Part 28 (1/2)
When he reached the dray driven by the innocently cloaked and hooded Gonji, the vigilant trooper peered more closely and registered alarm at the Orientals presence. He kicked his steed up close to the smiling samurai, who greeted him calmly, while averting his face.
But Corsini, who had joined the band out of his debt to Gonji as well as an idealistic sense of Gonjis divine mission, pulled his pistol and blasted a hole in the nearby patrol commanders forehead. Horses screamed and reared, and a short, frantic engagement ensued. The three soldiers with the commander were felled in close-quarter combat, one taken down by a springing Simon and the other two overwhelmed by the mercenary escort.
The soldier at Gonjis dray drew his rapier. Gonji pulled the Sagami from its concealment beside him and beat the slim blade aside. Just as the samurai engaged his opponent, another pistol shot dropped the lancer from the saddle.
Before the excitement died down, Buey pounded up to Corsini and leaped to belt him off his mount with a savage backhand blow.
”Neapolitan b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” the Ox growled. ”We could have gone by without bloodshed.”
Some of Corsinis companions began to move to his aid, and a violent argument broke out, finally mediated by Gonji.
”No more pistols,” the samurai warned, ”and no more fighting unless I give the order or initiate it myself. I, or Captain Salguero. Children are with us, and those shots were probably heard for miles.”
”Are we or are we not on a holy mission?” Corsini grumbled as he wiped the blood from his mouth. His friends grunted supportively.
”What kind of crusade are you on, Napoli?” another renegade under Salguero challenged.
”We kill no more soldiers unless it is absolutely necessary,” Captain Salguero ordered. ”It is my responsibility to decide when any of my former compadres must die. Simon has said that no messengers made it this far to the east.”
”And what did he do in order to prevent them?” Corsini accused, pointing at the lycanthrope. But when he saw the look in Simons eye, Corsini swallowed and dropped the matter, remounting and swinging off with his band of free companions to cross the bridge.
The Spaniards watched them, still muttering with hostility. It would remain a sore point between the Spanish and Italian contingents, and in the subsequent days, refugees began to segregate themselves into hostile factions, along ethnic lines.
Gonji took note of this divisiveness with a sense of ill omen.
Simon took a meal with Gonji early that evening, watching the sun press near the horizon, his mood plummeting with it.
”What would you have done with that patrol?” Simon asked him, out of earshot of the others. ”Sooner or later the tension will get to someone again. Too many families in danger here. Cardenas over there-” Simon pointed at the solicitor from Barbaso, seated against a wagon wheel fifty feet away, reading from a small tattered book.
Gonji inhaled sonorously. ”I dont think Cardenas would start trouble. Hes an intelligent man. He wants to return to his family. Ive promised to let him go when we reach the sea, and that seems satisfactory to him. I dont know what to do about trouble. We must fight, I suppose. We cant haul prisoners with us. By the way,” he continued, smiling, ”nice of you to drop by for my execution. I was afraid youd miss it.”
Simon dismissed the droll remark with a curled lip.
”It seems were linked again,” Gonji said, ”by a third party.”
”How so?”
”This Balaerik, this...manipulative priest, or sorcerer, who used the Inquisitions mad fanaticism to try to trap you-I was the bait, you see. Hes taken a special interest in destroying both of us. Or me, anyway. I dont know why. Your devotion to the Church may be compromised a bit when I tell you this: Are you aware that whatever secret faction is conspiring to kill us, for whatever reason, actually went so far as to place an evil Pope in Roma for a short time?”
Simons reply surprised Gonji. ”I suppose it can happen. Evil is powerful. But now theyll be on their guard against such blasphemy ever occurring again. Dont look so pleased with yourself. The Church is still the guardian of the Word of G.o.d.”
Gonji shrugged in half-agreement. ”Do you know, Balaerik said he bore you a message from your father.”
”He is not my father.”
