The Devil's Concubine Read online

  “The three of us constantly argued. There was nothing left that could entertain him, nothing new that he had already learned. I can’t even say how many foreign languages he learned just by simply reading books. He learned too quickly, so much so that he easily became bored and this caused him to have fits of anger.

  “He would scream, ‘I want to travel! I need to leave this place! I want to be with my father!’

  “One day, Dolmance became enraged and said, ‘Why do you say that? Who do you think your father is?’

  “Scared of what Chretien might say, I pleaded with him, ‘Enough Dolmance, I beg you.’

  “ ‘My father isn’t human, he’s a superior being!’ Chretien screamed.

  “ ‘Your child has gone crazy Juliette!’ Dolmance continued uncontrollably. ‘He’s gone crazy!’

  “ ‘I don’t need you anymore. My father will come and destroy you both!’

  “Ten days later I found Dolmance dead in his bed. A kitchen knife was in his chest. How I wish I could explain the immense pain I felt, how much I cried. He had been the best friend I’d ever had and my own son ended his young life. I didn’t doubt for one moment Chretien had killed him. I kneeled at the foot of Dolmance’s bed and burst into tears. Then anger overwhelmed me and I ran through the house frantically screaming Chretien’s name as I searched for him. The servants told me he had gone horseback riding. I went after him. Exactly for what purpose? I didn’t know. I only knew that, at that moment, I hated him, I loathed him and felt he was the one who deserved to die. I found him playing with his dogs, close to the border of our property. Filled with rage, I dismounted the horse I had ridden, approached him and viscously grabbed him by his little shoulders.

  “ ‘Tell me it wasn’t you!’ I screamed while shaking him violently. ‘Tell me you didn’t kill him!’

  “ ‘What does it matter?’ he asked me, sincerely confused. ‘Let go of me you witch!’

  “ ‘Answer me! Did you do it?’

  “ ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ he screamed. ‘I did it! And what? Why do we need him? He wasn’t good for anything. Now everything is mine and I can run his business even better than he did.’

  “ ‘You don’t have any feelings! You evil creature!’ I screamed, beside myself. ‘He always loved you!’

  “ ‘What a pity!’ Was all he said in a tone full of indifference and insulting sarcasm. Then, his voice magically lost its cynical tone and his face turned into that of a beautiful cherub, into the face of a little charmer who awakens an adult’s protective instincts and makes her want to kiss him, hug him, and spoil him to no end. He threw his arms around my neck and kissed me softly and sweetly.

  “ ‘Be careful mommy,’ he whispered in my ear. Then, with an eloquent smile, he stared into my eyes and walked away.

  “I blamed my husband’s death on one of the servants. What else could I have done? I chose a widow with no family who no one would cry over, except me. During that era when a master accused a servant of any offense, there was no way out. No one would ask me for evidence or for witnesses. Justice was swift back then and a few days later, he was executed without even knowing what crime he had committed. The remorse I felt for what I had done, for my crime, fell over my conscience. The way I suffered was the worst punishment and I suffered for a long, long time. I felt dirty and ashamed. Who was I to sentence that poor innocent man to death? But, what other alternative did I have?

  “That night I couldn’t sleep at all and the next I barely slept. I didn’t want to sleep, I couldn’t sleep. I was scared, terrified of my own son. When I succumbed and slept, I dreamed he would silently enter my room with a huge kitchen knife in his hand and I would wake up horrified. I knew he didn’t love me any more than he had Dolmance. I knew he would have no problems killing me if I dared to cause him the slightest bit of trouble.

  “I looked worse and worse every day. I barely ate, I couldn’t sleep peacefully or I couldn’t sleep at all. I was scared and would wake up in the middle of the night imagining he was attacking me. I thought about posting a servant at my door for the entire night and decided to do so. I told him I suffered very severe nightmares and if he heard me shouting, he should come in and wake me.

  “Thanks to that I slept a little more peacefully that night. But when I opened my door the following morning, my servant was dead at the foot of the stairs.

