Unholy Crusade Read online

  During the siesta hours Adam tossed restlessly on his bed wondering whether he ought now to come clean with Chela and tell her that he had been a witness to her midnight meeting with the Monsignor and warn her of her danger. At length he decided that, if a suitable opportunity arose, he would; but otherwise, as it seemed that the conspiracy was still in its infancy, he would leave the matter until his return from Oaxaca.

  At the party that night he was twice on the point of broaching the subject to her, but their conversation was interrupted by other good-looking gentlemen eager for Chela’s company, so, none too happily, he left things as they were.

  Next morning he was up early, had himself driven to the airport and took the seat that had been booked for him by Bernadino in the aircraft that left at 8.15 for Oaxaca. It was a flight of only an hour and a quarter. Not long after taking off, the plane flew right over Popocatepetl and he was able to stare down into the crater of the great volcano. Then they passed out of the Anáhuac valley to enjoy a vista of other mountains in the distance.

  At the small, trim airport at Oaxaca he found that a car had been ordered for him. He was whisked away through the city and up a mile-long slope on its far side to the Hotel Victoria.

  The hotel intrigued him, as he had never before seen one like it. Instead of being rectangular, it was round. The ground floor was a circular, open space from which one could see right up to the roof. Rising from this lounge, a broad, spiral staircase led to three upper floors of bedrooms. Adam was given one facing east. It looked down on a big swimming pool framed in banana palms and a variety of trees in flower. But it was the far view that entranced him. The hotel, set high on a slope, looked straight down a seemingly endless valley between two ranges of mountains. This splendid stretch of country had once been Cortés’ estate, and from it he had taken his title, ‘The Marquis of the Valley’.

  Seeing that it was only a little after eleven o’clock, Adam descended the spiral staircase and had himself driven into the city. His driver spoke fluent English and, having parked the car in the palm-shaded square, accompanied him as his guide.

  One side of the square was occupied by a long arcade above which rose the Governor’s Palace and another by a still older Palace, both in the Spanish style. The latter was now a museum, its interior courtyard containing a number of stone images. Having seen so many in the museum in Mexico City, Adam went straight upstairs to see the antique jewellery, which the guide had described as fabulous. The finest of the items had been discovered in Tomb 7 at Monte Albán, which lay only a few miles away, and they were indeed very well worth seeing.

  There were necklaces, ear-rings, breast ornaments, also elaborately chased axes, spear-heads and sceptres inlaid with gold, which were triumphs of the goldsmith’s art, and a superbly engraved crystal cup.

  They then visited the Cathedral and the Church of St. Dominic, which Adam found much more impressive. Over the entrance of the broad porch there was a brilliantly coloured and gilded carved ceiling, among the elaborate embellishments of which were the life-size faces of the leading Conquistadores.

  Afterwards they walked back through the square and down a street to one side of the Governor’s Palace, where there was a market. There were scores of stalls selling cotton garments, plastic goods and toys. Of the last there were such great quantities that Adam marvelled that the stallholders could make a living by selling them; but, as they obviously did, it argued that the Mexicans must be loving and generous parents.

  Further down, on the right of the street, was the market proper: a great, high-roofed building along the narrow alleys of which hundreds of people were pushing past one another. The contents of the meat stalls looked revolting; but Adam was interested in the fish, many kinds of which he had never before seen. The fruits and vegetables were even more varied. There were great piles of every kind known to Europe and the tropics: the largest oranges Adam had ever seen and mandarins as large as ordinary oranges.

  When Adam commented on this abundance, his guide said, ‘How our people would live without fruit and vegetables I do not know. But in that, God has been kind to Mexico. The land is so mountainous that fruits ripen in the lowlands many months before they do in the highland valleys, so we never lack for most kinds of fruit all the year round.’

