by McCoy, RS
Sure enough, my right hand was unleashed from the restraint after a lot of pulling and a serious amount of pain. My hands could’ve both been broken for all I cared, as long as I was free of the stone and able to get out to help Khea.
A minute later, my left wrist came out as well, and I moved both in small circles to stretch and marvel at my accomplishment and my freedom.
“Holy shit, you’re really out!” Jhoma all but yelled, prompting a series of ‘shushes’ and ‘shut the hell ups’ from the others.
“Come get us out. Lark! Get us out!” I desperately wanted to help them, but I couldn’t think of a way. I didn’t have any tools, and I certainly wasn’t a Shaker like Khea. I could only hope they would be locked there for a while longer until I could sort out a way to get them out.
“I’ll come back as soon as I can. I promise,” I said quickly before running into the corridor. I could hear their protests and shouts behind me, but I didn’t want to be around to answer for it. For all I knew, I had just abandoned my friends in hopes of saving a girl I had been with for a few short weeks, and I might very well never see any of them again. If I didn’t cut and make a run for it, I would never get to it. The decision was costly, but it was the only one my aching heart could make.
I had learned the way to the queen’s room from the afternoon visit there, but that wasn’t where I wanted to go. In fact, that was precisely the place I wanted to avoid, just in case there were permanent guards stationed there. I followed the path through the twisted corridors until I was close the white stone room with the jade bench, but this time I turned off to the left. Khea had been taken into a space on the opposite side of the room from where I entered earlier that day, and I hoped to pick up the corridor on the other side without actually going into the room.
My steps slowed as a pair of Nakben guards crossed the corridor. Hoping they hadn’t heard me, I crouched down and hid against the wall; fortunately, they moved past without so much as a glance. I waited a few moments longer before continuing down the corridor.
I found the hallway I thought was the one Khea was probably taken through and followed it until it came to an intersection. There were three guards to the right, each with fairly impressive tattoo sleeves. Despite my attempt to rush back behind the wall, one saw me and signaled the others. They carried the spears that seemed to be standard equipment for the queen’s guards and ran fast enough to cover the few dozen feet that separated us fairly quickly.
Standing in the space where the two narrow corridors crossed, I waited for them to approach. At just the last second, I darted back behind the corner and waited for them to make the awkward turn with their spears extended. The shafts were too long to make the turn in that position, so each had to lift the spear head almost to the ceiling and it was just enough of an opening to make a move.
I reached up and grabbed hold of one spear shaft as it was raised over my head, pulling my legs up and throwing them into the chest of the guard to my right. He dropped the shaft as he fell, and I swung it around to catch the middle guard on the back of his head. The third guard didn’t stand a chance when the spear head caught him in the torso and passed through to the other side, making him sink to the floor rather calmly as the life drained from his eyes.
Before moving on, I broke the shaft of one of the spears down to a length of about two feet, just long enough to be easily handled in the narrow halls. Deciding that way was as good as any, I turned in the direction the three guards had come from. If there were guards down there, then there must be something worth guarding. I hoped it was Khea and continued moving, grasping the shortened spear shaft.
The corridor ended against a wall, splitting into a corridor to the right and left. Again there were guards on my left only a few steps away, though only a pair this time. One was quite large compared to the other, but the smaller one had more tattoos, easily identifying who I should concentrate on first. The larger guard saw me just as my spear stuck into the smaller guard’s back, but I quickly pulled it out and blocked the larger guard’s spear with my stunted spear shaft. He made a series of slices in the air in front of me, but one he made too large and ended with his spear head down by his knees. It was the opportunity to get my spear into his throat and slam him onto his back on the floor behind him.
I had navigated through the passages fairly quickly and put down any resistance faster than I would have thought. Could I even be that good? I wondered just how hard Avis had been pushing me all those years. My luck didn’t last much longer though; I continued down the corridor and found myself in a room with more than a dozen guards.
It took only a moment for those who had spears resting against the wall to collect them and aim them in my general direction. Two flew through the air and I easily dodged, as if the wind pushed them away from me. The first wave of guards charged at me on foot; it took some quick maneuvering, but I managed to move past them. The following wave had four guards, but I just wasn’t fast enough to block all their shots. A spear plunged into the meat of my calf and I let out a scream of pain. Distracted by the hit, I barely saw the flat of the spear head as it whirled towards me– then it all went black. Not again.
The Majestic
The smell of the salt and the light sound of the churning sea brought me back. I was tied to the railing on the deck of a ship, sitting in the hot sun of late afternoon and looking down into the deep purple of the Northos. A squinted look up showed the blue sails of the royal transport ship.
“So you’re not going to miss it after all,” Jhoma despaired somewhere behind me, though I couldn’t turn enough to see him. My hands were tied to the railing tight with rope. Rope?
“Where’s Khasla?”
“Here, but no help to you if that’s what you’re after.”
“Why not? What did they do?”
“A copper band around my wrist. It prevents me from using my Spark.” I looked down around my own wrists and found nothing there.
“You don’t have one. You’re not a threat.” Khasla felt an interesting mix of pride and torment at being the only member of our group with the copper band.
