Esther

  Esther felt beside herself. Her feet refused to respond, her hands and mouth quivered, and the air in the room felt cold and heavy as it entered her lungs. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, counted to five, and exhaled slowly through her mouth. She repeated this process about five times, each time adding a second to the count. Feeling calmer, she opened her eyes, but didn’t look towards the front door, where Emma and the others were; instead, she focused her gaze on the metal tray atop the tea table in front of her, and shut out everything else around her. She needed a minute to think. The teapot was no longer steaming, the three white porcelain cups were stained with black tea, and the sugar bowl was uncovered, with the silver spoon she used to prepare the tea still stuck in the sugar.

  She observed her reflection in the metal tray and noticed that she looked pale and nervous, or so she imagined, for the image was blurry and indistinct. Her mind was a mess. She longed to think about something else, or at least to be able to analyse everything she had heard with cold logic, but she couldn't. The news that Michael was involved in an affair with a married woman had disturbed her and, at the same time, baffled her. He was supposed to sneak into Luke's house to find out what was in the boxes she had mentioned to him, not to have sex with the maid. She couldn't understand what was going on.

  What was that idiot thinking? she wondered. Is that why he didn't want me to sneak into Luke's house and offered to go instead? Because he was having an affair with that woman and didn't want me to find out?

  She remembered that Michael had suddenly disappeared for a few days the week before, without telling anyone where he was going. And when he finally returned home, he refused to say where he had been or what he had done. He was so determined not to confess that he preferred to earn Agnes's anger and Natalia's punishment. He showed no remorse when he was told how worried his family had been about his departure, or that Natalia had gone to the city with Julie in search of his whereabouts. He cared nothing about any of that. He preferred to remain silent and receive the reproaches and punishments of his loved ones.

  But now it all made sense, Esther understood. It was easy for her to connect the dots and conclude that, perhaps, the reason her cousin decided to remain silent was because he knew that what he was doing was immoral, reprehensible, and dishonourable. He was sleeping with a married woman! A mother of three children! Esther knew Elisa through her mother, and she knew that the woman had given birth last year.

  Her mind went blank.

  By the gods, by the great gods! Could it be? No, it can't be. It can't be! Don't think about it, Esther. Don't think about it. Think about something else. Esther clutched her head, trying to banish the horrible thoughts that kept coming to her.

  “Esther!” Helena called her.

  Esther looked up and saw Helena standing in the doorway. Emma and Celeste were gone.

  “Hurry up, or we’ll miss everything,” Helena said. Behind her, people could be seen passing by and the commotion they were making.

  Esther hurried towards her cousin and left the house first. The strong midday sun dazzled her. The dark living room had made her forget how bright it was outside. She turned back to look for her hat, but saw that Helena left the house with it.

  “You forgot this,” she said, handing her the hat.

  It was a simple day hat, black in colour, with a white velvet ribbon tied around the crown. Helena wore one just like it, but hers was cream-coloured with a light blue ribbon. They both loved wearing these hats instead of bonnets, and had a large collection of them.

  “Thank you, ” Esther said, taking the hat. As she turned around, she noticed that Celeste and the dog hadn’t left. They were standing in front of the house, watching people pass by.

  “I thought you had left with Emma, ” Esther asked the woman. Helena stood beside her.

  “She told us to stay behind,” Celeste said, as she stroked little Emmy to calm her down. “She said she didn’t want to get us wet.”

  Esther frowned. “What did you mean by…?” Her words were cut short when she felt an electrifying current run through her skin, muscles, and bones, making her stiffen. Her ears rang, as if someone were whistling nearby; her mouth felt full, and her saliva tasted like cake frosting; her nose tingled with the smells of freshly baked cookies, and cakes, and sweet bread, and many more sugary wonders. She knew well what these sensations meant. She looked towards the crowd advancing along the dirt road, waiting for the flash that would soon appear and mark the territory of the spell.

  Here it comes.

  And just as she expected, a white flash exploded among the crowd, momentarily covering the road and some of the surrounding houses in a bright dome. Then, her eyes were drawn to the sky.

  “By the great Esliana,” Celeste said, looking up.

  “That looks dangerous,” Helena said, smiling.

  Emmy began to whine.

  High above, an enormous sphere of water hovered, as though it were the judging fist of Esliana, goddess of water. It was as large as the houses lining the road, and covered the entire crowd with its shadow of terror.

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  “It looks like a river in the sky,” Esther said, feeling amazed and jealous by the power of Emma.

  People screamed. Women ran away while dragging their children by the hand. They begged the heavens for help or for the priestess to stop her insanity. Some men stood frozen, staring upwards with dumb faces, while others did not hesitate to run for their lives like the women. But the children did not panic, nor did they freeze or flee. Instead, they jumped and shouted with joy, raising their little hands high, trying to touch the wobbling round sphere that flew overhead, which filtered the hard sunlight through its body, turning it into a burst of multicolours, like a rainbow after a drizzle.

  The children knew who made the spell, and unlike the adults, they trusted she would never harm them.