  Back at the hotel Adam had a late lunch, his siesta, then went downstairs for a swim. The floor below the big central lounge was occupied by a roomy bar and restaurant. After reading for a time while consuming a couple of Planter’s Punches, he went in to dinner. As at lunch, he found the food passable but quite unpredictable. Sole Colbert was on the menu, but when it arrived, instead of being a whole fried sole split down the middle, with a big dab of parsley butter between the rolled-back sides, it was bits of some unidentifiable fish with a white sauce, served in a small round pot.

  After his long day he went early to bed and by eleven o’clock was sound asleep. Shortly before midnight, he was roused by the opening of his door. Quickly switching on the light, he propped himself up on one elbow. To his amazement Chela, clad only in a flowered silk dressing gown, was standing in the doorway.

  For a moment he thought he must be dreaming. But she closed the door behind her, undid her dressing gown and let it fall to the floor. Standing there now only in a transparent nightdress that revealed her magnificent figure, she smiled at him and said:

  ‘I’ve come to keep an appointment that we made only with our eyes nearly a thousand years ago.’

  8

  The Sweet Cheat Gone

  In a second Adam was out of bed and had her in his arms. He had never known such bliss as he experienced during the quarter of an hour that followed. Chela was not a virgin. Far from fearing his embrace, or displaying any false modesty, she met him eagerly, yet unhurriedly, in a prolonged loving, the mounting pleasure of which carried them out of this world to a superb and utterly satisfying climax.

  For a while they lay silent, his arms still about her and his head pillowed on her shoulder. At length he murmured, ‘My beautiful, my wonderful one, how do you come to be here?’

  ‘I drove down in my car,’ she replied with a little laugh.

  ‘But your father and family. Where do they think you are?’

  ‘Here, although not for the special purpose of being with you. That our visits to Oaxaca should have coincided will be accepted as just a pleasant coincidence.’

  ‘How clever of you, my sweet, to think of a plausible reason for your visit. Are you supposed to be staying with friends?’

  They sat up and, after he had kissed her breasts, both lit cigarettes. Then she replied, ‘Darling, you really know very little about me. I’m not altogether the playgirl that you must imagine me to be. Had it not been that we are in the school holidays I wouldn’t have been able to give you so much time, because I am a teacher.’

  He looked at her in amazement, and she laughed at him. ‘Not a professional one exactly; but in term time, three times a week, I take classes in English and in Mexican history.’

  ‘Well, I’ll be damned! But that doesn’t account for your being here.’

  ‘No, there is another side to my voluntary work. I am one of the Board of Education’s Inspectors and go to all parts of the country to report on conditions in the schools; so father is quite used to my going off for several days on my own. The reason I gave for making this trip was that I had been asked to inspect the schools in Oaxaca.’

  ‘I take off my hat to you for giving your time to such work. Very few girls in your position would.’

  ‘You are wrong about that. Several of my friends take junior classes two or three times a week; although as they haven’t quite my—er—qualifications, they are not also Inspectors. You see, education in Mexico is terribly important. So much so that a few years ago the government made an appeal for everyone who was literate to teach at least one other person to read and write. That helped, of course, but we are still tragically short of trained schoolteachers.’

  Adam then put th
e question he had been burning to ask. ‘But tell me, beloved; how and when did you realise that we had known one another in a previous incarnation?’

  ‘Immediately we got you into the car after we had knocked you down. Father is ordinarily so absorbed in his business affairs that he would have simply ordered that you should be given every care, sent you a fat cheque as compensation, then forgotten all about you. It was I who suggested that, instead of money, it would be better to give you an interesting time here. The moment I set eyes on you, I recognised you as Quetzalcoatl.’

  He turned his head to stare at her, ‘But Quetzalcoatl was a god.’

  ‘A Man-God,’ she corrected, ‘and you must know his story. He is said to have been a golden-haired white man who arrived on our coast about A.D. 960. He travelled inland to Tula, which was then the great capital of the Toltecs and ruled there as Priest-King for twenty years. Then the Toltecs were driven from Tula by my people from the north, and Quetzalcoatl migrated with his warriors down to Yucatán. After that he went back to the sea, sailing to the west on a raft composed of snakes. But he promised to return; and ever since the Indians have been hoping that he would, to become again their leader and King.’

