The Moon Worshippers (18 page)

With that, and in deadly silence, the two brothers led off into the tunnel. They moved in total darkness. A terrible stench began to fill their nostrils, and the men tightened the cloths around their faces. Feeling their way down by keeping a hand on the rough walls of the tunnel, they moved further down the tunnel. After what seemed like an eternity, they began to see light and the end of the tunnel. Some paces before the exit the men stopped. They formed two groups. At the front was Elexoste, Arient and the two brothers, Zaraoat and Urkidit. Behind them came Inaki, Aguirre, the four dogs and the two bowmen, Arturo and Arostegi. The front group kneeled, turned and looked at Inaki. Inaki raised both arms. In one was the doubled headed battle-axe. The hand of the other arm was spread out. Slowly his fingers closed towards the palm. One, two, three, the fingers closed into the palm, held by the thumb. As the fourth finger closed, the front group sprang to their feet and, shrieking their battle cries, leapt into the cavern. As their eyes became accustomed to the light, they could make out an enormous space. Candles burnt in every nook and cranny. An altar with two great braziers filled the far space. In the centre five figures, dressed in black and hooded, were tending a cooking pot over a great fire. To the left, two women had been skilfully cutting away the flesh from a human corpse on a stone slab. As the flesh had accumulated it had been placed in the cooking pot. These had turned towards the men. The men froze, stunned in horror by the scene they beheld. They stood staring at the women, who in turn, had frozen in the act of preparing their human meal.

Two arrows whistled past their heads and struck the nearest women. They crumpled to the ground without a sound. Four dogs, growling and barking, brushed past them, quickly followed by Inaki and Aguirre, yelling and shouting. This brought the front four to their senses. They quickly followed the dogs, Inaki and Aguirre, in their attack. Storm was the first dog to reach the women around the cooking pot. One of the women had taken a burning log from the fire and was keeping Storm at bay with it. The other two women had drawn silver handled daggers. The two Pyreneans and Roka had surrounded these, snapping and barking at their legs. Aguirre threw his battle-axe and hit the nearest full in the face, knocking her to the ground and splitting her face open. All three dogs turned their attack to the other woman. One of the Pyreneans leapt on her back, sinking its teeth into the back of the neck. The force of its weight on her back brought dog and body to the ground. The dog shook the body by the neck, like a rag doll, lifting it into the air and dropping it to the ground, then sniffed the lifeless form as it lay broken on the ground.

Storm seemed to be engaged in a deadly dance with his victim. He was circling her. Sometimes he would make as if to move in, leaping quickly to the side as the firebrand was lunged towards him. Inaki watched in cold fascination as the two pitted their wits against each other. Suddenly, he stopped circling and made a direct forward movement. The witch lunged forward with the firebrand. Storm leapt to the side and turned inward. His teeth sank into the extended arm at the wrist. There came to his ears the cracking of broken bones as the jaws closed. The dog pulled backward on the arm and the firebrand fell to the floor followed instantly by the most horrendous scream. Inaki stepped quickly forward and dispatched the woman with a blow to the head from his axe. The men had killed some of the remaining women. Others had fled deep into the caves. A silence had descended on the bloody scene. They stood gasping for breath amongst the bodies of the Sisters. For several minutes all was silent and then, almost imperceptibly, a faint wailing started in the deepest recesses of the tunnels and caverns beyond. Slowly it grew in crescendo until it seemed to fill the very air that they breathed. It filled all the mighty space of the cavern above their heads and the cavern reverberated to increasing waves of sound. The noise became unbearable and they covered their ears with their hands, but still it penetrated, until some of the men where on their knees, yelling in pain. The very air was moved by the crescendo of sound, and a wind seemed to rise in the cavern.

On the wind rode shadows that began to move along the walls of the cavern and as they moved candles would be blown out or knocked to the ground. A growing darkness descended behind them as the sound advanced towards them. It was as if unidentifiable forms were pulling a curtain around them. In no time at all, half the cavern had been plunged into an impenetrable blackness. Inaki stood in horror. He could see the danger growing before his eyes. He summoned all his willpower. Moving over to one of the candles, he stuffed some of the soft wax in his ears. He moved to the nearest man and did the same. He gestured frantically to the others to copy him. Moving quickly to the fire, he started tossing firebrands in all directions. Small patches of light sprang forth from the growing darkness, but not enough to counter the ever-increasing blackness that was threatening to engulf the small band of men and pitch them all into everlasting inky oblivion.

