Stone Rose 13 & 14

[maderr]

SR is much shorter than all the others, by about some twenty odd pages. So not much further to go now ^___^

Part Three

For love of my children, I gave up being able to see them.

~The Basilisk

Chapter Thirteen


“If I see one more dead body, I’m going to be sick,” Fidel said tiredly as they rode through the trees. “How many have we counted so far? That last camp…” He shuddered and looked as though he was close to being sick. Thankfully, they hadn’t been eating much more than was strictly necessary.

Corinos shook his head, grateful for the sunlight. He could not bear the dark right now. Every moment he expected to be ambushed by whoever was killing the Black Roses they kept stumbling across. They’d made so many stops that they were at least half a day behind in meeting up with Cortez and Culebra – he could not bear it, but it seemed important to try and figure out why the Black Roses were being slaughtered. “I stopped counting after we hit thirty. It terrifies me, Fidel, that someone so…full of rage lurks in this forest.” He would not consider the possibility that the murderers had Culebra. If he did, the panic would finally get the better of him.

“Are we much farther from this meeting spot of yours?”

Fidel shrugged. “When you hear a waterfall, my friend, you will know we are close.” He nodded his head toward Ruisenor, who traveled several feet ahead of them. “She seemed quite eager, surely that is a good sign.”

“A waterfall,” Corinos repeated, and sighed. At least there was no chance they would miss that particular landmark. He had not known there was a waterfall up here, despite all his father’s stories. “I wish that meant we would have time for a bath, but probably not.” Strange that his father had never mentioned it. He’s always thought his father knew Piedre better than almost anyone.

Then again, the Azul was the second largest mountain range in the world – only the Jagged Mountains that formed the border between Pozhar and Schatten was greater. There, it was said, no one stood a chance of ever returning. Those who went up the Jagged Mountains were never heard of again.

Not that too many were faring any better on the Azul. Corinos wanted badly to know who would slaughter the Black Rose so…and why there were so many Black Rose up here. Scales and teeth, had they been building themselves up in secret? He had so many people constantly on watch for such things…

Shaking his head, Corinos put aside the problems about which he could currently do nothing. He had only one goal – find Culebra and take him home.

Then shake him senseless. Then tie him down and make it clear he was never leaving Corinos’s sight again.

A cold chill suddenly raced down his spine and Corinos froze. In front of him, Fidel did the same. Further ahead of them, Ruisenor too had stopped.

“Corinos…why do I suddenly feel so scared?”

“I…I don’t—” Corinos’s words were cut off as his horse suddenly tried to rear up, screaming in fear – then Corinos was thrown off, slamming hard into a tree before hitting the ground. Dizzily he watched his horse turn and run – then realized there were two horses running away.

Beneath him, for only a few brief seconds, the ground seemed to…move. Shake. Tremble. It was the eeriest, strangest, most frightening thing he’d ever felt. The ground was not supposed to move that way.

The pain and confusion were too much, and Corinos only distantly heard Fidel call his name before the darkness swallowed him.



When he woke again, it was to moonlight above him and a crackling fire beside him. Trees surrounded him. Corinos slowly sat up, groaning in pain as his left shoulder and head protested the movement, and looked around. “Merciful gods, what happened?”

Fidel shook his head, little more than a shadow beside him, face just visible in the light of the small fire he’d lit. “I do not know, my friend. I never want to feel the earth move like that again, that much I know. Never again.”

Corinos agreed whole-heartedly. “I did not know the earth could move so. Shouldn’t it be impossible?”

“A question I cannot answer, though yesterday I would have called you mad or drunk to think of such a thing.” Fidel stared gloomily at the fire, then shook himself. “The only time I have ever heard of the earth acting so…”

“Yes,” Corinos said grimly. All the old legends about the days when the gods were lost. The greatest of Piedre’s legends said that the earth shook and cracked, and that by the end the world was completely different than what it had been before the gods fell.

Culebra was missing…now the earth was trembling.

Corinos fought down the fear and panic trying to swallow him. He needed to find Culebra. He had to find him. Scales and teeth, he was Culebra’s bodyguard – Culebra was his entire world. He shouldn’t be sitting here bemoaning minor aches and pains, he should be doing something.

