A/N: Ok, now I'm back for good. No more vacation. Which really hurts my feelings, but, hey, I wasn't born into royalty and have to go to school. If I don't update that much, it's because I am practicing and doing the try outs for the tennis team. So, anyways, thank you so much for all these reviews for chapter 11, it makes me feel much loved. Please don't be too critical on this chapter, as I am suffering a terrible case of writer's block and it took me a very long time to write this.
Smithy: I am so touched by your devotion to the Turners, and you are right because their family is not exactly in what we call an ideal situation; Elizabeth is in very bad conditions, giving premature labor, Will is dying for love of his wife (we always knew he loved her too much), Chris is missing in action and Miriam is a slave. Yeah, they have seen better times.
Vampirehelsing: André is such a great guy and everything bad seems to happen to him. He gets beaten half to death and then branded. No wonder he now hates the Incas with a fiery passion. I would too. He's so nice to Miriam and she is all hostile towards him. Great guy but not in the best of situations.
Mysterious-muse: You're story is sooo good. I can't wait until you update! I understand that you're waiting to get more reviews, it is a good thing, because you have to give people time to discover your story :) By the way, did I sense Jack cares about Constance? Hehe, sorry, I just really think they should get together, I mean, Will already has Elizabeth, doesn't he? Anyways, I am happy that you think I portray the Incas well, hey, I do my best :) Hope you like this chapter and keep writing!
Eternalhope08: YAY! Ali has been discovered, how will everyone react? (suspense music). A different Ali, one living in a galaxy far, far away, is discovering that Anakin is probably the handsomest and nicest Jedi around, what will happen now? (more suspense music). Don't leave us all hanging on the cliff forever on your story True Freedom cause we risk loosing our grip and falling:) Happy that you like my story, as for your questions…um…I guess you'll have to find out!
Rose of Shade: I'm back! Yeah, the main Inca drink was actually the chewed up corn, kinda gross. I broke open my head with a plate on my 3rd birthday, I wanted to see what was on the table and couldn't exactly reach, but don't worry, the plate got off a lot worse than I did :)…Jack, on the other hand, is fine, happy in the cupboard, away from my brother's pencils.
Scarlet-rebELLE: YAY! New reviewer! Why, thank you for the complement, I am really glad that I do not mangle the story :) This is really different from the other PotC fanfics, but lets just say that I am a creative genius…lol! Keep up the reviews, don't abandon me after this one ;)
Now, the chapter you have all been waiting for…
Chapter XI: Assassin
The condor did not fly overhead the city that morning, instead hiding from the world in its nest high in Andes. Darkness descended on the city, though the sun shone brightly through the soft, ever-present mist. No sound came from the mountains, and the llamas abstained from the fields of grass. The cry of terror and anguish that had shaken the city still rang from the building, echoing in the mountains.
Miriam knew it before Cuva had appeared screaming at the barrack door, calling all the guards available to the Acahuana estate. It had occurred to her in the middle of the night, waking her like a knife through her heart. She would have woken André, but for his face, contorted in pain, his hands never leaving his mark. Shaking her head lightly and reprimanding herself for her foolishness, calling it a dream, she had again nodded off to sleep. Yet a part of her knew that it was no dream, it was real and now it had happened.
The slaves woke with Cuva's screams, hesitantly pulling back their hide curtains. They walked out, their feet producing no noise as they compressed the sandy floor. Heads and eyes wandered, registering that no guards remained to beat them and chase them to their rooms. A mass of slaves surrounded the still steaming cauldron, grappling for the meager remainders of last night's dinner. André woke as well, quickly rising to his feet. His face was alert despite the sleep that lines his features.
"The guards are gone," whispered Miriam, the truth sinking in.
André turned to look at her, his face breaking into a grin, "Then let's make a break for the mountains, shall we?"
Miriam shook her head, "They have locked the barrack doors and will be back soon."
André swore swiftly and sat down on the mat, his face shadowed by his coal black hair, "Damn Incas."
Miriam shivered, as if injured by his words, "Don't say that André…not today."
"I will say it when I want to. They have beaten me and branded me; their have no sense of decency nor of human rights," André's eyes shone with hate towards his captors.
Miriam closed her eyes, pained, "Please, André, don't…"
His eyes softened slightly, "Why?"
