Just the Epilogue left. Thanks for reading and enjoying this far :)
Chapter 9
"He knows," Diego said softly as he curled a lock of Victoria's hair around his finger.
They sat on a bench in a secluded section of the de la Vega garden, Victoria resting with her back against his chest. The gravestones of his mother, stillborn sister, and Gilberto rested here, and servants were not permitted to enter this portion of the garden without permission. Diego alone tended this area of the garden and had done so since he had returned from Spain.
Diego knew they would be completely alone. Not even his father ventured out here often. Today was a special day, one observed only yearly. The memory of their losses was still too fresh and Alejandro often shied away from that which caused him such deep heartache. Diego hoped that he would not have to add to those memories with his own death at the alcalde's hands.
"No, don't say that," Victoria finally said and leaned into Diego's embrace, clutching tightly the arms that came around her.
"He came straight to the hacienda and pointedly told my father and I that he wanted to meet with Zorro." He pressed a kiss into her hair and sighed deeply. "I think that was a clear indication."
"Then why didn't he arrest you? Or shoot you?" Victoria asked, glancing uncertainly up at the man she loved. "I guess he believed more of what Thackery said than he let on."
"I don't know. But I need to see him."
"He suspects now. If he sees you in Zorro's costume, he will know." Victoria trailed her fingers along the healing scar on his cheek.
The mark would be a permanent reminder of the true wickedness that could be found in men.
"The mask covers it," Diego answered, taking her hand in his and gently kissing the palm.
"But it doesn't cover your eyes or your voice." Victoria shook her head. "It's so very obvious once you know, Diego."
"Then -"
Victoria turned and leaned into his arms, clutching him tightly. "I don't want you to go."
"We won't be free until I do." Diego tilted her head and brushed his cheek against hers.
Tears formed in Victoria's eyes but he cupped her cheeks and wiped them away before they could fall. When he brushed his lips across hers, she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung desperately to him.
"Stay here," Diego whispered softly. "Wait for me."
One lone tear slipped down her cheek and he gently leaned forward to kiss it away.
"I will always wait for you," Victoria whispered almost desperately.
Zorro rested his hand on Toronado's flank and stroked it gently. "Time to go, my friend."
The horse sensed a change in his master and snorted loudly in response.
"You don't think it's a good idea either, hmm?" Zorro ruffled the stallion's mane. "Or have you suddenly decided that it would be wiser to take a woman's advice over mine after all these years?"
Toronado shook his head and snorted.
Diego had brought Victoria into the cave a few days prior and she had spoiled the lonely horse with much needed attention. It was clear Toronado was smitten with his master's lady.
Felipe appeared in the archway and held out Zorro's hat.
Zorro took it with a wry smile. "Take care of him if something should happen to me."
Felipe nodded solemnly.
Zorro pulled the boy into a tight hug and thanked him for his help over the years. It would not be forgotten. In this life or the next.
For his father, he had no words. The distraught look on the older man's face was enough to give Diego pause.
"Father -"
"I don't want you to go, Diego."
"You know I have to do this. Come what may, it must be done."
Alejandro looked away, knowing that his son was right. But he didn't have to admit it. When Diego stepped closer, Alejandro sighed and pulled his son into a tight hug.
Diego's arms gingerly came around his shoulders, conscious of the still healing wounds across his father's back. "Take care of Victoria, Father. Please. If something should happen -"
"It won't," Alejandro interrupted, taking his son's masked face between his hands and placing a reverent kiss on each cheek. "I will see you when you return." He looked around the room and asked, "Where is Victoria?"
"I left her in the garden," Diego said softly, "I wanted her to remember our last moments there if I don't return."
"You will, my son. And then we will have a wedding to plan."
Diego smiled despite the foreboding feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.
And then he was gone, leaving Felipe and Alejandro staring down the passageway, each struggling to keep the tears at bay.
When Zorro arrived in town, the sun was slowly sinking below the horizon, casting dark shadows on the white adobe walls. He crept silently along the rooftops, his customary way of entering the alcalde's office.
When he opened the rooftop window, Zorro noticed that the alcalde was quite absorbed in reading a large book, its pages worn and wrinkled. The masked man dropped into the room forcing a customary mocking grin to his lips.
