The Serpent Road

by Anthony James

  “But how do you know all this?” said Tohil.

  One of the magicians spoke. “It is carved in stones, it is written in books, and you have seen some if it on your journey. We keep that knowledge. It is part of a sacred tradition.”

  “I don’t see what….”

  “This is why I showed you the map,” said the Dwarf King. “At the time when the Seelee arrived, our people were simple. By the time of the war, they were simpler still. The Seelee denied them knowledge. It suited them to keep the people enslaved. But when the Seelee left us, there were some, a few Elders, a few wise men who understood that if the Seelee returned with their great power, with their magic, then the people would be nothing more than food once more. They agreed then to make a great plan, one that would change the world and their people. We had to learn to do magic, to understand what made things work, to grow in knowledge till we were able to perform magic of our own. All this, the areas we control, the trade, the commerce, the astronomy, our magicians, these are steps along the path. Our people are no longer as simple as they used to be back then. In more years, how many more…” He shrugged. “…we might be able to use magic of such strength and power too.”

  “But if the Seelee return…” said Xquic.

  “Yes,” he said. “It is too early. We knew it would come. We are not prepared to face them. At least not yet. Our people need more time.”

  “But I still do not understand what this has to do with us,” said Tohil. There was much to absorb there, but he still could not grasp the connection.”

  “It has much to do with you, Tohil. You in particular. That thing that grows inside some of us, in our blood and in our hearts…no,” he motioned to one of the magicians. “You can explain this better.”

  The one with the husky voice nodded and started speaking then.”

  “You have seen pyrite?” he asked.

  Tohil nodded.

  “You know the way pyrite seems to grow out of rocks. Well this thing in the blood, it is like tiny pieces of pyrite. If you think of your blood as a stone, then some stones allow pyrite to grow. Sometimes, however, the pyrite is not pyrite, it is gold. The rock might not be the same rock, but what grows looks like gold, sometimes it is gold. Other times it is just pyrite.”

  He didn’t understand the explanation at all. It must have been clear in his expression because the Dwarf King lifted a hand and shook his head.

  “Not all of us have this thing in the blood. We do not understand what makes it choose one person above another. But every now and again, that thing is not simple pyrite, it is gold. That does not happen very often. It is very, very rare. One, two perhaps each generation. Not more. That is why we need you Tohil.”

  “Because I have this….”

  “Yes. You are of the blood.”

  Xquic and Tepeu looked at him then.

  “We must thank the gods that you are here,” said the other magician. “Now is the time that we can make use of that.”

  Tohil stood there unmoving for a moment or two trying to absorb what he was being told. He didn’t feel special. He was just a young man from a village. Had Haracan known this? Is that why he was chosen? But that just didn’t make sense. Haracan had never taken his blood and performed magic with it. Not that he knew. Everything he had discovered in the temples along their path gave credence to the story about the Seelee, but he still didn’t understand how it might impact him in particular. The Dwarf King was watching him from across the table.

  “Even if I have this thing in the blood,” Tohil said to him. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that you have a task to perform. Without you, we cannot hope to continue with the great plan. But to understand that, I need for you to see something else. We will take you now so that you can see it. Your friends can stay here.”

  “No,” Tohil told him. “We are together. We stay together. If they don’t come, I don’t come.”

  “Boy!” said one of the magicians. “You will not— “

  Again, the Dwarf King held up a hand to stop him.

  “It’s all right,” he said. “If that’s what he wants, they can come too.”

  “But the knowledge…”

  “They know enough already.”

  The magician subsided into muttering.

  “Very well,” said the Dwarf King. “Follow us.”

  And with that, the three short men started towards another door and, one by one, entered a hallway on the other side without looking back. Tohil looked at Xquic and Tepeu. Both gave a little shrug. Tohil nodded and walked briskly to the doorway and after the Dwarf King and his magicians with his two companions close behind.

