“It is a position of honor to be seated at an official’s table,” Tizoc said.
“We’ll try to remember that,” Daniel said.
Tizoc narrowed his golden eyes at Daniel, but I sent them both a pleading look and they backed off.
“I’m sorry,” Daniel said. “I’ll behave. For you.”
“Thank you.” I tossed him a sweet smile.
“I’ll do anything if you keep smiling at me like that.” Daniel tapped the end of my nose with his finger.
“I’ll have to remember that.”
A loud drum crash made us both jump in our seats. At once, the Sunal stood and we Englishmen—and woman—awkwardly rose with them. The drumbeat continued as a line of Sunal warriors trailed in from my left. In the midst of this parade of sorts, a figure emerged.
“Dimazuno!” the Sunal around us sang out together.
Tizoc leaned past Daniel to speak to me. “Our emperor.”
An annoyed look chased across Daniel’s features, but he did not say anything. I went back to watching the Sunal emperor arrive at the feast. He exuded majesty in his high, feathered helmet and long, white robe that draped around his shoulders. Silver earrings pierced both his earlobes, and a long silver chain was wrapped around his neck in three loose loops. He had a serious face with a long nose and close, deep brown eyes. One would have recognized him as their leader without Tizoc’s explanation.
Dimazuno took his seat on an elevated platform behind the official’s tables. His attendants sat on low cushions on the ground to either side of the emperor.
In a thunderous voice, he addressed all those gathered at this feast. I did not understand a word of his speech for he delivered it in his native tongue. When he finished, however, his people gave up a wondrous cheer and some turned to regard us.
“Yaoti,” Dimazuno said.
Tizoc’s father rose to his feet and said, “Englishmen, our mighty emperor wishes that I translate his words for you.”
“We welcome you to Ezenoch,” Yaoti said. “May your time here with us be a fruitful exchange of culture. Learn, explore, enjoy, but leave us as you found us. There have been others that have visited and taken advantage of our hospitality. We will not be taken for fools.
“Your captain was wise enough to come with only small daggers, so we take that as a sign of faith—a sign that you will not harm us—and therefore we will not harm you. Let us share this meal as a symbol of trust in one another.”
When Yaoti took his seat, Captain Finley rose. “We thank you for your generosity. We look forward to learning your ways and exploring your amazing city. We have come a long way to see the land that lies across the mighty ocean, and now that we are here, we see the paradise in which you live. It is truly an honor to be among you.”
All of our crew let out their own roar of agreement. As the captain sat, Yaoti stood again, translating Captain Finley’s words so the emperor and the rest of the Sunal could understand.
When Yaoti finished, Dimazuno nodded to the captain then clapped his hands together. More Sunal poured in carrying trays heaped high with food. The smells that wafted in with them had my mouth watering, my stomach growling. Though I did not recognize some foods, my hunger was so great that everything looked tasty to me.
The sound of Tizoc’s laughter tore my attention away from the nearest tray. I shifted my gaze to look at him.
“Sorry.” He placed his hand over his mouth to stifle his amusement. “You must be famished.”
“We’ve eaten little since we arrived on your shores,” Daniel said in my defense. “And our rations on the Rose had been dwindling for the last few weeks.”
“Again, my apologies.” Tizoc gained control of his laughter. “But Charlie looks like she’s a wild animal ready to attack her prey.” His amber eyes flickered at me beneath raised eyebrows, and a smile automatically came to my lips.
“I might attack it.” I thrust my chin up. “You forget I’ve been pretending to be male for months. I may have lost all memory of proper etiquette.”
“Not all males are without manners.” Tizoc signaled to the nearest Sunal with a tray. When the boy came closer, he bowed to Tizoc and peeked at Daniel and me. Was this the first time he had seen English people up close?
Tizoc spoke to the boy in the quick language of his people, and the boy bowed again. He came over to me and piled various foods onto my plate. I had to hold up a hand to stop him. Tizoc was laughing again, and even Daniel smiled along with him.
“Tizoc, what did you tell him?” I got lost in the aromas floating around my face.
