“Oh-ho, Tohil,” he said, finally managing to bring his laughter under control. There were a few lingering snickers from around the platform. “He has some spirit, at least, I see. That is good.”
He lowered his head with a suddenly serious gaze. “We do not do that here.” And then thoughtfully: “Though I can see why you might think that.”
He chewed at his bottom lip for a moment. “Someone, get them something to sit on. We will need to wait for a while,” he said. “So, you might as well tell us of your journey and what you discovered along the way. I will explain everything that we need to after they return with the findings.”
A functionary scurried away and seats were quickly carried over to where they stood so that they could sit. Tohil looked down again at the cut on his palm while this was going on, then looked back up at the Dwarf King, studying him, seeing that he was being watched in turn. The man on the throne had a look of wry amusement still upon his face.
“So, speak,” he said finally.
For the next hour or so, Tohil did as he as instructed, describing their journey in detail, the temples they had found, his observations. Occasionally, Xquic or Tepeu would interject with clarifications or to add to his descriptions. There were many questions from those arrayed on the dais, particularly when it came to describe the Seelee carvings. They kept on coming back, asking for more detail, or to add nuance to what he spoke of. During the back and forths, there were several side conversations and once or twice what amounted to an argument. About halfway through, the Dwarf King called for refreshments, and the discussion was halted while they were served hot chocolate and small snacks, the like of which Tohil had never seen. Once the servers withdrew again, only then did conversation resume. As they had just about run out of words entirely, one of the dwarf magicians appeared.
“Well?” said the Dwarf King.
The magician pointed at Tohil. “He is of the blood,” he said. “The other two not.”
Tohil frowned. He was feeling a little more relaxed now, but again, this sudden development troubled him. He didn’t understand what was going on.
“What does that mean?” he said.
The Dwarf King leaned back on his throne and plucked at his lower lip before answering.
“We have much to explain to you,” he said. “But the time for that is not now. We have some more work to undertake. In the meantime, you can rest, we will find you clothing more suited to your presence here. Eat, sleep, drink. In the meantime, thank you for bringing us the message. You have done a great service for your people and for all of us.”
None of what he was saying made sense.
“One last question before we settle you here for the night.”
Tohil, still frowning, tilted his head as a response.
“Do you have dreams?”
Now he shook his head. “Everybody has dreams,” he answered.
The Dwarf King narrowed his eyes. “You know what I mean.”
A sigh came from him unbidden. “Yes,” he said, finally. “I have dreams.”
“Good. We will find you rooms here in the palace.” The quick acceptance of his answer and the sudden change of topic threw Tohil off guard.
The Dwarf King gestured to one of the officials and waved a hand in dismissal. “You can go now,” he said.
“But what about our things?” said Xquic. “We left them back outside. The Jaguars would not let us enter with them.”
One of the men on the platform stepped forward. He held a staff in his right hand, worked in gold along its entire length. “You will have no more need of those,” he said. “Besides, it would surprise me if they were not already gone.” He gave a short laugh. “Now, if you will all follow me.”
Tohil and the other two looked at each other questioningly. Tohil was still not satisfied and he looked from his friends to the little man on the throne who merely shook his head and waved them away. It appeared that the audience was at an end. As they were led from the audience chamber and through one of the rear doors, Tohil opened and closed his hand, looking at the shallow cut on his palm. He spared one backward glance at the Dwarf King, deep in consultation with one of the magicians. The little man looked up and met his eyes and then turned back to whatever he was discussing.
Great were the descriptions and the account of how all the sky and earth were formed, how it was formed and divided into four parts; how it was partitioned, and how the sky was divided; and the measuring-cord was brought, and it was stretched in the sky and over the earth, on the four angles, on the four corners
— Popol Vuh, Preamble
TWENTY-TWO
They were separated and taken to individual rooms. Tohil found himself in accommodations the like of which he had never seen. There was an actual bed with wooden legs and a piece of leather stretched across the frame, rather than a simple sleeping pallet. There was other furniture, a table with a platter of fruits, places to sit, gourds and pots with different beverages. A small shelf against one wall had books, but he had little chance to examine them. People fussed around him, helping him with his clothes, measuring him, leading him to a pool where he was requested to bathe, which relieved him and he readily complied. They brought him more to eat, and then new clothing, sandals, a wraparound piece of rich fabric to tie around his waist, leather, and bead wrist bands, and then a rich feathered cloak in blacks and greens which they laid upon his bed. One woman hovered around with pigments and brushes, intent on painting his face, but it was all too much and he eventually asked her to leave. Then, finally, he was alone.
He looked around the room, at the furniture at the mirror on the wall, the lamps. Why the room even had a window. And then there was that feathered cloak. He was no elder, nor an astronomer or noble. How could he wear such a thing? He crossed to the window and looked out. All he could see were buildings and rooftops and one of the temples reaching far above them all. Everything was too big, too grand.
