Free The Second Ring of Power by Carlos Castaneda

enormous red lump on her
forehead. I got some water and splashed it on her face, the way don Juan had
always done with me. When she regained consciousness I made her walk, holding
her by the armpits. She was soaked in perspiration. I applied towels with cold
water on her forehead. She threw up, and I was almost sure she
had a brain concussion. She was shivering. I tried to pile clothes and
blankets over her for warmth but she took off all her clothes and
turned her body to face the wind. She asked me to leave her alone and said that
if the wind changed direction, it would be a sign that she was going
to get well. She held my hand in a sort of brief handshake
and told me that it was fate that had pitted us against each other.
    "I think one of us was supposed to die tonight," she said.
    "Don't be silly. You're not finished yet," I said and really
meant it.
    Something made me feel confident that she was all right. I went
outside, picked up a stick and walked to my car. The dog growled. He
was still curled up on the seat. I told him to get out. He meekly jumped out.
There was something different about him. I saw his enormous shape trotting away
in the semidarkness. He went to his corral.
    I was free. I sat in the car for a moment to deliberate. No, I was not
free. Something was pulling me back into the house. I had unfinished
business there. I was no longer afraid of dona Soledad .
In fact, an extraordinary indifference had taken possession of me. I felt that
she had given me, deliberately or unconsciously, a supremely
important lesson. Under the horrendous pressure of her
attempt to kill me, I had actually acted upon her from a level that would have
been inconceivable under normal circumstances. I had nearly
been strangled; something in that confounded room of hers had
rendered me helpless and yet I had extricated myself. I could not imagine
what had happened. Perhaps it was as don Juan had always maintained, that all
of us have an extra potential, something which is there but rarely gets to be
used. I had actually hit dona Soledad from a phantom position.
    I took my flashlight from the car, went back into the house, lit all
the kerosene lanterns I could find and sat down at the table in the
front room to write. Working relaxed me.
    Toward dawn dona Soledad stumbled out of her room. She could hardly keep
her balance. She was completely naked. She became ill and collapsed
by the door. I gave her some water and tried to cover her with a blanket. She
refused it. I became concerned with the possibility of her losing body
heat. She muttered that she had to be naked if she expected the wind to cure
her. She made a plaster of mashed leaves, applied it to her
forehead and fixed it in place with her turban. She wrapped a
blanket around her body and came to the table where I was writing and sat down facing
me. Her eyes were red. She looked truly sick.
    "There is something I must tell you," she said in a weak
voice. "The Nagual set me up to wait for you; I had to wait even if it
took twenty years. He gave me instructions on how to entice you and steal your
power. He knew that sooner or later you had to come to see Pablito and Nestor,
so he told me to use that opportunity to bewitch you and
take everything you have. The Nagual said that if I lived an impeccable life my
power would bring you here when there would be no one else in
the house. My power did that. Today you came when everybody was gone. My
impeccable life had helped me. All that was left for me to do was
to take your power and then kill you."
    "But why would you want to do such a horrible thing?"
    "Because I need your power for my own journey. The Nagual had to
set it up that way. You had to be the one; after all, I really
don't know you. You mean nothing to me. So why shouldn't I take
something I need so desperately from someone who doesn't count at all? Those
were the Nagual's very words."
    "Why would the Nagual want to hurt me? You yourself said that he
worried about