Mayan December

by Brenda Cooper

  “Acceptance.” She glanced toward Nixie and the strange man with the light machine. “I came here earlier, pulled through Xibalba by Cauac, and danced with Nixie for Cauac and Ian. Like we danced on the wall, only more, and longer. A dance of power.”

  He shivered. “But Nixie is not a goddess.”

  “Neither are we.” She fell silent, still looking up, her head tilted back so starlight bathed her face.

  He wanted to touch her cheek, but the moment felt too charged with power to diminish with touch. “Maybe you and Nixie are both goddesses.”

  She shook her head. “We danced the portal open. It would have been the same time you danced the god-portal open to prepare the court. There was no time to tell you before.” She looked almost guilty.

  “It’s all right. I’m glad you danced with Nixie.” I’m glad you’re safe.

  “It took both of us to open the doorways.”

  He waited for her to go on.

  “And then, when the dance was over, I found myself back in the turtle hut. Moments later an old woman and two of the serpent warriors came to me.” She held up her blue arm. “The old woman painted me. They came so close after the dance, as if they just waited for me to return and walked in the door. Because of that, I know I danced the portal open for Ixtab.”

  “Can we know anything in this strange time?”

  She looked away from him. “I don’t want to lose you. Back in Zama, I dreamed many days of being your wife, of raising your sons and your daughters and running your hearth, your slaves.”

  She had never used words to tell him that. His mouth felt dry. “I want that, too.”

  “But I am blue, which means I walk dead. And you are thinking of challenging the high priest of K’uk’ulkan. After . . . ” she fell silent a moment . . . “After watching Nimah die, I know that I can die as well. Paradise waits on the other side of sacrifice. Perhaps if you die in your challenge, we will meet together in paradise at the same time.”

  Her words stung “I don’t want to die. If I challenge the high priest it will be in the name of the jaguar god and not in the name of Ixtab. Chichén needs life more than death. Maybe there has been enough death.”

  “It has always been so. We trade death for life every year.”

  “Why would the gods bring us here to see the time of change unless it is a message for us about change? Something to take back and make different.” The idea was exciting and his voice rose with it, sped up. He held her hands in his, and looked her directly in the eye. “You and I, we can bring some small change to Chichén, re-align it with the gods, bring back a world Chaac wants to turn his rain onto.”

  She held up her hands. “I let the old woman paint me blue. That signifies my willing choice. I cannot break my word.”

  Then I will make sure you do not have to.

  He looked around, suddenly filled with bitter sadness. This place reflected the death of his world. This was a faraway time, and he and Hun Kan would now both be dead, have been dead for so many years they would were no longer remembered. The changing of the world—the star pattern that hung above him in this very moment—meant turmoil. War, and unease, before and after. But legend said it needed duty, love and family. However it played out, he and Hun Kan would do their duty. As for the love? He leaned down and kissed her, softly and quickly, in case these strange people who watched them saw it. The taste of her blessed his tongue while he watched the stars.

  CHAPTER 56

  Four soldiers with dogs passed Alice and Ian, shadows and heavy breathing and boot steps in the dark of night. They stopped at compass points, surrounding them, touching the dogs to keep them quiet. Ian leaned in and whispered to her. “The dogs look like the stone lions in front of government buildings.”

  Other dark forms with guns fanned further out, and some of the families that had been picnicking near them moved.

  Alice’s phone rang. Marie, giving warning. After Alice hung up, she whispered to Ian. “They’re about to be lions in front of government officials.” She stood, pulling him up beside her, squeezing him and then letting him go. He walked back over by Cauac and Don Thomas, and she felt his every step away from her.

  She looked in the direction the guards had come. Shadows emerged: Marie, Aditi, and Huo Jiang walking toward them, flanked by at least fifteen assorted guards and hangers-on.

  Alice smiled in relief when Alan and David stopped everyone except the three leaders just far enough away to be out of hearing distance.

  Marie came very close to Alice, bending down. “There are no private conversations tonight.”

  Alice pointed at Peter. “What’s got data boy still so engrossed? What’s happening out there?”

