The Keys of Time (128 pages) is the third of four works of fiction by Luísa Villalta, the others being Silence, We’re Rehearsing (1991), Theory of Games (1997) and Wake Up from Your Sleep (2002). The Keys of Time was published by A Nosa Terra in 2001.

In a prologue, we learn that the narrator is called Silence because no one wants to listen to her. Her companions in the castle are occupied with vanities or the concerns of daily life, such as food, clothes, farming and trade. They are bored of books or waiting for a prince or a knight to enter their chambers and sweep them off their feet. So the narrator is not going to tell her story for them, or for the men away at war, but for those who are yet to be born. Arturo is king of Galicia, and Galicia prospers under his rule – there is maize, fish and meat for everybody. But enemies are always threatening their borders, and the king, who has two sons – Afonso and Pedro – is concerned about the question of succession. He does not agree with the idea that the firstborn should inherit the throne, in case the firstborn is not suitable or simply prefers to lead a quiet, untroubled life, and both his sons have their merits. While pondering this question, he falls into a slumber, and in his dream his more famous predecessor, King Arthur, appears to him and provides him with a solution. He will make two keys, one of gold, the other – a replica – of iron. Both will open the doors of the kingdom, but while the gold key will bring prosperity and good fortune, the iron key will spell disaster and destruction. The king consults the sage Merlin, who lives on top of the world, where he can see the whole of time, without a before or an afterwards, who advises that the keys must be handed to their owners without anyone knowing which is which, and it will be fortune who decides which of the sons ascends to the throne.

When his sons are grown men and about to set off for war, Arturo summons them and hands them each a key. The elder brother, Afonso, is noble, so noble he can be cruel and selfish. If he inherits the throne, he will be able to maintain order, but if his key is the iron key, then his people will fear him. His retinue is made up of the finest courtiers. Pedro is kind-hearted and artistic. He runs the risk of being taken advantage of, and his retinue is made up of disorganized plebeians who are, however, devoted to him. When news reaches Afonso of Arturo’s death, he sends his trusted knight Roi Soares de Paiva to inform Pedro of their father’s death and then to arrest him – not to send him into exile, as their father had wished, but to kill him after retrieving the other key. Roi Soares arrests Pedro, who is attending assiduously to his men and at the same time fighting the enemy. Pedro refuses to hand over the key, so Roi Soares escorts him to the palace. On the way, they stop at a castle that has been taken by the forces of Queen Eleonora under her commander-in-chief, Alvar de Morasilla. Alvar plans to marry the lady of the castle, María das Augas Doces, the very next day. He relieves Roi Soares of his prisoner and tells him to go to his king and arrange a treaty between them, otherwise Alvar will kill him and replace him with his younger brother. Roi Soares, accompanied by some of Alvar’s men, sets out to the palace, without their prisoner, and they spend the night in Lamela, a town that used to be prosperous, but is now all shut up out of fear of brigands.

Alvar comes to María’s rooms to ask/tell her to prepare for their wedding the next day. He doesn’t have much experience of women and thinks of love as an exercise that is similar to warfare – you go in with your weapons raised until victory or weariness forces you to lower them. María, who is a widow, her young husband having fallen in battle almost without approaching her bed, says if she must marry the next day, it will be against her will. She seems to have a plan. At the inn in Lamela, Roi Soares is unaware of the displeasure his arrival has caused the innkeeper, Laredo (“Master Touciño”). He sits away from the soldiers and drinks in the company of a hired assassin, Armada, asking him if he would be prepared to join him against the king, Afonso. In the meantime, Pedro suffers cold in the dungeons of the castle, where he is imprisoned. He thinks of the dungeon that is every man’s life, but doesn’t wish to die in order to escape these earthly chains, since he has been intoxicated by María’s beauty. María herself would much prefer to have Pedro as an invading army than the fat and gluttonous Alvar, whom she is due to marry in the morning, and she determines to visit the dungeons that night. A girl keeps the soldiers company in the inn in Lamela and provides them with wine, but when one of the company seeks to grab her from behind, Armada springs to his feet and threatens him with his sword. The soldiers go to rest; the girl enters the room she has prepared for Armada upstairs.

