The Kingdom of the Damned

by Mario Garrido Espinosa

  When La Alpurria del Campo was left behind, his head began to hurt. He was falling victim to the aftermath of his first fall. All his ailments together made him walk more tiring at every step and only the memory of his recent sexual exploits made him forget his sorry state.

  The next day, in the first town he found, he looked for an inn and a room and spent three whole days lying on the uncomfortable cot he had rented, giving rest to his battered body. When he returned from the realm of dreams, he satiated the accumulated hunger, leaving almost all his profits to the innkeeper, who breathed easy when he saw that his guest was not dead after the three days of confinement.

  Chapter 5

  Sir Higinio’s suspicion

  1

  I

  rene Lopezosa Quesada could no longer hide her obvious belly. Her father, Sir Higinio, feared the worst. As there was no doctor in the vicinity —unless it was reliable—, to get rid of doubts, he brought in the bachelor Benito Castagno de Lope, who was considered by the former military man to be very learned and knowledgeable in all fields, perhaps because there, in that town left by the hand of God, nobody knew anything.

  De Lope was a skinny, beardy man, who always seemed to wear the garments of a landowner marquise's son, but who was poor as a rat. Besides, he could never conceal his repulsive petulance —nor before Sir Higinio— since he was superior to his strength. And although he tried to control himself, this presumption of his, vain and sometimes long ridiculous, had caused him problems with the retired military officer. These facts —isolated, to tell the truth— were frankly alarming for the bachelor, because from Sir Higinio came his best and perhaps only financial income.

  No friend of Castagno’s was known, like Sir Higinio himself, and in the place, everyone shared a natural and ingrained rejection to him. If it were not for the fact that Sir Higinio was dealing with the bachelor, he would have been lynched and kicked out of town; and what is worse, they would have done it only out of pure pleasure, and not because he had done something reprehensible to someone in particular or to any collective of the people. It was known that some felt their corresponding contempt for the bachelor just because he was supposed to be a man read and instructed, something that the villagers would never be, not even proposing. Benito represented a carnation burst in the middle of a field infested with thistles. However, the Alpurrians did not seem to realize that despite the undoubted culture received by their studies, Castagno was the naivest, most cretin and silly person in the region. Besides, of the lessons so hard acquired, he had safely forgotten half; and it was not too quick to assume that the other half did too.

  The day the former bailiff required the bachelor’s services, the Major Party was celebrated in La Alpurria del Campo. The celebrations and drunkenness lasted the whole week, but the most important day was by far the day of today.

  There was a great procession headed by a faded tarasca, which was used in the feast of Corpus Christi and on this day, the feast of St. Fray Publius Spartacus Anthony the Saracens-converter, who must have been a character —probably invented— born in La Alpurria, according to it was told, from time immemorial. Friar Publius was credited with more than ten thousand conversions to Christianity through the simple method of choosing between death or embracing Noah, Abraham, Moses’ religion and the rest of the biblical characters. They also accused him of having finished another ten thousand —for such an amount should be enough to create legends in those people— unfaithful Moors who chose their original faith and defend it with bravery; and the good Spartacus Antonio, in the name of the only true creed, was in charge of giving Christian death with his sword of Roman handle, garrison of solid gold, knob covered with three perfect diamonds and sheet of one hundred and fifty centimeters of divine justice.

  “Master, how can you know if a person tells the truth when they manifest their intention to convert, thus suddenly leaving their old and erroneous belief?” when he was very old, a young and reckless boy who claimed to be his disciple asked.

  "You've seen it a thousand times, but in your recklessness, you only see what you want to see," the Saracens-converter reproached, who did not admit doubts among his disciples. “I make the sign of the cross five times on their forehead with the holy water that I always carry in the saddlebags of my horse Samuel. When they lie, the wrath of God devastates their brain, starting from one of those five crosses.”

  “But teacher, I never saw such a prodigy happens...”

  Spartacus Anthony put a face that indicated indignation and without changing the gesture, he said in three words what was obvious to him:

  “Then nobody lied.”

  2

  The figure of the ugly and abominable snake that represented the Tarascan, already old and with the mechanism, that made in its good times that the monster lengthened and diminished the neck, broken by the use —in fact by the misuse—, passed by in front of Sir Higinio's mansion for the first time in the day. At that moment Castagno appeared by the door. He waited a while in the lobby while watching through a window, with the screen wide-open, people who pursued stunned the monster lying.

  "There is so much ignorance in this blessed town," he whispered, getting close enough to the truth, although this was exceptional in his person.

  Not too soon, he was taken by a fat and ugly maid —as much as the tarasca— to a room where Irene and her father were waiting. The two of them did not have the face of good friends and the atmosphere was quite charged. The daughter wore a belly that Castagno did not remember from the last time he had seen her. It was as if she had a huge pillow stuck under the magnificent dress that, due to her body’s new shapes, was ridiculous and at the same time uncomfortable. Over that deformity at the height of the abdomen rested her two large breasts, which now were of an even larger size, almost touching the unnatural, and given the always generous cleavage that Irene exhibited made the bachelor pass the odd squeeze to be able divert his view of the specific area.

