CHAPTER 10: THE PLAN
The wedding had come and gone, and Miguel and Margarita had moved back to Portugal, and had lived there for a year before Margarita gave birth to a beautiful little boy. Miguel was thrilled of course, but for some bizarre reason, the child refused to see him. No matter what his mother or the doctors tried to do or say, the boy would not go near his father. At last Miguel had him forcibly brought before, a perfect little blonde-haired boy that looked remarkably like himself when he was young, but the frightened child, although now in the same room, would still not come near him.
"Come here, son, I won't hurt you," Miguel said coaxingly. The child simply shook his head.
"Why, are you going to kill me too?" he asked.
"What? I would never harm you, you are my son and I love you." Miguel replied, looking shocked.
"Your love kills. Just like it killed Tulio." the child said.
Miguel was taken aback. "You speak of things you don't understand. They would have killed Tulio if I hadn't I gone with your mother." He replied. "No come here at once."
But instead the child simply died right there in the corner. And Miguel screamed.
His screams STILL didn't stop even after he had awakened, and he sat there on the floor of his hut, clutching his chest, covered in cold sweat and shaking. Slowly awareness came back to him, and he remembered that he was trapped with Margarita and Cortez, and that his wedding was tomorrow night, and that Tulio had been set free…
"Bad dream?" an eerie voice asked from the darkness of the room. Miguel gasped as two seemingly red eyes glared back at him from the shadows, and then a figure appeared. Tzekle-Kan.
"You…" Miguel gasped, crawling backwards.
"There's no reason to run, I haven't come to kill you." he said in that deep smooth, evil voice of his. Miguel merely glared back at him.
"I thought that was how you got your jollies." He mocked.
"Actually, I've come to help you." the man replied, ignoring Miguel snide remark. Miguel raised an eyebrow.
"You, help me?" he scoffed.
"I'm offering you another option, since I happen to know for a fact that you'd rather die than marry that strange woman out there." he said, producing from inside his vest a small glowing green vile. Miguel didn't have to think twice to guess what it was.
"Poison!" he cried, slapping it out Tzekle-Kan's hands.
"Your throwing your life away anyway, aren't you? Can't live without your precious Tulio…" he growled.
Miguel's eyes grew steely. "I don't need your kind of help, you monster." he said firmly. He leapt to his feet, and dressed himself quickly, storming out of his tent and rushing right over to where Margarita sat preening herself.
"Angel!" she said as his approached.
"Listen, Margarita," The Spaniard said without taking his eyes away from her, waving away her greeting, "I love Tulio. I know now that I always have. So if you tell me that I must marry you in three days, please believe I will be dead by morning."
The woman was taken aback once more by his frankness, and the look in his eyes told her that he meant every word of it. She was stunned into silence for a long moment, thinking. She of course, couldn't allow him to go free. What would that say of her? She was one of the most feared and powerful women in Portugal, and when she wanted something she got it, no matter what the plea may be. But of course, she couldn't allow him to know that. A plan slowly formulated in her mind and she smiled.
"I…I could never cause you such grief, dear Miguel." she said, standing up and taking his hands in hers. "Consider our wedding off."
Miguel smiled brightly. "Oh thank you, senora, I knew you'd understand--" he began, but Margarita shook her head.
"But…oh dear," she said, trying her best to sound worried.
Miguel looked puzzled, "What is it?"
"Well, I just thought…are you sure this Tulio of yours still wants you?" she asked. "I mean, after all, it was YOU who did the leaving, and well…pirates such as I hear he is are not known for their loyalty."
Miguel simply smiled. "My Tulio will always come for me."
"Unh-huh…" Margarita said, tapping her finger to her chin. "I have an idea! I'll send my man Lorenzo after your beloved with a letter from you. If Tulio still wants you…bless you both! If not…please, consider me as an alternative to suicide." she said gently.
Miguel nodded in full confidence that she would keep her word. Margarita merely smiled after him.
