveled at the untold multitude of stars in the evening sky.
 
He knew most of them by name and had used them on countless occasions to navigate by, but to simply sit and gaze at them was something new.
 
The sheer beauty of the night sky was not something he had contemplated before, but tonight it reached out to him.
 
He knew its effect was part of what made his decision so difficult.
 

This would be his fourth night with the gypsies and it was the quietest one so far.
 
In the darkness, surrounded by people he barely knew, Jeda was amazed at how at ease he felt.
 
This place and these people felt right and comfortable, something he had not experienced in a very long time.
 
Natasha had told him they were moving on in the morning and asked if he wanted to join them on the road, travelling from city to city.
 
She offered him a job as the master knife and blacksmith.
 
If he accepted, he and the girls would become part of the family.
 

A man could get used to this.

So far their stay with the gypsies, with the exception of Bruno, had been peaceful.
 
The girls seem to take a shine to both Natasha and Keisha, smiling and giggling whenever they were around them.
 
Even Mirabelle had stopped giving him hateful looks, but that was all part of the problem.
 
Jeda had started his relationship with the
family
on less-than-honest terms.
 
They, in turn, had been nothing but open and candid with him, explaining their ways and inviting him to join them in whatever activity they were doing.
 
His thoughts kept circling around to every little thing Keisha had shared with him.
 
Whenever he was around her, he was restful, perhaps softening around the edges, and that scared him.
 
He wanted to tell her the truth, but how could he?
 
He despised anyone who lied to him, so why would she feel any different if she learned the truth about him?
 
What would she say when she learned that Kara was actually a girl?

If he decided to stay with them, it would be only a matter of time before the truth of the girls was discovered.
 
No matter his feelings toward Keisha or Natasha or any of them for that matter, he would not allow any harm to come to his girls.
 

Damn these witches and their stupid prophecy.

Of course, he knew it was not just the black witches that were hunting for them, but at the moment, they seemed a good target for his anger.
 
After all, Keisha and her mother had the same flecks of gold in their eyes that every witch had, so he could not readily hate them all.
 
Of course, Keisha’s eyes were so lightly colored that they looked hazel, much like his, but it still indicated she had some power.

His concentration was broken when he heard the twig snap.
 
Looking at the shadowy form walking his way, he knew it was not one of the pickets guarding the camp.
 
They did not wear long, flowing skirts.

“Am I intruding?” the shadow asked.

“Not at all,” he replied, immediately recognizing the voice.
 
“I could use the company.”

Keisha approached and sat down, leaning back against the rock with the babies between her and Jeda.
 
She took a moment to check that they were well snug in their wraps.
 
They seemed to sense her presence and smiled in their infants’ dreams.
 
“Babies are so wonderful,” she said.

Jeda hesitated a moment before answering.
 
This is probably a mistake
, he thought to himself, waiting for the telltale warning of alarm to creep up his back.
 
When nothing happened, he answered her.
 
“I’m sure they will grow up to be as beautiful as you are.”

Keisha’s laugh was light and delightful to Jeda’s ears.
 
“Silly, you mean beautiful and handsome.
 
I’m sure Kar would not want to be thought of as beautiful.”

It was now or never and Jeda plunged on before he lost this opportunity.
 
“Kar the young man would not, but Kara the young woman might think otherwise.”

Keisha frowned at his response.
 
“What do you mean, Kara the young woman?
 
What are you talking about?”

“I am saying that my babies, my twins, are in fact two beautiful, little girls.”

“Oh
my…,”
Keisha replied, sitting up and looking at the girls as if seeing them for the first time.

Jeda watched her closely for any of sign of anger or resentment.
 
She showed nothing but surprise.

“But that would mean… I mean if they are both…. I’m not sure what to say.”

Jeda reached out his hand to caution her.
 
“Please don’t say anything; I changed Kara’s appearance to look more boyish so they would not be recognized as twin girls, not so easily spotted in a crowd.”

Keisha sat up straighter and turned toward Jeda.
 
“But I don’t understand.
 
Why would you change the way she looked?”

“There are people hunting my girls, twin girls with golden curls and eyes to match, twin girls both showing signs of the power.
 
It was the only thing I could think of to do at the time to disguise them.
 
If they weren’t recognized, then they would be safe.”

