Chapter 45 Esmeralda
Esmeralda
Dressed as a donkey, Esmeralda and Ignacio filed in behind the dancers as they started for the backstage exit.
A guard nearest to the exit narrowed his eyes as they passed by, but he didn’t move.
Esmeralda had her eyes narrowed too—but on the brat who was over there tittering about how handsome Ignacio was.
When this was over, she’d give that dancer a piece of her mind.
Being the rear of the donkey, Ignacio, the handsome man in question, was bent over resting his hands on her hips to balance himself.
But they weren’t resting. They were squeezing.
His fingers dug into her soft flesh possessively as if he were afraid she might run away and leave his half of the ass behind.
Little did he know she never intended on going anywhere without him ever again.
“Where should we go?” she whispered.
“We need to find Gabriel. I left him in the Fun House holding Camila.”
“Holding her? Why? What happened to Camila?” she whispered through the papier-maché snout.
“Um…”
She wove around cast members loitering in Clown Alley, gossiping and speculating about Paloma Blanca and her beau, General Keara, and the way ángel suddenly looked so old.
A loud voice shouted from the backstage exit. “Stop that ass!”
Esmeralda jerked her donkey head in the direction the voice came from. She gasped when the person was pointing directly at them.
“Time to run,” she said. “Hold on tight to me.”
Ignacio’s fingers dug deeper into her hips.
She bolted forward through Clown Alley and cut right into the heart of the carnival.
Big mistake. Most of the Big Top audience was spilling out from the main entrance.
She pushed through the throng impolitely.
She stomped on people’s feet and shoved them aside with her snout.
Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the comandante exit.
“They went this way!” someone yelled.
“We’ve got to hide,” she called to Ignacio.
“No,” he replied. “We need to find Gabriel and the Sánchezes and leave. Where would he have taken Camila?”
She didn’t even need to guess. “To her sister.”
Her eyes landed on Sophia the Juggler and her rascal of a monkey Rosco. He sat perched on her shoulder, his greedy little hands—or paws or whatever the hell devils like him had—were rubbing together as he watched the wealthy crowds.
“I have an idea.” She dragged Ignacio into a tight cove and tugged off her donkey head. He released her hips and stood, stretching the kinks out of his back.
Right as Sophia the Juggler passed by to entertain the growing throng, Esmeralda shoved the donkey head over Rosco’s hairy body. The small demon screeched in anger, but Sophia paid him no mind—she was too busy singing a tune about swindlers and their prizes. A tune Esmeralda knew well.
As the crowd filled in around Sophia and the monkey hidden beneath the donkey head, all that could be seen was Sophia and what appeared to be a donkey walking beside her.
Two ratas ran past, shouting for the onlookers to part.
Esmeralda took Ignacio’s hand and tugged him in the opposite direction. They wove through booths and tents and games.
When they made it to the healer’s boxcar, stationed beyond the third ring with the carnival staff’s bunks, they waited in the shadows until they were certain no one had followed them.
“The coast is clear,” she whispered, finally being the one to let go.
She took a step, but Ignacio caught her by the wrist.
“Before we go in there, I feel like I should tell you…It’s about Camila…she’s…”
“Spit it out, Pigeon.”
A whisper of a smile flitted over his face.
“I love it when you call me that.” He shook his head and flattened the grin away.
“She went to the ringmaster earlier to tell him she was leaving. He said he would offer her severance pay for her pain and suffering. He sent her to the Fun House. But there wasn’t anyone inside. Not anyone human, at least.”
“The monster in the mirror?”
He nodded. “The god. His name is Tezcán.”
Esmeralda’s brows pinched. “Where have I heard that name before?”
“Perhaps from me. I might have told it to you when we were younger because my mother told it to me first. The fable was given to her by a peddler…” He blinked. “A peddler with a curled mustache.”
“What does your mother have to do with this?”
“Tezcán said he devoured her soul. Obviously, this has to do with my father. And the ringmaster too. I think…I believe they feed the god in exchange for enchantments. And now…Camila…”
Her fingers clenched his shirt. “What has happened to her?”
“She’s…changed. Just…prepare yourself.”
Esmeralda bolted toward the boxcar. When she slid the door open, she found Gabriel holding up a crowbar like a baseball bat. He sighed heavily when he realized who it was and slumped.
