Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (35 page)

Minco did not need to thin them down any further, he was
more than
confident in his ability to beat three such young soldiers, they were still
only
in their teens
, only raw recruits
.
He caught
up with
them in a matter of seconds.

The first
of them
fell
to the ground
before they even knew he was there, his truncheon once again used at le
ss than full force. It was more than
enough to put him down but Minco also knew he would rise again in a couple of hours. Alive,
and
no doubt
with a
damn
sore head, but
at least
they would
still
be
alive.

The next soldier tried an attack but it failed, his youthful enthusiasm sending him flying past the
battle-hardened
master. Whack. Once
again,
a body lay motionless on the
jungle
floor.

“Wait,” Minco shouted to the last of the soldiers
just as he prepared to attack
. “
Hold on for a minute, I just want to have a talk with
you
, boy
.”

“You are a traitor,” the shaking young man called back. “We
are under orders to kill
you;
your fate
has already been decreed
by the King
.” As he held his axe and truncheon high, Minco
looked into his eyes and saw that this
boy was
more than
prepared to die for his cause.

“I heard you say
ing that
we had met before,” Minco said in a soft voice. “From that meeting do you think that I’m capable of what they say?”

The soldier looked a bit puzzled
at first
that this fugitive
had heard what he had said
,
but then
he
shouted back. “I don’t care
about that
, I only follow my orders.”

Minco sighed. “Very well,” he said as he took out his own axe. “
But before we fight can you
at least answer a
question please? What has happened to the High Priestess Inguill? Where is the Spaniard keeping her?”

The young man laughed
aloud
. “I heard he
killed her,
cut her throat like a goat. Sh
e was a traitor and she deserved to die
,
just like you
will now
!” He then spat on the ground and charged
at his target
.

Minco took his anger out on the
on
rushing sold
ier. As his mind pictured the death of his
love,
his
weapons slashed and walloped
at the
challenge he faced
.
It was like he was back facing the beasts again, and once more a head was separated from its body.
This young man would not be
like his friends, he would not be
rising again.

With a heavy
heart,
Minco
looked down at the motionless bodies before he
set off into the deep jungle. He
looked
to the east
at the distant
snow-capped
mountains and decided
he was going to have to
head there. H
e
would
need to
get some distance between h
imself and the search parties. As he trudged through the
jungle,
h
e knew i
t would be a long time before he could
safely
return
to the city
, but he swore that
no matter what
,
one day he would.

Pizarro
would then face his end.

22
- The
S
earch for Revenge

Nearly a year had passed since the new king had stolen the throne in Cuzco.
Pizarro
sat
watching the city from
his
gold encrusted
balcony
, looking
out over the land
that
he
had
since
conquered.
He
may have
not
been
the King
of Inca
in
name but
he
certainly pulled the puppet kings strings
. All
of the
important decisions
regarding the Empire
had to go through him. Almost every day messengers came from Cuzco
with new laws to approve and trade agreements to sign.

He had stayed in the capital for a
little
while after his coup b
ut he preferred to be the man in charge
.
It stuck
like a fish bone
in his throat to
have to
pretend
to anyone
that the King was the leader, that a
common
savage could be
any
more important than
he could
. So he
quickly
designed his own palace,
and
built
it
as
f
ar
away
from any other settlements
as
he possibly could
.

Around
him,
h
e kept
his own per
sonal guard, twen
ty
faithful
Incans and
five
of the Spaniards he had left.
The remainder
of
his men
were
already
rewarded with
small
towns and villages of their own to look after, a true gift
of power
from their leader.
He also gave himself every luxury. He
also had an army of servants
on hand
to do
all
of
his cooking and cleaning,
all of whom were
young
and
beautiful girl
s
.
And each of them was
handpicked
by
Pizarro
himself.

However,
this morning
his palace
was going to ge
t a visitor
that
t
he
y were not
expecting.

*****

The
solitary
guard
that was
stationed
down
by the gates to
Pizarro
’s compound was not feeling too good. He had indulged in m
ore than his fair share of chicha
the night before
in the mess hall
and besides already having a thunderous headache h
is lieutenant had given him a mouthful
of abuse
a couple of hours
earlier when he had smelt his
alcohol heavy
breath. A month of extra guard duty was
to be
his punishment,
and
this
news
did
no
t do anything to improve
t
he
man’s
mood.

As
t
he
soldier
tightly
closed his eyes to shield them from the
searing
pain caused by
the
bright morning sun
,
Minco took his chance to approach.

The guard never got
a chance
even
to
attempt to
defend himself
from the silent attack
.
One
hand covered his
nose and
mouth
from behind
while the other drew a golden blade
quickly
across his neck. For the
those
last couple
of seconds of his life the soldier
could only
watch
as
his
life
blood spray
ed
out in front
of him
. Soon enough h
is eyes shut once more,
this time
never to open again.

