Chapter 50 Ignacio
Ignacio
The sharp tip of his father’s dagger dug into the sensitive flesh above Ignacio’s kidney.
“Keep walking, or she’s dead,” Father growled.
“If you hurt her—”
“You’ll what? Kill me? Your own father.”
“Yes,” Ignacio growled back. And he meant it.
“My man has been instructed to remove her safely…unless you disobey me.”
An explosion sounded. Moments later, the lanterns flickered out like dying stars. And the music, “The Tale of the Valerio Brothers,” slowed its melody.
“Go right,” Father commanded.
They rounded the carousel. It was empty of laughing guests, the golden saddles of wooden animals abandoned.
Ignacio had ridden on a carousel only once.
The night he and Esmeralda snuck out of the manor and went to the boardwalk.
It had been the best night of his life. Watching her laugh, holding her hand in public, kissing her.
Being free. It was perfect. And now that he and Dovie knew the truth about their love, they could have more of those nights.
But he had to find a way to end his father’s reign first.
“Keep walking,” Father snarled. Ignacio didn’t even realize his pace had slackened. “Don’t dawdle, son, you know I hate that.”
A thousand memories flooded in.
Father ordering him to continue with his fitness and tutoring regimen the day after Mother’s funeral, even though he was only seven.
Father nitpicking his messy room even though there wasn’t a speck of dust.
Father forever being cold.
Those memories Ignacio could handle. Knowing his father’s deceptions had cut Esmeralda so deeply, he could not.
Nor could he forgive the lives lost in war.
He thought about what Tezcán had said about his mother.
That she didn’t die at the hands of Dos Palos spies.
That he had devoured her soul. Who had given her to the god?
“What happened to my mother?” he asked.
“Shut up!”
Ignacio’s instincts begged him not to pry further. Every time he had as a boy, he suffered the consequences. But he wasn’t some timid child anymore. And he didn’t care about pleasing his father. He was a man now, and he deserved the truth.
“She knew you had affiliations with the carnival, didn’t she? Or worse yet, Tezcán.”
“Don’t speak that name,” Father hissed.
“Why? Are you afraid of him? What did you do to her?”
“I can tell you.” The ringmaster stepped out of the smokey shadows.
His sequined jacket was covered in ash and ripped at the seams. He’d lost his famous top hat, and his greased hair, now completely white, flopped in tendrils over his forehead.
His face had aged dozens of years but those calculating blue eyes remained unchanged.
“I can tell you everything you need to know about your mother and what role your dear old daddy played in her demise,” he said.
“No, ángel,” Father snapped. “Leave him out of this.”
ángel? Father used the ringmaster’s first name so easily.
The ringmaster batted his lashes sympathetically. “I’m afraid it’s too late for that, Héctor.”
These two really did know each other.
“Your boy came to me on his own, even though you tried to keep him away from me all these years. I knew he’d find me eventually.
Especially after I rescued his runaway sweetheart.
I had that suit he and his love dove purchased from the tailor ready for him the moment I realized who Esmeralda was.
” His eyes found Ignacio’s. “And now you are right where you belong. Remember the book you loved so dear? I made sure you received that. Because I am not selfish. I want you to know your past. Now, do you really want to learn what happened to your mommy? You might not like it.”
The dagger pointed at Ignacio’s back flicked toward the ringmaster. “Knock it off, ángel,” the comandante ordered.
“No. You knock it off!” ángel snapped. “You don’t think I know what you’ve been up to this last year, Héctor? You don’t think I have my little spies as well? I won’t let you ruin everything we have built.”
“We?” Ignacio rasped.
“We indeed,” the ringmaster said. “Would you like to hear a little tale?”
Father’s sapphire eyes filled with fear. “ángel—”
“Once upon a time, your father and I were traipsing about in a foreign land. There, we found a field of bell-shaped flowers. Blackbird Penstemons to be exact.”
Ignacio couldn’t understand what the ringmaster was saying. “How do you even know my father?”
“Don’t rush the story, kid. Anyway”—he flicked a bit of singed confetti from his shoulder—“within this stunning array of purple blooms, we came upon a strange hot spring that billowed with puffs of white smoke.”
“Like the Valerio brothers,” Ignacio thought out loud.
The man’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Exactly like that.”
“You and my father found the mirror to the gods. You made a deal with Tezcán.”
With a laugh, the ringmaster raised his hands. “We have a winner, folks.”
But there were no folks around to listen. They were alone, hidden in smoke and ash and secrets.