***
Tulio rode astride Altivo in silence, Cortez marching riding along side him, and the captives behind them. Cortez was in a giddy mood, he thought he had them exactly where he wanted them. That and he was definitely ruining he and Miguel's day.
But there was no way in hell Tulio was simply going to sit by and watch both El Dorado and Miguel be destroyed by this. Not to mention saving his own life, which he knew would become useless once he disclosed the location of the city. Slowly, but surely, a plan was formulating in his mind. Someway, somehow, he had to get away and warn the people of El Dorado before Cortez could get there. If he could do that, then he could also get back before Cortez and stop the wedding. But that would mean that he would have to escape, of course, and right now the chances of that were slim.
Tulio moaned in despair. He could see know conceivable way out of this mess. He had to think…
"Think Think Think!" he berated himself mentally. "In a situation like this you have to use your own strengths against the enemy…what are you good at Tulio, what---"
Slowly the black-haired man smiled to himself. What was he good at? That was simple. He was a conartist with a silver tongue and a sharp mind. He would have to find some of talking his way out of this. He glanced over at his captor. Cortez was no man to be trifled with. He'd as soon as kill Tulio as look at him, and he was only valuable as long as they didn't find the city. No, he needed someone even more greedy than Cortez, and a whole lot less devious.
Lorenzo. Of course. Tulio smiled again and gently ran his hand across Altivo's mane, hopping to let the creature know he had a plan. Altivo snorted softly in reply.
That night, as they broke camp, Tulio found himself bound and under careful guard. But he wasn't worried. In fact, he looked rather calm sitting there with Lorenzo and a few other sleeping soldiers. Lorenzo eyed Tulio, who was eyeing him.
"What are you looking at?" the other man grumbled.
"Nothing." Tulio shrugged casually. "I was just wondering." he replied.
"Wondering what?" Lorenzo asked.
"Well, why a smart man like you is taking orders from a guy like Cortez." Tulio replied. "I mean, you know that even if you DO find the city, you won't get any of the gold, right?" he asked.
Lorenzo cocked an eyebrow at him. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
"Well, I'm just saying, I mean, it's pretty obvious isn't it? He burned your boats so can't even return home, so what do you plan to do with all the gold here? The native's have no idea what value it has because they're surrounded by it." Tulio said, watching as Lorenzo began to become engrossed in his own method of manipulation. "If you ask me, I think he's planning on taking all the gold he can carry, and then hauling himself back to Spain with the Count and leaving you poor saps stranded." he added.
Hook, line, and sinker.
"Maybe you're right, and maybe you're not, but that still doesn't mean I'm releasing you." Lorenzo replied.
Still Tulio smiled. "Oh of course. But still, it seems a shame that neither one of us will be around much longer to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Tell me, Lorenzo, are you a gambling man?" he asked.
Lorenzo nodded. "Undisputed." he replied proudly.
"Really?" Tulio asked with mock excitement. "Well, as you know, I've rather made a living from it. I'd love to test your skill." he replied.
"But I'm not untying you. And besides, you're no match for my wits." Lorenzo said then, becoming more arrogant by the second.
"You're really that smart?" Tulio asked.
"Have you heard of the great Greek philosophers?" Lorenzo asked. Tulio nodded. "Morons." Lorenzo concluded.
"I think you're bluffing." Tulio replied.
"Oh do you?" the other man asked, rising to the bait. "We'll just see little man." He reached over, and quickly undid Tulio's hands, leaving his feet bound.
"I propose a battle of wits. To the death." Tulio replied excitedly.
"I accept!" Lorenzo replied.
"Hand me those wine goblets over there." the other Spaniard said, motioning to the bottle of wine and empty goblets standing nearby. As Lorenzo did this, Tulio pulled out a small pouch from inside his vest. It was what remained of the sleeping draught he'd made for Miguel. He explained it to Lorenzo, only adding that it was poison, who nodded excitedly, and quickly hid both cups behind his back, emptying the packet into one of the cups, and then returning them to their place in front of his opponent.