A hand landed on his shoulder, shaking him from his turmoil, and he looked up in surprise at Fidel.

“My friend, your thoughts are not usually so plain upon your face. That I can see what you are thinking so clearly in the dark – calm down. If it is truly his Highness who caused the trembling…I would hazard to say he is winning.”

The words tricked a smile from Corinos, and he nodded. “Thank you. Yes – Culebra generally prefers not to fight. He does not shy away from confrontations, but he does not relish them. When he is riled, however…I never envied those who angered him. I hope he is all right.”

“Cortez won’t let anything bad happen to him.”

Corinos quirked a brow. “She is the one who first agreed to bring him here.”

“She likes him, as I’ve said before. If these people are so bad they force him to do things to the very ground we walk upon…I do not think she would cooperate.” Fidel grinned. “Though if anyone could shake the entire world with a temper tantrum, it would be Cortez.”

“Let us hope nothing has gone so horribly wrong we cannot fix it. Let us also hope this waterfall we need to find is not too far away, as it would appear we are now going to be walking.”

“At least the horses did not kill us in their panic,” Fidel said. “They very well could have – I thought, for a moment, that yours had managed to throw you just right.”

Corinos grunted. “I think the tree damaged my shoulder a bit, but otherwise probably saved me from worse damage. How are you?”

“I’ve been better,” Fidel said with a ghost of a smile. “My ankle is sore, but I believe it will be well enough by morning. I have little choice in the matter, anyway. A sad pair we will make, my friend, when we finally show up to rescue your prince.”

The image of them limping in to save Culebra from his kidnappers was absurd enough that Corinos could not help but laugh – even when the movement jarred his shoulder and caused the pain in his head to flare up again. Still, the laughter was welcome for all that, and beside him Fidel chuckled.

“Do we have any food, or did the blasted horses take all that as well?”

“I managed to cut the straps of mine when I realized they were panicking – yours reacted a moment before mine, so I had time. This isn’t the first time I’ve been thrown by a frightened horse. Scales and teeth, I hope it is the last.”

Corinos grunted an agreement. “So we have little food and water, no real idea where we are, and are just wounded enough that we’d probably lose even a simple fight.”

“Do not forget there are shadows stalking Black Roses.”

“Of course,” Corinos said with a sigh. “Anything else?”

“Oh, I’m certain I could think of something if I really tried. How about I just not?”

“Sound good to me.”

Fidel flashed another brief smile, then began to rifle through a bag that was between them. “Luckily, this bag I never trust to horses. If that cursed horse had run off with this, I would have tracked him down and given him a real reason to run away.” He rifled through it a moment longer, then came up with two narrow metal cases. They had seen better days, but Corinos knew that the outward abuse proved just how solid the cases were – the contents would be in perfect condition. “Now, my friend, the important questions – cigarette? Cigar? The cigars are sweet, Cortez prefers them so. I think she forgot I have an extra set of hers.”

“The cigars,” Corinos said.

Fidel tossed the slightly longer of the two metal cases at him, then flipped open the one he’d kept. He pulled out a thin cigarette, just barely touching it to the flames of the small campfire. The acrid scent of burning tobacco filled the air, but Corinos found it comforting. He lit his own cigar in the same manner, settling back when the cigar was properly burning, the sweeter smoke of his cigar mingling with the sharper cigarette smell.

“We are a fine pair tonight, my friend. I am glad the horse took the alcohol, or we might truly be pathetic.”

Corinos laughed briefly. “Bad enough we will be showing up bruised, exhausted, and limping – and all of that done by the horses. I do not think what remains of my dignity could endure being drunk as well.”

Fidel threw his head back and laughed. “True enough. Cortez would never let me live it down if I showed up in such a state. Though after all this is over, my friend, I reserve the right to avoid sobriety for at least a week.”

“I will drink to that,” Corinos said, and went back to his cigar for a moment. “I will also be stealing more of this Cortez’s cigars. These are not the kind easily available to a merc, I should think.”

“Ha! Cortez never let that stop her. I forget now what she did for the cigar maker, but he always cuts her a fine deal.” Fidel finished his cigarette and pulled out another. Smoke curled above the fire, just visible in the light.

