The priest fell stricken against the enormous statue and, though the idol did not move itself, the slight jarring of the crown jewel shifted its facet of light just askew from one of the hypnotized ape men.
The ape man blinked.
“Bel’s Devils,” Gathelaus cursed.
The ape blinked again and a scowl tore over its face. He roared like a thunderclap.
One of the priests near him shouted and pointed at Gathelaus. It looked like he didn’t have confidence in ordering the ape man.
The brute narrowed its gaze at both the priest and the Northman. The priest shouted his order again, this time a little more timidly.
Gathelaus’s guess was correct. Whatever magic was held in the bejeweled moonlight, its power over the ape man was incomplete.
The priest panicked, wheeled and ran. This set the ape loose with the instinctual thrill of the hunt. With blinding speed, it leapt and grabbed the black clad priest about the waist with a massive hand, brought him screaming toward its tusked mouth and chomped down on the shrieking priest’s head, silencing the terror, and then spit the head away. It rolled against the far end of the gallery and came to a stop, staring wide-eyed horror toward Gathelaus.
The other priests fled in all directions. The ape man leapt, covering nearly twenty feet in a single bound, and crashed atop one of the priests, flattening him into bloody gore. He then jumped and this time at an even farther distance caught up another priest and squeezed him to jelly between his massive palms.
Gathelaus reached the dais and past Coco who still lay on her side.
“What are you doing? Free me!” she shouted.
He ignored her and the screaming girl and took up the long sacrificial dagger that had been the property of the high priest. It was almost two feet of flint-napped obsidian, sharp as slander. The ornate handle of turquoise gave it the appearance of a scaled snake. It was not the best weapon for having a good grip, but it was the only one he had now.
Stepping to Coco, he slashed her bonds in an instant, freeing her.
“See to the others,” he said.
“You cannot fight the gods of the mountain. They are invincible.”
“I’ll do what I can.” He tore the priest’s black cloak from off his shoulders.
“You’re mad. We must flee.”
“You go,” he said sternly. “I’ll hold him off your escape out the door.” He was watching the ape tear apart yet another priest, painfully aware that the moonlight was shifting, and all of the apes would be free of the mesmerizing force that held them in thrall.
Coco helped the other slaves stand and cut some of their bonds with a fallen priest’s knife.
“Get out of here!” he shouted at her.
The ape suddenly turned and stared daggers at Gathelaus. It roared with the force of gale winds. Its yellow eyes narrowed, and it leapt, crossing most of the distance across the gallery in a single bound. Gathelaus had never seen a creature with such speed, ferocity, and incredible strength in such close spaces. He supposed he would never see anything again soon enough, but the true warrior must always be ready to meet death, so he charged forward his own cry upon his lips, ready to meet his great black knife against the hulking god of the mountain.
The ape bounded and landed on its feet a pace before Gathelaus who had dodged beside a stalactite.
The great ape reached its long arm toward him and he let the obsidian dagger slash through the sinew and tendons of its hand, slicing halfway to the center of the palm.
The beast roared in agony, but just as quickly reached with the other hand and caught Gathelaus by the edge of his poncho. The talons tore through the cotton and flesh beneath but Gathelaus was not taken. He rounded low about the pillar and struck again with the big knife gouging a wound across the ape’s thigh. Gathelaus had hoped to sever the life-giving artery that lay there but his cut was too shallow.
The ape slammed its fists at the pillar and shattered the living rock.
Gathelaus backed away and slashed across the monster’s reaching hand. Hot blood flew and the madness in the monster’s eyes flashed like cold fire.
Charging in once again to bury the knife in the ape’s vitals, a glancing blow that would have broken the neck of a lesser man, battered Gathelaus aside.. Before the disorientation cleared from Gathelaus’s head, the monster ape flung its taloned hand forward and sent Gathelaus spinning dizzily toward the sacrificial altar beside the dais. It leapt to land atop and crush him.
