~Chapter 13~

"Heya, ain't that your fancy lady?" Hawk exclaimed as he pointed out the small figure with the long black braids on the donkey.

It was the gypsy bitch all right, thought Carnal Love growling low in his throat like a wolf. What in God's name was she doing out by herself on her goddamn donkey?

"That's her," he muttered, reaching for his revolver. Then stopped. She would be more useful alive than dead. "After her!" he yelled, and they broke into a loping gallop. Fortunately for them, the donkey froze in terror. So did the girl.

"Heya gal!" Carnal hollered to her. She clambered off the donkey, then fell off into the dust with a little cry. Her left ankle appeared a mite swollen. Awww, she hurt herself, thought Love.

She backed up like a crab, then pulled a little pistol from her sash and fired. But her aim was off and she only managed to nick one of the other men on the arm. The man furiously reached for his pistol but Hawk vehemently ordered him to stop. Love snatched up his whip and snapped the pistol out of her hand. She screamed, clutching her bleeding wrist, then tried to scramble to her feet. Love grinned to himself. This just might be fun, he thought. "Goin' so soon, querida?" he said, then dove for her as she tried to scurry into the underbrush by the side of the road. "Goin' off to see your lover boy, my little gypsy queen?"

He grabbed her by one of her long braids and yanked hard. She screamed and fell backwards and he caught her around the waist.

"Where is he?" he demanded, twisting her arm behind her back. The others had gathered around now, looking on with interest and varying degrees of amusement.

"He went off with the man on the white camel," Nestrelda gasped. "And they take your boy Willy. Scourge and the others kidnapped him, they were gonna hold him for ransom. But Alejandro and the man on the white camel take him to your house to return him to you, and --"

"You lying cu--" Love stopped himself. White camel? "What man on what white camel?" he demanded.

"I think he was Alejandro's twin. He look just like him. He killed Scourge and all the others and set Alejandro free. Then they all fled into the woods. When I saw that camel I got real scared and I run off and hide. I watch what happened. I see them all get killed. It was so horrible. Then they was gone and I come out and went to town to look for you. But I do not find you. And...and..."

"You saw where they went, then?" Love turned her around to face him. It was then he saw the sheer hatred in her eyes. It gave her away. He drew back his hand and struck her as hard as he could, knocking her into the dust.

"F***ing bitch!" he screamed at her. "You know where they went! And you're gonna tell us now, ain't ya?"

Once again she tried to get to her feet, but since she was injured Love easily overcame her, grabbing her arm and twisting it once more just short of the breaking point.

"You ARE gonna tell us, right?" he said as close to her face as he could. "I don't want to have to break this pretty little arm, but I might just have to if you don't tell us what we want to know. Now you gonna tell us or do I have to persuade ya a bit harder?"

The soldiers had dismounted and had gathered close, nearly a dozen, she could hear their heavy breathing. The pain in her arm was unbearable. She knew he could make her betray Ahmed, and even her love for him was not strong enough to keep her from doing so if Carnal put on enough pressure.

"You gonna tell us, little lady?" Carnal dug his fingers into her arm so that she could feel his nails. A bit harder and he would draw blood.

"Yes," she gasped and moaned. "Let...let go...please..."

"I'll let go just as soon as you tell us what we want to know. And then you're gonna be a good little gypsy and take us to him, right? Yes-indeedy-sunshine you are, ain't ya?"

"Yes...he is--oh my god--" Her eyes popped and she pointed with her free hand over Love's shoulder. All eyes turned in the direction she pointed, whereupon she snatched Hawk's knife from his belt, and hacked at Love's wrist so that he released her with a startled yelp. Then she plunged the knife into her own heart with both hands.

RoZita was studying a big thick tree as Ahmed approached her.

"Do you think you could cut that down?" she asked him. "I saw a big axe in the cave. If you could make it fall across the road, it might be an effective barricade if he should come looking for us here."

Ahmed looked at it for a long moment. "I could, perhaps, if the axe is not too heavy and the wood is not too hard. But it would take a long time."

A few minutes later he was swinging away at the trunk with the axe. It was a lot of effort for him, and she wished she could help. It took him half an hour just to make a good-sized dent in the oak's trunk. He removed his shirt after a while and she was treated to the sight of his sweaty torso once more…

Ahmed was amazed at her. She was no more in her time and it was his fault. Nevertheless, she seemed to know every time what was to do and she'd had good ideas in the last few hours. For the first time since the terrible death of his son and his beloved wife, he felt a growing warmth in his heart. Although they were in a dangerous situation, he felt a wonderful joy to speak with RoZita and to look into her beautiful eyes and...yes, to look at her sensuous female body with its soft curves...he stretched his aching body, stepped behind her.