A flurry of stones and daggers suddenly filled the air out of the darkness. Two of the men, Zaraoat and Urkidit, were hit and killed. Inaki was now screaming at the top of his voice and frantically throwing burning brands about in panic. One of his brands flew high into the air, hit a stalactite hanging from the roof of the cavern, bounced off and descended in a shower of sparks and flame. It landed at the feet of a Sister and set fire to her clothing. The woman screamed, turned and like a burning comet, retreated into the depths of the cavern, finally slumping to the floor. In the halo of her burning body a terrible sight befell their eyes. A wall of Sisters stood there, shoulder to shoulder.

The first to react to this diabolical sight was not the men, but the dogs: led by Storm. He lowered his head and growling fiercely, he charged at the wall of Sisters. The wall opened and closed behind him. Three more holes in the wall seemed to open and close as the other dogs hit it. The wailing stopped suddenly and so did the impending darkness. The Sisters had turned and seemed to be troubled by something in their mists. Groans of pain and muffled screams had replaced the wailing. The wall had become a mass of surging forms, moving and ebbing towards some troubling centre spot.

Inaki turned to his men. “Come on!” he gestured and screamed. “This is the best chance you’re going to get to finish it and save your lives.”

With a firebrand in one hand and his axe in the other, he charged at the Sisters. His men hesitated and then followed his example. They fell upon the mass of hooded and black-cloaked forms, cutting, axing and stabbing anything that came within reach. Finally and totally exhausted, it was over. The floor was covered in blood and so were the men. Some had wounds to arms and faces. Arostegi had been stabbed in the eye and knelt holding his face, the blood running between his fingers. A little distance from the men, the two beautiful white Pyreneans lay dead in a circle of dead and dying Sisters. Aguirre, his head down and in his hands, knelt beside one of the great dogs. The faint groans of the wounded could be heard all around them. From the depths of the cavern; Storm and Roka emerged, their chests and mouths covered in blood. Inaki looked at the surrounding carnage for a few moments. He gestured to the men to remove the wax from their ears. He removed the wax from his own ears and in a very tired voice, which was almost a whisper said:

“Find the boy.”

The men at first could not understand, but gradually, slowly and painfully they understood and obeyed. They moved slowly round the cavern and after sometime, one finally shouted: “Here, under the altar.”

They all converged towards the altar and sure enough, there was the boy. He was sat with his legs drawn up in a kind of stupor. They lifted him and carried him out. Two men helped the man who had been blinded in the eye. They collected their weapons and retreated up the tunnel to the top of the waterfall where they bathed their wounds and washed off the blood. Finally they put the wounded man, their dead and the boy on the mules and silently, without looking back, made their way out of the caves. Back through the tunnels and caverns they went until, after several hours, they emerged into the dying sunlight. Inaki ordered the dead to be burned and the entrance to be sealed with rocks and stones. After this was done, the six men collapsed onto the soft grass and they all slept for the rest of the night. The following morning over the breakfast fire, they reflected on the events of the past day.

“That was some fight,” Aguirre said to Inaki.

“Could have been worse,” Inaki replied. “At one point, I feared it would be.”

“Element of surprise?” mused Aguirre.

“Worth a thousand men, they didn’t have time to prepare,” Inaki said.

“No. It would have been different if they had,” Aguirre said it as a simple statement of fact. “What now?”

“Have you noticed the boy, Aguirre?”

“Yes and our wounded are not much better.”

“He’s not fit to be taken back like that. Our men will recover, but his injuries are in his head.”

“You were not thinking of taking him back, Inaki, were you? It would give away our advantage, and besides he’s not fit?”

“I don’t know what they have done to him,” Inaki said. “But I intend to do the best I can for him.”

“Will he live?” queried Aguirre.

“Yes, but they have his mind.”

They both looked at the boy. He was lying on the grass, eyes wide open and in some sort of trance. He had not moved or spoken since they had rescued him.

“Can you cure him?” asked Aguirre.

“Only time will tell and it will take greater skill than mine, I fear. Come, we have been here too long. The Sisters will recover and I fear they will gather friends and give chase. We have to move quickly now if we are going to save Zaragoza.”