Gathelaus rolled beneath the altar just as the ape slammed down. It crouched to roar at him and received the full length of the ebon blade into its right eye. Struck dumb, it reeled back like a drunken man, staggered once, and toppled over face first, shattering the great knife. A piece of the black blade revealed itself through the rear of the monster’s skull like an egg tooth.
The sliver of moonlight had nearly separated from the gleaming crown jewel. In a moment, the four other apes would be loose.
Coco and the others had already fled through the door. Gathelaus followed after and glanced at the massive door and its weight and countermeasures. Surely the vast strength of the beast men would allow them to move the boulders and free themselves, but every extra moment would count.
Grasping a dagger from one of the fallen priests, he rushed to the ropes and pulleys of the counterweight and began worrying at the vines connected to the nearest levers. The great twisted vines were strung taut as a bard’s fiddle and it took much sawing of the obsidian blades to cut the first one. He started on a second when the gloom of the gallery suddenly washed over him. The moonbeam was gone and with it, the ape men awakened, released from their dreamlike trance courtesy of the great yellow jewel.
They glanced about the gallery at the multiple dead priests and their own fallen brother with the instrument of his death piercing the back of his skull. Then all four pairs of yellowed eyes focused on Gathelaus and narrowed malevolently.
A roar from four monstrous mouths stung his ears within the massive underground gallery. The damage to his eardrums rendered him nearly deaf.
He slashed at the final vine, just as the ape men leapt with their black talons spread to rend him limb from limb.
Gathelaus ducked beneath the crashing slab. The great door slammed down and caught an ape man’s arm, severing it at the shoulder. The force of the charging beast men sent one of the crushing stones into the doorway and wedged it shut. It would allow no purchase for even the fingers of the ape men and with the magnificent counterweight broken on the opposite side, Gathelaus did not think they could escape, unless there was another exit he did not know of.
The apes roared their fury. But that was all Gathelaus had time to hear, he rushed back up the gloomy tunnel until he reached the winding stair and raced upward. At the top, the hidden door remained ajar and as the cold wind slapped him in the face, he could see the torches of the fleeing slaves moving awkwardly down the mountain. He mused that if the ape men were not trapped or dead, they would be able to recapture their victims easily.
Being raised in the mountains and having run down sheer slopes that others would barely be able to crawl up, he soon caught up with Coco and the others. But if his luck at defeating invincible gods of the mountain had meant anything, it was all cast off like dust in the wind at the realization they had run back down the slopes and back into the waiting arms of Tezomoc’s men. They stood nearby with arrows, atlatls and spears, ready to slay.
Tezomoc barked something short and staccato and then laughed with dripping cruelty.
“He says the gods must have released us because they knew what a great man he was. He says he will be emperor someday.”
Gathelaus spat.
Ropes were reattached but the collars had been destroyed. Gathelaus was relieved he could at least move his arms. And with the faint pink dawn rising in the east, the caravan of slaves continued down the mountain.
The slaves proclaimed that he had slain the gods of the mountains, but neither Tezomoc nor
the guardsmen believed that. The slaves had a new-found respect for the pale stranger.
The Loss and Gain of Chalco
The early morning start had the caravan treading into the city of Chalco by midday. As they were driven up over a hill by the guardsmen’s whips, Gathelaus could see not only Chalco but another massive city just beyond, greater than even Tolburn or Avaris. Great stone walls surrounded by a shining lake reached to the sky higher than any tower Gathelaus had ever seen. Huge sloping pyramids jutted up, threatening to steal clouds. The smoke from myriad fires hung heavy over the cities like the ghastly breath of demons. Roads converged from every direction all leading to the central city. Gathelaus was grateful they were only going to Chalco, best to be over with the charade and begin the truth.
“That is the great city of Tultecacan, for whom this continent is named. It has stood since time immemorial upon the lake. Some say that it was a great stone that fell from the heavens into the waters and from it, men first emerged upon the world,” said Coco
“Travelers from the stars?” asked Gathelaus dubiously.