  Marie shook her head. “Someone, somewhere, sent us a puzzle. I don’t think it’s going to get solved in one night. There are layers . . . maybe lifetimes worth of layers, all bathing us. It’s starting to hit the world nets.

  “From this day forward, the world is changed.

  “My staff is crafting a press release I have to go approve.” She looked up. “We can only stay long enough for you to explain the sky to us. But Aditi liked the idea, and well, Aditi put Huo Jiang in a position where he looked better for going than staying. We have fifteen minutes.”

  “Even you?” Alice asked.

  Marie looked genuinely regretful. “Yes.”

  Well, she’d give them a good show. She pointed to the blazing visuals overhead, and spoke crisply. “The cross in the sky is the Milky Way—an arm of our galaxy—and the ecliptic plane, which is where all of the planets orbit the sun. That means it’s how we see the constellations.”

  She stopped, drawing a long breath, feeling the stars before she pointed straight up. “There is the middle of our galaxy. At dawn this morning, the sun shone in the center of that cross. This is a rare alignment, and won’t occur again in our lifetimes.”

  “Some people in India say it means the world will renew,” Aditi said. “The old Brahmin class has new beggars that walk about proclaiming it.”

  Alice fell silent a moment, watching Ian chattering quietly with the Mayans. “If the Mayans could predict this hundreds of years ago, then we should be smart enough to find a way to salvage the Earth.”

  Aditi put a hand on her arm. “Yes.”

  Marie laughed softly. “Social change is harder to get than scientific knowledge.”

  Aditi nodded. “Some say the Mayans died because of climate change.”

  “Partly,” Alice responded. “And if our civilization dies? Will we have died partly or all from climate change?”

  “Partly,” Aditi said. “The rest is from war and greed.” Aditi grinned. “And if it lives, it will be from sheer stubbornness.”

  Ian cleared his throat. Marie glanced over at him. “Yes?”

  He pointed to Cauac and Don Thomas at his feet, and to Hun Kan and Ah Bahlam. “These are Mayans.” He glanced at Alice as if asking forgiveness. “I’ve been translating your star talk for them. They say you are mostly right.”

  She bit her lip, holding back a laugh. He saw it, and smiled at her. Then he bowed toward Marie, Aditi, and Huo Jiang. “Would you like to hear what they believe?”

  “Of course,” Aditi said.

  Ian gestured to Don Thomas, who stood. He coughed and waited, gathering everyone’s eyes to him before he started. “There is a tree between us and the stars, and it is our Way to tend that tree. Our shamans and priests can travel via the roots of the underworld or the branches of the tree to reach the stars. They exist all the time. The tree, the roots, the stars. There is no real distance between them, even though our souls pretend there is.”

  Alice licked her lips and shifted, uneasy. Marie watched closely, her eyes narrowed. Aditi simply smiled.

  Don Thomas continued. “We do not travel in spaceships, or airplanes, or physically at all. We’ve always traveled to the grandfather stars with plant medicine.”

  She smiled, thinking of Ian.

  “But now humans hav
e space ships and are learning more. This is a new time. We’ll be able to use spaceships and computers to travel to places we have only gone in our dream-bodies before.” He paused, looking at the sky. “It will happen in this age which is coming. The tree flowers now, in the end of this baktun. Knowledge is coming to us.” He glanced at Peter, who had looked up from his computer and was watching the speech closely. “Knowledge will be transparent to some of you, also.”

  Alice glanced around. His tone sounded way too New Age. But something about Don Thomas refused to be interrupted. Everyone watched the old man, even Huo Jiang.

  “Now, we—which means you too—are able to climb the tree and pluck the knowledge of the stars. Sometimes the tree lets us up and down on different branches, and our Way crosses rivers of time.

  “Now, our Way is crossing the many rivers that feed a single tree. Always, the equinox is like that, but this is an equinox like none ever recorded.”

  Don Thomas paused, and looked down at the ground and then up at the sky. He swept his gaze across all who watched him. “Use this gift for peace.”

  Ian grinned at Alice. He was an imp. An overplayed hand, except it barely seemed that way when Don Thomas spoke it.

