The Black Mountain, page 5
‘It’s not so hard,’ Carlos said, though his voice was tight from the effort.
‘Where’s Pablo?’ she asked.
‘He’s with Rudi, trying to find Antonio. We heard the guards talking. Antonio’s not being held here. They took him to the prison at the port.’ He paused. ‘Can you climb out?’
Ana looked down. Before, she would never have gone against the mayor and the laws of the town. But things were different now.
‘I don’t know,’ Ana said.
In the distance, there was a loud rumble of noise. Like dry thunder.
‘I hate that noise,’ Carlos said. He sounded very young, and very afraid. ‘It’s like the sound of canon fire.’
Ana could see how the sky above the Black Mountain was glowing red. A huge red gash in the clouds. They were running out of time.
‘I’m coming.’
Ana tucked her long skirt into her underclothes and took a deep breath. Then she swung her leg over the sill and lowered herself onto the ledge.
Chapter Fifteen
Antonio did not know how much longer he could last against their blows and their questions.
He was in the jail at the port. His ordeal had begun when it was light and now it was dark. He had no sense of day or night any more. There was just pain and the brief gaps between pain. His left eye was swollen shut and there was a taste of blood in his mouth. His nose was broken and several of his teeth were loose.
Antonio felt his head being jerked back.
‘I will ask you one last time. What did Tomas Perez tell you?’
Antonio struggled to speak. ‘He told me nothing.’
He braced himself for another blow. He was tied to a chair, his arms strapped to the wooden struts. This time, the fist drove into his belly. He grunted in pain.
‘You are aware that we are holding Miss Perez too?’ the man said.
Antonio had become used to the voice. It wasn’t the mayor himself, though he had no doubt he was nearby. It was one of his right-hand men. Antonio could smell his long leather coat. Beneath his blindfold, he could see the soldier’s boots.
‘She’s just a girl,’ he said quickly.
‘She’s sixteen. Old enough.’ Antonio felt the man’s face come closer. ‘It’s well known that her father trusted her.’
‘On my life, Perez told her nothing.’
Antonio felt the man draw back. ‘You will forgive me if I don’t take your word for that.’
He heard whispering, then he heard the voice of the mayor.
‘Bring the girl here,’ he said, ‘and we will see what she knows.’
‘No!’ Antonio struggled on the chair to get free. Then, to his horror, he heard footsteps crossing the room and the soldiers laughing. ‘No, leave her alone.’
Ana held on to the ledge with her fingers and lowered herself as close as she could to the ground. She needed to be brave and let herself drop the last few feet.
‘It’s only the height of a man,’ Carlos whispered up at her.
Ana counted to three, then let go. For a moment, she was falling. Then, she felt a jolt in her ankles and she fell sideways.
‘There,’ Carlos said, helping her to her feet. ‘That wasn’t so bad.’
‘You are braver than I am,’ Ana said, taking his hand. ‘I must go to Mama. She will be frightened.’
‘Widow Silva said she would go and sit with her,’ Carlos said. ‘It was Rudi’s idea.’
Ana sighed with relief. ‘Good. We will fetch them both as soon as we’ve freed Antonio.’
There was another rumble from the Black Mountain. The tiny explosions were happening closer together. Ana heard Carlos catch his breath.
‘Ana, what are we going to do?’
‘Find the others,’ she said.
‘No,’ he said in a small voice. ‘I mean, if the mountain erupts.’
They both looked up. The night sky was glowing even more fiercely around the crater. The sounds of tiny explosions were happening more often.
Ana took her brother’s hand. ‘Let’s find the others.’
Chapter Sixteen
Antonio was alone in his cell, although there were soldiers on guard outside the door.
He struggled to loosen the rope tying his hands, but it was no good. He was desperate. Antonio did not fear death, but he had promised Tomas Perez he would protect the family if anything happened to him.
He had failed.
Through the bars of the window, he heard an even louder rumble, like a crack of thunder right overhead. Even during his ordeal, Antonio had realised the sounds coming from the mountain were getting closer together. It wouldn’t be long now.
