Valley of Thracians (27 page)

“We couldn’t stop him,” Aleks told
Katya, his voice fading as he choked back the difficult words. “He came down
fast, too fast I guess, and missed a turn. There was a tree, and well,” he
said, not completing the sentence.

With the phone secured between her head
and shoulder, Katya pulled her left hand in toward her stomach and her right
hand grasped it tightly. Unconsciously, her fingernails began clawing at the
soft skin of her left wrist. With each word she heard from Aleks, the nails dug
deeper. Blood began to trickle from the puncture wounds, and she bit her lip at
the sharp, unexpected pain. “Where is Hristo? Is he okay?”

“Katya, he didn’t make it,” was the
sorrowful reply.

And that was it. Aleks kept talking,
mentioning a rescue team, a doctor, and transportation of the body. Katya
ignored the throbbing in her wrist and held the phone to her ear, but she
wasn’t listening. It didn’t make sense. Hristo would be back first-thing Monday
morning. He had promised. She would talk to him again about her desire to start
a family. Surely he would listen to her this time. She needed a child. She
needed a baby to care for. She needed Hristo.

He was on the mountain; he just had to
be. He had been tragically injured, it was true, but hadn’t she done everything
she could to nurse him back to health? She had tenderly cared for him as he
recovered, making sure that he had everything he needed in the isolated cabin.
She had protected him, kept his mind free of painful memories. With her tender
and loving care, no one could ever harm him.
Her beloved
Hristo.

Soon they would be reunited. He was on
the mountain, and she ran into the fortress complex to find him.

Chapter
48

The pain in his left leg was
intensifying. He sat on a rock at the side of the path and massaged his sore
muscles in a circular motion—not that it was helping to ease the tension he
felt. He shifted his weight, adjusted the baseball cap on his forehead to ward
off the warm rays of sunlight, and waited anxiously for Sophia to return from
the higher levels of the fortress. She would not be coming back alone, he told
himself, repeating these words with inner optimism as if they were his mantra.
He hoped and he prayed that Sophia would arrive at any minute, leading Scott
down from the mountain. It just had to be. His lips again mouthed the words:
I
will find him.

In his mind, he hummed a refrain that
could have been lifted straight from a 1970s Paul Simon single.
The
grandfather and child reunion is only a moment away
. It would be great, no,
it would be absolutely amazing, to reunite with Scott after all this time. It
was
a dream come
true. It was even more than that. It
was beating insurmountable odds and proving all the naysayers wrong. It was
seeing the pits of hell and coming out alive to tell the tale. It was being
reborn. It was a happy ending to a tragic story. It was getting back his
beloved grandson. Ha, it was a miracle!

I will find him.

And then, as if his innermost prayer had
risen directly to the heavens for instantaneous fulfillment, Sophia appeared
atop the steep set of stairs. She rested in the stone gateway, squinting at the
strong sunlight that momentarily blinded her vision. And, to complete the
consummation of the moment, to reward his trip to Bulgaria and fully compensate
for three years of hopes and prayers, Sophia was not alone. His grandson, slightly
thinner than he remembered, followed the Thracian lecturer through the gate and
began to descend the steps. The silent call of Simon’s mantra had been
answered.

Simon stood up, his arms wide and his
heart beating in boundless elation. And then Scott jumped down the last of the
steps to hug him excitedly. Simon’s cap fell to the ground as he repeatedly
kissed his grandson’s unshaven cheeks. The pain in his leg was quickly
forgotten as years of longing exploded into a prolonged, excited embrace.

“Scott, I’m so happy to see you!”

“I can’t believe you’re here, Grandpa!”

“I came to find you, to bring you home.”

“Grandpa,” Scott cried.

Tears poured down Simon’s cheeks as
well, and after another long embrace, he suddenly remembered that they were not
alone.

“Oh, I see you’ve met Sophia.”

“No, actually, I have no idea who she
is,” Scott said, wiping his face.

“I’ve been helping your grandfather as
he searched for you all over Bulgaria,” Sophia said, extending her hand.

“All over Bulgaria?
This is totally unreal. What happened to you, Grandpa? Why is your face all
scarred?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Simon said,
dismissing the fall at the Rila Monastery as if it had never happened. “Are you
okay? Your parents are dying to hear from you, to know that you’re okay. Are
you all right? What’s this horrific wound on your head? Does it hurt?”

“It’s okay,” Scott replied, shaking off
his grandfather’s hand. “I’m fine, really I am. I’ve been through some rough
times, but I think that’s all behind me now.”

“What were you doing here, on top of
this mountain? What’s the name of this place again?” Simon asked, still
clinging to his grandson as he turned to Sophia.

“Belogradchik,” she reminded him.

“Right.
Belogradchik.
What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for something,” Scott
replied, hesitating and wondering whether now was the appropriate time to
continue. “It’s a long story, a really long story.”

“We have plenty of catching up to do,”
Simon said. “We need to get you back to Sofia and then on a plane to the
States. Your parents will be thrilled, and that’s putting it mildly. We’ll call
them right away and let them hear your voice. Scott, I can’t believe it!”

“There are things I need to do,” Scott
said, without further explanation, adjusting the strap of his backpack.

“I have to give you something,” Simon
began, his voice choking with emotion.

“What?”

“I believe this is yours,” Simon said,
pulling the thin silver chain from the side pocket of his travel bag.

“How the hell did you get my chain?”

“I guess we both have things to tell
each other.”

“Let me help with that,” Sophia said,
stepping forward to fasten the chain around Scott’s neck.

“This is the second time you’ve given
this to me,” Scott said, fingering the Hebrew-lettered pendant.

“It’s a symbol of life.” Simon embraced
Scott again, clasping him tightly, afraid to let him go.

