Free Temple by Matthew Reilly Page A

nearby alleyway where Renco and Bassario could mount
them.

But first I had to clear a passage to the gate, which meant getting
the flatbed wagon with the cannon on it out of our path. That task
would be harder. It required that I 'accidentally' scare the two
horses harnessed to the wagon.

Thus I carried concealed within my sleeve one of Renco's sharply
pointed arrows, ready to—God forgive me—surreptitiously jab one of
the poor creatures as I walked past them.

I crossed the plaza slowly, careful to keep my eyes averted, not
daring to lock eyes with anyone.

As in the other plazas around the city, this one had stakes driven
into the ground all around it. Severed heads were impaled upon
them. The blood on the heads was fresh and it trickled down the
stakes to the ground. My fear was

extreme as I passed them—such would be my fate if I didn't get out
of Cuzco soon.

The gate came into my view and with it the flatbed wagon that stood
in front of it. I saw the horses and tightened my grip on the arrow
inside my sleeve. Two more steps and-

'Hey! You!' barked a coarse voice from somewhere behind me.

I froze. Did not look up.

A large soldier with a pot belly stepped in front of me, so that he
stood in between myself and the two horses. He wore his pointed
conquistador's helmet perfectly and his voice was laced with
authority. A senior soldier.

'What are you doing here?' said he and curtly

Said I, 'I am sorry, so sorry… I was trapped in the city and
I…'

'Get back to your quarters. This isn't a safe area. There are
Indians in the city. We think they're after the Captain's
idol.'

I couldn't believe it. I was so close to my objective and now I was
being turned away! I reluctantly made to leave when suddenly a
strong hand landed on my shoulder.

'A moment, monk—' the soldier began. But he cut himself off
abruptly as he felt the dampness of my cloak.

'What the-'

Just then, a sharp whistling sound filled the air around me and
then—thwack!—an arrow smacked into the big soldier's face,
shattering his nose, causing an explosion of blood that splattered
all over my face.

The soldier dropped like a stone. The other soldiers in the plaza
saw him fall and whirled about, searching for the source of the
danger.

Suddenly a second whistling sound filled the air, and this time a
flaming arrow flew down from one of the darkened rooftops
surrounding the plaza and shot low over the flatbed wagon in front
of me and slammed hard into the big wooden gate behind it.

Shouts filled the air as the conquistadors opened fire on the
shadowed source of the arrows.

I, however, was looking at something else entirely.

I was looking at the cannon on top of the flatbed wagon, or more
particularly, at the fuse protruding from the breech

of the cannon on top of the flatbed wagon.

The fuse was alight.

The flaming arrow—I did not know at the time, but I understand now
that it was Bassario who fired it—had been so well aimed that it
had lit the fuse on the cannon!

I did not wait for what would happen next. I just ran for the three
unattended horses as quickly as I could, for no sooner did I reach
them than the cannon on the flatbed wagon went off.

It was the loudest noise I had ever heard in my life. A monstrous
blast of such intensity and power that it shook the world under
me.

A billowing cloud of smoke shot out from the cannon's barrel and
the big wooden gate in front of it snapped like a twig. When the
smoke cleared before it, a gaping ten-foot hole could be seen in
the lower half of the giant gate.

The horses harnessed to the flatbed wagon bolted at the sudden
thunderous blast. They reared on their hind legs and took flight,
galloping off into the alleyways of Cuzco, leaving the damaged gate
wide open.

The three horses I had been charged with procuring reared too. One
of them bolted and ran off, but the other two calmed quickly as I
held them firmly by their reins.

The Spanish soldiers were still firing blindly up into the