Lamia

Lamia is the novel’s name for folkloric water spirits associated with the river and its surroundings. The spirits are first evoked as part of the town’s familiar landscape, then return in a disturbing dream where their unseen splashing accompanies Lucía Aguirre’s apparition and the revelation of a word central to the investigation.

Folkloric Presence in the Town

During a quiet walk with Ibai, Amaia Salazar passes the fountain of the Lamias before looking toward the Baztán River. The water reflects the backs of the houses like a damp, parallel world held beneath its surface. In this everyday setting, the fountain makes the Lamias part of the town’s visible cultural landscape, while the river’s reflection lends that landscape an uncanny double.

The River and the Dream

Later, as Amaia sleeps after considering the pattern of the murders, she dreams that she is near the river. She cannot see the Lamias, but hears their measured splashing as their duck-like feet strike the water. The sound stops when Lucía Aguirre meets Amaia’s gaze. Lucía is grey-faced and holds her waist with her left arm; her other arm has been severed at the elbow, leaving the stump exposed.

Narrative Significance

In the dream, the Lamias remain unseen: their presence is conveyed through sound and through the charged setting of the river. Their splashing creates an eerie accompaniment to Lucía’s appearance, but the novel does not confirm that the spirits are objectively present or explain a wider set of powers or customs associated with them. The decisive communication comes from Lucía, whose dry, rasping voice finally makes clear that she is saying “tarttalo.” The Lamias thus frame a moment in which local folklore, Amaia’s dream, and the investigation’s emerging meaning meet, without collapsing them into a single explanation.