1636: Calabar's War by Charles E. Gannon & Robert Waters

Author:Charles E. Gannon & Robert Waters
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Alternative History, Time Travel, Action & Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781982125301
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2021-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

Part Three

November 1635–February 1636

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast

under trial, for when he has stood the test

he will receive the crown of life…”

—James 1:12

Chapter 17

São Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

Matias de Albuquerque’s order to his men was still clear in Celia’s mind. Take them to Bahia and get them out of Brazil. I don’t want word to get back to him… But who was “him”? Pedro? Luiz? Or was it Domingos?

The night raid on Olinda by Calabar had been over a year ago, and word had spread fast throughout Pernambuco that the remains of a mameluco had been found in the black ash of the Jewish houses that had burned there. The corpse was so badly damaged that a face could not be discerned, but Celia knew who it was. She knew in her heart. My husband is dead, she had said to herself over and over again in the claustrophobic darkness and cloying old-incense reek of the Jesuit church, repeated it so that she might burn the truth of it into her mind. She could not believe it, but she had to, had to accept the fact that she was alone in the world, and from there on, she and Martim and Lua and Carlos were on their own. Her children had no father anymore.

But that one word: he… Did she dare believe again? Perhaps Matias meant Luiz, but why would the most powerful man in the Pernambuco be concerned if an impoverished young man learned that the Portuguese had discovered Celia’s hiding place?

Could Matias have meant Álvarez? Calabar had told her before leaving for the attack on Olinda that Pedro was his half-brother, but why would Matias keep the man as an assistant and confidante if he could not be trusted with such information? Indeed, if Matias suspected Pedro’s deepest loyalty lay with Calabar and his family, then Álvarez was unlikely to live long enough to hear that Celia and the children had been found.

No, Celia almost whispered aloud, it had to be Calabar. It had to be. And she allowed her heart to believe it, and feel it, once more.

That meant that her husband had survived, and that he had left with the Dutch as he had planned. But if he were alive, why hadn’t he returned to Brazil by now? Perhaps he was dead after all, or was still in the Caribbean, fighting Dutch battles, making a glorious name for himself while Carlos… Celia forced back the tears. For a moment, she grew angry. How dare he not return to us. How…

Then the swayback mare she was tethered to almost lost its footing—and she remembered her fate.

She sat on an almost skeletal horse, facing the rear, tied to both the crude saddle and her captor so that she could not fall off at a gallop. Her arms were tied behind her, a sack fixed over her head. It was hot and hard to breathe. Martim and Lua were being transported in a similar fashion, she figured.

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