  The sphere descended to the earth with the grace of a feather. The villagers stopped shouting and running. Everyone stared fearfully at the sphere and at Emma, who stood beside it, wearing her large straw hat and with her hands behind her back. A sharp silence fell over the village.

  “Emma! Don’t do it!” a voice shouted from the crowd.

  Emma responded by moving away from the sphere. Then … It began.

  The villagers broke apart and ran, trying to escape from the sphere, but the thing ran faster, and despite its enormous size, it moved with incredible nimbleness and precision, taking sharp turns with ease, like a cat, and avoiding touching anything that it was not a villager. However, the dirt road was getting destroyed, turning into a mire full of mounds and potholes covered with water.

  "Run, run! The priestess has gone mad!"

  "Someone stop her! She's going to kill us."

  "Emma, ??calm down, please!"

  "Priestess, forgive us!"

  "Yes, me, me, hit me!. Hit me!" the children shouted.

  Although it looked frightening, the sphere did not cause any harm to those it devoured: it just gave them a cold bath. Even so, the villagers tried their best to dodge it, but there were some who just lowered their shoulders and let the sphere bathe them as it pleased, while others joined in the children's game and ran after it, shouting to be next. The early chaos had turned into a game.

  “But what is this!?” someone yelled behind Esther.

  She turned and saw two elderly men approaching. One of them was Milton, the Grandhouse caretaker and Michael's friend, while the other she didn’t recognise him.

  “I went out to see what the bloody hell is goin’ on and I found this,” Milton said, banging his walking stick on the ground.

  “Ain’t we too close to that thing?” his companion asked.

  “Naw, we’re safe. The light we saw only went that far,” Milton said, pointing his cane at the ground about three meters in front of them. “The water orb will never be able to touch us.”

  "You’ sure?"

  “Don't worry, yo’ fool. Trust me. After dealin’ with so many invokers, I've come to know their weaknesses. As long we stay outside the priestess's territory, we'll be fine.”

  Esther listened to what Milton was saying and agreed with him. As long as they did not enter the territory of Emma's spell, which had been delimited by the flash, they would be safe from the orb's onslaught. This was something Emma could not avoid. It was one of the rules of magic, or majaádo, as it was officially known, and at the same time, one of the main downsides every invoker had to learn to deal with it. The fact that everyone, including enemies, knew when a spell was about to begin and its total range by means of a glow, eliminated some of the benefits an invoker had over others.

  “And speaking of Emma.” Milton addressed Celeste. “Tell me, my lass, what had the villagers done to Emma to make her so angry?”

  “Haven’t you heard, Mr. Milton?” Celeste asked.

  “Heard what?”

  “That they caught Michael sleeping with Elisa, Clark’s wife.”

  The two elders looked at Celeste, confused, then burst into laughter.

  “Did you hear that?” said the other elder. “She says Clover was sleepin’ with Elisa.”

  “Aye, aye, that’s a good one. A very good joke,” Milton said, wiping the tears from his eyes.

  “But it’s the truth,” Celeste said, annoyed. “That’s why they all went to Luke’s house. That’s where they were discovered.”

  Milton and his companion stopped laughing when they saw Helena and Esther’s serious faces.

  “Hey, my lassies, is what she says about your cousin true?” Milton asked.

  “Unfortunately,” Helena replied.

  Milton scratched his head. “But that’s strange. I know the boy well, and I find it hard to believe he's capable of doin’ that.”

  “The lad’s too much of a jerk to be beddin’ another man’s wife,” said the other elder. “He may have the looks, the lucky sod, but with that shit attitude he has, I bet he can’t even get a ‘good morning’ from a gal.”

  “And if it turns out to be him, what the hell’s the whole village doin’ at Luke’s house?” Milton asked. “That’s a business between Elisa, Michael, and Clark. Everybody else has no place in it.”

  “They want to lynch him,” Esther said.

  Milton and his companion laughed. “What nonsense,” Milton said. “The law doesn’t punish adultery anymore. That’s been abolished. And I don’t think the police would be pleased to hear that the villagers lynched someone for it. No wonder the priestess decided to lash out at everyone. The bloody fools deserved it.”

  “Idiots,” said the other elder, spitting on the ground.

  The sphere suddenly stopped and began to slowly ascend towards the sky. It remained up, silently hovering above everyone’s heads. The slaughter, or rather the game, had finally ended. Esther heard a woman calling everyone toward her.

  “What a mess, ” Esther said, seeing how devastated the road was.

  “Is it safe to go near it?” Celeste asked.

  “I don’t think it’s safe,” Helena said. “That thing could come down at any moment.”

  “That’s Emma’s voice. I say we go.” Milton didn’t wait for anyone and walked toward the crowd. His companion followed him.

  “Come on, Emmy.” Celeste left with the dog.

  “What do you think, Esthy? Should we go closer?”

  “It’s just a water orb. Although she made so many modifications to it that it looks completely different. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to make one like it.”

  “I think you can. You just have to practice,” Helena said, giving her an encouraging smile.

  “Easy for you to say. Just look at the size of that thing.”

  “Don’t lose faith, Esthy. I know you can do it. Come on, or we’ll miss what Emma is saying.”