Gonji: Fortress of Lost Worlds Part 29

"They helped us. Dropped the last two as they rode away. Corsini-" Buey was moving toward the Italian brigand, extending a hand, offering a bandanna to stanch the flow of blood from a rapier cut on Corsinis face. Hed sport a new scar across his old one, Buey observed. Then the two of them were clearing the air between them, patching their differences.

But everyone else watched the closing strangers. The riderless mounts streamed past, and then the two Frenchmen clopped up and saluted Gonjis party.

The taller man scanned them with penetrating blue eyes. He was fair of hair and skin, and a glimmer of a smile perked his lips when his gaze fell on Gonji.

"Gracias, hombres," Salguero was saying. "Habla usted espanol?"

"Castellano," the Frenchman answered. "Castilian Spanish."

"Ah, fine," the captain said. "May we ask who you are and what interest you have in aiding us?"

"I am Brian de Chancy," the tall blond man replied. "My companion is Armand Le Clerc. Let me say that we have a common interest with-" He turned from Salguero to Gonji.

The samurai stiffened, ignoring the pain in his bleeding shoulder now, wary, as he was these days, of Frenchmen seeking him out.

"You are, are you not," the shorter, darker Le Clerc was asking in a youthful voice, "the celebrated warrior Gonji Sabatake?"

Gonji nodded slightly, still cautious. The pair looked to each other, and de Chancy dismounted and strode up to Gonji. He reached into a pocket and withdrew a shriveled white rose. This he held up before Gonjis eyes.

Buey rubbed his nose and sniffed. "I think youre being courted," he said in Portuguese, some of the men snickering.

De Chancy chortled. "Ill dispense with chivalry, my loutish friend," he told Buey, "since our mission is urgent."

Buey affected a wryly brutish expression as his yokefellows brayed at the implied threat. De Chancy turned back to Gonji.

"Do you recognize this symbol of secrecy?"

Gonji shook his head. "So sorry, I cannot say that I do." But he was thinking of the Knights of Wonder.

"Well, how is your knowledge of heraldry?" de Chancy asked, shrugging off his greatcoat and turning slowly before their curious gazes.

He wore a white mantle emblazoned at the back with a red Latin cross, and Gonji wondered at the gasps and exclamations this evoked from some of the others.

"Jesus-Maria," Salguero was breathing. "The Order of Knights Templars? But-"

"Yes, I know," de Chancy said with an indulgent smile, "suppressed-disbanded, so they would have you believe-for nearly three hundred years. Not so. I am the present Grand Master of the Templars, and monsieur le samurais work has been brought to our attention. Youll forgive me if I speak briefly and to the point." He addressed Gonji now, who could only stare in narrow-eyed bewilderment as to the portent of all this.

"For centuries weve been the guardians of knowledge the world is ill prepared to receive. Some knowledge, you see, leads to madness. You, it seems, are on the brink of discovering certain important facets of that knowledge. Your long struggle against the tyranny of evil powers has brought you to the doorway of Arcadia-"

"Arcadia?" Gonji repeated, dumbfounded.

"Yes, monsieur le samurai-Paradise. The Garden of Eden. Lost innocence-what is left of it after eons of pride and greed. The transcendent knowledge of reclaiming the simultaneously physical and spiritual realm the Creator made for humankind. A world of endless possibilities, of which this earth we walk is but the tiniest fragment. Grasping, ravening powers have sought for millennia to aggrandize themselves of all Arcadia, to enslave all the sentient races who arent already enslaved."

Gonji was shaking his head, staying the knights torrent of impa.s.sioned words. "Im afraid, Sir Knight, that youve lost me. What exactly am I supposed to do about this-'battle of worlds when I cant even be sure Ill get out of Spain alive?"

"You must," the young knight Le Clerc said simply.

