by David Wood
The streets of Xibalba glowed blue beneath their feet as they ran through the ankle deep accumulation of the strange phosphorescent lichen. The stuff was everywhere. On the streets, on the tiers of the pyramids and other structures, even lining the edges of the canals that flowed from the pool at the base of the waterfall. With the exception of the ball court, every horizontal surface in the cavern seemed to be covered in the stuff.
That, too, was something Maddock tried not to think about.
They headed straight for the pool, a distance of only a couple hundred yards. He had no idea what would happen once they plunged into it. The fact that the cavern was not completely submerged suggested that the pool drained into an underground river, and both Isabella and Bell had confirmed that the only escape from Xibalba was by water. He still had the backpack with the SCUBA gear in it—hopefully none of it had been damaged when he had used the pack as a makeshift bat on the ball court—and that would give them a fighting chance, but relying on a centuries-old myth, which had already proven to be a somewhat unreliable guide, was a big gamble.
Still, it was better than the alternative.
He glanced over his shoulder, looking past the still glowering Miranda, and spotted several figures descending from the pyramid. The blue light cast an eerie glow on their tattooed bodies, making them look like phantoms as they sprinted toward the city.
He slowed, waving for the others to keep going, and shoved the backpack into Bones’ hands. “Company’s coming. I’ll hold them off. You get everyone out of here.”
He knew Bones would understand what had to be done, but Angel stopped beside him, and so did Kasey, with her own pistol drawn, ready to make a stand with Maddock. Before either woman could speak, he stopped them. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Better listen to him, ladies,” Bones shouted back. “Unless you’re half-fish like him, you need to stick with me.”
As they headed out, Maddock squeezed off a couple shots in the direction of the advancing Serpent Brothers. They were barely within the effective range of the pistol and moving, which meant scoring a hit was unlikely, but hopefully the shots would slow them down long enough for Bones to organize the underwater exit.
Sure enough, the garishly decorated warriors veered off, seeking cover behind the temples and houses that lined the street.
Then a voice echoed out across the city. “Maddock!”
It was Alex Scano.
The psychopathic pharma-bro had just come down the steps of the pyramid, and was moving slowly down the street with Carina beside him. They were in the open, but well out of pistol range. Scano had his arms extended out away from his body, but it seemed more like a quasi-Messianic pose than a gesture of surrender.
“Maddock,” he said again, his voice echoing weirdly in the confines of the cavern. “Be reasonable. I’ve got what I came for. I don’t care about you. But you’re going to run out of bullets eventually and then what? Let’s work together.”
Maddock recognized the stalling tactic for what it was. The Serpent Brothers were probably sneaking through the maze of side streets, trying to come up on his flanks.
Two could play that game.
“Sorry, Scano,” he shouted. “But you’re not going to be working with anyone. You’re infected.”
Scano laughed. “You’re wrong. I was infected, but I’ve been cured, just like the legend says.”
“There is no cure. Look around you.”
Seventy-five yards away, Scano did exactly that. Maddock could see his head moving from side to side. “What exactly is it you think I should be looking at? The Light? It’s the cure.”
“It’s not a cure,” Maddock retorted. “It’s what’s left of everyone who made it this far.”
Scano stopped in his tracks. Despite the distance separating them, Maddock could see the confusion in the other man’s expression.
“This blue growth,” Maddock continued. “The Light—it kills the Shadow fungus all right, but it doesn’t do anything to help the infected. Sorry to break it to you, but you’re a dead man walking.”
“No.” Scano shook his head, angrily. “No, you can’t know that.”
“Think about it. If the Maya had a cure, they wouldn’t have been wiped out.”
“You don’t know that’s what happened.”
“I do. The proof is all around you. This place...Xibalba... was their version of an isolation ward. When the Shadow plague burned through their civilization, they did what they knew they had to do. They came here. All of them. Most probably didn’t make it this far, maybe only a very small percentage—a few thousand out of hundreds of thousands. They came here, laid down and died. Just like you’re going to.”
“No. You’re wrong.”
“The Light isn’t a cure. It’s just another organic fungus. One that feeds off the Shadow, but it’s only here, deep underground. When those Maya died, it consumed their remains.” He made a sweeping gesture. “This is all that’s left of them. Ask your friend. I’ll bet she’s already figured it out. Isabella did. She took one look and figured out the truth.”
“It is true,” Carina said. She spoke so softly that Maddock could barely hear her. She turned to face Scano. “I did not understand, but now I do. This is the fate of all who are touched by the Shadow.”
“That’s insane. Of course there’s a—”
Scano was cut off, literally, as Carina slashed her obsidian dagger across his throat. He fell back, hands clutching his throat.
Carina turned to Maddock and started toward him, her knife eager to draw blood again. “I should thank you,” she called out in a tone that sounded anything but grateful. “I was led astray, but now I have returned to the true path.”
