Sci - Fi Short Stories

The City of Stones

They all had to quickly leave the castle; they were not enough to contain the fire in time, and soon their house turned into ashes. Catalina and her sisters were standing beside their mother with Juan, the heir of the family, the only surviving son of Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabella of Castille. The King was discussing with his counselors.

“We won the battle, Your Majesty, but I’m afraid not yet the war. The Moors will regroup and attack us again. And they do have their unholy sources and weapons that can overcome us.”

“No power is greater than God’s.” Queen Isabella replied. The counselors looked shyly to her.

“We cannot underestimate our enemy, my Queen. Whichever their sources were to acquire such weapons, they are lethal.”

“They are heretics. Such sinful and mortal weapons cannot possibly have come from God. They must be stopped. It is God’s wish.”

Queen Isabella seemed to always know what God’s wish was; for Catalina, God spoke to her mother, and they had the same wishes. The little princess never argued; she knew her mother was always right.

“Well, then can God give us a way to at least regroup?” One of them said, with a slight sarcastic tone. “We are ruined. The castle was destroyed, most of our men were killed, we have no camping, not enough weapons, no cloth, nothing!”

Queen Isabella nodded, thoughtful. Her husband looked at her, waiting for an answer. He was a great military leader, but he valued his wife’s opinion and wisdom, always taking her advices and never taking a step without her consent.

“Do we have rocks?” she asked, more to herself than to the men.

Another counselor said, visibly trying not to laugh. “I believe we are rich with rocks now, your Majesty. Look around; we are surrounded by rocks. It’s all we have.”

“Well, well, then” she said to her husband. “Let’s build a house from rocks.”

He looked at her a bit confused. “It would take a long time to build a proper house, sweetheart.”

“Forget about luxury. I only need a roof to live under. Let’s take what we have and use it in our favor.”

“How are we supposed to do so?” a man asked.

“We still have a couple of thousand men. It is enough, if we work quickly, incessantly and together. Let’s make not only a house, but a city of stones.”

And so was done; in less than three weeks, the Spanish had built houses, stables and even a small chapel. They call it "La Ciudade de las Piedras", the City of Stones. Catalina saw every word of her mother becoming true, and she knew that God was in Heaven and Isabella of Castille was on Earth, and both of them thought alike. Despite what the Moors thought.

~*~

“¿Madre?”

“¿Sí, querida?”

“May I ask you something?”

Isabella of Castille looked down to Catalina. “Of course, querida. What is it?”

“It’s about the battle.” She started.

The Queen waited.

“The Moors have giant weapons. They don’t look… they are so strange, madre. What are they?”

“You know what they are.”

“I know. But where did they come from? Why do they have those and we don’t?”