“That is what the old scribes say.”
“In my land the educated fools say such things on where we come from and I have found no answer to be sure. An unknown can not be answered with another unknown.”
“You’re quite the philosopher for a barbarian,” she said coyly.
“I could teach you a few things,” he said, slapping her rump.
She turned and struck him across the face. The half of the caravan near them halted in surprise. “Never touch me without permission again!” She stormed away from him.
An old man, roped beside Gathelaus chuckled and spoke in the rapid sing song language of the Tultecacan’s to Gathelaus.
“I don’t understand you,” he said. “But I think you understand what that was about well enough.”
The old man still laughed and nodded, making kissing sounds in the direction of Coco. Then he brought his hands together at Gathelaus and motioned toward Coco and moved the hands together.
“I think I catch your meaning,” grunted Gathelaus. “Women.” He shook his head.
The guardsmen of Tezomoc forced merchants and other travelers out of their way, clearing the path for their master’s litter and his train of slaves. They whipped those who did not move swiftly enough and even brained an obstinate farmer who would not move his wares into the canal and out of the road. The dead man splashed into the green waters and beggars took his humble, wet bundles.
Gathelaus marveled at the stone road. Flat stones were fixed into a geometric pattern that pleased the eye, all set with a regular smoothness easing travel toward the gaping entrance. The road widened and some people found purchase beside the road to sell their fruits and vegetables, others had turkeys and dogs and still more had cloth of every color imaginable. Men called, asking for passersby to sample their product or purchase a slave for the coming festival.
Nearer the entrance, boisterous fat men shouted before a table-like stone covered in chalk, and their lackeys exchanged cocoa beans, bright feathers and lumps of gold—even children were bartered. Though Gathelaus could understand none of their words, the scene was apparent enough, gamblers of some event just decided and all bets were called in. One man even seemed to be gloomily offering himself up as if he could not hope to pay the debt. A wooden collar was thrown about his neck and he was kicked to the side along with the other slaves.
Golden adobe gates loomed overhead as Tezomoc’s caravan marched inside Chalco’s great walls. The thick walls stood the height of three tall men. Though they could be scaled easily enough, thought Gathelaus. Past wide courtyards and stepped pyramids, the guardsmen led the train of slaves down another avenue away from Tezomoc’s litter. Coco went with the hawk-nosed Lord and Gathelaus only caught a slight glance of her before being led away and thrown into a dank and dirty pen.
He was not left there to rot, however. To his surprise an old eunuch came and removed the ropes about his and the other slaves’ necks. After attending to the business of all present, the old man signaled Gathelaus out of the twenty odd men and jabbed him in the stomach, but he spoke in kindly tones. Gathelaus didn’t respond to the old man’s soft words until he beckoned for him to follow. He was taken to a bath complex and scrubbed down thoroughly. Warm water poured in from ornate pipes and the old man used a strange root that lathered and soaped the dirt from Gathelaus’s skin. It was torture sure, but a very easy torture to Gathelaus’s mind, he had not had a bath in months. When the old man pointed to Gathelaus’s beard and hair he nodded hesitantly, not understanding what the old eunuch meant.
The eunuch returned with a short obsidian dagger, hardly as long as Gathelaus’s shortest finger but sharp as the slander of Gathelaus’s kinsmen. The black blade loosed a patch from the Barbarian’s dark beard from his face and then, taking the dagger from the shocked eunuch, Gathelaus cut the hair from his own head as well with quick simplicity. Only a short length of tangled hair remained atop his scalp while the back and sides were shaved perilously short. The eunuch looked at his handiwork and said another unintelligible phrase that made Gathelaus laugh.
“He says you look like a true barbarian now. A civilized man would have shaved the beard but kept the long hair for a ceremonial knot,” said Coco. She too had been cleansed from the journey and now wore a light red skirt and a girdle made from an ocelot’s skin. Some simple jewelry and makeup was also upon her face and breast.