  “What are the changes that my daughter's body experiences due?” Sir Higinio asked the dry question to the bachelor, when the usual greetings were over.

  Castagno, already knowing the terrible dilemma that he had to solve, got to work improvising with forced marches.

  "Bare yourself, please," the bachelor begged Irene Lopezosa, after clearing her throat nervously.

  “No way!” Exclaimed the woman almost before he stopped talking.

  Irene did not intend to dismantle the incredible structure that enveloped her transformed body in an unsuccessful attempt to disguise her state. That morning, before going to her father, she had suffered fatigue and sweating so the bodice with wave-shaped embroidery would adjust to her new anatomy, despite being many sizes larger; now she was oppressing her gut in an inhuman way —at the risk of getting sick from this cause— but that was the goal. Less still, she wanted to get rid of her Indian skirt painted on one side in pink, with folds and white rag flowers on the bottom, and hollowed out with a rigid fabric crinoline and metallic armor with elliptical rings. She had invested more than two hours, with breaks in which to recover the breath, to accommodate all that impossible structure in her swollen body —helped by four suffering maids who resignedly resisted her cries and insults at any ineffectiveness in the delicate operation—, and she did not think to break everything down because asked for it, besides, such an idiot.

  "If it is what I think it is, my daughter does not need to get undress," the retired sheriff said, who was patiently recognizing her, and he was not completely ignorant of his daughter's symptoms, having already seen them in two occasions in the perfect body of his beloved Scholastic Eugenie.

  “Of course of course. What your worship says, Sir Higinio. I will try to do everything possible despite the clothes, but it will not be easy," Benito warned, trying to emphasize the thorny of his role.

  The bachelor, then, looked into the eyes of Irene evaluating whether he would succeed in the next thing he planned to do. She returned him a furious look. Even
so, Benito took a risk.

  "Excuse me, my lady," he said as he determinedly tried to touch the woman's belly through her fat sleeveless doublet. Then he rested his ear on the palpated area trying to listen to any sound that could not be interpreted if it were produced. He stayed for a while, and his crown brushed against one of the woman's huge breasts. Irene meanwhile put faces of boredom and even fake yawn. He also glanced at her father, waiting for any of his illogical and unpredictable reactions as a brainless military man. After studying the situation, he shook off the head of the bachelor and said:

  "Father, this man is trying to take advantage of me! What is it doing putting his head in my body and fondling me in my private parts...!”

  “But I do not...!” the aforementioned exclaimed with a ridiculously placed hand on the area affected by the recent slap. “I have not touched...”

  "Calm yourself, Castagno, and do not pay any attention to my daughter," Sir Higinio interrupted, who was not going to admit any of Irene's tricks. “Continue. I will tell you when you do wrong or right on your task...”

  “As your worship command.”

  Irene threw her hands to the kidneys in a very frequent and natural movement in the last weeks of a pregnant woman. Her father stared at her and quickly recovered again a more feminine and less compromising posture. Just then, Benito began to formulate some questions that had little or nothing to do with pregnancies:

  “Do you want to drink wine an hour after having eaten, Lady Irene?”

  “No.”

  “Have you noticed if your urine has a Coloring close to turquoise blue?"

  "No," Irene answered, this time without listening to the question.

  "Are you assaulted without any reason by an unstoppable desire to shout in the south at six in the afternoon?"

  “Of course not.”

  “Do you dream of half-meter birds, white plumage and blue eyes?” The bachelor asked.

  "No. No. No." She shook her head violently. “Father, I'm tired of so much nonsense!"

  "I hope you know what you're doing, Benito," the retired military officer warned, just before his patience was completely exhausted.

  "Do not worry about anything Sir Higinio," Castagno said, and asked: “Have you had vomiting, dizziness or something similar lately?"

  "I do not remember," Irene said dryly.

  "He's had them, Benito," Sir Higinio said flatly. “And you better collaborate with Castagno or I'll break your face right here," he said, in a tone that did not admit any doubts, after giving a strong shove to his daughter.

  "You will. I'm sure you would be capable of such barbarism with your poor daughter!" Irene replied, expecting the slap that would end with that situation.

  Sir Higinio raised his arm, because he was not there today to endure nonsense, but the bachelor, even at the risk of taking the second smack of the evening, interposed between father and daughter and asked for calm and composure to be able to continue with his mission. In this way the improvised sage in medicine was able to continue, and the first thing he did was to walk around Irene for a while, observing her with the pretended eye of an expert, while Sir Higinio waited impatiently, leaning against the wall and with his arm still twitching for not having finished what he started. Finally, Benito put his thousand times rehearsed posture of understanding and reflection, approached to the old military man very slowly, and said in his ear:

  “I only have to make a couple of tests.”

  “Very good, well why are you waiting? Go ahead.”

  “It is a bit...”

  “What is it about?”

  “It is essential to justify my reasoning two small jobs: first make an observation of your daughter's breasts; its shape, volume, color, size...," The bachelor swallowed at the terrifying look of the former soldier. Undoubtedly, this was a unique opportunity, so, trying not to let his voice tremble, he explained the next action he wanted to achieve: “and second, make a simple exploration with the hands of Lady Irene's breasts. Everything from the highest decency, of course.”

