By the time Diego exited the sliding panel uniting the cave he considered to be Zorro's lair to the hacienda's library, his father had already been informed about the fire and was looking for him.
"Where have you been, Diego?" The old don asked, not dwelling on the fact that his son smelled like smoke.
"I was just tending to one of my experiments, Father." He lied, looking innocently towards his parent, making every effort not to let him suspect that all he wanted was to jump on his horse and go help extinguish the fire he was not supposed to know had taken over the church. "Is there something wrong?"
"We need to go to town. The church is on fire. I've already sent my men to help but we also must do our part!" Don Alejandro commanded.
"The church? Oh no! Of course, we should help. I'm right behind you." Diego agreed, and the old don was only too happy that his uninvolved son finally decided to lend a hand.
On the ride to the pueblo, his father asked if he knew where Felipe was, but Diego answered that he might already be in Los Angeles, and was surprised to find out that he was right. His son was already helping extinguish the blaze as they entered the pueblo, a bucket in one hand and a wet blanket in the other.
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As the morning came, all that reminded of the last night's conflagration were the black traces it had left on the formerly-white adobe building, and the three dead bodies due to be buried that same day. The people, many of whom had fought the flames until the early morning, were exhausted, sitting or lying down on the tavern's porch and in the taproom. Two of the lancers and one vaquero had been injured, but their wounds were, fortunately, minor. The De la Vegas were sitting at one of the tables on the porch, Victoria leaning on her future husband's shoulder, barely able to keep her eyes open.
"Do you think we can still get married on Sunday?" She asked worriedly.
"Yes. We can use the hacienda's small chapel instead of the church. Not many will fit inside, but I have no intention of postponing our wedding." He replied, pained with the memory of the people he couldn't save, and wondering what in the notebooks was important enough for a man to care about even more than he cared about his own life.
A few minutes later, Diego realized that the taverness had fallen asleep. Turning towards her, he slowly lifted her in his arms and carried her to her bedroom.
"Perhaps it's time we returned to the hacienda and get some sleep ourselves." Don Alejandro suggested when he returned.
"You and Felipe should go. I will stay here to keep an eye on the tavern. I'll come home after Victoria wakes up." Diego replied thinking he might take the chance to investigate the cause of the fire.
His father agreed and, placing a hand on his grandson's shoulder, led him to their mounts.
Diego made himself some coffee, drank it while observing the plaza, then, as everyone inside had meanwhile left for their homes, bolted the tavern's doors and exited through the kitchen, heading for the church
Once there, he looked around to make sure he wasn't being watched. The pueblo seemed deserted. He entered the blackened corridor at the back of the building, where the fire had started. Looking round in the hope to identify the source of the deflagration, he studied the walls both with his eyes as well as with his memories, going over what he remembered seeing the previous evening. It was then when he remembered that only the chamber occupied by the man he found out was Friar Santiago was completely in flames at the time he had reached it. Studying the marks left on the walls, he soon realized it had been that very room where the fire had started, so he returned to it, doing his best to stop seeing the burning body, over and over again, in his mind. Searching the ground, where the monk had died, he found something unexpected: a pendant. It was half-melted but it looked a lot like the one given to him by Padre Francisco.
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The morning after the fire which had threatened to destroy the church, unable to sleep, De Soto stripped and washed with a wet cloth, then put on a fresh pair of pants, a white shirt, and a vest. Taking a lamp with him, he headed towards his office, not yet sure what he expected to find there.
Once there, he poured himself a glass of wine and glanced through his window. After taking in the image of the smocking adobe building dominating the plaza, his eyes eventually rested on Victoria and Diego. Intrigued, he remained watching as the caballero parted with his family and closed the tavern and was about to go to his desk when he noticed him heading for the back of the church after first checking out his surroundings As if he doesn't want anyone to see him… he noted. A similar precaution he observed Diego to take at his return, just as he noticed that he was hiding something in his hand.
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Besides investigating and guarding the tavern for Victoria, Diego had spent part of the morning discussing with the doctor about the dead bodies. The medicine man had reached the same conclusion as he did about the source of the fire and informed him that a small rounded dagger had been found with the body of Padre Santiago. Just as he was about to leave the doctor's office, Diego also noticed a third medallion which appeared to have fallen next to the entrance as the bodies had been carried inside. He retrieved it and left without mentioning it to anyone.
It was already midday when the caballero finally arrived at the hacienda. Exhausted, he headed towards his bedroom, fell asleep with all his clothes on, and only woke up at sunset, when his father came by to ask if he wanted to go have dinner at the tavern. He stretched his aching body and, ten minutes later, met Don Alejandro in the hallway, ready to return to the pueblo.