He was still staring out the window when Xquic and Tepeu arrived together, interrupting his chain of thought and he turned to them. Tepeu had similar new clothing to his own. Xquic was decked out in a longer dress, finely woven fabric, dark, almost black but with intricate indigo designs. A necklace made of bone and green stone sat around her neck. Unlike Tohil, Tepeu had clearly allowed himself to be subjected to face and body painting, serpent-like designs spiralling up his arms and an intricate geometrical pattern in blues and whites across the upper half of his face.
“What is all this?” said Xquic, shaking her head.
“I don’t know,” answered Tohil slowly. “I wish I did.”
Tepeu wandered over to the bed and fingered the cloak that lay there.
“I thought we were just supposed to deliver a message,” he said without looking up from the cloak.
“I thought the same thing,” said Tohil, crossing to sit at one of the chairs around a small table in the room’s centre. “I wish I knew what was happening.”
The other two also sat. Tepeu reached for a piece of fruit took a bite and started chewing distractedly.
“And what was that with ‘of the blood,’ ‘not of the blood?’” said Xquic.
Again, Tohil shook his head. He didn’t have any answers. “I thought for a moment we were going to be dragged off for sacrifice.”
Xquic gave a short laugh. “I think you made that clear. I couldn’t believe you spoke to the Dwarf King like that.”
To be honest, Tohil had surprised himself.
“He’s just a person,” said Tepeu through a mouthful of fruit. “Even if he is short.”
“But he is magical,” said Xquic. “All dwarves have special power. You saw the magicians. They were the same.”
“I didn’t see any magic,” said Tepeu. “All I saw was a lot of people in fancy clothes and a lot of words.”
“Perhaps they wanted our blood for some special ritual,” said Tohil.
“But what could that be?” asked Xquic.
Tohil grimaced. “I do
n’t know. How could we know? We are just from a simple village.”
“The Dwarf King doesn’t seem to think it’s so simple.” She reached out and laid her hand over his. “We just have to wait and see.”
He looked up and met her gaze. There was such an intensity there. He looked down at her hand. A moment later, she withdrew it.
“But why these clothes, the jewellery?” He raised his eyebrows and looked at the cloak lying there on the bed. “That.”
“I didn’t get one,” said Tepeu.
“I was wondering.”
They sat there saying nothing for a few moments. Tepeu reached for another piece of fruit. Tohil stood and crossed back to the window, looking out.
“We just have to wait,” he said without turning. “There’s too much that I don’t understand.”
“Perhaps we can explore the palace?” said Xquic.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I don’t either,” said Tepeu. “Didn’t you see the guards at each end of the corridor?”
Tohil turned then with a worrying thought. “Do you think we are captives?”
“No,” said Tepeu. “But, I don’t think we are supposed to go anywhere.”
“How is that not being a captive?” said Tohil.
Tepeu shrugged. “It depends what they want to do with us.”
And that was what worried Tohil. There, above all, he had no ideas.
“Well, at least we can rest and eat,” said Xquic. “Though I’d like to be doing something.”
Tepeu scanned the room and then stood. “Maybe they have some dice,” he said.
He walked across to the door and poked his head out.
“Hello?” he called.
Within moments, one of the serving men, dressed in a simple beige robe had appeared. He said nothing.
“Have you got any dice?” Tepeu asked him.
The man dipped his head and withdrew, still saying nothing. He returned a couple of minutes later, bearing a tray with dice and counters which, after moving the fruit, he placed down on the table. Again, the man dipped his head and started to withdraw, his hands folded in front of him.
“And some chicha,” said Tepeu. “Can you bring us some chicha?”
oOo
The next morning, servants rushed around, serving food, assisting with dressing. There was much consternation that Tohil wouldn’t wear the cloak that had been provided, but eventually he relented, if only to stop all the fuss. All the same, he felt stupid, like a parrot, unused to the fabric almost swallowing him, feathered adornments making it feel like wings floating about his body. Eventually, the three of them were gathered together and led not back to the audience chamber, but to a series of rooms deeper within the palace complex. As they passed warriors and other servants and functionaries, they all seemed to incline their heads in respect. Tohil noted it, found himself incredulous. One day they had been mere village peasants, the next, palace functionaries of all levels were treating them with deference. It had to be the clothes. As far as he was concerned, nothing that had happened during the night, not that anything had, had changed who and what he was. Despite further fuss from the servants, he had forgone any facial decoration, but still, all around them, they showed the signs that he was somehow different.
The first set of rooms they passed through were full of books, large sheets of treated bark that folded out in many sections, wrapped tightly in jaguar skin where they in niches around the room. There were other things too, items of unknown purpose. There were maps upon the walls. One or two of the rooms they passed through had people hunched over tables, transcribing things into large books, or painting, drawing things. There was the smell of the treated bark, and something else. Tohil presumed it was the inks they were using. One man they passed was holding up some sort of object, peering at it, then sketching lines and taking notes. Once more, there was just too much to take in, and Tohil merely observed, collecting impressions, trying to understand as much as he could.
