“That I do. I cherish her close upon life itself. I could not abide seeing her slain for this feast.”
“My brother Kinguri dislikes her, and he is rarely wrong in such judgments.”
“I tell you she will work no evil, Lord Imbe-Jaqqa.”
Calandola shrugged. This was becoming tiresome to him, I saw. He lowered his face into his wine-cup, and took a deep draught, and when he emerged his cheeks and mouth were slavered with the purplish bloody fluid, that made him look ten times the monster he was. Yet was there now a benevolence to his smile, and he nodded amiably to his brother, saying, “Andubatil has served me well, and I would not deny him, brother. He craves the Portugal woman. I see the heat of him for her, and I would not deny him.”
“I am uneasy, brother,” muttered Kinguri.
Stretching my hand to that devilish shrewd Jaqqa I did say, “I pledge myself as surety, brother. She will do no harm to our nation. I would have my wife restored to me, and I ask you withdraw your opposing it.”
“So be it,” said Calandola, with an imperious wave. “Take her, then.”
“A thousand thanks, mighty Imbe-Jaqqa,” I said, making a low bow. When I looked up I saw the cold enmity on Kinguri’s face, for plainly he did not want me to have her, and even more did not want my pleading to triumph over his words to the Imbe-Jaqqa.
Calandola said, “As for the other two Portugals, they will be tomorrow’s feast. Mark that you speak with them before then, and learn what you may from them.”
“That I will do,” said I.
I went then to Dona Teresa and ordered the Jaqqa who guarded her to strike her fetters from her. He made a move to do it, out of respect for me, but then a doubt did smite him, and he glanced across toward the Imbe-Jaqqa. Calandola nodded, and the guard set her free.
Dona Teresa, gathering her rags about her to hide her breasts, gave me thanks with a squeeze of the hand, and said, “How was this thing accomplished?”
“I swore to them you were my wife, and they have given you back to me.”
“Ah. There is no penalty for perjuring here, then?”
I leaned close to her and said, “Your case was desperate. Shall I cling to niceties of truth, and let you be stewed?”
“So I am to be your wife in this place?”
“Either that, or offer yourself to the fetters again,” said I.
“Ah. Ah, I see.” There was mischief in her eyes, and a little anger, and also much amusement, I think. “Well, and I suppose I can play at being your wife, then, Andres.”
“You will do more than play,” said I.
“You are very blunt, now that you are a man-eater.”
“Lady, I have won you your life back. But I have pledged mine own as security, that you will work no trouble in this camp. So therefore you will bear yourself less imperiously, and carry me along in this pretense of our marriage, or I will in this instant revoke what I have done. Is that understood?”
“Ah, Andres, Andres, I mean no difficulties! I but jest a little.”
“Jest at another time,” said I. For I was much angered, and newly cold toward her, for this pride of hers. It had cost me something with Kinguri to have saved her: but I need not explain that to her, only be assured of her consenting in the falsehood that had saved her life.
After a moment she said, “And these two?”
“I have no grasp on their lives. They will be slain.”
“Ah,” she said. “Well, and then I suppose we must pray for their souls.” She did not look deeply grieved. “You are kin to these man-eaters, you say, Andres?”
At this I hesitated some. “They have taken me as close companion,” said I finally. “It is for my hair and skin, that I think they revere for its color. And my musket, which I have put to strong use in their service.”
“You do battles on their behalf?”
“Aye,” I answered. “I am one of their great warriors.”
She stepped back a bit, and stared at me as though I had sprouted a Satan-tail, and breathed fire. Behind us, the sound of the drums and other musics grew more fierce. It was altogether night now, and a heavy heat was descending, with droplets of moistness hanging in it, and creatures cried most raucously beyond the zone of our fires.
She said, hushed and strange-voiced, “You speak to me in good Portuguese words, and I think you are the man I knew in São Paulo de Loanda, that was so straightforward and upright. And then I look at you, and see these marks of paganism on your body, and I hear you say you fight in Jaqqa wars and do them great service, and I know you to be a changeling, Andres.”
“A changeling. Aye,” said I. “I think that is what I am, that has had some other soul slipped in behind my face. And the face is much altered, too, is it not?”
“I barely knew you when you first came close,” she said. There was a trembling in her arms now, and perhaps elsewhere, and her eyes were fixed and harsh with fright. “I said, What is this creature, that has the skin of a white man, but the bearing of a Jaqqa? And I was sore affrighted. And I am sore affrighted now.”
“Are you, then?”
“Listen. Listen! The fifes, the drums, the singing. They are devils, Andres, all about us!”
“Aye.”
“And you: you are half devil now.”
“More than half, perhaps. But why would that trouble you? You are of that kind yourself.”
“Nay,” she said, making the sign of the cross. “Nay, you do not understand me.”
“You, with your idols, and your witchy incantations?”
“I am a Christian, Andres. I but use the other older things, when I feel the need. But I am no witch!”
“Ah,” I said. “It must be so, if you do say it.”
“Mock me not. I am not the witch you think me, and I am sore affrighted. I think this is Hell we are in. But where are the fires? Where are the imps?”
“See the fires, there?”
“Those?” she said, shivering. “Will they leap higher, as the night goes on? Are they true Hell-fires, Andres? And are these demons about me, or only men and savages? O Andres, how have they conjured you so?”
I thought she would weep again, from her quivering and pallor, but she did not. But she plainly was smitten to the core of her soul by all she beheld about her, and even by what she could read in my face.
“Come,” I said, “let me take you to the Jaqqa lords.”
“What, and shall we dine grandly with them, as though we are all lords and ladies here?”
“We dine with them,” I said, “or they dine upon you. Which is your preference?”
“And we will eat the flesh of—”
She could not say it. She was yellow-faced with loathing.
“You are not compelled to do it. But they are the masters of this place. We must make a show of friendship.”
“Yes. Yes. I understand, ft is for the sake of staying alive.”
“Exactly.”
“And for the sake of staying alive, have you on such occasions also eaten—”
“Come,” said I. “Ask fewer questions, and take my arm, and be you my true wife, if you would save yourself from the pot.”
Yet did she shrink back from me. I offered arm to her anew, and she shook a little, but then recovered herself once more, standing tall, making her shoulders squared. Averting her eyes from the kettle and its bubbling contents, those floating disjointed limbs that surged now and again to the surface, she walked with me like a veritable consort to the other side of the fire. All about us were hordes of frenzied Jaqqas, flinging their knees high in the capers of their dance, who paused in their wild leaping to salute me, which did not fail to have its measure upon her.
We went up to the banqueting-place of the high ones. Quite as if I were presenting her at the court of Her Majesty, I did show Dona Teresa to Calandola, and felt the taut grip of her hand on my arm as he turned his blazing and chillsome eyes upon her, penetrating her to the veriest mysteries of her souclass="underline" she breathed in bursts, her breasts rose and fell most vehemently, so keen was her terror. And yet I think if I had put my hand to her loins, in the moment of her meeting Calandola’s diabolic gaze, I would have found her hot and wet, in the lustful way of one who finds the monstrous most arousing.