Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel Read Online Free Page A

all.”
    G ently , he took the long blade from his loyal friends grasp and threw it to the ground too . “Trust me, Almargo, ” he whispered in his ear , “ please just trust me.”
    The swarm of natives had regained their courage after the shock of the shots and were edging closer again , so Pizarro steppe d into the middle of the square, holding his hands skywards .
    “Min co,” he said quietly . “I can do nothing more than apologis e to you for what that man did to your woman . He deserved to die , die like a dog . But please remember i t was I who took vengeance in your stead,” he said pointing at the blood-soaked corpse beyond them . “ Please… please , Minco , don’t let w hat this one man has done destroy everything that we can build.”
    Minco angrily regarded a t the body of the dead Spaniard , the n back toward the still crying young woman . Thoughts raced wildly through his mind. The King had ordered him to go and bring these visitors back to Cuzco unharmed . But a girl , an Incan girl had been attacked; one of these so called visitors had forced himself up on her . His own men wanted blood, much more than the life of that one single soldier . T heir burning eyes were locked on Minco , waiting for him to give the order to attack, to destroy these evil men .
    For a ll of his life , t he most important thing to Minco had been his loyalty. L oyalty to his people , but even more viral was his loyalty he had to his King . With a heavy heart , h e knew what he must do. Through gritted teeth, he turned and faced his own people , speaking to them in his native tongue so that Pizarro and his men w ould n o t understand his word s .
    “ My people, w e must wait. We will have our revenge , but it cannot b e today. Our King has ordered me to bring these men back to Cuzco to meet with him. We must , as always , obey the word of the King . But I promise you all this- we will take our revenge.”
    It was all too clear that h is tribe smen were far from happy with his words , even Pizarro and his men could clearly see that . Murmurs and whispers flew back and forth among st them as they questioned their leader ’ s orders . They did n o t like what he was saying, b ut they were nearly as loyal to the ir King as the great Protector was . For now, t hey would do just as he said. F or now Minco guessed , but not for too much long er .
    Minco looked over to Pizarro then marched towards him . A nger was still racing in his eyes when he said, “Spaniard, g et the rest of your men together. W e ’ re leaving here now. ” He looked to the night sky. “ We ’ re not waiting until the sun comes up. ” Without another word, h e stormed off into the darkness .
    *****
    The journey to Cuzco got even harder, f or in the next two weeks , marching was all that they seemed to do . T hey never stopped at any of the settlement s they passed . Minco was n o t willing to risk an ything else going wrong. If any thing like the previous incident happened again , nothing, no t even the word of the King himself w ould be able to stop the Incan warrior s from slaughtering the Spaniards .
    Cold , damp and insect ridden n ights were spent under the stars with only some meagre dried rations to eat and none of that wondrous chicha to taste . Minco also kept h is distance from the Spaniards, setting his own camp apart from Pizarro and his men.
    Eventually Pizarro had enough of the constant silence . Such cold silence. O ne night , he went to the Incans camp to speak directly to Minco, who he found was warming himself by a fire. H e felt the urge, the need , to try to build a bridge between them again . This was of course , s o he could keep this Minco as close as possible.  
    “ T ell me something Minco, h ow did you manage to lear n our language so well?” he asked as he sat down beside the man . It was the only slice of small talk he could think of. “Who was it that taught you?”
    Minco did n o t want to talk to the Spaniard but as the