The Serpent Road: A Science Fiction Novel

by Anthony James

  The warrior who had emerged first gave some sort of signal then a whooping cry at the top of his voice and charged forward, all the others following suit, spears, and macuahuitls in their hands. Tohil loosed an arrow and then another. He could hear Acab beside him, rapidly firing his blowgun. Tohil’s first shaft took one in the leg and he fell, clutching at his thigh with a cry of pain immediately drawing the attention of the others to the source of the projectiles. It seemed like another lucky shot from Acab, or perhaps not so lucky, had hit one of the warriors squarely in the eye and he was also down, writhing on the ground, clutching at his face. But then the rest were at the base of the stairs and charging up. Tohil just had time to see two of the Eagle warriors emerging from the trees, striding forward, feathered masks covering their features, heavy clubs held in both hands, before he had to duck back and retrieve a spear. Then all was confusion.

  Four Bird People warriors, their painted limbs moving like nightmare shadows in the darkness thrust through the door with their spears while Acab and Tohil tried to fend them off. Tohil had a slash on his side, and he’d heard Acab grunt as he took a hit. On second thoughts, he didn’t know if it had been such a clever idea to take a defensive stance inside the altar room. The sweat was running down his face, his side was burning and he could feel his limbs growing weaker as he expended increasingly more energy. Fear was starting to turn to panic. Suddenly a big hand grabbed his shoulder from behind and pulled him out of the way. A swinging downblow smashed two of the spears thrusting in through the doorway, and then a sideways slash took one of the Bird People warriors in the gut and he cried out, falling back onto his companions, and then tumbled down the steps. Another sweeping blow took another warrior in the head and he crumpled, falling in the way of his companions. Meanwhile, Acab darted in and out with his spear, jabbing and thrusting. Tohil stood there, clutching his side, feeling useless. There was no space for him to fight and he could not see how many more there were outside. All he could see was a blur of dark limbs and shapes and thrusting spear. The grunts and growls of combat, the smell of blood and struggle filled the air. He looked back over his shoulder to see Quapar still peering around the doorway and then glancing back over his shoulder, looking terrified. Perhaps there was another way to help.

  Still clutching his side, and keeping his eyes on the doorway where the fighting raged, Oquis swinging his weapon back and forth, Acab darting forward with his spear, he retreated to join Quapar.

  “Maybe there’s another way,” he said. “If each of us takes a side, we can work around the building and surprise them, take them from the side.”

  “But we’ll be so exposed,” Quapar protested, swallowing at the prospect.

  “Look at it, Quapar. What choice do we have?” Tohil hissed.

  Quapar swallowed again and nodded.

  “We can use the corners of the building,” said Tohil in a feeble attempt to reassure him, but he knew that once they were spotted they’d immediately be targets. If they were lucky, it would distract the warriors in the doorway enough to let Oquis break through and wield the full force of his weapon without the restriction of the enclosed space.

  Tohil nodded to Quapar, and each taking a different side, they stepped onto the flat space at the building’s top and started edging their way around to the front. Tohil had to climb over one of the projecting roots, and it brought a fresh flare of pain from his side. In a couple of moments, he had reached the front corner, he ducked his head around quickly. He could see five, with more fallen on the stairs. Further down, waiting for their opportunity stood the two Eagles, weapons hefted and ready. He was caught with indecision then. Should he attempt to take down one of the Eagles or concentrate on those fighting in the doorway? He knew if he missed, he would probably have the chance for only one more shot at best before they were on him. He made his decision, drew back the bow, and took aim.

  He tried to go for a shot that would take one of the Eagles in the head, but as soon as he loosed, he knew he had miscalculated. The arrow flew true enough, but it glanced uselessly off the carved wooden mask, serving only to draw the Eagle’s attention straight to him. The warrior gave a fearsome yell and immediately started charging up the stairs towards him. Tohil tried to get off another shot, but he fumbled the arrow. Suddenly the charging Eagle stopped dead in his tracks clutched at his mask and then fell backwards, an arrow protruding from the space between the broad, carved, and painted beak.

  Where had that come from? Tohil was the only one with a bow. Another shaft flew down, taking the other Eagle low in the throat, and he too clutched at his neck. Tohil looked up. There was yet another figure up on the roof, silhouetted against the patches of night and darkened leaves above. He watched as it nocked and drew again, shooting directly downwards into the warriors fighting at the door. Another one fell back. Meanwhile, Quapar was clearly targeting them from the other corner with his darts and atlatl. One remaining warrior broke off and charged towards him, a dart protruding from his upper arm. Quapar scurried rapidly back around the corner. And then Oquis had broken free with Acab closely behind.