"Now the game begins. It ends when you chose, and we drink, and find out who is right and who is dead."
"Child's play." Lorenzo replied. "All I have to do is deduce, from what I know of you, the way your mind works. Are you the kind of man who would put the poison into his own glass, or into the glass of the enemy?"
"You're stalling." Tulio replied.
"I'm relishing is what I'm doing," answered the bald man. "No one has challenged my mind in years and I love it." he said.
"And as I said before, you're stalling."
Lorenzo smiled and stared at the wine goblets. "Now a great fool," he began, "would place the wine in his own goblet, because he would know that only another great fool would reach first for what he was given. I am clearly not a great fool, so I will clearly not reach for your wine."
"That's your final choice?" asked Tulio.
"No. Because you know I was not a great fool, so you would know that I would never fall for such a trick. You would count on it. So I will clearly not reach for mine either."
"Keep going," the black-haired man replied.
"I intend to." the other man replied. "We have no decided the poisoned cup is most likely in front of you. But since you are a conman, and conmen are used to having people not trust them, as I don't trust you, which means I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you."
Tulio was starting to get nervous.
"But again, you have suspected I knew your origins, so you would have known about criminals and criminal behavior, and therefore I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me."
"Truly you have a dizzying intellect," whispered Tulio.
"You have escaped me and the rest of the crew on the ship and managed to survive in the jungle, which means you are exceptionally strong, and exceptionally strong men are convinced that they are so powerful they will never die, too powerful even for poison, so you could have put it into your cup, trusting your strength to save you; thus I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you."
Tulio was very nervous now.
"But you also are still a conman, and so you must have studied, and if you can study, you are clearly more than simply strong; you are aware of how mortal we all are, and you don't wish to die, so you would have kept the poison as far from yourself as possible; therefore I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me."
"You're trying to make me give away something. It won't work." Tulio replied.
"It already has! You 've given everything away, I know where the poison is!" Lorenzo cried.
"Only a genius could have deduced as much." replied Tulio.
"How fortunate for me that I happen to be one." Replied Lorenzo becoming more and more amused now.
"You can not frighten me," said Tulio, but there was fear all through his voice.
"Shall we drink then?"
"Pick, choose, quit dragging it out, you don't know, you couldn't know."
Lorenzo only smiled at his outburst. Then a strange look crossed his features and he pointed off behind the other man. "What in the world could that be?" he asked.
Tulio turned around to look. "I don't see anything."
"Oh, well, I could have sworn I saw something, no matter." Lorenzo began to laugh.
"I don't understand what's so funny," the other Spaniard said.
"I'll tell you in a minute, first let's drink."
And he picked up his own goblet.
Tulio picked up the one in front of him.
They drank.
"You guessed wrong," said Tulio.
"You only think I guessed wrong," said Lorenzo, his laughter ringing louder. "That's what's so funny! I switched glasses with you when your back was turned!"
There was nothing for Tulio to say.
"Fool!" cried Lorenzo, relishing his victory. "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!"
He was quite cheery until the drugs took effect.
Tulio reached down and untied his feet and stepped over the sleeping fool, moving towards Altivo, who was just staring at him. Tulio smiled. "You didn't really think I'd fall for that old trick, did you?" he asked the horse.
They moved then towards the captives, who were all sleeping quietly. In silence Tulio roused them all, and motioned for them to take to the jungle, one by one, without waking the guards. They understood, and followed through successfully…
Until the very last one, tripped over a sleeping guard, who woke with a start and sounded the alarm. Tulio bolted, leaping upon Altivo as the guards raced after him, Cortez shouting behind them the whole way.
His heart was thudding in his ears. He had to get away, he had to save Miguel…
And then quite suddenly, Tulio let out a loud gasping shout of pain, as a bullet struck him through the shoulder. He rolled off Altivo's back, and fell hard upon the jungle floor, and laid still.