De Soto didn't even look up; he simply turned the page, his eyes scanning the paper.
"Every account of your actions. Every sighting. Every criminal you have brought to justice," de Soto finally said after a few moments of silence. When he glanced up, his eyes were hollow, haunted. He closed the book and rested his hand atop it. "A journal of your exploits, begun by Luis Ramón and completed by me."
"An interesting read, to be certain." Zorro said, wondering how true this accounting could possibly be. He, too, had kept a journal of Zorro's life. It would be intriguing to compare those notes.
"Oh yes." De Soto opened a page near the beginning. "Luis Ramón was a power-hungry man." When he glanced up at Zorro, a small, calculating smile crept across his lips. "Yet every account here speaks to your bravery and assistance in matters not concerning you."
Zorro's brows knitted together in confusion.
"Oh, make no mistake," De Soto noticed the look on Zorro's masked face. "Luis Ramón hated you with every fiber of his being. But I suspect that was because you stood in the way of his ambition."
"Much like I do with you," Zorro observed.
"Yes, indeed." De Soto smirked. "However, there is one fundamental difference between him and myself."
"And what might that be?" Zorro asked, truly curious. This change in de Soto's personality had been swift. He couldn't help but wonder if it were simply a ruse to trap him.
"Should he have learned your identity, he would not have hesitated to end your life."
A tense silence followed. Zorro knew the alcalde would explain in his own time.
"You saved my life a week ago," de Soto admitted, leveling a piercing gaze at his adversary. "And it was not the first time. Regardless of the situation, of how relentlessly I have pursued you over the years, you have never once tried to harm me."
"I do not kill."
"Yes, yes," de Soto dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand. "You're such a - hero."
Zorro smiled at that. "Then why did you ask me here tonight?"
"Oh, to see if you would come," de Soto said with a grin. He stood and walked around his office, brushing his hand across the various surfaces on which Zorro had left his mark over the years. "I must admit, Diego, for all of your intelligence, this is probably one of the more foolish things you have ever done."
Zorro didn't bat an eyelash as de Soto turned his head and grinned before returning to his chair.
"What's the matter? Fox got your tongue?"
Zorro waited, forcing a calm expression onto his face.
"No admission? No denial? Nothing?" De Soto sighed, "You disappoint me."
The words slipped out before Zorro could stop them. "That is a frequent happenstance in my life."
"Did they know?" de Soto asked, leveling his gaze at the masked man. There was no need to ask who 'they' meant.
"No."
"Not until last week," de Soto chuckled and shook his head. "Ah, what a shock it must have been for them."
"And for you."
"Oh yes, I've debated for days about what to do with this knowledge. There are so many choices." De Soto's eyes glowed with excitement.
"And you have decided on - ?"
De Soto leaned forward in his chair. "Unmasking you, of course."
Zorro tensed.
"And?"
"I would dearly love to hang you for the trouble you have caused me over the years," de Soto admitted with a disappointed sigh.
"But?"
De Soto brushed his hand over the leather bound book resting on his desk. "In reading and rereading this journal over the last few days, I have come to understand more about myself and more about what drives you to oppose me."
A few moments of silence followed.
"And because of this newfound knowledge, I offer you this." De Soto stood and slowly lifted the loaded pistol from his desk drawer.
Zorro tensed, his hand instantly reaching for his sheathed sword.
"I believe you are intelligent enough to realize that I would not miss from this distance."
Zorro dropped his arms.
"My demands are this: You are to remove that mask, now."
De Soto waited and watched carefully, trying to decide whether he was more excited about seeing the true face of his enemy revealed before him at last or the possibility that the masked man might refuse, and give him a reason to fire his weapon.
Zorro hesitated a moment and then removed the hat and laid it on the desk in front of him. Slowly, his eyes never leaving the alcalde's pistol, his hands came up and untied the mask. Drawing it away from his face, Diego clutched the piece of black silk for a long moment before depositing it on the desk beside the hat.
"And the sword."
"This sword was given to me by my fencing instructor, you may not have it."
De Soto bristled at the refusal.
"Your next demand?" Diego asked, his tone every bit the same as one would expect to hear come from Zorro's lips.
