by Lani Forbes
Stay with us, daughter of water. Stop fighting and stay here. Give up. Life has never been fair to you and it never will be. What is there even to return to up above? No one there loves you. You don’t deserve to live . . .
The next wave pulled her under completely.
And she couldn’t pull herself back up.
Chapter
36
Metzi looked at Yemania as though she had never seen her before, and the shame of it made Yemania want to curl into a ball on the floor.
She shoved Ochix away from her and exposed her palms to Metzi. “Your Majesty, I can explain . . .” But she couldn’t. There were no words to explain away what Metzi had just witnessed.
“I’d be fascinated to hear what your explanation is. Because to me, it looks as though you and my betrothed have been sneaking around behind my back. And not only are you trying to break my engagement, you want to steal my fallen star?”
Yemania opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her shame boiled like a hot spring inside her stomach until she thought she was going to be sick.
“Why?” Metzi suddenly demanded. She clenched her teeth and spat the words at Yemania like poison from a snake. “After everything I did to raise you up? I made you High Healer. I thought you understood what it felt like to be treated like nothing. And now you betray me like this? Was it to humiliate me? Prove something to yourself?”
“No,” Yemania sobbed, finally finding her voice. “It’s nothing like that. Please, Your Majesty. Ochix and I met before you ever—”
Metzi backed away from her, shaking her head in disbelief. “He was right. Everything he told me. I should have listened . . .”
And then she saw Coatl, half hidden in shadows in the hall. “I didn’t want to hurt you like this, but I thought you needed to know the truth. About both of them.” His voice made Yemania’s knees give out. They hit the ground with a sickening crack, but Yemania didn’t even register the pain radiating down her legs.
Coatl stepped into the candlelit room and put an arm around Metzi’s shoulders. Metzi did not push him off, but embraced him back as though he were the only solid thing to be found in the world.
Coatl’s lip curled as he eyed Yemania with a look of deepest disgust. “I couldn’t believe it myself when I discovered them half naked together in the High Healer’s workroom. But I knew you needed to know the truth. I knew you wouldn’t believe me until you saw and heard everything for yourself.”
A sound like rushing water filled her ears and her arms began to tremble. No. Coatl couldn’t have betrayed her. No . . .
Metzi reached forward and ripped the ruby pendant from around Yemania’s neck. She barely registered the sting of the chain cutting into her skin. Not as she watched Metzi hand the High Healer’s amulet back to Coatl.
“You thought you could control me? Make me do what you wanted?” she seethed. “I’ve proved it once and I will prove it again, that no one makes my decisions for me. No one takes that power away from me. Ever! ”
Her hand collided with the side of Yemania’s face, and pain exploded across her cheek. Yemania fell sideways onto the floor as Ochix jumped between them.
“Please, this is my fault. She’s innocent. I seduced her, tricked her into helping me—”
Metzi fixed Ochix with a look terrifying enough to make him flinch, stopping him midsentence. She took several heaving breaths, and her voice became deadly calm. “You got your wish, prince of death. This engagement is canceled. I will not be marrying you. I think we will be having a ritual sacrifice instead.”
“Metzi, please—” Ochix started, but Metzi screamed him down.
“I am an empress! You will refer to me as ‘Your Majesty.’ I am the one with the power here, not you. Guards, seize them!”
Several Eagle warriors marched into the room and seized Ochix’s arms. He tried to pull himself free of their grip, fists pounding at faces and stomachs, but he was quickly overpowered. One soldier grabbed his long hair and forced his head back, and another quickly deprived him of his skull-engraved knife. He tried to arch toward Yemania, her name on his lips, but found his own knife pressed against his throat.
“Go ahead, spill my blood now. Why wait for a formal ritual?” he hissed at Metzi. His eyes shifted to Coatl with a look that clearly said, I will kill you for this.
Metzi’s mouth curved into a wicked, taunting smile. “Oh, I won’t be sacrificing you, prince of death. I’m not foolish enough to bring on the wrath of your entire empire. I will be sending you and your delegation back to Miquitz. I want you out of this city before sunrise. You can tell your father our agreement is over. He can deal with the consequences of disappointing the gods.”
Ochix’s eyes went wide with realization just as Yemania’s did. Metzi would not be sacrificing Ochix. Which meant . . .
“No!” Ochix screamed, straining against his captors. His desperate eyes found Yemania, still sprawled on the floor. He fought to get to her. “No! Take me instead!”
“Take him away.” Metzi dismissed them with a jerk of her head.
“No! Yemania! Yemania!” Ochix continued to scream as he was dragged forcefully from the room, his screams echoing down the hall and fading with each passing second. Until he was gone.
Until she was alone.
Metzi stalked over to the stone tables, where the remedies Yemania and Coatl had been preparing for the commoners lay spread out in neat rows. They were organized according to the ailment they would treat, some even containing precious drops of Yemania’s or Coatl’s blood.
With an almighty sweep of her arm, Metzi wiped the tiny clay pots off the table and onto the floor. Yemania felt her heart shatter with every crashing pot, her soul bleeding out with every mixture and concoction now spreading across the wreckage. All her work . . .
