“Uh-huh…like we just wanted a tour of the place.” Brooks’s voice was thick with sarcasm. Just once, couldn’t she say Good thinking?
I got a small nugget of satisfaction out of the idea of using Ixtab’s own kingdom to bypass her shadow magic. The mud person’s note had said Ixtab didn’t want me to have my full powers. Was that true? Then why didn’t she off me all those months ago, when I was sitting in a cell in the underworld?
A light rain began to fall. My chest tightened as we cut toward a narrow side street lined with brightly painted houses. I couldn’t shake the voice in the fire and now the ancestors’ message.
Brooks grabbed my arm, jerking me to a stop. “Couldn’t we just try high-speed crashing through the wall?”
Then it hit me. Brooks hated the underworld because it’s where her sister had gone to avoid marrying the hero twin Xb’alamkej, aka Jordan the jerk, losing her freedom in the deal. Maybe Brooks thought she’d get stuck there, too. “It’s okay, Brooks. You don’t have to come with me.”
“Zane Obispo, if you think you can tell me what to do—”
“You’re both wrong,” Ren said.
Brooks and I whirled toward Ren as she leaned against one of the murals that decorated the walls of Isla Holbox. The painting was a yellow-and-pink fantastical sea creature with branch-like antlers. “Don’t you get it?” she said. “The enemy—whoever it is—wants you guys to argue, because it makes you weaker. We have to stick together now.” She walked ahead, and Rosie followed.
“That’s not the way home,” I called out.
Brooks whispered, “Who is she?” as we hurried to catch up to Ren.
“You guys lived through the Prophecy of Fire because you stuck together, right?” Ren said as we entered the mouth of the jungle.
“And because we had a plan,” Brooks said.
Ren kept plowing forward. Rosie trotted beside her, exhaling trails of smoke.
“Hey,” I said. “You don’t even know the way.”
“Then you lead.” But Ren didn’t slow down. We kept pace through the dense foliage. “I came all this way,” she said. “The magic called; you called. And I made it across the ocean for a reason,” she added. “The night before you got attacked? And just before the ancestors told you that the Prophecy of Fire was only the beginning? Doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me. You need me. Besides,” she said with a half shrug, “Ixtab could be my mom for all I know. You’re not the only one who wants answers, Zane.”
Ixtab? Ren’s mom? Was that possible? The queen of the underworld didn’t exactly seem like mom material. But then I remembered her getting a little choked up when she had told me about the godborns, as if she had lost someone…. And there was the whole shadowy-ish connection between her and Ren.
“You can’t just walk up to the queen of hell and ask her if she’s your long-lost mom,” I argued. “And your grandpa’s on his way here.”
Ren stopped in her tracks. “And?”
“And,” Brooks said, “don’t you think he’ll be a little peeved when you’re not here?”
Ren shook her head. “He said I have a big destiny that I’d understand someday. He’d want me to go on this quest, to follow the magic all the way through. I promise not to say anything to Ixtab—if we run into her, that is. Just let me poke around, see what I can find.”
“You could get hurt, Ren,” I said. “That mud monster? That was nothing.”
Ren pinned me with her wintry eyes. “I’m safer with you.”
“She has a good point,” Brooks said, suddenly changing gears.
What the heck?
A long grunt of agreement emerged from Rosie. Traitor.
“We’re talking the underworld here,” I said. “It’s a dark and dangerous place, and the demons—they run wild there.” Okay, I made that last part up, but it could be true. I just thought maybe I could scare Ren off. “Plus, you’re not”—I stopped myself before Rosie went into dragon mode and burned down the jungle—“D-E-A-D, and you can’t go to Xib’alb’a unless…”
“You’re not D-E-A-D, either,” Ren said. “So that means the emergency entrance must be for the living.”
“Ixtab never said the entrance was for four.” It’s not that I wanted to go alone. Believe me, I didn’t. But what if Ren got hurt? That kind of guilt could drown a person.
“Let’s take a vote.” Brooks shifted her arms into massive wings that she stretched overhead. Was she trying to intimidate me? It was so not working. “I say she comes with us to Xib’alb’a. She is a godborn after all, and she deserves to find out the truth about her mom.”