Maddock kept the pistol trained on her, but he could see movement from of the corner of his eye. The serpent warriors were emerging all around him. He didn’t think he was in range of their blowguns, but he would be soon if he didn’t move.
Carina kept advancing, unfazed by the threat of the gun. “The Serpent Brotherhood guards the world of mankind from the Shadow, until the gods decide it is time to cleanse the world.”
“Works for me,” Maddock said slowly, taking a step back.
“I cannot let you leave,” Carina went on. “None of you can be allowed to return to the surface world.”
“That... doesn’t work for me.”
Carina made a slashing gesture, and suddenly Maddock was surrounded by movement as the Serpent Brothers rushed him en masse. He pivoted, squeezing off a shot that dropped one, then another, but they were coming too fast.
He turned to run, but an invisible hand knocked him off his feet, and suddenly the world was full of fire.
CHAPTER 36
The explosion rocked Xibalba to its core. Jagged cracks shot through the floor. Pyramids crumbled like Jenga blocks, and stalactites began falling down like missiles to spear the broken floor. But that was only the first taste of the destruction. Far across the cavern, the wall separating Bat House from the ball court had disintegrated, unleashing a cloud of dust and a wall of flame that was now rolling across the city faster than a freight train.
Maddock scrambled to his feet, slipping on the lichen-covered floor, almost stumbling again. The pool was close, but the fire behind him felt even closer.
There was no sign of the others. He hoped that meant Bones had gotten them out in time.
A cry tore from his lips as the heat flashed to searing intensity. The blue lichen—the Light, though its glow was now wholly overwhelmed by the brilliance of the flames rushing through Xibalba—darkened and withered to ash all around him. The fire scorched his back; he thought he could feel his skin blistering and bubbling under his shirt. But even as it burned him, the fire was also his deliverance. The superheated air pushed him from behind, a hot wind driving him forward toward the pool and salvation.
As he fell forward into the water, he sucked in a desperate breath. The air, full of smoke and dust, burned in his lu
ngs. He knew it would be his last breath for a while...maybe the last breath he would ever take. The water however was an instant relief, cool and embracing, quenching the heat and soothing his burned skin.
The fires above lit up the depths like daylight, revealing the underwater cave at the bottom of the pool, almost directly under the crashing waterfall. Maddock dove deeper, pulling himself toward it. Then the current caught him and he was sucked into the cave, swallowed by the darkness.
He could feel the sides of the submerged passage rushing past, scraping against him, and knew the most immediate danger was of being knocked senseless by a rocky protrusion, so he curled into a fetal ball, letting the river take him wherever it chose.
Time lost all meaning. Under normal circumstances and with adequate preparation, he could hold his breath for well over two minutes without discomfort, but the miasma he had breathed last in Xibalba was an unknown quantity. He could feel the acid burn of too much carbon dioxide in his bloodstream, and the spasms of his body demanding he exhale and replace it with fresh, oxygen-rich air. He fought the urge as long as he could, tried every trick he knew to fool himself into believing that he could hold out a little longer, and then, when he could fight no longer, he opened his mouth and blew out the foul breath in a final silent shout of defiance.
“Maddock!”
The shout brought him most of the way out of the dark void of unconsciousness. The slap did the rest.
He opened his eyes and found Bones staring back at him, so close their noses were almost touching. Drops of water were falling from Bones’ hair like raindrops, landing on Maddock’s cheeks and running into his eyes.
“If you were your sister,” Maddock mumbled, “I’d kiss you.”
Bones grinned. “Angel. He’s asking for you.”
Maddock blinked the water away and sat up...tried to sit up. A spasm of pain gripped him like a giant’s fist.
“Easy, partner,” Bones said. “You’ve probably got some bruised ribs. I know I do. That was some ride, huh?”
Maddock took a couple breaths and then tried to sit up again. He could see rough stone overhead, the ceiling of a cave, but the air was too fresh to be the trapped atmosphere of a closed environment, and the light was too bright to be from any artificial source. When he finally managed to bring himself to an upright position, he saw that the reality was something in between. They were in a cave of sorts, an open-air grotto where the subterranean river that had carried them out of Xibalba broke from the earth and spilled out into the Guatemalan rain forest.
He found Angel, sitting with Kasey and Miranda nearby. All three were shivering, probably coming down from their adrenaline high. For a long time, no one moved or spoke.
Bones finally broke the silence. “I’m afraid we ducked out before the credits rolled. What the hell happened?”
“I’m not really sure. There was an explosion. I don’t know what caused it.” He glanced over at Kasey.
Kasey shook her head. “Wasn’t me. I never got the chance. It must have been Isabella. I wonder why she changed her mind.”
“Maybe she realized what was at stake,” Maddock said. “I guess you can report back to Tam, mission accomplished. Any idea where we are?”
Bones shook his head, but the question prompted him to stand. “Wherever it is, we’re gonna have to walk out of here. It’s going to be dark soon, so we should get moving.”
Maddock stood as well, ignoring the groans of protest from his battered body. He reached out a hand to Angel, helping her up first, then turned to Miranda.