  “The blood froze in my veins.

  “ ‘He had an accident,’ Chretien whispered sarcastically as he stood next to the cadaver.

  “Later, he sweetly hugged his victim’s wife and consoled her with his affectionate, innocent voice, ‘He’s in heaven Mary.’ And then he kissed her on the cheek and wiped her tears away with his little fingers. ‘He was such a good man God needed him by his side and decided to take him. Don’t cry. He’s going to be happy forever.’

  “The next time we were alone, he grabbed me with his hard, firm and claw-like hands and threatened me: ‘Don’t post guards at your door again you idiot or you’ll both die. Ugh! I don’t know how much longer I can put up with you!’

  “I started to spy on him. I followed him silently through the gardens and fields of our property. I ordered holes to be drilled in the wall in the room next to his bedroom, where he usually locked himself away for hours. What did I hope to find out? Something very specific. I wanted to see him with his father, see him speak to him or, if that didn’t happen, I wanted to catch him doing something supernatural. But I never caught him doing anything other than what normal boys do. I never witnessed anything extraordinary.

  “I always wondered why Eonar wanted to conceive a child. I knew he had already revealed himself to Chretien and had started to teach him things; and who knows what else. What did he want from Chretien?

  “When I gave him a bath, as he still liked for me to do, I searched his body for a mark, for the sign of the beast. I didn’t find it where the Apocalypse stated it would be, that is, on the front of the right hand. The 666 didn’t appear anywhere, neither did any other strange mark. Saint John wrote intelligent men would know the number of the beast because it is the number of a man. Naturally, back then, I completely ignored that the beast referred to was a Roman emperor or that the number 666 was a cabbalistic code which disguised the name Nero, the Christians first persecutor. In that era, religious obscurantism survived on mysticism, enigmas, fire and brimstone and incomprehensible parables. Taking everything literally was the norm to follow and I believed it unquestionably. My son was the dragon and I was sure he bore the mark. Nevertheless, it wasn’t so. I searched the most hidden parts of his body, including his scalp, and there was no mark to be found.

  “I also, of course, made my own superstitious calculations. I invented cryptograms from his date of birth, the date of his conception, the year and age he was when he killed Dolmance and I tried to relate all of those dates to all kinds of biblical events and dates. I became a master of cabala but I never discovered anything in the Scripture.

  “I was obsessed with finding out what he was. ‘Could he have superhuman powers? Could he be immortal?’ I would ask myself puzzled.

  “He walked around the house giving me evil looks out of the corner of his eye, or he sat at Dolmance’s desk going over the accounting, business letters, or rewriting letters that our representatives and lawyers would send to suppliers or clients.

  “I knew nothing about accounting and was lost in that sea of numbers which he dominated with perfection. As much from terror as from ignorance, I was obligated to obey his orders without any hesitation. He told me what products to purchase, which markets to shop in and what employees didn’t meet our business expectations and, therefore, must be fired. I carried out his orders with no delay. Although I didn’t know much, I was constantly interfering in the work of our employees and, especially because I was a woman, this caused me many problems and earned me many enemies. But I didn’t have the courage to confront him.

  “Just a few months after Dolmance’s death, I realized I had turned into
Chretien’s slave. All the people he knew, whether intelligent or not, were his slaves. I had no will power. He didn’t need me as a mother; he needed me as his puppet. At times, I tried to rebel and I even tried to control him, to talk to him, to stop his strange impulses. But then, with his eyes or with his mouth, he would give me subtle or direct death threats.

  “ ‘My father can do what I can’t, remember that.’ He would threaten.

  “I took advantage of the times he spoke about his father and asked him if he knew who he was and when he had seen him. He told me his father was the prince of angels and that every night he took him to his kingdom.

  “I don’t know if I was more afraid of Chretien or of his father. I imagined Eonar as an invisible guard, always vigilant, constantly floating weightlessly around his son, always attentive to any attempts I could take against my life. Sometimes, absorbed in this idea, I would go to where Chretien had walked, look up and beg, ‘Bring back Shallem and I’ll walk away from your son as soon as you want. Everything will be yours. Please, please, give him back to me.’