"Please, let me see your head," he said in a low voice, carefully stroking her hair back from the wound. He caressed her shoulder with his other hand whispering," You are a very brave woman."

RoZ turned and they looked in each other's eyes. She got a chill as she felt his hands on her shoulders and to know he, this incredibly handsome man with those dark brown eyes that were to drown in, this experienced warrior, was worried about her. She raised her hand up to slide with one finger above his scars and then across his sweating cheek. Ahmed took her hand in his, kissed her fingers, then bent down to her and kissed her lips…

She wanted forget the whole world as she felt his wet tongue on her mouth for a few seconds....

But after a minute he stepped back still holding her hands, and said with his lashes lowered, "I guess I should go back to work. They may be out there."

RoZ nodded with an embarrassed but very happy smile…

Suddenly she said, "Did you hear a gunshot?"

He halted, took the rag she offered him and wiped his profusely sweating face, then took a long drink of water from the jug she brought.

"I heard nothing. But then, I was chopping. Are you sure it was a gun?"

"Sounded like it." She cocked an ear in the direction the shot had come from. They both listened, but heard no more shots.

"I'm kinda worried about Nestrelda," she admitted. "It was brave of her to take Willy home like that. It could be really dangerous for her. I wonder what will become of her now."

"Does your head hurt any more?" Ahmed asked her.

"No, not at all." RoZita was surprised he asked. Ahmed smiled a little and went back to chopping at the tree. RoZita wandered over to where Alejandro and Elena were preparing an evening meal of jerked venison and dried fruits.

"I wish I could help him with that tree," Alejandro fretted. "He is not so big, and he is doing all the work."

"Not so big?" RoZita frowned a little. "He is the biggest man I ever saw."

Elena looked at her in quiet sympathy and understanding. She knelt next to Alejandro to tend his wounds but he pulled her close to himself saying, "Don't worry about me. How do YOU feel?" and carefully he touched her belly.

Elena laid her hands on his, smiled at him. "Now that I know you are well and you're here close to me I feel very good and our baby too."

"You know I...I can't believe it. We'll get a baby..." He stroked her belly and sighed, "I love you." The both kissed each other deep for few minutes, lost in their feelings. But then they came to their senses again and Alejandro took her face in his hands and kissed her on the tip of her nose exclaiming: "Let us look for our weapons in the cave. We should take all here which we may use for the fight." He turned and begged, "RoZita, please, could you help us?"

Carnal Love kicked at the limp and bleeding little figure in the road, using all the worst words he knew. At the same time he was puzzled. Just that morning she had been looking at him with affection and lust. Now, this afternoon, she had glared at him with hatred and contempt, and had killed herself to keep from betraying Murieta's hiding place. How could all that have transpired in one day?

The others were silent; even Hawk seemed subdued. Some of them looked pale and sick, they who were no strangers to violence and bloodshed. One or two of them turned away. Love was about to kick the body once more, then stopped himself. Then suddenly he reached down and took hold of the body under the arms, dragging it into a wooded spot at the roadside. As it happened, there was a low-branched cedar tree nearby, under which grew ferns and wild roses and Indian pipe growing over a dead trunk. He laid her on her side under the tree, and stood for a moment looking down at her. Her eyes were half closed and her lips were parted and bloody. Before he could even think what he was doing, he bent down and closed her eyelids. Then he straightened up again abruptly, as though he could not believe what he had just done.

"Let's go," he growled. And he turned away, but could hardly resist looking back at her as he went. And he saw a large butterfly fluttering close to her face.

Ahmed chopped away at the huge hard tree. RoZita wished there were more she could do to help, other than bringing him drinks of water, but there was nothing, so after a while she went off to sit with Elena and Alejandro, who had built a fire near the camp by the waterfall. Elena was making coffee. Alejandro had found his gigging iron and was trying to spear a fish.

And then RoZita saw Ahmed fall...

When he came to, he saw her hovering anxiously over him, applying a cool rag to his face. His head was on Alejandro's lap. He heard the waterfall and realized they must have carried him over there.

"I am not used to so much...exertion," he said, a bit embarrassed about having passed out. "I have grown soft." He found he was wet all over. They must have poured the bucket of water over him. He tried to make a little joke of it: "My turn for the cold bath now, I see."

