MEMORANDUM

by Rodlox
[email protected]

DEDICATED TO: Deborah Samson (b. 1759-1827)

This is attached to no series of mine.

ARCHIVE: Manzana Core, anyone who asks me.

~~~

"It's the Queen!" one of the soldiers called out as they crested the dry hill, a strong baritone voice to him. Pizaro was his name, a quiet and unassuming young man.

The Queen started up the next hill, when she heard the sound of hoofbeats coming from that direction as well. At first shrugging it off as an echo induced by the nature of this land, she soon saw that she was wrong - there was another group of soldiers riding at the top of this hill too!

One of the soldiers, a man by the name of Rodriguez, who held hopes of a rapid rise through the ranks, had taken several soldiers with him to this position, flanking the Queen. Let's see her escape this time!

The Queen looked at one wing of soldiers, and then the other. There was only one route open for her, and she had to hope that no bandits had re-taken the place she had in mind. Spurring her horse around and into a quick trot, she rode off, the two wings not converging.

The original band of soldiery did fufill her expectations, riding down the slope after her in the valley. The second group, the flanking wing, was racing along on the hilltop. Are they expecting many easy slopes after this? the Queen wondered.

The Queen led them on a not-exactly-merry chase, across a tiny stream gurgling it's last, and towards a cave that was close by some ruins she'd seen once - though it'd been at a distance at the time. She raced through the shattered pueblo and into the mouth of the cave. Dismounting, she loosened some rocks so no horsemen could come after her, and hid her own horse in a side-passage that wasn't readily appearant from either side of the mountain. She then returned to the pueblo, to deal with the riders.

But there were still a few missing, part of her mind noted. But she was soon too busy fending off the attacks of the soldiers who were here to concern herself with the ones who weren't.

And then there was only her and Pizaro, who'd held back a little in battle, being not as strong as some of his compatriots.

A knife flicked through the air, missing them both, and striking the wall behind Tessa. Both the Queen and Pizaro looked to the source of it: Rodriguez, come from through the tunnel - not a cave as Tessa'd first thought.

The Queen took advantage of the situation by knocking Pizaro's hat from off his head, and tightly gripping his hair, her sword at his throat. "Drop your weapons," she commanded, a little winded from all the fighting.

Tessa could remember being in this exact position, trying to keep her Uncle from shooting her. The Queen's grip on Pizaro's thick hair only strengthened.

Rodriguez, seeing his chance, fired his pistol. Pizaro went limp in the Queen's grip.

As Rodriguez pulled back the hammer for his second - and last - shot, the Queen lashed out with her whip. No sooner was the shooter gripped with the leather than she yanked it and him towards her, sending him sprawling on the ground...and a gunshot sounded.

The Queen felt no injury, and hadn't seen anything in the dirt around her. Easing Pizaro down against the adobe wall, she went to go see if Rodriguez was willing to give up yet.

When he wouldn't respond to her voice, the Queen flipped him over, her mind expecting some sort of a trap laid out for her. What she saw was shrapnel, blood, a broken gun, and more blood. Rodriguez was dead.

"Go on," Pizaro moaned; "I'm next, aren't I?"

The Queen turned around to see Pizaro reaching for his gun or his sword, whichever he got to first. She shook her head in a 'don't try it, please' look, and - astonishingly enough - Pizaro complied, his hand going back down to his side. The Queen walked over to him. "I don't want to kill."

"Liar!" the wounded soldier spat with as much venom as he could manage in his state.

"I don't lie," the Queen told him, and the Tessa part of her tried not to delve too deeply into that one - it was either truth or a neccessary lie, and - STOP THAT! she hollered at herself. "But Colonel Montoya -"

"El Colonel is a ray of light in our beleagered lives, a glimmer of hope...and you come to mock him, to rob us all."

"I only take what Montoya has taken from the people, and I return it to the peasants and dons that it belongs to."

"You're an agent of the dons then," Pizaro stated flatly, his voice breaking with the strain, sweat beading on his face. "You're a mercinary," with no emotion to it.

"I'm taking you to a doctor," Tessa said, ending the seemingly fruitless argument, and ignoring Pizaro's weak objections. Of course, the Queen told her, they're my ears.

~~

After seeing him through Doctor Helm's doorway, Tessa stopped to ask the doctor - who seemed to recognize this man - "Will he make it, doctor?"

Helm's eyebrow was raised. "You actually shot someone this time?" Was that amazement or admiration in his tone; given who this was, the former was more likely.

"Another soldier tried to shoot through him," the Queen delivered matter-of-factly. "That one isn't the problem. Will this one - will he -"

"She'll be fine," Helm said, correcting the Queen's grammar. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a wound to tend," half-glaring as he closed the door on her.

Tessa walked slowly to her horse. A woman in the ranks of Montoya's soldiers?? One who she - as the Queen - may have given the slip many-a time.

Tessa sighed heartily as she mounted her horse. For so long, she mused as she headed back towards her hacienda, I've held myself as a protector of the innocent, of women and children, from the ravages of Montoya's regime. And now I find that women - at least one - number among the ones I fight.

The Queen and Tessa wondered how well Marta'd hidden the better drinks.

~~~~~