~Chapter 7~

"You look like you could use a little drink, amigo," Carnal Love said, dashing his cup of rum in Alejandro's face just as he was about to lose consciousness once more. Alejandro cried out as the liquor boiled into his wounds. Carnal snickered, then started as he heard a shot from Cochino's direction.

Charlie Black Goose a.k.a. Butt Sniffin' Dog, chuckled, saying, "Our brave lookout has picked off an intruder Maybe the sheriff?"

"Well, he's good for somethin' at least," laughed Carnal Love. "I'm going out to fetch the fair Lady Elena now, fellas. Have your little fun with El Zorro here, but keep him alive, you hear? He's mine. I'm gonna fetch her ladyship over here and let him have the fun of watching me have a little tussle with her before I finish him off. Maybe some of the rest of you could even get in on it if you behave yourselves. Where's that big lug of a pirate got off to?"

"Went to piss," Charlie said, belching, "but I'll give him your message."

"When did that tattooed sea-dog get so all-fired modest?" laughed Love. With that he set down the jug of rum, turned and went to untie his horse, then mounted with a jaunty wave to the others.

Nestrelda sat sullenly in the mouth of the cave, rubbing her forehead where Alejandro had rammed it with his and watching Love go.

Carnal Love whistled softly as he rode along the dirt road, then halted as he heard what sounded like female voices. They seemed to be coming from the woods, but it was hard to tell what direction out here. He couldn't hear what they were saying, just the sound of them, soft and rather melodious, and a little nervous giggle from one of them. He slowed down wondering if they were alone out there…he could even smell perfume. Mmmm, nice…then he resumed his pace. No time for that now. No gal could hold a candle to Señorita Montero anyway.

He couldn't resist looking over his shoulder, just the same. He couldn't see anything though, just…whoa...what looked like the white flank of a horse, or something…but no time. The lovely Elena was at the waterfall waiting for her man. She was fixin' to get the surprise of her life.

Further along the road, something else puzzled him: fresh droppings in the ruts. He was a rancher and he knew his droppings, and these didn't look like any he had ever seen before. Neither horse, nor cow, nor mule, nor donkey, nor sheep, nor goat, nor dog, nor deer, nor pig.

"Maybe a elephant's been this way, what?" He tried for a joking tone to his horse. "Circus comin' to town maybe?"

But it was kind of unnerving. He didn't like the unfamiliar. However, the thought of Elena's eyes, cheekbones, lips, skin, hair, and body spurred him on, and he slapped the reins down on his horse and went on his way.

~O~O~

RoZita wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and sat on a rock to collect herself. I've done murder, she thought giddily. I helped do it, anyway, which amounts to the same thing…I guess I am a warrior now. Who would ever have thought it? Why in the world did he call me a warrior princess? Who is he anyway? Surely I AM dreaming…

She fingered her bracelets, watching Ahmed and Elena with the rifle. They seemed to have forgotten her. She tried vainly to remember what she had been doing prior to waking up to see him standing above her in his, uh, natural state. Her bosom heaved at the memory. She thought of her job at the Census Bureau, of the boyfriend she had broken up with a year before…she leaned her head down between her knees as a dizzy spell came over her once more. Some warrior princess, she told herself…

"RoZita, are you all right?" she heard Ahmed's voice ask. His hands pressed her shoulders and there was that scent again. The sheer beauty of him overwhelmed her once more. She would have thrown herself into his arms but for the firmness of his hands holding her off.

"I'm fine," she said, reaching up to touch his cheek. The hardness of the cheekbone and the softness of the skin covering it made her ache a little inside. She almost said, "I love you," but he gently pulled her to her feet.

"I am afraid that woman will go off by herself if we linger," he said. "I have never seen anyone so determined."

RoZita looked over at Elena with the rifle. "OK, let's go. I'll go with her, you'd better fetch Clyde-I mean, Fezeek."

Ahmed untied the camel from the tree to which he had been tethered. Then he led the beast by the reins and took the rifle from Elena and carried it under his robe.

