by Lani Forbes
Yemania felt her hopes sweep away like a feather in a strong breeze. She swore under her breath.
“What’s a blood chest?” Ochix asked.
Yemania sighed. “It’s a stone box forged in the volcano at Papatlaca. Only the blood of the chest’s owner can be used to open it. And Metzi’s blood is probably the most closely guarded resource in the empire.” She rubbed her eyes. “So how are we supposed to get around that?”
Coatl’s face split into a devilish grin. “I think I have an idea.”
Chapter
33
Ahkin carefully stepped across the sickly pools of pus. He and Mayana followed a rough path through the thorny shrubs that separated the yellow pools. Every so often they heard the glub of a bubble forming and popping. He wanted to gag every time.
Then there were the spiderwebs. All around them, strings of webs floated through the air, suspended by the occasional gusts of wind sweeping across the marsh. Spiders dangled from the ends seeking places to land. He’d broken off a huge branch from one of the dead trees at the edge of the forest, and now he used it like a macana sword, slicing through his enemies. Granted, these enemies were smaller than those he’d faced on the battlefield, but the spiders were still larger than any he’d seen in the land of the living. They ranged from the size of his palm to the size of a man’s head. The webs now stuck to the end of the branch like a ghostly white torch.
Mayana stuck close behind him, swatting at the incessant mosquitoes. They had both been bitten to the extent that they looked stricken with some kind of pox. And the itching? Ahkin wanted to rip his skin off, or at least run his arms through the thorny underbrush until they bled. The only comfort was watching the flying insects explode in little bursts of light or water, unable to handle the divinity within the blood they drank.
“I could really use one of Yemania’s healing salves right now. Gods, I miss her so much.” Mayana whimpered, smacking at another mosquito on her arm. It died with a little burst of water beneath her fingers. Ahkin scratched at his arms and suppressed the urge to scream. This layer was an entirely different form of torture.
A spider the size of his outstretched hand lowered from somewhere above their heads, its smooth black-and-yellow legs dancing toward his face.
Mayana screamed. Instinctively, Ahkin’s arm shot out to strike it.
But he missed, and the stick connected with the silver thread above it. The spider jolted at the impact, jerking in the direction the stick pulled the web—until it landed on Ahkin’s chest.
Mayana screamed again and stumbled back, tripping over Ona. She landed in the thorn-covered brambles. The thorns ripped into her skin as more black-and-yellow spiders, disturbed by the impact, emerged onto the path in a swarm.
The spider on his chest sunk in its fangs, and he ripped its body away. He didn’t think it was poisonous. They looked like the orb weavers he’d seen in the jungles at home, only larger. Another piercing stab told him he’d been bitten on his foot. He looked down. The path now teemed with legs and hair and bulbous spider abdomens the size of his palm. He kicked out as Ona darted toward the bush where Mayana had fallen. Bodies crunched and burst beneath what remained of his sandals. He couldn’t imagine Coatl ever surviving this layer of the underworld.
Mayana flailed, shrieking in terror and pain as the growing army of spiders began to overtake them. Ahkin lunged forward and yanked her upright. Blood oozed from the cuts covering her arms and legs. Angry, red swellings from spider bites now joined those from the mosquitoes. A clicking, hissing sound rose from the teeming mass of bodies. Webs began to cover their feet, entangling around their ankles as if . . . Oh gods. Did these spiders attack in packs and ensnare their victims in webs? Ahkin had a horrible vision in his mind of Mayana’s legs wrapped in white silk as the army of spiders dragged them away from each other. That would never happen. Not when they’d fought so hard to be together in the first place. He wouldn’t let anything come between them now. He kicked out harder at the webs, swinging with his stick, but he knew defeat when he saw it. There were too many, and reinforcements seemed to be swelling their numbers.
Mayana sobbed and clawed at her arms, frantically jogging her legs to keep them free from spiders. She was nearing hysteria. He didn’t blame her in the slightest. Panic quickly clenched a fist around his own heart.