“Tezcán only works in equal bargains. To get what we wanted, certain sacrifices had to be made. Certain lives had to be forfeited. It was easy enough for me, but your father has always been a bit of a sap.”
Ignacio shook his head. “How could you two possibly know each other?”
The ringmaster huffed a laugh. “I thought you were catching on, kid.”
“Enough, ángel. I’m taking my son out of here. You and I will discuss things later.”
“Later?!” the ringmaster yelled. “Look what your son has done to my carnival. This is all your fault, Héctor. I told you to tell him, but you didn’t listen. In fact, you tried to keep him away. Away! When he is the key to my future.”
“What is he talking about?” Ignacio spat.
“Your daddy and I made a deal with Tezcán forty years ago.”
Ignacio’s heart dropped. “Forty…” Understanding took hold.
It gripped Ignacio by the throat. “ ‘The Tale of the Valerio Brothers.’ ” He eyed his father.
“The elder brother asked to be powerful beyond measure.” He turned to the ringmaster.
“The younger brother asked to be young and charming for the rest of his…”
“For the rest of his days,” the ringmaster finished. “For an eternity if all goes to plan.” He winked. “I suppose I should reintroduce myself.” He cleared his throat and took a bow. “ángel Valerio, your one and only uncle.”
“Impossible,” Ignacio snapped.
“What is impossible is how your father kept all this from you for so long. But there were signs. Olivera is an anagram for Valerio. Did you know that? That wasn’t an easy clue, though, I suppose.
I tried to warn him you’d turn bitter without understanding the truth.
But he was afraid you’d hate him after you learned what he did. ”
“ángel,” his father growled, but ángel ignored him.
“Your father wished to be powerful. The only way to gain such power was to offer someone who was powerful themself. It started with the original ringmaster, the real Senor Veracruz, who employed us. He was our first bargain. The real Veracruz was everything we needed. He had the vibrancy, the vivacity, and the versatility to succeed at all things. He was also a great leader. Tezcán was pleased. The real Veracruz fed Tezcán, and Tezcán gave us youth and power in exchange. After a while, though, Tezcán demanded more. So, more was what we gave. Only someone like the commander of a great army would do to keep your daddy on his high horse. Someone like your mother.”
“Why not offer up King Amadeo?” Ignacio asked. “He is the ruler of the entire country. Why did it have to be my mother?!”
ángel chuckled. “The king wasn’t an equal exchange. He’s nothing but a mouthpiece for whomever he owes favors to, and Tezcán knew it. King Amadeo wasn’t enough to satisfy our god. But your mommy, now she had vigor.”
Father roared. He rushed forward, aiming his dagger at ángel’s heart. But ángel simply leapt out of the way.
“He seduced her!” ángel yelled as he dodged Father’s attack.
“He thought he’d bring her into his confidence so that she would gaze upon the mirror.
And then, the sap fell in love! He tried to feed Tezcán with other powerful people like the general before Keara—kudos to Esmeralda, by the way, for snapping Keara’s neck.
She really was a dull dame. Anyway, the generals weren’t enough to get the respect he was so desperate for. Your father knew what he had to do.”
Father swiped his blade in the air, and ángel lunged backward with a laugh. “You’re getting sloppy, old man!”
Ignacio’s knees weakened. Bile clawed up his throat. “You’re saying my father…He…”
“He fed your beautiful mother’s soul to Tezcán. And then, like magic, he was gifted the role of comandante.”
“Bastard!” Ignacio yelled. He barreled forward and pummeled his shoulder into his father’s back. The man wheezed but didn’t try to fight as Ignacio slammed him into the ground. He grabbed his father by the shoulder and forced him to turn around so he could face him.
Ignacio shook him by the collar. “Why? Why did you take her from me?”
For the first time ever in his life, Ignacio saw tears blurring his father’s blue eyes.
“I was weak,” he whispered. “I was a fool. I did what I was told.”
Ignacio’s grip tightened until his knuckles were bone white. “Who would tell you to do such a vile, horrid, unforgivable thing?”
The ringmaster knelt next to the men. He offered a brilliant smile. “That would be me.”
He brought his open palm to his lips and blew onto it with a quick burst of breath.
Glittering dust engulfed Ignacio and tickled his nose.
In the back of his mind, everything clicked into place.
The glistening fragments in the ink, in the glue that sealed Dovie’s lips shut, it was ground-up bits of Blackbird obsidian.
His body went limp, and he fell into oblivion.