  “From the start, I knew I wouldn’t die anytime soon. Chretien knew he needed me to run his small empire while he was still under age. He could manipulate me like a marionette. It was the adult body he needed, an extension of his own hand, a link that unites him to a world that he would reach one day by his own right. Meanwhile, and as long as I continued giving in to all of his whims, I would be relatively safe.

  “I discovered his extraordinary ability to bend people to his will. It wasn’t exactly as if they were hypnotized, but rather, like they were spellbound, enchanted, as though, upon seeing his sweet face, they drank a magic potion that would cloud their judgment and make them obey his commands. For example, the commercial offers he received from our suppliers were authentic bargains and he was often able to buy well below cost or sell at a price that not even a fool would pay. Our lawyers gave him a type of respect I was far from receiving. They began asking him for advice regarding small problems. At first, perhaps, they only did it for amusement. However, with time, his infallible decisions and intelligence became well known and they put all of their faith in him.

  “Just like in past, people continued visiting our home to see Chretien’s incomparable and extraordinary beauty; he was still such a sweet cherub. They came for his affectionate and generous kisses and to enjoy the music he himself composed. They came to speak with him, to have political discussions or theological and philosophical disquisitions. His fascinated audience would be left speechless, surprised and humbled; for them he was much more than a genius, he was an adored idol and everyone wished to bend their knee. ‘What will happen when he’s a man?’ I would ask myself.

  “At times I became enthralled when I watched him perform his brilliant, albeit hypocritical, show.

  “ ‘You act like an idiot in front of our guests! They would have more fun talking to a puppet than to you. Do you want to ruin everything!’ he chided me after their visits, his eyes smoldering in a diabolic fury that made my muscles cramp.

  “I sank into the most infinite sorrow; I surrendered to it. I locked myself in my room for most of the day to pray, to think, and to cry. Once in a while, Chretien would barge in and arrogantly demand my presence before some unexpected visitor. I would get ready and quickly run downstairs because, not to do so, would have brought about my demise. I didn’t dare leave the house, the only reason he let me go on living was because I decorated it, took care of it and also managed it.

  “My hopes of ever seeing Shallem again were almost gone. I thought he had abandoned me for giving birth to Eonar’s son and that Eonar would never release him as long as his son lived. I thought Shallem had stopped loving me and now some other woman held his sweet heart.

  “But I was wrong.”

  –VII–

  “I was at the lake on our estate thinking about him, thinking about my angel. Swans ate bread from my hand and I felt their delicate beaks brush my fingertips. Suddenly, they stopped. Their slender necks lifted in unison to watch, fascinated, the naked figure whose beauty competed with their own. I was paralyzed, motionless. My lips were frozen in a mute cry of immense happiness, I felt a lump in my throat and a shiver that made all the hairs on my body bristle. My hand flew to my mouth and I burst out in intense and uncontrollable tears. I wanted to touch him, make sure he was really there. I wanted to melt into his arms but I couldn’t move, all I could do was look at his eyes, his smile. My terror was at an end. He was there.

  “He crouched down beside me and held my rigid head between his hands. I hugged him and let my tears fall against the white skin of his shoulder. I kissed him, I devoured him with my hands and my eyes.

  “ ‘Silly girl, ‘ he whispered tenderly. ‘You thought I’d forgotten you.’

  “ ‘No,’ I sobbed, on the verge of dying from happiness. ‘I only feared it.’

  “With his eyes immersed in mine, I was enraptured.

  “ ‘You’re naked,’ I pointed out while my lips kissed his cheeks.

  “ ‘Of course I am, I just arrived.’

  “ ‘But, how? What took you so long?’ I asked and continued to kiss him.

  “ ‘It is you who has taken so long, my love.’ He threaded his soft fingers in my hair. ‘I just escaped the pyramid. Remember?’

