by Carol A Park
“But then you showed up. You and this”—he waved his hand at Ivana—“non-teotontl, which ought to be impossible. Xiuheuhtli rescued you because he was intrigued, not because he cared about your fate. No mortal has attempted to come through the portal since a few centuries after Zily locked it to the abyss. He delivered you to my sister because he had to—she was within her rights to demand it—but he also informed me.
“When I found out Thaxchatichan had you, I knew that was bad news.”
“Why? Other than the obvious,” Ivana asked.
“Because Thaxchatichan has long been an ally of Danathalt. And those of us who’ve been watching have known for some time that Danathalt is up to something. As it turns out, we’re right.” He nodded to Vaughn. “With what you’ve told me, my guess is he’s trying to influence events in your world through a teotontl he shouldn’t have. What does that portend? How did he even manage to exert enough control for that? I’m not sure, but he surely means no benefit to your people—and any scheme of Danathalt’s can only make things worse for us here.”
“This still doesn’t explain why you rescued us,” Vaughn said.
“If Thaxchatichan and Danathalt wanted you, then I knew they couldn’t have you. It’s been decades since I attempted to speak with the Great Father, and I thought this warranted his attention. We all thought…” He looked at them speculatively.
“Thought what?”
“That maybe this was a sign things were about to change.”
Vaughn rubbed at his exposed kneecap. “Well, sorry to disappoint you. Nothing’s going to change other than right now we’re alive, and tonight we won’t be.”
“Hmm,” Tani said. “I’m not so sure. I think if you can make the right argument to Zily—before he orders your blood drained, of course—he might hear you.”
“Why?” Ivana asked. “He said it himself: He doesn’t care about your mortal playthings.”
“No. He doesn’t. But I think after all this time, he’s become tired of being idle. He’s tired of hearing our whining. He might even be getting a little lonely. And he’s suspicious that Danathalt is going to try something again. If the troubles you’re experiencing are a result of Danathalt’s meddling, he may be more interested in helping you than he lets on.”
The jangling of keys echoed down the hall.
“Hold on,” Ivana said. “You transported us here—instantaneously.”
“Yes.”
“Can’t you transport yourself—or us—out?”
Tani laughed. “Perhaps,” he said. “He might have been able to stop me. He’s not called ‘Great Father’ for no reason—he’s the most powerful among us. Though I wouldn’t take you, if I could. That would only enrage him further.” He shrugged. “Zily had a small tantrum this time, so I’m letting him feel like he punished or humiliated me. He could have done much worse to me.” He shuddered. “I certainly don’t want to end up like Thaxchatichan.”
Two guards emerged from the hallway. One of them opened Tani’s door. “The Great Father requests your presence at dinner.”
“See,” Tani mouthed to Vaughn and Ivana. “Lonely.” And then he disappeared in a flash of light. Literally.
Vaughn was guessing it wasn’t because he’d turned invisible.
The other guard opened their door. “Out,” he grunted. “And don’t try anything.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Greatly Honored
They didn’t try anything.
As if they could have. The guards may have looked mostly human, but they had inhuman strength. Ivana and Vaughn were blindfolded again, so Ivana strained her other senses, waiting for an opportunity to exploit, but in the end, she was forced to conclude that even if, by some chance, one of them managed to escape…where would they go?
She didn’t even know how to get home.
Their blindfolds were removed. They stood inside the doors of a great hall; it made Thaxchatichan’s look like a child’s playroom.
The walls were lined with servants clothed in an array of bright, solid colors, but each only sporting one color—which matched the color of their hair.
A dozen more of the large birds they had seen on Zily’s portico perched around the hall, and at the end, Zily sat atop a throne of dyed bones.
Well. That was encouraging.
A large stone basin stood at one side of the hall; three steps led to the top.
It was to this that the guards directed Vaughn and Ivana.
They were jostled together as they walked.
“Turns out you don’t have to kill me for getting us into this,” Vaughn whispered to her.
