Spanners - The Fountain of Youth by Jonathan Maas Read Free Book Online Page B

him was to end him. The Lord spoke to me through the angel Adam Parr, and I knew the only way to end my brother was to do a devilish act, one that I hadn’t thought of until Adam came to guide me.”
    /***/
    “Adam and I waited until the night and then freed our child guide Koriuaka, and I whispered to him in his native Arawak that we’d had a change of heart. As proof I delivered the heads of his elders, and then told him that we needed to rectify what we had done.
    “So we freed the Fountain and bid her travel north, west or east; as long as it was out of our clutches. She disappeared , and the next morning my brother Juan came in, horrified.
    “‘ Hermano ,’ Juan said, ‘ what’s happened ?’”
    Diego took one more sip of white tea and then sighed.
    “I knew Juan was going to be dangerous as soon as he realized my treachery, so I attacked him with the axe that I’d used to unshackle the Fountain. I hacked him to bits; I knew that he would survive, but blows like that would keep him out of commission for a day or two at least.”
    “This is where our paths parted,” said Adam.
    “Indeed,” said Diego.
    “The plan was for us to take him back to Hispaniola,” said Adam. “He was to be tried for disobeying the queen’s orders and would have been imprisoned back in Spain.”
    “He would have gotten out,” said Diego.
    “The Fountain would have been safely hidden by then,” said Adam.
    “He would have found her no matter where she hid, and you know this to be true,” said Diego. “He would have escaped, and he would have found her.”
    Adam thought for a moment and then nodded; Diego was right.
    “I know you disapprove of what I did, Adam,” said Diego, “but you didn’t stop me, and you didn’t correct my actions after the fact.”
    “I didn’t,” said Adam, “ though perhaps I should have; no man deserves that punishment.”
    “No man does, but you didn’t interfere because you knew that it was the only way to protect the world from Juan’s lust for power.”
    “Perhaps,” said Adam.
    “What did you do?” asked the young boy.
    Diego nodded his head one more time and then looked directly at his son.
    “I took his body back to the village in Florida; the journey was slow, and every night I had to chop at Juan with my axe lest he come alive and run away. When I arrived at the village, the few remaining Arawaks there healed their decapitated brethren. It was a grisly few weeks, but soon they were whole and had to decide what to do with my brother, and there was only one punishment for their kind.”
    “Burial,” said Adam, his voice sounding hollow.
    “Indeed,” said Diego. “Typical capital punishment for an immortal spanner is a century, but the Arawaks punished their own much more harshly than that, and Juan’s sin was so grievous that they decided to punish him indefinitely. They put him in a metal box that we had brought and put him deep in the swamp, in a place that no one would ever find. I agreed to the punishment, and I even helped dig his grave.”
    “And five hundred years later, he’s out,” said Adam, “and he’s still a threat.”
    “He’s a greater threat than ever before,” said Diego, “because now my brother Juan Ponce de León is angry .”
    /***/
    The child was now sleeping and Diego patted his son’s head.
    “His eyes glow while he rests,” said Diego.
    “Dreams produce an intensity of emotion not found in real life,” said Adam.
    The women brought in some of the raw fruit that produced the tea. It was crispy and white with hard edges, and somewhat flavorless, but still good; it was like eating warm snow. Adam took a few bites and looked darkly at Diego.
    “So we didn’t complete a job five hundred years ago,” said Adam, “and here we are, dealing with the consequences.”
    “Tell me what you know of my brother,” said Diego, “and I’ll do what I can to help.”
    “Your brother has recovered completely,” said Adam. “He lives in a