The Second Ring of Power Read Online Free PDF Page A

lying on her bed, covered with her shawl.
    "Please forgive me for having done all those things to you,"
she said bluntly, looking at the ceiling.
    Her boldness stopped my rage.
    "You must understand my position," she went on. "I
couldn't let you go."
    She laughed softly, and in a clear, calm and very pleasing voice said
that she was guilty of being greedy and clumsy, that she had
nearly succeeded in scaring me away with her antics, but that
the situation had suddenly changed. She paused and sat up in her bed, covering
her breasts with her shawl, then added that a strange confidence had
descended into her body. She looked up at the ceiling and moved her arms in a
weird, rhythmical flow, like a windmill.
    "There is no way for you to leave now," she said.
    She scrutinized me without laughing. My internal rage had subsided but
my despair was more acute than ever. I honestly knew that in matters
of sheer strength I was no match for her or the dog.
    She said that our appointment had been set up years in advance, and that
neither of us had enough power to hurry it, or break it.
    "Don't knock yourself out trying to leave," she said.
"That's as useless as my trying to keep you here.
Something besides your will will release you from here, and something besides
my will will keep you here."
    Somehow her confidence had not only mellowed her, but had given her a
great command over words. Her statements were compelling and crystal
clear. Don Juan had always said that I was a trusting soul
when it came to words. As she talked I found myself thinking that she was not
really as threatening as I thought. She no longer projected the
feeling of having a chip on her shoulder. My reason was almost at ease but
another part of me was not. All the muscles of my body were like
tense wires, and yet I had to admit to myself that although she scared me out
of my wits I found her most appealing. She watched me.
    "I'll show you how useless it is to try to leave," she said,
jumping out of bed. "I'm going to help you. What
do you need?"
    She observed me with a gleam in her eyes. Her small white teeth gave her
smile a devilish touch. Her chubby face was strangely smooth and fairly
free of wrinkles. Two deep lines running from the sides
of her nose to the corners of her mouth gave her face the appearance of
maturity, but not age. In standing up from the bed she casually
let her shawl fall straight down, uncovering her full breasts.
She did not bother to cover herself. Instead she swelled up her chest and
lifted her breasts.
    "Oh, you've noticed, eh?" she said, and rocked her body from
side to side as if pleased with herself. "I always keep my hair
tied behind my head. The Nagual told me to do so. The pull makes
my face younger."
    I had been sure that she was going to talk about her breasts. Her shift
was a surprise to me.
    "I don't mean that the pull on my hair is going to make me look
younger," she went on with a charming smile. "The pull
on my hair makes me younger."
    "How is that possible?" I asked.
    She answered me with a question. She wanted to know if I had correctly
understood don Juan when he said that anything was possible if one wants it
with unbending intent. I was after a more precise
explanation. I wanted to know what else she did besides tying her hair, in
order to look so young. She said that she lay in her bed and emptied
herself of any thoughts and feelings and then let the lines of her floor pull
her wrinkles away. I pressed her for more details: any feelings,
    sensations, perceptions that she had experienced while lying on her
bed. She insisted that she felt nothing, that she did not know how the
lines in her floor worked, and that she only knew not to let
her thoughts interfere.
    She placed her hands on my chest and shoved me very gently. It seemed to
be a gesture to show that she had had enough of my questions. We
walked outside, through the back door. I told her that I
needed a long stick. She went directly to a pile of firewood, but there