Chapter XIX

Yma had held her place beside her royal master until she saw him fall into the hands of his captors. With a cry of despair she slipped through the surging mass of nobles yet pressing about the body of their fallen ruler, fled for the fortress, and reached the entrance to the building on the terrace below without accident.

Faithfully obeying her commands, Toparca had guarded the fortress with a new relay of men and stood at the lower entrance impatiently awaiting her return.

He could not believe his ears.

“The Inca taken! Dear Yma, it is impossible. They dare not lay their hands on God himself.”

“It is done. I saw them bind him with cords and lead him away a prisoner. Thousands have been slain. There is no one to command and all left alive are fleeing....”

“But the army?”

“The captains, in terror, without a leader, have dispersed the army. The men are flying secretly to their homes. I passed the camp and saw them running, every man for himself.”

“The woman will attack the fortress?”

“Yes! Quick, we have work to do. They shall not take my man. I know they are coming.”

Through a dense mass of evergreen bushes the girl pushed her way to the door that opened the way up the long stairway into the fortress. It was the work of an hour to carry out her plans of defeating Teresa.

When she reported the slaughter of five thousand unarmed people and the capture of the Inca, Molina refused to believe it.

He lifted his manacled arm in a gesture of impatience.

“Dear Virgin of the Sun, you are overwrought. You are hysterical. Such things cannot be done by the followers of Jesus Christ. You are raving....”

“I saw it all!” she shivered “Your people are devils, not gods. They lured our Lord of the Sun into an ambush and slew his unarmed attendants without mercy. I felt this coming in the sorrow of your voice when first I told you of the strangers’ invitation to the Inca. I warned him in vain.”

“Is it possible!” he cried in anguish.

“They will come for you with their horses and their flaming tubes--but they shall not take you!”

Her face flushed and the young cavalier watched her with a deep pity shadowing his soul. Two years among a gentle, friendly, happy people had done something to his character. He had no desire to share the ghastly victory with his people. A feeling of nausea overwhelmed him.

“I have no wish to see my people to-night, dear Yma,” he muttered sadly.

“Then you will not be more unhappy if I take you to the lower rooms before they come to smash in the doors of the fortress?”

“I am in chains, I cannot stop you if I would.”

The girl stooped and kissed the manacles. “They hold you for me yet a little while.”

The Spaniard touched gently the dark tresses of her hair.

“I’m learning many things, in these silent days, dear Yma. The world I live in has grown larger and more wonderful and beautiful since I’ve known you.”

She watched him wistfully for a moment, her deep emotion raging, but she repressed it, smiled and hurried to her task.

Toparca called the guard, and found the eye holes in a massive stone that paved the lower passage. These holes were safely hidden by soft earth from which sprigs of grass were carefully removed in a compact piece of turf and laid aside to be replaced.

Grappling hooks of heavy bronze were fixed in those holes and the combined strength of five men lifted the huge trap door that opened the way to the lower fortress hundreds of feet below.

With all speed Molina’s furnishings and clothes and all the effects of his servant and Yma’s maids were removed to the lower level. Then the cavalier followed Yma down the long dark stairway, hundreds of feet into the depths below.

The guards replaced the stone, reset the grass, and left the fortress unguarded. They obeyed Yma’s command without question.

When Teresa arrived two hours later with a force of twenty men and one of Candia’s cannon no sound came from the ramparts in answer to her call.

Gaspara warned her to move with care as Pizarro had commanded. He had refused to allow her to engage in the attack on the Inca. She had agreed on condition that he give her permission to take the fortress the moment the monarch was in his hands. Now she waited impatiently.

A complete survey of the walls from every angle gave no sign of defense. A sentinel had always walked the ramparts day and night. Gaspara ordered the men to try the heavy stone door and it yielded at once to their shoulders, swinging heavily on its massive pivot.

Teresa turned to her native servant.

“You are sure there are only three guards?”

“I’ve seen but three since I entered the fortress. I’ve hidden from the Sun Virgin, but got all her orders from a maid. No more have been added. The prisoner is on the first floor.”

“Steady!” she called to the men. “It may be a ruse. I will lose no Spanish soldiers in this crisis. I’ll enter alone first.”

With torch uplifted high she boldly entered the hall and found it empty. Calling Gaspara they surveyed each room. The place was deserted. The kitchen gave signs of use during the day, and live coals still smoldered in the cooling ashes, but there were no occupants to be found.

A second careful search uncovered the small stairway which led out through the clump of evergreens at the foot of the cliff. Teresa examined every crook and turn of the stairs, emerged below, parted the bushes at the entrance, and stood baffled.

“They’ve just slipped through our fingers by this secret entrance of the fortress....”

“It’s plain,” Gaspara agreed.

“There’s nothing to do but begin our search all over again--” a strangled sob caught her voice--“but when I find her I’ll run her through....”