“I told him to feed the lady first for if you stayed hungry you were sure to leave this feast and take your beauty with you.” Tizoc sent me a full smile that dimpled his left cheek. “No one would want you to leave, Cihuapilli.”
“Especially me,” Daniel said, looking at Tizoc instead of me. “Tizoc, you understand that Charlotte and I—”
“Are in love,” Tizoc finished, cutting Daniel off. “Yes, she has told me, but it is… Sunal custom, shall we say… that keeps me from hiding my own feelings for Charlie. I’ve never seen anyone like her. She is radiant.”
Radiant? No one had ever used that word to describe me before. Odd, yes. Solitary, definitely. But radiant? Never.
“Well.” Daniel’s tone indicated a struggle to contain his rising irritation. I caught a glance of the Daniel who hadn’t wanted to break in a new fish all those months ago. A Daniel whose words had held disdain. “Charlie and I have waited to be together without having to hide how we feel. I’m not going to let you, or anyone else, ruin what’s happening between us.”
“What about what Charlie wants?” Tizoc asked.
“I know what Charlie wants,” Daniel said.
“Do you?”
“Yes, I—”
“Stop, please, both of you.” I laid a hand on Daniel’s arm and glared at Tizoc. “First of all, you both speak as if I’m not sitting with you. Secondly, if I don’t eat right now, you’re both going to be sorry. Thirdly, what I want is a matter of what I want, not what you two think I want.”
With that said, Daniel and Tizoc looked away from each other. They both had the look of small boys that had been scolded. Good. I turned my attention to my plate and sampled the medley of foods collected there. Daniel and Tizoc did the same in absolute silence. Cripes. I wasn’t sure what more to say to them. My own feelings were getting mixed around, and I didn’t like it at all.
I concentrated on the vegetables to busy myself. Several varieties of potatoes adorned my plate and melted in my mouth when I tasted them. A flat white bread made of corn—tortilla—Tizoc called it, had a lovely flavor especially when I followed some of the Sunal around me and rolled strips of turkey into the bread with tomatoes and chili peppers. I warmed my insides with a soup of large maize kernels called pozole.
Everything had a spicy jolt of seasoning that made me feel as if I had been eating sawdust on the Rose. I would never admit that to Daniel, because he had done most of the cooking, but without access to the fresh vegetables and game the Sunal had, the food on the ship had been bland, repetitive, and sometimes moldy.
I cleared my plate, savoring every bite. After the dishes were carted away, mugs filled with a dark brown liquid, white foam cresting at the top of it, were passed around. I sniffed at the fluid and a pungent, but pleasant odor filled my senses.
“Xocolatl,” Tizoc said, as Daniel and I studied the contents of the mug. “We roast the seeds of the cacao tree then grind them into a powder. Mixing it with water creates this.” He held up the mug in his hand and brought it to his lips.
Daniel, not wanting to be seen as less daring than Tizoc, lifted his mug and took a drink. His features relaxed as he tipped the mug for another sip.
“Is it good?” I peeked into my own mug at the muddy concoction.
“Surprisingly so,” Daniel said. “Try it.”
I liked it so much Tizoc had my mug filled twice more, and I finished it all. As the fe
ast came to a close, many of our crewmen excused themselves to head back to the comfortable, yet guarded accommodations Yaoti had provided them. Daniel slid his chair back as well and stood, but before I could join him, a slender brown hand rested on my shoulder. When I turned, Xochitl smiled down at me.
“Daniel, come here, boy,” Captain Finley’s voice rang out.
“I’ll be right back.” Daniel glanced at Tizoc as he left.
“Did you enjoy yourself?” Xochitl asked after Daniel was gone.
“Oh, yes. Everything was wonderful. I especially liked the xocolatl.”
“It is a favorite drink,” Xochitl said. “Good for celebrating.” She turned to her brother who had closed the distance between us. “What do you think of our work, Tizoc?”
“Did you have to make her so beautiful?” he whispered, turning his honey-colored eyes on me.
“Did you want us to make her hideous?” Xochitl said, holding her hands out beside her.