  The starlight on Marie and Aditi’s faces shone a touch too softly for Alice to see their expressions. She nearly jumped when Huo Jiang spoke. “Show me.” His voice was classic Chinese stereotype, inscrutable and calm. “Show me this travel. Take me.”

  Don Thomas and Ian exchanged a thoughtful look. Nixie stood by Hun Kan, taking the Mayan girl’s hand.

  A black shadow crossed the lawn, cat-shaped, dark enough to drink in the light around it.

  Just as Alice recognized it, the jaguar roared.

  The shadow and the cat were one, and the noise sang through the night.

  Three Secret Service officers pulled guns and four dogs lunged toward the dark animal, but ended up converging on each other and empty air.

  For a moment, everyone was still except the confused dogs, who circled and growled low in their throats.

  “That may have been our invitation back,” Ian said. He looked at Marie. “Are you ready?”

  She nodded but glanced at Huo Jiang and Aditi. Her look held the question. Go or stay?

  Aditi smiled serenely, and Huo Jiang gave a quick, brave nod that belied his startled eyes. After all, he had demanded this. The jaguar seemed to have given him belief in the impossible.

  Marie looked like she had on the top of the Temple of K’uk’ulkan just yesterday morning, like nothing could be better than walking into a bloody and dangerous past. Only this time, Alice didn’t try to stop her. Live in the now. Nixie was too far away from her, so she grabbed for Marie’s hand.

  Not smart. One of the Secret Service officers started heading her way, and then he was walking on hard-packed dirt, glancing around with wide eyes. He didn’t stop heading unerringly toward Marie.

  She turned to him. “Relax, Sofino. It’s okay.”

  He looked like he wanted to grab Marie and run. Instead, he pulled a gun from behind his back.

  “Put it away!” Marie demanded. “I don’t want to see it again unless I say so.”

  Sofino sniffed at the air. “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

  Alice laughed at the cliché.

  Marie wore her Executive face. “Only if one of the three of us is in immediate and real danger.”

  “Then don’t do anything dangerous!” he snapped.

  Alice tried to calm him. “We are in a different time. Do you believe me?”

  He never stopped looking around. He hesitated. “Sure.”

  She couldn’t tell if he meant it. “Okay,” Alice said. “Stay watchful. I don’t know who is around.”

  “When?” he asked.

  “About nine hundred years ago. Give or take fifty years. I don’t know exactly. Let me see who came through.”

  Alice had spoken loudly enough that the whole group gathered around her, curious. She squinted into the darkness until she picked out Huo Jiang, Aditi, Marie, all of the Mayans, and three Secret Service officers, including Alan but not David. Peter and Oriana. Two dogs.

  CHAPTER 57

  Nixie gasped. She hadn’t wanted to go back, hadn’t helped take them. She kept her grip on Hun Kan’s hand and closed her eyes, trying to reach her own time.

  The hot breath of one of the Secret Service dogs sniffed at her hand. A quivering voice called, “Max,” and the dog smell left.

  Secret Service people weren’t supposed to get scared.

  Hun Kan tugged on her hand, pulling her. She opened her eyes. Ah Bahlam stood nearby, gesturing them toward him.

  Now she was scared of this time. It could kill Hun Kan. Maybe it could kill her, too.

  Ah Bahlam and Cauac started off, Nixie and Hun Kan behind them. There was a brief argument between Marie and one of the guards; Alan took Marie’s side, and the guards settled with one on each side and one in the rear. The dogs stayed to the side, watching the perimeter, leashed, sniffing like crazy. Nixie almost laughed. They knew they were in another world. Except it wasn’t funny to be walking toward danger with all these important people. Surely they were headed for the high priest again, for the Ball Court.

  For the Chac-Mool.

  Why did they have to? All that the Chinese president, or whatever he was, had wanted was to see that they could travel. But all three leaders had actually pushed ahead of her and Hun Kan, and Ian and her mom. She’d have sworn they’d never done this before. They’d started out looking as lost as the Secret Service. But now they weren’t showing fear any more, just curiosity and strength.

  Maybe that was what it took to be them.

