Part 55 (1/2)
Mateo stopped as Don Julio shook his head. ”I think it would be better if you were nearby when the boy flushed out the Jaguars. That way you could protect him. Besides, as you pointed out, he is an untrustworthy cur who must be watched.”
Mateo smiled at me; his eyes were not smiling. Ay de mi! Once again he blames me!
The man was a wolf in picaro's clothes. Someday I would tell him a secret, but this was not the time. But, amigos, I will let you in on the secret. Do you remember what he called me? b.a.s.t.a.r.do. But that is a name he had heard years ago at the treasure fleet fair. Si, he knows I am the very one for whom he chopped off a man's head.
FIFTY-NINE.
The Healer claimed that all things were preordained in this world, that the G.o.ds had carved in stone books how our lives would unfold from the moment we were born. I believed that the G.o.ds had brought Don Julio into my life and sent me on this mission for a reason. Had I known the terrible consequences that were to occur because of my dealings with the dark magician, I would have tried to avoid the tragic fate by running into the forest and hiding from this strange Spanish don who was a doctor, scholar, and agent of the king.
That afternoon around the supper fire we received further instructions from Don Julio. Mateo plucked out little tunes on a guitar and drank wine from a goatskin as the don spoke.
”You are to direct yourselves to the indio town where you witnessed the sacrifice. There, find out where the naualli is. From what your uncle told you, he will be somewhere in the region. You will also come across other indio magicians, healers, and sorcerers. You can pick up gossip and information from them. We want to know about the Jaguar Knights, every bit of information you can learn.
”You are never to mention the Jaguar name. To do so in front of the wrong people would get your throat cut. Rather than questioning, which would do no good and raise suspicion, just listen. You are still a boy,” he said to me, ”and the indios will talk freely in front of you while they would not in front of a grown man. Keep your ears open, your mouth closed, and your feet ready to carry you quickly away.
”Mateo, you will need a cover ident.i.ty, too.” Don Julio thought for a moment. ”Guitars. You will be a merchant of guitars. I will get you several mules. One of my indio vaqueros will be your a.s.sistant I will send for him immediately. When you need me, he will ride to wherever I am.”
Mateo hit an irritating series of chords on the guitar. ”I am a swordsman and a poet, not a merchant.”
”You are doing the king's work in exchange for not being sent to the Filipinas. If I want you to put on a dress and be a puta, you will do that, too.”
Mateo drummed the guitar and sang an old Spanish ballad.
Yesterday I was King of Spain,
Today not one village;
Yesterday I had towns and castles,
Today I have not one;
Yesterday I had servants,
And people to wait upon me;
Today there is not a battlement
Which I can call my own.
Ill-fated was the hour
And the day luckless
When I was born and fell heir
To so great an heritage