That night, the king’s advisor—a man known only as El Duende (The Goblin)—visited Cristóbal in his dressing room. El Duende was tall, gaunt, with eyes the color of a dead fireplace. He wore no suit of diamonds. He wore a black cassock, like a defrocked priest.
And then all the captive harlequins laughed. And the monastery laughed. And the moon laughed. And El Duende—he laughed too. harlequin espa¤ol
But no one called them harlequins here. In Spain, they were los pintados : the painted ones. That night, the king’s advisor—a man known only