THE WOMAN IN SCARLET
A woman in red waited for us at the end of the pier.
Somewhere in her early forties and slender, with short black hair, she stood head and shoulders above the crowd of shorter native people who had also gathered, the baskets in their brown hands overflowing with goods. As seamen lowered the gangplank onto the stone dock, she began frantically waving a pale arm in greeting. Everyone with the expedition had gathered together with our luggage behind us, and when Mr. Stephens raised a hand in answer, my grandfather asked, “Do you know her?”
He shook his head. “I do not have a clue. However,” Mr. Stephens’ gaze seeming to take in everyone on the pier, “I do not see Jose.”
During the voyage, Mr. Stephens had told us stories about his friend Jose Gonzales who owned a hacienda, which was a kind of estate like my grandfather had, not far from the city. Mr. Gonzales had been instrumental as their go between with the Mexican government. My grandfather motioned towards the woman. “Perhaps he was delayed and sent her in his place.”
Mr. Stephens shook his head. “That is not like him at all.” On the pier, the crowd made way for a portly officer with gold pauldrons lined with red fringe on his shoulders, who was marching towards us. Two soldiers bearing rifles followed.
“For that matter,” Catherwood said, “I do not see any Eldarions either. Only those two half-bloods over there,” motioning at two females with the same black hair and brown skin as the native women, but with ears rising to a sharp point, standing at the edge of the crowd. “I am dream-linked to the mother of my daughter, and I sent Rainriver a message that we would be arriving today.”
The three males traded uneasy looks as the officer marched up the gangplank and began speaking in Spanish to Captain Lafitte, who answered him in the same. Even though I could not understand their speech, the officer seemed brusque until the captain pulled out a small leather bag that clinked and handed it over.
The officer opened it and smiled. Then he closed the bag and stuffed it into a pocket as his voice became warm, as if he and the captain were old friends, the man waving a pudgy hand as if telling the Frenchman to proceed. As the three started back down the gangplank, Mr. Stephens asked, “Is there a problem?”
Captain Lafitte smiled. “Ze Mexican government is still upset over ze little matter of their country being invaded some years ago by ze Union, when it was ze Union of ze United States. However, a special, shall we say, harbor tax, made things right. So, is your friend Jose in ze crowd, or are we supposed to meet him-”
“Permission to come aboard,” the pale woman called out in the nasal accent of New York.
Captain Lafitte turned and smiled. “With such a lovely creature as yourself asking, how can I refuse?”
She smiled back at him and bounced up the gangplank, her thick black hair shiny as if freshly washed, with an angular face as if food was not a large priority in her life. “Thank you, captain. So, you’re John Lloyd Stephens, right?”
Mr. Stephens cleared his throat. “That is correct, miss…”
“Sorry. It’s Miriam Ravenwood, owner of the very best hotel in all of Campeche City, ‘The Raven’.”
“As I recall,” Catherwood said in a dry voice, “the last time we were here, Campeche did not have a hotel, only inns.”
“It does now. And since we’re the only game in town, I can truthfully say it’s the best. Now,” her voice becoming more business like, “custom’s good when the trade ships are docked, but right now there’s only you folks. So how many rooms do you need?”
“Pardon me, madame,” Mr. Stephens said, “but I fear we must decline your offer. We are supposed to meet my friend, Jose Gonzales, whose hacienda we are staying-” Miss Ravenwood’s eyes went wide as her mouth formed an O, and Mr. Stephens’ voice became sharp as a razor. “What is it? What is wrong?”
“Oh, sweet mercy, you don’t know.” Miss Ravenwood took a deep breath as she smoothed her red dress. “Three nights ago, poor Jose’s hacienda was attacked and the main house burned to the ground.”
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“What! How could something like this happen?”
Miss Ravenwood took a step away from him. “No one knows for sure. But everyone thinks it’s because he wanted Mexico to remain a Republic, while the landowners closer to Merida want the monarchy restored.”
“Seriously?” Catherwood raised an eyebrow. “Jose told us he stayed out of politics so not to disrupt the good relations he had with the Eldarion-Maya.”
“You’re Catherwood.” He nodded and she said, “Everything has changed in the last few years since you both left.” Miss Ravenwood took another deep breath. “I really hate to be the one to tell you, but it’s worse than this. Jose’s dead.” Mr. Stephens’ expression slid into horror as she wrung her hands. “I thought someone from the city government had told you already.”
