by Jacob Nelson
Quickly, he realized his error and backtracking a bit found the path that led up the hill. He climbed steadily with his burden, away from the crowds, toward the hiding place of Caribo.
As Kit arrived at Caribo’s side, the chanting stopped. Something about the quiet drew their attention back to the bound man. Kit gently set the girl down and turned to watch, drawn by the intensity of the air around them.
There, the decorated bearer of the jade knife purposely held his weapon high and shouting one last word, that was lost to the cheer of the crowd, and then plunged the weapon into the man’s chest.
The man screamed and the crowd joined in.
Swiftly the Aztec plumed murderer plunged his free hand into the man’s chest where the knife held it open. Dripping of blood, he removed his hand from the cavity and held the victim’s still beating heart high above his head. The man on the table turned his head and followed the arc of his own heart for a second or two before finally succumbing to death.
Caribo called out the name of his deity as Kit echoed his words with his own thoughts.
“We must get out of here,” Caribo hoarsely whispered to Kit, not able to tear his eyes from the gruesome sight.
Kit couldn’t agree more.
Scooping up the girl into his arms, Kit and Caribo started back for the cave. As they were stealing away the obvious departure of the girl was noticed. With a wild yell, runners were sent out into jungle night to search for her.
Kit tried to hurry.
Kit’s arms were tired from the climb and the added burden of trying to run with a woman cradled in his arms was wearing on him. He tossed the girl upon his shoulders instead. Caribo, meanwhile had grabbed up his pack, and together they raced through the night in search of the path that led to the riverbank… to their cave… their place of refuge.
Through the dark of the jungle forest they ran as they tried to put distance between themselves and their pursuers.
Caribo was now in front as he tried to help Kit over an especially tricky part of the path. As he hurried forward, a root from some dark tree caught Kit’s foot. Kit felt himself slip as his burden shifted across his shoulders. He stumbled and fell into Caribo.
They fell heavily together, the girl’s weight pulling them down as Kit’s sore muscles strained to keep her aloft.
In the course of the hard tumble they came to rest under the canopy of a large bush; arms, legs and branches of the bush all intertwined. The pursuit was nearing. Kit tried to get untangled and realized he couldn’t see a thing. Then the reason dawned on him. The bush they had fallen into had bounced back into shape, and covered them, which hid them from view.
Drawing back the thick wave of branches on the far side of the path, near the back side of the bush, a small opening into the earth was evident. A cave. Safety. Kit whispered to Caribo, “We go in there.” Kit was too sore to go on.
Having need of a safe place of refuge, Caribo agreed and gathered up some small rocks. He threw them within the small opening. Meanwhile, Kit prepared his sword for any unexpected surprise. Nothing appeared. Without hesitation Kit slid inside.
Caribo passed in the girl, who by this time was finally awake. Kit reassured her that she was safe, not thinking about the fact that she wouldn’t be able to understand him yet. She looked around wildly and tried to beat him with her small fists, however, as Kit held her flailing arms, his soothing voice and the emotional drain from so many hard experiences in the last few days so overcame her that she shortly melted into his arms into a deep sleep.
Caribo, meanwhile, found some loose rock to block the entrance, which he placed in such a fashion that it left it looking like the entrance had never existed.
The warriors shortly ran past the path, and Kit and Caribo eventually followed the girl’s example and slept from sheer exhaustion.
The next day, Kit awoke to the sound of a loud yell and opened his eyes to find Caribo attempting to gag the girl. Angry, Kit started to yell, but Caribo quickly shushed him, indicating that there may be searchers outside looking for them.
“What happened,” Kit demanded in a harsh whisper.
“The girl tried to steal my jade knife while I slept,” Caribo quickly explained to Kit, as he accused her, “which woke me up. She tried to get away, which was when I grabbed her.” Then showing his hand he continued, “As I reached out to stop the girl she bit me!”
“And the yell I heard?”
“That was me,” Caribo admitted, looking somewhat ashamed. “But I tell you it hurt. So now I will gag her.” Meanwhile, as he talked, to forestall any further bites, he attempted to gag her.
“Caribo! Just let her go.” As Kit moved in to stop the gagging, he came between the girl and Caribo. Lashing out, the girl’s elbow caught Kit square in the mouth, splitting his lip. Blood gushed from Kit’s wound as the girl spit out the cloth that Caribo had attempted to gag her with.
Caribo reached for the flailing limb, and that time was rewarded for his effort by catching the girl’s arm. With her arm in check, Caribo scooped up the fallen, dirty cloth and once again tried to force the gag into the girl’s mouth.
However, Kit again intervened and stayed Caribo’s hand; urging him to let her free. Not convinced, but willing to let his friend have his way, Caribo dropped the gag.
With Kit’s help the girl was finally able to get away from Caribo and the gag, and having done so, scrambled for a corner of the cave.
There she glared at the men, taking them in. Again, she was amazed at how handsome the pale one was, but she wasn’t going to let him take her back. Staring him in the eyes, her first words were simply, “Who sent you? My father?”
But being unfamiliar with the language, Kit simply shook his head as he asked Caribo for a translation. Caribo had none. Additionally he was done with the whole situation and retreated to his own corner.