  “I was confused but too happy to worry about the strange turn of events. He was there and, at that moment, nothing else mattered. He kissed me several times and pressed his body passionately against mine.

  “ ‘Not a day has passed that I haven’t cried because of what happened in the pyramid.” I responded. ‘I remember it like it was yesterday.’

  “ ‘Only a fraction of a second has gone by for me. Do you understand? I had to escape in time. They, the spirits, can’t do that. I just left the pyramid and came directly for you by following your soul.’

  “I looked at him speechless and amazed.

  “ ‘Then,’ I murmured. ‘all this time... did not exist for you... I thought... Eonar made me think he had captured you. I thought you were trapped!’

  “ ‘I know, I know, darling,’ he whispered cradling me in his arms.

  “ ‘Seven years!’ I yelled. ‘You left me at his mercy for seven years! Why? Why not for a few days or a few hours? Do you know what’s happened to me, to my life? Do you know what he did to me?’

  “He looked away and pursed his lips. I could tell my words had hurt him deeply but I felt furious, betrayed and looked at him somewhat harshly, demanding an answer.

  “ ‘How can I explain myself?’ he moaned. ‘How can I be forgiven for what I’ve done, for the way you have suffered because of my mistake?’

  “For some seconds, he let his eyes wander the lake. I noticed the swans had not scattered and were watching him, like an attentive audience, motionless at the edge of the lake. I saw the lake reflected in his worried, blue-green eyes.

  “ ‘When you look for a specific place, the peak of a mountain, a boat in the sea, it’s your sight that leads you there,’ he explained. ‘The same thing happens to me because I also see. But when I search for a soul among the millions that exist, I use a different sense to guide me. It doesn’t matter if I’m looking for the soul throughout the world or through time. I always do it using the same sense because a soul has something that attracts me to it, something that affects this sense, like light affects your retinas. Your soul has a quality that leads me toward it, a light that allows me to distinguish it from the millions that exist. However, Eonar cloaked your soul, he disguised it and kept it hidden from me, from my supernatural vision. The only reason I’m here, at this precise moment, is because he decided to uncover your soul. If he hadn’t of done so for twenty years, I wouldn’t have found you until then, although, for me, only a minute of time would have gone by. Do you understand? You were like one ship out of ten thousand that were sailing in a fog. I went to look for you, not knowing that the fog would keep me from finding you where I thought you would be. I was an over con
fident fool! I kept trying to find your soul with my supernatural senses but I never imagined Eonar would use that type of trick. If I would have tried to used my sight, I could have found you only hours later. It’s my fault you’ve suffered so much!’

  “ ‘Don’t torment yourself, my love,’ I begged him while I kissed him and cursed myself for the way I had spoken to him. ‘Right now I don’t care about anything but being with you. Everything is in the past. It won’t affect me more than a horrible nightmare. The only thing I want is for us to never be separated again. But, why do you think he did it? Why did Eonar let you find me?’

  “ ‘He let me because my brother forced him to...,” he said, and smiling, turned his gaze toward the lake. His expression softened as though he were looking at something beautiful. ‘He’s my protector.’

  “ ‘Is that so? Angels also have... guardian angels?’ I joked.

  “ ‘Only the two of us. We are each others’ guardian angels,’ he responded and I saw his eyes shine with affection.

  “ ‘You love him a lot, don’t you? He must be almost as amazing as you are. Can I meet him?’

  “ ‘Yes. You’ll be delighted.’

  “ ‘Why do you call him your brother? I mean, as though he were your only brother. You have many brothers, right?’

  “ ‘Yes, but... he’s much more than this. I’m sorry, but no word exists that can properly express what he is to me. You wouldn’t be able to understand it. We are... two parts of a whole.’

  “ ‘Like twins? Is there someone else in the world like you?’ I asked, surprised.

  “ ‘It’s much more complicated than that.’ He laughed and looked at me with an expression of loving sympathy, as one would look at a curious child who tried to understand ideas beyond his meager abilities. An expression, which throughout the centuries, I would have to endure and forgive.