Page 35

Chapter 35

Beatriz

As we exited, Minerva locked the front door of the small house we’d teleported into. We’d only been there long enough for her to offer a change of clothes and a place to clean up for the day ahead. I yawned and hunger growled in my stomach, but we hadn’t a minute to spare. We marched through the enclosed patio out front and stood outside the gate where Minerva set a bolt in place and locked the patio shut. Too much time had passed since we’d last seen Laude. Zichri entwined his hand with mine and slid his telltale crooked grin into place. It warmed my heart despite the nerves jittering within my skin.

“Which way do we go?” I would have raced to the palace myself if I had known the direction.

All the other homes along this crowded cobblestone road appeared in much better spirits than Minerva’s drab abode, but I hadn’t the inclination to ask her how a senorita came to own so many properties. Minerva twisted a loose curl into her hair arrangement and led us up the road.

“This way.” She kept her chin cast downward as she strode ahead of us.

All too soon, we arrived at a plaza before the Pedrozian palace. Vendor tents filled the large space with aromas that transformed my mouth into a water fountain.

“Do you mind street food? I don’t know if we’ll be offered anything to eat in Whitestone Palace.” Minerva gazed at me in a shy manner that made me want to grip her chin and tell her to maintain a regal posture like Lady Myla had done when I was young.

“We haven’t time—”

“Yes,” Zichri interrupted, “we’d love whatever you can get us.” He shook my hand, prodding me to respond differently.

I was startled and forced my lips into a gentle smile. “Yes.”

“Would you prefer churros, or is something savory more to your liking?” Minerva led us through bustling stalls and stopped at one run by a teenage girl and two young boys.

The girl behind the counter could be no more than fifteen years old with her rough-spun green dress and simple handkerchief over her head. When her brown eyes noticed Minerva, she perked up and ran from behind her table to wrap our guide in a hug. The two boys followed suit with gleeful laughs.

Minerva whispered something in the girl’s ear, and the teen pulled away and observed me with an appraising look marked with apprehension. The girl clutched at her neck, grabbed a cloth from a basket on her table, and seized a few empanadas. Wordlessly, she offered them to me and averted her gaze.

What had Minerva said to the girl who shared her strange mannerisms? She had even clutched at her neck the same way Minerva did.

“Thank you,” I said.

Zichri received a cloth full of empanadas too, but the young girl blushed, giving him several extra glances. Heat rose to my temples, and something violent stirred within my chest. Was this jealousy? I inhaled a calming breath, chiding myself for being silly enough to be jealous, and waited for Minerva to exchange a coin with the boys who still clung to her waist with such affection.

I leaned close to Zichri, hiding my lips behind a warm empanada. “Are these her siblings?”

Chewing his second breakfast, Zichri shrugged. “I’ve never met them before, but the girl is tongue-bound.”

“What do you mean?”

“She hasn’t spoken. She tenses her jaw like one with a tongue bond. Minerva used to be tongue bound too.” He bit the rest of his stuffed turnover. “In Pedroz, there are many cursed with the inability to speak.”

“How is that possible?” I glanced at the girl as she dug through a bucket in her stall to grab more dough.

“The dark arts are more accepted in Pedroz. Some seek powers from a different source than the Ancient One.” He bit half of another empanada and chewed. His gaze drifted across the stalls in a protective fashion, and he lifted his eyebrow playfully.

His gesture lifted my spirits a fraction, though his words had hefted a heavy load over my shoulders. Compassion stirred deep within my soul for the girl as she stuffed cheese into dough, preparing another batch of empanadas. I let my gifting pour from my fingertips.

Three instant connections formed. Minerva panicked, though her exterior remained a cool shell, Zichri’s line vibrated with tension, and the girl couldn’t have been any more content. Though I’d thought to leave her with something to ease her soul, she displayed a satisfaction with life that I had never achieved.

Minerva stepped beside Zichri and me with her own empanada. “There haven’t been any changes in leadership that I know of, but the boys saw a galleon sail off days ago. I think the Black Knight might have embarked from these shores.”