Diego kissed Victoria's hand at entering the taproom and the three of them occupied a table right next to the one shared by Mya and Felipe, not wanting to intrude on their half-talked-half-signaled conversation.
They spent an hour treating Mendoza to dinner while the good man was recounting the events of the previous evening.
"So Padre Benitez doesn't know how the fire started?" Diego asked the Sergeant after he had finished his story.
"No, Don Diego. He says he was already asleep when he felt the smoke, and only woke up because he was suffocating, but collapsed on the floor when he tried to get out. If it wasn't for Zorro, he might have died!"
"Too bad he couldn't save the other three friars, as well." Don Alejandro noted.
"Si, Don Alejandro. But I think they were dead anyway, by the time he arrived. He did take one of them outside, but the man was dead when we got to him."
"Right. How is Senor Duncan doing, do you know?"
"Senor Duncan?" Mendoza questioned.
"Yes. He did help Zorro carry the man outside, and sustained injuries, didn't he? At least that's what I hear." Diego asked innocently.
"I don't know about that," Mendoza answered. "But Senor Duncan helped us put out the fire and didn't seem injured to me."
"Perhaps I'm mistaken. I must have heard it wrong" Diego hurriedly said, trying to cover up his slip of the tongue, and hoping his friend wouldn't notice. He didn't. "What do you know about the padres who died?" Diego inquired, hoping any information on them might give him a clue as to what had really happened.
"All I know is that Padre Antonio arrived about a month and a half ago, then padre Francisco came the same day you and Senorita Victoria got engaged. Padre Benitez especially remembered that day because it was also the day he released that injured white dove you helped him care for. Padre Santiago apparently arrived the following day."
Diego remained pensive and paid little attention to the rest of the conversation his father was having with the military man. After Don Alejandro joined some of his friends at another table, and Mendoza returned to the garrison, he remained waiting for Victoria. She had tried to join him twice but had been called to serve some of the other patrons, giving him enough time to consider the information he had received.
"I'm back!" The taverness uttered as she sat in front of him, and he took his hand to kiss it lovingly.
"Victoria, do you remember when did Senor Luna arrive?" He asked.
His fiancée was surprised by his question but replied anyway. "If I remember correctly, he arrived the day after Senor Duncan got here. Why do you ask?"
"I wonder if he had anything to do with the fire." He told her.
Later that night, while everyone was sleeping, Zorro made his way towards the room occupied by Murad. Silently like a cat, he entered through the window and, as a first measure, he placed an ether-soaked cloth on the man's face, thus making sure he'd stay asleep. Then he thoroughly checked the room.
After twenty minutes of searching, he had found an almost-empty bottle of the same substance he had used to ensure the man wouldn't wake up, several daggers similar in shape to the one the doctor had found under the cremated body of Padre Santiago, and an Ottoman karabela saber, all of which he left where he had found them.
Just as he was about to leave, he realized that he had found the tools used in the fire, but not a clue about the reason behind it. Reasoning that, perhaps, a third notebook might have been involved, considering that Padre Santiago did have one of the strange medallions, he decided he also needed to check under the mattress. Wondering how to do it without waking up the man still sleeping just inches away from him, he carefully moved him to the floor in order to check properly. He held his breath as the man stirred, but released it when he didn't wake.
Finally, Zorro found what he was looking for: a notebook just like the other two he had left in the cave. At first, he wanted to leave it there to be found by the lancers but realized that, since the other two monks kept their a secret, it was highly probable that not even Padre Benitez would have been able to point at it as belonging to the dead men. So, he took it, lifted Murad back in his bed and retrieved the ether-soaked cloth from his face, then left through the window and made his way to the cave.
Once there, he added the new notebook and pendant to the drawer where he kept the other three, and, hesitantly, opened them.
One of the two he had taken from the church was marked 'Chronicle of Myrina of the Amazons'. The other bore the name of his father's new vaquero, 'Chronicle of Duncan Macleod, of the Clan Macleod.' Finally, the newest one was marked 'Chronicle of Murad Osman'. Under each title, a number was inscribed in Roman numerals. In Duncan's case, it was XII*, while in the case of Myrina, the number was CIII*. Lastly, under the name of Murad, were the letters XXI*.
He didn't ponder much on the numbers, not trying to understand their significance there. Wondering why anyone would kill to steal a notebook, however, he started reading the one he had just recovered.
