PURGATORY --- more.
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"They must be close." Challenger spoke resolutely from the path. He and the others looked downward at many footprints, some feet with shoes or boots and others without. It didn't take a tracker as good as Veronica to see that Marguerite and Roxton had been kidnapped and were being dragged off by plateau natives.
"But why did they make them abandon their supplies and weapons?" Malone wondered, "If the kidnappers were slave traders or even members of a cannibal tribe they would know enough to keep the supplies for themselves."
"I don't think that was the case, Ned." Challenger slowed as he spoke, "You saw how the guns were laid in a pile, behind a fallen tree and how the bags were tossed by the path."
"Roxton and Marguerite were laying down clues -- for us to find them?" Veronica asked.
"Yes." Challenger looked off into the distance and saw, in the horizon and beyond the trees, the tip top of a building, possibly a temple from the configuration. "I believe we're on the right track."
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Roxton, sitting in his cell which had been cut out of the mountain side, was calmer. Danielle had allowed the drugs to wear off, her voodoo spell to dissipate, and now she faced her prisoner who - with clear eyes - appeared to be much more the man she remembered.
"The last time I saw you ..." Roxton began, standing from his sitting position.
"... you thought I had been killed." she finished, wearing a seductive smile as she walked cheekily up to the bars of his cage. "I was. Nearly beyond all hope. But my devoted people could not function without their queen and they brought me back."
"How?"
"Magic of course. It's amazing what a few virgin sacrifices will do on this plateau." Danielle spoke carelessly, with a smile.
Roxton slowly shook his head back and forth, staring at her. "You deserved to be dead." he said, his teeth gritted.
"Oh, you're not still thinking about that woman are you?"
Roxton pulled his eyes off of her and once again their was pain in his expression. "You made me ..." he could not continue.
Danielle could: "You murdered Marguerite." She allowed the sentence to roll off her tongue.
"YOU murdered her!" Roxton barked, distraught and furious. "I was your instrument!" He walked up to the bars, rage on his face and a snarl in his voice, "You're a monster and you will die again, a horrible agonizing death, Danielle!"
"At your hands, John?" she asked too sweetly, mock innocence in her eyes.
"Yes." he replied, "And it will be me who bathes in your blood." and there was once again an unsound gleam in his eyes.
"Try, Lord Roxton." Danielle turned about, her cape swishing behind her as she retraced her steps to the temple. "Just try."
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"Challenger!"
He had told them to be quiet as they approached the temple but Veronica could not prevent the shout.
Malone was already kneeling beside the unmoving figure as she lay the ground. He checked her pulse and his expression was relieved.
"What is it?" Challenger approached at a trot, "Didn't I say we shouldn't ...? Oh, my God!"
Laying before them was Marguerite Krux, her complexion pale and the shoulder of her blouse bloodied.
"Is she?" Challenger asked.
"No." Veronica looked up at him, "She's alive!"
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I'm sorry it took so long to get Chapter 3 up. My computer was down. I'll try to get the other chapters done soon. Babs