  Adam nodded. ‘Yes, I know. And when Cortés landed, as one of his Captains, Pedro de Alvarado I think it was, had a golden beard and hair, the Indians thought he was Quetzalcoatl and fell on their knees and worshipped him.’

  ‘That’s right. But they soon found out their mistake and they are still hoping that the real Quetzalcoatl will return to them.’

  ‘But I thought that for a long time past all but a very few of the Indians had become Roman Catholics.’

  Chela hesitated. ‘Well … as I told you on the day we drove out to the pyramids, from the beginning they identified many of their gods with Christian saints. For example, St. Patrick is always represented with a snake at his feet and, as one of Quetzalcoatl’s many attributes was power over snakes, they assume that the two were one and the same. But that doesn’t matter in the least. What does is that they are deeply religious and observe the ceremonies of the Catholic Church.’

  After a moment’s silence, Adam said, ‘From my childhood I have had dreams and visions of my previous incarnations, both as a Viking in Norway and as a Prince here in Mexico; but they are always disconnected episodes, so I really know very little about the life I led. It would be wonderful if you could fill in some of the gaps.’

  ‘My returns to the past have been very patchy too, and there is really not much that I can tell you. I was the daughter of a Prince and became a priestess. The first I heard of you was that you were the King of Tula. My people defeated yours in a great battle outside Teotihuacán and you were captured. Weeks later the whole nation was mustered to witness a great ceremony. You were brought out from the Pyramid of the Moon, and I was one of the priestesses who scattered flowers in front of you. At the sight of you I nearly fainted. I had never seen such a wonderful man and I wanted to fall flat on my face at your feet.’

  ‘Oh, darling, did you?’ Adam gave her a long kiss. ‘And I felt just like that about you. In all my life I had never seen such a beautiful girl. And, although your features are quite different now, the same beauty radiates from you. But you didn’t appear to be at all distressed that I was on my way to be sacrificed.’

  ‘You weren’t.’

  ‘I believed I was. I thought my last hour had come and they were going to tear the living heart out of my body. My God, I was terrified!’

  ‘Then you showed tremendous courage. You didn’t look the least frightened. You kept on smiling at me and I was thrilled to death.’

  ‘It was looking at you that helped me keep my courage up.’

  ‘What an awful ordeal it must have been, walking all that way while believing you were going to be slaughtered. We, of course, all knew that it was only a ceremony to ask the gods whether they were willing to accept you. When they did, the jubilation was immense, and afterwards there was feasting for days.’

  ‘My vision came to an end before that. Do you know what became of me then?’

  ‘Only vaguely. When a Man-God was discovered by the priests, he was kept alive for a year after his ceremonial acceptance, and lived in the greatest luxury, but was allowed no women until twenty days before the end of that year. Then he was given four brides with whom to enjoy himself until the twenty days were up. Having planted his sacred seed, as it was hoped, in all four so that they had children, one of whom might in due course prove acceptable as another Man-God, he went willingly to be sacrificed. I have no memories of what happened towards the end of that year, although I have an idea that I schemed like mad to be selected as one of your brides. The next thing I remember was being presented to you.’

  ‘It wasn’t till then I had an idea that they intended, after all, to sacrifice me. When I found out, I decided to make a fight for it. But I would never have got away if you had not thrown your shift over that bearer’s dagger. You saved my life.’

  ‘Knowing I had done so was worth it. That was the only thing I had to cling to when they took me to little bits afterwards.’

  ‘Oh, my darling, how awful!’

  ‘Fortunately, I don’t remember much about it, as I passed out soon after they started on me. But what happened to you?’

  ‘I don’t remember anything after I got away in the canoe. When I came to, I was lying in your arms in the car. For a few minutes I didn’t realise I was Adam Gordon, and thought you were Mirolitlit. If the legend is right, I suppose I somehow managed to get back to my own people on the coast.’