A rustling in the trees drew our attention. Hondo emerged, out of breath. Leaves poked out of his thick hair.
“H-Hondo,” I stammered. “What are you doing here?”
“Followed Rosie’s smoke trails, and, uh, you guys are kind of loud.” Hondo turned his eyes on Ren as he caught his breath. “So, you’re a godborn, eh?”
“How…how did you know?” I asked.
“You’d have to be an idiot not to put it together,” Hondo said. “I mean, I wake up and there’s this mysterious girl whose name just happens to be scribbled in the tell-all book, and then there was the burned-up boat, and you were acting all weird, Zane. Besides, your mom sort of told me. And then there was this.” He tugged Brooks’s backpack from behind him.
“Hey!” Brooks snatched the pack away.
“Looks like someone’s going monster hunting.” Hondo smiled. “Can I carry the ax?”
“No one’s going monster hunting,” I said. At least, I hoped we’d get through this without seeing any monsters. Yeah, I know, I’m still overly optimistic.
Brooks glanced inside the pack like she was making sure everything was in its place. “Where’s the demon flashlight, Hondo?”
He fished it out of his pocket. “I need it more than you do. You’re a hawk with killer talons!”
“True.” Brooks nodded. “Keep it.”
“Can I have one of those?” Ren asked, stretching her neck to get a view inside the pack.
“Wait a second—you have the book, Hondo?” Brooks said.
“I looked for that thing all morning,” Ren said.
“It’s not a very good read,” Hondo offered, doing his worst to hide his smile. “I wouldn’t bother if I were you, Brooks. I mean, you were there for everything. It’s kinda boring, actually. Zane’s not much of a writer.” He hooked his arm around my shoulders. “Right, Zane?”
I loved my uncle for trying to protect me, but seriously? Did he have to insult me at the same time?
“I thought the book was…” Ren hesitated. “Adventurous, kinda scary. Gross in some parts. Really sweet in others.”
“Sweet?” Brooks let out a small laugh. “Zane, I don’t remember any sweet parts. Mostly demons, blood, hair, and guts.”
That was totally true, but had she already forgotten that night on the boat when she fell asleep on my shoulder? Or how about…
Ren glanced at me. I tried to give her a look: Don’t say another word. But she just kept on blabbering. “The part when you guys got the enchantment and you had on that really pretty dress and when Zane saw—”
“You described my dress?” Brooks asked me.
“Dress?” I said. “I don’t remember, and we have bigger things to worry about than my writing.” I could strangle Ren. The girl had zero filter and was kind of clueless. Didn’t she get my eye signals?
“Yeah, like you guys telling me where you’re going,” Hondo said. “And don’t even try to act all innocent, comrade.”
“Xib’alb’a,” Ren volunteered.
“Living the dream,” Hondo muttered. “And why, exactly, are you going to hell?”
I groaned. “Just tell him everything, why don’t you.”
Hondo knuckle-rubbed his scruffy cheek. “You’re definitely going to need a hero like me on this quest.”
“I’d feel a lot better if Hondo was around,” Ren said. “He totally saved you guys l
ast time.”
Hondo smiled wide and pointed at Ren. “I like her.”
I knew there was no talking him out of it. No way would he give up the chance to fight. I mean, he lived for combat, and I could tell he was going stir-crazy on the island. He’d already held wrestling matches with anyone dumb enough to fight him, and—big surprise—he beat them all. Yeah, you could say his training was paying off big-time.
“Wait,” I said. “Aren’t you supposed to be leading a tour about now?”
“Uh, yeah, but the golf cart isn’t exactly built for speed, and I sort of had a blowout.”
“You were supposed to change the tires!”
Hondo rubbed his chin. “Worse, I left a bunch of Canadians alone in the jungle. You think they’ll give us a bad review on TripAdvisor?”
Ren let out a small laugh. I just sighed.
“So, about the book…” Brooks said.
“You heard Hondo,” I said. “It’s totally boring.” Man, she wasn’t going to let this go. My cheeks were getting hotter by the second, and things were getting more complicated. Not only did I have to find a gateway through hell, rescue my dad, and figure out who had sent the mud person, I had to keep the book out of Brooks’s hands.