  The hallway extended for several paces, and then opened into a wide room. In the room’s centre stood something that looked suspiciously like an altar. The three waited for Tohil to reach them and then one of the magicians reached forward to a carved side panel, manipulated a couple of the reliefs. The next instant there was the sound of grinding stone. The altar shuddered then started to move slowly back across the floor.

  Beneath it lay a dim hole. The room’s light illuminated a broad set of stairs leading downwards in to darkness.

  “Come,” said the Dwarf King and took the first step into what lay below.

  Tohil swallowed and pushing down his hesitation followed into he knew not what. He counted the steps as he descended until he reached twenty, and then, suddenly, everything was no longer dark. A passageway led off before them and it was, in an instant, as bright as daylight. The entire length of ceiling, all the stones, glowed with a white clear light. He stood there staring.

  “Do not be afraid,” said the Dwarf King.

  He headed off down the passageway, every feature of his face, his clothing, clearly defined with the clean white light. As he followed, Tohil looked up at the ceiling. How could stones glow? He almost ran into the small man in front of him, so captivated was he, but then he caught himself and brought his attention back to the way before him.

  They emerged shortly after into a vast chamber, which was again, suddenly bathed in light. It stretched on and on. Every wall held lines and line of recessed rectangular alcoves that stretched from floor to ceiling. Between the columns lay patches of wall, each filled with more lines of what looked like glowing gemstones, red, green, white, all of them evenly round. The small glowing gems were arrayed in the same pattern on the walls beside each of the recessed alcoves.

  Behind him, he heard Xquic take in her breath and slowly let it out.

  The Dwarf King had stopped a little further into the room, watching as Tohil tried to take it all in. He waited while Tohil crossed to one wall looking in to one of the alcoves. Within it there was a long rectangular box, but its top face was made of some pearly white stone, slightly curved and completely smooth. He reached out with one hand, felt the surface. It was slippery, cool.

  “The Seelee did not go away,” said the Dwarf King. “They are here.”

  “What?” said Tohil, spinning to face him.”

  “Yes. These are the Seelee. At least some of them.”

  Xquic had crossed to the opposite side of the room and was also exploring the walls and the recessed spaces.

  “And what are these,” she said, indicating the glowing gems.

  “Seelee magic,” said one of the magicians.

  Tohil looked the length of the vast chamber, trying to count, but quickly gave up. “How many are here?”

  “Hundreds,” came the reply.

  Xquic leaned into one of the spaces, studying the box that lay within. She reached out with one fist and knocked on the surface and then felt it with the flat of her hand.

  Tohil scanned the space, and suddenly remembered where he had seen something like this. It was there in the carving they had seen shortly after coming down from the mountain with the lines and lines of bodies laid out. He had thought they were graves, but now, now he was not so sure.

  “How can these be the Seelee? How do you know? How can th
is be possible?” His head tumbled with more questions, but he was starting to run out of words. What he was seeing was just too enormous to take in.

  “We know from the records,” said the magician with the husky voice.

  “Have you seen them,” asked Xquic, crossing to join Tohil where he stood. Tepeu merely remained standing in place, his gaze roving over the walls, the ceiling, the length of the room.

  “There are those who have tried to break into these boxes, to open them. All the tools break. Nothing leaves a mark.”

  “But how long have they been here?” said Tohil.

  “As long as memory itself,” said the Dwarf King walking up to join them. The chamber swallowed the sound of his footsteps.

  “How can that be?”

  “We do not understand the Seelee magic.” The husky-voiced magician again. “Yet,” he added as an afterthought.

  Tohil looked down at the Dwarf King’s face. “I do not understand what I am supposed to do,” he said finally. “How can I do anything against this?”

  “Very soon, if the omens are correct, things will be set in motion that will release these Seelee and all of the others that lie in other locations. We know that the key lies deep within the temple in your village, the temple that your people have been guarding for generations. That is where you come in. There is more for you to see before you can understand the task,” he said. “Follow me.”