"Take this," de Chancy said, pus.h.i.+ng a pouch toward Gonji. "Within youll find a cheque for a...substantial amount, which the Hapsburg chancellery will honor when youve reached Vienna. They will exchange this note for silver or gold. Take no great heed of the name on the authorization, and do not connect it in any way with the order. The money is to be used toward the promulgation of the Wunderknechten movement. When youve done that, you must continue your quest after a doorway into Arcadia. You will know it by the words Et in Arcadia Ego."

"'And in Arcadia I-" Gonji tilted his head, prompting the man, as he translated. "I-what? No verb?"

De Chancy looked to Le Clerc and smiled. "That is the secret of Arcadia. You must help us to learn it, so that we may win the battle to reclaim the fullness of the worlds that were created for all sentient beings. Where have they gone? How may common men pa.s.s into them?"

"And exactly how shall I attain this wondrous knowledge?" Gonji asked peevishly.

"By asking-whomever guards the... doorways," Le Clerc answered.

"Some call them jetties," de Chancy added.

"The gatekeeper?" Gonji said, recalling Domingos similar charge.

"Oui," de Chancy breathed reverently. "But have a care, sir-they might be angels."

The refugees within earshot whispered and jostled as Gonji fell silent, mulling over the new questions that joined the queue behind the others that already vied for solution.

"Africa!"

"Africa?"

"He did say Africa?"

Few in the camp could sleep following the musket company attack. So as the sentries were doubled and a new band of pilgrims pounded into the area from the south, to be settled in with the main body, Gonji laid out his plans. He could no longer keep them in the dark.

"No, he said Austria-"

"Africa," Gonji repeated. "The Barbary States. That is my destination, and that of whatever fighting men are free to sail with me."

"But why?" Captain Salguero asked, fretting.

"Because I have a duty, senchoo. I made a promise to Domingo Negro before she died. And," he went on pensively, "I have a consuming curiosity to know what this business of Arcadia means to me personally. Evil abounds and takes a special interest in my demise. Influential allies appear whom Ive never even heard of."

Jacob Neriah was muttering to himself. He peered still closer at the draft the knights had given Gonji, which the samurai had now presented to him. The merchant beat his breast and rolled his eyes skyward to again regard the sum that had been authorized.

"What about all these people?" Sergeant Orozco asked.

"They take the larger s.h.i.+p to Genoa, as planned."

"There will never be enough room."

Gonjis face took on a stern set. "Then they take both s.h.i.+ps, and we find pa.s.sage on another. You cannot dissuade me, senchoo. Ill go alone, if necessary."

"Ill go," Valentina whispered behind him, as she tended the shoulder wound that made him wince repeatedly.

"So sorry, Tina-chan, but we dont know what well find, what danger lies ahead. Nor even where were headed. The desert, thats all I know."

"Well see," she said stubbornly.

A renegade lancer approached Salguero at a trot, bearing important news. Some of the recent arrivals had heard that Madrid had unleashed the flower of the cavalry to pursue them.

"The Order of the Golden Fleece?" Captain Salguero repeated in disbelief.

"Hai," Gonji confirmed. "Simon has also told me theyve been set on our heels."

Corsini called over from where he sat before a blazing fire: "Are they good?"

"Huh," Salguero grunted in reply. "Ask any lancer. Theres none better."

A grim silence descended over the gathering, broken at last by Gonji. "They wont follow to the Barbary Coast."

"Theyll follow to Genoa," Salguero spat. "What will we do about all these innocent people?"

"Nothing but trouble ahead, eh?" Cardenas said smugly, shackled to a wagon yoke.

Gonji sighed. "Ill just-somehow-have to get them to follow me." He looked them over, gauging their reactions. It seemed clear they had accepted that he would be parting company with them. "Anyway, how quickly can they take to s.h.i.+p? Neriah-san says the only s.h.i.+ps waiting at those shoals should be ours."

Deep in thought and heavy-hearted, the others began to drift away. They would need a s.n.a.t.c.h of sleep before the sun presently rose.

