Spellbound Trilogy: The Wind Casts No Shadow, Heart of the Jaguar, Shadows in the Mirror

by Jeanne Rose

  "So you slept with her." Though she didn't like the idea, it had happened so long ago, she and Sam had been through so much since, Louisa wasn't jealous.

  "We had sex. We didn't make love. I don't know what got into me. I guess I was lonely."

  "You are flesh and blood," she pointed out. "No matter how perfect you always want to be." Something she would do well to remember about him.

  Only a quick glance told her he'd even heard her. He was caught up in his story. "It was later in the night that the renegades ambushed us. I woke up, thinking I was dreaming. Then I heard shouting and scrambled to my feet to see an Apache brave scalping one of my men right in front of my eyes. I went crazy."

  "So you fought back."

  "Like an animal." He looked old all of a sudden, like he was far more than twenty-nine. "I wrestled the knife from the brave and slit his throat, then scalped him." He paused, the memory obviously painful. "I picked up a gun and have no idea how many Apaches I shot." Another pause. "But somehow I ended up knife-fighting again, got someone down and sunk my blade into his belly. Except it wasn't a man...I realized that when she screamed." He took a deep painful breath. "I gutted that Apache woman, Louisa, ripped her apart, the same woman I'd slept with."

  Despite her resolve, she felt chilled. "It was war and you made a mistake." Her Sam, the one sitting beside her right now could never do such a thing. "You were out of your head. The Mexicans call it getting the coraje."

  Sam rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, I already said I went crazy. But a mistake? My commanding officer didn't think so. He commended me, told me the woman was a spy, that she tried to distract me on purpose so her friends could sneak into camp."

  "Was that true?"

  "That's the horror of it, Louisa. I'm not sure. The Apache scouts agreed with my officer, but then the woman may have been from a rival band, one they hated. I think I remember her attacking me. But I can't be certain that I didn't simply savage her in my rage."

  "I don't believe you would have attacked someone who wasn't intent on attacking you. And you were crazy, if only temporarily. I've been crazy at times since Tezco carried me off. I think I would have shot him a long time ago if I'd had a gun. I poisoned his bandits. I'd probably shoot Beaufort Montgomery right now if I got the chance."

  "But I killed a woman." Sam shook his head. "Brutally. I'm afraid of myself. I can't forgive myself. I...I can hardly take you in my arms without thinking about it sometimes. If there are death spirits, I worshipped them that night."

  Louisa felt her heart swell. Haunted as he was, she could imagine Sam flinching if he woke up to bronzed skin and black hair in the morning.

  But she refused to let the dark spirits have him. She would fight them. "I'm not afraid of you, Sam." She touched his shoulder, let her hand rest there. "And remember that enemies come in both sexes and all colors. You're too good a man to keep carrying around a burden like this. I'm certain that woman was a spy like everyone said. You don't have an uncontrollable temper, never did. And you're not at war anymore. You must forgive yourself, choose to worship life."

  He couldn't meet her eyes. "Can it be that easy?"

  "Maybe not, but you can make a start by saying you will forgive yourself. We all fight back when we're cornered and scared. It's only natural." She pointed out, "And you didn't do something cold-blooded like decide to cut somebody's heart out in front of an audience."

  "Perhaps Montgomery is only crazy, too."

  She hadn't thought of it like that. "If so, he's too far gone to ever come back. He's called up the death spirits and let them live through him. You haven't. You wouldn't. You're not that weak." She urged, "Choose life."

  For a while, Sam remained silent. Then he reached up and placed a hand over hers, his eyes sliding toward her, his lips softening. "I think I did choose life after I saw you again, Louisa."

  "And I you." She told him, "In a way, before you came back to New Mexico, I was dead inside." She'd worshipped death spirits, too.

  "I wasn't worth it."

  "You are worth it, Sam. Not that I didn't have other problems. Your leaving me was merely the last straw. I was hiding out, running away from years of shame over what my mother did for a living, years of being treated like I was less than human because I was a breed."

  "You were always proud and wild and beautiful," he insisted. "You followed your dreams."

