Read Curse of the Condor Online
Authors: Elizabeth Rose
“Conrado!” she cried. “I didn’t know you were already wounded. He’s shot you twice.”
Conrado pulled himself to a sitting position, the pain from both his arm and leg burning beyond belief.
“Jetta,” he said. “Get the hell out of here.”
“No, Conrado, I’m not going to leave you.”
He could feel his life force flowing from his body, and knew he’d no longer be able to protect her. Blackness spotted in front of his eyes, and dizziness caused him to sit back down. By his calculations, Prospero still had three more bullets. He knew if he took one more, it would be the end of him.
“Then maybe your little girlfriend can get it for me.” He held the gun toward Jetta and she whimpered.
“No!” he cried. “Just let her go. Let her go and I will give you every blasted piece of cursed treasure in here.”
“Your Jivaro friends are sure to show up sooner or later. You get me out of the jungle alive, and I’ll let her go.”
“Conrado,” said Jetta. “Don’t do it. This treasure belongs here. Don’t help him steal it.”
“I have no choice, Jetta.” He looked to Prospero. “I’m in no condition to fight you. Let Jetta go and I’ll make sure none of the Jivaro give you trouble.”
Conrado could never promise such a thing. But he had to call the man’s bluff if Jetta was to get out alive.
“Prospero,” called Arlo from the entrance of the cave. “I think the natives are coming. Hurry.”
“Go!” shouted Prospero, waving his gun toward Jetta.
She looked at him with tears flowing, but Conrado just nodded his head. Chatter scurried up her leg, and she clutched him to her shoulder.
“Take Chatter with you and get the hell out of here.”
“But Conrado - ”
“Go!” he shouted, the pain more than he could bear.
Jetta sobbed and shook her head, then hurried out of the cave.
Conrado pulled himself to his feet, not able to get the thought out of his head that Jetta was now cursed as well. She’d entered the cave, so she was sure to die.
He staggered to his feet, bringing the burlap bag with him, heading over to the ledge with the crystal condor. Thunder boomed outside again, and he felt the familiar shake of the earth beneath his feet. They were all doomed now. This time even he would not be so lucky as to make it out alive.
“Hurry,” said Prospero, waving the gun.
Conrado limped to the ledge, blinking, trying to stop the blackness from overtaking him. There was a noise from behind Prospero, and startled, the man turned and fired off a shot. He heard the unmistakable sound of a grunt as the bullet hit flesh.
“Jetta!” he cried out, and Prospero turned around and fired at him. Luckily, Conrado dove to the ground and the bullet ricocheted off the rocks.
“You fool,” cried Prospero as he saw his man Arlo drop to the ground behind him. The horrid look of death on his face, Conrado knew the curse was already in action. Lightning flashed, and as his head spun, Conrado saw the image of the condor before him just as he had that day fifteen long years ago.
“Don’t startle me again, or next time I’ll shoot you.” snapped Prospero.
One more bullet, Conrado told himself. One more bullet was all the man had.
Conrado opened the bag and reached out for the crystal condor. The earth shook around them, and he saw the vision of the condor again in his head.
Suddenly, he felt as if he were the condor. The wind in his face, the air beneath his wings, he felt a sudden stillness within his soul. The spirit of the condor was guiding him, and he knew it was time to finally accept it. He heard the voice in his head saying not to do it, and with a jerk of his hand, he pulled away.
“I can’t.”
Thunder rattled the rocks, a few small ones falling to the ground around them.
“What do you mean you can’t?” snapped Prospero.
“This treasure has been guarded by the condor for years. It isn’t for man, it is for spirit. I will not remove it. The treasure will stay where it is.”
“Oh, get out of my way.”
Prospero pushed into him, and Conrado, weak from the loss of so much blood, fell to the ground. The man opened the bag with his good hand, managing to push the piece into the bag, all the while smiling greedily.
Conrado was too exhausted to move. He couldn’t have stopped Prospero if he tried.
“Well, said Prospero, picking up his gun with the same hand that held the bag. “I’ve got my treasure, and I’m still alive! So much for your silly curse.”
“It’s not my curse,” Conrado told him.
Prospero laughed and turned to go, but the sound of a swoosh through the air and the stiffening of his body told Conrado he’d been hit by the dart of a blowgun.
“Jetta, no!” he said, squeezing his eyes shut, thinking she’d used his gun again. He didn’t want to involve her in this. He didn’t want her living with the guilt of having killed. No one should have to go through that hell, especially not an innocent young woman like her.
