Born Into Love (23 page)

She raised her head. “What?”

“Bats.”

“Seriously, things are so crazy that if an alien beamed in from Venus, I wouldn’t be shocked.” She used her head to indicate Remy and Teodoro. “I’m going to fight those sickos. I hope I won’t have to do it alone.” She sniffed. “What’s that scent?”

“Fruit.”

“My mouth’s watering.”

“I should have brought more than the aroma. Tomorrow I will go shopping.”

“Want to hear my escape plan?”

“Yes.”

“Tomorrow night, ten minutes after you leave, I’ll ask to use the facilities. The request’s never been a problem. But this time, you wait for me. We’ll hide. When they give up, we’ll locate a settlement and contact the Peruvian government.”

Mercedes had a real penchant for contacting authorities which was a good idea, but they could not do so in this situation. Not yet. “José and Manuel are trackers. How far do you think we would get? ”

“We’d do okay if we found a river.
There’s bound to be a village sooner or later.”

“Suppose we don’t find a river?”

She stuck her head out of the netting. “Don’t you want to get away?”

“Of course.”

She rolled on her side no longer facing him and tucked her arm under her head. “When I get away, I’ll see Teodoro and Remy behind bars. You’re not the man I knew. You’re hiding something from me. I don’t like it.”

Chapter 14

Monkeys shrieked and bounced from tree to tree. Centuries ago
he and Rodrigo joked they were a chorus leading them to treasure; now they served as an alarm clock.

Mercedes sat next to her jungle mattress outside the netting. She nibbled a maize roll and drank coffee. Weariness puffed her upper eyelids and she had been scratching the banner of bites along her forehead. One had bled. She blotted the tiny wound with the edge of her shirt and looked at
him.

“Am I tempting you?”

“That is an unfair question, but I will answer.

She sighed. “I’m waiting.”

“Human blood excites me, but I know how to fight the desire.”

“What’s your secret?”

“I pretend it is fattening.” They gathered their gear. Diego slipped both packs over his shoulder and gratitude accentuated her smile. Teodoro joined them.

“Take this.” He handed Mercedes a cup of water and dropped a seed into her palm. Jungle travel took a toll and she obeyed without comment. That worried
him.

Diego
focused on Teodoro. “Today I take the machete. Otherwise we waste time.” The sorcerer’s eyes darkened like the waters of the Río Negro.

“Is this a trick?” He fondled the pouch at his neck.

“No.” Were the seeds inside the bundle?

“So wise of you to cooperate.”

Mercedes barged into the conversation. “Stop carrying on. He’s cooperating. I’m cooperating. Grow up.”

There
was only so much patience a woman could possess when poison circulated in her blood.

* * *

When the noon heat quieted the jungle,
Diego rested the machete. They had reached the spot he had recognized the night before: an ancient tributary, now a shadow of its former self. Time had altered the watercourse and carved out the embankments, but the soil did not lie. Whatever remained of the village lay upstream.

“We might reach the area by dusk. Much depends upon the terrain.”

Interest rose in the sorcerer’s eyes. “You like feigning uncertainty. A vampire trait? A way to con your intended victims?”

Diego
did not answer nor did the sorcerer expect he would. What crossed Diego’s mind was how easily he had found the soil. He wondered if everything had been planned. Not the rebelliousness of the earth, but perhaps a dusting of particles strategically scattered so he would find them. If Teodoro knew the route and had salted the earth, was leading him to his fate part of the game?

Teodoro announced lunch. Remy had already eaten several energy bars.
Diego used the break to rest. Mercedes sat closer to José than to him. His clone had disappeared.

“Where’s the other guard?” she asked.

Remy laughed but not for long. A beetle, the size of his hand, crashed into his cheek. He swatted, lost his balance and before he became fodder for the passing voracious inhabitants of the jungle floor, José caught him.

“Keep your mitts off me.”

José faded back, his expression again unreadable. Mercedes chose the after-moment to repeat her inquiry in typical form. “So where’s the other killer?”

“Shut up. You’ll see Manuel soon enough and you won’t like it.”

“A guy with all that charm? How little you know.”

Diego
warned her with his eyes not to bicker.

Teodoro drank from a canteen. “If you have enough energy to argue, then you don’t need a long rest. We will take thirty minutes.”

On their way again, Diego directed her gaze to the machete in his hand and indicated the vegetation they were about to enter. “These are lianas.”

“They’re scary.”

He guessed that was true. “I will swing my arm in a different arc. Keep a wider space between us for safety.”

She examined the steel blade as
he balanced it in his hand. “It’s horrible.” Foolishly she reached out to touch it. “Don’t. It could slice off an arm.” She shrank back. “Do not worry. Today it is just a tool.” José jumped the line and relieved Diego of one of the backpacks.

“Thank you.”

He nodded. His eyes reflected intelligence. Manuel had been a different animal entirely.

Hours
later rain pounded through the canopy. Like other jungle animals, they sought shelter. José used the machete to chop huge leaves off palms. He handed one to each of them. Their undersides flashed silver.

Mercedes waved hers like a fan. “I don’t want an umbrella. I want a shower.”
Diego placed her backpack near her. She sat on it like a weary child, looked up, and let the rain wash her face. Dark circles owled her eyes.

José captured raindrops in his mouth. Teodoro and Remy hovered near each other talking low, restricting their gestures
and trying to stay dry.

The downpour stopped but not in the understory.

Mercedes nudged my leg. “Look at the plants.”