When she realized that they knew nothing of her language she found herself confused. If they weren’t sent from her father, then who were they and why did they rescue her? She sat down to think.
On the other side of the cave Caribo largely ignored her.
Kit sat in between, facing her. There, bleeding, he considered the girl that he found so attractive yet so unattainable in language and friendship. How could he make her believe that they were there to help? As he thought, he fingered his rings and looking down at them, saw the crossed espadas. “Of course!” he said aloud, causing Caribo to look around for a second. Then taking up his weapon, he took hold of the blade and, handing the handle side out to the girl, urged her to take it.
“What are you doing?!” began Caribo. Kit flashed him a dirty look and Caribo caught Kit’s determined face. Resigning himself to Kit’s whim he turned away and scornfully added, “Whatever.”
The girl was shocked. Here the pale one was giving her a weapon… leaving him open to attack.
‘It must be some trick,’ she thought to herself. She glanced at Caribo for confirmation, but he purposely scowled and again turned his head as she looked his direction. The girl wasn’t going to take the weapon, so Kit left it as close to her as he dared, then backed up to show that she had all power to take it up or not as she desired.
Looking it over the girl tentatively reached out and, hoisting the espada, felt its weight as she passed her other hand along the side of the hard steel. Then, taking the weapon in hand, she laid it down by her side, and returned to sit and ponder what it all meant.
As Kit watched her and Caribo continued to (try to) ignore them, her thoughts went round and round as she considered all that had happened. True, she was in a cave with them, but the realization came to her that, aside from trying to keep her quiet and themselves safe from discovery, they hadn’t tried anything with her… even though her fainting spell had left them every opportunity to do so. Additionally, despite the obvious refusal of the darker one to help her, neither of them drew weapons to harm her, but instead had given her power to harm them. The enigma of the situation left her speechle
ss.
Looking up into Kit’s face from across the cave, she spied the blood dripping from Kit’s split lip and decided to show him that she was sorry; so instead of fleeing from him, she gathered up the rag that Caribo attempted to use to gag her, and tentatively approached Kit.
Kit tensed as she approached, fearing the uncertainty of the situation, but lost the fear as she reached out the rag and wiped the blood from his chin she had spilt with her elbow to his face.
They stayed there for two nights, as the girl recovered from the drugs she had been given. This bought them some time to allow the search for them to lessen, as they dared not go out too soon for fear of the Aztec hunters. During this time, Kit learned that his original assessment of the girl had fallen short. She wasn’t just beautiful, she was radiant!
Kit passed those two days attempting to learn some of her language, while really just basking in her presence; enjoying her voice and overall closeness. By the end of the second day, all he really knew about her was that her name was Miya and that she was the daughter of an important man who lived near the coast, and that she didn’t want to tell them anything more about her past. But that didn’t seem to dampen Kit’s spirits in the slightest.
Finally, through want of water, having exhausted what which was in the skin that Caribo always wore on his side, they finally were forced to make their way out again.
Chapter 6
The trio left in the gathering darkness. A full moon lighted their path as they made their way from shadow to shadow. Caribo scouted ahead, followed by Miya, with Kit bringing up the rear. Not that he minded. He had a great view despite the flitting from shadow to shadow. One might say his attention wasn’t completely tuned into the surrounding bush.
As Caribo cautiously approached the path to the cave and verified they weren’t being watched, he motioned the others to join him.
They followed the final path to the cave where their craft had been stored and hidden.
It was obvious to Kit and Caribo what they would find, or rather not find, long before they arrived at the chamber where they had hidden the canoe. Branches from the camouflage where strewn about and broken, mingled with footprints where they were tossed and shattered. The drag marks of the canoe were as evident as were the remains of some of their supplies.
Their canoe had been discovered and taken away.
All of their precious supplies were also gone. Every last bit of their supplies had been taken… aside from the items that the Mayas had given them—the wrist bands and the rings; as they wore them, their weapons—the bow and arrows and jade knife on Caribo, the swords and the pistols …powder and ball… on Kit, and the few items of trade and necessity that they carried with them in their pack.
Caribo angrily kicked out at the remains of the broken branches.
Kit looked pensive and attempted to lighten the mood, “At least we’ll be able to travel light.”
Caribo started to make a nasty reply and then seeing his face in the still of the water, stopped short instead and laughed out loud. “You are right, my friend. Perhaps this is best. We wanted adventure and now we have more chance of it. I say we start into the land instead of following the ocean. Let’s see what’s inside.”
“I agree, Caribo, but we should see what our newest member to our little group says,” suggested Kit, in reference to Miya.
Caribo’s face became more somber. “I do not wish to disagree, Kit, but I feel that we would only be leading her into more danger if she came with us…” Caribo began ticking off items on his fingers as he continued, “We have almost been sacrificed, we have seen sharks and the large living toothy logs, we have had to run for our lives from murderers…”
“And we have rescued this girl,” interrupted Kit, “and we are now responsible for her safety, whether it leads her back home or along the rest of the voyage with us.”
