~Chapter 14~

"Sounds kinda like a tree falling," Hawk remarked. "Cain't hardly tell what direction it come from though. Tell you what, it's gettin' dark. What say we camp out here and wait till mornin' to continue?"

Carnal Love was ready to bluster but he saw that maybe Hawk was right. If it got dark they wouldn't hardly be able to see what they were doing. He was a little scared, however, about camping here. Too many dead bodies. And Nestrelda was uncomfortably close by. Love believed in ghosts, although he would have denied it if anybody asked him. But he couldn't very well show the white feather to Hawk.

Corporal Tommy Barton was terrified. It was easy to believe in ghosts out here in the wilderness, with a fresh body bleeding not far away.

"Shouldn't we c-c-camp somewhere else?" he stammered, trying not to betray his fear but failing miserably. "There could be all kinds of dangerous m-m-men l-lurking around here."

Some of the others looked as though they agreed, although they didn't say so.

"We'll camp here," Hawk declared. "We're soldiers, ain't we, with the U.S. Cavalry. Ain't nobody gonna mess around with us! If any of you mama's boys want to tuck your tails 'tween your legs and scurry on back to the fort, feel free to do it now. We don't need no weak-kneed yeller-bellies pissin' their pants and jumpin' at their shadders. We need REAL men, right, Carnal?"

"Right," Love said as firmly as he could with his dry mouth. With that the men dismounted and began leading their horses into the small cave to prepare for the night.

Barton saw his chance to leave. To turn back and try to make a clean slate. But with Hawk's piercing grey eyes upon him in the dusk, he could not quite bring himself. And the thought of riding down that road alone in the dark was just as frightening as the idea of camping out here with God knows what roaming around. He would be a real man. He was here to help rescue a child, after all, wasn't he? He would forget Nestrelda. What was she but a dirty gypsy, after all? A thief and a whore and a kidnapper. She deserved what she got. He would keep reminding himself of that.

At the same time he wondered if any woman would ever kill herself to keep from betraying him. Any woman besides his mother, that is.

~O~O~

"Enough," Alejandro put aside the guitar. "We make too much noise in this silent evening forest. They may be looking for us."

"They will not get past that tree in the night, surely," Elena said. "But you are right. We must try to sleep now."

Alejandro put on the robe he had been wearing earlier, for the silky fabric was soothing to his injured skin. Elena put more of the aloe salve on him, and Ahmed gave him another drink of the opium drug. RoZita found her discarded caftan and put that on without removing her underwear, feeling shy of sleeping beside Ahmed with nothing on under the garment. Elena put on a plain flannel gown from her trunk.

Ahmed lay down with his pants on but not his shirt. Alejandro and Elena lay down on one side of the tent snuggled up together. Ahmed lay between the couple and RoZita, all of them covered with thick quilts against the night air, which was a bit chilly although it was late spring. There was a space of about a foot between them.

Alejandro clung to Elena to protect himself from the barrage of memory, waiting for Ahmed's drug to take effect. So much had happened in the day, his capture seemed to have taken place long before. But the memory of it was clear enough. His illness, the men coming at him from every side, Scourge knocking him nearly unconscious with the butt of his rifle - Alejandro was certain it had been the pirate, although it could well have been any of them - mocking laughter, shouts, curses...his own helplessness, tied to the tree, hearing Love talk of bringing Elena...he shivered uncontrollably. He tried to think of Elena curled so softly beside him, the faint scent of her hair, her arm draped over his chest, her regular breathing, her impending motherhood, and tried his best not to picture her talking with Scourge. He would never be able to wipe out that memory.

He tried to think of Ahmed on his other side, his mysterious brave and wise double, sent from heaven or wherever to rescue him…surely his life and his fate were important, for this to happen. It was that he should think of now, not the events of the day. He reached over and touched the other man through the quilt that covered him, supposing him to be asleep, but Ahmed took his hand and clasped it, and feeling the coldness of it, gave it a reassuring squeeze.

And the drug took over and Alejandro drifted off, listening to Elena's breathing and the softly chiming sounds of the forest…

But RoZita could not sleep.