Prospero’s body fell to the ground, Conrado catching the bag that held the crystal condor. When he looked back up, to his surprise, his tribal brother Hoatzin stood there, blow gun in hand.
“I have saved your life, brother. Now do you forgive me for the wrong I’ve done you?”
“Hoatzin,” Conrado said, feeling his breathing labored. The thunder rumbled and rocks fell from the ceiling. “Help me get to my feet.”
Hoatzin helped him, and Conrado removed the crystal condor from the bag and laid it back upon the altar. Then he pulled Jetta’s necklace from around his neck, placing that on the altar as well. He closed his eyes and tried to reach the spirit of the condor within him.
This is for Jetta. She’s an innocent through all this. This is to spare her life.
“Brother,” said Hoatzin, putting Conrado’s arm around him. “We need to get out of here. You are wounded.”
Hoatzin helped him toward the exit as rocks fell all around them. Lightning flashed in the doorway, and thunder echoed throughout the chamber. Then there was another boom, and Conrado knew this one wasn’t thunder. Hoatzin fell from his side, hit by the last bullet. Conrado turned to see Prospero propped up against the wall, dart sticking out of his chest, gun in his hand.
“Damn you!” Conrado shouted with what little strength he had left. Prospero smiled at first, but then screamed as a large rock fell from the ceiling atop him. Conrado noticed the look of the curse upon the dead man’s face.
His head spun and blackness crowded his senses. He reached down for Hoatzin, but could no longer see him.
“I forgive you, my brother,” was all he could say before he slipped from consciousness and fell to the ground.
* * *
Jetta screamed as the cave more or less collapsed behind her. Chatter screamed from her shoulder too. Rain sliced over her, and the Jivaro warriors ran in terror. She looked up to see the condor atop the cave, sitting perfectly still in the midst of the storm.
“Conrado!” she screamed and started for the cave, but the warriors took her by the arms and dragged her along with them.
“You’ve got to save him,” she said to the one who looked like the chief. But he didn’t acknowledge her words.
“Conrado’s still in there,” she screamed to another of the warriors, but they just ignored her and dragged her through the jungle.
Chatter screamed from her shoulder, and she ran a comforting hand over his foot.
“He’s got to be all right,” she said, looking back to the cave as the rocks fell across the entrance. Then she looked up to the condor sitting atop the cave. Conrado had said he’d been named after it. That it was some sort of a spirit guide.
“Watch over
El Condor
,” she said to it softly, then turned and left as the warriors lead her away.
Chapter 25
Jetta sat in the
Rosa Nautica
restaurant in Lima, picking at the baby octopus and squid on her plate. Her father, Gerald Fitzgerald III sat across from her, having flown in immediately as soon as she'd phoned him about Ryder’s death. He’d wanted to resume the body and fly it back to the States, but Jetta convinced him this is where Ryder would want to be buried.
She’d told him he was at peace with the jungle, as he’d always loved it. Besides, without Conrado to show them the way, they’d never be able to find the gravesite again. Because she was Ryder’s only living relative, he’d let her make the final decision.
After she’d left the cave the other day, she'd realized the Jivaro were taking her out of the jungle. Away from the Cave of the Condor and Conrado. She didn’t have a choice. She’d gone with them silently, Conrado’s monkey on her shoulder.
They’d collected her purse and passport and returned it to her, then left her at the Yagua camp, and for that she was happy. But Eloy wasn’t there, and she couldn’t speak their language to ask them what had happened to Conrado.
The Yagua were the ones who brought her back to Iquitos. Chatter had left her shoulder and disappeared into the jungle. Without Conrado’s little monkey by her, she felt as if she’d lost every part of the man she loved.
She’d gone to the de la Cruz’s, the people Conrado had told her would get her back home that first day she’d met him. She wanted to stay with them until she found out what happened to Conrado, but they insisted on paying for her plane ticket to Lima and checking her into a hotel where she’d be more comfortable. They told her they’d get in contact with her as soon as they heard word, but they’d never even called.
It had been four days now, and Jetta was running out of excuses to keep her father in Lima. But she couldn’t bear to go back home until she had word of Conrado. She could only assume he was dead after the last shot she’d heard. Her eyes teared just thinking about the way he bled and bravely told her to leave the cave without him. She’d left the cave and left the jungle, but she would not leave the country until she knew for certain what had happened to the man she loved.
