After that, I began to feel a growing sense of urgency. Something was telling me that we needed to get home as fast as possible. So I picked up the pace as much as I could, buying more ready food along the way when we could, and not stopping until after dark each day. They grumbled, but put up with it.
Finally, at long, long last, we came into familiar territory. As Gino had told us that Marianna and the others had done, we took the side road past the hacienda, and pulled off into the stand of woods half a mile away from the house just before dark. The sense that had been riding me told me to go cautiously, and a few minutes later, I was glad I had.
I tossed Alaric up onto a tree branch, and Diego, Costa, and I walked carefully to the crest of the hill overlooking the hacienda, and stopped short. It was no longer deserted as Gino had said. Instead, all signs pointed to it having been invaded. Drunken shouting was spilling out of broken windows, a fire was going in the kitchen from the smoke pouring out of the chimney, and horses wandered among the vegetable gardens, still saddled. I counted more than a dozen.
Diego hissed at me to leave them and go on to the pueblo to find the family, but I shook my head, hard. Never leave an enemy at your back. He knew better, he was just on needles. So we pulled back to the woods, I had them quietly set up a quick defensible camp that could be vacated at a moment's notice, and had the men gear up for silent battle, going on foot for the time but leaving their horses saddled and ready.
Diego and I led them around through the hills to where we knew the secret tunnel he had used as Zorro came out, opened the way, and led them through the dark. We rounded the last corner together, my brother and I – and came to a skidding halt, facing three lethal rifles pointed at us. Quiet as we were, they had heard us coming. I threw up my hand and heard Costa softly call the halt, which was quickly passed back down the line.
I managed to take in the faces behind the rifles – Jaime Mendoza and Miguel Cordoba were flanking Father – Don Alejandro – in the middle. Then my gaze was wrenched to the left, to see Anita Cordoba, Victoria, a few small children... and Marianna. She gasped out my name and was in my arms a moment later. I dimly heard Diego ask seriously, "Are you really going to shoot me, Father?" before Victoria had brushed past me and flung herself into her long-absent husband's arms as well.
To breathe again after being held underwater for a year, to have an arm hanging lifelessly then suddenly regain its use, to come out of a cave into the sun after a lifetime in the dark – that is what it was like holding my beloved again. I can say no better.
After a few minutes I was able to think somewhat coherently again. "Are you all right?" I asked over and over, until she put her hand over my mouth to stop it. "The baby?" I breathed past it, steeling myself for dreadful news, but she laughed again, softly, and turned to look down at her side. There, lying in a box upon an old bale of hay, was a tiny scrap of human. "This is your son, Agostino," she said simply.
My sense of humor was caught. "Agostino? Such a big name for such a little guy." I was trying to catch my balance again after she had blown me away.
"We call him Tino, for short."
Just then, the baby – my son – started to fuss. I leaned over him, put my hand on his chest, marveling at how it covered him, and whispered to him, "Shhhh. Papí is here." It quieted him, somehow. I like to think he knew me, even in his sleep, even just a few months old. I didn't realize until later that I had unconsciously used the Italian pet name, as I had called my own Papí as a boy.
But then a loud crash came from the house overhead, bringing me back to my senses. I had a job to do. I leaned over to my beloved and said, "Here. Hold this for me," and gave her a kiss. "I'll be back for that," I added, and she laughed, the only sound I ever wanted to hear again.
Father and Jaime were sitting on a bench, chatting awkwardly with Costa. My memory replayed Jaime asking if we had brought the whole company – they had crowded into the entrance to the underground room as best they could fit – and Costa replying with a smile in his voice, "Pretty much." He had missed our clown too, though he would never admit it aloud.
I stepped past Diego and Victoria, placed a hand on Father's shoulder and squeezed it, then turned to Jaime, all business. "Tell me what I need to know." That had always been how I asked for reports – it focused the scout's mind and cut out the extra details. "Who the hell is that up there?"
It worked on Jaime, too. "A large group of outlaws – at least thirty – rode into town yesterday and took it over," he began simply. "They killed some people, wounded many, smashed windows, took what they wanted, and settled into the cantina to drink."
Marianna, coming beside me, broke in. "Jaime saved us. He saw them ride in and immediately slammed and locked the cantina door, told us to grab our sons and get out. We snuck out the back and out here to the hacienda."
Father continued, "Then they followed us out here today. We came down here into the tunnel with the Cordobas, and were waiting for dark. We were going to sneak out then and get to Marenga to wait for you."
"Well," I quipped. "I'm glad we saved you the trip," and was rewarded with that smile I so well remembered. But there was no time for a reunion. I turned back to Jaime, the former soldier. "Are all of them here?"
"No. The leader is, I heard him. He's a big man, huge, mean as a snake and loud. He's called Chaco. Of the others... I counted twelve I'm certain off. Perhaps a few more. And..." He hesitated and I nodded him on. "I think a couple of lancers have joined them."
That jolted me, that members of the pueblo's soldiers would join up with a band of outlaws. I spat out, "What about the alcalde?"