“Can’t even escape,” Jhoma mumbled loudly, clearly still sore about me leaving them behind. I guess I couldn’t blame him, but it wasn’t like there had been an alternative.
“Micha?”
“Here.” His voice sounded farther away than the others, but at least he was still with us.
“Tototl alive.” He sounded afraid and reserved, like a man who knew his fate would come soon.
“What am I going to miss?”
“Nothing now that you’re awake. We’re almost there,” Khasla continued. Since no one seemed keen on offering up any information, I drew a thread to Khasla and got nothing. Apparently his copper bracelet blocked me as well. I sent a thread to Micha instead and found him similarly tied to the rail at the very front of the ship, watching as the docks of Chimalma came into view.
“Why are we going back there?” I asked without thinking.
“To be killed. Obviously,” said Jhoma.
I scanned Micha’s thoughts and was surprised to see he had watched Khea get boarded onto the same ship. She was there, on that very ship, no more than fifty feet away from me. I couldn’t get a read from her thread, but it was comforting to know she was so close. Then again, maybe I didn’t want her to be anywhere near me if I was about to be sacrificed.
I twisted and pulled at my wrists to see if I could somehow get loose like I had before, but the ropes were tight enough to be one the verge of cutting off the blood supply rather than offer some chance of getting out. I remembered my last escape attempt and it’s decidedly-poor outcome, but I only found dried blood stuck to my leg. There was no sign of the injury from the spear.
Less than an hour later, the wind pushed us right up to the docks. Khea was carefully unloaded first, pulled up from the lower deck by the guard with a scar and giving me a sorrowful glance over her shoulder. Her devastat
ing beauty mixed with the anguish of her features hit me like a punch to the gut. The soldier quickly escorted her along the streets to somewhere beyond my sightline; my position toward the rear of the ship only let me watch her for a few hundred feet before she disappeared behind the buildings.
The queen was escorted off the ship next, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when she swung her legs over a sand colored horse that could only be Jasper. Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to rescue her from the Turtle. I began to wonder if Obsidian was alive somewhere as well, but seeing as how I would be dead soon, it didn’t seem to matter.
Guards came for us next, severing the ropes that held us to the railing and walking us in the direction Khea and the queen had gone. I attempted to ask the guard where he was taking us, though I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t answer.
As the sun began to set behind the structures of the city, we arrived at our final destination. The center of the city held at least ten thousand chanting, excited people surrounding an ancient, stone tower that stretched high into the sky. It was a building with a design similar to the queen’s palace: stairs surrounded each side from the bottom to the very top. A look at the top revealed a small platform where something was sure to happen soon.
One by one the guards pulled us to the base of the tower and secured our rope-bound wrists to a long chain strung between two wooden posts. There were two men there who looked to have fifty or sixty seasons, one of them having a white beard so long it touched the ground where he sat patiently. Khasla and Jhoma were tied next to them, followed by Micha, then me and Tototl at the end. I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I had a strong idea I wasn’t going to like it. I gave a strong pull on the chain to test it, to look for any sign of weakness that might be exploited to allow us to get free. Sadly, the post never moved.
We stood, attached helplessly to the chain, for a while as the crowd grew even more to fill every space in the square, with Nakbens sitting on roofs and leaning out the windows of the surrounding buildings. As we waited, I noticed there was a space on the front side of the tower that the crowds avoided, and it seemed to give up an orange glow to the storm clouds that were beginning to gather above.
I scanned for a thread I could connect and found a few people with weaker bracelets that stood nearby. It was a large opening, about twenty feet across, that accessed the volcano underneath the city. The orange glow was cast by the magma that had yet to surge out over the ground. It immediately clicked. That’s how Xiuhpilli is going to kill us.
Thunder rolled across the square, lightly shaking the ground and getting the attention of the swarm of Chimalmans gathered in the square. A moment later, apparently cued by the thunder or some other signal, the crowd quieted. I realized Xiuhpilli was standing at the top of the tower and shouting to project her words.
“Tonight, our Nakben tribes become stronger than ever before.” I could barely see her at the top of the tower that rose up next to me, but could imagine her smug expression as she waited for the cheers to quiet. “Tonight, we unite the hawk and the tiger, the immune and the powerful. Tonight, we produce Tonani!”
The people shouted and hugged each other excitedly, as if it was the best news they’d ever heard.
Just then, a blonde girl with a large, feathered headdress was pulled to the top of the tower to stand next to Xiuhpilli. Khea. An enormous Nakben man followed behind her and looked like he stood at least two feet over her. The tiger.
“First, we make our offerings to Chichiton.” The two older men were released from the chain that held us and gingerly pulled up the steps. There were enough steps that I wondered if they even had the strength to make it. The guards were quite gentle and patient considering the circumstances, letting the men take their time. Several minutes later, the two men arrived at the top and kneeled at the front of the platform.