  Oquis gave a mighty swing with his macuahuitl, nearly severing the neck of one of his opponents and clubbing the man next to him to one side. Acab thrust with his spear, and caught the staggering warrior in the chest. Then there was one left, apart from the one he had seen chasing Quapar. He heard a cry from the rear of the building, and then silence. He turned to look, but could see nothing. By the time he turned back, the final warrior was down, having taken blows from Oquis and Acab both. The two stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, and then jointly they descended the stairs, making sure that their work was well and truly done. Cautiously, Tohil nocked another arrow and started to work his way around the side of the building. The other warrior might still be there. He reached the corner, peeked around, only to find Quapar standing there, Atlatl held loosely in his hand, staring up at the roof, a fallen enemy figure lying on the stairs behind him. Tohil stepped around, cautiously scanning the surrounding trees for any more and then turned his gaze to where Quapar was looking, his mouth hanging stupidly open. When he finally saw what Quapar was looking at, Tohil almost did the same. It was clearly a young woman standing up there, an arrow still nocked and at the ready.

  “Hello,” she said. “I’m Xquic.” She turned her attention back to the trees.

  “But what are you doing here? Who are you?” said Tohil.

  “Don’t you think that can wait until we are sure there are no more?” she said without diverting her gaze from the clearing’s edge.

  She was right, of course. And Tohil inwardly berated himself. They would have had a better vantage point on the roof. Why hadn’t he thought of that? If a couple of them had been positioned there….

  “Hey,” called Acab from around the front of the building.

  Quapar shook himself out of his surprise and walked into the building heading through it and to the front. Tohil did the same, following shortly after. When he reached the top of the front stairs, it was to see that the other two had already started dragging the bodies together onto a flat space in the middle of the clearing. Acab was crouching down, picking through what was left on the bodies, things that they were carrying, knives. He pulled off one of the eagle masks and stood holding it above his head, turned it one way and then the other.

  “Maybe I should wear this,” he said. “After all, we’re proper warriors now.”

  Just then he noticed the other figure climbing down the root at the side of the building, dropped the mask, fell into a fighting crouch with his spear at the ready.

  “Another one!” he said.

  “Stop,” said Tohil, holding up one hand. “She helped us.”

  Acab slowly straightened. Oquis was looking on with interest.

  “She? Who she?” said Acab, lowering his spear.

  “Hello, Acab,” said Xquic from the top of the stairs.

  “Oh no,” said Acab, one hand going to his forehead.


  “Oh no?” asked Tohil. “You know her?”

  “Of course, I know her. She’s from the village.” He shook his head. “What is she doing here?”

  Xquic walked slowly down the stairs, bow now held in one hand, and when she reached the bottom, strung it over one shoulder.

  “Yes. Thank you, Acab.”

  Acab merely turned away muttering to himself and continuing to shake his head, crouched to resume what he had been doing before. He bore a nasty gouge in one shoulder, but it didn’t seem to be bothering him at present.

  “There’s one more around the back,” offered Xquic, a slight smile on her face. Tohil could see now, she wore proper face paint, a red band across her forehead, looking darker than blood in the night. She had obviously come prepared. A woven skirt was wrapped around her hips and a criss-crossing of cloth tied across her upper body. Her round features showed high cheekbones beneath the paint. Her skull was attractively long and pointed showing that it had been properly bound when she was a baby. Necklaces and bracelets completed the picture. He vaguely recognised her, but he hadn’t spent much time mixing with the young women of the village, unlike Acab.

  “I’ll go and bring it,” said Oquis, referring to the other body, and headed off to do just that. He seemed to be completely unfazed by Xquic’s appearance amongst them.

  Quapar had stopped to help Acab, his atlatl and darts now put away. “Do you think there’s more of them?” he asked no one in particular, maybe just saying out loud what was going through his head.

  “I don’t think so,” said Tohil.

  “No, nor do I,” said Acab, pausing in what he was doing. “By what they’re carrying, they look like a raiding party. They will have travelled some way from their village.”

  Oquis had appeared from behind the building, dragging the final body by the feet. He dumped it unceremoniously beside the others and rubbed his hands one against the other.

  “Do you think they followed us?” said Quapar.

  “I don’t know,” said Tohil after a moment, staring down at the still forms. “I don’t know. Perhaps. We have no way of knowing. We could just be unlucky. There are many Bird People throughout the forests. We know that.”

  Acab got to his feet again. He and Quapar had made a small pile of the spoils, and what Acab had said seemed to be true. They’d been equipped for a journey, consistent with what Tohil would expect of a raiding party. There were even the ropes they they’d use to bind sacrificial captives that they would transport back to their home village.

  “We seem to have survived,” said Tohil after another moment. “Let’s take this stuff back inside. We can sort it out and split what we need in the morning.”

  “What about her?” said Acab, without even looking in her direction.

  Just for a moment, Tohil had completely forgotten Xquic’s presence. He turned to her now. She was watching him with a sharp gaze.

  “Yes, it still doesn’t answer how you come to be here,” said Tohil.

  “I followed you of course.”

  “That doesn’t explain much,” said Tohil. “Listen, I am grateful for your help, but why would you do that?”

  “I know why,” said Acab.

  “So, tell us.”

  “I know her from the village.” He still wouldn’t look at her. “She was always challenging me, trying to prove that she was better than me. Wouldn’t leave me alone.”

  “Huh,” said Oquis.

  “Is that right?” said Xquic.

  “She’s not normal,” continued Acab. “What sort of way is that for one of the maidens to behave? She should be in the young women’s house learning to cook and grow crops.”

