The group of fighting men departed the city, the numbers chosen to match those pitted against them. The fighting was brutal and ungainly, the purpose to injure and subdue not kill and destroy. Nuto fought well for a young, inexperienced man. He slashed the legs of a rival noble, forcing him down. He stripped him, bound him then stood over him and yelled his success to the rest of the fighting men. Rival nobles attacked but with some assistance he fought them off and kept his captive. He would rise in esteem within the city, the noble he had subdued was high ranking. He would be offered to the elders as a sacrifice.
Nuto had revelled in the battle. His skill during years of practice, readying him for that first battle, had been heightened by the adrenaline of facing real danger. He had not hesitated when he had been threatened. However, Hun-Hunahpu had not been so successful. He had been excited by the battle and had thrown himself into the skirmish but had been reluctant to execute manoeuvres that would injure his opponents. He hesitated as he warded off blows aimed at him. When he saw an opening to strike he held back. He had the strangest of feelings that it was unfair to strike at them, as if he had an advantage that should not be used. His attitude during battle confused him. He tried to attack but something placed a barrier between his intention and his actions. He became frustrated, believing his actions were a sign of weakness, that he was unable to execute his training because he feared a retaliation, as if by not striking his opponents they would also hold back.
He heard Nuto’s cry of success on the far side of the battlefield and halted his fighting. Initially smiling at his friend’s success but then frowning with jealousy of another’s success.
Hun-Hunahpu’s lethargy was noticed. The son of the dead king could not believe his luck that the son of K’ul Kelem was an inept warrior. A group of men fell on him from behind and forced him to the ground. Hand-held battle knives stabbed and slashed at him as he struggled under the weight of men. His injuries were agony as he was quickly stripped naked and bound securely. The designated victor, the dead king’s son, did not raise his voice in success, not allowing K’ul Kelem’s men to attempt a rescue. The sacrifice of such a high ranking captive would ensure his position as the new king. Hun-Hunahpu was quickly and quietly carried away from the battlefield.
Chapter 9
K’ul Kelem was distraught. She had not experienced such anxiety, and fear, in her long life. She panicked and ran from the hall where she had heard the news. She halted outside and tears formed in her eyes. She lost the strength in her legs, her head became dizzy, she slumped and sat on stone steps. Her head fell between her knees as she came close to losing consciousness. She screamed a name, as if attempting to bore a hole through the earth and all the way to Xibalba.
‘Hachakyum!’ Her voice trailed off in despair.
The elders who had quickly followed her exit, hushed in fear to see her state, the pitiable invocation of the god’s name filled them with dread. K’ul Kelem had been stoic through the years she had ruled them. Nothing had touched her. No death, no suffering, no setbacks, no successes, no glories had caused a demonstrable reaction from her. The capture of her son had shown her to be human, in a horrible, dangerous way.
She stood and noticed the silent group behind her, standing in fear and awe. She steadied herself before she spoke, trying to sound in control.
‘I will retrieve my son,’ she said between tense lips. She spoke in anger as if the group of elders were responsible for her loss.
One elder stepped diffidently forward.
‘You can’t do that, K’ul Kelem,’ he said.
Her eyes blazed, she lost control. She strode to the man and lifted him off his feet with one hand around his neck, throttling him. Her strength was substantial. The man’s eyes radiated fear, they twitched side to side as he felt his life leaving him. She remembered that look, from thousands of years before, when Hachakyum had killed the leader to the north. She let the man go and he fell to the ground in a heap, but alive.
The injured man used his arms to partially lift his body off the ground. He twisted his head to look up at K’ul Kelem as she towered over him. Her rage slowly subsiding.
‘You could rescue him, K’ul Kelem,’ he gasped. ‘Please forgive me. But, you shouldn’t rescue him.’
She stared down at the man as if she was about to resume her attack.
‘That’s not how these things are done,’ the man said. ‘You know that, as we all know that.’
She stormed off and went to her chambers, knowing no-one would disturb her there. She understood that the prosperous lives of the workers and traders, and the privileged lives of nobles was sustained by the reasonable sacrifice of a few from the noble class. To rescue her son risked a tit-for-tat response that could begin an altered religious and communal lifestyle. Who would know where it would lead?
But Hun-Hunahpu was her son. She was the leader. She could do as she pleased. But she shouldn’t. She needed help. She needed to talk to someone, but there was no-one. She was again facing an unlimited life on her own. She would not go through that again. She decided to act, regardless of consequence.
A tentative sound outside her chambers signalled someone wanting to come in. K’ul Kelem ignored the attempted intrusion, knowing without express permission no-one would dare enter her chambers.
She was surprised when she caught the sight of a human form standing inside the entrance. Xquiq’s tears flowed down her face.
‘Xquiq,’ K’ul Kelem said brusquely, caught between wanting to be alone and the obvious need of the young woman. K’ul Kelem understood Xquiq’s need to share her agony, she felt the same, but K’u Kelem required more than a human girl.
Xquiq did not hear the brusqueness in K’ul Kelem’s voice, she ran across the room and fell into the leader’s arms. The two women appeared similar aged companions in grief except one was recently a teenager and the other was tens of thousands of years old.