“If by some chance there is such a thing as an afterlife, and we end up in it together, I will never forgive you,” Ivana said.
“There’s a cheery last thought. Haunted by you in life and death.”
One of the guards poked Vaughn in the back with the butt of his spear. “Quiet,” he said.
Once they had reached the basin, Zily stood to address them directly. “You are greatly honored,” he said. “I haven’t sacrificed a mortal in my own throne room in millennia.”
Interesting, Ivana thought. Had some of the Banebringers agreed to be sacrificed? To what end? Perhaps the heretic gods had promised them something more than demi-god status in this life.
Vaughn stepped forward. “Great Father, please grant one last petition.”
“No,” Zily said.
Vaughn blinked, as if he hadn’t expected that.
“The nattering one first,” Zily said.
One of the guards shoved Vaughn up the stairs and forced him to his knees. “Fine, then I’ll talk anyway!” Vaughn shouted. “Danathalt tried to overthrow you once, and he’ll try it again!”
Zily snorted. “He’ll fail, then.”
The guard pushed Vaughn forward so that his upper body fell over the basin, and then grabbed Vaughn’s hair and forced his head back, exposing his throat.
“He’s meddling in our world, our politics, our religions. He’s trying to find a loophole in the curse. Is there a loophole, Great Father?”
The guard pulled a curved knife out of a sheath at his waist and put it to Vaughn’s throat, presumably waiting for some signal from Zily, who was idly stroking his giant bird and watching Vaughn with his swirling eyes.
He was remarkably calm for someone seconds from death. He was no coward, whatever else he might be.
Or pretend to be. Once again, Ivana found herself grudgingly admitting that there was more to this man than appeared.
His eyes flicked to hers, desperation there. His jaw and throat were tight. He was clearly out of ideas.
It wasn’t always true that she didn’t want to die, but she certainly didn’t want to die here. And she didn’t want Vaughn to die, either.
She wrenched her arm out of the grasp of her guard, who had let his hand loosen in inattention, and stepped forward. “Danathalt has a Banebringer!”
Zily held up his hand to stay the hand of Vaughn’s guard. He held the position while he silently studied Ivana. “What?”
“A Banebringer,” Ivana said. “A teotontl.”
“Impossible,” Zily said, but it was more musing than a declaration. Still, he stared at Ivana. His gaze was starting to become a little disturbing. “He’s forbidden from doing anything that would knock our rivalry out of balance.”
Someone cleared their throat from a place on one of the walls. Tani stepped forward. “Is that true, Great Father? Do you even know what’s been happening, secluded up here in your palace?”
“He spoke to me,” Vaughn said. “Through his…teotontl. She wasn’t normal.”
That drew Zily’s attention away from Ivana. He gestured to the guard, and the guard let go of Vaughn’s hair and put his knife away. Vaughn swallowed and rubbed his throat.
“What did he say?”
“He told me his name, and he said he didn’t have anything against me personally.” He paused, and Ivana was certain it was for dramatic e
ffect. “My patron is Thaxchatichan, who, as you know, has long been an ally of Danathalt. We don’t know what he’s scheming, but you can rest assured it won’t be good for any of us. Perhaps we can find a way to help each other. Will you hear more?”
Ivana was…impressed. Vaughn sounded like he knew what he was talking about, despite having only the limited information from their brief conversation with Tani.
Zily’s eyes swirled with color. “Release them,” he said. He glanced around his throne room. “And leave us, all of you. No, not you, Taniqotalin.”
The guards turned and left. So, with a nod of encouragement from Tani, Vaughn and Ivana hesitantly made their way over to Zily’s throne.
There they stood, face-to-face with Ziloxchanachi, head of the heretic gods, and he had finally granted them the audience they’d sought.
“Tell me what you know,” Zily demanded.
