Lamia (6 page)

The trip up the mountain was much as I remembered.  Even the village was not very much different.
  Samuel introduced me to his wife Nissa who made me feel very welcome indeed.

It was late when I arrived so I went straight to bed feeling very strange being back in the mountains.

Sleep eventually came to me followed by troubled dreams of finding Maria out in the forest.  I knew this was not going to happen
because she would have
quickly
found her way back.
  Then I dreamt that I found her dead and was trying to revive her.  Morning came as somewhat of a relief.

“Have you ever
tried Changua?” asked Nissa as I came in for breakfast.

A feeling of déjà vu engulfed me as I remembered my first encounter with this milky egg dish.

“Oh yes I like eggs,” I replied with an air of knowledge.

She smiled as she served it up and sat with me while I ate, chatting all the time.  I told her all I had learnt from my trips with Maria, as well as having helped out at the
medical
centre, which I was happy to notice had been rebuilt.

Samuel came in just as I was telling Nissa that I had planned to retrace some of my steps around the local area.  She looked worried.

“You know it’s very dangerous around here,” she warned.

“Oh I thought it was safe now.”

“Safer,” added Samuel.  “
The guardianes still patrol, although less frequently.  Sadly the people have mainly gone back to their old superstitious ways, so the guardianes tend to leave us alone.”

He went to a drawer and took out a small wooden cross on a leather thong, placing it on the table next to me.

“The locals are afraid of some kind of half snake, half woman vampire, who murders their children and generally maims or kills those who cross her.  You’d better wear this for safety.”

“Against vampires?” I said, without even trying to suppress my laughter.

Samuel looked serious.

“No, not against vampires, against guardianes.  They use superstition to control the people.  If they know you are connected to the church, you pose no threat and they’ll leave you alone.”

I felt guilty that I
had
laughed when he was trying to help me.  It also seemed ironic that the very thing that had brought danger in the past was the same thing that
had
now brought safety.  When the church was doing well in the region, the guardianes saw it as a threat.  Now that hardly anyone attended the church,
it had
little in
fluence and wa
s not worth bothering about.

I placed the cross around my neck and
thanked Samuel.  I would spend one day in the camp where I would pay my respects to John and Patricia.  Then I planned to spend two days out in the forest, sleeping in the lava tube overnight.  I had learnt enough from Maria to know what to take and how to remain safe.

A fenced-off section a little way outside the village saw half-a-dozen or so gr
aves, two of which belonged to J
ohn and Patricia.
  Villagers had contacted a minister from Bogotá to officiate over a Christian burial for them, but it was some time before a permanent minister, a chapel and a
medical
post were re-established. I said a few words over the graves as a goodbye to two people who had been my friends for almost a year.

Nissa told me that I could help myself to some medical items to take on my journey.  I limited myself to items of first aid.  Cuts can easily turn septic so it is best to treat them immediately.  There was something missing and it took me a long time to realise that the shelves lacked the home made ‘brews’ that Maria used to add.  There were however copious supplies of coca leaves and I helped myself to a small bag of these.

Samuel and Nissa made one final vain attempt to dissuade me from going alone.  They could not understand that my being alone in the forest was the whole point.  It was a kind of tribute to Maria to use the lessons she had taught me about survival in the forest.
  Perhaps also there were
still some remnants of romance attached to the places I would visit.

I would not be going as far as I went on my first trip with Maria, so I did not need a lift very far up the mountain.  I said goodbye to Samuel, picked up my pack and headed off into the forest.

The thrill of total freedom put a spring in my step as I began to recognise some of the plants.  I would come across a patch of herbs, knowing that Maria would have spotted them long before I would.  The high rainforest is a wonderful place to clear the mind.  Not as stifling as lower altitudes and fewer biting insects.

I eventually arrived at the rocks where I had previously entered the lava tube.  Happy that my sense of direction was accurate, I walked on to find the overhanging rock where I had watched the sun going down.
  Here I sat looking out over the forest while I ate some lunch.  The trek had made me weary and I lay down and closed my eyes in this peaceful place.

I was awakened suddenly by voices and a boot tapping my legs.  Three rough looking men stood over me, their faces darkened by the sun.

“¿Es usted de la iglesia?” said one of the men.

My Spanish was poor and I had just woken up but I just caught the Spanish word for church.

“Si,” I replied, holding my cross up to show them.  “Iglesia.”

“V
enido con nosotros
.”

I caught none of this last phrase and just sat there with a blank look.

“¡venido o usted muere aquí!”

My blank look continued.

