“That may be the case. But the danger is too great. You cannot face it.”
“You will not help me?” she asked.
“I can sense it,” the old woman said, and she lifted her hand carefully, grimacing. “It’s too powerful, stronger than I thought. Itmight come after me if I say anything more. You must go. That is the answer.”
“And let my family die,” Alba said.
The old woman did not reply. She did not need to. Her silence was the answer. For a second, Alba considered it. She thought about boarding a train, with a bag by her side and a handful of coins in her pocket. She considered leaving Piedras Quebradas behind.
Abandoning her kin to face the wrath of a witch.
Alba bolted up from her seat. She ran out of the house and stood by the door, hugging herself.
“Don’t worry. We’ll fix it,” Valentín said, rushing after her and placing his hands on her shoulders.
She closed her eyes. Alba’s mouth tasted bitter; it tasted of bile. “How can you fix it?” she asked, but her voice was a pitiful croak.
“We’ll do as the stories say. We’ll lure it and trap it.”
She looked at him. Valentín was nodding.
“Yes, like in that story my grandfather used to tell. We wait until night falls, skin an animal, and lay its dead carcass upon the ground. Then we wait in the shadows until the scent of blood draws the teyolloquani out. When it approaches, we take a cord and tie a knot, then say some words. Then tie another knot and say more words. Once you’ve tied twelve knots it will be trapped. Then you can kill it.”
“What words?”
“The first word is ‘earth.’ You tell it that you’re holding it with earth. Then you say you’re holding it with water, then with fire and air. You say it again until you reach twelve. Once you’ve begun tying the knots, you can’t stop speaking. That’s the trick. It might try to scare you or trick you, but you must keep going.”
“What if your grandfather forgot something? Or he made it up? Wouldn’t Mrs. Jovita have recommended this to us? Why do you know this story and not her? Or maybe she does know it, but it’s as she said, it’s simply too dangerous.”
“You’ve heard stories like this, I know you have.”
“I’ve heard of witches who control the wind by tying it with knots.”
“There, you see? And think hard, you’ll remember a few others, I know you will.”
“There’s a risk to it. No, no, no. It’s foolish,” she said, shaking her head.
“Alba, you must trust me,” he said. “I’m sure it will work. We can ask the priest to bless my bullets, to make sure they hurt the teyolloquani. If the bullets are blessed, there is no way it can survive.”
“The medallion was blessed. It did no good,” she said, and now she pressed a hand against her neck. Beneath it was the piece of metal, but next to that was the bruise with the tiny cut. The creature had simply slinked into her room as if it were made of smoke.
Alba looked off to the side, blinking away tears. “It’ll kill me if we fail,” she said. “I know it. You have no idea what it is like, the fear I feel. Last night, I saw its eyes, and they were such terrible eyes. I cannot forget them. Even if I live a thousand years, I will not.”
She meant it. The terror was what made her shiver like a leaf, she was sure of it. It was caught inside the marrow of her bones. She could not shake it off, nor could the coat around her shoulders warm her, for the chill of the grave was what she’d felt as she laid in her bed.
“Alba,” Valentín said, and put his arms around her.
She slipped her arms around him in return. Valentín stroked her hair gently.
“Don’t let it catch me,” she begged him. “Oh, don’t let me remember its eyes.”
She turned her face toward Valentín and kissed him. She wanted to clutch someone real, someone who was warm flesh and blood, not a shadow that crept into her bed and kissed her with lips of ice.
When she pulled away, she carefully brushed his temple with her hand and looked into his eyes.
“In a few nights we’ll trap it and kill it,” Valentín promised, and he quickly pressed his lips against the back of her hand. “I’ll havethe priest bless my bullets and we’ll catch it. I’ll run into town this very evening, as soon as I get you back home.”
They rode together and once again Valentín stopped by the edge of the field of barley. He helped her dismount. They stood in front of each other, her hands pressed flat against his chest.