Suddenly Miriam stood up, her dress swishing mutely. With one last look at the bewildered André she shot for the door, her hair streaming behind her.
Miriam didn't know which chamber of the many in the barrack belonged to Moonstone. She searched, drawing back the hides of each and peering into the darkness of the room. The chambers where all deserted; the slaves having fled to the cauldron of food, to mill in the center of the barrack, to feel free once again. Miriam drew back the hide of a small chamber, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness within as she glanced in. Moonstone long straight white hair fell perfectly over her back as she embraced a tall, black haired Inca, kissing him passionately. Miriam felt her eyes widen and her grip on the hide tighten in shock. For a few minutes she stood there, dumbstruck, unable to mouth a single word as Moonstone and the Inca kissed each other, hugging each other fiercely.
"Moonstone?" croaked Miriam, immobile at the doorway.
The young woman frowned as she immediately let go of her pair, the Inca stepping away hurriedly, readjusting his elegant robes.
"Who is it?" asked Moonstone, apparently annoyed.
Miriam forced her name out of her mouth, her hazel eyes clasped on the Inca, "Miriam."
Moonstone laughed merrily as she approached Miriam, leading her into the chamber by her hand, "Good morning, Miriam! What is the matter, do they want us to go earlier; do we have a special job today?"
Miriam only had eyes for the tall Inca. "Who is that?" she asked flatly.
"Uh?" asked Moonstone, looking around, "Oh!" she laughed, realizing Miriam meant her Inca companion, "That is Acahuana."
Miriam chocked.
"Who?" she asked weakly once she had regained a steady breathing.
Moonstone brushed her milky hair happily with her long fingers, humming a light tune, "Acahuana, Miriam, you know, the son of Lord Acahuana."
"Moonstone, do you know what you are saying?" attempted Miriam cautiously, not believing Moonstone's care free attitude of her actions.
"Of course I do, or else I wouldn't say it, would I?" grimaced Moonstone, encountering a knot in her hair.
"Um…how long has this been going on?" Miriam asked, deciding to try on a different note.
"Well…" thought Moonstone, having undone the knot in her hair, frowning she turned to Acahuana, "How long, Acahuana?"
Acahuana looked up, his strong features smiling at Moonstone's voice, "Since we met each other, when you first came here."
Moonstone smiled, her green eyes positively sparkling.
"How did you meet?" Miriam asked, feeling like an intruder.
"He was looking over this room on his mother's orders when I came in…and, well…lets just say that it was love at first sight!" finished Moonstone ecstatically.
Miriam looked from Moonstone, who was brushing the dust off her dress with a blissful expression on her flawless face, and Acahuana, who couldn't keep his eyes off the white haired young woman, and decided that all reason had dropped away from this conversation.
"Wait a second…did I forget to introduce you two?" exclaimed Moonstone, looking from Acahuana to Miriam.
Acahuana stood up as if hit by lighting, nodding at Moonstone.
"Acahuana, this is Miriam…" she told her companion.
Miriam smiled slightly, a nervous chuckle escaping her at the intense way the Inca was looking at her.
"and Miriam, this is Acahuana," finished Moonstone.
Acahuana suddenly leaned forward and hugged Miriam, who stiffened immediately. Then, before Miriam knew what was happening, Acahuana pressed his lips to hers, kissing her intensely. She was shocked, unable to move at this gesture.
"Let go of her!" growled a voice from the door.
André leapt into the room, tackling Acahuana. The tall Inca, taken by surprise crashed onto the coarse sandy floor. André wrapped his arm protectively around Miriam, glaring at Acahuana. Moonstone fell to the floor, helping Acahuana to his feet, all while looking accusingly at André, who still eyed the Inca whilst keeping Miriam beside him.
"André, I presume," stated Moonstone, shaking André's hand.
André nodded curtly, "And you are…"
"Moonstone," responded Moonstone, all anger and fury gone from her voice as she wiped the dust from Acahuana's clothes.
"What was he doing to Miriam," seethed André, his crystal blue eyes chips of ice.
Moonstone laughed, kissing Acahuana briefly to show that she wasn't laughing at him, "Well, um…I kind of told Acahuana that when you greet a girl you kiss her…I guess I didn't explain very well…I am sorry…"
Acahuana looked up surprised, "I am not supposed to kiss her? Who is the one that threw me to the ground?"