Her father had used his skill of speaking Spanish to try to find out for Jetta, but no one seemed to know anything. And when they'd tried to hire someone to take them to the Jivaro village, no one would do it.
"Look, sweetie, I think maybe it's time to go home, back to the States."
"I can't leave," she told him. "Not yet."
"Your mother is waiting for us. She’s made arrangements for a memorial service for Ryder this weekend.”
“You go back without me, Daddy. I’m going to stay here for awhile.”
Taking his fork and stabbing it into her uneaten
ceviche
, he brought it to his mouth as he talked. "Are you going to tell me another wild story like the one you told me yesterday to try to keep me here?"
"I really did want to find the clothes that were stolen from me in Iquitos," she said.
"Clothes can be replaced," he told her sternly. "And don't think I don't know you wanted to go back to Iquitos to look for that Tarzan man. There’s been no word on him sweetheart. You said yourself he was wounded before the cave collapsed. I’m very grateful that he saved your life, but face it, honey, he’s dead."
Jetta put down her fork, and folded the napkin on her lap. She smoothed out the wrinkles three times before she got the courage to say what she’d been practicing saying aloud all night.
"I love Conrado," she said, raising her eyes to see her father’s stark expression.
“Love him?” His forehead creased. “Jetta, are you trying to tell me you had more than a platonic relationship with this Buzzard Man?” He raised his glass of water to his mouth.
“Condor, Daddy.
El Condor
. And yes, I made love with him if that’s what you’re asking.”
Gerald spit the water out in surprise, grabbing a napkin and wiping his chin.
“My God, Jetta,” he said looking around to the other tables, leaning over and speaking in a hushed tone. “You have lost all your morals since you came to this godforsaken country.”
“Daddy, I’m ready to leave.” She stood and her father quickly did the same.
“Thank goodness you came to your senses. I’ll phone my secretary and have her make immediate plans for our departure.”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying.”
Her father looked at her with a questioning brow. “What do you mean?”
“I’m going back to the jungle. I’m not leaving Peru until I find out what happened to Conrado.”
* * *
Conrado floated on the breeze, carefree and light. He drifted over the jungle, knowing all was as it should be. He felt the condor spirit in his heart, and the knowledge of the sacred bird lodged in his brain.
He’d become one with the condor in his vision quests and through his dreams. He’d felt the connection with all the earth and of every living thing within it. He was the condor. He was the jungle. He was the thread of life that unites man and beast, making up the whole of existence.
A consistent chattering jerked him from his solemn state, and the peacefulness of his spiritual journey ended. His body suddenly felt dense, and pain encompassed every fiber of his being. His eyelids fluttered open. He was temporarily blinded by the bright sunlight beating down upon his broken body.
“
El Condor
, you’ve come back to us.”
He focused his fuzzy vision and saw his tribal father kneeling next to him. Conrado lay on a stretcher made from branches and vines while the Jivaro tribe crowded around him. His father, the shaman, held smoking herbs and a condor feather in his hand. He chanted a few healing words, and then stood.
“He will live,” he announced, and the Jivaro all cheered.
“Our savior has been saved,” announced his father. He reached down and touched Conrado on the shoulder.
Conrado coughed, and his brother Motmot handed him a gourd to drink from. After a sip of medicinal brew, he tried to sit up, but his tribal mother insisted he lay back down.
“Rest, my son,” she said in their foreign tongue, like the others. “You were hurt badly and almost died.”
Conrado’s hand went to his shoulder, and he winced at the pain where the bullet had been. It was wrapped in many cloths with herbs interwoven, as was his leg.
“It will take time to heal,
El Condor
. But you will be back to normal soon,” she told him.
“What happened?” asked Conrado lazily, the horrible memories coming back to him little by little.
“The cave collapsed, sealing it forever.” Motmot supplied the information.
“How did I escape?” he asked. “I remember passing out.”
“If it wasn’t for your brother, Hoatzin, you would be dead,” said his mother, wiping his sweating brow.
“Hoatzin,” he said, realizing his brother would do anything for him. He’d loved Conrado more than any real brother could. “Where is he?” he asked. “I need to thank him.”
By the solemn tone of the tribe, he knew the news wouldn’t be good.
“He’d been shot,” relayed his father, bringing back the memory of what happened to Conrado. “He crawled with you through the cave and pushed you outside just as it collapsed. He wasn’t so lucky. He didn’t make it out alive.”