“They funnel water.”
He pointed to a dark green shrub. “These leaves have drip tips.” Her eyebrows rose. “Remember, I’ve had centuries to read.”

She started to shiver.
Diego stepped away and headed for Teodoro. “What did you give her?”

“The medicine. I cannot account for every physical reaction.”

Diego grabbed the sorcerer’s arm and squeezed. His outcry startled Remy and José, but neither raised a weapon. Restraint came harder for Diego under present circumstances.

Mercedes caught the action and waggled her finger. “Now who’s causing trouble?”

He let Teodoro go and lowered his voice. “Be careful. She is all that is protecting you from me.”

After marching what Remy identified as three miles through the jungle, Mercedes tapped Diego’s shoulder. Potsherds lay among the wood and multi-colored fungi on the forest floor. They kept walking. The trees thinned and the riverbed narrowed into a tannin-stained strip of soil. Tortoises scuttled into the underbrush alarmed by their trespass.

“Stop!” Remy yelled.

Two scarlet macaws burst from branches squawking and dropping bits of uneaten fruit. Procteur held a piece of silvery green ceramic and flashed it in the air. “The village must be close!”

Diego
remembered the pottery. Remy tossed the shard. Had the piece been whole, the shape would have been similar to the pots of other tribes, but the scenes would have a staggering power.

The sorcerer marched to a break in the trees. “A courtyard!”

Diego recalled it without the shrubs that now grew up to his hips. Granite slabs peeked through the rampant vegetation and resembled a Roman road but one that had been built with larger blocks. In his mind he saw Marta standing ahead of them waving for him and his brother to join her.

Teodoro broke into a chant letting his voice wobble deep in his throat.

José shifted his gaze to Diego. Remy spun around probably searching for the entrance to a tomb as if, after centuries, it would be visible.

Mercedes whispered. “This is an ancient site.”

He thought of Luz. She would have added that it stank of evil spirits.

With his eyes glistening from a fresh dose of insanity, Teodoro stopped singing. He spoke more to the jungle than to
them. Unbidden, José translated.

“My Ancestors, I unite the old and the new. I, the avenger, will re-create what has been taken from us.” Overcome, he sank to the ground.

“Is he dead?” Remy asked.

Mercedes touched the sorcerer’s wrist. “He’s alive.”

Procteur shrugged and dropped his backpack where he stood. “José, clear the brush. We camp here.”

“What about Teodoro?” Mercedes asked.

“Who cares? He’s nuts.” Remy removed himself to the shade of a palm. While he sprayed repellent, Diego had time to search Teodoro’s backpack. The seeds were not there. Had he used the last?

Around the fire
they listened as Remy told tales of how he had outsmarted customs on a trip to Africa. Teodoro, now awake, spoke coherently, seemingly none the worse. As the fire burned lower, Procteur drew Diego aside.

“Something I want to show you, Castilla.” He opened his fist. “See? A silver bullet.” He loaded the round into the automatic he wore at his waist. “Soon.”

Any metal would do, but Diego kept that bit of information from him. “I know what it is like to die. You should be afraid. I survived my ordeal. You will not survive yours.”

Remy walked away unfazed by his
comments; sure he had everything under control.

Mercedes had eaten little of the reconstituted bacon and beans. “How do you feel?”

She gave a thumbs-up. “The bread tasted great or maybe the flies added spice.”

His
need dictated his exit. “I will not be long.”

* * *

Mercedes settled down on trekker friendly leaves and glanced over her shoulder. The monsters had lost interest
in her. José had disappeared. Was he searching for Manuel?

She rubbed her arms to chase a chill
; plus the tremors had returned. She was sick. Everyone knew. “But I’m not stupid. I get it.”

“Talking to yourself?” Teodoro stared at her.

“Why not? You do it.”

He smiled. “I know why Diego chose you.”

“Enlighten me.”

“For your spirit.”

She tucked the fanny pack out of his line of vision.

“Don’t bother. You will tire of carrying the soup. The jungle wears one down. Would you care for a refreshment?”

She eyed the can of soda. “Why so nice?”

“Tomorrow you will earn your keep. I want you happy.”

“Like that could happen.”

“I regret I threatened your sister and her unborn child, but the strategy worked.”

“You’re a sick man.”

Teodoro pulled the tab. Carbonation escaped. “Do you want this?”

She longed for sweets. “Aren’t you having any?”

“José has mine. I’m fasting for the ceremony.”

Mercedes hesitated. “Am I part of it?”

“No. I refer to my entrance into the tomb. Have you forgotten? I must do the bidding of my ancestors.”

Mercedes checked the camp. Now Remy was missing. José had reappeared and sat polishing off his soda.

Teodoro offered the can. “Last chance.”

“I could use a drink.” He gave her another seed. “Two in one day?”

“I am playing safe.”

She chased it with warm cola.

“Give me the can.”

She obeyed and he squashed it in his hands. “Afraid I’ll make a weapon?”

“Yes. Are you interested in magic?”

“No and neither are you. You want power.”

“Am I so obvious?”

She nodded. “I’ve been trying to make the connections, but I don’t get it. Who exactly are you worshipping?”

“All my ancestors but especially Ma’ta, the sorcerer who initiated Ku’lanc into the undead.”

“Where are their mummies?”

“According to the legends Diego turned Ku’lanc into ashes.”

“And Ma’ta?”

“His body burned.”

“So they’re gone and you’re still dragging us through the jungle.”