Page 189 of The Moon Sister
Lucía watched in fascination as Micaela’s eyes rolled back in her head, just as Chilly’s had done when he was seeing a vision from the Upperworld. ‘They are telling me they are there. They are up there, looking down on us now. They are well and safe.’
‘I . . .’ María’s throat was so dry that she could not swallow. ‘I knew it here, of course.’ She thumped her heart. ‘But still I hoped.’
‘What are we human beings without hope?’ Micaela sighed. ‘There is not a family who remained untouched in Sacromonte, and even Granada itself. Generations wiped out . . . men, women, children . . . murdered for crimes they never committed.Payoandgitanoalike. Well . . . you saw what it was before you left, María. And it only got worse.’
‘But . . .’ María could hardly speak, her throat still constricted with emotion. ‘What about Eduardo and Carlos’s wives and children?’
‘After you left, the Civil Guard came up here to clear the rest of thegitanocommunity out. María, I am so sorry but Susana and Elena were both taken, and their children . . .’
‘No!’ María gave a sob. ‘So they too are dead? How can I bear it! And I left them here to die as I saved my own skin . . .’
‘No, Mamá! That is not true!’ Lucía interjected. ‘You did it to save Pepe, to give at least one of your sons the chance of a life. Remember, you begged both Carlos and Eduardo’s wives to come with you.’
‘You must not blame yourself, María, you gave them the choice. I remember Elena telling me so just before she was taken,’ said Micaela.
‘Elena was pregnant . . . She was Eduardo’s wife, Lucía. You could not imagine a sweeter girl. Did she have her baby before . . . ?’ María could not speak the words.
‘Sí, she did, María.’ For the first time, a smile played on Micaela’s full lips. ‘Andthatis when the miracle occurred.’
‘What do you mean?’ Lucía asked.
Micaela sat her bulk down at the table and indicated mother and daughter should do the same.
‘In life there is always a balance – even when there is evil all around, there are good, even beautiful, things that happen to provide the natural harmony. Just a few weeks before she was taken, Elena gave birth to her baby girl. I was there with her, helping her, just as I helped your mamá give birth to you, Lucía. And it seems, María, that you are blessed, for not only did you have your Lucía, who is in so many ways special, but your granddaughter, Eduardo’s daughter . . . the minute I saw her I knew.’
‘Knew what?’ asked Lucía.
‘That she was the one who had inherited the gift of seeing from your great-grandmother. The spirits in the Upperworld told me she was to be the nextbruja, and that I was to protect her.’
‘Eduardo’s daughter had the gift?’ María whispered.
‘She did. And the prophecy came true: the very morning that she and the rest were taken, Elena had come to me with her baby – she had called her Angelina because she had the face of an angel – and asked me would I take care of her for a couple of hours whilst she went down to the market. I was happy to do this – both Elena and I already knew I would be part of Angelina’s future. I strapped the baby to me and we went out into the forest to search for herbs and berries. We were gone for many hours, because already I was beginning to teach Angelina to listen to the rhythm of the universe through the earth, the rivers and the stars. I did not know that while we were there, the Civil Guard had come up to Sacromonte and taken Elena, Susana and their children, as they were on their way into the market.’
Lucía realised she was listening to the oldbrujaas if she was telling one of her tales of the old times. Yet this was reality and . . . Lucía could not even think of where the story might be leading.
‘Almost the whole village had been marched away. Only those who were not in their caves when the Civil Guard called managed to escape,’ Micaela explained. ‘I knew then that the Upperworld had sent me into the forest to protect Angelina. From that moment on, María, I have brought up your granddaughter as my own child.’
There was silence in the cave as both María and Lucía tried to rationalise what Micaela was telling them. And what it meant.
‘I . . . are you telling me that she is alive?’ María whispered, hardly daring to ask in case she had heard wrong.
‘Oh yes, alive as anything could be. What a clever and beautiful girl you have as a grandchild, María. She already has powers far beyond my own.’
‘Then where is she?’
‘She is out, foraging in the forest as I have taught her to.’
‘I . . . cannot believe it! Out of so much tragedy, Eduardo’s daughter survives! It is indeed a miracle, is it not, Lucía?’
‘Ay, Mamá, it is!’
‘There have been many times when I thought we were discovered,’ Micaela continued. ‘Yet always, Angelina’s sixth sense was one step ahead of the Civil Guard. She would tell me when we had to leave the cave and hide in the forest until the “devil men”, as she called them, were gone. Never once was she wrong, and I have learnt to trust her instincts better than my own.’
‘So you left your own home and moved in here?’ María asked.
‘It was better that my cave remained empty – it is too near the city gates and I am not someone who can hide herself easily.’ Micaela gave a deep chuckle. ‘Whereas your cave is far away from the city gatesandclose to the forest, so we could make our escape there easily.’
María looked at the size of the woman and agreed how difficult it would be for Micaela to become invisible. But somehow she had managed it. Managed it to save Eduardo’s daughter, Angelina. Her grandchild . . .