“No,” cried Conrado, trying to sit up. The pain still unbearable, he lay back down and looked at the sky. The condor circled high above him.
“It’s the curse of the condor,” said Motmot. “No one goes into the cave and comes out alive. No one but you,
El Condor
.”
“Jetta!” he cried, hearing his brother’s words. “Where is she?”
“She’s gone,” said Motmot.
Conrado squeezed his eyes shut, no longer coherent of the pain in his broken body. The pain in his heart was so much sharper. He’d lost Jetta, just like he’d lost his parents. He was truly cursed to lose everyone he loved.
“Hello?” called a voice that he knew so well. His eyes popped open and he pushed up painfully to see Jetta, led by Eloy as well as a group of Jivaro coming into the camp. Chatter sat on her shoulder, playing with the large floppy hat on her head. She wore a low-cut sun dress that showed her rose. Hiking boots were on her feet, and sunglasses covered her eyes.
“Jetta?” he asked in relief. “You’re alive!”
She took off her sunglasses and handed them to the monkey. Chatter slipped off her shoulder playing with them. She ran to him, hat falling to the ground in the process.
“Conrado!” She fell to her knees at his side and buried her face in his chest.
He flinched involuntarily when she’d thrown her arms around him and touched his bandaged arm.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”
She leaned over and kissed him gently on the mouth. Nothing ever tasted sweeter. He threw his good arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. Then he buried his nose in the top of her hair.
“Jetta, honey. I thought I’d lost you.”
He glared at Motmot, and his tribal brother smiled for the first time since Conrado had known him.
“I said she was gone, not dead,” said Motmot in their language.
Conrado looked up to the sky and saw the condor settling on a dead limb of a tree. So the spirit of the condor was truly alive. The return of the necklace had been accepted as an exchange for Jetta’s life.
Chatter clambered over with Jetta’s sunglasses on his face. They fell off, and the little monkey climbed onto Jetta’s back.
“Well, I guess the curse doesn’t affect pesky little animals,” said Conrado.
They all laughed, and Jetta’s smile warmed his heart.
“I thought you were dead until I saw Eloy in Iquitos with a tour group. He told me what happened, and brought me here right away.”
Conrado nodded to his good friend who was already accepting food and drinks from the Jivaro women.
“I thought I was dead too, Jetta. I feel like I should be dead.”
“You’ve been unconscious for over a week,” his father told him.
Conrado looked to Jetta. “Why are you still here?”
“I’ve sent my father home,” she said with a slight smile. “I’ve decided the jungle is my home now.”
“No,” Conrado said with a scowl. “I won’t allow you to stay in the jungle. You’ll go back to the city immediately.”
“I’ll go back when you take me there,” she said. “Until then, I’ll stay by your side. I love you, Conrado. I want to be with you forever.”
Conrado’s heart leaped for joy, but at the same time her confession scared him.
“I’m bad luck,” he told her. “As you can see, I’m cursed.”
“Don’t try to change my mind. I’m not budging.”
“Then I guess you’ll have to be my Jane. Because a woman as pretty as you around so many ugly, horny Jivaro men will be safe no other way.”
Her eyes lit up and a smile spread across her face.
“Is that a marriage proposal I hear, Tarzan?”
“It is if you want it to be. But I won’t have my wife living in the jungle. As soon as I’m healed, we’ll move to Lima where you can find a job teaching.”
“I accept!” she said, and the tribe all cheered. Then Conrado pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately. His eyes trailed up to the sky and he saw the condor take off in flight. He knew now that his animal spirit guide was truly there to watch over him.
El Condor
would live forever in happiness with Jetta at his side. For he knew in his heart he’d been wrong all these years. The condor was his protector, not a messenger of doom. And most of all, he no longer had to fear,
The Curse of the Condor.
I hope you enjoyed
Curse of the Condor
. So much of this book draws from the wonderful trip I took years ago to Peru. It is a magical and mystical land, and I am so happy to have visited the jungle as well as the mountains and Machu Picchu. It was a trip of a lifetime.
Please visit my website at
Elizabethrosenovels.com
to read excerpts and receive updates as I have books being released quite often. Make sure to subscribe to my email list. You can also read excerpts from any of my novels on my website, as well as get sneak peeks at covers of upcoming books. And please remember that there are other authors by the same name, but my novels can be identified by the rose on every cover. And be sure to take a look at my new
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You may also enjoy my
Daughters of the Dagger Series
.
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