RoZita went to walk beside Elena. Elena looked at her with an expression of wonder and a new respect in her dark eyes.

"You really did well," she said softly.

"Thanks," RoZita said shyly without looking up at the taller woman.

"Are you still frightened?" Elena asked.

"Yes," RoZita admitted.

"This really is wonderful of you," Elena said. "You don't even know me and you certainly don't know Alejandro, and yet you are risking your life to help me rescue him. If you two had let me go running off by myself the way I did, I would surely have been killed. Just why ARE you doing this? It's not as if you owe me anything."

"I don't know. I've daydreamed about being a hero now and then - everybody has, I guess - but I never really supposed I would actually DO it. I've just lived an uninteresting life where nothing real ever happened to me. So I suppose I'm not truly real, if you know what I mean. Because I never did anything that MADE me real. But now a man is dead because of something I did and I'm feeling pretty damn real at the moment. I guess there's no turning back. I have to go through with this. Otherwise his death won't make any sense and I'll just continue being unreal as I was before, counting people I never see and getting paid to fill up space. And if I do that, I'll lose Ahmed. He won't be real either and he'll vanish. It will be as if he had never existed. I think he was sent to make me real and so there's no going back."

RoZita paused for breath. It was the longest speech she had ever made and she could hardly believe the way it had just flowed out of her.

"I see," Elena said. "I...look!"

The two young women paused to see an outcropping of stone and some moving figures.

"It's...them?" RoZita thought her heart would stop beating. She thought of turning and going back to being unreal as quickly as she ever could. She put a hand to her throat as if to pull off the wire noose of terror constricting it, and stood frozen. Then she felt Elena's arm around her.

"You are not going to faint, are you?" There was no scorn in Elena's voice, only concern. RoZita could not answer right away, however.

Finally she said raspily, "I feel like I'm looking through the gate of hell. Into the face of pure evil." She knew she was being melodramatic but couldn't help herself.

"Nonsense," Elena said, but she sounded as though she were trying to convince herself as well. "It's only a den of thieves. Hold on to my arm."

RoZita looked back at Ahmed, several yards behind them, leading the white camel. "What does he plan to do anyway?"

"We are to lure them toward him with our seductive wiles. Remember, I am Morgana and you are - Zaîda."

"I did play a mermaid once in a local production of Peter Pan. But all I had to do was sit on a rock and comb my hair and sing. But I imagine this will involve a bit more?"

"You can sing? Let's sing then!" Elena said. "In Spain there was a band of Moorish gypsies who had an encampment in the hills near where I lived. Sometimes it could get dull at the hacienda, so I would sneak away and ride off to the hills to visit with them. They always seemed to be having a good time. Often they would sing like this..."

She began singing a song in a strange language, with a definite Arabian flavor to the melody. She had a lovely voice. RoZita, being musical, caught on quickly. She sang the phrases after Elena, then in harmony with her, and some of her fear seeped away. They walked arm in arm, singing, coyly pushing back strands of hair and swaying their hips.

"Mmmmmm...where did you ladies come from?"

They started. A man who looked to be part Indian emerged from a stand of trees. He wore a buckskin shirt and pants with a red bandanna tied around his neck. He had a hideous scar across his forehead, probably the result of a knife fight, and his small crinkly eyes were an odd color against his coppery brown skin, almost yellow, like those of a mountain lion. Or maybe more like a rattlesnake.

Elena made a gasp, putting a hand to her mouth. Then she crossed her hands on her bosom in a sweet maidenly manner.

"Can you help us?" she pleaded softly. "We are traveling with a carnival and have lost our way. Is there anyone who can point us in the direction of the road leading into town?" She gave him a radiant smile, fingering a lock of her long black hair.

Charlie Black Goose looked over the women's curvy bodies in their oriental garb with undisguised lust in his snake eyes.