“You are English?”

“Yes,” I replied, feeling more and more uneasy.

“You come or you die!” he warned as he unhooked his palillo dentado from his belt.

I immediately recognised the ‘toothed stick’ from John’s description, its sharpened bamboo edges made me tremble with fear.  There was no choice so I accompanied the men
through the forest for an hour, until we came to a village.

The village was crowded.  There were far more people there than could be housed and I wondered what had attracted them to the area.  I was taken to a house which had obviously been commandeered
for the purpose, and sat in front of a man who had an air of
authority. 

“My name is Juan Manuel,” he said as he extended a hand.

His
English was very good and he thanked me for coming, even though we both knew that I had little choice in the matter.

“You will take a drink with me.”

I was not certain if this was a question or an order, so to be safe, I accepted.

“We have a small problem
,” he explained.  “The people around here are very superstitious and we need you as a minister of the cloth to bless our endeavours.”

“Oh I see,” I replied, realising his mistake.  “I’m afraid that I’m not actually a minister.  I just came over to the mission for a few days
, so I can’t actually perform any ceremonies.”

The man’s face changed and I immediately felt in danger.

“You are not hearing me.  The people need a minister to say a few words and drive
away their superstitions.  They believe you are a minister.  Now I don’t care if you are
Diego León Montoya Sánchez
.  To these people you are a minister.  What do you think they would do to you i
f they thought you lied to them?”

I was very frightened but what could a few words matter.

“What do I have to do?”

His face grew a little more relaxed as he began to explain.

“My men have captured one who has caused g
reat fear to these people.  The locals
believe she has been endowed with supernatural powers.  Total nonsense of course but they are still afraid.  Firstly I need you to say a few words over the town, to prevent the Lamia from putting a curse on it.”

“Lamia?”

“Yes, some half snake and half woman who turns into a vampire, sucks the blood of children
and does things to the sexual organs of the farmers.  Just a mad woman you understand but these people are very superstitious.”

“Yes I can say a few words to remove your curse.”

“Not my curse
señor
.”

“No of course not.  You said firstly.  What else do I have to do?”

“You must spend the night in a room with her to exorcise all the demons.”

“S
pend the night with a mad woman?”

“Don’t worry.  She will be tied securely to a chair so she can’t hurt you.”

Again I had no choice but to agree.

“And that is all?”

“Yes that is all.  She is to be beheaded tomorrow”

It all seemed fairly simple.  I would remove a curse from a village, then spend a night with a mad woman!  I do not know which frightened me more!

I was fed and watered and generally I h
ad the freedom of the village, although
I stood no chance of escaping from the locals who would know the terrain far better than I did.  The villagers would cross themselves
whenever I met their gaze, with mumbles of ‘vaya con dios’.  Eventually, as the sun was going down, the people gathered in the village centre and I was led to the front.  I asked for a large bowl of water and for the people to kneel.  In case any of them did know English prayers, I decided to recite a Latin passage that we were forced to learn in school.  I recalled
having thought
that Horatio and the Gallic wars would never
have
be
en
any use to me.  How wrong
could I have
been
?

After my recitation I dipped my finger into the water and blessed myself.  The congregation then filed up to follow suit and I returned to the house where the man joined me and poured us both another drink.

“You did well,” he said looking pleased.  “You are a natural.  Now just one night and you can go free.  I’ll even get my men to show you the way back.”

Again I could not tell if this was a threat
, but I took some food and some water and he led me to a house with armed guards patrolling outside.  The windows had
been boarded up and I would rather
have been anywhere that entering that building.

I walked in the door, my body trembling with fear, and heard the key turn in the lock.

CHAPTER 5

The light from the candles was dim, but eventually my eyes became accustomed to it.  I put my food and pack on the table near the bed and looked around the
room. In a shadowy corner I saw the figure of a woman sitting on a chair.  Her head was bowed and I would happily gone to bed and ignored her, when I heard her moan.  Bringing a candle with me, I approached the woman to see if I could be of assistance.  She looked up and straight away I recognised those eyes and her blond hair.

“Maria!” I said in amazement.

She stared at me for a few moments, examining my face.”It’s me, Maria.  I’m Michael”

She turned away from me, her head held high while her hands were tied behind her back.

“You will address me as Lamia,” she commanded.

“But Maria, don’t you remember me?”

Her face was still turned from me and she did not reply.  I brought more candles and even found two oil lights which, when I finally got them to light, gave far more light than the candles.  It was then that I noticed the blood oozing through a rip in her snakeskin trousers.