~O~O~

Carnal Love lay flat on his back in the small cave, listening to Hawk snoring. Even Corporal Barton had managed to drift off, although the boy didn't look any too peaceful in the light of the lantern that had been left burning in the midst of the men.

Love alternated between thinking of Willy and the glaring stains of his own soul, of the circumstances that had brought him to this day. Of his own destiny, what lay in wait for him. All he could see was an unending blackness, a canyon of nothingness, gaping before him, waiting to swallow him like a shark gulping down a minnow... He sat up and groped for the canteen of brandy that would perhaps help him escape his tormenting thoughts. There was only a little left. Maybe Scourge had stashed some rum somewhere...

He stumbled to his feet to go investigate, when he saw someone standing in the mouth of the cave, and his mouth opened wide in a soundless scream.

It was Nestrelda.

She stood with the knife sticking in her breast, blood blackly soaking her blouse and skirt. She didn't look the way Love thought of ghosts, he couldn't see through her and she did not look paler than usual. She looked the way he remembered her but for her expression, which was totally blank. She was looking straight at him. But in her unblinking eyes lay a black and silent nothingness.

And even as Love stared, she began to glow with a faint greenish luminescence, like phosphorous, and to give off a putrescent odor that grew stronger as he watched. Then, she began to decay right before his very eyes until nothing but a skeleton stood before him, with only the eyes left in the sockets of the skull, the whites obliterated by the blackness of the irises, her blood-soaked clothing hanging in tatters on the bones.

Love shrieked as though he were on fire, backing up and tripping over the men who lay behind him. They jerked awake, scrambling about in consternation, and Corporal Barton scurried backwards knocking over the lantern. Then they had their work putting out the fire, while Carnal Love cowered in the back of the cave where the frightened horses reared and whinnied.

"What in the all-fired blue blazes is goin' on here?" Hawk yelled after they managed to extinguish the flames. Two or three men were badly burned and they hunched up moaning and cussing or scuffling about for water. Hawk, at least, had had enough presence of mind to save some of the fire. He held up a stick with the end burning.

Love finally crept out again. He couldn't see the ghost or anything else now, and evidently no one else had seen it either. Except, possibly, Corporal Barton, who was huddled up whimpering. Hawk patted his shoulder.

"Hey there, baby boy, it's all right," he said in a half-joking way. "Somebody had a nightmare, is all. Musta been a doozy too. Was it you, Carnal? You got a witch on your back hollerin' giddyup?"

"It was me," Love managed to say, at last. He wondered what the next step was. Just to go totally mad? It was greatly tempting. Just to give over and go crazy as a betsy-bug.

Maybe it WAS a dream. Didn't really matter, though. Nightmare or ghost, whatever had just visited him had taken up residence in what passed for his soul, and there would be no evicting it.

~O~O~

RoZita figured Alejandro and Elena had drifted peacefully off together. She was not sure about Ahmed; she didn't think he was asleep, from the sound of his breathing. The events of the day circulated in her mind, starting with her meeting with Ahmed. Vainly she tried to remember what she'd been doing before she found herself on her back before him, but for the life of her she could not remember, other than the blinding flash. She almost could not remember anything that had ever happened to her before then. It was as if she had only been born today.

She remembered seeing him standing naked before her like some mythological god, and now she wanted to see him that way again. She wanted it badly. She wanted to touch him, run her fingers lightly over his sweaty, warm body, starting with his throat and shoulders, then down the length of his arms, stroking the hair lightly, and back up again. Then she would massage his chest and belly, and kiss his chest also, and move her palms down over his narrow hips and then grab his butt and squeeze…then she would wrap herself around him like a python and kiss him over and over...she would bite him...

She sat up, unable to lie down any longer. She was a bit frightened, both of her own lustful thoughts and of what might happen. No, she told herself, they could not get past that tree. They wouldn't be able to see in the dark, even with lanterns, and they wouldn't know where to look. The tent was too sheltered in this stand of trees, they had made sure that it would not be visible to any intruders, and the animals were hidden as well...

