she do for power?”
“Move on to the next realm,” Agosto says.
A dark thought grips my heart. It is my turn to shape the
galaxies. “If she had enough power, could the Devourer leave Los
Lagos?”
Agosto nods.
From here, the scenery starts to take shape. The trees give way to
a steep downward slope covered in tall, yellow grass. The land
undulates in rolling, purple hills that stretch into the flat lands of
the horizon. Polished stones jut out of the ground, like the crooked
teeth of the earth. Off in the distance, there’s a ring of enormous
pillars that remind me of Stonehenge. The Alta Bruja’s temple. There’s
so much grass around the stone pillars that it looks as if the earth
has begun to swallow it up.
The sky is a powdery blue with swirls of purple clouds. The breeze
carries the scent of lavender and wildflowers. It’s amazing that the
same land that is home to the River Luxaria and the Wastelands can
also be home to this. I wonder, if we return home after being gone for
so long, will it look different to me?
But one look at the worry on Agosto’s face takes my smile away. We
get closer to the edge of the forest where we reach a dead end.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“The land,” he says. “It’s different.”
“Are you sure we didn’t go the wrong way?”
Rishi bites her bottom lip. “You said it’s been a while since you
left the meadow. Maybe we did go the wrong way.”
I grab the map from Nova’s back pocket. It’s been folded and
unfolded so many times, the edges are starting to fray. I find where
we are on the map. The edge of the Wastelands, west of Laguna Roja.
North of us should be Las Peсas, and beyond that, the heart of the
land-the labyrinth. But it isn’t.
“It seems Kristiсe hid more than the path,” Agosto says. “She hid
the entire mountain.”
28
The Deos don’t act for us.
The Deos act through us.
- Patricio Mortiz, Book of Cantos
“How do you move a mountain?” Nova asks.
“You know how they say if the mountain won’t go to you,” Rishi
says, “then you go to the mountain? Maybe the mountain really did go
this time.”
I smile, and Nova gives her a long look.
The wind whips around us, like it’s pushing us back to where we
came from. My stomach is in a thousand tangled knots. I wet my dry
lips, savoring the crisp air. The earth is dry in patches and bright
green in others. Stone paths cut across the land, creating a patchwork
quilt. As much as I want to laugh at Rishi’s joke, I have to wonder:
Where is this mountain?
“When I was little,” I say, “my dad used to say, if he ever lost
me, he’d just follow the starlight we leave behind.”
Rishi turns to me with sad eyes. “You never talk about your dad.”
“I don’t know where that came from. He was talking about us
running around the supermarket or the mall. Still. I just remembered.”
Rishi takes my hand in hers but lets go when Nova wedges himself
between us. “Well, Captain, it’s not dark enough for starlight.”
I purse my lips. “Says the boy made of light.”
“I’m not made of light,” he counters. “I conjure it.”
I roll my eyes and step closer to the edge of the cliff. The way
down is steep and rocky but not unmanageable. It’s quiet here except
for the rush of wind and Agosto’s heartbeat in my ears. I can still
feel his essence from healing him, a side effect of touching someone
with my power. Like when I tried to hurt Nova back home. It makes me
think of what the Devourer said to me, that she could hear me because
of the fear in my heart. Why can’t I feel a trace of her power?
“It’s strange,” I say.
“Which part?” Rishi asks.
I point to the horizon. “It’s not hot here, but the air on the
horizon ripples like there’s a heat wave.”
“Wouldn’t that be the Bone Valle?” She squints and holds her hand
like a sun visor over her eyes. “If I didn’t want someone to come into
my lair and I was this powerful bruja, I’d make sure no one would see
it.”
Look twice . Nothing in Los Lagos is what it seems. The land is
fluid, yes, but even if the Devourer destroyed the mountains of Las
Peсas the way she’s destroyed so many other things, we’d still be able
to see the labyrinth.
I raise my hands and feel for the glamour on the land. I remember
Mayi from Lula’s circle uses her powers to change her eye color and
straighten her nose all the time. But sometimes, when I look at her
from the corner of my eye, or between blinks, the glamour reveals
itself. That’s small magic. Magic used for vanity doesn’t end well, my
mom would say.
Even from miles away, I can feel the ripple of magic across the
land. I relax my eyes, and for a fraction of second, the ghost of a
mountain ridge appears. Then a force pushes against me, like a punch
to the gut. I gasp for air and stumble back.
“What is it?” Agosto asks, rushing to my side.
“What do your bruja eyes see?” Rishi asks dramatically. Then she
gives Nova the finger when he snickers at her. So much for their
truce.
“It’s there. It’s hidden behind a glamour.” I take Agosto’s
outstretched hand and pull myself up.
“What should we do?” Nova says. “We could walk straight for it.
When we get closer, you can pull the glamour.”
I shake my head, unsure. If I can feel its strength from here, I
don’t know if it’ll get any better. “What if I can’t?”
“I beg your pardon,” Agosto says, “but pulling the glamour won’t
be enough. This is what the Devourer wants. Walk straight to the
mountain and be unable to pass. Walk around it and end up in the Bone
Valle. Disrupt her magic, and she’ll come right at you, and I fear
she’ll take greater precautions now that she knows she underestimated
you. You should make for the Hidden Path.”
“Um,” Rishi says, raising her hand as if we’re in the middle of
class. “Okay, but how do we make it the Un-Hidden Path?”
“Before our rebellion, Kristiсe created the path through the
mountain to let other tribes pass. Their plan was to attack unseen.
But their own people betrayed them, and as they crossed, the Devourer
ambushed them from both sides. The Alta Bruja, leader of the tribe,
used the last of her power to curse her traitors with immortal life.
Gouged out their eyes and buried them beneath the earth. The Devourer
found them and dug them up. She healed their bodies by linking their
life force to the earth. She called them her ‘blind giants,’ guards of
the labyrinth.”
“How can they guard anything if they can’t see?” Rishi asks.
“They don’t need eyes to find you,” Agosto says darkly. “Sight is
the most easily fooled of all our senses.”
I look at Nova, who stares at the horizon. I wonder what’s going
through his head right now. He looks more worried than I’ve ever seen
him before.
I follow the twisting trails down below with my eyes. We could get
lost no matter what. Los Lagos is as much a labyrinth as the
Devourer’s maze. As the sun and moon start to reach their peaks in the
sky, nudging closer to eclipse, their light bounces off the henge
below.
“Head for the temple. Alta Bruja Kristiсe erected the circle of
stones and called it the Heart of the Deos.”
“Why’s it always the heart or the eye of something?” Rishi asks.
“You notice that? There are so many body parts that don’t get enough
love, like earlobes and belly buttons.”