Vaughn related everything he could remember about Danathalt’s doings in their world. About the crazy bug-lady who’d turned out to be his Banebringer and her shenanigans. About the unnatural corpse-thing that was—perhaps—under her control, and in turn controlled bloodbane. About the Conclave, what they had been doing for the past hundred years, and how Vaughn had heard them talking about being in league with Danathalt—and how they were apparently making more corpse-things. About their coup, and their actions in the past eighteen months, how they’d been trying to eliminate or enslave Banebringers and bring the rest of Setana firmly under their control. About the bloodbane that had been seen congregating around Weylyn City. And, finally, about Donia, and Xambria, and the Conclave threat on their border.
“Your petty fights don’t concern me,” Zily said when Vaughn had finished.
Tani broke in. “No, but Danathalt’s attempts to directly intervene in their world ought to give you pause.” He hesitated. “You know your curse better than I. Is it indeed possible that he could have his own teotontl?”
Zily stroked his goatee. “The curse demands that balance must be maintained, but it isn’t precise—I have none; he might be able to get away with one. But to directly influence, and perhaps even speak through, that teotontl, suggests a level of unprecedented control. If anyone could do it, it would be he—since the places of weakness in the barrier are linked to his realm.” He frowned, and then spoke more softly, as if to himself. “I fear I may have given him this tool myself.”
“Do you think he’s trying to find a way to subvert the curse?” Tani asked.
“I would not be surprised.” Zily tapped his bone throne with his index finger. “I’ve been idle too long, and it may be my undoing.”
“Help us,” Vaughn interjected. “And perhaps we can find out what he’s up to. Maybe even find a way to stop him.” Truth be told, Zily was hardly the epitome of the benevolent dictator, but of the two of them, Zily seemed to have less interest in their world, which was better in the long-term for mortals, as far as Vaughn was concerned.
But Zily merely chuckled. “Stop him? You? Mortals? No, the only way to stop him would be to undo my curse so I could directly intervene. As it is, as long as he does nothing in our realm to affect the balance of power, I can do nothing.”
“You…cursed yourself in your own curse?”
Zily winced. “I may have been overzealous.”
Tani was right. These beings weren’t gods. They were overpowered immortals with the same whims and desires as mortals. Which made them doubly dangerous.
“Can you cut off the portals all together so he can no longer reach us?”
He shook his head. “The weaknesses in the barrier are not my doing. They belong to something older than me.”
Even Tani looked startled at that proclamation.
“So…undo the curse.”
“I cannot,” Zily said.
“What do you mean, you can’t? You did it. Can’t you undo it?”
Zily seemed troubled. “No. And if I increase my power in order to stop him, he will do the same.”
Vaughn slumped back. It seemed they were at an impasse. He doubted Zily would help them if Vaughn could offer nothing in return. It turned out the heretic gods didn’t care about them enough for that.
“However…” Zily turned his shifting eyes on Vaughn, and then to Ivana, once again. “There has always been a connection between this world and yours. My children must fight. Do you see a similar effect in your world?”
Vaughn frowned, but Ivana was the one who spoke. “Yes,” she said slowly. “The aether of teotontl who have rival patrons affects aether of the rival. It fights to the death when combined, or at least until it’s rendered ineffective. It’s how the Conclave has controlled captured teotontl all these years.”
Zily nodded. “It is possible that, similarly, you may be able to affect our world by what you do in yours.”
Vaughn blinked. “What? Really?”
“If you could bring unbalance to the curse in your world, it may be enough to unravel it in ours as well.”
“But I thought there had to be balance.”
“Among us, yes. That has nothing to do with mortals. Therefore, you may be able to affect it when I cannot.”
“There are an awful lot of maybes here.”
Zily shrugged. “I hardly plotted out all the ramifications of my curse in advance.”
Ivana sighed and put two fingers to her forehead, as if that were the worst thing she’d heard all day.
Vaughn continued with the more salient point. “What are we supposed to do? Defeat the Conclave? We can’t. That’s the whole problem. That’s why we risked our lives coming here. To get your help to defeat them.”