  She turned and kissed him. ‘I’ll tell you one thing, though. I was terribly disappointed to miss those twenty days. I’d made up my mind to tear those other girls’ eyes out, so that I could have you all to myself.’

  With a low laugh he pulled her to him. ‘Then now’s our chance to make up for lost time.’

  When they had rested after another glorious bout, Chela said, ‘I’m hungry.’

  ‘So am I, and thirsty,’ he agreed. ‘It can’t be much after one o’clock so there must still be people about. You pop into the bathroom, my sweet. Then I’ll ring for the floor waiter and see what can be done.’

  As Chela slipped out of bed and stood up, Adam for the first time had a full view of her without a stitch of clothing on. ‘Stop!’ he cried. ‘Don’t move. No, turn round. I want to look at you.’

  As she stood there smiling at him, he took a deep breath. Then he whispered, ‘Darling, you’re marvellous. My God! In you I could believe that Venus has come to earth again.’

  ‘For your especial pleasure, my dear Lord,’ she laughed.

  Scrambling out of bed, he took her hands, raised, dropped them and slid his down the satin of her sides and hips; then he closed his eyes, drew her to him and kissed her, meanwhile endeavouring to register the fact that he was the luckiest man in the whole world.

  In due course the waiter brought Adam a bottle of champagne off the ice, some slices of galantine of chicken, white rolls and a plate of fruit. Laughing, they shared the single glass and fed one another with bits from the fork and spoon.

  What Chela had said, about Adam being a reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl, had given him plenty to think about; for he saw now how his resemblance to the semi-mythical Man-God might be used to stir up a rebellion. But he did not believe for one moment that Chela had come down to Oaxaca and given herself to him on that account; so he was loath possibly to spoil things by telling her that he knew of her secret relations with Alberuque.

  Instead, he put that out of his mind and surrendered himself to pure delight in her lovely presence, the feel of her smooth skin against his and the rich tones of her low voice.

  They made love again, then slept; but Adam did so only fitfully, to rouse now and then and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of feeling Chela’s warm body in his arms.

  When first light came through the curtains he woke her to tell her that she must soon go back to her own room. Only half awake
, she clung to him, glued her mouth to his, then murmured that she wanted to stay there for ever. Gently he turned her on her back and brought her to full consciousness by making love to her again. Afterwards, with happy sighs and many endearments, she slid out of bed, put on her night-dress and dressing gown and left him.

  A few minutes later he decided to have an early swim. As he walked downstairs, his body seemed to him to have an unusual buoyancy, almost as though it could float. Mentally he was on top of the world and felt as though he owned it.

  It was still early, only about half past six, but the waiters were about; so, after his dip in the pool, he ordered an enormous breakfast. On going back to bed he kissed the pillow where Chela’s head had lain, then buried his face in it and drew in the scent of her that lingered there. Soon afterwards he dropped off to sleep. When he woke he thought he had had a wonderful dream. As he turned over he saw the empty champagne bottle on the bedside table. His heart leapt with elation. It was no dream but had really happened. He then saw that it was twenty minutes to eleven. They had agreed to meet down in the lounge at eleven o’clock and Chela was going to drive him to Mitla. Jumping out of bed, he hurriedly shaved and dressed.

  Down in the lounge, Chela greeted him for the sake of appearances, with apparent surprise and they had a cup of coffee together before going out to her car.

  Mitla was about an hour’s drive away and they took the road that led straight as a die down the long, fertile valley. It was a section of the two-thousand-mile-long Pan-American highway, which runs from the United States frontier through Mexico City and right down to Guatemala. There was little traffic and the road was broad and smooth, so they made good going. On either side there stretched fields of maize, clumps of castor-oil plant with occasional coconut palms and paw-paws.

  About halfway to Mitla they pulled up outside a church that had several enormous trees near it. Chela said they were water cypresses and that the largest was reputed to be three thousand years old. Getting out, they walked round the tree and estimated its gigantic trunk to be not less than a hundred and fifty feet in circumference.