Finally, they reached another room, this one larger than the rest and dominated by a large table in the middle. Across the other side stood the Dwarf King, without his headdress now and to either side of him, the two magicians from the audience chamber. The Dwarf King was peering down at a large map spread across the table. As they entered, he looked up.
“Ah, Tohil and his friends. Come, approach,” he said.
Tohil thought he should probably give some sort of greeting, but he didn’t know what to say.
“Yes, looking much better today,” said the Dwarf King as they approached, a little look of amusement on his face.
“But why all this?” said Tohil.
The Dwarf King held up one hand. “Time for that later. But first, come here. Tell me what you see.”
The large map, for that was what it was, was far more detailed than the small scrap of leather he had carried with them on their journey and it was shaded in many colours. There was blue for the ocean and for a great river that passed inland near to what he presumed was the Great City. Other cities were marked and the mountains. White lines that he thought represented roads.
“I see the land, the mountains, the forests, everything we passed through.”
The squat little man nodded and moved around the table’s edge to stand beside them.
“That area, all along the coast is under our control. You see the path of that river, and where the roads run. We control those areas as well.”
He looked up into Tohil’s face.
“I understand,” said Tohil. “But why are you showing us this? What are we doing here?”
“This is only the first part of what you need to understand. Within those areas, people still perform sacrifices, but they follow the old ways. When you asked me yesterday about the sacrifices, I found it amusing. Why? Outside of those areas I have just described, they take captives, they sacrifice to the gods, they spill their blood and offer it. That was what you feared.”
He searched Tohil’s face, and then continued.
“The message from your Elders is confirmation of something that we knew would come, that our astrologers have predicted for some time. We knew that there would be some great event, hoped perhaps that it was not what your Elders predicted. But now we know. Others, those outside the areas we control also have their astrologers, their magicians, and they are looking forward to what is to come. We here, me, we have to find a way to stop it.”
“But why?” said Xquic. “What do we have to do with it?”
One of the magicians hissed at her, but the Dwarf King turned to look at her.
“She can speak,” he said quietly. “It is a good question, one that deserves an answer, but there are other things you need to know first.”
“What things?” asked Xquic.
The Dwarf King shot her an assessing glance and then turned from the table, his hands clasped behind his back and started to pace the room, his head lowered as he spoke.
“Yesterday you faced many questions. We wanted to test your observations. You already know part of it, and that part you have discovered by yourself. The priesthood holds the knowledge, the Elders in some places, and here, within the palace. A long time ago, too long to remember, there came another people to our lands. You have seen part of that story on your travels. We do not know where they came from or how they arrived, but once they were here, things changed. These people we shall call the Seelee.”
He paused then, looking at each of them, seeming to measure their attention and understanding before continuing.
“The Seelee were a people, but not like us. They had great power, weaponry, the capability to enslave an entire people, and this is what they did. After a time, something here in our land started to affect them, make them weak, or so the histories say. With their magic, they were able to create something that they could use, something that would guard them against whatever was causing them to grow weak. The thing that they made was something that lived in the blood, and es
pecially in the hearts of our people. To make themselves strong again, they took those hearts and they consumed them. They continued doing so and they became more powerful.”
He stopped across the other side of the table, looked at each of their faces, and then back down at the map.
“We do not know how to make this thing, but we have ways of knowing if it exists in a person. This has been known for years.”
“Of the blood,” said Xquic.
One of the magicians looked at her sharply.
“Exactly,” said the Dwarf King.
“But the Seelee are gone,” said Tohil.
“They are gone, yes, but they are not gone,” he said. “First, I need to tell you more.”
“Once the Seelee had grown in power, they grew our people like crops, and like crops, they harvested them. They forced their rituals of sacrifice onto the people, and eventually, it became part of the religion, and the Seelee became as gods.
“But they are not gods,” said Tohil.
“You are right. But compared to us, they may as well be gods.”
“More like dark spirits,” said Tepeu, breaking his usual silence.
“Yes, that too. So, call them what you will, sometime after that time when they ascended, there was a great war. Some dispute arose among the Seelee and they fought amongst themselves. They fought with their great and powerful weapons and many of them died, but at the same time, most of our people also died. For the Seelee, with their special need, it was like a great drought that afflicted the land and killed off the crops, except that these crops were our people. The Seelee realised that it would be many years until the people had grown again in sufficient number, before the land they had poisoned could support the population they needed again. They decided they needed to wait.”
“Why did they just not leave?” asked Tohil. “If this sickness came from the land, why did they not go somewhere else?”
“We don’t know. Perhaps some of them did. You need to ask why they came here in the first place, what might force them to leave the place they came from. We cannot know. Anyway, they did not leave. Instead, they chose to disappear, until such time as the land had recovered and the population was again sufficient to serve as their crops and they could start the harvest again.”
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