When I came back to my senses, I found myself in the garden, standing by my old companion, the oak tree. Up on its branches, hidden by the dense foliage of summer, my secret hideout was waiting. I reached up, and grabbing its lowest limb firmly with my hands, I swung my body up. But my gown, entangled on the undergrowth, pulled me down.
Jerking the skirts over my knees, I kicked the trunk. “How can Father do this to me? Sending me to Mother? Isn’t it obvious I’m not a lady? I don’t look like a lady, I don’t feel like a lady, and I definitely don’t act like one.”
I hit the tree again. Pain shot up my legs from my bruised toes, and brilliant points of light flashed in front of my eyes.
“Andrea!”
I ignored the call.
“Andrea,” the voice repeated, closer now.
“Go away!”
I waited for the rustle of the skirt on the grass that would tell me Margarida was leaving. But my heavy breathing was the only answer.
“Ama Bernarda told me Father had summoned you,” my sister said after a pause. “When you didn’t come back, I guessed you would be here.”
My nails biting deep into my clenched palms, I turned. “Leave me alone.”
A flash of pain crossed my sister’s eyes. “I gather Father said no,” she said.
I wanted Margarida to hold me in her arms and hated myself for it. That would only prove my father was right, that I was only a girl. I shook my head. “I don’t care what Father says,” I cried. “I am a squire.”
“Andrea, you are a lady.”
“No, I’m not. I don’t like to sew. And I hate curtsying.”
Margarida smiled. “I don’t like sewing either. But that is not all ladies do and you know it.”
“The only thing I know is that I like to be outside in the meadows, and to shoot and fight, and that I only feel alive when I’m riding on Flecha.”
“You can still ride Flecha.”
“Sure, and when would that be? Once a month if I behave. That is not enough. You know I’ll die if I have to stay inside.”
“But Andrea, you cannot be a squire. If Father has forbidden it, no one in the castle will take you at his service.”
I sulked. Margarida was right. No one in the castle would dare defy Father. No one in the castle. Suddenly the total implications of her words hit me, and I laughed. “Margarida, you are brilliant!” Rushing to her, I hugged her wildly.
My sister moved back and, holding me at arm’s length, stared into my eyes. “What is it, Andrea? One of your crazy ideas?”
“My ideas are not crazy,” I said. But as I was talking, I remembered the time some winters past when, annoyed at my sister Rosa’s teasing, I ran away and almost froze to death in the snow. I shrugged. “This time I will plan my journey carefully.”
“A journey? But where would you go?”
“It doesn’t matter where as long as it’s away from this awful castle. I will dress like a boy and offer my services as a squire to some distant lord.”
“Andrea, please, don’t go. You left once before, remember? And Father had to rescue you.”
“Sure.” I sighed in exasperation. “But thanks to my running away, Mother agreed I could train with the pages until my fourteenth birthday. Besides, it’s summer now.”
Margarida hesitated. I had to keep her busy so she could not think to alert Mother. “I will need a page’s clothes, a blanket, and some food.”
“What you need is some sense, Andrea.”
“You may be right, sister. But it wasn’t my fault you took it all.”
Margarida laughed.
“So dear sister, would you be so kind as to get me some food from the kitchen?”
“You have made up your mind, haven’t you?”
I nodded. “Please, Margarida, I need your help.”
“All right, all right, I’ll help you. But—”
“You will not regret it, I promise. Now go. And meet up with me at the stables.”
I had almost reached the door to the keep when I remembered Ama Bernarda would be in my quarters. I hesitated. Ama would get suspicious if I were to change into my page’s clothes. I could not take that risk. Turning back, I ran to the laundry house. I picked some plain tights and a soldier’s tunic from the clean pile. I rolled them into a bundle under my arm and rushed across the cobblestones of the courtyard toward the stables.
From the darkness of her stall, Flecha greeted me with a loud nicker. Stretching her neck, she rubbed her head against my chest. I ran my hands through her golden mane. Flecha neighed.
“Shh. Nobody must hear us,” I whispered into her soft warm ear.
Flecha’s big limpid eyes looked at me for a moment, questioning. “We are going away,” I told her. She snorted and remained still while I slid the bridle over her head.
While my hands worked on her saddle, the faces of the lords I had seen at my father’s court flashed through my mind. I rejected them one by one until I found the perfect candidate.
“I’ve chosen Don Pelayo as my future lord,” I told Margarida after she had joined me. “His castle is on the Boreal Island. Father will never imagine that I have crossed the ocean. He knows I hate boats.”
“But the Boreal Island is so far away; Father will find you before you get there.”
I thought for a minute. The shortest distance to the island from the mainland was from the village of Forcarei at the other side of the Northern Sierra. Although it was not far in a straight line, to actually reach Forcarei would take me several days because the road made a long detour east around the mountains. Unless . . .
“No,” I said. “He won’t.”
Margarida frowned.
“I will not take the main road. I will go west until I hit the ocean, then continue north along the coast. I will be in Forcarei by morning.”
Margarida gasped. “But you cannot do that, Andrea. You’d have to cross the Forbidden Lands. It is too dangerous. People disappear there without a trace, and strange creatures swim ashore at night.”
“Come on, Margarida. You cannot seriously believe those stories.”
“They are not stories. My dueña remembers. She saw the strangers they found by the shore in Grandfather’s times. They looked like us, she says, but spoke a strange tongue, and they were naked like animals. Then one night they disappeared from the dungeon, through the castle walls, and were never seen again.”
“So what? Even if that was true, which I very much doubt, why should I care? That was a long time ago.”
“Please, Andrea. Be reasonable. Don’t go.”
Her face was tense with fear. I knew her resolve to help me was melting. I hugged her quickly. “Now sister, promise me you will not tell.”
Margarida sighed. “Will you be careful?”
“I will. Don’t worry. And before you know it, I’ll be back. A real knight.”
Margarida shook her head. I hugged her again. Then I turned to Flecha, and not wanting to waste any more time, I tucked the stolen uniform and the food in her saddlebag. The reins wrapped around my hand, I led her into the courtyard.
The castle gates were open. I jumped on Flecha’s back and cantered toward the sentries. The guards came to attention as I approached and crossed their spears. But when I got close enough for them to see me, they moved back and saluted. I returned their salute and, pressing Flecha’s flanks, sprang forward.
Soon I had left the drawbridge behind and, at full gallop, dashed ahead across the plains that surrounded the castle in the direction of the Northern Sierra. I wanted to pretend I was going north just in case someone was watching.
The evening was warm and clear, not a single cloud tainted the sky. On my right, beyond the thatched roofs of the village, over the eastern horizon,Athos the golden moon was rising. I could not have asked for a better night.
By the time I reached the forest, the sun was already on my left, sinking rapidly toward the raised lands that hid the ocean. The day would soon be over. I reined Flecha in and looked back toward the gray walls and towers of my father’s castle. Nobody was following me. Yet.