The 9th Fortress

the sweet, wetness of it.

'Fill,” he added, presenting four flasks underneath the barrel. 'Fill till you can carry no more in your bellies or flasks.'

'Poisoned?' pried a suspicious Eddinray. “You dare poison a knight of the realm!”

'It is untarnished,' Virgil replied, 'a token of gratitude to Harmony Valour.'

'Me?' she asked, surprised. 'A token from whom? I do not understand.'

'The man responsible for this gift expressed great concern for your welfare. He would not see you perish under these suns.'

Harmony scratched at her elbow and appeared nonplussed, but her eyes portrayed a different story: a secret.

'Who could it be?' I asked her. 'Any ideas?'

She shrugged. Then all of a sudden, her cautious attitude toward the ghost took a swift change of course.

'If this man,' she said, 'whoever he is is so concerned about me, then I shan't disappoint him!'

She sampled the barrel's water, then raised a satisfied face and dripping wet lips a moment later. 'It's good. So good.'

Kat remained steadfast in his thirst while we went to clench ours. 'Fools!' he barked. 'Fools!'

'It is a fool who willingly dies of thirst!' argued Harmony, soaking her ropey hair. 'It is perfectly safe.'

'The ferryman set you at an inhospitable port,” said Virgil, moving to Kat.

'You must have upset the skeleton a great deal.'

'That maggot!' Kat exclaimed, bitterly punching thin air.

Boldly, I devoured the water at the barrel, moistening every parched part. Virgil gestured the obstinate Kat toward it, and reluctantly the warrior approached, sipping a cupful from his palm. Not as much as he wanted, certainly not as much as he needed. 'This…individual you represent?' I asked Virgil, better for the drink. 'Can you tell us how he's connected to Harmony?'

Virgil moved like the breeze to show me a clear view of his fine face. Harmony listened, her body looking stiff at the barrel.

'I only have my instructions,” he said. 'Below is the labyrinth. Many have gone mad in its maze or perished pursuing its treasure…Pray stay left of that labyrinth — left at all times will ensure your escape.'

'And after?' I asked him, the others also intrigued. 'What then for us?'

'At the labyrinth's end you will come across five doors. The second will lead you the quickest and safest route to the 9^thFortress…That is my message. Farewell.'

And he was gone in a shower of sprites, leaving us to share puzzled expressions. A disturbing gargle then interrupted the interweaving thoughts. 'Pull him out!' cried Harmony, noticing Eddinray's head bubbling deep in the barrel. Kat heaved back the knight's shoulders and the Englishman's drip happy face emerged, his armor filling up.

'Lovely!” he rejoiced. “Anyone fancy joining me in a bath?'

Harmony gave a disapproving flick of her hair, and then set to filling the four flasks left by Virgil. I meanwhile moved Kat aside for a surreptitious word in his ear.

'Harmony…' I whispered; 'she's not telling us everything.'

'Do you tell her everything Fox?'

'No, but I've got a feeling. Someone down here has an eye on her, and I think she knows who…'

'What to do men?' she interrupted us, passing me an overflowing flask.

I mustered a smirk back, as Kat went to wash his face. 'Stop here tonight,' he said. 'Tomorrow…we enter the labyrinth.'

23. Kindred Spirits

The evening sky was ablaze — clouds on fire — and all of us rested near or next to each other to take it all in. Eddinray slouched with Harmony beside him. Kat looked suitably itchy against the barrel whilst I paced, pressing the bloodied cloth against my eye-socket and going over that monumental brainteaser below.

'Are you well, Daniel?' Harmony asked. 'The eye?'

'It hurts,” I said, sorely. “That fucking wizard.”

'It is in the past,” Kat groaned. 'The future promises worse.'

I cursed him under my breath, sat myself on the cliff edge and dangled my feet to those yellow labyrinth lines a thousand feet south of me. Wondering what made it glow so hypnotically, Eddinray startled me by appearing at my right side, and then Harmony to my left.

'Do not feel grim,” she said, putting her arm around me. 'If you hadn't come to that stockade then I'd still be caged today. I thank you for that, Daniel.'

'Exactly!' beamed Eddinray. 'And I insist that you cheer up, for I already have one grumpy guts in my gang,” He glanced back to our surly sentinel against the barrel.

'Your gang?' Harmony chuckled. 'What hogwash you speak, Englishman!'

Their warmth inspired a grin from me, then a smile at their resulting squabble.

'Kat is leader in name only,” Eddinray argued. 'His title is superficial and totally inappropriate considering the credentials of others here.'

'You mean you?' she said, before planting a soft, and unwarranted kiss on my cheek.

'Where's my kiss?' the knight unashamedly asked. 'Are my continued heroics not enough to deserve one?”

'It is not a question of deserve Godwin, but of formality. I would not dare kiss the leader! What would his subjects think? Not to mention the nobility who frown at favourites!'

'Fine!' he huffed back. 'Danny boy, will give me a kiss, won't you Danny?'

'No!' I answered, through a snicker.

'Kiss the Kat,' added Harmony; 'it may cheer him up!'

Again, Eddinray peered back to the samurai warrior, only to meet a pair of black eyes wishing him a slow and excruciating death. With that then, and in much better spirits, we rested ourselves for the labyrinth

***

Kat's forehead slunk until chin touched his chest, and as his heavy eyelids closed to sleep, a spattering of water roused him. Irritable, he peered up at the barrel, and there saw a thirsty man taking his fill. When that new arrival removed his sopping face from the water, he experienced the sharp tip of a katana pressing against his swallowing Adam's apple.

Dark skinned and ripened by age and sun, the man's exposed torso was chiselled and decorated with elaborate tattoos. A red bandanna held a mop of straw hair at bay, and his dusty pants blew tassels down each leg. This barefooted Indian was armed with a useful looking longbow, and the quiver over his shoulder contained a dozen or more arrows. 'Savage!' spat Kat. 'Back away! Or I make a ghost of you!'

All of us light sleepers in Hell, we woke. Despite the threat of Kat's sword, the Indian aimed his fingertips toward the longbow, causing Kat to press his blade further into that throat.

'I never need a reason…' he hissed.

'Who are you?' asked Harmony, repulsed by the many dried scalps dangling from the Indian's belt.

Still holding eyes with Kat, the Indian moved his hand clear away from the bow. 'Can a man clench his thirst?' he asked, voice low and respectful.

'Help yourself,” I answered, sitting up. 'As much as you want.'

'He already has!' complained Kat, lowering his sword. “Thief!”

'If you have one,' pried Harmony, 'pray tell us your name?'

The Indian dunked his leather flask into the barrel, then said. 'I was once Goyathlay, then Geronimo. Now I am merely a nameless Apache who no longer wishes harm onto anyone.'

'Where did you come from?' I said; while he took a satisfied guzzle from his bottle.