Gonji sat near the fire, scribbling absently on a ragged sc.r.a.p of paper. Valentina changed Orozcos leg bandage and shared a cup of wine with the droll renegade before sidling up behind Gonji.

"What does that say?" she inquired, looking over his shoulder. He read it to her aloud twice, helping her with the p.r.o.nunciation. They exchanged weary pleasantries, and the samurai moved off to try to steal an hours rest from his unrelenting concerns.

"Et in Arcadia Ego," she repeated again to herself before sleep overcame her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.

They split the caravan into three parties to help confound pursuit as they neared the craggy seaport city of Valencia. Neriahs s.h.i.+ps were to be nestled in a treacherous inlet, anch.o.r.ed off a small fis.h.i.+ng village, ostensibly to maintain cheap harbor while the crews set to needless repairs and re-caulking.

Captain Salguero and his men left their camp and, dressing as inland hunters, entered Valencia to regather their families with the caravan. After an anxious two days, they returned intact, having encountered no difficulty and bringing the encouraging news that there seemed to be no general alert concerning the refugees in Valencia.

"I told you no messengers made it through," Simon reminded them with annoyance.

"They may think weve gone west to Estremadura," a lancer said.

"Or south toward Granada," Salguero added. "There was some rumor of trouble among the Moriscos."

"We should be grateful for any circ.u.mstantial misdirection," Gonji said thoughtfully.

When the blue-gray haze of the Mediterranean spread over the eastern horizon, the samurai took a scouting party to the brink of the crags overlooking the inlet. Simon and Jacob Neriah went along, plus a handful of the men under Salguero.

What they saw in the waters off the village coast drowned their hopes in a maelstrom of despair. Neriahs Portuguese carac and Venetian galley were anch.o.r.ed next to the hulking form of a Spanish s.h.i.+p of war.

"Mierda-s.h.i.+t," Buey swore, grimacing and slamming a big fist onto the rocks.

"Well, that settles it, then-we must wait until the wars.h.i.+p departs." Jacob nodded repeatedly as if to convince himself.

"Impossible," Gonji disagreed softly.

"I tell you, you must move," Simon intoned in a low growl. "The Knights of the Golden Fleece are not far behind now. You cannot count on them to be misled."

"Well..." Salguero began, his breath huffing anxiously. "Any suggestions?"

"We take the land route," Simon said forcefully. "Just as Ive said from the beginning."

"Through France?" a lancer grumbled.

"I will see you safely through France," the lycanthrope a.s.sured.

"We take them," Gonji said at last, all heads turning.

"Youre loco," Buey said, voicing their thoughts. "Take on a s.h.i.+p of the line? A seasoned crew? Twenty-four guns?"

"Neriah-san," Gonji said, ignoring him, "can your crews be trusted not to have talked?"

"Im certain of it," the merchant responded, "but-"

"Then theres only one way: You begin moving your entourage and your cargo aboard your s.h.i.+ps. Most of the wars.h.i.+ps crew seems to be ash.o.r.e. We put them out of action, and then we take their s.h.i.+p-"

"Que?"

"How?"

"Well have to improvise something," Gonji told them, smiling thinly. "We need that s.h.i.+p, if were to get everyone out to sea."

"I told you-Im not going to sea." Simons tone was vaguely threatening.

"But youll help me get these people off?" Gonji asked.

"I dont know-"

"This is madness-"

"Cholera!" Gonji swore. "Are we fighting men or not? What do we tell all these people? I didnt ask them to join in my escape, you did. I didnt ask to be their leader. You all set me up as the leader. And now, so sorry, but you will all help me, or I will go my own way and let you mull this over until the troops arrive. Then you can follow Simon across the Pyrenees in the dead of winter till your a.s.ses freeze to your saddles and youre eaten by-"

He caught himself and spat disdainfully.

"Im afraid Gonjis right," Salguero said into the hostile silence. The others began to grunt submissively.

"All right," Simon said, the last of them to rise from where they had crouched. "Vamos-Moses," he said, sneering at Gonji.