Antonio’s shoulders slumped. He had failed in this too.
He had done his best to warn the town of the danger, but they hadn’t listened. They were too comfortable in their fine houses and beautiful clothes, with the wealth the trading ships brought into port. They didn’t believe the Black Mountain would turn on them after all these years living safely in its shadow.
Suddenly, he heard a scuffling sound behind him. A soft thud. Though his eyes were still blindfolded and it was dark, he could sense someone – or something – was now in the cell with him. Was it a rat? The jail, like the port itself, was over-run with rats.
‘Who’s there?’ he said in a low voice. Then he wondered if this had been the plan all along. Perhaps they had left him alone so that someone could slip inside and kill him.
Antonio braced himself, half expecting to feel a knife at his throat. Instead, he felt his ties loosen and the blindfold being pulled from his eyes.
All the same, Antonio jumped up from the chair, ready to defend himself.
‘Don’t hurt me!’ Rudi cried.
Antonio stared in disbelief. ‘In the Lord’s name, how did you get in here?’
Rudi pointed up to the high window. ‘Pablo lifted me up and I slipped through the bars.’
Antonio was speechless. Rudi was small and very thin, but even so it was amazing the boy had fitted through.
‘Rudi, you can’t stay. They will punish you if they find you here. I don’t want that on my conscience.’ He glanced up again at the window. ‘There’s no way I can get out that way.’
Rudi took no notice. ‘There are only two guards outside,’ he said. ‘We have to get them to open the door. Pablo will do something to draw them away.’
Antonio looked at the ragged child. Rudi was always on his own, always left out of the other boys’ games. But tonight he seemed to have grown more bold. Antonio didn’t think there was a hope that the plan would work, but he was touched by the boy’s efforts to help.
‘Very well,’ he said.
Antonio looked around the cell. The only thing he could use as a weapon was the chair itself. ‘Stand behind the door.’
Once Rudi was in position, Antonio began to bang the chair against the floor, trying to loosen the legs. He started shouting.
‘Hey!’ he yelled. ‘Guards!’
From the other side of the door, he heard the soldiers. One banged on the door with the butt of his rifle.
‘Quiet in there.’
Antonio took no notice; he just kept banging the chair against the wall and the floor and shouting. A leg came loose, which he passed to Rudi as a weapon.
‘Go for his knees,’ he said.
Rudi nodded.
‘Hey, fools!’ Antonio shouted again. ‘Idiots! You are standing out there all night, when the mayor’s tucked up in bed. He won’t come back until morning, yet you’re still here.’
‘Be quiet, I tell you!’
Antonio kept up the noise until, at last, he heard the sound of the key being turned in the lock. He nodded at Rudi, who got ready holding the piece of broken wood in his good hand.
At the moment the door started to open, they heard one of the soldiers shout.
‘Who’s throwing things?’
Then they heard Pablo’s voice outside. ‘You can’t catch me!’
‘Come here!’ one of the soldiers yelled in anger.
Antonio heard the sound of one set of boots running and prayed that Pablo was faster than the soldier. Hoping to take the second soldier by surprise, Antonio suddenly tugged the door open. The soldier half fell into the cell. Rudi took aim and smashed the wood into his kneecap.
The soldier shouted as Antonio brought the chair down on his head, knocking him out. He grabbed him under the shoulders and dragged him into the cell, then man and boy slipped out and locked the door behind them. Antonio put the key in his pocket and slapped Rudi on the back.
‘You did well.’
From outside, they heard a shot. Antonio looked grim.
‘Pablo!’ Rudi said, and started to run as fast as his damaged foot would let him.
Chapter Seventeen
It had taken widow Silva a long time to find someone who would help her cut down the dead body of Mrs Perez from the beam. She had paid the men more than she could afford. Then, on her own, she had laid Ana’s mother out on the table. She lit candles at her head and her feet. She folded Mrs Perez’s arms on her chest and put the prayer beads in her hands. Finally, she covered Mrs Perez’s white face with her black veil and placed her bible by her side.