"After you leave here tonight, Zorro will never set foot in this pueblo again."
Diego stared at his old schoolmate.
"Tonight is your last ride. Do what you must, but after you leave here tonight, I will never see Zorro again."
Diego opened his mouth to speak but de Soto raised the pistol.
"You know what I could do to those you love."
Diego's eyes narrowed but de Soto continued.
"Marry that woman if she will have you. Settle down and give your father those grandchildren he has incessantly nagged you about over the years. Leave the safety of this pueblo to me."
"Have your men changed in the last week?" Diego said sharply. "Are they capable of keeping bandits out of this pueblo; of keeping the people safe?"
De Soto noticed that Diego wisely didn't mention his own improper governing of the pueblo.
"I believe an encouraging note from Zorro informing them that he is moving on and is entrusting me with the safety of the people will be inspiration enough." De Soto smiled triumphantly.
Diego knew de Soto had him between a rock and a hard place. He could not refuse the alcalde's demands or his family would feel the wrath, which for some reason, de Soto was withholding from himself.
"Why?" Diego needed to know.
De Soto smirked. "You're an intelligent man, de la Vega. I'm sure you've heard the famous phrase 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer'."
Diego grinned wryly. "Indeed."
"You have saved my life on more than one occasion. My permitting you to live makes us even." de Soto replaced the pistol in the drawer and closed it. "Now go."
Diego raised a skeptical eyebrow and de Soto chuckled.
"Yes, without the mask and hat." de Soto gingerly resumed his seat and turned to the last page in the journal. "They will be my souvenirs."
Diego bristled at the thought of leaving such well-known pieces of Zorro's life behind. He was letting de Soto win. He knew it and de Soto knew it. He briefly considered walking out the front door. But that would give him more attention than he really wanted and instead left the way he had come in, except a bit more cautiously - lest he be seen.
De Soto leaned back in his chair, satisfied that he had finally found a solution to his Zorro problem. And it had come in the nonviolent way that Diego de la Vega so favored. He had never known why, until today. This had been far more satisfying than a hanging.
He smiled at the hat and mask that rested on his desk. Long-hated symbols of the only man to successfully challenge his government. A childish excitement flooded his entire body for a short moment as he realized that even though Zorro still lived, he had truly won.
Upon further reflection, they both had.
Along with this overwhelming feeling of victory, a lingering sadness remained. Guilt over being forced to injure Alejandro in such a brutal way would linger in the alcalde's mind far after the painful wounds had healed. Guilt over causing the death of a woman Alejandro loved weighed heavily on his mind as well. He had killed Alejandro's son, albeit to save Diego –Zorro!- but it had happened. He had been the cause of much pain for the de la Vega family.
What he had done today helped to alleviate that guilt. He would never be friends with Diego de la Vega, but Ignacio felt that he was a better man for not having demanded Diego's life, for settling this dispute as Zorro so often did; without bloodshed.
What the future held was now anyone's best guess, but a weight had been lifted off his shoulders and perhaps by working with the people, instead of against them, they could make the pueblo grow and prosper into the greatness de Soto knew it could be.
Slowly, and with a certain reverence, Ignacio de Soto took the mask and hat off the desk and arranged space on the wall – as a memorial, of sorts – for the masked man who had been a thorn in his side since his arrival in the pueblo. He stepped back to survey his work and slowly poured himself a glass of wine from the decanter sitting on a nearby table.
Raising his glass, he toasted to the memories of a masked man waving from the back of a rearing black stallion, and to their mutual victory.
TBC
Aurelia30 – Of course de Soto is up to something. You'll probably get the Epilogue in a few days as well. So, yes, all before Christmas.
Smithcrafter – yes, I am mean. You're more mean. You actually KILLED Diego!
Jkl88 – And in this chapter you'll see why de Soto wants to see Zorro :)
Madamaq – Oh yes, he's changed – somewhat.
WolfDaughter – oh yes, he has a lot of guilt, over a lot of different things. De Soto's been a bad, bad boy in the years he's been in Los Angeles.
Beverly – Yes, I truly loved what I did with Thackery. So did my beta. Glad you did too! Hopefully, the last chapter will take another twist that the readers don't expect.