Infinite Devotion (25 page)

Chieftain MacClancy comes and sits next to the captain, and I’m waiting for the translation. I then notice Pepe’s unusually quiet on my right, and I turn to see he’s staring at something. I follow his gaze and sneer upon seeing the fish-faced girl across the fire looking back at him, smiling. I nudge Andres on my left, and he sneers also. Suddenly, I realize the captain’s translating to us, and I nudge both sides to pay attention.

“It seems MacClancy has received word that the ship we had the lucky misfortune of missing, split apart and sank only hours after weighing anchor. They think all two hundred or more aboard were lost.”

“Oh, no,” Andres says, and we all think of Carlos and the others who were with us.

Alvaro looks amazed but remains quiet. I’m sure he must have been glad his conscience kept him with the captain now.

“So, the bright side is, you’re all very lucky to have such an invalid in your company!” the captain says with a joyful smile.

The fish-faced girl takes us to a room that night and brings woolen blankets to lie upon the cut rushes piled on the floor. Pepe lingers at the door, probably hoping she’ll return bringing something else, but Andres and I slump to the ground with Bella and fall asleep in minutes. We haven’t had a bed like this for a very long time.

In the morning, we stumble out to the circle, and all of the savages are leaving through the tunnel to the fields. Pepe starts following them out, and Andres and I roll our eyes at each other and go with him. He doesn’t take his eyes off her. I can’t see what he likes so much about her except for the fact she’s always smiling so stupidly at him. The girl wanders off behind the hill, and Pepe gets up to go in her direction. When we start to follow him, he actually turns to us. “You mind if I go alone?”

I scoff and sit right back down, not even wanting to look at him, and Andres says, “You don’t want us with you?”

“I just want a little time alone.” He doesn’t even wait for a reply but runs off after her.

Andres slumps down angrily next to me, and we sit there, watching cows for an hour. Alvaro has walked off with the new Spaniards who are around his age. A rustle of woolen blanket makes us turn, and the most beautiful woman we’ve ever seen sits down next to us with a smile. The captain sits down with us too, and he’s giddy for some reason, which I’m sure has to do with the beautiful creature beside us.

She reaches out a fragile, graceful hand and places it on my lap. I look to the captain, not understanding what it is she wants, and he chuckles. “I told her you were a gypsy and read fortunes!”

“What! I don’t read fortunes.” I try to push away her hand, but she only smiles more sweetly and holds it up to me.

“This beautiful doe, Nora”—she looks at him and smiles when he says her name—“came up to me in Latin and asked for a fortune telling. She must be confused between Spaniards and gypsies, and I couldn’t disappoint such charm.”

I take a deep and angry breath but see such happiness in her big, light brown eyes. Her freckles are all in the right spots and make her face look healthy and exciting. I pick up her weightless hand and turn it over, wondering if I can think of something that will fool her. When I stare into the delicate open hand, a vision of a similar graceful hand appears out of a torch lit temple room while wafts of spicy, exotic smells assault my nose. Dark lined eyes blink softly at the end of the arm I hold. Full, red lips part into a secret smile.
So tangible. So real.
A rush of sudden understanding of life, heart, head, and fate lines remerge along with planetary mounds and mystical symbols.
Memories?
I shake my head and come back to see Nora staring at me expectantly.

“Umm, I see here that you will find a great man, a man that is very powerful.” I think since she’s so beautiful it would make sense she would find a good man. She seems confused at my strange words and looks up to the captain, who translates. She nods happily, and the captain says, “She’s MacClancy’s wife.” I worry then at the captain’s interest in her.

I search her many faint lines for anything that comes to mind. “You worry too much and don’t feel safe.” The captain appears nervous at me saying this, but the beauty nods again in sad agreement. “You have no children yet from this worry. You have had two losses but no children.” The captain gives me a look of warning, and I shrug my shoulders. He translates, and the poor woman grabs my hand and seems to be saying, “Yes,” in her language. She sits back, waiting for more eagerly.

I continue, “You’ll have a child and very soon. She will come by next spring.”

The captain translates this, and she reaches for me, knocking me over, and kisses my hands. She runs off to her friends at the straw hut nearby.

“What did you do?” The captain looks confused. “I only wanted you to say some fluff about living a long happy life, and maybe a chance romance with a dark Spaniard would’ve been a nice touch.” He winks at me.

But the woman drags three other young women to me. There are two pretty young maidens, with a giant of a girl in the middle of them. The tall one sits down for the first reading, her giant man-like hand outstretched. She takes her other hand to her flat unfeminine chest and says in a low voice, “Urard.”

As I tell her of her health and hopeful future, she stares at me with her round olive green eyes. Her face seems half-female and half-male‌—‌as if it couldn’t decide what sex it was. I’m very uncomfortable in her awkward presence and make up niceties that will please her so I can move on.

Ending the reading, I say, “A stranger from afar will see your… unusual… beauty.” After the captain translates, she throws her head back strangely and brays like a mule. When she finishes, she points to the captain, then smiles as the other maidens giggle and pat her back in agreement.

“Oh, no no no!” He shakes his head, but Urard blushes and gazes at him strangely. “Move on to the next girl.” The captain wants to be done with this so he can get some distance from the large woman. After I finish the third girl, I look up to see the fish-faced girl has returned with Pepe way too close at her side. She bends down for me to do hers, and I feel sick being so close to her. Andres, who has been quite bored with this attention I’m getting, suddenly is interested with her there.

“Maybe you’ll see that fish-face really came from the sea. And she misses her fish mother and father,” Andres says with the girl smiling stupidly, not knowing he’s insulting her.

Pepe shoots Andres a glare. “Knock it off, Andres. Her name is Nessa.”