Elexoste looked up in alarm. “Why do you say that? Will the Sisters really come after us?”

“They have got to, once they have dug themselves out. We know their hiding place and besides we have taken their mules and they will want to recover the boy or kill him.”

“So it’s not over yet?” Elexoste said in a very tired and sad voice.

“It’s never over,” said Aguirre, “but take heart, this time we have them on our own ground, in the mountains and where we are impregnable. Let them come and we will draw them towards Euskadi.”

Inaki spoke pensively. “I think they will make towards Zaragoza.”

“Of course, they will think we are taking the boy back to his father and if we leave no tracks it will gain us time and space to give them a warm reception when they realise their mistake,” Aguirre said gleefully.

Inaki stood and gave some short commands. The men gathered themselves up quickly. They were anxious to leave the frightful place and the small party of men was soon on the move. Roka, sensing his master’s grief at the loss of his beloved Pyreneans, stayed close to Aguirre. As they moved Storm began to quarter the mountain slopes ahead of him and the men seeing the dog hunt, began to string their bows. Storm’s action soon diverted the minds of the men from the terrible ordeal they had suffered and events inside the caverns. They moved purposely, knowing that they were heading home to their beloved land and enjoying the hunt. Inaki noticed their rising spirits and uttered a small prayer to the Gods for the gift that was Storm.

Inaki’s peace of mind was short lived. That evening, the Moorish boy, who had remained in a stupor and had been tied to a mule, began to shake violently and vomit uncontrollably. They stopped, cut him down from the mule and Inaki tended to him.

“What on earth is the matter with him?” Aguirre asked with concern.

“I don’t know, exactly,” Inaki replied, “It’s something that they gave him to keep him quiet and manageable.”

“Could it be poison?”

“No. They had to keep him alive. He was of no use to them dead, but whatever it was, it was so powerful that it may still kill him. He has to keep water down or he will die.” Inaki knelt thoughtfully by the boy.

“What are you going to do?” one of the men asked.

After a while Inaki replied.

“Put him to sleep. It will give the body time to recover and hopefully, time to get whatever it is out of his system.”

Inaki mixed some herbs in water and Aguirre held the boy’s head tenderly, while Inaki poured the mixture down his throat.

The boy vomited, but kept enough down to have the desired effect. Soon he was in a deep slumber. They tied him back on the mule.

They skirted around the mountain and the monastery, and made towards the town of Boltana. As they marched, avoiding all human contact, Inaki and Aguirre planned. They decided that they would make contact with the Muslim garrison at Boltana and send, through them, a message to the governor of Zaragoza that they had his son. Quite how this was to be achieved would be decided at Boltana. In the meantime they would press ahead with all possible speed. The capture of the mules meant that the wounded man and the boy were no handicap and progress was fast. They marched, only stopping to eat a hot meal at night and to dope and feed the boy. Slowly the boy began to recover. Within three days they had reached the outskirts of Boltana.

It was market day in Boltana. Inaki sent Aguirre and Elexoste to buy fresh food. He gave them some silver coins and retreated to a small hill above the town to await their return. The Muslim boy had fully recovered, although his mind was still scarred by his ordeal. It would be many years before he was fully healed and even then, the nightmares would still visit him. He viewed his rescue with curiosity and suspicion. He had never encountered Basques before and found their language incomprehensible, as did most people. He wondered at their clothing and weapons, as they did his. With Inaki there emerged, slowly, a patient-healer relationship. Only seven years older than the Muslim boy, Inaki not only had his respect, but an affinity with the boy that was difficult to explain. Born into a royal family, Adr-er-Rahman II had, on the surface, little in common with Inaki. In later years he would distinguish himself by his wars against the Christian nucleus-groups within Spain and their attempt at reconverting Spain and by his notorious persecutions of Christians. He never forgot or forgave the Benedictines for putting him in the hands of the Sisters of the Moon, and throughout his life took great pleasure in torturing, mutilating and beheading any of those monks that had the misfortune to fall into his hands. He was cruel, sly, mistrusting and ambitious and yet despite all this, he trusted and liked Inaki. As a result, he never made an attempt to escape whilst he was with the Basques and held them in life-long high esteem.