Chapter 3 - A Palace Full of Enemies
They locked me in a room larger than every place my grandmother and I had ever lived combined.
The bed had white sheets. The windows overlooked a courtyard filled with orange trees. A bathroom stood behind a door made of dark wood, with hot water that appeared simply by turning a silver handle.
I should have felt safe.
Instead, I counted exits.
The main door was guarded. The windows were two stories above the ground. A narrow balcony connected to the next room, but iron bars covered the railing.
My grandmother had taught me that beautiful cages were still cages.
Doctor Elena cleaned the cut on my cheek where Mateo Vargas had struck me beneath the river. She listened to my lungs and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders.
“You are fortunate,” she said.
“I don’t feel fortunate.”
“No. I suppose you would not.”
She turned away to arrange her medical bag.
“Did you know my grandmother?”
Her hands stopped.
Only for half a second.
But I saw it.
“You did,” I said.
Elena closed the bag.
“I knew many people in this city.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“You ask dangerous questions.”
“People keep trying to kill me. I think I have earned a few dangerous answers.”
Her eyes softened.
“You sound like Esperanza.”
“Then tell me why everyone is afraid of her.”
Before Elena could respond, the door opened.
A young woman entered without knocking.
She was perhaps nineteen or twenty, wearing riding boots and a white shirt rolled to the elbows. Her black hair was tied behind her head, and a small knife rested openly against her belt.
She looked me over.
“This is the child who saved my uncle?”
“I’m twelve,” I said. “Not six.”
“That does not answer my question.”
“Then ask a better one.”
Elena hid a smile.
The young woman raised an eyebrow.
“I am Valeria Vargas.”
“Are you a mafia boss too?”
“I am studying law.”
“That sounds worse.”
This time Elena actually laughed.
Valeria sat near the window.
“My uncle says someone tried to kill you.”
“Your uncle says many things.”
“Most people are too frightened to speak about him that way.”
“Most people probably own shoes.”
She glanced at my bare feet.
Within an hour, three boxes arrived. Clothes, soap, and two pairs of shoes sat inside them. I did not touch anything.
Valeria noticed.
“You think they are poisoned?”
“I think gifts usually have strings.”
“Not these.”
“Then why give them to me?”
“Because my uncle ordered it.”
“That is a string.”
Her amusement faded.
“You really are Esperanza’s grandson.”
“You knew her too?”
Valeria rose.
Before I could stop her, she left the room.
Elena followed, but I heard their voices in the hallway.
“He deserves the truth,” Valeria said.
“He deserves to live,” Elena answered.
I moved closer to the door.
“My uncle cannot protect him while Lucio controls half the captains.”
“You do not know that Lucio is involved.”
“My father trusted Lucio. My father ended up in a coffin.”
Their footsteps receded.
I repeated the name in my mind.
Lucio.
That evening, Mateo summoned me to his study.
Rafael escorted me through halls lined with paintings and armed guards. Every servant lowered their eyes when we passed.
Inside the study, Mateo had changed into a charcoal suit. He stood before a wall displaying a map of Ciudad de Esperanza. Red pins marked the docks, police stations, casinos, warehouses, and government offices.
A tall man with silver hair stood beside him.
“This is Lucio Serrano,” Mateo said. “My chief adviser.”
Lucio smiled.
The smile never reached his eyes.
“So this is our river hero.”
He extended his hand.
I did not take it.
Lucio withdrew it slowly.
“Careful boy,” he said. “Pride is expensive.”
“So are shoes. I’ve survived without both.”
Mateo’s gaze sharpened, but Lucio laughed.
“I like him.”
That frightened me more than if he had threatened me.
Mateo placed the old photograph on his desk.
“Have you ever seen the leather book your grandmother is holding?”
“No.”
“Did she leave you anything before she died?”
“A tin box.”
The room changed.
Lucio’s smile vanished.
Mateo leaned forward.
“What was inside?”
“Letters. A silver key. A medal with a sun on it.”
Lucio and Mateo exchanged a glance.
“Where is this box?” Mateo asked.
I hesitated.
My grandmother had hidden it beneath a loose stone near the abandoned train station. She had told me never to retrieve it unless I heard the words the river remembers.
No one had said those words.
“Someone stole it,” I lied.
Lucio watched me too closely.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did you keep it?”
“In the park.”
“Which park?”
“Why does it matter if it’s gone?”
Mateo interrupted.
“That is enough, Lucio.”
The adviser stepped back.
“Of course.”
But his eyes remained on me.
Mateo told Rafael to take me to dinner.
As we reached the door, Lucio spoke.
“The river remembers, Aurelio.”
My blood turned cold.
I stopped.
Lucio’s expression did not change, but triumph flickered in his eyes.
He knew the phrase.
He knew my grandmother’s secret.
And I had just shown him that the tin box still existed.
That night, I waited until the mansion became quiet.
Then I tied bedsheets together, slipped onto the balcony, and climbed toward the garden.
I had to reach the train station before Lucio did.
I was halfway down the stone wall when a hand seized my ankle.
I nearly screamed.
Valeria leaned over the balcony above me.
“You are terrible at escaping,” she whispered.
“I was doing fine until you grabbed me.”
“You are going after the box.”
I stared at her.
May you like
She lowered a rope ladder.
“And unless you want Lucio’s men to find it first,” she said, “you are taking me with you.”