Minco dragged the
limp
body into
a thick section of
the jungle and
away
out of sight. Kneeling down out of view
of the
roadway,
he
took some time to say
a few prayers to the G
ods,
for not only the man he had just killed, but also for himself, for he had taken yet another
Incan life. He had already braced himself a long time ago that
he may end up in hell for his sins but
for now
there was only one thing on his mind-
and that was
to take
his
revenge. He had waited a long time
for this day
to
arrive
but now
he was ready, and nothing was going to
get in his way.

Once he was inside the compound Minco found that getting close to
Pizarro
was going to be
a lot
more
difficult
than he thought
. The guards were spaced out evenly
and most
of them
had a
good
view of each
other;
the Spaniard had obviously trained them well. However
, not
even this problem was going to stop Minco in his quest. He thought about waiting for
the
hours of
darkness to come but he
soon
realised
the guard he
had
disposed of at the gates would
probably
be found missing long before then. If that
happened,
then the security
around
Pizarro
would get even tighter and his already slim chance
of success
would be gone
forever
. He
quickly decided it would
have to
be
now or never
.

As he continued to work his way around the impressive
looking
building he came across the
double
doors
that led
to the kitchen. Only one
of the
Spanish guard
s
was there and he had his eyes and hands occupied in the pursuit of a quite beautiful kitchen maid. The girl was
busily
pushing his
roaming
hands away as he attempted to grab a
quick
feel of her young flesh.

Because
his thoughts were elsewhere
he did
n
o
t see
, or hear
Minco sneak up behind him with his blade at the ready. The girl however saw him approach and her eyes darted
over
to meet his. The Spaniard spun around to see who she
had
spotted but all he was met with was the flashing blade
. It
was forced up through his jaw and
deep
into his brain. He did
not have time to call out for help or grab his
own
weapon to
defend
himself;
all
that
he could do was
die.

“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered to the
now
startled and
shaking
girl. “I’m not here to hurt
you;
I’m here
for
Francisco
Pizarro
.
Now please, keep quiet.
” She nervously
just
nodded back at him
, it was clear that she had no loyalty to the old man from foreign lands
.

“Who else is in the kitchens?” he continued as he
started to pick
up the limp body of the
guard.

“Two other girls,” she replied, her eyes now stuck on the blood soaked Span
iard. “We’re preparing some breakfast
for the master.”

“Good,” he said. “Now open the door
, get inside
and please make sure they stay quiet.” With
ease,
he placed the limp body over his shoulder but she
still
just stood there
watching
. “Come on girl, hurry up,” he barked
at her
as loudly as he dared
wh
ich made her attention
snap back
,
before
she
turn
ed and did just
as
she was told.

Once
he was
inside the brightly lit kitchen Minco saw the two other girls
were
huddled together by the ovens
, having
just
been tol
d what had happened by the first
one
. They both watched with open mouths as he dropped the dead guard
roughly
on
to
the
cold
,
stone
floor.

“Where is
Pizarro
now?” he asked the girls
, as he checked out the surroundings
. “I also need to know how many guards
there
are
still
inside the house.” None of them answered.
“Tell me now,
quickly,
” he ordered them
,
as he got right up to their faces.

The girl
he met
outside was the
first
one to speak. “He is in the room at the very top of the building, go through that door and
it’s
all the way up the stairs.” She pointed
over
to a
small
plain
doorway at the far side of the kitchen. “There should only be two of his fellow Spaniards inside the house,
he keeps them close,
and both
of them will
probably
be at the entrance to his room.”

Minco nodded to the girl. “Thank you,” was all he said as he made his way to the door.

“Good luck Protector,” she called over to him. He spun around at the surprise that she knew
of
him
, she saw the look in his eye too
. “I used to visit Cuzco before the undead came. I saw you there many a time my lord.
” She bowed her head slightly in a
distinct
show of respect. “
I will pray to the Gods
to give you the
good
fortune to
kill that monster upstairs
.”

Minco broke into a little smile. “Thank you again,
young lady,
” he sheepishly said. “No
w get ready to leave this place. I
t doesn’t matter if I fail or succeed, you all need to get out
of here
and go back to your homes.”

In
turn,
all
of
the girls nodded
back
.

As he pushed the
small wooden
door slowly open
,
Minco peered inside to
the views of
the lavish
ly decorated
hallway and saw that all was clear
ahead
. The girl was
right;
t
here was no sign of anyone
else
around
inside
. Right a
t the end was the wide golden sta
ircase that
they
had said
would lead him all the way to
Pizarro
, all the way
to his vengeance.