“Do you know what they will do to me on the morrow?” he asked, rinsing the locks of hair from his head and shoulders as if it was of no more concern than another bath.
“Yes, I know. The house-women will not stop cackling about it.”
“Well?”
“You will be forced to face five champions in the arena. All of them better armed than you, and when you are slain they will take your skin and blood as an offering to Xipe-Totec. Because you are such a strong man they expect you to possibly defeat one, maybe two of your opponents. Much is being gambled on this. If you can make it three attacks, those last few gamblers will be very wealthy,” she said. “Tezomoc is betting on two himself. He thinks you are strong but unintelligent. He has no idea that you defeated one of the gods of the mountain.”
“Why not?”
“No one told him.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Why should I,” she challenged, putting her hands on her hips. “What difference would it have made. He would not have believed it. I saw and I don’t believe it.”
“I saved your life,” he said with a grin.
“I am grateful.” She returned a smile.
The old eunuch laughed, held up three fingers, and patted Gathelaus’s back and then rubbed his hand unnecessarily long across it, examining it for the skin’s sake.
“Leave us,” she commanded the eunuch who then skittered away. “The priests will think you dishonor them with such a display. Cutting your hair, so foolish and barbaric.”
“Good, because I plan on disappointing them.”
She stepped closer, letting her new exotic perfumes intoxicate him. “And will you disappoint me?”
“No.” He took her in his arms and pulled her into the bath.
She struggled at first, but soon settled into the kiss. He pulled the ocelot skin from her shoulders, causing her to shudder. He tore the jade necklace from her neck. “No, I must have it back!” she cried as she stood knee-deep in the steaming bath.
For the first time, Gathelaus understood her without the amulet, because he clasped the jade tight in his own fist. His grin betrayed twofold satisfaction.
Coco struck Gathelaus across the chest. “It is of no use to you. They will kill you tomorrow. They will strip you of everything but your loincloth and weapons, they will take the amulet away and then it will do neither of us any good. If I don’t have it they will kill me, I will no longer be a useful slave,” she pleaded. “Please, let me keep it.”
“I need it if only for a
few days. I will understand their plans and find a way to defeat my enemies and then escape,” said Gathelaus, keeping the amulet out of her grasp. “I’ll take you with me.”
“You big fool! Their plans are to kill you, skin you and serve your blood to the gods, that is all.”
“We’ll see.”
“You don’t even know how to use it,” she pressed. “They’ll strip it from you as soon as they see it.”
“I have an idea on how to keep it.” He unfastened the gem from the necklace. The tiny piece of jade was surrounded by his hand. She continued begging and then hurling curses at him, and he understood all of it. Opening his hand, her words were suddenly incomprehensible. She reached for the stone and he closed his hand and understood her curses again. Popping it into his mouth, he swallowed the stone with a wretched gulp and Coco collapsed to her knees.
“I have become favored of Tezomoc, the pig, and now you have just destroyed my use, my favor in his sight. You will die tomorrow for Xipe-Totec and I will follow soon thereafter. You are such an arrogant, greedy fool,” lamented Coco. “I hardly understand their tongue without it, any better than you do.”
“This is for the greater good,” he said.
“Yours, not mine,” she said scornfully.
“If I can understand what they speak for even a few moments it will be enough to surprise them and find a way to escape. You must trust me. I’ll not abandon you. I will find a way.” He picked her up from the warm pool.
“Words, all words.”
“Mine has never been broken.”
“I pray that be true, but you have stolen from me and for that I fear you are nothing but a lying thief.”
“Stay with me,” he said.
She shook her head and stepped from the bath. “I might have enjoyed the moment before, but you ruined it.”
Female voices called out and she looked at Gathelaus for their meaning now lost to her alien-born ears.
FIERCE: A Heroic Fantasy Adventure (BRUTAL TRILOGY Book 2) Page 13
