"I think it was either unjust or there is more to the affair than the original four are telling. Think about it Evan, could you think of anything more punitive than to be permanently spurned by the only family you can ever truly have. They doomed her to wander alone. Imagine a thousand years living as you lived before you were found, only she doesn't have the bliss of ignorance that you had. She knows about us, what we are and where we are. I can't even contemplate the torture and horror that an existence like that would mean, if the term existence can even be used. I don't know. These days, the whole affair, as a rule, is not discussed."

I couldn't imagine an estrangement like that either. I've often wondered how I survived my own to make it this far. Every day for those three years I felt like a man wandering lost in the wilderness that is his own identity. The idea of being forced back into that dread wilderness, not lost, knowing all the landmarks and having to wander anyway, was too horrid a thought to hold.

"When do they expect us back in Zurich?" I asked changing the subject.

"Two days."

"Two days off sounds good."

"That episode with Poppy rattled you didn't it?"

It had rattled me, but pride wouldn't allow me to admit it to him. "It was a surprise. I certainly wasn't expecting it."

"Well, it's certainly to be expected with her."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know how to explain it other than to say that I know her."

"I noticed you called her Bando. Have you known her long?"

"Since the beginning. I found her, much the same as she found you, by accident."

"No kidding. Tell me about it," I said, pouring more wine.

He took the glass and leaned back. "That's a long story, but a good one. I," he said loudly, followed by a dramatic pause, "was a Conquistador. Juan de Victoria was my name then. I remember the young messenger was almost out of breath when he reached the door...

1 Samas’ account of his life as Juan De Victoria is interesting, as there was a man on Coronado’s expedition by that name and the man was from Borgos, Spain. Fundadores de Nueva Galicia Tomo I by Guillermo Garmendia Leal 1996

16

The messenger was out of breath when he reached the steps that led up to the house of Obregon in the Spanish city of Borgos. The lean teenager had run all the way from the Alcaldes, he had run because the letter in his hand carried the seal of Don Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain. A handsome young green-eyed Spaniard opened the door.

"Señor Victoria?" asked the messenger, still gasping.

"No, Please come in. My name is Diego, how can I help you?"

Still out of breath the youth held out the letter and said simply, "For Señor Victoria."