Part 122 (2/2)

The Daughter of the Air was said to be Calderon's masterpiece. It was the story of the Babylonian warrior queen, Semiramis. Her greed for power led her to conceal and imprison her own son when it came time to ascend the throne. She then a.s.sumed the throne herself, dressed as a man, impersonating her son.

”If my mother had been able to get rid of me and wear my face, she would have done so.”

”Murder you? As she has tried to murder me?” The words were wrapped in bitterness that suddenly welled up in me.

”I have always been weak.” He spoke not to me but to the open window of the carriage.

”Why was it so important to murder me? Why was it so important that Fray Antonio had to be murdered to find me?”

”Fray Antonio,”-he shook his head-”a good man. I didn't know my mother was involved. When I heard he was murdered by the boy he raised, I a.s.sumed the truth of the accusation.”

”a.s.sumed the truth? Or hid behind it?”

”I told you I was not a good father. To Luis. Or to you.”

I knew he was my father when I saw my reflection in the mirror while he and Luis were kneeling at the side of the old woman. Looking from their faces to mine had brought home the truth of the disturbance that had plagued me each time I looked at their faces.

”It doesn't make any sense. I am your son, but I'm also just another mestizo b.a.s.t.a.r.d in a land full of such b.a.s.t.a.r.dos. To have lain with my mother, Maria, and made her with child... that's no more than what thousands of other espanols have done. Why would this b.a.s.t.a.r.do create enough hate to sp.a.w.n murder?”

”Your mother's name was Veronica, not Maria.” He spoke the name quietly.

”Veronica.” I rolled the name off of my tongue. ”Was my mother Spanish?”

”No, she was india. Very proud india. My family-your Spanish family-is related to royalty. My grandfather was a cousin to King Carlos. Your mother was of royalty, too, indio royalty. Her blood traced back to one of Montezuma's sisters.”

”Eh, that's wonderful. But that does not make me a prince of two races, but merely another b.a.s.t.a.r.do without land or t.i.tle.”

”I was deeply in love with your mother, a lovely flower. I have never seen another woman who had her natural beauty and grace. Had she been born in Spain, she would have ended up as the concubine of a prince or duke.” He had stopped talking to me and had gone back to talking to the window.

”Tell me about my mother.”

”She was the only woman I ever loved. She was the daughter of a cacique of a village on our hacienda. Like most other hacendados, we were rarely at the ranch. But after my father died, when I was twenty years old, my mother exiled me to the hacienda for a time. She wanted to get me out of the city and what she considered corrupt influences, to get me away from books and poetry and make me what she considered to be a real man, un hombre. There was a man at the hacienda, the majordomo, whom my mother considered to be just the person to turn her boy into a wearer of big spurs.”

”Ramon de Alva.”

”Yes, Ramon. Then, just a hacienda manager. Eventually one of the richest men in New Spain, a man not just with the viceroy's ear, but who knows the dirty secrets of half the n.o.ble families in the colony. And from what I've heard, one who has filled Don Diego's pockets many times.”

”Little of it honestly gained.”

Don Eduardo shrugged. ”Honesty is a gem with many facets. It sparkles differently for each of us.”

”Try telling that to the thousands of indios who died in the mines and the tunnel project.” There was still poison in my words, but my own heart was slowly softening toward the man who was my first father. He did not seem to harbor malice. Instead, his greatest sin was that he looked away-and walked away-from evil.

He grinned with resignation. ”As you can see from the human toad who sits beside you, not even the renowned Ramon de Alva could create a miracle and make a decent man of me. My mother wanted me to love the smell of gold, while I instead sniffed roses. It was not saddle leather I wanted between my legs but the soft touch of a woman. Obeying my mother's command, I went to the hacienda and came under the tutelage of Ramon. To my mother's eternal horror, instead of getting me away from trouble in the city, I carried it with me like an old trunk. I opened that trunk the first time I saw your mother.

”Veronica was coming to church the first time I saw her. As the hacendado, it was my duty to greet the flock as they came for Sunday service. I was standing next to the village priest when she came forward with her mother.”

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