Corinos relished his own cigar, something he’d not indulged in since Granito had died and left him Culebra’s sole bodyguard. The taste of sweet tobacco lingered on his lips as he took another pull. “I feel it is going to be a very long night, and an even longer day tomorrow.”

Fidel snorted. “It has been the longest several days of my life, lately. I keep hoping I will wake up, roll my eyes at myself, and fall back asleep to dream of nothing.”

“If only,” Corinos said with a sigh. “Do we even know which way to go, anymore?”

“I thought we agreed not to list any more problems for the night. Northwest. We should eventually run into a waterfall.”

Corinos rolled his eyes. “Do you always go by such vague directions?”

“I ask Cortez that each and every time she gets them from people. She tells me to be quiet.” Fidel shrugged. “So I be quiet. I do not invite right hooks, my friend. Anyway, your question is a stupid one, and shows just how hard a knock to the head you took. I do not see your nightmare snake right now, but I have no doubt she will reappear.”

Laughing, Corinos finished his cigar and then slowly lay down. Beside him, Fidel did the same. Both reached out to make certain their swords were close to hand. “I do not think I will sleep well, but I suppose an effort should be made.”

“Perhaps we will have pleasant dreams.”

“So long as there is no more shaking, I do not care.”

Fidel laughed softly, and eventually they drifted off to sleep.



“Scales and teeth, I do not think my shoulder will ever be the same,” Corinos said with a groan as he tried to flex. His face twisted in pain. “At least it is not dislocated, merciful gods anything but that.”

Fidel made a face. “Well, I hope it recovers soon, my friend, because my ankle informs me that by the end of the day, I will probably not be walking on it.”

“We are a sad, sad pair,” Corinos said with a sigh, and finished putting out the fire. Around them the forest was gray with hazy morning light – they had wanted to leave sooner, but had been loath to travel without light. He pulled his cloak tight and gathered up their paltry gear. “Will you be all right walking, at least for a bit?”

“I will be fine,” Fidel said, grimacing. “I think mostly it needs the exercise. So long as this adventure ends in a bottle of something strong, I will have no complaints.”

Chuckling, Corinos nodded and then turned to follow Ruisenor, who had shown up shortly after they awoke. He kept tense and alert as they moved, dreading what sort of trouble might find them when they were woefully incapable of fighting it off.

The walk was hard, and got harder as the incline gradually became more and more noticeable. More than once they had to stop so that Fidel could rest, and eventually his shoulder too began to complain of being used as they climbed over rocks and other obstacles. Even Ruisenor, so patient and enduring, was showing signs of tiring.

“What did we do?” Fidel asked, panting. “Pick the worst part of the mountain on which to get thrown and more or less lost? I was much better off a merc. This rescue business I will leave to you bodyguards.”

Corinos was inclined to agree. “Come. If I stop again, I do not think I will be able to start.”

“Agreed,” Fidel said, and though his face was twisted with pain, he accept the hand Corinos offered and managed to scramble over the latest set of rocks blocking their path.

They traveled another hour in silence, forcing themselves to move even when it seemed as though they could not go a step further.

Suddenly Corinos stopped. “Do you…I think perhaps I am hearing things…”

Fidel frowned, listening intently. “We could be sharing delusions, but…that sounds like a waterfall to me. Come!”

Dredging up more energy, Corinos pressed on, helping Fidel as best he could. It still took them another hour and a half before their goal finally came into view – a waterfall spilling over the cliff, pouring into a large pond, probably to move on to an underground river. Everywhere was greenery, moss covered stones. If not for the fact that they’d all but killed themselves to reach it, he would have thought the clearing beautiful.

As it was, he was thoroughly annoyed and distraught at the notable lack of blind princes…only a single man, sitting glumly on a large rock on the far edge of the pond.

“Cortez!” Fidel said eagerly, then cried out and fell hard to the ground as his ankle finally gave out. “Scales and teeth!”

“Fi—Fidel!” The man – woman, Corinos realized now – stood up and started limping toward them, and Corinos could now see that someone had sliced her right thigh open rather nicely.

Of course, it looked as though several people had gotten rather nice strikes in. Her face alone was a study in scars – across her forehead, cheeks, one looked as though it had come very close to ruining her right eye. The marks and burn scars on her throat painted a pretty clear picture as to what had made her voice so harsh and coarse. Her hair – he didn’t know women cut it that short. He wondered how many scars she had that weren’t visible.