“She hates us. For my part I say we leave her.”
“I will not, Caribo! I would not leave you… I will not leave her.”
“Bah!” and with that, Caribo allowed the girl to stay with them. But he had many reservations.
Despite Kit’s reservations, as he longed her to stay some time with him, they posed the question to Miya: home, coast, or forest.
She immediately chose the forest. Caribo tried anew, wondering if maybe she misunderstood. After all, the forest seemed to be the most dangerous path. And he was more than willing to let her go home. Again she replied forest. Caribo gave in, and Kit glowed with pleasure. Caribo just shook his head in wonderment.
As the trio traveled, the girl recovered well. Caribo still wasn’t convinced that they should keep her with them, as she would ‘slow us down’ yet the opposite was proven true. She was very familiar with the fauna and flora of the jungle which made it easier for them to continue their trek without wasting so much time in searching for food. Not that she shared her food with Caribo willingly. She especially seemed to take joy in trying to make the boy’s life miserable. Kit enjoyed every second of it.
Caribo would have been blind not to notice the increasing conversation that Miya and Kit began that first day and continued as they traveled…although it was mostly a monologue on Kit’s part. Though the walk was somewhat tedious, the torrential flow of words on his side was enough to force her, willingly or not, to learn his language. Through it all, Kit also learned some of her language and soon they were able to converse quite freely with one another. Even so, it was still mostly a monologue on Kit’s part.
It was just time until the question of where she came from, and what led up to her capture was breached. Though Kit tried hard not to ask her any of the hard questions, and treated that subject with the sacredness of taboo, Caribo felt no injuncture and largely through curiosity and in a small part through teasing Kit about his flirting, he broached the subject.
As Kit surmised, Miya’s response to Caribo would be; Miya wasn’t willing to talk about it.
Caribo appeared to give up, but a few days later he brought up the topic in another way altogether. “Miya, how did you learn so much about the foods of the jungle? Didn’t you say you were from near the coast?”
“Ever since I was young, my father would take me on excursions into the jungle,” Miya curtly replied.
“Oh, really? To where?” asked Caribo casually.
“Just further up the river where our city stood.”
“Yet far enough to know the different kinds of plants and their uses,” Caribo insisted.
“Yes,” replied Miya, showing signs of some sort of inward struggle.
“And why did he do that? Take you along, I mean. Just for the sake of education?”
Miya decided to come clean, in hopes of shutting him up. “He had hoped that I might be able to favor one of the Kings of another tribe further up. The King was Aztec, and needed a wife. My father had hoped that by knowing the plants and their uses, I might be of more use to him alive rather than dead.” She paused for a moment before continuing.
“Dead?” inquired Kit, taking advantage of the break to interject something on his part.
“Yes,” she continued, scowling at the interruption. “According to Aztec thought, the pregnant woman was like a warrior who symbolically captured her child for the Aztec state in the painful and bloody battle of birth. They are considered as female aspects of defeated heroic warriors. Women dying in childbirth become fierce goddesses who carry the setting sun into the netherworld realm of Mictlan. My father was afraid that once I had been given over to the other man and had produced his heir, that I would be killed, as a heroic warrior in childbirth.” She took a long breath and continued. “However, as a shaman woman, a healer, I would have had more power… power to keep myself alive at all costs. So I studied plants until I was left without time to study more.” She searched Kit and Caribo’s faces to see how they were taking all this. They looked a little confused.
“So you were betrothed,” Caribo simply stated, understanding the way the tribes work, hopin
g that Kit would give up his flirtatious advances with her.
“Yes,” she answered in a low voice, as she turned her face from Kit, in an attempt to hide her expression.
“So how did you end up a sacrifice of the Aztecs?” Kit inquired, changing the subject somewhat.
“The man that my father wished me to marry was an evil, ugly, old man.”
Kit inwardly chuckled at her description. “I take it you didn’t like him,” he simply said.
“I did not love him and did not want him to touch me,” she responded, curtly. “Even the thought of him crushing me in his arms made my flesh wish to leave the bones of my body. I cried many long nights and finally I was told that on the morrow I would be handed over to him in order to make an alliance between the two Kingdoms.” Miya’s voice choked a bit as she continued her story. “I decided that I would never allow him to take me. So that night I stole away. I went to a place where I knew another tribe was… where I knew they preferred the sacrifice more than the stealing of virtue. There I allowed myself to become captured. They took me, drugged me, and left me tied. It was as I had hoped. I looked forward to my departure from this world.” Here she paused… then continued, “Until you came.”
Kit glanced over at her as she said the last words and saw that she had turned a bit darker… a darker shade of red. Miya had blushed.
The admission made the three of them a bit closer. Caribo was suddenly more willing to help out, and Kit understood what drove her a bit better.
They continued to wander north, never finding the Golden City. When the subject came up about it, Miya was shocked. They were looking for the self same city of the King that wished to wed her. When Kit and Caribo found this out, they drove her crazy by trying to drag information out of her.
“Why do you want to go to that evil place?” she hissed back to their requests for information. “Is it not enough that I have been there and know of its evil? That I was willing to take my own life over being made its queen?”