The chronicle detailed the places and the battles fought by the man mentioned on the first page, as well as the names he had assumed during the years covered. That particular chronicle had been started fifteen years earlier and, to Diego, it looked very much like a diary summarizing various events. However, they seemed to be recorded by a person witnessing them, rather than by the man in question. The most disturbing parts were the references to a series of beheadings, each committed just before the man had left a place and changed his name again. The last name the chronicle mentioned was that of Senor Luna, and Diego realized the reason why he had killed to steal it since the padre had either witnessed his crimes or had knowledge of them.
Intrigued, he started reading the one on Duncan and, finally the one inscribed Myrina, at the end of which he found out that the current name of the person referred to was Mya del Rioblanco.
Puzzled and disturbed by the information he found in them, Diego placed the notebooks into a secret compartment of his desk and, realizing it was almost morning already, he made his way towards his room and tried to catch some sleep.
A few hours later, he woke up with Mya's words "I reality, I'm ancient" running through his head. Is that even remotely possible? He wondered as he took a few minutes to stare pensively at the ceiling. The chronicle detailing the last 21 years of her life referred, from the beginning, to a woman, never a baby or a child. But if she was 23, as she was telling people, then twenty years earlier she had to be a toddler. Then there was the title. He had read about a queen of the Amazons who had once led an army of tens of thousands, conquering everything in their path, until she was finally defeated on the battlefield. Her name was Myrina. But how could a warrior queen who had lived over two millennia earlier be the same person he knew as Mya? That was utterly impossible, Diego decided.
Considering that everything was becoming too strange for him to truly comprehend at that point, he refocused on the need to expose the man he was certain to have caused the fire which led to three people being killed. Uncharacteristically, he decided on a direct approach.
Diego found Felipe in the cave, tending to the ongoing experiments, and wondered if he should tell him about the notebooks. He decided against doing it at that time, since he, himself was unable to understand them yet. Instead, asked his son to wait for him because they needed to have a conversation later. The younger man agreed, although no promise was needed since he knew that his father might return injured, and had every intention to remain there until he'd be safely back, anyway.
Zorro rode into the pueblo, climbed the garrison's roof, and silently made his way towards De Soto's office.
"Taking your siesta already, Alcalde?" He asked bemused by the man sleeping behind a pile of papers, in his office chair.
"Zorro!" De Soto exclaimed at seeing him, then made it his point to, for once, actually pay attention to the man he considered his nemesis.
"I'm not here to fight." He announced. "I am here to inform you there's an arsonist and a murderer in the pueblo."
"Are you assuming responsibility for the fire?" The official inquired.
"You know me better than to believe that, Alcalde!" Zorro replied. "But I doubt you know Senor Luna just as well. I'd recommend you search his room at the tavern."
"Really? And what am I looking for?"
"Ether. It's very flammable, but leaves certain marks, should one know what to look for. It's what was used to start the deflagration. You are also looking for small daggers, like the one Doctor Hernandez found, half-melted, into the body of Padre Santiago."
"And how do you know what the good doctor found?" De Soto inquired.
"I have my sources, as you must already know."
The Alcalde nodded. "Well. Thank you, Zorro, for the information. I will take it into consideration," he promised. "Now, I don't suppose I could tempt you to stay a little longer. Perhaps take a seat in one of my jail cells?"
The masked man chuckled. "Don't be greedy, Alcalde!" He asked, and hurriedly made his way outside where he whistled for Tornado.
De Soto watched him leave without trying to have his men follow the outlaw. After taking a few moments to think, he called for Sergeant Mendoza and asked him to take his lancers and check Senor Luna's room. The man had seemed suspicious to him since he had first arrived, spending, as far as his own men told him, most of his time asking people about the Alcalde and about how Zorro had opposed him during the years. He had even been tempted to arrest him, but couldn't find a valid reason to do so without provoking the masked fiend. Now that very fiend had given him one, and he had every reason to act based on his advice.
Half an hour later, the Ottoman was in a jail cell, his sword, daggers, and the almost-empty bottle of ether in the Alcalde's office, and the scaffold already being built for the man to hang after a summary trial due to take place the following day.
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Mya exited the tavern, just like many others, when they heard Zorro whistle for Tornado. She looked again watched him leave and hurried back to her room. After arming herself, she mounted the mare she had bought a few weeks later from a friend of Don Alejandro's, and led her horse in the direction in which Zorro had disappeared, no one but Duncan even realizing she was gone.
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*XII = 12
*CIII= 103
*XXI = 21