Moonstone tied her hair into a knot at the back of her head, "You are not supposed to kiss her on the lips, only on the cheek, and as for the guy beside her, that is André, they have the same relationship as we do."
Miriam woke from her shock at this comment, shaking off André's arm brusquely, "We do not have any type of relationship, at all. Only two things connect us: one, he sat beside me on the slave boat and two, he shares the same room with me, I sleep on the floor and he sleeps on the mat."
Acahuana looked relieved, but then quickly adopted an apologetic visage, "I am sorry, Miriam, I didn't mean to offend you."
André tensed beside Miriam, "Well you did."
Miriam threw André a murderous glare, "Actually, he didn't. Either way, it is for me to decide and you to accept."
André steeped back, his crystal eyes losing their ice as he looked at her cautiously, "Miriam…"
Ignoring André, she resolutely walked towards Acahuana and pressed her lips to his briefly.
Acahuana looked at her bewildered and Moonstone was opening her mouth to complain.
"Nice meeting you," Miriam smiled at Acahuana before swinging around and striding towards the door. She threw back the hide and disappeared into the main chamber, not even awarding a gaping André one single look.
o o o
Miriam stood immobilized, not able to rip away her hazel eyes from the limp form of Lord Acahuana, head of the Acahuana ayllu. His wife's tears drowned his body, wetting his robes, which were stiff with dried blood. It had been murder. An arrow stuck through his throat, a dagger run five times through his back. No one spoke, only the wails of anguish from Anahuarque, now a widow, were heard over the shocked silence that surrounded them all. Slaves and lords alike stared down at the body, their minds struggling with this enigma. There had been no signs. The gardener had woken to find his lord's dead body sprawled over the flowering bushes of gardens adjacent to his room. No threats, no warnings. Yet Miriam knew who had killed him.
The conversation she had overheard was now clear to her. Urcon had killed his brother Acahuana. That thought had woken her in the night, the whispers leering at her in her troubled sleep. They had engulfed her and she had known that moment that Acahuana was no more. But the limp body in front of her was too much. Acahuana's eyes stared blankly ahead, no one bothering to close them forever yet. His robes were stiff and caked with dried blood, his wounds an ugly purple-green. The lord's bronze face was now ashen and pale with death, the underworld claiming him fully as his.
"This is indeed a sad day, but your grieving wounds us all more, Anahuarque, and it must cease," a cold emotionless voice broke Anahuarque's wails of grief.
Miriam froze as she recognized Urcon's inhuman voice. Anahuarque stood, her kind face swollen red with her tears.
"You are a widow, my sister," Chic'ya hissed, an unnatural smile of sympathy on her flawless face.
Anahuarque's face was pained a moment as she gasped, the realization still hazy in her mind. She was no longer the lady of the house, just a forgotten widow, her loved husband was dead. Murdered.
"I will speak to the council," stated Urcon, his eyes passing slowly over the shaking widow.
Anahuarque composed herself upon hearing these words, her eyes losing their grief at once.
"My son, Acahuana, is now the head of the ayllu, he alone may speak to the council, you remain, as always, behind all my sons," Anahuarque challenged, asserting her family's right to the head.
Urcon shrunk back, Chic'ya's beauty clouded by her eyes so saturated with hate. None of them dared rise up against the rightful head while surrounded by Inca high society. No, they would wait like coiled snaked for their moment to strike.
"I will find your son, Anahuarque, and inform him of this sorrowful happening," offered Urcon, his handsome face twisted into a grimace of a smile.
Anahuarque nodded, her mourning pushed away for the moment to defend her place in the ayllu and the succession line of her sons.
Miriam knew that Urcon had killed Acahuana. He gained the most from it. He came one step closer to becoming head of the ayllu. All that stood in between him and the head was Anahuarque and her sons. They would be easy to get rid of. Miriam had to tell them. Acahuana's death was not natural, it was murder, and Urcon had committed it.
Anahuarque's tears stained her bronze cheeks as she once more kneeled beside her husband, sobbing softly into her dress. Children began to appear on the scene, their eyes wide and fearful as they saw the dead body of their father. The eldest daughter, the one so had so gracefully played the pipes floated beside her mother with her younger brother's help, her beautiful raven black hair falling over her shoulders as she reached out blindly to take her mother's hand in hers. A silent tear ran down her cheek as she lifted her face towards the sky.
