Nathaniel employed every gesture he could think of to mime the act of boiling water, but Luis kept shaking his head and mumbling that he did not speak English. Nathaniel gave it up, poured the cold water over the wound, and wiped the blood with the strip of cloth that had bound the dressing. He tried to think of something else to do, but nothing came to him, not a single idea, so that, when Elvira brushed his hand aside and replaced the bundle of leaves, he drew back and left things to her.

Down on her knees, lowering her head, she slapped her thighs, beating out a quick, irregular rhythm, and began to chant again, in a voice deeper than her speaking voice, the words issuing from her lips sounding like a language out of some distant time:

Ibarago moyuba
Ibarago moyuba
Ibarago moyuba Elegba Eshulana …

She looked beautiful and magical, the hollows and angles of her face brought into bold relief by the lantern light. Nathaniel was momentarily arrested by the depth of her possession. Her head and shoulders swaying in time to her drumming, the beads around her neck swinging with her movements, she seemed no longer aware of anything or anyone around her.

Will heard her voice, coming from what seemed very far away. He felt a surge of strength and opened his eyes wide, but he did not see her. He saw instead the star in the heart of the heavens. Vega. Vega in Lyra. He also made out the constellations of Cygnus and Cepheus, nearly straight overhead, Cygnus, with the beacon of Deneb in its middle, a little ways astern of Lyra. Astern was east. We’re sailing almost due west, he thought, we’ve cleared out of Bahía de Cárdenas and are westering toward Havana, following the edge of the Gulf Stream. It’s about ten o’clock. The stars told him the course and time: the fixed and steadfast stars, all in their appointed places.

Ago, ago
Ago, ago …

The eerie incantation got on Nathaniel’s nerves, and he told Elvira to stop. She kept on. He seized her arm and said, “Stop it! I can’t think,” but she did not break her swaying.

Ago ile ago …

“Stop all that! It’s not doing him any good!”

“Señor, por favor, no.” Luis, standing behind Nathaniel, laid a hand on his shoulder and told him with gestures to let Elvira go.

“Su amigo … Lo siento …” he murmured.

“What? What are you saying? Eliot, what’s he saying?”

“Damnit, Nat, I don’t know.…”