The Tower of Il Serrohe (27 page)

“
Her father sank down into his chair.
Why did I ever agree to such stupid female foolishness? These women, the priest, they don’t have to bear the burden of a father raising a daughter!
But in the end, he knew he had already lost the war in the first battle.

“
The priest was even more dubious than several days before, but fearing to counter the urgings of the Blessed Virgin, he encouraged the family to agree to Teresa’s plans. As long as Pedro stayed with her, she could come to little harm. After all, it had gone well the first time.

“
So, in spite of her father’s silent rage, Teresa and her brother once again left Peralta and set up camp below the lonely cottonwood west of the Rio Grande.”

forty eight

“
The Soreyes had so many prisoners the old, sick, and lame were left to fend for themselves. Potential slaves quickly filled cages in the Soreye village plaza, and large fenced enclosures were built on the barren flats to the west to hold the remaining clanspeople.

“
Among those in the plaza was Sayer, a middle-aged Nohmin storyteller. As the days went by he carefully watched the Soreyes and added much to our story of those days. A portion of what follows is from him.

“
Sayer was crammed into a cage with eight Nohmin and two Kastmin. Three of the Nohmin were warriors while the rest were young Nohmin women who grew madder than hell by the minute. The two Kastmin, though heavier than the Nohmin, were beside themselves with fear and restlessness. They were used to being in constant motion. For them, idleness was a curse worse than hard labor.

“
Sayer tried to reassure his cage-mates. ‘There is authoritative word that this is temporary. Something will happen to free us. I saw the two Pirallt sisters meet with our clan chief, and he seemed less nervous even though the sisters said nothing specific.’

“‘
So what does that mean?’ a young Nohmin asked. ‘The chief was captured along with the rest of us a few days ago—I saw that. Wonder if he’s any less “nervous” crammed into a cage with smelly
Ursimin.’

“‘
I don’t know who is in his cage, but you mustn’t speak badly of the Ursimin. They were willing to fight with us.’

“‘
A lot of good that did when the Soreyes attacked before we were even into position!’ Another Nohmin said.

The younger Nohmin sneered, ‘At least he’ll get a good dose of their religion along with their smell. Maybe he will pass along good rituals when this is all over.’

“
An old Kastmin spoke meekly after the young Nohmin turned away. ‘I don’t want to alarm anyone, but a storm is headed this way.’ He pointed east.

“
The group turned toward the mountains. From their position they could not see the Valle Abajo, but they could see a huge brown cloud rising from the ground to at least a thousand feet high. Swirling and churning angrily, growing by degree it grew in size, they realized it was headed directly for them at breakneck speed. A crudely-made cage of wood slats wasn’t much shelter in the face of that force.”

forty nine

“
Meanwhile, Teresa and Pedro slept next to each other in a large tent on their homemade cots. Pedro would not permit her to be alone. He was reluctant about doing this whole thing all over again, but he had no choice after their father had ordered him to take her.

“
Still, when Pedro went to her before they left Peralta, she was coy. ‘Pedro, you and I both know about your own plans for the future. I will marry Juan and you…’

“
A panicked look showed on his face before he covered it quickly, like a vieja pulling down her veil as she entered the church. He feared Teresa could still ruin his chances with Angelina, but neither of them would risk talking about it openly. What did she know beyond gossip among the Peralta viejas? Maybe nothing and that’s the way he wanted it to stay.

“
He agreed to go with her without complaint—at least without
open
complaint.

“
At the camp, daylight hours found Teresa sitting on a wooden flour barrel out in an alfalfa field twenty yards from the tent, the old family Bible in her lap. She read from its first books.

“
Yeah, yeah,” Don mumbled. “It may seem hard to believe, but when I was a kid I took catechism at the church in Peralta—in Spanish no less. I actually remember some of it, including that opening line.” He waited in silence, giving the bat permission to continue the story.

“
For variety, she recited her rosaries just like she told her parents. ‘En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo. Amen. Creo en Dios, Padre todopoderoso, creador del Cielo y de la Tierra…’

“
OK, OK. I know. I’m past all that mumbo jumbo. Here’s what I believe now: I believe I’ll have another beer! Just go on with what the hell happened; all this jumping around in the story is driving me crazy!” Don giggled like a drunk, which is what he was. “Like I need to be any crazier than I already am, dipshit!”

The bat continued. “This went on for two days. Finally, in early evening of the second day, becoming sick of reading and reciting she lay upon her cot staring at unseen universes spread across the canvas above her.

“
A sudden breeze came up, awakening Pedro who had lashed the tent flaps closed. Intensifying over the next few minutes, it soon threatened to cave in the tent. It would abruptly force the tent walls out from a transitory vacuum created by the swirling currents of the wind. This shifting between imploding and exploding went on for another five minutes.

“
At last Teresa became aware of what was happening and rushed outside, excited. ‘Thank God! My rosaries have paid off!’

