ESCAPING CAMPECHE

I squeezed the trigger. The rifle’s recoil hit my shoulder as Captain Lafitte lurched like a drunkard, a red stain growing on the front of his shirt as his face contorted in rage. From the darkest depths of my soul, an answering rage responded. I snarled an inarticulate cry and ran towards him while he tried to sight on me, knocking his pistol aside a moment before it spat fire, then cracking him alongside his head with the butt of the rifle.

“I will not become a slave to your cause,” I screamed as he dropped his pistol and fell to the street. I stood over him and raised the rifle. “I will never…” hitting him with the butt of the rifle, “become your…” hitting him again, “slave!” I slammed the butt into his skull again and felt bone crack.

The rifle butt came back dripping red and yellow gore. Captain Lafitte’s face was a broken ruin and I dropped to my knees as the horror of what I had just done swept over me, the rifle falling from nerveless hands to rattle as it bounced on the street and went still. Glancing up, the Maya were finishing off the last of the French as Jack sighted with his pistol at the man I had taken the rifle from, who was running away.

Jack seemed to change his mind, for he released the hammer of his pistol and looked around, his gaze stopping on me. “Old Hoss,” he called out as he ran over, “are you hurt?”

I shook my head and he changed direction towards Cornflower, who was being propped up by a Maya man at her insistence. Her eyes met mine as Jack knelt beside her and she tried to speak, coughing up blood instead. Her lips formed the word in Maya that seemed to mean, ‘Truly?’

Then her head lolled back as she went still. The remaining Maya began to gather around her as Jack felt her throat for a pulse. After a few moments he shook his head, and laid her back down as one of the larger men began barking orders in their language. Jack rose to his feet and walked over to where I was still kneeling next to Captain Lafitte’s corpse. “We’ve got to make tracks out of Campeche City before the airship pirates decide to come looking for you.”

“I killed him,” I blurted out, pointing at the destruction I had caused.

“Reckon so,” Jack said, gazing down at me. “We can chew over this later, but right now we’ve got to go.”

I exhaled and climbed to my feet as Jack took one of Captain’s Lafitte’s pistols and the extra ammunition, before picking up a different rifle than the one I had used and handing it to me. I took it and the extra rounds he gave me. “Jack, where are we going?”

“There’s a church with a lighthouse that’s got an underground tunnel connecting with the Catholic church that takes care of Beach Town. We’ll head there and reunite you with the rest of your folks.”

Relief swept over me. “Everyone is alright?”

“Everyone that was with me. No telling how your grandfather or the other two are, but I reckon we’ll find out soon enough. The men will take care of this mess and rouse the town afterward, though I doubt anyone’s gonna want to attack San Miguel until the regular army gets here.”

“I doubt the pirates will want to hold it, either.”

“Reckon so. Ain’t our circus, though, so let’s get a move on.”

I followed him down the street leading toward the side gate, glancing back at Cornflower’s body. A Maya closed her eyes as another rested her hands on her chest, a different man retrieving her weapons and placing them in her hands like scepters of an ancient Egyptian queen or Viking war maiden. War maiden, I decided, as several of them lifted her onto their shoulders and carried her off into the night.

Jack reloaded his revolver by touch as we hurried towards the church, his gaze sweeping the shadowed streets we passed as if danger lurked around every corner, the little monkey on my shoulder mimicking his movements as if looking for enemies as well.

I glanced at the small creature from the corner of my eye, acting no different than any other monkey I had ever seen, either at the zoo or as part of a circus troop. It clung to my shoulder as it softly chattered. I decided that I had imagined it speaking into my ear, brought on by the stress of the moment, my brain formulating this fantastic hallucination as a way of getting me to act. I mean, animals do not speak. How could they?

We reached the last intersection. The road continued towards an unmanned gate, its wooden door closed and barred with iron rods, while ahead and to the left stood the church. It was big as a Londinium cathedral, with stylized spires and Gothic arches along the sides, and stained glass in the stone window frames. Our footsteps echoed as we crossed the paved courtyard set in front of the stone steps, like a series of half-moons rising until they met the massive set of double doors.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Glancing to my right, the building that flanked the courtyard rose far into the air, narrowing until it became a tower of white stone. A glass dome holding a great Aethyr Artifact lamp shone its blue beacon out into the darkness.

The double doors were shut tight and likely barred, but as we started up the steps, I noticed a smaller door set into the right hand larger one, which Jack headed towards as we reached the top. As he rapped on its dark wood surface, the little monkey leaped from my shoulder to his, and I felt an odd feeling of relief as it settled in on its new perch. “Looks like the little fellow prefers you over me.”

As hurried footsteps echoed from inside the church, Jack glanced at it a moment. “Actually, the critter prefers Ran-Li to anyone else.”

“This is Ran-Li’s monkey?”