“It would have made things easier.” Tizoc sighed as he gave me a long glance that touched me deep down.
Shaking his head, he looked past Xochitl. “Zolin needs me.” He leaned over and kissed his sister on the cheek. He took a step toward me, but stopped himself. Instead, he walked around me, brushing his hand along my arm as he passed, and headed toward a young Sunal man standing at the table next to ours.
“Zolin is our cousin,” Xochitl explained. “He was with Tizoc… in your country. They are very close.”
A small crowd of men surrounded Tizoc as soon as he reached Zolin. They spoke in hushed voices, and I assumed they were talking about the ritual to follow this evening’s feast.
“I should go.” I stood, and Xochitl was right beside me.
“Are you all right, Charlie? Shall I get Tizoc to escort you back to our home?”
“No,” I said. “No, I’m fine. I’ll just—”
“Ready to go, Charlotte?” Daniel was somehow standing next to me. I had been ready to leave alone, but now that he was so close, I was soothed by his presence.
“Yes.” Turning to Xochitl, I said, “Thank you for everything.”
“It was our pleasure. Perhaps tomorrow my sisters and I can offer you a tour of Ezenoch’s gardens?”
“Oh, yes. I would like that.” Good. Something else to focus on besides what was going to happen at this temple after Daniel and I left.
Daniel edged me toward the steps leading back down to ground level. As we descended, another shudder zipped through me. Daniel’s hand tightened on mine and my nerves settled. His lips tickled my skin, and the rest of the walk along the paved street toward Tizoc’s home passed quickly. Soon, Daniel and I found ourselves at the curtained doorway of my quarters. With the captain and Tizoc’s family still at the feast, the house was silent. Without saying a word, I tugged on Daniel’s arm as I pushed the curtain to my room aside.
“I… uh… I should…” Daniel looked around the room.
“Stay with me for a little while,” I said. “Please.”
Smiling, he brushed aside some runaway curls and his touch, so soft, so gentle, started a slow fire in my heart. I let the sheer fabric draped around my shoulders drop to a nearby chair. Daniel stepped closer, his fingers trailing along my bare shoulder. I closed my eyes and slipped my hands around his waist, drawing him closer still. Resting my head on his shoulder, I pressed my lips to the side of his neck.
“Charlotte?” he said, wrapping his arm around me.
“Mmm?”
“I love you.”
I raised my head and met his blue eyes that were darkened by the shadows creeping into the room as the sun set outside. I rested my hands on Daniel’s cheeks, brought my lips to his as his hand found its way into my hair. The kiss sizzled, and when I finally pulled away, I felt molten inside.
“I love you too, Daniel.”
In that moment, we were the only two people in the world. I was certain the sun itself revolved around us alone. I pulled on the laces at the front of Daniel’s tunic and slid my hand into the opening. His heart’s quick, steady beat filled my palm.
“It’s you who makes it race so,” he said.
“Such power.” I circled my finger around his smooth, muscled chest and pressed a kiss to his flesh.
He caught my hand in his and kissed each one of my fingers. “Are you trying to make my heart explode?”
I focused on the feel of his soft, warm lips against my fingertips. My own heart was on the edge of leaping out of my chest, and I happily drowned in the sensation.
“Daniel,” a familiar voice called from the hallway.
A groan rumbled out of Daniel as he bent his head to mine. Forehead to forehead, we stood for a moment, savoring the closeness.
“If we don’t make a sound,” Daniel whispered, “maybe my uncle won’t find me.”
“He’ll find you.”
“I know.” Daniel let out a sigh. Coiling one of my curls around his finger, he gave me a long look that said so many things without a single word.
“As soon as you wake up tomorrow,” I began, “come to me. I want to start the day looking at your face.”
“You are the sun to me, Charlotte.” With another kiss, one that left my legs a little shaky, Daniel slipped out of my room.
Now alone and all stirred up, I shed my dress and slipped into a simple nightshirt one of Tizoc’s sisters left out for me. The fabric was smooth and comfortable, not at all like my brother’s old rough tunic and sweater. It didn’t smell like my brother’s clothes either. A fresh rose scent clung to the garment instead. It mixed well with the lavender that had infused my skin during my bath and the faint citrus smell of Daniel that still hung in the room.