“Are these your siblings?” I blurted out.

A tentative smile quivered across her lip, and she glanced back at the teen and boys. “No,” she snapped. “They’re friends , that’s all.”

Her curt manner gave me pause. There was more to Minerva than being a shy portal maker. I wanted to sit over coffee and ask all the questions. She held sway over royalty and mingled with cursed peasants. Having so much power at her fingertips with a house in the countryside and another in town should have made all her associates rich and powerful. I finished the last bite of the flaky crust filled with meat and dusted off my fingertips.

“Shall we go?” Minerva gestured toward the palace and grabbed Zichri’s and my wrists. A breeze shifted along the skirt of my dress and lifted wayward hairs. A force pushed at my back, launching me forward. We lifted one foot off the stone plaza and placed another foot onto the marble floors of the Pedrozian royal hall within Whitestone palace.

The royal courts remained as decadent as I remembered from past visits. The cavernous hall glittered with gilded edges, tall windows, and golden thrones at the far end. But unlike every other time I’d been here, the smaller throne to the side remained vacant, with the ghost of a boy still in my mind’s eye. I had been infatuated with Prince Lux since my youth and, even knowing he'd betrayed me, I still missed his friendship that was attached to so many of my memories.

My gaze drifted to Zichri who stood with his broad shoulders pressed back and his jaw clenched. Some of my guilt shrugged off at seeing him alive and well. Prince Lux had planned to kill Zichri and use me for political gain.

The old regent shifted on the throne, combing his fingers through a gray beard. “Why have you come?” A permanent frown line dipped down his forehead and reflected the arch of his grimaced lips.

Minerva dropped a curtsy. “Prince Regent, I’d like to make a request.”

The old man’s dark eyes stilled at Minerva’s words and drifted to Zichri and then to me. A spark of recognition crossed his face. “I see you bring me the butcher as payment for your request.” His hoarse voice unsettled the little peace I had managed to cajole.

“No.” Minerva glanced over her shoulder and back toward the regent. “I’ll bring you the heir to Pedroz.”

“Our king hadn’t more children and neither did his father before him.” The regent coughed. “There’s but one uncle who’s being considered by the council.”

“And what if Prince Lux had a sister?” Minerva maintained a subservient posture, but her question echoed across the room.

The majordomo, who’d let us into the throne room, flinched just as much as I did. What was she talking about?

“Yes, Senor. I need a galleon to retrieve our queen.”

The pocket watch pulsed beneath my dress as if telling me something so obvious but completely out of reach for my mind to comprehend. I had planned to give away the relic, but Minerva had something bigger to barter with.

“This could be a lie,” the regent rasped.

“Try me.” The faint whisper off Minerva’s lips held authority. “Bring out the truth teller and have the genealogist test the senorita when she is retrieved.”

The regent bobbed one leg and clasped his fingers in thought. A minute passed with little else for a response, so I prayed.

Please soften his heart, Ancient One. Laude’s life depends on it.

“Where are you headed?” the regent asked.

A moment passed where Minerva swallowed a hard lump of truth. We couldn’t tell him we were headed to an island with the possible last relic, yet he’d want something enticing enough to lend us an expensive galleon.

I prayed harder.

Minerva said, “To isles two days south of Aracibel.”

The regent’s eyes darkened to the same shade I had seen in my vision.

How could I hand him a relic when the vision had shown me his greedy heart?

“Fine,” he barked out the word. “I will grant you Magdelena with her crew and my trusted capitán . She’s our quickest galleon. But I expect you to teleport back with the supposed queen the moment you retrieve her.” The regent motioned for the scribe to pass us an edict.

“As you wish.” Minerva dipped a curtsy and was offered a document with the regent’s seal. She spun around and pushed Zichri and me out the gold-plated doors as if the verdict might be changed if he thought more about it.

“When are we—”

Minerva grabbed Zichri’s and my wrists and our bodies pulled forward until our boots landed on the pier beside a sleek ship. The stink of fish attacked my nostrils.