Brother, you’re not yet good, sighed the flying head.
Agustín cared nothing for that. Everywhere in the world he would be famous.
Perhaps he had been a trifle cruel. But he made up for this by undoing all their unchristian customs; for instance, he forbade the Amazons to lie together anymore, under pain of death, and required them to marry with men, whom he and the head provided them, flying here and there to bring them lords and masters of his choosing — brigands, villains, pirates, soldiers and murderers all; for those were the fellows he knew. So the Amazons lost their virginity forever. He made them slaves to their children as well as to their husbands; thus they became what women should be. And he also made it prohibited for them to mutilate their breasts as they had done before. Hearing this, many of them wept for the first time; but Agustín showed no pity.
Remembering Bernardo’s story, he had cut off and embalmed his wife’s right arm, in case it might point him in the direction where he ought to go, but even though his craftsmen impaled it on a pivot in a red-lined crystal box, it never moved.
Well, brother, what did you truly expect? laughed the head. Were you good to her? Did she love you as I do?
Agustín withdrew into his palace and looked out over the sea. It was getting dark. From his deepest mines he heard the Amazons chanting feebly: Let us die then; let us die. The head, its eyes sunken as low, wide and deep as the arches of San Juan de Ulúa, demanded his silence. It said: You rule alone now, brother.
But you rule with me, brother! We’re two kings in Ziñogava.
Then the head flew up and kissed him with its bloody lips. Agustín had spoken truly, for how long would his reign have endured without that head, the cunningest killer in all the world?
Knowing what the head desired, he said: Brother, teach me to become good.
Then bring in priests.
Like the one you killed, brother? Can you make his head fly as busily as yours?
Not him. He’s too good for us. But import priests of our stripe, who can chant the Ave Maria and teach the Seven Mortal Sins.
We can teach those ourselves, brother!
And a curate, to be the keeper of their baptismal book…
Where did you learn all that?
Oh, they instructed me before they cut off my head, so that I would come to understanding. That’s what we need to do here, as virtuous kings.
As you like. Ziñogava is ours together.
And so they ruled for seven more years, our visible king and his familiar, and perhaps no government in the world was ever more feared and hated than theirs. Agustín was homesick for the cathedral of Veracruz, and for the peanuts Herlinda used to feed into his mouth, and even for the mosquitoes in the street-puddles. But what was he supposed to do? He and the head had long since buried María Platina in secret; their subjects were not so reckless as to mention her.
The two kings promoted justice sincerely, and they both agreed that there was nothing as delightful as beheading a young woman, although late at night in their palace they sometimes enjoyed stabbing a child in her sexual organs.
Perhaps he should have offered up the head on the altar of God. But then he would have been alone as if in a prison. He once asked it for book-wisdom, but it did not know any riddles; it grew ashamed and excused itself for being so uneducated. For this he loved it more.
He said: Brother, do you remember when the hurricane hit the peak of Orizaba and the three rivers came raining down? And then the rich men ran away from Veracruz with their families so that they would not drown, and Herlinda let us into that granary so that we could eat all we wanted? And then—
And then, said the head, I began to grow good. And now I’ve made you a great man.
Brother, at your execution did you see how they pushed me into the front row?
Well, they made me good. I’m as good as they are.
Agustín turned away. By now he dressed only in robes of silver, and the head most often resembled a grimacing, wide-eyed Aztec turquoise mask. Whenever they wondered how to do this or that, they imitated the example of their home, Veracruz. Thus they replicated that familiar post where murderers such as Salvador are put to death, and ever so many naked Indians get whipped into reason, their wrists stretched upward and tied tight against the pillar, their stinking bodies flowering with scarlet wounds. This proved increasingly convenient to the two kings. Remembering how much they used to love such music in their youth, they imported black slaves to play the marimba at festivals. They set a price of six reales for a marriage, and twelve for burial rites. They tithed foreigners ten percent, which helped to soothe the dull grievance Agustín had always felt against them without knowing why. And so whenever they gazed out the palace window, their subjects appeared as docile and diminutive as the Indian slaves creeping round a great corregidor’s table.
Well, brother, are you satisfied yet? asked the head.
No, brother. What am I lacking to be happy?
Another wife. Don’t you want a two-breasted one?
But ever since they pent me up in prison, I dislike sharing a room with anyone — except you, of course. I think that’s why I—
Well, you certainly don’t lack for silver! Shall we go back to the wars?
No, brother, I’m tired. I don’t know what’s the matter with me.
Then ask a priest. Why not that Fray Costa who burned the recreant Amazons last week?
So Agustín went to Fray Costa, and inquired how to become happier. The priest replied: My son, you’ve already laid up heavenly treasures for yourself. Thanks to you, Ziñogava has become a Christian province of New Spain. Take joy in what you’ve done; keep on the straight path, and you’ll die a good death. Does any sin press on your conscience?
Murder, Father, although it was not I who did it, but my brother—
Remember the words of Cain. Am I my brother’s keeper? Kneel down before me, now, and say a Paternoster.
Agustín was beginning to get old. His years lay caught somewhere in the rows of half-barrel arches; he could not get them out. What was he supposed to care about? Sometimes he dreamed inconsequentially about the earless Indian. He and the head brought in the Dominicans who control Indian labor at Chalco, and ore flew out of the mines like angels returning to heaven! At night they sometimes heard Amazons whisper-praying to the Goddess of the Dead Women. These miscreants soon learned the significance of a penitent’s green taper.
Once the two kings had enough silver, Agustín made his subjects build him a fleet of galleons, which he then loaded with treasure. And he commanded them to set forth for Spain, where he intended to establish himself as a great lord; and for captains he appointed his strictest slave-drivers. And so the ships cast off and departed from the Americas. Once they were out of sight, Agustín threw his wife’s hand out the window.
And after this the head carried him all around the world. Together they viewed Huasteca’s two secret fountains, the one with the red fish and the other with the black. For a thrill they flew three times around San Juan de Ulúa, and Agustín felt happy to see his old cell from the outside. Then off they went to Peru, just for an instant, after which they dipped quicksilver from the base of that silver mountain in the Blue Range. They visited the magic mountain by which runs a river which can petrify fallen leaves. And they agreed that no place in the world was especially worth seeing.