I shake my head. Sosia taught me many words in the old tongue, but not that one.
“You may be surprised to hear that it means ‘new life’.” His eyebrows arch. “A confusing name for a dark creature, no?”
My lips part in surprise. I don’t understand why she would have chosen that name—since it sounds like she did, indeed, choose it.
But my concern now goes beyond her name. I speak carefully. “My knowledge of ancient times may be tainted by the person who told me about them.” In fact, everything Sosia told me could have been a lie. “But it was my understanding that the Vandawolf wascreated. He began as a human and was changed into a wolf. If Galeia had the same claws, what does this mean?”
Ryuji nods. “I had the same questions. Unfortunately, the texts are extremely vague about the arcane magic that created him. Most likely because this knowledge is dangerous.”
My disappointment must show because he hurries on.
“But several things are clear. One is that this magic could be inflicted on any living creature—provided the wielder of the magic was powerful enough.”
“So… Galeia wasn’t really a hellhound?”
“I imagine it was her cover to explain away her unusual claws.”
I shake my head. “Then she could have been anything.” My eyes widen as another possibility occurs to me. “Was she related to the Vandawolf? A daughter or something like that?”
“Oh, no.” He shakes his head rapidly. “There is no suggestion that they had any familial relationship. In fact, quite the opposite. They were entirely separate beings who were impacted by this magic at different times.”
My shoulders slump. If she were related, then it would at least explain who or what she was.
“And the next thing?” I ask.
“Galeia had a mechanical heart.”
I can only stare at Ryuji. “What?”
“It’s clear from the texts that this arcane magic was always infused into metal. The metal that changed Galeia formed a significant part of her heart.”
Ryuji reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of parchment. “This is a copy I drew from a page in one of the oldest books in my possession. Once you look upon this drawing, I will destroy it, for there should never be any copies.”
He holds the parchment out to me, revealing a rough, hand-drawn image. It depicts the heart as an organ, the kind I saw in an illustration when my jailer saw fit to provide me with an encyclopedia that included human anatomy.
The upper portion of the heart looks like it’s made of flesh, including the pipe-shaped parts extending up out of it, but it’s clear that the rest of the heart is constructed of something metallic. There are cogs and pipes and plates and so many other interconnecting pieces that it’s hard to distinguish them all.
“My drawing skills aren’t up to capturing the detail,” Ryuji says. “What you can see doesn’t even come close to the complexity of interlocking pieces that are depicted in the original diagram. It must have been a feat of terrible genius to create a heart like that.”
A mechanical heart.
My own heart is thudding harder in my chest. A sudden panic is rising within me. “If this heart turned her into a so-called hellhound, then what about me?”
Or Sosia, for that matter.Maybe it wasn’t that a curse was placed on Sosia, but that this arcane magic was used instead.
Ryuji reaches out and catches hold of my hand, gripping firmly.
“No,” he says, as if he can read my thoughts. “Unlike Galeia, you werebornwith your claws and teeth and feathers. Inherited directly from her.”
“How can you be certain?”
“Because the ancient texts are very clear about this. The arcane magic was considered so dangerous—so full of darkness—that every piece of tainted metal was gathered up and destroyed. Even the metal that was used on the Vandawolf. All of it, Veda.”
He pauses, his chest expanding with an indrawn breath before he says, “Except Galeia’s heart.”
His gaze bores into me as if he can see my fears—as if he can calm them—even with my blindfold on. And maybe he can, because the breeze picks up around me, a sudden wind that doesn’t feel exactly natural but cools the sweat forming on my brow and eases the pounding of my heart.
“I don’t know if she escaped the purge,” he says quietly. “Or if she was allowed to live. Because clearly, she would not survive without a heart.”