“Thank the gods,” he breathed. “Or maybe not. Maybe I should be saying curse the gods instead.”
Esmeralda stepped through the threshold and Ignacio eased the doors shut in her wake. He took the crowbar from Gabriel and slipped it through the handles.
She ran to Pilar, who was sitting in a motorized chair on wheels.
“You’re awake? Are you well?” she asked, tears in her eyes.
“It isn’t me you should be worried about,” Pilar said in a husky, tired voice.
“It’s me.”
Esmeralda whirled around. An old woman sat on a small cot. She was tiny and feeble. Her tan skin lay wrinkled across her frail bones. But those eyes. Those caring, beautiful, big brown eyes.
It couldn’t be.
The woman held out her palm. “You’re the bee’s knees,” she rasped.
Esmeralda balked. That was what she and Camila said to each other whenever they parted.
“Camila?” Esmeralda whispered.
“Don’t just leave my hand out here to dry.”
Esmeralda licked her thumb and sizzled it into Camila’s palm. “You’re the cat’s meow. But…”
Camila gave a half smirk. “Not too shabby for a vieja, huh?”
Ignacio placed a gentle hand on Esmeralda’s shoulder before stepping closer to Camila. “You’ve aged even more since I left you,” he said.
Gabriel strode beside him. “Probably five years within the last half hour.”
Ignacio rubbed the back of his neck. “We must find a way to stop her aging before it’s…” The words too late hung in the air like tiny grenades.
“Can someone explain why Camila looks like she’s in her eighties?” Esmeralda whisper-yelled.
“It was Tezcán,” Ignacio said.
“And that evil ringmaster too,” Camila added. “He sent me into the Fun House.”
“Same. He directed me to go there after he heard me and Esmeralda speculating about where you might be.” Gabriel frowned. “Little did I know our ringmaster was trying to feed me to some creepy devil.”
“But why?” Esmeralda wondered out loud.
“Tezcán mentioned Camila’s youth was the payment for the enchantments,” Ignacio said.
“The god offered to tell me the truth about my mother. All I had to do was offer Gabriel to him. Give him Gabriel’s cleverness in exchange for the knowledge I needed.
He can grant us our deepest desires, but he requires a soul of equal measure to fulfill those wishes. ”
A thought slammed into Esmeralda. “The card I was given today for the final challenge mentioned that ángel is looking for his perfect match. He needs a showstopper like him.”
“An equal exchange,” Ignacio whispered. “The rule-breakers and disqualified performers are enough to exchange for the magic that powers the carnival, but he needs an equal exchange too. He needs someone like him. Have you seen how much the ringmaster has aged as well? He needs a star. A young, beautiful, charismatic showstopper to sacrifice for his wish. Someone like you.”
“I’ll thank you for calling me those things later.” She knelt beside the bed and took Camila’s hand. Her skin was paper-thin and cold as ice. “But what do we do right now? How do we change Camila back?”
“I don’t know. Destroy the mirrors?” Ignacio suggested.
Gabriel nodded. “That might sever the link between the god and this world.”
“But will she come back?” Esmeralda looked to her friend. “No offense to the older you. You look wonderful. It’s just…”
Camila laughed. “You don’t have to explain. I understand and wholeheartedly agree.”
“Tezcán said he wasn’t finished feasting on her. Maybe he didn’t have time to steal all her youth. Maybe we can reverse what he started. But we won’t know if breaking the mirrors will work until we try,” Ignacio said.
Esmeralda stood. “Then let’s go try.”
“What about the ratas?” Gabriel asked. “They’re running about the carnival like it’s been robbed.”
Esmeralda winced. “That’s my fault. I may have thrown General Keara over the catwalk.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” Gabriel deadpanned. “Either way, we have to get into that Fun House and destroy the mirrors. But it’s got to be teeming with guards. We’ll need a distraction.”
“A distraction,” Esmeralda said to herself.
She’d heard of intrusive thoughts before. Random things one thinks about doing even though one knows it is wrong or would cause harm. Esmeralda had had one such thought since the day she entered the carnival.
“You look like you have something devious in mind,” Ignacio said.
A slow smile tugged her lips upward. “Always.”