"Never mind about the tree any more," RoZita told him. "Are you all right?"

"Is the tree still standing?" he asked. "I cannot see where it is now."

"You must rest for a while, hermanito," Alejandro's voice said above him. "In a minute I will take over with the tree. I think I have recovered enough now."

"No no no, Alejandro," Elena said. She approached with a steaming cup. "Leave the tree. If they are determined to get here, then the tree would not hold them back for very long anyway. They would figure a way around it. Here, Ahmed, drink this. It's hot strong coffee, and not very good, but perhaps it will put some strength back into you. Then we must all have something to eat."

RoZita took the cup and held it to his lips. He sat up and tried not to grimace as he sipped at it. Her lips twitched a little. I've a feeling it isn't exactly Folgers, she thought. She dabbed at his face and chest with the rag as he drank, and then, before she could even think what she was doing, she leaned forward and kissed him on both eyelids. Alejandro and Elena looked away, a little embarrassed, but with knowing smiles at each other. RoZita drew back, blushing furiously.

"I have an idea about the tree," she said, in an attempt to recover herself. "It's almost halfway chopped through now. Does anyone know anything about explosives?"

Carnal Love's men were subdued as they rode into the cutthroats' lair, leaving Nestrelda's body beneath the cedar tree. The youngest of them, Corporal Tommy Barton, was feeling a bit sick. He wished he might turn back, but lacked the nerve. He was only twenty, and he had thought this mission was to rescue a little boy. He had always had a feeling of admiration for Lucas Hawkins, in spite of his rough and rowdy ways. Hawk had livened up the barracks with his daring feats, crazy pranks, and wild stories. Corporal Barton was not terribly bold or physically impressive, and the other soldiers often pushed him around and poked fun at him. But Hawk was usually pretty nice to him in his rough and teasing way, and wouldn't let the others go too far in picking on him.

Thinking about the gypsy girl turned Barton's stomach now, and he tried hard to put her out of his mind, telling himself she had gotten what she deserved. He knew she was only a dirty girl and a thief and probably a whore, but the sheer brutality of her treatment and her subsequent death nearly turned him inside out. He didn't know what to do now. Maybe if he tried to sneak off they would shoot him or something. But he could hardly help but wonder if he would ever look at Hawk and the others the same way again, and what he was going to write to his mother and his two sisters in the evening. Of course they had no doubt that he was still a good and upright young man with clean hands...

"The camel's gone," Love said in disgust and frustration. "Goddammit! But hey, I saw the black horse go out that way. Maybe there's a trail out there we can follow. Although we'll have to go on foot."

Hawk said, "C'mon Carnal, they couldn't of got a camel through them trees. I never heard anything so silly. A hoss maybe, but a camel? Don't think so. They ain't there, I'm tellin' ya. What about that waterfall you was tellin' us about? Didn't you say there was a cave or somethin?"

"Hawk, that's the last place they woulda gone, I'm tellin' ya. They ain't stupid. Course they woulda figured we'd come lookin' for 'em there, first thing."

"Well I'm tellin ya too, there's no way a camel coulda gone through them trees. Camels is desert animals. Not that I ever had the fortune to meet one, understand, but I weren't borned yesterday. Can you think where else they could a gone?"

"Listen!" Corporal Barton said suddenly. "I hear something. Can you all hear it?"

All were silent. They heard something; although the sound was faint it was impossible to tell what direction it was coming from. It sounded like chopping. Slow chopping, like someone was hacking at a very big tree. Then it stopped. All the men looked mystified.

"You got pretty good ears, Barton," Hawk said in either approval or derision, it was hard to tell sometimes, coming from him.

"Can you tell where it come from?"

"N-no," stammered the young corporal. Actually, he had an idea. But he wasn't certain whether he should tell or not. He had a mental picture of his baby sister dancing about bragging to her friends, "My big brother's in the cavalry! Look at this flag he sent me!"

"I can't hear it no more," Carnal Love said in an agony of frustration. There was no telling what they had done with Willy. He told himself they wouldn't kill the boy, surely. He thought of the mine. Zorro had risked his life to save all those people, according to legend. Would he kill a small boy, even the son of his enemy, who'd had him abducted and tortured, and who'd intended to rape his woman right in sight of him?