Xquiq sobbed into K’ul Kelem’s shoulder, until K’ul Kelem broke the embrace and held the young woman at arms length. She examined the face full of tears. K’ul Kelem expected an hysterical request from Xquiq and was surprised at what the young woman said.
‘You can’t go and rescue him,’ Xquiq said.
K’ul Kelem let her arms fall like she had been rebuked.
‘I know I can’t Xquiq,’ she said strongly. ‘But I will. The consequences are irrelevant. I will save my son.’
‘He’s not just your son,’ Xquiq said. She had been brave to say that before a woman obviously divine.
K’ul Kelem was initially angry, not acknowledging that the young woman shared Hun-Hunahpu, but her anger faded quickly and when she spoke it was with a soft voice, as if to an equal in both status and pain.
‘No, he’s not,’ she said. ‘Were you sent here?’ K’ul Kelem asked.
Xquiq frowned in annoyance. ‘Nobody sent me.’
K’ul Kelem smiled. It was condescending.
‘You can’t go,’ Xquiq said. ‘But I can.’
‘What would you do? How would you save him?’ K’ul Kelem understood the offer came from frustration and helplessness.
‘I’m smart,’ Xquiq said confidently. ‘And Nuto will come with me. He’s strong.’
‘Nuto?’ K’ul Kelem said.
‘Yes. We decided together. As soon as he’d returned from the battle.’
‘Do you think you have any chance of success? Failure would be catastrophic for both of you.’
‘At least the failure would be our own. It would not be the failure of our city, of our ancestors, if you go.’
‘But I would not fail,’ K’ul Kelem said strongly.
‘And neither will we. But success, from your intervention, would be failure for everyone.’
K’ul Kelem remained silent.
‘I will not live without Hun-Hunahpu,’ Xquiq said, as if her intended self-sacrifice if Hun-Hunahpu should die, would decide K’ul Kelem. ‘And I want to help. Not all women have to accept what is offered to th
em. I am to be the first wife of our king, my bravery and sacrifices will be important.’
‘Perhaps your first sacrifice could be to lose Hun-Hunahpu.’
‘No. I don’t believe that.’
K’ul Kelem stared at the young woman.
‘Please K’ul Kelem. I can do this. At least, I can with Nuto’s help.’
Chapter 10
That night Nuto and Xquiq came to K’ul Kelem’s chambers to bid her farewell, before they intended to surreptitiously leave the city. The elders had not been informed. K’ul Kelem surprised them by receiving them dressed as a low class working woman.
‘I’m coming with you,’ she stated. She would let them attempt to rescue her son and if they failed she would save him herself.
They travelled as husband and wife and older sister, Nuto posing as the son of an obsidian trader. They, and a small retinue of slaves, followed the well-trod paths of economic activity between city states.
After following a circuitous route, to hide their city of origin, they entered the rival city where Hun-Hunahpu had been taken.
Hun-Hunahpu was not difficult to find. The public display of his suffering, his hopelessness and his subservience then finally his sacrifice was the purpose of his capture, to enhance the standing and legitimacy of the new king.
He was bound and naked, lying on a stone platform in the central plaza. He was covered in his own blood and many wounds crusted over his body, head and legs. There was a loose guard over him, not to prevent escape or rescue, that was unthinkable, but to ensure his life was not lost before his sacrifice. Citizens inspected and marvelled over the damaged body of the son of the ruler of the rival city. Such a high status captive was a rare event.
Hun-Hunahpu was barely conscious. He was in agony, dehydrated, weak from lack of food and many of his injuries were infected. He was delirious from fever but, he was alive. There was no hope for him, he thought wearily. He would suffer greatly in the coming days and weeks, he knew that. His only positive thought was that the young king would want the ceremony of sacrifice performed quickly. He had heard where noble captives had been kept alive for years, as if being stored for later use, to sanctify propitious occasions. The young king was not cruel, Hun-Hunahpu felt him no ill-will, he was following the necessities of political positioning and the methods of his culture. He may well have done the same if he was king.
He laughed, although it sounded like a throttled gurgle, to think of a time after his mother, when he would be king. He tried to shift his face away from the sunlight by rolling his stiff and bound body. He lifted his head off the hot stones under his cheek and saw an image of the faces of Xquiq and Nuto among a small crowd of onlookers. He gurgled a laugh again at his delusion and let his head fall. There would be no rescue, he knew that. He fell into a state before sleep but after consciousness. His world was dark, there was nothing, a complete loss of sensation, like a void. But he was aware of the nothingness which meant there was no void because he was part of it. He had an odd sensation of creation, a power to alter the nothing into something. He had simply forgotten how, or had never been instructed. It should be obvious, he thought in his delirium, like possessing legs but not knowing their use. He passed through that stage and into a disturbed sleep.
He was prodded, roughly and painfully. His breathing had become shallow and the few men assigned to watch him had worried he was slipping close to death. Hun-Hunahpu woke and opened his eyes a little. Some water was thrown over him and a little was dribbled into his mouth. He again saw the mirage of the faces of his first wife-to-be and best friend.
