Javier chuckled. “Tinieblas exist everywhere, even in Galeno, I’m sure.”
Eva clenched her jaw as she recalled the night when she’d fought Décima. The bull standing on two feet and climbing a mango tree with the dexterity of a capuchin.
He got to his feet and moved away to sit over another hemp blanket he used for his bedding. More traveling supplies surrounded them. Blankets, a kettle on the burned-out campfire, and firewood. There was even a tied mule facing the jungle, snoozing, perhaps. All necessities Javier had been forced to procure while Eva had been unconscious.
“Well,” she said, “what are they?”
“Rahmagut’s spawn from el Vacío. Broken creatures he makes in his pretense for godhood. They don’t serve a purpose in this world. They just hunger.”
He gazed up at the million stars dotting the sky, so serene and infinite. And Eva followed his gaze, which lingered on the cyan star guiding their journey. Underneath it all, she was so small. A mere sigh of time in the breadth of the expansive universe.
“They’re what I would consider true evil,” he explained. “Every person they touch, they rot. They’re not like a jaguar, serving a purpose to the world by killing. They’re born incomplete, and they spend their lives searching for hearts to devour.” He pointed at the star. “I can’t prove it, but it feels like the tinieblas have gotten worse since the arrival of Rahmagut’s Claw. Alborotadas. Like they can sense Rahmagut’s influence is stronger.”
“You speak of Rahmagut as if he’s really real.” Even now Eva still shuddered at the mention of the name. Such a habit wasn’t easy to overcome, like her fear of leaving her family.
He scoffed. “You better get used to the idea that he is. How else would you explain the monsters that nearly killed you?”
Eva crossed her arms and looked away, indignant. “I always thought of him as real like… the Virgin is. People believe in Her, and She’s only watching and listening to prayers.” Acting in ways Eva didn’t understand, as Do?a Antonia used to say. “She doesn’t actually interfere in people’s lives.”
“So when I told you I wanted to parley with Rahmagut, what did you think then?”
Eva had thought he was beautiful, not only for the grace of his valco blood but because he had crossed the country to rescue her. She would have gladly agreed to go anywhere with him, figurative god or not. She’d never admit this now, of course. “You were getting me out of Galeno. I wasn’t hung up on the details.”
At this, he laughed. “You know the tale of Ches and Rahmagut. I mean, with Calamity, every child grows up knowing at least a bastardized version of it. Where do you think the tale came from? The Pentimiento Church tries to erase it, and they deny the gods’ existence, but their influence over our world is real. Rahmagut is the key to our future, Eva.”
“How come this is the first time I’ve heard of tinieblas?”
“How much did they spoil and pamper you in that household, exactly?”
“My family kept me sheltered and ignorant, not spoiled.”
Javier clicked his tongue. “Tinieblas only prowl places of great evil. A few exist in the countryside. In Venazia, caudillos task their armies to hunt them down. But Fedria doesn’t have many caudillos—most landlords can’t even afford the armies to call themselves caudillos. So town chiefs and pastors or curanderos rely on wards to keep their filthy nozariels safe, like the warded statue you saw where you escaped me.”
Despite the hemp blanket, Eva couldn’t bring herself to feel warm. She was so uncomfortable and alone. She had taken for granted the small comforts of her home. The dry clothes. The exquisite meals. The plush hugs of her grandmother.
“So the geomancia coming off the Ches statue was a protection,” she muttered, regretting choosing to ignore him when he had wanted to explain back in the town.
Javier stood up and dusted his clothes. “It’s normal to see a statue or chapel with wards made of iridio. Otherwise tinieblas would be pouring in to shred the people of Fedria to ribbons,” he said airily, the idea amusing him. “Geomancers bless the sites every so often. And guess where they get all that iridio from?”
His smirk made something deep inside Eva’s stomach flutter, but she squashed the feeling.
He approached her. “There are those who say we profit from tinieblas, that we should be giving the iridio freely. But I spit on that notion. Mother discovered iridio. We are the owners of it.”
“So what did they do before that? Before the iridio was discovered?”
Javier shrugged. “More resources were spent on the military. Towns couldn’t exist without it. But this wasn’t that big of a problem when the Segoleans were in power. They had all that gold they’ve been siphoning from colonies all over the world for generations.”
He gave her a long look, taking in the whole length of her, her sweaty face and disheveled hair, probably fascinated at the sheltered life she’d lived. Eva, too, felt cheated by her family. Geomancia and the tinieblas. Fedria and its nozariels. There was so much out there, and they willingly lived blindly and decadently. They were no better than the cattle they raised. Well, Eva wouldn’t be like them.
“You said they were supposed to rot my heart, but I stopped them with my magic.” It was a reminder that she was already on the right track.
“You saved yourself with litio,” he said, extending a hand for her, which Eva avoided. “Get up.”
Eva pursed her lips, knowing any objection would only sound like a prissy complaint.
“Despite your lack of training in geomancia, you used up all the litio in your rings and protected yourself against the tinieblas. It was the strength of your geomancia that lured me to you. I could see it all the way from the road.”
Eva got to her feet before he demanded it of her again. “Why are you impressed? Wasn’t that why you took me out of Galeno? Because I had some potential?”
She let the blanket pool down around her shoulders and onto the ground. As she did so, Eva realized her clothes were different from the ones shredded by the tinieblas. Her skirt had been swapped for pants. Her shirt, a loose cream linen. Was she wearing his clothes that he’d brought for the journey? Shame burned her cheeks.
As she met his impervious gaze, she wished she had the nerve to slap him away. For tricking her out of her life. For changing her clothes without her consent.
“Your use of litio was clumsy,” he said, “but it got the job done. Now, let’s try to reach a similar level with galio and bismuto, and maybe even iridio.”
He summoned a flame wisp between them, letting it shower them in warmth and light.
“When she left home, my niece said she was heading to the Plume. She was so sure she would find the answer to all her problems there.” The disdain was clear in his eyes and tone, even as he pointed to the top of the cliff behind them, where the earth jutted toward the sky. “We’ll catch up to her at the summit. But she’s a willful creature, and she’s going to protest everything I say. So I’d like you to be somewhat competent at geomancia before then. You will give me backup.”
“Rich of you to assume I’d assist you.”