Simons outburst caused heads to turn in their direction. He reddened and lowered his voice at once. ”Dont ever call that monster my father.”
”So sorry, mon ami, the possessing spirits father, then.”
”The possessed spirits father. I am not an energumen. I host one.”
Gonjis brow knit in confusion. ”Wait-there is a third spirit within you? Wakarimasen-I dont understand. Sprechen Sie Deutsch, bitte.”
They changed from French to High German, a language with which Gonji was far more conversant.
”Its something like that,” Simon explained. ”The shape-s.h.i.+fting sorcerer Grimmolech used his foul sorcery to somehow place his sons possessed spirit into the body of the Killing Beast. Its possessed by something evil, to be sure, as is its father. Perhaps their entire family line...”
”But Grimmolech is essentially human? Not a demon, as youve claimed before?”
”One and the same nonetheless,” Simon responded, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with hatred. ”Some sort of...high priest of evil power. Magic. Sorcery.”
”Its getting bad, Simon,” Gonji said gravely. ”Something must be done. And youve got to stop avoiding me. Somehow we are linked in this. Spiritually, cosmically. Too many wise men claim so. We must form an alliance against this...conspiracy that gives us no peace. Learn its intentions. Destroy it. I saw things in your native France since we last met. Whole towns are being swayed to supernatural evil. A visionary woman I met-she reminded me a bit of Tralayn-she told me of a...conjoining of evil forces that seek to control our world by using strange gateways into others. Other worlds...concurrent with our own. Ive seen examples of the truth of her words.”
Simon was shaking his head. ”It would be a mistake for us to be trapped together.”
”Stop playing the tortured loner! I want to know whats behind all this,” Gonji argued. ”What threat we pose to them. Do you know that a dead man returned from the Dark Lands to testify against me in Toledo? He spewed foul lies that connected me with a horrid cult I battled against-vampires who preyed on children, in Pont-Rouge.”
”I said it would be a mistake,” Simon repeated, ”but it may be necessary to do as you say. For a time, perhaps. I, too, have seen evidence of what you say. And I came looking for you-to solicit your help.”
Gonji thought he detected a surprising note of fear in the mans pearl-l.u.s.tered eyes, for the first time ever in their a.s.sociation. But then he decided it must be the sun, now resting on the western horizon, which inspired it.
”Ill explain when theres time,” Simon added. ”Ill help you get these people to the s.h.i.+ps, then Ill explain. Dont speak more of me, if they ask.” He rose to leave, compelled by the first stirrings of painful transformation. For because he had killed on the night of the full moon, he was doomed to the painful nightly reversions into the werewolf, until that moon had been supplanted by the next. Yet he still pathetically insisted that no companions take undue note of his tragic life, as if none of it were real.
”Theres one other thing about this,” Simon noted, watching the murky red orb of the sun sag lower. ”Ive learned that knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece have been set after you. Its an order of impeccable honor and spiritual devotion. Ill not harm any of them. They actually remind me of you, in their exalted sense of duty.” He cast the samurai a nervous, feral grin, as close to a gesture of humor as Simon could ever muster.
Gonji c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. ”Wait-the sea-what about when we reach the sea? How will we-”
Simon shook it off, backing away into the gathering twilight. ”Youll take to s.h.i.+p; Ill go overland. What else can we do?”
”Iye-that wont do. You see... Im not going to Austria. I must sail to the Barbary States.”
”To Africa? What in G.o.ds name for?”
”Later. Ill explain later.”
Simon was trembling now. ”Ill never board a s.h.i.+p. You know its madness to expect-adieu!”
”Simon,” Gonji rasped after him in a whisper, ”what will you be about this night?”
”Ill prowl.”
Then he was bounding astride a skittish horse and kicking it hard across the savannahs, dwindling into the distance. The horse, Gonji knew, would soon abandon him in terror.
The samurai morosely ambled over to Cardenas, who had been watching the two of them.
”What are you reading?” Gonji inquired, not sure why, since he cared little.