  A young boy with long hair and a dark belt spotted them and turned, racing away. An old woman ran up to them, and stood in front of Ah Bahlam, speaking rapidly at him.

  “She’s scolding him,” Ian whispered.

  “What are we doing?” Nixie asked.

  Ian shrugged. “I hope it’s something good.”

  No kidding. Ah Bahlam spoke back to the woman, apparently mollifying her, and they kept going. There were paths. Not concrete like in home time, but stones that had been laid down and mortared like the sacbes, and painted a dark color. Probably red, but the pale starlight washed everything to shades of gray with faint hints of other color at best. This Chichén Itzá was full of wooden structures and animal pens and little buildings like the Mexican palapas; sticks with a thatched roof. It looked so much fuller than the gray Chichén of her time. What had Hun Kan said—the power had leaked out of the one they just came from? This was like . . . like Phoenix or some other big city. Well, maybe not that big, but almost. Alive and noisy.

  Well, she wouldn’t be scared. It wouldn’t help. Couldn’t help. Being scared was silly.

  They had gathered an entourage. Mostly women and children, and a few old men, from what she could tell in the near-dark. Most of them wore white and looked a bit like ghosts, the whites of their eyes shining now and again in starlight as they looked up. That’s what they’d seen last trip, too. Young people and old people. Ah Bahlam was the only warrior-aged man she saw.

  From time to time the two Secret Service dogs growled low in their throats, and the people moved a little bit back. But not far. Their eyes glowed dark in shadowy faces, curious and strong and watchful.

  Hun Kan and Nixie held hands, tight. Nixie reached back for her mom with her free hand. Alice came up, Ian on her far side, so the four of them stayed together in the middle of the whole group.

  They seemed to walk a long time, but maybe it was the dark and the strange place, and the sickly-sweet copal scent that hung over everything and made her head spin.

  They rounded a corner and were blinded by a row of torches. Nix shaded her eyes and blinked hard, peering through her fingers to see a large group blocking their way. Red-feathered warriors like the ones who had been around Hun Kan when she danced her off the wall. At least six of them.

  The two dogs growled.r />
  The warriors raised their torches, looking carefully and slowly at every one of their group, as if memorizing features and faces. One of them nodded at Ah Bahlam and smiled, but the others ignored all of the Mayans except for Cauac.

  The numbers of the two groups were about even, but the warriors carried shields, clubs, knives, staffs, and in one case, arrows.

  The warriors would have no way of recognizing a gun. So the dogs would be the only weapons they’d see.

  The leader spoke to Cauac in rapid-fire Mayan.

  Cauac turned and spoke to Don Thomas, who said, in English, “We are to let these men lead us to their high priest—that is the High Priest of K’uk’ulkan, or Feathered Serpent.”

  “And if we don’t?” Alan spoke up.

  Don Thomas smiled. “Then we will die.”

  Marie asked, “Can we leave when we want? Go back to our time?”

  Don Thomas licked his lips. “The high priest may have powers that alter our own.”

  “Do you think we can?” she pressed.

  “Yes. Let me ask another.” He turned to Cauac and spoke softly and quickly to him. When he looked back at Marie he said, “Cauac believes he is as strong as the high priest.”

  Marie glanced at Aditi and Huo Jiang, who both nodded. “Tell them we are looking forward to the honor of speaking to the High Priest of K’uk’ulkan.”

  Nixie heard Ian whisper, “They didn’t ask us. Well, then I guess we don’t matter.”

  Her mom asked, “Why would we?”

  “So this is what it was all for, this visit?” Ian asked.

  “How can we know?” Her mom looked brave.

  Was it? Was this why she had met Hun Kan and dreamed of her? It wasn’t enough—this was a thing for the adults, a thing for the world, and there was something unresolved still. All of those turtles did not come to swim with her just to get these leaders together with those leaders. She didn’t voice her certainty that there was more meaning in the events, something for her and Hun Kan.

  Seven red-feathered warriors made a V in front of them, leading them down a cobbled path. At least five walked behind them. The Secret Service officer with the dogs flanked the group, looking confused and protective all at once, and feeling like weapons that could go off on accident.