Her blond locks were plastered to her face, giving her a haunted, desolate look, like a war refugee, but when she gazed up at him, he saw no trace of anger in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said, offering his hand.
“I know.” She took the hand, letting him draw her up. “I heard what you said to Scano. I think my father figured it out, too. He knew he was sick and that there wasn’t a cure. He was telling us to leave him.” She took a deep breath, let it out in a sigh.
“He was right about everything,” Maddock said, hoping she would find some comfort in that. “The City of Shadow. Xibalba. At least he got to see it before...”
She nodded and managed a wan smile. Then, she turned to Bones and with no warning whatsoever, threw her arms around him, pressing her cheek against his chest.
“Whoa!” Bones’ look of surprise quickly became a grin of mischief. “Hey, I didn’t think you liked me that way.”
“Bones!” Angel hissed in a stage whisper. “For once in your life, shut up.”
“Thank you,” Miranda murmured, still holding him. “For trying to save my father. After everything. I can’t excuse what he did, but I’m glad he got to see Xibalba before it was over.”
Bones’ grin softened. Maddock thought he actually looked a little embarrassed. “Oh, sure. I mean, he didn’t really...”
“Shh,” Miranda whispered. “Listen to your sister. She’s a smart girl.”
EPILOGUE
The rural folk lived simply, as they had for countless generations, ever since the Shadow scourge brought the great empire of their ancestors to its knees. The Spaniards had come with their steel and their new God, but the people never forgot the old ways. From time to time, they would gather in the shadow of the ancient cave, the doorway to the Underworld, and remember anew. Over the centuries, the story had grown and changed with each telling, but none doubted that something both terrible and wonderful slumbered in the depths of the earth beneath them.
So, when the ground shook and a cloud of bats rose from the smoking jungle, the people of the land knew the ancient beast was stirring.
They had all had heard the noise of the great helicopter arriving earlier, and the sound of battle, and knew that the outsiders had done something to anger the spirits of the Underworld. They quickly gathered offerings of food and trinkets, and hurried up the road to assemble in the shadow of the living cave where they lit fires and danced around them, chanting prayers to the old gods and playing flutes to lull the ancient beast back to sleep.
And then, at almost exactly the same moment that the sun descended into the Underworld, their prayers were answered.
A low murmur rose across the cavern as the word spread, and all eyes turned to the forbidden balcony at the rear of the cave—the threshold of the passage into the depths.
A figure stood there, a woman so streaked with mud that she resembled one of the gods’ failed experiments from the dawn of creation.
The murmur became a jumbled cacophony of awe and confusion. Was this one of the outsiders who had blasphemed the sacred paths into the Underworld? Or was it perhaps one of the Lords of Death, come to unleash the ancient Shadow scourge, the promised cleansing at the end of days?
One old man dared to approach, bowing his head reverently, just in case the latter proved to be true.
“Have you come from the Underworld?” He spoke in the old tongue, testing her.
She stared back at him for a moment, her dark eyes full of pain and confusion, then spoke a single word. “Yes.”
The old man let out a wail of dismay and dropped to his knees, terrified. The woman was no outsider. She had understood him. She knew their language.
A hush fell over the crowd.
The woman gazed out at them for a moment, then took a deep breath and spoke again, louder so that her voice filled the cavern. Her speech was different than theirs, but it was similar enough for them to understand her words.
“Yes,” she said. “I am the Priestess of the Serpent. Listen, and I will tell you of the heroes who journeyed into the Underworld to defeat the Lords of Xibalba.”
End
If you enjoyed Xibalba, try Blood Codex, A Jake Crowley Adventure.
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Books by David Wood
The Dane Maddock Adventures
Dourado
&
nbsp; Cibola
Quest
Icefall
Buccaneer
Atlantis
Ark
Xibalba
Dane and Bones Origins
Freedom
Hell Ship
Splashdown
Dead Ice
Liberty
Electra
Amber
Justice
Treasure of the Dead
Jade Ihara Adventures (with Sean Ellis)
Oracle
Changeling
Bones Bonebrake Adventures
Primitive
The Book of Bones
Stand-Alone Novels
Blood Codex
Into the Woods
Arena of Souls
The Zombie-Driven Life
You Suck
Callsign: Queen (with Jeremy Robinson)
Destiny (with Sean Ellis)
Dark Rite (with Alan Baxter)
Primordial (with Alan Baxter- forthcoming)
David Wood writing as David Debord
The Absent Gods Trilogy
The Silver Serpent
Keeper of the Mists
The Gates of Iron
The Impostor Prince (with Ryan A. Span)
Neptune’s Key (Forthcoming)
About the Author
David Wood is the author of the popular action-adventure series, The Dane Maddock Adventures, and many other works. Under his David Debord pen name he is the author of the Absent Gods fantasy series. When not writing, he co-hosts the Authorcast podcast. David and his family live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visit him online at http://www.davidwoodweb.com.
