Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

Author:Isabel Allende
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Unknown
Published: 2010-05-26T21:00:00+00:00

For a time that seemed endless, Eliza fought her way through delirium, tended by Tao Chi’en at night and Azucena Placeres by day. Early in the morning and at siesta time, when most of the passengers were drowsing, Azucena would slip down to the kitchen and get the key from Tao Chi’en. At first she was shaking with fear when she went down to the hold, but soon her natural good nature, and the brooch, overcame her fright. She would begin by rubbing Eliza with a soapy rag until she had removed the sweat of her agony, then force her to eat some oatmeal and chicken broth fortified with the tangkuei Tao Chi’en prepared. She gave Eliza herbs, according to his directions, and on her own initiative brewed her a daily cup of borage tea. She blindly trusted in that remedy to flush a pregnancy from a womb: borage and an image of the Virgin of Carmen were the first things she and her companions-in-adventure had tucked into their travel trunks, because without those protections the roads of California could be very hard to travel. Eliza was lost in the land of death until the morning they anchored in the port of Guayaquil, not much more than a small community overrun by exuberant Ecuadorian vegetation; few ships anchored there except to negotiate for tropical fruit or coffee, but Captain Katz had promised to deliver some letters to a family of Dutch missionaries. He had had that correspondence with him for six months and he was not a man to fail on a promise. The previous night, in heat like a bonfire, Eliza had sweated out the last drop of temperature and dreamt that she was climbing barefoot up the side of an erupting volcano; she awakened sopping wet but lucid and with a clear brow. All the passengers, including the women and a good part of the crew, disembarked for a few hours to stretch their legs, bathe in the river, and stuff themselves with fresh fruit, but Tao Chi’en stayed onboard to teach Eliza to light and smoke the pipe he had in his trunk. He had doubts about the girl’s treatment; that was one time he would have given anything to have the counsel of his wise master. He understood the need to keep her calm and help pass the time in the prison of the hold, but she had lost a lot of blood and he was afraid the drug would thin what little she had left. He made his decision hesitantly, after entreating Lin to watch over Eliza’s sleep.

“Opium. It will put you to sleep, and so time will pass quickly.”

“Opium! That brings madness!”

“You’re mad anyway, so you have little to lose,” Tao said, smiling.

“You want to kill me, don’t you?”

“Of course. I wasn’t able to kill you when you were bleeding to death so I will now with opium.”

“Tao, I am afraid of it.”

“Much opium is bad. A little is comfort and I will give you only a little.

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