“
She went back into the tent and noticed Pedro thrashing about in his cot. ‘The wind’s keeping you awake,’ she observed.

“‘
Yes. I can sleep through anything except a strong New Mexico wind,’ he said, trying to sound offhand, but she could see he was feeling irritable. He looked at her suspiciously, fearing she would invade his dreams of Angelina again, if he were so lucky to dream of her.

“‘
I’ve got some of that Manzanilla tea that helped you relax,’ Teresa said.

She went outside but had no luck starting their campfire.

“
Pedro wondered if it was the tea that allowed her to invade his dreams. He still couldn’t talk to her of it because what brother would speak of a wet dream with his sister? Besides, she never acted like she had come to him in the dream to reassure him of her brief disappearance. What if he imagined it?

“‘
Pedro,’ Teresa said, stepping back into the tent. ‘I can’t get the fire going, but if you will chew the herbs it will work as well, maybe even better than in water.’

“‘
What does it taste like without water?’

“‘
Not too bad. Here, I have lumps of sugar that will make chewing more pleasant. Just don’t swallow the herbs. Spit them out when you’re done.’

“
She broke off a few pebble sized lumps from the piloncillo, a cone of brown sugar from their supplies. She rolled the sugar and the herbs between her open palms to mix them.

“
Though he was loath to come anywhere near this mysterious tea, Pedro held out his cupped hands as if he were taking the Host in communion. He pretended to chew the mixture lazily, and in spite of himself, relaxing visibly after a few minutes. He lay back down and, in moments, was breathing deeply and evenly.

That ought to do it until morning
, Teresa thought.

“
Leaving the tent she made her way to the make-shift Portal under the cottonwood tree. She realized she didn’t have the time to pass through it and travel to Piralltah Steeples, bringing Pia and Pita to the Valle Abajo Portal. Too excited and nervous to sleep, she calmed herself as best as she could, meditating deeply while willing herself to travel to Piralltah as she had in her dreams.

“
She saw the landscape of the Valle pass beneath her point of consciousness as the Steeples loomed ahead.

“
She sought out their home and entered by passing through the walls like a ghost. Pia was seated in the sunbeams by the window weaving a piece of cloth on a little loom. She turned her face to Teresa but didn’t seem to see her. Then she reached out, touching the air in the middle of Teresa’s point of consciousness.

“
A look of delight and amazement passed over her face. She looked directly into Teresa’s ‘eyes.’

“‘
You see me?’ Teresa said.

“
Pia nodded and turned her attention to the back of the room. Pita walked in through the door on that back wall.

“‘
Sister, I sensed your call,’ Pita said. She stopped mid-step and looked amazed at Teresa. ‘Yes. I can’t quite see Teresa, but there is a swirl of dust motes that resemble our sister’s face and beautiful long black hair.

“‘
Can you hear me, Pita?’ Teresa asked.

Pita laughed impulsively. “I can hear something like a whisper. Teresa, you’re not dreaming? Have you come to us while still awake?’

“‘
Somewhat. I’m meditating. It is time. No time for a trial run; this is it! The early spring winds have come!’

“
Both sisters were immediately energized. Though they could barely ‘hear’ Teresa, it was enough. Now was the time to go into action. Teresa watched fascinated as they scurried about the house getting ready for their grand attempt.

“‘
I’ll go back now,’ Teresa said, ‘and see you at the Portal.’

“
With that, the swirling dust motes suggesting her face dissipated and her presence was gone. They fervently hoped they would live through what was to come.

“
But more importantly, would their plan work?

“
Back under the cottonwood tree, Teresa’s consciousness returned to her body. She sprinted to the tent to check on Pedro. Still sound asleep.

“
Gathering two coils of rope she had purchased at the Wartman’s store in Peralta, she went back to the Portal. She passed through it quickly and met Pia and Pita just as they were walking up from the arroyo on their side of the Portal.

“
Teresa carefully helped them wrap the rope around their middles and legs and anchored the end of it to their cottonwood tree that marked the Portal. She passed back through to her side in the Rio Grande Valley.

“
Taking the other rope, she wrapped one end of it twice around the trunk of the juvenile tree, knotting it as her brothers taught her when restraining an unruly horse. She then tied it around her waist in a similar way, leaving a long loose end, making sure she could not twist out of its grip.

“
Around her left arm, she coiled the loose end from the waist knot tied above her left hip. She had about five feet of slack in the rope between the knot in the tree and the knot at her waist when she stood at the threshold of the Portal. Would that be enough to keep her within that transition zone between the two valleys?

“
For several minutes now, the wind had blown strongly from the east though its westerly direction fluctuated wildly. Southwest, due west, south by southwest, then northwest, north by northwest, back again due west, and so on.
This damned well better work,
Teresa thought, surprising herself by using a mild curse word.”