Yemania couldn’t find the strength or will to push herself off the floor, so instead she curled in on herself, tears burning their way down her cheeks. She wanted to dissolve into nothingness. To stop existing at all.
An Eagle warrior wrenched her to her feet, but Yemania felt as though her legs no longer functioned. Another soldier lifted her other arm, until she was suspended between them. It was probably for the best. She felt so disconnected from her body it was as if she were an observer watching herself being carried toward the hall.
“Take her to the sacrificial victim chamber in the temple. Come sunrise, I will show the empire exactly what I plan to do to people who betray me.” Metzi’s voice was as cold and inhuman as her patron’s.
Yemania found one last scrap of strength as she passed by Coatl. Enough strength to give him a look that said, Ochix will only kill you if I don’t get there first.
Coatl blinked in fear and took a step back. Good, she thought savagely. That scheming snake. She couldn’t believe he had done this to her, set her and Ochix up so that he could worm his way back into Metzi’s good graces.
But at the same time, she felt like a fool for not seeing it sooner. They had finally been repairing the breach their relationship suffered when he left for Tollan all those years ago. He had been one of her sources of comfort in this new and foreign place, and she had comforted him when he lost the woman he loved.
Perhaps it had been real, the bond they were rebuilding. But now she saw he was still the selfish little boy who’d abandoned her to run to the capital. He cared about her when it served his best interests, but he still cared more about himself than anyone else. The moment an opportunity arose for him to get what he wanted, he took it—their relationship be damned. Whatever it took to get Metzi back. What was his sister compared to the empress of light, the love of his life?
Could she blame Coatl for making such a choice? It was the same choice her father made when he sent her as his tribute. The same choice Ahkin made when he chose Mayana over her. She was the easiest to sacrifice. Exactly as her father had said that day
. The one it hurt the least to lose.
Perhaps sacrifice had been her destiny all along. It was time she embraced it. She was a fool for thinking, or even hoping, for anything more than that. For thinking she mattered enough to the world to be worth staying in it.
Now she’d never see Ochix again. She’d never fulfill her dream of healing those who also felt they didn’t matter.
At least she would get to see Mayana again soon.
Chapter
37
Ahkin searched the waves for Mayana, but the dark tint of her hair blended so well with the blackness of the water that it was like trying to find a grain of sand on a beach. She had been swimming beside him and Ona a few moments ago, and then suddenly, she was no longer beside them. He tried to see over the jagged peaks of the choppy waters, but nothing.
She was gone.
“Stop it!” he had heard her scream.
Panic clenched his heart. Something was attacking her. He clung to the warmth of Ona’s body and scanned the waves. Where was she? Where was she?
He threw his prayers toward the suffocating clouds. Mother, please help me find her. A tug on his heart pulled him to the right, and he looked, just as a hand slid below the surface.
Ahkin didn’t think. He dove after her.
He realized the moment he did so that it wasn’t the smartest of ideas, especially considering the fact that he didn’t actually know how to swim. Ona barked and followed him.
His lungs stung at the loss of air. Still, he pushed himself forward, more flailing than swimming. But at least he was moving. He opened his eyes, and the water burned as much as the ice had in the crashing mountains. He reached out into the darkness. Feeling. Searching. Hoping.
He’d never find her like this, never . . .
The fingers of his good hand brushed against something and he grabbed. He would not miss her this time.
He pulled her toward him, wrapping her up in his arms as he kicked for the surface.
They broke through, the air pricking at his face like a thousand bone needles. He pulled back to assess her condition. She wasn’t breathing. He kissed her, forcing air into her mouth, and slapped her back roughly. Then Ona was there, licking and barking and wiggling against them both.
Her eyelids fluttered. The dog’s heat seemed to make a difference.
“Ona, keep licking her!”
The dog obliged, nuzzling against her head, neck, chest, until finally her eyes flew open.
He hugged the dog, cradling him between them as Ahkin fought with his legs to keep them all afloat.
Mayana seemed to realize this because she pulled him toward her too, pressing her frozen lips back against his as she combined her kicking with his. They supported each other in the water.
“What happened?” Ahkin panted between gasping breaths.
Ona began paddling again too, this time with both Mayana and Ahkin pressed tightly against his body on either side.
Mayana shook her head as though she was dispelling more than water from her ears. “There were voices. Horrible voices . . .”
She explained what she had heard, what they said to her. How they ultimately pulled her under. Ahkin’s temper rose with each phrase she repeated. Was it possible to beat up a river?
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t the voices affect you?” There were dark crescents beneath her eyes, and she looked as exhausted as she sounded.
Ahkin remembered how the dog’s body heat had sustained him through the swim, how she had revived when Ona had pressed his body against hers.
“The dog,” he said quietly. “There is a reason the ancient texts say a guide dog is essential to join you as you cross the final river. They must protect you from whatever power this river possesses.”
Mayana leaned her head against the nearly hairless back of her childhood friend. Her voice cracked with emotion as she said, “Dogs are a gift from the gods.”
