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“But he’s still alive,” Lucero continued. “And I’m scared for you, señora,” she whispered. “El Señor, he doesn’t like losing face. More than anything, he enjoys inflicting pain on others. Hewillwant revenge. Once he gets better…” she swallowed hard.
“I imagined as much,” Noelle sighed, that one simple action making her wince in pain.
“Let’s get you better for now. I have all the faith that you can stand up to him, señora,” Lucero smiled.
“Call me Noelle, please.”
Lucero was silent for a moment.
“Noelle,” she whispered. “Very well, Noelle.”
Lucero helped her disinfect her wounds and apply some soothing cream to it. Noelle held herself still, her eyes squeezed shut as the initial sting of the cream made her shudder with pain. Slow breath after slow breath, she did her best to withstand the treatment. The worst was on her back where Sergio’s belt had split her skin open, deep lesions forming all along her spine and down to her bottom.
“You’ll need to sleep on your belly for a few days so these don’t get infected,” Lucero advised. “I always say I can’t believe how he could do something so bad to another human, and always, I’m proven that he can do worse,” Lucero sighed. “He is truly a most horrible human being.”
“Tell me more about him,” Noelle said as Lucero started tending to her facial injuries. “Why is everyone so deferent to him?”
“Deferent?” Lucero frowned, the word unfamiliar.
“Fernando said something about worship. Why are people behaving as if he’s larger than life?”
“Because to them he is.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s difficult to explain to an outsider,” Lucero pursed her lips. “El Señor is the savior of the region. Before him, there was no harvest, no food,nothing.People were starving,” she bit her lip. “My family was in that position, too. We lived an hour south of here where it’s more arid. My father was an American who only stayed here long enough to get my mother pregnant, so it’s always been just the two of us.”
“And she gave you to Sergio. Do you resent her?” Noelle inquired softly.
Lucero shook her head.
“She thought she was doing it for me,” she whispered, her lashes misted with tears. “We were starving. It was either that, or we’d both die together. This way… I survived. She didn’t.”
“I’m so sorry,” Noelle hurried to say, her heart squeezing in her chest at Lucero’s story.
“Everyone owes their lives to el señor. He gave jobs to people from all over the area. He made sure the families had enough food all year round. For that, everyone would lay their lives for him. He is a god among people here,” Lucero imparted. “Some people even say heisone of the old gods—the incarnation of Tezcatlipoca himself,” she whispered.
“Tezcatlipoca?” Noelle raised a brow. She recognized the name from her many discussions with Blue. He was one of the main Aztec deities and he was associated with obsidian—and sorcery.
Lucero nodded.
“There is a legend that when el señor took power after his old man died, the night sky persisted for days on end. Everything was dark and gloomy. Until he stood in front of his people and promised them that everything would be fine; that as long as they followed him he would grant them everything they wished for. After his proclamation, there was light again, almost as if he had power over night. Since then, the earth has been fertile. People no longer starve to death, nor do they die of disease.”
Noelle frowned. That seemed rather…suspicious. People no longer died of disease?
“What do they die of, then?”
Lucero shrugged.
“Old age. No one has been sick in decades.”
“When you mean sick, you mean…”
“Disease. Plagues. Our lands have been free of disease for as long as I can remember. Or so they say… If there is ever a rumor, it’s destroyed before it can reach people.”
Noelle narrowed her eyes at that sentence. She knew the power of rumors and that they should not be given credence in most cases, but all rumors started from a seed of truth.
She was well-read enough to know there was no such thing as a disease-free community. Even in a fully vaccinated group there was always at least the common cold, and other types of air-borne ailments that anyone could get.