Carnal was suddenly beginning to see himself for what he was, and it was as if he had suddenly come upon the sight of his own face in a mirror. It was as though he were in a dream and the reflection that looked back at him was a monster so hideous that it frightened him nearly senseless. How had he ever come to this? He had never thought of himself as really evil before. Yes, he knew he had a mean streak, but he had blamed it on circumstances. Had fate been kinder to him he would have been a better man, he was certain. If he'd had a less brutal father, if his mother had been braver in protecting him and his brother from his father's drunken fury, if she had lived longer, if he hadn't had to work so hard, if he hadn't gotten Ruby Mae pregnant and had to marry her, if she hadn't lost her looks so soon and gotten fat and shrewish, if she weren't always hitting him over the head with her religion, if his younger brother hadn't been killed....

That was the clincher. He had loved Harrison senselessly. Much too fiercely. You had to love SOMEbody. Harrison's death had torn a huge hole in his soul and made him what he was now. Yes. It was not his own doing that he was the way he was. It was circumstances. When the day came that he would have to stand judgment, and God asked him, "Why were you so evil?" he would simply ask back, "Why did you put me in circumstances that made me that way?" he would just like to see God squirm out of that one. All of which would not prevent the Almighty from casting him into the pit of hell, of course....

Suddenly a noise shook the air. A sound like thunder. But there were no thunderclouds in the sky, which was clear as a whistle.

Alejandro had been dreading nightfall. There would be no daylight and no happenings to stand between him and the memory of what had happened to him. He dreaded falling asleep, wondering if the day's events would come to life once more in his dreams. Even with Elena curled up by his side, with the new life she had growing within her.

As he and Ahmed prepared to pitch the tent he watched the women pile pine needles on the spot to make the ground softer for him to sleep on. That was RoZ's idea, she figured he would be very uncomfortable sleeping on the hard ground with his wounds. As the men pitched the tent the women went to the cave to gather bedding. Alejandro wished to speak of his fear to Ahmed, but hesitated. Even though he sensed that his "twin" knew something about fear and would understand completely. He was perplexed once more; how had this man gotten here and why? Why had he risked his life to rescue a man he had never met? There were so many things he wanted to ask. But perhaps he shouldn't question anything. Let destiny take its course. Just as Don Diego had taught him. Everything would come into his circle, he need not pursue it. There was a reason for everything, just as Ahmed said.

"You know," Ahmed said as he hammered the tent stakes into the ground, "I remember something else my friend Herger said to me once. He said the threads of our fate were woven before we were born -- or something like that, and fear profits us nothing. I have been thinking of that today. I cannot help but wonder if this which happened today was woven into my fate. Whoever did the weaving has a very strange imagination, if that is true."

He smiled a little, then the smile faded. "Or if perhaps I tampered with my fate by violating the laws of time, and that I will pay the price? It is awe inspiring and frightening to think that the fate of the whole world could depend on something one man did."

"I cannot bear to think what would have been my fate if you had not come along, hermanito," Alejandro said with a shudder. "Unspeakable things would have happened. I believe God must have sent you, and perhaps the fate of the world does depend on both of us. You are right, that is an awesome thing. I can hardly take it all in. I once reckoned myself nothing, that I could never make a difference in the world, and that was disturbing to me. That I could live and die a common thief and be remembered as nothing else. But one small incident, one chance meeting.... No, it is not accidental. There are reasons and order. Perhaps I should not question."

"Then perhaps I should stop feeling guilty about RoZita," Ahmed said, testing the tent ropes for tautness. "I had felt badly about taking her away from her time. But if I had not, perhaps she would never have proved herself as she had. Then again, she could have been killed. She may be yet. Something terrible may befall her, and it would be partially my doing and yet, I suppose if I had not done what I did, she would be sitting in front of that magic box with her cat now, sighing over a man who is unaware of her existence. Instead of actually living."

The women brought eiderdown quilts and blankets and pillows to the tent. Naturally they insisted on Alejandro having the thickest one to sleep on.

"Gosh, I haven't slept on a feather pillow since I was a little kid," RoZita mused, then had a hard time explaining the concept of Styrofoam to the others.

They stoked up the campfire and sat around to eat a bit before retiring for the night. RoZita didn't enjoy the taste of the jerked venison, but she did her best to choke it down, with the help of a cup of wine. Alejandro brought out a guitar from the cave and Elena played and sang softly. Sometimes Alejandro sang with her and played also. They sang of jasmine and stars, of doves and babies, of sea and sun and circles, of contrary horses and contrary hearts. Of love and destiny and courage. The nearly full moon rose unnoticed, and ghosts crept out of the shadows.