She should have been ugly, horrifying – he had seen men just as scarred who he could barely stand to look at. Cortez, however, merely looked…interesting.

Corinos realized abruptly that he was being given just as thorough an examination.

“I would say I can see why he loves you, but of course your prince would not know how you look.” Cortez smiled. “It is good to meet you at last, Corinos the bodyguard.”

“Where is he?”

Cortez’s face fell. “I do not know. We were talking to the men who hired me…then they attacked me, six of them at once – my leg is in bad shape, and my head still hurts from the knock it took. Bastards. When I woke up, I was alone. I cannot tell where they’ve gone; it looks as though the horses went in every possible direction.”

“They probably did,” Corinos said, and shared a grimace with Fidel. “I am guessing you were unconscious when the earth started shaking.”

“Shaking?” Cortez asked, blinking – and Corinos realized suddenly her eyes were a dark, dark blue. That was not a Piedren color. “I definitely missed that. Why do you keep staring at me?”

Fidel laughed. “Cor, who doesn’t stare at you?”

“My apologies,” Corinos said. “I noticed suddenly that your eyes are blue.”

“She’s part Kundouin,” Fidel said, seemingly oblivious to the dirty look Cortez shot him. “I think that’s where she gets her temper.”

Corinos dared a smile. “Yes, I can see much evidence of that temper you have mentioned before. To judge by her expression, I am also about to see the right hook you fear so much.”

“Later, Cor,” Fidel pleaded. “I’m already mostly dead, and we still have a prince to find.”

Cortez nodded. “Later.” She turned her attention back to Corinos. “I am happy to finally meet you, though I wish the circumstances were better.”

“Next time, don’t kidnap him.”

“No worries there,” Cortez said with a wince. “Come on, I’ve got a sad little campsite on the other side of the pond. I don’t suppose you have food or something?”

Fidel grimaced. “No. The shaking spooked the horses, and they took almost everything with them after trying to kill us. We’ve got a bit, but not much.”

“Scales and teeth,” Cortez said with a sigh. “I guess that’s what happened to my horse.” She turned to lead the way to the other side of the pond. Then stopped. “Merciful gods, what is that!”

Corinos smiled.

Fidel heaved a sigh. “That is Ruisenor, his Highness’s pet nightmare snake.”

“She’s beautiful,” Cortez said, and slowly approached the gigantic snake, who uncoiled and reared up to bump against her stomach. “I have never even heard of a snake like this. What is she?”

Corinos shook his head. “No one knows, not even his Highness.”

“I love her scales,” Cortez said admiringly. “They’re a strange cross between black pearls and black diamonds.” She stroked Ruisenor’s head, and Corinos was fascinated – the snake was normally only that affectionate with Culebra.

Any animosity he might have had left for Cortez – hard enough to maintain, in light of the exhausting journey and the unexpected friendship with Fidel – died there. Ruisenor he trusted as he trusted precious few people. If the snake adored her, that was enough for him.

“There is something strange about her though…” Cortez frowned deeply. “I cannot tell what though, and that is the second time I have felt as though I am missing something important!”

Corinos looked up in the clear sky – of course the weather chose now to be nice – and then back down in the field. Everywhere, the angle of the sun threw shadows. Almost everywhere. “She doesn’t have a shadow,” he said. “I noticed it shortly after we left the palace to follow you. Ruisenor doesn’t have a shadow.”

Cortez looked at him, clearly startled, and her eyes widened, the blue becoming more apparent. “Neither did he! Scales and teeth, neither did he!”

“Who?” Fidel asked. “That’s impossible.”

“Jorge, he called himself,” Cortez said. “I did not like him. He…did not look right, and something about him bothered me.” Her frown deepened. “He did not have a shadow. That is what I noticed but did not realize. How is that possible? All things cast a shadow.”

Corinos shook his head. “I do not know, but at this point it is merely one more mystery.” He looked at the two of them, and they looked as exhausted and drained as he felt. “We should rest, at least for a couple of hours. Perhaps then we will have the energy and ability to find food. If we go on like this, we are guaranteed to die.”