“Oh my, you mean the twins of the prophecy?” Keisha asked, alarm rising in her voice.

“Yes, exactly,” Jeda replied.
 
“We have been running from different groups for weeks, all hell-bent on capturing the girls and bending them to their wicked ways.”
 

“Wicked?
 
I thought the prophecy spoke of them as saviors.”

“That depends on which end of the prophecy you find yourself on.”

Keisha looked down at the girls again and adjusted their wraps.
 
“Well, then we will just have to make sure no one discovers them, won’t we?” she replied.
 
A shy smile curved her full lips.

Jeda leaned back, not realizing he had sat up, and let out a pent-up breath.
 
“You’re not mad then?
 
Not upset because I lied to you?”

“You know, for someone who seems so worldly, you do have some very inexperienced notions of what family means.
 
You were protecting your babies, how could I be angry with that?
 
It’s exactly what any parent would do.”
 
Keisha looked sharply at him.
 
“What did happen to their mother?”

“She was murdered by an assassin.
 
An assassin sent by their grandmother….”

During the next half-hour, Jeda explained the rest of the story to her.
 
He wasn’t quite sure why he told her so much, but it seemed the right thing to do.
 
Sharing the story with her was both a relief and worrisome.
 
He was relieved that he had finally told her most of the story, leaving out only the details of his part in Miriam’s death.
 
But now that she knew, he began to worry for her safety.
 
Everyone that became involved with him and the twins had either gotten hurt or killed so far.
 
It was the last thing he wanted to happen to the beautiful Keisha.

“So now you know everything.”

“I don’t think I know quite everything yet.
 
There is still one more thing, isn’t there?”

It was Jeda’s turn to look confused.
 
He was afraid she saw through his subterfuge about Miriam’s death and now was caught in yet another lie.
 
“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Will you be staying with us or not?
 
That’s what I came out here to find out in the first place.”
 

Jeda’s relief was so overwhelming that all he could do was laugh.

“It’s not funny,” she said, leaning over and taking his hand in hers.
 
“I don’t want you to leave.”

Jeda leaned forward and found he was kissing the softest lips he could ever remember.
 
The sweetest nectar of the world could not match the taste of that kiss.
 
After a very long moment, he broke away.
 
“I have no intentions of leaving.”

Once she had her breath back, Keisha jumped up and turned to leave.
 
Almost as an afterthought, she looked back to him.
 
“I have to tell Mother,” she said, running off into the night.

Jeda sat leaning against the rock, looking at the stars with the twins sleeping soundly beside him.
 
Yep, a man could get used to this.

***

Keisha bounded up the steps to the wagon she shared with her mother and burst in.
 
She was breathless from the run back from Jeda.

Her mother glanced up.
 
“What is it, Daughter?”

“It’s Jeda.
 
He’s decided to stay with us.”

“Hmmm, I wonder what part you had in his decision.”

Keisha blushed furiously at her mother’s astute observation.
 
Natasha laughed heartily at her daughter.
 
She may have been a budding, young woman, but she would always be her little girl.

“There’s more, Mother.”

“Oh?”

“Yes,” Keisha came closer, whispering softly.
 
“The twins, Kala and Kar, are not boy and girl, but twin girls, identical twin girls.”

“Hmmm, about time that boy stopped lying to us.”

“What?
 
You knew all along?”

“Sweet Keisha, you don’t become the wise woman of a gypsy family without learning about people.
 
I knew the twins were those spoken of in the prophecy when I first touched them.
 
They are both strong in the power, the strongest of any I have ever felt.
 
Now tell me what Jeda told you.
 
If we are to keep this secret, then I must know everything.”

The next morning, Natasha called a family meeting.
 
“I have an announcement to make.”

All the eyes of the gypsies were glued on Natasha.
 
Rumors had been circulating in the camp for the past few days about the fate of Jeda and his children.
 
Would they leave or would they stay?

“We have lost a valued member of our family.
 
Bruno was an accomplished Master of the Knife, but through his own foolishness and arrogance, he lost his life to an even more accomplished man.”
 
She turned toward Jeda.

Jeda stepped forward, waiting for Natasha to continue.

Natasha scanned the crowd. Everyone in the family was present, even Mirabelle.
 
She nodded and continued.
 
“I have offered Jeda the position of Master of the Knife and he has accepted.”