  "I tried to act like it, like I was having a real good time. But I didn't always feel good deep down inside. I wasn't certain whether I refused to become the lady Ma tried to make me because it wasn't what I really wanted or because I knew other people wouldn't allow me that choice."

  "I've known plenty of ladies. Living that kind of life would bore you."

  "Think so?"

  He leaned back, let go of her hand to slide his arm around her shoulders, pull her against him. "Ladies follow stacks of rules. You're far too exciting for that."

  She loved to hear him say so but she made a face. "I'm exciting to you."

  "And that had better be important, more important than other people's opinions, because you're my woman."

  My woman. Sam's saying those words thrilled her to her core. As did the expression in his blue-green eyes, emotion deep and pure as the New Mexican sky.

  "You're so lovely...inside and out." He ran a finger along her cheekbone, gently touched her mouth. "What a fool I was, letting myself get so wrapped up in my confounded duty. How could I have gone off and left you for so long? The only excuse is that I was young, had to prove my manhood, uphold my family's military tradition." He took her chin in his hand and tipped her face up. "But then, you were young, too, barely a girl."

  "Sixteen. Some people get married even younger."

  "I had a sister your age."

  Sister? Louisa realized she hadn't told Sam about Monte.

  Not that doing so was very important at the moment, not with Sam leaning closer, getting ready to kiss her.

  She let her lips part, her eyes drift closed, her head lean back against the hard muscles of his arm. "I'm not a girl anymore."

  "Sure aren't." He trailed kisses down her throat, found the pulse point, moved lower . . .

  Louisa sighed and ran her fingers through his tousled hair. Her skin felt hot wherever his lips touched her.

  "Don't stop," she moaned, when he raised his head a few moments later.

  But something was wrong. Stiffening, she opened her eyes, slid them in the same direction Sam was staring. Tezco stood in the doorway, having rudely pulled aside the curtain.

  She sat up straighter but refused to break Sam's embrace. "What are you doing here? Can't you leave us alone?"

  The bandit leader glared. "I have come to speak to Sam Strong, as well as to you."

  Sam scowled but loosened his hold on Louisa. Still, she could feel the tenseness in his muscles, as if he were getting ready for a fight.

  "We must get away from this madman, escape," said Tezco.

  Surprise replaced Sam's scowl. "What?"

  "You heard what I said, soldier. Will you join me or will you not?"

  "Join you? We can't even trust you," Louisa protested.

  Sam added, "What is this, some kind of double-cross?"

  "I do not play a trick. I speak the truth." Tezco asked Louisa, "Did I ever hurt you?" Then he looked at Sam. "I could have killed you but I did not."

  Sam remained disbelieving. "You didn't have to kill us. You waited to let Beaufort Montgomery have that privilege."

  "Because the madman promised my sister and me gold. Even so, I thought I could take what he offered and let my captives go."

  "I find that hard to believe," said Sam.

  "Believe it or not, as you choose. I am a thief, I admit it. I am no killer." He turned, went to the window and glanced out nervously. "I did not know Montgomery would gain so many followers. This is a cursed place. And now even the gold is not important. I cannot allow this devil to spill more blood...consume flesh."

  Louisa and Sam exchanged
glances, drew apart.

  Tezco turned back to them. "The things that this man does in this canyon are sins against heaven and earth. And they are on my head."

  The bandit leader was so impassioned, Louisa tended to believe him. "I don't think this is an act, Sam."

  Tezco's amber eyes widened. "An act? The madman has called up a demon to possess me – Tezcalipoca. He has forced me to --"

  "To what?" Sam asked.

  "I do not wish to speak of it." Tezco tightened his jaw. "I have eleven men, you have three. And then there is my sister and Louisa – nearly twenty of us. I can give you guns. You have experience with battles, can help decide our tactics. I heard you speaking of such not so long ago."

  "So you want to pull off a surprise?" Now Sam sounded interested. "We'll have to fight our way out."

  "Yes, which would be best at the ceremony tomorrow."

  Louisa exchanged another meaningful look with Sam. "All right, talk." She rose to go to the window. "I'll keep watch."