Widow Silva felt bad leaving Mrs Perez alone – the custom was that the women of the town should sit in vigil – but these were not ordinary times. She had to think of the living. For hours, the rumbling of the Black Mountain had been getting louder.
When she was done, widow Silva left the Perez house for what she feared was the last time. Staying out of sight of the few soldiers still on patrol in the square, she headed for the town hall.
Ana and Carlos crept through the small wooden door and into the side chapel.
No one was there.
‘It’s all right, we’re safe,’ Ana said, adding the words ‘for now’ in her mind. Carlos had been so brave, but she could sense how scared he was.
Hand in hand, they ran up the nave and out into the alleyway. Ana peered around the corner, to see what was happening, just as widow Silva appeared in the far corner of the town square. Ana waved to attract her attention. Then, when she didn’t appear to see them, Ana called her name.
‘We’re here!’
She and Carlos watched widow Silva looking for them in the semi-darkness – the moon was mostly covered by the cloud of ash – then raising her arm in reply. Ana pointed to the corner of the street that led down to the port.
A few moments later, they were together.
‘Thank God, you’re safe,’ widow Silva said, putting her old hand on Ana’s arm.
‘Thanks to Carlos, I am.’
She felt her brother turn red. ‘I didn’t do much . . .’
‘You showed great courage. Papa would have been proud of you.’
Ana looked around the empty square. Somehow, she had thought the town would be busy with people preparing to leave.
‘Where is everyone?’
Ana watched widow Silva put her finger to her lips and point. Ana followed her gaze and, now, saw a pair of soldiers in the shadows near the town hall.
‘The mayor imposed a curfew at dusk,’ widow Silva explained. ‘They are too scared to leave their houses.’
Ana was outraged. ‘That’s wicked! Anyone who stays is in danger.’
‘Yes. But, sadly, Antonio didn’t persuade many people that the danger was real. One or two have turned over their boats, and others have collected water from the pump just in case, but for most . . .’
Ana shook her head. ‘Can’t they see this is different? Don’t they have eyes? Don’t they have ears?’
The old woman sighed. ‘There have been too many false alarms.’
‘Even so . . .’
At her side, Ana felt Carlos pull at her sleeve. ‘Do you think Pablo and Rudi are all right?’
Ana squeezed his hand. ‘I’m sure they are,’ she said, with more confidence than she felt. She turned to widow Silva. ‘Have you seen them?’
‘Not for some hours.’
‘We agreed to meet on the beach by the fishing racks,’ Carlos said. ‘Can we go there?’
Ana nodded. ‘That’s a good idea. You go down to the port. We will go back to the house to fetch—’
‘No!’ widow Silva cried, then covered her mouth with her hand.
Ana looked at her in surprise. Now she remembered Carlos had told her widow Silva was keeping her mother company. So why was she not still there?
‘Mrs Silva?’ From one look at the older woman’s face, Ana could see something was seriously wrong. ‘What is it?’ Ana said. ‘Please tell me.’
‘Ana, I . . .’
Ana looked at her. ‘We have to fetch my mother. Why don’t you want me to go . . .?’
But before widow Silva could answer, Ana felt Carlos jump.
‘Look!’ he said in a loud whisper. ‘They are there! Over there.’
Ana followed his gaze and saw Antonio, Pablo and Rudi coming up the narrow street from the port. She only just managed to grab Carlos’s arm before he shot out of their hiding place.
‘The soldiers will see you.’
As the little group got closer, Ana could see that Antonio’s face was bloody and bruised. Pablo was limping. Only Rudi, in his slow, stiff gait, was unharmed.
‘What happened?’ Carlos asked his twin when they drew level.
Pablo grinned. ‘I twisted my ankle when I jumped over a wall getting away from the soldier. But I was quicker.’
Antonio gave a crooked smile. ‘You should be very proud of these young men.’ He looked at Rudi. ‘All three of them.’
‘I am.’
Ana looked at how one of his eyes was swollen shut and his hair was caked with blood. ‘I have worked out what happened to my father, and why,’ she said in a low voice.