“We had a Confederate ship nipping at our heels,” Captain Lafitte said, “and I could not use ze Terramagica messenger for fear they would intercept ze signal.”
Catherwood whirled on him. “Campeche City is part of the Eldarion-Maya homeland, which means no Terramagica. Period.”
The captain only shrugged. “I have been messaging ze Campeche port authorities since we left New York, giving them updates.”
“Everyone had to compromise,” Miss Ravenwood said, pointing up at the stone fort farther along the coast. “San Miguel has a Terramagica messaging device and so does Soledad,” moving her hand to point at the fortification projecting out from the wall beside the wooden gate, “where the port authority is. None of the other bastions are permitted any, nor is fort San Jose, which you passed coming in. Everyone’s gotten used to the arrangement.”
“So, if they knew we were coming,” Catherwood said, “where are the Eldarions who were to meet us here?”
Miss Ravenwood seemed to be choosing her words with care. “All the Eldarions, except for the shaman Ran-Li and her granddaughter, Kinubal, left the city after Jack determined the family had been murdered and the house set on fire to cover the crime.”
Miss Ravenwood wrung her hands again as the three older males turned on her. “Murdered?”
“My daughter, is she alright?”
“Just whom is this Jack fellow?”
She raised her hands in supplication. “I’m sorry, truly, truly sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings. No Eldarion was hurt in the attack; in fact, whoever did it waited until all the visitors Jose had been hosting that night had left, including Rainriver and the shaman Ran-Li. They were discussing your upcoming expedition. Anyway, Ran-Li’s taken on a half-blood Eldarion lover, a male named Jack Watson, and the next morning when all of us heard the news, Ran-Li sent him along with the guard captain to investigate.
“Jack’s father was Eldarion-Apache, and he can read the signs of what truly happened better than anyone else. As I heard it, he showed the captain evidence of murder, that the entire family and the servants had been rounded up, as he put it, placed into one room and shot dead before the house was burned to the ground.”
“Hold on,” my grandfather said. “You are implying that an Eldarion male got a human female pregnant? That is supposed to be impossible.”
“There have been rare cases of it,” Catherwood answered. “However, to do so is now considered an evil act by us, on par with altering humans, as was done with your family. It cannot be done naturally.” My grandfather made an inviting motion for the Eldarion to continue, but he shook his head. “I will speak of it later in private, if you wish.”
Miss Ravenwood turned and pointed at the gate leading into the city. “Jack and Ran-Li are sitting in my courtyard at the moment, so if you want to ask him, be my guest. After the fire, Ran-Li told me about the expedition and said you’d need a place to stay.”
My grandfather hesitated before he spoke. “We also have terrible news concerning her daughter-”
“Naamah? Ran-Li already knows. Naamah’s daughter Rainbow’s still pretty upset but Ran-Li’s acting like she’d been expecting it. She’s cold, even for an Eldarion.” Miss Ravenwood glanced at Catherwood and flushed red. “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out right.”
“No, it came out exactly as you meant.” Catherwood turned to the other two. “It would seem things have changed. What do you want to do?”
“I have no choice except to carry on,” my grandfather replied.
“Nor will I be deterred,” Mr. Stephens added. “Miss Ravenwood, if you could provide rooms at a reasonable expense, I would be quite grateful.”
“Best rooms in the house.” She brightened, the smile returning to her face. “All of you leave your luggage; I’ll have my porters retrieve the pieces and stow them in your rooms while you’re having dinner. Hope you’re hungry, because Maria gets upset if you don’t eat like a horse.”
Still chattering away like a magpie, Miss Ravenwood led us off the ship.
When the great Human Rebellion against their Eldarion masters occurred, spiraling civilization into barbarity for a time, the only Eldarion empire spared was the one spanning both North and South America. Almost nothing is known about them, though it’s certain they were far more sophisticated and complex than any civilization in existence today, based on the few remaining structures they left behind.
What is known is that their civilization collapsed sometime around 2500 B.C. For a thousand years there is only silence, until 1500 B.C. and the rise of the Eldarion-Olmecs, the proto-civilization for what came after. They were not an empire as we think of one; rather, they organized themselves into city-states with varying degrees of power.
The Eldarion-Olmecs lasted until around 400 B.C., when it too collapsed and became several distinct civilizations, which lasted until the coming of the Spanish conquistadors…