12. Beatriz
Chapter 12
Beatriz
After Cosme read about Aracibel’s betrayal, he disappeared, and Monserrat departed before breakfast, though her threat lingered in my mind. I refused to let the implications of Monserrat and Cosme and the last relic consume me for now. I needed every crumb of focus to keep my emotions at bay. I scooped mango and papaya into my mouth as slowly as possible, trying to delay my lessons. Today, Uncle Uly would train me.
Papá sat at the head of the dining table and drank his coffee from a pewter mug. Mamá watched me with her eyebrows halfway up her forehead. The question in her perfectly arched brows screamed for me to stop stalling. Behind Papá at the serving table, Laude poured steaming coffee into a delicate mug and topped it as if all of life could be improved by being drowned in cream and sprinkled with cinnamon.
“Laude,” Mamá said, “Will you accompany me today? I need your opinion about my additions to the south garden.”
“Your Highness, of course.” Laude straightened her back and added chocolate shavings to her concoction. “Nothing would please me more.” She met my eyes, smiling as if to apologize.
Fiery energy pricked my skin from fingertips to shoulders. I upturned the corners of my mouth to let her know it was all right for her to leave me alone to fight my own battles.
Forget that she most ardently vowed before breakfast not to depart from my side.
Laude slid into the seat beside me and inhaled her drink. Cream stuck to her upper lip while she mouthed, “Sorry.”
In response, I pursed my lips and slowly blinked. Not quite forgiveness, but at least I acknowledged her attempt at an apology.
The last slice of banana in my bowl stared at me. Everyone else in the room had finished eating some time ago. I prayed under my breath.
Ancient One, please walk with me through this. I’m sure you don’t want me killing someone with the gifting you gave me. I’m sure this thing in me was meant for good.
“Beatriz.” Papá’s stern voice shook me from my prayer.
I ate the last banana slice.
Papá stood. “I’ll accompany you to the parlor. I’m sure your uncle expected you half an hour ago.”
Hot dread trickled down to my toes. I followed Papá out the door and through the passageways.
Right before pushing open the parlor door, Papá turned to me. “You know I love you?”
“Yes, Papá.”
His eyes rounded into a tender expression. “This is why I urge you to learn to use your gift.” Papá’s arms swallowed me in a hug, and he kissed my forehead. “I can stay with you during the lessons.”
“No, that will not be necessary.” I corrected my already impeccable posture so as not to show weakness. Unlike Laude, he added a measure of nervousness. If I harmed him in any way while practicing, I would never forgive myself.
He opened the creaky door.
Late morning light drowned the room in a yellow haze and lit up floating specks of dust. One window at the end remained open and rattling with the sea breeze. Uncle Uly perched in an armchair beside the open window, cross-legged and reading a book. His long robe aged him and gave him the appearance of someone from the ancient generations. He upturned his gaze. The concentration in his furrowed brow smoothed to glee. “It’s time.”
“Let me know if you need anything,” Papá said.
I traversed the hardwood, each boot step echoing.
The door groaned as Papá shut me into the parlor with my strange relative. Papá and Mamá had thought him lost as another victim of the valley’s many dangers. Instead, he had become another bestower of magical giftings. Looking into his hazel eyes, I relaxed. When I traveled to Valle de los Fantasmas, he had saved a friend’s life and given wise advice that put the shattered pieces of my soul back together. I could trust him.
“Uncle,” I stood before him, folded hands over my lap. “How did you get here so quickly?”
I had overheard Papá saying he sent word earlier this week. Even if Uncle Uly had managed to get the message instantly, cross the valley, tramp through the hidden caves, get a horse and travel nonstop, it would have taken the exact number of days between then and now.
A raspy laugh escaped his throat. “Don’t trouble yourself with mathematics. Like I said, I have my ways of getting word quickly and faster methods of travel." He whistled two singsong notes.
I scrunched my nose, confused.
A flapping noise and a clank startled me. I whipped my head toward the window and gasped.
“Don’t fret. This one is a bit of a stickler, but he’s harmless.” Uncle reached down to the floor where the skinny beaked bird strutted.
“Is that a costurero ?”
The bird tweeted its melodic song.
“Yes, he is. He informs me that new ships are in port.” Uncle Uly whistled in a similar cadence.
The costurero swooped out the window, leaving me in a wake of understanding.
“So, you can speak to birds. Still, how did you travel so quickly?”
“Take a seat.” He dragged an armchair across the hardwood floor, bumping my leg. “I might assume you’re interrogating me rather than coming for lessons.”
“I’m not here for lessons.” I crossed my arms.
“Then why are you here?”
“Papá bade me to give you an audience. Here I am.”
He let out a throaty laugh. “Yes, here you are.”
“You still haven’t answered my question. Perhaps I should be more direct. Can you teleport?”
“No, I cannot.” He leaned back and nodded. “Your whyzer brought me here. Now, he can teleport, but it took some convincing for him to open a doorway.”
“I didn’t think anyone could open portals these days.”
“You’d be surprised, and your whyzer has many more gifts.”
