The King's Fifth by Scott O’Dell Read Free Book Online Page A

slow. He was forever darting off the trail at his lopsided trot to gather some leaf or flower or insect, which he carefully stowed in a leather bag. Spare as the wooden cross he carried slung over his back, four times my age, yet he was stronger than I and tireless.
    Despite Father Francisco, we came at nightfall of the third day to the brow of a high, tree-covered hill. Through the trees, far below I saw a nest of flickering lights no larger than my hand.
    "Coronado's army," Zia said. "Before half the night is gone, we will be there among the fires."
    But the rest of us were too tired to go farther, except Father Francisco, so we camped on the hill, and feasted on dried deer meat and melons. Afterwards we sat looking down at Coronado's camp and the dim land rolling away to the north.
    I asked Zia what she knew of the country beyond, the land beyond the mountains I had seen at nightfall.
    "I have been to this valley twice before," she said. "1 came with my uncle and we brought parrots of every color to trade for silver, which is found in this valley. I have not been farther, but I know tales of the land beyond. The place of Cíbola and the Seven Golden Cities."

    "Tell me what you have heard," I said. "Not of the gold for already I have heard much."
    Roa said, "No, tell us of the gold."
    "Of the gold," Zuñiga said.
    Zia turned to me. "Do you wish to know about the country beyond the mountains so you can make a picture?"
    "No."
    "I will bring the roll, which has the paper and brushes and paint and other things."
    "Until I have seen the country with my own eyes, I cannot make a picture."
    "Then why do you wish me to speak about it?" Zia said.
    "Because," Father Francisco broke in, "he has curiosity, though not so much as you have. You have enough for ten girls."
    I learned little from Zia that night, for in the middle of a sentence she yawned and fell asleep.
    Not long after, I dreamed that I was among mountains of surpassing beauty, where pines grew tall and high waterfalls tumbled through crystal air. And when I went to find my paints and brushes they were gone. Zia had stolen them and was running away so fast through the trees that I could not catch her.

8
    W ITH THE FIRST LIGHT we descended. The valley was still in darkness but here and there breakfast fires were burning. As we dropped lower, I could see men busy in the camp, strings of horses and mules and burros on their way to water, children and their mothers washing at a spring.

    When the sun was an hour high we were still threading our way downward through heavy brush. Voices and the neighing of horses drifted up to us. A trumpet blared, an echo answered from the hills. Suddenly, like a great serpent uncoiling, the mass took shape, the bright coils lengthened, and the shape became a moving army.
    In the lead rode a man in gilded cuirass and helmet with a tall, black plume.
    "The one who rides first," Zia said, "is Captain Coronado. From here you cannot see, but he has a red beard with curls in it."
    Behind Coronado rode his officers and the servants, pages, and extra mounts. Five priests came next, carrying crosses. Next came a column of foot soldiers, many
bands of Indians and their wives and children, pigs, flocks of sheep, and a line of pack animals.

    As the leaders passed below us, Roa pointed to a horseman in a yellow doublet. He cupped his hands and shouted, "
Hola.
"
    It was Captain Mendoza. Mounted on the roan, he sat erect, holding aloft a banner which he had brought from Spain, which I had carried on my back from the River of Good Guidance to the village of Avipa—a yellow unicorn on a field of green.
    "
Hola,
" we shouted together.
    Mendoza glanced up and at last saw us where we stood shoulder-deep in the brush. He pulled his horse aside and with a sweep of his hand waved us down.
    We scrambled and slid but did not reach the bottom of the hill until the army had passed. Mendoza was spurring his horse around in circles. He was as restless as he