She had a feeling Ahmed was still awake, and she almost involuntarily moved closer to him, under the quilt. Then she felt his hand on her shoulder.

She almost jumped out of her skin. But she didn't move away or make a sound other than a little gasp. After a moment she laid her hand timidly over his. She felt it move down over the length of her arm and back up again, then felt his lips on the side of her neck, and she thought her heart would stop beating. His hand slipped up under the sleeve of her caftan and clasped her shoulder, squeezing a little, and her breath came in quick little gasps, as he kissed behind her ear. After a long moment's hesitation, in which she thought the earth had stopped turning, his hand pushed aside the camisole and cupped her right breast. She thought she would swoon there and then, lying down.

"To the cave?" he whispered.

They tried not to make too much noise, both from fear of waking Alejandro and Elena, and of attracting possible enemies. But it was extremely difficult, with the moonlight coming through the hole in the cave ceiling...a few candles burned nearby casting a warm vanilla light over their bodies. She saw him the way she had first seen him, looking even more beautiful in the moonlight and candlelight, otherworldly, almost. She felt jealous of the light because it kissed his body so beautifully, and she came between him and it so she could do the kissing instead. He had put on the scent again, and it drove her simply mad with desire and she said things that both made him laugh and excited him wildly, eagerly doing things she'd always had to be coaxed to do before, and he did things to her, until there was no patch of skin on either of them left unkissed and untasted. Then they merged into a slippery embrace so that the tiniest particle of light could not come between them. But the air around them was full of fire and poetry and gold. She found herself singing a hymn.

And she called him her little Arabian stallion.

~O~O~

And then the night air was shattered by a high, terrible cry from outside. Like a cougar when it has been shot in the belly.

Alejandro could not seem to mount his horse or find his sword. The footsteps came closer, closer, and a huge tattooed bald head, big as the sun, came bouncing down the road, like a giant ball, now it was rolling in the dust, and Alejandro tried to scramble out of its way, and the huge mouth laughed and bellowed and belched fire that sounded like the popping of many whips...

"Alejandro!" Elena's voice calling frantically, her soft hands pulling at him, her loose hair falling on his face. Alejandro gasped like a landed fish, and her arms went all around him, her voice asking if he were all right. He clung to her so tight he feared he would crush all her bones, but he could not let go for a long, long moment.

"Elena. My Elena," he repeated over and over as she stroked his hair.

"It's all right Alejandro. You have been dreaming, that is all. You are with me now, and everything is all right." Already she sounded like a mother.

Alejandro shuddered for a long time as she kissed him all over his face. Then he felt her hand slip into his robe and touch his chest.

Then they both started at the sound of footsteps outside, and saw that Ahmed and RoZita were no longer there. Alejandro scrambled for his sword, which lay under his pillow. In a moment the tent flap was pulled aside and there stooped Ahmed, holding a small torch. His face had an eerie glistening beauty in the dim firelight, and his hair looked damp.

"Is a terrible thing happening?" he asked.

~O~O~

Ahmed found RoZita standing outside the mouth of the cave holding a candle, a sheet wrapped around her, looking a little like a Vestal priestess, waiting for him.

"It is all right now," he reassured her with a big smile, taking her hand to lead her back into the cave...

After the next hungry kiss Elena wanted to feel Alejandro completely inside her. Carefully she sat on top of him and started to guide him in but Alejandro hesitated, asking: "What about the baby? Will it hurt it?"

Elena smiled down at him in the candlelight and kissed him gently on the lips: "The baby will like it!" She opened her legs and helped him to slide slowly into her. With a deep sigh she laid down on him caressing the whip wounds with her tongue. She pressed and rubbed her breasts and her hard nipples up and down on his sweaty body in the same rhythm as he thrust his body carefully into hers. Oh it was such an incredible sensation! She licked the throbbing vein on his neck and he turned her over and lay her on the back whispering: "Oh my Dearest, I've miss you so much...I love you, you are my life…"

Elena pulled his head down sighing: "My Alejandro...I was so worried about you...I love you, love you…" They kissed, lay silent for a moment and only kissed passionately. He was deep and hard in her body. She enjoyed this feeling and slowly she began to move wrapping her legs tightly around his slim hips, pressing her fingers against his smooth buttocks to show him he need not be worried about the baby. Alejandro moaned and started to thrust fast and faster, hard and wild into her hot wet body.