Cortez nodded in agreement and led the way to her little camp. “I could not move well enough, until recently, to gather wood to make a fire.”

“I will do it,” Corinos said. “Only let me rest for a bit.” He set his bag down and then promptly laid down, using the bag to pillow his head. His eyes were too heavy to keep open, but anxiety kept him from falling immediately to sleep. Instead, he listened to the other two talk.

“Let me look at your leg, Cor. You never could bind a wound to save your life.”

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” Cortez countered. “Leave me alone.”

“Be quiet,” Fidel said patiently, and Corinos heard them fumbling, arguing, hands smacking before the sound of fabric tearing ended the argument.

The air changed suddenly, and Corinos opened his eyes, not liking the tension that was suddenly thick enough to cut with a knife.

Fidel stared hard at Cortez’s thigh, but his expression was far from what Corinos rather thought it should be. Then he saw why.

A black rose in full bloom. “You’re a Black Rose?” he asked.

“No,” Cortez said, voice sadder than anything Corinos had heard in a long time. “When I was young. I have not been part of them for a long, long time.”

“Then why have you obviously been trying to hide it?” Fidel asked, but Corinos had the sneaking suspicion Fidel already knew the answer – and that Cortez knew he had figured the reason out.

He also knew that whatever was about to happen, he shouldn’t be there. Repressing a sigh, wondering what else could possibly go wrong, he hefted himself back up, grabbed his bag, and went to go find firewood.

And a place to take a short nap in peace. “Come on, Ruisenor,” he said as the snake slithered up to him. “We can nap together. If anyone bothers us, you can eat them.”




Chapter Fourteen

“You were there that night,” Fidel said quietly.

Cortez looked at the closed expression on his face and swore her heart was breaking. Why now? Why couldn’t this have happened later, when they didn’t already have so much on their shoulders?

Why couldn’t it have stayed a secret?

“Yes,” she finally answered.

“You were never going to tell me.”

“No,” Cortez replied.

Fidel curled his hand into a fist and pulled away from her, looking out over the pond and waterfall. “You don’t kill, Cortez. It’s the one kind of job you don’t take. Were my parents some sort of exception?”

“I was against it. I argued until I thought they were going to beat me into silence.” Cortez sighed. “If I had wanted to be there, don’t you think I would have said something when I saw you standing there? I kept my mouth shut.” She looked sadly at Fidel. “You should have gone on with your life.”

Fidel’s face clouded. “My life was ruined that night.”

“You could have rebuilt it.”

“This is my life now.”

Cortez shook her head. “This? This is not a life. A thousand times I have wished I could change the decision I had to make when I was too young. Now? I am too old. You, though…you could still change your life, Fidel.”

“You could have saved me years of searching,” Fidel said, rage blazing in his eyes as he finally turned to look at her again. “Cortez! I have spent more than a decade trying to find the people who killed my parents…and this whole time…”

“I was selfish,” Cortez said. “You are the first real friend I’ve ever had. I did not want you to hate me.” She glared at the grass. “Besides, I have not seen any of them since that night. After they refused to listen, after I saw just what exactly it meant to be in a cult, I left. They tried to stop me…I convinced them to let me go.”

Fidel looked at her, a thousand thoughts and emotions flickering across his face. “We have been finding dead Black Rose all along our way up the mountain.”

Cortez frowned, confused by the shift in subject and the words themselves. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that we have counted at least thirty, probably more like fifty, corpses in the forest as we traveled. All of them had the mark of the Black Rose.”

“That makes no sense…we both thought it was the Black Rose paying us. Jorge and the others were clearly expecting me. They asked for Cortez…they thought I was a man, but that is something to which I never pay any mind.”

Fidel frowned and shook his head. “So perhaps not all the Black Rose are dead.”

“Perhaps we do not know enough about what is going on.” Cortez glared in thought, mind whirling as she tried to think what it all meant – and where they had taken Culebra.

A hand rested gently on her uninjured leg, and Cortez looked up to see Fidel watching her. “As per usual, Cor, you go straight to business and completely miss whatever else I am attempting to say.”

Cortez eyed him tiredly. “What else is there to say? If I thought killing me would accomplish anything, I would let you. I may yet, if that’s what you want – but first we save the prince, Fidel.”