"I might be able to do that thing," he said, moving closer so that RoZita could smell him. It was not exactly a scent that was going to make her throw herself at HIM. She could have almost sworn she could see fangs emerging from his mouth as he spoke. "So...what will you lovely ladies give me in return?"

Elena gave a coy giggle and nudged RoZita.

"Ooooo, listen to him!" she squeaked. "Do you hear what he is saying? Zaîda, what shall we give him?"

RoZita suddenly snapped into action. Perhaps it was the wind change once more that blew Ahmed's scent in her direction and Charlie's stink away.

"What WON'T we give him?" she purred, turning a little pirouette, flicking her veil at him to waft her perfume his way. She could have sworn she heard him growl. She sang:

Wouldn't ya like to have fun, fun, fun

Wouldn't ya like to have laughs, laughs, laughs

I can show you a (snap, snap) good time,

Let me show you a (snap, snap) good time..."

She snapped her fingers and did a bump and grind motion followed by a shimmy. Elena stared at her in amazement.

Butt Sniffin' Dog was fairly drooling. RoZita tried not to look at the bulge in his pants.

"Zaîda, that's enough!" Elena said in a little mock-petulant voice, pinching her arm. RoZita paused with a little pout. "Come this way, ah…"

"You may call me Charlie, Missy. My mama was a comely Apache maiden, and my sire was a dashing British seaman who fell in love with her at first sight, but was slain by her jealous…suitor…in a most unpleasant manner."

"Oh…how romantic," RoZita sighed. "But sad."

"I was not expecting such a charming gentleman to come to our aid," Elena simpered. "I was a little bit frightened that there might be bad men about. But I guess we have nothing to fear now?" She fluttered her long eyelashes at the heavily built half-breed.

"You gals come this way," he said with a tone that was meant to suggest gallantry but exuded nothing but pure animal lechery. Each girl took the arm he offered to them, Elena on his left, RoZita on his right, and they giggled and swayed as they listened to him go on about what he would like to do with them.

"Do you gals like to do three at a time?" he asked.

RoZita wasn't sure what he meant at first, then Elena said, "But of course," and she caught on. Her stomach knotted up a little.

"I am Morgana and this is Zaîda," Elena lisped. "We are from the land of Arabia. You simply must come see the show. We dance with snakes and float in the air. And after that...heheheehe...ooooooo..."

"I do the dance of the Seven Veils," RoZita murmured. "But you know what? I only wear six."

"LISTEN to her!" Elena squealed. "Such a baaaaaaaad girl! What am I to DO with her?"

"You do things with her?" Charlie said with a wink.

"Umm," Elena cast down her eyes demurely, "only when there are no strong, handsome men around. Then sometimes...well...a girl can only turn to her best friend for comfort."

"I do like to see a girl comfort her best friend," Charlie said in almost a growl. RoZita felt her stomach turn over again. "It is a fair and lovely sight. Two rosebuds that kiss each other on the same bush."

"How poetic," RoZita gasped, wondering where Ahmed was now. She could hardly wait to deliver this creep into his hands.

"Oh yes..." Elena sighed. "Ro-ah-Zaîda, I feel a sorrow deep in my soul. I pray you give me the comfort that only a bosom friend may give."

"Oh yesssss," Charlie rasped. "I wanna see two rosebuds kiss on the same vine."

"You stand here then," Elena instructed him, directing him to a clump of bushes, "and Zaîda and I will comfort each other for you here where the sun will lend us his light."

"Yes, yes..." Charlie stood and actually wiped his chin with the back of his hand, his panther eyes gleaming maniacally.

Elena led RoZ into the clearing whispering, "Play along." She removed RoZita's veil very slowly from her head and ran her fingers through her hair. Then she turned RoZita's face up to hers and kissed her full on the lips.

RoZita had never been kissed by a woman before but she did her best to return the kiss and seem to relish it. It was not as difficult as she would have thought.

Now she could hear Charlie breathing raspily and out of the corner of her eye she could see him rubbing himself.

And then she saw Ahmed's white robes in the bushes behind him, the silver blade of his scimitar raised high.