"He did nothing," Father hissed, his eyes snapping. "He and the lancers are hiding behind the garrison walls."
"I think he may have made a deal with the outlaws," added Jaime. I asked what deal, but he shrugged, not knowing, so I returned to the situation in the house above our heads.
"Arms?"
"Heavy. All have rifles, pistols, knives, some have swords."
"Former soldiers?"
"Some of them, I think so, yes. I saw some army jackets."
"A dozen or more here?" I was thinking hard, mapping out a plan. "Where are the rest?" Presumably back in town was the reply, probably in the cantina, but they had no real information on that.
But they did on something else. "There were also..." Father began, but couldn't continue for a moment. "We heard two women before. Screaming. They stopped, hours ago." I absorbed that with a sinking heart. Two more victims that shouldn't have been.
"Some of the outlaws are probably in our house," Miguel put in. They were the family, you remember, that came north with Marianna. At my questioning look, he explained, "We converted the far end of the big barn to our house. The rest is storage."
"Then we'll clean it out after we have finished above," I assured him.
"Then let's go," said Diego, making as if to turn, but I stopped him with a word.
"No. You're out. Stay here and guard the family." He drew breath to reply, outraged, but again I cut him off, my voice flat. "You're arguing. Do I need to spell it out?"
He stopped a second and realized what I was not saying. The coming action would be a bloody attack, which I had always kept him out of, per our agreement. "No," he replied softly. "But think about this for a moment. Is this really how you want to begin?"
I stared at him. "If it were only a handful of men, that would be an easy police action. But more than thirty, heavily armed, taking over the town, the alcalde doing nothing? That's a military operation. I'll counter it the only way I can. Yes, this is how I am beginning." I took a breath. "Now, are you finished?"
"Sí, Capitán." He was still angry, but he knew by then better than to continue.
"Then stay here and guard," I repeated. "Once we're all through, take them all out the tunnel and back to the camp. You're in command there." He nodded again, and I turned back to Father and Jaime. "Anything else I need to know?"
"Yes," replied Father. "Be careful." He saw my face and waved a dismissive hand, explaining sourly, "they've been smashing wine glasses in the fireplace all afternoon." The fireplace, of course, was the exit into the house from this secret chamber.
"Well of course they have," I said sarcastically. "What else do barbarians do with crystal? Hand me the broom," I added to Jaime, gesturing behind him. He turned, puzzled, but then saw the handle, fished it out and gave it to me. "It used to be mine," I told him, explaining how I knew it was there. I passed it on to Cordoba. "Just the broom," I told him, he wasn't joining the attack. "Costa and I will go through first, then you. One push out, one left, then stand aside and let us through. You're not making it clean, just getting the worst. Once we're through, come back down and leave with the others."
Cordoba nodded, and I turned to Costa and the men, gathered them up again, and up we went. There had been no more noise from above since that last crash; the outlaws all sedated by their guzzled, stolen wine. I won't describe the action, spreading silently through the hacienda and taking out the bandits one by one, but at the end we had killed every one, and lost none of our own. Costa then took a squad to the barn and found just two more. He was able to reassure Cordoba that their house and belongings had not been greatly damaged.
When all was secure, I took all my men back down the road to the camp at a trot to retrieve our horses. The next phase would be in town, and we needed them to get there. I took a few minutes with Marianna, then went over to Father, at last exchanging a long, close hug.
Then he pulled back. "Did you find the women?" he asked, too quietly for anyone else to hear.
"Yes," I replied shortly. "They died some time ago. We wrapped them in blankets and laid them in the back room. Do you know who they were?" He shook his head. "Do not," I said severely, just short of making it an order, "go and look. Not even to identify them. Please, Father. They were badly treated. In fact," I went on, "don't go into the house at all. Not for a few days, and not in the dark. It's ruined," I said as gently as I could.
His face was terrible. "I did nothing," he moaned. "I should have..."
"And if you had," I rode over him ruthlessly, "you would have put up a very brave front, and died very heroically – but you would be dead, and so would those women, and so would everyone else, including my wife and son. Father..." I went on, more kindly. "There was nothing you could do. I know – believe me, I truly do – what it is like to stand by and do nothing. But there was nothing you could do. The women would not have wanted all of you to die too."
He was hardly soothed. "I still feel..." and I cut him off again.
"Then help their families, when we find out who they were."
He stared at me a moment, then shortly nodded agreement, before returning to the most important thing. "What will you do with..." The bodies, he could not bring himself to add.
"I'll send a wagon out for the women, to bring them in and lay them to rest respectfully, as soon as I can. We're taking all the outlaws with us now." I grinned at his questioning look, and answered before he could ask. "We're going to give them to the alcalde, as a present."
"Now that I would like to see," he said grimly, and I nodded.
"I'll send someone out to get you all in time. It will be just before dawn, so try to get a little sleep before then. Tomorrow will be a very long day." And with that, we mounted up, minus Diego but with Jaime, who I asked to come and guide us, and began the next phase of taking over the town.