I hate that he’s defending her, and Andres is quiet after being disgusted by the same thing.

So I pick up her hand, look into her dull, empty eyes and tell her, “You’ll fall in love with a young man, but you have a curse that will kill anyone who would try to love you. After the death of this first young suitor, none will have you in fear they will perish too. Because of this curse, you will end up sad, childless, and alone.”

Pepe jumps in. “Don’t translate, Captain, he’s making this all up.”

The captain looks at me. “Why would you want to say that to this young girl?”

“I swear I see that. I’m not making it up. You asked me to read her hand, and that’s what I saw.” I push her hand away and walk off.

The captain tells Nora in Latin, and after she informs Nessa, I hear the girl sob. I march back through the tunnel with Andres and Bella trailing behind.

Andres says as we come out into the castle, “No one will ever want to be with her once they hear that. She’ll end up alone, I bet. Good job, Luis! Maybe even Pepe will be scared.”

Chapter 15

Days later, a constant flow of women and men search me out to tell their fortunes. I flee through the tunnel and into the cow pastures to avoid them. Andres always comes with me, but Pepe’s spending all his hours awake with Nessa.

Lying in a field, avoiding the cow piles, Andres says to me, “Do you think he’s going to stay here and marry Nessa if we find a ship home?”

It’s the question I have been asking since I saw how he looked at her.

“I don’t know.”

“Would you still go if he stayed?”

“Yes, Spain is our home. Our home is not with these people.” But the truth is I have no home anywhere. Pepe and Andres and even the captain and Alvaro are all my home; the ship that broke to pieces felt like my home; even the rush bed on the floor in the castle feels like my home. The thought of us breaking apart here or in Spain is too much to bear.

A warning horn blows from the top of the castle, and everyone who’s still outside rushes to the tunnel to see what the danger is. Andres and I reach the cave at the same time as Pepe and Nessa. He puts out his hands to help her down to the entrance, and I can’t believe the change that’s come over him‌—‌growing up overnight. We let them go ahead of us, and Andres puckers his lips up like a fish at them as they pass, making me laugh through my sadness.

As soon as we get through the tunnel, two strong men slam the thick and heavy door shut, then fix two large pieces of wood in the slats to lock it. All of the savages gather in the court, with MacClancy in the center. MacClancy’s an unusually tall man with black wavy hair. He’s powerful-looking, but whenever he smiles, you see the strong dimple on his cheek that makes him less fearsome. He seems stressed and unsure. He speaks almost directly to Captain de Cuellar. After they talk some, he translates to those who don’t know Latin.

“MacClancy is saying he’s received word that there’re seventeen hundred English soldiers heading this way. They’re on a direct path to the castle and surely have heard there are Spaniards harbored here. MacClancy feels like they should head for safety into the mountains where the English troops don’t dare to venture on horses. He’s asking what we want to do.”

Alvaro speaks. “What does he have here to fight with?”

We watch as MacClancy starts speaking and gesturing excitedly, counting on his thick fingers and pointing to all areas around the castle.

The captain translates. “He says there are six crossbows, ten muskets, and eight arquebuses with plenty of ammo.”

Alvaro considers this and asks, “Cannons?”

MacClancy shakes his head so we all understand and then speaks.

The captain says, “He says this castle is impregnable. The bog surrounds the whole lake, making it hard for artillery or horses to be used. No one can swim the great distance of the lake on every side and when the current strengthens from the sea in the spring no one can maneuver a boat. He says he has about a six-month supply of provisions we can have if we stay and defend it.”

“Another situation where we can last as long as our supplies last?” Alvaro seems hesitant.

“What choice do we have? Go with the savages? Barefoot and freezing like we have all done on our miserable journey here? So then move on to find shelter elsewhere? When all of Ireland is either trying to kill us or afraid someone will kill them for helping us?” The captain shakes his head. “No, this is where we’re staying, and our only option is to win.”

Alvaro says nothing back, but the captain looks over his Spanish comrades. “Who is going to stay here and fight with me?”

The six unknown Spaniards step next to him, and Alvaro smiles a crooked smile and joins. Andres and I jump forward and turn as we realize Pepe hesitates.

Was he actually pondering leaving with Nessa instead of fighting with us for our lives?

Nessa looks at him and sees he might choose to stay. She runs off crying, and Pepe hurries to console her.

MacClancy speaks, and when he does, his brown-greenish eyes look sternly at the captain. He even takes his shoulders and seems to make the captain slightly uncomfortable.

The captain turns to us after speaking with him. “MacClancy’s asking us to hold his castle with our lives. He’s telling me that we can’t surrender for anything. Even if we will starve, we must hold the castle to the very end, and we must not let in any Irishman, Spaniard, or anyone else until his return.”

The captain speaks to MacClancy and then repeats it for us. “I’m sure we can hold this castle. Even eleven Spanish soldiers are worth more than seventeen hundred Englishmen!”

They cheer, and maidens circle around de Cuellar, enamored with his bravery. Urard comes looming over him in her gangly awkward manner and pushes them all out of her way. A high-pitched wooden flute plays joyous music, and they dance in a lively light manner I’ve never seen before. She practically picks the captain up as he protests, and she spins with him around the room all out of step and time with the music. Alvaro’s especially enthralled with their way of dancing and quickly picks it up and does it better than any savage. Bella barks and runs in circles, excited by the music, and tries to get Andres’s attention. Their music is happy and wonderful and makes one’s heart glad even if it’s heavy. I sit and watch from a stool beside the wall of the castle, where the light of the fire and shadows of gay people dancing keep flickering across the walls and me.

There she is, Nora, beautiful as an angel wearing wool. She gathers the blanket around her on this cold night and sits next to me.

“Hello, Spain.” She labors through the unusual sounds she has to make and then smiles.