Make yourself happy, whispered the head.
But, brother, I don’t feel so.
Put on a good face! — And the head murmured into his ear three boisterous jokes, which he deployed to best advantage, so that the Amazons laughed and began to love him.
The Queen of Ziñogava now entered the hall, wearing an ankle-length sleeveless robe of silver and gold, and at once the day grew as bright as the scrutiny of our merciful Church. She was young, slender and high-breasted — but, as usual, one breast was missing. Her golden hair was roached high above her forehead; then it spilled down her neck. Her eyeballs could have been green stones. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were silver, and her lips were garnet-red. Her coral-pink arms were perfectly smooth. Her hands were graceful, her fingers long, with their nails, of course, painted in that mineral-green shade called amazonite. Agustín felt no desire, but told himself that he did. For a fact, she was nearly as beautiful as our Lady the Virgin Santa María.
She is ours, whispered the head, smiling a little sadly.
What is that pendant you have on? asked the Queen.
Slipping the chain over his head, the young man bowed, and presented her with the toy.
How very real it is! she laughed. And are those rubies in its eyes?
Yes, Majesty.
She closed her eyes as if in pain (really she was thinking of something), and the tendons stood out on her long pink neck. Since he felt like a very little boy, he could not help but wonder how it all might turn out.
She presented him with a decorated box of blue crystal, filled with round beads of pure silver. What was he supposed to do with it? He bowed to the floor and was dismissed. Creeping into the jungle, he ascended a fig tree, gorged himself and slept in the crotch, while Salvador’s head hovered faithfully until dawn, keeping watch for snakes and jaguars. Meanwhile Agustín dreamed that he was walking down a long prison corridor toward a faraway curtain of rotten hide whose edges let in white light. It was a dream which had often settled on him of late, and he feared it without knowing why. He awoke in a sweat, and there was the head hanging in the darkness, a hand’s breadth away from his face, with its red eyes glowing like flames and its rotten black lips smiling at him.
On the following night he returned as the head commanded him to do, although, truth to tell, he would much rather have gone home to Veracruz if he could have kept his liberty there. When he entered the presence of the Queen she said: Someone stole the pendant you gave me.
What did you do, Majesty?
I had two of my maidservants put to death.
This made him respect her. Certainly God would be well pleased with a lady who thus enforced her rights.
Señor Agustín, what do you carry in the sack at your belt?
My brother’s relics, Majesty.
Very loving of you.
The head whispered: Tell them that you are the best knight in the world! — So he did. Then he offered to serve her according to his power, and she clapped her hands for pleasure, because her eastern dominions were currently oppressed by all sorts of monsters. And the Amazons said to him: God has sent you.
The Queen of Ziñogava gave him a mirrorlike sword and chain mail nearly as silky as a woman’s hair. Then she called him back to bestow more treasures on him, so that before she was done she had armed him with shield, spear, sword, silver armor and golden crossbow. So he sallied forth, with the aid of God and His Glorious Mother (not to mention the flying head).
His battles lay eastward, in the yellow direction. You may be sure that in his path were monsters indeed: namely, the extra ecclesiam who dwell outside of Christian grace. Although of course he had never been there, he seemed to recognize certain vistas from his childhood: papayas, almonds, coconut palms, vast spreading mangoes whose tops were in a fire of yellow flowers. Loudly invoking Saint Santiago, as he had seen actors do in battle-pageants, almost forgetting how afraid he used to be in those days, he did exactly as the head instructed him. Had he been alone he would have pondered, worried and planned, so rigorous had been his education; but when one’s brother is a flying decapitated head, there is not much to do but throw oneself into each campaign, trusting in magic all the more since Salvador used to be a lucky gambler.
First came the dog with the eagle’s face. The flying head worried its throat to pieces; meanwhile Agustín lanced it through the breast. He cut out its jeweled eyes for souvenirs, and for that instant felt pride, but the head sternly told him: Never say that we mean justice, or care for the right. We do not forget; there is nothing to be made whole.
How can that be, brother? We’re killing the bad, so aren’t we becoming good?
Keep wondering, said the head. That’s the first step.
Then there was the three-headed ogre. Vowing to have him dead, and all his minions delivered up unto her who ruled Ziñogava, Agustín rushed upon him with unexampled hatred and courage. — Kill the center head first, said Salvador. — In the end Agustín accounted for two heads, while his brother finished up. The third head was small, high-foreheaded and sad. Agustín picked it up and stared into its eyes. Then he threw it away, at which the flying head sang a cheerful song.
Although they made a great cry and entreated his kindness, he put all the ogre’s children to death, male and female, and his joy rose up like smoke to see their suffering. As for the monster’s slaves and servitors, Agustín dispatched them back to Ziñogava, enchained in terror by the flying head. Not daring to step right or left from the straightest path, nor even to upraise their eyes, they shuffled into the Queen’s presence, bearing her necklaces of gold beads and shells. The Amazons all agreed that he was succeeding even better than the pirate Lorencillo. And the Queen began to desire him.
He halfway expected to meet enemy spirits or even flying heads. What if the earless Indian’s ghost were as powerful as his brother? But thanks to Our Lady he never did meet one.
Next to fall were the winged crocodile, the Laughing Bird Lady and the giant whose armor proved less infallible than he had expected. — The head kept saying: Don’t hesitate. God will help us. — When the giant first turned an eye on him, Agustín seemed to see once more in the base of the guard-tower at San Juan de Ulúa that long tunnel which seems to penetrate impossibly beyond the diameter of the tower itself, at which he felt weirdly quelled and quenched, as if he were helpless, but at once the head flew round and round his face, buzzing angrily, until he came to his senses and realized that this enemy reckoned for as little as the others. So he slew him, beating in his head with his sword.
Thanks to the flying head, all Agustín’s battles taken together were no more frightening than one of the cane games which our horsemen play in honor of Corpus Christi. The Snake Twins proved difficult, but since the head could not be killed, they bit at it as much as they pleased, while Agustín took advantage. So the Snake Twins perished; their clay skeletons quickly turned to dust. Thus the two brothers continued to deal with the wicked and rebellious as they deserved; indeed, Holy Writ has proved that for unlawful villains there never could be any escape. Both brothers enjoyed to see a severed head bite dirt in its dying rage. They exterminated the Bee People; they reduced escaped negroes to reason. Seeing this, even the Devilfish Tribe surrendered. Approaching his mercy, blowing animal-headed whistles and flutes, they knelt to await what would happen; he and the head slew them all, sending back trophies to the Queen of Ziñogava.