***
Miguel was lost in black abyss of swirling water. Xibalba, the Spirit world of El Dorado, was sucking him down into its dark depths. Skeletal hands clutched at him from the whirlpool, dragging him down, watching him drown. And all the while, Tzekle-Kan looked down at him from far above, laughing, insidiously laughing at his misery. Margarita appeared beside him then, dressed in her wedding gown, and threw her wedding bouquet down at him. Miguel stared at the falling flowers, which suddenly turned from harmless plants into daggers, which ripped through his body.
Miguel opened his mouth to scream as he fell, but now sound came out. Down he went, further and further into the whirlpool as blood surrounded him, until he came to a crashing halt at the whirlpool's floor.
He laid there for a moment, staring up at the distant light far above him, and then turned his head to see Tulio standing there beside him, gazing at him serenely.
"Tulio, help me!" Miguel whispered, his body racked with pain. Tulio knelt beside him, and took him in his arms.
At once all of Miguel's pains were gone, replaced by warmth and comfort. He blinked up at his partner, and found that both he and Tulio were glowing softly with strange golden light. At once the waters around them dissipated and they were standing once more on solid ground. But Tzekle-Kan was still there, laughing, and in a flash he transformed from himself into a fearful Jaguar form, just as he had done before, threatening to devour them. There was already blood on his lips, though whose they didn't know.
And then, from behind the evil Jaguar, loomed the same strange stone plaque that he and Tulio had encountered so long ago. The depiction of the two gods, riding on a horse. The lords of El Dorado. The image seemed to grow higher and higher, until it blocked out the sun itself…
Miguel came awake, dripping with cold sweat and breathing hard. His dreams were horrifying, and growing steadily worse. He sat up in his bed, staring around his darkened tent. Still no sign of Tulio, and the wedding was edging closer and closer. His dreams, he knew, were trying to tell him something, but what he could not understand.
What he wouldn't give for a kind word in that moment of fear and dark. But instead he was greeted with the exact opposite. As his sight cleared and adjusted to the darkness, he found that he was not alone. Tzekle-Kan sat across from him, just as he had the night before, staring quietly into the dark.
"What do you want from me?!" Miguel screamed, lashing out at him, grabbing him fiercely by the throat and throwing him to the ground. Tzekle-Kan said nothing, only looking up at him and smiling with unnerving calm.
Miguel recoiled from him like a frightened child, dashing out into the night air, staring around him frantically. Reality could be far more fearful than any nightmare at times. He fell to his knees, trembling in fear.
Tzekle-Kan came from the tent then and stood beside him. "You do not understand, do you?" he asked.
Miguel looked up at him angrily. "Understand what?" he barked.
"You and your friend thought you were so very clever before, didn't you? Coming to our land, making my people believe you were some sort of savior. I believed you for a time, but that was before I learned how soft hearted you were. The Gods demand blood because they have none of their own. It is essentials to sustaining our society. The Gods devour those who are wicked and unrighteous, leaving only their loyal servants to serve them." he said. "And now the Gods are taking vengeance upon you because you have lead their people away from them."
"You're sick." Miguel growled. "How can you possibly believe that the one who created you would want to destroy you?" Then he sighed loudly. "Never mind, I don't even know why I'm talking to you."
"Do you see now that this is all you have left?" the high priest asked then. "What I offered you before was mercy, something I'm sure you'll get none of from her." he said, nodding his head towards the boat. Miguel staggered to his feet and ran from the native, he ran straight towards Margarita's tent, throwing open the tent flap.
She gasped, having been awakened by the sound, and sat up, wrapping herself in her sheets. "Miguel!" she screeched.
"I'm sorry, senora, forgive me, but I must know, have you had any word from Tulio? Any word at all?" he cried, falling on his knees at her bedside.
"It's too soon, my angel." she replied, patting his golden blonde hair. "You really must be more patient."