“Run! Don’t let them get the webs around your feet!” He shoved Mayana ahead of him.
Ona snapped his teeth, but even he began to struggle in the tangle of webbing growing around his legs. Ahkin lifted him up and crushed another spider. Its abdomen popped beneath his foot. His stomach roiled. His injured hand throbbed, but he didn’t loosen his hold on the dog.
He also knew he couldn’t do this alone. “Mayana, use the water!”
She didn’t argue. There was a sob, and then a rushing sound. The cool familiar waters of her necklace enveloped them and lifted them above the hissing and clicking spider mob below. But they did not stay airborne for long. Mayana was clearly weakened from fear and exhaustion, and soon, they crashed back to the ground in a small clearing in the brush. Not far, but thankfully out of reach of the spiders.
They both struggled to rise. “Do you think everyone in the overworld assumes we’re dead?” Ahkin huffed, wiping water from his eyes.
“It’s a miracle we aren’t yet.” Mayana’s voice trembled as much as her hands. “And tomorrow is the last day of the Nemontemi.”
They had to make it in time. They had to.
Ahkin stumbled back to his feet. There wasn’t much time left. His body ached, his muscles seized, his skin stung and burned and itched all at once. He wanted to take out his obsidian blade and flay himself alive to stop the misery. Mayana’s whimper told him she felt the same.
“I know it hurts, but we have to keep moving. I’m here. We can do this together.”
“Together.” Mayana nodded, tears of agony tracing her cheeks as he helped her back to her feet. Tiny yellow blisters had formed over some of her bites, matching the continued bubbling of the pus pools around them.
Ona licked as many of their wounds clean as he could, but his gifting apparently didn’t extend to the itching poison of the bites.
“Come on,” Ahkin said, resigned.
They continued to pick their way across precarious dirt paths and slippery footholds, beating away more spiders and mosquitoes as they went. Ahkin didn’t think his stomach would be able to handle falling into one of the pus-filled pools. Eventually they passed a large green plant with protruding bladelike leaves, tiny points like teeth around their edges. Ahkin froze, recognizing the plant from somewhere.
“I’ve seen this before,” he said, running his nails across the blistering skin on his chest. “Do you know what it is?”
Mayana studied it. “It looks like a bigger version of the plant Yemania gave you during the selection ritual.”
“That’s what I thought too. Do you remember what she told me when she presented the gift?”
Mayana tried to quirk her mouth into a smile. “For sunburns.”
“Do you think it might soothe our skin?”
Mayana was already reaching forward to snap off one of the thick, fleshy leaves. The moment the leaf snapped in half, a clear, sticky sap oozed from within. Mayana smeared the sap across her arms, sighing in relief. Ahkin mimicked her, first in her movements and then in her sigh.
“It feels almost cool,” Ahkin mused, starting down at his glistening arms.
“Thank you, Yemania,” Mayana said, her tear-stained face tilted toward the overworld. “I miss you, wherever you are.”
“You were close to the daughter of healing, weren’t you?” Ahkin had seen Mayana with her on many occasions. She’d even helped the shy princess of Pahtia in her initial demonstration to display her healing abilities.
“Yes.” Mayana sighed wistfully. “We didn’t know each other v
ery long, but you tend to bond quickly with someone when you both think your lives are in danger. She reached out to me, and my heart broke for her situation.”
“Her situation?” Ahkin whacked another fat spider into the dirt and squished it. “What do you mean?”
“Her father sent her as a sacrifice. He purposely chose her, knowing you’d never pick her.”
Ahkin turned back to frown at Mayana. “What kind of father would do such a thing? I mean, she was meek and insecure, but I don’t see why he would disvalue her like that. She seemed kind and clever to me.”
Mayana shrugged. “A father who didn’t value her very much, apparently. Which is a shame, because she is an incredibly beautiful person. We initially agreed to die together so that neither of us had to do it alone.”
