CHAPTER THIRTEEN
With no small difficulty, Vicente had smuggled Alex out the back, then maneuvered his languid form into a taxi and taken them to his apartment, where he’d left Alex on the couch with a glass of water and a cup of black coffee for another forty minutes before returning.
Alex, meanwhile, had taken one sip of the coffee and thought better of it, but as lucidity proved increasingly slow to return, he stomached more, trying to parse what Vicente had said.
What their show had been. Why the cops had shown up at the theatre.
He couldn’t remember Vicente getting him into the car.
“Vis? Where are we going? Do you even drive?”
“Just chill, will you? I need to concentrate. It’s Miguel’s car, and yes, I drive.”
“Let me rephrase that,” Alex said. “Are you licenced to drive?”
“Who’s going to pull us over between here and the Basque country at this time of night?”
“The Basque country?” Alex’s head suddenly seemed clearer. “There’s a damn good chance the police will, and they don’t like insurgents, Vis.”
“It’s a good thing we’re not insurgents then. Christ, Alex, I am nervous enough. What is wrong with you?”
The wine, thought Alex. Had Jago drugged the wine? Our wine, indeed.
“Look, where are we going? Why? What makes you even think—”
“Let’s take those one at a time,” Vicente answered through gritted teeth. “One, we’re going to San Sebastián.”
“San Sebastián? I’m really not in the mood for a seaside holiday, Vis.”
Vicente struck his palm against the steering wheel, but otherwise contained his anger. “It’s a place to start. You said Jago went up there for business not long ago? Well, I’m willing to bet that business had something to do with tonight. He’s been planning this, Alex. Don’t tell me he hasn’t.”
“Planning…?
“Oh, come on, man. He gets all over you and turns your head to get access to her?”
“If all he wanted was access to her, then why wouldn’t he get all over you?”
Vicente shook his head. “Too close, maybe? Afraid we’d work out what he was doing? Maybe he saw he had an ‘in’ with you or he just fancied you more? How should I know? Fuck! I don’t even…”
“What is your plan, Vis?” Alex asked, trying to keep the anger out of his voice now. “Once we get to San Sebastián, how do you intend to find them? Ask around?”
“I don’t know. The hotels? Restaurants? Guy who looks like Lorca, only a hottie, thought to be in the company of local looking woman? It’s not a big city. Somebody must have seen something.”
Alex drummed his fingers on the ugly brown leather upholstery of his seat. “Yes, someone must have… but not in San Sebastián.”
“Where, then?”
“Zugarramurdi!”
“Zugga-whatty?”
“The witch town. That’s where he’s taken her. And I’ll bet it’s to the caves she talked about.”
“I…” Vicente shook his head again, driving on faith. “Glove box.”
“What?”
“Miguel said he had some maps in the glove box. What? You think, driving in the dark, that I know how to get to this town I’ve never even heard of?”
Alex opened the compartment and rummaged through the promised maps until he spied one covering Navarre and the French border. He unfolded it across his knees. “I can’t see a damn thing, Vis.”
Vicente reached above their heads and flicked on the light. “Jesus, if anyone’s going to pull us over, it’s going to be now.”
“Here!” Alex pointed to a small spot on the map within spitting distance of the French border.
Vicente peered at it, then turned out the light. “Okay. You’ll still have to direct me. Next question. Why? I don’t know, man. You tell me. I thought this guy was crazy about you.”
“He’s definitely not crazy.” Alex gritted his teeth, still not quite able to believe Vicente’s theory. “Maybe Joanna went willingly?”
Vicente’s head spun with a glare that made Alex afraid he’d crash the car. “Without telling us?”
“I just mean, they were talking like old, best friends right before the show. That’s how I found out about Zugarramurdi. That’s where Jago’s business took him, though to be honest, he seemed annoyed when Joanna mentioned it.”
“Ahah, see? There. Right there, Alex. He seemed annoyed because he didn’t want us finding out, perhaps? Free will? I don’t think so. And even if she did, why didn’t they tell us where they were going? No, man. Willing or not, this is way beyond fishy.”
“Okay, okay! We’ll find them, Vis. I promise. Next?”
“What?”
“Next question?”
“I don’t know. Maybe…” They exchanged worried glances as the car’s headlights lapped up the endless trail of road markings, catching the odd reflector as they went. “What are we going to do when we get there?”