I looked away, still hurt by my whyzer’s words all those months ago. He had refused to give me my gifting because I was selfish. He was right, but the barb of his declaration still stung. Considering that I’d used Monserrat’s information for my benefit, I wilted a fraction. Maybe I hadn’t changed.
Uncle Uly wore a sympathetic smile. “How did you get your gifting?”
“I don’t know.” Weakness rolled through my body, and I dropped into the armchair angled beside him. If it were possible, I would shrink into a corner. Instead, I kept my focus on the dust dancing through the sharp angles of sunlight. “I prayed on the way to Giddel after I learned about Himzo’s plan to attack us. I asked for a way to protect my kingdom. Sometimes, I think the Ancient One heard my plea, but I can’t imagine that he’d oblige someone like me.”
Uncle leaned to the side and met my eyes. Flecks of honey and green sparkled in his gentle gaze. Tears ran along my nose. How had he gotten me to share my heart so quickly?
I wiped my burning cheeks. “Uncle, I know you long to train me, but I refuse to use my gifting again, and I don’t see how you can help me.”
“Dear, dear niece, I can help you understand what’s been given to you. Then, when you are ready, you can use it.”
“So, I don’t need to use it now?” Or ever , I thought to myself.
He shook his head. “Give me your hand. I need you to stop holding back your gifting for a moment so I can feel the intricacies.”
A quiver danced along my spine. I shook my head. If I let the powers race through my body like they used to, then I’d know what Uncle felt about me. I couldn’t bear the constant intake of unwanted information.
Uncle held out his knobby hands. “It will be just for a moment, so I can understand how to help you.”
I shook my head and rolled my shoulders back into a confident posture. “Will you leave me alone after this?”
“Yes. Next time, we can have hibiscus water and chat about the fellow who accompanied you last time I saw you. Zichri, was it?” He lifted a bushy brow.
Heat crept up my neck. “Then, perhaps, you could convince Papá to let Zichri visit me.”
“Of course, I’ll help you.”
I shoved my hands into Uncle’s rough palms. “I take your statement as a promise.”
“Your papá and I will have lunch after this. Consider it done.” Uncle closed his eyes. “You can stop holding back any time.”
A slow breath rushed between my lips, and I let go of the knot I held under my ribcage. Prickles of energy raced along the markings on my arms. Instead of stiffening my muscles, I inhaled and exhaled, allowing the power to flow to my fingertips. Heat burned between Uncle’s skin and mine. The prickles grew painful and then soothing, like a limb which had lost circulation and regained it again.
An invisible string connected Uncle and me, and it vibrated with warmth. Uncle tipped his head to the side and harrumphed. More information poured into my mind.
Dear, dear Beatriz, if only you could see yourself clearly .
“Did you say something?” I asked.
“No, but you have a powerful gifting indeed.”
Light shone from my neckline and along my knuckles. How many times had I pondered what the golden vines meant? Now that it was time, my tongue stalled in my mouth.
He squeezed my hands in a comforting gesture. “You, my dear, are a tamer.”
“What does that mean?”
A smile cracked across his face, as if he were delivering good news. “You have the ability to tame a crowd’s emotions or to rile them. Very influential. I see why your whyzer feared giving you this ability. You can shape emotional energy and release it. A very rare gift indeed, and dangerous in the wrong hands.”
My chest heaved. I breathed out, “That’s how I flung Lux out a window?”
Uncle Uly shifted his jaw and nodded. “The newly gifted tend to have stronger and unwieldy powers which need pruning. Time and training will allow you to control it better.”
The window behind Uncle rattled and seemed to shake the wood panels around us. My guilt filled the parlor with its poison and threatened to drown me in tears again.
“You’ll learn to manage your emotions.” Uncle Uly patted the tops of my knuckles.
“Can I influence others without”—I bit my lip—“learning their opinions of me?”
He opened his eyes. “No.”
I yanked my hands away and clenched them into fists. The flow of energy cooled until it stopped. “Then, I’m cursed.”
“No, you are gifted. The Ancient One doesn’t give bad gifts. We may misuse them, but they aren’t bad. A gift as powerful as yours comes with the price of knowing that which you would rather remain hidden.”
“That’s all for today.” I stood. “I gave you an audience. I did what Papá asked.” Before Uncle Uly could reply, I stomped across the parlor, chest constricting. All those years wishing, begging for my power to help my kingdom, and I got this.
Who wanted to know every negative feeling someone felt about them? Who wanted to be able to shape her own anger into a physical thing? If I could go back to being giftless, I would. I flung the door open and slammed it behind me. Sorrow swept me in its bosom, and warm tears streaked my cheeks. My feet couldn’t carry me up the stairs and to my bedroom quickly enough.
My bed seemed to scoop me into its embrace, and I lay there until I caught sight of a folded parchment with a single rose beside it. How in all Agata was Zichri leaving notes on my desk? I crept closer and unfolded the paper.
Beloved Beatriz from your Zichri of Himzo,
I love you and miss you. Today I travel on a mission with much promise. It brings me closer to you and closer to uncovering our mutual enemy. You make all this toil worth it.
Sincerely,
Your Prince Zichri
I didn’t want to use my gift. But if I continued to refuse, Zichri and I might never see each other again.