They began walking down the path, away
from the citadel set among the ruddy rocks. Sophia led the way, with Simon’s
eyes fixed on his grandson as they went by the fortified barrier walls. Scott
shut his eyes tight and then blinked them open rapidly, amazed that this was
reality and he was here, free of the horrors that had engulfed him for years.
He took in the surroundings in total wonderment, as if he didn’t fully recall
having come to this strange and scenic place. And then he noticed the Bulgarian
couple trailing them.

He recognized them immediately. A smile
lit his face initially when he saw Ralitsa. Ralitsa, who had warmly welcomed
him into her home and who had patiently helped him with his Bulgarian
homework—what was she doing here? He wanted to run to her, to hug her and prove
that he was okay even after his extended absence.

His initial warmth faded abruptly when
he identified the man who stood next to Ralitsa. Vlady, the foul-smelling man
who had repeatedly addressed him as his “young American friend” stared at him
with a threatening gaze. His presence was bad, very bad news.

“Let’s hurry,” Scott urged his
grandfather, and then without waiting for a reply, he rushed ahead on the
descent to the parking lot.

“Wait up,” Simon called, unable to keep
pace. “Why is he running?” he asked Sophia.

“I don’t know.” Sophia looked around
nervously and spotted the Bulgarian couple farther back on the trail. The man
was holding a cell phone to his ear and pointing excitedly at Scott. When Scott
started to run, the couple hurried forward as well. “Let’s get to the car,”
Sophia urged Simon.

“Stop!”

At the sound of the familiar voice,
Scott stopped in his tracks just inside the entrance gate. Ahead of him was
another person from his past, but this woman was even more evil than the man
who had forced him to join the smuggling excursions. It was Katya, who had
imprisoned him in the remote cabin, lying to him about his family and identity.
It was Katya, who, in the guise of helping him recover after his head injury,
had in fact been doping him with strong narcotics to prolong his amnesia and
intensify his migraines. It was Katya, who had caused him so much pain, and now
she, too, had mysteriously appeared to confront him at this mountain fortress.
Her arrival with Vlady was a manifestation of his worst nightmares.

“Stay away from me,” Scott said sharply,
and then he repeated the words in Bulgarian.

“I’m so glad you’re all right,” Katya
replied calmly. “I’m relieved that I found you. I am here to care for you. I’ve
missed you so much. Everything will be okay.”

“Stay back,” Scott said, raising his
hand to ward off her approach.

“You need not fear a thing,” she
continued. She reached out to touch him, but he pulled away, unwilling to come
into physical contact with her.

Simon and Sophia joined them. “Who is
this woman?” Simon wheezed, laboring to catch his breath.

“It doesn’t matter who this is, we have
to leave right now,” Scott said, pleading for his grandfather to follow him as
he passed through the gate to the parking lot.

Katya screamed after him one more time,
but it was not Scott’s name she called. Her anguished cry fell on deaf ears.

A few minutes later, they were sitting
inside Sophia’s car, with the three Bulgarians staring at them from the
complex’s gate. Sophia fiddled with her key, afraid that the engine would not
kick into life.

Seated in the backseat, Scott glanced
around the parking lot, at the bored trinket sellers manning the rickety
tourist stands and at the other cars. One vehicle was parked parallel to
Sophia’s. A man was seated in the passenger seat, and as Scott stared at him,
his features became clearer and more familiar until full recognition set in
with a jolt.

It was Boris! His host father had showed
up as well!

Why had everyone suddenly converged at
Belogradchik? The answer was clear to Scott, as frightening as it was to
accept. They were all here because he alone held the key to the treasure they
were seeking. Not that he fully understood, or remembered, how to decipher that
key. They were coming after him, and they wouldn’t stop until the mystery was
solved. No, he couldn’t let them get hold of this knowledge; he couldn’t
surrender the secret to them. Having failed in his delivery mission, he realized
that it was now payback time, and Scott feared for his life. It was crucial to
escape. Thankfully, this was now possible with the miraculous and timely
arrival of his grandfather. He needed to get away.

“Let’s go, please let’s go,” he pleaded
to Sophia as she finally started the car and executed a careful reverse.

Simon glanced back at the medieval stone
gate where the three Bulgarians were standing. Beyond them in the distance, he
saw the fortifications and the stunning red rock pillars of the mountain fortress.
And then Simon glanced at the man sitting in the car next to theirs. It was
Scott’s host father from the town of Montana. He was here, too! Simon recalled
that despite being confined to a wheelchair, the burly man had issued a severe
threat, one which Sophia had hesitated to translate. Only reluctantly had
Sophia revealed the meaning of those heated words:
When I see Scott again, I
will kill him!

What did these people want from Scott?
How had they determined he was still alive after his mysterious disappearance
and absence these past three years? What did Scott know that had caused them to
follow him to Belogradchik Fortress? Even though his grandson was sitting
safely in the backseat, Simon was more worried than ever for Scott’s
well-being. He had to get Scott out of Bulgaria as quickly as possible.

They pulled out of the lot, and the
fortress walls disappeared from view. Sophia shifted into second gear, and the
car picked up speed as it descended the winding streets toward the town.

“We need to go after him,” Katya said to
her companions at the gate, her eyes misty with emotion.

“We’ll get him, don’t worry about that,”
Vlady said. “But only when he leads us to what he failed to deliver in the
past.”

Two shiny black utility vehicles pulled
into the parking lot and screeched to a stop where the three of them stood.
Four men dressed in identical dark suits jumped out to confront Vlady, Ralitsa,
and Katya. Angry words passed back and forth until the men got back into their
vehicles and raced off in hot pursuit of the car that had pulled out moments
before their arrival.