"Cuntur," she uttered softly before the darkness enveloped the family, leaving them alone in their grief.
o o o
The slaves were ordered to the barracks, commanded to do nothing and leave the ayllu to cover the house in mourning. Acahuana, son of the now dead Lord Acahuana, had been found and quickly brought to the estate before his mother. The council would grant him the rank of head of the Acahuana ayllu today. Anahuarque was taking no chances in her son's succession; she would not let Urcon take the head.
Miriam walked silently back to her room in the barrack, still shaken by the deceased lord's body. The guards let her pass into the barrack without a word, their own eyes distant and unseeing. An unnatural fog hung in the breeze, obscuring everything and reducing the Andes to a faint silhouette. The slaves were nowhere to be seen in the center of the barrack, and silence reigned. André lay on the mat, his fingers passing casually over his wooden harmonica.
"Found out why our slavers decided to lock us all in this barrack like cattle?" he asked lightly once he noticed her.
Miriam walked over to the small window that decorated the bare stone wall. She passed her hands over the bars that held them prisoners, "Lord Acahuana is dead."
André's voice was harsh, "The less the better."
Her brown hair swished in the air as Miriam turned to face André, "He was murdered by Urcon."
André didn't seem remotely moved by this news, "In that case, did they kill Urcon as well?" he asked hopefully.
"I am the only one who knows Urcon killed him," Miriam muttered as she looked around the room, her eyes searching.
"How come?"
Miriam frowned slightly when she didn't find what she needed, "I overheard a conversation yesterday in-between Urcon and his wife, Chic'ya. They talked elusively about killing someone, but that even if they did his sons would still stand in the way. The person they designed their murder for was Acahuana, head of the Acahuana ayllu and Urcon's older brother. It makes sense that they would rejoice in seeing Acahuana's dead body. In his death he leaves his family weak, and if Urcon waits and strikes when the time is right, then the head of the ayllu is his."
Smiling to herself, Miriam wedged her foot between two iron bars. In one smooth motion the bars that held them imprisoned in their chamber fell to the floor, emitting a groan as they brushed against the stone frame of the window. André skittered to his feet, his blue eyes wide with surprise. Miriam smiled a self satisfied smile and hoisted herself up to the window.
"How did you do that?" spluttered André.
Miriam smirked, "It was made of half pint barrel hinges. With the right leverage, and the proper application of strength, the bars lifted free."
André laughed, grinning, "Then why didn't you free us sooner, you could have spared me a few scars."
Miriam rolled her eyes, "It never occurred to me. It was just two days, hardly seems a lot. There were too many guards, and besides, you always have to wait for the opportune moment."
"I've heard that before," though André.
Miriam jumped from the window, her hair streaming behind her as she landed solidly on the ground, looking around her quickly. Once she was satisfied that no one was near them and would notice their flee she stood, calling softly to André, "Remember to replace the bars in the window."
André glided down from the small window, "Already done."
Miriam nodded, moving swiftly towards the heart of the Inca city.
"Shouldn't we break for the mountains? We are less likely to be caught there than in the city."
"I must tell Anahuarque that Urcon killed her husband," murmured Miriam, slithering into an alley.
André followed, the beads and trinkets in his coal black hair jingling softly, "We should leave the Incas to their problems, we have enough with our own."
"I overheard the conversation, and, in a way, it is my duty to tell Acahuana's wife and children."
"These Incas don't deserve this," André commented, climbing mutely over a sleeping llama.
Miriam ignored him, deftly gliding through the constricted alleys. The Incas had deserted the streets to hide in their homes or go pray at the imposing temple. Women refrained from washing, turning the icy Urubamba River into a desolate picture of solitude. No condor flew through the skies and the city sleep in deathly silence, thinking who would be next.
A/N: This is really short compared to the other chapters, but take into account that I have been suffering from writer's block. I'll try to post as soon as I can. I would also like to ask that if anyone who reads this right now knows the answer to this question please review and write the answer, because I can't find it anywhere on fanfiction: IF YOU DELETE A CHAPTER; DO YOU STILL KEEP THE REVIEWS YOU RECEIVED? AND WHAT IF YOU REPLACE IT?Please answer this if you know, because I really think I should get rid of that author's note and it would really help me. Anyways, review and have all the fun you can before school starts!