Don laughed at the bat. “Trying to make a point, butthead? OK, I know someone who teaches English should do better than relying on a handful of Anglo Saxon profanities. I’m working on it. Anyway, then what?”

“
Then on the Valle Abajo side, Pia and Pita came around and faced east. The Portal opens to the west on the Valle Abajo side and opens east on the Rio Grande side.

“
Teresa sensed Pia and Pita’s presence facing her from the other end of the Portal. She closed her eyes, said a prayer to the Virgin, and began gently passing through the Portal. The commotion of dark colors and weightlessness countered by violent blasts of wind urged her to pass quickly, but she took time to reach out trying to feel the ‘edge’ of the Portal on the Valle Abajo side.

“
She felt Pia and Pita doing the same. Teresa gripped the sisters as best she could with her right hand, clasping their diminutive limbs to her breast with her forearm and felt them try to wrapping themselves around her as if hanging from the edge of a cliff, her grip being the only thing keeping them from the abyss. In a way, that was exactly what it was.

“
As they hung on frantically, they were whipped about like straw dolls in a hurricane. Working with a desperate swiftness, Teresa turned her left arm around in a circle allowing the rope to uncoil. As it stretched in the wind, it beat Pia and Pita’s faces. Teresa struggled to wrap the rope around Pia and Pita while they were still latched onto her. Teresa then gripped the rope with her left hand.

“
The wind would whip through the open Portal as long as Teresa was in the passage from her valley to the Valle Abajo while her sisters, their feet still in their Valle, hung on to Teresa and the rope.

“
Teresa’s theory was that since the elements energizing the Portal were earth, air, fire, and water, she believed air would pass along with someone who was passing through—thus opening the Portal. Only the naked body of the one passing through was allowed, but the four elements would also pass during the exchange.

“
The three sisters had to don the clothing of the other side, if necessary, after passing from one valley to the other as you do, Don. Other people, animals, elements, plant life, and so forth could not pass. Since things seemed to magnify when they passed from Teresa’s side to the Valle of her sisters, she hoped a strong wind from the Rio Grande valley would be magnified into a maelstrom once it reached the Valle Abajo.

“
And now, it seemed to be working! The sisters—flying with their feet off the ground—were kept from blowing out of the Portal only by Teresa’s arms and the rope, which was stabilized by their combined weight although the fluctuations of the wind whipped them about erratically.

“
Meanwhile, across the valley of the Valle Abajo, the multiplied wind tore up trees, brush, and flung dirt over a thousand feet into the air. It was heading directly for the peninsula of black volcanic rock topped by the Tower of Il Serrohe.

“
Inside the Soreye village enclosure that held the stoutly built Taurimin,
Càhbahmin, and
Ursimin, the level of excitement increased dramatically as they watched the surging wall of dirt approach.

“
To no one in particular, a big boned C
àhbahmin said, ‘Never in my life have I seen a dust cloud stirred up that high. It’s boiling over!’

“
Next to him, a black-haired, dark Ursimin nodded. ‘If there were a tree here, I’d climb it, but I fear the tree and I would come crashing down when that wind hit.’

“
A third companion, a Taurimin, rubbed his farmer’s hands together. ‘I just want a strong barn roof over my head right now safe from this puny corral.’

“
The
C
àhbahmin slapped both of his corral mates hard on the shoulders. ‘Then let us run, the Soreyes be damned! What can they do? Stab us with their filthy spears or run—like us? This storm is no respecter of who it will blow away!’

“
Along with the others in the enclosure, they ran for the west fence. Soreye guards yelled for others to take a defensive stance against them, but when they saw the horrific wall of the storm looming over the runners, they turned and dashed ahead of their former prisoners.

“
The combined weight and velocity of the clanspeople flattened the fence on their second attack. Clanspeople and Soreyes ran in mutual retreat, jumping over or running down everything in their path. Elderly Soreyes and children were crushed by the stampeding crowd. A few fled to their adobe huts, slamming doors and wooden lattices on their windows.

“
The brown maelstrom hit the cliffs and village like a tsunami. Anything not solidly affixed to the Earth flew up in a swirling broad funnel. While not a tornado, everything was whirled into a broad spiral caused by the abrupt terrain change the cliffs offered to the raging wind.

“
Small and weak people were suddenly airborne before the storm-rapids flung them down to the ground or adobe walls. Enclosures disintegrated and the slave cages were whirled about like beans in huge pot of boiling water. As the cages shattered against each other or nearby huts, clanspeople poured out like vomit from a drunken Soreye priest. They joined the retreating crowd heading for the open plains.

“
Once on the plains, there were fewer deadly missiles of wood, rocks, cages, and whatever else the village sacrificed to the angry wind.

“
While the inhabitants of the village fled, the Tower stood at the forefront of the cliff directly facing the terrifying wind. Although its construction and weight were substantial, it had no reserves against a force like this dirt maelstrom.