  He turned then and strode off towards the other end of the chamber.

  Tohil once more found himself with no choice but to follow.

  As soon as the blood had been drunk by the gods, the stones spoke, when the priests and the sacrificers came, when they came to bring their offerings.

  — Popol Vuh, Part III, Chapter 10

  TWENTY-THREE

  The next chamber they entered was circular and had no other visible doorways. At the room’s centre stood a sort of pedestal or broad round table with strange carvings all over it. The Dwarf King beckoned them over.

  “What do you see here, Tohil?” he asked, standing back, and watching.

  All across the flat top were clearly delineated segments, concentric circles full of carvings running around the entire circumference. Each ring, had another ring within it, and so on until it reached a small circle at the centre with a single shape.

  “It’s like a calendar stone,” he said. He had seen a calendar stone in the Elders’ house back in the village. He had also seen pictures of them in various texts.

  “That it is,” said the Dwarf King. “That it is.”

  “But why?” asked Xquic.

  “Why indeed,” he said. “This is one of the reasons we spend so much time with our astronomers, our magicians, why we have studied the movements of the heavens, and the patterns of time and the stars. You are right. This is a calendar stone, of a sort, but it has other functions as well. This is part of a key, but that key lies deep underground back in the place you came from. Now, Tohil, I would like you to do something. You see there, in front of you, there is a place where you can place your hand. I would like you to do that.”

  There was a spot on the outer edge that was shaped vaguely like a hand as he had said. Tentatively, Tohil reached out, placed his hand flat upon the slightly recessed space. As soon as his hand was flush against the surface, he felt a tiny prick in his finger, and he snatched his hand away.

  “No, place it back,” said the Dwarf King, “It will not hurt you.”

  Reluctantly, Tohil did as he was instructed. It had already hurt him.

  There were noises, and then a voice came from all around them, speaking words that he could not understand. In the next instant, a light flared from the table’s centre blue, pale, fanning upward to fill the space above them, and in the light, was a picture. What magic was this? He could hear the other two sucking in their breath, stepping back. He withdrew his hand, also took two steps back, staring up at the light.

  “Wh-what is this?” he stammered.

  “It is Seelee magic,” said one of the magicians.

  “But how? What is it? There has to be more of an answer than just Seelee magic.”

  “Look closer,” said the Dwarf King. “What do you see?”

  Trying to reach for calm, Tohil looked up at the shimmering lights. Mostly they were blue, but here and there were red points that glowed. He frowned attempting to understand the display, and then slowly, it started to make sense. It looked like the large map that had been spread out in the earlier chamber. Instead of being a flat thing, it had shape and form. Yes, this was a map. And those red points were…what?

  “It’s a map,” he said.

  As he spoke, other words issued from around them, words that seemed to appear from the very air. The Dwarf King waited till they had gone.

  “Yes, it’s a map,” he said. “We believe those red points show the other places where the Seelee are waiting to be woken again. You can see here, the one that represents the place where we stand now. Over there, that larger, brighter spot. That is your village, your temple and why it is larger and brighter? Because that is where the true key lies.”

  It was almost too much for him. How could something make pictures in the air? It had to be magic. He closed his eyes, thinking that perhaps this was just a dream, or some vision brought on by something they had drunk. The afterimage remained in his sight. He opened his eyes again, but the floating picture was still there. He pulled his hand back.

  Again, the Dwarf King spoke. “There are other things that this table does. We do not understand many of them, but this one appears obvious.”

  Tohil looked down at his hand and then back up at the floating map.

  “Now,” said the Dwarf King. “Replace your hand and speak this word: ‘Xlaic.’”

  Once more Tohil reached out with his hand, placed it flat against the smooth stone and spoke the word as directed. Nothing happened.

  “Try again,” said the Dwarf King, and he repeated the word.

  Tohil did as he was instructed, taking more care with the pronunciation. As the sound left his lips, the floating picture winked out of existence. There was another series of sounds from all around them, and then all was quiet. Tohil looked at the space above the table, dumbfounded.

