How easy it was to let the King taste the pleasures she offered. He accepted her potions on his tongue: droplets that swayed his mind. He succumbed to sexual promises, his desire stretched as taut as a bow’s cord until near breaking, teased over time until his lust was rewarded. Her enticements for him to act against his enemies were more seductive than those of the heretic priest Garindo. She knew how to manipulate the King’s erratic behaviour; the man’s skilled hunter’s instincts were easily inflamed so that he saw those who stood in his way, or who in any way challenged him, as prey. Velasquita Alcón sowed doubt in his mind about the commander of his royal bodyguard, Gutier de Toledo. There was no more loyal soldier than de Toledo. He had fought the King of Aragon for years, keeping at bay Don Pedro’s bastard half-brother and any threat of invasion. He knew how dangerous her influence was on the King and had vowed to expose the depth of her evil. It was child’s play to undermine him. She had others lay false claims and evidence against him, showing that he colluded with the enemy, that he supported the half-brother’s claim to the throne and intended to help the Aragonese seize the crown of Castile for him. The innocent man was beheaded with great fanfare.

The shadow witch continued her master’s work. The young Queen had been an easy victim and Velasquita laid the blame for her death on two Jews. One by one those close to Don Pedro fell: threat or not, their demise weakened him. Her purpose was not to help any one man succeed to the throne but to cause dissent and disruption. The King’s beloved mistress, María de Padilla, mother to four of his children, died within months of the Queen. The plague was blamed and her death caused Don Pedro great suffering; his grief allowed her to manipulate his weakness still further. Now the time had come to remove the heretic priest so she and she alone controlled the mind and emotions of the King of Castile.

*

She stood naked in the morning glow in her chamber high in the palace tower: an eyrie for the woman feared by everyone in the court. The sunlight was pushing its warmth across the mountains into her chamber and she let it bathe her like a jealous lover teasing aside the veil of darkness. The devil’s inheritance was a mysterious gift. Never questioned. Never doubted. Her mind’s eye soared across the peaks. The light blinded her and then opened a portal. She saw the men’s approach. Still days away, yet fighting their way towards the king.