Miguel nodded hopelessly, looking like a lost child. "I know, but my dreams have been terrifying of late, and I know I will not have any rest until I've heard from him."
She smiled, drawing his head into her lap and stroking his hair. Miguel was so desperately seeking comfort that he didn't even care who was giving it, even the woman who had caused all this mess in the first place. "I don't know how much more of this I can stand." he whimpered.
"You really do love him, don't you?" she asked. She knew little of the emotion, for she much preferred material things to people, but even she could recognize the emotion when she saw it in another.
Miguel nodded. "With all my heart."
For a moment, a pure glistening moment, pity entered the woman's heart. She pitied Miguel, really and truly pitied him, because she knew that he would never return to him. She decided then that at least she would be more kind to the poor man, as he would need it in his remaining days. It was the least she could do for him, you know, after separating him from his "true love" and forcing him to marry her, only to flaunt him around until she found a better suitor and had him killed.
"Now then, that's enough of that." she said, gently pushing him up, trying not to show that she could actually care about someone other than herself. "You must try to get some rest. If you haven't got your health…you haven't got anything." she said in a rather motherly tone.
Miguel nodded, standing up and quietly leaving the tent, but as he did, he paused and looked back at her. "You know, I don't think you're really all you pretend to be, Margarita." he said.
She stared at him. He said nothing more, and left the tent in silence.
But as he was heading back to his own tent, he saw something coming through the thick under brush ahead of him. He stopped and stared, wondering what it could be. An animal? A man? Tulio?
It was the only the second unfortunately, Lorenzo in fact. He was looking definitely worse for wear, but Miguel didn't care. Surely he had word of his beloved. He raced towards him, catching him by the shoulders. "Lorenzo!" he cried, smiling excitedly at him. "Have you heard from him? What did he say?!" cried.
Lorenzo looked at him as though he had two heads. It was then that Miguel saw how badly off he was, like he had had the once over. Surely Tulio hadn't done this. And then he saw that the other man was carrying something in his hand. Miguel looked down, and saw a thin piece of purple fabric clutched in his hands. It was Tulio's hair ribbon.
Miguel's heart jumped into his throat. He pulled the ribbon from the other man's hands and stared at it. "Where did you get this…?" he demanded, his voice barely a whisper.
"I tried to warn him," Lorenzo muttered, "but he tricked me, freed those heathens and ran off. He shot 'im. He's dead." he said.
Miguel simply stood there and said nothing. Now the others had come to see what the commotion was about. "News from Cortez?" the Count asked.
"Yeah, that conmen's dead and the captive's got away. He's continuing on in his search, wants the rest of his troops…" Lorenzo said, but Miguel barely heard him.
His legs gave out from under him, and dropped to his knees, holding the tattered ribbon. Suddenly he felt as though he was back in that cold endless whirlpool of his dream. Dead…Tulio was dead.
Margarita came to his side, gently laying a hand on his shoulder. "Miguel…" she quietly. Miguel flinched away from her grasp and stared up at Lorenzo.
"You're lying…" he said slowly, softly.
The other man stared down at him. "What?"
"You're lying." Miguel repeated, a little louder this time.
"Look, I told you, they shot him. He's dead." Lorenzo said, annoyed with the blonde-haired man.
"YOU'RE LYING!" Miguel cried savagely, striking out at him. Lorenzo scrambled away from the mad man's grasp, having taken a bad enough beating from Cortez for allowing Tulio to escape in the first place.
"Tulio and I are joined by the bonds of love, and you can not break that, not with a thousand swords. And you can not kill it! He will come back, he will!" Miguel cried, his heart breaking with every word. Margarita laid her hands on him again, compelling him to calm and compose himself. But Miguel was far beyond reason now. His beloved was dead. Dead… he had failed him.
The world seemed to completely crash in upon itself, and he was lost. He fell to the ground before he even knew what was happening to him and fell into senselessness.