He shrugged. “Much as he belongs to anyone. His name’s Ki’, which means ‘Scratch’ in Eldarion-Maya, and its considered lucky if he attaches himself to you, as he does to different folk from time to time.”

As the footsteps stopped and the rattling sound of metal bolts being drawn back began, I said, “If that is so, then why did the old woman insist on giving him to us?”

“Reckon it was Ran-Li’s doing, though what she’s got going on with all this is a durn mystery to me.” The last bolt was drawn back and the door opened. Standing in the doorway was a wizened priest in brown friar’s robes, holding an Aethyr Artifact lantern in his hand, and as he frantically motioned for us to enter, he peered out into the darkness as if someone might be lurking. We moved past him and he shut the door, speaking to Jack in rapid-fire Spanish as he slammed the bolts home.

Jack answered him in detail, motioning several times towards the place where I had been rescued, and the priest crossed himself before leading us down a side aisle of the darkened church. The only illumination came from the yard long Artifact sanctuary lamp behind the altar, and the lit votive candles in semi-circles around several statues depicting saints. Built into the wall behind the altar were a dozen niches holding pictures of more saints, the area covered in gold paint.

Attached to the main church were several smaller chapels, and the priest led us to through the last one on the left with a life-sized statue of Mary, a golden glow all around her and a native man in white kneeling at her feet. There were roses in his hand. Set into the far wall was an archway the priest led us through, then through another one leading to a small courtyard, paved in stone like the one out front. At the center of the space was a stone building like a mausoleum.

The priest did not hesitate but continued into the open space. The structure was made of white stone without decoration, with a rusty door of iron bars like the illustrations in the newspapers showing prison cells, guarding its only entrance.

The priest pulled a ring of keys from a pocket of his robes and opened the door. Its hinges squealed in protest as Jack led the way inside, the priest handing him the lantern as he passed through, with me on his heels.

A set of wide stone stairs led down into darkness. “From here on, we’ve got to be quiet as cats at a dog fight,” Jack said as the priest closed the metal door behind us and locked us in. “This tunnel leads underneath Fort San Miguel on its way to Beach Town, with an entrance like this one down in one of the supply rooms.

“Reckon Captain Ivy knows there’s stairs leading down, as she likely had the whole fort searched, but people tell me the general in charge of the defenses broke the key off in the lock years ago so his soldiers couldn’t decide to desert in the middle of a fight. Now, voices carry, and she’s likely got someone posted beside the door in the fort above to listen for any strange sounds.”

“Like the Mexican army deciding to pull a sneak attack.” He nodded, and I said, “Is it possible she decided to bust the lock and have a look around?”

Jack grimaced. “That’s what got me worried.”

I nodded as a thought struck me, and I gave Jack a quizzical look. “How on earth did you pull all this together so fast?”

He shrugged. “Can’t take all the credit as Ran-Li contacted the Maya headman and let him know what was what.”

My quizzical expression deepened. “I thought Ran-Li was Professor Bella’s prisoner.”

“Sure is. She told me they’ve made camp in front of the entrance to the Sac’be, and plan on traveling along it come morning.”

“But how is it possible for her to be communicating with you? An Aethyr Artifact?”

Jack shook his head. “If I told you, you’d think I was trying to sell you a hunting dog that couldn’t tell a bird from the back of his leg. But I’ll say this much: some of what Ran-Li does is downright spooky and not a mite to do with Aethyr.”

He looked back the way we had come and sighed. “Ran-Li spoke to her granddaughter as well, passing on that Cornflower ought to remain behind and let me handle things, but the durn girl was stubborn as a three-legged mule. Kinubal’s gonna take her death hard.”

Guilt stabbed me in the heart with its sharp blade. “I feel terrible about that. Is there anything I can do?”

Jack gave me a sideways look. “Reckon you could learn to loosen up a mite. I swear you’re wound up tighter than a blood filled tick ready to burst.”

“I am not!” Jack made a ‘lower your voice’ gesture with his hand, and I said in a more normal voice, “I am not wound up.” He raised his eyebrows, giving me a disbelieving look, and at once I remembered the scene I had made in the courtyard. “I am sorry I lost my temper with Kinubal,” I said, my guilt shifting to my lack of control and not my cowardice, “yet it was not entirely my fault. The girl… she got under my skin,” I blurted out, not the thing I had meant to say at all.

Jack nodded as if I had just proved him right, but only said, “Reckon we’d best get a move on. Remember,” and he put his finger to his lips, the little monkey on his shoulder mimicking his gesture at almost the same time. Scratch was only an animal, yet its actions were still disconcerting. Jack started down the stone stairs, the blue glowing lantern held out in front of him, and after a moment’s hesitation, I followed.

If you visit Campeche City, the old church is still there, lighthouse attached. But the entrance to the tunnel has been bricked over, more the pity.