Blood flushed Reina’s face. In hindsight she should have controlled her emotions.
“Without his blessing, you’ll have no choice but to return to the cockroach nest that is Segolita.” Despite the darkness, the glint of Do?a Ursulina’s smiling teeth was unmissable. “Unless, of course, you become my successor.”
Reina forgot to breathe in the silence. But she’d heard correctly. “Now?” she said in a weak voice.
The skies clamored around them, the air smelling like the rains weren’t through with the night.
“Yes, now. When else?” Do?a Ursulina said, her long pointed nail lifting Reina’s chin to better gaze into her eyes. “My blood ends with you. Why else would I waste my time saving you, educating you?”
When her nail let go, she made a grasping gesture in the air between them. A sharp tang filled Reina’s lungs. Something clutched her heart, reeling it in, as if Do?a Ursulina had the power to crush it in her half-open palm.
“Why else impart the capability to control the very thing keeping you alive?” She yanked Reina’s shirt open, revealing her chest to the bite of the Páramo air. “I wanted a useful, obedient heir.” She yanked Reina’s bindings down, then dug her talon-like fingernails around the iridio ore latched to Reina’s artificial heart. “Not one who would abandon me like Juan Vicente did.”
Reina couldn’t move. She lost her breath and for a second was sure she’d never get it back.
“So, as a guarantee that you will be obedient—that you will return to me—I shall be taking this,” Do?a Ursulina said, dislodging the ore from its socket. It disconnected with a click, exposing the crystal cladding beneath, which protected the pump feeding life into Reina’s body.
Reina’s breath returned with a painful gasp. Her knees went buttery, but Do?a Ursulina’s influence kept her rooted to the spot. Unable to move or fall.
Her grandmother held the ore in front of her, like hanging a bone over a hound’s head. It hissed with a thousand devilish iridio spells, mocking Reina. Her transplant heart still pumped as frantically as it could, for it still had iridio solution surging through its tubes and chambers. Only, without the ore to replenish that iridio solution, every passing second truly was a pallbearer escorting her to the end.
A fat droplet of rainwater landed on the bridge of Reina’s nose. The freedom to move returned to her. “Why?” she croaked out, steadying on her feet and fighting the dizziness, the panic, and the tears as she fumbled to button her shirt up. “Why take it from me?”
“I have invested so much in you, and my trust has been thoroughly shattered in the past. I cannot afford to lose another one.”
Another one. Another son; another heir.
Reina’s gaze held her grandmother’s. She wanted to reach out, to reassure her that she would be true and return, for she had so much to thank Do?a Ursulina for. This was the family they had, all tatters and tainted edges, but it was still their relationship and their shared blood. Yet the deed had been done, the ore unlatched. If anything, it only felt like a knife rending their bond as Rahmagut’s Claw tore the sky.
“Find Celeste. Make her understand it is only a draw of blood. You bring her to me, and I shall give this back to you, along with much, much more.”
Reina frowned as the truth opened between them, at the shock. She was a fool for feeling surprised. For not assuming Do?a Ursulina would be a step ahead in knowing.
Her hand shot out to grip Do?a Ursulina’s wrist, to stop her. This time she didn’t care if she crossed a line. “But I’ll die without the ore.”
Do?a Ursulina’s toothy smirk flashed white in the darkness. “Indeed. These ores are as rare as they come. From the great fallen star. You will either become enslaved to iridio potions, or you will bring me Celeste and become the obedient heir I’m asking you to be.”
Heir. Reina didn’t miss the bone thrown her way, even as she understood her grandmother was merely exercising her cunning by tossing it. Though the promise was true enough. Do?a Ursulina, like Reina, had no one else, both of them drawn from the same stock.
There was a rustle as Do?a Ursulina fished under her jacket, then pulled out the pendant hanging from her neck. “Here’s enough iridio potion to carry you through, once whatever’s left in your heart runs out.” She withdrew a velvet pouch jingling with escudos. “And some gold, in case you need it.”
Reina accepted it, her jaw rippling as their hands touched in the exchange.
“Do not look so grim. We have less than twenty days.”
Twenty days to find and bring her Celeste, or perish from her starved heart. How she felt a fool, thinking she could have kept Celeste’s truth a secret from her grandmother.
“How long have you known? Did you always intend to leave her for last?” Reina had lost so much, she might as well take a shovel and dig her own grave.
There was no answer, but she could feel her grandmother’s smile.
“Does Don Enrique know?”
Do?a Ursulina lifted her chin once again. At that instant, the sky split in lightning that revealed her hungry eyes. “Even if he did, do you doubt he would force Celeste to give her blood? For the return of his beloved wife?”
“I’m not going to force Celeste into anything.”
Do?a Ursulina’s silence warned Reina of her outrage. “No, you will not.” She pointed to the night, where black-shrouding rain clouds blocked the view to the traveling star. “You will bring her to the tomb in Tierra’e Sol before Rahmagut’s Claw finishes its journey through our skies. There you will meet me, and I will bring you your ore.”
Reina took in a heady breath, letting her grandmother’s plan steady her. Despite her monumental stupidity with the caudillo, they had a way forward.
“You’ll bring the other damas?”
“Yes.” Do?a Ursulina paused. She was ready to leave, as if their exchange were nothing but a trifle. Reina could taste it in the air. Suddenly Do?a Ursulina squeezed Reina’s wrist, yanking her closer so Reina wouldn’t miss it. “Reina, with Rahmagut’s favor, you can ask for a brand-new heart.” She raised the ore between them, which was as black as the night enveloping them. “You can make iridio irrelevant to your life. Do not miss the chance.”
Her grandmother didn’t care for a goodbye. She simply turned and disappeared into the damp darkness of the estate. Reina watched her go as her chest throbbed and begged for sustenance, each gulp of air feeling inadequate and leaving her starved. Hot tears burned the corners of her eyes as she glared up at the sky—at the vast domain of Rahmagut’s Claw. With all the strength her lungs had to offer, she shouted a curse that was drowned out by thunder and answered in rain.
22
A Contract of Iridio
Eva wasn’t sure what to expect when she gathered her geomancia rings and, with just the clothes on her person, allowed Javier to spirit her away. They traveled with his guard, a party of six armored men wearing high-necked jackets embroidered with laurels and the ivory-and-gold eagle crest of the ?guilas. They covered as much distance as they could in their gilded carriage at nighttime. Then the guards dropped them off at the river docks of a fishing village on the banks of Río’e Marle （as a gilded carriage made for a conspicuous traveling party） at dawn, and Javier paid a boatman who escorted them for another full day and night by river. As twilight unveiled the following morning, the boat left them near a swampy lowland dominated by moriche palm trees. The road hugged the edges of the morichal and, as Javier assured her, would take them to a port by the Fedrian border.