“Chichiton, you make us strong, and we give you our weak.” With a hard kick to the back, Xiuhpilli pushed the first man over the edge and didn’t wait to watch him fall before kicking the second. Both tumbled down the hundreds of steps before disappearing into the orange glow. It was a horrific site to watch, and even more terrifying considering our vantage point. I never gave much thought to the specifics of my death, but plummeting into a pit of liquid rock was certainly never a consideration.
“Now, the hawk and the tiger.” The queen turned to address Khea and the huge man, trying to get them to get closer. Each time the tiger tried to move close to her, she would take a step out of his way and stand to the side of him. They performed the strange dance for a minute before, Xiuhpilli addressed the crowd again.
“The hawk requires another offering.” Before the words had even carried across the square, two guards were pulling Khasla from the chain amidst our screams and cries to leave him. He fought with them all the way to the top, almost escaping them once. Of course, there was nowhere to go. Even if he reached the bottom, there were more guards waiting.
I connected Khasla’s thread to get an idea of the situation on the platform. How many guards were there, where was Khea, how could he get away. The platform itself was made of the same dark stones as the rest of the tower and lacked any kind of a rail to prevent someone from falling over the edge. Khea huddled nervously in one corner, careful to keep her distance from the tiger, while Xiuhpilli turned towards Khasla.
Pushed to his knees in the same spot as the first two, Khasla maneuvered the ropes enough that he could barely pull off the copper cuff away from his skin just as Xiuhpilli pulled a long hand knife from her sandal. Khasla had no idea, thinking maybe she would just push him like the others and too occupied with his work at the cuff. He didn’t realize she would slide her blade neatly between his ribs and puncture his heart until the metal blade protruded from his chest.
“No!” Micha, Jhoma, and I screamed in unison, though the crowds cheered so loud I doubt if anyone heard. If any of us could have gotten out of this, it was Khasla. He could control fire, so death by fire was a little harder to achieve for him. If any of us had a chance of living beyond the next hour, it was him. And he had been the first to die.
Fiery heat radiated from my chest where my brain registered a blade between my ribs. The pain overwhelmed until I struggled to sort out which thoughts were mine and which had been from Khasla’s thread. I clutched at my bare chest to remove the blade, only none was there.
A blaze of lightning flew across the sky as Xiuhpilli turned back to Khea, who continued to step away from the tiger. The queen clearly hoped watching her friends be sacrificed would convince the hawk to go along with coupling with the tiger on a platform in front of thousands. I was relieved to see she wasn’t giving up, but terrified to know what that meant for the rest of us.
The tiger took a large step towards Khea, but she quickly darted to the side and skirted the edge of the platform. Xiuhpilli moved right into her path and grabbed the meat of her upper arm. Khea shot out her foot in response, striking the queen square on the bone of her lower leg and prompting her swift release.
“The hawk requires another offering.” The queen’s voice was laced with irritation, though it was hard to tell with the volume from the crowd.
Without hesitation, the soldiers released Jhoma from the chain and all but carried him up the steps to the platform at the top of the tower. He was pushed to his knees, but immediately jumped to his feet again. He thought he could surprise the queen, avoid what had happened to Khasla, but he didn’t realize he was only going to meet Xiuhpilli’s knife in his gut and fall hundreds of feet into the pit. That time, I had cut the thread soon enough to prevent feeling as if the knife had sunk into my own chest, but it hardly mattered. I had nothing left but pain and fear. Micha didn’t scream out; he looked over at me with horrified eyes instead.
I connected his thread, though it was so loud in the square I could scarcely hear my own thoughts–much less someone else’s. But Micha had been in my mind long enough that I could sense him regrettin
g Iseut learning that he had died; knowing how close they were–and how sad she would be to lose him–he mirrored my emotions for Khea.
“Lark–”
“Micha, I’m so sorry I left you in Uxmal. I should have taken you with me.” It was my last opportunity to tell him how much I hated myself for getting him into this, and how disappointing I had been in terms of getting him out. I was a useless friend to him, and now I had gotten him killed.
“It wouldn’t have mattered.”
I knew he was right. We were both tied to a chain waiting to be pushed into a pit of lava, but it hardly made me feel better about leaving him behind. I shouldn’t have left any of them.
Xiuhpilli turned again to Khea with the knife raised this time, obviously becoming annoyed at the lack of cooperation in front of her people. Even at the large distance, I could see her slicing the air in front of Khea and once seemed to hit the mark, as Khea grabbed her arm and dropped to the stone floor of the platform. The tiger rushed over, but she pushed away and stood to avoid him again. How long can this go on?
“The hawk requires another offering.” Xiuhpilli sounded aggravated, but all my thoughts were concentrating on Micha. No no no.
Not Micha. Anyone but him. My only real friend. We had been through so much since we met in the back of the cart in the Creekmont. We had the bear. There had to be a way out of this.
Micha fought hard as he was dragged up the steps. His size gave him an advantage, but each guard he pushed off him was just replaced by another. This is actually going to happen. I was going to watch my best friend die. My screams to spare him were lost in the chants from the crowd. I made a last futile effort to pull the rope from the chain, or the chain from the posts, or even the posts from the ground. Anything to save him. Tototl heaved his shoulder into one of the posts, but still it didn’t move. There was nothing we could do.