“Danathalt may have made a critical error by interfering in your world because now I may interfere as well. I will create for you one of my own teotontl.”
Vaughn’s heart fell. A single Banebringer? That was what Zily offered?
Tani broke in. “Aren’t we playing into Danathalt’s plans? Doesn’t he want the curse to be broken, so he can try again?”
Zily stroked his beard again. “I don’t think that would occur to Danathalt. He is narrow-sighted and small-minded. No, he’s doing what he’s doing to try to subvert the curse, not unravel it. If we unravel it without his knowledge, I have the advantage. If, however, he finds a way to subvert me with the curse in place…I may be unable to stop him.” Zily stood up, his face firm. “No, this is the best plan.” He flexed his fingers. “I feel invigorated. Perhaps this will be a nice change of pace.”
Vaughn raised his hand. “Uh. Okay. This is all nice, but how is one Banebringer—er—teotontl—supposed to help us defeat the Conclave?”
Zily’s eyes swirled hues of red and orange. “Danathalt may be my rival, but I am the most powerful of our kind. Use that to your advantage. You will also find out what Danathalt’s plans are and report back to me.”
Vaughn felt cheated. Like he’d come here asking for aid and ended up being enlisted in a war between two powerful entities instead. And what in the abyss were they getting in return? A single Banebringer?
But it seemed they had little choice. He’d successfully changed Zily’s mind—and Vaughn wasn’t certain it was going to make a difference anyway. “And how do I report back to you?”
Zily seemed surprised. “Why, next year at the sky-fire, of course. This time I’ll have Taniqotalin waiting to escort you directly here.”
“A year from now?” Vaughn spluttered. “There are Conclave forces on the borders of Donia now!”
“You mortals have always been resourceful,” Zily said. “It’s why you make such good entertainment.”
“Can’t you at least give us some sort of super-powerful weapons?”
“You have them. They are called teoton.” He waved his hands. “Now get out of my sight before I change my mind. I was looking forward to after-dinner entertainment. Taniqotalin, find a tear in the barrier and take them to it.”
But there was still one more question. “Wait. Who is your teotontl? How do we find him or
her?”
Zily made a dismissive gesture. “I cannot reach through the barrier to your world outside of the sky-fire any more than any of my children. It was fortuitous that you brought a non-teotontl with you. Her obvious connection with me puzzled me at first, but now I understand.”
Vaughn started. He turned to look at Ivana in horror.
She, for her part, was staring at Zily. “What?” she asked.
“Well, I certainly couldn’t choose the male. He already has a patron.” He clapped his hands. “Now, leave me!”
Tani put one hand on the small of each of their backs and pushed them away from Zily, down the hall, and out of the room. Only when the giant doors thudded shut behind them did he turn to look at them. “We’ll have to go back to the abyss, so stay close to me.”
Vaughn swallowed. “How do you find a tear?”
“Why, we find a bloodbane that’s drawn to it and you’ll follow it out.”
Vaughn felt faint. “Follow a bloodbane out of the tear?” He took a deep breath. “Look, before we do that, are you sure there isn’t anything else you can give us? Even advice? What will…?” He looked at Ivana, who was stone-faced and silent. “His Banebringer be able to do?”
Tani frowned. “I doubt even Zily knows that. He’s never had his own mortals.”
“But his affinity?”
“Everything and nothing. The cycle of death and rebirth. Time, or perhaps destiny, itself.” He studied Ivana with his odd, clear irises. “I think we may have answered our question as to how she was allowed here. It’s possible a teotontl of the Great Father had and has and always will have his imprint upon them. Time is and was and will be again, after all.”
Vaughn stared at him, baffled by what sounded like nonsense to him. “Great. That makes perfect sense.”
Tani glanced back at the doors. “Now we must go. The longer you tarry here, the more chance that Danathalt will discover where you are. And believe me, we don’t want him to stumble across us in the abyss.” Tani shuddered and put a hand on each of their shoulders.