Fidel rolled his eyes. “Always business.”

“It was all we could have,” Cortez said softly, dropping her eyes to the grass.

The hand on her leg tightened. “Ah, Cor. You’re always so stupid.”

“Watch it, Fidel.” Cortez looked up to glare at him – but stopped short when she saw him smiling.

“As I said, all we saw coming up this mountain were dead bodies – all of them Black Rose. Someone angry was responsible; someone vengeful. Perhaps even the White Rose I once called family, though it is not their style to be so violent. All I could think, Cor, was that it could very easily have been me causing such a blood bath…and when I saw your tattoo, it made me cold to think you could very easily have been one of the bodies I found. I do not want that.”

“Fidel…” Cortez stared at him, unable to believe what she was hearing.

“Ah, Cor, you’ve been my only friend too – and more besides. Haven’t I tried to make that obvious more than once? You’re more important to me than revenge.” He grinned. “Even if you are old enough to nearly be my mother.”

Cortez narrowed her eyes – then launched herself at Fidel, sending them both tumbling to the ground. “Your mother? I think not. Call me that aga—” Fidel cut her off with a kiss, and Cortez immediately returned it, and it was the best kiss she’d ever had.

Even if they both needed a bath, and Fidel a shave, and this was the worst possible moment to finally resolve everything. “I hope you did not ever kiss your mother like that, Fidel.”

Fidel looked as though he might be sick. “Merciful gods, do not even say such a thing.” His hands slid over her, touching and exploring in a way that made it clear they would never be mere friends again. Cortez closed her eyes and sternly reminded herself why they had no time – and she wasn’t terribly certain she could do much without a nap and food, anyway. She stole another kiss, then reluctantly rolled off Fidel.

Her thigh hated her, and she would be willing to bet Fidel’s ankle was no better. “Come, we need to rest. Then we must figure out where they have taken our prince.”

“Our prince?” Fidel’s brows shot up. “Why are you so possessive, suddenly?”

Cortez quirked a brow and laughed. “Jealous?”

“What have I to be jealous of?” Fidel smirked. “Even if you wanted him, I am quite certain Corinos would not stand for it – and I think his Highness was quite clear on the matter. So, if you are pining away, I shall just be the one to console you.”

“Idiot,” Cortez said with a laugh. “All I meant was that after all this trouble, I do not like handing him over to that lot. Something about that man…”

“Jorge, you said he called himself.”

“Yes,” Cortez said, glowering. “A man with no shadow. How is that possible? In all my travels, I have never heard of such a thing. Nor have I ever heard of a giant snake – or any snake – that is equally strange.” She looked around the clearing. “Where did the bodyguard go?”

“To get out of the way of the fight I sensed,” Corinos said dryly from behind her, and Cortez rolled her eyes. “I see you have resolved things rather more peacefully.”

Grinning, Cortez motioned for him to sit. “Yes. I guess once we find your prince, you’ll get your turn?”

Corinos did not reply, merely joined them and set down the firewood bundled in his arms. Slowly he began to build a fire, carefully stoking the small flame he managed to light, gradually building the fire up. “How is your leg?”

“Bastards got me good, that’s for certain,” Cortez said with a grimace. “It should be all right for a bit of walking. Hopefully we won’t run into much fighting. Ha! Like we’d be that lucky. Scales and teeth, what is going on here?”

Corinos lifted a brow at that. “You are the ones who were paid to kidnap him, you tell me.”

Cortez mimicked the look. “You are the all knowing bodyguard, you tell me what has become of your charge.”

“That is not funny,” Corinos said, humor vanishing like the sun overtaken by storm clouds.

“My apologies,” Cortez said. “It was a poor jest. They can not have gone far, not if whatever happened spooked the horses so badly. If you did not see or hear them as you came up, then they must be going higher up the mountain.”

Corinos’s face clouded. “That is what I fear. There is no way Culebra could make it up the mountain alive, not when they reach the point where they’ll have to climb and scale. It is madness to think he could.”

“Would they truly be that stupid, my friend?” Fidel asked.

“Hey!” Cortez interrupted, something finally occurring to her. “Why did you two arrive together? How did you know each other? And why are you calling him friend?”

