The Knight´s Legacy

Andes Mountains

CHAPTER 17.1

CORDILLERA DE LOS ANDES

PROVINCE OF CHUBUT

APRIL 2014

The following hours were a strenuous walk up the slope of the mountain, with a leaden sky full of omens, and a permanent West wind that extracted the dwindling powers of the travelers. In the evening they dined briefly, despite the hunger caused by the fast and continuous exercise, but together with the missing mules were gone almost all their provisions so that only had food for one more day, and this rationing it fiercely. Nor was now fodder for the two remaining vital mules. Losses included also their sleeping bags, so that for the long and frigid nights in the Andes of the Southern Patagonia they could only make a meager fire, near which stones were placed so they kept and then return the heat of the coals once the fire was extinguished. They slept sitting next to each other to conserve body heat, a non favorable rest position.

“We should have never embarked in this ordeal, I'll never forgive me for having dragged you to it.” Matías told Debbie.

“Again with that music! I am here of my own accord, you do not to blame yourself for my decisions. Laments are worthless, they only bring the mood down and spend breath.” Replied the girl, with more presence of mind than he. This moved Matías to reflect on the change experienced by the young, from an indulged girl at her comfortable  home in Villa del Parque to a resilient member of a dangerous expedition. Matías intuitively recognized the girl´s leader-born conditions, but did not stop wondering of her fast decision-making processes in completely new and unexpected situations, for which none of both had any psychological preparation.

“If Chiche could see you now, he would be proud of you.” He said.

“Why did you think about Chiche? What interests me now is to know your opinion of me.”

“I am surprised by your endurance. You have not complained even once despite all the hardships that we  have passed and those which may await us.” Matías squeezed her against his chest, and they thus stayed until  finally the sleep arrived.

At dawn, the fog rose for a moment, revealing the panorama of the valley. After a brief collation, José announced:

“We are relatively close. Unfortunately we must climb up that cornice over there, which as I recall, is quite steep.”

Given the travelers extreme weariness the news was received as a bucket of cold water, but at least it connected them again with the original purpose of the expedition that the sufferings made them  temporarily forget.

There was no time for laments, once they started the walk the road ascended quickly forcing them to make frequent stops to recover their breath.

“If this is tiring for you, think in Sayen, which had to make the same journey immediately after childbirth.”  argued José as they restarted climbing. Indeed, Matías reflected on the hard life circumstances of his family immediately after his mother´s birth.

The road narrowed and at times it was covered by debris, fruits of landslides over the years. On other occasions it simply disappeared from the view and no practicable path could be distinguished forcing the expeditionary to search where to follow. There were almost no traces of vegetation, so there was no way to set a fire due to lack of fuel at brief stops. The fog returned to cover the slopes of the mountain, making the ascension extremely risky due to the possibility of a false step and subsequent fall into the abyss, whose bottom the mist covered. In a narrow bend one of the mules slipped over wet moss and fell down the cliff  without the travelers being able to help it; the animal simply disappeared from their view without any noise to confirm its arrival at the bottom. Discouraged they continued walking for half an hour more, until José made a halt, saying:

“The visibility is less than two meters, we cannot continue so, sit until it clears.”

“We´ll freeze in this place.” Hopelessly replied Juan, although he immediately recognized that there was no alternative. They remained silent and still for a Long time with the aim of saving energy and not to reciprocally communicate dismay. Finally, even colder air began to blow  partially lifting the fog, which in addition to the shortening of their visual, produced a gloomy effect in the traveler’s minds. Matías made a proposal to continue, while José watched steadily the landscape. He suddenly exclaimed.

“This is the place where Millañir fell! That is the Canyon!”

This expression had the virtue of suddenly changing the collective mood; all approached the edge of the ravine and saw that it was an abyss of  more than 30 meters deep. Exploring the area in search of access to the bottom they ascertained at one hundred meters a slope descending to it from a different direction and zigzag-shaped. Although steep it seemed practicable; Matías and Lautaro prepared to go down helping themselves with only long sticks since the ropes had been lost along with the mules. Juan insisted on accompanying them with a somewhat enigmatic air.