  Benito kept waiting for the affirmative answer that gave him the license to see and touch what he had always wanted to contemplate and feel from the first time he was in front of that formidable woman, many years ago. The answer came instantly and with the utmost forcefulness:

  "Forget those tests, Castagno, and tell me what you think according to what you have observed so far."

  “Your Grace may be absent from the room if you prefer. I understand that it can be violent. Of course, my intention, only, is to evidence my suspicions, always under the highest scientific rigor, based on my experience and knowledge...”

  “Forget it!” The father shouted, this time, ill humored.”

  "Well, I can not say for sure, without making this last test," the bachelor repeated hoarsely. It is very risky to give a diagnosis without the simple operations that I have explained...," he said in a last attempt to achieve that unattainable goal. “Maybe it's enough for us to do one of the two checks..."

  “Tell me what you think now, damn it!"

  “It's okay. I believe that your daughter, except for fatal error, is pregnant," he confessed, always in a low voice and in his ear. “Maybe seven or eight months, although, I repeat, without these simple final tests there is no way to ensure what I say. And at the risk of sounding heavy, I want to insist on what is necessary, at the same time natural and without any danger that is being explored at the moment...”

  However, Sir Higinio no longer listened to the tiresome words of the bachelor. He began to change the color of the face to the same one that the devil looks when is more furious. He was sure that his daughter was going to give birth, but he did not want to believe it until he heard a second opinion, even if it was that idiot's. Now, his worst nightmare confirmed, the world was falling on him. This was an unprecedented dishonor in the invented story of his ancestry. He took one of his daughter's arms tightly —for sure and without hearing it, she knew what Benito had whispered to her father—, sparing her life with his eyes, because just a moment ago he would have killed her with a single blow.

  “Sit there!” He shouted, referring to a larger than usual canape, which he had brought from Italy two years ago, and where up to four people could sit if they were small.

  Irene settled herself slowly and with wide eyes, expecting the worst from her father.

  3

  “You are pregnant!” Sir Higinio shouted to his eldest daughter, as if it had not been something very evident until that moment.

  “Oh my God! It is not possible. How could it happen!” She replied with a lot of theater.

  That answer should not have liked Sir Higinio, because suddenly, he crossed his daughter's face with a great slap.

  “Shut up! You know how these things happen. Do not think I do not know about your exits. Of your adventures. You bring all the servants of this damned town crazy. First, I thought they were gossip moved by people’s envy, but now I have no choice but to recognize your escapades. Bitch! Look where your... your...," Sir Higinio did not seem to know what word fit everything he wanted to express at one stroke.

  “Lust?” Benito helped.

  “Your lust! And you will do well to shut up!” Ordered the retired military officer.

  “What your worship says.”

  "But, father, I swear I have not done..." Irene said, getting up from her seat.

  “Sit down! Do not move from there!” Sir Higinio interrupted with all his fury. “Do not reply or swear falsely! Besides, I am sure you knew about your pregnancy. Maybe you thought you could hide it forever! What did you plan to do on the day of the birth? If your holy and poor mother could see you ... What a dishonor!”

  The bachelor Benito gave a small smile.

  “And what are you laughing at? You could be the father,” Irene accused with anger, to see that Castagno enjoyed the situation he was witnessing, even though she knew that she had never had love affairs with him, nor would she ever consider them as drunk as s
he could one day be.

  “How! My daughter and this fool!” The old soldier muttered.

  "I, I..." Benito whispered, his face serious again.

  “So?” Sir Higinio asked the bachelor, staring at him. At this point, any guilty person seemed good, although he did not believe that relationship too much.

  “I have been the last year almost entirely in Sacruceda, in the university, completing my science. As you know, this city is very far from here," Benito finally explained, trying to piece together his ill-formed, solemn stance. “Impossible! Besides, I am a chaste man and respectful of what the Holy Mother Church dictates! You know, Sir Higinio! You know me and well you have been able to verify, on numerous occasions, that I am a God-fearing person!” He said, looking at Irene Lopezosa with fury. If it were not for the respect I have for you, Sir Higinio, who is great and deserved, I would consider this assumption, of this daughter of yours, as an offense to my honor, and ultimately to my blameless reputation as an upright man and an old Christian.”

  “From Sacruceda or from any other city of Gurracam could come. In fact, even from Spain, Portugal or France if you like. You show up in the village without anyone noticing, and go back on the day of your arrival," Irene said, vengeful, tired of hearing so many empty words. “What is so strange about it!”

  What Irene proposed was very absurd and Sir Higinio suspected that it had not happened. Knowing what the bachelor was like and, above all, knowing his daughter, it seemed as impossible as the darkest night of the night would break out at two in the afternoon... But eclipses occur very rarely, so he insisted:

  “But you really have been with this...”

  Irene did not deny or affirm. Carrying the dead to that idiot turned out to be a lot of fun. The retired military officer rebuked the accused again, this time with more desperation than violence.