Fidel threw his head back and started laughing so hard he fell over in the grass.

Cortez looked at him and then rolled her eyes. “So you tell me how my partner came to be so friendly with the bodyguard his Highness said we should fear.”

“He bought me a drink,” Fidel said, still sniggering in the grass. “We got into a fight with Che’s gang while trying to rest at old lad Rosario’s house. Then that nightmare snake attacked me. Do not underestimate his pretty face, Cor. Making him angry is as bad as upsetting you.”

“Which you are rapidly doing,” Cortez said, fighting to keep a smile from her face. “So let me make certain I understand your story. While the prince and I were struggling through this mountain, you were playing in town and making new friends.” She smiled sweetly, knowing exactly how ominous it looked on her scarred face.

Fidel blanched. “I was working hard! Very hard. We have hardly stopped, trying to find you. And I have even gotten along with that nightmare snake.” He motioned to the far side of the fire, where Ruisenor was curled up and seemed for all the world to be fast asleep.

Corinos reached out and stroked her scales. After a moment, Cortez did the same. “She is truly a beautiful snake. I have never seen her like. However did the prince find her?”

“She found the prince,” Corinos replied, “and she has come all this way to find him again.”

Cortez smiled and continued to stroke along the slick, glistening black scales. “She seems as tired as the rest of us.”

“Probably, after having to lead us around everywhere. I hope it is only exhaustion that keeps her still, because if she rests because she has lost the trail…”

At that, Ruisenor lifted her head and seemed to stare directly at him.

Fidel swallowed and held his hands up. “My apologies, nightmare.”

Seemingly satisfied, Ruisenor coiled up and went back to sleep.

Corinos smirked at Fidel.

“Oh, shut up,” Fidel grumbled. “I just bet that snake sleeps with his Highness, doesn’t she? I wonder if she approves of you sleeping with his Highness.”

“Prince Culebra said she approves of me.”

Fidel snickered. “You probably were not in the bed at the time.”

“I can punch him for you, if you like,” Cortez said with exaggerated congeniality.

Corinos flashed a smile. “I have heard much about your right hook, my lady, but I have yet to see it.”

“Oh, really?” Cortez’s brows went up and then she shot a suspicious look at Fidel. “What exactly, dear heart, have you been saying about me?”

Fidel held up his hands in surrender. “Only that I love you and would never do anything to make you angry.”

“Well, that’s okay then,” Cortez replied.

Corinos rolled his eyes. “Ruisenor, I think you should eat them.”

The snake seemed to ripple, scales flashing in the light of the sun and fire, but otherwise did not stir.

“Fine, be that way.”

“I don’t suppose we have anything to make coffee?” Cortez asked. “It seems a pity that we have this fire but nothing to put on it.”

Fidel laughed and fumbled around until he managed to retrieve his dropped saddlebag. “I sorely miss making the horse carry this, let me tell you. Be grateful I did not let him carry all the supplies.”

Corinos rolled his eyes, but set to work helping put together some sort of meal.



Several hours later, as evening fell, darkness overtaking the sky, Cortez stirred from where she slept cured up with Fidel – something she was already addicted to doing. Slowly sitting up, feeling much better than she had in awhile, Cortez looked around and realized something was missing.

Someone. Looking around a bit more, she saw Corinos had wandered off closer to the pond, standing on the bank with Ruisenor twined around him.

They made a breathtaking sight – the glistening snake wrapped around the dark, solemn bodyguard, staring down at where the early moon was reflected in the dark water.

Beside her, Fidel stirred and slowly sat up, and she pressed a finger to his lips to stop whatever he might say. A moment later he followed her gaze, and grew still.

The moment seemed to stretch on forever, but Cortez knew it must have only been a couple of minutes.

Corinos must have heard or sensed them, or perhaps Ruisenor alerted him, for a second later he turned and saw them. “You’re awake.”

“You should have woken us,” Cortez said reprovingly. “We are wasting time.”

“We needed the rest,” Corinos replied. “Where we are going, we will need it. Do not forget that we have no idea what we are facing, what to expect. The very last thing we should do is rush in exhausted and injured. Regretfully, there is little we can do about the injuries.” He paused, then spoke again, voice soft. “Basilisk willing today is not our day to die.”

