“I’ve been enlisted? But Blackbirds don’t begin training camp until they’re nineteen,” he said.
“Those vipers in Dos Palos are getting stronger by the minute. We need more soldiers. And you need to pay your dues so you can take my place one day.”
That wasn’t what he wanted. Not anymore. He wanted a life with Esmeralda. “But…”
“But nothing.” Father grabbed his suitcase and brushed past Ignacio. “I’ll be back in an hour and then we will talk more about your training. Say your goodbyes, but don’t even think about doing anything absurd or there will be hell to pay. You will not tarnish my name or your mother’s legacy.”
The second Father left, Ignacio found Dovie scrubbing boots in the courtyard. She saw him approaching and scanned the empty area as if them being caught together was the biggest problem they faced. He showed her the enlistment card and watched as understanding seeped into her marrow. Her hands began to shake.
“You cannot go,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to.”
Relief softened her features, and he hated that he had to harden them again.
“But I have no choice,” he said. “I must obey my father.”
“Your father is a terrible man!” Her eyes shot around the courtyard again. She stepped nearer to him. “The comandante…He has done…” She shook her head. “Heisdoing terrible things. They are making these canisters filled with gas. When set off, they singe the skin and collapse the lungs. They’re sending those into the front lines. There’s more…worse things…like—”
Ignacio cut her off, thinking of his father’s parting words:Don’t even think about doing anything absurd or there will be hell to pay. “I have no choice in the matter. I cannot disobey him. I can’t disappoint him.” He took her hand, rubbed his thumb over the ring he gave her. “Will you wait for me?”
“You don’t understand how terrible this war is. Every missive I’ve been able to decode while carrying messages to andfrom his generals has painted a picture far different from anything we’ve been told in the papers. The people of Dos Palos aren’t some wicked force hell-bent on destroying our kingdom. It’sus, Pigeon.Weare the bad guys here. And your father is leading the charge.”
“Nonsense. You know my father. He’s calculated. He wouldn’t send us into battle for no good reason.”
“Is there ever a good reason when it comes to war? To send thousands to their deaths?” She stepped closer to him. “You cannot go.”
His brows furrowed. “I’ve been preparing for this since as far back as I can remember. My mother was a soldier, my father. I can be one too.”
“You don’t have to be.” She grabbed his sleeves. “Run away with me. We could go south. Or take a ship east. I can’t lose you.”
He cupped her cheeks. “You won’t. Not ever.”
“You can’t promise that. You’ll change. You’ll forget me.”
“I’d never.”
She started to cry. “You’ll become him. I just know it. He doesn’t see people like me as human. He sees us as pieces to move on a board.”
“I would never do that.”
“But you will do whatever he commands. If he tells you to kill, you will. And I can’t stand by and watch you or your soul die. I won’t stay here if you go. I refuse to sit back and wait for a corpse to return to me.”
“So, you’ll leave? You’ll move on without me?”
She clutched him harder. “Come with me. Choose me. Choose us. Not some war that should never have been started.”
“I can’t turn my back on my father or my mother’s legacy.”
Her face paled. “Yet you can turn your back on me.”
“No. That isn’t true. I love you. I will always love you.”
“Why do I feel like there is abutcoming?”
“Because there is. Dovie, I am an Olivera. I must—”
She held up a hand to silence him. “I’ll give you until midnight to decide. I’ll meet you by the dove tree. Check your father’s hidden office. See if you can’t find the proof yourself. If I don’t see you, I’ll know you’ve made your choice.”