“Besides,” I added, “we should be focused on getting off this island.”
“And I’m here to help one hundred and fifty percent,” Hondo said. I swear he was practically dancing in place.
“You mean one hundred,” Ren said.
“Huh?”
“You said one-fifty, and that’s not really possible.”
“Yeah, well, lots of things aren’t possible.” Hondo rolled his eyes at me. “I’m rethinking whether I like her.”
A minute later, we’d filled Hondo in on everything that had happened. He just shook his head and repeated certain words, like Bugs? Mapping? Mud freak? When we got to the part about Ren bringing monsters from her dreams, he held his hand up and asked her, “Hang on. Can you bring stuff other than monsters? Like, say, a winning lottery ticket, or a ninja sword, or something like that?”
Ren sighed. “I don’t think so, but I never tried.”
“I could teach you some mind techniques I’ve been studying,” he said. “I bet it would help unlock your unconscious so you could manifest whatever you wanted. See? You guys need me. So, what’s the vote? Are Ren and I coming with? I vote definitely yes.”
“Me too,” Ren said, high-fiving Hondo like they were football buddies. Whatever.
“Four to one, Zane.” Brooks quirked an eyebrow.
Everyone (Rosie included) stared at me with expectant eyes, telling me I’d already lost.
My cheesy uncle flexed a bicep, winked at it, and said, “Well then, vámonos. Let’s get this hell tour started.”
Time passes differently in other realms like Xib’alb’a, the Old World, and the Empty. What was three hours there could be more like a whole day in the real world—or three seconds. I had to get through the underworld as quickly as possible to (a) reach my dad in time and (b) avoid worrying my mom.
“Hondo, you need to tell my mom we’re leaving,” I said.
Don’t judge. You would totally take the chicken way out, too, if you knew my mom.
“Yeah, right,” Hondo said. “I can’t go home. She’s already going to kill me for messing up the tour. Hell is definitely safer.”
“She’d for sure try to stop you from going,” Ren said to me. “Just write her a note.”
“Last time I did that, she nearly ripped out my eyelashes one at a time,” I said.
Brooks nodded. “You have to tell her, Zane.”
“No way,” I said. “Ren’s right. She’ll only try and stop me.” So I went with a firm plan B.
Let Ms. Cab tell her.
I borrowed a pen from Brooks’s pack and scribbled a shorter-the-better note on a receipt Hondo had in his pocket.
Tell my mom what’s up. We had to go see about some stuff. Be back soon. P.S. Don’t worry.
I gave it to Rosie and told her to deliver it to Ms. Cab. Rosie looked at me with her big brown eyes and groaned like she didn’t want the job, either.
“You can teleport anywhere,” I said. “Just drop the note in her box or something. Then disappear real quick-like.”
My dog rolled her eyes and vanished into a trail of black mist. If she could talk, I’m pretty sure she would’ve told me You’re a wuss, and you owe me a lifetime supply of chicken bones.
If I didn’t die on this quest, Mom was for sure going to murder me. I only hoped Rosie wouldn’t get distracted by a flamingo or a plastic shopping bag blowing in the wind.
We journeyed through the maze that was the jungle, the dense canopy of tangled trees blocking out the sunlight. I cleared a path with Fuego.
“Zane?” Brooks halted in her tracks and pointed at Ren, who stood frozen with her eyes glazed over. She wasn’t blinking, and her pupils were dilated so huge, the blue of her irises was almost gone.
“Ren?” I rushed over, hoping she wasn’t going to collapse or anything. But she just stood there like a statue. “She’s in one of her trances,” I said.
Hondo’s eyes bugged out. “She looks like a zombie.”
From every direction came chirps and screeches. The shadows around us seemed to grow darker. Brooks pushed past me, drawing closer to Ren. “How long will she stay like this?”
“How should I know?”
Rubbing his chin, Hondo studied her. “Maybe she’s like those monks who can make themselves look dead but really they’re just meditating.”
“Pretty sure she isn’t meditating,” I said.
“You think she’s going to bring more shadow monsters?” Hondo snapped his fingers in her face.