The words were old, mostly fallen out of use. Cortez wondered why Corinos, of all people, chose to say them. Well, it hardly mattered. Standing, grateful that her leg held, Cortez strapped her sword belt back on and then set to burying what little remained of the fire.

Fidel moved around packing their few belongings, dispersing everything among their packs, abandoning the saddlebag he had carried to that point. When everything was ready, they joined Corinos by the pond. “So where are we going?”

Corinos pointed to the waterfall. “Ruisenor woke earlier, which woke me, and I followed her that way. At first, it seems only to be a long cavern…but if you keep going…” Corinos shook his head. “If I had thought for a moment I could have managed alone…”

“I would have done the same,” Cortez said. “Let’s go.”

Nodding, Corinos waited until Ruisenor had slithered away and then walked just behind her, the two of them leading the way as they traveled to and then slowly behind the waterfall. Cortez clung to the rough, wet rock face with one hand, in no hurry to slip and fall into the rushing falls. The spray hit her face, soaked a good portion of her hair and clothes, but at last they were past the waterfall and into dark, damp cavern behind it.

Their steps were drowned out by the rushing fall at first, but as they went deeper, the light rapidly fading, every sound began to echo. Nothing fought back the dark but a single torch that she assumed Corinos had created earlier. “We need more light if we’re to go much further.”

“No, we don’t,” Corinos replied, walking unflinchingly forward, as though the unrelenting dark that was devouring them was scarcely worth his notice.

Given they were trying to rescue the man he loved, Cortez supposed it wasn’t.

A few minutes of stumbling, tripping, and cursing later she saw why.

The cavern seemed to dead end, as she stumbled into Corinos’s back. He took her hand, though, and kept walking, and she realized that the cavern kept going, a narrow passage way revealed behind the wall she thought they’d run up against.

Suddenly, there was light.

The rocks themselves seemed almost to glow as they continued down the narrow passage – a passage that was slanting gradually downward as it twisted and turned, leading them deeper and deeper into the earth.

It was too smooth and perfect to be natural. At some point in time, someone had created the passageway. She thought she knew who, and the thought made her shiver. Why would the Basilisk have made such a passage?

Cortez drew a sharp breath as bits of the conversation she’d heard before the bastards had attacked her came back. “Oh, scales and teeth.” The sound of her own voice in the dark passage would have made her jump, if she hadn’t been so terrified already. “I remember. Scales and teeth, I remember what Jorge said before they tried to break my skull in half.”

“What?” Corinos asked, turning sharply around, eyes strange looking in the eerie light of the glowing rocks. “What did they say?”

“They…that bastard Jorge said something about making him a god. He wanted Culebra to find the Lost Temple.” She paused, unable to accept her own thoughts. “Is this…could it be…”

Corinos said nothing, merely turned back around and resumed walking. “Why would they do such a thing?” he asked quietly.

“They got me before the conversation got that far. I am sorry.”

“It little matters,” Corinos said with a grunt. “If you had tried anything, they would have killed you.”

Fidel grumbled in agreement. “Cortez, I am confounded you are alive.”

“Culebra,” Cortez said softly. “If I am alive, it is no doubt because of him.”

“I’ve gone no further than this,” Corinos said, coming to an abrupt halt. “I suggest from here on out we speak as little as possible.”

Cortez stared. Before them was a long, twisting staircase carved from black stone – she thought it was black, anyway. The strange, glowing rocks around them did not offer quite enough light to be certain, however. Further down, the stairway vanished into darkness. All around them were the glowing stones, interspersed with wet, glistening rock. On either side of the stairway was only darkness – she could not tell if it was merely shadow, or if falling from the stairs would be a very bad idea.

She could not repress a shiver. “Who would want to come all the way in here? Who would go down there willingly?”

“Someone with no reason to fear the dark,” Corinos replied. He dropped his torch to the ground and stamped it out, then drew his sword and started down the stairs.

Cortez sighed and did the same, then drew her cloak tightly closed. “It’s going to get cold, I suspect. I cannot see how it would be warm, in a place like this.” She took one last look at the stairs, at Corinos already halfway down them, at the just visible glistening of Ruisenor’s scales even further down, then hefted her sword and followed.