“But I was going to pick you. What would have happened if . . . ?”
Mayana sucked a breath in through her teeth. “I wanted to try to find a way to save her. I even asked you about it, remember? You told me you didn’t want to jeopardize your rule or our future together.” She tried to sound as though she were stating facts, but Ahkin could sense the bitterness beneath her tone.
“I was being selfish,” he said.
“You thought it was what the gods demanded.” But she didn’t meet his eyes as she said it.
“But you didn’t think the gods demanded it. And you ended up being right.”
Mayana sniffed and looked at her feet, shuffling them back and forth.
“Thank you, Mayana.”
She looked up again, confusion pulling at her eyebrows. “Why are you thanking me?”
“Thank you for fighting for her. For showing me that the sacrifice of those beautiful daughters of the gods was unnecessary. I love that you don’t back down from what you believe in. It shows incredible strength.”
Mayana smirked. “If you are trying to get me to kiss you again—”
Ahkin pulled her toward him and cut her off with a swift kiss to her lips. Her skin was sticky and cool from the plant sap. “I don’t need an excuse to kiss you. I can kiss you and still believe those things are true. It’s the whole reason I picked you in the first place.”
They shared a few tender moments before Ona barked to remind them that they didn’t have time to waste kissing in the middle of the underworld, especially not with an army of spiders not far behind.
“Why did you pick me?” she asked as he jumped across a particularly wide pus puddle.
Ahkin held out his hand to help her across. She gagged, but thankfully managed not to throw up on him. “Because you filled my world with color. And passion.” He gave her a wry smile. “And stubbornness.”
“I’m particularly good at stubbornness.” Mayana tilted her chin into the air.
Ahkin barked a laugh. “I’ve noticed.”
“Why didn’t you like the other princesses, though?”
Ahkin thought for a moment, wanting to be delicate in his answer. “It’s not that I didn’t like them. I cared about each of them, even if I didn’t want to marry them.”
Mayana snorted, and he knew she was thinking of Zorrah, the fierce animal princess of Ocelotl.
He brought to his mind the dark, deadly humor of the princess of fire. “The princess of Papatlaca honestly scared me a little bit. Yoli? She seemed to enjoy pain a bit too much for my taste. But she seemed to have a kind heart behind the, uh—”
“Black paint covering her eyes? The shard of obsidian she used to spear herself in the arm?” Mayana chuckled. “I was so intimidated by Yoli at first. But underneath her morbid style and humor, she fought for me against Zorrah. She was another true friend when I needed one most.”
“Zorrah, well, I don’t need to explain that one. I was half terrified she wanted to rip my heart out and eat it herself. I was more of a conquest to her than someone she actually wanted to share her life with.”
“What about Itza?” Mayana paused, obviously remembering his jab he had made back in the caves. “Or Teniza?”
“Those were the matches the council preferred, obviously. But Itza . . . she was so lost in prayer and her obsession with Quetzalcoatl’s return that I didn’t think she’d make time for anything else. Plus, she seemed to have some kind of ulterior motive for being in the capital, which had me on edge. And Teniza? The thought of having to deal with her arrogant and controlling father . . .” He didn’t need to finish. Mayana had met her and seen for herself how spoiled and superior the princess had been.
Mayana sighed. “I still didn’t want to see any of them die, especially not for a ritual. Well, maybe Zorrah.”
Ahkin narrowed his eyes playfully at her. He knew her better now. “You couldn’t handle watching an enemy Miquitz soldier sacrificed. As much as you hate her, I’m sure you didn’t want to see her sacrificed.”
Mayana stuck out her tongue. “Fine, not even Zorrah.”
“My father told me that the selection ritual wasn’t intended to find a bride to continue the royal bloodline. It was originally intended as a way for the emperor to find a duality.”
“You father told you that?”
He explained what the spirit of his father told him about the importance of not trying to lead completely by yourself.
Mayana nodded when he finished. “Ah. That’s why you brought up that I’m your duality.”