While a lady-in-waiting, Helena, entertains the guard who has been placed at the door of the dungeon, María goes to free Pedro, leading him along secret passageways and out into the open, where two horses, clothing, gold and food, enable them to escape. Meanwhile, Armada and the other soldiers lead their prisoner, Roi Soares, in the direction of the palace, where Afonso awaits. In the castle, preparations are underway for the wedding that is due to take place. Alvar has summoned the abbot of a local monastery and waits in the castle church for his bride to appear, but the woman who approaches the altar is not María – it is her trusted confidant, Isabel. Alvar is furious, the other guests are relieved. In his palace, Afonso is convinced he is the best person to rule the kingdom. He prefers the company of his loyal knights, but keeps his father’s advisers close, in case they should decide to favour his brother, Pedro, and doesn’t pay much attention to the women. Now is not the time for marriage, there are more important matters to attend to. He is surprised to learn of Pedro’s imprisonment and the approach of Roi Soares as hostage and messenger.

Roi Soares appears before the king, Afonso, and reads out Alvar’s terms and conditions, but before Afonso has a chance to reject them, Roi Soares signals to Armada and his men, and they seize Afonso. Roi Soares says he is not going to kill him, only to make him slowly disappear, and has the king imprisoned without food or water. He waits in the throne room, where the local bishop, Martín de Mendoza, appears and pledges his support – together with that of the Church – to Roi Soares. They determine to do away with this business of the keys. Two girls, Marta and Manuela, are led on a cart by their brother, Domingos. They are on their way to the Carnival festivities in Gorgomela, where there is a figure of Lent, a group of girls (men dressed in women’s clothing), a throne with a bishop, a knight in armour and another knight without armour, a singer called Tristán and a dancer called Isaura, who tell how a queen (this can be understood to mean Queen Eleonora) disinherited her third and final daughter and left her penniless. The people wonder what has happened to their king, Afonso – rumour has it he went out hunting early one winter morning and never returned. Two men watch over the proceedings to make sure there is no unruly behaviour. They work for Roi Soares, whose main concern is to capture the other brother, Pedro. Tristán and Isaura turn out to be Pedro and María, who, having left Galicia, have travelled to France and Portugal and now returned. They plan with their songs to rouse the people. As soon as Roi Soares hears of their presence at the festivities, he guesses their true identity and sets out with the two guards to meet them on the road. They are about to attack them when three crows appear, digging their talons in the horses’ manes and blinding the three riders, so that Pedro and María can escape.

Pedro and María wander through the woods, where they come across a girl trying to catch two sheep, one white, the other black. She asks for their help, and when they succeed in tying the two sheep, she invites them to her home. However, Pedro and María do not trust her – they are right: the girl and the sheep turn out to be Roi Soares and his assassins. They escape into the forest, where they come across a hut inhabited by an old, blind woman, who feeds them a delicious broth and gives them delicious apples to eat. She then gives them a place to sleep and tells them the next day they must continue up the hill behind her house and not turn aside from their path for any reason. When they wake up the next morning, they find themselves in the ruins of a monastery. They continue uphill, avoiding the temptation to leave the path to recover their cart (where Roi Soares is waiting), and on the fourth day they finally come across the wizard Merlin, whose advice they have been seeking. Merlin informs them that they are all characters in a novel. Outside his house, time passes quickly. A conversation lasts seventy times seven days. María blinks, and trees grow, the nature changes. She sees factories, cars and roads. Merlin explains that the keys were made of the same material. Afonso was strict and had the best knights. It was obvious he would get the power first. He would rule for the rich and powerful, believing himself in possession of the gold key, but he would take away the people’s freedom. The people would long for Pedro the kind-hearted to return. There have been many technological advances, but people have not escaped evil. There is inequality, they live in cement cages and only talk to discuss the prices of things. Life expectancy grows, but the desire to live diminishes. This is why people need to imagine the possibility of Pedro and María. Merlin leaves them in the City. María recognizes her ladies-in-waiting, Isabel and Helena. They take them to a café run by Laredo, where Roi Soares’ two guards are standing at the counter, but they leave them behind and enter a back room, where everybody wants to know about the past and what the future holds. This, the narrator cannot say – she belongs to another time. But she hopes her narrative will enable us, her readers, to make way for the kingdom we once lost.

The Keys of Time is an allegory. Whatever our technological advances, we don’t get happier, nor is there greater equality in the world. The author seems to be suggesting that we look in the past for a different direction – a kingdom ruled by a kind-hearted king, Pedro, who looks out for his people and doesn’t serve the interests of the rich and powerful. Queen Eleonora stands for Castile – centralization. In a way, the novel is calling for self-determination where people’s well-being is at the heart of policy, not getting rich. This is an interesting and well-written narrative that deserves to reach a wider audience.

Synopsis © Jonathan Dunne