  “Ha-ha,” said Xquic. “You are a magician now, Tohil!”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “No, perhaps not,” said the Dwarf King and gave a brief chuckle. “But in a way, she is right. You are. This thing before you tasted your blood and so now it knows you. It confirms our other tests, that you have what is required to access the Seelee magic, at least in part.”

  Tohil shook his head.

  “Now, Tohil,” the Dwarf King continued. “It also did something else. It added something which will grow within you, to enhance the gold that lives in your blood and heart. I asked you if you dreamed. From now, you will dream more. You will learn from those dreams. And in a short time, it will permit you to see more of the Seelee magic.”

  He stared at the round table, at the spot where he had placed his hand. He could feel the eyes of three short men watching him. He turned to meet their gaze.

  “I do not understand. How can this be possible?”

  One of the magicians spoke. “We do not know all. For many, many years, for lifetimes, there are those of our kind who have studied this magic. Some of us are allowed to see, but only parts. You are special. You must believe that. You will be able to see more than we can, and perhaps understand some of what is beyond us.”

  Tohil frowned. He didn’t feel special. Tepeu was looking at him with a strange expression. Xquic stepped across to him and placed a hand on his upper arm. She searched his face, but he had nothing to give her right then.

  It was the Dwarf King’s turn to speak again.

  “This is a great deal to accept,” he said. “But we have to trust what we have learned, and we have to trust you, Tohil.”

  Slowly he met the Dwarf King’s eyes, still reluctant to bel
ieve what the little man was telling him.

  “Trust me to do what?”

  “You must stop the Seelee awakening.”

  “What? How?”

  “They lie there, tied to a sequence that is part of the movement of the stars that we track with our calendars. That time frame lasts for many generations, but now, as the portents have foretold, it is drawing to an end. It is now that we have the opportunity. We cannot stop the march of time, but there are events within that march where we are able to do certain things. Time flows like a river, but on that river, there are different craft, vessels that carry things along that river and sometimes they start and stop, loading, or unloading the things that they carry.”

  “I still don’t understand how I can—”

  “As the knowledge grows within you, you will find a way. We believe this. But there will be challenges. Let us leave this place now. You have seen enough. The Seelee magic knows you now and from here you will need to undertake another journey, but we will see to it that you are not alone. We can discuss this back upstairs, away from this place. We will be better able to talk.”

  Tohil had no words.

  “Come,” said the Dwarf King and headed for the door.

  “But what if I don’t want a part of this,” said Tohil, standing where he was, not following.

  The Dwarf King slowly turned.

  “Do you really think you have a choice?” he said.

  Tohil’s urge was to stay where he was, but in the end, he realised that there was no sense in that either. Reluctantly, with set jaw, he started towards the doorway. The Dwarf King, seeing his acquiescence turned and led the way.

  Tohil’s head was still swimming. It was all too much to absorb. He felt as if he was living in a dream already. His companions stayed close to him, once or twice, Xquic reaching out to offer him reassurance, but the gesture barely reached him. The thought that the Seelee magic had planted something within him filled him with a mixture of emotions, partially wonder, but at the same time, a sense of horror. To know that something might be growing inside him like a poisonous fungus did little to reassure his already blossoming sense of discomfort. He barely heard the words of the Dwarf King and his companions. They talked of battles and plans, warriors, the temple, but it all just washed over him. He did register that they meant for him to depart the next morning in the company of a group of warriors and that until then, he and his companions should simply rest. Various functionaries came and went, taking instructions, and scurrying away to do the Dwarf King’s bidding. Eventually, Tepeu and Xquic led him back to their chambers, still in a daze. They sat him down on his bed, found places for themselves, sat there watching him, saying nothing, just waiting. Finally, Tepeu grew bored and broke the silence as he reached across to grab some of the fresh food that had been left in the room during their absence.