“How long do we have to work that out?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know. Without stops, five hours? Maybe six?”
“That gives us five or six hours to come up with a plan,” Alex said, hoping to whatever god of fate would listen that the best course of action would be to do nothing at all.
* * *
No plan emerged.
Any trace of an idea that might have yielded a plan remained as obscured as the trail beyond their headlights as they swung into the spot where a few rusty signs promised they’d find the Zugarramurdi Witch Caves.
“Did you bring a flashlight?” Alex asked.
“No. Weirdly enough, this is my first time driving halfway across the country in the dead of night to stop an abduction. There may be one or two details I forgot.”
“We don’t know that it’s an—”
“Whatever it is, Alex!” Vicente sighed, looking sheepish. “Sorry, I’m exhausted.”
“It’s four in the morning and you’ve been driving.” Alex put a hand on his wrist. “Vis, they’re going to be okay and so are we.”
“They?” Vicente shook his head. “I’m sorry, Alex, but your new boyfriend isn’t the one I’m worried about.” They got out of the car and began following the trail downhill. Vicente cried out from in front as he stumbled. “Watch yourself. It’s steep here.”
“Thanks. Can you not break an ankle?”
“Mine or someone else’s? Forget I said that, sorry.”
Alex didn’t bite. He knew Joanna’s safety was Vicente’s only concern, and if Jago had hurt her in any way, it would be his as well. But damn it, they’d shared minds—perhaps more. Surely if Jago had meant them harm…
“Over there.” Vicente pulled Alex close behind a bush and pointed to the flickering fire that illuminated a far corner of the immense cave.
Alex couldn’t see Jago, but he could make out Joanna clearly enough, sitting cross-legged in her white stage dress, staring into the flames, hair hanging low over her shoulders. “We need to get closer.”
“No shit. How do we do that without being seen?”
“Vis?” Alex didn’t know how he knew. He couldn’t see Joanna’s expression, nor the smile that he was sure had crossed her lips. It was perhaps fairest to say he felt her beckoning them, in the same way he’d felt her during the rehearsal and the performance. “She’s calling us.”
“She?”
Alex held out his hand. “Trust me?”
With plain scepticism, Vicente accepted Alex’s hand.
Together, they followed the rest of the trail, which widened into the enormous mouth of the cave.
Now, Alex could see Joanna, sitting opposite an equally bare Jago.
Except Jago lay supine on the other side of the fire, still as a corpse except for a steady intake and outgoing of breath.
“Come,” she said aloud. “Don’t be frightened, please.”
“Frightened?” Alex asked as they climbed up the rocks to the outcropping where Joanna—he presumed—had built her fire. “Why should we be frigh…”
He had glanced behind him for less than a second, less time than it had taken Orpheus to condemn his love with the same action, yet what he saw chilled him as he held his breath, trying to will away what had to be an illusion.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of faces, mostly young women, though with an undeniable sprinkling of men in their number, dressed in archaic clothing stared back at him.
Flaming torches illuminated their faces, many of which were scarred with puncture wounds, deep gouges or worse.
Some were missing eyes or ears, others were burned beyond recognition.
Yet all were staring at Alex and Vicente, intruders in their sacred place.
“Confused?” asked Joanna. “Perplexed? Fascinated or perhaps enticed, just as Jago enticed you?” Her hair shifted as she tilted her head. Alex noticed Vicente’s hand tighten around his.
“My god…” Vicente said, looking around the cavern.
“God isn’t here. Not the one you mean, anyway.” Joanna rose to her full height, rounding the fire anti-clockwise until she stood before Alex. Her dress fell from her shoulders, leaving the fire’s light to lick her bare skin.
“Jo?”
“Disrobe,” she said quietly.
Alex didn’t know what faith compelled him to obey, but he did.
Ignoring their unexpected audience, he shucked off his shirt and began unbuckling his belt as if they’d become obstructions to his understanding Joanna’s intentions, or the nature of this place.
Though he didn’t interrupt, Vicente watched Alex in a way that made it clear this revelation had been Alex’s alone.
Once he was naked, Joanna gathered his clothes along with her costume, held them briefly to her face, then threw them in the fire.
“Jo! What the—”
“Vis,” she interrupted him with a bored inflection that unsettled Alex. “You’re a good man. But we’ve no more to offer one another.”