K’u Kelem was distraught beyond reason. Her wisdom gained from tens of thousands of years of life was as nothing. She was a mother, and her son was in agony. She could not wait. She would not let him suffer a minute longer. She could not leave him and calmly walk off to formulate some plan of rescue. He was three steps away from her and she could save him. Only she could. She knew that.
Her determination boiled over into a white rage. She stepped forward. Nuto grabbed her shoulder, not wanting to say her name in that foreign city. She turned on him, not seeing him and grabbed the hand that tried to hinder her. She bruised his fingers as she dismissed his hold on her.
She walked to her son, ignoring the loose guard placed on him. She took out her stone knife to cut his bonds. The guards watched her for a moment, not believing what they saw, some crazy woman trying to steal the king’s captive. One of the men yelled at her and grabbed at her shoulder to pull her away.
K’ul Kelem stood and sunk her knife into the man’s abdomen. His heart was ruptured and he was dead before he had fallen to the ground. The other guards hesitated, then decided that the woman needed the attention of them all. Nuto lunged at the closest man, slashing his knife across the man’s face. A red weal ruptured and disgorged blood, the man screamed and felt for his face, no longer bothered with protecting the king’s captive.
K’ul Kelem faced another man and Nuto rushed towards a second. Xquiq ran and jumped onto one man’s back, momentarily forcing him to the ground. However, she did not know what else to do and the man rolled over throwing her from him. He hesitated for a second, more concerned about the other woman who had killed his companion and the foreign man with the knife. He decided to quickly kill Xquiq.
He raised his stone knife.
Chapter 11
Hun-Hunahpu had seen the shape of his mother appear from the crowd. He felt her touch as she began to cut his bonds. It really was her, he thought. He saw her stand and then kill a man. He had never before seen the warrior strength and resolve of his mother. He saw the steely look in her eyes, it was the same as he had seen in old, battle-hardened warriors who had taken many captives. She was not the mother he had known.
‘Mother?’ he whispered.
She turned to him as he spoke and then looked up and over him at another approaching guard. Behind her Xquiq was under attack. Hun-Hunahpu saw his future wife. He did not believe it was her but then saw Nuto attack a second man. It really was his friend. He smiled with a sense of unfounded relief but then his face froze in despair. His mother had not released his bonds, he could do nothing. Even if he was free he could not have stood and supported his own weight. He saw the knife that plunged towards the heart of Xquiq.
‘No!’ Hun-Hunahpu gasped, as he witnessed the last second of Xquiq’s life.
The world blinked.
Chapter 12
Nuto swung his knife at his assailant but it swished though air. The man had vanished. K’ul Kelem halted as she strode towards an empty space where a warrior guard had once been. Xquiq lay on her back on the ground, looking up at the sky and wondered why she was so anxious and her arms were over her face. No knife wielding man stood over her.
K’ul Kelem swung around to look at her son. There was no remnant of his bonds and he stood, uninjured, whole and untouched where he had lain a moment before.
Nuto called out his friend’s name but then wondered why he was so pleased to see him. Xquiq stood, gazed around her and then smiled at Hun-Hunahpu, all her anxiety had dissipated. She did not understand why they were where they were. She swung her body around and scanned the sparse jungle that surrounded them. She could remember the days of travel to get to that place but not the reason for their journey. She laughed, diffidently, concerned that she had forgotten something important.
‘What are we doing here?’ she asked and laughed again.
‘Where are we?’ Nuto said, as amused at their circumstance as Xquiq. ‘This is a strange place to come to.’
K’ul Kelem stared at her son who was dumbfounded as he watched Xquiq and Nuto.
‘What happened?’ he quietly asked his mother.
She could not answer immediately. Her relief at her son’s rescue and renewal overwhelmed her. She enfolded him in her arms.
‘Mother?’ he whispered into her ear as she squeezed the breath from him.
Xquiq and Nuto looked on vacantly at the show of a mother’s a
ffection. The city and all its inhabitants had never existed. They were not simply forgotten, they and all their consequences and all the actions of their ancestors had been erased. Only K’ul Kelem and Hun-Hunahpu remembered.
She let him go but held him at arms length. She brushed her hand over his forehead to move some of his long hair that had fallen over his eyes. The only person alive who could perform the action of a mother on a god.
‘Your father was right,’ K’ul Kelem said.
Chapter 13
After the ceremony where Hun-Hunahpu took Xquiq as his first wife, the newlyweds and K’ul Kelem were alone in K’ul Kelem’s quarters.
K’ul Kelem hugged Xquiq, both women laughing with joy.
‘Careful mother,’ Hun-Hunahpu said as he watched on. ‘Not too hard.’
K’ul Kelem held Xquiq at arms length and smiled at her son.
‘Why?’ her smile was broad and strong.
‘She’s having our child,’ Hun-Hunahpu said and then laughed out loud with joy at his revelation.
K’ul Kelem’s head snapped back to search Xquiq’s eyes. The young woman was beaming with the new life within her. K’ul Kelem’s face dropped, she was overcome with anxiety and dread. Tears formed in her eyes and then silently angled down her face. Her son was confused at the tears of sadness on his mother’s face.
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