Adventure Awaits
What the Wind Brings by Matthew Hughes, winner of the 2020 Endeavour Award, is a slipstream historical epic that tells the story of African slaves left shipwrecked on the jungle coast of 16th-century Ecuador. They allied with local indigenous people and together outfought and out-thought Spanish conquistadors to preserve their freedom.
Through a braided narrative, Matthew tells the stories of three fascinating protagonists whose lives intersect in unexpected and powerful ways. An excerpt in Pulp Literature Issue 23, Summer 2019 brought readers aboard La Virgen and introduced Alonso Illescas, an educated slave loyal to the merchant family who put him in charge of their ship’s cargo. His fellow protagonists are Alejandro Espinosa, an idealistic Trinitarian monk fleeing the Inquisition, and Expectation, a hermaphroditic Nigua shaman.
In 2020 we shared with you the opening act, which you can catch up on here. Enjoy the following excerpt to see what happens next. And for all the adventure, pick up your copy of Issue 23 or What the Wind Brings!
What the Wind Brings
by Matthew Hughes
La Virgen moves sluggishly behind the straining boats. Mendoza still watches the western horizon, now dead ahead of the bow. Nicaragua’s coastal galleons are made mostly of cedar, not like the hardwood ships built in Manila for the trans-Pacific trade. She rides lightly on the water even though she is heavily laden. When her sails are filled with wind, the ship progresses to the accompaniment of a concert of her own noises: creaks of stays, tympanies of snapping canvas, the rush and gurgle of bruised water along her sides. But in this calm, there is no sound save for the shouts of the coxswains in the towing boats, calling the rhythm of the stroke.
The heat is stifling, the air so thick with moisture that, with every indrawn breath, Alonso can feel its weight settle into his lungs. The six passengers — two merchants and their wives and a blacksmith and a cordwainer — have come up from their cabins where they spend most of their days so as to avoid contact with the crew. Sailors are the lowest of the lowly, ranked down there with foreigners, and foreign sailors are doubly unacceptable. Alonso sees the passengers pull their sweat-soaked clothing away from their torsos, their faces red and dripping. The wife of one of the merchants wears a green gown stained dark down the back. Her husband notices Alonso and says something to his colleague. A brief glance in Alonso’s direction, then both turn their backs and usher their wives farther forward.
Find out what happens next in Issue 23, Summer 2019. Or get the whole story with your copy of What the Wind Brings!
Matthew Hughes writes in many genres under many names including Matt Hughes and Hugh Matthews. He is the winner of the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada and has been short-listed for the Aurora, Nebula, Philip K Dick, Endeavour (twice), AE van Vogt, and Derringer Awards. He was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association’s Hall of Fame. His work appears in Pulp Literature Issues 13, 23, and 26. Visit Matt at matthewhughes.org for updates on his many projects.
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