That would be a great way to ruin a perfectly nice hike to the underworld, I thought.
“She’s so defenseless,” Brooks said in a low voice. Then she reached into her pack for a water bottle.
“What are you doing?”
“She said to throw water on her face.”
“If she’s asleep. She never said anything about her seizures, trances, whatever they are. What if waking her is dangerous?” I asked. “Like, maybe she has to come out of it on her own?”
“Fine. I’ll carry her,” Hondo offered. “She looks like she weighs all of eighty pounds.”
Rosie materialized at the same moment. For once, she had perfect timing.
“Put her on Rosie’s back,” I said.
Hondo lifted Ren up and placed her gently on Rosie’s shoulders. “Don’t let her fall, girl.”
“Was Ms. Cab angry?” I asked my dog. I walked at her side, my hand around Ren’s waist to keep her from sliding off. Rosie threw me a side-glance and narrowed her eyes like she was saying, Please. I’ve got this.
The jungle grew thicker and darker, crowding around us like a living thing that knew we were here uninvited. Our footfalls were light, barely crunching the twigs and leaves scattered across the ground. But my mind was heavy, replaying everything that had happened. All of it was pretty terrifying. Ren showing up right before the mud monster. The whispering voice. That stupid ancestor message of doom! I wanted to punch it in the face.
Then the tip of the Beast came into view and my heart did a strange flip. Anyone else would see only a wall of tangled rain forest. But I could spot a black cone rising a couple hundred yards out of the earth to meet the sky.
Hondo glanced around when we came to a stop. “This is a dead end, guys.”
“It’s behind the forest.” I separated some thick leafy branches, and we descended into the darkness.
“Uh…” Hondo breathed. “This seems totally sketch.” This was my uncle’s first time here. Just like in New Mexico, he’d never been interested in the volcano—or maybe he understood it was my special spot. And he’d kill me for saying this, but the guy hated small, tight spaces. That had only gotten worse after the hero twins poisoned him and sent him to a dark, torturous place where his worst nightmares came true. Hondo h
ad never talked about it, but I was pretty sure he’d been in a cold, gloomy box with the walls pressing in on him while grating music shook his eardrums. I had no doubt that all his recent meditation stuff was so he would never feel that vulnerable again. He was training his brain to withstand even his worst fears. Maybe when this was all over he could teach me a thing or two.
Rosie rushed ahead, her giant feet stomping the ground persistently. I was about to remind my hellhound she was lugging Ren on her back, but somehow, the girl stayed on securely.
A few minutes later, we came to a clearing where only pinpricks of sunlight came through overgrown trees the size of skyscrapers.
Hondo looked up. “Where is it?”
“It’s hidden behind a veil of shadow magic,” Brooks said.
“Just follow me,” I said.
We hiked the last twenty yards up the path. Once we were within a few feet, Hondo gasped. “That volcano just appeared out of thin air!”
“You’re just close enough now to see it,” I said.
“Seems like a weakness in the magic,” he muttered.
“If you weren’t with supernaturals, you’d never be able to see it,” Brooks countered.
The volcano’s entry point wasn’t concealed with brush like back in New Mexico. Instead, it was enchanted. Only a supernatural could open the stone panel.
Rosie nosed the door and it slid open with a swish of cool air.
Ren stirred, then sat up and rubbed her eyes.
“Hey, you okay?” I asked.
She glanced around, looking disoriented. “I hate this! How am I supposed to help you if I zone out at the worst times?”
“You said it happens when you’re stressed?” I asked.
Ren nodded. “I’m a little freaked about—”
“The underworld?” Hondo said with a big exhale. “Me too.”
“About Ixtab maybe being my mom,” Ren corrected.
“You’ll get it under control,” I said, wondering how her trances were tied to her godborn powers. My leg was directly connected to Hurakan, who was also sometimes called One Leg or Serpent Leg. Maybe Ren’s mom had some kind of nickname, too?
Hondo twisted his mouth and rubbed his chin. “Ren, if you go into trances when you’re stressed, get ready to have a lot, because we’re heading into Maya madness territory.”
The Fire Keeper Page 7