She burned now. She shuddered and squirmed beneath him sobbing with sensuous pleasure: "Don't. Stop. I love you!" And by the next deep thrust: "Oh my god Alejandroooooo!" She bit him almost in his neck as the wave of passion overwhelmed her and he with a deep moaning: "Oh my love" jerking several times inside her.

~O~O~

Carnal Love slept fitfully. Nestrelda visited his dreams, sometimes in her living form, sometimes in her skeletal one. Scourge loomed above, laughing, and his tattoos laughed too, springing out of his head and arms in obscene and painted mockery.

Some of the other men had nightmares as well, especially Tommy Barton, and when the dawn finally came, the young corporal was gone. His horse was still there, but not a trace of the young man remained. He was later found wandering about the woods by some Mexican peasants, gibbering out of his mind. They were afraid and let him go, and he stumbled off deep into the mountains never to be found again.

There were no food supplies remaining in the cave, so Hawk shot a good-sized pheasant and roasted it for breakfast. Love had no appetite. He nibbled at a piece of meat Hawk nearly forced on him but never noticed what it tasted like.

"You still want to do this?" Hawk said, squatting down watching him eat. "'Course, if you don't wanna find your boy…"

He looked meaningly at his friend. The others looked as though they had totally lost interest in this mission. Hawk seemed to be the only one with presence of mind.

Love could see he had no real interest in finding Willy. It was Zorro Hawk wanted. Not that he had anything against Murieta, he just wanted to be renowned as the man who captured The Fox. He wanted to be The Legend, himself. The idea of somebody else getting all the glory galled him. He wanted to be the Daniel Boone of California.

Love found this profoundly annoying.

"I'm goin' after Willy," he said, pushing his hair off his forehead and thinking he wouldn't mind being known as the man who killed Zorro, himself. Then he scratched the stubble on his own face, which itched. "No haint is gonna keep me from gettin' my boy back."

And he felt his resolve returning. Nestrelda could haunt him all she liked, what else could she do? He was alive, and she was dead. She had no power over him.

"Now yer talkin', Carnal!" Hawk boomed, slapping him on the back. He had a stubble of salt-and-pepper beard but looked cocky as ever. The bastard wasn't human, Love thought dully, feeling slightly nauseous. He could sleep anywhere, no ghost would ever molest him. Corporal Barton's fate did not trouble him in the least. The boy must have seen Nestrelda too, thought Love. She wasn't no dream, after all.

It was mid morning before the men were ready to ride out to the waterfall. Hawk said, as they saddled up their horses, "You still got eyes for the fair Señorita Montero, Carnal?"

Love looked at him bleary eyed. He had nearly lost interest in Elena. But there was something about the way Hawk spoke about her that struck a spark in him.

"Mostly I just want to get my boy back, and get the son of a bitch that killed my brother," he said. "But..."

"Reason I asked," said Hawk, "is cuz if you don't want her, I'd be mightily interested in gettin' a piece for myself."

"Tell you what," Love said, "we can share and share alike, can't we?" He felt a spasm of jealousy all of a sudden. But he knew he had to keep on Hawk's good side. "And what about the other gal? Didn't you say there was another one? Did she look good?"

"Didn't see her myself, but Rube LaFollette said she had nice titties." Hawk winked. "If there's two gals, all the better. We can all share 'em around, right, fellers?"

He turned and grinned at the other men. They grinned back, glancing at each other a little nervously, shuffling their feet.

"Well, let's get movin', we're wastin' time with all this chitchat," Love said, rising and going to where his horse was tied up. "How many of us we got left, anyway?"

Hawk glanced at the small company, counting heads. It seemed like more men than there really were.

"Countin' us - thirteen," he said.