The 9th Fortress

'I have come from the desert,” he returned, wiping the water from his lips. 'The longest…desert.'

He sat without invitation, seemingly untroubled by the peculiarity of our group. Then, crossing his legs over, he removed a crooked pipe and small pouch of leaves from his belt.

In silence and patience, we watched him part the leaves of the pouch, revealing a small tuft of purple moss. The Apache, who preferred to remain nameless, graciously smiled before stuffing the fat end of the pipe with his unusual stash. A match seemed unnecessary, for as soon as he took a drag from the pipe, a thick purple gas exhaled from his nostrils.

Enjoying his smoke, this individual seemed to know the workings of every cog around him.

Harmony appeared over Kat's shoulder now, whispering. 'This man is okay.'

Kat fixed her with a rapid scowl, and Harmony recoiled like a child to the always-willing side of Eddinray. I gave the Indian our names now, and apart from the uncompromising samurai, the others pleasantly nodded.

'Kat?' the Apache pondered, with a scratch at his chin. 'Your story is common in all corners.'

Unamused, Kat approached him and for a moment, I thought he was going to slap the pipe from our guest's lips. 'What do you know of me savage?' he asked.

The Apache did not appear offended, or afraid of any confrontation. He was in fact, positively serene when he took another suck from his pipe. 'I have been long in the fire,” he said. 'They say Kat, that you are the only bird to ever fly from our nest. Yet here you are with us in the flesh.'

'He did escape!' I said, feeling a strange urge to defend Kat's legend. To this, the Apache expressed a melting grin over his weathered face. 'Fine company…is a rare blessing,” he said, mellow eyes investigating. 'The labyrinth…is your destination?'

'None of your business,” the samurai snipped.

'Ah, yes!' Harmony exclaimed, embarrassed by Kat's rudeness. 'We start tomorrow. Then onto the 9^thFortress.'

Outraged by her free flapping tongue, Kat kicked the barrel like he would Harmony's head. 'What's the harm?' she shrugged back. 'Seems everyone already knows where we're going!'

The Indian refilled his lungs and held the smoke in his system while he spoke.

'I have seen the angels of death dragging souls to the 9^thFortress. I have heard the gruesome stories of what goes on there. Yet you seek it out? Why is this?'

'We have our reasons,” I said. 'And what of you, friend? Do you have a destination?'

The thick-skinned man did not mind the question. 'My spirit has no wish to leave Hell,” he returned, expelling the smoke from his nostrils. 'Here is where I wander. In the pit is where I search for my Heaven.'

'Heaven?' scoffed Eddinray. 'Surely not here man!'

'Heaven,' he beamed back, 'is more than a kingdom in the clouds. It is wish — it is desire.'

'And what do you desire?' asked Harmony, profoundly intrigued by him.

The Apache roamed an eye over his rough palms, and then whispered, 'I no longer follow the warpath, and never will again. I seek something more than the blood of the Mexican or white man. I seek the rebirth and inner peace of a righteous heart. This is my wish. This is my desire.'

We looked amongst ourselves, quietly impressed with this lost soul. 'What is your wish?' he asked Kat, tapping his heel with an offering — his pipe and a puff from it. Kat expressed contempt that suggested refusal, but to our astonishment, he accepted the pipe and took it to his lips.

'To be heard,” he growled, filling his lungs with smoke. 'Only that.'

The drug's sensation lasted mere seconds on Kat's face, but long enough to show the softer side of it. Promptly regaining himself, he passed the pipe over to me.

Unconcerned, I placed it between my lips then shared my own wish — 'To see her face again.'

And sucking in smoke like a pro, I snorted it back out again like an adolescent. Embarrassed, I gave the pipe to Eddinray, who caressed it nervously.

'What's wrong?' I asked him, feeling ill myself.

'I can't,” he mumbled, after a gulp. 'They make me…dizzy.'

Kat blurted out an unmistakeable chuckle but instantly covered his mouth, as if clearing his throat of a nasty bug called humanity.

'Pass it here!' Harmony demanded, snatching it from the permanently pale knight.

'My dear!' he gawked. 'You, you smoke?'

'Of course not!' she exclaimed. 'But I will be part of this ceremony!'

Inhaling, Harmony revealed her wish for divine forgiveness then returned the pipe to the Apache, who enjoyed its last few whiffs of tranquillity. Fine company was indeed a rare blessing.

'Will you come with us?' I asked. 'There's room for another. Who knows, you may even find your peace along the way.'

'Adventure!' promised Eddinray. 'Pearl too! Marvellous pearl!'

'And a way out of Hell,” I finished. 'Kat will lead us.'

'Yes!' Urged Harmony. 'You will travel with us! It's settled then.'

Packing away his pipe and pouch, the Apache stood creakily from his crossed legs, securing the longbow over his shoulder. 'Is this true?' he asked Kat, genuinely interested. 'You truly found a way out?'

The idea of escape was something I assumed Kat would take care of, that it was all in his good hands — until he dropped this bombshell. 'That route is now impossible. I know of no other way out of Hell.'

Staggered, and with no further explanations from Kat, I could not contain my anger and frustration. 'That was the task Newton set you!' I yelled at his cold face. 'To escort me to Hell and back, Harmony and Eddinray now included! I don't understand you Kat, how can there be no way out? Tell us your route? Go on! How did you escape this shit hole in the first place?'

All of us doubting his legend now, Kat didn't care about our opinions, or our questions.

'My way,' he said, agitated; 'was one way. I will not discuss the matter.'

'Then…we are stuck here?' whimpered Harmony. 'There must be a way. Why, there must! '

'There is,” spoke the Indian, our fear and desperation somehow dissipating before his calm aura. I hoped his joining us would add this much-needed virtue to our group. 'The Gauntlet,” he said, stretching a finger far beyond the labyrinth. 'Every soul who ever attempted the run has found their flesh ground against its teeth. I have never come across this trial of trials myself, but if you do, remember that your body is precious — it is all we have left now.'

'Then the Gauntlet is our way,” I said, resolved. 'How do we find it?'

'The Kat found his way,' the Indian returned; 'if it is God's wish, you will find yours.' He then approached the labyrinth steps.

'Come with us!' I called to him.

'Thank you for the water,” he stopped to say, his smile followed by a final, courteous nod.

Kat and the Apache had two prominent things in common: both were leaders of men, and both were lost in Hell. We watched the mysterious Indian continue barefoot down the steps and toward the labyrinth, his potent smoke lingering long after.

***

No trace of skylight penetrated the labyrinth floor. It was narrow down here with damp walls easily beating thirty feet. We started through a corridor of considerable length, occasionally passing robust iron grates a body in length, and wafting up a volcanic heat. These grates held our weight over them, and looking down through the pattern of iron bars, one could see the mixing cauldron at this realm's very core.

'Ghastly,” said Harmony, rubbing the burn from her bare arms.

Surprisingly, the labyrinth did not keep us long before offering a choice in direction. We had reached a fork, with stone curving right and an identical corridor curving left. Customarily, Kat made the decisions, and going against the advice of Virgil, he settled for a right turn.

'We've passed twenty seven grates now,” said a weary Eddinray, some time later. 'Am I the only one expecting some awful beastie to leap hungrily out from each?'

'This is nothing more than a garden maze,” returned Harmony, face perspiring. 'Imagine Godwin that you are attending a grand tea party held by Louis the 14^th. The palace of Versace awaits us!'

'Better the awful beastie!' he remarked. 'That pompous king of yours would stretch my English neck on