  Was Tezco actually coming over to their side? Was this the miracle she'd hoped for? Or nothing but a cruel lie?

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  "THERE ARE TRULY FRESH CHILIES growing in this valley," remarked Xosi at the feast in Montgomery's quarters that evening. She took a liberal helping from a bowl and smiled sweetly at the madman. "And flowers out of season. It is not a lie."

  "There are no lies or liars in my kingdom," the madman pronounced, sounding smug and pompous.

  His eyes burned a little less intensely at the moment, but he still appeared plenty crazy.

  At least in Louisa's opinion. And Montgomery also wasn't too quick in recognizing Tezco as being of danger to him.

  From her place farther down the long, low table lit by numerous candles, Louisa watched the interaction of the serious-faced bandit leader, his sister and the madman. Before the feast, Tezco had said that Xosi intended to charm Montgomery into letting down his guard. But her fawning and flirting was so convincing, it made Louisa distrust her. She only hoped Tezco knew what Xosi was about, could guarantee that she actually intended to throw her fate in with the captives.

  Not that Louisa and Sam could back out now. After talking to Tezco, Sam had brought in Monte and the others to speak with the bandit leader and they had a plan completely worked out. As a show of good faith, Tezco had turned over a rifle and a handgun, promising that more weapons would be delivered that night.

  While the men discussed tactics, Louisa had climbed the steep slope in back of their house to hide the guns in a rocky outcropping. Nearby, she'd discovered the warm spring-fed pool Montgomery had spoken of, had plunged in for a quick bath and brought back a bucket of water so Sam and the other men could clean up.

  It had felt good to wash away the grime of the trail. Though she certainly hadn't done so for Beaufort Montgomery.

  Sam nudged her elbow. "Like a spot of lizards and seeds?"

  She made a face at the contents of the bowl he handed her – chopped up newts and squash seeds – before passing it on. "No, thanks, I'm not that desperate."

  "You're so particular." His tone was light.

  That he could find humor in anything was a credit to their renewed hope. She smiled at him, laid a hand on his thigh beneath the low table at which they sat on blankets spread out on the packed earthen floor.

  "Um-m-m." He kept his voice low. "Only wish you'd brought me up to that spring -- I would've enjoyed washing your back."

  That she felt aroused by the remark was also a credit to hope. She whispered, "Maybe we can visit the pool later." She wanted to make love, would find some way to do so. Simply thinking about it made her grow warm. Heat crept outward from her center.

  Meanwhile, like the other captives, she ate heartily of the best meal they'd had in weeks. There was plenty of food, most of it served in odd three-legged brown bowls that were decorated with ancient black designs – Aztec pottery, Monte had said from across the table. Louisa filled her plate with fresh tortillas, corn, tomatoes, yams, chilies, beef and turkey.

  Montgomery's dwelling was much larger than Louisa's and Sam's, its main room long enough to accommodate the table formed of planks set up on bricks. Besides Louisa, Sam, Monte and his cowboys, there were at least a dozen other people present, mostly men, all dressed in bright cloaks and white cotton tunics that contrasted with their brown skin. Obviously Montgomery's right hand men, his Aztec nobility, the group treated him with deference. On the other hand, the servants refilling the food bowls and pouring wine were peasants who prostrated themselves if Beaufort Montgomery merely looked at them.

  Louisa thought that disgusting, though she admitted Montgomery exuded power. That's why she nearly flinched when she suddenly realized he had fastened his eyes on her.

  "Ah, my brave one." Montgomery smiled. "You look lovely tonight."

  Sam slid his hand over Louisa's and gave it a comforting squeeze...urging her without words to be patient and to have faith.

  "I have gifts for you," the madman went on. "Quetzalcoatl honors you, just as you will honor Quetzalcoatl."

  Louisa forced herself to keep her mouth shut. Earlier, she and Sam had decided passive reactions were best, might arouse less suspicion.

  Montgomery nodded to a male servant. "Bring the trinkets now."

  "Yes, O Great God." The man fell to the floor, crawling backward out of the room.