The descent was long and painful, rocks hurt their hands and tore their clothing, and on several occasions they slid, stopping each other in the fall, or else being  braked by any outgoing stone. Finally they put their feet on the bottom of the canyon with the muscles of their legs trembling for the effort. Their eyes searched the background looking for something that could be the dog tomb, until Lautaro pointed to some rocks.

“That geometric arrangement of stones is not something natural, they were placed so artificially.”

With great excitement, Matías and Lautaro began to remove the stones, which were already quite linked together by guano birds and other natural cements deposited over a long period; as Juan watched them from a couple of meters away. Using their sticks they managed to make a well under the mound of rocks, and soon found some old bones of animal, brownish by the effect of time and the elements.

Matías uttered an exclamation:

“Is it Millañir?” A vivid emotion invaded him at the prospect of being in front of the remains of the faithful companion and defender of his grandfather, whose life he had saved at least once.

“This is the place without a doubt!” Exclaimed Lautaro. Taking strength out of their own excitation they continued digging hard stones with their fingers crawling, and finally gave with a hard surface. Delving around, they extracted a kind of old canvas wrap. After inspecting from the outside to check if it could bear the manipulation, they opened it up with huge expectation. All their efforts and suffering to get to that site were to lead to a positive result or a major disappointment. The canvas was a rectangular package that they soon opened despite the fact that time had hardened the folds of fabric. Upon opening they held their breath: all the physical miseries that they were experiencing would make sense or not according to what they found in the next second. Lautaro flinched. Within the packaging there were indeed a score of notepads of frayed black covers. When they opened them they saw sheet after sheet of neat writing, with an abundance of designs and some handmade maps. It was written in German with some Gothic features, and in many parts the moisture had made havoc. Indeed, entire pages of some notepads had disappeared or were torn to the point of being unreadable. The excitement of the three men was intense: the legacy of their ancestors was before his eyes; secrets by which men had fought and killed were in their hands. By those worn notebooks Horstmann and his wife had to abandon their newborn daughter, leave her to the family and flee and hide for all their lives. By them Knudsen had been murdered, Matías shot at and Juan pursued. They contained who knows what arcane that the catastrophe of the World War II had covered, and perhaps some of the keys thereof and the subsequent historical developments.

When Matías opened one of the notebooks, a yellowish object fell to the ground. Lautaro picked it up and said:

“It is a kind of business card, with an address in Buenos Aires.”  Matías observed it and copied the data therein contained in a small agenda. Then they returned the card inside the wrapping of books. Lautaro, who spoke German moderately well, commenced reading whole paragraphs and  leaves of a number of notebooks explaining:

“I wish to have an idea of the content in order  to understand why it is so important.”

Time passed and the evening progressed. After half an hour of stay at the tunnel, Matías said:

“Lautaro, I don't want to interrupt you but it is not wise to let darkness surprise us without establishing a camp even if it is minimal. In addition, Debbie must be nervous up there.”

After a brief discussion they decided to assemble the wrapper as they found it but previously Juan – who until that moment had remained silent said.

“Wait, I will add something that I brought with me.”

He extracted a package wrapped in fabric from his clothes and then  placed it on a stone and opened out the wrapping. Matías and Lautaro could see a strange coin or silver medal on the tissue, the object was marked  with unrecognizable signs and surprisingly, an engraved swastika. Then Juan pulled out of the cloth a few fossil bones possibly belonging to one or several skulls whose origin -human or otherwise- it was impossible to establish. Juan placed all the objects together with notebooks, commenting on his friends.

“Do not have doubt that Horstmann would have approved to put these relics with his notebooks. They all different things connected to the same issue.”

Lautaro and Matías refrained from  making objections or questions, but each one of them decided that Juan would have to explain later the origin of those odd objects.

Due to the intense excitement, the three men located at the bottom of the cliff had not heard a strange, intermittent and still distant noise that was however approaching. Debbie and José, located at higher altitudes and in a more exposed location had already perceived it and looked inquiringly at the sky for answers

“It is a helicopter.” Said Lautaro. “ Not a good omen in this place.”

“We better go up.” Answered Matías. “Debbie and José may be at risk.”