“Rodolfo?” asked Cordell in surprise. “Can that be you?”
“It is, I’m ashamed to admit,” said the navigator, with a look to insure that the guards were out of earshot.
“I thought you gave up the sea when you married,” said the captain-general quietly. “Otherwise I surely would have had you at the helm of my flagship a year ago!”
The grizzled navigator shook his head sadly. “I was a landlubber for five years, but then the plague swept through my village. It claimed my wife and my two young sons.”
“I’m sorry, old friend,” Cordell reached out a hand to clap Rodolfo on the shoulder. He waited quietly, sensing this was not the reason Don Vaez’s navigator had come to see him.
“We’ve heard what you said about the army on its way here… led by a giant made of stone! A lot of the men, I don’t mind telling you, aren’t at all certain how Don Vaez will fare against such a threat.”
“He doesn’t even believe it exists,” said Cordell in disgust. “He assumes the tale is some sort of ruse I’m using to gain my freedom.”
“Your freedom…” Rodolfo cast another look at the three guards, who were still engaged in their vigorous game of knucklebones. None of the trio looked up from the scattered coins and bones on the ground. “There are those besides me who would like to see you gain that freedom. Don Vaez is feared, but not greatly admired, by these men.”
Cordell smiled grimly. “Your words give me great hope and encouragement. Now we need a plan.”
Katl groaned behind him, and the captain-general turned toward the wounded man. Then he looked back to Rodolfo. “I’ll still have to tell Don Vaez where the gold is hidden. That’s the only way he’ll send the cleric to help Katl. But perhaps, with your help, we’ll find a way to keep it out of his hands in the end.”
Tabub came rushing back to Halloran, gesturing wildly at the sky and the jungle before them.
“Eagle!” panted the chief of the Little People. “Him and Now he Big Person! Come quick!”
Hal’s first thought was Poshtli, but by the time he had laid Erix’s litter down and followed the halfling warrior forward, he had dismissed the idea of seeing his old friend here as wishful thinking.
But the sight of Chical, standing beside Daggrande and Co-ton, was nevertheless a welcome one. As far as Hal had known, the warrior was somewhere deep in the House of Tezca helping his people erect the city of Tukan.
The Eagle Warrior dispensed with the greetings quickly and told them of the mission that had brought the eagles and the horsemen to Helmsport and the fate that had befallen Cordell there. “He has been taken prisoner by this one he calls ‘Don Vaez,’” continued Chical. “They have kept him inside one of the buildings, so I’m not even certain that he lives.
“This morning, one of my eagles flew a short way south ward over the Payit forests and discovered you. He did not know who you were, so I flew here to investigate.” Chicallooked around at the odd mixture of dwarves, halflings, and human warriors.
“A short way?” Hal repeated. “How close to Ulatos are we now?”
“No more than two days’ walk. You could make it in a single long march.”
“Don Vaez.” Daggrande spoke the name, accompanying it with a curse. He spat in disgust. “That little weasel doesn’t have the guts to do anything on his own, but he’s always chased after the Golden Legion’s glory. I’m not a bit surprised that he tossed Cordell in irons.”
“We must free him if we can,” said Chical quietly. Halloran looked at the warrior in surprise, sensing that a bond had formed between the Eagle Knight and the foreign soldier-a bond that was all the more surprising in light of the opposing roles the two men had played in the battle for Nexal. Chical had commanded the Maztican warriors surrounding the Golden Legion, while Cordell had desperately strived to gain escape for himself and his men.
“Why?” asked Gultec directly. “Why should it matter to us which of the bearded men commands their troops?”
Chical nodded, understanding the Jaguar Knight’s question. He told them of Zaltec and the monstrous army marching on Helmsport and Ulatos, and of Cordell’s orders to his own legionnaires and the Kultakans he had left in the desert. “He planned to send those ships for them on the shore of the Sea of Azul. If they had returned in time, they would have greatly increased our numbers!”
“Do we still have time?” asked Daggrande. “Those men must be hundreds of miles south of here.”
“I don’t know,” Chical admitted. “The beasts will be here within a week, a ten-day at the most. It depends on how fast the ships could sail-but they will only sail if Cordell gives the order.”
“Twin Visages!” said Halloran, suddenly understanding. “Zaltec doesn’t march against Ulatos. He goes to Twin Visages!”
The giant god would have to march past the Payit city, of course, but Hal suspected that his eventual goal would be the scene of his brother’s attempted return. Suddenly the workings of fate, in providing them with the army that now marched with him, began to make sense.
“You’re right,” he said, turning back to Chical. “We’ve got*° get those ships sailing. How can we free Cordell, though? It wouldn’t make sense to attack Don Vaez’s force. They’re not the real enemy.”
“Still, your presence here can only be described as fortuitous,” replied Chical. “And it has given me an idea…”
As the warrior explained his plan, they saw it for the desperate scheme that it was. Still, none of them could think of any alternative. They asked questions and finalized details
of timing. Finally, when Chical again took to The air, they knew what they had to do.
They rested only briefly through the darkest pan of the night, and by moonrise, which occurred several hours be-fore dawn, the entire force had resumed the march toward Ulatos. They pressed forward through a long, hot day. Halloran again bore the burden of his wife’s unconscious form
At sunset, none of them showed any inclination to rest Spurred on by the knowledge that the city was nearby, Halloran desperately wanted to get Erixitl to the sanctuary of the temple. In addition, their plan with Chical required them to reach the open fields around Ulatos during the dark of the night.
It was nearly midnight when Halloran and Gultec, in the lead, broke from the fringe of the jungle and saw the torches of the Payit city glowing across the fields.
Accompanied by the Jaguar Knight and the priest of Qotal, Halloran left the bowmen of Tulom-Itzi, the dwarves, and the Little Men in the savannah beyond Ulatos. They knew their part in the plan and immediately.started gathering dry wood, collecting it in hundreds of different locations.
Meanwhile, the trio took Erixitl into the city to seek the temple of Qotal. As the marching column made camp under a moonless night sky, the three companions hurried through the city streets toward the pyramid. Though the torches they had seen earlier flickered around them, they saw no one awake or active at this hour.
Finally Coton led them to a whitewashed adobe building beside the dark, vine-covered pyramid.
“Wake up! Wake up in there!” Halloran cried, pounding on the temple door.
After several moments, they heard footsteps shuffling inside. “What is it? What in the name of the brings you here at this hour?”
The door flew open, revealing a plump, clean-faced priest in a white gown. “Yes? What do you want?”
“My wife needs care, and she needs a comfortable place “ rest. We’ve traveled far, and our mission is extremely
important-important to the himself!” Halloran pushed through the door, Erixitl in his arms, as the priest stammered his objections. “Why do you bother me?” he asked indignantly. “Who just then the priest caught sight of Coton lingering behind the others. “F-Forgive me. Patriarch! I did not know- By all means, bring the lady in! Follow me!”
Halloran dogged the footsteps of the suddenly obsequious priest, with a grateful look back at the enigmatically smiling Coton. The young cleric led him to a warm chamber, small but with a thick mattress of straw,