  “Those aren’t the only things we’re capable of,” Xquic retorted.

  Tohil looked down at the bodies of the Eagles lying on the ground. Either she was lucky or she was very good with her bow. He doubted he would have been able to make that shot through the mouth of the Eagle’s mask. But where had she learned to shoot like that? It certainly wasn’t part of the normal young woman’s education.

  “So why would you follow us?” said Quapar.

  She shrugged. “I knew there was something happening. I saw you getting ready, collecting things throughout the village. When you took from the food store, it was plain that you were going somewhere. So, when you finally did leave, I was already prepared. When the Bird People attacked, I took my chance. A chance to finally do something, to prove that I could be a warrior too.”

  “How did you follow us?” asked Tohil.

  “That was easy enough,” she said and laughed. “It isn’t as if you four have the stealth of a jaguar, stumbling through the forest like that.”

  “I thought I heard something,” said Quapar. “Anyway,” he continued, “you saved me. That warrior would have taken me for sure if you hadn’t been there.”

  She nodded in response.

  “And the village?” said Tohil.

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t too far behind you. We seemed to be holding our own.”

  Tohil looked once more down at the bodies, at the small pile of possessions and weapons they had scavenged and back at the temple.

  “We need to get this stuff inside. We need to rest.”

  “And you need to do something about those wounds,” said Xquic.

  Tohil looked down at his side where it was oozing blood. She was right. He couldn’t very well travel like this, and Acab’s shoulder....

  “I have brought some things,” said Xquic. “I could make something to bind the wound, help it heal.”

  Tohil nodded slowly. He was already starting to feel grateful for her presence.

  “She can’t stay,” said Acab.

  “And why not?” from Oquis.

  “Because she’s a woman,” he said petulantly. “This is our task. We’re the warriors.”

  “Let’s not worry about all that now,” said Tohil. “Xquic is right. We need to do something about the wounds and we need to rest. We can discuss anything else in the morning.”

  Acab started back to gather things from the piles on the ground, but he clearly wasn’t happy.

  “We need to set a watch,” said Oquis, looking out into the forest. “The smell of so much blood will attract the animals.”

  Tohil wrinkled his nose. There was more than the smell of blood now. The other scents that came with death were starting to become apparent.

  “Perhaps we should just cut out their hearts and place them on the altar up there and be done with it,” said Acab, clearly not finished. “The gods will thank us and protect us and we can walk with their blessing.” He almost sounded half-serious. Sometimes Tohil wondered what went on inside Acab’s head.

  He leant down to pick up some things to carry back inside.

  “Let’s finish this, agree our watches, and get our rest. As I said before, we can discuss anything else in the morning.”

  As he stood, Tohil looked out into the darkness. Perhaps Acab’s idea wasn’t so absurd after all. What else were the gods going to send to try them? They’d passed their first challenge, but how many more were there going to be?

  Suddenly, he felt very, very tired.

  A heavy resin fell from the sky. The one called Xecotcovach came and gouged out their eyes; Camalotz came and cut off their heads; Cotzbalam came and devoured their flesh. Tucumbalam came, too, and broke and mangled their bones and their nerves, and ground and crumbled their bones.

  — Popol Vuh, Part I, Chapter 3

  SEVEN

  Tohil stood staring up at the old temple structure. He had tried to avoid looking at the bodies stacked together on the ground behind him, but he could not ignore the smell that was already starting to gather. Normally, back in the village, they would be gone, washed, and stripped and perhaps even buried. During the night, insects and small forest animals had already been at work, making the grisly sight even more unpalatable. The others were off trying to catch some birds and small game for their journey. Des
pite Acab’s protests, he had grudgingly accepted Xquic’s presence…for now. Tohil had suggested they split up and they had gone in pairs, Xquic with Oquis, and Quapar with Acab. He thought that might keep things relatively peaceful between them in the short term, unless, of course Xquic appeared back with a more substantial catch than Acab. Then.... Tohil had managed to argue that they needed someone to keep an eye on their possessions, and that he had something he wanted to check, both of which was true, so he was now alone in their makeshift campground.

  He lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck, and winced as the movement stretched the slash on his side. The vile dark green poultice that Xquic had applied there and held in place with leaves had dried somewhat in place, stopping the bleeding, and effectively numbing the area. She had said it also had healing properties. He just wished that they would work a little more quickly. Gingerly, he lowered his arm again, not wanting to feel that tearing slash of pain which came with too sudden movement. He could just imagine how Acab’s shoulder felt. It was miraculous that Oquis had come away with mere scratches considering the way he had ploughed into the melee, surrounded by thrusting sharp stone points and edges on every side. Perhaps the gods watched over them after all. It was a surprise to him that they had even managed to prevail against the raiding party, although Xquic had certainly helped to tip the balance. He shook his head at the thought of what might have really happened.

  Turning his attention back to the temple in front of him, he looked at the darkening splashes and trails of blood that now marred the old steps. Had they looked like this in its heyday when the sacrificial rituals were in full flight? Did they clean the stairs after they’d performed the sacrifices? He had no idea.