‘We will talk of it later, once we are safely away,’ Antonio said. ‘The boat is ready to sail.’
‘The boat?’ Ana said.
‘He has a skiff,’ Pablo spoke up. ‘With two sets of oars.’
‘And it has a mast and a sail,’ Carlos added.
Ana raised her eyebrows.
‘I have owned it for some time,’ Antonio said. ‘It is moored on the first jetty after the smoking racks.’
‘I see.’ Ana looked at her brothers, then smiled. ‘It seems all the time you spend at the port has not been wasted after all.’
Pablo grinned. ‘Antonio taught us how to keep the oars flat in the water.’
‘In which case, go now with Antonio – you too, Rudi.’ Ana turned to widow Silva. ‘And we will fetch Mama, as much food as we can carry, and then meet you at the jetty.’
Chapter Eighteen
Without further warning, the ground began to shake violently. A crack appeared in the middle of the narrow street, like a mark of lightning.
‘What’s happening?’ Carlos wailed, grabbing Ana’s hand.
Ana heard a scream. She looked round the corner and saw people were opening their doors and coming out into the square.
She looked up to the Black Mountain looming over the town. There was another mighty rumble, as if the earth was groaning, then what sounded like an explosion underground. It was as loud as the cannons that were fired at the port to send an important ship on her way.
‘We must hurry,’ Antonio said.
‘Should we find shelter?’ widow Silva asked.
‘No. We need to wait and see which way the lava will flow – it may run south rather than north towards the town – but the ash will still be deadly. I think we’ll be safest on the sea.’
‘My father said sometimes the sea rises up and drowns the land,’ Ana said. ‘Might that happen?’
‘It might,’ Antonio said, ‘but I think it will be the lesser of two evils.’
Ana paused, then nodded. They had to trust him. ‘All right. We’ll meet you at the boat as soon as we can.’
‘We should ring the alarm,’ Rudi said. ‘To warn everyone that the mountain is erupting.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Pablo said. ‘To help pull the bell.’
Ana saw the two boys, old enemies, reach an understanding.
Antonio put his hand on Carlos’s shoulder. ‘Carlos, come with me and help me load her up.’
They split up – Rudi and Pablo to the church, Antonio and Carlos to the port, leaving Ana and widow Silva.
‘No one else is here,’ Ana said. ‘Tell me what’s happened.’
Behind them, the grumbling underground was growing louder and louder.
‘Ana, your mother’s dead.’
For a moment, Ana felt as if she was frozen. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, as if she was under water. She caught her breath.
‘I didn’t want to tell you in front of the boys,’ widow Silva said. ‘I’m so sorry.’
Still, Ana said nothing. She didn’t want to believe it. At the same time, she felt in her bones it was true.
In the church, the bell began to toll the alarm.
‘I should go to her,’ Ana said in a voice that didn’t sound like it belonged to her.
‘There’s nothing you can do for her now,’ widow Silva said.
Ana stared at her without seeing anything. ‘What happened, do you know? Were you with her?’
Widow Silva shook her head. ‘I found her. I have laid her out as she would have wanted.’
Ana snapped out of her trance. ‘I must go to her.’
Widow Silva grabbed her arm. ‘You must think of your brothers, you must think of yourself.’
Ana shook her head. ‘I can’t just leave her! It’s not right! You can’t think I would leave her—’
‘Listen to me. They killed her, Ana. I saw her with my own eyes. I put her prayer beads in her hands and her bible beside her head. Nothing can harm her. We have to pray she is with your father now. But we must go. Don’t you realise they will kill you if they find you? Pablo and Carlos too.’ Widow Silva looked up. ‘If the mountain doesn’t kill us first.’
Ana stood rooted to the spot, not sure what to do. There was a final mighty rumble, as if the whole world was breaking apart. Then, a noise such as she had never heard before; an explosion from deep inside the mountain. Moments later, a funnel of burning rock and fire shot up out of the crater, turning the night sky into red and orange and gold.