I sat on the stool in front of the obsidian looking-glass and studied myself. If my father were to see me now, he would undoubtedly run away. I was almost indistinguishable from my mother. I wanted Father to know me. To know that I was my own person, different from my mother, and in need of his love, especially in her absence.
Sighing, I turned from the looking-glass and got up from the stool.
“Daniel loves you,” I reminded myself. Wrapping my arms around me, I wished Daniel had been able to stay. I didn’t want to be alone tonight.
Kneeling on the bed covered with richly colored fabrics, I leaned against the open window beside it. In the darkness night had brought, the ceremonial fires on top of the central temple licked the black sky. A distant drumbeat pounded on the air until it reached me. Captain Finley was back, so I assumed the Sunal were about to start their planned sacrifice. I left the window, wishing I could close off the sounds drifting in. I stretched out on the bed and rolled myself in the light quilts, more for protection than to keep warm.
With the rhythmic beat of the drums filling my ears, I closed my eyes and pictured Daniel’s face, his lips, his eyes. Despite my efforts, however, the drumbeat reached a crescendo. I slung my arm over my head to block it out. Finally, exhaustion overwhelmed me.
****
Screams echoed in the darkness as four Sunal warriors dragged the victim up the steps of the temple pyramid. Writhing and pitching forward in their grip, the victim tried in vain to break free. At the top of the pyramid, the human offering was stretched across a cold, stone altar. His wrists and ankles were bound with thick cording. One of the warriors came forth and painted the naked body of the victim deep red.
Blood red.
Each moment ticked by with the thud of a solitary drum. A priest dressed in black robes stained with animal blood approached the stone altar. Laying his hands out over the body, he chanted the words of the ancient ones in a loud, clear voice. Several other drums joined in, keeping time for the priest’s recitation. With the pulse of the drums quickening, the priest produced a sharpened, pointed stone from the folds of his robe. Holding it with both of his hands, he plunged it into the chest of the victim, the sacrifice to the Sun God.
The wounded howled in agony, his cries resonating off the temple walls and throughout all
of Ezenoch. Ripping into him from stomach to chest, the priest cut out the victim’s heart, dripping warm blood along the pristine stone of the temple altar. The drumbeat lessened its frenetic pace, thudding as a heart would instead, while the priest held the organ up in his blood-soaked palm.
As he held it to the statue of Adanitupachi that flanked the altar, the priest resumed his chant, blending his voice with those of the assembled Sunal. When he was finished, he flung the still beating heart into a sacred fire blazing brightly in a copper brazier at the feet of the Sun God statue. With a loud, collective shout from all the Sunal present at the sacrifice, the ritual ended.
Golden tiger eyes regarded the still form of the sacrificed human. When they blinked, a single tear rolled down a smooth brown cheek.
****
Sweat covered my forehead, and the sick taste of bile coated my mouth. I couldn’t catch my breath.
Where was I?
I shrieked hoarsely when the curtain at the doorway of the room was thrown aside.
“Charlie? What’s wrong?”
“I… I…” Gasping for air. Couldn’t get the words out.
After two long strides, Daniel kneeled on the floor beside my bed and stroked my hair, my face. “Charlie, look at me. You’re safe. You’re with me.”
Still searching the room for any signs of blood, I couldn’t focus on Daniel. Couldn’t gain control of my disoriented senses. I had witnessed the sacrifice.
Hadn’t I?
“Charlotte.” Daniel’s hand came to my chin, and he turned my head to look at him. “You’re safe. There’s nothing to fear.”
“I… I…” A fog settled in my head and, despite Daniel’s words, I trembled.
“You screamed,” he said. “Only loud enough for me to hear you from my room next door.” He took my hand and ran his thumb over my knuckles, trying to rub away some of the jitters. “What happened?”
“I. Saw. It.” I pulled my hand out of Daniel’s grip.
Sail With Me (A Discovery Series Book) Page 18