With Ona as their guide and source of strength, they kept swimming. The lights in the distance began to grow larger and larger until finally, Ahkin saw massive stone bowls, as big as a house, burning with flame. They stood on either side of a black sand beach, flanking night-dark stone steps that led up the side of an obsidian cliff. More light glowed from atop a low cliff above their heads.
Beacons to welcome souls to the City of the Dead.
Xibalban morning had begun to dawn by the time they crawled onto the beach. Ahkin could barely speak from exhaustion, and judging from Mayana’s silence, neither could she. Though Ona was usually as excited and energetic as a squirrel from the overworld, the moment they dragged themselves out of the water, his ears went back and he assumed a submissive stance. Something about this place terrified the dog. And Ahkin didn’t really blame him.
In the light of the flaming stone beacons, he could see that the bottom of the cliff was littered with bones. Skulls, femurs, rib cages, all piled into mounds like the carefully crafted nest of a jungle bird. He assumed they were the bodies of souls that had not survived the crossing of the final river. There were thousands of bones piled there. The thought raised the hair on his arms.
They were blessed to have made it so far.
Mayana had been incredibly quiet since her near-drowning incident. Ahkin assumed it was difficult for her to accept that the daughter of water had almost died in . . . well . . . water. As if a friendly companion had turned suddenly vicious and attacked.
He also couldn’t believe some of the things the river had whispered to her. Were those really the deepest fears and insecurities that festered within her heart? Were they really so different from his own? That no one would love and accept her? They were whispers she would have to continue to fight to keep them from dragging her under.
“Are you okay?” he asked her, knowing it was a foolish question.
“I’m alive,” was her only answer. She sat on the edge of the water, her arms wrapped around her knees. Her bag lay beside her on the sand.
He looked down the long beach at the base of the obsidian cliffs. “I know it’s morning, but we have to rest. It’s the last day of the Nemontemi here in Xibalba, and I think we need to go in to meet the Lord of Death as alert as possible.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Ahkin led them to hide behind one of the mounds of bones. He didn’t want to attract any attention to their arrival, so they couldn’t light a fire, but his shield could at least provide heat. He took it off his back and pricked his finger, allowing the golden face of the sun etched into its surface to warm and glow. Mayana rubbed her hands together above it and then set to work making some maize mush for them.
“I can do that,” Ahkin offered. “If you want to rest for a moment.”
“It’s okay,” she said, her voice sounding hollow and empty. “I want to keep busy so I don’t have to think.”
Ahkin respected her wishes. When she was finished, he took the maize mush from her gratefully, but he was still worried about her. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her together, but she seemed to need some distance to put together her thoughts.
“You sleep,” he insisted. “I’ll keep first watch.”
“And you will need sleep too, so don’t be a hero. Make sure you wake me up at some point.” She eyed him warily.
“I know. We are a team in this now, not just me trying to make up for being an idiot.”
A ghost of a smile tugged at her lips. Seeing it warmed Ahkin as effectively as the shield.
She scooted closer to him and leaned into his shoulder. Ahkin draped an arm around her and hugged her tighter.
“Sleep,” he said.
Mayana dropped her head and let her eyes slide shut. Soon her breathing slowed, and she snuggled in tighter against him. Ona curled up at their feet, not wanting to be far away from them. The dog’s skittishness set his own nerves on a blade’s edg
e.
He tried to think about what the day would bring, but everything he had read about the City of the Dead was not encouraging. They would want to find the council chamber of the lords of death and ask to speak to Cizin directly. He knew the lords loved to humiliate any who dared to enter their realms alive. He also doubted Cizin would let them leave without first proving their worth. They also needed to find and save the bones of Quetzalcoatl.
After a few hours, Ahkin felt sleep threatening to pull him under. He kept his promise to Mayana and woke her gently with a little shake to her shoulder.
Mayana jerked awake. “What? Is everything okay?”
Ahkin chuckled. “Yes, we are fine. You told me to wake you up so I could get a chance to sleep.”
Mayana stretched as sinuously as a cat, and Ahkin felt the back of his neck heating again.
“Thank you for actually waking me,” she said. She smiled at him with genuine pride.
Ahkin would make it his goal in life to see her smile like that every single day. “I promised I would.”
She seemed to be in a much better place after getting some rest. She pressed a light kiss against his lips and ran her hand lovingly across his cheek.
Ahkin sighed in contentment and rested his head in her lap, her fingers dancing absentmindedly through his hair. The warmth of her thigh beneath his cheek made him squirm, but not in an unpleasant way. Between the gentle tracing of delicate patterns her hands made in his hair and the feel of her skin so warm and close, he actually felt at peace.
At least as much at peace as was possible sleeping behind a pile of bones on the outskirts of the City of the Dead.
Chapter
38
The temple’s holding chamber for sacrificial victims was much bigger than Yemania expected. The low stone room, lit by a single sputtering torch, could fit several small houses inside, though it was barely tall enough to stand. It was usually used for housing hordes of captured enemies from Miquitz. Now, besides her, there was only one other victim, buried beneath a bundle of rags in a corner. Probably another criminal awaiting execution.