  Louisa scowled. And she refused to act grateful when the servant came back to lay fresh flowers beside her plate, then presented her with a couple of exquisite gold bracelets, some crude bars of chocolate and a fan made of exotic-looking green feathers.

  Montgomery smiled ferociously and lifted his wine cup. "Tokens for your courage and your beauty, Louisa."

  She hated hearing her name from his lips. And without thinking, she broke her promise of silence. "Are these gonna be buried with my remains?"

  "If you wish."

  She did a slow burn that someone could be so callous in the face of his victim. "I'm not making plans for any funeral...unless it's yours."

  Sam squeezed her hand in warning, while Beaufort Montgomery's followers stared at her, a couple of them making shocked noises. Montgomery himself simply laughed at Louisa's veiled threat and spoke again of her brave heart.

  Then he changed the subject, discussing the contents of a tesoreria that would yield jade and gold ornaments for the next day's ceremony.

  Louisa noticed that Xosi seemed very interested in that information. Tezco, seated on the madman's other side, picked at the food on his plate and rarely glanced at either Montgomery or Xosi. A handsome man when Louisa had met him at the fiesta in New Mexico, the bandit leader now seemed a shadow of himself. He'd lost enough weight to put hollows under his cheekbones and enough sleep to create dark circles under his unnaturally bright eyes. She wondered about the demon he claimed was trying to possess him.

  And remembered the spooky legend Monte had relayed about the dark spirits of the Aztecs returning and wanting to inhabit human flesh. Tezcalipoca, whoever that was, obviously had his sights set on Tezco.

  And all of the death spirits supposedly wanted her heart.

  Thinking about that, Louisa felt less hungry and lifted her wine cup. Taking a sip of the bitter red liquid, she met Monte's dark gaze. She swore she could feel strength flowing from him. She smiled, so appreciative she'd found her brother, that he was a powerful, intelligent man. If at first surprised, Sam had also been impressed when she'd told him.

  Monte, Louisa and the other captives conversed in low voices as they finished the meal, Louisa learning more Aztec myths as related by her brother – supposedly there had always been a great rivalry between Quetzalcoatl and Tezcalipoca, stretching back to the times when the Aztecs conquered the Toltecs, a rival and more advanced tribe, whose ancient gods Tezcalipoca represented. Louisa wasn't sure she could keep all the details straight.

  She was more interested when Monte mentioned he had three children – she had a nephew and two nieces. Intrigued, she
nearly forgot where she was until Montgomery boomed a loud order to the servants, requesting dessert.

  "The favorite sweet of the Mexica," Montgomery announced as his guests were served cups of frothy chocolate mixed with honey.

  "Really? I thought that was organ meat washed down with blood," muttered Sam real low.

  Louisa shuddered, did a little praying and it wasn't to the Aztec gods.

  Beaufort Montgomery finally signaled more servants. "Escort the brave one, her consort and her companions to their dwellings." As they passed, he rose himself to hand Louisa a bundle wrapped in a swath of cotton. "Some clothing, finery for the festivities."

  Sam looked like he wanted to stuff the bundle down Beaufort Montgomery's throat. Thank goodness he didn't try. There was no use in insulting Montgomery again and getting his nobles all stirred up.

  Now was the time to get ready for battle.

  And to cherish Sam in case they didn't win it.

  XOSI HOPED to win all.

  A little tipsy from the wine, she approached Tezco as they walked away from the feast. "Get me the bundle of clothing that was given to your woman."

  Her brother frowned. "She has never been my woman, Xosi. And now she has chosen the soldier."

  With which Xosi wasn't about to argue. She was happy to have her brother's full devotion once more. And she would do everything in her power to save him from the demon he feared...and to save Monte's life. If Tezco thought shooting their way out of the canyon would work, she’d do what she must to make the plan feasible.

  Now if they could only take some gold along as well. If nothing else, she thought, Montgomery's precious wheel would be lying on the pyramid's altar tomorrow.

  Aware that she was both desirable and clever, Xosi was hoping she could influence even a madman.

  Even a god.

  For hadn't Monte Ryerson said she was Xochiquetzal, a goddess herself? She smiled, then hiccuped. Too much wine.