“You are,” Ahkin said, wanting—needing—her to grasp the magnitude of such a thing. “You teach me what I need to learn, and you challenge me to be better. I hope I can do the same for you.”
She gave him a shy smile. “You teach me a lot of things too, believe it or not.”
Ahkin felt his pride inflating slightly. “Like what?”
“I’ve been wrestling this whole journey with the Mother’s will. Trying to understand why she would have us make this journey instead of rescuing us. Why she’s making us get the bones of Quetzalcoatl.” She absently patted her bag with her mother’s bones. “Now I know there was a reason. And you encouraged me to trust, when all I wanted to do was question her intentions.”
“I’m honored to help you in your faith.”
Mayana rolled her eyes. “I’ll have more faith if she actually helps us get out of here alive.”
“Don’t give up hope just yet, daughter of water.” Ahkin winked at her. He couldn’t explain it, but he knew the Mother was watching them closely. He’d sensed her presence every step of this journey so far, felt her watching eyes or the gentle caress of her hand in the wind. Perhaps the vision and warning she’d given him was just a dream after all. He knew she’d see them through . . . somehow.
“Are you ready to go swimming again?” Mayana asked suddenly.
“Why?”
Mayana pointed ahead. Through the tall grasses, the glittering of water reflected like the surface of a gemstone. The sky around them was darkening, quickly tipping into their final night in Xibalba. “I feel the presence of water.”
Ahkin parted the grasses and felt a thrill of both excitement and foreboding wash over him.
A vast, turbulent river stretched out before them. On the far shore, barely visible, the flaming lights of a city sparkled. They had reached the final river, and across from them lay their last stop before ascending back home—
The City of the Dead.
Chapter
34
“I’m not sure I like this idea,” Yemania whispered to Ochix. “Why can’t you possess her, and we can get some of her blood that way?”
While Coatl was supposed to be sneaking into Metzi’s room to steal the chest, she and Ochix crouched hidden in the garden outside of Metzi’s personal steam bath. Insects chirped and buzzed in the canopied trees, while moths fluttered low over the posted torches. The air was thick with the scent of night-blooming dragon fruit flowers. Metzi visited the baths every evening to cleanse her nerves, and it was one of the few times
her guards were not immediately by her side.
“Being possessed doesn’t mean you are unaware. You are fully awake, just unable to control any of your own actions. She’d know what was happening the entire time and remember.”
Yemania huffed. “She’d probably break your engagement, at least.”
Ochix gave her a crooked smile. “And have me executed in two heartbeats.”
He slid a hand around her waist and pulled her closer to him, his fingers trailing suggestively down her back.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Will you stay focused? You have a job to do soon, prince of death.”
“If this works, my only job will be to make you happy for the rest of my life,” he whispered in her ear.
His words sent her heart beating like a worship drum—bolstering her faltering courage at what they were about to do.
“There she is,” Yemania hissed, smacking Ochix’s chest repeatedly with her hand.
Ochix chuckled. “I know, thank you, I can see her.”
Metzi emerged from the flowing curtains of her suite at the far end of the garden and walked the short stone path to her private temazcalli steam bathhouse. Yemania blushed slightly at the empress’s naked form. She was almost tempted to reach up and shield Ochix’s eyes. She sneaked a peek in his direction to see how he would react, but to her surprise, he wasn’t watching Metzi. His eyes were intently focused on her.
“Again, nothing I haven’t seen before, daughter of healing,” he teased. “Besides, I’ve seen better.” He let his gaze drop suggestively to her chest, and she playfully smacked him on the arm.
“You are a beast.”
Ochix pulled her toward him again and dug his face into her neck just below her ear. He growled and snorted like an animal as he tickled her with his nose. She smacked him again and shoved him off. “Shh, you’re going to give us away!”
But she couldn’t hide the wide smile that broke out across her face.
Ochix lifted his chin slightly and looked as proud as Coatl for making her smile.